I have received a number of emails regarding my thoughts on the top-performing decks in the current City Championship environment. I am pretty excited about the City Championships—they offer a unique opportunity to get together to play cards as well as the chance to have your decklist selected by the UDE Vs. System R&D team based on playability and deck construction prowess.
The City Championship decks are constructed from many of my favorite sets and give players a chance to use classic, established cards along with game-altering new cards. My Golden Age dreams have subsided while looking through my newer stuff. As a reminder, you may use cards from the following pool for Silver Age Constructed:
Marvel Team-Up
Legion of Super Heroes
Heralds of Galactus
Infinite Crisis
The X-Men
Justice League of America
The Avengers
Green Lantern Corps
X-Men/Brotherhood Starter Deck
Fantastic Four Starter Deck
Batman Starter Deck
Hellboy Essential Collection
Deckbuilding Genius
For this article, I have employed the help of my favorite deckbuilding guru and popular Vs. System personality, Tim Batow. If you’ve checked out some of the recent posts on the message boards at your favorite online hangouts, it’s clear that Tim is going the extra mile by sharing his deckbuilding intellect through the open-book exposure of many of his lists and through in-depth comments and deckbuilding tips for newer players. Everyone is trying to “grow” this game, and taking the lead on the distribution of information seems like a very responsible step.
It may be noted that other strong players like David Leader can be found posting some insightful information on the message boards. If you want to improve at this game, then you want to supplement your practice with the sage advice offered by these players. The Kingpin tips his hat to professional players who are spreading their ideas and knowledge.
Top Decks and Notable Lists
In a week, the Orlando City Championships roll around, and I am trying to prepare for the battle by understanding the dominant decks in the field. The QuickFate and Anti-Green Lantern decklists are both heavy favorites because of their sheer power and ease of play. Still, it seems unlikely that these decks would contend for UDE selection because they are known lists.
If you are looking for both playability and originality, then you may want to forgo the more tested decks for some recent builds. Some of the newer sets offer powerhouse cards like Level 12 Intelligence, and a leader among character cards from Marvel Team-Up is The Dwarf. The Dwarf seems to offer players a good shot at obtaining that City Champion status. Some recent tournaments have already shown the dominance of this card in the right kind of build.
Characters
2 The Dwarf
4 Deadshot, Dead Aim
4 Black Rose
4 Umar
4 Parademon
4 Catman
4 Ragdoll
1 Cheshire
4 Scandal
4 Lex Luthor ◊ Mockingbird
Plot Twists
4 Enemy of My Enemy
4 Death’s Embrace
4 Straight to the Grave
4 In Limbo
4 Netherworld Gift
2 Ritual Sacrifice
2 Secret Six Victorious
Locations
2 Slaughter Swamp
The key to the deck’s success is hitting Black Rose. When the deck hits the Rose and has the access to additional cards, your chances of finding success are greatly improved. Umar is the heart of the deck and is often found when you get the Black Rose engine online. The deck has the potential to win on either turn 5 or turn 6. The following is a summary of how to run the deck:
Never attack except to be defensive or to stun to trigger Parademon. Set up the following situation for a turn 5 win: Eventually, you want the alternate win condition of Secret Six Victorious. You will want to use a ton of search effects to bring the whole crew on board for the Six win. It is a ton of fun and if your environment is lacking disruption, it becomes a sort of chess match to see who can achieve the win condition first.
Notes from Tim: A Look Inside the Box
“Sadly, I don’t think this deck can compete with QuickFate or AGL. House of Secrets would probably let you gain enough endurance to reach turn 5, but the deck would have to find the room to run it as a playset and find a way to win consistently on turn 5. It can probably beat any deck sporting Reality Gem because the Gem decks are probably control decks, but it would lose to various cards like War of Attrition and Removed from Continuity. In Limbo provides Fatality protection, but Umar can still be KO’d by Deadshot. Decks supporting Deadshot should be fairly slow though, so you might not even need to play Umar. Sorcerer’s Treasure would probably give the deck enough consistency if you could discard anyone (and Deadshot plus a Team-Up allows you to do this), but then the deck would need Mr. Mxyzptlk, Troublesome Trickster to support all the card costs.”
