Welcome to the first semifinal in the Last Man Standing 2 tournament. This week we see Punisher go head to head with all members of the Fantastic Four. The last time I played against the F4 deck, I was using Galactus, and I got well and truly trounced. Part of this was due to unfamiliarity with the deck. I should not have that problem this week, as the deck I’m piloting is my tournament deck from the London Elite Series held late last year.
Before we get on to this match, I want you all to take a few minutes out and start putting together your deck submissions for the next edition of Last Man Standing. LMS 3 will be a DC event and will start right after the LMS 2 champion is declared. The rules for your LMS 3 submissions are:
l Decks must be Silver Age.
l Decks must follow standard “Build a Legend” rules (click the Formats tab on this site for specifics).
l Your legend character must be a featured legend in the DC Comics Legends expansion, although not all the cards have to be from that set (for example, if you're building a Superman legend deck, you can use cards from World’s Finest to satisfy the legend requirement).
You should get your submissions to me as soon as possible via my website (www.the-kamiza.com).
Anyway, let’s get back to LMS 2 and the impending match between Punisher and the Fantastic Four!
Legend: Punisher (Steve)
Characters
4 Daredevil, Fearless Survivor
3 Punisher, Suicide Run
4 Black Panther, King of Wakanda
3 Morbius, Biochemical Bloodsucker
4 Punisher, Guns Blazing
1 Elektra, Masterless Assassin
2 Moon Knight, Knight of Khonshu
2 Vengeance, Spirit of Vengeance
1 Hulk, Savage Hulk
1 Ghost Rider, Spirit of Vengeance
1 Punisher, Angel of Death
Plot Twists
4 Wild Ride
3 Mobilize
4 Crushing Blow
4 Savage Beatdown
4 Quick Kill
Locations
3 Sewer System
Equipment
4 M60s
4 Desert Eagle
2 Katana
1 Power Gem
1 Mindtap Mechanism
My comments:
The deck prefers to have the even initiatives, and with no equipment search, I’ve found that your mulligan condition should be an equipment that Punisher can use. If you’ve no characters in hand, don’t panic—the seven character search cards help smooth the curve. Ideally, this deck will decimate the opponent’s board on turn 4, taking out the opposing 3- and 4-drops and leaving you in a very promising position for a turn 6 kill with Hulk, Savage Hulk. Daredevil, Fearless Survivor is your primary 2-drop and is great for attacking up the curve. If you get Punisher, Suicide Run instead, be sure to use him to KO the opposing 3-drop on the next turn—he’s just going to get replaced anyway. Don’t forget: his power is not activated, so if you can safely do so, attack with him before KO’ing a character.
On turn 3, your primary drop is Black Panther, King of Wakanda. He fetches Mindtap Mechanism with his power, making him quite a potent threat. If things go well for you, Daredevil will attack up the curve, allowing the equipped Panther to hit down and get a counter at the start of recovery. If by some fluke you already drew the 1-cost equipment, you should search for Power Gem instead. Also search for the Gem if you’ve only got one equipment in hand for Punisher on the next turn; this will allow you to attack in such a manner that the Panther gets stunned and the Gem is returned to hand, ready to recruit onto Punisher next turn. Morbius, Biochemical Bloodsucker is far better than people give him credit for, especially if you’re in control of the board early on. In the BYOS tournament, I think I threw him in as a one-of character just to make the numbers work. In reality, he probably won me one particular game because he was able to attack directly three times, generating an endurance swing of 21 in my favor. He’s not very potent against opposing characters, but with all the KO powers and up-curve attacking, he doesn’t really need to be.
Your ideal play on turn 4 is obvious, but Elektra, Masterless Assassin is there just in case. Turn 5 is where you really start to make decisions. Ideally, I would say Moon Knight, Knight of Khonshu is your recruit if you have your preferred initiative, and Vengeance, Spirit of Vengeance is there for when you are forced to take odds. Moon Knight on turn 5 (off-initiative) still forces your opponent to sacrifice a character by attacking Punisher (barring access to the hidden area), at which point you get to attack with Moon Knight's impressive DEF bonus, generally resulting in you having only one character stunned that turn.
Vengeance does not have much in the way of DEF, but he does give you a visible character to soak up some damage if your opponent is being particularly aggressive. He is also the 5-drop of choice if your KO tricks are not going according to plan. If you’ve not managed to dominate the board effectively, you should not recruit the Hulk on turn 6, as doing so could be the Vs. System equivalent of shooting yourself in the foot. If you recruit Hulk and are unable to cause breakthrough, or you leave your opponent in possession of characters to attack back with, you may just end up dead. With this in mind, your preferred turn 6 recruit is Ghost Rider, Spirit of Vengeance, and thus your turn 5 recruit should be Vengeance. The synergy between those characters is superb and potentially game-breaking.
