One of the things I love about traveling for reporting is seeing the little one-ofs and flavor cards that are unique to one area and barely seen anywhere else. Those play trends fascinate me because, well . . . because I’m easily amused.
Several cards stood out at the Hannover $10K. There were a lot of cards seeing play that would normally be sitting under thick layers of dust at the backs of trade binders, and some cards that aren’t even in trade binders. We’re talking about the kind of card that is usually relegated to the inside of a wall and used as insulation for one’s home.
Juggernaut is definitely wall-fodder. But it saw some play in several decks at Hannover, and actually did quite a good job where it was played. Juggernaut is actually worth some attention. Clocking in at 17 ATK/17 DEF, he’s one of the biggest 7-drops available, larger in raw stats than even Magneto, Master of Magnetism. His effect which prevents him from readying during the recovery phase of a turn on which he attacks is heavily mitigated by two factors. First, if he gets in a clean swing on a support row character, the game’s probably over. Give him a Flying Kick and watch him clean house. He’s almost impossible to stop, living up to his name. Second, you can always use Press The Attack on him in a pinch. The odds are very good that he’ll survive an attack against a support row defender, due to his enormous stats, so if you can Press him he’ll likely attack again. On top of that, the current environment is filled with decks that keep small characters around until the seventh turn. Remember that Juggernaut’s effect causes a character to lose reinforcement in addition to preventing that character from being reinforced, so Juggernaut can punch through a cop just as easily as he can punch through anything else. If Juggernaut has the initiative at his disposal on turn 7, he can totally ruin a Cosmic Cops deck as well as just about anything else. Teen Titans, X-Stall, The Brave and the Bold, and several other topnotch decks all keep small characters around for the duration of the game, and Juggernaut is being used to metagame against that fact.
Entangle saw some play in a variety of decks. Curve Sentinel, X-Stall, and Doom Control all ran copies of the card, as well as a few rogue decks. These decks sought to take advantage of Entangle’s ability to steal the initiative from Teen Titans in the late-game. It was a strategy that found some success throughout the day, and though Entangle is a bit bulky in some matchups, it seems as if it may be a worthwhile thing to include in a deck given the proper metagame. Avalon Space Station also saw a great deal of play outside of Brotherhood decks, which were in and of themselves more plentiful than they normally would be. X-Stall ran Entangle to gain card advantage through the discard of Scarlet Witch and Mimic, while the many League variants used it to fill their need for locations.
Also of note was an increase in copies of Blind Sided, an inevitable reaction to the reinforcement-heavy environment lead by Cosmic Cops. In an environment populated by decks with so many defensive tricks, the ability to make your hits really count has become invaluable.
Robot Destroyer was also of note, with both Doom Control decks and Common Enemy playing it. Common Enemy saw several less conventional plays, with many players running Wolverine, New Fantastic Four as an alternate 4-drop instead of Invisible Woman, Sue Storm. With the ability to stun up the curve in a deck that is highly focused on raw combat, Wolverine can be a strong play, and can also make a nice follow-up to a failed attack that was repelled by defensive trickery. Both of these cards served to make Common Enemy a little bit less predictable, and Robot Destroyer in particular strengthened the deck’s matchup against Titans. Because Robot Destroyer’s effect is chainable and can not be stymied by Heroic Sacrifice, it proved to be a valuable addition to Common Enemy’s arsenal.
Out of the trends displayed, the two most likely to take root in other metagames seem to be Robot Destroyer and Avalon Space Station. Brotherhood characters are seeing a lot of play as a splash in many decks, being played in both X-Stall and Curve Sentinel, causing a lot of players to exploit Avalon Space Station. Meanwhile, Common Enemy players refuse to relinquish their death grip on that archetype, and Robot Destroyer metagames nicely against elements of both Teen Titans and Cosmic Cops.
Only time will tell if these trends are picked up anywhere else. I’m not sure we’ll see Juggernaut becoming the next Magneto any time soon, but they do both have funny hats, so fans of Juggernaut can always hope. Meanwhile, Avalon Space Station, Robot Destroyer, and perhaps even Entangle will likely see a rise in popularity over the coming months.