Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages . . . We are on the precipice of a new age in Vs. System. In two short days, Pro Circuit Indianapolis will get underway and the next DC Modern Age will have officially begun. Some of you may be completely and totally prepared. Others may have little idea about what we will see and are eagerly awaiting the tech that innovative Vs. System players will be sporting at Gen Con Indy.
In anticipation of this new age, I have once again assembled my list of twenty-five cards that may have quite an impact on the upcoming DC Modern Age. The list is composed of ten cards from Justice League of America, ten cards from Infinite Crisis, and five cards that deserve their own personal section. So get ready . . . it’s time to take a peek at the upcoming DC Modern format!
Justice League of America
1) Air Strike
We open with a redux of one of my favorite cards from Marvel Origins. In my preview article for Silver Age, I said that I believed that Flying Kick was “quite possibly the perfect card.” It is a well-balanced pump that provides multiple benefits without being overly powerful. Air Strike is crafted from the same mold as Flying Kick. Absent of any other effects, Air Strike gives a character flight and +2 ATK while attacking that turn. This is decent, being only +1 ATK off the standard of Flying Kick. Of course, Air Strike doesn’t stop there. The secondary effect allows us to replace a face-down card in our resource row to give the targeted character a potential extra +2 ATK. This effect reaps multiple potential benefits. Not only can we give one of our characters an impressive +4 ATK and flight, but we can also cycle dead cards out of our resource row for potentially useful replacements. All in all, Air Strike is a great replacement for Flying Kick in DC Modern Age.
2) Die for Darkseid!
Oh, how much opinions have changed since the release of Justice League of America. Initially, Die for Darkseid! was pretty much viewed as a counter for Gorilla Grodd in Sealed Pack play. But successful aggro-burn decks like Mexican Hardware Store and High Voltage have shown that Die for Darkseid! is a much more powerful card than anyone had initially realized. Turning characters that we would otherwise lose into a source of endurance loss is not at all a bad trade. And there are certainly cards that will see play in DC Modern Age that Die for Darkseid! combos very well with (Zazzala ◊ Queen Bee, Mistress of the Hive, for example). Ironically, Die for Darkseid! hasn’t seen any real use in a Darkseid’s Elite deck. Even so, it is a very powerful burn card that is sure to cause a great deal of damage and dismay in DC Modern.
3) Gorilla Grodd, Simian Mastermind
One of the prevailing theories of Constructed deckbuilding is that if a card is strong in Sealed Pack play, then it should be effective in Constructed play as well. If this is, in fact, the case, then Gorilla Grodd should be an absolute beast (no pun intended) in DC Modern. The Simian Mastermind has already seen a moderate amount of play in Golden and Silver Age G’Lock decks as an answer to short-curve and off-curve decks. It may seem like a poor trade to KO one of your characters to steal a smaller character, but Gorilla Grodd’s effect is a bit more subtle than that. It might help to think of Gorilla Grodd’s effect as saying, “Pay 1 resource point à KO target character.” Okay . . . so his effect isn’t quite that simple. Nevertheless, there is little doubt that stealing an opposing Katar Hol ◊ Hawkman, Thanagarian Enforcer or Bizarro, ME AM BIZARRO #1 can be absolutely devastating to you opponent. For that reason, Gorilla Grodd is sure to be an ape to contend with in the new format.
4) Nth Metal
Vs. System players have typically had a love-hate relationship with equipment. In the early sets, the equipment cards certainly weren’t bad, but aside from a few standouts like Fantasticar and Personal Force Field, most equipment cards were not viewed as powerful or effective enough to merit play. More recent sets have remedied this problem with a slew of powerful equipment cards that have seen play in a variety of decks. One of my personal favorites is Nth Metal. At face value, Nth Metal seems to be little more than Borrowed Blade with a twist. Both cards are effectively +1 ATK / +1 DEF while in combat. So what makes Nth Metal so good? The answer lies in the decks in which Nth Metal is played. When you stick it in a deck full of ally characters, Nth Metal becomes an MVP. Not only do you now have a free, reliable way of powering-up your characters, but you can also trigger a multitude of effects in a single attack. In a Good Guys deck, it is not uncommon to see a board of Booster Gold; Shayera Thal ◊ Hawkwoman; Katar Hol ◊ Hawkman, Thanagarian Enforcer; and Fire. With these characters in play, Nth Metal goes from a vanilla +1 ATK / +1 DEF to a +3 ATK / +2 DEF that burns your opponent for 2 endurance and allows you to search your deck. Top that, Borrowed Blade!
