Assault On Inmate 128

Ever since the day I bought the DOR Starter deck, I have had an irrational love of the Inmates, especially their 3 drop, who eventually became my username on VSrealms. Charaxes Dury Walker, has been in a large percentage of decks I have attempted to build over the years. My favorite been a MAV Thuderbolts crossover with the help of the Thunderjet, Mech bay and Justice LIke Lightning for the exhausts.

When the little guy got reprinted it was like my birthday, Christmas and Paddy’s day rolled into one. However he never got going this time around I built insanity and took him out in favour of a selection of GK and Revenge Squad characters. I built the non-adjacent deck and Great white overtook him. Then I got my Hushes and gave it another go and Hush worked cause hes that good, but not Charaxes

MUN brought the hope back, this time in the form of a plot twist and a team-up. Assault on Helicarrier 13, could do the exhausting for me, and Hail Hydra could sort out the affiliations. So I had 15 cards selected for the deck; 4 Charaxes, 3 Hush, 4 Assault and 4 Hail Hydra; what to add next and would it work?

Well first up there is the issue of search, Crime lords bring none and Arkham’s is random. Usual Suspects however will make the cut, we want to hit charxes on 3. This does mean we will have to include alternate arkham drops on 3, 4, 5 and possibly 6. Call in a Favour is next in line, it requires no team up and can get either team. Mobilise goes in as well, it is the best. So 4 Mobilise, 3 Usual Suspects and 3 Call in a Favour. 25 Cards

Now lets look at the curve. I think the early drops should be all crime lords because of Hail Hydra. So I will go 4 Sin, because Hush will leave reinforcement issues and 4 Yelena Belova will fit the Ko theme. The Alternate arkahm character on 3 will be the Joker, his discard effect may help out occasionally. The alternate for 4 will be the Riddler, the exhaust theme here. I also need to include Crime lords characters for these slots, these go to James Barnes and the Kingpin.

5 is tricky we won’t have that much space, so 3 should suffice but that means 1 crime lords character and 2 different inmates. Matt Hagen and Catwoman get the arkahm slots. Headcase is included, his 10 defense will help and he fits in with the ko theme.  I think for six and seven I can risk assuming that I managed to team up, so for six I will play 2 M.O.D.O.K. and 1 Sondra Fuller. On 7 1 Red skull and 1 Basil Carlo. That’s 27 characters and 45 Cards overall.

We will need to run 2 more team-up as it is important, so I will go with Metropolis Reborn. 4 Skree gets in, to deal with hidden decks. I want hush to work off initiative so I will run Nasty Surprise, but also Enemy of the State. The last slots go to Chilly reception, to help with the exhaustion.

So the build is:

2 Drops

4 Sin Synthia Schmidt*Raid

4 Yelena Belova-Black Widow Agent of SHIELD*Raid

3 Drops

4 Charaxes Dury Walker

1 James Barnes-Winter Soldier Communist Puppet*Raid

1 The Joker Out of his Mind

4 Drops

3 Hush Silent and Deadley

1 Kingpin War Profieter*Hydra

1 The Riddler Multiple Choice

5 Drops

1 Catwoman Jewel Thief

1 Headcase Sean Madigan*AIM

1 Matt Hagen-Clayface Mud Pack

6 Drops

2 M.O.D.O.K. Mobile Organisisn Designed Onfy for Killing*AIM

1 Sondra Fuller-Clayface Mud Pack

7 Drops

1 Basil Karlo-Ultimate Clayface Mud PAck

1 Red Skull Master Of Creation

Plot Twists

2 Chilly Reception

3 Nasty Suprise

4 Hail Hydra

4 Skreeeeee!

3Usual Suspects

4 Assault On Helicarrier 13

3 Call In A Favour

4 Mobilise

4 Enemy Of The State

Locations

2 Metopolis Reborn

If this deck even wins 1 game out of twenty I’ll probably be chuffed enough.

Thanks for reading

Peter.

Mono-bolts–Game’08 Winner

This article is about the design of the deck  I recently played at Game 08’s modern age constructed tournament, where it won the tournament 8-0 with a bit of good fortune in my matches.
The deck is a Radioactive Man deck, that mainly uses Thunderbolt characters with two exception. I will give you the original build now and then how the deck was changed until it gets to the build that I played.

