Wait Until The Edges Get Dark

So The last two weeks I’ve been in class learning about Combatives(hand to hand fighting). Hence the complete lack of posts in the last two weeks when we’ve gotten some amazing cards. We learned arm bars, chokes, and other nonlethal means of finishing the fight. One thing they told us at the beginning of the class ‘Don’t just tap because they get a choke. Try to break it, wait until the edges start getting dark’. For the most part, we tapped after they got the choke and we failed to fight it off. Normally we didn’t let the effects of the choke actually take hold.

The last day I made a small mistake. You have to understand, one of my classmates had been doing Judo for over 30 years and he took the time while we were rolling to teach me, not just win because he was the superior opponent. The last time I got the pleasure of rolling with him, I steeled my nerves and decided I was going to wait until the last moment to tap. I was going to go balls to the wall and at least not lose even if I couldn’t win. I believe the word that best describes that feeling is ‘Hubris’. He got a cross collar choke on me while I was in his guard. I pushed past it and went for a leaning choke(Those of you who are familiar with MMA are probably wincing… I know… bad idea). The edges got black and I thought ‘I’ve almost got him’. When my brain was working 60 seconds later, he checked to make sure I was OK, laughed a bit, and patted me on the back for not breaking down even if it wasn’t the most intelligent way to do. I was so embarassed to actually pass out, even if it was for such a short amount of time.

This little story does have a point: Act of Vengeance. You play it so that you can redirect any stun on Red Skull to another person. This combined with Red Skull, Johann Schmidt and Vengeance or Invulnerability characters makes for a nasty, nasty mid-late game scenario. Oh delicious Irony: the two best teams for this scario: Revenge Squad and Team Superman. While I’m no fan of TS, I think Revenge Squad is a bit too obvious a choice.

There’s an easy set-up: Maggie Sawyer behind Red Skull, two Invulnerable people on both sides of Red Skull. You drop your Acts of Vengeance, and all the sudden you don’t take damage when they hit Red Skull. Why? Maggie reinforces him, prevent break through. You redirect the stun to say… Superman, Man of Tomorrow. He takes the stun, I take no stun loss, and I burn my opponent for 5.

But wait, Kenpachi, what about ‘winning’. Sure you’re going to be burning people for 5-10 a turn once Red Skull drops, so it should end by turn 7 when combined with your counter attacks… but how do you keep from being whelmed, or even OVER whelmed by the fact that you’re getting beaten on without hitting back? Well, to those haters I proffer two thoughts:

-The 3 Drop Crime Lords Bucky. If I have to explain more, I don’t believe you deserve to know.

-Red Skull can be equipped with +ATK type stuff, along with Team Superman defensive pumps, Nasty Surprise, Etc. He counters people who attack him, redirects the stun, giggles… etc. Think about it: Your 5 swings into my 5. It’s a mutual. Acts redirects the stun to Man of Tomorrow. My opponent burns for 5, then they take 5 counterstun. If I don’t have a way to counter the attacker I can Flying High their attacker, then throw Bucky back on the top of my deck to stun the attacker I can’t counter. Those foolish enough to raise arms against me are punished, God is in Heaven, all is good in the world.

It’s a janktastic combo, but incredibly powerful. My pushing past the choke you can reverse it and make your opponents suffer for their hubris. Or you end up staring at your opponent thinking ‘Where the hell am I, I should get up’ over and over again. *sigh* At least I learned something from it.

