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Hey guys, I'm back. I had a specific deck I wanted to talk about today, but due to my exams being on the 18th, I had to postpone my testing periods to study :(. However, I do have a nice little deck I made earlier this week to show off. Ever since the MUN patch came out on Magic Workstation (MWS), all I ever see is Hulk decks. Like seriously, I've played against 40 different Hulk decks (and by different, I mean different players). Despite this, I have only lost to Hulk decks once. Hulk Smash my ****ing ***. The deck I've been using lately is won that most games I play with it result in me winning. Not to gloat, the deck can still be imroved, but I firmly believe this deck (or at least, something really similar to this) will be the best deck out of MUN. MUN is notorious for having really really long lasting characters. Because of this, doing damage may be harder than any other set. This deck bypasses all that garbage and strikes at the heart of the matter, specifically, the opponent. Double Agent
Characters (32):
3 Life Model Decoy, More Human Than Human 15 S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents, Army - Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. 4 Viper, Madame Hydra - Hydra 4 Bullseye, Lester 4 Wolverine, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Hydra 2 Ares, Mighty Avenger Plot Twists (24):
4 Adamantium Claws 4 Crackshot 4 Double Agent!, Team-Up 4 Call in a Favor 4 Mobilize 4 Sleeper Cells Locations (4):
4 S.H.I.E.L.D. Hellicarrier The basic point of this deck is to swarm out Agentsm burning your opponent, then bouncing them to flip the Hellicarrier. Obviously, Wolvie can attack directly (and Viper, also, if they don't have a hidden guy), and, using the Hellicarrier, Claw and Crackshot, it's going to hurt. The Darkhorse card of this deck is Sleeper Cells, which can either be used to ready Wolvie to swing again, or to exhaust your opponent's biggest dude. 8 tutors make it pretty hard to miss Wolvie, and the Life Model Decoy is the MVP besides Wolvie. You can either boost the Decoy to be an opposing character, or, drop him on turn 3 for 0 resource points then bounce him to Wolvie. I've played this against a few deck,s mostly being Hulk. I've only ever lost twice, once to a Hulk deck and once to an Army SHIELD deck (that somehow pulled Maria Hill on turn 1 every game). Obviously, I'm sure a better build exists, but this is what I'm running with right now. Enjoy. Cheers, Guglio
Tags: VS System Guglio Wolverine SHIELD
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
Welcome to the first and already delayed Living Legacy design blog. I'm Guglio (but of course you know this). For those that don't know, I am part of the wonderful team of Fantasy Card Creators on TCGPlayer called The Set Masters. Concieved by myself and Comic_Book_Guy over a year and a half ago, I am the only member since its inception to remain on the team (much like the Doom Patrol and Robotman). This time, we put out a set filled with all sorts of random teams. Over the course of whenever I have time to create these, you'll be hearing from me and Kaku Fan (the two designers on this project) about what we did, and why we did it. Today, the subject is Checkmate.
