The last weekend of April saw the release of the latest Vs. System expansion, Infinite Crisis. While all new releases are born amid almost breathless anticipation, Infinite Crisis holds the special honor as the herald of Silver Age, and thus brought with it a special significance. My local store, Sydney Games Centre, ran four tournaments with the new set over that weekend, and I played in all of them.
For the next few weeks, this column will take a look at the new cards and how I dealt with them in a Sealed Pack environment. Unfortunately for those of you who had expected me to continue with X-Men Draft, I am going to have to leave you disappointed. If you think you require extra preparation for the Pro Circuit, I have written a rather extensive series on the format at StarcityVs.com that you can find if you search the forums.
Anyone who is familiar with my writing will be well aware of my tendency to prattle on and/or my desire for exhaustive completeness. There are many ways to go about winning a game of Vs. System, and I cannot claim to know all of them. However, I think it important that you be able to understand as many different methods as possible so that you may find the shoe that fits your foot the best. I have my own approach, which is constantly being reworked and molded. Vs. is a game involving many, many decisions, and you needn’t even get half of them absolutely correct to be successful playing it. However, it is vital to have an overall framework guiding your decisions so that you can make close calls quickly and refine your understanding of what wins in this game more often. Playing in a Sealed Pack tournament—and specifically a Sneak Preview—requires that you understand the game beyond just a particular format. You need to make certain assumptions before you begin so that you are not caught in a contemplative limbo throughout the tournament.
For example, I always tend to default to a curve game in Sealed Pack. Not only do games typically last longer in this comparatively less-focused environment, but boosters of Vs. also rarely yield adequate and consistent numbers of weenies, Team-Ups, and pumps to enter off-curve. For this reason, I find 1-drops that can only be recruited on the first turn to be of exceptional power to be included in my decks. Typically, I am looking for a 0-4-4-4-3-2-2 curve (for turns 1–7), with characters that can fill in two spots on the curve due to extremely high stats or boost abilities that are very enticing to me.
I like to take the full amount of time possible in building my Sealed decks, so for maximum efficiency I have developed a new system for sorting the cards once they have been cracked. To start, I separate the cards into piles differentiated by team. Team-stamped non-character cards are included in this, depending on how reliant they are on being used with their affiliation. In this format, those piles should be made up of Villains United, Shadowpact, JSA, Checkmate, and Secret Six. All other cards are put into a generic pile. I then go through each pile and organize the curves of each team, as well as assessing the power of the non-character cards.
I have tried different methods of building Sealed Pack decks, and I have found this to be the best for me. I have done things much differently in the past. You need to make sure you find a method that suits you. As you read this, be aware of the assumptions I have made, and be conscious of what you would have done differently.
The Pool
Alexander Luthor, Duplicitous Doppelganger
Ishmael Gregor ◊ Sabbac, Malevolent Marvel
Dr. Psycho, Mental Giant
Weather Wizard, Mark Mardon
The Calculator, Evil Oracle
Dr. Polaris, Force of Nature
Mr. Freeze, Brutal Blizzard
Black Adam, Teth-Adam
Alexander Luthor, Diabolical Double
The Science Spire
Coercion
Join Us or Die
Arms Deal
Jakeem Williams, JJ Thunder
Wesley Dodds ◊ The Sandman, Golden Age Gunman
Stargirl, Courtney Whitmore
Michael Holt ◊ Mr. Terrific, Renaissance Man
2 Sand, Sanderson Hawkins
Hourman III ◊ Hourman, Time Machine
Wonder Woman, Earth 2
Captain Marvel, Earth’s Mightiest Mortal
JSA Headquarters
2 A Moment of Crisis
2 Nightshade, Eve Eden
Zatanna, Magical Manipulator
Witchfire, Rebecca Carstairs
2 Dr. Fate, Hector Hall
The Phantom Stranger, Fallen Angel
The Oblivion Bar
Stepping Between Worlds
Magical Conduit
Mystical Binding
Collecting Souls
Surveillance Pawn, Army
2 Jacob Lee, Knight
Connie Webb, Knight
Graziella Reza, Knight
Arthur Kendrick, Knight
Valentina Vostok ◊ Negative Woman, Bishop
Amanda Waller, Queen
Huntress, Reluctant Queen
Fiddler, Isaac Bowin
Scandal, Savage Spawn
Lex Luthor ◊ Mockingbird, Evil Exile
Jamie Reyes ◊ Blue Beetle, High-Tech Hero
Animal Man, Buddy Baker
Bart Allen ◊ The Flash, Impulsive Speedster
2 Mordru, Dark Lord
Checkmate Armory
2 Allied Against the Dark
Deflection
Magical Lobotomy
Epic Battle
I Still Hate Magic!
