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The Dynamic Duo Effect
Nick Forster and James Santure
Avengers is here.
Avengers is great.
Welcome to Avengers.
It's that time again, when all the new cards are jumping up and down screaming "PLAYMEPLAYMEPLAYME!" in their shrill little papery voices. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to choose 60 of the best. And cut the corners off the rest with a pair of blunt scissors.
I am the TCG Marquis de Sade.
There are a couple of builds of mono Avengers that stand out. One focuses on curve and powerful leader effects, topping out with Hulk (7) and Thor (8). The other is more focussed on team attacking and is concentrated lower in the curve. I'm going to be describing the latter, because I like team attacking. It always feels so unfair for my opponent. Also, I love Quicksilver. More on this later.
First up, a decklist. Feel free to mock it. I promise to take all criticism to heart. I spend my evenings huddled in the corner with my decks, weeping tears of gold.
Characters
4 Wasp
3 Natasha Romanoff <> Black Widow
4 QUICKSILVER! <<< In order to play this deck, you must add exclamation marks to your QUICKSILVER!'s. Just the way it is. Props to Tim Willoughby.
4 Captain America
(3)
4 Iron Man (4)
4 Carol Danvers <> Warbird
4 Monica Rambeau <> Captain Marvel
4 Captain America (6)
1 Hulk (7)
Plot Twists
4 Avengers Assemble!
4 Legendary Battles
4 Acrobatic Dodge
4 Savage Beatdown
4 Nasty Surprise
4 Finishing Move
4 Flame Trap
It's been tuned mostly to beat Teen Titans and Sentinels at the moment. There are things you can do to improve your matchups against other decks like EMS/New School, and the various Brotherhoods. In fact, none of the plot twists except Avengers Assemble! and Legendary Battles are must-plays, although I would consider Acrobatic Dodge and Savage Beatdown to be so unless you have very good reasons to think otherwise.
Now I get to make snide comments on all the cards. This goes on for a bit, so if you just want tech, I think there's some near the bottom. For all the rest; buckle up, bucko. It's a bumpy ride from here on.
Wasp
As your primary two-drop, her ability provides redundancy of what I'm henceforth going to refer to as the Dynamic Duo Effect, also supplied by Captain America (6) and Legendary Battles. That whole guys don't stun thing. Also, the 3 defence makes her attractive against Hounds of Ahab.
Natasha Romanoff <> Black Widow
An ability which while superficially different to Wasp's, provides a largely similar effect in the early game, allowing you to stun two of your opponents characters for the loss of only one of your own. Strictly inferior in the later game where Wasp can give several of your guys the Dynamic Duo Effect.
NOT Falcon
He's really good, but you're ideally not recruiting a leader on turn three. That makes him just average. 9 of 10 women under the age of 25 prefer Quicksilver to Captain America. Also 7 out of 10 men.
Quicksilver
The man who makes the deck go crazy. Always have him sitting beside Wasp. It ends up giving all your guys +4 ATK in exchange for not doing any breakthrough. And then he attacks by himself. He is the nut high of the deck. Use Avengers Assemble! to get it if you can. I apologise for any references to me wanting to have Quicksilver's children. Don't try it at home kids, it just doesn't work.
Captain America
(3)
Don't get me wrong, the guy's good. He's just not as good as Quicksilver. He is a leader to pitch to Avengers Assemble!, he gives your team attackers +1 ATK, and he has 6 ATK. It could be a lot worse.
NOT Black Panther
He's not a leader to discard to Avengers Assemble!, he has to be in the concealed so he doesn't work with all your leaders, and you've only got 13 reservists, so he's unlikely to be very huge. Also, being huge isn't really that important in a team attack deck, it's all about what the guy's abilities do for you.
Or so my girlfriend tells me.
[Editor: If you read that several times, you'll find that it says a lot more than Nick or James probably wanted it to.]
Iron Man (4)
Your preferred drop on your opponent's initiative. If you have an Acrobatic Dodge handy for him, your opponent may start crying. Be warned. I tend to prefer him in L formation at the corner, just to make life really hard.
Carol Danvers <> Warbird
Your preferred drop on your own initiative. This is another of the reasons Quicksilver is insane. Team into their 4-drop, which bounces and neither of yours stun thanks to the Dynamic Duo Effect of either Wasp or Legendary Battles. Seems fair. Feel free after to stun the rest of their guys with Quicksilver.
NOT Thor (4)
I'm prepared to take quite a bit of flak for this one.
Thor (4) isn't very good.
Before you come running round to my house and stab me in the heart and the testicles and the heart again, allow me to explain. Thor has a couple of things going for him - his 8 ATK, and his ability. The 8 ATK isn't as relevant in this deck as it might be in others, as you're aiming to be team attacking a lot of the time. The other guys are 7 ATK, which is plenty.
The ability is where he really falls down. If you team attack he won't cause breakthrough, and his ability won't trigger. Whereas the Warbird ability will likely win you the game right there and then.
