I like deck construction better than the average gamer. Some people like to play, some folks like to win, and others just like to hang out with friends and enjoy the social aspects. Those things all have their place, but nothing makes my fingertips tingle like the feel of a new deck. I like looking through creative decklists and rediscovering the subtle nuances and blatant synergies that landed a deck in the spotlight. I can remember playing Teen Titans for the first time and dropping copies of Teen Titans Go!, initiating the Roy Harper trickery, and bringing cards back with Garth ◊ Tempest. I liked pumping up my Magneto, Master of Magnetism with Bastion for the first time. I enjoyed pummeling my opponent with the Savage Beatdown / Overload combo for the first time.
Nothing compares to those times when the light bulb first flicks on; you’re sitting there looking through a pile of cards when you realize how cool it would be to KO your 2-drop Kyle Rayner, Last Green Lantern for a search effect just to bring him back via Dr. Light, Master of Holograms. I am a decklist junkie. They lay piled up in the corners of my game room. There are scraps of paper with lists scribbled on them trickling across the floor between my computer and my card storage boxes. I have old printouts of $10K decklists with endurance totals running the length of their opposite sides, and I have small piles of six-sided dice holding down assemblies of my favorite Vs. factions.
Reading decklists can become addictive. Even if you hate a deck idea or have generated the best possible call for a tournament’s metagame, you still have to love the little window into the mind of the player who jotted down his or her 60-card attempt at success. I click on Pro Circuit Top 8 decklist postings hundreds of times. Sometimes I build the decks and sometimes I play the decks, but I always take time to read the lists. I look for new combos and great new ideas that may generalize to other decks I play. Sometimes you uncover amazing new strategies and a different way of thinking, while at other times you gain a fresh perspective on an older idea.
The sharpest gains I ever made as a player started with my decklist addiction. I would monitor the outcomes of $10K events looking for my friends and playmates, and eventually analyzing powerful decks for trends. My first ever PC experience and big money win came on the shoulders of giants. I spent weeks analyzing the highest-performing decklists to determine the optimal number of Sentinel Mark IVs. I wrote down frequency counts for each type of plot twist and tried to reason out the inclusion of odd cards. I used the data to both inform my build and my philosophy on how to play the deck. In the beginning, there were defensive-minded versions of the Curve Sentinels. Later, the deck became very aggressive. By PC: NY the deck incorporated tech for the Teen Titans builds and Betrayal. Apocalypse made an appearance in some of the late versions. Six months of tournament domination and play, however, had both satiated and even bored many pro players.
Whether one is bored or simply has a desire for the new and relatively untouched, tournament Top 8s are teeming with novel builds and tricky lists. Many players are familiar with the Curve Sentinels, but they may now want to focus their decklist studies on more recent archetypes with newer characters and updated strategies. One amazing strategy that swept the Vs. tournament scene early in the game was an exhaustion-focused deck piloted by Jeremy Gray. TOGIT updated this stall strategy with the infusion of some key X-men cards and X-Stall was born, landing its champions in Top 8s across the country and world. A later modern relative was entered into the family tree when PC: Atlanta brought us “X-Mental.” There have been some great stall decks in the history of Vs. System, including Old and New School, Gamma Bomb (Doom-based stalls), and various other candidates creeping into the uncomfortable later turns of play. In 2006, we saw the rebirth of valid stall strategies. We can follow the X-Men through their most recent evolution with notable additions of classic bomb cards like Puppet Master; Poison Ivy, Deadly Rose; and Dr. Light, Master of Holograms. The new 4-cost Professor X, Headmaster (from The X-Men) allowed players the use of some free card drawing ability and a chance to let some lower-cost, off-team characters join the mutant ranks.
The coolest trick to hit the decklists in a while is the ability to use Puppet Master multiple times in a turn. Puppet Master can be brought into play with Dr. Light, making him a suitable target for Poison Ivy’s locale-searching knockout. The inclusion of Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters allows a Puppet Master next to the Prof to ready and keep nearly an entire board exhausted before you hit the combat phase. Check out the early incarnations of the 2006 builds.
