Well, after a few Infinite Crisis Sneak Preview–filled weeks, we’re back to the norm of janky deck ideas here on Breaking Ground. I have to give UDE credit—they did a phenomenal job with the new set. I would not be at all surprised to see Infinite Crisis have a major impact on the metagame of PC: San Francisco and Silver Age in general.

Zen and the Art of Vs. System Maintenance

One thing that never changes is my constant whining about how difficult it is to come up with new deck ideas week-in and week-out. That is one reason why I feature deck ideas and builds from other players. The fact is that I’m not talented enough to make unique and interesting ideas every single week. Granted, there are times when I have a wealth of ideas just waiting to be explored. Other times, I have to dig pretty deep to find inspiration. I know that I am personally grateful for new set releases because they provide more material for me to work with.

With a card pool of more than two thousand in Vs. System, you wouldn’t think that this would be a problem. However, I have come to accept that certain cards really can’t be broken. For example, Midnight Cravings is one of my favorite cards from an art and flavor perspective, but unless your metagame is rife with G’Lock and little else, it doesn’t really do all that much.

That being said, my job is infinitely easier than that of the folks at Vs. System Research & Development. Whereas I am personally short of deckbuilding talent at times, there is never a shortage of talent there. With some of the best and brightest TCG minds in the business, UDE R&D has consistently managed to produce a high quality product with enough stability for each set to integrate easily into prior sets, yet enough variety for each new set to provide a unique play experience.

One of my favorite aspects of new set releases is the introduction of new mechanics and keywords. These mechanics serve one of two distinct purposes: 1) to clarify and clean up existing game mechanics (such as “loyalty” and “replace”); and 2) to add new dimensions to the game (via keywords such as “concealed” and “willpower”). To wax philosophical for a moment, if we are to assume that our beloved game is a living, breathing thing, then it needs to be able to expand in bold and different directions to keep growing at a healthy pace.* The inception of new mechanics helps to keep our game fresh and interesting.

Two recent mechanics come to mind when I think about today’s theme card. The first is “crossover.” This mechanic falls into the first category mentioned above; the crossover keyword is used to replace the old Team-Up verbiage. Of course, crossover adds more in that it also teams-up character cards in the removed-from-play zone and the resource row. The latter of these additions could make for some interesting decks. Imagine going into turn 6, recruiting a Manhunter Engineer, and then using its effect to bring out . . . Robot Destroyer? There were some similar shenanigans that could have occurred with Underground Sentinel Base, but UDE saw how potentially dangerous it could be to allow players to bring out 5-drop Army characters with it, so they posted an erratum to limit it to Army character cards with the printed Sentinel affiliation.

The second mechanic that I think of is “reservist.” Michael Jacob, Karl Bown, and Vidi Wijaya have all shown how potent the reservist mechanic can be. Sporting victories in major events, their decks all featured a heavy number of reservist characters. The reservist mechanic literally impacted the face of the game, as initial assumptions about deckbuilding were changed to favor the new mechanic. Resource replacement effects went from being potentially tragic to amazingly beneficial, as they effectively allowed you to draw extra cards. And the standard of fifty to fifty-five percent character cards in a deck was thrown out the window for decks that played up to seventy percent character cards with little else besides ATK pumps to support the deck. It was quite the paradigm shift, to say the least.

Not Quite What I Meant by “Having Teammates Over for Dinner” . . .

These new mechanics are cause for personal reflection on one of my earlier Vs. System decks. Shortly after PC: LA 2004 and the dominance of Teen Titans, I started experimenting with a Curve Spider-Friends build to deal with “Those Meddling Kids!” The Spider-Friends team was not nearly as fast as Teen Titans and usually lost miserably to any kind of rush (such as The New Brotherhood), but it had very good matchups against decks with any kind of board-control element. Ricochet and Nice Try! were satisfying answers to the problems that Overload, Reign of Terror, and Roy Harper ◊ Arsenal were for most people.

One big problem with Spider-Friends, however, was its lack of a strong 6-drop. The deck was almost unstoppable if you could get to turn 7 and Spider-Man, The Amazing Spider-Man, but such considerations were often naught because the character choices at 6 were woefully underpowered. Even though Iceman, Cool Customer had average stats and a decent effect, he really wasn’t good enough to break the game open for the Spider-Friends.

One character, however, who had tons of potential was Mattie Franklin ◊ Spider-Woman. While she is initially just an 11 ATK / 11 DEF 6-drop with flight and range, her effect has the potential to make her much, much bigger.** In a basic Spider-Friends deck, Mattie Franklin’s effect is usually good for one or two character cards. But in a character-heavy deck, a player could often have five or six character cards in the resource row. Basically, whenever Mattie attacks or defends, she could potentially be 17 ATK / 17 DEF! There isn’t a 6-drop in the game that can attack over that without some help. Of course, if Mattie is team attacked, then her effect triggers for each attacker. Just imagine the possibilities of having a 23 ATK / 23 DEF 6-drop guarding your endurance. Top that, Bastion!

