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This week we’ll be playing with the Bring Your Own Team format, with one exception. ALL of the cards in your decks are required to be team-stamped. Ban lists still apply.
A special prize will be given out to the player who brings the worst team. I’m thinking Secret Six might just be the ticket!
Edit: I didn’t realize that there aren’t enough Secret Six cards to support a full 60-card deck. Back to the drawing board…
After many tough decisions my New Gods deck was finally ready for play.. or so I thought. Hours before the tournament began a couple of us from The Realm gathered for some playtesting, and I quickly discovered the multiple weaknesses in my deck. Combat was a disaster; although I could remove attackers from attacks I was totally unable to do much else.
In the end I took enormous amounts of damage, and in three matches the game ended on turn 6 (or sooner!) Something had to change, and I had very little time to do so. My back-up plan was a JLA power-up build, but with Nth Metals banned from the format that could also prove to be difficult. I settled upon a third New Gods deck, this time focusing on a shorter curve and heavily statted characters such as Big Bear and Valkyra.
Yesterday we explored the characters available to us in our totally awesome New Gods deck, and today I’m ready to put it together!
After a brief (but meaningless) flirtation with the Forever People I have come to realize that the New Gods’ true power is stall. I’m not saying that it’s an amazing power, but clearly we’re trying to make the best of a bad situation.
As I mentioned yesterday, having multiple Mister Miracles on board should ruin my opponent’s attack step. This will give me the power to stall to later rounds, with Orion set as our final goal. Unfortunately getting to turn 8 may take longer than I anticipated: In some light playtesting Takion’s power has proven far too unreliable, so I will be switching him out with the much more aggressive Big Barda.
From a thematic standpoint I couldn’t be happier to have two Mister Miracles and Barda fighting together, but having an extra round of combat creates new challenges. Even with two super escape artists on their side, can the New Gods hold out long enough to achieve victory?
Yesterday I explored the idea of a Mono-New Gods deck, but was very skeptical about it’s potency. Today I am even more skeptical… But all hope is not lost, for we may be able to justify playing a New Gods deck.
Aside from Cosmic, the New Gods have several smaller themes at their disposal: Plot twist control, removing attackers from attacks, recovery and the Forever People/Infinity Man gimmick. Sadly, due to the lack of attention the New Gods have received over the years, none of these themes were ever fully explored. What we end up with is a potpourri of random effects coupled with poor (or worse) stats.
The power of The Source intrigues me. How can such a powerful card remain untouched by the competitive scene? We must make this deck work!
Are the New Gods beyond salvation?
I mean, I don’t think I have ever seen a playable deck that features the team exclusively. There are clever stall builds out there using Highfather, and the infamous Blue Abuse deck, but are the New Gods capable of greatness using only their own tricks?
My goal is as follows:
EdgeWorld is hosting a ‘Bring Your Own Team’ event this Friday, a format which requires that your entire deck to be Mono-Team. There are no generic cards allowed, no jank, and no splashing. This means that a lot of otherwise-unplayable cards might end up in the spotlight for once.
More to follow…
This week’s Hobby League had a fantastic turnout, and we were pleasantly surprised to have some extra players join us. This brought our ranks up to a healthy 6, a major improvement over where we have been in the past few weeks.
Sadly, our plan to play ‘mini-decks’ fell apart with these new players, but that didn’t stop me from playing Crime Lords!
Tonight I decided to pilot a new Marvel Knights/Crime Lords built in honor of Crime Lords Month. I was having a great time with it when I began watching the match taking place next to mine. One of our new players recruited a copy of Halo, immediately followed by Katana on turn 2. That’s odd. Those are the first two drops in my Grace deck from a few weeks ago…
As their game continued I realized that he WAS playing my Grace deck! He admitted that he found the deck on Stu’s ‘Rallying Cry,’ and thought it was a lot of fun. Though I had little success with it a few weeks earlier, he went the entire night with Grace undefeated. If I wasn’t so flattered that a complete stranger had ‘netdecked’ me, I probably would have been jealous of how well he played it.
Perhaps if we’re lucky lightning will strike twice!
The Brave and the Blog! 
