Well, PC LA has come and gone, and what a wild time it was! I’m sure that the Vs. System metagame will resonate for quite a while from the impact of the deck variety we saw in So Cal. And the decks in the Top 8 were something else, weren’t they? Why, there was that Avengers Reservist deck, and the Squadron Supreme Rush, and . . . ummm . . . the Arkham/Skrull deck that Tim Batow was playing . . .

Okay . . . truth be told, I have no clue what happened at the Pro Circuit. Don’t get me wrong—I was there. However, because Toby Wachter and his crew at Metagame.com need time to edit my work, I have to submit all articles a full week before they are seen on the website. In essence, Pro Circuit Los Angeles may have already come and gone for you; for me, however, PC LA is still several days away.

Never fear! The readers of Metagame.com want Pro Circuit coverage, and I shall provide it! Granted, most of my coverage will probably be horribly wrong, but being wrong has certainly never deterred me before.

All Hail the Two-Headed Champ!

The metagame at PC LA was by far the most diverse we have seen to date. Not only were the Vs. System standards present—Curve Sentinels, Teen Titans, TNB Blitz, and so forth—but also some new and innovative decks spawned from the Avengers set, such as Avengers Reservist and Squadron Supreme Rush.

In the end, it was the much beloved Tim “Quit Making Jokes about My Hair” Willoughby who took home the title of PC champ. While it was nice to see my favorite Brit back in action, I have to say that I was surprised to see his choice of deck. Who knew that GLEE/Crime Lords could be so potent?* Of course, Tim’s real bit of genius was grafting Jason “I Make Jokes about Tim’s Hair” Grabher-Meyer’s head onto his shoulders. It’s been said that two heads are better than one. One PC championship serves as proof of that proverb.

Of course, it was not an easy road for the solo duo. They . . . er . . . “he” had to survive a difficult Day 1. Going into the final round, Tim-Jason sat on top of a 5-4 record. He (they?) looked doomed in that matchup. Fortunately, his opponent couldn’t handle Tim’s accent. On turn 6, his opponent finally snapped and ran out of the hall, alternating between tearing his hair out in chunks and trying to trade unsuspecting gamers for an extended art Garth ◊ Aqualad. So, thanks to a forfeit by his newly insane opponent, Tim-Jason made Day 2.

Day 2 was a great triumph for the double-domed player. At first, I didn’t see the wisdom in drafting only legacy cards. To tell the truth, I still don’t see the wisdom in drafting only legacy teams. But Tim-Jason made it work, cruising to a 9-0 record on the strength of Mortician and Bringing Down The House. As Tim-Jason’s last round opponent, Vidianto Wijaya, put it, “I had no clue what was going on! Of course, that could be because Tim-Jason had two heads!”

Day 3 was a bit of a trial, as there seemed to be a lot of infighting between Tim and Jason. (I imagine being attached to Tim Willoughby for too long would do that to anyone.) The finals were particularly poignant, as Tim-Jason was given a game loss for sucker punching himself. However, he managed to pull it together and win three in a row in the finals to become the new PC champion.

Of course, there was that nasty little argument over who would get the extended art Savage Beatdown. Fortunately, the paramedics were on hand to remove Jason’s head before it bit Tim’s ear off.

Yeah . . . I stink at predicting the future. Fortunately, I know someone who has a much better knack for it than I do, and she just happens to be the theme card for this week’s article!

Date with Destiny

In my very first article for Metagame.com, I mentioned that one of my pet decks from the early days of the Vs. System was Mutant Nation Burn. One of the key combos for that deck was Gambit and Destiny, Irene Adler. With Destiny predicting the demise of a 3-drop (or lower), Gambit could ensure that Destiny’s dastardly forecast would come to fruition.

Of course, Destiny is not really a jank card, since she has always been an integral part of many decks using The New Brotherhood. However, Destiny usually sits in the back while the big beaters like Sabretooth, Feral Rage and Magneto, Eric Lehnsherr do the dirty work. Well, not anymore! We’re going to bring our blind soothsayer to the forefront and build a deck that will make our opponents pay for her ominous insights.

The Build

Obviously, we’re going to want to feature our star quite prominently in our deck. So, we’ll have four copies of Destiny ready for abuse. One neat trick I learned with Destiny is recruiting multiple copies in later turns to put some serious hurt on your opponent. Since every activation potentially equals 4 endurance loss to your opponent, recruiting several copies in a turn can really add up.

Speaking of adding up, let’s consider the potential of Destiny. Assuming that you have her in play and use her ability from turns 2 through 5, she should net you 16 endurance loss through her effect alone. This prospect is certainly not bad in itself. However, if we were given the possibility of doubling that loss, we would no doubt jump at the chance.

 

 

With the inclusion of Xavier’s School, we have committed to a Mutant Nation framework for our build. At this point, I could just flake out and post my original Mutant Nation Burn deck and bid you adieu. However, I’m going to take the high road and explore some new combos that will highlight our visually impaired prognosticator.

