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Michael Pittman
VS Limited – “Swimming in the Deep End” – Part 5
Michael Pittman
August 21, 2006
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In this fifth and final instalment of a series about “depth” – a concept that often gets talked about in relation to Vs limited and specifically drafting, I'll be taking a quick look at the minnow teams in DCR – Secret Six and Crisis, before wrapping it all up.

One last time – I define depth as “quantity plus quality”. A deep team should be able to support more than two drafters (in an eight-person draft) to a reasonable degree and be a powerhouse if under-drafted.

Secret Six – “Why are there eight of them”?

ONE-DROP

Depth just doesn't really matter when you only have one character to choose from, but at least he's common – The Fiddler.

While there may be only one of him, The Fiddler is a fine one-drop in many respects. He is “free”, which I have already established is good in relation to Nightmaster and Jacob Lee.

The Fiddler is the first reason why Secret Six make a nice secondary team for Villains United, as when the two teams are teamed up Fiddler turns all of those return to hand additional costs into “discard a character card”. That kind of makes Fiddler plus Baddest of the Bad better than Enemy of My Enemy … you know, that card that people are paying in excess of $70 for.

The Fiddler also has potential to help out Checkmate decks, which like to have guys hanging around to stun or KO for various effects.

No score for depth.

TWO-DROP

As a comic book character, Deadshot is one of the coolest dudes around.

In Vs limited, being a potentially free 3/1 ranged and Concealed – Optional two-drop (which can only be played for “free” from turn three onwards) makes him a worthwhile consideration along similar lines to The Fiddler above.

I think Deadshot's alternate recruit cost is a little steeper than The Fiddler's, though, and that eats into the potential synergy he might have with some of the other teams.

Being common is obviously a bonus for Floyd.

No score for depth.

THREE-DROPS

Secret Six is spoiled for choice in terms of three-drops, with two dudes (double the depth)! Both are common too.

Catman – Thomas has 5/4 stats, Concealed – Optional and a nice protection power, which prevents your opponent from KO'ing your stunned dudes. Not “free”, but playable at any rate.

Parademon – Crappy 4/4 stats are mitigated by flight and range and … you guessed it – a “free” way to get him into play. When teamed up, Parademon can pop into play for free whenever a bigger character gets stunned. This has obvious synergy with Villians United (yet again), where they are happy to have guys stunned for their vengeance power and then like to return dudes (free ones especially) to hand for powerful effects.

I could score S6 for three-drop depth, but what's the point.

FOUR-DROP

Ragdoll is the most uncommon common I've ever encountered. I have cracked more copies of some rares than I have of this malleable fiend.

His 7/6 stats are marginally acceptable, but his vengeance power is pretty frickin' decent.

Again, VU would happily give this guy a home, since they often have extra characters in hand. Any team, though, could potentially benefit from his services.

No score for depth.

FIVE-DROP

Déjà vu.

The common Cheshire is really a villain in disguise, playing for both S6 and VU. Her 11 DEF is her most attractive aspect, with the burn/endurance gain effect being welcome gravy.

No score for depth.

SIX-DROP

Scandal is the sole, common six-drop for Secret Six. Vandal Savage's daughter boasts a nice 13 ATK and a nice ongoing plot twist search effect, which – if nothing else – will help to search out a team-up. Her 11 DEF is not too big a deal. Definitely playable in if teamed up with another DCR team.

No score for depth.

SEVEN-DROP

The Secret Six commons dry up at this point – their seven-drop is uncommon.

Lex Luthor <> Mockingbird is primarily a constructed card designed to work with the S6 non-character cards to achieve the Secret Six Victorious win. That said, his power can still be used on any turn where you have no stunned characters that you want to keep moving into the next turn.

His 16/15 stats are okay, but – like The Calculator, Crime Broker – his Concealed status can be a problem if you have the wrong initiative.

Maybe a bit too risky/flashy to play in most limited decks.

No score for depth

CONCLUSION

The Secret Six characters cannot be relied on to stand on their own in a draft or sealed tournament. There simply aren't enough of them, regardless of the fact that all but one of them are common.

Ironically, they seem best suited to unite with the villains that they refused to join in the comics – Villains United. There are a lot of potential synergies between the two teams.

In terms of non-character cards, S6 also have a bit to offer. Help Wanted; It's Not Over Yet; and House of Secrets can be fine additions to your limited deck, while Dodge the Bullet could even find it's way into a VU-allied deck (although that's a bit flashy and largely unnecessary).

Crisis – “What Crisis?”

In contrast with Secret Six, the Crisis affiliation has even less to offer the drafter in terms of depth, since they only have four characters and they are all rare. Worse still, one is a nine-drop, which makes him comically irrelevant to limited play.

Their two five-drops (Pariah; and Superboy) are nothing to write home about, although Superboy could be played in a pinch for his 10 ATK and one-shot six-endurance swing cosmic power.

