Welcome back to Breaking Ground. This week is another volume in the adventures of Skyler “Skittles” Thomas. Many of you may recall my mention of him in my article on Roll Call!. Well, Skittles went with me to the recent $10K tournament in Austin. Despite missing Bevatron in six out of the nine games he played with my Energy burn deck (a variant of Jesse Hill’s notable Pro Circuit Atlanta build), he finished a respectable 4-5 and found his way into the Top 64 to score some sweet swag.

The Legend of Skittles the Great

After the tournament, Skittles joined me and some of my Alternate Win Condition (TAWC) teammates at Red Robin for some food. Although he didn’t know any of my teammates, he fit in quite well. He even went so far as to put the moves on a gal named Carrie, who is the best friend of Shane Wiggans’s fiancee. My teammates admired his fortitude so much that they dubbed Skittles the official TAWC mascot.

On Sunday, Skittles participated in the Scholarship Tournament. While he didn’t win the $1,000 in scholarship money, he did manage to snag a few more items to add to his growing collection of cool Vs. System stuff.* In addition, he was the recipient of nearly an entire box of cards from the X-Men set. You see, I managed to split in the finals of the Sealed Pack PCQ with Tim “I’m Too Sexy to be Tall” Batow. Though we were splitting the prize down the middle, I had recently completed my X-Men collection and didn’t need any of the cards. So, I decided that rather than letting them gather dust in my closet, I’d let Skittles put them to good use. He appreciated the gesture so much that he gave me the Extended Art Bastion that he had received in the Scholarship Tournament. It was a good deal for everyone involved.

But this article is not about my philanthropy or Skittles’s renowned flirting skills. Rather, it’s about a discussion that Skittles and I had during the trip back to Dallas. Skittles asked me how I manage to come up with ideas for my decks week after week. I explained to him that I look at cards that I think have unfulfilled potential and then try to find the best framework in which to fit those possibilities. For example, Martian Manhunter, J’onn J’onzz is amazing because he can provide cheap reinforcement to adjacent characters that is almost impossible for an opponent to prevent. Obviously, his potential is best fulfilled in combination with cards that work in conjunction with reinforcement. Hence, matching him with the Crime Lords is a logical conclusion.

I then asked Skittles to mention a card that he thought had potential to be tapped. He threw out a few ideas that I quickly ix-nayed because they had either already seen play in competitive decks or had no potential synergy with other deck concepts. But then Skittles piqued my interest with Lady Shiva, Master Assassin. I have been a longtime fan of the League of Assassins, and Lady Shiva is simply an amazing card. However, her stats and limited use during her controller’s attack step serve to restrict her effectiveness. This was the problem that I put before Skittles. Since odds is generally the preferred initiative for most decks, trying to find a way to utilize Lady Shiva effectively would be problematic. I asked him if he could think of a way to bypass this limitation. His response was wholly unexpected:

“We could use Power Play.”

The moment the words came out of his mouth, my brain started percolating with thoughts of how to make a League of Assassins / Hellfire Club deck work. Skittles and I started exchanging ideas, and over the course of the three hour trip back to Dallas, we worked out exactly what cards we’d fit into the deck.

The Build

Our obvious starting point is Lady Shiva. Since we will have several deck cycling and search cards at our disposal, we will probably only need two copies. From here, we’ll take the route that Skittles and I did and work backwards through the drops to decide who we want at each turn.

On turn 6, we’re going to need a copy of Ra’s al Ghul, Master Swordsman. To be fair, he is not a preferred drop on this turn in any shape or fashion. However, Lady Shiva’s recruit condition requires that we control Ra’s al Ghul. Since UDE has not yet seen fit to give us a card like Doomstadt for the leader of the League of Assassins, we must rely on having a character with his name in play.** Our best opportunity for this will be at the 4-slot, where we have multiple versions of Ra’s al Ghul at our disposal. However, we will not always be able to rely on drawing the 4-drop or on still having him in play on turn 7, so we must play one copy of the 6-drop version to ensure compliance with Lady Shiva’s cost. Our primary 6-drop is going to be Magneto, Black Lord. The way Skittles described the combo was impressive to say the least: ship Lady Shiva to the hidden area (using Deadly Game or the like), use her effect to KO our opponent’s 7-drop, and then stun Lady Shiva with Magneto’s effect to stun our opponent’s 6-drop. Magneto and our remaining characters will be free to ravage our opponent’s significantly weakened board. Out of the mouths of babes and all!

