No Affiliation?  No Problem!

by Scott Gerhardt

First of all, for those of you looking for and not finding my Magic column this week, we pushed it back to Friday for this week.  I intend to have a nice little post-CHK deck ready for you all.

Last week I told you all that I think Murderworld is a decent little card.  Now of course, it doesn't go in every deck.  So what DOES it do into?  Well, this deck, of course. :)

It took about 3 sets, but they finally gave non-affiliated enough gas to be viable.  Let's look at the contenders by drops:

One:

King Snake - Far and away your best 1 drop.  It's a beefy 2/1 that hurts your opponent when he gets stunned - how amazing is that?  He will definitely make the cut, but we might need some help in this slot as well.

Random Punks - Army guys, good stats at 2/1, and cause carnage coming into play.  As much as we need to round out the very important 1 drop slot, these guys will do.

Two:

Puppet Master - This guy is much better than advertised.  With the overall theme we're trying to go here, I think you'll find Puppet Master can often be the man for the job. 

Lockup - Ridiculous against exhausted characters.  Unfortunately, his competition that exhausts things is also a two drop, so I don't think we can play both this and Puppet.

Wildebeest - This is an entirely different deck, running Longshots and attempting to go beast "inifite".  Not really looking to go that route here.

Mole Man - Not enough ongoing plot twists to be better than Lockup.

Black Mask - Amazing offensively since he can be powered up by any non-affliiated.  This will be tough between him and the Puppet.

Three:

Arcade - Can you really have Murderworld without the Master of Murderworld?  Awesome at a 4/4.

Thunder - Very nice, but kinda loses his goodness late.  I generally like Arcade more since his ability can be fluky good late as a suicide with things like Savage Beatdown.

Four:

Mojo - A hundred times yes.  In the right scenario, he can be better than Sabretooth, Feral Rage. 

Lightning - Another solid choice here.  The problem is he's less offensive, and the tap ability only works against exhausted characters.  We don't want them exhausted, we want them dead.

Spiral - Great stats with "flight" and "range" - probably a good second to Mr. Mojo.

Five:

Blackfire - A 9/8 FR is ridiculous here.  Add in the stunning ability to make this character all that much better.  They're welcome to have the initiative to start if you can use this guy on turn 6 - it'll hold it's own on turn 5.

Lady Deathstrike - Now this gal can hold her own on turn 6, but not that great on turn 5.  This deck is going to curve well, and I can't see this being better than Blackfire on turn 5.

Six:

Brother Blood - Our only option here is bad - I think we're going to have to find a team for this drop.

Seven: 

Juggernaut - Well, what do we have here?  A nice 17/17 that smacks a support row around?  One of the bigger 7 drops in the game, he'll do his damage pretty easily - especially with built in Blind Sided.

Mr. Sinister - He might be okay if there wasn't Juggernaut - you don't need a lot in this slot.

Eight:

Apocalypse - Good god why not?  People with teams play him, why not in non-affliliated. 

You really don't need to go to nine drops.  If you wanted to splash in a single Onslaught, I guess you could, but I don't think many of your games are going to go this long.

On top of characters, they need support.  Let's see what they offer here:

Murderworld - This is the centerpiece of your deck.  With this card, you will have an advantage on them to kill their characters while they are powerless against yours.  You will maintain board advantage simply by stunning and KOing one character a turn.  Required.

Mojoverse - Another simple no-brainer.  With this card, all your guys get bigger when swinging, making them get the job done.  It has a second ability, but it will probably not be that useful in the core version of this deck.  Making creatures bigger is good enough.

Twin Firearms / Flamethrower - I know this slot isn't big enough for both of them, but I think 1 or the other is useful.  When you can't team attack, you sometimes need to make your own "team".  This adds enough to power to allow something to swing into something bigger than it.  Flamethrower gives more power, and is a little more suicidal, but amazing on defense.  Twin Firearms is less suicidal, but if you're keeping to 1 stunned a turn, it's fine.  I tend to look more at Flamethrower considering the nature of this deck.

Blind Sided - You need to be able to get through on critical turns.  I don't think you need much, but you need a couple.

Savage Beatdown - Giving +5 ATK is so good to make sure you get the job done - especially when you, again, can't team attack.

Flying Kick - The mini-beatdown, it can help finish the job, and give flight to that late Juggernaut if you need it.

Fast Getaway - Not everything can be offensive.  When you can't reinforce, you need an out.  Running a couple of these can help save you when they put you in a "you die" situation.

Overload - Amazingly nice.  When you're playing multiple attack strength enhancers, being able to use them to turn the tables and stun can be great as well.

I'm gonna go ahead and stop here.  I've said before that I don't want to build the deck for you, and I won't start here.  I will say that I might not have given you EVERY card you should use (especially in the case of the 6 drops), but consider what I have written, and press on with it yourself.  Give the deck a try, and who knows - maybe you might find yourself against me at a local PCQ and find out EXACTLY how I would have built it. :)

Until next time, keep playing!