The seven-drop – Harbinger is actually quite playable in my opinion. Being 17/17 with flight and range makes her quite attractive, especially when you consider the lack of options in all of the non-JSA teams at this recruitment level.

The Monitor is the previously mentioned comically irrelevant nine-drop. Let's just move on.

I don't think there is any more that we can say about the Crisis team. They are largely irrelevant for limited play and I can't even see them getting any constructed play in the foreseeable future.

Depth – “Rock Bottom”

It is important to remember that just because a team is deep doesn't mean it is necessarily the best team to draft all the time. Often the deeper teams will be over-drafted. A team with a lot of powerful cards, but less depth can be a great option if you can be one of the only drafters in that team. This phenomenon was particularly evident in Marvel Knights and Avengers drafts, where X-Statix and Kang could cough up excellent draft decks if you were the only player picking them up.

Including a relatively deep team in your draft plan is a good way to ensure that you end up with an acceptable deck with a decent curve. It's a conservative approach, but usually sensible.

Measuring the Infinite Crisis teams against each other, I think there is a significant divide in depth of characters between the teams. Remembering that I'm talking exclusively about characters at this stage, I'd rank the four main DCR teams …

  1. Villains United
  2. JSA
  3. Checkmate
  4. Shadowpact

Villains United topped this list because they had a good quantity of characters (the second best with 27) and importantly more commons to choose from, as well as a high level of average power. In particular, their two, three and five drop levels featured powerful characters at reasonable rarities.

JSA's second place is a bit deceiving, since they stacked the competition in their favour by having three more characters (30) than Villains United. A team can have the most powerful guys in print, but if they don't come in a decent quantity and at a low rarity, then that's simply not depth, in my opinion. JSA have particularly good depth at two, three, six and seven. The latter two make them a good choice as one of your team, just because most of the other teams have fewer cards at these slots.

Like JSA, Checkmate's third-place isn't necessarily a true reflection of their quality as a team. Despite having seven fewer characters than JSA, they scored just 0.5 less in terms of character depth. The quality of Checkmate's characters is generally very high and they are reasonably deep at the one, two and – to a lesser extent – five-cost levels. Arguably, the only reason Checkmate doesn't top this list is because there are just too few of them, especially at the six-drop and seven-drop level. Later, when we include non-character cards in the analysis, you can expect the spy organisation's stocks to rise.

Finally we have Shadowpact. I've already declared my bias against the magic manipulators of Infinite Crisis. The fact is, I have a really, really hard time winning with them. Perhaps as a result, they scored significantly lower than the other three teams. In addition to some concerns about the quality of their characters, there was also a problem with accessibility, as they have the same number of rares as JSA and VU, but fewer cards at the lower rarities. Shadowpact did have excellent four-drops and reasonable two-drops, though.

Non-character cards can sometimes have an almost intangible effect on a team's depth. Without the characters of that team you can't play those good team-stamped effects at all, so having the best plot twists and locations in the set, won't mean that much to depth if players have to play rubbish characters or splash heavily and hope for multiple team-ups to use them properly. This is why I ranked the teams based on their characters alone, instead of in their entirety in the first instance.

Looking at these cards, we see that what JSA have in warm bodies, they really lack in tricks. Conversely, while the characters can be slim pickings for Checkmate, almost all of their non-character cards are playable … and by and large they are awesome.

Villains United kind of falls somewhere in the middle of these two, having many good, playable non-character cards and a few bombs. Shadowpact potentially has the second best non-character cards in the set, although I'm still wary of them and their suicidal tendencies.

What this all means is that, when you consider the teams in their entirety, Villains United stays more or less put in terms of depth; JSA takes a bit of a tumble; Checkmate goes up a few gears; and Shadowpact mightn't be quite as bad as I think they are.

So, that leaves the big question – WHICH TEAM IS THE DEEPEST IN INFINITE CRISIS LIMITED?!?!?!

It's a photo-finish, in my opinion, but I'm going to just barely give it to Villains United ahead of Checkmate.

This may prove slightly controversial, but with four more characters to choose from, including four more commons, a number of big bomb characters and good team-up synergy with an affiliation that is often overlooked due to a lack of cards (Secret Six), I think Villains United can support more drafters (to an adequate degree) than Checkmate.

Checkmate, however, are almost definitely the most powerful team in the set. A skilled drafter with good play skills will revel in such a team, as they can use the affiliations many great non-character cards to out-play their opponent. Seeing good players do this, though, may lead more people to dabble in Checkmate, which in turn waters down their potency.

What do you think? Am I cuckoo … a big limited newb … or can you follow my crazy thought processes? I have never claimed to be a Vs expert, drafting or otherwise. I really would like to hear if people have opposing views on the Vs Paradise forums. Or, I can just follow Luke's lead and invite anyone who didn't like my articles to punch me in the neck. Hahahaha.

Good luck and good gaming,

Michael Pittman

*BAMF*

 

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