5) Poison Ivy, Deadly Rose
Poison Ivy is another character who has already had a profound impact on Golden and Silver Age decks. The Donkey Club piloted a powerful stall deck that utilized an engine of Poison Ivy; Dr. Light, Master of Holograms; and Puppet Master. And who can forget TDC’s Ivy League deck from PC: San Francisco? The Deadly Rose was the namesake card and an integral part of the deck. Because the amount of low-cost character recursion is significantly reduced in DC Modern Age, Poison Ivy may not be quite the powerhouse that she was in previous Ages. Still, there is something to be said for the ability to put any location directly into your resource row. Poison Ivy isn’t the premier location searcher in DC Modern Age—that title belongs to a notorious White King from Checkmate. Still, she has the potential to be a very potent force in off-curve decks. Better yet, you won’t have to worry about losing the game if she goes to the KO’d pile!
6) Satellite HQ
I suppose it’s fitting that since we just discussed a location searcher, we now talk about one of the locations that we’re bound to see in the new format. Many people have mentioned that there is a dearth of cards in DC Modern Age that can effectively deal with hidden characters. While this is not as much of an issue in this format because there are not too many powerful characters with concealed, it is still a valid consideration. Since there are several potent location searchers in DC Modern, it only makes sense to have a tech card to address the issue of “hidden hate.” Enter Satellite HQ. While Satellite HQ does lack a lot of the versatility of other “hidden hate” locations (like Sewer System and Psychoville), it is still an effective means of enabling characters to attack opposing hidden characters. If it weren’t so easily searched, then it might not be worth playing. But I have a feeling that Satellite HQ will be a one-of tech card in several DC Modern decks.
7) Slaughter Swamp
When the Modern Age format was first announced, it filled a lot of people with eager anticipation. No longer would the same Golden Age decks rule the Pro Circuit. Instead, new and innovative deckbuilding ideas would be allowed to flourish in this new restricted format. And as successful and interesting as this experiment has been, it has led to its share of aggravation with regard to deckbuilding. One of the main issues has been the limited amount of KO’d pile manipulation available in the Modern Ages. Golden Age has long been rife with successful decks that continuously interact with the KO’d pile, including Big Brotherhood, Teen Titans, and Curve Sentinels. However, the loss of recursion options cut off a vital avenue of deckbuilding. As a result, recursion cards like Dr. Light, Master of Holograms and Hard Sound Construct became MVPs in their respective formats, as they were really the only legal cards that could effectively work with the KO’d pile.
In the new DC Modern Age, however, there is an abundance of options for effective recursion. Return of Donna Troy mimics Reconstruction Program; and Aquaman, King of the Seven Seas has the potential to be three times as potent as his pupil, Garth ◊ Tempest, albeit at a greater cost. But the recursion card of choice for many decks will be the updated Avalon Space Station, Slaughter Swamp. Slaughter Swamp has already made its presence felt in Silver Age, and even in Golden Age to a limited extent. Now, in a format that was lacking in recursion options in the past, Slaughter Swamp stands to become a staple of many decks.
8) Straight to the Grave
Of course, one reason that Slaughter Swamp stands to become so prominent in DC Modern is because the strongest generic character searcher in the format, Straight to the Grave, needs a potent method of recursion to work. As such, we should expect to see a lot of decks packing multiple copies of Slaughter Swamp to support Straight to the Grave. Of course, Straight to the Grave is a strong card in its own right. With a copy of Fiddler in play, we can easily bypass the restriction of needing Slaughter Swamp in play to retrieve a searched character. And cards like Mr. Mxyzptlk, Troublesome Trickster; Deadshot, Dead Aim; and Attend or Die support Straight to the Grave in ways that make recursion almost unnecessary. I would expect that we’ll be seeing Gorilla Grodd toss a lot of characters into the KO’d pile in this format.
