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Editor: Michael Mason. Tuesday 24th August 2004.

Domestic Abuse - Bashing up your Big Brother
So I am a sucker for a good hero. When a new set comes out my play group each decide on a team they want to build, and whenever we draft/crack packs, we just end up giving away all our stuff to each other so we can have the decks built as quickly as possible with as few, if any, proxies as possible. Later on, when we've got the cards ourselves, we just give them back. When Marvel Origins first came out I was the one who chose X-Men (god dammit!) and got all the Children of the Atoms, Blackbirds, and Rogues. I even got the Moira McTaggerts - Ugh! (why I didn't choose Brotherhood I don't know. also for some reason I still have the Moiras.). Anyways, when DC came out I chose Gotham Knights (sucker), because;
Batman, The Dark Knight (DOR-005)

Re: Line 1 of the article,

Saw Fizzle and thought what the shizzle, and

Look at the 7 drop Batman pic! (aka "I'm gonna *@#! you up"), and tell me you don't wanna throw this bad boy down.

Needless to say, Gotham Knights were pretty much another X-men, we found out quick smart, and so I moved on to Teen Titans. In the first tourney I played with the Titans, I played against 3 Gotham Knights decks, and although I bashed them all (Raven = game), I was impressed enough with one of them to want to retool my own version. The new deck doesn't include Longshot or 12 Batmen, but does have a whole bunch of GCPD cops, 'the Commish', 7 drop Bats and 'Mr Boy Scout': Superman. Here's a decklist for your own perusal.

COPS: Rollcall - Scott Smith

Characters Plot Twists

21 GCPD Officers (1)
3 Harvey Bullock (1)
4 Commissioner Gordon, James Gordon (2)
3 Barbara Gordon - Oracle, Information Network (2)
2 Batman, Caped Crusader (5)
1 Batman, The Dark Knight (7)
1 Superman, Big Blue Boy Scout (8)

4 Airbourne Assault
2 Fizzle
4 Cover Fire
4 Dynamic Duo
4 Bat-Signal

Locations

4 Clocktower
4 GCPD Headquarters

Now we're going to do a quick run down of the dudes in the deck, why they're there and what I'd like to change but don't know how.

21 Cops

Cops are tops as they say in the stickers on the backs of cop cars. I would ideally like to run 25 (nice number), because the more the better. Your card drawing doesn't really allow it, but you want to draw as many as humanly possible in the first 6 turns. They do so much, and have infinite reinforcement with cards like Clocktower, GCPD Headquarters, Bat-Signal, and Harvey Bullock.

3 Harvey Bullock

I so underestimated this guy. He's absolutely fantastic. Being able to tap a guy on your opponents initiative is hot hot, and being a one drop means on the 4th turn (as you want odd initiatives) you can drop 3 cops and Harvey to tap down their 4 drops (if you have 2 cops out already by 4th turn =) and then they can bash you with their 3 drop for 1. heheh.

4 Commissioner Gordon, James Gordon

This is your Combat Protocols for they deck. 'The Commish' is very, very necessary and he makes your cops bigger. There really is no need to explain further as he allows your team attacks to become much larger.

3 Barbara Gordon - Oracle, Information Network

Turn 1 GCPD Officer, turn 2 Barbara is hot, and with 4 Bat-Signals it gets a lot easier. I like Barbara, as getting her into play is easier and it allows me to not have to run all the Batmen in my deck.

2 Batman, Caped Cruader (5)

1 Batman, The Dark Knight (7)

1 Superman, Big Blue Boy Scout (8)

Where's the beef? Right here baby. I'm think about dropping the two 5 drops for 2 more cops (they are that good) but a team attack with this guy is a quick finish. The 7 drop is what the entire deck is about really (that and his cool picture) and the Superman allows you to beat on the 8th turn with something other than 1 large man, or many smaller ones. I don't run Longshot 'cause I don't want to run more Batmen, and I don't particularly like the 'random factor'. I will most probably test him out but for now, Longshot would be too much of a target for breakthrough damage.

