In the initial design stages, one of the more important factors in creating the Vs. System was to limit the luck factor. Most specifically, we wanted to prevent the kind of “resource-screw” that plagues some of the most popular trading card games. This was solved by allowing players to use any card in their hand as a resource.

The luck element was contained, but far from eliminated. With every player essentially guaranteed to have a number of resources equal to the number of turns played, the ability—or lack thereof—to maximize these resources became paramount. Anyone building an aggressive Marvel deck simply has to spend every single resource point he or she is able to generate each turn, or the deck will not be successful. As a deck builder, you have more control over being able to consistently have a good draw than most players tend to think. All you have to do is crunch some numbers.

You will play with 60 cards total. Playing 61 or more is mathematical heresy and never a correct play; always play the lowest amount of cards allowed by the game rules. You will draw a total of six cards by the time you have to make your first play. This means you're going to see ten percent of your deck by the time you enter your first build phase. So how many 1-cost characters should you include in your deck to draw one consistently? The math says ten, but you really can't afford to spend that many slots in your deck on 1-drops. So you compromise by running six to eight 1-point characters, realizing that this will cause you to occasionally miss a play.

By the second turn, you'll have seen a total of eight cards. Two cards may seem insignificant, but they improve your odds of drawing a 2-drop in a big way. You'll only need to play between eight and nine of them to ensure consistency. By turn 3, you'll have seen ten cards in your deck, which means you only need six 3-point characters. The numbers are close enough so that you will want to keep either six or five 4-drops, and definitely go down to five 5-drops.

The concept of maximizing your resources every turn is known as the point curve, and can be mathematically represented as follows (thanks to Marc Paschover for crunching the numbers):

Deck Size: 60 

           Turn
                1            2           3           4             
Copies  1   11.7%    15.0%    18.3%    21.7%

           2    22.1%    28.0%    33.6%    38.9%

           3    31.5%    39.1%    46.2%    52.6%

           4    39.9%    48.8%    56.6%    63.4%

           5    47.5%    57.0%    65.1%    71.9%

           6    54.1%    64.0%    72.1%    78.6%

           7    60.1%    70.0%    77.8%    83.7%

           8    65.4%    75.1%    82.4%    87.7%

           9    70.0%    79.4%    86.1%    90.8%

          10   74.1%    83.1%    89.1%    93.1%

          11   77.8%    86.1%    91.5%    94.9%

          12   80.9%    88.7%    93.4%    96.3%

          13   83.7%    90.8%    94.9%    97.3%

          14   86.1%    92.5%    96.1%    98.0%

          15   88.2%    94.0%    97.0%    98.6%

          16   90.1%    95.2%    97.8%    99.0%

           Turn

                5            6           7           8              

Copies  1   25.0%    28.3%    31.7%    35.0%  

           2   44.1%    49.0%    53.7%    58.1%  

           3   58.5%    63.9%    68.8%    73.3%  

           4   69.4%    74.7%    79.2%    83.1%  

           5   77.6%    82.4%    86.3%    89.5%  

           6   83.7%    87.8%    91.0%    93.5%  

           7   88.2%    91.7%    94.2%    96.0%  

           8   91.6%    94.3%    96.3%    97.6%  

           9   94.0%    96.2%    97.6%    98.6%  

          10  95.8%    97.5%    98.5%    99.2%  

          11  97.0%    98.3%    99.1%    99.5%  

          12  97.9%    98.9%    99.4%    99.7%  

          13  98.6%    99.3%    99.7%    99.8%  

          14  99.0%    99.5%    99.8%    99.9%  

          15  99.4%    99.7%    99.9%    100.0%

          16  99.6%    99.8%    99.9%    100.0%

Brotherhood is the most aggressive beatdown deck in the current metagame, and it is perfectly suited for illustrating the point curve influence on deck building:

The New Brotherhood
(by Alex Shvartsman and team Kings Games)

4 Lorelei
4 Phantazia
4 Toad
4 Pyro
4 Rogue, Anna Raven
2 Quicksilver, Pietro Maximoff
4 Sabretooth, Feral Rage
2 Blob
4 Magneto, Eric Lehnsherr
4 Dual Sidearms
4 The New Brotherhood
4 Flying Kick
4 Savage Beatdown
4 Savage Land
4 Genosha
4 Ka-Boom!

