February 22, 2010

Redirecting Attacks is Fun

We're well past the 1-year mark when it was learned that the VS System game was no longer going to be produced by UDE. And I'm happy to say that things are still going strong for our hobby league. Our players are having a good time in our weekly tournaments and we've seen some cool new decks arise from the themed formats I've been setting up in our monthly schedule.

Last week's Ban-10 tournament saw some pretty interesting decks hit the table such as Secret Society, Speed Force, Team Superman / Crime Lords, League of Assasins, and Avengers. I know I'm forgetting Will's deck in there, but I didn't play against him so I'm not entirely certain what kind of dirty tricks he was using this time around.

One of the things that I realized was just how good our players are at building decks. Even without 50 of the most disliked or powerful cards being available to build with, people still come up with excellent combos and interesting effects. Jordan's Speed Force deck was especially punishing. One of those things that I bet would be a blast to play, but stinks to see hit the table against you.

As for me, I finally built a viable version of a deck I have had in mind since we did our Marvel Universe release celebration so long ago. It's simply titled "Deflection"...because what it lacks in cool it needs to make up for with a nifty name. Ok ok, the name is lame, but the deck isn't that bad!

Locations:
1x Underground Laboratory
4x City of Tomorrow - Team-Up

Plot Twists:
2x Face the Master
2x Hired Hit
1x The Family
2x Assault On Hellicarrier 13
1x Untouchable
2x Marked for Death
3x Good Night, Sweet Prince
3x Desperate Sacrifice
3x Home Sweet Home
1x Fury of the Amazons

Equipment:
3x Armed Escort
1x Lasso of Truth
3x Cosmic Cube

Characters:
4x A.I.M. Agents, Army - A.I.M. (1)
4x Sin, Synthia Schmidt - Raid (2)
2x Doctor Sun-Creator of Project Mind (2)
3x Albert Malik <> Red Skull - Axis Of Evil (3)
4x Red Skull, Alexsander Lukin - Raid (3)
4x Master Man, Max Lohmer - Raid (4)
3x Wonder Woman - Deflection Diva (5)
1x John Henry Irons<>Steel-Steel Drivin' Man (5)
1x Taskmaster - Mnemonic Assassin (6)
1x Kara Zor-El <> Supergirl - Female Fury (7)

The ideal setup is Red Skull on 3, Master Man with an Armed Escort on 4, and a Wonder Woman and City of Tomorrow on 5. Once you're set up, the idea is to use Wonder Woman, Armed Escort, Desperate Sacrifice or Hired Hit in order to deflect any and all attacks into Master Man.

With Red Skull usually alone by himself in the back row he's a ripe target, even without having an Armed Escort on the board. Most smart opponents will aim to avoid attacking Master Man at all, but with all the tricks available there to deflect, it is almost impossible to avoid unless you simply don't attack me at all. At which point, I will attack you on 6 and 7 with my ever-growing Taskmaster.

Good times for all. Well, maybe just me.

4 comments:

Roy Madill said...

ya that deck is scary to play against. I tried to avoid attacking you as long as I possibly could. So it ended up a brawl on the later turns. Nice deck building Chuck!

Obsidian3D said...

Thanks. :) I think even if I'd kept my Taskmaster to steal your Doomsday's stats you still would have taken that game, but it was a good one to the finish!

Scott said...

Nice deck. At first I worried about only one 6-cost and one 7-cost character - then I saw the card draw from UM and the search from Cosmic Cube. You may want to put in some equipment search, since the Armed Escort and the Cube are critical to your deck.
Also, maybe flight support for Taskmaster?

I'd be wary of Untouchable as well, since it means you can't target your chosen character as well. For example, let's say you choose Master Man, so your opponent can't target him. It would also mean that Armed Escort won't work on him either.

I've been burned before by Untouchable. ;-)

Obsidian3D said...

I'm sure it could be tweaked a little further. I could probably drop the Lasso, since I don't really need it (it's just a bit of extra frustration if I get it). Some equipment search would definitely be helpful. Untouchable is a bit of a double edged sword...but one thing that is interesting, is that Heroic Sacrifice still works, because it doesn't target.

I had a few other Team Superman DEF and ATK cards in there, but not being able to use them until turn 5 really hurt. What would you take out in order to add in some Cannibal Tech? Or is there another equipment search that would be more effective?