By the time you read this, PC: Sydney will have come and gone. You lucky readers have the luxury of knowing the outcomes of all the grand events that occurred Down Under. My current environs happen to be my living room in Dallas, TX, three days before the Pro Circuit. Due to my work situation, I won’t able to attend what I believe will be one of the coolest PC’s to date. I guess that by the time I get to read this online, I’ll know whether or not my prediction was correct.

In the meantime, I must console myself with the tools I have available to me. Let’s see: my laptop (so I can finish my article which was due yesterday); macaroni and cheese (yes, I do eat Kraft dinner); and my living room television with basic cable.

Let’s see what’s on A&E. Dog: The Bounty Hunter. Hey!  I love this show! For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, the show is about real-life bounty hunter Dwayne “Dog” Chapman. Much like Cops, the film crew follows Dog around as he tracks down individuals who have skipped bail. But the real appeal of the show is getting to see the other aspects of Dog’s life. For a guy that looks like a throwback from The Road Warrior, Dog is actually a pretty kind and benevolent individual. Sure, it’s reality TV, but given how cool the subject is, I’ll forgive this one little indiscretion.

We’ll Hunt You Down ‘Cause We’re the Wild Pack

Discussing a show about a world-famous bounty hunter puts me in the mood to look at an “on-topic” card from Marvel Team-Up: Bounty Hunt. Ever since my pal Wiggy previewed the card on Metagame.com, I’ve been aching to play around a bit with it. I almost had the chance at the St. Louis Mega PCQ this weekend. In a side draft that I participated in, I was able to draft a pretty amazing Wild Pack/Spider-Friends deck (including two copies of Capture Net and a copy of Silver Sable, World’s Deadliest Mercenary). With a couple of copies of Bounty Hunt, my deck was sure to be unbelievable!

Unfortunately for me, the gentleman sitting across from me decided to take those copies of Bounty Hunt that I so sorely wanted in order to supplement his personal collection. That’s right—he didn’t even play Bounty Hunt in his deck! Khan! Khan!*

Well, since I was denied the pleasure of playing Bounty Hunt at the PCQ draft, I might as well build a Constructed deck with the crazy, card-drawing plot twist.

Something Evil this Way Comes

So let’s check back in on Dog. Hmm . . . looks like he caught his man. Of course, another cool trait of Dog is that, even after he captures his criminal, he does everything that he can to help out the perpetrator. Yes, Dog actually works with his targets to rehabilitate them. He doesn’t just bring the bad guys in—he teaches them to make good use of their lives.

I suppose there is another irony in this. You see, in normal circumstances, the Wild Pack would work to track down characters in the Masters of Evil. But when I started thinking about teams to aid the Wild Pack for my Bounty Hunt deck, I thought that the Masters of Evil would be a perfect fit. Both teams have a strong off-curve presence, and the Masters of Evil provide search and KO effects that greatly aid the deck theme.

Just like Dog works with the bad guys, the Wild Pack is going to work with those evil guys to reap enormous bounties. The Masters of Evil will be a great aid in ensuring that our Bounty Hunt is a success.

The Build

Obviously, we’re going to want to max out on copies of Bounty Hunt. Whenever a character an opponent controls leaves play, every copy of Bounty Hunt that we have in play will trigger. More copies equals more cards. In addition, we will also play four copies of Capture Net, Bounty Hunt’s partner equipment card. In our deck, this card will almost be too good to be true, effectively giving us reusable board control. And since Capture Net puts a counter on Bounty Hunt every time it is successfully used, it effectively reads “Activate >>> Return a stunned character to it’s controller’s hand and draw two cards”.

Now let’s look at the other plot twists that we’re going to use to supplement Bounty Hunt. First up is our team-up choice. Traditionally, Masters of Evil have been associated with Faces of Evil, but since we aren’t going to be playing Thunderbolts characters in this deck, we can’t use this Team-Up to aid our cause. We do have Stealthcraft, however, another Team-Up that provides a beneficial effect to our characters (it grants our entire team flight). Considering that we will need to make the most effective attacks possible to meet our goal of superior board control, having an entire team that can attack anywhere on the board is quite beneficial. In a tough situation, we will be able to call upon any selection of characters to attack an opposing character.

