City Championships are upon us, and my fellow Metagame.com columnists have all done their fair share of promotion and discussion of these newest Vs. System events. They may not have all the glamour and gusto of a $10K or Pro Circuit, but there is little doubt that the City Championships will bring out some of the best and brightest Vs. System players looking to see who can take down the title in their area.
One big appeal of the City Championships is that they put a premium on creative deck design. You see, the winning decklist of each City Championship will be placed into a pool for the members of UDE R&D to select from. The UDE staffers will then practice and play their selections in their own tournament. The player who submitted the winning decklist will have his or her visage emblazoned on a Vs. System card in an upcoming set. The chance to be immortalized in card form is almost too much for any player to pass up! Sure, there will still be people playing run-of-the-mill decks like QuickFate and Checkmate / Villains United, but unlike with past premier events, there is a strong incentive for players to try to come up with new and inspiring deck designs.
What Runs Through a Spooky Mind?
Even in the constant stupor I have been in lately due to never-ending audits, I have become quite giddy in anticipation over potential deck ideas for the City Championships. I belong to a team that is renowned for its love of the goofy and unplayable, so it only makes sense that I would want to face this challenge head-on. Fortunately, I play in one of the most diverse gaming environments in the world—the Vs. System deckbuilders and players in northeast and central Texas are peer to none when it comes to playing decks that are both outlandish and spectacular. This relieves me somewhat; I know that my chances of running into a stock netdeck are minimized, as no one around here plays anything standard!
But don’t let this fool you—the players in my area are all quite capable, and I am going to need a deck that can compete at all stages of the game if I want a shot at having my mug adorn a Vs. System card. The challenge is twofold: 1) Build a deck that can realistically compete with other decks in my metagame; and 2) build a deck that is unique, innovative, and fun to play. Often, these standards are mutually exclusive. I am always up for a challenge, however, so let’s see where inspiration can take me!
My initial notion was to test out some ideas with pet cards that I have been looking at a lot recently. One of my personal favorites is Shiloh Norman ◊ Mister Miracle. I had a couple of design ideas utilizing him with Villains United to abuse Join Us or Die. Mister Miracle will already be solid simply negating a single attack each turn, but with a way to stun him repeatedly, he becomes quite effective. In mock designs of this deck, I also tried to use Deadpool, Merc with a Mouth to intensify the control. Against curve decks, the concept worked well, as most opponents couldn’t successfully pull off more than one or two attacks in a turn. On the other hand, the deck suffered against off-curve decks and anything that played the Cloak of Nabu (as both Mister Miracle and Deadpool target).
I then decided to try to adapt an existing deck to incorporate a goofy strategy. This, too, started off with a good deal of promise, as some of my recent favorites were quite malleable. Big Blackbriar Shadowpact, probably my current favorite, seemed to be aching for a redesign. My build—a retooling of Anthony Justice’s Top 8 deck from Pro Circuit Indy 2006—integrated Mobilize to improve drop consistency and B.P.R.D. Signal Device to protect my nigh-unstoppable 2-drop from targeted effects. When the deck hit its optimal curve, it became hard for any deck to stand against it. A “Fated-up” Quicksilver, Inhuman by Marriage was no match for Blackbriar Thorn backed by a couple of copies of The Conclave. And Checkmate decks trying to abuse The Rock of Eternity can’t hang with multiple copies of Transmutation. My main problem with the deck is that it can’t effectively regulate its endurance. Manitou Dawn helps out some, and Level 12 Intelligence serves double duty as an endurance gain card and equipment hate. Still, I lose far too much to my own endurance-burning effects to be totally satisfied with the deck.
With that in mind, I explored the possibility of integrating Heralds of Galactus cards into the deck. In addition to providing superior search power, the Heralds have some of the best endurance gain cards in the game. Human Torch, The Invisible Man was splashed in a number of decks at PCLA simply because he could stabilize a game by gaining back endurance lost during the early turns. With Torch and a copy or two of The Herald Ordeal in play, I can effectively use my Magic plot twists as recklessly as I like and still be assured that my endurance will stay at a manageable level. Unfortunately, I found that the addition of the Heralds cards diluted the deck to the extent that Blackbriar Thorn was not nearly as potent as he had originally been. Even though I had cards to regulate my endurance, I wasn’t drawing enough Magic plot twists to make Blackbriar as big as he needed to be. So much for the best-laid plans of mice and men . . .