We know you all love Checkmate! Except of course, Checkmate really means Team Ahmed Samsarra. That's the first thing we set out to fix. We wanted them to be a good mono team as well as team up team. Another addition was the Great Ten. With August General in Iron becoming a Black Bishop in the Hierarchy of the shadowy organization, I felt it was necessary to have them included. It allowed us to shave off unnecessary characters no one cared about and use the brand new Chinese team. After that, it was simple. Choose the best 5 cards to reprint (we used Pawn of the Black King, Traitor to the Cause, Maxwell Lord, and the Brother Eye / I Satellite). Max became the legend, and was outfitted with all sorts of cool abilities. Not much to say on Checkmate, so this introduction is good enough as is. I'll see you guys next time when we examine The Rogues. Cheers, Chris "Guglio" Guglielmelli
Tags: Checkmate Set Masters
Hey ya'll. I'm back for the third time! Sorry about the abrupt disappearances, but I have been busy with school and, well, playing VS. Although now that Vssystem.com no longer will produce any new content, I have to step up my game to fill at least a small bit of that whole. I'll do my best, guys! What I have today is the deck I've been testing lately for Modern Age / Build a Legend formats. Ever since DCL has come out, I've been anxiously waiting to see what cool new cards my main man Batman would get for himself. And I must say, he's gotten some cool new toys! Although his 5 drop isn't all that spectacular for the usual negation Batman decks, his three drop is awesome, as is the new Batcomputer and From the Darkness, the new Fizzle. Although I have written about both my Batman deck and my World's Finest deck, this new one is legal for both the above formats. Ain't that cool? And it all came to being from my good friend Athrex. You remember Athrex, right? Used to be a Moderator on these good ol' boards. Anywho, I was playing on MWS with him, and he remarked upon how the Batman Legend deck couldn't work unless it had cards to combat Revenge Squad and Injustice Gang Concealed. Curses, I thought. He noted that the "no cost" Superman is a good card to stop said decks as he stops you from losing endurance for awhile. With these tools in mind, I made my New World's Finest deck, with Batman as my legend and Superman my second legend (there is technically 12 cards in the deck for each). So I present to you, The Batman / Superman Legend Deck! From the Darkness: World's Finest Legends
Characters (30):
4 Alfred Pennyworth, Faithful Friend 4 Harvey Bullock, Gotham Central 4 Maggie Sawyer, Gotham Central 4 Batman, Founding Member 4 Superman, Last Son of Krypton 2 Kate Kane Batwoman, Katherine the Younger 2 Superman/Batman Robot, Supa-Mecha-Bat 2 Batman, Cape and Cowl 1 Superman, Deterrent Force 1 Superman, Founding Member 1 Kara Zor-el Supergirl, Claire Connors 1 Superman, Bulletproof Plot Twists (26):
4 The Hook-Up, Team-Up 4 Brains and Brawn 4 At Your Service 4 Mobilize 4 Pathetic Attempt 3 SKREEEEEEE! 3 From the Darkness Locations (4):
4 Batcomputer, Criminal Database The one big difference between this deck and regular WF decks is that it doesn't run At Their Finest. If your meta doesn't run too many hidden decks, SKREEEEEEE! can be taken out for them, but against RS and IG, +2 DEF doesn't really end up stopping them much. One of the best things in this deck is At Your Service. It can get either Batman drop, the Robot, From the Darkness, Batcomputer, and Brains and Brawn. You may also wonder why I am running two different Supermen at 7. Deterrent is better against curve decks, while Founding Member really hurts swarm decks. This deck does very well at getting curve and swarm decks alike to later turns, via Superman, Last Son of Krypton and the Superman/Batman Robot. Both have psuedo-invulnerability that can prevent the damage of stun endurance loss, and with Brains and Brawn, both stay alive for awhile. Often times, they are the only visible characters until turn 6. I hope you use this list as a jumping-off-point. It's still in testing, so I have no idea how it might change. Anyways, that's all for today. I'll show you another cool deck in the next installment of Team Adventure. As always, Cheers, Chris "Guglio" Guglielmelli
Tags: Vs System Batman Superman World's Finest
Boy has it been a while since I wrote one of these. What have I been doing with my time?!
Looks like I came back at the right time, though, because DC Legends is right around the corner. YAY!
Of course in my spare time since, I've dedicated my life to Pokemon Competitive Battling. In some ways its alot harder than VS, but I'll save that tale for another time. It seems that Mr. The-Ben-Seck-of-Awesomeness told us what the DCL teams were, and now I'm starting my own Countdown by featuring some of my decks of the past in time to see how I can revamp them! In each segment I'll offer up a deck I loved once before. After DCL is released, I'll show you how I tooled it to make it Modern or Silver Age legal with the new cards! Sounds hawt, no less.
And I'm gonna start with my favourite of the bunch.
If you know who I am, and anything about me, you probably know that Batman is my favourite fictional hero of all time. And while it was Batman who got my into VS, I soon discovered that making a Gotham Knights deck would cost me more than I was willing to spend at that point in time. Luckily, my favourite fictional villain was also in that set: Ra's al Ghul!
WIth Ra's in there, and with Green being my favourite colour, I had to go with him! Cracking packs after packs to get the rares then buying the singles afterwrads led to my very first VS deck. Now, some three years later, I present to you the deck I now play with.