We won’t have the ATK boost provided by Faces of Evil, so we will certainly need to add a few pumps to aid our cause. Fortunately, the Masters of Evil have one of the best ATK pumps in the game for off-curve decks in The Wrecking Crew. As we will certainly have a number of characters in play with the same cost, we can reap enormous benefits from The Wrecking Crew. A couple of well-timed copies will give up to four of our characters +4 ATK while attacking. That kind of power can’t be easily matched by most other ATK pumps in the game. Also, we’re going to include two copies of Mob Mentality. This may seem like an odd inclusion in our build since this pump is designed for Mutant—Physical decks, but the fact that Mob Mentality provides a turn-based effect is certainly nice. Besides, we’ll see later that it fills a very important niche that few other ATK pumps can.

We’re planning on playing off-curve for the most part. Sometimes we might need a larger drop to aid us, though, whether as tech against an opposing strategy or simply to provide some size to our army of weenies. To this end, we’ll need a couple of copies of Mystic Summons. This search card is fairly limited, but it is nonetheless a search card. It can be especially relevant when we find the need for a specific 3-drop or higher.

I suppose that, since we’re playing Masters of Evil, it’s a foregone conclusion that we’ll be playing four copies of Hard Sound Construct. Free characters are always good,  even if they’ll only stick around for a single turn. Considering how potent some of the effects of the small characters on both the Wild Pack and the Masters of Evil are, we should have no trouble putting Hard Sound Construct to good use.

Our final plot twist is emblematic of the KO effects that the Masters of Evil brings to the deck. Hero’s Demise is a rare breed of KO effect. Most useful KO plot twists require that you exhaust a character or pay endurance to use them, but Hero’s Demise simply requires you to have two Masters of Evil characters of the same cost in play to use. With the off-curve strategy that we’re angling for, this will almost never be a problem. Now we have another KO effect to add to our arsenal that can give Bounty Hunt additional counters.

Time to look at our characters. Much like any off-curve deck, we’re going to have a good amount of characters at 1 and 2. Let’s first take a look at our 1-drops:

Yellowjacket: Our first 1-drop is one of the more renowned of the Masters of Evil. Yellowjacket  is certainly not exceptional from a combat perspective, but she has an absolutely amazing boost ability. Not only does it give us hand advantage, but it can also search out any Masters of Evil 1- or 2-drop. Once we’ve hit our team-up, this will be three quarters of the characters in our deck.

Powell: As great as Yellowjacket is for finding characters, Powell is equally impressive at finding ongoing plot twists. Considering that our deck’s theme card is an ongoing plot twist, this is certainly a good deal for us. Powell can also fetch our team-up and (as alluded to earlier) ATK pumps. Since Mob Mentality is an ongoing plot twist, Powell can be an easy way for us to grab an extra +3 ATK whenever we may need it.

Crippler: Board control doesn’t necessarily need to be limited to character removal effects. Crippler already has formidable stats for a 1-drop at 2 ATK / 2 DEF. With a little help from a team attack, or with an ATK pump, Crippler can use his payment power to keep an opponent’s character from readying. While the opposing character may remain in play, it won’t be a threat to attack on our opponent’s initiative.

Gargantua: This character has decent 1-drop stats at 2 ATK / 1 DEF. But Gargantua is more valuable as an outlet for any unspent resource points that we might have in later turns. Gargantua can very quickly grow in size to the proportions of a 2- or 3-drop with just a few uses of his power.

Klaw, Sonic Construct:  Sometimes you just want to have a big character in play. Klaw boasts the ATK of a 3-drop for the cost of a 1-drop. Of course, we’ll have to KO a character to ready Klaw. Still, having that ATK working for us is worth the cost.

Paul Ebersol ◊ Fixer: Flame Trap isn’t a part of the upcoming Silver Age, but there are still threats like Spectral Slaughter and H’ronmeer’s Curse that can create problems for our weenies. This is where Fixer can come in handy. We can rest a bit easier knowing that plot twist effects won’t be able to stun our characters as long as we have Fixer around.

