“Sweep the leg! You got a problem with that?”
“No, Sensei!”
For some, the win-at-all-costs mentality is something quite natural and instinctive. Others follow a philosophy of style over substance. I’ve always prided myself on the fact that I put my principles above results. I’ve always been successful with that approach, and it’s what I try to teach my judo students. I tell them that winning a weekend tournament is a goal; learning and improving from your experiences in that event should be your aim. Sure, they may have been the odd dip here or there, but overall, the performance graph shows a steady incline. This is the ideal I’ve followed for a long time as a Vs. System player. If you take the time to review my old One Step Beyond series, both here and on Metagame.com, you’ll see that I’ve always been a strong advocate of fun over function. “Jank” was the word I would live by, and I did pretty well with it—up until this year anyway. The first six months of this year saw a sharp decline in my win-loss ratio. We’ve had a pretty decent number of events locally, as well as the unofficial U.K. Nationals, but I noticed that with each event, my number of losses kept increasing.
Compared to previous years, 2008 has seen Vs. System shift toward a more casual style of play. I think what happened for me was that as the game relaxed, my own game relaxed even further. After a series of events in which I was hitting a fifty-fifty average and my personal performances were replete with errors and poor choices, I decided to take a long look in the mirror. Although I’m all about fun, by nature, I’m still deeply competitive—and I hate losing. Moreover, I hate underperforming. If I lose to a better player using a better deck, then so be it. But if I lose because I built a poor deck (“poor” and “janky” are not the same thing) or made stupid mistakes, then something needs to be done. I decided that I needed to tighten up on some of my choices and concentrate on getting my win ratio back up. A Bring Your Own Team event was approaching, and I was considering my options. I had all sorts of crazy ideas about Negative Zone and X-Statix, but I decided that I needed a solid performance. I went with MKKO, a deck I’d been playing for a long time, and with which I managed to win the event with a perfect record. I was far more attentive to my deck and game than I had been for the last few months. I also managed to ace the Super-Crossover Sealed event that took place, and although I was undefeated, I lost the top spot on tiebreakers. I’d decided that it was time for an evolution in my own game: I want to win, and I’m prepared to sweep a few legs along the way! There are limits to how far I will go (I still don’t think I could bring myself to play Quickfate), but I’m ready to do what needs to be done.
With a new Marquee event announced, I thought it was about time to take a long, hard look at what it’s going to take to win the tournament. Clone Saga is a really new twist on competitive play. Your Constructed deck must be Silver Age, but the uniqueness rule does not apply when recruiting or substituting characters. Instead of rewriting the rules, this format takes the rulebook, rips out a couple of pages, throws it down, and screams “Bring It On!.”
So Silver Age is currently DC—Infinite Crisis through Marvel Universe—and with that comes a huge selection for your deck choices. The options are far too vast to cover extensively, but I’m going to spotlight those that I think have a really strong chance at dominating your event.
My first instinct is to look at the legends. With dedicated support cards and characters, it’s clear that breaking the uniqueness rule could potentially improve a standard legend deck by a considerable margin. What I would say before we begin the analysis is that we should be careful about getting too caught up in the uniqueness issue. Just because we can play multiple versions of characters, it doesn’t mean that it’s optimal to do so. For example, Captain America has drops from turns 3 through 8 in the Silver Age environment, but do they all sing from the same hymn sheet?
I talked with Squire “Homer J” Kershner, who spoke about his own Cap Clone Saga deck on a recent edition of the premier Vs. System podcast, The Ring Has Chosen. Squire was kind enough to share his decklist with me:
Characters
4 Iron Fist, Secret Avenger
4 Captain America, The Patriot, Secret Avenger
2 Dr. Strange, Secret Avenger
4 Red Skull, Aleksander Lukin
2 Falcon, Secret Avenger
4 Captain America, Champion License
1 The Captain, Can't Remember His Real Name
4 Red Skull, Johann Shmidt, HYDRA
3 Captain America, Living Legend
1 Captain America, Heroic Paragon
1 Red Skull, Master of Creation
1 Captain America, Sentinel of Liberty
Plot Twists
2 Secret Avengers, Team-Up
3 Charging Star
4 Shield Slash
2 Stars and Stripes
4 Uncertain Legacy
1 Heroes of Two Worlds
4 Assorted Aliases
2 Acts of Vengeance
1 Carrying the Torch
Locations
1 Damocles Base
Equipment
2 Captain America’s Shield
3 Cosmic Cube
The first thing that struck me when I saw this list was the beauty of combat. It’s almost devolution in deckbuilding, but not in a bad sense. It takes the game back to the simple cut and thrust of a Superhero Showdown. Combat tricks, both offensive and defensive, are the order of the day. The last man standing will be the ultimate winner, and that’s the way it should be in this game.