9) Ted Kord ◊ Blue Beetle, High-Tech Hero
Remember when searching for an equipment card in your deck was more trouble than it was worth? I’m pretty sure that there was a character in Marvel Origins whose cost to search for an equipment card was “Activate, discard a card, return this character to your hand, flip three coins simultaneously, dance the Macarena, and recite the Pledge of Allegiance backwards while standing on your head and balancing a one-gallon bottle of milk on your toes.” As Tim Batow is the only Vs. System player who could realistically accomplish this feat, there wasn’t a lot of interest in equipment tutoring. Several sets later, the Avengers introduced a little hairy lady known as Ape X. She brought equipment searching to a new plateau, as she only needed to come into play to find any equipment card in your deck. Judging by the popularity of the Squadron Supreme decks (packed with oodles of powerful equipment cards) over the past nine months, I’d say that the Vs. System public wholeheartedly approved.
Apparently, UDE took the cue from Ape X’s success. In the Justice League of America set, we got a character who is an even better equipment tutor than the Squadron simian. Ted Kord ◊ Blue Beetle is equipment search in its purest form, as he can trade a card in hand for any equipment card in your deck. He also searches out his buddy, Booster Gold. But above all else, Ted Kord can search out equipment cards more effectively than pretty much any other card to date. With the slew of strong equipment present in DC Modern, I’m sure Mr. Kord will find a home in several competitive builds.
10) World War III
The final selection from Justice League of America may be the most powerful card in the format. Back in Golden Age, the earliest we could KO all of our opponent’s characters was turn 9 (or turn 7 with some help from Latveria and Beast, Dr. Henry McCoy). In DC Modern, World War III may just be the new Gamma Bomb! Sure, World War III may be a bit more restrictive—it’s only playable by one team and only on your attack step, and it requires a sacrifice of a higher combined cost of characters than your opponent. But when you consider that the ideal archetype for playing World War III, Injustice Gang Army, excels at swarming the board, then it’s apparent that making World War III work is not difficult at all. Consider the possibilities with a character like Zazzala ◊ Queen Bee, Mistress of the Hive. Not only can you potentially eliminate all of the characters on your opponent’s board, but your opponent will also lose 2 endurance for each character that leaves play. That kind of power certainly cannot be ignored and will undoubtedly be explored by a few creative deckbuilders.
One more thing: World War III doesn’t target. This means that opponents’ cards that prevent characters from being the target of effects you control do not stop World War III! I wonder if there is a card in DC Modern where this might be important. Hmmm . . .
Honorable Mentions for Justice League of America: Captain Boomerang, George Harkness; Deadshot, Floyd Lawton; Secret Origins
Infinite Crisis
11) Ahmed Samsarra, White King
We start Infinite Crisis off with a bang with Ahmed Samsarra. The Checkmate Kings are an infamous group, boasting above average stats and game-breaking effects in one neat little package. The flip side to this is that these characters carry the devastating “King text.” In essence, if they ever go to the KO’d pile from play, you lose. Period. Of the three Checkmate Kings, none is more infamous than Ahmed Samsarra. Without even looking at his text, Ahmed Samsarra is already rather impressive with 6 ATK / 6 DEF and concealed—optional. But it is his text that makes him one of the most powerful cards in DC Modern, nay, the entire Vs. System! Prior to Infinite Crisis, the ability to bring locations directly into play from the deck was reserved for a few cards. And in most of these cases, there was a very specific, imposing cost associated with these effects (KO a character, KO a location, and so forth). Now we have Ahmed Samsarra, who says, “Exhaust me and you can replace any one of your resources with any location in your deck!” That’s it. No onerous endurance payments, no discarding of ten cards named “Robot Sentry,” no costs whatsoever other than turning the White King sideways. His death could be quite costly, but the risk of playing Ahmed Samsarra could very well be worth the reward.
12) Blinding Rage
If Air Strike is the new Flying Kick, then Blinding Rage is definitely the new Savage Beatdown. While cards like Air Strike and Trial by Fire have the potential to give +4 ATK to an attacker, Blinding Rage is the only plot twist ATK pump in DC Modern Age that is a guaranteed +4 ATK every time that it is played (assuming that it isn’t negated, of course). This kind of security is apparently important to Vs. System players, as Blinding Rage has become one of the most sought after cards from Infinite Crisis. Of course, Blinding Rage does have a threshold cost of 3, and the accompanying -4 DEF pretty much ensures that your attacker will get stunned back. Still, powerful ATK pumps are at a premium in any format, particularly for a deck that looks to attack up the curve. So, we should expect to see four copies of Blinding Rage in many decks in DC Modern Age.