Next up are our 2-drops. As critical as our 1-drops may be, our 2-drops form the backbone of our deck:

Beetle, Armorsmith: Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past year-and-a-half, you should already know about the awesome power of Beetle. Just for starters, Beetle is 3 ATK / 2 DEF with flight and range. That, by itself, is a very decent start. But the real reason that this 2-drop is so amazing is that he can search out any affiliated 2-drop. Read that again: Beetle isn’t limited to searching for Masters of Evil characters; he can find any affiliated 2-drop. This search gives us a level of comfort that can’t be matched, as a single copy of Beetle in our opening hand will guarantee that we can have a Wild Pack character in play by turn three.

Chen: Chen is not nearly as dazzling at Beetle in the powers department, but she is still impressive in her own right. With a quick discard, Chen gives us the ability to power-up a single character every turn. This can be somewhat helpful should our opponent try to bounce one of our critical attacks. In addition, Chen’s power combos nicely with Hard Sound Construct. If we have a character in hand that we want to get into play next turn via Hard Sound Construct, we can simply pitch it to Chen’s effect for a benefit.

Dominic Fortune: Normally, a 2 ATK / 2 DEF 2-drop won’t make the cut in an off-curve deck, but Dominic Fortune is special because he can become bigger than average. Since the majority of our deck will be characters, Fortune will usually be 4 ATK / 2 DEF when his power triggers, which allows him to swing easily up the curve into most 3-drops. Of course, revealing a non-character card for his effect isn’t bad, either, as this allows him to go into most 1- and 2-drops without a fear of stunning back. Either way, Fortune will surely smile upon us.

Melissa Gold ◊ Screaming Mimi: Board control is great, and it should allow us to do a significant amount of damage in the early turns. However, we may find that we need some help finishing our opponents off in the late turns, and this is where Screaming Mimi comes in. If we can produce a board chock-full of 1- and 2-drops, Screaming Mimi can turn an unspent resource point into a significant amount of direct endurance loss for our opponent. We won’t usually want Screaming Mimi in the early game—and we won’t often need her in the late game—but she is powerful enough to merit the inclusion of a single copy in our deck just in case.

Melter: Built in KO effect? Yes, please! Hero’s Demise and Capture Net should give us all of the board control help that we need in the early turns, but when we turn the corner on the mid-game, we may find ourselves lacking in additional effects. This is where Melter comes in handy. Melter is already pretty good at 4 ATK / 1 DEF, and considering that we’re playing an off-curve deck, we want a character that can swing up the curve rather easily. Melter certainly fits that role, but really shines as a foil to our opponent’s larger characters. With a strong early game, we should have no problem keeping our opponent’s early drops off of the board. Melter bats cleanup on turn 5 and beyond, giving us a reusable option for KO’ing larger drops.

Paladin: Live Kree . . . or die? Paladin says, “Live Kree and die!” This unassuming Wild Pack 2-drop is absolute murder against rush and off-curve decks. In a typical Kree press build, a player will often try to have a big turn 5 by recruiting two 2-drops, a 3-drop, and a 4-drop. That’s 11 resource points worth of characters on turn 5, folks. Paladin puts a stop to that by making it so that our opponent cannot recruit characters of the same cost within a turn. All of a sudden, our opponent’s recruit turns into a 2-drop, a 3-drop, and . . . a 1-drop. He or she can’t recruit any more 2- or 3-drops, and hasn’t pressed enough characters to get out a 4-drop. In essence, Paladin levels the playing field against decks that try to run you over with characters.

Shocker, Vibro-Shock Villain: Finally, we have the infamous Shocker. Out-of-combat stuns are always amazing, and Shocker has an incredible one. Once he’s in play, he can take out opposing characters with a simple activation and resource point payment. If we have a KO effect handy, then we can effectively negate any momentum that our opponent may try to gain with low drops. Considering our goal of total board domination, Shocker is a very powerful ally for our cause (even though he’s technically a bad guy).

