Welcome one and all to the final Breaking Ground before Pro Circuit Los Angeles 2006. Hopefully, you’re all just as excited as I am to move into the next round of Golden Age tournaments and see what competitive deckbuilders around the globe have concocted to vie for the $40,000 prize and the title of Pro Circuit Champion.
Before I can head off to California, I have some unresolved issues that I need to deal with. In essence, I owe a few people some apologies:
- J-M Erlendson: In my article two weeks ago, I said that I would be presenting the deck idea of the O.G. (Original Ghostbuster) last week. Unfortunately, our Gallery Pack previews were last week, so Mr. Erlendson’s deck discussion was put off until this week. More on that in a bit.
- Tim Batow: Many apologies for all of the short jokes that I’ve made at your expense over the past year. More importantly, many apologies for all of the short jokes that I will continue to make in the years to come.
- Alex Tennet: Mr. Tennet and I have a challenge set for PC: LA. The one of us who finishes lower in the standings must autograph a foil copy of Barnacle for the other. I would like to apologize in advance for the beating and subsequent humiliation that he will endure at my hands this weekend. Don’t forget to bring that Sharpie, buddy!
BigSpooky, Unrepentant Hero
It’s time to discuss why we’re all here. I received an email a few weeks back from John-Michael (J-M) Erlendson. Most of the message was a discussion of his deck idea. One line in particular stood out:
“Who is broken? Katrina Luisa Van Horne ◊ Amazon, Unrepentant Hero.”
His email detailed how the Thunderbolts have some very powerful tricks in characters like Paul Ebersol ◊ Techno, Gadgeteer and Speed Demon, Second Chance Speedster that can flat out win games. But these tricks are somewhat muted by the fact that they only become active in later turns. Obviously, a character like Speed Demon would be completely absurd if he could ready at any point in a game. UDE R&D managed to keep him more balanced, though, by limiting his readying ability to the later turns of the game.
So what’s a guy to do? Well, J-M asserted that having the power to give these characters the ability to operate a full turn early makes a tremendous amount of difference. Speed Demon is a pretty reasonably sized 3-drop. If he could attack twice on turn 4, then he could probably take both the opposing 3- and 4-drop down by himself (especially if he had help from Techno).
But wait, it gets better. Team Superman has often been maligned as unplayable in competitive Vs. System. True, the team does have some rather nifty cards that can be absolutely outrageous (like Kelex and Phantom Zone), but without the character infrastructure to support them, they are usually relegated to being tech cards in other decks. Despite this, J-M decided that he wanted Team Superman to get in on the action. Not only do some of the potent Team Superman early drops help in the first part of the game, but there is also an awesome possibility for utter devastation on turn 5 with Amazon and Kandor. With amazing low drops like Melissa Gold ◊ Songbird, Sonic Carapace and Superman, Red, our characters will be able to swing way, way up the curve thanks to Kandor.
Much like me, Amazon is unapologetic for her actions. That’s okay, though, because our opponents will be the ones who are sorry when we lay a low-drop beating on them!
The Build
Since I am featuring a deck by another builder, I will go ahead and post the decklist, then discuss the card choices in detail afterward.
The Bane of the n00b (60 cards)
By J-M Erlendson
Characters (33)
4 Lois Lane, Star Reporter
4 Beetle ◊ Mach 1, Reluctant Hero
4 Kelex, Faithful Servant
2 Melissa Gold ◊ Songbird, Sonic Carapace
4 Paul Ebersol ◊ Techno, Gadgeteer
2 Beetle ◊ Mach 2, Matthew Davis
4 Speed Demon, Second Chance Speedster
4 Superman, Red
4 Katrina Luisa Van Horne ◊ Amazon, Unrepentant Hero
1 Hawkeye, Leader by Example
Plot Twists (14)
2 A Second Chance
4 Enemy of My Enemy
4 Flying Kick
4 Forbidden Loyalties, Team-Up
Locations (13)
4 Kandor
4 Phantom Zone
4 Slaughter Swamp
1 Stormfront-1, Team-Up
We’ve already discussed a number of the cards contained within the deck. Here’s the analysis of each to explain the method behind the inspired madness.
At 1, Lois Lane, Star Reporter is a very easy call. I have always been a fan of free recruit 1-drops, and she is quite good. Not only does she allow the deck to gain board presence, but her deck depletion effect is also worthwhile. Our early drops will have strong Team Superman characters at each spot, so Lois gives a little extra insurance on our early curve. Of course, once we team-up, she can also help us by finding extra Thunderbolts characters.