This deck very much revolves around The New Brotherhood ongoing plot twist. While there are a number of ways to build Brotherhood decks—many of which take advantage of cards like Lost City and Avalon Space Station—this deck forfeits such resources and remains extremely focused, offering very consistent draws as a trade-off. 

The goal here is to always remain at four resources, in order to continue taking advantage of The New Brotherhood past turn 4. There are several ways to accomplish this. You can Ka-Boom! your opponent’s resource, or even your own. You can flip over a second Savage Land, destroying the one you’ve already used. Or you can activate Genosha.

Sometimes you may find yourself in a situation where you're in turn 5, but don't have Magneto or any other powerful play to make. In that circumstance, you should take advantage of the rule that says that you generate your resources at the beginning of the recruit step. Basically, it means that you can announce generating five resources, and then flip over and sacrifice Genosha. You'll still have 5 points to recruit with for the turn.

There are three viable 1-drop characters in the Brotherhood: Lorelei, Destiny, and Phantazia. While some players like Destiny, I find it to be mediocre in comparison to the other two. Lorelei’s ability is especially important on turn 1, when your opponent has the initiative. Because of her special ability, your opponent won’t be able to attack Lorelei unless he or she is willing to use up a powerful plot twist like Flying Kick. This lets you squeeze in several extra points of damage on that turn, provided you draw either The New Brotherhood or Dual Sidearms.

Speaking of initiative—and this may seem counter-intuitive—but the deck definitely wants to have the initiative second, not first. This maximizes the likelihood of you playing as many The New Brotherhoods by turn 4 as possible. It also lets you take advantage of the fact that many decks are not playing with any, or almost any, 1-drops.

On the second turn, your lineup is Toad and Pyro. If you have initiative, playing Toad is better. He will attack for more damage and stun any character your opponent might play on turn 3. He will also bounce back to your hand on turn 3, which not only allows your 3-point character to survive, but also provides discard fodder for a turn 4 Sabretooth, Feral Rage.

When it’s your opponent’s initiative, you should play Pyro and activate it to make your opponent lose 3 endurance points when your character is attacked.

The third turn is not as good for the Brotherhood as you’d like. While opponents might be playing a 6 ATK/6 DEF Wolverine, 5 ATK/5 DEF Thing, or 4 ATK/5 DEF Darkoth, the best you’ve got is a 4 ATK/4 DEF Rogue. You can make up for this by equipping it with Dual Sidearms. The best times to play Sidearms are turn 1 on your first character, in order to deal extra damage early on, or turn 3, in order to let your character match up to what your opponent is playing. Quicksilver is not as good at combat as Rogue, but his ability to hit the opponent’s endurance total makes him a solid candidate for this deck.

Whatever disadvantage you may incur on turn 3 is more than made up for by your turn 4 play. Sabretooth is by far the best fighting character in the game, as he is able to take down even the largest 5-drop. Having initiative on this turn is yet another reason the Brotherhood deck wants to forfeit turn 1 initiative.

Alas, you can’t reliably draw one of your four Feral Rages every single game, so you will also be playing a pair of second-best Brotherhood 4-drops, Blob. In fact, you might occasionally play Blob this turn anyway, if you happen to not have initiative, since he's better defensively.

At the top of this deck’s food chain is Magneto, Eric Lehnsherr. His interaction with Genosha, in addition to his having flight, range, and a solid ability, make him the clear choice over Quicksilver, Speed Demon or Scarlet Witch, though both of those have their own merits.

There are no 6 or 7-drops in this deck at all. Not only is there no space for them if you hope to play enough 1 and 2-drops to conform to the point curve, but you also expect that the game will finish—one way or another—by turn 5.

The New Brotherhood may not be the very best deck in the game today, but it is a solid choice for an aggressive-style player, and it is definitely good enough to win tournaments.