One Step Beyond: Rogue Cloning

I don’t know if you realize this, but I really love this game. I fell into the game quite by accident, having neither played any kind of TCG before nor read a comic since I was 8 years old. I think it’s probably a fair assumption to say that nine out of ten Vs. System players have come from one of those two backgrounds, so how does a guy like me get hooked on a game like this? The answer to that question is simply the Vs. System community. Through a fairly random series of events, I found myself involved with the fledgling online community of VsRealms.com. At the time, the Internet was still quite a new thing for me, so I initially joined in simply for the online experience. Communicating with people on the other side of the world and sharing ideas, opinions, and suggestions was really quite cool and ultimately the reason that I took up the game in the first place.

The online community is one of the greatest strengths of Vs. System, and continues to offer some really interesting ideas and insights. Today’s article is based on one of those interesting ideas. Matt “canamrock” Rock brought a rather intriguing possibility to the VsRealms regulars that revolves around the interaction of two cards: Spider-Sense Tingling! and Rogue, Total Transformation.

 

The idea revolves around the principle that when a character evades, it is considered to be the source of the stun. With this in mind, a copy of Rogue, Total Transformation that has been enabled by Spider-Sense Tingling! would be able to evade and trigger the character’s own power, searching out another copy of the 6-drop and potentially cloning itself. The problem, of course, lies in the fact that as the power resolves, the original Rogue will KO. Our task is to see if we can come up with a deck that can support this ultimate goal and prevent the original Rogue from KO’ing. I’ve decided to stick with Silver Age for this particular project.

The first thing we want to look at is how exactly we can prevent Rogue from blowing up in our faces. We don’t have to look too far for our first options. Marvel Team-Up may prove to be the main supply source for our deck; the new, revamped Underworld team will provide some good support. The first contender is the Underworld 4-drop Modred the Mystic, Servant of Chthon. This guy provides the perfect means of protecting Rogue from herself. Another bonus is that her power is not team stamped, so currently, our only necessary team is Spider-Friends. Yet there are enough synergistic powers among the new crop of Underworld cards to argue a case for a strong representation from the shadowy demons of Marvel Team-Up. Perhaps one of the most compelling candidates is Shuma-Gorath, He Who Sleeps but Shall Awake. This Underworld 7-drop will (potentially) allow us to evade Rogue at the start of turn 7 to spawn another copy of herself and then recover and ready the original. If we’ve already cloned a copy of Rogue on turn 6, we could potentially have four 6-drops and one 7-drop ready to initiate the biggest clone wars since George Lucas last deposited a check to his savings account.

The Underworld has access to plenty of “do not KO” type effects thanks to the latest Marvel expansion, but not all of them are suitable for our cause. One that could work out nicely for us is In Limbo, another means to prevent Rogue from self-harming. We can’t afford to go overboard with the Underworld characters, though, as we have to ensure that we can get the all-important Spider-Sense Tingling! to go off.

With this in mind, I think we need to make sure that we start off with the Spider-Friends and build our curve up from those choices. I will begin by outlining the primary character choices at each drop, and then we can flesh the deck out from there.

As it is clearly essential to give Rogue the Spider-Friends affiliation, I think that Night Thrasher, Dwayne Michael Taylor is an obvious choice for our primary 2-drop. His ability to dig for the essential Team-Up card is vital.

On turn 3, I’ve considered quite a few of the on-team characters. I pondered over but ultimately passed on Mattie Franklin, Reserve Webhead. I really like Luke Cage, Neighborhood Watch. You can’t go wrong with a 5 ATK / 5 DEF 3-drop (and his power is quite nice as well), but because the deck depends so heavily on getting Spider-Sense Tingling!, I think we need to address that issue. There are no team stamped guarantees in the Spider-Friends or Underworld teams, so I’ve looked for some outside assistance in the shape of Dr. Doom, Richards’s Rival. He essentially gives us eight copies of SST!, and should we be lucky enough to draw into a copy in our first couple of turns, he can net us a handy Team-Up instead.

For turn 4, we will hope to have Modred the Mystic, Servant of Chthon. As explained earlier, he can prevent Rogue from self-destructing, which is kind of the point of the whole deck.

On turn 5, I’ll be a little indulgent and pick the new Morbius, Shadow of the Vampire. I loved the original version back in the Web of Spider-Man expansion, but his stats and team affiliation meant that he never saw the light of competitive play. This version could. The character is huge, and his power could help compensate for the stun endurance loss that we will be taking from this deck—from both our opponent and our own evasion.

Turn 6 is obviously all about Rogue, Total Transformation. We will include four copies of the X-Man, as we could potentially have all four copies out on turn 6—a quite frightening prospect. Of course, this also increases the chances of drawing the card naturally.

We then finish things off with Shuma-Gorath, who should ensure the win for us on turn 7.

I’ve totally skipped the 1-drops because I think the slots would be better spent consolidating the rest of the curve. Some may argue that Aunt May, Golden Oldie is worth consideration, as she is essentially free and could be dropped in the game at any point. But with no reliable way to protect her or remove her from harm’s way, she could turn out to be a massive liability.