Also at 1, we have Beetle ◊ Mach 1, Reluctant Hero. While the 1-drop Beetle is quite impressive with 2 ATK, flight, and range, we are more interested in what happens when he leaves the game. By removing him from the game when he becomes stunned, we can fetch a critical Team-Up. Considering how many team-stamped effects are in the deck, having our Team-Up will be very important for the proper operation of our build.
Kelex kicks off the festivities at 2. Recent events have shown that there is a pretty heavy premium placed on location search cards like Ahmed Samsarra and Poison Ivy, Deadly Rose. In that regard, it makes perfect sense that Kelex is our primary 2-drop. There will be some very potent locations available to us, and Kelex can fetch any one of those when he hits play.
Our Thunderbolts 2-drops are more for activity in the later turns. Obviously, Melissa Gold ◊ Songbird, Sonic Carapace is quite a bruiser. Currently, she is the largest 2-drop in the game with an amazing 6 ATK / 3 DEF bolstered by flight and range. Unfortunately, these impressive stats come with a dire price of allowing our opponents to reuse their resources. All other things being equal, we’d probably prefer to stick with Kelex. But Songbird is quite an impressive underdrop in later turns. If we decide to go for the kill on turn 5, we can very easily drop her and one of our powerful 3-dops instead of a 5-drop. Given her size, this seems like a much stronger play for us.
Our final 2-drop is really more of a plot twist in character form. Cards like Army of One and Knightmare Scenario illustrate just how potent a +2 ATK / +2 DEF pump that can be used either on attack or defense can be. For our deck, Paul Ebersol ◊ Techno, Gadgeteer is our versatile pump of choice. We can only use his power on a character with a cost of 3 or less and only when we control five or more resources, but since our deck will be comprised almost entirely of low cost characters and we will have Amazon giving us an extra boost to five resources, this isn’t much of a drawback at all.
At 3, Speed Demon, Second Chance Speedster is the main man. I probably don’t need to go into too much detail as to why this guy is so good. Characters that can attack multiple times in a turn have always been held at a premium in Vs. System. Speed Demon not only allows for the possibility of multiple attacks, but his effect also actually stops him from stunning on the first attack. Speed Demon is amazing on his own, and in a deck like ours that is designed to abuse his ability, he can be completely unstoppable.
We will probably underdrop in later turns, so we should also consider some other 3-drops. Superman, Red is an excellent choice for us. While he doesn’t pose much of a defensive threat, he is extraordinary while attacking. His total 8 ATK is enough to allow us to take down almost every 4-drop in the game and several 5-drops. If we throw in the boost from Kandor, then Superman could even challenge opposing 6-drops.
If we’re looking for a more permanent boost for the later turns, then we should consider Beetle ◊ Mach 2, Matthew Davis. While Beetle isn’t much of a threat in the first few turns, he becomes quite potent once we hit our sixth resource (which will usually be on turn five thanks to Amazon). With six resources in play, Beetle jumps to 9 ATK / 7 DEF. With a Team-Up and Kandor, Beetle leaps to 12 ATK / 10 DEF. That’s a 3-drop, folks! Suffice to say, even the biggest beaters will have trouble matching the size of our 3-cost powerhouse.
Turn 4 is when we will always want to play Amazon. She truly is the engine for the deck, because she makes cards like Speed Demon, Techno, Beetle, and Kandor effective a full turn early. Given the level of power that these cards represent, we want to make sure that our unrepentant hero is always available on turn 4. Her 8 ATK / 7 DEF stats don’t hurt, either.
Our final character is a precautionary 5-drop for those situations when our opponents are packing a lot of weenie hate. Still, it’s hard to argue that Hawkeye, Leader by Example isn’t a great choice. His stats are amazing and he has a relevant effect for our deck. With Amazon, Speed Demon, and Kandor (along with a Team-Up) in play, Speed Demon jumps to 8 ATK / 7 DEF. With just a marginal pump, Speed Demon can take down a set of opposing 4- and 5-drops without stunning on either attack. The remaining characters on our opponent’s board (if any) should be easy pickings for our massive 4- and 5-drops.
As far as plot twists go, we start off with the incomparable Enemy of My Enemy. While we do have Lois Lane to give us a moderate amount of character search, Enemy of My Enemy adds an extra level of consistency to our deck.
Of course, once we have representatives from both teams in play, we will want to get them working together. For this task, we will use Forbidden Loyalties. I have recently come to appreciate the power of +1 ATK / +1 DEF counters, even in small doses. Given that our characters will often be trying to attack up the curve, having a little extra oomph could be a great benefit to us. Forbidden Loyalties serves the basic purpose of giving us a Team-Up, but it adds to that by giving a stat boost to a character of our choice. While a +1 ATK / +1 DEF counter may not seem like much, it can mean a world of difference when we’re going for the win in the later turns.