Turn 5 is relatively straightforward. Shinobi Shaw is an absolute beast in this deck, as it can be very difficult for opposing characters to take him down. If we manage make him the only visible character with a face-up Shaw Industries and a couple of other Hellfire Club characters in the hidden area, then our opponent will have a 13 ATK / 12 DEF 5-drop to deal with, barring no other pumps. And he just gets bigger! As a backup, we want one of the best 5-drops in the game (and the best League of Assassins 5-drop), Bane, Ubu. Bane boasts only average stats, but his ability to KO a stunned character is incredible. If we can find a way to get him into the hidden area, we can almost ensure that his effect will trigger every turn (barring a copy of No Man Escapes the Manhunters to foil our plans). In addition, Bane will ensure that we can meet the loyalty requirement of Ra’s al Ghul, Master Swordsman if we need to play him on turn 6.

Turn 4 is going to be our team-up turn. This is when we would like to see Ra’s al Ghul, Eternal Nemesis in every game. He is our best choice for a version of Ra’s al Ghul, as he hits the board fairly early in the game and he doesn’t have loyalty. In addition, his breakthrough effect can be phenomenal for keeping our opponent’s board under control. Assuming that we can get him into the hidden area, he and Bane could potentially KO two of our opponent’s characters each turn. Our backup at the 4-slot is Madelyne Pryor. The truth is that we don’t really ever want to play her if we have the option of playing Ra’s al Ghul instead. But she is still a solid 4-drop with a decent effect. In addition, she is an easy discard for the effect of Sage, Tessa.

Turn 3 will be entirely up to the Hellfire Club. Our primary drop is Mastermind, Dark Dreamer. He has decent stats and boasts the Mutant–Mental trait (more Sage fuel!). Also, he can do a neat little swap out with hidden characters to prevent direct attacks on our endurance points. Also at the 3-slot we have Harry Leland. Bottom line: Harry Leland is a wall. With a great effect that emulates Acrobatic Dodge, Harry Leland can put our multiple Mental characters to good use.

At turn 2, we have the already mentioned Sage, Tessa. The simple truth is that Sage is a phenomenal card for cycling through the deck. Add in the fact that we’re building for Golden Age (which means that we have access to recursion cards like Slaughter Swamp), and we can pretty much ensure that we’ll get to use her effect every turn. Also at the 2-drop slot, we have a couple of copies of Talia, Beloved Daughter. This version of the daughter of Ra’s al Ghul is perfect for our deck, as she gives us ready access to our preferred 4-drop.

At the 1-drop slot, we have . . . nothing! But we are going to backtrack and look at turn 8. Skittles and I discussed this turn for a while. I was personally all for Ra’s al Ghul, The Demon’s Head; with Shaw Industries in play, the 8-drop Ghul would be a respectable 19 ATK / 19 DEF that can’t be team attacked. Skittles, however, being the ladies’ man that he is, cast his lot for Dark Phoenix, Alien Life Force. She may be alone on the board after she’s played, but it’s hard to argue that she won’t be formidable at 22 ATK / 22 DEF (with Shaw Industries in play) . . . especially since our opponent will be taking double stun damage and we’ll be gaining endurance.

Locations will be very critical to the play of this deck, especially since we will occasionally be using Power Play and locking out our plot twists. At the top of the location agenda are three copies of Shaw Industries. The stat boost from this location will be invaluable for our deck strategy, as it will invariably force our opponent to waste pumps and/or team attacks to break through our one visible character’s DEF. Of course, Shaw Industries isn’t nearly as effective without its counterpart, The Hellfire Club. The namesake location for one of our teams is invaluable because it allows for clever maneuvering of our characters, and to boot, it gives the hidden characters a small boost. Finally, a single copy of Massachusetts Academy will benefit our deck. In a situation where we have multiple stunned characters at the end of the turn, Massachusetts Academy can turn a character that we would inevitably lose anyway at wrap-up into an extra card and a stat boost for one of our other characters.

Of course, the fun continues on the League of Assassins side with Mountain Stronghold. Having a location that can search out a character is certainly beneficial (especially if our plot twists get locked out). Add in the fact that it gives Ra’s al Ghul reinforcement, and it is certainly worth running a couple of copies in our deck. Of course, Mountain Stronghold does require a discard of a League of Assassins character card after the fact. If we run into the problem of not having a League of Assassins character card in hand, we can always ditch the character card we search out and then fetch it back with a copy of Slaughter Swamp. Recursion is a theme that was sorely missing from the Marvel Modern Age (with the notable exception of the Faces of Evil variants with Hard Sound Construct); we should take the opportunity to play at least one copy of one of the best KO’d pile interaction cards in the Vs. System.

Our final location is one of the premier Team-Up locations. Where Metropolis is good, Stormfront-1 is just plain better. If we planned to play multiple copies of this card, then we might want to defer to Metropolis. However, a single copy of Stormfront-1 should satisfy our needs.

