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.

Vote for Darkseid Revenge and/or Get The Latest on Darkseid Revenge

This week I am going to kick off my Marvel Universe set in Review. Each Marvel Universe Set review will focus on a team within and a deck created to support that team chemistry. Decks will incorporate; mono, dual and non-affiliated characters, plot twist and locations, but only within the Modern Age format of Versus System. I will try to stay away from the decks that are standard fare or the creations of another as seen on the net as I am not a big fan of net-decking or simply modifying someone else’s creation in order to pass it off as my own. Granted the deck ideas are limited within the Modern Age format I often find it easy to look at what others may not have noticed within the Meta, which I will also try to address.

The first team in review, The Illuminati!



The Illuminati is advertised as the overlords of the set, so I wanted to create this deck and see just how will they oversaw the Marvel Universe. Coupled with the fact that Black Bolt, Sub-Mariner and Dr. Strange are on this team I felt like they were well worth creating a deck for.

TEAM THEME: CONTROL/STALL

The name of the game for the Illuminati seems to be CONTROL, through clever plot twist and character effects the Illuminati truly do have that Theme down to a science. Cards like; Iron Man, Protector of the Reality Gem, The Infinity Gauntlet, Clandestine Operations and even the Elektra Situation are large pieces to that control scheme, the biggest piece probably being, The Infinity Gauntlet.



The Infinity Gauntlet is a card from hell; opponents will definitely be gunning for this card with answers like Pathetic Attempt, which could place you in a real bind if it remains the focal point of control in your deck, so it is important that you exercise timing when playing this card. The Infinity Gauntlet’s power can not be denied in the game as a means of control. Exhausting six members of the Illuminati in order to play is a heavy cost, but well worth the rewards.

KO Target Character,
KO Target Resource, or
Target Player Discards His Hand

The card also points to a sub-theme for the team which is under-dropping. There is no way on Turn 5 you will be able to effectively use this beast without having all the members in play. Luckily all the members of Illuminati have versions with a cost less than 5 so you can recruit a member or two every turn so you can get the effectiveness of this card. It’s pretty safe to say this card will be a staple of any Illuminati deck. If this team has a showing at worlds I expect it to increase in value as well.



The only question with all of these control options is what is this deck stalling for? There are no 8-cost characters or 9-cost characters that are stamped to the Illuminati, I decided to look for one and found Onslaught, Psionic Spawn of Xavier and Magneto, it’s effect was very powerful back in the day and it still is now, especially in Modern Age. I like this card the most because it allows you to manipulate two cards I believe we will see a lot of in the Meta; Superhuman Registration Act and Underground Movement. You may run into problems if these two are not in play, but it will still have a huge impact in the late game even if it tends to affect some of your characters in play, the Illuminati have a lot of affiliations.



Next we needed an 8-cost character that would be just as effective as our 9-cost character. There were a lot of characters, but I like Silver Surfer, Norrin Radd the most for his ability to steal initiative leveraging advantage and decision as well as being a big body. Fair enough that one of the most important team-up’s that will need to take place in the deck will be with Fantastic Four. We are served greatly in this because many of the Illuminati members in this set have the Infinity Watch affiliation and 3 of the members (Dr. Strange, Sub-Mariner and Mr. Fantastic) have a dual-affiliation with the Fantastic Four, so getting this online will not be too difficult.

I like Marvel Crossover, Team-Up a lot and decided to go with that. I really like both Superhuman Registration Act and Underground Movement, but I am not too fond of playing with my top card of my deck revealed, so I chose to tech the deck with Underground Movement. It will enable search in the early game as well as getting any non-hidden characters to the hidden area.

This is pretty much how the late game stall condition was decided for the deck, next was just looking for effective means of stalling until then within the modern age.



STALL

In order to get to the late turn there had to be a number of ways in order to prevent large amounts of damage being dealt directly to endurance totals, on top of that ensuring that there were as few attacks as possible coming from across the board at characters in order to maintain the Illuminati’s presence. Chilly Reception from DC’s World’s Finest set quickly came to mind as a means of doing just that, Professor X, World’s Most Powerful Telepath also came to mind from one of the debates over at TCGplayer. A 7 cost character that fulfilled the role of maintaining Illuminati members and at the same time exhausts effects in order to control your opponent’s board. Aside from these two options the easiest one to include in the deck came in Clandestine Operations. A very good ongoing plot twist that secured the control needed to stall until the late game. Iron Man, Protector of the Reality Gem is a shoe in on turn 5, with his exhaustion effect and Illuminati fit.