In these comments, we see the deckbuilder evaluating the potential metagame and possible threats to the list. When some of the founding members (such as Mike Barnes) took the Xavier’s Dream deck to Pro Circuit fame at Pro Circuit New York, they followed a similar logical deckbuilding process. This deck has elements of the Dream in that it has an alternate win condition and can pursue a win condition in the face of many common deck types piloted in today’s City Championship tournament scene.
Another list that used the Dwarf appeared in the Championship spot from a tournament in Wisconsin. This deck took a more combat-centric approach to the win and teamed-up the Hellfire Club with the dark lords of the Underworld. In the end, there are some great hidden characters and lots of great combat tricks.
Characters
3 The Dwarf, Soul Broker
4 Black Rose, Roxanne Simpson
3 Friedrich Von Roehm, Black Rook
4 Meatmarket, Lilin
1 Mastermind, Dark Dreamer
3 Chthon, Demon of the Darkhold
2 Blackheart, Black King
4 Shinobi Shaw, White King
1 Magneto, Black Lord
1 Madelyne Pryor, Goblyn Queen
2 Sebastian Shaw, Black King
Plot Twists
4 Ritual Sacrifice, Team-Up
2 Evil Alliance, Team-Up
4 Death’s Embrace
4 Join the Club!
4 Army of One
2 Strange Love
Locations
4 The Hellfire Club
3 Shaw Industries
3 Sewer System
3 Slaughter Swamp
Many decklists appear to be a random curve build with a couple of tricks until they find a synergy to put them over the top. One idea would be to add some of the Mental cards to this type of list, giving the deck access to Sage, Tessa and an improved search engine. Tim suggested taking this list and changing it to house the Mental bomb. By reducing the number of Team-Ups, you have access to more cards that serve other purposes.
A Second Look
Characters
4 The Dwarf, Soul Broker
3 Black Rose, Roxanne Simpson
4 Sage, Tessa
4 Meatmarket, Lilin
1 Mastermind, Dark Dreamer
3 Blackheart, Black King
2 Chthon, Demon of the Darkhold
4 Shinobi Shaw, White King
2 Madelyne Pryor, Goblyn Queen
1 Magneto, Black Lord
2 Sebastian Shaw, Black King
Plot Twists
4 Death’s Embrace
4 Join the Club!
4 Army of One
2 Ritual Sacrifice
2 No Man Escapes the Manhunters
2 Strange Love
2 A Proud Zinco Product
Locations
4 The Hellfire Club
3 Slaughter Swamp
2 Shaw Industries
1 Kang Kross-roads
I hope that you have enjoyed a peek into the window of deckbuilding genius that my teammates and I get to view on a regular basis. If you are not a genius, then it may be worth studying the habits of very successful deckbuilders and strong players.
Most of my growth in this game has occurred when key concepts sunk in during a witty explanation of a decklist, when I noticed the minute differences in the way that a great player plays a certain deck, or when I got a chance to understand the game the way that players like Tim understand the game.
While this may have been an informative but sappy tribute to one of my favorite Vs. personalities, it should be noted that I will always be able to beat the Batow in a foot race and have done so on occasion with tons of witnesses. It just goes to show you that everyone has strengths and weaknesses.
Kingpin’s Tips for City Championship
1.Look for an alternate way to win!
2.Find the synergy that puts the random curve deck over the top.
3.Hang out with Tim Batow.
4.There is something about that Dwarf.
5.If tips 1 through 4 fail, then pack an oldie like QuickFate or AGL.
Jeremy Blair is a professional card flipper and member of Team Alternate Win Condition. He also holds all relevant, large mammal land-speed records, and may be found outracing several professional card players. If you have questions, comments, or feedback, please send correspondence to Tampakingpin@yahoo.com.