I could not resist the legend Punisher, Angel of Death. Ideally, the deck would have won by this point, but if it hasn't, this guy is simply staggering. I felt particularly privileged to do the preview article for such a powerful character, and given the opportunity, I’ll run him every time. The rest of the deck is pretty self-explanatory—lots of equipment, some ATK pumps, and the simply amazing Sewer System.
Legend: Fantastic Four (Rich)
Characters
4 Human Torch, Matchstick
4 Luke Cage, Steel-Hard Skin
4 Invisible Woman, First Lady of the Fantastic Four
4 Mr. Fantastic, Critical Thinker
4 Thing, Heavy Hitter
3 Human Torch, Flame On!
1 Invisible Woman, Shield of The Four
1 Thing, The Ever-Lovin’ Blue-Eyed Thing
1 Silver Surfer, Norrin Radd
Plot Twists
3 A Proud Zinco Product
3 Only Human
4 Against All Odds
4 Force Field Projection
4 It’s Clobberin’ Time!
4 Mobilize
4 Signal Flare
4 Family of Four
4 Savage Beatdown
Designer Miguel Rodriguez’s comments:
“The deck obviously wants odds so that you can get double initiative with Silver Surfer, Norrin Radd. Missing your Invisible Woman, First Lady of the Fantastic Four on turn 3 is sad times, so the mulligan condition is her or a way to get her, which shouldn’t be too hard with eight character search effects in the deck.
“There aren’t any character choices you have to make except on turns 2 and 7. On turn 2 you should just drop whoever you have. Recruiting Luke Cage, Steel-Hard Skin will almost ensure that you get to draw two cards, while dropping Human Torch, Matchstick will help out when you play Family of Four (assuming Torch sticks around). He’ll also help Mr. Fantastic, Critical Thinker stun opposing characters, which could otherwise be tough because of Reed’s wimpy 5 ATK.
“Your turn 7 choice should be an easy one. When facing a swarm of weenies or a deck with a killer 3-drop (Hello, Checkmate!), then drop Thing, The Ever-Lovin’ Blue-Eyed Thing. Any other time, especially if you’ve landed the even initiative, go with Invisible Woman, Shield of The Four.
“The great thing about this deck is that it is so easy to brickwall your opponent on his or her attack step. He or she will probably have to team attack Mr. Fantastic on turn 4 to get through him. If that happens, use Force Field Projection, and the attacking characters don’t ready! If your opponent goes in with one character and a pump, use Against All Odds.
“On turn 5, lay the hurt down. With all four members of the F4 on the board and a copy of Family of Four, Thing, Heavy Hitter is a 15 ATK / 15 DEF 5-drop. With two copies, he's 19 ATK / 19 DEF! Savage Beatdown turns Reed into a 10 ATK / 9 DEF, and It’s Clobberin’ Time! should keep Sue safe enough to clear the board.
“About 90% of the time, you’ll want to use Human Torch, Flame On!’s power rather than attack with him. If you’re on defense and an attack is declared on him, by all means, let it go through! Then, pump him with Family of Four and activate and stun him. You’ll lose 6 endurance; the opponent will lose 17. Great trade!”
After the Galactus match, I identified the F4’s commanding board presence as one of the key factors in their win. Hopefully, I should be able to counter that, considering the amount of KO effects my Punisher deck wields. I do worry about the amount of beats the F4 are capable of producing, though, and my normally concealed board could leave the way clear for a lot of damage. The main threats I see are 3-drop Invisible Woman and Family of Four. Sue slows the damage I can do, and Family of Four simply bounces many attacks. Hopefully my combat pumps won’t fail me this match.
Game 1
We rolled the dice for initiative; I won and chose to go second. I had a decent opening hand including Punisher, Guns Blazing and Sewer System, which would be vital for getting at the hidden Sue. The problem, though, is that every time I’ve deviated from my mulligan condition of an equipment card, the deck blows up in my face. I decided to stick to my guns and wait for a gun. My next four turned up trumps, as I got another copy of both Punisher and the location, and also a Desert Eagle to set me on my way. The next two cards continued my good fortune as I hit a Wild Ride and another Desert Eagle. Hopefully my lucky streak from the Wolverine vs. Torch matchup would continue against the rest of the Fantastic Four.