Variations on a Theme

One thing my wife and I agree on about Bobby Flay is this: He’s no Alton Brown. No, instead of showing a deep knowledge of any given food he works with, down to the chemistry involved, our self obsessed chef friend is more or less a one trick pony. That’s not to say his culinary skills are lacking. By no means are they, but they’re very focused on one thing: South Western Style. The easy way to predict how any given episode of Iron Chef or Throw Down is going to work unless it’s a dessert: Take the most basic recipe, mix vigorously with chipotle and other south western style additives, stir in a half cup of experience and ta da! You have something bobby flay would make. Not Alton Brown, who is my favorite TV Chef ever. He shows a deep understanding of not just one style, but a deep understanding of the basics of culinary chemistry and craft. He’s not concerned with what style or what have you he’s working with. He’s concerned that the proteins of the egg need to be opened up and combined with an emulsifier so that the broth he’s adding with combine properly. He’s worried about mechnics, whereas bobby flay always seems like he’s pitching new ideas to Chili’s.

In my mind, I like to think I am more like Alton Brown than bobby flay in deck construction. Both are excellent chefs, and deserve respect. Alton, though, has a zen view of cooking: It’s mechanically influenced art. As such, by manipulating the mechanics you create new art. Bobby Flay’s great contribution to Culinary philosophy, namely the question of ‘How do I add more peppers?’ just seems lacking in comparison despite his skill and accomplishment.

This relates to Vs like this: I ❤ Hush, Silent and Deadly. You’ve seen, if you’re one of the loyal 13 who still read post MUN preview, the Wall of Silence. Then the Illuminati started dropping and I resisted the urge to go “OMFG HUSH!’ to any large degree(I think I mentioned it with Iron Man). Then Clandestine Operation dropped. Need I say it? You run attack pumps, and hidden Illuminati members. Turn 3 releases the hounds. Turn 4 brings in Hush. Mixing SRA and a second Team-Up makes everyone F4, making Pier 4 viable for everyone. Turn 5 drops two mandroid prototypes on Hush, ensuring his ability to attack anyone they drop with impunity. You simply kill any curve they drop while you keep rocking your curve.

Example:

Turn 4: Hush and his opponent drop, both exhausted. No one attacks you because Hush is the only visible character.

Turn 5: The Mandroid Prototypes go on Hush and you bring in a third lowbie Illuminati member. Hush swings into their exhausted 5 drop as a 13/13. They die. Their 4 drop doesn’t dare attack a 13/13 Hush and a team attack is useless. Lock established. Rinse and repeat, killing their curve drop every turn with your buffed up Hush and maybe a savage beatdown or two.

I must build this deck. All I need is one of any number of late game finishers available now, and we’ve got nasty on a stick.

Still, despite the obvious power of this deck type, I still feel like Bobby Flay. One day though, I’ll be Alton Brown.

The Difference Between Saving a Life and Ending One is Volition

Last week I spent the week learning the different functions and uses of the Carotid and Radial arteries in the quest to save a life. This week we’ve taken that knowledge in the opposite direction. And by We, I mean my opponents. Needless to say I’m bruised, scraped up, I’ve sprained my finger, and I’m exhausted. To say nothing of the L5R Charity tourney/drunken birthday bash on the third. It’s been a long week and a half since I graced you all with my presence.

It’s been a hellish week, with next week promising even more fun. And by “fun” I mean injuries both internal and external. I’ve managed a meager presence on VSR, but as for blogging worth the time to read… it’s been beyond me emotionally and(Tuesday at least) physically.

Tomorrow we get the day off of the arm press and roll, arm trap and roll, and any other variation of abusing an arm for the sole purpose of gaining a dominant position. I wish I could explain how incredibly strange it is to hear ‘Worst case, check their Carotid artery to make sure they’re still alive. You have to do everything you can to keep them that way’ one week, followed by ‘This is their carotid artery. Push hard enough and their brain will stop getting the blood it needs. Normally you’ll just try this to make them black out.’ a mere 7 days later.

Also: The illuminati scare me.

The End of All Things

The thing I’m digging about MUN is that a lot of the cards are inspiring to me as a deckbuilder. Last week was excellent, this week I’ve loved what I’ve seen. The thing is, they were all missing a certain je ne se quois. As I said a few days ago, I’ve got ideas. None of them compare, though, to the rampant abuse I’m seeing via JLA/Thunderbolts, and SHIELD/TT.