Speaking of stat boosts, we will also want four copies of Flying Kick. Flying Kick is a great card in just about any deck. In a deck that has a “double attacker,” though, Flying Kick is just flat-out sick! Imagine the havoc that Speed Demon can wreak with flight and +3 ATK. There will be few characters that any opponent can play in the first five turns that can withstand the brutal beats of our 3-drop when we teach him how to fly.
Our last plot twist is insurance for a bit of board maintenance. With decks becoming faster and more aggressive, it is quite difficult to keep more than a single character in play on turns when our opponents control the initiative. Techno can be a quick way for us to help protect Speed Demon on turn 4. Still, there will be times where we’ll need to rely on recovery tricks. This is why we’re going to play A Second Chance. Although this card does have a rather steep condition of no other plot twists being played that turn, it can be invaluable for helping us recover multiple characters. After all of the attacks have concluded, we can bring back Speed Demon (or a character with a cost of 3 or less of our choice). After using our regular recovery to bring back Amazon, we’ll waltz into turn 5 with our optimal board setup.
The locations for our deck are every bit as important as the plot twists and serve similar functions. The Thunderbolts Team-Up Stormfront-1 is a pretty easy call for us. If we can’t get our primary Team-Up in Forbidden Loyalties, then we can use Kelex to search out this location. Not only do we get our needed Team-Up, but we also gain a card in the bargain.
We’ve talked about Kandor a lot already. Frankly, what’s not to like about this card? Although Kandor will usually only go live on turn 6 or later in other decks, Amazon allows us to flip Kandor a full turn early. If you thought that staring down a 6 ATK 2-drop and a 9 ATK 3-drop was bad, just imagine how much worse it gets with a 9 ATK 2-drop and 12 ATK 3-drop . . . on turn 5, no less!
Even with our massive low drops, we may find occasions when we need the extra pumps in the later turns. We’ve already mentioned how Techno is the perfect card to enhance our strategy. What’s more impressive is that we can actually reuse Techno by recurring him with Slaughter Swamp. Now we not only have a versatile stat boost card for our deck, but we also have a reliable way to return that boost to our hand. Sure, +2 ATK / +2 DEF is good, but +4 ATK / +4 DEF is much better.
Finally, we need to address an ancillary argument. Many of you may think that our build will suffer a bit at the hands of current Silver Age powerhouses like Faces of Evil and Lost in Space. But one thing that many Silver Age decks have in common is that they rely very heavily on KO’d pile manipulation. What does this mean for us? Quite simply, if we have a method of controlling an opponent’s KO’d pile, then we can control the game. Remember Phantom Zone? That card is the golden ticket to victory in our deck. No longer will our opponents be able to use Dr. Light, Master of Holograms or Hard Sound Construct to flood the board. We will beat them to the punch by removing those characters before they can be recurred. With Amazon in the deck, we don’t even need to worry about problems with replacing resources because she can KO any wayward characters that find their way into our resource row.
The deck will usually prefer the odd initiatives, as turn 5 kills are relatively easy given the proper setup. The optimal board at the beginning of turn 5 will be Speed Demon and Amazon. Against most decks, you’ll follow this with Songbird, and Beetle ◊ Mach 2 or Superman. With Kandor in play, this makes every one of your characters 8 ATK or more while attacking. One copy of Flying Kick on Speed Demon should give you enough power to clear the board and toss in some extra direct endurance loss to boot. If you’re forced to take the even initiatives, then Hawkeye may be a stronger play on 5 because he can set you up for the kill on turn 6.
Opening hand mulligans will usually be for Kelex. He provides you with two important things: a location for later use and a Team Superman character. The latter cannot be understated, as you will only have a few opportunities to team-up. That being said, you will usually want to use Kelex to find a copy of Stormfront-1 unless you already have a copy of Beetle ◊ Mach 1 or Forbidden Loyalties in play.
That’s all! Many thanks to J-M Erlendson for the amazing Amazon build.
Good luck to everyone attending PC: LA. If you see me there, don’t be afraid to come over for a chat; I’ll be the fool in the squirrel hat! For everyone else, I’ll be back in a few weeks with a sneak preview of a card from the upcoming Legion of Super Heroes set.
Michael Barnes (A.K.A. BigSpooky) is an avid Vs. System player who is a founding member of Team Alternate Win Condition (TAWC). When he isn’t concocting crazy deck ideas that no sane person would think of, he occupies his spare time working as an accountant in Dallas, TX. Any questions, comments, suggestions, or funny names that he can call Shane Wiggans can be sent to him at BigSpooky1@hotmail.com.