When T’Challa first got me to put down my Magic the Gathering cards and buy into Versus a while ago the first deck I played was a Brave and the bold concoction because I was intent on playing a deck with Superman even if he were going to be garbage at the time. The strength of my deck was sorely lacking though as Curtis would just pound it match after match and any time I did get the chance to play Superman the game would be over or conceded. Well fast forward to my first tournament where I played Avengers Reservist because I was defiant on playing Teen Titans. I hate the team and I still do. That was my first foray into the competitive world of Versus. Now I am poised to get back into tourney play and coincidence would have it that I am all excited about the game again for Avengers Reservist.



Originally when I flew out to worlds I intended on playing Illuminati with no testing under my belt and not even having seen the cards thanks to shortfalls in the MUN product. I went to www.coolstuffinc.com and ordered some of the cards I need to round out my deck. Well we get out to Worlds and I have made up my mind that Illuminati are not the way to go. As is the case in most formats these days rush rules and having a completely hidden board would present some pretty big complications especially with Hulk running things. So, I decided to put together something else, the only other team in the set I was interested in playing and that was Avenger Reservist.

T’Challa’s deck was slightly different than mine as he preferred a Captain America themed variation while I preferred Human Torch. Something about Torch and his burn effect just rules and I love it. His low-end body was of no concern to me because just getting off his burn effect, plus its combination with cards like Atlantis Attacks was just beautiful and would ensure I would hardly ever need to attack with him in the first place. Well the problem with a deck focusing on this kind of burn tactic is you need fuel for the fire, well that was not too hard to find with good 7 and 8 drops like Hercules and The Sentry. These therefore became the lynchpins of the deck.



Here is the deck list:

4x Iron Fist,Secret Avenger
2x Hawkeye, Ronin
2x Echo, Ronin
3x Captain America, The Patriot
4x Falcon, Secret Avenger
3x Punisher, Secret Avenger or 3x Patriot, Elijah Bradley
4x Human Torch, Secret Avenger
1x Iron Man, Mighty Avenger or 1x Captain America, Champion License
3x Black Panther, Secret Avenger
1x Spider-Man, Secret Avenger
2(3)x Ares, Mighty Avenger
2(1)x Captain America, Living Legend
3x Hercules,Secret Avenger
2x The Sentry. Mighty Avenger

4x Avengers Reassembled
4x Losing the argument (Replace with more attack pumps "Trouble with Dinosaurs")
4x Atlantis Attacks
4x The Big Three
4x Savage Beatdown
4x Shield Slash
2x Now I'm Fighting Dirty

The idea was simple enough, rally and reservist attack often and big and burn hard. During the play in Worlds the deck didn’t fair well, but I don’t really count the deck as being played because it was not half the deck as what I left with finally at the end of the tournament, missing key cards like Avengers Reassemble and Savage Beatdown, which definitely added to consistency and ability to lay the smack down. Even without this the deck still managed to pilot itself well enough for me to see the potential and be happy. I am not an overly competitive player and I would much rather have a good time than worry about the competition; I have plenty of time for competition, but little for fun. Also there are alot of characters in the deck and alot of higher drop characters that is because they are fuel for the fire and reservist are needed and should be the only thing in your resource row.



The deck works well, especially when Echo and Captain America Trigger. Some tweaks later at the 3-slot and I am still not preferring Punisher over characters like Elijah Bradley and Falcon, though I see where the uses will allow the deck to prevail. My current iteration of the deck definitely omits Punisher from the equation in preference for Falcon and Elijah.

Going into turns 4 is also where T’Challa’s deck differs from my own in that he likes Captain America and while I am a fan of the red, white and blue, sometimes red and gold just gets the job done, I choose Iron Man as my back up to the Torch who is always a preference. This may have a lot to do with me not having Captain America’s Shield, but also has a lot to do with me just not wanting to use the card space for the Shield and being able to use Iron Man’s effect when needed.



The object is always to be able to use Human Torch’s ability with cards like Hercules and Sentry so you can place it on top of your deck and then use cards like Atlantis Attacks in order to swing big at your opponent. The deck is very effective at dealing massive amounts of endurance loss to your opponents and can end games as early as Turn 4 and 5.Even if you get into the later game you have some real big guys that should be able to deal out their own form of punishment with great ease. Hercules and Sentry are two characters you never really want to see on the table and Ares is a beast himself, he reminds me of the 5-cost Darkseid in a lot of ways and I love him. Curtis argues with me in my choice over Captain America, but if he has learned anything about me, I rather be happy with what I am playing than choose an option to play because it makes the deck more competitive somehow.



I will always tell myself that it isn’t the cards that decide the game, but who is playing the game and this means a lot to me. Call it mental, but any deck T’Challa has helped me built if left alone as is without my rewiring for choice over competitiveness I have never been capable of playing well. I feel the luck of my draws is off. My Choices are not there because they are not what I would have liked and they generally do not fit my play style. This goes to my whole thing with net decking and why I despise it so much as well, but that is my cup o’ tea and you don’t have to listen to that.

Either way I hope you like what is put together and why. I have created many decks and some of them I would say have been very competitive and great casual decks. You can look at my blog over on TCGplayer to see that. I will continue to create decks that both appeal to me and have a chance at being competitive. This week I will post another incarnation of the Avengers that I have built my self from scratch. I am sure you will love it, especially if you are looking for the competitive edge.

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