Going into today, if you'd asked me what I thought the most-played decks would be, I'd point you to the most recent Golden Age PC, and the destruction that Avengers, Faces of Evil, and Squadron Supreme wreaked on the—mind you—Golden Age format. Since most of the decks primarily used cards from The Avengers, I would have assumed that not too much would change. And, as Tim showed earlier, I'd have been about right. Squadron and Faces are all over the tournament today like a wet towel. Despite this near-smothering by these established off-curve decks, some brave players decided to fight the current and play decks with a little more . . . imagination.
Team Misunderstood came to this tournament with something new on their minds. Always ones to show up to a tournament with unexpected decks, they've brought a Morlocks deck to help them evade their way into the next day. I spent most of round 2 watching Dair Grant lose a close game to Squadron, while Jason Green took down Josh Wiitanen in the feature match area. After their matches were finished, I sat down with Dair and Jason to talk to them about their deck.
I figured that since the evasion mechanic inherently causes extra endurance loss, the matchup against such high-powered decks as Squadron and Faces would be a little rough. However, both Jason and Dair were of the other opinion. "Squad is a little in their favor," Dair said, after a bit of thought. "I'd say about 40-60. The only real problem is when they get off to a good start and hit you for a bunch early." This makes a lot of sense, as the deck is fully capable of taking out the big attackers in later turns with a Backs Against the Wall. From that point on, the game is pretty much in their control. However, if the Squadron player is able to get enough pressure early, the Morlocks player will be hard-pressed to catch up.
As for the Faces of Evil matchup, Jason had just finished dispatching Josh Wiitanen playing it in the feature match area, and he was primed for comments. "Basically, if you hit your early curve, you should win," Jason explained. "I got a pretty good draw in the last match with 1- and 2-drops, and a free Tommy on turn 2, as well." The deck’s consistency is what they preached the most. "You have a good curve and Bloodhound to fill your curve out. It's very consistent. It is a difficult deck to play, though. Formations are difficult, and I'm still not entirely sure whether or not to hold my plot twists or burn them early," Dair said, as he looked to Jason for reinforcement. "I've been jumping on the early plot twist bandwagon recently," Jason said, continuing Dair's thought.
As things stand, the deck seems like it has a ton of potential, especially if the player has a good amount of experience behind it. However, with the deck's slight troubles with Squadron (which makes up a large portion of the field), it should be interesting to see whether or not this deck can put enough wins together to get these guys into the next day. I have faith in their skills, though, so we'll see how things go.
Dair Grant
M.E.A.T. (Morlock Evasion and Toxin)
Characters
3 Artie
3 Electric Eve
4 Tommy
4 Leech
4 Tar Baby
2 Caliban
4 Healer
1 Toxin
4 Storm, Leader of the Morlocks
4 Marrow
1 Callisto
1 Scaleface
1 Ape
Plot Twists
4 Bum's Rush
4 Retribution
4 Backs Against the Wall
4 Bloodhound
4 Mutant Massacre
4 Shrapnel Blast