But enough with the teasing—here’s the actual decklist that Patrick’s running this weekend.

 

Patrick Yapjoco
PC San Francisco

 

3 Mikado and Mosha

1 Surveillance Pawn

4 Friedrich Von Roehm

4 Sarge Steel

1 Christopher Smith ◊ Peacemaker

1 Mastermind, Dark Dreamer

4 Ahmed Samsarra

1 Madelyne Pryor

2 Adrian Chase ◊ Vigilante

1 Roy Harper ◊ Arsenal, Knight

2 Shinobi Shaw

1 Donald Pierce

1 Magneto, Black Lord

1 Sebastian Shaw

1 Ultra-Humanite, Metahuman Manipulator

2 Courtney Ross

 

4 Enemy of My Enemy

4 Knightmare Scenario

4 Army of One

4 Threat Neutralized

 

4 Checkmate Safehouse

3 Brother I Satellite

2 Shaw Industries

2 Rook Control

1 Brother Eye

1 Slaughter Swamp

1 The Hellfire Club

The deck could almost be considered the epitome of “location jank,” as it has a slew of effects that are gained through manipulating the player’s locations. Cards like Knightmare Scenario, Brother Eye, Shaw Industries, and The Hellfire Club can help characters stun back or avoid stuns, and when you use them all together, you have a mess of an attack on your hands.

It seems that this deck wants to take the evens; the curve that follows might look a little like this:

Turn 1: Courtney Ross or Surveillance Pawn

Turn 2: Friedrich Von Roehm, to abuse the even initiative.

Turn 3: Ahmed Samsarra, probably recruited into the hidden area and then activated to search for a location card to place in the resource row

Turn 4: Madelyne Pryor, probably KO’ing your turn 1 play to use her power and get the most out of your attacks on your initiative

If your game plan hasn’t come together by the time turn 4 comes around, then turn 5 may give you a trick up your sleeve. The ideal recruit for turn 5 looks to be Roy Harper ◊ Arsenal, Knight, to abuse those locations even more. With Roy Harper, you can effectively steal your opponent’s initiative by forcing your opponent to team attack Roy Harper with smaller characters instead of going against him on the curve with a 5-drop. Roy Harper might be better than everyone thought he was when the card was first released. We’ll know for sure how he might affect the format after this weekend.

If you use Roy Harper’s effect on turn 5, you may be looking at a repeat of your turn 5, but with the initiative, you can look forward to some fun. Being down a resource doesn’t necessarily hurt you, either. Underdropping with certain characters can definitely add to the fun factor, especially with the backup power of Christopher Smith ◊ Peacemaker.

To go along with the curve, you have the attack pumps. They look innocent enough on their own, but when you combine their effects, you’re looking at one ferocious attacking character. A character like Roy Harper ◊ Arsenal, Knight can grow to be enormous.

Of course, this is just an example of what the deck can do. It has all the key elements that are needed to succeed on the Pro level: tricks, a decent build, and a world-class player piloting it. It’s just another one of those fun decks in what seems to be an unlimited format full of surprises around every corner.