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Enchante Chang
Fire in the Disco - Part 2
Enchante Chang
May 1, 2006
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Fire in the Disco - Part 1

Next up, card by card analysis:

Characters

4 Electric Eve

This little she-devil is often your best 1 drop. We found out that she on average would do the most damage on turn 1. She causes 4 endurance loss on turn 1 when you attack an empty board or 3 when they have a 1 drop. She can double evade after attacking on the empty board or trade stuns and recover to do 3 when attacking. The other big thing about her is if she has Hardware on her, she will cause 4 endurance loss per turn for the rest of the game (recovering). However, if you have even initiative and your opponent played a 1-drop, Ratcatcher or King Snake is often better.

4 Ape X

Rates a close 2nd to the best 1 drop of choice, he loses out because you almost don't ever want to play him on turn 1 unless you have no other choice. Good to play him on turn 2 if you don't have a Hardware, if you do, you could get a Jetpack or play a different 1-drop say King Snake. On turn 5, he gets you Flamethrower to burn for lots more.

3 King Snake

I think his nickname was Kingy in testing. He was a little champion and was a 4 of until Ratcatcher was introduced. You always prayed for your opponent to play a 1 drop when you laid this guy first turn. I want to stun dammit! Kingy is also a guaranteed 2 damage on the later turns because he can either attack an empty board or just ram into a 4-5 drop. Finally King Snake gets the recognition he deserves!

2 Ratcatcher

This guy did not really get recognised until 2 weeks prior to the $10K. We only felt 2 was necessary as you needed room for a variety of 1-drops to avoid uniqueness and he did not do as much damage during the early stages of the game as the others did. He did do uber damage during the latter stages of the game, and if he went unchecked in the early stages of the game, he will do 10 all by himself with ease.

2 Chomin

Being concealed helps what this deck wants, and that is to be able to keep board presence. However having too many concealed means you can't have equipment, so being Concealed-Optional is great as he can be visible when needed. Chomin's stun ability also helps ensure you can kill your opponent by turn 5 and get around cards like Power Compressor.

2 Mikado and Mosha

Originally there was only 1 in the deck, but in the end 2 was put in because we felt that in a lot of games you wanted to use her twice, especially true of Titans because of Dawn. Very rarely would you put the twins of terror into play. The twins also allow you to maintain board advantage going into turn 3 if your opponent had curved out, meaning more firepower for later turns.

1 Micro-Chip

There for Wild Ride target, not as good as the other 1 drops because it usually does less damage over the course of the game. Having the flip PT down is a good bonus on him when you have Surprise Attack or Wild Ride in the row. One trick with him against decks with cards that can stun/KO your guys is to play him on turn 5/6 and try to equip him, that way when they try to hit him you don't lose as much...and if they let your equipment hit then GT's.

3 Black Panther, King of Wakanda

1 of 2 cards that made this deck possible. I'm guessing your wondering why this is a 3 of? Well it is quite simple, you have 3 Black Panther's, 4 Wild Rides and 4 Enemy of my Enemy, which means you have 11 Black Panthers! Having a 7/4 3 drop is insane (hello Lady Lark…no not the one from MXM) but having no down side and being able to burn your opponent for 3 is just GAS! Works just like Ape X in the latter stages of the game by being able to fetch Flame Thrower. Your ideal turn 5 is actually Black Panther w/ Flame Thrower and Ape X w/ Flame Thrower!

4 Golden Archer

In testing we found that you almost never want to play this guy in your resource row unless you had 2 or you had no PT's because you wanted to use him for EmE. This guy is very solid. He will stun things back on turn 4 and burn for 4 or 5 (as you need to hold some ammo back for later). With Jetpack he can stun back 5-drops and burn…excellent.
"Always knew Freddie Mercury was the man!"

1 Fiero

Shaun had many alternate 4 drop's to choose from and in the end he choose Fiero because of her big arse (not that you can see it) and having the option of being concealed. Why is being in the concealed good? It means that you get to keep Black Panther and Electric Eve around for another turn and do insane amounts of damage on turn 5. Oh and burn for 6…meh.

Plot Twists

4 Wild Ride

This tutor is so good, because it got you Mikado and Mosha/Black Panther when you needed them most. It could also be fodder for Enemy of my Enemy. Having a threshold of 1 also means it is almost impossible not to have a 1 drop pre and post mulligan.