Let’s move on to plot twists. We have already mentioned that Power Play will be a key card for ensuring that we get to use Lady Shiva’s effect every game, so we need a copy of that in our deck. Of course, we will absolutely need a way to search out Power Play. Luckily, the Hellfire Club has one of the game’s best search cards in Power and Wealth. For the simple cost of exhausting two Hellfire Club characters, we can fetch any plot twist or location from our deck. Along these same lines, the League of Assassins has its own search card in the form of The Demon’s Head. This card limits us to searching out locations, but what it loses in versatility it makes up for in the element of surprise. By placing a location directly into our resource row, The Demon’s Head enables us to catch our opponents off-guard by getting a timely Shaw Industries or The Hellfire Club in play. Three copies of each team searcher should suffice.

Since we do have two teams in our deck, we will need to include some Team-Up cards above and beyond the single copy of Stormfront-1. Since Sage, Tessa is our primary 2-drop, it might be nice to make all of our characters Mutant–Mental for her effect. So, we’ll go with three copies of Brave New World. Not only does this card unify our two different villainous teams, but it also gives the League of Assassins characters a taste of what it is like to be Homo Sapiens Superior (i.e., muties!).

The next plot twist is one that you all knew was coming. We have two good character searchers in our copies of Mountain Stronghold. But we really need something with a bit more versatility for the early turns. Join the Club! is far too limited, as it will never be able to search out any of our League of Assassins characters. So, we will play two copies of . . . wait for it . . . Enemy of My Enemy. Overused by BigSpooky? Probably. Exceedingly effective? Definitely!

As far as ATK and DEF pumps go, we aren’t going to dwell too heavily on them because our locations will provide constant bonuses to our characters. Besides, the unifying theme of the deck dwells more heavily on control tricks than it does on beatdown tactics. Still, we will occasionally find the need for a timely pump. So, we will include three copies of Army of One. Our characters will generally be large enough to handle most attacks head-on, but we might occasionally run into a situation where that extra +2 ATK / +2 DEF boost will put us over the top while attacking or defending.

Our four remaining slots are arguably the most important in the deck. The Hellfire Club team has several cards that can move characters with concealed in and out of the hidden area. However, the movement of regular characters in and out of the hidden area is a bit more problematic. Our best bet is to stock our deck with plenty of copies of Deadly Game. With this tricky Hellfire Club rare, we can pull off clever moves with our League of Assassins characters that allow us to get the single visible character we want every turn. And, as I mentioned earlier, the potential of characters like Bane and Lady Shiva being hidden definitely gives us pause for thought.

Skittles, you done good. We have built ourselves a very imaginative deck utilizing the strengths of two very potent teams. Here’s the finished product:

Skittles, The Inner Circle, and The Master Assassin (60 cards)

Characters (30)

4 Sage, Tessa

3 Talia, Beloved Daughter

3 Harry Leland, Black Bishop

4 Mastermind, Dark Dreamer

2 Madelyne Pryor, Black Rook

4 Ra’s al Ghul, Eternal Nemesis

1 Bane, Ubu

3 Shinobi Shaw, White King

2 Magneto, Black Lord

1 Ra’s al Ghul, Master Swordsman

2 Lady Shiva, Master Assassin

1 Dark Phoenix, Alien Life Form

Plot Twists (19)

3 Army of One

3 Brave New World, Team-Up

4 Deadly Game

2 Enemy of My Enemy

3 Power and Wealth

1 Power Play

3 The Demon’s Head

Locations (11)

1 Massachusetts Academy

2 Mountain Stronghold

3 Shaw Industries

1 Slaughter Swamp

1 Stormfront-1, Team-Up

3 The Hellfire Club

The general rule is that we would like to have the odd initiatives, as being forced to use Power Play on turn 7 can definitely limit our options. The mulligan will usually be for Sage. However, seeing Talia or Ra’s al Ghul, Eternal Nemesis with a decent set of support cards is probably a keeper, as well. The basic strategy is to try to stave off damage until turn 7 and then let Lady Shiva, Magneto, and the remainder of our crew crush our opponent.

That’s all for this week, folks. Here’s hoping that you all enjoyed it. If you have any thoughts, good or bad, to share with me, then please email me at BigSpooky1@hotmail.com. I am mercifully out of the audit rotation and back into blessed forty (or so) hour workweeks, so I will be making a genuine effort to respond to anything that you have to say.

And for any of you ladies out there who are dying to talk to Mac Daddy Skittles, please let me know and I’ll get you in touch with him. As my little buddy would no doubt say, “Once you’ve had Skittles, M&Ms just don’t ever taste the same.”***

* It does bear mentioning, however, that the person who won the scholarship money from Skittles’s age group was none other than Travis McFadden. McFadden is another young, up-and-coming player at JJK Cards. The truly impressive feat, however, is that he won the tournament playing his revamped GLEE Lords build. It is an absolutely amazing deck and one that I hope to feature in my column in the near future.

** “Ghulstadt.” How cool would that be?!

*** Credit goes to John Hall for that witty “Skittlism.”