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My one exception to this is the time I spend playing cards at the local card shop. I have a pretty stalwart group of gaming buddies over at JJK Cards in Richardson that I can always count on for a few hours of intense Vs. System competition. One good thing about playing at JJK is that most of the players there, while respecting my play skill, do not impose on me for favors based upon my high profile in the Vs. System community. For the most part, I am simply just another Vs. System player in a group of highly talented players.

Recently, however, one of the regulars caught me off-guard. Skyler “Skittles” Thomas asked if I would feature one of his decks in an article. Now, anyone who has followed my articles for the past five months probably knows that I have only featured two decks built by other players. One was the outrageous Mystic Chain deck built by Johnson Bailey. Aside from building a deck that was nothing short of brilliant, Johnson also has a strong gaming record to his name, including a Top 8 finish at $10K Chicago in April 2005. The other deck was the inspired Jericho abuse build by none other than Tim “Aqualad” Batow. Tim’s build was one of the most fun decks that I’d ever had the pleasure of playing, and his accomplishments speak of his immense skill, so I won’t go into detail.*

While Skittles is basically a good kid and a decent player, he doesn’t have any Vs. System accomplishments to speak of, and to my knowledge, he hasn’t built any extraordinary decks. So I asked Skittles what deck of his he’d like me to feature. He suggested (in order) a Gotham Knights curve deck, a Curve Sentinels deck, and a Common Enemy build. Granted, all of these decks are playable, but they aren’t what I would call “revolutionary.”

This week’s installment of Breaking Ground is not about anything that Skittles has built—despite his persistence, I politely declined to feature any of his decks. However, his request made me realize that even though most of my gaming friends avoid asking me for “shout-outs” in my Metagame.com articles, all of them would probably appreciate it if I occasionally threw a little recognition toward them.

- First and foremost, I must give a shout-out to my new team, Team Alternate Win Condition (TAWC). The original members of the Dream Team decided to join forces with some of the scrubs from Florida (you know . . . because we felt sorry for ’em!), and the result has been a unique mix of skills, personalities, and (most importantly) jank!

- Next, I’d like to say “Hey!” to my regular playtest posse at JJK Cards in Richardson, Texas: Tom, Julian, Tee, Mark, Travis, Polo, Gene, Johnny, and The Sauce.** Of course, there are others who occasionally show up (Chuck and Alexander, Cody and crew, Miller and his merry men, and lately, Jason and Phil), but the aforementioned nine are pretty much the regulars.

- Of course, I’ve gotta shout-out to my buddy Joe Corbett up in Kansas. One of the nicest people I know, hanging out with Joe is always a blast. Now if we could just get him to stop being a vegetarian . . .

- I’d like to take a second to mention one of my new favorite podcast programs, The Fallout Shelter. Richard and Paul do a great job with their weekly (sometimes bi-weekly) podcast, which discusses a diverse array of topics in the Vs. System. Along with Dylan Northrup’s Tech Upgrade, The Fallout Shelter brings some Internet-audio happiness to my weary workdays.*** (I'm listening to it right now! - TW)

- Dave Spears, because he gave me some mad props on VsRealms.com a few weeks back. (And because he’s friggin’ Dave Spears!)

- Team Online never seems to get any mention when it comes to competitive Vs. System teams, but they’ve made consistent showings in each of the VsRealms online tournaments. While they haven’t found the level of success of many Vs. System teams, they make up for it in enthusiasm, love of the game, and some of the most innovative deck ideas the game has seen. I’m a sucker for jank, and they do it almost as well as anyone. Props to the TO crew!

- And, of course, a shout-out to Skittles. Hi, Skittles!

The Sauce (left) and Skittles (right) have a polite disagreement over a Vs. System ruling.

I apologize to anyone I missed (though I have no doubt that you’ll let me know about it). Now that we’re done with our little roll call, we can get to our card of the day . . .

My most important shout-out of the article goes out to Gillie “Gilford The Lightning” Younger. Gillie is one of my former playtest buddies back in Oklahoma. While he wasn’t a part of our regular group of playtesters, he still spent a good deal of time interacting with our group. One of the great things about Gillie was the flashes of deckbuilding brilliance he possessed. Granted, Gillie usually stuck with established builds, like GLEE or The Brave and The Bold. However, he occasionally managed to concoct a build from some unestablished set of cards or teams (like the New Gods) that was competitive in a way we never thought possible.

