Deck Theory: Ultimate Control

After a new set comes out, I usually make a lot of decks involving characters or teams that interest me. I went on a crazy deck constructing tear the first week I got my hands on Marvel Legends. With DC Legends now among us, I’ve picked out a couple cards I really enjoyed and started to build decks. I built the Darkseid, Dark God/Endgame deck for Build a Legend (which ended up morphing into my Substibuse deck, so I’ll have to revisit that at some point). I built the IG/Birds of Prey deck around Earth 3. I built a JLA draw deck around Recharge!. The other card I’ve been trying to figure out the best deck for since the set came out is Lex Luthor, Megalomaniac. I fooled around with some builds of IG hand burn, but that deck pretty much gets completely neutered by Pathetic Attempt, which can still be played from the row or played to negate Lex’s effect. But I couldn’t deny how powerful completely shutting off Plot Twists from the hand for a turn every turn. Of course, with Lex there is no restriction on playing things from the row, which is his greatest weakness. But we have a Silver Age character that loves to lock down an opponent’s resource row: everyone’s favorite blue skinned alien with a giant hammer, Ronan the Accuser, Starforce. Ronan’s got a cosmic counter that needs protecting, and who loves to protect people with cosmic counters by shipping them into the hidden area? Why, Franklin Richards, Creator of Counter Earth! And who loves to make sure that Franklin Richards is in your hand by turn two? Could it be Lockjaw, Inhuman’s Best Friend? Yes, it could. So we now have the skeleton of where we’re going here.

With off team cards that early in the curve, we’re going to have to be packing four Enemies too. Playing a strong Inhumans curve past this will allow us to use both Attilan and The Great Refuge as additional search. So who should be the five drop? I’m aiming for the oft neglected but very good Alaris, The Outgoing One. He’s a walking around Coast City that also has the option of swapping places with another Inhumans character by paying some endurance. You can keep both Ronan and Lex protected this way. Alaris stands in front of Lex so he can’t be attacked. He can then switch places with Franklin if someone gets some hidden hate into play. Plus, thanks to Attilan, we can always stack Mr. Sinister on the top of the deck, which means he can be played as a one off. On six, we can use Medusa to shut down a dangerous drop and make sure it can’t ready or use its payment powers. Plus, if you’re really worried about payment powers, Attilan and Enemy allow you to throw out a Batman, Cape and Cowl. On seven, since we’re looking at a stall deck that’s trying to win in the standard stall deck fashion, we’ll be playing Silver Surfer, Last Zenn-Lavian, who will proceed to pave the way for Galactus, Devourer of Worlds. So here’s a quick sketch of the character suite so far:

4x Lockjaw, Inhuman’s Best Friend

4x Franklin Richards, Creator of Counter Earth

4x Lex Luthor, Megalomaniac

4x Ronan the Accuser, Starforce

4x Alaris, The Outgoing One

1x Mr. Sinister, Visionary Geneticist

3x Medusa, Queen of the Inhumans

1x Batman, Cape and Cowl

3x Silver Surfer, Last Zenn-Lavian

2x Galactus, Devourer of Worlds

We’ve already mentioned Attilan, Great Refuge and Enemy of My Enemy as non-character cards. So what else do we want? Extended Family will allow for the restoration of Ronan or Medusa’s cosmic counter, as well as allowing for reinforcement in a deck that runs multiple teams. For a heavy control based deck, Omnipotence and Pathetic Attempt seem like a must. As I mentioned before, Pathetic Attempt is not Lex Luthor’s friend. It’s something that’s tough to counter. So here’s what I was thinking. On turn four, when Pathetic Attempt is online, if you’ve got the initiative, you can stop them from getting Lex by chaining to the draw phase with his effect and playing Ronan. However, from then on, they’re free to play it from hand as a response to Lex. They can’t do this, however, if Lex is equipped with a Time Gem. Most of the Plot Twists I plan on playing in the deck are reactionary, which means I won’t have to worry too much about it countering my own Twists. This also means that I won’t have to worry about calling Pathetic Attempt with Omnipotence so it doesn’t turn my own PA’s off. To finish off the rest of the deck, one Reality Gem’s always a good idea, as is A Proud Zinco Product. The other cards I’m considering, which is mainly a way to fight against combat based decks is Poker Night. It’s a good way to assure reinforcement if I don’t have my Team-Ups online. This is a very early deck, but here’s what I’ve got.

Characters (30):

4x Lockjaw, Inhuman’s Best Friend

4x Franklin Richards, Creator of Counter Earth

4x Lex Luthor, Megalomaniac

4x Ronan the Accuser, Starforce

4x Alaris, The Outgoing One

1x Mr. Sinister, Visionary Geneticist

3x Medusa, Queen of the Inhumans

1x Batman, Cape and Cowl

3x Silver Surfer, Last Zenn-Lavian

2x Galactus, Devourer of Worlds

Locations (7):

4x Attilan

3x The Great Refuge

Plot Twists (19):

4x Pathetic Attempt

4x Enemy of My Enemy

3x Extended Family, Team-Up

3x Omnipotence

3x Poker Night

2x A Proud Zinco Product

Equipment (4):

3x Time Gem, Infinity Gem

1x Reality Gem, Infinity Gem

And there we have it. Some crazy assed piece of Mental VS that probably doesn’t even work half the time. Sure was fun to build, though.