1 Alfred Pennyworth, Faithful Friend

9 GCPD Officer, Army

4 Spoiler, Stephanie Brown

4 Tim Drake * Robin, The Boy Wonder

3 Commissioner Gordon, James Gordon

2 Batman, The World’s Greatest Detective

4 Catwoman, Selina Kyle

4 Batman, Caped Crusader

4 Dick Grayson * Nightwing, Defender of Bludhaven

3 Batman, The Dark Knight

2 Superman, The Big Blue Boy Scout

PLOT TWISTS (11):

4 Bat Signal

4 Dynamic Duo

2 Gone But Not Forgotten

1 Fizzle

EQUIPMENT (1):

1 Batmobile

LOCATIONS (8):

1 Batcave

2 Clocktower

3 GCPD Headquarters

2 Wayne Manor

The first thing I want to address is Mark’s deck going in two different directions.  On one hand, it looks like it wants to be the GCPD Deck, which utilizes a massive number of GCPD guys and makes a humongous Batman.  On the other hand, it looks like it wants to be a standard curve deck, using good characters at each drop.  Since I’m not sure which Mark wants to do, I am going to push the deck towards a standard Curve-style deck.

With this in mind, the first thing I want to do is drop all of the GCPD Officers – they are great in a certain build, but where this deck is going, they just don’t belong.  Along with them goes Alfred Pennyworth – I am sitting on the fence on Alfred, but I don’t think Mark is running enough Plot Twists or Equipment to make him worthwhile.  On top of that, I don’t like the way Alfred sits as a liability for a turn.

-9 GCPD Officer, Army

-1 Alfred Pennyworth, Faithful Friend

I don’t think Spoiler is the best 1-Drop in the game (not by a Longshot, lol), but she is still a decent enough card for this deck.

Although we have taken out the army characters, I think James Gordon still belongs in Mark’s deck.  His ability to destroy equipment can come in handy against Fan-Four Beats (a deck which utilizes large characters, good plot twists, and Fantasticar), and against the growing number of Personal Force Field that are popping up.  However, I am going to cut one – just because he’s good doesn’t mean he gets to keep a lot of slots.

-1 Commissioner Gordon, James Gordon

I want to increase the number of 3-Drops in this deck, so the first addition will be a third Batman, The World’s Greatest Detective.  He isn’t stellar, especially since Mark wants to play a Batman on Turn 5, but he is too good to pass up at the same time.  Huntress is the other card I’d like to add.  Her ability to prevent Mark’s opponents from playing Acrobatic Dodge, Burn Rubber, Savage Beatdown, Clobberin’ Time, etc. is obscenely good, and I’m not sure why more people don’t pay attention to her.

+1 Batman, The World’s Greatest Detective

+3 Huntress, Helena Rosa Bertinelli

Mark mentioned he really loaths Turn 4, if only because Catwoman can’t quite hold down the fort.  I’m going to cut the Catwoman count down to one copy (go-go-gadget Bat Signal) for match-ups where she might be effective, such as Sentinels or New Brotherhood.  Next, I’ll toss in three copies each of Batgirl and Dick Grayson, High-Flyin’ Acrobat.  The higher number of 4-Drops can be offset by the fact that Dick Grayson has boost, allowing Mark to have a decent Turn 5 with him if needed.

-3 Catwoman, Selina Kyle

+3 Cassandra Cain * Batgirl, Martial Artist

+3 Dick Grayson * Nightwing, High-Flying Acrobat

Because of the Bat Signal, Mark can skimp on 5-, 6-, 7-, and 8-Drops by not playing too many.  We’ll include four 5-Drops – two Batman and two Lady Shiva.  Batman is good for the turns where Mark has the initiative, and Lady Shiva is good for when Mark doesn’t have the initiative *or* doesn’t want to lose Batman, The World’s Greatest Detective – sometimes, 3-Drops can be important even in the late game.

-2 Batman, Caped Crusader

+2 Lady Shiva, Sandra Woosan

Next, we’ll lose three Dick Grayson * Nightwing, Defender of Bludhaven in favor of a single copy of Azrael, Jean Paul Valley.  Both are solid cards, and it will probably serve Mark well to have access to both.  Again, a Dick Grayson on Turn 4 might cause problems when Turn 6 rolls around and all he has is a replacement Nightwing.

-3 Dick Grayson * Nightwing, Defender of Bludhaven

+1 Azrael, Jean Paul Valley

Continuing with our theme of a light load on the top end of characters, we’ll drop a copy of Batman, The Dark Knight.  He isn’t as good in this build, but playing a couple of copies might still be worth it – especially with Superman in the deck.  At the very worst, he can be used to power-up a 5-Drop Batman.

-1 Batman, The Dark Knight

As stated above, Superman will be staying, but just a loan copy.  Rarely will Mark need a second copy to show up, and he can rely on Bat Signal to hunt down the one in the deck.

-1 Superman, The Big Blue Boy Scout

Overall, these changes cut the characters down from forty to thirty-two.  We can use a few of these slots to increase the count on Plot Twists in Mark’s deck, which are a bit low.  Since we are only using DC Origins, the typical pump twists are out, but we still have access to Mega-Blast.  This card isn’t an awful choice, especially considering how few Gotham Knights characters have range.

+4 Mega-Blast

I’m not a huge fan of Gone But Not Forgotten as is, and with all but four of the 1-Drops out of the deck, I am even less of a fan.  In its place, I’m sliding in the insanely useful Have a Blast.  With all of the locations and ongoing plot twists roaming around, Have a Blast is almost a necessity.

-2 Gone But Not Forgotten

+4 Have a Blast!

With Boost, a solid curve, and Bat Signal all in the deck, I have trouble foreseeing any point where Mark will have time to drop the Batmobile on the table.  Fear not, though, because Gotham Knights still have a great piece of equipment – Utility Belt.  You have the perks of Flight and Range, as well as the ability to stop a *ton* of problem cards through the VS system right now.

-1 Batmobile

+4 Utility Belt

When it comes to locations, I am just not a fan of Clocktower – exhausting a character seems like a steep price to pay, especially with cards like Utility Belt and Bat Signal keeping characters exhausted a lot anyways.  I would like to add in a second Batcave – who doesn’t want to see what characters their opponent lays first?

-2 Clocktower

+1 Batcave

That about wraps up the work on Mark’s deck.  The final decklist is below.

CHARACTERS (32):

4 Spoiler, Stephanie Brown

2 Commissioner Gordon, James Gordon

4 Tim Drake * Robin, The Boy Wonder

3 Batman, The World’s Greatest Detective

3 Huntress, Helena Rosa Bertinelli