A lot of innovation has come out of this tournament, but one of the most dynamic decks to make an appearance here today isn’t Thunderbolts or Squadron Supreme—it’s the semi-established Marvel Knights KO deck. This is the third tournament in which this deck has made an appearance. Marvel Knights with Hounds of Ahab first surfaced as an archetype way back during Pro Circuit Amsterdam, but that was Modern Age. The first player to play the deck in a Golden Age event was Karl Heins-Bergt during $10K Vienna. He made Top 8 with the deck and brought it to the forefront. The deck’s second appearance was at the recent $10K Atlanta. Several players saw the deck on Metagame.com and worked out their own builds. Two of those players, David Leader and David De Michele, made Top 8. Let’s take a look at those builds.
David Leader—Top 8, $10K Atlanta
Characters
4 Mikado and Mosha
1 Micro-Chip
1 Iron Man, Danny Rand
6 Hounds of Ahab
1 Marcus Daniels ◊ Blackout
2 Death-Stalker
4 Elektra, Elektra Natchios
3 Luke Cage, Street Enforcer
3 Yelena Belova
4 Daredevil, Matt Murdock
1 Natasha Romanoff ◊ Black Widow, KGB Killer
1 Spider-Man, The Spectacular Spider-Man
Plot Twists
4 No Man Escapes the Manhunters
2 Swan Dive
3 Crushing Blow
4 Quick Kill
4 Wild Ride
4 Crime and Punishment
4 Flying Kick
4 Savage Beatdown
David De Michele—Top 8, $10K Atlanta
Characters
4 Mikado and Mosha
1 Micro-Chip
1 Iron Man, Danny Rand
6 Hounds of Ahab
3 Death-Stalker
4 Elektra, Elektra Natchios
3 Luke Cage, Street Enforcer
3 Yelena Belova
1 Moon Knight
4 Daredevil, Matt Murdock
1 Spider-Man, The Spectacular Spider-Man
Locations
3 Punisher’s Armory
Plot Twists
3 No Man Escapes the Manhunters
4 Quick Kill
4 Wild Ride
4 Crime and Punishment
3 Flying Kick
4 Savage Beatdown
4 Sucker Punch
Both players, working independently, made similar decisions in eliminating chaff from Karl’s initial build. Already, though, we can see some diversification. Punisher’s Armory, Swan Dive, Crushing Blow, and Sucker Punch each found a home in one deck but not the other. In this, the third tournament in which Marvel Knights has had a presence, even more variation has come to light. Here are but a few of the ways that the Marvel Knights decks played today have distinguished themselves.
Hounds of Ahab: This is certainly one of the deck’s central cards. Six copies seems to be the widely agreed upon number, with one copy of Iron Fist to Wild Ride for in case of trouble. However, the number of Hounds played in Marvel Knights decks this weekend varies from four to seven. Six may or may not be the right number; with army characters, choosing how many to include is always a hard call.
Kang, Kang Cobra: This little guy has appeared as the lone Kang Council representative in a number of Marvel Knights decks here. The reasoning behind him is that at 4 ATK, he’s just as effective on offense as Death-Stalker or Blackout. He also has the benefit of shutting down power-up effects, which are used heavily in both Teen Titans and Lost City decks. The drawback, of course, is that he’s the wrong affiliation. This guy is a metagame card, trading a bit of consistency in some matchups for a crippling effect in others.
Ahab: This guy is a 5-ATK concealed 3-drop, and that makes him better than everything except Elektra on offense. He also has the added benefit of giving your Hounds of Ahab an extra point of ATK. The Houndmaster certainly hits hard, but again, he’s the wrong affiliation . . . sort of. He can still team attack with the Hounds. That, and the fact that his boost is actually usable, make this guy a more than acceptable choice for a 3-drop.
Nimrod: Get this. You already play six copies of Hounds of Ahab. You’ve added three copies of Ahab, so you’re almost always going to have a Sentinel in play on turn 5. So, why not Nimrod? He’s gigantic, he doesn’t stun, and he’s one of the most powerful cards in the Sentinel arsenal. A few players today think that he deserves a home in the Marvel Knights deck, and he certainly seems powerful enough to be worth trying.
Slipstream and Johnny Quick: Marvel Knights isn’t the only team with a powerful concealed theme. Anti-Matter has a run of very nice hidden characters, and these two are the cream of the crop. Both of them have power—as a 3-drop with 5 ATK and a 5-drop with 10 ATK respectively, they are both ahead of the curve. In addition, they lend the deck a measure of versatility. On your off-initiative turns, you can play one of these in the hidden area for an ATK bonus on the swing back. When it’s your turn to attack, though, these turn into monsters that can attack twice in a single turn. The question is: Is adding the additional team worth it for the power that these cards provide?
For that matter, are any of these pieces of tech worth playing? I certainly have no idea. However, several players at this tournament have found each of these changes to their liking, and I’m sure that several others will include them in Los Angeles. We’ll have to wait until then to see which version of Marvel Knights comes out on top, but for now, it’s interesting just to see how diversified a deck can be only three tournaments after it came into existence.