Yesterday, when I was looking over the decklists, I thought that Gary Quinn’s deck had an error. Surely, this Mutant Nation deck couldn’t possibly have been running Longshot. I pulled him aside and asked him if that really was the case, and his eyes lit up. Immediately he started telling me all about his deck’s true strategy, and how it’s perfect for the current metagame. I decided to let Quinn explain to Metagame’s readers exactly how his strategy works.

Metagame: So when I first saw this deck yesterday, I thought, “Oh, okay. It’s just Mutant Nation with Longshot.” But, then I was talking to you, and you told me it’s the best deck in the format. Why?

Quinn: I’m not even sure it’s the best deck in the format. In this field, though, which is very Fantastic Four heavy with no New Brotherhood, it’s very good. You win the game when you get to turn eight, because there are very few outs to a Jean Grey lock. I actually played against this deck at Origins. I was playing a similar Fantastic Four/equipment build and went 6-0 before going 0-2, so that was less than exciting. But I played against someone with this deck and should have lost to it, but my opponent made a couple of mistakes. At any rate, I was impressed by it just because you have the power of limiting your opponent to having seven turns to win.

Metagame: How exactly does the lock work?

Quinn: The basic engine behind it is Lost City, because you have twelve Wolverines and ten Rogues. So, once they hit, if they can’t disrupt Lost City they can’t get through to you. Longshot is very good with that. Originally, the deck ran Cerebros and Night Visions, which did help the consistency of Longshot consistently. But, I audibled out of those in order to play Overload, so I’d have some game against Sentinels and New Brotherhood. You do consistently lose to New Brotherhood when they get a fast draw. Looking at the Top 8, I really wish I had played the control elements.

Once you get to turn eight and have Jean Grey in play, you can just return her every turn by KO’ing her and using Space Station to get her back. On turns where your opponent has initiative, you wait until they’ve made all their builds, and then you can play her, return her, and use your remaining build points to play characters. There are no outs for a deck that doesn’t play burn. So, hopefully it’ll be a good Top 8. I don’t see any unfavorable matchups, but you play the games and see what happens.

Metagame: And what does Longshot do in there?

Quinn: With twelve Wolverines and ten Rogues, he was hitting at about 30% yesterday. You like to see the 45% or so, because if you can’t suck up extra cards with him then all you have is a liability. You have someone you have to get out of the way, and I’m happy I’m not playing a matchup with Fantasticars in the first round, because that makes it impossible to get Longshot out of harm’s way. We’ll see what happens.

Metagame: Do you think you’ll play this next week at the Pro Circuit?

Quinn: It’s a possibility. You only need to go 4-3 to make day two and get into the draft, so I’d like a deck that has free wins. This deck has free wins against all the midrange control decks, and I think the other alternative is to force it to an extremely aggro style. Those have free wins against decks like this, or control-ish Doom decks. So, I’m going to try to stay away from midrange decks. It would be different if you were trying to go 6-1 or 7-0, but when you just need a good showing to make day two, I think it’s good to be conservative. I’m fairly confident with my ability to draft DC, so we’ll see how that goes.

Gary Quinn

Characters
4 Longshot, Rebel Freedom Fighter
4 Toad, Mortimer Toynbee
4 Rogue, Anna Raven
4 Wolverine, Logan
3 Jean Grey, Marvel Girl
3 Rogue, Power Absorption
3 Scarlet Witch, Wanda Maximoff
4 Wolverine, James Howlett
3 Rogue, Powerhouse
4 Wolverine, Berserker Rage
2 Jean Grey, Phoenix Force

Plot Twists
4 Overload
2 Marvel Team-Up
4 Mutant Nation
4 Have A Blast!

Locations
4 Lost City
4 Avalon Space Station