Editor: Matthew Cline. Wednesday 18th August 2004.
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Editor: Matthew Cline. Wednesday 18th August 2004.
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 The Art of Control
Well
last time I wrote about aggro-control and specifically the Common Enemy deck
that has become one of the tier one decks in the metagame. Well today I will be
discussing straight up control. Yeah that's right's right, stop your opponent
doing what they want to do and then beat the hell out of them with big fat
characters. Now
before I go into the deck list and the card analysis I would first like talk
about the team up that I have used for this deck. Now the basic idea behind this
deck came from what is known as Doom bomb or Doomabomber. My name for the deck
sort of gives away the general idea behind it, Doom Knights Go BOOM. As you may
have guessed it is a team up between the Gotham Knights and Doom. Now the
typical Doom Bomb deck uses, yep you guessed it, Doom. Well when I opened my
first booster of DC sitting there staring at me was a foil Fizzle.
Yes I was happy to see the only counter-spell in the wonderful world of Vs. but
it got me thinking about the best way to use this little gem. At first I played
around with the idea of a straight Gotham Knights deck but I found that they
were a little lacking in control, with the notable exception of Fizzle.
So I turned my attention elsewhere. That's right the big bad meanie him self Dr.
Doom. He's big mean and he stops your opponent playing plot twists from either
their resource row or from their hand, depending on the version of Doom that you
have in play. I
had a look around on the net at the various flavours of Doom Bomb and found that
there weakness was in turns one through to four. Now if you have a look at the
deck list that I used for the Common Enemy deck you will probably notice, well I
hope you did, that Fantastic Four are the main beat down characters for turns
one through three and turn five. So with that in mind I threw together a
Doom/Gotham Knights deck that not only works as a control deck but also keeps
you at a high enough endurance to get to that all important turn seven when you
start the board clearing madness. Now
to the deck list. 3
Overload 4
Fizzle 4
Latveria Now
then the card choices. 1-Drop
Characters Alfred
Pennyworth-Faithful Friend This
was one of the hardest card toss up's that I had to make. You see Doom has a
little friend Boris he is a wonderful plot twist tutor. Now the peace keepers of
Gotham have their own little friend who's name is, yeah, yeah I know you have
already guessed, Alfred. Now he does come into play exhausted so there is no
fetching plot twists turn one but that little draw back is made for for with the
fact that after he has done his job he goes back to you hand. Now our friend
Boris is great but he goes back into deck. 2-Drop
Characters Puppet
Master, Phillip Masters Tim
Drake <> Robin-The Boy Wonder Now
control decks are very defensive by nature. They try to stay alive long enough
to get big guys out to pound away. These two cards are, by there very nature
defensive. Puppet Master allows you to exhaust you of you opponent’s
characters. They do get to choice which character that is but either way it is
one less person that can attack you. I did consider putting four of this little
guy in the deck but as you may have already noticed the deck is already 64
cards. I really can't see anyway to get any more in there. Batman’s
partner in justice Robin is a great defensive card. Just have a read of what he
does. What it should read is "as long as Robin is not stunned when you
opponent attacks one of your Gothem Knights, they get stunned." Just a
great card. Beast
looks like the odd one out in the deck but read the text and you will understand
why he is there. He basically lets you Gamma Bomb 1 turn earlier. Never, I
repeat never, play him before turn 7. Turn 7 should look a lot like this.
Resource, recruit Beast, flip Latveria, play Gamma Bomb 3-Drop
Characters Batman,
Worlds Greatest Detective Foiled
on legs plus you don't lose a resource. His stats aren't that great but the
reason that he is in here is for that, wonderful, wonderful activated ability.
