By round 5, Anothony Calabrese had torn up the competition with an incredible new deck and earned himself a seat at table 1. Since the release of Superman, Man of Steel, no team has captivated players’ hopes and dreams like New Gods. The Source, Serifan, and several other cards are extremely promising, and yet a tier one New Gods deck has been tantalizingly out of reach.

The wait is over. Anthony Calabrese just ended it.

Anthony Calabrese’s F4 New Gods:

2 Wyatt Wingfoot
3 Mr Fantastic, Reed Richards
2 Vykin
1 Serifan
4 Himon
1 Thing, Ben Grimm
4 Invisible Woman, Sue Storm
1 Izaya ◊ Highfather
4 Mr. Fantastic, Stretch
1 Metron
1 Big Barda
1 Hulk
2 Thing, The Ever-Lovin’ Blue-Eyed Thing
1 Silver Surfer 

4 Acrobatic Dodge
4 Signal Flare
2 The Exchange
4 Royal Decree
3 Tech Upgrade 

4 Unstable Molecules
4 Fantasticar
1 Advanced Hardware
1 The Pogo Plane
1 Personal Force Field

4 Antarctic Research Base
1 New Genesis
1 Metropolis 

The deck is essentially a very teched out F4 Toys, filling drops with New Gods characters to take advantage of cool effects and to shut off options in combat. It’s brutal in its simplicity. 

The standard F4 characters are all present. Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards sits on turn two to get the equipment engine going, while his 5-drop counterpart allows the deck to go off by reducing the cost of the equipment in the mid-game. Thing, Ben Grimm adds some extra muscle to turn 3, and Invisible Woman, Sue Storm hits on turn 4. She’s a great combo with Serifan—when both are on the table and the Fantastic Four is successfully teamed with New Gods, you don’t take damage from combat. Ever. That’s just one of the deck’s smaller tricks.

Hulk and Thing, The Ever-Lovin’ Blue-Eyed Thing are just huge. That’s it. They’re very, very big. The same goes for the game-ending Silver Surfer on turn 8.

However, the deck is not just limited to standard F4 Beatdown material.  

Wyatt Wingfoot fills turn 1, providing some field presence with which to Tech Upgrade, while at the same time providing an outlet for equipment (important when you start equipping stuff to draw more cards through Antarctic Research Base). His discard effect keeps him from suffering from diminished utility—having a 1-drop is nice and can drive the deck’s draw engine to great heights, so Wyatt is a no-brainer as a low risk 1-drop investment.

Vykin provides the deck with some lockdown ability. It’s not a huge contribution, but it works in conjunction with other parts of the deck to extend the combat advantage. Serifan works in the same way, as well, cutting off stun damage and thus manipulating the opponent’s options when played with foresight.

Himon on turn 3 gives the deck even more of a control element. It cuts off a multitude of your opponent’s potential combat tricks, and though it isn’t as glamorous as The Source, it’s definitely one of the best reasons to play New Gods in most current metagames.

Izaya ◊ Highfather serves as an alternate 4-drop to Invisible Woman. In future builds of the deck, he may overtake Sue as the 4-drop of choice. He’s here because he’s big, but the main reason for his inclusion is that he keeps the low-drops with good effects alive through the mid-game. That’s an ability that can’t be under-estimated in a deck like this. Vykin is superb in some matchups (like Teen Titans), and the ability to continue using him for Izayah’s relatively low cost is awesome.

Metron can be used as an alternate drop for control purposes, and Big Barda smashes serious face. She’s excellent when you don’t control the initiative, and of course she’s better than Hulk when you’ve been forced to flip resources due to pressure from an aggressive opponent.

Four Signal Flares and two copies of The Exchange are a must for this deck. In some strategies, four character search cards are enough, but it’s important to remember that the character spread of this deck is highly skewed with many one-of’s and alternates at each drop. The extra search capability is definitely put to good use here, and is actually the redeeming factor for what may first appear to be an inconsistent series of character selections.

Tech Upgrade fetches the equipment the deck uses to make its curve-shattering characters even larger, and Acrobatic Dodge keeps your effect-laden board alive—no surprises there.

Royal Decree and Metropolis team you up, Antarctic Research Base gives any equipment deck a drawing engine, and New Genesis continues Izayah’s theme of keeping your effects on the board.

The equipment is pretty self-explanatory. Unstable Molecules is a must—not only does it give the deck even more combat advantage, it’s also nice and free, so it can be cycled via Antarctic Research Base in the early game. The Fantasticars help the deck beat the curve at each drop (often helping it only to beat the curve more than it already was with natural character stats), and the Personal Force Field, The Pogo Plane, and Advanced Hardware all give the deck some extra tricks that you can search for when needed. Personal Force Field can be shifted in response to targeting effects through Stretch, The Pogo Plane can seek out Antarctic Research Base if you need it, or get Metropolis for a team up, and Advanced Hardware gives your low-drops a higher utility if they survive into the mid-game.

The deck looks weird, but the search it packs spans characters, locations, and equipment. That makes the deck highly consistent, reliable, and flexible. It does what all F4 variants do—it makes combat a one-sided affair and locks down the opponent from doing anything of particular relevance.

Have no doubt—this is the New Gods deck we’ve all been looking for. And Anthony Calabrese was the one who delivered it.