VS Deck Garage
Aggressive Fantastic Four
by Paul Hagan

06.14.04  Hey everyone, and welcome to another edition of the VS Deck Garage! I’m writing this just after I finished up with a Pro Circuit Qualifier (where I finished a disappointing 3-2), so look out for my tournament report here within the next day or two. Also, if you want to see your deck in the VS Deck Garage, just drop me an e-mail at Hagan0001@aol.com with your deck, how you want it to play, and any cards you would like to see / not see / own / don’t own in the deck, and I should get back with you in a couple of days.

Before I get started this week, I have to do a small side-rant. I’ve been hearing some people say that the five-rare and five-foil packs (and boxes full of them) do not exist. Well, folks, it’s true. I myself have opened a box and a half of five-rare packs (36 packs total) and about half of a box of five-foil packs. I have also seen about five or six five-rare boxes opened and another two five-foil boxes opened. So believe the hype.

Back to the topic at hand: VS Deck Garage. This week, Dave (an avid Fantastic Four and Avengers fan) has sent in a deck utilizing the generally high-quality characters in the Fantastic Four. Here’s the starting decklist:

CHARACTERS (30):

2 Invisible Woman, the Invisible Girl
1 Ant Man, Scott Lang
2 She-Thing, Sharon Ventura
2 Luke Cage, Hero For Hire
4 Human Torch, Johnny Storm
2 She Hulk, Jennifer Walters
4 Thing, Ben Grimm
3 Wolverine, New Fantastic Four
1 Ghost Rider, New Fantastic Four
1 Mr. Fantastic, Stretch
3 Thing, Heavy Hitter
1 Human Torch, Super Nova
2 Hulk, New Fantastic Four
2 Thing, The Ever-Lovin’ Blue-Eyed Thing

PLOT TWISTS (24):

2 Burn Rubber
3 Flying Kick
2 Foiled
4 It's Clobberin' Time
2 Overload
2 Finishing Move
4 Savage Beatdown
3 Signal Flare
2 Ka-Boom *or* Relocation

EQUIPMENT (6):
4 Fantasticar
2 Dual Sidearms

Dave seems to be off to a good start, so as always:

WHAT LOOKS RIGHT:

Dave seems to have a good concept going behind the deck so far, and it has good, tech cards to help fight the popular Brotherhood decks in his area, including Overload and Foiled. Four Fantasticar is almost always a must in Fantastic Four decks, as is It’s Clobberin’ Time. I will be making very few changes to both Plot Twists and Equipment.

WHAT NEEDS FIXIN’:

The biggest problem I am seeing with Dave’s deck is the character selection. There are a few characters in the deck that I would prefer not see (such as Wolverine, New Fantastic Four or Human Torch, Super Nova) and a few that I would like to see more of (such as Invisible Woman, Sue Storm). Most of this article will be concentrated in that area.

HOW WE DO IT:

I always like to run about four one-drops in any deck, so the first thing I would suggest is to add in one additional Invisible Woman, The Invisible Girl. Some of you may be wondering about the lone Ant-Man, Scott Lang in the deck, but that is a perfectly acceptable number. Ant-Man isn’t *that* good, but having a copy for later in the game is definitely worth it.

+1 Invisible Woman, the Invisible Girl

Although the Human Torch, Johnny Storm is good, I plan on adding in Human Torch, Hotshot here in just a moment, so Dave shouldn’t really be running too many Torches that close together on the curve (Turn 2 and Turn 4). Thus, I’m going to cut two of them and up the count on Luke Cage, Hero for Hire and She-Thing, Sharon Ventura each by one:

-2 Human Torch, Johnny Storm
+1 Luke Cage, Hero for Hire
+1 She-Thing, Sharon Ventura

I have absolutely no complaints about the three-drops currently in Dave’s deck. Thing, Ben Grimm is an absolute must and She-Thing, Jennifer Walters is actually a decent card, so no damage done to those slots. However, I don’t agree at all with Wolverine, the New Fantastic Four. When I first started playing, I thought this card was *really* good. Then I played with him some, and my opinion dropped a ways. Once I played Invisible Woman, Sue Storm and Human Torch, Hotshot, my opinion of Wolverine, New Fantastic Four was absolutely shot.

