Alright. Every time I visit TCGplayer's Vs. section, I get a bit bummed by the fact that there hasn't been a new blog up on that right hand corner box since March. Sure, there's T_Man's great entries and Dragon's Jank Corner but those go up in the main article section. The "LATEST COMMUNITY BLOGS" bit hasn't been updated in forever.
So, rather than sitting around just feeling sad about that, I figured I'd throw up a blog entry on here (admittedly a recycled entry, I need as many original postings for my main blog as I can get). This article is about one of my favorite jank comboes. Interestingly enough, it was featured in my first ever TCGplayer forum topics. I would call it “Growing Man” but there’s already a character named that so it’d be confusing. Instead I shall call it “Weight of the World Crushing Your Head”. I love it in ways that are difficult to comprehend. This combo has 4 major cards that go into it and I’ll be listing them starting… now.
Josten is the central component to this combo (and the reason this combo and article have their respective names). He gets pretty big just by himself, going from 2/2 to 3/3 to 4/4 to 6/6 on and on. None of the other Thunderbolts characters I can think of have +1/+ counters as a power. However, there is an on-team way to speed Atlas’s growth.
Yeah, everyone probably guessed this was what was coming next. Just a single copy of this card means Atlas is getting +2/+2 each turn until turn 5 when he starts getting +3/+3. With a little luck, you’ll hit at least two of these in a game making Atlas naturally grow as big as the curve each turn. But just having a character following the curve isn’t quite janky enough. Needs moar cards.
Assuming you are using two resource points on this each turn plus you have two New Identity cards inplay plus its at least turn 5, that means Atlas is gaining +6/+6 each turn. Not bad, eh? But wait! There’s a tiny bit more and it involves a non-MAV card that makes Josten even bigger.
Yes, the oil that makes War Paint shine is also what adds that last bit of wham to Atlas. Just spend all your remaining resources after Force Field Belt on these guys, kamikazi them, and put the counters on Atlas. Gnarly.
A really good day with this combo will see having odd initiatives, a hidden Infernal Minion on turn 1 and Atlas on turn 2 with two New Identity being flipped. That puts Atlas at 5/5 at the end of turn 2. Turn 3 Atlas gets a +1/+1, you equip a Force Field belt, pay 2 points for it, and recruit another hidden Minion. We’re going to say you weren’t fortunate to get a third Identity so after running the Minion into someone for the counter, Atlas is ready for combat at 9/10 on turn 3. After recovery he’ll be a whopping 11/12.
Turn 4 you gain another one, pay 2 more, and play 2 more Minions. Josten enters the combat phase at 14/15 which will require team attacks and pumps on the opponent’s part to so much as get a stun. Minions kamikazi and the New Identities activate to make Josten a whopping 18/19 2-drop on turn 4.
This can continue on all game as long as Josten doesn’t get KOed or an opponent doesn’t have something that can strip counters. Ways to keep Josten around include Project Liberator which makes him untargettable (even by yourself, though) and A Second Chance which will recover him. Other characters that help the combo are the 1-drop Dallas Riordan who can help make sure you draw decently and Ogre who gives another +1/+1 counter while Josten is attacking.
And there you have it. A simple way to get at 8-drop sized, 2-drop character going into turn 5. This deck certainly isn’t anything amazing but it sure is janky fun. Try it out and let me know if you can come up with any other cards that enables this combo. I’m all ears for more ways to makes Josten live up to the name Atlas.
Tags: Vs System
Related to:
Vs System
. 
