So far in this column, I’ve shown you a few team-up decks, but naturally when you think of a team-up, you think of two teams. Or at least I do. Today’s crazy deck takes advantage of the synergies between three very different teams to deal out the most endurance loss in the minimum amount of time. The idea of this deck is to get a bunch of Army guys into play, keep as many of them around as possible, then use cards that hurt your opponent for allowing so many of the little buggers to hang around. The deck doesn’t really even rely on combat to get the job done. In fact, the characters are so small that they won’t they won’t be able to team attack and take down most 4-drops, so this deck had better dish it out fast.

The Power of Ones
16 Thuggee
4 Wild Sentinels
4 Senator Kelly
4 Destiny
2 Phantazia
3 Avalon Space Station
4 Lazarus Pit
4 Marvel Team-Up
4 The Mutant Menace
3 Press the Attack
4 Reconstruction Program
4 Last Laugh
4 World’s Finest


I had considered using Search and Destroy for a bit of board control, but in the end, the deck gets more mileage out of Press the Attack. Taking down a 3-drop is all fine and dandy, but dealing an extra 8 endurance loss to your opponent is so much nicer. The deck can just take the hits through turn 4, but once turn 5 comes around, it’s time to go off or die trying. For sheer drawing power, an early version of the deck had a lot more Wild Sentinels and Longshot, but the deck couldn’t manage to find room for the Brotherhood, which left it reliant on Senator Kelly as the sole finisher. Reconstruction Program and Avalon Space Station together can get you just as many cards in hand as Longshot.

However, if things are going according to plan, you won’t have any Army units in your KO’d pile to grab. The trick to the deck is Lazarus Pit. Since it isn’t unique, you can get a couple of 'em in play, keeping your Thuggees in play, stunned. Not that impressive, huh? However, when you team up those Thuggees with the Brotherhood and/or Sentinels, suddenly there are some cards to take advantage of. Teamed up with the Sentinels, Senator Kelly will count the Army Thuggees, whether they are up and fighting or down for the count. Similarly, with a Brotherhood/League team up, The Mutant Menace counts all Brotherhood characters you control, without a care for the state of their health. If you’re really lucky, and you play against a control deck, you’ll have time to get all three of the teams synchronized. That’s when the fun really starts.

The Thuggees are the perfect way to start out, as they dish it out even if their attacks fail. When team attacking in large numbers, the endurance loss starts adding up. OK, not to any great extent, but rest assured that your opponent will be lower than you after the first 3 turns of the game. If Destiny comes online, he or she will be well below 40. Note that the deck does not have combat enhancements, but the Thuggees can get out of a jam with a power-up or two.

The deck can play out differently depending on what you draw, so here are the different avenues you can take. You’ll always draw some Thuggees, whether you want to or not, but where to go from there depends on what else you draw.

If you draw a couple copies of The Mutant Menace, you’ll want to get Destiny into play ASAP to get the Brotherhood/League team-up going. The Mutant Menace doesn’t care about Army, it just wants bodies. Phantazia makes it easier to take down the target that Destiny predicts, so there’s no need to go Army crazy. Using Press the Attack on Phantazia means the defender is going down to even the smallest of team attacks.

If you draw up your Senator Kellys, you’ll want to get a Sentinel/League team-up going, so that the good Senator sees all those Army Thuggees in play. Here, Press the Attack can be used for additional activations by Kelly. Just do a three-character team attack, activate the Senator, Press, and activate him again. Don’t forget that if you have a couple of Senators in hand, you might be better off doing the multiple recruit trick, activating a Senator, recruiting a new one, then grabbing one out of the KO’d pile with a Reconstruction Program to recruit him all over again.

One of the other fun aspects of the deck is its surprise value. If you can play the first game in the match without showing any Brotherhood cards, your opponent will be thrown for a loop when they suddenly appear in game 2.

The deck packs four of each of the generic team-ups. It’s best if you wait as long as possible to play the team-ups, as you’d rather your Avalon Space Station was Have a Blast-ed. An extra face-down team-up is a good idea if you don’t draw the locations. Should an opponent find a way to stop a team-up just when your plan is coming together, the spare will show that these teams aren’t so easily separated. I'd also like to remind readers that stunned characters still have team affiliations, so you can get your team-ups going when your opponent least expects them.

This deck is rather vulnerable to Flame Trap, but even that can be a blessing in disguise. If you get all six of your characters get Flamed and you have a few lingering stunned characters hanging around, a Last Laugh or two often spells the end of the game for the opposition. Originally I had Surprise Attack in the deck, but Last Laugh fits with the theme better and often times causes more endurance loss. The deck can definitely dish it out. It just can’t take it.

Questions or comments may be sent to mhyra@metagame.com.