The Sentry™
Card# MTU-017

While his stats aren’t much bigger than those of the average 7-drop, Sentry’s “Pay ATK” power can drastically hinder an opponent’s attacking options in the late game.
Click here for more

One Step Beyond: Modern Justice

Steve Garrett

July 24, 2006

View all articles by this author

As promised, this week we have a “two for the price of one” special as we take a look at two of the teams that are likely to be a prominent part of Pro Circuit Indy 2006.

The JLA and the JLI have caused quite a stir since arriving on the Vs. System scene. The Good Guys deck is awesome on two fronts: it is great fun to play with, and it is incredibly effective. It has been a regular fixture in the Top 8 of most Constructed tournaments, and it’s so good that I imagine it will Top 8 the next DC Modern Age competition. The most recent success was a fine victory for Nicolas Cuenca at $10K Boston. The Boston event was a Golden Age tournament, but Good Guys also had a Top 8 showing at the Silver Age $10K Charlotte.

The deck has proven itself to be viable in two of our three Constructed formats; how will it do in the third? Well, the smart money is clearly on a strong performance from Good Guys, considering that the vast majority of the cards are DC Modern legal. I am quite sure that the builds of the day will all have a similar spine, with a few cosmetic changes to distinguish them. Personally, I prefer a more aggressive build that utilizes the powerful Trial by Fire. I know there are many players who would disagree with this approach, but that is the beauty of our game—we have plenty of scope to tune a deck to suit our personal preferences. If you’re looking for a starting point for your testing, here is the build I am currently using:

Characters

4 Sue Dibny, Charismatic Coordinator

4 Ted Kord ◊ Blue Beetle, Heir of the Scarab

3 Mr. Mxyzptlk, Troublesome Trickster

1 Adam Strange

1 Connor Hawke ◊ Green Arrow, Son of the Archer

4 Booster Gold, Michael Jon Carter

4 Shayera Thal ◊ Hawkwoman, Thanagarian Enforcer

2 Katar Hol ◊ Hawkman, Eternal Hero

2 Katar Hol ◊ Hawkman, Thanagarian Enforcer

2 Fire, Beatriz DaCosta

2 John Henry Irons ◊ Steel, Steel-Drivin’ Man

Plot Twists

4 World’s Greatest Heroes, Team-Up

4 Magnificent Seven

4 Straight to the Grave

Locations

Equipment

1 High-Tech Flare Gun

I’ll not dwell any further on the Good Guys deck. I’m sure it will be one of the top three decks played on the day, and if you’re looking for some detailed analysis on the deck, then look no further than Graham Van Leeuwen’s excellent analysis of the Silver Age version.

So, what else do the JLA and JLI bring to the table? Without a doubt, ally is the most dominant theme for both teams, and any other strategy will be inferior to that. But does that mean we should not try the road less traveled? Here are a couple of sub-themes that you may want to consider.

Willpower

Willpower is present on a decent proportion of the characters and there are a few cards that will work off this keyword. Wall of Will is a potentially strong defensive card in a deck built to use willpower. Many players often overlook defensive pumps because they are reactive in nature. For quite some time, there has been a strong emphasis on high-speed aggression in tournament decks, where anything that did not provide an attacking benefit was shelved in favor of something with a little more bite. However, as has been demonstrated by decks like G’Lock and, more recently, Villains United / X-Statix, a solid defensive game can be just as potent. It may take a turn or two longer, but you can still end up with the win. If you can steal the initiative by successfully brickwalling your opponent’s attacks on any given turn, you will have earned yourself a huge advantage. I’ve not used a martial arts analogy in quite some time (“thank goodness,” I hear you say), but I always teach my martial art students that patience is a virtue. If you sit back, relax, and control your opponent’s attacks, you will find your way to victory. When your opponent has over-stretched or expended too much energy trying to beat you down, finishing him or her off is often a simple task for the fighter who remained disciplined and calm. I have always fought this way, and I find that this is reflected in the way I play Vs. System.

Satellite HQ is another card that utilizes willpower to its advantage. Providing a defensive boost to your attacker who would otherwise stun can be an extremely effective way to gain board control. Given the average willpower value of characters in the JLA and JLI, Satellite HQ would often allow you to attack up the curve without fear of stun-back. Its additional ability to facilitate attacks on your opponent’s concealed characters is particularly useful in an environment where a hidden, location-searching 3-drop is expected to be prevalent.

Plot Twist Control

Okay, so this is very thin, but there are a couple of options for controlling plot twists between the two teams. First is Monitor Womb Station. I quite like this card, but to use it effectively, you have to know (or at least make an educated guess about) what your opponent may play. You would do well to consider adding it to your Good Guys deck. While I’m not generally a fan of “teching for tech,” it will certainly protect you from a couple of cards that could cause you a headache. Magical Lobotomy and Multiverse Power Battery could be a problem for you, and I would expect that anyone anticipating Good Guys as a threat would consider those cards for their tech slots.