Return Fire!
Mourn for the Lost
Multiverse Power Battery
2 Tricked-Out Sports Car
Laser Watch
Amulet of Nabu
Helm of Nabu
Cloak of Nabu
Many people build “up” their Sealed decks, focusing on key powerful cards and building around those. Personally, I prefer to consider every card as in the deck until I cut it from contention, assuming something more of a culling posture than a constructive one. In this vein, I tend to look at each of the featured affiliations and decide which ones to cut. Typically, I just look at the piles of cards I have and pick up the smallest first. Generally the smaller piles will be the least likely to make the deck. Because of this, I like to look at them first, before I have seen cards I will auto-include from other teams that could distract me.
First of all, I think it is going to be pretty safe to dismiss the Secret Six as a team most of the time. Generally they have very few characters, and even if you have a good number, there isn’t really that much synergy between them to be tempted a lot of the time. Right now we should only be looking at those cards as filler if we can’t get the curve want from our chosen teams.
Checkmate is an interesting team. Unfortunately, they rely on a lot of synergy to get going, so they will need some fortuitous packs to be good. Here our options are very limited. We do have Amanda Waller, who can be very good, but ironically, she has very little backup. Four 1-drops is too many, and then the pickings become very slim. The total lack of plot twists is the killer. Like Secret Six, just filler for now.
At first glance, the Shadowpact cards look to be pretty good. Magical Conduit and Mystical Binding are exceptionally strong. Unfortunately, the characters are a bit of a letdown. It’s not that they aren’t good, but more that they aren’t many. Typically I think you need at least seven characters to justify more than one exceptional plot twist, and we just don’t have them here. Witchfire, Dr. Fate, and The Phantom Stranger could get in there, though, as they have good offensive stats and flight, which I really like in Sealed regardless of affiliation.
Fortunately, the JSA have a solid cohort of characters that could easily form the basis of the deck. Michael Holt ◊ Mr. Terrific is excellent, and there are multiple solid drops at the 2-, 4-, and 5-slots. Topping it off, Captain Marvel could be dominant, even if we probably need Team-Ups for his loyalty. I love cards like JSA Headquarters, which can not only net you characters, but also help you stack your deck in Sealed Pack and Draft. Finally, even the 1-drop Jakeem Williams is something to consider, as he can effectively smooth out your entire curve. At this point, JSA is in almost wholesale.
Villains United gives us some more backbone, with more very playable cards. Six-drops that can boost to become 7-drops are awesome, as they take the sting out of worrying about having the right hand for the wrong initiative. I had wanted to play with Mr. Freeze from the outset, and a combination of solid 2- and 3-drops mixed well with the JSA stuff I already had. The Science Spire seems ridiculous, and a Team-Up in the form of Coercion (which could specifically help out Captain Marvel) is most welcome.
At this point, I had my deck padded out as this:
Characters
Wesley Dodds ◊ The Sandman, Golden Age Gunman
Stargirl, Courtney Whitmore
Dr. Psycho, Mental Giant
Weather Wizard, Mark Mardon
The Calculator, Evil Oracle
Dr. Polaris, Force of Nature
Michael Holt ◊ Mr. Terrific, Renaissance Man
2 Sand, Sanderson Hawkins
Mr. Freeze, Brutal Blizzard
Black Adam, Teth-Adam
Hourman III ◊ Hourman, Time Machine
Captain Marvel, Earth’s Mightiest Mortal
Alexander Luthor, Diabolical Double
Plot Twists
Coercion
Locations
The Science Spire
JSA Headquarters
I had decided that I didn’t really need to think about the 1-drop search guys at this stage, at least until I had my non-character stuff worked out. I cut Ishmael Gregor ◊ Sabbac from the 2-drop slot and Wonder Woman from the 5-spot, thinking that Coercion gave me enough ballast for the loyalty of Captain Marvel. I was shorter than I like to be after picking two teams. However, I always move to the non-character cards before deciding what direction to take with my filler.
