There once was a time when no one thought that a Vs. System game would go past turn 8. The first PCQ demonstrated the error of that hypothesis. Doom Control hit the environment in a big way, and Gamma Bombs lit up the tournament scene in mirror matches lasting into double-digit turns. Shortly after, players experimenting with Xavier’s Dream decks elevated that strategy to a solid tier 2 position, and in the process, created the then-standard proactive exhaustion engine. Puppet Master, Banshee, and Rogue, Power Absorption were enough to get the deck to turn 8. Then, it could use Jean Grey, Phoenix Force both to clear the table as needed and to make sure that no one was stunned by the time the Dream made its conditional check.

Though proactive exhaustion stall decks have dropped off the map lately, Jeremy Gray made an impressive showing at the Minehead $10K with an aggressive stall deck that hearkened back to those early Xavier’s Dream builds. The Dream was alive—albeit in a different form—at the Minehead $10K, and new cards from Web of Spider-Man helped to make it possible.

Here’s the deck that Jeremy ran:

Characters: 35

4 Puppet Master
4 Medusa
4 Rogue, Power Absorption
3 Blackfire
3 Scarecrow
4 Mr. Freeze
1 Scorpion
4 Magneto, Master of Magnetism
4 Apocalypse
3 Onslaught
1 Mimic 

Plot Twists: 22

4 Entangle
3 Flame Trap
4 Pleasant Distraction
3 Fast Getaway
4 Burn Rubber
4 Swift Escape 

Equipment: 3

3 Batplane 

The deck uses the old school standard exhaustion engine of four Puppet Masters and four copies of Rogue, Power Absorption, but replaces the engine’s 3-drop (Banshee) with Medusa. The result is an early-game engine that performs more consistently—regardless of initiative—as opposed to the original engine, which needed even initiative to get the most out of Banshee. By turn 4, you’ve effectively got two Puppet Masters in play (thanks to Rogue, Power Absorption) and a front-liner that can act as a piece of targeted exhaustion if attacked. Ouch.

Blackfire’s direct stun on turn 5 will take care of major threats (Thing, Heavy Hitter comes to mind) and Mr. Freeze on turn 6 keeps characters exhausted. Magneto keeps the opponent incapacitated on turn 7 and really starts the offensive push. Apocalypse locks the game for the opponent, and when the chips are down on turn 9, the deck goes off by dropping the big reward for all that stall work—Onslaught. The result is a ton of direct stun for a ton of damage, plus either a big attack against any leftover stragglers or some direct damage for the game.

The deck runs Entangle and Pleasant Distraction for additional exhaustion to really drive home the deck’s theme. Pleasant Distraction allows the deck to attack down the curve. It is invaluable on turns 5 and 7 if you have odd initiative, or turns 4, 6, and 8 if you do not. Using Puppet Master in the same way is integral to the deck’s success. Exhaustion is very important, but KO’s are more permanent, and there should be no doubt that this deck needs to make them to win.

Fast Getaway and Burn Rubber help to limit damage while allowing for potentially important reformations on the fly. Swift Escape and Batplane get weak characters out of harm’s way, allow you to re-recruit the same Puppet Master in one turn, and interrupt attacks fuelled by Savage Beatdown and other similar pumps. The Minehead metagame had several good TNB decks and lots of Savage Beatdown, so the fact that Gray had seven potential attack-negating effects in his deck was a huge asset. 

Beyond that, Flame Trap provides great tech against Wild Vomit, The New Brotherhood, Teen Titans, and The Brave and the Bold (if it doesn’t nail its Fizzles). TNB is one of the best matchups for this deck because of its plot twist selections—Burn Rubber, Swift Escape, and Batplane all rob TNB of its attack step pumps, and Flame Trap drops the hammer on the weenies. This deck loves squaring off against little guys, since if you’re not Flame Trapping them on turns 4 or 5, Scarecrow is shovelling them into his mouth from turn 6 and up. Doing both makes Roy Harper cry.

The deck has a lot of cool tricks that can take people by surprise. One of the best is using Flame Trap with Puppet Master. Generally, Puppet Master gets nerfed if the opponent has a small character out on the field (something he or she can exhaust without inhibiting the ability to attack). The solution to this is to activate Puppet Master while maintaining priority to activate Flame Trap. Flame Trap resolves and stuns the small characters so that when Puppet Master’s effect resolves, the more convenient options for exhaustion are no longer available. It’s useful in combat when Puppet Master gets attacked and is even more stylish when performed in the recruit step on turns when you don’t have initiative. Chaining with Swift Escape is the ultimate coup de grace.

Speaking of Swift Escape, it’s the root of two other signature tricks. When attacked under the right conditions, Medusa and Mr. Freeze both combo well with Swift Escape. Doing this with Medusa lets you set her out in the front line—an easy target for a big hit—and then snap her back while still exhausting one of the big hitters your opponent didn’t attack with. The attacker readies, but you get some exhaustion out of it. It’s a nice way to maintain Medusa’s utility in the later turns of the game.

Mr. Freeze is similar. You put him out front as a wall, and if the opponent swings in with one character that he or she has modified, the attacker not only loses those ATK bonuses, it also fails to ready. Normally, the attacker readies when the defender is removed from combat, but Mr. Freeze’s effect prevents that from happening. It’s a surprisingly nasty trick that people just don’t see coming. It’s also useful when performed against a team attack—you save yourself 6 stun damage and keep multiple characters exhausted until next turn’s recovery step.

I’ve been testing this deck myself, as have a few of the Metagame.com staff members and some of the guys in Europe. We’re all very impressed. The deck has undergone some changes from Jeremy’s original model—Scorpion was removed for a fourth Blackfire, and a fourth copy of Flame Trap became popular for combating the prolific Teen Titans (and The Brave and the Bold’s Fizzles). We’re also testing several new cards like Dinah Laurel Lance, mostly in favor of Batplane. In experienced hands, the deck performs well against the top three decks in most metagames (Common Enemy, Teen Titans, and Brave and the Bold), even though it’s still being ironed out.

The one-game match format gives this deck a huge boost. Gray took a lot of people by surprise in Minehead, and with so many people looking to play one of the “big three” at So Cal, the stage is well set for rogue entries to beat up the standards. It’s easy to doubt a stall deck, but if you test this in your metagame or playtest group, you’ll be impressed. It takes a bit of time to master, but it’s worth it.

If Gray Stall is played at So Cal by practiced players, I guarantee it will be in the Top 8 at the end of Day 1. It has no bad matchups and a lot of crush matches. With surprise, the format, and the metagame on its side, Gray Stall could be a serious contender at the second Vs. System PC tournament.