JLA Thunderbolts reminds me of isreali bandages and claymore mines. On the bandages, on the side of the bandage opposite the pad, it states in large, red letters even a blind man could see ‘Place Opposite Side on Wound’. LIke some jackass is going to put that on the outside… seriously. Same with a claymore. It seriously, not joking at all, says ‘This side toward enemy’ on the side you don’t want to be on. I love the faith our leaders have in us. *sigh*

The reason I say this is because of the discussion held on VSR about the implications of a Judgment Day on turn 4 or 5. The whole idea is ignoring the ‘This Side Toward the Enemy’ and facing it at both people. Take that obnoxiously obvious warnings! I IGNORE YOU!

The idea? Using Poseidonis/Construction Site and Modern Era you utilize Thunderbolts Mountain 5 times. This leaves 9 resources in your resource row. That’s enough for (shock) a Judgment day to come in and slaughter everyone’s resources. Nailing a Radioactive man on 3 means that he’ll have 1 counter on 4, and 1 on 5. That means they can only Bat Got Your Tongue?, or Jean Grey the bomb. That also means that once the resource reset goes down they can no longer play plot twists. This tends to be a good thing, as it will fill their hand, and on turn three: The quest for more money you drop Venom, “Mac” Gargan and he’s looking a very statuesque 10+ ATK.

The other thing it allows you is to use multiple copies of identical locations without fear of rebuttal. How, you may ask? By chaining their effects to Judgment Day you’ve already set to KO each resource you control. You simply KO them a step early. Example: You want to cycle your deck for another 1 drop to start next turn off well? Watchtower, then flip another one and watchtower on the chain. They’re going to die anyway. You want to make sure you get those heroic efforts you dropped to pump Radioactive man back? Poseidonis, Poseidonis and you have your next draw already squared away. The brief chained moment of playing Judgment day allows a bit more resource recklessness than one normally sees. Hooray freedom.

The kill condition is, of course, Venom and Aquaman. By running KO Tek you can take down your opponent’s 4 drop, finish him off, and be king of the scene for a while. With the afforementioned Heroic Efforts your Radioactive man should be able to withstand their 3 drop, and he dies on the next turn. It’s artificial board superiority that’s maintained until on turn 4 redux you’ve nickel and dimed your opponent’s life to the other side of the number line.

A difficult build, yes. But a powerful build. What good is a rush deck that can’t rush? What use is a curve deck if the mainstay of their curve is just a dead card for the whole game? The power is worth the price of tuning such a deck so finely. Once it’s where it needs to be its strategy is so left field that there really is no way to counter it without sacrificing your ability to play normal decks. Jank FTW.

I Will Be A Benevolent….ish… Dictator

The Thunderbolts dropped today. Watch this space… two decks have already formed in my brain: SS/TB, and SHIELD/DP. Sadly, this will have to wait as I had a nasopharengeal(I think that’s how it’s spelled) airway inserted in my nostril today and it still kinda feels funny. That makes my brain not work too well. STILL!

There will be a post about the sexiness of the Thunderbolts today, I assure you.

I’m Unsure if this is Clarifications or an addendum

Ok, Captainspud asked about the inner workings of Stunt Doubles. Well, it’s a concept I’ve been working on, obviously, for a few weeks. It goes as follows:

You build your deck around two Legends. Right now it’s looking like Cap and Iron Man. It could really be any two legends. Hulk/Wolverine could be kinda funny. Anyway, the deck concept it basically that by running your legends/support characters on 2 and 3, Mystique on 4, Basil Karlo on 5, and your legends taking over again on 6 you maximize the effectiveness of Legends cards. For Instance: Running Cap/Iron man I’d be running SRA, Cap 2 drop, Avengers 3 drop, Mystique/Iron Man on 4, Basil on 5, Cap on 6, and Thor on 7. Clash of worlds leaves me with an army of two drop caps, or what have you. By maximizing two defensive type characters like that(Extremis/Recovery from iron man, mighty avenger, and Charging Star/Cap’s Shield from Captain America, The patriot) I could stall my way into a large hand on 7 which I then proceeded to burn through to pump Thor up into a killer.

