I readily accept that a good number of my ideas will never, ever in a million years see the light of competitive play. After all, some of the decks that I build are entirely for fun—an attempt to exploit some clever trick or tactic that might win one game in ten. While this seems like a ridiculous rationale for building a deck, I can honestly say that I get a great deal more satisfaction from that single, hard-earned victory than I would from winning ten games in a row with Teen Titans or Squadron Supreme.

Other deck ideas that I have may possess some competitive potential. However, my lack of practice time with the decks doesn’t allow me to fine tune them to the degree that I would like. For example, after I posted my decklist for the JLA ally build in my Roll Call! article, I found a few other ideas that I would have liked to have integrated into the deck. I think the JLA ally archetype is one that has tremendous potential to influence Golden Age, Silver Age, and the upcoming DC Modern Age. But, I admit that my build was not optimal.

However, the point to my articles is not to provide you with an exact card-for-card decklist to play endlessly. Rather, it is my hope that my ideas inspire some of you out there to explore them, tweaking them to suit your tastes. One of my best examples of this is a local player named Jayson Cody. Jayson commented to me that he really liked the deck concept I used in my article on Fire (a.k.a., the notorious visit to Nobu). But he decided to go a different route with the deck engine and utilized Wild Pack as his primary “vomit” character. The end result was significantly different from my design, but similarly effective nonetheless. It was a very gratifying experience, to say the least.

“Le singe a disparu!”*

This week’s theme card keeps in line with the general trend of my building crazy decks to have other Vs. System players discover new and interesting ways to utilize the card. If you’ve followed any of my random online ramblings since Pro Circuit New York, then you’ll already know that one of my pet decks is a New Gods / Revenge Squad deck (a.k.a., “The God Squad”). For those of you not in the know, here is the original build:

The God Squad (60 cards)

Characters (28)

4 Prankster, Oswald Loomis

2 Encantadora, Lourdes Lucero

2 Mercy, Amazon Bodyguard

2 Vykin, Forever People

2 Silver Banshee, Siobhan McDougal

3 Sturmer, War Dog

1 Commander, Military Leader of New Genesis

1 Dominus, Tuoni

2 Izaya ◊ Highfather, The Inheritor

1 Brainiac 2.5, Vrill Dox

1 Metron, Time Traveler

1 Scott Free ◊ Mister Miracle, Escape Artist

1 Big Barda, Barda Free

1 Eradicator, Doctor David Conner

1 Takion ◊ Highfather, Josh Saunders

1 General Zod, Ruler of Pokolistan

1 Doomsday, Armageddon Creature

1 Orion, Dog of War

Plot Twists (16)

4 Acrobatic Dodge

4 Royal Decree

4 Savage Beatdown

4 The Exchange

Locations (16)

4 Avalon Space Station

4 LexCorp

4 Phantom Zone

4 The Source

The basic premise of the deck is to capitalize on some of the synergies between LexCorp and cards that can replace themselves. If you have a single copy of LexCorp in play, then you can deliberately put character cards in the resource row to hit with its replacement effect. If you get multiple copies of LexCorp, then you can replace a used plot twist with its other effect. With good draws, you could typically cycle through four to ten extra cards in the later turns.

A few additional synergies were present in the deck (such as Sturmer in unison with Avalon Space Station, one of my all-time favorite combos ever!), but the deck was largely non-competitive at that time. It had unfavorable matchups against TNB Blitz, Teen Titans, and Curve Sentinels. Considering that these decks comprised about ninety percent of the competitive metagame at the time, it was not a good choice for the environment. So why, pray tell, did I play such a monstrosity? Simple: it beat one particular deck nearly every time . . .

The Light Show!

You may recall that short period following PC: New York when Dr. Light, Master of Holograms and Rama-Tut utterly dominated Vs. System competitive events. This deck was my answer to that concoction. With a tested win percentage of around ninety-five percent, I thought it might be a neat way to foil the plans of broken combos.