Early Spring 2006: Golden Age $10K
Characters
4 Cardiac, Elias Wirtham
4 Dr. Light, Master of Holograms
1 Gambit, Remy LeBeau
1 Imperiex, The Beginning and the End
2 Jean Grey, Phoenix Force
1 Jean Grey, Telekinetic Fighter
2 Mikado and Mosha, Angels of Destruction
2 Mimic, Calvin Rankin
4 Poison Ivy, Deadly Rose
1 Professor X, Headmaster
1 Professor X, World's Most Powerful Telepath
4 Puppet Master, Philip Masters
4 Rogue, Power Absorption
1 Scarlet Witch, Wanda Maximoff
3 Sunfire, Shiro Yoshida
1 Two-Face, Split Personality
Plot Twists
4 Enemy of My Enemy
4 Straight to the Grave
3 X-Men United
Locations
4 Avalon Space Station
1 Birthing Chamber
2 Slaughter Swamp
1 UN Building
1 Worthington Industries
1 X-Corp: Amsterdam
2 X-Corporation
1 Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters
We see a shift away from mostly X-Men to the inclusion of a handy recruitment package with Dr. Light and the Deadly Rose. There is some low-drop hate to weed out some very playable 1-cost characters in the environment, and we see the inclusion of an array of the game’s best locations. With the release of the Heralds of Galactus set and a seemingly strong move toward designing a set able to move into late turns, the world of stall deck construction was infused with some new and useful tools. The 4-drop Human Torch, The Invisible Man is fighting like his sister, and a notable Frankie Raye ◊ Nova, Optimistic Youth is dropped into the list for the raw synergy between her optimistic youth and a certain wandering hero. We still find some of the classic picks like the good Professor and Puppet Master along with the Doc/Deadly Rose package, but we also find some new additions that were useful in prior Modern and Silver Ages. We see Sage, Xavier’s Secret Weapon return to Pro Circuit play along with the synergistic Black Cat, Master Thief. There is seemingly an answer for everything: limiting attacks, location search, plot twist search, character search, card draw, and the ability to negate payment powers. This build is very fun to play, offers a skilled player a chance to dominate a number of various strategies, and features a new type of win condition with some far-out cosmic abilities. If you want more of an analysis of this deck, you may want to examine some of the Pro Circuit Los Angeles coverage.
The Return of the Golden Age: PC: LA 2006
Characters
4 Frankie Raye ◊ Nova, Optimistic Youth
3 Mikado and Mosha, Angels of Destruction
4 Poison Ivy, Deadly Rose
4 Puppet Master
1 Black Cat, Master Thief
1 Deadshot, Floyd Lawton
1 Leech, Inhibitor
4 Dr. Light, Master of Holograms
1 Cardiac
1 Dr. Doom, Richards’s Rival
1 Sage, Xavier’s Secret Weapon
4 Professor X, Headmaster
1 Human Torch, The Invisible Man
1 Merlyn, Deadly Archer
1 Mimic
1 Terrax, Harbinger of Ruin
1 Galactus, The Maker
1 The Phantom Stranger, Wandering Hero
Plot Twists
4 Straight to the Grave
4 Enemy of My Enemy
4 Press the Attack
1 Political Pressure
Locations
2 Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters
3 Slaughter Swamp
1 Soul World
1 Avalon Space Station
1 Ego the Living Planet
1 The Alley
1 Worldeater Apparatus
1 Birthing Chamber
1 Thanagar
After evolving throughout the year, we find our stall deck morphing into a subtly different beast for Silver Age in the hands of the Aussies. There have been continuations of character packages and themes, but with card pool restrictions come replacements. We are still seeing a lot of Dr. Light, his accomplice the Deadly Rose, and the recent staple Deadshot, Floyd Lawton, but the 4-cost superheroes and villains have changed faces with the continued inclusion of that wondrous Human Torch and the more recent Ronan the Accuser, Starforce. We find some new late game faces and the synergistic inclusion of Mephisto, Soulstealer. (Check out the Pro Circuit and $10K coverage from Los Angeles for some devilish fun with that guy.) While the late game has shifted, we see that the early game setup resemble that of its Golden Age brethren decks and still works toward those tough giant drops.
The New Silver Dawn: $10K Sydney 2006
Characters
1 Mikado and Mosha
4 Frankie Raye ◊ Nova, Optimistic Youth
1 Franklin Richards, Creator of Counter-Earth
2 Deadshot, Floyd Lawton
4 Poison Ivy, Deadly Rose
4 Dr. Light, Master of Holograms
1 Human Torch, The Invisible Man
3 Ronan the Accuser, Starforce
1 Mephisto, Soulstealer
1 Scarecrow, Fearmonger
1 Terrax, Harbinger of Ruin
1 Gorilla Grodd
1 Blackheart
1 Adam Warlock
3 The Phantom Stranger, Wandering Hero
1 Psycho-Pirate
1 Mr. Mxyzptlk, Troublesome Trickster
Plot Twists
4 Enemy of My Enemy
4 The Ring Has Chosen
4 Straight to the Grave
3 Meltdown
2 Fate Has Spoken
Locations
1 Soul World
1 Ego the Living Planet
1 UN Building
2 Dr. Fate's Tower
2 Slaughter Swamp
Equipment
2 Helm of Nabu
2 Amulet of Nabu
1 Cloak of Nabu
Just when you thought that the hard-hitting rush decks would rise to world domination, you get an inspiring class of stall decks making 2006 the year of the late game! If you have been to any recent tournaments, you have probably either faced one of these lists or played one yourself. Hopefully, we can continue to read about the stall deck revolution and evolution. Until next time, find some ways to abuse your early game packages and exhaust your Puppet Master a thousand times. Drop those 8-drops, and smile as you dominate the game.
Class dismissed. Happy holidays, and keep studying those decklists.
Jeremy “Kingpin” Blair (7-drop, TAWC) is a card flipper and student of the game from the Southeastern part of the United States. He is likely housing Vs. System refugees who came to $10K Orlando and were not allowed to return to their relative homes. If you have constructive comments or questions, feel free to contact him at Tampakingpin@yahoo.com.