Assassin's Creed
Golden Age
Chris Guglielmelli
Characters (32):
4 Talia, Beloved Betrayer
4 Bronze Tiger, Benjamin Turner
4 Ubu, Ra's al Ghul's Bodyguard
3 Kyle Abbot, Demon's Hound
4 Ra's al Ghul, Eternal Nemesis
2 Merlyn, Deadly Archer
4 Bane, Ubu
3 Nyssa Raatko, Daughter of the Demon
1 Sensei, Martial Arts Master
1 Lady Shiva, Master Assassin
1 Dr. Ebenezer Darkk, Original Leader of the League
1 Ra's al Ghul, The Demon's Head
Plot Twists (12):
4 Tower of Babel
4 The Demon's Head
2 Total Anarchy
2 Dual Nature
Locations (16):
4 Mountain Stronghold
2 Flying Fortress
2 Lazarus Pit
2 Stryker's Island
1 Slaughter Swamp
1 Soul World
1 Latverian Embassy
1 Pit of Madness
1 Research Facility
1 Clocktower
Keep in mind that each of these Countdown blogs aren't meant as full articles just yet. I'll edit them after DCL comes out to report the new deck. Keep it real guys, DCL is right around the corner!
Hey guys, guess what! I'm back. Sorry it's been awhile since I last wrote, but I've been enveloped lately by school, Pokemon and Metroid Prime 3. But now I'm here, focused on continuing what I started (aka writing about my beloved card game :D). But I've decided to shake things up this time 'round, and instead of a deck, I'll be doing something different. We all love different, right? I thought so.
This is a topic I've been PMed alot about over the course of me being a member here at TCGplayer, and it's about time I wrote about it. If any of you (or all of you) are still wondering, it's about how I made fantasy cards. Or specifically, fantasy sets. It's no suprise that people would ask me, seeing as I have no life and made a ton of them. So I'll do my best to recreate the steps I took in making my first one, The Legend of Zelda.
Let me remind you first, however, this is by no means a definitative guide. It's merely the steps I took. Now, here comes Guglio's Guide to Making Your Own Fantasy Set.
Step 1. Pick your topic.
Seriously? You can't even start without a topic. Make sure what your making has enough content to work with. Zelda had a huge universe to work with, so don't go picking things like Worms or Kid Icarus to use; there isnt enough content for a 220 card set. If you really really want to use small universes, make less cards. I mean alot less.
Step 2. Make a list.
Don't go in blindly; make a document. Plan out what your set will look like. Create the teams before hand, set the characters/plot twists/locations/equipment numbers. Make sure everything works out exactly as you want. You don't have to, but I like to know what each team does before I make them. Let the imagination do things improvised as well, but have an idea.
Step 3. Make an neccessary changes to the game.
What I mean by this is, if you need a keyword in your set, make it now. Include any keyword you make in your set document.
Step 4. Remember flavour!
This is a bit hard to understand by explanation, so bear with me. In Zelda, I knew that Link was a swordswielder. He had a sword. It would be very very wrong if Link found a way to exhaust people without a plot twist or any other external effect. He clobbers people, not prevents them from fighting. Thematically, I needed Link to always be fighting (unless it was the Wind Waker Link, but I'll get to that in a moment) so that's why a good potion of Links have combat oriented abilities. Don't mistake lack of originality for flavour :p. Almost every link in the set (with the Goron Link and Win Waker Link being exceptions) had some sort of combat effect. For teh other two, Goron Link had huge starting stats (much like Wolverine) but since he had reincarnation, I needed a slightly steeper cost for such stats on a no team character. For Wind Waker Link, he was a new Link (hence 8/8 stats) but could control the wind. I made that initative control, but in the process, you lost an attacker who still had weak stats.
Step 5. Have Fun!
Remember, you should do this for your love of the game and for the topic you are using. Have fun with what you work on, and I'm sure it will come out marvelous.
But if you still need good tips or whatever, I suggest you go see the following people. Not only have the redefined card making, they are the best people I know to do so.
-Spiderman621
-Comic_Book-Guy
-Kaku Fan
-Mephisto_Jak
-Batkick
Sorry if this isntallment was short, but I'll back again very soon...and I'll start the countdown!
