Peek-A-Boo Psychic!- i3ullseye
Hi
all.
First let me say, I have only
seriously played 1 card game, and that was L5R. Now I stopped playing that about
5 years ago, so Marvel is the first card game to pull me back into the fold. I
have always hated Magic, but that is just the role-player in me I suppose. I
thought playing a character was more interesting than playing war with funny
pictures on the cards. It took a game with the actual story and complexity of
L5R to make me see the light. And yes, I still despise Magic. I only say this so
that if anything I say seems completely out of line for typical card gamers, you
know where I am coming from. And if I make up some terminology on the fly, you
will not want me to be drawn and quartered for the
offense.
It is not like I am calling my
Characters creatures or monsters or casting them afterall!
:)
Anyways, on to my point. I have
basically embraced this game with open arms. As a comic fan I have always
enjoyed games that deal with the genre, be they role-playing, computer,
miniature... or card. This game has exceeded every expectation (albeit limited)
I had. What impresses me most if that a solid deck can be constructed with
nothing but commons and a few uncommons. Flying Kick is a common! Man, that is
one of the best plots in the game and you get more than a playset in the
starter. You also get that nasty Wolvie in the starter, so finding good cards
does not seem like it will be as much of a challenge in this game. People will
have to build and play good decks to win, you can not buy your winning combo and
run with it.
So since the starter had X-Men and
Brotherhood, I figured either of those would be a good place to start building
your first deck. They give you enough framework to just add the final touches to
and have a decent deck. that said, I made a Brotherhood deck, and the
weenie rush with New Brotherhood was a natural choice. Almost too natural, and
too easy. I fear this deck will be a common showing due to its ease of
construction, its relatively straightforward play style, and the limited amount
of rare cards needed to pull it off well. But I wanted
more.
I have built and tore down a few
different decks already, each time learning a bit more about the game just form
their construction, before they even saw a single test deal or playtest. And I
kept coming back to one realization... I wanted a challenge, and that challenge
is taking the good abilities of the X-Men, which admittedly start to taper off
by turn 5, and make a good deck with it. And then I started looking at the
individual abilities of the characters, the specific locations, and the other
cards in set that can aid them. Here is what I currently
have.
Jeans Psychic Friends
Network!
Characters:
-= Cost 1
=-
1-
Forge
3-
Longshot
2- Moira
MacTaggert
-= Cost 2
=-
2-
Beast
2-
Cyclops
2-
Bishop
2-
Nightcrawler
-= Cost 3
=-
3-
Wolverine
2-
Banshee
2-
Havok
-= Cost 4
=-
2-
Rogue
3- Jean
Grey
-= Cost 5
=-
3- Professor
X
-= Cost 6
=-
2-
Colossus
1-
Storm
-=Cost 7
=-
Wolverine, Berserker
Rage
Locations:
Base Of
Operations
Avalon Space
Station
Xavier's
School
Cerebro
Equipment:
2- Dual
Sidearms
1-
Blackbird
Plot
Twists:
2- Night
Vision
3- Savage
Beatdown
3- Press The
Attack
3- Finishing
Move
2- Surprise
Attack
3- Flying
Kick
4- Fastball
Special
Ok, first a bit of explaining. I
generally think going to a full 4 of a character is slitting your throat at that
point on the development curve. If I can't get another 3 cost character in hand
by 4, I would rather have another 3 cost to play and hopefully enhance. I run 3
of any character I want to get their abilities. I try to never duplicate a
character so that I can have two cards in play at the same time if the
opportunity provides itself. the only exception to this is for a massive
ability, like Wolverine, but he is raw muscle anyway. For this reason I DID
remove the powerhouse Rogues, and replaced them with the Colossus, inferior in
my wind, but not a bad card overall.
Now those of you still reading my
ramblings seewhere this is going. it originally focused on a
Deck Tricks:
Here is the idea here, and I am sure
many players out there MUCH better than me will figure out ways to better
exploit this, and I want you all to e-mail me your results and ideas. If enough
of us like this deck design, we can make it a really competitive deck style I
think.
1) Obvious is Forge and Blackbird. I
only have one of each so they both go in. This gives me 2 chances to get the 1
bird I have, but in the future those chances can actually increase, but I will
get to that in a bit.