Finally, I resorted to using Patrick Sullivan’s “cheat sheet.” In his article from March 23rd, Patrick detailed the types of decks that staffers at UDE would be most likely to pick to play for the City Championships. At the end of the article, he gave a list of 10 “pet cards” that would greatly improve a player’s chances of being selected if they were featured in a deck. I took a look at the list to see if anything struck my fancy:
1) The Infinity Gauntlet
Ah, yes—one of my old preview cards. The most costly and most powerful equipment card in the game has been the “holy grail” for casual gamers as of late; many people are trying to find a way to make this source of unbridled power live up to its potential. I had a couple of ideas for this card; however, I read on VsRealms.com that deckbuilding guru Jason Hager already had a tournament-winning deck featuring The Infinity Gauntlet. Back to the drawing board.
4) Mjolnir with the intent of equipping Thor
Who hasn’t dreamed of the elusive Thor, Odinson / Nega-Bomb combo deck? My mock design had Franklin Richards, Creator of Counter-Earth moving Silver Surfer, Skyrider of the Spaceways to the hidden area. Nathan Garrett ◊ Black Knight removed reinforcement from a character so Thor could dish out the pain. Then, safe and secure in the hidden area, Silver Surfer activated to put Nega-Bomb on top of the deck for Thor to send to the KO’d pile. Fun? Certainly! Viable? Not in the least. Keep looking!
5) Secret Six Victorious
As with The Infinity Gauntlet, my teammates and I have drooled at the possibility to abuse this card . . . and, as with The Infinity Gauntlet, Secret Six Victorious was already used by another enterprising player to win a City Championship. Grrrr . . .
7) Bouncing Boy
I wanted to find a way to break this card for no other reason than because it is my nickname for one of the players at my local store. Boing! Boing! Boing!
9) Supreme Intelligence
. . . Ooooooooooh!
Let’s Leave This to the Big-Brained People . . .
Seeing this card on the list immediately made me flash back to my ninth round match against Alex Lasky at $10K New York last year. Alex showed me a copy of Supreme Intelligence from his Sealed Pack pool and told me about his idea to use it with Detective Chimp, Bobo T. Chimpanzee. By naming Kree, he could bring out any character card with Supreme Intelligence. Imagine the look on an opponent’s face when you bring out both Galactus, Devourer of Worlds and Captain Marvel, Champion of Magic! Suffice to say, I was intrigued.
Then, these clever plans were foiled by the banning of Detective Chimp. While I wholeheartedly agree with the ban—the little furball was too powerful—the timing meant that I couldn’t see the Supreme Intelligence deck to fruition. Much like Detective Chimp, Supreme Intelligence would be forever relegated to the annals of casual play.
Or would it?
After my $10K revelation, I immediately wondered if Supreme Intelligence could fit into one of my existing decks. You see, I have been terrorizing the tournament scene in Dallas as of late with a teched-out X-Mental deck. With such amazing search, recycling, and draw effects, I consider X-Mental to be one of the most powerful decks in Silver Age. Countless times have I thwarted a wayward QuickFate deck with a well-timed Level 12 Intelligence on Amulet of Nabu for the stunback. If you follow that up with Mutant Massacre on Quicksilver, then there will be no further readying shenanigans for the remainder of the game.
My primary reason for thinking about the X-Mental deck, however, was its 6-drop of choice: Jean Grey, Red. Normally, nuking your own resource row is a bad idea, but the X-Mental deck has some pretty potent resource row synergies with Emma Frost, Friend or Foe and Exodus. These cards actually make the risk of replacing resources well worth the reward. Looking at the text for Supreme Intelligence, you’ll notice that his effect only triggers if you have no face-up resources. What to do? Replace all of your face-up resources with Jean Grey! As the chaps in the Guinness commercials say, “Brilliant!”