My favorite “flash of brilliance” of Gillie’s came this past November. I was testing Doom/Injustice Gang at the time, and I met up with Gillie on a visit back to Tulsa for some playtesting. Gillie’s deck of choice at the time was a JLA ally deck. Gillie is still in his teens, so he doesn’t have the level of disposable income of many Vs. System players. As a result, he was missing several key cards that you would think are important in a JLA ally build (most notably, Hero’s Welcome). Still, he managed to win about half of the games that we played on the strength of the JLA characters.

Of course, I realized that my Doom/Injustice Gang deck (which tends to put a lot of cards into my opponent’s hand) probably had a bad matchup against a deck that could utilize those cards. So I switched to X-Statix. In retrospect, this was a massive mistake, as Gillie used Elongated Man to keep my key locations out of play. With the power of his big beaters, Gillie crushed me rather thoroughly in nearly every game we played.

The sole exception to this was the one game when Gillie got a little carried away with Firestorm. While I marveled at the incredible synergy Firestorm had with the deck (as even an empty hand usually got refilled on turn 5 through his effect), the accumulated cost of his effect became rather onerous. It got me wondering if it would be possible to construct a JLA ally deck that could abuse Firestorm while maintaining a sufficient amount of endurance.

This is, of course, where Roll Call! fits in. With three JLA characters on the board, each copy of Roll Call! will repay one use of Firestorm’s effect. Moreover, the secondary effect of Roll Call! will help cycle through the deck more quickly while ridding the hand of “dead cards.”

We’re going to build our own JLA ally deck that can use Roll Call! to its fullest extent. That way, we can get as carried away with Firestorm as we like!

Surprise, surprise . . . four copies of Roll Call!!

What else in the way of plot twists? Well, we know that this is going to be a JLA ally deck, so some of the cards designed specifically for that deck type might be in order. First, we’ll need four copies of Hero’s Welcome. Character search can be beneficial in pretty much any deck, but Hero’s Welcome interacts with a JLA ally deck on a level beyond that of other teams’ search cards. Not only does Hero’s Welcome allow us to discard any two cards, but it also puts an extra copy of the character we search out into our hand—not a bad deal for a deck centered on powering-up! Poor Gillie might not have the resources to acquire four copies, but here in the world of the hypothetical, we can have any number we like—any number four or less, that is!

Now, let’s take some of the power-up plot twists from the JLA set into consideration. Magnificent Seven seems like an obvious choice. In your first four turns, it’s a power-up for any character you control and a free card. On turns 5 and up, it’s a power-up for any character you control and a free card (assuming you control Firestorm). Any card that can give you a generic power-up is well worth playing in an ally deck, especially when you take into account the beneficial effect wrought by JLA’s ally mechanics. The fact that you will almost always draw a card when you play Magnificent Seven just sweetens the deal.

Of course, four copies of Magnificent Seven probably aren’t enough support for the deck, so we’ll also run with four copies of Reform the League. This ongoing plot twist made JLA ally an absolute monster in Sealed Pack formats, especially if you could team up with JLI to abuse Fire. While it is not quite as game-breaking in Constructed, since Reform the League is limited to one use per turn, it is still potent nonetheless.

As a side note, we are going to refrain from using Reform the League’s companion card, Disband the League. If we were going to aim to have several characters on the board (like a swarm strategy), then Disband the League would be a strong choice if only from the perspective of hand advantage. However, as we will see when we get into our character selections, we will probably be better off building along the curve. Assuming that we achieve this build goal, we shouldn’t have more than a few characters in play at any given time. We might get a couple of uses out of Disband the League, but it would probably not be a heavily used card. In addition, Firestorm should help ensure that we have plenty of cards in hand. As such, Disband the League is probably not as potent a card in this framework.

Moving on, let’s look at some tech for our deck. Obviously, our curve deck will need some help combating the tricks of off-curve decks, so we need to consider some “weenie hate” for our build. We’re going to go with three copies of Flame Trap. There may be some newer cards, like H’ronmeer’s Curse and Avengers Disassembled, that are vying for the title of “off-curve control card of choice,” but for my money, there’s still nothing better than the original “weenie killa!” Besides, we should be drawing enough cards that the discard cost won’t be a problem.

Our final plot twist is playing the dual role of attack pump and tech. Our ally deck has two cards that can absolutely wreck it. The first of these cards is Kang, Kang Cobra. One problem with Kang Cobra is that he tends to sit comfortably in the hidden area of our opponent’s board where we can’t normally reach him. Seeing as how this little monster has the potential to remove the entire power-up focus of our deck, we need to have an answer for him (i.e., a way to move him out of the hidden area). With this in mind, we’re going to forego the ever-popular Savage Beatdown to include four copies of No Man Escapes the Manhunters. While it doesn’t have the sheer power of Savage Beatdown, No Man Escapes the Manhunters possesses plenty of “oomph!” in its own right, while providing the finesse that our deck so desperately needs to deal with cards like Kang Cobra.

