This is the final article in my little miniseries that looks at some of the possible options for the Constructed section of Pro Circuit Indy.

I received an email the other day lambasting me for daring to waste precious Internet space with decks that could not possibly beat Good Guys. As I have repeatedly stated, the decks I have posted thus far are not my predictions for the Top 8; I am just trying to create a spark of imagination amongst some of the more casual players who will be attending the event. We don’t all pack up our decks and head off to every tournament with the sole intention of winning the top prize. Sure, it would be great to walk off with an oversized check and a shiny trophy, but it’s not everyone’s primary motivation. A lot of us would take an awful lot of satisfaction from piloting a pet deck to a reasonable finish.

With that in mind, I’m going to conclude this series by squeezing an awful lot of jank into this article. When I planned this series, I got my dates wrong, so I thought I would have another week before the tournament. Thus, rather than detailed team analysis, I’m going to pick and highlight a couple of alternative builds from the remaining teams. Please forgive my oversight—I blame it all on Wayne Rooney.

JSA

The Justice Society of America is the first team we see when scrolling through the Infinite Crisis card list, yet it is perhaps one of the last teams to be mentioned when discussing DC Modern Age Constructed. The strategy I enjoy the most from this team is the “up-the-curve” combat deck.

The Bigger They Are . . .

Characters

4 Terry Sloane ◊ Mr. Terrific

4 Kate Spencer ◊ Manhunter

2 Stargirl

4 Michael Holt ◊ Mr. Terrific

1 Ted Grant ◊ Wildcat

1 Rex Tyler ◊ Hourman

4 Richard Tyler ◊ Hourman

1 Batman, Earth 2

1 Katar Hol ◊ Hawkman, Eternal Hero

4 Hourman III ◊ Hourman

1 Captain Marvel, Earth's Mightiest Mortal

2 Power Girl, Earth 2

1 Alan Scott ◊ Sentinel

Plot Twists

4 Multiverse Power Battery

4 Advance Warning

4 I Still Hate Magic!

4 Watch the Birdie!

3 Revitalize

3 Living Legacy

Locations

4 JSA Headquarters

Equipment

4 T-Spheres

The deck is totally combat oriented, and its primary concern is attacking up the curve. The character abilities are very good in this respect, and when you factor in T-Spheres, you can have some potentially huge characters. The key, though, is that for a lot of the abilities to trigger, you have to be attacking characters. Many of the pumps will not apply when you’re attacking directly. I’m pretty sure some people will question the inclusion of the Hourmen. Well, personally, I love them. Giving your opponents endurance is never a good thing (unless they’re using Shadowpact), but the potential combat advantage you gain from these guys is immense. Whether you’re attacking or defending, the ability can help to generate a sizable board advantage. My initial draft of the deck included several copies of Removed from Continuity, but I found that I didn’t really need them, as I was regularly able to attack up the curve without fear of stunback (and thus create a natural character advantage). Revitalize is a handy way of exhausting characters to ensure they get the abilities from guys like Michael Holt ◊ Mr. Terrific, and it’s an additional way to ensure complete board domination.

In my testing, I found that Fate Artifact decks did not really pose a great threat—I could generally have larger characters—although taking out Removed from Continuity did make the matchup slightly less favorable. The Good Guys matchup is slightly less predictable. If you have the majority of your ideal curve in play, you can generally keep your characters ahead of their ally abilities. Multiverse Power Battery is obviously important in this matchup—not just for the equipment hate, but also for slicing open the formation of my opponent. Not all of my guys have flight, so it’s quite easy for the opponent to form in such a way as to limit my “up the curve” abilities. If you like a “smash faces” type of deck, then give this one a try.

Shadowpact

Oh boy, do we have a risky one here! Deliberately losing endurance in order to facilitate powerful effects is certainly a gamble, but life would be boring if we didn’t take chances. I think a wise man (or was it Benjamin Sisko on DS9?) once said, “Fortune favors the bold.” For the uninitiated, the basic idea is that Shadowpact’s real strength kicks in when its wielder is particularly low on endurance (25 generally being the magic number).