The final catch point, though, is that replacing our entire resource row makes teaming-up problematic. Since we must have all face-down resources to trigger Supreme Intelligence, we can’t flip a team-up to enable him to bring out characters from other teams. We could rely solely on Kree characters, but the Kree team really doesn’t have a good number of large characters to exploit with this effect. More importantly, we miss out on the tremendous benefits of bringing out powerhouses like Rachel Summers ◊ Phoenix, Phoenix of the Future and Galactus, Devourer of Worlds.
Sometimes, though, these slight setbacks are just what we need to take a quantum leap forward. While pondering this dilemma, I ran across a card from the Heralds of Galactus set: Intergalactic Summit. Instead of creating a continuous modifier that remains in effect while it is in play, this “team-up that isn’t a Team-Up” generates a turn-based effect that allows you to crossover two teams that you control for a turn. In essence, you can team-up Kree and another team for a turn without actually needing a Team-Up in play. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner!
Those X-Mental characters are already pretty darn smart . . . but Intergalactic Summit is about to give them Supreme Intelligence. And just for grins, we’ll grant them the Power Cosmic as well by bringing some Heralds of Galactus characters into the fold.
The Build
Four copies of Intergalactic Summit are the fuel which keeps this Mental fire burning. We will need at least one copy to ensure that we can pull off our turn 8 shenanigans. Fortunately, we’ll have plenty of draw and cycling power to aid us in this pursuit. As a bonus, extra copies of Intergalactic Summit can act as timely Team-Ups and card drawing for our deck.
Our curve starts at 2, where Silver Surfer, Skyrider of the Spaceways plays the lead. The 2-drop Surfer is a control deck’s dream. While he will usually only be effective once in a game, he can ensure that we don’t have to worry about missing a critical mid-game drop. Add in the fact that he has 3 ATK / 2 DEF plus flight and range, and there is very little we’re left wanting from this Herald. Of course, against aggressive decks, we would much rather have board control in the early turns. This is where Morg, Slayer comes in handy. This brutal Herald can frighten opposing 1-drops away with a single discard. Considering how dependent rush decks are on board presence, this can be a great equalizer.
Turn 3 finds us bringing more stall with Air-Walker, Gabriel Lan. The Herald incarnation of Puppet Master gives us a powerful stall option and 6 DEF on turn 3 to boot. Without some sort of attack pump, most 3-drops will be unable to stun Air-Walker one-on-one. If, however, Air-Walker does become stunned, then we can substitute him out for our other 3-drop, Hawkeye, Loud Mouth. This Marvel Defender / Avenger is an off-curve deck’s worst nightmare, as he can pick off characters before they are able to threaten our board presence.
You might wonder how we will use Hawkeye in an X-Men / Heralds / Kree deck. After all, his effect requires that we discard a character that shares an affiliation with him, and none of these teams do. Well, my friends, the solution to this quandary is not a Team-Up. Rather, it’s a 4-drop: Professor X, Headmaster. I didn’t quite realize how potent Professor X’s leader effect was until I began playing X-Mental myself. The absolute need for a Team-Up to enable certain effects disappears, and we discover that we can now use many effects—including Hawkeye’s—as freely as we could if were playing a mono-team deck. Add in the Professor’s above-average stats and useful card draw effect, and he’s quite the heavy hitter in our deck.
Turn 5 brings us a couple of useful options. Generally, we will want to take the standard X-Mental route and bring Emma Frost, Friend or Foe out to play. Emma may only boast average stats, but she brings an effect to the table that is almost without equal. Our resource row will be one of our strongest enablers in this deck. We will quite often rely on a timely plot twist from the row to turn the tide of an attack; Emma Frost doubles the effectiveness of our resource row by enabling us to reuse critical cards. Considering the power level of certain plot twists in our deck, this is amazing. Of course, Emma may not be the answer in every situation for dealing with an incomparable foe. In this case, we might need a little more finesse—the kind that only a Herald of Galactus can provide. Got a problem with a beefy character toting the Fate Artifacts? Just Red Shift ‘em! Too many counters on that copy of Hulk, Grumpy Green Goliath? Just Red Shift ‘em! Is there a seemingly unstoppable force or immovable object on your opponent’s board? Just Red Shift ‘em! Yes, folks—in many, many cases, Red Shift has the cure for what ails you.
