Finally, after months and months of neglect, we’re seeing the League of Assassins in play!

Out of a field of 125 players, roughly ten percent ran some sort of League of Assassins deck. Five of the league decks were My Beloved variations that utilized the control of both the Gotham Knights and the League. The result is a real pain for those who play against it. The Brotherhood/League of Assassins deck made famous at the Kaplan $10K also made an appearance this weekend. One of the players even tried a team-up deck that combined the Assassins with the Spider-Friends!

So, why exactly has the League suddenly become so popular? You’ll find the answer by looking at the metagame of each $10K event held up to this point. The Teen Titans have been seen in strong numbers for a few months, proving effective at those events as well as at PC LA. Ra’s Al Ghul and his followers possess some powerful options for dealing with the Teen Titans and their team affiliation–abusing power. Tower of Babel completely disrupts the adolescent heroes and their team attacks. Ra’s Al Ghul, The Demon’s Head is almost “game over” against the team-attack happy Titans. No team attacks, no Titans Tower, no Garth ◊ Tempest, no reinforcement. The Titans are left with nothing . . . well, nothing except stunned characters and a lot of endurance loss.

Bane, Ubu is another League of Assassin powerhouse. Not only does this servant of Ra’s have competitive stats, but its effect also allows you to do what the League of Assassins do best—manipulate your opponent’s field. As long as Bane, Ubu is not stunned at the start of the recovery phase, you get to KO a character on the field. If your opponent has multiple stunned characters and plans to recover his or her strongest one, Bane will KO that character before the opponent can do so. If your opponent only has one character stunned, then Bane kills it off. This character is the optimal drop for any deck using the League of Assassins, and is one of the team’s many advantages.

So, are some of you still thinking that the League of Assassins don’t have what it takes to do well at a large Vs. System event? The players here sure aren’t. Tim Batow entered round 5 with a 4-0 record using the My Beloved variation. Various others have managed to win a few games with Ra’s al Ghul and his servants, too. Overall, the deck has fared quite nicely at this event. It’s no mystery that you’ll need to plan for League of Assassins at tournaments from now on—the team certainly isn’t being overlooked anymore.