4 Enemy of my Enemy

There is a reason this card is worth $40. It is absolutely insane, being able to get anything. It is going to be the IT card for a very long time (well, for 2 years anyways). In this deck it practically gets you anything you want from turn 3 onwards. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

4 Surprise Attack

More often than not, this card will do 5 endurance loss and a lot of the times more than once a game. Taking 1/10th of your opponents endurance is so awesome. Having 2 on turn 1 and your opponent starting on 40 is even more awesome. There is no end to the awesomeness that is Surprise Attack. AWESOME! Placing Surprise Attack in the resource row means that Micro-Chip has the option to flip it down later but not at the expense of doing less burn. Did I mention this card was awesome?

4 Die for Darkseid!

If Surprise Attack is awesome, then this card is wack, and not just the regular type, its wickity wack. On average it burns for the same amount Surprise Attack would. The drawback on the card is a lot of the times is not a drawback, especially when you are playing against Betrayal. Don't waste this card early, remember 1 thing, you will always have guys to sac on the fundamental turn (the FT).

4 Flying Kick

Pretty much the same reasons why they were in Squadron except you would almost never waste it while defending. It only does 3 endurance less (being less than the 3.57 mentioned earlier) but being able to break formations is nuts. Despite this, it should be used as early as possible in some matches.

4 Mega-Blast

Same with flying kick except it does 4 endurance loss (above 3.57). Note that it should be used as early as possible in some matches while in others saved as a pump. *Piang* *Piang* *Piang!*

2 A Death in the Family

Brought in to combat Glock but more specifically Dr. Light; it also serves another purpose of making opponent's only character go bye-bye, be that a 1-drop, 2-drop or 3-drop. What this essentially means is that your guys get to stick around because they can never multiple stun you and the more likely you will kill on turn 4. The drawback of this card is much easier paid than others like finishing move as those cards prevent you from cause more endurance loss.

Equipment

4 Advanced Hardware

The best equipment in the deck and is justified with 4 in the deck. It makes your guys bigger so they stun other characters back and burns for 3 while doing so. Usually burns for at least 6 a game because you usually put it on the character you will keep going into the next turn, namely King Snake or Electric Eve.

2 Flamethrower

2 is a good number for this card, I don't think you would want to ever draw this card except for turn 5 and then that is still a maybe as drawing Ape X means having a character to equip it to.. What this card does best is it can burn for 5, instead of the 3 from Advanced Hardware. The 2nd benefit this card has is it can bypass Power Compressor.

2 Jetpack

There used to be 4 of these and a Dual Sidearms because we built this deck quite like Squadron. As testing went along and more cards needed to be added in, namely 1-drops, cards had to be cut. Jetpack just wasn't doing enough and you would almost always want other things. There is merit to go to 1 but we didn't want to always get it with Ape X because the primary target for Ape X was Advanced Hardware. Oh and the reason we played Jetpack over Thunder Jet because we did not want to run into the case of someone playing Thunderbolts/Brotherhood with Misappropriation…how random are we.

Cards that did not make the cut:

2-drops:

Pyro, Shape, Melissa Gold (6/3) and Roulette.

First off there was a comparison between Ape X and Pyro. Pyro did 3 burn all the time, however he came at a steep 2 resource point cost. Ape X with Jetpack would be a 3/1 for 1 cost or a 4/1 that burns for 3 for 2 cost, in noob talk this means, you have options, and options are always better than no options. Being a 4/1 is also strictly better than a 2/2, as a 2/2 would often not stun the opponents 2 drop.

The 2nd complication was, even if you did not have Advanced Hardware, 3 1-drops would almost always better than a 1 and 2-drop. Advanced Hardware would always be a waste on him and therefore he would almost never stun back your opponents drops, at least King Snake would do 2 and Eve/Ratcatcher would do 1.

Removing the 2-drops meant that the number of 1-drops increased and that meant that mulligans weren't so frequent and even if you did, you would draw into 1-drops. The increase of 1-drops also meant that if you missed Ape X and Advanced Hardware on turn 2, you could still have an army out that was capable of doing insane amounts of damage. E.g. any combination of Chomin/Ratcatcher/Eve and King Snake.

Lastly, if you remember from the beginning of the article, we talked about maximizing the damage each card you draw would do. By recruiting a 2-drop the other cards won't be able to maximize damage dealt.

Copperhead

1-drop with evasion and with a nice boost incase the deck didn't cough up some equipment. However, he did nothing on his own unlike all of the other 1-drops in this deck.

