In what must be described as the best Vs. System format ever, we have eleven (!) different archetypes that have been represented by ten or more players. The new Marvel Modern Age is a hit with players and deckbuilders alike, with no one agreeing what the best deck in the format is. The Marvel Knights team is numerically dominating, thanks mostly to the most powerful team-up card ever, Midnight Sons, and the suite of powerful cards the team brings to the table. Not to be outdone, the quirky X-Statix Loner decks are holding their own, posting the second largest population of players—and that’s not even counting their near cousin, the Team X-change (X-Statix/X-Men) decks. The most significant unexpected archetype is the rise of the Wild Pack deck, which attempts to break ESU Science Lab and Mary Jane Watson to draw a ton of cards. Only time will tell which players will be able to successfully navigate the most treacherous of formats.

Marvel Knights/Spider-Man (Spider Knights) – 36

This is considered to be the most stable of the decks in the format, using the best defensive and offensive combat plot twists. Spider Senses, Crime and Punishment, and Head Shot are what make this deck tick. The Realmworx team has decided that this is the best way to go, trying to get consistency via redundancy.

X-Statix Loner – 34

This is the crowd-favorite deck, using the unique strategy of attempting to keep one character in play at a time. Most of the decks use Professor X, Mental Master or Silver Surfer as a finisher, but most of the deck’s strategy revolves around the powerful Spin Doctoring plot twist and the twin locations X-Statix Café and X-Statix HQ. Big advocates of X-Statix include Gabe Walls, Neil Reeves, and John Ormerod.

Marvel Knights/Underworld (MKU) – 31

Brother Voodoo is the lynchpin of this deck, which attempts to control the board until the point when either Mephisto, Soulstealer or Strength of the Grave can set up a massive attack. This deck is one of the key beneficiaries of the unholy triumvirate of Midnight Sons, Dagger, Child of Light, and Wild Ride.

Mono Marvel Knights – 27

Many players have decided that teaming up is not for them, so they’ve gone with the streamlined Marvel Knights curve deck. There are two versions of this deck, basically delineated by their usefulness (or lack of) in the hidden area. Packed with offensive pumps, most of the Mono MK decks use Quick Kill to control the board.

Wild Pack – 19

The surprise “Pack”-age (bad pun intended) of the tournament, the Wild Pack deck has plenty of the aforementioned army characters and chooses to abuse them with ESU Science Lab. The Lab has the two-fold use of drawing cards as well as getting the deck to the late game via its reinforcement ability. The deck attains a critical mass of card drawing through Mary Jane Watson in order to abuse Spider-Man, The Amazing Spider-Man. It’s a treat to watch this engine in action.

Crime Lords/Sinister Syndicate (Honor Among Thieves) – 18

It’s criminal that this deck isn’t played more (holds for applause). Seriously, this deck has the potential to do in its opponent consistently on turn 5. Abusing the terrific team-up card Honor Among Thieves, the deck uses the best weenie characters from both teams to make sure that the opposing player is wearing concrete shoes at the end of the match.

Marvel Knights/Sinister Syndicate (Sinister Knights) – 14

The key problem with Sinister Syndicate (hitting its drops) is addressed in this deck with Dagger and Midnight Sons. The deck also opens up Syndicate to the full suite of offensive combat plot twist from Marvel Knights.

X-Statix/X-Men (Team X-Change) – 12

A very close relative to X-Statix loner, this deck adds Professor X, Mental Master and sometimes Sunfire in order to stabilize its board position. The team-specific team-up, Team X-change, allows a definite play on turn 8, as well as the ability to win the many Professor X on Professor X mirror attacks with superior amounts of power-ups.

Marvel Knights/Crime Lords (Crime Knights) – 12

It’s drop-hitting time! Roscoe Sweeny and Dagger fix all that ails you in this deck, which allows you to recruit the correct character every turn. Elektra, Agent of the Hand is a surprise bonus for playing these teams, and the deck has a very effective set of characters to choose from.

Crime Lords/Underworld (Nightlife) – 11

Thank god for Roscoe Sweeny! He makes it happen for all Crime Lords–related decks and works extremely well with the KO’d-pile fueled Underworld team. One big reason to play this deck is the beefy Deathwatch dual-loyalty character.

Sinister Syndicate – 10

Mikado and Mosha has kept this deck largely in check, and it also suffers from the problem that not every 1-drop can be Vulture.

MK Toolbox – 9

This refers to any deck that uses Midnight Sons to enable some unusual characters and plot twists, ranging from Bamf! to Insignificant Threat.

Spider-Friends – 9

This Golden Age standard has fallen on some hard times in what should be its highlighted format.

MK / Hounds – 6

This deck is being championed by the KGB team (Kings Games). The deck is similar in structure to the Hidden Marvel Knights decks, but it also runs the Golden Age standard Hounds of Ahab. Keeping the board clean is the most important aspect of this strategy.

SS / Hounds - 6

Witching Hour - 6

MK / X-Men – 5

MK/UW/CL – 4

Underworld – 2

Rogue - 12