Original Build

1 Drops
2 Blizzard Frosty Friend
4 Green Goblin Insanity Unleashed
2 Drops
4 Beetle-Mach  Discharged
2 Swordsman  Andreas Von Struker
3 Drops
4 Radioactive Man Containment Suit
1 Taskmaster Super Hero Trainer
4 Drops
1 Bullseye Closer to God
3 Venom Faithless Monster
5 Drops
3 Green Goblin Director of the Thunderbolts
6 Drops
3 Melissa Gold-Songbird  Caged Angel
7 Drops
2 Iron Man  Director Of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Equipment
4 The T-wagon
2 The Zeus

Locations
4  Thunderbolts Mountain

Plot Twists
2 Collect Them All
4 Speedball Is Dead
4 Heroic Effort
4 Mobilise
4 Unregistered Combatants
3 I Am Doom

This technically wasn’t the first build but the second, the first was a failed Doom Patrol team-up that never wanted to play a doom patrol character but use the The Wrong Stuff to team-up. It was shockingly bad.
This build only had Venom in its four drop slot because I did not have any copies of Iron Man Mighty Avenger at the time, it ended up been a good thing I didn’t.
After a few games it became apparent that The Zeus was not of much use, so that lead to Iron Man been of little use also. Taskmaster was never used except for mobilise. I also found that Speedball is Dead, while been one of my favourite cards in the set was often a liability, so the total changes where :

- 1 Swordsman Andreas Von Struker
-1 Taskmaster Super Hero Trainer
-2 Iron Man Director Of S.H.I.E.L.D.
-2 The Zeus
-2 Collect Them All
-4 Speedball Is Dead

+1 Bullseye Lester
+2 Venom Brain Eater
+3 Strategic Thinking
+3 Call In A Favour
+3 Pathetic Attempt

The Bullseye Lester was added to help against Avengers and Mkko, Venom Brain Eater was added as the replacement 7 drop since he’s the only thunderbolt in that slot. Call in a favour was added to increase the chances of hitting Radioactive Man, which of course is a major requirement and Strategic thinking  to help give him counters.  Pathetic Attempt was added to help protect Rad-man from Ko and exhaustion effects, and of course Spiderman Secret Avenger.

The Strategics where unimpressive, so I replaced them with Company of Heroes on a friend suggestion*, and it worked well with my leader drops, and +2 def was often enough if Rad-man is doing his business.
The other changes worked out great especially Bullseye so he was upped to four copies, anytime I hit him against the ARR or Mkko builds in my local area he really helped.  Swordsman effect was never required because of the T-wagons.

-2 Beetle-Mach  Discharged
-1 Swordsman Andreas Von Struker
-3 Strategic Thinkings

+3 Bullseye Lester
+3 Company of Heroes

This version was tested a  lot and it lead to Venom becoming the MVP.  To get the best use out of him I would always, and do (unless I know the match-up I‘m about to play of course), choose to go second. Although if your opponent makes you go first it does give you the best  initiative to make use of Radioactive Man.
Between Unregistered Combatants and Company of Heroes, Venom would regularly get to attack and Ko on  turn 4, Then if you protected him on five, he could get another Ko.
On turn five Green Goblin was good for activating  the boost of Company of  Heroes, plus his and Melissa Gold’s Flight and Range was more than useful.  This also made me look at a leader for the 7 drop slot and so Carol Danvers entered the fray.  Ares also was added to help me try to finish the game turn 6. Blizzard was never of any use, so was  replaced by two copies of Beetle, to make sure I still had a good chance of hitting a character by turn 2, so Mobilise works for Radioactive Man.

-2 Blizzard Frosty Friend
-1 Melissa-Songbird  Caged Angel
-2 Venom Brain Eater

+2 Beetle-Mach  Discharged
+1 Ares Mighty Avenger
+2 Carol Danvers-Ms. Marvel Mighty Avenger

After this there was only a couple of more changes in the numbers of the cards.  Venom had been missed occasionally because of the hard mulliganing  I do for Rad-man, so he was increased to his maximum. Your never don’t want  a company of heroes so again it was maxed, and when you need a pathetic attempt you probably really need it so it too was maxed out.