The first additions to the deck were easy. Generic Team-Ups are gold in Sealed. Since I not only wanted to get Captain Marvel into play as much as possible, but I also was likely to be playing filler from other teams, I included both copies of Allied Against the Dark to go with the Coercion. Having a JSA modifier doesn’t hurt. I Still Hate Magic! should also be an automatic inclusion in any deck. Effective +3 ATK pumps are good. Very good.
After the automatic non-character cards, I tend to look at the equipment. While locations are nearly always effectively plot twists, equipment can’t go in the resource row, so they require special consideration. Almost temptingly, I have all of the Fate Artifacts and double Dr. Fate, but I am loath to play more than two equipment without a special reason. As this is a straight curve deck with very few oddball inclusions, I don’t think the Dr. Fate bonus is significant enough. Tricked-Out Sports Car seems very good, but I wouldn’t put it in automatically unless I had at least four locations. It could still make the cut, but I think Laser Watch is very good, and I would nearly always want it in my deck. As flight and range are so important in Sealed, Amulet of Nabu gets in for me as well. With my maximum allotment of equipment, I need to go back and sort out the rest of my blue and green.
Right now I have eight of my eleven non-character cards tied down. The cards in contention for those slots are Return Fire!, Epic Battle, Deflection, Join Us or Die, and Magical Lobotomy. The other non-character cards are either too narrow or had an unclear power level to me at the time.
If I think my deck is above average, I will tend to go with the more narrow game-winning cards. In this case, however, I think my deck is only about average, so I am going to stick with the more flexible cards. Epic Battle is pretty much a pump as long as I can be skilled enough to ensure I minimize its drawbacks. Magical Lobotomy is reusable insurance for stuns, and Deflection could drain an opposing initiative to allow my ponderous curve deck more time to set up. Later on, I would think that I had underestimated Return Fire! somewhat, but I still don’t think I had enough pumps otherwise to really consider it or Join Us or Die.
So, with that sorted out, the non-character selections are:
Plot Twists
2 Allied Against the Dark
Coercion
Deflection
Magical Lobotomy
I Still Hate Magic!
Epic Battle
Locations
The Science Spire
JSA Headquarters
Equipment
Laser Watch
Amulet of Nabu
So, going back to my characters, you can see that I am missing a 3-drop, two 4-drops, a 6-drop, and a 7-drop from my desired curve. Fortunately for me, my easy access to Team-Ups allows me to go back and cherry-pick the solid Shadowpact characters for my deck. Witchfire, a Dr. Fate, and The Phantom Stranger were all pretty easy inclusions, with Alexander Luthor doubling up as a 6-drop and an alternate 7-drop. I am not really a fan of 4 ATK / 5 DEF 3-drops, so I would be looking for something better than Zatanna at that slot.
This leaves me in need of an extra 3-drop and an extra 4-drop. My choices are between the legacy and unaffiliated characters, and the Checkmate characters. Flicking through, it is pretty easy to realize that Animal Man is actually just a great Sealed/Draft character, and he easily takes the last 4-slot. Amanda Waller isn’t really a 4-drop, and Valentina Vostok is probably just shaded by Animal Man without anything else to back her up.
Having already dismissed Zatanna for her stats, it is pretty easy to let go of Graziella Reza too, as I doubt I would ever have a ready location to keep her above average. Almost by default, Arthur Kendrick gets the last slot. The weaknesses of being 4 ATK / 5 DEF are voided if he is hidden, and his ability is quite useful for stymieing a fast start from your opponent.
The Deck
Characters
Wesley Dodds ◊ The Sandman, Golden Age Gunman
Stargirl, Courtney Whitmore
Dr. Psycho, Mental Giant
Weather Wizard, Mark Mardon
The Calculator, Evil Oracle
Dr. Polaris, Force of Nature
Michael Holt ◊ Mr. Terrific, Renaissance Man
Arthur Kendrick, Knight
2 Sand, Sanderson Hawkins
Witchfire, Rebecca Carstairs
Animal Man, Buddy Baker
Mr. Freeze, Brutal Blizzard
Black Adam, Teth-Adam
Hourman III ◊ Hourman, Time Machine
Dr. Fate, Hector Hall
Captain Marvel, Earth’s Mightiest Mortal
Alexander Luthor, Diabolical Double
The Phantom Stranger, Fallen Angel
Plot Twists
2 Allied Against the Dark
Coercion
Deflection
Magical Lobotomy
I Still Hate Magic!
