Many PC competitors were running Hounds of Ahab, either as a splash into a pre-existing theme or as the heart of their deck. Bologna and Hannover $10K champion Hans Joachim Hoeh did the latter and had one of the best examples of such a deck in the tournament. Truly abusing the Hounds-lock concept, Hoeh could have a lock going as early as turn 2, thanks to a wealth of strong low-drops and high utility cards that let him stun up the curve.

Tombstone and Vulture are the main reason for the deck to run Syndicate as its main team. With the ability to stun up the curve up to turn 3, Tombstone is invaluable, and Vulture can do the same with help from any of the deck’s ATK pumps (while also frequently offering the option of wrecking an opponent in the early game). With a lot of decks packing Dagger, Child of Light and being willing to play her on turn 1, strength early on is highly important. Backed up by eight copies of Hounds of Ahab, this deck packs an early game that has deadly consistency.

The trend continues on turn 3, with Rhino, Man-Wolf, and Mysterio all offering different spins on the same theory: keep the deck consistent and keep generating huge quantities of ATK in order to guarantee a clear path for the Hounds. Rhino with a Jetpack gives a disgustingly good 9 ATK on turn 3. That’s jumping the curve by two turns, and it’s a trick Hoeh used a lot.

Sentinel Mark V fills turns 4 and 5, alongside Carnage. An oft-debated card, Carnage serves one purpose in this deck central to its core strategy: it makes small guys bigger. Hoeh’s opponents don’t generally get much of a benefit from the universal ATK pump, because they’re usually outnumbered.

Venom, Eddie Brock fills the 6-drop slot and also reinforces the KO theme, and Dr. Strange is there for turns 7 and 8. On turn 7, the good Doctor can hide your smaller attackers to keep them safe—this deck can generally afford to do so, especially if Vulture scored a couple of direct swings earlier on. On turn 8, the Doctor can guarantee a direct rush, and with such high ATK potential for each of its drops, this deck can make the most of the effect.

Blown to Pieces, Jetpack, Doc Ock’s Lab, and the obligatory copies of No Fear flesh out the deck’s offensive and defensive muscle. Sinister Six keeps everything teamed as necessary, and two copies of Osborn Industries gives the deck increased reliability without running Gravesite (which helps a ton of decks in this environment).

All in all, it’s a strong deck that looks to win by the mid-game and usually does. In the late game, it can have serious issues, especially if it runs to turn 9 and loses its biggest hitter to Professor X, Mental Master. That said, it doesn’t seem to have any poor matchups aside from X-Statix, and it can make mincemeat out of the popular Spidey Evasion builds that are running rampant in Modern Age play. If you’ve been looking for something that abuses KO’ing effects, give this deck a shot. It’s ridiculously well-tuned to the current metagame and does well against virtually any deck.

Characters
4 Tombstone
4 Vulture
8 Hounds of Ahab
3 Rhino
2 Man-Wolf
3 Mysterio
3 Sentinel Mark V
3 Carnage
2 Venom, Eddie Brock
2 Dr. Strange

Plot Twists
4 Spider Slayers
4 Blown to Pieces
4 No Fear
4 Sinister Six

Locations
4 Doc Ock’s Lab
2 Osborn Industries

Equipment
4 Jetpack