Of course, I eventually ended up setting the deck aside because I couldn’t find a good answer for The New Brotherhood. But since then, the game has changed. We still have weenie rush decks, but we have answers for them now, too. And more importantly, we have the Silver Age. And guess what isn’t in the Silver Age: The New Brotherhood! So out comes Mattie Franklin to play once again.

The Build

Back to basics: four copies of Mattie Franklin.

Unless I’m missing my guess, the Spider-Friends team doesn’t have any reservist characters. However, our Brotherhood character choices should more than make up for this disparity. At the 1-slot, we have Rem-Ram. While his stats are certainly nothing to write home about, he does provide us with a decent deck-cycling effect and a minor source of hand advantage. In later turns, he basically acts as food for Mattie Franklin or any number of other reservist-cycling effects (as we shall see!).

At the 2-slot, our choices are pretty clear-cut (as there are only two Brotherhood reservists at 2). First, we have Chrome. While not an overwhelming character by any means, he is a respectable 3 ATK / 2 DEF with an effect that is occasionally relevant. The simple truth is that he’s in here mostly because he’s a Brotherhood reservist. The same cannot be said of our other 2-drop, Amelia Voght. While her stats are unremarkable, she is amazing from a board-control perspective. There are several decks that can recruit 1-drops for free. But Amelia Voght is currently the only playable 2-drop in the game that has an alternate recruit cost (can’t count Mr. Mxyzptlk, sorry!). Against decks like Faces of Evil and G’Lock, which can flood the board with smaller characters, having an extra character of your own can be very helpful indeed.

Speaking of flooding the board, let’s see if those weenies can break through our primary 3-drop, Joanna Cargill. At 6 ATK / 6 DEF, she is easily one of the biggest 3-drops in Vs. System. She can become significantly smaller if we start flipping face-up resources. However, this probably won’t be an issue until later in the game. If Joanna Cargill is still on the board at that time, then we’ll probably already be winning by enough that her effect won’t matter. As a backup to Joanna, we have Senyaka. Senyaka boasts decent stats and an effect that can get us anywhere from 2 to 10 extra endurance loss per game (if we recruit Amelia Voght multiple times). Of course, his boost isn’t bad either, as it will usually gain him an extra 3 to 6 ATK for that turn.

Turn 4 is where we really need to start making choices. Since we are sporting a deck-cycling theme, Spoor is probably a reasonable choice for our deck. Not only does Spoor work into the notion that cycling reservists draws us extra cards, but his effect is a free +3 ATK to any of our characters while attacking. Such an effect can be invaluable should we consider attacking up the curve. Our primary drop at 4, however, is going to be Anne-Marie Cortez. Not only does Anne-Marie Cortez boast above-average stats for a 4-drop, but she also has one of the most disruptive effects in the Vs. System, period! Familiarity with archetypes is a definite benefit, as she can shut down plot twists that can stymie your efforts. Worried about Lanterns in Love bringing back Sinestro, Green Lantern of Korugar? Reveal a 2-cost character. Trying to avoid a stunback from Heroes in Reserve? There’s another good reason to have Rem-Ram in your resource row. With the right characters, Anne-Marie can literally remove any threats that your opponent might have to offer.

Our picks at turn 5 will seem a bit strange, but hopefully, a bit of explanation will make things clear. Our backup here is actually going to be Sabretooth, Savage Killer. Yes, yes, I know that he’s one of the best characters in the game and that he can single-handedly destroy decks that rely on hidden characters. However, he doesn’t fit into our deck-cycling theme nearly as well as our primary 5-drop, Scanner. Scanner seems rather unassuming at first, but her effect actually plays into our deck strategy—she can set up the cards that Mattie Franklin will put into play with her effect. Armed with the knowledge that Mattie will be providing us with an extra ATK pump or two on turn 6, we can usually do a lot more damage on our attack steps. Having a 10 ATK / 9 DEF 5-drop with concealed—optional certainly doesn’t hurt, either.

We will usually want to go for the kill on turn 6 with Mattie Franklin. However, if things don’t go as planned or we are stuck with the odd initiatives, we have a couple of copies of Fabian Cortez for the win on turn 7. His effect is brutal when we attack, effectively doubling the amount of damage we can dish out via stunning our opponent’s characters. But he won’t be of much help defensively. Hopefully, though, that won’t usually be an issue for our deck.

As far as plot twists go, we have a few very easy choices. First and definitely foremost, we need four copies of Planet X. This is one of the Team-Up cards from the X-Men set that makes this crazy concoction possible via the crossover keyword. And, if we draw multiple copies, it also works as an ATK pump in a pinch. However, it is the cornerstone card for our turn 6 strategy, so we should never use it as an ATK pump unless we have extras. Of course, being so critical to the deck, we probably need a way to search out Planet X. This is why we’ll include two copies of Teamwork. Our deck-cycling effects should enable us to get a copy of Planet X in play during most games; Teamwork just provides a little more insurance that we will have the all-important Planet X in play by turn 6.

