From: Nakaiya21@aol.com Andrew's Gotham Knights Deck - Nakaiya21 Andrew, I think that you have a great idea and a great deck. That is why I am going to send it to pojo as well so that everyone can benefit! Andrew wrote: Hello, I too am trying to build a Gotham Knights deck. I read and enjoy what you have to say under the card of the day so I thought maybe you could help me out with this deck I personally think that GK is the best deck out there as far as DC goes (I think it is actually stronger than a TT deck!). I too have built a GK deck and have taken it up against many different decks. I have found that this deck is extremely solid and is able to easily stand up against the notorious Brotherhood deck. So here goes... I am going to copy the deck that you have given me and perhaps make some changes as I go along. Bear with me...this might just be a long e-mail....:) Characters (22) 3X Batman(5) 3X Batgirl 2X catwoman 1X puppet Master 2X Lady Shiva(5) 2X Robin(2) 2X Huntress 1X Azreal(6) 1X Nightwing 1X Blackfire 3X Batman(3) 1X Batman (7) Ok let's begin with your characters. The key to running a GK deck is that in order to use some of your best cards you need GK characters. This is why a GK deck should ONLY run GK characters (at least for your 1 to 6 drops). We need to think about giving support not only to Bat Signal and Fizzle, but that we also need to give support to our Batgirl. She can be a real power house for you when you need it, but only if you have enough GK characters to throw away. That is why I am going to say: - Puppet Master - Blackfire + 1 Lady Shiva (This character is extremely strong) + 1 Tim Drake (This card is extremely underrated. He combos very well + when you have initiative.) So far, so good!!:) Now, let's talk about that 7 drop Batman. If you are going to run Batgirl and the 7 drop Batman in the same deck then you might have a problem. One is going to cause you to discard and the other requires you to have cards. So who do we keep? Easy, always take Batgirl. She is much more reliable and she comes out earlier than Batman, allowing you to do possible early damage. So who do we put in? Well, this is where I decided that Gotham city needed a new leader...enter Magneto! I took the 7 drop Magneto from Brotherhood because as far as 7 drops go, he is the best. He does not require loyalty, he has one of the highest atk/def characteristics, he has flight and range, and he has an awesome ability. (I also threw in Juggernaut for some fun, but that is up to you.) So now we have: -Batman (7) + 1 Magneto (7) Hey, hey...not bad at all....The next thing I would like to focus on is the number of characters that you might to run. Remember what I said earlier about a lot of your GK cards requiring you to discard other GK characters? Well, in this case I am going to say 22 is a little short. Let's add some more to fatten our odds... + 1 Azreal + 1 Nightwing + 1 Magneto So I added the above cards because your 6 and 7 drop areas were a little sparse. With a well built GK deck, you will definitely last until turn 7, so why not add a little meat to our deck to insure that our characters fall properly? Now we are at 25....I feel that we should probably bulk up your low drops as well otherwise, you may have problems until turn 3.. + 3 GCPD Officers/Alfred Pennyworth/any other GK 1 drop... Well, I know I am not being very specific here but there is a reason for it...The GK 1 drops are either hard to activate or are weak. So instead of giving you a character that you may not like...I am going to give you the option of playing around with what you want to put in. This also allows you to tailor the deck to best suit yourself and your playing environment (i.e. If people you play against do not play 1 drops, go for the GCPD officers for some quick hit points...) O.k. so now we are at 28...that is a nice fat number that should work well with our GK discarding environment. You made some nice choices on the other characters!!:) Onto plot twists!! Plot Twists 29 2X Fast Getaway 2X Finishing Move 4X Nasty Surprise 2X Burn Rubber 1X Have a Blast 1X Reconnaissance 1X Fizzle 3X Acrobatic Dodge 3X Flying Kick 3X From the shadows 1X Team Tactics 2X Break you 3X Bat-Signal 1X Mega-Blast Just taking a brief look, it looks like you are trying to do a bunch of different things. I can totally understand your defensive point of view with Fast Getaway, Burn Rubber, and Acrobatic Dodge. I found, through trial and error, that GK is really missing some defense...especially since they can't get their