-1 Unregistered Combatants
-1 I Am Doom
-1 The T-wagon

+1 Venom Faithless Monster
+1 Company of Heroes
+1 Pathetic Attempt

It was hard to choose what to remove, taking out an I Am Doom may have slowed down Rad-man counter growth, and the T-wagon had been the key to the MKko tests  with Venom’s readying ability. As too with Unregistered Combatants in a Hulk match up, but you have to find room somewhere.

Manchester Build

1 Drops
4 Green Goblin Insanity Unleashed

2 Drops
4 Beetle-Mach  Discharged
4 Bullseye Lester

3 Drops
4 Radioactive Man Containment Suit

4 Drops
1 Bullseye Closer to God
4 Venom Faithless Monster

5 Drops
3 Green Goblin Director of the Thunderbolts

6 Drops
1 Ares Mighty Avenger
2 Melissa Gold-Songbird Caged Angel

7 Drops
2 Carol Danvers-Ms. Marvel Mighty Avenger

Equipment
3 The T-wagon

Locations
4  Thunderbolts Mountain

Plot Twists
4 Company Of Heroes
3 Call In A Favour
4 Heroic Effort
4 Mobilise
3 Unregistered Combatants
2 I Am Doom
4 Pathetic Attempt

In conclusion, this is a fun deck to play but also a relatively simple one to play also. The most difficult decision you face in most match-ups is whether to swing with rad-man or not, and you usually do, have to get the damage in somewhere.

Thanks for reading

Peter.

*A lot of changes where due to friends advice and the play testing they did with me.

BYOTT: Marvel Assassins

When I learned about this format I immediately thought of this deck I had been play-testing for Modern age, a Marvel Knights/League of Assassins build. It came about as a way to get the best out of Merlyn Direct Hitman. I teamed up with Mk as they added good search and Neighborhood watch gave the potential to help with Merlyn’s loyalty if I missed The Mad Dog. It had a good match up against ARR and any Radioactive Man centric deck and about a 50/50 with straight MKko. Here is the modern build I was trying:

1 Drops

4 Black Widow Femme Fatale

2 Drops

3 Blade Vampire Slayer

4 Punisher Suicide Run

3 Drops

1 Blade Independent Contractor

4 The Mad Dog Rabid Killer

4 Drops

3 Merlyn Direct Hitman

1 Wolverine Covert Predator

5 Drops

1 Cassandra Cain Daughter Of Shiva

1 Punisher Captain America

2 Vengeance Spirit Of Vengeance

6 Drops

1 David Cain World Class Assassin

2 Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance

7 Drops

1 Nyssa Raatko Maiden Of Death

1 Punisher Angel Of Death

Plot Twists

4 Quick Kill

4 Nasty Suprise

4 Wild Ride

4 Neighborhood Watch

Locations

4 Flying Fortress

4 Mountain Stronghold

3 Metropolis Reborn

2 Lazarus Pit Death’s Door

1 Plague Zone

1 Evil Layer

So from this build we can remove the Team-ups and the generic cards which frees up 12 card slots. I can also now look at some of the weaker elements of the curve and see if the Golden age options can strengthen them. Nyssa Raatko Daughter Of the Demons Head from DLS and Bane Ubu jump to mind but they would require me to add more locations. So first I will look at the non-character card options this format brings to the deck.

Location wise there are only four options for Marvel Knights. Hells Kitchen, Punishers Armoury, Quentin Carnival and Dark Alley.  As there will be no equipment in the deck Quentin Carnival is straight out. As too is Punishers Armoury, I don’t like spending 3 endurance to do 1 more. Dark alley does not look like it will be of any use as most of the hidden characters so far are low drops. That leaves Hells Kitchen, this maybe of use with Quick kill and Punisher Suicide Run. In the running for the Plot twist side will be Crime and Punishment and Judge, Jury and Executioner.

Now with League we get, Pit of Madness, the original Lazarus Pit, Seiobo’s Garden and Ubu Encampment added. I would say we could add one Pit of Madness, one Seiobo’s and a couple of Lazarus Pits. Ubu’s Encampment does not seem necessary seeing that the deck already has 8 good search cards. Going with the Locations, it would make sense to add The Demon’s Head into the deck, and in this format without generic blue, Tower of Babel looks strong.

