Okay, you sat through last week’s surprisingly well received dissertation on the virtues of Juggernaut, so today we’ll take a look at something a bit less avant-garde that virtually any deck can use.

Global Domination has just begun to see reasonable play in premier level events, and with good reason—virtually every archetype in the current Golden Age environment uses at least one location, and some use as many as three. Despite the fact that Global’s secondary effect is pseudo-costed to work only while you control a Brotherhood character, many decks are currently splashing cards like Magneto and Mimic anyway, and the card’s first effect can be used regardless of board presence. Let’s break down Global Domination and look at it piece by piece.

Its first effect, which simply negates a target location effect, is the primary reason to use it. Virtually every deck has something that can be negated, and it’s usually something that hurts to lose. Against Teen Titans, Domination can stop Optitron, Tamaran, and USS Argus. Curve Sentinels loses its ability to use Genosha in the late game, which is extremely nice because it gives you time to draw into Global (which means that you can get away with only running a couple of them). Brave and the Bold lose their mid-game board wipe thanks to the loss of GCPD Headquarters, and various Brotherhood variants feel the loss of Savage Land, Lost City, Genosha, and Avalon Space Station. Global Domination is particularly nice against Blitz, as its threshold cost allows it to be activated right when those Savage Lands start hurting most. Lastly, Global Domination is brutal against X-Stall, which really depends on Cerebro and Avalon Space Station to help smooth its curve.

Essentially, the only deck that stands a good chance of weathering Global Domination unscathed is Cosmic Cops, which has seen a heavy decrease in popularity at the premier level lately. Of course, there will always be a certain percentage of rogue decks present at any major tournament, but in a general sense, you’d be hard pressed to play a matchup in which Global Domination is a dead card. That’s important, as many popular pieces of tech are often great against one deck but useless against another, such as Betrayal. Despite being ridiculously overpowering against Curve Sentinels and X-Stall, Betrayal is useless against Teen Titans, which can make it a cringe-worthy topdeck. Any tech that doesn’t act in that way is noteworthy, and Global Domination fits the bill.

Domination’s second effect is useable in Brotherhood variants, Curve Sentinels, and X-Stall, preventing locations the opponent controls from readying. It’s most effective against USS Argus, Cerebro, Avalon Space Station, and Savage Land, and it’s not until one sees how crippling the loss of each of these cards can be that one begins to understand the complete deviousness Global Domination can dish out. If USS Argus is in play but cannot ready, and there’s no Terra or Roy to conveniently blow it away, a Titans player is completely locked down. Unable to fetch new cards without flipping another Argus or using Optitron, it’ll probably be a short game unless Terra or Roy Harper ◊ Arsenal can blow away the offending Space Station. The loss of Cerebro in an X-Stall deck is not a death sentence to the same degree, but it turns a very consistent deck into one far more regulated by luck, a problem that is enhanced by the loss of Avalon Space Station. Losing Avalon from any Brotherhood deck that runs it is inconvenient at best and often means a loss of consistency in combat. Against TNB Blitz, a single Global Domination flipped on turn 3 to negate a Savage Land can mean a net total of 11 endurance saved (possibly more if the lack of Savage’s ATK bonus is enough to prevent an opponent from attacking altogether)—very nice.

Of course, X-Stall doesn’t usually recruit a Brotherhood character until turn 5 at the earliest (Scarlet Witch, Wanda Maximoff), and Curve Sentinels doesn’t normally run any except the turn 7 Magneto, Master of Magnetism. However, players have already begun experimenting with Magneto, Eric Lehnsherr in Curve, and Toad, Pyro, or even Quicksilver, Pietro Maximoff could make worthy additions to X-Stall that help bolster its matchups with TNB (1-drops may even be the way to go, offering X-Stall a way to fill its curve as it continues to include more and more alternate drops for Weapon of Choice). Of course, both decks make themselves more open to Betrayal by running Brotherhood characters earlier on, so there is a definite risk involved, but in the long run it comes down to a metagame call.

So, where does it fit? Like I said, Global Domination is versatile enough to be playable in virtually any deck. Obviously, anything packing Alfred and Boris should be using at least one of these—I’d rank it right up there with the traditional single copies of Flame Trap and Unmasked. Aside from that, though, I like it in Titans. Being able to shut down Genosha in Curve is extremely nice and is likely the main reason for Titans decks (or anything else) to run this card. At the same time, Global Domination can slow down TNB Blitz a bit until Titans gets to its mid-game, and the loss of Cerebro is practically an auto-win for Titans against X-Stall. Not having access to the Rogue, Power Absorption/Sunfire combo hurts this deck greatly, and Global Domination is a great way to increase the chances of X-Stall missing those two key drops.

While I don’t think that running Magneto, Eric Lensherr is a smart move for Curve Sentinels at the moment, I’d still rank Global Domination as a nice pick for the deck for its first effect. Preventing USS Argus from resolving is very nice and can end up being highly advantageous if it prevents a Titans player from hitting Terra or Garth on their respective turns. At the same time, negating Optitron’s effect is just sweeter than candy. Sure, your opponent could always try again, but losing a resource point and an in-hand character is just awful. Not only does a single Global Domination in this situation change your opponent’s plans for the entire turn, it also deals two of his or her resource bases a substantial blow. Beyond that, an even Curve mirror match can often come down to who has more copies of Genosha come turn 7, and Domination is a great way to buy yourself some insurance in that respect.

I’m a bit iffy about the card in Blitz, just because I’m not sure if the deck has enough room to use it. While it can potentially help Blitz’s matchup with Titans by preventing frustrating Tamarans and allowing for the all-important shutting down of searches for Terra, builds like those played by Team Realmworx at $10K LA seemed packed to the gills with necessary cards and weren’t running a single Dom. While there would be definite advantages to running it in Blitz, I don’t expect Global Domination to be as popular here as it could be in Curve or other decks.

With high risk tech starting to see a rise in popularity, many metagames might be set for an explosion of the relatively safe Global Domination. Regardless of what you play, if you play seriously you should test it out. Effective against virtually anything that might hit you, it’s a great card with ridiculously high utility.

-Jason Grabher-Meyer

Got a favorite piece of tech that doesn’t get the respect it deserves? Drop me an email at Jason@metagame.com and tell me all about it!