Epic Battle
Locations
The Science Spire
JSA Headquarters
Equipment
Laser Watch
Amulet of Nabu
I was able to put up a 3-1 record with this deck over four rounds, which was good enough for third place. (Most of my opponents made it to 3-1 as well.)
Weather Wizard was much better than I thought he would be, as I usually cannot abide below average ATK in Sealed Pack and Draft. Stargirl tended to be great when attacking and terrible when defending, which is somewhat predictable, I guess. I never used the vengeance of Dr. Psycho, but his ability to stun a 3-drop was very useful. I didn’t recruit Wesley Dodds at all.
I was relatively unimpressed with Dr. Polaris overall, with his exceptional text not really enough to make up for his stats. Arthur Kendrick was a good call, as he was able to keep me in a game by ensuring I took no damage on my fourth- and sixth-turn initiatives after being beaten down quite harshly in the early game. The Calculator was exceptional—especially when arriving after a boosted Alexander Luthor—and is likely to be a staple of Villains United in Draft and Constructed. Still, he has nothing on Michael Holt ◊ Mr. Terrific, who was an absolute force to be reckoned with. This card will be a first pick in Draft without a doubt.
Sand was dead average, and I found myself not wanting to play him that often. Animal Man was as good as I’d hoped, though he did demand a Team-Up too often for him to be any more than filler for my deck. Witchfire was very good. I was never able to gain endurance from her, but her stats and flight were more than enough to give me numerous options on my initiatives.
Mr. Freeze was everything Patrick Sullivan had said in such caustic tones in his review. Mr. Freeze is very close to being broken in Sealed Pack and Draft. I only hit him once, but unfortunately, so did my opponent! The game I lost was in no small part due to his vengeance. Black Adam is a strong alternative, and I was never unhappy with him. I only played Hourman once, to an under-drop from an opponent, so you can imagine that he seemed very good, though the jury must remain out for me there.
While Dr. Fate was just average, Captain Marvel was amazing, as you would expect. He fully requires his loyalty, as it typically takes a lot to take him down. By the end of the tournament I was in love with Alexander Luthor as a 7-drop—not a 6-drop—with his funky text able to create much more interesting seventh turns than the typical odd initiative bash-fest. The Phantom Stranger was mostly better as a trick, with my many Team-Ups giving me a few options to throw a wrench in the works of a late-game attack.
I really wish I had been able to use the locations better, as I drew The Science Spire once and JSA Headquarters not at all. My loss involved an opponent using the Headquarters from turn 2 onwards (with a hidden Terry Sloane ◊ Mr. Terrific), from which point he not only hit a great curve but also was able to stack his deck for the late game. I am sure this card will be highly coveted. Similarly, even though I only used The Science Spire once, it was amazing.
The Team-Ups really allowed my deck to run smoothly, and between their regular appearance and Michael Holt, I was able to be effective off-initiative most of the time. I never drew Coercion, but I never had any problems teaming-up, either. I Still Hate Magic! was fantastic—which was nothing new—and given the format, I can see it being a first pick in Draft as well.
Magical Lobotomy was a decent stand-in card, allowing me to make slightly risky attacks with insurance. Deflection also helped me out of a few holes, and its synergy with the JSA affiliation should not be ignored. Epic Battle was a bit awkward, however. It is probably going to be a Sealed staple, but I doubt it will be sought after in the focused world of Draft. There are too many times when it is too dangerous.
I think I underestimated Return Fire!, as it can deal a large amount of endurance loss very easily. This is especially good on the last turn, when people often make safe attacks and you can surprise them. I never regretted cutting Join Us or Die, even with Mr. Freeze. Occasionally my thoughts went to Mourn for the Lost, as a lot of plot twists cost 1, but pitching a character is sometimes steep. My plot twists were often good enough that it didn’t really matter.
The equipment was everything it should have been. Equipment has certainly lost its stigma now, with most people running a few equips. DC sets seem to have more DEF than Marvel sets, and often lower ATK values, too, so I think anything that gives a permanent addition to a character’s ATK should be very carefully considered.
Well, that’s it for this week. I am a huge fan of this set for Sealed Pack and Draft already, and I hope this article encourages you to be, too. Stay tuned, as next week I have a terrible pool from which I had to make some very difficult decisions. See you then!