In the meantime, look out for some new things. Cheers,
Guglio
P.S.: POKEMONS!
Team Adventure: At Their Finest Part 3 – Breath of Death
By: Chris Guglielmelli with Special Guest Nick Fletcher
If you haven’t noticed (and how could you) I’m shaking. Shaking because my Nintendo DS is still plugged in after an eighteen hour escapade playing Pokemon Pearl. Yes indeed, I play Pokemon. Sue me. And you’d be surprised the amount I learned about VS while playing it. But let’s get to why I’m here. I’m here to continue what I started. To talk about World’s Finest. About how and why it’s awesome. So far, I’ve done a Golden Age Superman Cloning deck, and a Modern / Silver Age Gotham Knights deck. By the law of the universe (or is that cake town) I must talk about Golden Age again.
Oh boy what to say. Not only is Golden Age the “type 1” of VS, it’s also home to my most hated enemies. Doom and his Reign of Terror and Rigged Elections. Both decks require obscene amount of plot twists to work, both require a good player to pilot them, and both are open to super hate at the hands of the most powerful man in history! You heard me right. Not even Dr. Doom and The Arkham Inmates can withstand the power of G’Nort. Wait, he wasn’t in World’s Finest. Darn.
Oh well, there’s always plan two. As I was saying, I’ve been quite addicted to pokemon lately. I’ve given up food, water, sleep, internet and music in order to fulfill my cravings. Man that day sucked, I’m never doing that again. Aye, but I’ve learned things from pokemon. Many things. What’s that? You want me to indulge? Why certainly.
Any Pokemaniac knows of the amazing Bronzong. Bronzong here is a steel / psychic type. Not only does he have a phenomenal DEF and Sp. DEF, he also looks like a slick cat. Bronzong’s ATK and Sp. ATK are lacking however and he’s really not so much an attacker as a wall. So what good is a wall? Just like in VS, walls are instrumental to setting up combos. So what do I do with Bronzong you ask? Easy, I outfit him with Protect, Toxic, Confuse Ray and Earthquake. Nifty huh? Yeah I thought so too. Now my wall can poison the opponent, confuse him, stop his attacks and smack people. What’s this have to do with VS? Bronzong resembles a dude in VS I know well. His name is Darkseid.
Yeah the dude from two sets both (until now) claimed to be under powered. Shows what you guys know. Of course, Darkseid is just the beginning. Only one Darkseid was in WF so that doesn’t really count. We are taking Superman’s other mutual enemies, the Revenge Squad, to team up with the Elite to take out you super heroes. Get ready to be owned.
Breath of Death
2 Mr. Mxyzptlk, Troublesome Trickster
4 Malice Vundabar, Female Fury
4 Terra-Man, Toby Manning
4 Professor Emil Hamilton Ruin, Power Suit
2 Lashina, Female Fury
4 Darkseid, Apokoliptian Oppressor
1 Stompa, Female Fury
1 Samantha Parrignton Valkyrie, Chooser of the Slain
3 Hank Henshaw Cyborg, Manhunter Grandmaster
1 Dark Warrior, Mockery
2 Darkseid, The Omega
2 Brainiac 2.5, Future Intelligence
1 Indigo, Brainiac 8
1 Solaris, Tyrant Sun
4 Dimensional Deal, Team-Up
4 Enemy of My Enemy
4 Executive Privilege
4 Standoff
4 Cover Fire
3 Servants of Darkness
1 Never-Ending Battle
1 State of the Union
1 Reign of Terra
1 Anti-Life Equation
1 Imprisoned in the Source
This deck aims to take evens. Not only can it combo, it also burns like mad. Sorry to people who hate Enemy, but this deck abuses it like mad. Recruiting Mxy is a recipe for distaster so don’t! Instead, use him for Enemy discards because he gets you any guy in your deck. Turn two is usually Malice, but Terra-Man does as well. Both are great for the DEF they can generate. Turn three recruit Ruin. He makes the deck run. Use him to get the team-up, or, if you have that, standoff or any of the singular cards. Need quick DEF reduction? Never-Ending Battle is your man. Resource row protection? State of the Union. Well, you get the picture.