Now is probably as good a time as any to mention the issue of teching (including cards in your deck that are specifically designed to neutralize threats that other decks pose). I spend a lot of time reading through sites like VsRealms, and I’ve noticed that there seem to be a lot of people who are preoccupied with tech to the extent that they sacrifice the integrity of their decks to include a tech card for every scenario. Now, I’m not a master deckbuilder, but I know that this is not a good practice. As a general rule, I allow just three to four slots for tech. If you have a reliable search mechanism like Kooey Kooey Kooey, you can afford to spread your options and have a few one-ofs. If you don’t have such flexibility, then pick one card that you feel will have the biggest impact on the most likely threat to your deck and put three to four copies in. If you crash landed in the middle of deepest, darkest Africa and were surrounded by wild animals just drooling at the possibility of chewing on your femur, would you rather have a Swiss army knife or a two-foot-long, serrated-edged machete?

Monitor Womb Station is a good pick because it covers a wide range of potential threats, including the above-mentioned cards. A few other cards to consider as threats are Trial by Fire (Good Guys), Power Siphon and Criminal Mastermind (Injustice Gang), Threat Neutralized (Checkmate), Abjuration (Shadowpact), and No Hope (Villains United).

There are a couple of other control aspects to the JLA in particular. Wonder Woman, Avatar of Truth works well in partnership with Monitor Womb Station. Her ability is cosmic (and so a little shaky), but if you’re going along the lines of a willpower deck, you will have access to some defensive tricks with which to try to protect her and Zatanna, Zatanna Zatara to replace her counter should she lose it. Batman, Avatar of Justice and Ray Palmer ◊ The Atom do their fair share of negation.

JLI Team Attack

The JLI has a secondary theme that is better supported than the JLA’s backup strategies, but again, it really does best if another team is involved. Justice League Task Force is the DC Modern Age version of Faces of Evil, and in the right situation, the deck can do a lot of damage. Given the number of useful locations in the format, Catherine Cobert, Embassy Chief can give your attackers a very healthy boost, especially alongside Kimiyo Hoshi ◊ Dr. Light. Red Tornado from the JLA ranks has a familiar ability for those who played with the team-attacking teens from DC Origins, and there are other options among both the JLA and JLI. Team attacking is a better-supported second strategy than anything the JLA has and probably presents your best alternative use of these two teams. The JLI Embassy is useful for keeping characters alive, but you may find that you suffer from a diminishing hand.

Location, Location, Location

There is a TV program in the U.K. about people buying houses. It’s horrible, but my wife loves it and I generally have to endure a couple of episodes a week. It was during one such televisual spectacular that I decided to sneak off to the study to throw a few deck ideas together. Inspired (?) by the program I had just left behind, I looked for a location-based deck. Obviously, Checkmate is the property tycoon of DC Modern Age, but I wanted to hash something together using multiple teams. As I’ve said many times before, a deck’s not worth building if you can’t use at least two teams. The jank monster within was let loose and I decided I liked the look of a JLI / Checkmate team-up.

Characters

4 Ted Kord ◊ Blue Beetle

4 Maxwell Lord, Financier

2 Katar Hol ◊ Hawkman, Thanagarian Enforcer

4 Roy Harper ◊ Arsenal, Knight

1 Martian Manhunter, J’onn J’onzz

2 Huntress, Reluctant Queen

Plot Twists

Locations

4 Brother I Satellite

4 Checkmate Safe House

Equipment

Roy Harper is the focus of the Artifacts, making for a strong attacking force and a good off-initiative ability and simultaneously keeping our resource row to the optimal four. Hey, it’s janky and it uses the Artifacts—it ticks all the boxes in my checklist for decks for the common man.

In summary, 98% of the players who use these teams at PC: Indy will probably be playing Good Guys in one form or another. If you, like me, are one of those non-conformist, casual players, hopefully something you’ve read today will give you an idea of how to spice up your deck.

Deckbuilder Challenge Cup

Before I go, it’s time to set the fourth challenge in our series. Next week, I will have the results of DBC #3, but until then, get your brain cells working on this one.

DBC #4 – Frustration

As I was talking about over-teching earlier, it seemed like a decent focus for today’s challenge. Your objective is to build a deck whose sole purpose is to thwart your opponents’ plans. I’m not interested in a deck that reduces your opponent to 0 endurance. I’m not interested in an alternate win condition. The purpose of your deck should be the alternate alternate win condition. Your deck should win by frustrating your opponent to the point where that player throws his or her cards in the air and walks off in disgust.

The rules are as follows:

60 card minimum
Current ban list applies
Minimum of three teams in your deck
You must include at least one paragraph of description text with your submission

As ever, you can submit by emailing me at kamiza989@gmail.com or by popping along to my website (www.the-kamiza.com) and posting your submission on the dedicated thread. Submissions must be in to me by Monday, July 31.

Enjoy,

Steve Garrett

Top of Page