Sitting pretty at a perfect 7-0 is Stephen King, with a deck not too many people expected to see at this Golden Age Pro Circuit. But those people underestimate the power of The New Brotherhood. One of the most powerful cards from Marvel Origins, The New Brotherhood, more affectionately known as TNB, has been a force since the beginning of the game.
One of the things that used to hold the deck back was the lack of really efficient, powerful, low-cost characters. Even with the lack of oversized characters like Joystick; Melissa Gold ◊ Songbird, Sonic Carapace; and Shape, the power of The New Brotherhood was enough to push this deck to tier 1. Now, with a new look and a new cast of reservist characters pushing the Pyro, St. John Allerdyces and the Destiny, Irene Adlers to the wayside, TNB is back on top of the standings. Reservists are a natural fit for a deck like TNB because they help smooth out your draws and allow you to get copies of TNB into your row easily if you draw them later in the game. Also, they help you stay under four resources, much like Genosha did, since you can recruit them from your row and simply not replace them. One of the other great things that this deck has going for it is that it can replace its reservists in order to find more TNBs, or just more character or combat pumps. It’s a win/win situation when you replace your resources.
I caught up with Stephen, a regular PC money finisher, to ask him about the deck.
John Fiorillo (that’s me): “Hey, what’s up? Just won that one, too, huh? Must be nice . . .”
Stephen King : “Yeah, it is. I just won and I messed up pretty badly. Drawing three TNBs leaves you a little room for error, though.”
JF: “Like, I said, must be . . . So, the deck looks pretty nice. Can you tell me where you came up with the list?”
SK: “Tommy Ashton, actually made the entire deck. The first list was four of every reservist (except for Unuscione) that cost 4 or less and two copies of Scanner. Basically, it was all four-ofs until we had to add Meltdown to deal with Amulet of Nabu.
JF: “So, besides just being powerful, what else does the deck have going for it? How do you think your matchups are against the field?”
SK: “I think that when the deck draws well, you can beat anything. The Quicksilver deck pretty much has to deal you infi on turn 2 to win. If you have a Meltdown or they just stumble at all, it’s good for you. I think I have good matchups against most of the stall decks here, also. They just don’t do enough on the early turns and they fall too far behind. I just played against Ryan Jones and he Reigned (played Reign of Terror) me on turn 4 and on turn 5 and didn’t miss a drop, and I still just killed him on turn 5. Another round, my opponent had Silver Surfer, Skyrider of the Spaceways; Ahmed Samsarra visible; and Terrax, The Tamer in play, and I still stunned his whole board because there are just so many good pumps that draw you a card in the deck. I haven’t played against a real dedicated stall deck with Puppet Master and Cardiac yet, but I think it might be a problem if they draw those characters early.”
JF: “Anything else you want to say about the deck that people might not realize?”
SK: “The best part of the deck is Amelia Voght. There’s a really important trick that most people don’t know about. If you have Amelia and TNB in your opening hand, you can play a reservist and wait until turn 2 when you can recruit Amelia for free, recruit a character, and still put TNB into your resource row.”
JF: “How does that work exactly?”
SK: “Well, you replace your resource before you pay the cost of revealing, so when you recruit Amelia, you can replace her with another reservist, then reveal it to pay for her and still recruit one of the other reservists in your row. Then you replace that slot with the TNB so you can have three characters in play on turn 2. That play is actually really important for the deck. The best part about it is that your opponent’s character sometimes can’t even stun Amelia because of her 3 DEF, so you can go into turn 3 having dealt a lot of damage and having three characters to your opponent’s one. Coming back from that is really tough.”
JF: “Oh, I see, that’s cool. Anything else you want to add?”
SK: “Yeah, this deck is actually really refreshing to play since the games end quickly and you don’t have to think too much about formations. With only one ranged character in the deck, you just pretty much front row your entire team every turn and don’t have to think about it too much. Also, I want to wish Matthew Tattar a happy birthday. He turns twenty-one tomorrow. Happy birthday!”
JF: “Okay man, good luck.”
I know Stephen is a skilled drafter, so I’m sure this will be a strong tournament for him. I think there’s a good chance we’ll be seeing him on Sunday.