defense from equipment or locations. Unfortunately this part is where a GK deck gets a little costly. Instead of relying on defense cards, a GK deck relies on taking out your opponents boosts...either in the form of locations or plot twists. That means instead of playing defensive plot twists, you will probably need to focus your Fizzles, Have a Blasts, etc....Let me break it down...:) - 2 Fast Getaways - 2 Burn Rubber - 3 Acrobatic Dodge - Reconnaissance - 3 From the Shadows (This is a situational card) + 3 Fizzles + 3 Have a Blast Ok so now we are at 24 plot twists. Remember we are going to have to trim this area anyway since we fattened up our character area. Now, let move onto our attack stategies...Right now I see the following... 4X Nasty Surprise 2X Finishing Move 3X Flying Kick 1X Team Tactics 2X Break you 3X Bat-Signal 1X Mega-Blast Let me start by saying that Bat Signal, Mega Blast, and Flying Kick are really great cards for this deck. Since you do not have flight or range, you will probably need Mega Blast and Flying Kick. Bat Signal is just plain awesome anyways because it allows you to go for that crucial character you need, when you need it. I don't really care for Break You since it requires you to discard....and you are already going to be discarding anyway (Hand advantage is a key point to remember in every card game). Nasty surprise and Team Tatics, while nice, do not necessarily fit into GK very well (You will usually have enough strength already). So here is my verdict... - 4 Nasty Surprise - Team Tactics - 2 Break you + 1 Bat Signal + 3 Mega Blast Well now we are at 21 plot twists, not bad at all if I do say so myself...That leaves us 11 cards to work with!!:) Next, I am going to look at your locations because in GK this is an easy choice... Locations 3 2X Batcaves 1X Wayne Enterprises I tried using Bat Cave, when to my surprise, I discovered that it didn't matter if I gave my opponent initiative just to discover what they were going to recruit. Either it way, I knew that I had the right character to take on whatever my opponent put on the field. Basically this means that a good GK deck is ready for anything and can take on anyone. So I am going to can your Bat Caves.:) Now, Wayne Enterprises, on the other hand, is a card that I can definitely appreciate. A GK deck is going to rely on some kind of equipment at some time or another and this card definitely makes your equipment more usable (not to mention gives your character a boost). I think you can see where I am heading with this... - 2 Bat Caves + 3 Wayne Enterprises Ok so now we come to the last part....equipment and with 7 spots open, we better make this count! Equipment 10 1X Batmobile 1X Batplane 1X Dual Sidearms 3X Utility Belt 2X Jetpack 1X Advanced Hardware 1X Twin Firearms In this area I have tried it all, everything from Kevlar Body Armor to Unstable Molecules has been in my GK deck. This is what I have found... - Bat Mobile (I know you are thinking that this is good because it has the built in Kevlar Body Armor, but at a cost of 1 we should probably look into a better equipment defense) - Bat Plane (Nope, there is a reason you do not see swift escape anymore. The cost of having to re-recruit a character is much more damaging than you can think. Since it doesn't give your characters a boost, this card just isn't that good) + 3 Dual Sidearms (Range is the best quality a character can have!) - 3 Utility Belt (Again we have a situation with no boost) - 2 Jet Pack (I did this in exchange for more Dual Sidearms) - Advanced Hardware - Twin Firearms + 3 Personal Forcefield I took out the Advanced Hardware and Twin Firearms in exchange for Personal Forcefield. Why? Because you have plenty of firepower in your characters already...what you lack is defense. Since you don't mind paying 1 resource point for equipment, let's go for the best defense equipment card in the game. This will also help since I removed a lot of your defensive plot twists earlier. Trust me, 4 Dual Sidearms is more than enough equipment boost for your characters. Whew, I think I am done....here is what your deck now looks like... Characters 28 3 Batman(5) 3 Batgirl 2 Catwoman 3 Lady Shiva(5) 3 Robin(2) 2 Huntress 2 Azreal(6) 2 Nightwing 3 Batman(3) 2 Magneto 3 1 drops Plot Twists 21 4 Fizzles 4 Have a Blast 3 Flying Kick 4 Mega Blast 4 Bat Signal 2 Finishing Move Locations 4 4 Wayne Enterprises Equipment 7 4 Dual Sidearms 3 Personal Forcefield Yea! 60 cards! Thanks for hanging in there and reading all of this. I hope this helps!!:)