We’ve pretty much discussed the core of our deck, but there are some 3- and 4-drops that we’re going to add to give our deck a bit of help against certain strategies.

Battlestar: Often, the most crippling play an opponent can make is playing multiple copies of a plot twist during an attack. If you’ve ever been brickwalled by double copies of Army of One or Knightmare Scenario, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Battlestar makes sure that, if your opponent wants to get aggressive during an attack, he or she will have to do so with different plot twists.

Man-Eater: Is there anything more annoying than concealed characters? Sure, they do allow you easier access to your opponent’s endurance, but they can be problematic when we want to play more for board control. How do we control our opponent’s board when we can’t attack his or her characters? The answer is have Man-Eater sniff out those problematic characters. Once per turn, this handy 3-drop can give us unfettered access to concealed and protected characters. No longer will formation and the hidden area be a bar to our strategy!

Marcus Daniels ◊ Blackout: Our final 3-drop can be invaluable for saving critical endurance. As we are playing a somewhat slow deck, there is a good possibility that we’ll reach later turns. With late turns comes the possibility of great amounts of damage. While we may be able to reinforce one or two attacks, a clever opponent will usually be able to find a way to still sneak a big attack or two through. Blackout can put a crimp in those plans. For one resource point, we can give all of our 3-drop (or lower) characters reinforcement for the turn. Barring an effect that removes reinforcement, Blackout will usually ensure that we won’t take anything more than stun damage.

Silver Sable: At the top of our curve is our coup de grâce. Remember characters like Scarecrow, Professor Jonathan Crane and Cloak, Tyrone Johnson? They boasted powerful bounce effects, but at the cost of diminished stats. Now we have Silver Sable, who has average stats for a 4-drop. In addition, her bounce effect works either on attack or defense. With Bounty Hunt in play, Silver Sable is a combo board control and card drawing card. Sweet!

Our Bounty Hunt is now ready to get underway. Let’s take a look at how the tandem of the Wild Pack and the Masters of Evil gels:

Soldiers of Ill Fortune (60 cards)

Characters (32)

2 Crippler, Carl Striklan

1 Gargantua, Edward Cobert

1 Klaw, Sonic Construct

1 Paul Ebersol ◊ Fixer, Problem Solver

4 Powell, Southern Charm

4 Yellowjacket, Rita DeMara

4 Beetle, Armorsmith

1 Chen, Amy Chen

2 Dominic Fortune, Soldier of Fortune

1 Melissa Gold ◊ Screaming Mimi, Mimi Schwartz

2 Melter, Bruno Horgan

2 Paladin, Intruders

2 Shocker, Vibro-Shock Villain

1 Battlestar, Lemar Hoskins

1 Man-Eater, Intruders

1 Marcus Daniels ◊ Blackout, Darkbringer

2 Silver Sable, World's Deadliest Mercenary

Plot Twists (24)

4 Bounty Hunt

4 Hard Sound Construct, Construct

4 Hero's Demise

2 Mob Mentality

2 Mystic Summons

4 Stealthcraft, Team-Up

4 The Wrecking Crew

Equipment (4)

4 Capture Net

This deck is not designed to deal an excessive amount of damage. Rather, board control is the main focus of the build. If you are facing off against an aggressive early game deck, then you may want to take odd initiatives to cut off any early offense. Otherwise, even initiatives may be preferable to allow Silver Sable to work her magic.

Beetle will usually be the key to setting up optimal mid-game turns with a board full of characters. Thus, a hard mulligan for Beetle or Yellowjacket (who can search out Beetle) is probably your best bet. While you should draw plenty of characters to help you flesh out your board, Beetle can be invaluable for finding key characters (like Powell for searching out Bounty Hunt or Stealthcraft, or Paladin to shut down opposing swarm decks).

And with that, my article comes to an end . . . as has my evening. But do not fear—I’ll be back in a week for yet another look at untapped Vs. System goodness.

Good night!

*I suppose there was some karmic retribution in the fact that my good friend Tillman Bragg took down the Bounty Hunt snatcher in the first round.

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 Must-See TV that you might have for Michael can be sent to him at BigSpooky1@hotmail.com.