So, with the core characters determined, let’s look at who else could support the deck. For 2-drops, I want to keep it all Spider-Friends, and I quite like Black Cat, Nine Lives. The evasion means she could stay around for quite some time and help us dig through our deck for the important pieces of the puzzle. I also think that Blade, Nightstalker would be handy should we come across any of those pesky Quicksilver decks that seem to be everywhere right now.

Our primary 3-drop is off team, but I would like to return to the Spider-Friends for our backup play on turn 3. Luke Cage, Neighborhood Watch is solid and could help us get teamed-up early should we need to.

Turn 4 is when we go all Underworld. I’ve elected to use Chthon, Demon of the Darkhold as our alternate drop. He can recover Rogue for us or even play some nice games with Black Cat if we’re particularly desperate to dig through our deck. The fact that his power requires nothing more than moving between zones just seals the deal for me.

Normally, I would only include four copies of a 5-drop in my deck, but given that Morbius has dual-loyalty, we need to have a backup plan just in case we’re having a bit of a nightmare. With this in mind, I decided that we needed a Spider-Friend (as we need to team-up on the next turn), and my choice was Venom, Lethal Protector. There were quite a few other candidates, and I have to say that I also really like White Tiger. Perhaps my decision was influenced by the shiny newness of the Marvel Team-Up character, but when you’re building a deck for fun, you can afford such indulgences.

With the characters nailed down, let’s look to the support cards. Spider-Sense Tingling! and Enemy of My Enemy are automatic four-ofs. For the Team-Ups, I wanted a good number because, in an ideal world, we will be teamed three ways (Spider-Friends, Underworld, and X-Men). I chose four copies of Stark Tower and two copies of Ritual Sacrifice. Empire State University was another logical choice because it helps us dig for both characters and the essential SST! To further increase reliability, I decided to add Straight to the Grave. One particular card that screamed Underworld was actually team stamped to Spider-Friends: Drink This! just seemed to fit nicely. It sifts through the deck while also helping us balance the endurance loss that we suffer through our evasion-related effects. And with all these cards flying into our KO’d pile, some recursion seemed essential, so I went with a two-pronged attack of Soul World and Dimensional Rift. Then I finished the deck off by opting for Mausoleum and In Limbo to offer addition protection to Rogue.

Rogue Cloning

Characters

4 Night Thrasher, Dwayne Michael Taylor
2 Black Cat, Nine Lives

1 Blade, Nightstalker

4 Dr. Doom, Richards’s Rival

2 Luke Cage, Neighborhood Watch

4 Modred the Mystic, Servant of Chthon

2 Chthon, Demon of the Darkhold

3 Morbius, Shadow of the Vampire

1 Venom, Lethal Protector

4 Rogue, Total Transformation

1 Shuma-Gorath, He Who Sleeps but Shall Awake

Plot Twists

4 Enemy of My Enemy

4 Spider-Sense Tingling!

3 Dimensional Rift

3 In Limbo

2 Drink This!

2 Straight to the Grave

2 Ritual Sacrifice

Locations

4 Stark Tower
3 Soul World

3 Empire State University
2 Mausoleum

You want the odd initiative so that you can set up the turn 7 kill. By going first, you can also make the most of Morbius. I find it quite important to mulligan for a Spider-Friends 2-drop, although if you get a strong hand featuring Spider-Sense Tingling! and some Team-Ups, give it careful consideration before ditching it. You almost always want to keep your 2-drops around for some time by using evasion. Not only do they make teaming-up a lot easier, but they are also handy for paying some of the exhaustion costs on cards like Empire State University. Morbius has proven to be very important in early testing; without his endurance gain, you may run out of gas a few hundred yards short of the finish line.

There are many other cards I would have liked to have included. Windstorm and Ravaged! are two in particular that I think would be awesome in the deck. So far, I’ve been more concerned with ensuring that the “combo” can go off than with completely smashing face. The initial results show that there certainly is something that can be done with this idea. I’ve managed to get all four 6-drops and the 7-drop on the table in two games so far, but more often than not, it’s a trio of Rogues that do the business. This deck is very much in the beta stage, but I would love to get some community input—the idea began in the community, and I would like to see it develop as something of a community project. Please give it a try, make any changes you like, and report your findings to me via email. Perhaps we can follow this up in future articles.

Deckbuilder Challenge Cup

Due to all the Pro Circuit hullabaloo, the DBCC has drifted to the back of people’s minds. So here’s a little reminder. You can still vote for your favorite deck from DBCC#8 by emailing me or by voting on the poll at my website. I’m also still accepting submissions for DBCC#9:

DBCC # 9: “Pauper - Revisited”

Pauper format was one of the first DBCCs I ran, but as the card pool has drastically increased since then, I think we can revisit the challenge and see if we can come up with some interesting alternatives.

The Rules:

·         Minimum sixty-card deck

·         No rares allowed

·         Only eight uncommon cards allowed

·         All cards are legal; the ban list does not apply

·         You must name your deck

·         Please include a paragraph of description with your deck submission

·         Closing date is Sunday, March 18

You can submit your decks be emailing me at kamiza@the-kamiza.com or by posting your submission on my website.

Steve “Kamiza” Garrett has been an active member of the vast Vs. System online community since day one. Steve is an ardent supporter of casual Vs. play and the European game on the whole. If you are interested in supporting UDE games within Europe or have any comments regarding this article, please pop along to his website: www.the-kamiza.com.