The New Big Brotherhood

by Scott Gerhardt

Hey guys.  I'm back after a 4 1/2 month rest.  Writing can get overwhelming, especially when life gets in the way.  Now, though, I'm back in the swing of things and going a different direction.  For now, I'm passing on the judge side of things in favor of a more conventional strategy piece.  This is what I prefer anyway, so you'll get a better article out of my anyway. :)

On to business.  The deck I have most played with has been Big Brotherhood.  I have piloted it to a combined 10-3 in 2 10k championships and my wife played it into day 2 of the first PC, so I know it's good.  The question is whether or not it's still going to be good after Spider-Man comes into play.  Now you'll find it's not my style to give decklists.  I prefer to simply discuss options and let people make their own decisions about tweaks.  Sure, you can get a good deck if I tell you what to play, but it will do nothing towards making you a better player.  Figuring it out for yourself and having to think about the build is the right way to go to learn.  That said, I want to look at the candidates to make the new Big Brotherhood deck.

Rise to Power - This is a no brainer.  One of the problems with this deck is that is NEEDS to curve properly to win.  If it doesn't it can spell disaster.  If you don't see your upper drops on the right turn, you can easily loose.  This solves all those problems by allowing you to play a few less of the bigger guys, concentrate more on the smaller ones, and go search out what you need to get the big guys late.  You play 3-4 of these in the deck.  Find something to cut for it....

Mimic - I like Mimic more than 6 drop Sabretooth or Mystique.  The problem is both of those guys can be used to power up - Mimic can not.  For this reason, he can't be your main guy.  With Rise to Power, you can find a slot for 1, though, and play it on the 6 drop.  Additionally, it's nice to have in case you already have Mystique and Sabretooth on the board - you don't have to miss your 6 drop.

Post - Post has Magneto and Quicksilver to deal with.  While it is definitely bigger than those, I'm not sure I can justify stunning your own character to bring him in.  I could be wrong.  If this guy interacts with Toad the way I think he might, that might serve as a very good way to bring him into play (have to make sure that the replacement ability of Toad getting stunned counts as Post's stunning CIP affect).  Post, unfortunately, has the same problem - there are no other Posts, thus not as good in a power-up situation.  The verdict is still out on this guy.  He might make the cut, he might not.  Extensive playtesting will have to be done, but don't rule him out yet.

Thornn - Nope.  He might be okay in the New Brotherhood build with even that being shakey), but he's no good here.

Insignificant Threat - Now this card has a LOT of potential.  It wards off any pesky team attacks, but I don't think would be amazing for non-team attacks, since usually you're looks at the reverse situation, or the guys being same cost.  All the same, it's an interesting card, and one that might work very well if you want to play the more defensive, Acrobatic Dodge-like version of the deck.

Misappropriation - Good to screw with a Toys deck, and probably worth playing if that deck becomes very popular.  Outside of that, not sure it's completely worth it, though I could see some ugly uses for it at the right time.

Volcanic Base - Well, a lot of people might say, "That's great - another location for Brotherhood to get Have a Blasted".  Well, that's it - it's yet ANOTHER potential threat.  The problem is, if you Avalons live, you really should not have an empty hand.  It could happen, but I would not count on it.  I'd say play 1 or 2 just in case, but I'm not sure the slot justifies it.  This card, though, is absolute gas in the New Brotherhood deck - you DEFINATELY play it there.

That seems to be our candidates.  Lucky for us, the deck did not get screwed over completely.  Obviously this set was all about Spider Friends and Sinister Syndicate, but Brotherhood I think got enough new toys that it will continue to be a Tier 1 deck for quite some time.  We simply have more resources now, and more ways to build the deck.  I think you'll find that more personal touches go into the deck, and people will play builds that are distinctively different, but still within the genre.  I applaud that - creativity is good.

That's it for this week.  If you play Magic, MegaMan, or Duel Masters, I encourage you to check out my articles on those Pojo sites, as I am a feature writer for those games as well.  If you need cards, www.ShuffleAndCut.com is your friend - my wife and I run it and could sure use the business.

Thanks guy for listening to me ramble, and I will be back next week with a little more insight into the CotD that I gave for Monday on Murderworld - why I think non-affiliated will be quite gassy.

Until next time, keep playing!