Backwards Magic

It all started with a playmat. While I was working on my AvsX decks, I took a little break to create some custom playmats to go with some decks I'd designed recently. While I was at it, I decided to make a Justice League Dark mat (see above) for my son, who loves JLD. While searching for art for the mat, I realized that there was a lot of really cool art for those characters, so I decided that I needed to do a custom JLD deck as well. And I'm sure glad I did, because it turned out to be one of the best decks I've done.

The deck borrows ideas from Shadowpact and Insanity decks, most notably, and has several characters with Energize. It maintains the Shadowpact concept that magic always has a cost, but I didn't want to use the Magic keyword and have to conform to the Shadowpact model, so I used "Enchantment" instead. Most of the Enchantment cards are plot twists, but there are some characters and locations as well. Here's the lowdown on Enchantment cards, FAQ-style:

A deck may contain only one copy of a given Enchantment card. 

An Enchantment card may be played or flipped only if you control a JLD character.

Enchantment cards with a resource or recruit cost of 4 or less cost 1 endurance to play. Enchantment cards with a resource or recruit cost of 5 or more cost 2 endurance to play.

Certain effects allow an Enchantment plot twist to be played from the KO'd pile. After one is played this way, it must be placed in the removed from game zone.

The tie-in to Insanity decks is that you can have only one copy of a given Enchantment card in your deck. This leads to a lot of variety in how the deck plays from one game to the next, since you aren't always drawing the same ones every game, and there are few ways to search for a specific card. If you like playing Insanity decks, you'll probably like this one, for that reason if nothing else.

Here's the list I am currently using, but it is by no means canonical. There are lots of ways to build this deck, because there are 44 different plot twists to choose from, and only about 25 can be played at one time. Season to suit your tastes.

Characters - 30

[1 - 9]
4x Swamp Thing, Alec Holland
4x Madame Xanadu, Mystical Summons
1x Andrew Bennett, I, Vampire
[2 - 5]
4x Nightmare Nurse, Healing Magic
1x Black Orchid, Shape Shifter
[3 - 4]
4x Zatanna, Backwards Magic
0x Zauriel, Divine Justice
[4 - 4]
4x John Constantine, Con Man
[5 - 4]
3x Shade the Changing Man, Mad Power
1x Frankenstein, Unkillable
[6 - 2]
2x Deadman, Body and Soul
[7 - 2]
1x Pandora, Trinity of Sin
1x Phantom Stranger, Trinity of Sin
[8 - 0]
0x The Question, Trinity of Sin

Plot Twists - 25

[2 - 3]
1x In the Dark, Enchantment
1x Raeppa!, Enchantment
1x Mere Mortal, Enchantment
0x Stubbed Out, Enchantment
[3 - 10]
1x Bang! I'm Dead, Enchantment
1x Bound and Chained, Enchantment
1x Down But Not Out, Enchantment
1x I'm Really Alive!, Enchantment
1x Inner Demons, Enchantment
1x K'am'deva Curse, Enchantment
1x Mystic Coupling, Enchantment
1x Simply Smashing, Enchantment
1x Teg Yawa!, Enchantment
1x The Acrobat, Enchantment
0x A House Divided, Enchantment
0x Bloody Reunion, Enchantment
0x Dark Magic, Enchantment
0x Drowning in the Dead Sea, Enchantment
0x Empathy is the Enemy, Enchantment
0x Fight the Future, Enchantment
0x Magical Getaway, Enchantment
0x Non-Elective Surgery, Enchantment
0x Spin the Wheel, Enchantment
0x Stealing Thunder, Enchantment
0x The Voice in the Fire, Enchantment
0x The Wages of Sin, Enchantment
0x Trinity of Sin, Enchantment
0x What a Tangled Web We Weave, Enchantment
[4 - 6]
1x A Bloody Hero, Enchantment
1x Backwards Magic, Enchantment
1x Countercurse, Enchantment
1x Reach for the Stars, Enchantment
1x Warping Reality, Enchantment
1x Wishful Thinking, Enchantment
0x A Cloud of Smoke, Enchantment
0x Last Man Standing, Enchantment
0x Puppet on a String, Enchantment
[5 - 6]
1x Dark Reflections, Enchantment
1x Fate Accompli, Enchantment
1x Nothing is Impossible, Enchantment
1x Pain. Smoke. Divination., Enchantment
1x Pandora's Box, Enchantment
1x Up is Down, Enchantment
0x Supreme Sacrifice, Enchantment

