A lot of cool tech came out of PC New York, some highly obvious and some rather inconspicuous. Inarguably, the biggest piece of single-card innovation witnessed was Mojoverse. The potential impact of the card had been debated in various circles and on notable message boards for quite a while before the event, but its use had never quite been proven. But after placing three competitors into the Top 8, Mojoverse's success is undeniable. The question at this point, though, is what happens now that it's been proven in higher level play. Will Mojoverse be adopted by local level players and competitors in future money events, or was PC NY its only hurrah? If Mojoverse does continue to see play, how will the environment and the decks within it react? To attempt to answer these questions, let's look at the uses for Mojoverse and some of the complications and intricacies that come with it.

 

Mojoverse, when used in Curve Sentinels, accomplishes two major goals. First and foremost, it counter-techs Betrayal. When the opponent plays Betrayal on turn 7 to try to punish you for recruiting Magneto, Master of Magnetism, you chain Mojoverse targeting Magneto. The chain resolves backwards; Magneto loses his team affiliation, and then Betrayal looks to resolve but finds that the player it's pointed at is no longer valid because he or she no longer controls two characters with unshared team affiliations. Remember, though, that Mojoverse has two effects, and the one that strips a character of its affiliations is activated—the effect goes on the chain, and thus can be chained to.

 

“Well yeah, Jason, I'm not an idiot,” you say.

 

Of course you aren't. But it's worth taking a moment to note the fact that Mojoverse itself can be chained to, so if an opponent flips and activates Mojoverse in response to your Betrayal, you can chain a second one if you have it and at least get a single stun. You can also wait for an overeager opponent to use Mojoverse as a combat pump and then chain to it. This takes some talent—bluffing as if you don't have a Betrayal on turn 7 and goading an opponent into using Mojoverse prematurely—but it's definitely doable. If you're playing Mojoverse, make sure you don't get overzealous and effectively waste it.

 

But boy, that combat pump is tempting, isn't it? That's the second primary use for Mojoverse, and it's a pretty game-breaking one. A single +1 ATK/+1 DEF bonus makes a huge difference quite frequently, and the threshold cost of Mojoverse makes it an incredibly valuable card if drawn early. If a game goes seven turns and you draw into the little green gem on turn 1, you're generating 7 extra points of ATK and DEF over the course of an average game. If on just two of the seven turns in which Mojoverse is used it lets you evade a double stun, it can totally be game winning.

 

In matchups where similar effects are generated, this is all the more beneficial. While it might not be the first thing that comes to mind, Mojoverse essentially techs Tamaran, allowing Curve Sentinels to match the ready-to-wear renewable combat modifier of choice in the Titans' arsenal. This is a subtle yet invaluable contribution to what can sometimes be a rough matchup for the purple side. Though Tamaran has the advantage of working on both offense and defense (and a good run of controlling attacks and blasts from Terra and Roy Harper ◊ Arsenal can cut off attacks from the CS player on some turns), an early game Mojoverse can create a snowballing effect, building momentum which then permits attacks back on turns in which the Sentinels don't control the initiative.

 

So, it can wreck Betrayal if used carefully, it can wreck opponents on defense if used a bit less carefully, and it's especially valuable in an intricate sense when facing Titans. How about the drawbacks? Well, there are a few, and they're plentiful enough for me to take a leery position about this card's future.

 

My first worry? Mojoverse brings characters ever closer to Overload range, even if you're not necessarily looking to claim that +1 ATK/+1 DEF but are instead trying to make Magneto forget about his teammates. This is a small issue, but in the mirror match that +1 ATK/+1 DEF can become a +2 ATK/+2 DEF, and that's a fairly large boost that's worthy of careful consideration.

 

That leads me into my second concern, which is the challenge of playing against other decks using Mojoverse, or in more limited cases, unaffiliated decks. Laugh all you want, but an environment that offers you +2 ATK/+2 DEF to all your characters on attack is pretty alluring, especially if turn 4 features an enormous Mojo swinging for the stands with his little claws aimed at your 4-drop's face. Guy Gardner, Warrior, Weapon of Choice, Mosaic World, and other new cards have paved the way for unaffiliated strategies to come within arm's reach of viability, and while it's not the number one environment shift I personally think we'll see in the near future, it does seem possible that such themes may see play if Mojoverse permeates metagames.

 

Those are both niggling concerns, though. My big problem with Mojoverse is that it takes a deck with virtually no alternate drops and makes it a Ka-Boom! target. It's bad enough that most CS players are running four copies of Micro-Sentinels, opening themselves up to being Foiled and thus suffering from curve disruption, but adding a location that can also result in resource suppression is just bad. While the deck's characters are mostly non-unique, it still can't hold its ground on or before turn 5 against Teen Titans or TNB Blitz if it's continually forced to replay those turns and is up against exceptional characters. Aside from Nimrod, there's nothing exciting (in a combat-dominating sense) in the Sentinels' early or mid-game repertoires. Barring Hounds lock, it's a losing situation for CS.

 

If Mojoverse does see a great deal of play, I think it's fair and intelligent to expect to see Foiled and Ka-Boom! increase in popularity. Brave and the Bold can already use just a pair of each to their utmost potential, thanks to Alfred Pennyworth, while supplying itself with tons of alternate low drops. Straight Teen Titans can do the same thing, and though it's deprived of Brave and the Bold's search capabilities and needs to run more copies of Foiled and Ka-Boom!, it has an arguably better spread of consistent characters if it branches out to use cards like Beast Boy, Pantha, and Donna Troy ◊ Wonder Girl. Both of these decks will flourish if Mojoverse is adopted into the accepted CS lexicon . . . if it lasts.

 

I personally think that Mojoverse is going to see a lot of play and testing, but I don't think it's going to stick around more than a couple of months. Green Lantern decks are already breathing hard on the archetype's neck, and a weakness to curve suppression is not what CS needs. Of PC NY's 129 Curve Sentinels players, 69 used Mojoverse, and while I think similar numbers will be seen in local level play for a while, I don't believe that those numbers will last as long as some may hope. Decks that can take advantage of Mojoverse's weaknesses will do so, and if it continues to be played, those decks will become increasingly dominant. Sure, one could just refuse to flip Mojoverse until turn 7, but that kind of discipline is difficult to come by and can be hard to rationalize in the heat of the combat phase. On the up side, Mojoverse (which counter-techs Betrayal) could of course be countered itself by Global Domination, all within the mirror match. Tech to tech to tech, teching tech*. Fun stuff.

 

So, that's my take on Mojoverse in a nut shell. This fascinating card will undoubtedly be the source of some debate over the next while, but I think my stance is one of the easier ones to support. Time will tell how big of an impact this potential-packed location will really have!

 

-Jason Grabher-Meyer