Turn 1
As seems to be the case in most of these matches, we both put down a resource and passed with no recruit.
Endurance: Steve 50 / Rich 50
Turn 2
For turn 2, I put down Wild Ride and flipped it to search for a 2-drop. For the next turn, I had Morbius, Biochemical Bloodsucker—not the best offensive option—so I decided to go for Daredevil, Fearless Survivor. Punisher, Suicide Run is only the best pick when you are likely to get a stun with someone like Black Panther, King of Wakanda and then use Punisher to clear away the opposing 3-drop. I recruited Daredevil in the hidden support row and passed. Rich played another resource and recruited Human Torch, Matchstick in the visible support row. Rich passed back to me, and I sent Daredevil in to trade stuns.
Endurance: Steve 46 / Rich 47
Turn 3
Rich played his resource and recruited Invisible Woman, First Lady of the Fantastic Four; I was happy that I’d drawn into another copy of Sewer System after the mulligan.
I put Quick Kill down as my resource and recruited Morbius in the front row of the hidden area, protecting Daredevil. I passed back to Rich, who sent both his characters in for a direct attack.
I declared an attack with Morbius into Human Torch; I gained 3 endurance and Rich lost 3 thanks to the vampire’s power. Rich responded by powering-up the 2-drop. I was now faced with a choice. I had in hand Crushing Blow and a Savage Beatdown that I could use to force the stun, but with Sue’s reinforcement in place, it would cause minimal endurance loss. However, the one thing I learned from the Galactus / F4 match was that if you allow the F4 to build a board, they will be able to bounce attacks. The last thing I wanted was for Punisher to be firing blanks when he hit next turn. I had the Quick Kill in the resource row and 7-drop Punisher ready to discard, so I played the Crushing Blow, aiming to KO the 2-drop.
Things went to plan: Torch stunned and was dispatched by the Quick Kill. I then attacked directly with Daredevil, and we moved to recovery.
Endurance: Steve 43 / Rich 40
Turn 4
I put down Savage Beatdown as my resource and recruited my legendary Punisher, Guns Blazing in the visible support row. I passed to Rich, having left my concealed characters in the same formation as the previous turn.
Rich simply put down his resource and recruited Mr. Fantastic, Critical Thinker in the front row.
I had marked out Sue as a problem before the game. Her reinforcement can really slow the game to the point where Surfer can dominate. Since I had already discarded my one and only 7-drop, I could not afford to go that long. I flipped Sewer System on Punisher and declared an attack into the Invisible Woman with my gun-toting legend. Rich was clearly annoyed with this but could do nothing to stop me. Sue stunned and KO’d, and Rich dropped 10 endurance. I then declared a team attack with Daredevil and Morbius into Mr. Fantastic, and Morbius generated his 6-point swing again. I played the Beatdown from my resource row and passed to Rich. In response, he used Mr. Fantastic’s power. He netted something that he liked, but nothing that could help him for this attack. He passed and stunned Daredevil back.
Endurance: Steve 44 / Rich 23
Turn 5
Rich played his resource and recruited Thing, Heavy Hitter. He set the 5-drop in the front row, protecting his 4-drop, and then passed to me.
I was concerned about the number of face-down resources he had at his disposal and the potential beating I was going to face that turn.
I had no 5-drop in hand, but I did have a Wild Ride. Searching for a character would burn, but no more than if I missed a drop. I had two options: Moon Knight, Knight of Khonshu or Vengeance, Spirit of Vengeance. Normally I would go for Moon Knight when I don’t control the initiative, but the deck I was facing had a lot of combat ability. For a start, I could not rely on Punisher getting the stunback. Both opposing characters had abnormally high DEF values, and It’s Clobberin’ Time! or Family of Four could save the stunback. With this in mind, I decided to search for Vengeance. With no flight on the opposite side of the board, I could put my 5-drop in the front row, protecting Punisher, and then force the opposing characters to go through him and cause Rich some endurance loss, regardless of whether or not I got the stunback.
With my rationale secure, I searched for Vengeance with the Wild Ride I’d just put down in my resource row. I recruited him in the front, protecting my 4-drop.
Rich began by declaring an attack with Thing into Vengeance. I reinforced with Punisher, and my 5-drop was stunned; Rich took 5 endurance of burn thanks to Vengeance’s power. Rich then declared an attack with the Critical Thinker into my Punisher and quickly followed that up by flipping two copies of It’s Clobberin’ Time! and a Savage Beatdown, all from the resource row. The smashing I’d expected had finally arrived, and there was nothing I could do to save myself. Punisher was stunned, and I lost a large amount of endurance.
