It’s Michael Lou’s first time in the Top 8, and he’s definitely turning heads. Michael is a big X-Men fanboy, and is usually known for his signature X-Men and Hellfire builds. This weekend, however, he’s been shaking things up with his very unique — and very beefy — Skrull deck. It packs a whallop, as 8 out of 9 opponents found out yesterday, as well as Chris Darmadi in their quarterfinal a short time ago.

In this metagame, and nearly 3 years into Vs. System, it seems it’s more and more rare to find a deck like this one, that is, at its core, all about the beats. It seems that, these days, it’s Poison Ivy this, and Dr. Light that. That’s why a deck like Michael’s is really very refreshing. While other archetypes are no less valid, and equally masterful, it’s nice to see a deck that gets back to the roots of Vs: superhero-on-superhero action!

We pulled Michael aside before his semifinal to learn the ins and outs of his deck, and its importance in the current metagame.

What’s your deck called?

TSD. THE Skrull Deck.

What’s the theme of the deck? What does it aim to do?

I swing at them, and I pump up and beat with my guys. It’s just a straightforward combat deck, really! Lots of concealed in there, which allows me to have good board control.

What's the best card in the deck?

Franklin Richards, Creator of Counter-Earth without a doubt! Without him, the deck doesn’t really work at all. He prevents the loss of characters, and allows me to beat back insanely. Lockjaw, Inhuman’s Best Friend would be a close second because the deck doesn’t run Enemy of My Enemy, so it helps the deck curve out, and also gives it an off-curve strategy if required. Next would be Captain America, Skrull Impostor — for obvious reasons! No stuns for the win!

What's your optimal opening hand?

Lockjaw, Inhuman’s Best Friend, Warskrull, Captain America, Skrull Impostor . . . and whatever else. The fourth card doesn’t really matter, because Lockjaw will dig stuff out!

What does it win against?

It seems to win against a lot of things in the metagame. I can’t really specify one in particular, because it seems to be beating nearly everything.

What does it lose to?

Lost in Space — usually my deck is really hard to disrupt, because the interactions are really simple, and there are a lot of outs. Lost in Space, however, has so much tech that it really shuts it down. The massive combination of tricks is just destructive. One game, they got me with Deadshot, Floyd Lawton, Ronan the Accuser, Starforce and Scarecrow, Fearmonger one turn after the other. That was a really annoying match! But it still ended up pretty close.

What do you think makes it so powerful in the current meta?

Just cause it’s overly aggressive, really. A lot of the decks seem to take a while to set up, and I do enough damage to kill them before they really get their decks online. There doesn’t seem to be too much defense in the meta at the moment, which works out very well. Kang was probably the most defensive deck I played on day 1. The power-ups are the beats! James Kong’s Checkmate/Villains United deck was also challenging in principle, but he missed his Ahmed Samsarra, White King when I played him yesterday, so that sealed it.

THE Skrull Deck

4 Lockjaw, Inhumans Best Friend

4 Nenora

4 Franklin Richards, Creator of Counter-Earth

1 Black Bolt, Illuminati

4 Warskrull

3 Wolverine, Skrunucklehead

3 Captain America, Skrull Impostor

1 Crystal, Elementelle

1 Ethan Edwards

1 Triton

4 Paibok

4 Act Of Defiance

4 Mutopia

3 Extended Family

4 Interstellar Offensive

4 Call To Arms

4 Blinding Rage

4 The Great Refuge