Turn four is Darkseid, nine point eight times out of ten. Stompa is an alright drop, and Samantha, save for turn six. Every ATK pump they play to hit Darkseid will be burned by standoff, and any servants you may have if played from resource. Plus then you draw cards. On turn five, if you have both available drops, then pick your poison. Dark Warrior against resource row decks (Checkmate, any deck from MHG, Revenge Squad, a mirror) and Hank against any deck you know contains a plot twist. If they run plot twists they really need, they may be wary of attacking Hank. This is all good.
Turn six is when your deck goes ka-boom on the opponent. Start with making sure he has a non Team-Up plot twist in his row. Substitute in Samantha for the old four drop you had. Drop Darkseid, The Omega, and flip up Reign of Terra. Give them Reign for their plot twist (if it’s ongoing even better). Now that their affiliations are nuked, sub out Darkseid for Brainiac 2.5. Activate Samantha on Barinaic and wait until combat. When you get the chance, swing Brainiac at the drop of equal cost that can be a legal target for his effect. Samantha readies him, then activate on the defender. Brainiac readies, then activate on the next highest drop.
Indigo and Solaris are only there to play clean up and watch your opponent burn himself out of the game. The rest of the plot twists are there to set up shop except the Anti-Life Equation. Playing this when your opponent stunned your board is quite awesome. When it triggers, choose the number 1. If they choose lower, they stun a guy. If they choose higher, they get burned. It’s a win-win scenario! My buddy Nick “Kaku Fan” Fletcher, however, came up with a different build for the deck. His is more aggressively oriented, but still does the job.
Breath of Death Kaku Style 1 Atomic Skull, Cursed
3 Brainiac 2.5, Future Intelligence
1 Dark Firestorm, Mockery
4 Dark Lantern, Mockery
1 Dark Warrior, Mockery
4 Darkseid, Apokoliptian Oppressor
1 Darkseid, The Omega
1 Kara Zor-El Supergirl, Female Fury
4 Lex Luthor, Master Manipulator
4 Professor Emil Hamilton Ruin, Power Suit
1 Samantha Parrington Valkyrie, Chooser of the Slain
1 Solaris, Tyrant Sun4 Terra-Man, Toby Manning
1 Absolute Dominance
4 Dimensional Deal, Team-Up
4 Enemy Of My Enemy
4 Executive Privilege
1 Imprisoned in the Source
4 Mob Mentality
4 Never-Ending Battle
4 Servants of Darkness
4 Standoff
If you are looking for a fun, easy deck to take out for a spin, try out this one. Plus, Revenge Squad can finally get their revenge out on other decks. Come to think of it, a team named Revenge Squad was probably designed to suck the first time, else make their team affiliation sound stupid. I guess it worked. Also, make note that Battle of Metropolis was going to go in if I hade more room, which I didn’t.
Cheers,
Guglio and Kaku Fan P.S.: Nick didn’t write anything for this but his decklist, but kudos to him anyways.
Team Adventure: At Their Finest Part 2 – The Dark Knight
By Chris Guglielmelli
“I made a promise on the grave of my parents, that I would rid the city of the evil that took their lives. By day, I am billionaire philanthropist Bruce Wayne. By night, criminals, a cowardly and superstitious lot, call me The Batman.”
Ever since I can remember, I have read Batman comics. Being the ultimate hero, he inspired in me why. Having no powers, he could do anything. He possesses no mind bending powers. He didn't come from a dying planet. He didn't get his powers from a radiated spider. He's just a man. The man with the plan. He doesn't bend steel and shoot heat from eyes. He doesn't web up criminals and engage in lame jokes with super villains. Most times, he doesn't even talk. He doesn't have a healing factor. He doesn't have a team of similarly powered heroes whom he calls family. His family is dead. He watched them die. And every night, in the streets of his birth city, he claims vengeance. Truly, Batman could exist in our world. He does not rely on powers; he uses the element of man's emotions as a weapon against those who hurt people.