I declared an attack with Morbius into Mr. Fantastic. Although I wasn’t going to get the stun, I was still able to force another 6-point endurance swing without losing another character. After the attack resolved, we moved to recovery. I decided to recover Punisher instead of Vengeance. With my one and only 7-drop Punisher already discarded, I didn’t have to worry about replacing him any time soon. I was also keen to keep the F4's board under control.
Endurance: Steve 24 / Rich 15
Turn 6
I’d run into a wall. With no search card and no 6-drop, I was forced into an underdrop situation. With Mindtap Mechanism in hand, I put Quick Kill down as a resource and recruited Black Panther, King of Wakanda, using his power to search for Power Gem. I then recruited the Gem on Panther, who went into the front row, protecting Punisher. I finished up by recruiting the Mindtap Mechanism on Daredevil.
My opponent played a resource and recruited Human Torch, Flame On! in the support row next to Mr. Fantastic, who was still under the protection of Heavy Hitter.
I began my attacks by declaring Daredevil, Black Panther, and Morbius into Human Torch. Rich wasn’t keen to suffer the Morbius burn, so he decided to use Torch’s power before the attack became legal. Rich still had three face-down resources, and I was worried by the fact that I’d not seen a Family of Four yet. The endurance totals (11 to 9) meant that I really had to take out Thing or he’d likely win the game for Rich, so I began to plan around that. We were up to turn 6, so I figured Rich had at least one copy of the legendary pump, if not two. I could also have been looking at Against all Odds, considering that Rich had five cards in hand to go with the three unknown quantities in his resource row. Any combination of two of these cards would give Thing +6 DEF. I just wasn’t prepared to take any chances, so I declared an attack with all my characters into the Heavy Hitter. If I decided to leave any guys out of the combat with the aim of taking down Reed later, all my attacks might have bounced. Reed would then stomp Black Panther, and Thing would crush Punisher for the game.
I declared the attack with my entire board. It was legal. Morbius kicked in (I love that power), and I passed to Rich with a combined ATK of 27. Rich couldn’t or wouldn’t do anything about it, and Thing stunned and KO’d, stunning back the Punisher. I passed to Rich, who sent Mr. Fantastic into Black Panther. I powered-up to save the 1 breakthrough and returned the Power Gem to hand. We moved to recovery, and Black Panther hit the KO’d pile.
Endurance: Steve 7 / Rich 1
Turn 7
Rich played his resource and recruited Thing, The Ever-Lovin’ Blue-Eyed Thing in the front row, taking up the protection duties that the Heavy Hitter had previously occupied. Dang it! Daredevil and Morbius returned to my hand, and Rich passed to me.
I had drawn nothing of use. I put down another Quick Kill as my resource, re-recruited Daredevil and Morbius, and put the Power Gem on Daredevil.
Rich declared an attack with Thing into Punisher; it went through with a power-up and a Family of Four. The 20 ATK / 20 DEF Thing was far too much for me to handle. I powered-up twice, emptying my hand to try to save a little endurance, but Punisher went down hard. Rich then sent his two remaining characters in for a direct attack, and before passing to me, he played Only Human from his resource row, targeting Morbius. That was game.
Endurance: Steve -26 / Rich 1
A measly 1 endurance point! If I’d only found a way to make him lose 1 more endurance on turn 6! I had been right in my turn 6 reasoning, though; had I split my offensive force, I would not have found a way through Rich’s defense.
Game 2
Once again I decided to take the even initiatives. Neither of us decided to mulligan.
Turn 1
Once again, we both played resources and passed with no recruits.
Endurance: Steve 50 / Rich 50
Turn 2
I had not drawn a single plot twist so far, so when I laid my second resource, it was the second copy of Daredevil, Fearless Survivor to go into the row. I’d decided to go with Punisher, Suicide Run on turn 2 this game. I had Black Panther in hand to go aggressive, and having not seen a Quick Kill yet, I was keen to keep the opposing board under control. I recruited Punisher in the hidden support row.
My opponent recruited Luke Cage, Steel-Hard Skin in the front row and passed without using his power. I sent Punisher into Luke, and the 2-drops traded stuns.
Endurance: Steve 48 / Rich 48
Turn 3
Rich played his resource and recruited Invisible Woman, First Lady of the Fantastic Four in the hidden area. I’d drawn Sewer System, which I played as my resource, and recruited Black Panther, King of Wakanda in the hidden area. I went into my deck and found Mindtap Mechanism, which went straight on the 3-drop. I set Panther in front of Punisher and passed to Rich, who discarded a copy of Human Torch, Matchstick to Luke’s power.