Tommy

Very much like Copperhead except she had something going for her, the ability to have 2 1-drop on turn 1 or 4 1-drops on turn 2. Still didn't make the cut in the end because she did nothing by herself.

"Please don't see me, please don't see me" - Tommy
"We see you, but we still don't want you" - TFH

Gole

Nice ability, however, he was just too small at 1/1 and the potential to do less to no damage at times. GGGGGOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Invisible Woman, Marvel Girl

The ability to negate an attack meant two things, you got to keep your board and you got to keep Advanced hardware to burn for more. Being a 1/1 however did not help the cause and we wanted something more pro-active.

Ted Kord

It was two things Ted's downfall and I'm not even talking about Maxwell Lord. First, you had to discard to get an equipment, but because every card is so valuable and has the potential to do damage, it was like you trading your Savage Beatdown for a Savage Beatdown. Secondly, Ted has to exhaust to get an equipment which meant that if you wanted to equip him with Advanced hardware, he wasn't burning that turn.

Roy Harper <> Speedy

Random hate? ...nah…kill you now…better...POW…BAM…BOOF!

Commissioner Gordon

See Roy Harper.

Kang, Kang Cobra

See Commissioner Gordon

Melissa Gold <> Songbird, Sonic Carapace

Good as a late drop because she is cheap and big, however we did not want any cards that would suck if we drew it early.

Mark Moonrider

Could have been in the deck but found replacing Black Panther was almost just as good. Being a 3/4 meant that he almost never stunned back and when he stunned; you lost his burn which wasn't hot.

Bishop

A big King Snake, however Golden Archer just did more. We did consider him for a while though and was quite insane with Advanced Hardware, the lack of flight cost him his place in the end.

Jester

He could move around your equipment and randomly steel opponent's equipment. However, he made a fool of himself (HAHA! Get it…Boing!) by not doing anything when there was no equipment around.

Rogue

Can copy Golden Archer but otherwise not that useful because she did nothing on her own.

John Henry Irons <> Steel

Will usually be an 11/11 or sometimes even a 13/11, however, it is normally better to play more 1-drops or replay Golden Archer and a 1 drop like Chomin. Having reservist however was one of the reason's why he almost made the cut.

Trapped in the Sciencelis

AMAZING against many decks including Control and Reservist, almost never dead, but often not that useful because those decks aren't so prominent.

Insect Swarm

Versatility is the name of the card (actually it isn't), It can just do 2 burn or return a character you control like Golden Archer or Ape X so you can replay them to do more endurance loss. It could have been in there if A Death in the Family wasn't.

Scarecrow, Psycho Psychologist

Was in the original decks and his boost ability makes sure you have some sort of game on turn 6 as well. Scarecrow lost his place because we wanted to make the deck more consistent.

Firestar, Hellion

So almost made the deck, possibly a better Scarecrow and has reservist. But it was hard to figure what to take out and we just wanted to make the deck consistent.

Next Up, Match-up Analysis (or at least the ones we tested):

What I am going to do for this part is a little strange, High Voltage almost has the same exact game plan against every deck so it is going to be boring if I say, the idea play is, Eve turn 1, King Snake and Advanced Hardware on Eve turn 2. There are subtle differences and I will mention them (in italics), but otherwise, I am going to talk about the match-up analysis like I would be playing against HV.

Good Guys

This match up was probably really different to what how other people would have tested this match because we had 4 Total Anarchy in the deck mostly to combat Titans. However, it was also good against High Voltage and helped to turn the tide a little.

What Good Guys had going for it was both a good and a bad thing. It had the ability to curve out from turn 1 which would stem the bleeding, but yet if HV had Kingy on the board then they would take more damage! Good Guys didn't really have anything in the deck to stop what HV did except for Bwahahahaha! on Flying Kick's and Mega-Blast. In testing we found that if you wanted to play the Kicks and Blast then you have to play them pre-combat step otherwise Bwahahahaha! could wreck you. Total Anarchy helped but it only really helped if the GG player could keep his board, otherwise it was trading guys for guys, meaning that GG did not have a board and that Fire would not burn for much.

A tough match up for GG and would be around 75/25 to HV's favour. 60-65/40-35 if you have Total Anarchy and play it right.