Of course, it’s also pretty darn important that we have our 6-drop in hand by turn 6. We can hedge our bets a bit by making her our mulligan condition, but even with the most aggressive mulligan, we will occasionally miss her (or possibly put her in the resource row . . . d’oh!). So we have to run two copies of—you guessed it—Enemy of My Enemy. Much like Teamwork, Enemy of My Enemy is in our deck specifically to search out one card. It is possible that, if we get extra copies of Mattie Franklin, we can use Enemy of My Enemy to search out other characters. However, that situation will not arise very often.

So, what about pure ATK pumps? Oh, we have plenty! We’ll be playing four copies of Heroes in Reserve and its functional Brotherhood equivalent, The Acolytes. The versatility of these two cards can certainly not be ignored, as each is usually good for several points of ATK while attacking or defending. We may be in the Silver Age, but who says that we can’t still have Savage Beatdown and Nasty Surprise?

In addition, we’ll be playing three copies of Air Strike. This unassuming card from the Justice League set has a couple of neat synergies with the deck. At the very least, it will be +2 ATK and a free cycle of one of the cards in our resource row. But if we get a problematic plot twist in our resource row that we can’t effectively use (like an Enemy of My Enemy that we don’t need), the Air Strike can cycle that card out of the row and give us an additional +2 ATK (that’s +4 ATK total for the non-math majors out there).

Our final plot twist is a bit more subtle, but effective nonetheless. As an ATK pump, Go Down Fighting is pretty weak. The versatility of +1 ATK on attack or defense might occasionally be useful, but not very often. However, the other effect should be very useful. With a quick reveal of Go Down Fighting, we can move our stunned characters back to our resource row. Not only does that enable us to replace face-up plot twists that might hinder our strategy (and make Joanna Cargill weaker, for that matter), but it also has an absolutely brutal synergy with Amelia Voght. Since we will pretty much always be able to recruit Amelia for free, Go Down Fighting becomes a source of a free recruit for us every turn! If Amelia Voght doesn’t become stunned, then we really haven’t lost any board advantage. But if she does become stunned, then Go Down Fighting will ensure that she comes back for the next turn.

I think that does it. Let’s take a look and see what Mattie Franklin is cooking:

Lunch Reservations (60 cards)

Characters (38)

4 Rem-Ram, Acolyte

4 Amelia Voght, Acolyte

4 Chrome, Acolyte

4 Joanna Cargill, Acolyte

3 Senyaka, Acolyte

4 Anne-Marie Cortez, Acolyte

3 Spoor, Acolyte

2 Sabretooth, Savage Killer

4 Scanner, Acolyte

4 Mattie Franklin ◊ Spider-Woman, Gift of Power

2 Fabian Cortez, Acolyte

Plot Twists (22)

3 Air Strike

2 Enemy of My Enemy

3 Go Down Fighting

4 Heroes in Reserve

4 Planet X, Team-Up

2 Teamwork

4 The Acolytes

As mentioned earlier, evens are the preferred initiatives for this deck, as they allow Mattie Franklin to swing away for as much damage as possible. Of course, she should also be effective while defending, so having odd initiatives for a turn 7 kill with Fabian Cortez is probably not outside the realm of possibility.

More importantly, however, is the mulligan. Personally, I wouldn’t ever mulligan any hand with Mattie Franklin in it. But if you have an opening four that sets up your early game (like having Rem-Ram, Chrome, and Amelia Voght), it might be tough to throw that one away. With the deck-cycling effects and Scanner, you should more often than not get Mattie by turn 6. There will probably be times when you drop her in the resource row with Spoor’s or Scanner’s effect, but that is why we play four copies!

That’s all for this week. Assuming that I can find another card to break, I’ll be back in full swing again next week. If you have any thoughts, ideas, suggestions, or whatever else, feel free to send them to me at BigSpooky1@hotmail.com. I may or may not get back to you, but I will certainly read and appreciate anything that you have to say.

Much like Tim Batow at a pool party, I am outta here!***

* Sorry. I’ve been watching too many melodramatic TV shows lately. Curse you, Desperate Housewives!!!

** I recall once reading (I forget the source) a discussion of Mattie Franklin’s effect being akin to a spider wrapping up insects to eat at some point in the future. Hence the reference to “teammates for dinner.” Yeah . . . bad joke, I know.

*** If you are interested in the reference to Tim Batow going for a late night swim, check out Shane Wiggans’s new column on Metagame.com, Theoretically Speaking. Oh yeah . . . there’s some stuff about Vs. System in there, too!