Satanus may be evil incarnate, but his ability is good. Recruiting a character with only 6 ATK and 6 DEF on turn 6 is hellishly risky, but Satanus steals souls as a reward.

The saying goes, “You will be rewarded in Heaven.” Satanus doesn’t live there. When he stuns a character, Satanus takes it for himself and brings it back to life on the other side of the table. Taking control of a character may be one of the strongest abilities in the VS. System, so to keep him balanced, Satanus needs to start small. That’s why this character is 666—6 cost, 6 ATK, and 6 DEF. Aside from the diabolical reference, this means that Satanus will need to team attack to stun the large opposing characters that he’ll face.

Strategies based on team attacks have always been risky. It is difficult to keep large numbers of characters out of the KO pile. Cards like Dynamic Duo and Tim Drake ◊ Robin, Young Detective can help make team attacking safer. Combined with Satanus, they could be spectacular. Satanus won’t be able to stun much by himself, but since his ability still works when he’s involved in a team attack, his soul stealing act can get big. Every character stunned by Satanus recovers and changes sides, becoming a member of the Revenge Squad in the process. The recovered character does not ready, but perhaps it might Press the Attack to turn around and immediately smack its old owner. The most thrilling combination might be a Tim Drake ◊ Robin, Young Detective with boost led by a Satanus screaming, “Teen Titans Go!” That risky madness has the potential to steal every character from an opponent’s board on turn 7.

All of those evil dreams would have to wait until a Constructed tournament, however, since I was on my way to the Superman, Man of Steel preview when I thought them up. If I had a strong Revenge Squad curve, I might have been able to play Satanus on the day he was unveiled . . . but first, I’d have to pull him.

In Sealed Pack tournaments, each player receives five booster packs with which to build a deck of at least thirty cards. You only get five rares. I wanted Satanus, but the first pack I opened contained Roy Harper ◊ Speedy, instead. That wouldn’t be helpful, since Teen Titans are not one of the four main teams in Man of Steel. My second pack continued the useless rare theme with Wally West ◊ Kid Flash. My third pack was not the charm . . . three straight Teen Titans, this time Donna Troy ◊ Troia. While these might be very useful for Constructed when combined with DC Origins, they would not help me here.

My fourth pack contained Brainiac’s Ship. This equipment has a powerful ability, especially for Sealed Pack formats. It’s like having a power-up for every attack. Its cost is usually not worth the risk, but at least it was a viable possibility. In my fifth and final pack, while still praying for evil incarnate, I was rewarded instead with goodness personified—Linda Danvers ◊ Supergirl.

Already recognized as one of the best characters in the set, Linda Danvers gave me a risky idea. I decided to try to recruit her on turn 4, equipped with Brainiac’s Ship. To do this, I would need a way to combine Team Superman with Revenge Squad. I had one card that would work—Metropolis. I would need solid characters for each turn in both affiliations . . . I had that. I would need enough pure combat tricks to stay ahead if the Metropolis didn’t show up . . . I had eleven outstanding plot twists. I would need a strong win condition. For that, I had