I'd always wonder, when I'd play Magic or Pokemon, or Yugioh, if they would make a card game based or including Batman. I would play that game in an instant. And one day, when I saw DC origins, I did. Althouh batman was enjoyable to play with, I never saw him and his team take any real success. Sure Alfred and the Signal did, but I wanted to see Batman do stuff too. I went on playing VS and hoping that one day, Batman would return.
When I first heard about it, I was shocked to death. Well, almost. When I heard about World's Finest, and how my favourite team ever was getting refeatured, I nearly cried. Well, almost. The fact that the Gotham Knights were really bad aside from Alfred and the Bat-Signal made me feel bad. But now they are back. And ready to take on the new VS System world. Well, almost. As long as I love to read Batman, I will love to play the Gotham Knights. And I'll do it without Alfred!
As long as any player can remember, the Gotham Knights excelled in just about three things: negation, card draw, and information. While in their DOR days, they also had a ton of equipment, these three themes remained. Fizzle was (and still is) one of the best plot twists around. Negation in VS is different than another game, and the Batman Family did it best. They loved to draw cards, where having a ton more mattered most to pay for effects like Cassandra Cain Batgirl, Martial Artist as well as Fizzle. It also tied into the information theme, where having card advantage almost always meant they were ready for anything.
But alas, no one liked the Batman deck. Everyone wanted to hire Alfred and create their own small fortune rather than notice Batman and his endeavors. Now that World's Finest has opened the doors to Batman again (and hopefully in DC Legends too!), it's time for Bats and friends to go out a rock the world. Of course, even though he is obviously the greatest super hero ever, a guy without powers needs friends to help him. And Batman has the best friends a moody dark hero could need.
The Dark Knight
4 Crispus Allen, Gotham Central
4 Commissioner Gordon, Gotham Central
4 Batman, Problem Solver
2 Renee Montoya, Gotham Central
4 The Question, Victor Sage
2 Huntress, Harsh Mistress
2 Kate Kane Batwoman, Katherine the Younger
2 Cassandra Cain Batgirl, Death's Daughter
4 Batman, Cape and Cowl
2 Barbara Gordon Oracle, Inside Information
1 Lady Shiva, Jade Canary
1 Batman, Dark Knight Returned
4 Bat Got Your Tongue?
4 Bat-Signal
4 Interrogate
4 Nine Lives
4 Good Cop, Good Cop
3 Gotham Central
3 Batcave, Crime-Fighting Lab
2 Batmobile, Burn Rubber
Named after the movie I'm sure everyone wants to see, Bats and friends love beating up criminals. Although the deck slightly crosses into the Birds of Prey, they are all friends anyways. Crispus Allen, Gordon and Renee start up the power with good old police activity. Crispus is especially good, letting me know what exactly my opponent has. Whether its for Interroge, or for Batman to Rough House the opponent into submission, Crispus tells me exactly what I need to know. Gordon is also good, letting me pitch a Renee in hand so Batman can swing up into a four drop. And while Renee is very good for a three, the deck's main foundation lies in Batman. Not only is he a respectable drop, stat wise, he also has Concealed-Optional and a very game swinging ability.
Next up is Renee's good old buddy, Vic Sage. Question is now looking for the great conspiracy among your resources. Is it a coincidence that almost all of Gotham Knight's plot twist support is two costed? Well, except for the Bat-Signal, but play that from hand and you are good. Excluding the Signal and the Batmbile, all non character cards cost two. On a decent to good draw, The Question can become an 8/8 on turn four. Huntress is a very good backup, and sometimes playing her is the best turn four play you can make.
On turn five, the best play is this: play Kate, and hopefully, stun target character cost three or less. Blasting an Air-Walker or Mar-Vell is quite satisfying, but you aren't done yet. Substitute out Kate for Cassie (aka the brick wall of death). If you can't use the cards in hand any better, use them to generate a brick wall. Then, on turn six, you drop the grandfather of all character cards. Daredevil exhausting your board? No thanks. Spider-Man exhausting your seven drop? No I'm good. Batman, Cape and Cowl will own almost every other six drop. Then, when he does, you can proceed to talk about how he owned them and such and such.