Characters
4 Madame Xanadu

4 Ted Kord ◊ Blue Beetle

2 Ibis
4 Rose Psychic
4 June Moon ◊ Enchantress, Good Witch
2 Witchfire
1 Dr. Occult

3 Blue Devil, Big Blue

3 Dr. Fate, Hector Hall
2 Shazam

1 Captain Marvel, Champion of Magic

Plot Twists
4 The Conclave

4 Abjuration

3 Transmutation
2 Fate Has Spoken
2 Conjuration
 
Locations
4 Chimp Detective Agency
3 Dr. Fate's Tower

Equipment
3 Amulet of Nabu
3 Helm of Nabu
2 Cloak of Nabu
 

Some of the characters here are really strong. June Moon and Dr. Occult are particularly good when things are going to plan. To help achieve the abilities, Shadowpact has a lot of ways to lose endurance. The question is: are you giving your opponent too much help?  I’ve played with this build for a little while and found that when it clicks, it’s really strong . . . but getting it to click is the thing. If you have some ideas on improving its consistency, then more power to you.

Secret Six

What kind of casual player would I be if I didn’t take a look at Secret Six Victorious?

Character

4 Fiddler

3 Mr. Mxyzptlk, Troublesome Trickster
4 Deadshot, Dead Aim
4 Catman
4 Parademon, Apokoliptian Ally
4 Ragdoll
4 Cheshire
4 Scandal
4 Lex Luthor ◊ Mockingbird

Plot Twists
4 Dodge the Bullet

4 Straight to the Grave
3 Revitalize
3 It’s Not Over Yet!
2 Secret Six Victorious

Locations
3 Slaughter Swamp
3 House of Secrets
3 Leslie Thompkins’s Clinic

I think, if I’m being totally honest, it would take a player who really didn’t have the Top 8 as the target to play this deck. Alternate win conditions are awesome fun but very often hard to pull off. Secret Six Victorious is no exception. You really need to keep your guys alive for quite a long time in comparison to a normal game. There are plenty of tricks available to help you with this goal, but it takes all of them coming together perfectly for the deck to succeed. Then you have to hope that your opponent isn’t running something like Fatality, Flawless Victory. If you do decide to run Secret Six Victorious, then please, please, please email me after Indy to let me know how you got on, and I’ll promise to feature your adventures in a forthcoming article.

Checkmate

A lot of the smart money for Indy is going on a healthy representation of Checkmate decks in the Top 8. Consistency is the key component of all tier 1 decks, and cards like Ahmed Samsarra help to ensure that the decks run very smoothly. However, I’m going to steer away from the toolbox type decks that seem to be popular with this team and focus a little more on another aspect.

Characters

6 Retrieval Protocol ◊ OMAC Robot

6 Neutralization Protocol ◊ OMAC Robot

6 Elimination Protocol ◊ OMAC Robot

6 Annihilation Protocol ◊ OMAC Robot

3 Amanda Waller

3 Sasha Bordeaux, Autonomous Prototype

Plot Twists

4 Knightmare Scenario

3 Knights’ Gambit

3 Target Acquired

Locations

4 Brother I Satellite

4 Brother Eye

3 Satellite HQ

3 Checkmate Armory

3 Secret Checkmate HQ

Equipment

3 Knight Armor

I really like the OMAC Robots, and I think there is definitely a Golden Age future for these guys, but for the time being, we’re restricted to DC Modern Age. The deck really likes to kill Ahmed, and because of this, I’ve found that Checkmate toolbox is actually the best matchup for the Robots. The deck does lose a little bit of location love with the absence of Ahmed, but it still fares quite well.

Well, that brings an end to this little series. My intention was never to break the format, but rather to give the casual players a little food for thought with regard to your Constructed options for the event. I wish everyone good luck, and please feel free to email me (kamiza989@gmail.com) with any of your casual deck experiences at PC Indy.

Deckbuilder Challenge #4 – Top Five

Well, here we are with another top 5. This challenge was all about frustrating your opponent rather than actually winning. In no particular order, here are the five decks that I’ve picked to go through to public voting.

Nick Seaman: “Frustration”

Characters
4 Dagger, Child of Light
4 Alfred Pennyworth
4 Micro-Chip
4 Perry White
5 GCPD Officer
2 Serifan
2 Black Panther, King of Wakanda
2 Commander
2 Metron
1 Spider-Man, The Spectacular Spider-Man

Plot Twists
2 Hidden Surveillance
3 Fizzle
4 Midnight Sons
4 Wild Ride
2 Mourn for the Lost
2 Removed from Continuity
4 Bat-Signal
2 Lanterns in Love