4 Airbourne Assault

I like these over all the other +1/+0 to attackers, because it means with a Dynamic Duo + GCPD Headquarters no one can hide. The +1 is great but the flying is just gravy. I might consider cutting 1 of these for one of the cards I want.

2 Fizzle

Fo Shizzle mah nizzle! Why aren't I running 4? No room. I would like to at least run 3, but space is very limited. I would never consider playing more than 60 cards in a deck and trying to squeeze all these cards into one deck is just too tight.

4 Cover Fire

These are quite ludicrous when all your cops, Harvey Bullock, 'The Commish', and yes even your Superman have range to pump this up. If I could run 8 I would, but 4 will have to do.

4 Dynamic Duo

Bash your guys, I take no damage, and then you beat for 1. Pretty cool. The fact that it lets you tap cops anywhere on the board is, as I like to say - gravy.

4 Bat-Signal

Having 1 offs and only running 3 of cards you want four of, 4 Bat-Signals are a given. Having said that, I have gone for cops on more than one occasion, leading me to believe that more cops are defiantly needed.

4 Clocktower

This is like another card searcher, and is something cool to do with left over Harveys and Commishs.

4 GCPD Headquarters

I think it's 4 but may be 3, this card with Dynamic Duo is another reason to play the deck. This card is awesome as it lets you kill off one of their guys and reinforce your small non-cop buddies.

Now in play testing the deck was extremely fun to play, but lost more times than it won. Then as a joke, my mate pulled out his Big Brother deck he's been playing since - forever. He is probably the best Big Brother player I know (I guess a trained monkey could pilot the deck though), as he's had the deck since the start of Marvel Origins (remember me taking the X-Men cards. he got Brotherhood.). I think in the 15+ games we've played I may have lost 1 game. The match-up seems so bad for Big Brother it's not funny.

Cops + Harvey = Sabertooth + Crap. I like maths and this one works out every time. They can't get around it. It allows you to stall long enough to get out your huge Batman (watch out for Overload), and thus Superman, and from there you win the game. With the Headquarters out, you can KO, their guys so that the number of guys you have out will always overwhelm their numbers. Not much can be done about an early Barbara Gordon, which nets you more cops with which to tap their men. Here are some tips on playing the match-up.

If you have 1st turn cop with Bat-Signal, attack (obviously), then 2nd turn before you draw, Bat-Signal for Barbara Gordon. Your best game is a 2nd turn Barbara.

On the first turn put you cop in the support row always. If you have a Clocktower it's useful but, faking a Clocktower is good also. May not seem like much (and this is a more general case) but its just being a good player. It's like when you have Pyro - you don't use his ability until you absolutely have to.

Harvey is your bread and butter, he taps on their initiative, and Clocktowers when not attacking. Get him only if you know you'll have 5 cops in play by turn 4 for their Sabertooth. Even if you don't though, tapping their 3 drop and allowing toots to attack into a tapped cop is just as good.

Fizzle Save Fizzle for Overloads on your 7 drop Bats, it's pretty crucial.

Save your Cover Fire as long as possible. If you know you have Cover Fire, play as many guys with range as possible. Even 5th turn when if you have Batman and it looks like more cops will do, lay the cops. Exhausting and searching with the Clocktower is more important.

Bat-Signal-ing early for Barbara Gordon is just your best option unless you have her, then you go for Harvey, then The Commish, although The Commish may need to come out earlier if you get a Dynamic Duo and the Headquarters.

There isn't that much more to it. Play the match-up. You'll see just how easy it is. As for other match-ups - you pretty much don't want to play against anything that gets guys out quick, and rushes you. Teen Titans, Wild Vomit and the like will absolutely crush you, but hey, test it out and try and up grade the deck. It seems to have potential.

I wanted to end this with same bat-time, same bat-channel, but someone already did that, so I'm just going to leave you with nothing...like you deserve.

The Clown Prince of Crime

Scott Smith

Cool Zero on forums and Modo
Krazy in RL

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