The plot twists are the most simple to figure out. Bat Got Your Tongue is the much needed “Fizzle” in Modern and Silver Age. While exhausting a character and discarding one is a very different cost, Fizzle isn't legal in Silver or Modern. BGYT is exceptional in every way. Negation wasn't very playable before DWF and now Batman reintroduces what he started long ago: how to school your opponents without ATK pumps, walling attacks of exhausting board. Hard to do that when Batman just owned your search card, eh?
Bat-Signal had to be reprinted. It is the search card that defines formats and makes Batman the man. The simple cost of exhausting is nothing because there will always be GCPD officials waiting to help out the best hero ever. And Interrogate has the wrong picture. The picture should be Crispus Allen standing behind Batman as he shakes the answers out of you (along with any concealed weapons you have on you (I'm looking at you, Three Ton Boulder!)).
In closing, this deck is incredibly fun to play. I know a lot of people enjoy playing with their favourite heroes. Since DWF came out, I'm proud to say I am. Batman is back boys (and girls). I can't wait to own some people with Batman (I've started already) and I know that even though the deck isn't at it's premium right now, and it may not be the best deck ever, but it's my favourite deck right now. I don't see that changing any time soon.
“They told me there was nothing out there, nothing to fear. But the night my parents were murdered I caught a glimpse of something. I've looked for it ever since. I went around the world, searched in all the shadows. And there is something out there in the darkness, something terrifying, something that will not stop until it gets revenge... Me.”
Cheers,
Guglio
Team Adventure: At Their Finest Part 1 – Superman Returns By Chris Guglielmelli Unless you have been living in a cave somewhere (and no offence to cave dwellers), but you have probably heard, read and seen the release of the World’s Finest expansion. Not only has this set been long overdue, but it also has been the comment of some crazy over-zealous people who think it’s a horrible set. Instead of appreciating the subtle themes that make this set amazing in any right, both in theme and playability, they just continue to talk about “it doesn’t have cards of the same power level as Marvel Team-Up.” Anyone who knows me will definitely know what I’m about to say. Having the sheer power of having Superman and Batman in one set makes everything worthwhile. Not only are both factions equally represented, with Gotham being dual affiliated throughout the set, but their enemy teams also got the surge they needed to be good again (not that they weren’t good). Another cool thing is that each team basically strengthened their existing cards, so Golden Age decks got a boost too. Just like Spider-Friends in Marvel Team-Up got a boost to the existing deck of out of combat control, Superman got a boost to combat control and Batman to negation control. One theme that wasn’t supported was Super Clones. No new cloning cards were introduced, which made the new 5 drop Superman hide in the shadow of his much more amazing drop, Last Son of Krypton. Now, I don’t like Superman as much as I do Batman, but he’s still a pretty important figure in my life. It was Superman who, along with my parents, taught me the ideals of being a good person. It was Superman that inspired me to seek to become a journalist. And it was Superman who encouraged me to look beneath the surface. Although it wasn't overtly shown, World’s Finest did indeed support Superman’s rebirthing process deck. Want a history lesson? Back in 2006, the movies Superman Returns and X-Men 3 came out. They were part of a strange loop if you will, where Superman made less money but was more appreciated by the fans, while X-Men was the opposite. Not to rain on anyone’s love for X-Men 3, but statistically, this is true. Returns did make enough money, though, for Warner Bros to approve of a sequel and recast Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor. Was Returns better than the original? That’s hard to say, but it was a good successor. Since World’s Finest came out between Superman Returns and The Dark Knight (which I am eagerly awaiting, and will promptly see three times on opening midnight showings), I felt it would be appropriate to talk about the set now. As a heads up, over the course of my next three articles, I will talk about how I applied the main teams of World’s Finest to decks that already exist, or created because I love this set dearly. Now, anyone who has ever played Super Clones knows exactly how the deck runs. It generally starts of with random one and two drops, drops Superman Red and starts to play out Supermen. What it had before was Cover Fire for big pumps, Savage Beatdown for more big pumps, and a decent, Superman searching tutor. It also had a slew of ways to