Our location choices will help us deal with the other card that could potentially wreck our deck. Unmasked has become a popular tech card in control decks for its ability to shut down Lost City variants. If we don’t have a suitable response, then Unmasked could similarly shut down our deck. Fortunately, the R&D guys at UDE had the foresight to plan for this and gave us an answer in the form of Monitor Womb Station. This JLA-specific location is limited in its uses, but it does what we need it to do here.

In essence, Monitor Womb Station will ensure that Unmasked will not trouble you on future turns. In addition, if you are reasonably certain that your opponent isn’t playing Unmasked, Monitor Womb Station can shut down other problematic plot twists that your opponent might throw at you. It can stop AGL rush from having one of your characters Banished to the Anti-Matter Universe. Squadron rush isn’t nearly so fearsome if they can’t drop Mega-Blast, Flying Kick, and Surprise Attack out of the hand. G’Lock isn’t quite the stalling machine it’s made out to be without the help of Rain of Acorns and Helping Hand. Finally, let’s see how well New School hits its drops when we lock out Bat-Signal and Wild Ride!

Our final non-character choices are equipment, and I think that it will be a shock to no one that we’re going to play four copies of Nth Metal. I don’t think that I should have to spell this out for anyone . . . but just in case:

If you read into my not-so-subtle segue in the previous paragraph, you probably realize that we are now going to look at characters. At 1 we have . . . nothing! The truth is that the JLA has several 1-drops that could be potent in our build, including Gypsy, Snapper Carr, and Ray Palmer ◊ The Atom. However, if we happen to miss one of these characters on the first two turns (as we will a good amount of the time), then the only utility they’ll have is for use with Reform the League or as a discard for Hero’s Welcome or Flame Trap.**** Given that these characters won’t usually provide a great deal of utility, we’re going to refrain from playing any of them.

At 2, we have a couple of strong choices. From a pure attack perspective, Connor Hawke ◊ Green Arrow is a good choice in our deck. Discounting any effects, he’s a formidable 3 ATK/2 DEF with range. Of course, his ally ability to tack on an additional +1 ATK for each power-up means that our opponents will have a tough time sending anything our way in the early game without stunning back. Our other choice at 2 is more of a disruptive tool. Elongated Man isn’t as powerful as Connor Hawke (at least, from the perspective of his ally ability), but his presence on the board represents a threat to almost every control/combo deck in the game. Imagine setting up your board for a win with Rigged Elections or Xavier’s Dream, only to have it decimated by a single power-up. Team-up cards from the first six sets aren’t any safer, as Elongated Man will pop them off with equal fervor. Let’s see how New School operates in the late turns with all of its copies of Midnight Sons in the KO’d pile!

We’re going to look at our 3- and 4-drops together, since our choices there will be somewhat unorthodox. In a standard curve deck, you want anywhere from six to eight characters available to play on both turns 3 and 4. However, our deck has two characters that are without peer at these drops. As such, we are going to play four copies of each, and these will be our only characters at these costs. At 3, Shayera Thal ◊ Hawkwoman is impressive to say the least. Much like Connor Hawke, Hawkwoman boasts some impressive stats along with flight and range. But our real reason for using her is that she is one of the strongest enablers we have at our disposal. For the cost of a power-up and a discard, Hawkwoman can fetch either a precious Nth Metal or a copy of our 4-drop of choice, Katar Hol ◊ Hawkman. Anyone who has played JLA Sealed knows that a single copy of Hawkman equipped with an Nth Metal can turn the entire tide of a game. Not only is an equipped Hawkman significantly larger than the average 4-drop (enabling him to attack laterally without stunning in many cases), but his ally ability is also completely nuts. It is pretty standard that an aggressive deck needs to be able to attack up the curve to be successful. However, Hawkman’s ability allows our characters to both attack and defend up the curve! When your opponent can’t safely attack any of your characters without stunning back (think Sinestro, Green Lantern of Korugar), then you know that you’re in a good position to dominate the game.

Turn 5 presents us with a couple of options. Obviously, we’ll want to include four copies of Firestorm, as our inclusion of Roll Call! is essentially an answer to the cost of Firestorm’s effect. However, against decks that will enable us to draw plenty of cards without Firestorm (such as Injustice Gang), we might opt for a more control-oriented card. In this case, Oliver Queen ◊ Green Arrow, Hard-Traveling Hero is our best bet. Having characters that can help us control our opponents’ boards on off-initiative turns is never a bad thing. Ollie’s ability to exhaust in response to a power-up and stun a 3-drop could definitely be beneficial against certain decks. Besides, there’s a subtle irony in the fact that Ollie can help out our matchup against Teen Titans so much given his ability to stun his protege, Roy Harper ◊ Arsenal. While Ollie is basically a tech card, we’ll include two copies of him. If we do have to use Hero’s Welcome to search him out, it will be nice to have the extra copy for powering-up purposes.

