If you’re looking for security in your strategies, don’t look at Longshot. While his hairstyle will always be spectacular, his ability is extremely risky. In fact, Longshot might be a perfect example of risk versus reward.

When this character works, he provides more pure card advantage than anyone else in the Vs. System. When Longshot fails, however, he can lose games all by himself. There’s been considerable debate on Internet forums and in the UDE offices about whether or not Longshot is too good. In the world of trading card games, a card that is too good is “broken.” Some people think Longshot is broken because his ability allows Army decks to compete on the highest level. I would understand this complaint if Longshot actually hit his two targets every time, but since this stylish mutant misses his mark quite often, he’s nowhere near broken. By providing no way to search for him without teaming him up, the designers ensured that Longshot was just risky enough to be safe for the metagame.

Let’s examine Longshot’s ability. When the card is activated, his controller names two cards in his or her deck. Then the top four cards of that deck are revealed. If both of the named cards are present in those four revealed cards, all copies of the two named cards are put into the player’s hand. Adding four cards to your hand is a massive advantage, and this little mutant makes that possible—if you guess right. However, if both of the named cards are not included in the four revealed cards, zero cards are put into hand and all four revealed cards are placed on the bottom of the deck. That possibility makes this ability very risky, because in that scenario, Longshot becomes exhausted without providing any reward.

Or does he? Web of Spider-Man allows the Longshot player to start Thinking Outside the Box. This new ongoing plot twist helps to make Longshot a safer gamble. See, when you miss with Longshot, you send the cards to the bottom of your deck in whatever order you choose. When you are Thinking Outside the Box, you draw cards from the bottom of your deck instead of the top. This makes Longshot a legal way to “stack” your deck. His risks are reduced, and his rewards are doubled.

Even before Web of Spider-Man, this dangerous mutant had become a major force in the metagame. Longshot is very dear to me, since he almost single-handedly made the Sentinel team viable at the highest level of competition. We even developed a pet name for him. In the VsRealms.com community, we lovingly call this card “Mulletman,” in homage to Longshot’s fabulous hairstyle.

All kidding aside, Longshot helped me win $1,900 at the first Pro Circuit in Indianapolis. Using a team of Sentinels led by the mutant, I finished the Constructed section of the tournament in nineteenth place . Pretty risky, indeed. I chose to play a variation of the Wild Vomit deck that was originally named and introduced at the first San Diego PCQ by Michael Thicke. I called my version “Purple Pity,” and it looked like this:

24 Wild Sentinel
12 Sentinel Mark IV
4 Senator Kelly
4 Longshot

4 Cover Fire
4 Reconstruction Program
4 Search and Destroy

4 Underground Sentinel Base

I don’t want to spend too much time on the tech of this deck (since I have some other ideas for Longshot), but I will give you the basics. Longshot needs two solid targets to shoot for, unless you’re using Base of Operations or Clocktower to steady his aim. When he leads these robots, Mulletman always shoots for Wild Sentinel and Sentinel Mark IV. This way, more often than not, he fills your hand fast. The Sentinels utilize this with one of the best alternate recruitment methods in the game—Underground Sentinel Base. All the extra Army Sentinel characters filling your giant hand are great to use as power-ups, but two or three additional Sentinel Mark IVs brought into play without spending any resource points can destroy almost anything. As with all Longshot decks, the mulligan tech here is simple—don’t keep your first hand without him. Play him as early as you can every game, and let him get to work with his risky ability. Recover him if he gets stunned and protect him with whatever you can. When Mulletman shoots straight, he will reward you with a table-flooding swarm of shiny purple power.

What does the future hold for Longshot? The Web of Spider-Man set should begin a new era for the risky mutant. We already know that he will be Thinking Outside the Box. X-Men still do not have a card to search for characters, but Twist of Fate could be a way to get closer to Longshot if he doesn’t show up in your first eight cards. In order to twist him out of the deck, Longshot will need to play with Spider-Friends. That might be perfect. As you can see from the Sentinel deck, it takes ten to twenty copies of one character to make Longshot worth his risk. The Spider-Friends have the goods to fit that bill.

There are five different versions of Spider-Man to shoot at, so he will be a natural target. Add the fact that the Spider-Friends team has an Army card (Wild Pack), and we have the makings of a viable Longshot deck. ESU Science Lab provides card advantage while giving Longshot’s two main targets reinforcement when they’re powered up. Swarm decks depend on team attacking as much as any other strategy, and Spider-Man, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is a perfect compliment. With Press the Attack, Spider-Man can be readied to attack again and create an unstunnable gang to keep the board clear during the mid-game. Wild Pack was made to team attack, and Silver Sable lives to boost them all up. Mary Jane Watson is just too beautiful to leave out, and she earns her way into this strategy, anyway. All we need now is a win condition. In Indianapolis, I won most often by using the burn potential of Senator Kelly. Spider-Friends might be able to sparkle people to death with the help of Dagger or sting them lethally as Hornet teaches the swarm of Wild Packs to bite. Human Torch, Friendly Rival looks like can finish the job, too.

What would the deck list look like? That’s up to you. I’ll be testing different versions and scanning the web sites along with you in the coming months, watching to see what Longshot shoots for next. If I find something better than Sentinels, I might even use it at Pro Circuit SoCal. I risked enough by telling you this much, so now you’ve got to grab the rewards for yourself.