CURVE

Coming up with the curve of characters was the hardest thing to do for this deck as getting everyone on the board by turn 6 was looking really slim, especially given all the characters at a couple choice locations. Each Illuminati member has an Infinity Watch affiliation character version which should mitigate the possibility of not being able to search for them and team attacking and reinforcing should the need arise.



The curve I came up with is by no means the most optimal just how I see the game going. It makes use of all the available versions of the various members of the Illuminati in the Modern Age. I had to work backwards from 7-cost characters to figure out what exactly the curve should be. There are a lot of Illuminati cards; if I played a lot of Silver Age Versus I could come up with a deck a hell of a lot stronger. This optimizes your ability to play an Illuminati member when you can and where you can.

Characters

4x Black Bolt, Enemy Within
4x Professor X, Mutant Benefactor
3x Dr. Strange, Secret Avenger
4x Mr. Fantastic, Protector of the Power Gem
3x Sub-Mariner, Protector of the Time Gem
2x Black Bolt, Protector of the Space Gem
2x Professor X, Protector of the Mind Gem
2x Dr. Strange Protector of the Soul Gem
2x Mr. Fantastic, Haunted Genius
1x Iron Man, Mighty Avenger
3x Iron Man, Protector of the Reality Gem
1x Sub-Mariner, Uncertain Ally
2x Dr. Strange, Ally of the Four
1x Professor X, World’s Most Powerful Telepath
1x Silver Surfer Norrin Radd
1x Onslaught, Psionic Spawn of Xavier and Magneto

36 Character cards

TEAM SUPPORT



This part of building the deck was no easier than coming up with a viable curve. I’ll explain some of my choices here quickly. The Infinity Gauntlet is somewhat of a cornerstone to the deck. It is a lynchpin and I guarantee you your opponents will be looking to Pathetic Attempt any such play. Timing is essential. When it comes online around Turn 5 or 6 depending on how you played out your curve it will be very useful. Dr. Strange, Ally of the Four will allow you optimize multiple copies in your deck. Chilly Reception was a nice control card for the early going at the very least trying to ensure you don’t get hammered too hard in the early turns. Reset was nice. There may be the occasion where someone gets into your hidden area, there is a bit of hidden hate in the game still from Skreeee to Wolverine you want to make sure that if they manage to get into your hidden area you are able to maintain board presence and stop those attacks. The Team-up is there strictly to Team-up the Infinity Watch with Fantastic Four and X-Men, is it absolutely necessary, not until the late game when you are looking to take advantage of Silver Surfer. Alias Investigations, Birthing Chamber and Xavier’s Institute were good ways to accelerate what was going to be in hand.



Plot Twist

4x the Infinity Gauntlet
2x Clandestine Operations
3x Chilly Reception
3x Marvel Crossover Team-Up
2x Silent War
2x the Elektra Situation
3x Reset
4x Secret Government

Locations

1x Alias Investigations
1x Birthing Chamber
1x Xavier’s Institute of Higher Learning

I want you all to consider this as a draft. I plan on meeting up with some of you to play against your decks this week. Onslaught is a secondary thought to the Silver Surfer, but should be a great piece of Tech if you see your opponent relying on cards like Superhuman Registration Act or Underground Movement. This is not a competitive deck need I mind you at least in its current incarnation, but it should get the thought process going for anyone out there looking to build Illuminati decks. The strength of this team in MUN alone is not so much what you can’t do, but what you can do. There is a lot of what you can do with the team and the hardest part is deciding what you want to do with them. There are not a lot of late game ending options in the current Modern Age, but Silver Surfer attacking at weakened opponents is not a bad idea.

Have Fun, Up Next our favorite Green Stomping Machine!

Leave your comments and feel free to stop by TCGplayer to discuss this deck.

Vote for Darkseid Revenge also join me for Comic Book Discussion on TCGplayer.

What I want to give you the DC fans is a view into the VS TCG Universe with one of my favorite characters. Thor is without a doubt in my top three, my trinity, but the other two hold near and dear places in my heart, Darkseid and Superman. It is actually hard to say which one is more a favorite of mine as I once thought it was Superman, but when I had to reflect on Superman Comics I owned I noticed they were limited to those issues with Darkseid as the villain in them. Of course I own a lot of Superman product but that is because he is poured into the media more than Darkseid.

Darkseid does not have his own Comic series, but he has his own place in the minds of many and within DC lore. He holds a special place in the VS TCG with respect to deck building, and I have combo’d some of the most annoying Darkseid Deck creations amongst many I am sure.