2) Location Synergy! I can turn over
the top card of my deck and decide if I want to keep it or not with Base of
Operations. If I get Nightvision out, I already know what is there, and can then
exhaust the Base to moves ones I don't want to the bottom of the deck. And with
Cerebro, if it is a character I want I can go get it
immediately.
3) School Age Antics! With Xavier's
School out, every character that cost 3 or less has a potential 2 uses per turn
instead of 1. With the right plot twists in hand, or in the resource row, this
can cause some serious trouble for your opponents. You can wake up any 2
cost character and use a finishing move on turn 2! Same character obliterates
one opponent on the same turn, even if you couldn't get another character out on
turn 1. If you DID get one out on turn 1, this increases the possibilities even
more. If one of those characters is beast, you can do the monster of all newbie
combos, but that is best saved for later.
4) Reinforcements. That same 1 cost
character, if it is behind one front row slugger, and next to a back row ranged
hitter, he can actually reinforce BOTH of them in the same turn with the school.
If he need not be used, that same character can deliver the finishing move to 2
different victims on your attack, as exhausting for a finish is NOT an
attack.
5) Jean Grey. After Night Vision to
see your top card, Base of Operations to move it to the bottom of your deck if
you don't want it, and then Cerebro to grab it is it is a keeper, you can also
use Jean to move that card to a resource spot. Now she costs 4, so the school
wont let you use her more than once a turn, but that's where Rogue comes in.
With Rogue you can get the effect of 2 Jeans working at once. And notice those
Press the Attacks? You can use them to continue attacking an enemy, as there is
no requirement to not attack listed, and it can be played at any time. With as
many small characters as you have to get into play, you can easily get the 4
exhausted in play. If 2 of them are your Jean and Rogue anyway, each of them
becomes another activation for Jeans ability. You can potentially use her
ability 5 times on one turn with this deck.
6) Resources! Yeah, using the combo
above you can see that your resource row should basically become as useful as
your main hand in this deck. And you will be able to cycle it faster than many
other decks. And that early character you dropped as a resource can be purged
using Jean to your KO pile. If you have the Space Station in play you can then
get that character later. I can see tucking the 7 cost Wolvie here on turn 3,
and then going to get it on 6 being a good strategy to keep it from being
removed from your hand. Not many cards in the game cause you to lose a face down
resource. This reminds me of playing my dragon deck in L5R, and tucking good
items away for later retrieval under my
stronghold.
7) Fastball Special! It is no
mystery that the X-Men tend to become a bit lackluster at cost 5 and above. They
have a few great characters, but not enough useful abilities and stats to really
compete with many other decks. this is when the 2 cost Cyclops can help, and the
Blackbird. But the real gem overlooked by many is the Fastball. All those 1, 2
and 3 characters can team up to deliver the fastball.... if you have the School
out, one can wake back up and even finish the target... if you have Press the
Attack this opens up even more chances. the School and Press the Attack can even
allow Moira to recover more than just 1 character during the recovery phase.
Considering Beast is in the deck, if he is out on 2 you can Fastball and Finish
on 2, like I said... but when you consider that Moira and Forge can take out
even the most unsettling opponent if they are not prepared for it, it can get
ugly.
Now for all this, this deck can lay
a real beatdown, pun kinda intended. Lets look at the cards......
3 flying kicks, 3 savage beatdowns,
2 Colossus, 4 Wolverines in 2 flavors, 4 Havok, 2 Bishop and 2 Unstunnable
Nightcrawlers....all of which can be +2/+2 during team attacks, and another
+2/+2 if your Blackbird is out... this deck can slug it out. And it STILL has
all the other tricks in place thanks to Jean and the supporting cast of
flunkies.
Whew... that went on for a
while....
Well, there it is. My deck, and the
basic strategy using cards to view your decks top card, and then manipulate it
to your hand, to your resource row, or to move it to the bottom of the deck. and
a good location to fetch ones in the discard for future need. So I want others
to try this out... not the exact deck, but the basic strategies behind it. I am
in no way an advanced player, but I like to think this deck is fairly
complicated for play. You have many characters and options, and depending on
your draw the deck can play like a slugger, or it might turn into resource
manipulation and slow building. the various characters available let you decide
what is best depending on who or what you are facing... like Bishop versus
ranged (Sentinel) or bringing Cyclops instead and going for the team attacks
early (Brotherhood).
And I want feedback damnnit!
:)