make Superman non-unique. Still, however, just like Superman in the comics, it had one big flaw: anything that killed your uniqueness cards, or didn’t really care about big pumps. In the golden age environment, that was almost every deck. This is why I’m building for casual to semi-competitive. I’m not big on Rigged Elections or Doom decks ruining my fun. So what does World’s Finest offer to solve these problems? Well, not much really; it just takes the strengths that already exist and strengthen them. More problems of Super Clones were that the turn four and five drops’ effects, in simplistic terms, sucked. Clark Kent didn’t offer much protection, Blue’s effect usually never went off, and neither really did anything for the strategy except being named Superman. That’s all fine though, because those are problems we can fix. What the deck lacked before it now specializes in. Its four drop morphed from a cosmic effect that was bad before cosmic into a character with permanent invulnerability, cannot be targeted by effects requiring cost, cannot be swung into with up curve bonuses, and was unique in its own right. The five drop morphed from another average cosmic effect (or activated invulnerability for those using Superman, Returned) into a character who has invulnerability more often than not. It also gained a nine drop just in case you run into a nasty stall deck that wants to annihilate your board and swing to the face; this new Bulletproof Superman can’t even be stunned in the first place, allowing you to promptly snicker at said opponent. Without further ado, I present the newest addition in the line of Superman Cloning! Superman Returns 4 Lois Lane, Star Reporter 4 Lois Lane, Earth 2 4 Kelex, Faithful Servant 4 Superman, Red 4 Superman, Last Son of Krypton 1 Superman, Clark Kent 4 Superman, Man of Tomorrow 4 Superman, Kal-El 1 Superman, Deterrent Force 1 Superman, Man of Steel 1 Superman, Bulletproof 4 Impervious 4 Cover Fire 4 At Their Finest 4 For the Man Who Has Everything 4 Man of Tomorrow 4 Look-Alike Squad 1 Cadmus Labs 1 Fortress of Solitude 1 Smallville 1 Kandor, City in a Bottle Time for “In Depth Time.” I know you guys love “In Depth Time” (for all intensive purposes, I claim copyright on that term. Well, not really). The first question is probably “Why run eight one drops, and why are they both Lois Lane?” The answer is simple: both cards rock. One of the them (Earth 2) has a steeper alternate cost, but fetches exactly what you need (if you didn’t pay attention, you need Supermen), and the other has a cheaper alternate recruit cost but is a little more random at what you get, if anything. However, they are both alternate recruits, and are both named Lois Lane. Seriously, a Superman deck without Lois Lane isn’t a real Superman deck. Next up, is “why if you were complaining so much about how Clark Kent sucks, why do you run him?” Also rather simple: Last Son of Krypton has no recruit cost. This means if my five or higher drop becomes stunned, I can’t use the Squad to put him into play. Since the motorcycle Superman search card will cost me next to nothing to get a Superman, I can play it, grab Clark, and put him into play. Is it a super fantastic game breaking combo? Hardly. Is it worthwhile to do? I suppose. But it’s Superman, and who doesn’t love more of him? The curve is basic, so anyone who knows how to play VS should know how to play this deck. The only wiggle room that’s tough to decide is the locations. A cautious player may want to replace the other three for more labs; however, I’ve never found that to help, as those locations give rather important effects. This deck does what the old Super Clones wanted to do but better: cement combat in your favor. Dictate who attacks where, and if you want to stun or not. Every Superman has flight and range (surprised?) so Cover Fire can lead to huge pumps. Impervious is a little more restrictive, but is still a +3 DEF on attack or defense (and that matters, you don’t really want to get stunned while attacking). It runs eight search cards, one that's available to pluck Red into play immediately, and the other that will, after playing Red, cost you nothing to search. It’s also a power-up effect if you need one in a pinch. Also missing from the new build is any real ATK pump. The old deck attempted to wall attacks and swing back for board shifting presence; however, this rarely occurred due to the lack of good DEF pumps in the format and the fact that there was always larger ATK pumps than DEF pumps (since the very first set introduced Flying Kick and Savage Beatdown). This deck is better, it forgoes ATK pumps in favor of DEF pumps, where walling them is both better and more Superman-ish. Obviously the deck isn’t perfect; far from it. But it’s a good starting point, and one I hope others will expand on as we get more cards. Superman Lives On. Cheers, Guglio
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