3-drops

First, reservists. On-team, the only options are Joanna Cargill, Acolyte and Senyaka, Acolyte. Given that we’re certainly going to have face-up resources (a location sub-theme and multiple Team-Ups, for a start), Senyaka is the pick. Off-team options of interest are Moonglow, Melissa Hanover to find Team-Ups, and Time Trapper, Temporal Manipulator to help against, in particular, reusable search like Poison Ivy, Deadly Rose.

Moving on to vengeance, we have Dr. Polaris, Force of Nature as the best on-team option. Off-team, there’s the walking Betrayal Jason Todd ◊ Red Hood, Revived with a potentially useful ability (if your opponent controls two or four team affiliations, for example, the UN Building alone won’t be enough to stop his vengeance power).

For main on-team options, we have the following:

League of Assassins 

Why yes, it is very tempting to run Ubu, Ra’s al Ghul’s Bodyguard. Not being able to justify playing him makes me a very sad panda, but a loyal 3-drop seems like too big a liability. Kyle Abbot, Demon’s Hound has reasonable stats, and Hook, Hired Killer is solid against off-curve decks.

Checkmate

My best buddy Ahmed Samsarra, White King is first on the list, as you probably all expected. Christopher Smith ◊ Peacemaker, Obsessed Outlaw; Arthur Kendrick, Knight; Fire, Knight; and Graziella Reza, Knight are all solid alternatives.

Villains United

Zazzala ◊ Queen Bee, Mistress of the Hive has 5 ATK and concealed—optional, as does The Calculator, Evil Oracle, making them at least solid possible choices.

Brotherhood

Avalanche, Seismic Shockwave; Silver Sabre, Freedom Force; and Scarlet Witch, Magneto’s Daughter all have that magic number of 5 ATK. None of the various powers available to other characters draw me in all that much, though.

4-drops

As before, reservists first. The big on-team hit is Anne-Marie Cortez, Acolyte, with great stats and a useful triggered power. Off-team, Hawkeye, Clinton Barton and Carol Danvers ◊ Warbird, Galactic Adventurer both have their uses. For vengeance, one copy each of Bizarro, ME AM BIZARRO #1; Deathstroke the Terminator, Lethal Weapon; and Sinestro, Villain Reborn provide a nice range of aggressive options

For main on-team options:

League of Assassins:

Ra’s al Ghul, Eternal Nemesis is a great card that I’ve used for a long time. His alternate drop, Ra’s al Ghul, Immortal Villain, is sadly encumbered with loyalty, so Merlyn, Deadly Archer will be the other League 4-drop to make the cut.

Checkmate

Can I get away with two Kings? Please, pretty please? Because Alan Scott, White King is enormous. No, bigger than that. Humongous. 9 ATK / 9 DEF, flight, and range on a 4-drop? I don’t think I can stop myself. As for more sensible characters, Elimination Protocol ◊ OMAC Robot, Army provides a visible Checkmate option; Adrian Chase ◊ Vigilante, Street Justice gives a Sinestro-like defensive option; and Amanda Waller, Queen gives a backup option to recruiting on-curve on later turns.

Villains United

The only non-vengeance Villains 4-drop of interest is Fatality, Flawless Victory. While she does conflict with Ahmed, you can also team-up Checkmate and Villains United if you have both of them, and search out The Science Spire to pull him back to your hand. Her power against off-curve decks more than justifies her place in the deck.

Brotherhood

A personal favorite here is Mystique, Villainous Shapeshifter, alongside Blob, Fred Dukes.

5-drops

For reservists, we finally have a non-Brotherhood on-team option in Ra’s al Ghul, Engine of Change, the dual-affiliated Future Foes / League of Assassins Babel-on-legs. His payment power will usually simply result in a discard, but there are worse effects, and being able to Sovereign for a League character is useful (as is the name Ra’s al Ghul). The best Brotherhood option is certainly Sabretooth, Savage Killer, while the off-team option of interest is Jetstream, Hellion, thanks to a peculiar quirk in his interaction with Lazarus Pit. Basically, if you have Jetstream teamed-up with League of Assassins and he becomes stunned, you can chain a Lazarus Pit activation to his stun-triggered power. The result? You get to exhaust a target character with cost 6 or less and Jetstream doesn’t KO. That’s a pretty nice trick, and one worth including just for the sheer fun value.