First and foremost, we’re going to take a page out of the book known as The Tao of the Hong Kong Cavaliers. I believe you’ll find the following passage on page two:

“With regard to Team-Up decks, when in doubt, play Marvel Knights.”

Since Anthony, Heath, Jason, and Matt are all much smarter than I am, I’ll take their advice. Into our deck go the following Marvel Knights cards:

4 Dagger, Child of Light

4 Micro-Chip, Linus Lieberman

2 Mikado and Mosha, Angels of Destruction

4 Midnight Sons

4 Wild Ride

This should give us a nice foundation for our build. This “New School” set-up makes for convenient tutoring of characters from different teams. However, even the Marvel Knights cards won’t completely enable us to access the entire gamut of characters we’re going to want. So, we’re going to have to get a little bit more devious and enable a method whereby we can get access to any character in our deck, regardless of affiliation.

To do this, we’ll call upon one of the new stars from the JLA set, Vicarious Living. While we can’t always rely on having the specific character we need on a certain turn, Vicarious Living allows us to trade a character of the same cost for the character we need. In addition, it combos decently with Wild Ride; you can search for a copy of a Marvel Knights character of the cost you need, then use that character card to fuel Vicarious Living. We’ll include four copies of this new searcher.

Of course, Team-Ups are still nice to have (especially when it comes to avoiding a wayward Betrayal). With the variety of characters we’ll be playing, the four copies of Midnight Sons probably won’t be enough. So, we’ll include two copies of Marvel Team-Up as well.

Now let’s look at a couple of specialty plot twists. While we’ll be stockpiling our deck with characters that have stun effects, we won’t always be able to rely on those characters to get the job done. So, we need to look at cards to assist in this endeavor, especially on turns when our opponent controls the initiative. The generic answer for this dilemma is to include Nasty Surprise. However, Nasty Surprise is already dramatically overplayed. So, we’re going to look at another variant of the defensive ATK pump. Given that the theme of the deck is essentially “stun-burn,” Heat Vision would probably be right at home. Granted, it isn’t as strong as Nasty Surprise and it requires an exhaust, but it should still be very effective in this deck, because we can ready a character with Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters to pay the exhaustion cost of Heat Vision. In addition, one of our later character choices will effectively turn Heat Vision into Nasty Surprise. (I promise he’s coming up shortly!)

Our final plot twist choice is very original. To my knowledge, this plot twist hasn’t ever been effectively utilized. One thing I discovered when playing my original Mutant Nation burn deck was that once players got wise to my tactics with Gambit and Destiny, they would stop recovering their characters with cost of 3 or less. Without targets to stun, my deck lost a great deal of its power. Fortunately, a solution to this dilemma came in the Green Lantern Corps set in the form of Jailbird. Now, you can do your opponent a favor by recovering one of his or her characters. Of course, you won’t have to worry about that character attacking during the next turn, because it won’t be ready. But now you will have a viable target for Destiny on the following turn.

Now we can move on to our character selections. In this build, we will need significantly more characters than plot twists or locations, due to the need for consistency and characters to discard for effects. However, many of our characters actually thrive on being discarded from hand (as is the case for Dagger, Child of Light and Mikado and Mosha).

We already have a pretty strong complement of characters at the 1-drop position. In fact, we will probably play two 1-drops instead of a 2-drop on turn 2 more often than not. But there is still a need for a couple of specialists at 2. First, we have to include a couple copies of Lacuna to assist with latent Team-Up issues.** Next, we’ll add a couple of copies of Pyro to assist with the burn theme. In unison with our predicted 8 damage per turn through Destiny, Irene Adler’s effect, Pyro can make a game very short without ever throwing a single punch.

At 3, we need a copy of Daredevil, Protector of Hell’s Kitchen. While Daredevil’s ability to pump his own ATK or DEF is definitely beneficial in our deck, he’s mainly there as the aforementioned fuel for Vicarious Living. Our preferred 3-drop is Cardiac. As far as stats go, Cardiac is certainly on the low end of the spectrum. However, his ability to recover a smaller character (assuming a Team-Up) or stun a smaller character can be invaluable in this deck. Moreover, a quick team-up with X-Men can allow Cardiac and Xavier’s School to sow an absolute cataclysm on weenie decks. Hank Hall ◊ Hawk and Dawn Granger ◊ Dove will know the true terror of a beta-particle generator!

Turn 4 looks much like turn 3. We have a strong character from the Marvel Knights team in the form of Moon Knight. On the turns when you control the initiative, he can be a very forceful presence. In addition, he can substitute as a 6-drop in a pinch. However, our real plans at 4 include two of the best at clobbering weenies. Hawkeye, Clinton Barton will make a single appearance in the deck for the simple fact that he can snipe a 2-drop or two 1-drops with a single shot. Of course, ask any Vs. System player, and he or she will tell you that the card is mightier than the arrow. That’s why we have four spots reserved for the ragin’ Cajun himself, Gambit. I think this article has sufficiently documented the effectiveness of the combo between Destiny and Gambit; as such, it would be foolish to leave him out of the mix.