Our choice at 6 is an unorthodox one. Nevertheless, Batman, Avatar of Justice is the best pick to fill this slot. One thing that is apparent about JLA ally builds is that the characters that make up the mid- to late game are generally bigger than the opponent’s characters, even without power ups. As such, your opponents will generally have to rely on attack and defense pumps to compete with your characters from turns 4 to 6. Enter Batman. Having a character that lets you select which plot twists your opponent can use is an extraordinary benefit. Is your opponent trying to dodge your attack with a Cover Fire? Power-up and negate it! How about your opponent’s 4-drop that’s trying to attack up the curve into your 6-drop with the help of a Savage Beatdown? Power-up and negate it! Batman may only be effective during attacks, but having a built-in Fizzle effect, even in a limited capacity, can be game-breaking.

Turn 7 needs some explanation. Originally, I was going to opt for Superman, Avatar of Peace. However, my testing revealed that even with his potent ally ability, he just didn’t do enough to assist the deck. This is when I swapped out for Aquaman, King of the Seven Seas. While he’s not an ally character, his ability to fish cards back from the watery depths is indispensable. More importantly, Aquaman essentially doubles the effectiveness of Roll Call!. Assume that we have managed to keep our entire board from turn 4 onward intact. We can play a couple of copies of Roll Call! from our hand to gain 8 endurance. At the start of the combat phase, Aquaman can retrieve those copies of Roll Call! we just played. Once again, we play two copies of Roll Call! to gain 8 more endurance. After playing Roll Call! four times, we will probably cycle through enough cards that we hit at least one more. If we play one more copy, we will gain a grand total of 20 endurance! While there are several decks out there that can easily best that, most of those decks are predicated on stall tactics or some sort of late game combo. Having an effective way to gain endurance in an aggressive deck can be a tremendous advantage.

Finally, we need one copy of Martian Manhunter, Manhunter from Mars. While we shouldn’t plan on too many games that go to turn 8, it is probably not a bad idea to have a card that will put us over the top should we reach the late game. I suppose that it goes without saying that having a character on the board that can turn any card in our hand into a power-up is a good thing. In addition, Mars has decent synergy with Aquaman and Oliver Queen. And if we do happen to draw our single copy of Mars early, we can simply pitch him for Reform the League, then use Aquaman to fetch him back from the briny deep.

Strike up the band! We’re done with our analysis. Let’s see what happens when the JLA crew shows up for the game.

Since Hawkwoman can fetch either Nth Metal or Hawkman with her effect, she is our mulligan condition (or at least Hero’s Welcome so that we can fetch her on turn 3 if need be). If we are fortunate enough to get a copy of Hawkwoman equipped with Nth Metal in play on turn 3, then we shouldn’t have too much trouble hitting our curve for the remainder of the game.

Given that power-ups are, for the most part, equally effective on offense and defense, the choice of initiative for the deck is largely irrelevant. There might be some matchups where the initiative choices are important, such as preventing Teen Titans from getting the preferred odd initiative or allowing any Doom variant to control the even initiative. In general, however, we should find that our deck operates effectively with either initiative choice.

Well, I think we’ve dissected JLA enough for one week. I’m outta here . . . and, in all probability, back to yet another 70-hour work week. (I hate the busy season!) If you feel like dropping me a line to bring my audit-dampened spirits up, please send me a message at BigSpooky1@hotmail.com. As always, I make the disclaimer that I may not respond to your email. This, of course, is not because I don’t want to respond, but because my employer has leeched the life out of me to the extent that I can no longer move my fingers to type.

Maybe you could send me an email with a YES/NO checklist. I might be able to handle that. Just point ’n click . . . point ’n click . . . point ’n click . . .

**Johnny and The Sauce—to be sung to the tune of Benny and the Jets by Elton John.

***You can check out The Fallout Shelter at www.falloutcards.com. Even though the podcasts don’t have file type suffixes, they are still playable through Windows Media Player.

****That said, I would personally like to see more low drops like Rick Jones with team-specific alternate recruit costs. If Ray Palmer ◊ The Atom had an alternate recruit condition similar to Rick Jones’s, he would go from being a card that’s playable in limited situations to being absolutely amazing!