League of Assassins, Part 1

League of Assassins, Part 2

The three articles preceding this one outlined my plan for the League of Assassins in Golden Age. To conclude the series, I hope to give you some insight into the matchups you are likely to face and how to approach them

There are many matchups to consider, but these are the major ones. Overall, the deck has extremely little room for manipulation without changing the entire strategy. Depending on what your local metagame looks like, you could make slight modifications to enhance your prospects, but I would be wary of making wholesale changes. Beneath the analysis of each deck, I included a list of possible cards to add to improve each matchup. However, these will often be mere extensions of the main plan, so if you think you have a good grasp of the preceding articles, you should be in good stead to make your own changes.

TNB (Thanks to Luke Bartter)

Key Cards: Entangle, Ra’s Al Ghul, Eternal Nemesis, Tower of Babel

You really have to respect the potential amount of damage TNB can do. The deck we built already demands much more in the way of formation skills than the average combat deck. Here it really counts. The Brotherhood’s supporting plot twists can often deal 25 extra endurance loss throughout a game, depending on what the draw and how fast the recruitment is. The Mutant Menace and Surprise Attack, particularly when powered out through Genosha, can lose you the game from anywhere, so our posture in this game should be extremely defensive on the opposing initiative. Almost without hesitation, if you have Entangle on turn 3, use it. Your plan is to survive with enough endurance until turn 6, when your characters start simply and naturally to overwhelm those of your opponent. The key to doing this is to preserve enough of your characters and endurance when defending that you can reduce opposing numbers efficiently when attacking. Ubu, Ra’s Al Ghul’s Bodyguard and Bronze Tiger, Benjamin Turner are so good here it hurts.

Where you have the initiative in this matchup will dictate how you approach the game. The early game can be brutal, but the key to TNB’s extraordinary hitting power is the combination of Sabretooth, Feral Rage on turn 4 and Magneto, Eric Lehnsherr on turn 5. Turn 4 is the key. If you have the odd initiative, the reinforcement of Ra’s Al Ghul through Mountain Stronghold is your trump. You need to organize formations where the Sabretooth, Feral Rage combat is reinforced. The protection provided by Ubu, Ra’s Al Ghul’s Bodyguard is amazing here. Do not be afraid to burn Tower of Babel early, as once you get to turn 6, it will be your opponent looking for answers. If you have the even initiative, you need to make sure that you KO Sabretooth, Feral Rage with Ra’s Al Ghul, Eternal Nemesis. If the opponent forms defensively, you’ll have achieved a minor victory already, but do not let that take your eye off the prize. You may need to organize Flying Fortress more aggressively, but that is hard to draw, let alone teach. If you can successfully KO Sabretooth, Feral Rage, remember that Tower of Babel knocks out the text of Magneto, Eric Lehnsherr, so use it before that ability resolves.

A few more nuances can help you out there. Often, Ra’s Al Ghul, Eternal Nemesis will not make it to turn 6. If you will be defending that turn, the capacity for Ra’s Al Ghul, Master Swordsman to find you extras of Tower of Babel and Entangle is match-winning. At all times remember that TNB can just explode with Genosha, and be wary of attacking less than +2 ATK against their DEF. In effect, you want to be as defensive as possible whenever it won’t give away a game-losing disadvantage. This may seem obvious, but you should simply never take risks here. You are playing conservatively for the turn 6 win, so you can find Flying Fortress early here if you have secured recruitment until then. It can be crucial for maximizing Ra’s Al Ghul, Eternal Nemesis.

Possible Additions: Acrobatic Dodge, Lazarus Pit

Teen Titans (Thanks to Randall Hughes, Vangel)

Key Cards: Tower of Babel, Entangle

Some amongst the Vs. community would have you believe that this matchup is generally favorable for you, but they are wrong. They are generally relying on Tower of Babel as the answer to your problems, but in reality, it doesn’t do enough.

If Titans has Finishing Move, this can be really tough. Unfortunately, playing around it doesn’t really do anything beneficial, as you shouldn’t be attacking very often if you expect to be stunned in return, at least not for intangible benefits. There is more of a case for Lazarus Pit because of this, but you still need to hit the appropriate characters, so you would need to play more than one. At this stage, I still don’t think Lazarus Pit does enough across the board to justify it, so you may just have to accept a weakness here.

Tower of Babel is good and its application is obvious. Use it on the turn that the opponent plans to use Teen Titans Go!. It is effective, but if the opponent has Savage Beatdown, he or she will still probably be okay. Entangle is a much more generally useful card here, as on the defensive it shuts down there biggest threat (often Red Star, Leonid Kovar). More importantly, it is the only answer you have to the worst thing about the matchup, Roy Harper, Arsenal/Press The Attack. This combination will absolutely debilitate you, and there is little outside of Entangle that you can do to stop it.

I don’t want to give you the impression that this matchup is horrible, though, as it is actually quite reasonable. Rather, it just feels horrible because you cannot really counteract Titans’ best plans; you just have to play your natural game, perhaps working in a few tricks through Swing Line or a delayed Entangle, and hope they don’t have it or don’t see it. You want to just hit the optimal curve, using Ra’s Al Ghul, Master Swordsman to find more plot twists when necessary. Break up Hawk and Dove wherever possible and try and use Finishing Move as judiciously as possible. For the most part, you will have to accept that this matchup is difficult, but it is far from hopeless.

