VS Deck Garage
Teen Titans
by Paul Hagan

07.19.04  Hey all, and welcome to another edition of VS Deck Garage! What is a Deck Garage? Simple – you send in your deck, I fix it up, and you win more. To get your deck submitted, just drop an e-mail to me at Hagan0001@aol.com, and I’ll get back with you as soon as possible. Remember to include any information you think is important for me to know – what cards stay, what cards can go, price limits, etc.

This week’s article was submitted by Nate, who is trying to pilot a Teen Titans deck to a lot of wins. Here is Nate’s deck, as submitted.

CHARACTERS (30):
4 Pantha, Subject X-24
3 Donna Troy * Wonder Girl, Amazon Warrior
3 Tim Drake * Robin, Young Detective
4 Roy Harper * Arsenal, Sharpshooter
3 Bart Allen * Kid Flash, Speedster
3 Red Star, Leonid Kovar
2 Cassie Sandsmark * Wonder Girl, Zeus’ Chosen
2 Dick Grayson * Nightwing, Titan Leader
2 Conner Kent * Superboy, Tactile Telekinetic
2 Koriand’r * Starfire, Alien Princess
2 Raven, Daughter of Trigon

PLOT TWISTS (16):
2 Fast Getaway
3 Finishing Move
2 Greater of Two Evils
2 Have a Blast!
3 Mega-Blast
2 Savage Beatdown
2 Tech Upgrade

LOCATIONS (6):
2 Optitron
4 Tamaran

EQUIPMENT (8):
4 T-Jet
4 Twin Firearms

Going down the list of characters, I like Pantha, so she gets to stay. Same story for Tim Drake; he’s a solid character with a good ability. I have to disagree with Donna Troy * Wonder Girl, though. Every time I play or play against Donna Troy, her drawback seems to far outweigh her benefits. Sure, she’s big for a 2-Drop, but when she starts getting bounced every turn, I’m not so sure she is that great.

Instead, I would recommend Nate play Kole, Kole Weathers. Although she isn’t the powerhouse that Donna Troy is, she does have an *amazing* ability that is sure to give opponents headaches. Think of what happens when you add all of the Titans’ plot twists and locations that boost DEF.

-3 Donna Troy * Wonder Girl, Amazon Warrior
+3 Kole, Kole Weathers

Next, in 3-Drops, I want to add Beast Boy, Garfield Logan. He’s small in the beginning, but as the game goes on, Beast Boy slowly becomes an amazing buy for three resource points. Even if he only gets to be a 6/6 or 7/7, what other 3-Drop can do that much over the course of a game?

+3 Beast Boy, Garfield Logan

From here, a lot of Nate’s characters look great. I completely agree with choosing Red Star and Kid Flash for 4-Drops, and ditto to Dick Grayson * Nightwing, Titan Leader in the 5-Drop slot. In fact, the only change to the rest of the characters I would like to make is switching Cassie Sandsmark * Wonder Girl, Zeus’ Chosen for Garth * Tempest, Atlantean Sorcerer.

Garth is possibly the best card in the entire DC Origins set, and there is no reason for him not to be in the deck. His ability to bring back any card can be plain sick – think of what happens with Savage Beatdown in the KO pile!

-2 Cassie Sandsmark * Wonder Girl, Zeus’ Chosen
+2 Garth * Tempest, Atlantean Sorcerer

In plot twists, I would suggest losing Finishing Move. The Teen Titans are all on the small side, and many are better served attacking and reinforcing. For the times when Nate exhausts a character, it should probably be to save another character. That’s where Circle Defense comes into play. It’s like Acrobatic Dodge with no drawback.

-3 Finishing Move
+3 Circle Defense

I’m not a huge fan of Greater of Two Evils, and Fast Getaway seems a bit like a bad version of Burn Rubber. So, instead of playing either of those…

-2 Fast Getaway
-2 Greater of Two Evils
+3 Burn Rubber

Major props to Nate for including Savage Beatdown and Mega-Blast in his deck. Both of these are incredible cards; I would go so far as to up the Beatdown to three.

+1 Savage Beatdown

To help make room for Beatdown, I recommend losing Tech Upgrade. As above, Teen Titans have to spend a lot of time exhausted as is, no need to go it any more. Plus, if Nate really needs the ability to search for equipment, Cyborg is probably a better call.

-2 Tech Upgrade

In locations, I noticed Nate was missing the U.S.S. Argus. At first, when I saw this card, I didn’t really care for it, but then I saw the light. You don’t necessarily flip the Argus on Turn 3 (it’s threshold cost), but instead, you wait until Turn 5, when you should still have four or five cards in hand, meaning the drawback of not drawing a card per turn isn’t *that* much of a drawback. Plus, who doesn’t want to choose their next draw?

+2 U.S.S. Argus

Finally, under equipment, I suggest cutting Twin Firearms entirely in favor of Dual Sidearms. I know the Firearms give a larger bonus, but with T-Jet in the deck *and* with Optitron, a lot of resource points are being spent on non-characters as is. I knocked T-Jet down by two as well.

-4 Twin Firearms
-2 T-Jet
+3 Dual Sidearms

That about wraps up the work on this deck. The final, fixed decklist looks like this:

CHARACTERS (33):
4 Pantha, Subject X-24
3 Kole, Kole Weathers
3 Tim Drake * Robin, Young Detective
3 Beast Boy, Garfield Logan
4 Roy Harper * Arsenal, Sharpshooter
3 Bart Allen * Kid Flash, Speedster
3 Red Star, Leonid Kovar
2 Dick Grayson * Nightwing, Titan Leader
2 Garth * Tempest, Atlantean Sorcerer
2 Conner Kent * Superboy, Tactile Telekinetic
2 Koriand’r * Starfire, Alien Princess
2 Raven, Daughter of Trigon

PLOT TWISTS (14):
3 Burn Rubber
3 Circle Defense
2 Have a Blast!
3 Mega-Blast
3 Savage Beatdown

LOCATIONS (8):
2 Optitron
4 Tamaran
2 U.S.S. Argus

EQUIPMENT (5):
3 Dual Sidearms
2 T-Jet

That about wraps up the Deck Garage. I hope that helps, Nate, and good luck!

Before I go this week, I need to shout at Joe – you’ve got me blocked on your e-mail, dude, so I can’t reply to your e-mails! I have a reply ready, just waiting for permission to send!

Well, that’s it for me this week. Remember, if you want to see your deck in the VS Deck Garage, drop me an e-mail at Hagan0001@aol.com, and I’ll get back with you.

Until next week,

-Paul Hagan


 

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