Teen Titans

Teen Titans have a better match against HV then GG has because of Roy (both of them) and Terra. Speedy can just knock off the 1-drops in the early game and if he can do this by also knocking out an equipment with his rubber glove then the more power to him. We found that Speedy had to be used carefully because he denied you a card in your draw step (which I found out a lot of players did during the $10K). By denying yourself the draw you don't have enough gas to beat the HV player because turn's 3-4 they don't play 1-drops if they can help it and the later turns, they play multiple 1-drops and Speedy can't do it all. Arsenal is the Titans best 3-drop and I never saw any one actually play him on turn 3 against HV, always playing the Hank/Dawn instead. Playing Roy on turn 3 is only because you want to able to use him in tandem with Terra on turn 4. Garth is actually really bad in this match because his ability is a hindrance and getting to 5 resources means you didn't play Roy on turn 3. Betrayal helps heaps against HV and there is a distinct advantage for Titan players that run betrayal.

Don't be conservative with Flying Kick and Mega-Blast in this match-up because a lot of Titans players have Heroic Sacrifice which will negate your pumps and on turn 4 they will have Terra making attacking with anything that cost 3 or less almost unviable. Die for Darkseid has to be used conservatively against decks playing with Betrayal because you can avoid being Betrayed and if they attack wrong, they will suffer dire consequences. E.g. Board is Black Panther w/ Advanced Hardware and Golden Archer being protected. Titans has Terra, Hank and Dawn. Activate Terra on Black Panther (titans gets burnt for 3), they then play Betrayal and in response Die for Darkseid on Black Panther. Betrayal is negated and the titans player has no option but to team attack Golden Archer. HV player responds with Wild Ride and gets Mikado and Mosha stunning Dove…Good Game.

Match-up: 65/35 to HV

Common Enemy

This match up is like a bye, seriously there is nothing the CE player can do except pray the HV player has the worst draw in the history of VS. The CE player gets dealt so much damage during the early game that when Doom does come online and Reign of Terror is a factor, they are just going to get burn out when the HV player gets to play his Ape X or Black Panther again on turn 5 for the win, and no power compressor isn't going to help because they will get Flame Thrower's for the win. Squadron didn't like Reign of Terror because their guys sucked, but HV has no problem with this and could even just discard their cards via EmE and not search for anything. The other little chance the CE player has is if he plays Betrayal and hopes that he curves out and gets at least 3 betrayals by turn 3.

Match-up: 93/7 to HV

Squadron Supreme

Remember how I said that High Voltage did exactly what Squadron did with an exception? That exception was High Voltage was better at what Squadron does. The Squadron player ideally wants to curve out with Joystick, Shape, Lady Lark, Archer. This way your guys are big and can try to deal with what HV has, your champion cards are Other-Earth and Panacea Potion because them burning you actually does less then them attacking you to the face. Remember that this match is a pure race and if you can finish it on turn 4 all the better, be careful of Mikado and Mosha if you want to attack up the curve with a pump. 70/30 in favour of High Voltage

Glock

This is one of the hardest match-ups for HV. We tested this matchup the most after expecting a fairly large amount of the Auckland 10 K metagame to be made up of Glock. From the Glock perspective this matchup is all about surviving past turn 5, the rest after that is academic and you should be able to finish the HV player off. I found the cards of paramount importance for the matchup are Dr Light and Blackhand. If you're able to keep a few characters on the board gaining endurance off Blackhand as much as possible this will set you up nicely to win the match (this means saving lanterns in love for Blackhand if possible). Your tutor target from Kyle is rain of acorns strangely, it seems ineffective as HV can simply burn you to the face but means more importantly you will keep your guys on the board, also chopping block from the hand to knock out the biggest threat is important too.. Your 4 drop of choice is Oliver Queen hopefully you can shoot a target out while equipment is on the chain to also remove the equipment. Turn 5 with Katma Tui and a reasonable amount of endurance signals the end of the match as HV cant keep up with life gain from there if Dr. Light is still around, if he isn't then Glock can't gain as much life with Katma Tui and Blackhand might not be on the table either.

The testing also prompted one of the last minute changes for HV the addition A Death in the Family was as an answer to Dr Light. Which is a price HV is more than happy to pay, but if you know your opponent is playing that then saving Lanterns in Love to respond to it will be a good idea but this won't happen if the HV player is smart enough.

This is the only match-up that does not favour High Voltage in the testing that we did, and is around 50-60/50-40 in favour of Glock if that person has play tested the match up well.

Avengers

Avengers is a pure race against High Voltage as most decks against High Voltage are about. Thus it is of utmost importance that you can curve out, but also have pumps in tandem.

