Matt Barton. Great guy. Hails from fair Adelaide-town. I stole his pizza once — he was cool about it. That, in and of itself, should say enough. Nice guy, shares his pizza with girls. Can't get enough? Word up, people. Word up indeed . . .
Matt’s deck is steamrollering its way to victory today. After 7 rounds, he’s a very comfortable 6-1. Matt has been a consistent performer in Vs for a while, but very surprisingly, he’s yet to receive a Top 8 accolade to his name. That could all change today, however, as his deck continues to wow the inhabitants of the Melbourne Convention Centre. We pulled Matt aside from the gathering crowds to find out what his deck is all about.
What’s your deck called?
El Guapo.dec, but the unofficial name is Hyper Mighty G. I’d like to give credit to Jason Au, who came up with the original idea for the deck itself.
What’s the theme of the deck? What does it aim to do?
It’s basically a stall-out until Captain Marvel, Champion of Magic. It uses El Guapo to reinforce, and then has life gain from House of Secrets and Worldeater Apparatus. Basically, it uses Battering Ram and El Guapo as a soft lock until turn 8.
What's the best card in the deck?
Battering Ram or Thanagar! Thanagar’s +1 DEF has saved me so many times today!
What's your optimal opening hand?
Anything with Captain Boomerang, George Harkness and Dr Light, Master of Holograms. I generally always mulligan for those.
What does it win against?
It has an auto-win against Good Guys. As for the Faces matchup — I didn’t think it was that great, but it seems that if you just beat the crap out of it, and don’t worry about the life gain, it seems to go pretty well!
What does it lose to?
Kree matchups are a loss. Basically, the opening can KO too many of my guys, which means I don’t have enough bodies around to reinforce.
What do you think makes it so powerful in the current meta?
There’s ten teams in it! Seriously, I just think I’m getting lucky with matchups. Most of the decks left on the top tables are all Kree, so I’ll really have to get lucky to make Top 8.
El Guapo.dec
Characters
4 Dr Light, Master of Holograms
3 Captain Boomerang, George Harkness
1 Mikado and Mosha
1 Captain Marvel, Champion of Magic
1 Mr. Mxyzptlk, Troublesome Trickster
1 Galan
1 Leech
1 Hawkeye, Clinton Barton
1 Poison Ivy, Deadly Rose
1 Fiddler, Isaac Bowin
4 Beetle, Armorsmith
1 Detective Chimp, Bobo T. Chimpanzee
1 Wesley Dodds ◊ The Sandman
1 Scandal, Savage Spawn
1 Galactus, Devourer of Worlds
1 El Guapo
1 Blizzard
1 Silver Surfer, Skyrider of the Spaceways
1 Ape X
1 Madame Xanadu
1 Battering Ram
1 Deadshot, Floyd Lawton
Plot Twists
4 Enemy of My Enemy
4 Straight to the Grave
1 Transmutation
1 Mutant of the Year
1 Conjuration
1 The Conclave
2 Funeral for a Friend
3 Adhesive X
4 The Ring Has Chosen
Locations
1 Thanagar
1 House of Secrets
1 UN Building
3 Birthing Chamber
1 The Alley
1 Worldeater Apparatus
1 Slaughter Swamp
Equipment
1 Reality Gem