The basic concept, whoever you play, remains unchanged: by finding two legends that have similar themes or at least can synergize, you run two back up characters to use their abilities in their absence and proceed to kill. All that with a few brotherhood and Secret Society Tricks from those two should make for a fun play.

It’s Latin, and Sexy

Point of Origin:

From http://www.reference.com/search?r=13&q=In%20Extremis:

In extremis is a Latin phrase meaning “in the furthest reaches” or “at the point of death”.

From Wikipedia’s Entry on Iron Man’s Powers:

After being critically injured during a battle with the Extremis-enhanced Mallen, Stark injects his nervous system with a modified techno-organic virus (the Extremis process) that not only saves his life, but also fuses Stark’s armor to his body. This allows him to store the inner layers of the Iron Man armor in the hollows of his bones as well as control it through direct brain impulses. Stark can control the layer of the armor underneath his skin and make it emerge from numerous exit points around his limbs as a gold-colored neural interface under-sheath. While in this form, Stark has technopathic control of armor and can suit up at any time, calling the larger components to him. Furthermore, the Extremis process has increased his body’s recuperative and healing abilities.

From Ben Seck:

Initial Thoughts:

Well It’s 6:00 PM on April 14th. 11 Days before you read this, here I am with a strange bit of a puzzle. Keep in mind that today we started Warbound previews, and I’m contemplating the Stunt Doubles deck that you may or may not have already read my thoughts on. So we’re already starting at an off place.

I’ll be honest, my first thought when The Superstation sent the e-mail was ‘Oh… it’s… it’s Armor of Doom for Iron Man. I guess that’s flavorful, but there isn’t a lot to say about a piece of equipment we’ve had sitting in decks since last August.’ My second thought was trying to remember is MVL was released in August or September. Then I wanted coffee.

After I made myself an Americano, extra shot(For those who love starbucks, save your money and just get the espresso from there. The Espresso make is worth it if you hit starbucks more than thrice a week.) I noticed something strange. Armor of Doom costs 1 point to equip. Extremis Upgrade costs 0. That means once Iron Man drops, so does his protection. Interesting. That means it’s more functional as a throw away piece of armor. I don’t mean it’s useless, I mean it can be used more recklessly than a piece of armor that I have to underdrop to put into play.

With that, Bizarro.dec just got worse. Now it can run 8 pieces of equipment that I can KO instead of stunning Clark’s imperfect clone. That combined with Stunt Doubles already means that without everyone’s favorite Happy Hour Regular I can make use of it. So I’ve established there is a functional use for the card. Excellent. Now to determine the range of functionality.

Functions(Non to Mid Jank)

The obvious use of this card is to keep Tony alive. This is pretty standard. We’ve seen it with Armor of Doom. The big difference is the cost. You can just equip another one for free next turn if you have it. That makes it a LOT more powerful, simply because you’re not forced to decide between a 4 drop or a protected 3 drop. Again, keep in mind that the stuff you’ve been drooling over this week is still a mystery to me as of this writing. I’m looking at the only legal Iron Man for Silver. Iron Man, Illuminati gets +3 DEF if the top card of your deck is a plot twist as checked at the beginning of combat. Neat. a 3 drop with potential to stun a 4 drop now can do so carte blanche.

The Stunt Doubles deck kinda makes weird use of this. it’s non unique so both Basil and Mystique can both have one at the same time. Between that and The Next Brotherhood, it makes mystique nasty on offense as well as leaving her sitting there to counterstun their attackers. Good times. Basil doesn’t get the mileage out of it that Mystique does. He’s a 9/10 meaning that without pumps the majority of 5 drops are going to just bounce off his muddy hide anyway. Still, Stunt Doubles can make use of the card a good deal. So it’s got moderate versatility.