Here I give you a new Darkseid Deck built spectacularly for the Golden Age format of Versus System.

This decks main combo is focused on the newest Darkseid incarnation on the street,5-cost Darkseid, Destroyer of Life and a golden age Darkseid equipment Beta Club. When DC Legends (DCL) was released I quickly realized it did not have the Legend impact Marvel Legends (MVL) did. In fact there were too many legends on each team to really focus on giving the Legend treatment to specific iconic characters. Darkseid was already a legend though. In the minds of many he was the prototype build of the legend idea back in the Legion of Super Heroes (DLS) set. Mix those cards with all of the other incarnations of Darkseid we have seen over the years and his support cards and well Darkseid is definitely one of the biggest and baddest Legends around in the game. There are 11 of them in total and each is just as formidable as the next. Let’s start looking at our mix.



4 x Darkseid, Destroyer of Life
4 x Beta Club

As our main combo of the deck we definitely want to ensure we are drawing into these before turn 5. Adding 4 of each is maximizing the chances of drawing these cards. Since Beta Club can be equipped to any Darkseid Elite character having 4 of them doesn’t hurt, especially since the cost to recruit it is ZERO. On our 5-cost Darkseid this card has maximum impact amplifying the effects of a character being stunned.

I am a defensive player and I always like to have a back-up plan. Darkseid Destroyer of Life is excellent for this because his own ability is on and off initiative as long as I am able to stun your character it works. But having one Combo in a deck that works is never good enough we need to feel reassured. I pulled this little combo from my previous Darkseid decks. Wiiman hates facing down those decks.



3 x Darkseid, the Omega
3 x the Rock of Eternity

Yeah, pair these two together and it makes for one hell of a Combo. This is a little insurance because I hate playing games and not getting the initiative I wanted. This nice combo makes sure you always have the initiative. I wrote about this combo in some blog entries I posted up on TCGplayer, but the main benefit is that 6-cost Darkseid is Substitute which means you can place The Rock of Eternity into your opponents resource row and have them locked.

I know you are already thinking; which card am I using to get around the uniqueness rule, Ancient Throne or Ancient Evils? I am using Ancient Evils. This deck is almost entirely Darkseid Elite, but Team-Ups are the one resource that is still somewhat protected. Locations can be destroyed and I don’t need no one doing that especially gambling on being able to play these two combos in the game to squeeze the life out of my opponent the way Darkseid is capable of.



4 x Ancient Evils

After addressing my combos for the deck it is safe to say we now need to look at ways we are accelerating card draw and ensuring consistency. Team Darkseid Elite has its own built in Accelerators; Dark Firestorm, Mockery and Darkseid, Apokoliptian Oppressor. These two bad boys are great additions. They are also helping out with our curve. Darkseid, Apokoliptian Oppressor is also adding to our Darkseid Legend them. His high defense is also pivotal in protecting our endurance and staying around into the later turns. With his low attack he really isn’t a suitable character at this point to equip a Beta Club to, but the potential is there as we can safely attack opposing 4 drops if we raise his attack stats.



4 x Dark Firestorm, Mockery
4 x Darkseid, Apokoliptian Oppressor

A sure fire method of accelerating any deck is adding in search, but before we go there we are going to look at another accelerant in the form of Barbara Gordon<>Oracle, Hacker Elite. What is great about her she is a free card draw every turn, her low stats are made up for the fact that she in the Hidden Area. I like her. We need 3 drops and she also has the substitute mechanic, her and Dark Firestorm will work well together switching in and out of play to reap the benefits of their effects.



3 x Barbara Gordon<>Oracle, Hacker Elite

For search Darkseid’s Elite has Created from Hate. This is a nice search card as it requires no discard and only that you use it the turn you wish to search. Only bad part is it allows your opponent reuse of a resource. Now you can get fancy with this and the chain if you want. Other than that we have Mobilize, which is always good. Most deck builders swear by having 8 search cards in a deck. This is also dependant upon any accelerants in your deck. We have 3 at this point and two are sure fire non dependant accelerants. So you have your pick. I am going with 6 search cards at this point in my deck building.



3 x Created from Hate
3 x Mobilize

So we have looked at the Core thus far of our deck. What we need now is to fill it out with its theme. Our main combo is emphasizing attack. Normally I build control decks, but I am going to stick to the realm of attack, attack, attack with this deck. I want the maximum impact on every turn so that on turn 5 I am capable of dealing that lethal blow.