Locations - 6 

[1 - 1]
1x House of Secrets, Enchantment
[2 - 5]
4x House of Mystery, Non-Unique
1x Madame Xanadu's Parlor, Enchantment

There are three 1 drops in the deck, although Andrew Bennett should never be recruited. You can search for him with both Zatanna and John Constantine, and he helps generate card advantage. Like a vampire, he keeps coming back from the dead. Madame Xanadu is one of the two main character tutors. (Note that in the comics, Xanadu is the one who brings the Justice League Dark together.) As in the comics, Swamp Thing can grow to enormous size. You generally want to activate him at every opportunity until at least turn 4. He also has a Boost effect that makes him worth recruiting on later turns if you miss a drop. If you miss your 4 drop, for example, you could recruit him with five +1/+1 counters, and if he defends that turn, he'd quickly pick up two more to become an 8/8.

The main 2 drop is Nightmare Nurse, who has crazy chemistry with Swamp Thing. If you hit Swamp Thing on 1 and Nurse on 2, you are off to the races, because he will be very hard to take out, and will just keep getting bigger and bigger. Black Orchid has decent chemistry with him, as you can redirect an attack on him to her, after energizing, potentially allowing him to get three counters in one turn. If you are looking for somewhere to make a cut, I'd look here, though.

From 3 on you want to hit your curve if at all possible. I rarely mulligan an opening hand with Swamp Thing in it, but what I'm really looking for is Zatanna or a way to get her. When she is attacked. you can activate her twice, once to get a 1 drop for free (probably Andrew Bennett) and once to discard that card to draw another. Those extra cards are really important for this deck, because you need to see a lot of cards to compensate for the deck's inherent inconsistency. But John Constantine is just as important. He can search for any Enchantment card, including a character tutor, and he can make your opponent replace a face-up resource. When defending on turn 4, you can activate him to search for a card, then use Zatanna to draw it. Zauriel is an alternate 4 drop that probably isn't worth playing.

There are two 5 drops. Shade is usually the best choice, as he lets you reuse an Enchantment plot twist in your KO'd pile. Frankenstein is good when you are running low on endurance, as he has invulnerability if you play an Enchantment card while he is in combat. Turn 6 is always Deadman, who can copy almost any other character's abilities, on either side of the table.

From turn 7 on there are always multiple options. If it is your initiative, you want Pandora, who lets you reuse two Enchantment plot twists from your pile. Off-init, Phantom Stranger is probably better. Paired with Deadman, who can copy his ability, the two of them can take turns recovering each other. Both Pandora and Stranger can be recruited with Boost on turn 8. If you want a really defensive build, though, you can play The Question as well. He's unaffiliated, but he has the Enchantment version, so you can search for him with Constantine.

There are three locations. House of Mystery is the main character tutor in the deck. (In the comics, the House can summon anyone who has ever been inside the house back to it.) Madame Xanadu's Parlor lets you see the top three cards in your deck and choose one of them. And House of Secrets lets you replace a face-up resource, effectively gaining you a card, and dumping used plot twists in the pile where they can be reused by Shade, for example. It works really well in conjunction with Constantine. In retrospect, this card  probably should have had a cost of 2 or 3, but it doesn't hurt anything for it to be a 1.

And now for the parade of plot twists. There are a lot of them. In the Dark is another character tutor, like House of Mystery, and it can be searched for by Constantine. Raeppa! is like We Can Rebuild Him. It's mainly for use with Madame Xanadu, but there are cases where you may want to use it with someone else, like Swamp Thing. Mere Mortal has an Only Human effect, while Stubbed Out is like Finishing Move.