Locations
2 Coast City
3 The Source
2 New Genesis

Equipment
1 Utility Belt
1 Philosopher’s Stone

Nick’s description:
There are a lot of things going on in this deck. At its core, it runs on a Midnight Sons engine to get the early team-up with Gotham Knights and Marvel Knights, eventually adding New Gods and Injustice Gang (for Philosopher’s Stone). There are many “negation” tricks in here, starting with perhaps the best of all: Fizzle. Metron provides a Fizzle on a stick for us, assuming we can keep putting a counter on him. Reinforcing attacks coupled with Serifan on the board means our opponent will have a tough time pushing through endurance loss (also assuming we can keep a counter on Serifan). To help keep those precious cosmic counters on Serifan and Metron, I have included New Genesis and Commander. New Genesis will also let us recover our other guys once we have a team-up in place. A combination of Removed from Continuity, The Source, and Philosopher’s Stone will, with a little luck, be ripping cards from your opponent’s deck left and right. Wild Ride and Bat-Signal provide us with two excellent ways to search out exactly what we need when we need it. Lanterns in Love provides us another recovery trick as well as being a useful way to get a GCPD Officer or two reinforced. Spider-Man is just plain powerful on our initiative. Coast City will help our Serifan and Perry White stay safe. Speaking of Perry, my favorite trick in the deck is Hidden Surveillance and Perry. Your opponent can't flip his locations or plot twists, and you can replace them or get a negation trick prepared to further frustrate him or her. All in all, it's an incredibly annoying deck that is sure to aggravate your opponent to no end.

Mike Mullin: “Run, Riddler, Run”

Characters

4 Archangel, Angel
1 Josef Witschi, Talia's Assistant

1 Mr. Mxyzptlk, Troublesome Trickster

4 Wesley Dodds ◊ The Sandman, Golden Age Gunman

4 The Riddler, Edward Nygma
3 Charles McNider ◊ Dr. Mid-Nite, Golden Age Academic
1 Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius
3 Professor X, Charles Xavier
1 Hourman III ◊ Hourman, Time Machine
1 Colossus, Organic Steel
2 Dr. Doom, Victor Von Doom
2 The Phantom Stranger, Wandering Hero
1 Two-Face, Split Personality
1 Apocalypse, En Sabah Nur

Locations
3 Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters
1 X-Corp: Amsterdam, X-Corp
4 Slaughter Swamp
1 UN Building, Team-Up

Plot Twists
4 Acrobatic Dodge
4 Allied Against the Dark
4 Children of the Atom
4 Enemy of My Enemy
2 Forbidden Loyalties, Team-Up
4 Straight to the Grave

Mike’s description:

As recently shown by the Justice League of Arkham deck, nothing is more frustrating than not getting to play the cards in your deck. This deck has the ability to limit the number of cards your opponent gets to play through the Arkham Inmates 3-drop, The Riddler. The Riddler provides the ability to discard one card and force your opponent to discard two cards. If Arkham is teamed-up with X-Men, Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters can allow The Riddler to work his magic twice in a turn. Eventually, he limits your opponent to laying a resource and recruiting a character.

Everything else in the deck revolves around allowing The Riddler to do his thing or to make his impact sting. Wesley Dodds limits the ability of the opponent to attack The Riddler on turn 3. Charles McNider puts The Riddler in the hidden area on turn 4. Professor X continues the discard theme, and Dr. Doom further limits the opponent's ability to play plot twists. Josef Witschi may provide the biggest bang for the buck by allowing permanent destruction of an opponent's resource. There are a number of options in the deck to allow for playing an underdrop with Josef that will not put you in a character disadvantage, such as Hourman and Colossus.

Tombster212: “Gotham Doom”

Characters
4 Alfred Pennyworth, Faithful Friend
1 Boris, Personal Servant of Dr. Doom
4 Robot Sentry
4 Ragman, Patchmonger
4 Batman, World's Greatest Detective
2 Darkoth, Major Desmond Pitt
1 Cassandra Cain ◊ Batgirl
4 Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius
2 Kristoff Von Doom, Pretender to the Throne
1 Lady Shiva, Sandra Woosan
1 Darkoth, Death Demon
1 Dick Grayson ◊ Nightwing, Defender of Bludhaven
1 June Moon ◊ Enchantress, Bad Witch
1 Azrael ◊ Batman, Knightfall
1 Sub-Mariner, Ally of Doom

Plot Twists
1 Bat-Signal
1 Betrayal
4 Fizzle
4 Millennium
1 Teen Titans Go!
1 A Child Named Valeria
4 Enemy of My Enemy
4 Reign of Terror
4 Mystical Paralysis

Equipment
3 Utility Belt
1 Power Compressor

Tombster212’s description:
This deck is all about disruption of your opponent’s plot twists. Batman KO’s ongoing plot twists, Dr. Doom shuts off plot twists from hand, and Kristoff shuts off plot twists that are already in the resource row. This deck uses Power Compressor and Utility Belt to restrict activated and payment powers, while playing Betrayal, Teen Titans Go!, A Child Named Valeria, and Enemy of My Enemy shuts off my opponent from flipping those cards due to Kristoff Von Doom’s ability. Fizzle negates any plot twists my opponent is able to play, while Mystical Paralysis and Reign of Terror keep opponents off balance by removing low drops and removing potential attackers on their initiatives.