The madness starts with characters like Vykin and Dominus, who can keep particularly troublesome characters from readying on a consistent basis. Prankster lends a hand by placing key cards for the combo (such as Dr. Light and Devil’s Due) into the KO’d pile. And The Source makes sure that any plot twists placed in an opponent’s resource row are kept far out of reach.

Of course, the lynchpin card of the deck (and theme card for this week) is Phantom Zone. This amazing card almost single-handedly ensures that the Light Show combo will never go off. With not just one but two ways of removing cards from play, a Light Show player would need an amazing draw to keep Phantom Zone from removing that key Rama-Tut or Cosmic Radiation. Given the constraints of the combo, the Light Show is pretty much doomed to failure against this deck.

The Promise of Greatness

It first occurred to me how great a card Phantom Zone was when my Team Alternate Win Condition teammate Matt Meyer played his renowned deck, Phantom Phone Booth, at $10K New Jersey a little over a year ago. It has long been a premise of mine that the strongest and most consistent decks are those with the ability to retrieve cards from the KO’d pile. Looking at some of the most dominant decks in Golden Age over the past two years (Big Brotherhood, Teen Titans, and Curve Sentinels), this premise would appear to have some merit. That being the case, a deck that has the ability to counter recursion effects should have a competitive advantage. Matt rode the power of Phantom Zone in a recursion-filled field to a thirteenth place finish at $10K New Jersey—not too bad for a deck featuring a team that many believed to be inferior to most others.

Phantom Zone also made a moderate showing at PC: Indy last year. Amidst the throng of GLEE decks were a brave few players sporting Blue Abuse and Superman Robots builds that used Phantom Zone to counter the abusive Dr. Light. With their method of gaining board advantage effectively negated, many a GLEE deck fell to the Team Superman decks.

Moving on to the Vs. System Silver Age, we find ourselves once again at an impasse. Many of the predicted top decks of the format (G’Lock, Faces of Evil, and Anti-Green Lantern Rush) use interactive tricks with the KO’d pile to maintain effective board superiority. It seems that Phantom Zone would be a very potent card in this environment. The problem? Phantom Zone is restricted to use with only Team Superman and Revenge Squad. And unfortunately, neither team appears to be able cut it with the high-powered decks that currently dominate the environment.

However, there might be another way to approach this predicament. Starting with the Justice League of America set, UDE created character cards with dual team affiliations. This gave newer teams and older teams alike access to the newer, more powerful characters being released. One of the most notorious of these characters is Lex Luthor, Nefarious Philanthropist. This utterly disruptive character is dual-stamped with the Injustice Gang and Revenge Squad affiliations.

The Build

Four copies of Phantom Zone . . . obviously!

What other locations should we play? Well, let’s try centering the deck around the same basic engine as the God Squad deck and see what happens. First, we’ll include three copies of Slaughter Swamp. This Avalon Space Station substitute serves quite well as a replacement. However, we won’t need as many copies of this recursion card in this build because our need to recur cards will be somewhat diminished.

Let’s also include three copies of The Source. Long believed to be one of the best cards in the game, The Source’s effectiveness was hindered (much like Phantom Zone’s) by the fact that it was team-stamped to a “less powerful” team. But I don’t think that we’ll have any problem finding a way for the New Gods to dominate in this build!

Finally, we’ll include the full complement of LexCorp. The ability to move dead cards out of our resource row for playable ones is not to be overlooked. While we should be drawing plenty of cards through the Injustice Gang engine, the ability to draw more cards effectively is certainly not a bad thing for us. Besides, LexCorp combos beautifully with the replacement effects of Phantom Zone and The Source.

Our plot twist selections will also very nearly mirror those of the God Squad deck. For our team-up, we’re going to go with Gang-Up. While we could easily use Royal Decree, Gang-Up is a little more effective in that it supports the Injustice Gang’s “big hand” theme. In addition, the Injustice Gang characters will be our primary team for the deck, so it only makes sense to play cards that support them.

For our character searcher, we’ll go with another Injustice Gang card in Secret Files. The ability to search out any affiliated character in our deck cannot be understated. The fact that our opponents also get to search is not a major concern, as it just further supplements their hand size.