The vengeance options are pretty simple; Black Adam, Teth-Adam and Mr. Freeze, Brutal Blizzard are great options for both initiatives.

For main on-team options:

League of Assassins

Bane, Ubu is a great character, and Talia, Daughter of Madness can do some pretty unfair things. Both will earn their places. Lady Shiva, The Destroyer has a pretty impressive ATK value and a built-in Blind Sided, which could be useful against more controlling opponents and swarms backed by Catcher’s Mitt or Funeral For a Friend.

Checkmate

I seem to be including a lot of Kings in this deck, but Maxwell Lord, Black King is such a fantastic beatstick that I have to play him. Enormous stats and a punishing payment power are good enough for me. I will, of course, have to make sure that I include sufficient emergency buttons for my Kings. Annihilation Protocol ◊ OMAC Robot, Army is excellent, and Roy Harper ◊ Arsenal, Knight is strong against off-curve, probably earning a slot.

Villains United

This was already covered by the vengeance characters and Talia.

Brotherhood

There are a few possibles here, with Scarlet Witch, Wanda Maximoff leapfrogging the competition thanks to the absence of the Lost City engine that would normally direct your attentions toward Quicksilver, Speed Demon or Magneto, Eric Lehnsherr (although both are still strong characters). Scanner, Acolyte provides a hefty shot of card fixing, which is valuable with a deck this size.

6-drops

On-team, the only reservist option is Harry Delgado, Acolyte, with a useful (although unreliable in a Big Deck) reinforcement-stripping power. Off-team, Genis-Vell ◊ Photon, Transformed provides a pseudo-plot twist +DEF effect. The only vengeance option is thankfully a solid one: Hunter Zolomon ◊ Professor Zoom, Sinister Speedster.

League of Assassins

Finally, a deck in which to use Nyssa Raatko, Daughter of the Demon! Sensei, Martial Arts Master will probably earn a place too, thanks to his card-filtering ability. I’ll think about Ra’s al Ghul, Master Swordsman; loyalty on a 6-drop isn’t the end of the world, and his ability and name are both useful.

Checkmate

Only one option, but thankfully a good one: Huntress, Reluctant Queen. She has decent stats and an answer to many KO effects and other annoyances.

Villains United

For a primarily defensive deck, Alexander Luthor, Diabolical Double is solid, with 14 DEF and a great card-draw triggered power.

Brotherhood

One Brotherhood character seems like she stands head and shoulders above the others in a format like this—Mystique, Shape-Changing Assassin seems more likely in this format than any other to steal your opponent’s next recruit.

7-drops

The best on-team reservist is Fabian Cortez, Acolyte, with a decent burn power. On the vengeance side, we’ll go with Deathstroke the Terminator, Ultimate Assassin.

League of Assassins

Lady Shiva, Master Assassin. Mmm, Shiva. Gotta love that “Activate >>> KO target character.” Shiva is such a powerful character on-initiative that she justifies running more copies of Ra’s al Ghul than normal simply to get her into play. Nyssa Raatko almost single-handedly makes this a viable plan.

Checkmate

One copy of Sasha Bordeaux, Autonomous Prototype will join the possibility of a boosted Annihilation Protocol.

Villains United

Deathstroke should be enough of a Villain for anyone!

Brotherhood

Nothing but the best—Magneto, Master of Magnetism.

8-drops

While Magneto, Ruler of Avalon is an on-team reservist 8-drop, his power is pretty unimpressive. That said, he is a 20 ATK / 20 DEF character. For vengeance, Eclipso, Jean Loring is an unused but very powerful piece of work, able to trade stuns with an opposing 8-drop and then steal and recover it.

League of Assassins

Ra’s al Ghul, The Demon’s Head. Enough said.

Checkmate

Checkmate doesn’t have an 8-drop.