Now looking at things we’ve seen from MUN, I see a pretty interesting stall strategy. Captain America, 6 drop, prevents people from becoming stunned. He’s an avenger. Iron Man can safely assume to be an Avenger at this point. Then we throw in a bit of the fantastic 4, who have both pier 4 and a bit of equipment search. Now imagine this scenario: It’s turn 6. Captain America is safely sitting behind Iron Man, ensured by Coast City. Iron Man has 2 Extremis Upgrades on him. Attack 1 comes, blows up the Upgrade. Attack 2 offs the next upgrade. On the third attack, Steve helps Tony out, so you don’t even need to THINK about defensive pumps until their 4th attack. If we have a way to recover expended Equipment then you have a hell of a stall method.

I think the real strength of the armor, though, goes back to its 0 cost. What that says to me is access to the more vicious attack pumps(All Too Easy!, Blinding Rage, Etc.) that transfer your DEF to ATK without losing a defender, or leaving your Iron Man open to effects that target stunned characters, or the obvious loss of endurance from stun. Here’s where the versatility of the card really becomes worth comment outside an aside about ‘Well of course Stunt Doubles can Use it, it’s a legend card’.

Secret Society is the master of recursion. They have ways and means, a true presence in the recycling community. So as It’s been 7 hours since I got the card(Yes, it took me an hour to write what you’ve seen so far) and we finally have a deck that makes use of the card in an interesting, and probably unintended manner. Injustice Gang is the delicious, smooth chocolate to Secret Society’s hearty, satisfying peanut butter. Their best attack pump normally leaves my attacker’s DEF at a goose egg. Basil can throw on the Armor(finding a way to discard an Iron Man can’t be too difficult in a Secret Society deck), and drop every all too easy! and blinding Rage you have without losing a potent defender. This sets you up for an interesting turn 5 finisher, as his DEF(especially with Agility!) should soak up if not completely shrug off attack.

One other thought that I think makes this card good is that it’s Uncommon. Given the lessons from DCL and MVL, Rares can be difficult to get ahold of. The sheer availability factor already makes the card worth a good hard look. It’s going to be in your card boxes.

Preview -4

So I’m writing this in the aftermath of Hulk Week. Looking at Extremis Upgrade now, I’m curious to see what today brings in the way of Iron Man previews. With Iron Man vs. The Hulk, I see some interesting fights. Again, I write this with the excitement of the first Iron man previews still shooting through my veins.

I’m hoping for a 5 drop. Regardless, a 4 drop Iron man basically fizzles Hulk, Gladiator. Extremis allows you to resist a lot of the Hulk’s madness. Something special tingles when I think about Extremis+Reinforcement is nice. You take no damage, and still have a defender to soak up damage. The F4/Avengers work up seems nice. Two Extremis Upgrades on Iron Man, Two Stall Shields on Captain America, and Two Fantasticar 2.0’s on 3 drop Invisible Woman to pumps people up. I can’t wait for MUN to come out so this Herbert Hoover deck can really come to fruition.

Preview -3

So it’s Tuesday. After the wave of previews that’s been dropped over the past 18 hours, my head’s spinning. Avengers/TT is looking REALLY good. I say this because Beastboy, Garfield Logan can protect Iron Man, stay in play, and get continuously bigger while Extremis can go onto Tony to keep him safe from Flight, and an opening from Beastboy getting stunned. Between that kind of reliability, and Stark Armory making both of them bigger every turn you have a solid 3 and 4 drop who work together, with Extremis, to stay alive until a massive 6 drop Beatstick comes in and they both swing with 6 Drop Stats. Protecting Iron Man, Mighty Avenger makes Garfield a target of sorts, which not only enters him into combat, but should get him stunned as well. So between Call of the Wild and constant combat and recovery from Iron man he gets huge. The fun part is Clawyface dropping on 5, with the Finisher on 6. That means Extremis can protect two characters, and Iron man Keeps Beast Boy on the table so you have for full curve on 6, while whittling the opposing side down to almost nothing. Stark Armory then takes all of the +1/+1 Counters from Tony after his swing and puts them on Basil, making the imitator a 13/14. So Using extremis to maintain board presence allows you to effectively swing with four 6 Drops on turn six. The more I look at this card, the more important I’m seeing it as being. It keeps people on the field. That in and of itself is power.