We’ve already stated that our 6-drop is none other than Jean Grey, Red. The X-Men’s resident redhead is part of the fuel for our unforgettable fire. Still, it’s important to note that Red isn’t just a setup card. If we already have our late-game curve in hand, then Jean Grey can be an amazing source of card cycling. By replacing “dead” plot twists in our resource row, we can look at new cards that might be useful to us in later turns. If we replace into a plot twist or location, we should have no trouble finding a way to make use of it. If we replace into a character, then it will often be a character that we will simply bring into play on turn 8 with the effect of Supreme Intelligence. Gone are the days of wailing when Galactus, Devourer of Worlds finds his way into our resource row. Nowadays, that’s exactly what we want!
At 7, we have a couple of potent intergalactic powerhouses. Our Heralds representative is the upgraded version of Mr. Norrin Radd: Silver Surfer, Harbinger of Oblivion. His effect usually won’t be relevant, but the fact that the Surfer is a 16 ATK / 16 DEF 7-drop with flight and range is enough to merit inclusion. Against certain mid- to late-game decks, we could realistically find ourselves in a position where his effect becomes relevant. At the very least, he can create a turn 8 “lock” if we bring a couple of other cosmic characters into play with Supreme Intelligence. Our primary drop at 7, though, will be Ronan the Accuser, Supreme Public Accuser. The fact that this 7-drop is Kree is part of the reason for his inclusion, as he can give us the ability to crossover Kree with our other teams before we bring Supreme Intelligence into play on turn 8. The real reason to play Ronan, though, is that he boasts a disruption effect that is second to none. One of the main traits of currently popular Silver Age decks is that they are heavily reliant on cards in the resource row. Ronan utterly decimates anything that our opponent has set up as of turn 7. In addition, he has an associated cosmic ability that works well in unison with the resource row replacement. While we won’t usually be able to stun a high drop with his effect, we can often manage to secure the stun on a low drop that has been lingering around on our opponent’s board. Occasionally, we can get lucky and take down a 4- or 5-drop.
Turn 8 is all about “the smarts.” If we’ve set up properly, we can bring out a few absolutely devastating characters on 8 to ensure our victory. “Which characters?” you may ask. Well, we’ve already murmured about Galactus, Devourer of Worlds. Bringing Galactus out on turn 9 is usually crippling. Bringing him out on turn 8 is completely overwhelming. For the X-Men, we can still hit an 8-drop in the form of Rachel Summers ◊ Phoenix. Not only will we have stolen all of our opponent’s endurance, but he or she will also be unable to play plot twists. Who can possibly win out against that?
A couple of locations are going to find their way into our deck. First, we’ll be playing a single copy of X-Corp: Amsterdam. This location has dual utility in that it not only gives us a marginal defensive boost once per turn, but it also can search out a Team-Up for us. Considering how dependent our deck is on teaming-up in a timely fashion, I think it’s extremely important for us to have an extra source of search.
One card that can be quite useful in a deck that discards characters frequently is Slaughter Swamp. We will be playing a rather low complement of character cards, and a number of those cards will be high drops. Thus, effects like Emma Frost’s and Jean Grey’s might need some aid for refueling. To solve this problem, we have a winning recursion location that can cycle out our dead cards (extra plot twists and locations) for character cards that will aid our numerous discards.
Intergalactic Summit takes over the crossover duties in the late turns. Still, we will probably need to have a more long-term method of teaming-up for the mid-game when the Heralds and X-Men unite, so we’re going to go with four copies of Brave New World. In addition to teaming-up our characters, Brave New World also gives our non-Mutant characters a Mutant trait. In this case, our Heralds all gain the Mental trait. Considering that we will have several effects that specifically require the discard of a Mental character, this can reduce our need for specific cards in hand.