George Shafer: “A Knight of Shadows”

Characters

4  Detective Chimp, Bobo T. Chimpanzee
2  Jaime Reyes ◊ Blue Beetle, High-Tech Hero
2  Dagger, Child of Light
2  Ragman, Patchmonger
3  Beautiful Dreamer, Forever People
4  Black Panther, King of Wakanda
3  Detective Chimp, Shoeless Gumshoe
2  Nightshade, Shadow Siren
2  Punisher, Jury
1  Pan, Manhunter Duplicate
2  Jester, Jonathan Powers
1  Ragman, Redeemer of Souls
2  Ultron ◊ Crimson Cowl, Dark Disguise
2  John Henry Irons ◊ Steel, Steel-Drivin' Man
3  Dr. Fate, Hector Hall

Plot Twists
3 Removed from Continuity
3 Midnight Sons
3 Stepping Between Worlds
3 Enemy of My Enemy
1 Wild Ride
3 Magical Lobotomy

Locations
2 Dr. Fate's Tower
2 Sewer System
2 The Source

Equipment
3 Philosopher's Stone

George’s description:

Know thy enemy and know thyself, find naught in fear for 100 battles. — Sun Tzu

One generally enters a VS match with a good idea of how one's deck is going to work but knowing almost nothing about the opponent's. How much easier would the match be if you could look through your opponent's deck before having to face him? While this deck won't give you actual foreknowledge, it will let you examine your opponent's deck as early as turn 2 (Removed from Continuity) and almost certainly on turn 3 (Philosopher's Stone or The Source).

After the initial search has provided you with information (and hopefully caused some problems itself), you continue your attacks with Philosopher's Stone and/or Pan to whittle away the cards that would save your opponent. Since both of these require breakthrough to remove cards, you have Nightshade and Stepping Between Worlds to break up your opponent's formation as well as Sewer System to attack the characters you moved to the hidden area. Ultron on turn 5 makes it even easier to cause breakthrough and deplete your opponent of options. Midnight Sons and Detective Chimp, Bobo T. Chimpanzee provide team-ups and all the necessary team affiliations to satisfy the requirements for Philosopher's Stone and The Source. Magical Lobotomy keeps DEF down on the character you're trying to cause
breakthrough on.

Thus, what is of supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy's strategy. — Sun Tzu

Techno: “Creeping Frustration”

Characters

22 Creeping Doom
4 Zazzala ◊ Queen Bee, Royal Genetrix
1 Dr. Light, Light Shaper
1 Scarlet Witch, Eldritch Enchantress
1 Mantis, Power Parasite
3 Mr. Mxyzptlk, Troublesome Trickster

Plot Twists
4 Gang-Up
4 Secret Files
4 Men of Steel
4 Criminal Mastermind

Locations
4 Hard-Light Storage Tank
4 Birthing Chamber

Equipment
4 Catcher's Mitt

Techno’s description:

Hard mulligan for Zazzala or Secret Files. The card draw is ridiculous. You typically max out on resource points every turn and still have cards left in hand. You’re giving your opponents cards with Criminal Mastermind, but this is irrelevant. You really don't care what their board is, how many cards they have in hand, how many ATK pumps they have, and so on. You just do your own thing, and they are often pretty helpless. A typical turn 5 will see you with about ten Dooms in play, one wielding a Catcher's Mitt. Regardless of initiative, you pass your turn.

Opponent: I'll attack the guy with the Mitt.
You: Sure, I'll take 1.
Opponent: Attack the guy who can't be reinforced.
You: Exhaust him and another Doom, recover the Mitt guy, and take 1.
Opponent: . . .

And so on. You lose, on average, 3–6 endurance per turn and lose no characters. Eventually you kill them with Scarlet Witch or a couple of Mantis attacks.

As ever, you can vote by emailing me at kamiza989@gmail.com or pop along to my website (www.the-kamiza.com) and vote on the dedicated poll.

Good luck and see you next week,

Steve Garrett