Towers of Asgard, Part 1

Before I started working on VS 2PCG EA templates, I spent many weeks working on a custom Thor deck. The initial idea was to do a straightforward deck with a straightforward card design, but then one thing led to another. 

First I decided to tweak the standard MSE template a bit to use an archaic looking font, like the one used in the comics--e.g., in the image above. Then I decided to use archaic language in the card text, so that led to more changes. At the time, I was pretty happy with the results.

But about the time I was wrapping up the project, Upper Deck came out with the new EA design for 2PCG. Three things happened as a result: first, my Thor deck got put on the back burner; second, I got sidetracked and started working on new template designs for 2PCG; and third, when I finished, I decided to go back and redo my Thor template to look more like Upper Deck's 2PCG EA cards. So the card above went from that to this:

Enough about the card design, though. Let's talk about the deck. Back in the day, I spent many fruitless hours trying to create a reasonably competitive deck based on X-Men Assemble. Didn't happen. I could create decks that produced a ridiculous number of +1/+1 counters when you got above average draws, but with average or below average draws, the decks fizzled miserably. So my first idea for Thor was to create a conceptually similar deck that actually worked, and I wanted all the effects in the deck to revolve around +1/+1 counters. Even the two generic ATK pumps, Fury of Thor and Warriors of Asgard, have a related effect, because you can trade two +1/+1 counters from a ready (able) Asgardians character to get a +4/+0 ATK pump or one to get a +3/+0. Not bad trade-offs, although the character whose counters you remove can't attack that turn.

The next big idea was to really focus on Thor and Loki, both of whom have always been treated with criminal neglect by UDE. So I made Thor the 4 drop (and the 7) and Loki the 5, and I included multiple versions of each, with a variety of effects, and gave them all Substitute. The Loki cards all have strong powers, but you have to pay two counters to use them, although you do get two to work with when they enter play. For example, Loki, Shape Shifter can mimic (usurp) an opposing character's powers for a turn, but you have to pay two +1/+1 counters to use the effect. So he's a 10/10 when he enters play, but if he uses his power he drops to 8/8. Obviously he is most useful on later turns, when he can steal the effects of 7 or 8 drop characters, as opposed to 4's and 5's.

Finally, I wanted Thor's hammer to be an incredibly powerful piece of equipment. He should, I thought, get it automatically when he enters play, be able to throw it to generate some effect, and be able to get it back, albeit for a price. Since only a worthy one can wield an Asgardian hammer, I ended up creating a new keyword, Worthy, mainly to simplify the wording of the relevant character and equipment cards:

Worthy 

Only Worthy characters can be equipped with a Hammer equipment. 

When a Worthy character enters play, search your deck or KO'd pile for a Hammer equipment and equip it to that character. 

A Worthy character also has: "Remove two +1/+1 counters >>> Return target Hammer equipment to play from your KO'd pile and equip it to that character. Use only in the build phase."

For example, when Thor, Champion of Midgard enters play, you would automatically search your deck or KO'd pile for an equipment card with the name Mjolnir and the version Hammer, equip it to him, and then place a +1/+1 counter on him. Besides giving Thor a +1/+1 counter, Mjolnir also has a Cloak of Nabu-like effect that prevents both Thor and Mjolnir from being targeted (although he can still be targeted while the recruiting of the equipment is on the chain). Once equipped (arm'd), Thor can recover (revive) another stunned (stricken) Asgardians character you control (in thy charge) by activating and then KO'ing Mjolnir (hurling it).

Thor can get the hammer back by removing two +1/+1 counters (there are lots of ways to get them), or you can simply substitute another 4 drop for him on the next turn.

The language used for card text is obviously very different than what we are used to, and I actually created an Official Card Reference (OCR) for the deck that lists both the printed text and the "official" text for each card. For example, the entry for Champion of Midgard reads:

Thor, Champion of Midgard (MAG-008)
Character, 4, Asgardians, 7/6, Flight, Range
Worthy, Substitute
While arm'd with Mjolnir, he hath: "Activate, Hurl Mjolnir >>> Reviveth yon stricken Asgardian in thy charge."
OCR:
While equipped with Mjolnir, he has: "Activate, KO Mjolnir >>> Recover target stunned Asgardians character you control."

I also put together a glossary of terms, mainly to help me be consistent in my wording of things. For example:

Pitch = Discard
Place X +1/+1 stones = Put X +1/+1 counters
Prepare for battle = Ready
Rank = Cost
Revive = Recover
Sacrifice = KO (a character)

The most important case of special wording is the use of "stones" instead of "counters," which sounded a little too modern to me. So instead of putting a +1/+1 counter on a character you "place a +1/+1 stone" on him, and instead of removing a counter you "cast a +1/+1 stone." Both the OCR and the Glossary of terms are in the same file.

The biggest obstacle I faced in making a good X-Men Assemble deck was that the only good way to search for it was to play Ruin, but then you had to play a mixture of X-Men and Revenge Squad, as well as a bunch of team-ups. Too many moving parts, and the team-ups took up resource slots needed for X-Men Assemble. I wanted the Thor deck to be as consistent as possible, so I needed an on-team Ruin-like character to fetch the equivalent of X-Men Assemble, and a good way to hit that character consistently. These two cards are hence the keys to the deck:

Towers of Asgard is the equivalent of X-Men Assemble, and Lady Sif is the equivalent of Ruin. You can search for her with the Bifrost card I showed you above, and you can search for it by discarding Heimdall, Guardian of the Bifrost:

If these cards were part of an actual set that could be played in a Modern Age format, you would probably consider the combination of Heimdall and Bifrost too good. Besides giving you effectively eight copies of Bifrost to work with (in terms of your odds of drawing one), Heimdall gives the added benefit of thinning your deck to increase the chances of drawing other needed cards (which is why you should always discard him and search immediately, even if you don't need a tutor at the moment.) But the game is dead, making all decks Golden Age decks, and the deck as a whole is far from unbeatable in that format, so I decided not to worry about how good any one card appears to be in a vacuum.

In Part 2, I will go into the deck in more detail, but first I want to point out that I used my new template to redesign some "real" Vs. System cards. The two fairly decent Thor cards from MAV:

Two versions of the Hercules card from MUN:

And the MEQ Mjolnir and Omnipotence.

I think the design works pretty well for these cards, particularly Mjolnir.

I also did a custom card back for the deck. I've actually done this for all of my custom card decks; I just haven't been posting them, so I'll show you the others here as well. I think my favorites are the Watchmen and Speed Force ones. Props to my friend Joey Tufo, who gave me the idea for doing this when I was working on the Guardians/Awesome Mix deck.

OK. On to the deck itself...