13) Fatality, Flawless Victory
Total Anarchy, anyone? For anyone who was worried about the lack of weenie hate in Silver Age and DC Modern, Fatality, Flawless Victory silenced all of the critics. For curve decks, Fatality is a great tool for dealing with problematic smaller characters. Shayera Thal ◊ Hawkwoman won’t be doing much searching after Fatality sends her packing. Lex Luthor, Nefarious Philanthropist will have a tough time disrupting the game if he isn’t in play. And Ahmed Samsarra may very well be a big ol’ boy, but the thought of this vixen getting her claws into him makes him lose it . . . literally! Fatality has already had a significant impact on Silver Age as one of the control cards of choice for dealing with the devastating Ivy League deck and as one of the lynchpins in the unconventional X-Statix / Villains United deck that took $10K Charlotte by surprise. With DC Modern looking to have a lot of powerful short-curve decks (e.g. Good Guys) and many, many copies of Ahmed Samsarra, we will surely see the Vs. System’s homage to Mortal Kombat make quite a few waves in the new format.
14) Magical Lobotomy, Magic
Every Modern format has a defining deck that a very large portion of competitors will play. In the last DC Modern Age, it was Green Lantern / Emerald Enemies (GLEE). In the last Marvel Modern Age, it was “No Hand” Squadron Supreme. In the upcoming DC Modern format, the deck to beat appears to be JLA / JLI, also known as Good Guys. This deck was considered one of the best in the Silver Age, and it has lost very little in the transition to DC Modern. More importantly, the two primary cards that could keep Good Guys in check, Unmasked and Kang, Kang Cobra, won’t be present in DC Modern. With amazing consistency, powerful characters and support cards, and ease of use, there seem to be few decks that can effectively challenge the powerful ally deck. However, one contender exists in the form of Magical Lobotomy. While not as backbreaking as Unmasked, Magical Lobotomy still does quite a lot to crimp the style of Good Guys. A single copy of Magical Lobotomy will effectively negate individual power-ups. Of course, the key to the success of Good Guys is the ability to confer bonuses to each power-up. Even with Magical Lobotomy in full effect on a character, characters like Conner Hawke ◊ Green Arrow and Booster Gold can still provide some small bonus for each power-up. So, Magical Lobotomy could very well go from being a single copy tech card to a four copy staple. After all, even the amazing Katar Hol won’t be able to do much if we target him with three copies of Magical Lobotomy . . . heh heh!
15) Mr. Mxyzptlk, Troublesome Trickster
Moving from a card that many will tech to combat Good Guys, we have here a card that many will play in Good Guys. Ignore the fact that Mr. Mxyzptlk, Troublesome Trickster is a Secret Society character. In a deck like Good Guys, where cards in hand are constantly being cycled out for more useful cards in the deck (such as Nth Metal), having any card that will return to your hand from the KO’d pile is almost too good to pass up. Mr. Mxyzptlk turns the inherent card disadvantage that stems from playing equipment cards and power-ups into somewhat of a wash. With the imp from the Fifth Dimension in hand, equipment searches by Ted Kord and Shayera Thal become free cards. And there will undoubtedly be other decks that will use Mr. Mxyzptlk to maintain hand advantage. After all, unless you are playing against Injustice Gang, having extra cards in hand certainly isn’t a bad thing. Of course, if you are playing against Injustice Gang, you should probably just leave Mr. Mxyzptlk in the KO’d pile.
16) Multiverse Power Battery
And moving back to a card that many will play to combat Good Guys . . .
