We all knew it’d eventually happen — ever since we laid eyes on it — but is it too good to be true? You be the judge.
When The Rock of Eternity became a gleam in everyone’s eye, I’m sure everyone started to wrack their brains with ideas on how to break what seemed to be the most broken card to ever hit the game. And why wouldn’t it be? The ability to ready all your characters at the start of the attack step after using activated effects and whatnot just seemed like it was too good to be true. And in that respect it lived up to the hype. Not a single deck after the release of The Rock (as I’ve been known to call it) ran the card. There were some tweaks to G’Lock so that you could abuse Katma Tui, but the results were never really there.
Well the day has come, in what might be the most interesting DC Modern Age format we’ve ever seen no less. The Rock has finally broken out of its shell, and at the helm of the deck is none other than Vs. System icon, Niles Rowland.
Niles Rowland
PC Indy 2006
Characters
4 Atom Smasher
4 Jakeem Williams
5 Surveillance Pawn
4 Black Thorn
4 Ahmed Samsarra
1 Christopher Smith ◊ Peacemaker
1 Adrian Chase ◊ Vigilante
4 Charles McNider ◊ Dr. Mid-Nite
1 Thunderbolt
1 Annihilation Protocol ◊ OMAC Robot
1 Huntress, Reluctant Queen
3 The Phantom Stranger, Wandering Hero
Plot Twists
4 Threat Neutralized
4 Advance Warning
4 Knightmare Scenario
Locations
4 Checkmate Safe House
2 The Rock of Eternity
2 Brother Eye
4 Brother I Satellite
1 Secret Checkmate HQ
1 JSA Headquarters
As you can see, like many other decks here this weekend it uses a Checkmate toolbox with
Ahmed Samsarra leading a few other of his Checkmate buddies and a slew of Checkmate support plot twists and locations. The overall strategy seems to be a little unclear to the naked eye but the feature match this round might help in the understanding process.
After looking over the decklist, I’m almost trembling with anticipation as to the possibilities this deck has presented. No matter what curve you go with you can almost assure that as long as you hit Ahmed Samsarra on turn 3 you’ll be in the driver’s seat for the remainder of the game. After teaming-up both JSA and Checkmate, the deck follows the abuse of activated effects and The Rock of Eternity with more attack pumps in the way of Knightmare Scenario and Threat Neutralized. Don’t forget the occasional Brother Eye, and voila! You’re looking at huge swings every turn.
The deck shows strong promise and no matter how much I write about it, I cannot truly give it the justice that Niles has given it by just playing. Even though he may have lost this round, I can only point you in the direction of Niles’s feature match and let you read for yourself how well the deck seems to be performing here this weekend.