Ah, the Manhunters. The blue and red androids were the original police force of the universe, created long before those wannabe Green Lanterns ever came onto the scene. All was well in the universe until one day, the Manhunters decided to stop showing up for work. I’m not talking “we’re too tired to get out of bed” stopped showing up to work. I’m talking “crazy out of our minds, I’m a pretty pony” stopped showing up to work. After that, they did what any self respecting crazy warrior robot army would have done. They sent an immense invasion force to their creators’ home world.*

Talk about falling down. Michael Douglas would be proud.

Characters

4 Manhunter Infiltrator

6 Manhunter Guardsman

8 Manhunter Soldier

5 Manhunter Engineer

3 Manhunter Excavator

4 Sleeper Agent

5 Manhunter Giant

3 Rocket Red

Plot Twists

3 Manhunter Science

4 Qwardian Pincer

4 Plans Within Plans

3 The Manhunters are a Myth

3 Rebellion on Oa

Locations

3 Birthing Chamber

3 Manhunter Spacecraft

I love decks that contain card counts higher than four. Well, almost all of them (darn you, Sentinels *shakes fist*). Not only are their decklists much easier to fill out, they also have something every successful deck needs—consistency. Why does Curve Sentinels always seem to make its 3-drop? Because it’s running seven Sentinel Mark IIs. Add in Boliver Trask and you get access to almost any character in the deck virtually whenever you want. Manhunters have the same potential. Add to that consistency the capability to swarm your opponent with more dudes than you can shake a Wild Sentinel at, and you have a winning formula.

The characters are the foundation upon which our happy little red and blue house is built. They fall into two categories—recruiters and beaters.

Manhunter Guardsman, Manhunter Soldier, Manhunter Engineer, and Manhunter Excavator are the ones to look out for. They’re responsible for the swarm on the horizon. They run the Manhunter Recruiting Office. They hang out at the local Manhunter mall and hand out flyers. “Hey son, have you considered signing up for the Manhunter Universal Domination Force? Remember, Uncle Highmaster wants you!”

The Guardsman and the Soldier start off the recruiting. They hit the table on the third turn, and thanks to their recruit ability, you have the option to power out two more of them (or even a Manhunter Engineer and one of his buddies) on turn 4. The Engineer can then be used every turn to power out more characters from your resource row. There aren’t any characters in the deck that cost 6, so using this guy every turn starting on turn 5 never really sets you behind your curve. On turn 5, you get access to another recruiter in the form of Manhunter Excavator. Playing him with boost on turn 5 is like getting 7 resource points. Did one of your earlier characters end up getting KO’d? No worries—the excavator will go dig him up. Remember, the Manhunter Universal Domination Force has a very strict policy on deserters.

While the recruiters are there to start the job and build the army, the beaters are there to do just what they sound like—beat their opponents into a minty, breath-freshening paste. The beats begin as early as turn 2. Manhunter Infiltrator has a nice power attached to his little 2-drop frame. On top of that, he’s hidden, so he gets to choose his battles. So does Sleeper Agent. Its stats are pretty low compared to other 4-drops, but then again, it never gets recruited on turn 4. The Agents are your blitzkrieg boys. They come in for the alpha strike only. Best of all, the price is excellent—absolutely nothing. Together, these boys take care of the Manhunter special operations.

Rocket Red and Manhunter Giant are a little less subtle about their methods. Red’s a 13 ATK/13 DEF monster with a drawback that is a little less important when you have five guys on the table to pick from when he comes into play. He is joined in the Heavy Hitters Club™ by Manhunter Giant. Andre, as I affectionately call him, is a 10 ATK beater with an ability that really comes in handy after that final strike. After your final attack, the downside to any swarm strategy is that if your opponent has any guys left, he or she will be able to smash your weakest links for massive amounts of breakthrough. Andre allows you to get rid of your weak links so that your opponent has to bash through your biggest guys to get to you.

Even the plot twists get on the Swarm the Crap out of the Opponent bus. Manhunter Science takes advantage of all of the extra guys you have on your side by exhausting your front row defenders to replenish your ever-dwindling hand size. Qwardian Pincer allows for some ridiculously huge ATK bonuses in your later attacks. And Rebellion on Oa is the granddaddy of them all. If you manage to stun your opponent’s entire board and have more stunned guys than he or she has, your opponent loses everything. Not one, not two . . . but every single character. You may now point and laugh at your opponent.

Ha ha.

Plans Within Plans is my favorite of all the plot twists. At first, its ability seems a little bland. But the first time it gets you out of a jam, you’ll be sold for life. Since you’ll be trying to play your Sleeper Agents and other characters into your resource row for use with your Manhunter Engineers, you’ll tend to play your plot twists from hand. Plans allows you to reuse them. Most of the time, however, I’ve found myself simply using it for a power-up. However you choose to use it, it’s definitely an important asset for any Manhunter’s utility belt.

The Manhunters are a Myth rounds things off with an all-purpose cleaner to help shine up your Manhunters, polish them, and protect them from the effects of daily wear.

The locations also fit with incredible synergy into the Manhunters’ battle plans. Birthing Chamber fills the same role as Manhunter Science. They fill up the gaping hole left in your hand after you “go off” with your recruiters. Manhunter Spacecraft is another very important card for maintaining maximum efficiency and consistency. The Manhunter Caddy (it’s the Coupe de Ville of the stars) prevents you from ever having unused resource points. It also keeps you right on target for your drops. It’s like a catalog; you make a selection and a few easy payments of only $19.99, and we ship the Manhunter of your dreams directly to your door. Ah, I love the smell of commerce in the morning.

All of the decks in DC Modern Age are a blast to play, and Manhunters is about as fun as they come. The saying goes, “Rules were meant to be broken.” As any authority figure who knows me can tell you, I derive quite a bit pleasure from testing this theory. That must be why I like this deck so much and why it’s so fun to play—it breaks the rules.

Rule 1 – Your total recruitment for the turn may not exceed your resource points.

Thanks to Manhunter Guardsman and Manhunter Soldier, we’ll be ignoring this one.

Rule 2 – You may only recruit characters from your hand.

I guess no one warned them about Sleeper Agent and Manhunter Engineer. Oops.

Rule 3 – You will not laugh mercilessly as you swarm your opponent into oblivion.

If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to email me at the_priceis_right@yahoo.com.

*You guys really should go read Ben Kalman’s article on the Manhunter origins. It’s really well done and very interesting.

** What would Rocket Red do?

*** I don’t really endorse unsportsmanlike conduct. This is mostly because I can’t seem to win and hate having my opponent gloat. So if you decide to anyway, don’t be surprised if your opponent breaks a few rules as well.

And by "rules," I mean "bones."

Your bones.