If we had some way of completely avoiding combat for the first seven turns, then we could probably win most of our matches. Unfortunately, no such method currently exists, so we will need a few combat aids for our deck. First up is Level 12 Intelligence. Ironically, this card is a bit of an outlier as the only DC card in the deck, but it’s hard to argue that Level 12 Intelligence doesn’t belong in a Supreme Intelligence deck . . . heh heh! All kidding aside, both functions of Level 12 Intelligence can be quite useful. Against decks that rely heavily on equipment cards (like the Fate Artifacts . . . which I hear are popular nowadays), Level 12 Intelligence can create a great deal of pandemonium. A single copy on an Amulet of Nabu effectively works as a +3 ATK / +3 DEF pump. A single copy on Cloak of Nabu means that Hawkeye now has Quicksilver dead to rights. A single copy on Helm of Nabu means that Fate has no longer spoken. In addition to being a source of effective equipment hate, Level 12 Intelligence also gives us an option for a moderate amount of endurance gain. With Emma recycling key cards, the endurance gain from Level 12 Intelligence can often mean the difference between losing on turn 7 and winning on turn 8.
Against All Odds is our next combat trick. Personally, I love this card in X-Mental, as so many players are unprepared for it. I have heard on more than one occasion that the newest variant of Acrobatic Dodge does nothing in this deck because I don’t have my characters teamed-up. I then quietly and calmly hand over the copy of Professor X, Headmaster that I have in play. After my opponent reads the card, there is usually a great deal of silence and sullenness. Against All Odds is just as effective in this deck whether or not we have our Team-Up online. With four copies in our deck and Emma trying to save the environment through recycling, we are sure to have plenty of defenses for our opponents to try to break through.
Occasionally, though, our opponents will break through our defenses. In this case, it might be wise for us to have a backup plan to preserve our board, so we certainly want to play a few copies of Phoenix Rising. This recovery card is one of the best in the game, and its synergy with any X-Mental deck is undeniable. With all the Mental cards we discard to various effects, we will often have copies of a character we have in play sitting in our KO’d pile. This bodes quite well for us when we need to recover a key character with Phoenix Rising. It is situational, but simply getting one or two timely recoveries against an aggressive opponent can be enough to get us to our all-important late turns.
Last, but certainly not least, we have to look at our character search cards. Our first one is probably no surprise, as it is Enemy of My Enemy. When I initially made my rules about which deck I would play in the City Championships, I specifically prohibited three cards (sets of cards?): Quicksilver, Inhuman by Marriage; the Fate Artifacts; and Ahmed Samsarra. The goal of the City Championships is to find unique and innovative decks, and I didn’t feel like I could have a unique or innovative deck with any of these cards present. I almost included Enemy of My Enemy on this list, but I believe that Enemy was designed for decks like the one I’m building. Still, my original build had Creation of a Herald instead of Enemy of My Enemy. In most Heralds decks, I believe that Creation of a Herald is a much better search card. As I found in my preliminary testing, though, there were just too few Heralds high drops to justify playing Creation of a Herald. If you hit an early Galactus or Silver Surfer, Harbinger of Oblivion, then you’re fine. Otherwise, Creation of a Herald is a dead search card in the deck. In this rare instance, I opted for Enemy of My Enemy, as it was more often useful in the situations I encountered. If I were to increase the number of high-drop Heralds characters at some point in the future, then this could easily change.
Our other search card is one that I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with. I truly believe that Kindred Spirits is one of the best search cards in the game. The problem, though, is that it is usually only effective in the early turns of the game, when you are trying to set up your optimal curve. After turn 5 or 6, I found that I was rarely using Kindred Spirits, as I usually had my optimal character curve set, or I had better search options (like Creation of a Herald). In this deck, though, I unknowingly stumbled onto an amazing combo. Consider your situation on turn 8: You’ve managed to crossover all your teams with a couple of copies of Intergalactic Summit, but you haven’t yet prepared for the recruit of Supreme Intelligence by replacing all your face-up resources. Moreover, your key late-game drops—Rachel Summers and Galactus—are still somewhere in your deck. Since you need to have those character cards in your resource row for Supreme Intelligence to bring them out, you would usually be out of luck. Fortunately, Kindred Spirits can set up Jean Grey’s effect perfectly for the impending recruit of Supreme Intelligence. Before you replace all your face-up resources, use Kindred Spirits to put your key drops on top of your deck. Then, when Red works her resource row magic . . . voila! Phoenix and Galactus magically find their way into your resource row, ensuring that they will make their way into play once you recruit Supreme Intelligence. It’s ma-a-a-a-gic!