This is my personal favourite of the Batman cards he really throws a spanner in
the works of so many decks. The New Brotherhood decks without their ongoing plot
twists lose a lot of steam. Not the end of the world for them but it is
annoying. 4-Drop
Characters Out
metal clad, green cape wearing control master. Flip that Have a Blast! face down
and use it again. TNB (The New Brotherhood) decks do not like seeing him hit the
table for one simple reason. No plot twists from their hand and that is where
almost all of their plot twists are played. 5-Drop
Characters The
choice of which character to play out of these two is really situational
dependant. If Sabertooth, Feral Rage is giving you a lot of grief then Robot
Destroyer is your man. Lady Shiva is a very nice card. She is basically a 12/12
so long as she isn't team attacked. Now you should have enough tools in this
deck to exhaust enough of your opponent’s characters to make the possibility
of a team attack not really an option. 6-Drop
Characters He's
big, he stop your opponent from playing plot twists from their resource row. To
quote the god of Marvel, Mr. Stan Lee 'nuff said 7-Drop
Characters If
you are playing someone that doesn't know to move all their characters to the
front row on turn seven when playing a Doom deck then they get what they
deserve. 15/16 for a seven-drop is very decent add the ability to wipe out your
opponents support row and well he is a machine. 8-Drop
Characters Now
if you want recurring Gamma Bomb's then play the good Doctor on turn 8. If you
want face smashing goodness then Apocalypse is your man plus he destroys your
opponents resources. That's not to say that our friend Doom is a lightweight he
is a big boy. Now personally I prefer playing Apocalypse but the choice is
there. Plot
Twists Fetch
this with Alfred and then use it to grab the Doom that you need at the time Stop
your opponent attacking with his big bad nasty guy by exhausting him before he
gets a chance to use him. What more do you need to know? Nothing? Good lets move
on. Turn
four. Play Dr. Doom, play Rein of Terror, bounce all of those nasty Wild
Sentinels back from whence they came. Also good against.......well anything! Haven't
got the initiative? Want it? Take it, its all yours. Now this does have a
massive drawback and, to be perfectly honest I really don't play it that much.
Look to use it late game. Now
this card was good before DC. Now that DC is legal you add this to Total Anarchy
and holy cow! All of the 2 drops go bye, bye KA-BOOOOOM! Do
I really need to tell you why this is in here? Oh ok.......I like to blow stuff
up and this is the card that does it for you Joins
the wonderful law abiding Gothem Knights with the evil, nasty puppy hurting Doom
people. Pumps
are a massive part of the Vs. universe and this card puts those steroid fuelled
big boys back in their place. Want
to keep playing that Gamma Bomb but don't want to lose that big fat character?
Play swift Escape and bounce them back to your hand before the bomb goes off. A
nice little character tutor. Actually nice doesn't cover it. Think Signal Flare
that is cheaper that does not require you to ditch a card. Oh yeah it's a good
card. The
'No' card of the Vs. universe. Counter any no ongoing plot twist. Control at
it's best! Relocate
and Ka-Boom! all in one and does not make you KO a resource. Simply a great
card. This is going to find a spot in nearly every deck. A
mini Gamma Bomb when combined with Flame Trap See
Marvel Team up, does the same thing but with different pictures. Locations Basically here to make the good Doctor
have +3 defence Plot twists 1 cheaper........yes please! So
how does it fair up? Well
against TNB it does OK. Not great expect to run about 50-50 on this match up.
Just look to Fizzle
plot twists like Savage
Beatdown. Use Have a
Blast! On Avalon Space
Station and Lost City.
Use Batman’s ability
against The New
Brotherhood. Use Robot
Destroyer to stun Sabertooth, Feral Rage. Big
Brotherhood is similar to TNB. Have
a Blast! the same locations, Fizzle
the big pump plot twists. Overload
when the character gets over the limit. Make sure when you Overload
that you wait until your opponent plays their last pump on the character. They
may think that they are going to win with one last massive attack. When Overloading
look out for Not So
Fast to negate the Overload.
Fizzle is a great
card…..use it! Common
Enemy you will be looking to fizzle
the usual pumps like It’s
Clobberin’ Time and Savage
Beatdown. The one to really look for here is Signal
Flare, especially if used turn seven as they are going to get either Sub-Mariner
or Thing, Ever Lovin’ Blue
Eyed Thing either way you do not want them to hit the table. Use Batman’s
ability on Common
Enemy plot twist. Wild
Vomit is fast. It is like a good goblin deck in Magic. Use Alfred
to get both Total Anarchy
and Flame Trap. Turn
four make sure you have Total
Anarchy flipped in your resource row. Play Dr.
Doom Diabolic Genius and then in response to him coming into play flip Flame
Trap. The chain will resolve and Flame
Trap will be turned face down ready to use again. If you start having major
problems use Swift Escape
on Dr. Doom and play
him over and over again to get recursive Flame
Traps. Now this is the important part with Sentinel’s use Have
a Blast! on Underground
Sentinel Base the Wild Vomit player will have Mark
4 Sentinels in his resource row and you do not want them in play especially
if they have somehow managed to get a lot of Wild
Sentinel’s in play. Now
playing control decks is a strenuous work. Know the cards. Know what to counter
and what no to. Most importantly keep an eye on the time. This has been a
problem for control decks. Try as hard as you can to win game one because time
will most likely be called during game two. Until
next time, play nice :) |
