Hey dudes, what's up? This year's been pretty hectic for me, which is why I haven't been around all that much. 'Tis my graduating year from High School, and the chaos that ensues from that plus the ton of work and other things makes it very hard to get articles up, lol. But I am back now, for at least three more write-ups (this included) before I disappear again.
Today, I'd like to share with you a decfk I've been working on for some time. Obviously, if you know me at all, it will be a DC deck, haha. Don't worry; I'm doing my best to actually include Marvel cards, and maybe even use them when MUN comes out (Crime Lords, drool). This particular build, however, is based for a Modern Age environment / metagame, and without knowing what MUN holds for such an area, I have picked the #1 contender to be the "Crime Syndicate of America" hidden Injustice Gang deck. Having played it myself to help my friends test for Worlds, I know the potency of the deck. Perhaps MUN will change this, but right now I'm going on the assumption that if you can't beat CSA, there's really no point to even trying.
CSA is a dangerous deck. You can't gain board advantage because they hide in the hidden area, and if you try to race their endurance, they will probably win due to having more pumps than you (unless your playing a deck I will feature later). Because of that, and because of their enormous advantage off initative as well, most decks can't compete. The loss of Hunte Castle hurt a bit, and you might be able to take advantage, but it's still really good. I'd know, lol.
WIth this in mind, I set out to make a deck that could curve out, as CSA curves out (or they try to). They only curve to 6, so getting to 7 could prove to be quite beneficial. But how to survive the initial onslaught is what plagued me for some time. It took a full 3 weeks for my mind to find something, and to my surprise, it happened when I played a Silver Age match on MWS.
My opponent was using a Darkseid Clone deck, most of its pieces from DLS. However, he was running the endgame engine, with Dirty Tricks to help his already huge DEF values. Obviously, Dirty Tricks didn't work out as much as he would have liked, but that card really impacted me. Having Tricks face-up in multiples would force CSA to use its pumps to keep their original stats intact, which might increase survivability. By playing in Modern, they lose Hunte Castle and I don't really have to worry about other decks, like Quickfate.
Of course, I needed my own win condition. Against any other deck, I needed a way to finish the game, and not make this deck a one trick pony. I also needed a reliable way of hitting Dirty Tricks, which made me focus on using the Revenge Squad. Known quite a bit in Modern for being a surprisingly quick attack deck, only slightly worse than Marvel Knight Modern KO and CSA. However, it could also be adapted to suite this deck. Here is the decklist I came up with.
The Sun's in Your Eyes (60 cards)
Characters (32):
4 Terra-Man, Toby Manning
4 Brainiac 13, Mental Giant
3 Kryptonite Man, K Russell Abernath
3 Natasha Irons Starlight, Everyman Project
4 Professor Emil Hamilton Ruin, Power Suit
4 Metallo, Kryptonite Heart
3 Hank Henshaw Cyborg, Manhunter Grandmaster
1 Lex Luthor, Metropolis Mongul
3 Darkseid, The Omega
1 Indigo, Brainiac 8
1 Lex Luthor, The Everyman
1 Solaris, Tyrant Sun
Plot Twists (28 cards):
4 Heroes of Two Worlds
4 Mobilize
4 Dirty Tricks
4 Imprisoned in the Source
4 Executive Privilege
3 Fatal Weakness
2 Standoff
2 Omnipotence
1 Knowledge is Power
The majority of the deck should be easy to figure out, so I'll just review the main cards that really help in games:
Why so many 2 drops? - I need to hit Ruin at any cost, so the deck's potency at any given game really depends on how / if you hit Ruin. Getting one Executive Privilege, 2+ Dirty Tricks and any other sort of the ongoings online really goes along way for victory.
Why Hank Henshaw? - Against decks that pack 4x cards that you really don't want to face, Hank just flat out removes them.
Control cards? - Imprisoned is great to remove away certain plot twists that screw you over. Make sure you don't prohibit Mobilize if you still need to use it (Imprisoned affects everyone). Omnipotence is great to deal with locations and annoying characters like Wonder Woman.
What's the win condition? - The ultimate win condition is basically stalling until you hit Solaris and start double stunning people until you win. Metallo goes along way in burning them. Indigo helps if you are in a jam, because just stunning her (due to Dirty Tricks) may be a feat, then blasting her to gain back 8 could get you to Solaris.
Against CSA, this deck can win if you hit Ruin and / or enough Dirty Tricks (I find 2 is enough to stop them for awhile, getting 3 is really a great way to victory). They are afraid to hit Ruin (as you can get Tricks), and Metallo makes it difficult to keep the race in their favour. In a last resort, you can swing to their face, then stun 2 dudes to Fatal weakness and KO someone (killing Jemm or White Martian really hurt).
Anyways, I've rambled enough. Just goes to show that not every deck is unstoppable, and you can twist old decks to fit new needs. I know most people were underwhlemed by the Revenge Squad at first, but they are one of the best teams from DWF, and arguably a great addition for Modern Age.
For some final thoughts, if your particular metagame is different, and doesn't use CSA or them decks much, my original build had these changes, and they really work well:
-1 Lex Luthor, Metropolis Mongul
-4 Metallo, Kryptonite Heart
-2 Omnipotence
+1 Maxima, Warrior Queen
+4 Atomic Skull, Cursed
+2 Standoff
The Atomic Skull switch is also helpful vs CSA, because you can stun some lower guys off initative. I just like the burn better, personally.
With that, this is Guglio out.
Cheers.
Tags: Vs System Revenge Squad Guglio
Related to:
Vs System