Choosing your 3 drops depends on your initiative and what characters are out, but having Quicksilver is usually the best (since he is visible) and great if you have the initiative because most of HV's 1-drop's can't stun him even with an Advanced Hardware, which makes team-attacking so much better. However on turn 4 it should be noted that Dr Druid is often better than Hawkeye if you have the initiative or not, just being a 7/8 is good because none of the standard High Voltage characters naturally stun him and you save 3 more damage compared with Hawkeye. The 2nd bonus is giving +2 Def to your drops on turn 4 and 5 it can be the difference on winning and losing.

When attacking and using your pumps, try and use them carefully. Try to use Savage Beatdown when attacking directly or attacking Golden Archer otherwise you run the possibility of running into Die for Darkseid. This applies to Heroes in Reserve/Avengers Mansion or when multiple pumps are used on a single character for a single attack. In this match up (like all match ups against HV) pumping your 1-drops to attack up the curve is a big no-no, running into Mikado & Mosha is bad times.

This is one of the match ups where the High Voltage player should consider Fiero on turn 4 (this will mean you take more damage that turn but will also mean you are able to do more damage on the following turn as you'll have more characters left to burn with. You will have to judge it yourself. (though it's worth noting not only does Golden Archer soak 2 damage but he will also cause stun-back which will cause another 3-4 damage plus MAY leave your opponent down one character).

In this match up High Voltage should not use pumps too freely. They are sometimes needed to stun things like Dr Druid and 5-drops. Use them if you can get the opponent to around 10-15 by the end of turn 4.

Morlocks/Spider Friends and Morlock Aggro

Not quite as cut-and-dried as Common Enemy, but very favourable, depending on the build. The Morlock evasion doesn't really start doing much attacking until Hump and Marrow hit the table. And that's if they even play Hump, as Storm seems the primary 4-drop for this deck. The evasion damage from their guys means that they are just helping you along, by burning themselves. The real problem for the Morlocks is that combat tricks like Backs Against the Wall and Last Stand are just wasted cards, and they lack the attack pumps to finish the game quickly. Ratcatcher is your best 1-drop, for obvious reasons. It boils down to: they can't disrupt your gameplan, and they have a slower clock. You should win 80 - 85% here. Although the Morlock Aggro deck is faster, you will stun back every time and take a load of breakthrough. This is more of a race though. If you can't finish the game on turn 4, and they have odds, then you could be in trouble on turn 5. Still, you are much more consistent, and your good draw should beat theirs. I'd put this one at about 65% win for you.

Faces (w/ and w/o Dr.Light)

All the games were close but faces almost always lost, the problem was the deck needed one more character to win every time. With Dr. Light I am sure this match-up will be much harder and Scott Hunstad proved it when a win over Shaun during the swiss. What you want to do is make sure you have some board presence so birthing chamber/wrecking crew can do the most they can do. Attack through the board even if you lose more characters because you want to push the damage, this can be done even on off-initiative by not reinforcing as you were usually stun the attacking character back because their characters are relatively small. This match up is in favour of High Voltage if you play no Dr.Light say 80/20 but if you have Dr. Light and hit him then your chances of winning go up a lot and it is probably a close to even match.

The sole reason why A Death in the Family was in High Voltage was to combat Dr. Light. It was a very late addition to the deck and we did not get to test as much as we did for that card, maybe it should have been 3 copies. The big problem with the card is it doesn't do any endurance loss to your opponent but it does pseudo-endurance loss because your opponent is less a character and you might be able to attack directly.

Hopefully what I have written above has given you some notion about how the deck was built and how some of the match-up's are like, we as a team were very proud that the deck had done so well and if we all had tested the deck more then perhaps we all would have played it. As I write this, High Voltage has won another $10K and proves that what Shaun and the rest of The Four Horsemen was no fluke. Last thing to note when you play test against High Voltage and it also applies to play testing against other decks is: When can they kill you? When can they take control? When do you use pumps? If you can sort these out for each matchup then you will have a more in depth understanding against those match up's

I'd like to thank all the members of my VS Team: The Four Horsemen (ShaunHay-Shaun, Replicant-Nik, DazDaz-Darryn) for the contributions they've made to building High Voltage and this article, you guys rock! DANGER! DANGER! HIGH VOLTAGE!

Until Next Time VS Fans, Same VS Time, Same VS Channel.

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