We have a lot of attack pumps in the Golden Age Format. The only reason our deck is Golden Age at this point is because of the inclusion of Beta Club, but it is what I like and what I want so we are going to stick with it. Darkseid has range so we can play him support or front row, but he doesn’t have much in the way of disrupting formations with flight which is something I always like to have. Of those that give flight as well as attack boost are Flying Kick(+3ATK), Swing Line(+2ATK), Rabbit Fire(+2ATK) and Unexpected Assault(+2ATK). We want the attack to be high so we are going with Flying Kick.



4 x Flying Kick

Some good Attack cards also available are Savage Beatdown, Armageddon, Big Leagues, Blinding Rage, Dark Fury, Devastating Blow, and Furious Assault. I’ll rule out Big Leagues for the moment and choose to go with Savage Beatdown from the lot. We are also adding in a staple plot twist for Darkseid that can be used on and off initiative as a combat pump, Lord of Apokolips



4 x Lord of Apokolips
4 x Savage Beatdown

Next I like to address any issues with the deck at this point since we now have fleshed out our strategy. We are going for a bruiser Darkseid, in the mix fight. What happens if my Team-Up, Ancient Evils doesn’t arrive on time, or if it is dealt with by my opponent? I need a way to circumnavigate this, and Curse of Darkness is an awesome choice. It will also allow me to abuse Dark Firestorm and Darkseid, The Omega should the need arise. It also enables me to protect characters I want to remain on the board.



4 x Curse of Darkness

Rounding out my curve is an important issue. I know what my curve looks like on turn 3, 5 and 6 definitively. Turn 2 is a crucial point and I definitely want to ensure I am not being attacked repeatedly without aide. Two of my favorites 2-cost character for Darkseid’s Elite are the new and old Desaad and Dark Lantern. Dark Lantern Helps us to really pressure our opponents on attacks as he protects our attackers from being stunned. Desaad is a failsafe so long as he can remain unhidden and unharmed. He could also have the capability of clearing a board. We can use his ability at a relatively low cost as we can KO him to his own effect. The old Desaad works just as well with out theme, but he is visible and I don’t feel like protecting him, you can if you like



4 x Dark Lantern, Mockery
4 x Desaad, Dark Side Therapy (or Desaad, Royal Torturer)

On turn 7 and Turn 8 I need to be able to effectively deal with any Opposing 7 and 8 –cost characters. I really do not want to get into these later turns so I am not planning on being here. I have consistency in my early game and search which means I am at liberty here to be free with my choices. Here is the idea. If I am going into turn 7 one of two things has occurred.

A. I was not able to muster up enough attack in order to finish my opponent off on Turn 5
B. I was not able to muster up enough attack in order to finish my opponent off on Turn 6

There really is not other way for the game to be into Turn 7 unless I have losses. I am always willing to lay down my king, much like dread lord Darkseid if my plan has failed. Darkseid is also a mental giant and he like to play games so your opponents is going to expect you to play Darkseid, Apokolips Now on 7, instead we will choose his lesser



1 x Kara Zor-El<>Supergirl, Female Fury
1 x Superman, False Son

The title of the Site is Darkseid’s Revenge and what better displays of that than these two puppets. On turn 8 we will once again see the Lord of Apokolips. It is my favorite incarnation of Darkseid at the slot. He simply says KO all other characters. He will be the only one left standing. For me I have no problem with that.



1 x Darkseid, Lord of Apokolips

Notice there are no 1-cost characters. I don’t particularly care for any of the ones available to Darkseid’s Elite. Other notable choices could have been Brimstone, Engine of Destruction or Dark Kryptonian<>Dark Superboy, Mockery.

So here is the Deck:

Destroyer of Life

Characters
3 x Darkseid, the Omega
3 x Barbara Gordon<>Oracle, Hacker Elite
4 x Darkseid, Destroyer of Life
4 x Dark Firestorm, Mockery
4 x Darkseid, Apokoliptian Oppressor
4 x Dark Lantern, Mockery
4 x Desaad, Dark Side Therapy (or Desaad, Royal Torturer)
1 x Kara Zor-El<>Supergirl, Female Fury
1 x Superman, False Son
1 x Darkseid, Lord of Apokolips

Equipment
3 x Beta Club

Locations
3 x the Rock of Eternity

Plot Twist
4 x Ancient Evils
3 x Created from Hate
3 x Mobilize
4 x Flying Kick
4 x Lord of Apokolips
4 x Savage Beatdown
4 x Curse of Darkness

We’ll get into how the Deck works in the next part of our series.