Several insiders highly familiar with the game believed that PC New York would see the metagame go full-circle from Evil Medical School and Fantastic Fun back to Teen Titans. What nobody saw coming was an even deeper level of regression: a return to the low-curve Titans builds that dominated the first $10K Mexico City last October and performed relatively well earlier this year at $10K Orlando. That's exactly what Josh Wiitanen and Gabe Walls delivered.

 

This deck isn't as committed to resource control and deprivation as the more extreme builds floating around at the end of last year were, but it is similar. While this can at first look like a pretty standard Teen Titans build, there are some staple cards missing and some less common cards included. Most importantly, from a holistic, strategic point of view, this deck has some crucial points that are normally not emphasized as strongly (or at all) in regular Titans decks.

 

Essentially, this deck is putting forth two key concepts in a far stronger fashion than other Titans builds have done. These concepts are filling the drops and resource deprivation. While Titans decks usually look to win or lock in a victory on turn 5, there's a problem with that concept in the current environment. Because Fantastic Fun looks to do the same thing and can do it better in terms of raw numbers, Titans can get a huge advantage by locking FFun out of its all-important mid-game. At the same time, Titans can keep Curve Sentinels in its rather weak mid-game, and its linchpin card is still the same—Foiled's target just changes from Thinking Outside the Box to Total Anarchy and Micro-Sentinels.

 

Two of the deadliest decks in the Golden Age format get stopped dead in their tracks by Foiled. This deck capitalizes on that not only by packing Foiled and digging for it or reusing it as needed via various tricks, but also by using a slightly wider character base than standard Titans builds do. This allows the deck to hit those same-turn drops several turns in a row and continue growing, while an opponent with only single characters at single points on the curve will flounder and run out of options. Nice.

 

The extra characters, especially Pantha and Dawn Granger ◊ Dove, fill out turns and ensure that resource points are always being spent as opposed to evaporating at the end of the build phase. Note that the deck maxes out on the more standard Titans utilities that eat resource points—Red Star and Optitron are both being run at maximum capacity. This ensures that the deck is capable of running tightly and efficiently at all times, which is incredibly important for early-game decks. Because you're limiting yourself to fewer evened odds (in the form of draws over a long game as opposed to limited draws that occur over a short game), you need your deck to be as efficient as it can be.

 

What's missing from the deck to make room for more character consistency and Foiled? Titans Tower and Raven are both gone in favor of cards that are more oriented towards the early and early mid-game as opposed to the latter portion of the mid-game and late game. The popular Connor Kent is gone, and the deck is only running a single 6-drop. Walls and Wiitanen are aiming for this to be a true turn-5 deck at the latest, not even attempting to compete with Bastion on a curve vs. curve basis.

 

Also missing? Possibly the most notable card not present in the deck, the almighty Overload! Flatly put, the deck just doesn't spare itself the time sometimes necessary to find that perfectly ripe, juicy moment to Overload something. As much as Overload may be overpowered, at its best, it's a finesse-driven card, and it doesn't fit the intended tempo of this deck. It's a decision that sets this deck apart from its contemporaries.

 

Note the massive quantity of control-oriented cards too. While Finishing Move appears in most Titans builds, the use of four copies doesn't exactly jive with the standard Leander-borne vision that so many expect to see. This deck is a highly refined version of Titans that uses the strengths of the team to expound upon the theme of metered and measured board control. Pretty cool.

 

It's difficult to pick a deck that would give this one trouble. Curve Sentinels, FFun, and even other Titans decks are hurt by Foiled and can be deprived of their win-condition turns. This deck could be hurt by Evil Medical School if it gets off a nice turn 4 and isn't teching any ongoing plot twists. But the matchup isn't horrible per se, at least until Psimon comes down, at which point, it's definitely “Roy Harper ◊ Arsenal or bust.” Turning off Psimon's effect by sending him to the sweet land of dreams and head wounds for a while is definitely a must.

 

It's quite possible that in the current Golden Age format, as well as in the upcoming post-DGL environment, Titans decks like this one will be the way to go. Many good, post-DGL decks will be vulnerable to Foiled and Ka-Boom!, and since the set is so likely to shake things up in Golden Age, the concepts that Wiitanen and Walls decided to develop should be highly valuable. For now, they're both sitting at near-qualifying records, and successful performances here at PC New York may be just the beginning for this deck!