Possible Additions: Lazarus Pit

Curve Sentinels (Thanks to Matt Barton)

Key Cards: Lady Shiva, Master Assassin, Savage Beatdown, Finishing Move

It is unfortunate how different this matchup is depending on what initiative you get. This is exacerbated by the fact the opponent wants the same initiative as you.

If you have the odd initiative, it is almost an issue of not losing as much as it is about winning. The natural advantages of your deck trump Curve on odds. Ubu, Ra’s Al Ghul’s Bodyguard is just bigger than Sentinel Mark II. On turn 5, as long as you have the tricks, you should KO both of the opponent’s visible characters. If that happens, Bastion, Leader of Operation Zero Tolerance will not be able to remove Ra’s Al Ghul, Eternal Nemesis from the board, so Lady Shiva, Master Assassin will just hit the table and KO Magneto, Master of Magnetism. This is your best draw, but the deck has been built to hit it frequently. It all depends on the pumps.

The even initiative is much more challenging. You cannot KO Nimrod, Mutant Hunter before Bastion, Leader of Operation Zero Tolerance hits. Ra’s Al Ghul, Eternal Nemesis is invalidated by Sentinel Mark V. The potency of your tricks is reduced considerably and the game becomes mostly a game of size. This means that Finishing Move is your most important asset. Really what you are playing for is to KO Bastion, Leader of Operation Zero Tolerance on turn 6, as it is your only real opening in Curve’s defenses. And that isn’t saying much. Entangle is useful for this, as you need to build up a critical amount of ATK and take out Bastion, Leader of Operation Zero Tolerance through Finishing Move or Bane, Ubu. Fortunately, on this initiative, your drop on turn 7 (Dr. Ebenezer Darrk, Original Leader of the League) can be concealed, so you will not be destroyed wholesale by Magneto, Master of Magnetism. That will allow you to get to Ra’s Al Ghul, The Demon’s Head, which will give you a chance to seal the deal in the late game.

The positive is that while your chances on evens are grim, they are much less grim than your opponent’s chances on evens. Sentinels players are not generally used to being bullied in combat, so try to create as stressful a gaming environment as possible for your opponent by giving him or her decisions to make. The safety of Bastion, Leader of Operation Zero Tolerance allows many average players to get away with mistakes in formation and timing, and you will need to push opponents around before then so that they cannot simply rely on their broken cards. This advice is representative of the plan you should adopt against any deck with an escalating recruitment plan, and fortunately, you can be assured that other such decks are unlikely to be as redundant and consistently powerful as Sentinels.

Possible additions: Flying Kick, extra pumps of any effective type

Combo (including Fantastic Fun, FatBat, Rigged Elections, The Number One Dream, and so forth)/NewSchool

Key Cards: Alternate characters, Latverian Embassy, timing!

That I have lumped these matchups together is not a swipe at the often ingenious deckbuilders behind them. Rather, learning how to win these matchups involves a general understanding of how to play combat archetypes against non-combat archetypes. Obviously, this is a very complex and layered idea, but we can scratch the surface.

Generally, your opponent will be playing such a deck because it interacts favorably with straight combat decks. Their weaknesses are not against combat as a part of the game, as they are generally designed to operate outside of it. However, such decks give up natural plans of attack to focus on other options. These other options require a much greater commitment in terms of deck space and so are often vulnerable to esoteric and obscure cards.

We have a number of character options in our deck that can put a lot of pressure on non-combat decks. We also have the amazing Latverian Embassy, which just locks a lot of these decks out of the game if they cannot remove it. The trick is to be reactive. You want to wait for them to act, because their plan is usually inflexible and they cannot adapt quickly. Even when they can, such as with NewSchool, they wantto expend resources in a certain predetermined way, and even delaying that plan can be enough to thwart them.

You have options, but you don’t always have enough ways to find them all. Against NewSchool, we would like to play Assassin Initiate and Hook, Hired Killer at various stages, as well as Latverian Embassy. However, we only have a discrete number of search options for them. You need to decide which option is the most effective and then pursue that one. At some point, you are going to have to fill out your recruitment so that you can actually win. There is no point in having putting a thorn in their side (such as Hook, Hired Killer) if you cannot twist it by following up with pressure. Many of these matchups are extremely favorable if you can capitalize on the weaknesses of their plans by forcing them to adapt in the early game. Combo and controlling decks need time to set up, and you need to give them the least amount of time possible.

Possible Additions: An extra Latverian Embassy, Joseph Witchi, Talia’s Assistant, an extra Assassin Initiate

Outside of the major matchups, two other decks probably deserve a mention. The Green Lantern/Emerald Enemies deck Kiwi Fruit is worth noting. Make sure you get Dr. Light off the table as soon as possible. Entangle helps out against Chopping Block. If you can neutralize these threats, your superior mid-game will hold you in good stead. If it is becoming popular in your area, Psychoville may be an option. The other deck I would leave some parting words for is the emerging League/Doom Gamma Bomb archetype. If it can get a Lazarus Pit out, the matchup is almost unwinnable. To this end, KO guys as soon as possible and hope that the opponent don’t know what to do. Joseph Witschi, Talia’s Assistant could break open this matchup for you.

Have Fun!