Our final trio of characters comes at the 5-drop slot. In the unlikely circumstance that we miss Gambit on turn 4, we’ll have a copy of Sunfire on 5 to take up where the Cajun left off. Of course, if you run into a weenie rush or a vomit deck, you might just want to recruit both characters! A board with Cardiac, Gambit, and Sunfire could quickly turn Faces of Evil into Faces of “D’oh!” Next, we’ll toss in one copy Daredevil, Matt Murdock. His large ATK, combined with his ability to hide in the hidden area and strike back at opponents after they have attacked, could certainly be beneficial for Destiny’s effect. But of course, he’s mostly just in there to discard for another 5-drop.

Our VIP at 5 is the man, the myth, the legend . . . wait a minute, did I say “man?” Okay . . . that was a mistake, because he isn’t really a man in the strictest sense of the word—he’s a Martian! He is none other that Martian Manhunter, J’onn J’onzz.*** One of the big problems this deck will have in later turns is surviving the damage that bigger characters can do. J’onn solves that problem by giving adjacent characters reinforcement. In addition, those adjacent characters also get +2 ATK while defending. Combo Martian Manhunter’s effect with a Heat Vision and you get . . . wait for it . . . +5 ATK!

(See, I told you so!)

The real beauty of Mr. J’onzz is the fact that it is nearly impossible for your opponent to get an attack on him. Martian Manhunter laughs at No Man Escapes The Manhunters!**** Unless your opponent has something that enables him or her to attack hidden characters, or a random exhaustion effect such as Justice, Like Lightning, J’onzz will get a chance to swing back at the character that Destiny predicted would take a dirt nap.

Here’s the final build:

Ill Omens (60 cards)

Characters: 34

4 Destiny, Irene Adler

4 Dagger, Child of Light

4 Micro-Chip, Linus Lieberman

2 Mikado and Mosha, Angels of Destruction

2 Lacuna, Media Darling

2 Pyro, St. John Allerdyce

1 Daredevil, Protector of Hell’s Kitchen

4 Cardiac, Elias Wirtham

1 Moon Knight, Mark Spector

1 Hawkeye, Clinton Barton

4 Gambit, Remy Lebeau

1 Sunfire, Shiro Yoshida

1 Daredevil, Matt Murdock

3 Martian Manhunter, J’onn J’onzz

Locations: 4

4 Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters

Plot Twists: 22

4 Midnight Sons

4 Wild Ride

4 Vicarious Living

2 Marvel Team-Up

4 Heat Vision

4 Jailbird

It looks like a bit of a nightmare, but it is surprisingly consistent. The mulligan condition is usually Wild Ride. I suppose you might consider keeping a hand with a decent curve and Xavier’s School. However, I found that hitting the curve (with the exception of turn 2) is the key to success with the deck. If you manage to do that, then Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters is almost a “win more” condition.

The initiative is not much of an issue. However, you want to keep Destiny, Irene Adler around as long as possible. The deck pretty much demolishes any weenie rush deck. I found that with the right combination of cards, you can usually have any off-curve deck below 10 endurance by turn 4. This leaves Martian Manhunter free to deliver the coup de grace on turn 5.

Well, that does it for this week’s edition of Breaking Ground. If you have any suggestions or comments or just wish to make witty remarks about my squirrel hat, feel free to send them to BigSpooky1@hotmail.com. I may not immediately reply (mostly because my bosses make sure that I have as little free time as possible), but I’ll eventually get back to you.

Take care, and I’ll see everyone in So Cal. No, wait! I already saw everyone in So Cal. So . . . um . . . it was great seeing everyone at the PC . . . AAARGH! I’m so confused!

* Actually, this is only partially a joke. At the hobby shop I frequent (JJK Cards in Richardson), a couple of the players built a GLEE Lords deck that completely demolished Sentinels. Unfortunately, it lost badly to early-game rush decks, so they didn’t end up taking it to So Cal as they had planned. Don’t worry, though—I’ll have a build of it available for curious deckbuilders in a future article.

** I actually do try to avoid overusing Lacuna. But her effect is just so amazing in Team-Up decks! While I promise to cut back on her appearances, she will be a frequent visitor to Breaking Ground. Besides, she’s a friggin’ media darling—of course you’re going to see her all over the place!

*** In case you hadn’t guessed from my avatar on VsRealms.com, I am a huge Martian Manhunter fan! I’m not sure why he holds such appeal for me, but I am very glad that both versions of him in the JLA set are highly playable cards. Now, if only Midnight Cravings were just a little better. There’s a card I need to find a way to break!

**** Ooh! Irony!