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.