Bang! I'm Dead makes your opponent waste their attack pumps. It's really good with Swamp Thing. Bound and Chained is a general purpose version of Gift Wrapped. Down But Not Out and I'm Really Alive! are recovery cards. Both are especially good with Swamp Thing.

Inner Demons is a solid attack pump. K'am'deva Curse is like Flying High, except that the defender gets popped out of play as well. Don't use this with Swamp Thing, as he'll lose his counters. Mystic Coupling is sort of like Death of the Dream. Simply Smashing is an attack pump with a variable boost. It seems kinda broken when you read it, but in practice you rarely have much more than 4 plot twists in the pile.

Teg Yawa! is one of the best of the plot twists, and one you will often search for with Constantine. It's like Force Field Projection. The Acrobat is a better version of Acrobatic Dodge. A House Divided takes away a character's affiliations for a turn. Pretty situational, although it's good for taking away reinforcement. Bloody Reunion gives your opponent a truly nasty surprise.

Dark Magic lets you recruit a character from the KO'd pile. Drowning in the Dead Sea takes away 4 DEF from an opposing character. Empathy is the Enemy lets you stun any attacker by stunning your own defender. Fight the Future is a JLD-version of Bamf!

Magical Getaway is a variably sized defensive pump. You'd probably want to play this one with Dark Magic. Non-Elective Surgery is resource row hate. Spin the Wheel is a fun card with an insanity deck feel to it. Roll a die once to get an ATK boost; roll again for a DEF boost. Stealing Thunder lets any character copy any other character's activated powers.

The Voice in the Fire does burn damage. The Wages of Sin is like Soul Slicer. Trinity of Sin is Clobberin' Time in reverse. What a Tangled Web We Weave is a watered down Mystical Paralysis.

A Bloody Hero is probably the best general purpose attack pump in the deck. Backwards Magic is a fun card that turns an opponent's attack pumps into defensive pumps and defensive pumps into attack pumps. It's especially fun to use on turn 5 with Shade, turning your opponent's two copies of Savage into a collective +0/+10. Countercurse is like From the Darkness. Reach for the Stars is a hefty attack pump when swinging up the curve.

Warping Reality redirects effects like Have a Blast! from your side to theirs. Wishful Thinking is like Pathetic Attempt. A Cloud of Smoke redirects an attack from one character of yours to another. (Look carefully at the smoke.) Last Man Standing makes them go through your last unstunned character twice. Puppet on a String is like Switching Sides.

The 5 cost plot twists all cost 2 endurance to play, and are all very powerful. Dark Reflections lets your smallest guy take out their biggest guy. Fate Accompli (pun intended) is a +4/+4 attack pump. Nothing is Impossible is the inverse of Empathy is the Enemy. It also lets any attacker take out any defender. Pain. Smoke. Divination. lets you search your deck for any plot twist and play it. Note that the card you pick will be removed from play after it's used, so you can only use it once.

Pandora's Box lets you play any plot twist in your KO'd pile. Supreme Sacrifice lets you KO a little guy to give your biggest guy two attacks. Finally, Up is Down. My favorite card I've ever created. I was testing this deck the other night against a deck that had four +5 ATK pumps in hand. They played the first one. Up is Down made it a -5. They played a second. Shade let me use it again. -10. They had to play the other two pumps just to get back to where they started. I doubt that UDE would have ever made a card as good as this, even as an insanity card, but since I'm making my own cards and my own rules now, there it is.

I suppose a case could be made that this deck is TOO good, or at least that some of the cards are, such as Up is Down. But honestly, this deck lost lots of test matches, against a variety of deck types. And if you think any one card is broken, just leave it out. There are plenty of cards to choose from.

I'm a little burned out on custom cards right now, and I'm not sure if I will create any more decks like this. I hope some of you out there enjoy them, or at least reading about them. They are fun to create, but playtesting them is as tedious and tiring as it is essential. If nothing else, I'll be taking a long break from it.

If you want to download the JLD cards, you can find them here. MPC-ready versions are here.