For our defensive pump, we’ll upgrade from Acrobatic Dodge and go with Power Siphon. While Acrobatic Dodge was a respectable +3 DEF, Power Siphon is usually good for +10 DEF or more! The exhaustion effect of the card means that we won’t be playing more than one, but with +10 DEF, we probably won’t need more than one.

For our offensive pump, we’re going to go with All Too Easy. Just as Power Siphon improves upon Acrobatic Dodge, All Too Easy is usually a marked improvement over Savage Beatdown. Granted, All Too Easy will usually put the attacking character easily within range of System Failure, but with Lex Luthor limiting our opponents to one plot twist per turn, the worry of losing one attack is relatively minor.

Finally, we’re going to stray from the God Squad framework to include four copies of Criminal Mastermind. With the Injustice Gang, drawing extra cards is beneficial for us yet hazardous for our opponents. Criminal Mastermind is the ideal card for us to exploit that disparity. Just one copy in play should significantly accelerate drawing for all players. And with the LexCorp engine giving us access to extra cards in our resource row, we should have no problem getting two or three copies into play.

In general, our character choices will differ from those of the God Squad deck. However, we are still keeping around one of my favorites, Prankster. In any deck, the ability to control what your opponents draw is extremely potent. In a deck that forces them into drawing a lot more cards than usual, this effect is even more brutal. Prankster can dictate which cards our opponents are forced to keep, even to the degree of filling their hands up with plot twists that they cannot play thanks to Lex Luthor. And if our opponents think that they can simply get back cards that Prankster forces them to ditch, Phantom Zone will keep them well educated (since Prankster allows us to flip Phantom Zone before Lex Luthor ever sees play). Also at the 1-slot, we’ll toss in a single copy of Mikado and Mosha to keep off-curve decks under control.

Our choices at the 2-slot are somewhat unorthodox. But given that this deck is unorthodox, we should feel right at home! First, we want four copies of Captain Boomerang, George Harkness. Sure, IQ can be amazing at dishing out tons of burn damage due to card drawing, but Captain Boomerang is just an amazing early-game board control card. He helps to keep problematic early drops, like Joystick and Shocker, off the board so that they cannot create trouble for us. Our other choice at 2 is Kelex. Given the number of locations in the deck, it might not be such a bad idea for us to have some help fetching those key locations. Besides, Kelex is an above average 3 ATK / 3 DEF character who allows us to flip Phantom Zone.

Turn 3 is all about Lex Luthor, Nefarious Philanthropist. We’ve talked about this guy in great detail before, so I won’t say too much. But Lex Luthor is one of the most disruptive cards in Vs. System and quite possibly the most disruptive card in Silver Age. Limiting our opponents’ plot twist play is certainly beneficial for us, especially when we have a gem like The Source to put the serious hurt on those select plot twists that our opponents do play. Our opponents thought being able to play only one copy of Faces of Evil each turn was bad? Just imagine when we remove all four copies from the game! Our other choice at 3 is our old pal Sturmer. Much like Mikado and Mosha, Sturmer is primarily in our deck to fetch our late drops for us. However, in the unlikely event that we do have to play him, he is an effective wall against opposing attackers.

At the 4-slot, we’re going to make Izaya ◊ Highfather our primary choice. At 7 ATK / 8 DEF, our opponents will usually need some help breaking through him. Of course, his recovery effect is certainly nothing to scoff at; it allows us to maintain our board even if multiple characters become stunned. As a backup, we’ll include a copy of The Joker, Headline Stealer. The Joker’s Doom-like effect works well in unison with Lex Luthor, forcing our opponents to play their sole plot twist for the turn in the resource row—a prime target for The Source! Of course, if we miss Izaya, then we probably won’t be able to play The Source . . .

