It’s the first round of a whole new Pro Circuit, but it seems that various players still feel like they are in Los Angeles. The Avengers, as a set, was one of the more powerful in Constructed history, so it’s no real surprise that some of the top names in Vs. elected to play with one of the “big three” decks from the set: namely, Squadron Supreme, Avengers, or Faces of Evil. What is pretty interesting, though, is the way that those last few slots have been engineered.
In a whole new Marvel Modern Age format, Squadron Supreme has lost a little of its explosive power without Surprise Attack and Mega-Blast. However, it now has a few new nifty tricks up its sleeve. Many players have been touting Insect Swarm as a hot new addition to the deck, but not just as a replacement for Surprise Attack (at which it performs very badly). On occasions it will let your big guys take down Black Panther, T’Challa, other times it will let you finish in the endgame by exhausting Golden Archer to burn opponents for a bit, then bouncing and replaying him for the final points. With the addition of Image Inducer to the equipment suite, and various nifty uses of such cards as Evil Eye and Enemy of My Enemy to find handy splash characters, Squadron Supreme has gone from a blunt object to a whole new killing machine.
Avengers has teamed-up with the less immediately heroic Brotherhood for good times and good beats, playing up the reservist theme to the fullest. The superhero world of good and evil sees a blurring of the lines in the reservist deck, as some players go for a more classic Avengers strategy while others are lured towards the dark side, to various degrees. For some, it’s Avengers splashing Anne-Marie Cortez (a personal favorite of mine for shutting down control decks), while at the other end of the spectrum, Brotherhood reservist decks are splashing Wonder Man. It’s a big party in the resource row, and everyone’s invited.
Finally, we have Faces of Evil. This is the deck that has probably received the biggest modifications of the big three for the weekend. I wandered past Anand Khare as he attacked for a dizzying amount against a bewildered opponent, making the most of three copies of the deck’s mainstay plot twist, Heinrich Zemo ◊ Baron Zemo, and Blackbird Blue. There are all sorts of variations on the Faces build knocking about around the room, and some of the top players have put their faith in its huge, hyper-aggressive potential.
Avengers seems to be all about the beatdown. There are some control decks in the field, though, and for them we’ll need to turn to the X-Men . . .