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Staff

A Strategy Overview of Green Lantern: 
Commons
by Scott Gerhardt
May 3, 2005

             Hey everyone out there in Pojoland!  Like most of you (I hope) I went to the Green Lantern preview tournament in Costa Mesa, CA (well, I’m sure a lot of you had closer ones than Costa, but you understand).  While there, I got to see the cards for the first time like everyone else.  I must admit, I have been playing CCGs for over 10 years now, and there is no time more fun than during a prerelease tournament.  It is what being a player is all about.

            In my first tournament, I went 4-2.  One of my losses was to a PC Top 8 player and another to just a disgustingly bad draw – it happens.  In the second one, I went 4-0 and got all the neat stuff – the playmate, the box, the Hal, and the shirt.  Nifty!  Kudos to Upper Deck.  They might not be the oldest player in the CCG “Wars”, but they certainly seem to be doing the best job of them all.

            Before going any further, I have to give you all a very important link: 

http://shuffleandcut.com/snc/site.nsf/SecFrame?readform&mn=vssystem 

This link takes you to the Shuffle & Cut Sales page for Vs.  We have Green Lantern cards IN STOCK right now as well as a link to our ebay auctions for some presales.  You’ll wanna jump on those quick.  It seems some of the earlier auctions tend to close lower, so jump on them fast and get a good deal! 

So, this article is designed to help you see some of the more broken commons in the set.   Playing, I found a number of the commons that I just felt were ridiculous, either in limited or constructed play.  I’d like to go over a few of them real fast. 

In no particular order:

• Chopping Block  -  Man oh man did this hit a hot one here.  First of all, it turns any guy with Willpower (yes, this always hits a guy with Willpower) the ability to be a Finishing Move.  It’s a very solid ability if you have some kind of control.  It also turns what will generally be a smaller drop into a lightning rod – something they will go after even though they don’t want to.  Setting all that aside, I can tell you that my first deck had a block in it, and the most efficient Chopping I did was from the hand.  Being able to play this card from your hand, even if you lose 2 other cards, can be ridiculously good.  I won at least 1 game because of this card.  The undeniable strength of this card makes me think it might be a little too good in the common slot – especially with it being a Construct card.  This guy got searched out several times.   This card will be ridiculous in constructed too – I recommend all players having 4 of these on hand.
• Anti-Green Lantern.  This is not a limited All-Star at all, but it really can shine in Constructed.  I don’t know if they wanted to make this deck just ridiculous, but it pretty much is.  There is a lot of support for it in the set, but the ability to keep their board clear nearly every single turn for the first 4 or 5 can simply be overwhelming.  This card will be ridiculous in Golden Age with Reconstruction Program.  Even in Modern Age it’s awesome, but I don’t wanna give away too much for now – this might be a good deck article for later. J
• No Evil Shall Escape Out Sight.  - This card is nothing more than a simple Team-Up, but it’s also construct.  That means that it can give things bonuses when player, or be searched out with some cards.  Team ups are important, and having one that can be fetched is amazing.  I’m not going to talk much about the other two good ones: Milennium and Hard-Travelling Heroes.  I am, though, quite happy to see 3 common team-up cards in the set.  People had better not gripe a bit about teams not working well together.  You have 3 common answers – find a way to deal.
• Light Armor  - Another sick Equipment.  Giving something +3 Atk for free is nice.  Being able to play it from the hand in a surprise scenario makes it a no brainer.  You would never not play this in limited, and I think it’s going to find it’s way into most Willpower-oriented constructed decks.  Oh yeah – it’s another broken Construct card.
• Remoni-Notra <> Star Sapphire  - She was my preview card, so I won’t go into too much depth.  Just know that I think she’s even sicker now that I have seen the whole set.  Emerald Enemies plays this card easy, and I think Green Lantern decks will find a way to splash her for the ubersick ability.
• Uppercut – Good god.  Is UDE just begging up to play with Willpower?  I guess so.  Well, if they want it so bad, we’ll give it to them.  Uppercut is just a really solid card that allows you to easily attack up the chain.  My Remoni-Norti won me the second tournament when it whacked a 7 drop on turn 7.  She had some Uppercut help. J  So what if you don’t get breakthrough.  You get the job done, and so many times that is what counts.  It can mean winning or losing a game.  Always play this in limited, and it will make some Willpower decks.
• Solomon Grundy – One of the best 5 drops ever printed, it will return itself if it dies.  At 10/10, it will kill most anything in it’s slot, and stand up to a LOT of things in that slot.  Additionally, power up all you want – they come back next turn if you want them.  Plus he’s unaffiliated, which takes me to…..
• Mosaic World and Guy Gardner, Warrior.  I group these two together because they are my pet cards from the set.  Guy is an amazingly good 3 drop, being the only 3 drop in the game (I think) with 6 or more power, flight and/or range (he has both) and NO drawback.  Even better, he lets Unaffiliated guys swing as a team.  That’s huge.  Mosaic World is almost the ultimate team-up, allowing all your characters to team attack or reinforce, regardless of their affiliation (or lack there of).  If you read my article a few months back about unaffiliated, you know I like them.  I want to make this deck work. J

Well, that’s all for this now.  Next article will either hit more commons (there are a LOT of spectacular commons in this set) or move on to uncommons.  There are a lot of very noteworthy cards from this set, which is showing to be one of the most power-packed sets since Marvel Origins.

Remember to get everything you need from www.ShuffleAndCut.com.  I promise we’ll take real good card of you over there and get you everything you need.

Until next time, keep playing!

Be sure to cover all your Vs System, Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh, and more needs at www.ShuffleAndCut.com.  Hope to see you there soon!