Preview -1

Sorry about the missing day, and the relative shortness of the final entry. Thor, and Hellicarrier were both dropped in the 48 hours since I last spoke of the subject. Thor is easier to get to. Hellicarrier is another card that really makes me like Extremis. It allows you to jump a turn without losing the sexiness of Iron Man, Mighty Avenger’s leader ability.

Final Thoughts from Kenpachi

We’ve seen the effect before. It’s been on Kevlar body Armor, and Armor of Doom. The real kicker is the cost. The environment dictates the exact use of the card. The Modern environment, as it’s shaping up post MUN, is going to be as varied as the players who come to the tourneys. From Secret SocietyS/SHIELD army love that constantly recycles the armor to keep Tony alive, to the unstoppable wall of a Team Superman/Avengers build that uses Maggie Sawyer to reinforce and Extremis to keep him from getting stunned as a form of ultimate stall tek, the Artists of the Vs community will find ways to make use of the potential power from the card. New variants of classic Kevlar Strategies and brand new tek borne of the creativity and innovation that have come to define the modern Vs Community are both inevitable.

Onward to June 10th.

A Final Thought From Erin

As I’m Anti-Registration, Iron Man has been on my bad list for the last year. I’m not an expert on Iron Man. So I asked one of my friends, who doesn’t play Vs., about Extremis. After explaining what she did, she had this to say: “I think that’s about the best way for a collectible card game to represent Extremis. You can’t get rid of Extremis like that, but I like it. The thing that gets me is that it’s not an ‘upgrade’. You either have Extremis or not. Still, completely awesome!”

With the final words from an Iron Man fangirl, enjoy the card.

Politics is about getting your enemy to stab themselves in the back

I love IG and GK. As The League of Extraordinary Wood Rats seems to be picking up momentum I’m forced to ask: What Meta can be used against Squirrel Girl. As her and nick seem to be pointing to a rush scenario utilizing Army+SHIELD, I’m interested if the decks will garner enough infamy and momentum to be considered a threat. And here’s where a fresh meta is fun, the only time I think Meta is fun.

I’m going to drop 1 small idea, a tiny fragment of a thought, and let the players decide if Squirrel Rush is strong enough for the following risk:

Turn 3 Owl Man, Turn 4 Hulk, Green Scar. The Kill turn for LoEWR is turn 4, and they should have at least 8 people on the field. Combine that with Criminal Mastermind, and Secret Files and you have an interesting scenario. You’re doing what they want. You’re fetching them Novice assassins with Secret Files, getting them the card draw they need to maintain a strong board presence. You’re MAKING their deck run the way it’s intended. Then when Hulk, Green Scar gets stunned Squirrel Girl’s ability triggers and the whole field goes back to their owner’s hand.

Using concealed characters and gumption, you let them swing into a single  visible defender every turn to soak up damage(if they have to send two assassins into a character on turn 3, that means they won’t be swinging for 16 they’ll be swinging for 4). Power Siphon keeps your defender alive and your endurance in the positive.  Taking even init, Hulk can swing into their assassin, blindside them, and HULK SMASH their face in. Throw an ATE! on him, and his DEF becomes 0, causing stunback. When he stuns the counter blows up and all of the sudden your opponent’s already bulging handsize gets an addition of 10+ cards. Owl Man comes in with a few All Too Easy! dropped on him, and finishes the game against their frail, undefended face.

