Keeping it Fresh - Part One
Well it has been a while since I have graced the pages of Vs Paradise with an article. What has changed since I last put fingers to keyboard? Well a hell of a lot really. Two new sets have been released since I wrote my last article. Now I am not going to sit here and tell you how Web of Spiderman changed the constructed side of the meta-game because that would be a waste of my time and, well lets be honest, you already know what it did and would most likely stop reading at this point.
I would like to talk about the additional cards that were added to the DC Origin teams. Will the new titans cards see any play? Will Emperor Joker and discard decks actually work.......ever? Well Strap your self in 'cause it's a bumpy ride through the ups and downs of the additions to Teen Titans and League of Assassins in part one of Keeping it Fresh.

Lets start off with the additions to the titans.
Character wise they get three new people to play with. A new Roy Harper, a new Donna Troy and a new version of Kid Flash All that plus a new plot twist
Lets have a look at the pro's and con's of each card

Donna Troy <> Troia, Child of Myth

When I first saw this card I really didn't think to much of it. Nothing much has made me change my opinion on it. I can see the synergy between this and New Teen Titans but to be honest I think that playing a New Teen Titans and the paying 1 endurance for a 3/2 to ready and cause no breakthrough if a bit rough. Even if you did power him up through pitching another Wally West there are much more efficient ways to ready your Titans that have already attacked.
Is he going to see much play? I doubt it. I think Hank and Robin are going to be the Titans 2 drops for a while. He certainly could never replace Robin; and Hank's ability to fix your curve is just great, but hey, prove me wrong. I would love to see someone really break this card, 'cause lets face it Titans aren't broken enough as it is!

Roy Harper <> Speedy, Mercurial Marksman

Well considering what the original Roy Harper did for Titans in his common form I was a little nervous when I heard that the new Man of Steel set would have him in rare form. He does have the ability to KO Boris or Alfred turn 1 and you can do the usual exhausting of Titans to pump him, if only by +1 attack this time. The one major problem with this card is not it's abilities, which I personally think are great. It's not the power and toughness, it comes down to uniqueness. I personally prefer the 3 drop, and I think that I may not be the only one on that band wagon, to much to play this version. Titans have enough of a problem with uniqueness as it is. I want as many characters out as possible every turn in most cases and this version of Roy stops me doing that. I have tested this guy out and I just didn't think that he was worth the slots that he was taking.

New Teen Titans

When one of my friends first showed me this all I could think of was Red Star's ability. Now anyone who has played Titans or who has played against Titans knows the synergy between Robin and Red Star. For those that have been living under a rock this is the way that is goes. Team attack with Red Star and some other Titans while you have Robin in play. Power-up Red Star in some way. One of your Titans would get stunned in the process, however Robin's card text states that "If a team attacker you control would become stunned you may stun another team attacker you control instead" so you say to you opponent that you will stun Red Star instead of which ever other character they choice. There is a wonderful location called Tamaran that lets you place the top card of your deck in your KO'd pile to power-up a Titans character you control. The need to draw Tamaran when you have Robin and Red Star out has just been reduced. If you do not have Tamaran flipped in you resource row just play New Teen Titans and no one gets stunned.
This is a good card. Will it see play? I would think so. Maybe be not in huge numbers, that is, I would only run 2 in a Titans deck that already runs Tamaran but it will be around without a doubt. It seems to be more of a back up card in case you cannot get Tamaran out.

Well that is it for the Titans. Now lets move on to League of Assassins or LoA as I will refer to it from now on because it take way to long to type League of Assassins every time I refer to the team.
Man of Steel gave LoA 2 new characters, 1 new location and 1 new plot twist. Let us begin with the characters

Bronze Tiger, Benjamin Turner

Both this and the new location that LoA have received from Man of Steel revolve around LoA characters being stunned

Which fits in nicely with Lazarus Pit. League really needed a solid 2 drop and this guy is great especially when you have a few Lazarus Pit's out and a couple of stunned characters in play.
Now I am no LoA player. I have seen it played and played against it a few time and from the builds that I have seen it looks like this guy is a must for the deck. His ability in combination with Pit of Madness make him very decent card.

Merlyn, Deadly Archer

This character, to me is what has made LoA a chance at being tier 1. To start with he is a decent 4 drop with 7/7 stats through in his cosmic ability and he is just great. Lady Shiva has always seemed to me to be on of the best abilities that I have ever read. The fact that she is 13/13 for a 7 drop made her balanced. Merlyns ability is very similar to the Ladies with the draw back of it being dependent on the number of locations that you control. When you are playing LoA though you want as many locations out as possible, in fact during the Adelaide PCQ I witnessed this guy shot a 6 drop on turn 7. Now maybe that was insane draws and some luck with 6 drop Ra's either way it proved how good a card this is.

Pit of Madness

Well who would have guessed that the location dependent League would have got another location with the new DC set? Not really something that I would have bet against my self :)
As far as locations go for LoA this is a good one. It's synergy with Lazarus Pit make this great. It also makes you opponent think twice about their attacks. Especially if they want to stun as many of you characters as they can in a turn, and that is pretty much the idea of attacking.

The Demon's Head

I always thought that the one thing that League needed was a location tutor, obviously the nice people in R&D were listening to my thoughts again and gave all the devote LoA players this little gem. Now not only does this give LoA a great way of getting their Mountain Strongholds and other locations but it is making LoA a very liable team to use with New God's. Now I haven't really thought this team up out too well but when I first saw this card the finer details of my New God's deck was still rattling around in my head. I saw this and thought "tutor for The Source......hmmmmmmmm nasty" While that may have been the extent of my little excursion with this interesting team up a friend of mine took the idea and ran with it. It does indeed make a very nasty team up.

In summary, Teen Titans have not really got a great deal from the new set. I do like the new Donna Troy and will be using her in my build and I know Brave and the Bold players that have already added her into the mix. The other two characters are not bad but they just aren't quiet good enough to take the existing 1 and 3 drop slots. As I just mentioned when we look at Titans we can't just think about the pure Titans build but also have to think about Brave and the Bold builds. I really can't see a B&B player adding either the 1 drop Roy or the 3 drop Wally to their builds. Like I said they aren't bad cards it's just that there are strictly better cards.
League has gotten a lot of attention since Man of Steel's release. Not just in the straight LoA build but also teamed up with Gotham Knights, My Beloved style. To be honest I had put League down as a tier 2 team but with 2 League decks making through to the top 4 in the Adelaide PCQ I had to re-think my initial evaluation of them. They are a good team but it takes a certain player to really bring the best out in them. That, however, can be said about most decks, while I may be able to play Common Enemy exceptionally well it does not mean that I can play Titan's well. Any way I have gotten side tracked.

Next time I will be jumping into the additions to Gotham and Arkham.
Until then, have fun and play nice

Matt
(Psyclic in the forums)

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