Villains United

Black Adam, Lord of Kahndaq is interesting, but without real dedication to the Villains United return-to-hand strategy, his power may not be reliable enough to make him better than other available options.

Brotherhood

The Brotherhood has two versions of Magneto, the better version of which has already been discussed.

Off-team:

Psycho-Pirate, Roger Hayden; Dr. Doom, Latverian Monarch; Ghost Rider, Danny Ketch; Professor X, Mental Master; and Apocalypse, En Sabah Nur make up the ranks of the usual suspects of the 8-cost brigade, and there are strong arguments for each.

Alright, now that the first pass is done, let’s try pulling that together into the beginnings of a list. Unfortunately, my first pass left me with seventy-seven characters, which is a little excessive even for a 100-card deck. After trimming down to a saner fifty-eight (sadly losing a few fun cards in the process), I’ve ended up with the following:

Connie Webb, Knight

Alexander Luthor, Duplicitous Doppelganger

The Calculator, Noah Kuttler

Talia, Beloved Betrayer

Talia, Daughter of the Demon’s Head

Talia, Beloved Daughter

Sarge Steel, Knight

Director Bones, D.E.O.

Dr. Psycho, Mental Giant

Chrome, Acolyte

Crimson Commando, Freedom Force

Toad, Mortimer Toynbee

Destiny, Future Sight

Hook, Hired Killer

Ahmed Samsarra, White King

Arthur Kendrick, Knight

Christopher Smith ◊ Peacemaker, Obsessed Outlaw

Fire, Knight

Graziella Reza, Knight

Zazzala ◊ Queen Bee, Mistress of the Hive

The Calculator, Evil Oracle

Dr. Polaris, Force of Nature

Senyaka, Acolyte

Avalanche, Seismic Shockwave

Silver Sabre, Freedom Force

Ra’s al Ghul, Eternal Nemesis

Merlyn, Deadly Archer

Alan Scott, White King

Elimination Protocol ◊ OMAC Robot, Army

Adrian Chase ◊ Vigilante, Street Justice

Amanda Waller, Queen

Bizarro, ME AM BIZARRO #1

Deathstroke the Terminator, Lethal Weapon

Fatality, Flawless Victory

Anne-Marie Cortez, Acolyte

Blob, Fred Dukes

Mystique, Villainous Shapeshifter

Hawkeye, Clinton Barton

Ra’s al Ghul, Engine of Change

Bane, Ubu

Talia, Daughter of Madness

Maxwell Lord, Black King

Annihilation Protocol ◊ OMAC Robot, Army

Black Adam, Teth-Adam

Mr. Freeze, Brutal Blizzard

Sabretooth, Savage Killer

Scarlet Witch, Wanda Maximoff

Nyssa Raatko, Daughter of the Demon

Huntress, Reluctant Queen

Hunter Zolomon ◊ Professor Zoom, Sinister Speedster

Mystique, Shape-Changing Assassin

Harry Delgado, Acolyte

Genis-Vell ◊ Photon, Transformed

Lady Shiva, Master Assassin

Deathstroke the Terminator, Ultimate Assassin

Magneto, Master of Magnetism

Ra’s al Ghul, The Demon’s Head

Apocalypse, En Sabah Nur

League of Assassins:   12

Checkmate:               15

Villains United:           15

Brotherhood:             15

Other:                     3

Total:                     58 (2 dual-affiliated characters)

Man . . . I have to say that despite having to make some pretty painful cuts, just scanning down that list has me grinning like a loon. I get to play Ahmed, Talia, Sarge Steel, Magneto, Ra’s, and Shiva all in the same deck? And I haven’t even touched the locations and plot twists yet.

Join me again tomorrow (after I’ve recovered a little) for the run-down on the resources and a final list.

Tom Reeve is a member of the Anglo-Canadian Alliance (like the Rebel Alliance, but with public transport instead of X-Wings) and would-be professional layabout from London, England. While his love of all things ninja has resulted in an arguably unhealthy affinity for the League of Assassins, that particular quirk turned into a healthy plus with the birth of the Silver Age deck Deep Green, with which teammate Ian Vincent took home the Pro Circuit San Francisco trophy to dear old Blighty.