Even without a finishing move on 4 you’ve made your stuff more powerful, and theirs less effective. It seems Warbound+Injustice Gang could be a nasty, nasty counter to the oncoming army rush scenario.

The Monk and the Scorpion

Once in a monastery two monks walked about doing their morning duties. As they passed a small bowl, filled with rain, they saw a scorpion was drowning in the water. One monk reached in to save the creature. As soon as his fingers touched the panicking Scorpion, it stung him and the monk dropped the Scorpion back into the water. The monk sighed, and reached back in. This time he got his grip a little firmer, but still dropped the Scorpion when he was stung. He kept reaching in, as his friend looked on in confusion. After dozens of attempts, the other monk spoke up saying “Brother, why do you keep trying to save that scorpion? It stings you every time you come near it” the monk paused before reaching in again. As another sting bit into his hand, he smiled “Because it is his nature to sting, and my nature to save. Don’t forget brother, soon either I’ll stop feeling the pain of the sting and he will be saved, or he will stop being afraid and be saved.’ Compassion cannot be stopped so easily.’

A retelling of an old story from the L5R world. Translated into Vs, though, we find ourselves in a strange place. The infinates/breeding pens+Stark Armory is a given. I’ve been at work for a while, so forgive me if this has been brought up, but by teaming up SHIELD and Horsemen, we have Nick Fury dropping an infinates for free, which get pumped up and then blown up to make Iron man leap past curve considerations. Between Stark Armory and the Infinates/Breeding Pens you have Iron Man jumping by AT LEAST +3/+3 a turn. That means that he’ll come in at 10/10 on 4, go 13/13, 16/16, etc. etc.

It’s a simple engine, but effective. To add to the pain, you have Finishing Move, as performed by whatever backup support guy you have behind Tony, and you have Abyss to clear out the guys you can’t handle by yourself. A few Heroic Efforts and you have a deck with a turn 6 kill goal.

Nick Fury raises an army because that’s his nature. The Infinates are sacrificed because it’s their nature. Compassion still wins, as the deck should end your opponent’s suffering in short time.

Tony Stark is a Coward

There is, for those who know me, no surprise that I have a low opinion of Tony Stark. I was vehemently anti-registration, and I have a few more issues with the character Tony Stark. That being said, I’m in love with Iron man, Mighty Avenger. And, as I’ve been happy with this whole set, flavor is seared with love into every card we bust out of packs.

This deck, which we’ll review later this week, is a flavor soaked rush of cherry infused goodness. It goes back to the TT/Avengers set up I’ve been tossing around. With Argent on 2, and Stark Armory you have a 10/10 Iron Man on turn 4. He becomes a 12/12 on 5. Better yet? He becomes an 11/11 on 5, you drop Basil Karlo, and transfer counters after Iron Man swings. That means you swing with an 11/11, then follow up with a 14/15. To finish everything up you have Beastboy, Garfield Logan as your 3 drop. Why, you probably aren’t asking? Because that means that instead of losing a fight and getting a little bit bigger Beastboy jumps a whole turn’s worth of stats up and recovers.

Now going to the tile, here’s why I think this deck espouses a sense of distaste for our Multibillionaire hero: He’s hiding behind children! By putting Argent and Beast Boy infront of, and next to him, by surrounding him with patsies, you maintain your whole board every turn. On top of that, both characters get bigger by losing. A bit of Burn Rubber, maybe a poker night or two, and you have a solid defensive wall. That selfsame wall makes every attack hurt your opponent. Every time they stun Tony’s bodyguards they get bigger, meaning they’re effectively higher drop characters for the final round. If all goes well you may as well be swinging with a low tier 7 drop, a low tier 6 drop, a high 5 drop, and a standard 3 drop.

Like in the Civil War, Tony Stark’s backhanded tactics will win the day.