So where does this leave the changed decklist,

4 Quick Kill, 3 Tower of Babel, 4 Wild Ride, 4 The Demon’s Head

4 Flying Fotress, 4 Mountain Stronghold, 2 Lazarus Pit, 1 Seiobo’s Garden, 3 Lazarus Pit Death’s Door, 1 Pit Of Madness, 1Plague Zone

So we have 31 non-character cards 16 of which are Locations. Now for the characters, I want to get replacements for 2 drop Blade, 5 drop Cassandra Cain, 6 drop David Cain and 7 Drop Nyssa Raatko.

Bane Ubu looks like the obviuos five drop to add, his Ko effect will fit the theme and Lazarus Pit Death’s Door’s effect will hopefully help it go off. The only other 5 drops in contention for a spot in this format would be Talia Daughter of Madness (getting a free 2 drop Punisher would be nice), and Ra’s Al Ghul Demon’s Head Rising (again removing affiliations in this format is strong). For 6, we have Nyssa Raatko, but I am not sure her effect will go off enough to warrent her a place. Other options are Natasha Romanoff and Spiderman from MMK. For 7 the only new options worth considering would be Ra’s Al Ghul Undying and Dr Strange Stephen Strange. In the 2 drop postion, Iron Fist<>Dardevil and Talia Beloved Betrayer Running. Other characters I considered adding are Mikado and Mosho and Lady Punisher.

So this is what I settled on.

1 Drops

3 Black Widow Femme Fatale

2 Mikado and Mosha Angels Of Destruction

2 Drops

2 Talia Beloved Betrayer

4 Punisher Suicide Run

3 Drops

1 Blade Independent Contractor

4 The Mad Dog Rabid Killer

4 Drops

3 Merlyn Direct Hitman

1 Wolverine Covert Predator

5 Drops

2 Bane Ubu

2 Vengeance Spirit Of Vengeance

6 Drops

1Natasha Romanoff<>Black Widow KGB Killer

2 Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance

7 Drops

2 Punisher Angel Of Death

Plot Twists

4 Quick Kill

3 Tower Of Babel

4 Wild Ride

4 The Demon’s Head

Locations

4Flying Fortress

2 Lazarus Pit

4 Mountain Stronghold

1 Seiobo’s Garden

3 Lazarus Pit Death’s Door

1 Pit Of Madness

1 Plague Zone

I don’t think this deck will care much about initiative if you get odds, Meryln will work at his best, and if you go evens, Ghost rider’s ability may be enough for you to finish out the match. Hopefully I and some of you will be able to give this deck a try soon.

Thanks for reading,

Peter

Counter Holocaust

After a fun weekend in Manchester at Game 08, I thought it was time to move on to a new deck after playing my last one in preparation for the event. It is also probably my last chance to use some of these cards before the arrival of Marvel Evolution and the jank possibilities it will bring to take up all my time.
I decided to do this in a blog, since I’ve started reading more of the other running ones and I want to contribute also.

So this post is going to follow my attempt at designing a counter abuse deck. The initial idea for the deck revolves around the five drop Holocaust from AOA combined with the  two drop Captain America.

After deciding to build an off-curve deck with Holocaust as an alternate finisher, it is time to decide what other character to include.  The obvious choice is The infinites from AOA, but since they are point store exclusives and I could only order four, I will look elsewhere. Next up is in the Doom Patrol, they have good search and a useful location, and I actually have their rares, but the character options are slim, so I’ll move on again.
Next up is the Avengers to go with Cap, they have some strong one and twp drops, and rally effects for extra characters to help use up all the resource points while recruiting. So I will include them. I don’t think that they will be enough, but MUN has another option available, the Thunderbolts.
The bolts seem like a good choice, they have in built counter creation, and a search card that looks like a winner in an off curve build; Collect Them All!

So, what characters do I have to play with? Apart from Holocaust as a five drop, I think I would like to keep the rest ones and twos.