-3 Wolverine, New Fantastic Four
+2 Invisible Woman, Sue Storm
+2 Human Torch, Hotshot

Looking at the five-drops, Dave should probably cut Mr. Fantastic, Stretch. While this character is decent, he is just as good being another Ghost Rider, New Fantastic Four, especially since Dave seems to be leaning towards a pure beatdown strategy and no so much utilizing a lot of equipment. Dave also doesn’t really need more than four five-drops, so I went ahead and cut on of the Thing, Heavy Hitters. Although some of you may disagree with this, having played a fair amount of Fantastic Four, I really think that Signal Flare lets you cut corners like this.

-1 Mr. Fantastic, Stretch
-1 Thing, Heavy Hitter
+1 Ghost Rider, New Fantastic Four

Simply put: Hooray for Hulk and Thing, the Ever-Lovin’ Blue-Eyed Thing! Boo on Human Torch, Super Nova! Super Nova very well could be the worst six-drop in the game with a lackluster ability and a low attack and defense. With this in mind, I slid in a sole copy of Invisible Woman, Sue Richards. Why, you may ask? Because with games stretching out into turns 8, 9, and 10 as more and more people get better at the game (especially with decks like Doom or Lost Brotherhood), Dave could probably use the back-up.

-1 Human Torch, Super Nova
+1 Invisible Woman, Sue Richards

Moving on to Plot Twists, the first thing that jumped out at me was the Dave actually has too *many* attack boosts. With three Flying Kick, four It’s Clobberin’ Time, and four Savage Beatdown, he very well could get flooded with attack bonuses when he really needs defense boosts or small tricks like Finishing Move or Acrobatic Dodge. Losing the Flying Kick would be a good opportunity to slide in the last Signal Flare and an additional Burn Rubber.

-3 Flying Kick
+1 Burn Rubber
+1 Signal Flare

[Side Note: Adding two and losing three makes up for the excess character added above.]

As for any confusion in the way of Ka-Boom versus Relocation in this deck, Ka-Boom! definitely makes the cut. Fantastic Four owns the middle game (just as Brotherhood and X-Men have a great early game and Doom is amazing late), and Dave can afford to lose a resource if it means keeping his Thing, Heavy Hitter and Ghost Rider, New Fantastic Four the biggest characters on the table.

2 Ka-Boom wins over 2 Relocation

Finally, with four Fantasticars, four It’s Clobberin’ Time, and four Savage Beatdown in the deck, Dave really has no need of Dual Sidearms. However, he might be able to make use of a pair of Unstable Molecules. The boost to defense will really help him out against any uber-aggressive decks (such as the Brotherhood) that he runs into.

The final decklist winds up looking like:

CHARACTERS (31):

1 Ant-Man, Scott Lang
3 Invisible Woman, the Invisible Girl
2 Human Torch, Johnny Storm
3 Luke Cage, Hero for Hire
3 She-Thing, Sharon Ventura
2 She-Hulk, Jennifer Walters
4 Thing, Ben Grimm
2 Human Torch, Hotshot
2 Invisible Woman, Sue Storm
2 Ghost Rider, New Fantastic Four
2 Thing, Heavy Hitter
2 Hulk, New Fantastic Four
2 Thing, the Ever-Lovin’ Blue-Eyed Thing
1 Invisible Woman, Sue Richards

PLOT TWISTS (23):

3 Burn Rubber
2 Finishing Move
2 Foiled
4 It’s Clobberin’ Time
2 Ka-Boom!
2 Overload
4 Savage Beatdown
4 Signal Flare

EQUIPMENT (6):
4 Fantasticar
2 Unstable Molecules

Hopefully, that will help Dave fight off the aggressive Brotherhood and control-ish Doom decks in his area...at least until he can start playing the Avengers. I guess that about wraps it up for this week’s VS Deck Garage, so remember, if you want to see your deck in VS Deck Garage, drop me an e-mail at Hagan0001@aol.com  and you could be the next one getting help.

-Paul Hagan

 

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