Rich then sent both characters in for a direct team attack.
For my attacks, I sent Black Panther into Luke, who stunned without getting the stunback he so badly wanted. I then attacked directly with Punisher before using his power to KO Luke Cage. We moved to recovery, and Black Panther gained a counter from the equipment.
Endurance: Steve 42 / Rich 39
Turn 4
Now I had a problem: I had no 4-drop and no search. I played my resource (Savage Beatdown) and passed.
My opponent had also missed his 4-drop, but the difference was that he had a Mobilize to go find one; he discarded Only Human and found Mr. Fantastic, Critical Thinker, whom he recruited in the visible area.
I flipped and used Sewer System so Panther could attack Invisible Woman. The attack was legal, and Panther did the business. This left the way clear for Mr. Fantastic to hit directly for 5. We moved to recovery, and Panther gained another counter.
Endurance: Steve 37 / Rich 32
Turn 5
Rich played a resource and recruited Thing, Heavy Hitter in front of his good friend Reed.
I put Quick Kill down as my resource and recruited Vengeance, Spirit of Vengeance as my only visible character. I also gave Vengeance a Desert Eagle.
Rich quickly declared an attack with Mr. Fantastic into Vengeance. He flipped a copy of It’s Clobberin’ Time! to boost Mr. Fantastic up to a threatening level. Vengeance powered-up to take the 4-drop down with him. This left the way clear for Thing to attack directly, which he did with a Savage Beatdown. Rich then sent Sue in with another Savage Beatdown, this time from hand.
That offensive had left me badly bruised, so I needed to really dig deep to pull the game back. Once again I used Sewer System to allow Black Panther to go after Invisible Woman. After the attack resolved, we moved to recovery; Panther got another counter, and Invisible Woman hit the KO’d pile.
Endurance: Steve 8 / Rich 15
Turn 6
My luck was still running thin, as I drew Morbius, Biochemical Bloodsucker and a Desert Eagle. I put an M60s down as my resource and recruited Moon Knight, Knight of Khonshu in the hidden area with a Power Gem. I also recruited the other Desert Eagle onto Vengeance. Moon Knight was behind Black Panther, and Vengeance was still the only visible character on my side of the board.
Rich played his resource and flipped Signal Flare, grabbing Human Torch, Flame On! from his deck. He recruited the 6-drop in the support row, adjacent to Mr. Fantastic, in a formation that mirrored the previous game. Unlike game 1, it was clear that this game would not go past this turn. As I sat on 8 endurance, Torch on his own was more than enough to take me below 0. The question was: could I do enough damage to bring Rich down even further?
I decided to try to take Torch out of the game to begin with. I declared an attack with Moon Knight into the 6-drop. Unfortunately, Rich had a Family of Four in his resource row to take his Torch to 16 ATK / 14 DEF. I had Savage Beatdown, but if I played it, Rich would just burn me in response, and the pump would be wasted. If I didn’t use it, I would stun, and Torch would be free to do damage in his own time. It was clear to me that the game was beyond me now. I decided to pass, so Moon Knight stunned. I then used Sewer System to allow Vengeance to attack Mr. Fantastic. The attack went through, and Mr. Fantastic stunned. Next, I sent Black Panther into Thing with a Savage Beatdown. In response, Rich played Against All Odds. Both characters still stunned, but Rich was decidedly better off than he could have been. With nothing left in the tank, I passed to Rich.
My friend could have just passed, but instead he decided to use Torch’s effect to burn me. Then he passed.
Endurance: Steve -13 / Rich -5
Fantastic Four move on to the finals!
Clearly the second game didn’t go at all well for me; missing Punisher was a big hurt, especially as I had two M60s waiting to go. Still, the F4 deck is proving to be a total powerhouse. Sometimes it does just come down to “my characters are bigger than yours.”
| Quarterfinals |
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Semifinals |
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Finals |
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Champion |
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| Punisher |
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Punisher |
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| Spider-Man |
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Fantastic Four |
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| Galactus |
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Fantastic Four |
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Champion |
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| Dr. Doom |
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Dr. Doom |
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| Daredevil |
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Finalist |
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| Wolverine |
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Wolverine |
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| Human Torch |
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Many thanks,
Steve
Steve “Kamiza” Garrett has been an active member of the vast Vs. System online community since day one. Steve is an ardent supporter of casual Vs. play and the European game on the whole. If you are interested in supporting Vs. System within Europe or have any comments regarding this article, please pop along to his website at www.the-kamiza.com.