Multiverse Power Battery has gotten a bit of a bum rap from people who are critical of the fact that it targets characters rather than equipment cards. That notwithstanding, Multiverse Power Battery is nonetheless a fine card. My colleague on the Metagame.com coverage team, Michael Palmer, recently wrote an excellent article on the applications of Multiverse Power Battery. Okay, so Multiverse Power Battery can’t target a character equipped with Cloak of Nabu. Yes, that is a shame. But considering that this will only ever be one character in play, it’s really not a major issue. Against Good Guys, on the other hand, Multiverse Power Battery has the potential to wreak a lot of havoc. So long, Nth Metal! Those power-ups that Good Guys players rely on to trigger ally effects will be much harder to come by when Multiverse Power Battery forces them to start scrapping Nth Metals. And since it is an ongoing plot twist, Multiverse Power Battery can’t be negated by BWA HA HA HA HA! Looks like Multiverse Power Battery gets the last laugh!
17) Removed from Continuity
One personal concern of mine prior to the release of Infinite Crisis was the worry that there would not be enough effective board control cards in the DC Modern Age. While Justice League of America is one of my favorite sets, it does not possess a lot of board control cards. While a few of the teams had some decent KO effects, Death Trap was the only generic “Finishing Move” type effect. However, Infinite Crisis came through in a pinch with some very playable KO effects like Fatality, Flawless Victory and Annihilation Protocol ◊ OMAC Robot. But the king of the board control mountain in DC Modern will undoubtedly be Removed from Continuity. As powerful as Mutant Massacre was in Marvel Modern Age, Removed from Continuity has the potential to be far more dominant. For starters, Removed from Continuity can be used by any character in DC Modern (as opposed to only Mutant characters for Mutant Massacre). And while Mutant Massacre prevents an opponent from recruiting a character with the same name and version of the character you KO’d, Removed from Continuity goes a step further and removes all copies of that character card from an opponent’s hand, deck, and KO’d pile from play. Sadly, both cards are ineffective against Army characters. But such a minor drawback is truly a small price to pay for having such a powerful card at your disposal.
18) Scandal, Savage Spawn
Time for a quick round of Tri-Bond! What do Absolute Dominance, Magical Lobotomy, and Multiverse Power Battery have in common? Well, yes . . . they are all potentially powerful tech cards that could impact the DC Modern metagame. But they are also ongoing plot twists! Every format, including the Golden and Silver Ages, has one or two ongoing plot twists that impact the metagame. And until recently, there really wasn’t an effective way to search out these gems. But Infinite Crisis brought us an intriguing 6-drop in the form of Scandal. The daughter of Vandal Savage is one of the key cards to the Secret Six theme. However, UDE did players a huge favor by making Scandal an ongoing plot twist tutor instead of limiting her search to Secret Six Victorious. Now Scandal can venture outside of the world of alternate win conditions and splash into several decks that could use a powerful ongoing plot twist searcher. Of course, you do have to have a Secret Six character in play to use her effect. But with alternative Team-Up cards like Coercion for the Villains United (which doesn’t even require you to have a character from a second team in play to activate it), Scandal has some serious potential to fetch those aforementioned disruptive ongoing plot twists. She may be a dark horse pick, but I think that Scandal could be a major player in the new format.
19) T-Spheres
Much has already been said and written about off-curve theory by people far smarter than me. So I won’t go into great detail, except to say that an off-curve deck needs to have some specific theme or resource that makes it beneficial to play smaller characters. T-Spheres is a perfect example of this rationale. The Vs. System curve scale generally puts a difference of +2 ATK / +2 DEF between characters one point away on the curve. For example, a standard 4-drop has 7 ATK / 7 DEF, and a standard 5-drop has 9 ATK / 9 DEF. This difference increases and decreases as you move up and down the curve. Still, it is a good rule of thumb. Logically, then, equipping T-Spheres to a character will actually make it larger than a character one spot up the curve (assuming that the character is attacking or defending up the curve, of course).
Of course, some of the combinations possible with T-Spheres in a JLA off-curve deck are just plain amazing. Imagine T-Spheres equipped to a turn 1 Atom Smasher. Assuming that Atom Smasher gets a +1 ATK / +1 DEF counter in each of the first three turns, he’ll be too big at 4 ATK / 4 DEF for most 1-drops to take on. However, attacking down the curve on Atom Smasher becomes potentially tragic as well, as he jumps to 7 ATK / 7 DEF. Throw in a copy of Terry Sloane ◊ Mr. Terrific, Michael Holt ◊ Mr. Terrific, or both, and the combat becomes truly silly. When your 1-drop is attacking and defending at 10 ATK / 10 DEF, there is little an opponent can do but cry.