Captain America, The Patriot, Secret Avenger is your mulligan condition. With Cap in play, the power of Shield Slash increases to impressive proportions. The let down of the pump has always been that you don’t want to exhaust your larger characters later in the game to re-buy the plot twist. With the smaller Cap staying around longer, especially with the aid of recovery tricks, you’re increasing the usability and lifespan of Shield Slash.
I love the powerful partnership that is created by bringing together these two sworn enemies. It’s funny that two characters who are so opposed to each other work along similar lines of combat wiliness. I’ll admit to not having played any real games with this list; however, I spent some time Goldfishing the deck, and I found it to be very consistent in draws. Anything I didn’t have, I could generally get with Cosmic Cube. The theoretical plays I went through looked strong and combat would be particularly difficult for an opponent. But what about a deck that wasn’t quite so dependant on outright combat? My own Clone Saga deck could pose a particular problem for Captain America, so let's take a look.
Dr. Doom
Characters
4 Boris, Personal Servant of Dr. Doom
4 Puppet Master, Overprotective Father
4 Dr. Doom, Richards’s Rival
2 Doom-Bot, Army
4 Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius
1 Dr. Doom, Gypsy King
4 Spider-Man, Secret Avenger
1 Dreadnought Tank, Arsenal of Doom
1 Human Torch, Herald
1 Holocaust, Nemesis
1 Dr. Doom, Fearsome Monarch
1 Spider-Man, Stark’s Protg
1 Dr. Doom, Latverian Monarch
Plot Twists
4 Mystical Paralysis
4 Mobilize
4 Underground Movement
4 Pathetic Attempt
3 Faces of Doom
3 Have a Blast
3 Savage Beatdown
3 SKREEEEEEE!
Location
3 Doomstadt, Castle Doom
This works as an aggressive control deck, kind of like Common Enemy of old. The use of Underground Movement allows me to access some particularly nasty dudes that would otherwise be difficult fold into a deck. With a mixture of control and beats, I can adapt to each opponent. My universal team-up allows me to ship Puppet Master, Overprotective Father into the hidden area where he can cause trouble for a while longer than usual. Richard’s Rival can search out the team-up if required; if it’s not required, then it can search for whatever card I need. So far, the deck has been playing out nicely. I’ve not hit too many problems, as even if I lose the team-up, I have team alternates at most drops.
What makes both of these decks work well is the balance between control and combat. Earlier, I said that Squire’s Captain America decklist was a straight combat deck, but that isn’t quite true. Yes, everything revolves around combat, but because Cap and Red Skull have such strong influences on combat, the deck strongly affects an opponent’s game plan—a version of control in it’s own right. There are decks in this format that will be all about aggressive combat, and Quicksilver, Inhuman by Marriage is quite possibly the apex of aggression in this format. Nothing hits as hard as quickly. Remember that this format is, at its essence, Silver Age Constructed. As such, decks like Quickfate and MKKO are still incredibly strong. Just because there is a “quirky” aspect to the format, it doesn’t necessarily mean that players will exploit it. Some may just decide to throw down with their normal Silver Age decks. As such, I think the two decks that I just mentioned should be considered as potential opponents. I hope that too many people don’t go down that route. I feel that to do so goes against the spirit of the event. At the end of the day, however, people like to win, and if they feel their best chance to do so is to go with a reliable and proven deck, then so be it. I think the strength of MKKO means that Checkmate won’t be as prevalent as it has been in previous Silver Age formats, but they could pull a surprise.
Overall, I believe that the two decks I’ve focused on represent the two strongest themes. Other mentions should go to Punisher, who may be able to pull off Sniper Shot with more ease. Also, Darkseid and Superman are guys that like to play with the non-unique mechanic on their own. There is probably mileage in exploring those decks—especially Darkseid, who offers another strong control element.
Well, I’ve offered you my honest opinion on the strongest decks in this format. If you’ve got a differing opinion or you’ve got a report of a Clone Saga experience, please email me at kamiza@the-kamiza.com so I can follow up with actual reports on the theory.
Until next time,
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 the U.K. and European game. If you are interested in supporting VS. System within the U.K. and Europe or if you have any comments regarding this article, please pop along to his website: www.the-kamiza.com.