Bombshells! Part 3

My original plan was to make only the Bombshells deck, but after looking at all the cool art I had found but never needed, I decided to turn the deck into a (very) mini set, with a good guys deck and a bad guys deck and a bunch of generic plot twists. Unfortunately, the bad guys are not really part of a coherent group in the comics, so I struggled to come up with a suitable name for their "team." My first attempt, Enemies of Justice, was just OK. Then I realized that in World War II, the "bad guys" (Germany, Italy, Japan) were known as the Axis Powers, so I decided to call them the Axis of Evil.

Once again, I decided to use an existing, old favorite deck as the archetype for this one, Injustice Gang Handfill. If you aren't familiar with the deck, the basic idea is this. Turn 3 is Lex Luthor, Nefarious Philanthropist, who prevents the opponent from playing more than one plot twist per turn starting on turn 4. Most important character in the deck. Turn 4 is The Joker, Headline Stealer, who prevents them from playing plot twists from their hand with less than cost X, where X is the number of cards in their hand. Turn 5 is Circe, Evil Enchantress, who burns them for that same X. Turn 6 is Scarecrow, Psycho Psychologist, who you play with boost, making them draw 3 cards, then you burn them for X again. You can read more about the deck here.

When it wins, it normally does so thanks to all the burn, combined with the opponent's inability to play all their plot twists. But it also relies heavily on two key plot twists. Power Siphon gives a defender -X/+X where X is again the number of cards in the opponent's hands. In later turns, it is easily a +10 DEF or more, and the opponent has to play as if you have one or two of these, even if you don't. On the flip side, All Too Easy gives an attacker +X/-X. My son likes to remind me of the time that he was playing IG Handfill against me, and he unleashed three of these babies and a Savage Beatdown while I had about a dozen cards in hand. Yeah, he won that one.

My Axis of Evil deck is pretty much a straightforward rendition of our IG Handfill deck. Here's the list:

Characters - 28 

[2 - 8]
4x Penguin, Iceberg Lounge Proprietor
4x Edward Nygma, Smartest Man in The Room
[3 - 6]
4x Crystal Frost, Nobody's Moll
2x Alexander Luthor, Charming Manipulator
[4 - 4]
4x Mistah J, The Master
[5 - 8]
4x Tenebrae, The Long Dead
4x Baroness Paula Von Gunther, Tenebrae Commander
[7 - 2]
1x Joker's Daughter, Witch in a Gingerbread House
1x Tenebrus, The Binder 

Plot Twists - 28 

[1 - 8]
4x A Dance in the Moonlight
4x Iceberg Lounge
[2 - 4]
4x The Nazi Menace
[3 - 12]
4x DC Bombshells
4x Krrkaathoom!
4x Tenebrae Bomb
[4 - 4]
4x Unite and Fight 

Equipment - 4 

[0 - 4]
4x Mask of the Joker

The preferred 2 drop is Edward Nygma. He's comparable to Stargirl/Captain Boomerang, but his effect can't be used until turn 3. His job is to limit the damage you can take and to put another card in their hand. Penguin is just a big body, assuming your opponent has more cards than you, which should always be the case when the deck is working correctly.

Crystal Frost, the main 3 drop, is the equivalent of Lex Luthor, Nefarious Philanthropist. whom I discussed above. If she and your 4 drop both get stunned on 4, you should seriously consider keeping her instead, because she's the one that "freezes" your opponent most by limiting their options. Alexander Luthor is a decent second choice, and does cause some of the same problems, but you have to activate him to get the effect. Useless on your init.

Mistah J is analogous to Joker, Headline Stealer. He and Crystal Frost together cause huge problems, because now the opponent can play only one plot twist per turn, and it has to be in their row. Even after Frost is gone, your opponent has to give careful thought as to what cards to set as resources.

There are two 5 drops, but whenever possible you want to play Baroness Paula Von Gunther (Circe) on 5 and Tenebrae (Scarecrow) on 6 with boost, so that he becomes a 12/12 and can inflict more damage. But I have certainly won games with  IG Handfill where I had to recruit those two out of order. There are no 6 drops because Tenebrae is ideally your 6.

Joker's Daughter (The Joker, Permanent Vacation) is the stronger of the two 7 drops, because you can double the number of cards in their hand, fueling your burn effects and doubling the power of certain key plot twists. If you make it to 7, you normally win for this reason. Tenebrus (Lex Luthor, Sinister Scientist) is a good play if you want to finish off your opponent with burn damage when he stuns your 7. By turn 7 they should have at least 20 cards in their hand unless you are playing a deck that has a really good way to empty their hand without playing plot twists, and you probably lose to those decks anyway.

Two of the plot twists used by this deck are ones shared with the Bombshells, DC Bombshells (Mobilize) and Unite and Fight (Savage Beatdown). The others are all specific to this one. The two most important ones boost your attack or defense based on the number of cards in the opponent's hand. Iceberg Lounge (Power Siphon) is the defensive pump. It's really annoying to throw 4 +5 ATK pumps at someone, only to have them pump out of it by playing two of these while you have a dozen cards in your hand. The mere threat of this card forces opponents to make sub-optimal attacks, just to insure that their attack step isn't completely wasted. Krrkaaathoom! (All Too Easy) is the offensive version. When the opponent's hand is full, anyone on your board can take down almost anyone on theirs.

The remaining plot twists are two cards to make the opponent draw and a tutor. A Dance in the Moonlight (Criminal Mastermind) is used to make your opponent draw an extra card at the start of each turn. Tenebrae Bomb is the rough equivalent of Evil Genius, which can be used only by exhausting a character named Lex Luthor. Since he isn't the main 3 drop in this deck, I decided to make this card work with any Axis character. This is probably the most significant difference between this deck and IG Handfill. The Nazi Menace (Secret Files) lets both players search their decks for an affiliated character. The fact that this card benefits your opponent, potentially, is irrelevant, because opponents rarely miss any drops against this deck. More likely to hurt them than to help, since the search is mandatory.

If you build both this deck and the Bombshells one, be prepared for this one to win most of the time. It's a tough match-up for an X-Mental style deck, although the last time I tested it, Bombshells barely won because I had gotten Crystal Frost off the board on turn 4, and on another turn I was able to use Sucoh Sucop (Only Human) against the Baroness. Even so, the Axis Powers still nearly prevailed. In general, this deck normally loses to rush decks, which can beat it before all the burn effects kick in, as well as to decks like Migga City that have good ways to get cards out of their hands.

You can download all the original cards here, while ready-to print (by MakePlayingCards.com) versions of them are here, along with those for the Bombshells deck.