That's my justification. Feel free to stab me now. My testicles are waiting.
Monica Rambeau <> Captain Marvel
A lot of people saw this and started screaming and carrying on about how if Teen Titans Go! had legs and breasts it would look like this. It's not quite that good, but it's still more than enough. Due to the physical restrictions on leader, you'll usually only be able to ready two guys. Which would be a lot worse if Quicksilver didn't do most of the work himself already.
Captain America (6)
Adding to the abundance of cards that supply the Dynamic Duo Effect, we have Captain America (6). For a completely unlimited time, he also comes with an excellent defensive ability, range, and a big booty body. Alliteration is Fun!
Hulk (7)
Everybody's already wet themselves over this one. It's good. Freaking Magneto-best-seven-drop-ever needs a pump to quasi-stun the guy. And then he gets bigger. Captain America (6) sitting behind this guy is not good for Titans. They either shoot Captain America with Roy, which is pretty tough, or prepare to take a big smack back.
The plot twists for this deck are fairly wide open. The effects required for the characters to function are largely contained on said characters, so you're free to add whatever you want. I do consider the following cards mandatory however.
Avengers Assemble!
You have 20 leaders in your deck. Discarding one is never a problem. Tutors are what separate men from the lower orders, like animals and robots. Also, making your guys bigger usually means they can't be stunned without a pump or power-up. It's surprisingly annoying for your opponent.
Legendary Battles
Adding to my love on Dynamic Duo Effects. Not stunning is good. Not stunning is what separates men from the lower orders, like animals and robots.
Oooo, we're scraping the bottom of the barrel now….
Acrobatic Dodge
This is mainly important for Iron Man and Captain America (6). A well-timed Dodge can swing the whole game. Helps Quicksilver not get hammered, as 8 DEF is tough for 4-drops to get through.
Savage Beatdown
There isn't a combat deck made that doesn't run some sort of pump. This is the best available. Earth's Mightiest Heroes is not a winner. Sorry.
There are many options for the remaining three slots. Some of them include:
Foiled
The deck repeats drops reasonably easily. Foiled seems to be more appropriate than Ka-Boom! at the moment, although feel free to include either if you feel the need. It's not particularly great against Teen Titans or Sentinels however.
War of Attrition
If Foiled is not your thing, War of Attrition is very good. The deck has no locations or ongoings, so War of Attrition is essentially a free Have a Blast!. Better against Teen Titans and the Brotherhoods, worse against EMS/New School. Take your pick, but remember that War of Attrition has flavour text written by George Lucas.
Flame Trap
Flame Trap is very, very good against several decks - Green Lantern builds, EMS/New School builds, and Teen Titans. It always warrants consideration for your deck. I've chosen this instead of Total Anarchy. I don't like Total Anarchy as it provides an ongoing as a target, and it can result in your three-drop being KO'd. Quicksilver is key to your deck, and you can't afford to have it randomly KO'd. Who will whisper sweet nothings in your ear while you wait for your opponent to formate? Yes, formate wasn't a word. It is now.
A Death in the Family/Finishing Move
Finishing Move is preferable in this deck, as you can use it with Quicksilver (We love you Quicksilver!). As a combat deck, KO-ing guys is always good. If you choose to use either of these cards I highly recommend the next card also.
Nasty Surprise
Very powerful, and in conjunction with A Death in the Family/Finishing Move can effectively steal the initiative. Also provides endless entertainment by letting you say "Oh, that's Nasty" in the voice of Cleveland from Family Guy. Or maybe it's just me.
It's just me.
Sigh.
Flying Kick
Two of your key recruits, Quicksilver and Captain America (6), lack flight. This can remedy that. Also in the same vein, No Man Escapes the Manhunters. Good times against Green Lantern and the new Marvel Knights All Singing, All Dancing, All Concealed deck.
Home Surgery
This is just a bit of tech if you want to annoy your Teen Titan playing opponent. Recovering Captain America (6) or Iron Man is particularly annoying, but not losing Quicksilver is important too. It helps keep lots of guys around for the later turns so you can beat their face in. And the picture has Batman looking like a sook. What more could you ask for?
I'm not dealing specific matchup advice because:
- No one will believe me when I say it's good against Sentinels and Teen Titans.
- It's not as good against Sentinels and Teen Titans as you think it should be. It's better than anything else, but you're not going to win every game. Sentinels and Teen Titans are still really good decks. Who would have thunk it?
- I haven't played it against anything except Teen Titans and Sentinels yet. If it gets crushed by Spider-Friends, or worse, Team Superman, I don't want to know.
- Playtest for yourself and figure out how to play the deck. Quicksilver cries every time someone takes his deck to a tournament and doesn't know how to play it properly.
That's it. Go forth and unleash my plague upon the world.
Moo hoo ha!
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Editor: Gabriel Wong. Wednesday 17th August 2005.