Well, folks, that’s our build. Let’s see if our intellectual curiosity made a winner out of this intellectual curiosity:
A Meeting of the Minds (60 cards)
Characters (28)
4 Silver Surfer, Skyrider of the Spaceways
2 Morg, Slayer
4 Air-Walker, Gabriel Lan
1 Hawkeye, Loud Mouth
4 Professor X, Headmaster
3 Emma Frost, Friend or Foe
1 Red Shift, Rift Walker
3 Jean Grey, Red
1 Ronan the Accuser, Supreme Public Accuser
1 Silver Surfer, Harbinger of Oblivion
1 Rachel Summers ◊ Phoenix, Phoenix of the Future
2 Supreme Intelligence, Kree Collective
1 Galactus, Devourer of Worlds
Plot Twists (27)
4 Against All Odds
4 Brave New World, Team-Up
4 Enemy of My Enemy
4 Intergalactic Summit
4 Kindred Spirits
4 Level 12 Intelligence
3 Phoenix Rising
Locations (5)
4 Slaughter Swamp
1 X-Corp: Amsterdam, X-Corp
In general, you want to minimize your opponent’s impact as much as possible. With odd initiatives, you can limit a curve deck to two effective turns of attacking (turns 4 and 6). By making safe attacks down the curve or team attacking, you can minimize your opponent’s retaliation on turns where you don’t control the initiative. With Against All Odds and Phoenix Rising at your disposal, you generally won’t have too much difficulty maintaining board advantage.
Mulligans depend upon which type of deck you are facing. Generally, you want to keep any hand that contains Silver Surfer, Skyrider of the Spaceways or Kindred Spirits (as it can search out Silver Surfer for you). Having Silver Surfer in play pretty much guarantees a turn 4 Professor X, Headmaster. If you are facing an off-curve deck, then a mulligan for Morg, Slayer or Kindred Spirits may be in order to assist you with minimizing early game damage. Also, Hawkeye, Loud Mouth can be brutally effective on 4 when you position him adjacent to Professor X (thus giving him the X-Men affiliation).
The deck is somewhat intricate and complex, so it will take some practice to run effectively. Above all else, remember to hang on to a copy of Intergalactic Summit. If you can guarantee a turn 7 Ronan the Accuser with a Team-Up, then you can play Intergalactic Summit in your row. On the other hand, if you have to wait until turn 8 to team-up, you want to make sure that you have Intergalactic Summit in your hand, as the effect of Supreme Intelligence won’t trigger if you have any face-up resources when he comes into play. Since his effect is a conditional trigger, you can’t replace all resources with Jean Grey in response to his effect—all of your resources must be face down when you recruit him!
This concludes my discussion of my City Championships deck idea. In the upcoming week, I will be testing my deck, making changes as I see necessary, and (of course) playing my deck in the City Championship tournament at The Game Closet in Waco, TX. Next week, I’ll be discussing the results of my testing, and detailing any changes my testing buddies—the good men of Team Alternate Win Condition—and I saw fit to make. Also, I’ll give you an in-depth tournament report on how the deck fared at the City Championships.
Until then, take care!
Michael Barnes (a.k.a. BigSpooky) is an avid Vs. System player who is a founding member of Team Alternate Win Condition (TAWC). When he isn’t concocting crazy deck ideas that no sane person would think of, he occupies his spare time working as an accountant in Dallas, TX. Any questions, comments, suggestions, or City Championship stories that you might have for Michael can be sent to him at BigSpooky1@hotmail.com.