We have a few different picks at 5. To assist with the problems of missing the aforementioned Izaya, we’ll include one copy of Valkyra. Her leader power is all but useless in our deck, but she is a good-sized 10 ATK / 10 DEF until she becomes stunned. If we are going to play a New Gods 5-drop, however, we should really consider Metron. His ATK is not very impressive, but he’s decently sized on the back end. Besides, he can be just cruel in unison with Lex Luthor. Your opponent chooses to play his or her one plot twist for the turn? Metron negates it; laughter ensues!

Our final 5-drop also doubles as a 6-drop (and will probably play the latter role in most games). He is none other than Scarecrow, Psycho Psychologist. With what is quite possibly the most potent burn effect in the game, Scarecrow is always an unwelcome sight for our opponents. Just as Power Siphon and All Too Easy will usually net us +10 DEF and ATK respectively, Scarecrow will usually net us 10 end damage.

Our lone 6-drop (in case we’re forced to play Scarecrow early) is Ocean Master. With enough cards in hand, this titan can trump even the mighty Bastion. We may very well need an outlet for the extra cards that we draw, and Ocean Master is the right guy for the job.

Given the speedy nature of many Silver Age decks, most of our games probably won’t go to turn 7. But if they do, we have The Joker, Permanent Vacation. The newest incarnation of The Joker from the Infinite Crisis set plays amazingly well into the Injustice Gang’s “big hand” strategy. After drawing several cards through Lex Luthor and Criminal Mastermind, The Joker will double our opponent’s hand size. Absent a miracle, one payment of Scarecrow’s effect will usually be enough for us to seal the deal.

That is, of course, unless our opponent is playing an endurance-gaining deck (like G’Lock) that can outrace us. If we reach turn 8, it is highly unlikely that we will be able to do enough damage to win, given the immense size of characters like Guy Gardner, Egomaniac and Mogo, The Living Planet. Hard times like these call for hard solutions. That’s why we have an insurance policy in The Joker, Emperor Joker. Given how quickly The Joker, Permanent Vacation can deplete an opponent’s deck, it seems only natural that we follow up with the alternate win condition of Emperor Joker. If our opponent somehow survives the immense burn of Scarecrow on turn 7, Emperor Joker will make sure that the game doesn’t go past turn 8.

Dare I say that we are finished? It is true; we have completed our deckbuilding for this week. Let’s see what we’ve come up with:

God Squad Gang-Up (60 cards)

Characters (28)

1 Mikado and Mosha, Angels of Destruction

4 Prankster, Oswald Loomis

4 Captain Boomerang, George Harkness

2 Kelex, Faithful Servant

4 Lex Luthor, Nefarious Philanthropist

1 Sturmer, War Dog

4 Izaya ◊ Highfather, The Inheritor

1 The Joker, Headline Stealer

1 Metron, Time Traveler

2 Scarecrow, Psycho Psychologist

1 Valkyra, Valkyrie of New Genesis

1 Ocean Master, Son of Atlan

1 The Joker, Permanent Vacation

1 The Joker, Emperor Joker

Plot Twists (18)

3 All Too Easy

4 Criminal Mastermind

4 Gang-Up, Team-Up

3 Power Siphon

4 Secret Files

Locations (14)

4 LexCorp

4 Phantom Zone

3 Slaughter Swamp

3 The Source

I honestly have no clue what initiative this deck would want. But I can tell you that you absolutely, positively, always want to mulligan for Lex Luthor or a way to get Lex Luthor (for example, Captain Boomerang plus Secret Files). Not only is he the driving disruptive force behind the deck, but he is also the failsafe card for Phantom Zone.

Well, I’ve yammered on enough this week, so I’m going to call it quits. If you have any thoughts, ideas, or notions that you’d like to share, you are always welcome to do so via email at BigSpooky1@hotmail.com.

Take care, and we’ll see you back here next week for another bout with insanity!

* Yeah . . . I’m typing in French. One brownie point to you if you can figure out, without using any translating devices (such as freetranslation.com), what that phrase means. Two brownie points if you can figure out where the reference comes from!**

** All brownie points are redeemable for fabulous gifts and merchandise at your local brownie point redemption shop.