Just watch out for those wayward copies of Adam Strange!
20) Transmutation, Magic
Vs. System seems to go through cycles with regard to how much resource row hate is present in the current metagame. When Marvel Origins was the only legal set, only a few decks packed Foiled! and Ka-Boom! to deal with opposing resource row nuisances. Shortly after the first Pro Circuit, however, every deck and its dog were packing at least a few copies of Have a Blast! (largely due to the popularity of The New Brotherhood and Common Enemy). Since then, resource row hate has had its ups (GLEE with Breaking Ground, X-Mental with War of Attrition) and downs (Curve Sentinels and Squadron Supreme with nothing!) With the forecasted popularity of Checkmate Toolbox decks with entire resource rows filled with locations (due in large part to a Mr. Ahmed Samsarra), resource row hate will once again swing upward in popularity. The weapon of choice for many in DC Modern will be Transmutation. This plot twist may be the most efficient form of resource row hate to date with its very manageable cost and the ability to splash in almost any deck. Okay, so Transmutation is a bit limited in that it can’t deal with Team-Ups. Still, Team-Ups will rarely be game-breaking in any format, so this limitation isn’t really much of an issue. But cards like Slaughter Swamp and Dr. Fate’s Tower are fair game for Transmutation. It’s a sure bet that Zatanna will be transmuting a lot of pesky locations and ongoing plot twists in DC Modern Age.
Honorable Mentions for Infinite Crisis: Spectral Slaughter, Magic; Zazzala ◊ Queen Bee, Mistress of the Hive; Adam Strange, Champion of Rann
The Fate Engine
21) Amulet of Nabu, Fate Artifact
22) Cloak of Nabu, Fate Artifact
23) Helm of Nabu, Fate Artifact
24) Dr. Fate’s Tower
25) Fate has Spoken, Magic
Yep! You all knew they had to be in here. The infamous “Fate Engine” has gotten more Vs. System press than any other card or cards to date (with maybe the possible exception of Dr. Light, Master of Holograms). Even after UDE’s erratum changing the uniqueness rules for equipment to prevent more than a single copy of any one of the Fate Artifacts from being in play at the same time, these cards are still regarded as some of the most powerful cards in the entire game. Any one of the equipment cards by itself would not necessarily be considered overly strong, but when you manage to bring all three together, they turn a single character into a total behemoth.
Consider a character like Katar Hol ◊ Hawkman, Thanagarian Enforcer. By himself, he is already a particularly powerful character with effects that can provide him and other characters you control with significant stat boosts. But now imagine Hawkman equipped with the Fate Artifacts. He leaps from a vanilla 7 ATK / 7 DEF to a massive 12 ATK / 12 DEF (+4 ATK / +4 DEF from the Fate Artifacts and another +1 ATK / +1 DEF from his effect). In addition, the equipping of Helm of Nabu lets you cycle your hand for up to three cards, Hawkman cannot be targeted by opponent’s effects, he gains the identity “Dr. Fate,” and gains flight and range (which would probably be more impressive if he didn’t already have flight and range). For the low, low price of three cards, you’ve just turned your 4-drop into a 6-drop with some impressive side benefits. It’s kind of tough to argue that this kind of power isn’t “busted broken.”
Dr. Fate’s Tower and Fate has Spoken are not absolutely necessary components of the Fate Engine. However, I think they are certainly strong additions to any deck that boasts the Fate Artifacts. Dr. Fate’s Tower is a tailor-made search for the Artifacts that helps you move them around to a character of your choice (very helpful in the later game when it becomes more beneficial to equip your larger characters with the Artifacts). And the ability to ready an exhausted character with Fate has Spoken probably can’t be overstated, especially because that character will usually be much larger than anything else on the board thanks to the Fate Artifacts. All in all, these five cards compose an impressive platform on which many players will build extremely powerful and effective DC Modern decks.
And that wraps up the DC Modern preview. If you would like to send me an email, I am always available at BigSpooky1@hotmail.com. And if you are going to be at the Pro Circuit in a couple of days, be sure to hunt me down to say “Hi!” I’ll be the big guy sitting behind the computer in the feature match area wearing the squirrel hat!