Lets look at the options

1 Drops
Dagger Secret Avenger
Iron Fist Secret Avenger
Kate Bishop<>Hawkeye Young  Avenger
Speed <>Thomas Shepard Young Avenger
Hank Pym<>Yellowjacket Initiative Instructor
Squirrel Girl Doreen Green
Blizzard Frosty Friend
Green Goblin Insanity Unleashed
Speed Demon Wizzer
Speedball<>Penance Painmonger

2 Drops
Captain America The Patriot*Secret Avenger
Cloak Secret Avenger
Dr Strange Secret Avenger
Echo<>Ronin Secret Avenger
Hawkeye<>Ronin Secret Avenger
Iron Fist<>Daredevil Impostor*Secret Avenger
Wiccan William Kaplan*Young Avenger
Wasp Mighty Avenger
Beetle<>Mach Discharged
Bullseye Lester
Joystick Fun and Games
Swordsman Andreas Von Struker

To make best use of Cap he will be my only character to get  a full 4 slots for this initial build.
I am going to fill the remainder of slots with a lean towards the one drops, I will want as many characters to get the best out of Cap. This is how I see the one drops at this point.

3 Slots go to:
Iron Fist        His rally will help up fill the recruits
Speed Ball     His burn will aide the win condition

2 Slots go to:
Dagger             Again the burn if rallied
Blizzard            One of my favourite cards in the set
Green Goblin    Counters
Speed Demon   Counters

1 Slot to:
Kate Bishop     Effect will probably never matter, just will give another option in filling recruit
Speed               Will help in the inevitable team attacks.

Lets look at the two drops

4 Slots go to:
Captain America

2 Slots go to:
Beetle          Counters
Joystick       Counters

1 Slot go to:
Echo           Rally
Hawkeye     Rally
Bullseye       Off curve match ups
Swordsman  Help get stuns.

So that is twelve two drops and twenty eight characters in all so far with just Holocaust to add. How many Holocaust to add is  hard for me to decide the choice will end up changing on what team-ups and search  I chose so for now I will say he gets three slots.

It is time now to consider the non character cards, obvious contenders are Strategic Thinking and Heroic effort . First, however I think I should decide how best to team up the character selection.

The deck so far has 13 Avengers,  15 Thunderbolts, 3 Horsemen. 5 of the characters also have Marvel Knights but this is not enough to warrant their team-up Neighbourhood watch , or even Wild Ride when  we get to search cards.  I think Secret Avengers is the best of the other team options, apart from 2 drop Spiderman but I only have one copy of him.  Another team up option would be Superhuman Registration Act depending on how much of the blue is generic.

For search I have Avengers Reassembled, and Collect them All!, at my disposal so I don’t think Mobilise will be necessary. Other cards to be considered will be Birthing Chamber, Savage Beatdown, and if I use the reg act, Alias investigations and Asgard. The only team stamped  card I am considering is Speedball is Dead, as it would be useful with nearly half the selected curve .

Lets have a look at the first version of the deck list

1 Drops
2 Dagger  Secret Avenger
3 Iron Fist  Secret Avenger
1 Kate Bishop<>Hawkeye Young  Avenger
1 Speed <>Thomas Shepard Young Avenger
2 Blizzard Frosty Friend
2 Green Goblin Insanity Unleashed
2 Speed Demon Wizzer
3 Speedball<>Penance Painmonger

2 Drops
4 Captain America The Patriot*Secret Avenger
1Echo<>Ronin Secret Avenger
1 Hawkeye<>Ronin Secret Avenger
2 Beetle<>Mach Discharged
1 Bullseye Lester
2 Joystick Fun and Games
1 Swordsman Andreas Von Struker
1 Spiderman New New Avenger

5 Drops
3 Holocaust Age of Apocalypse

Plot Twists
3 Avengers Reassembled
3 Collect The All!
4 Heroic Effort
3 Savage Beatdown
4 Secret Avengers
3 Speedball Is Dead
3 Strategic Thinking

Locations
2 Alias Investigations
3 Birthing Chamber

So all that’s left is to put it together, and get some testing done. I’ll post up the results as the come.

Peter.

Hello

Greeting,

I have decided to start this blog after an invigorating weekend of versus at Game 08. Hopefully I will be able to convince some of my mates to contribute, but for now I will post whenever I can. Which really should be fairly often since I’m not working at the moment.

Some deck making to follow

Peter Smyth.