Things that make you go Boom!

I’m all about fun, casual decks. Thus, I hereby tip my hat to Planet Kalee’s latest post, where the man behind The Great VS Resolution tosses together an Illuminati deck. Why gosh, doesn’t it just make me want to put one together myself… but I can’t.

Not just yet.

Next week, Burlington’s Hobby League goes Modern, and I need to toss together two decks – one for me, and one for Babymomma Carrie. Carrie and her other half Pablo have busy lives nowadays with baby Emma; we’re absolutely thrilled that they’re still coming out to play with us, Emma in tow, despite trying to work with their respective theatre companies and running on what little sleep Emma allows them.

Thus, to take some of the pressure off of Pablo, I’ve offered to slap something together for Carrie to play.

Stipulations: Modern Legal, and pretty straightforward.

Pablo’s the family VS guru, Carrie’s a player and loves it but doesn’t have the depth of knowledge that rebounds through Pablo’s cranium. As such I can’t toss in anything too complicated or throw too many unfamiliar cards at her, or I may as well just be shooting her in the foot from the word go.

Now, the obvious choice for Modern for me is Family Of Four. I mentioned this earlier in the week. It’s not hard to play, it’s pretty darn bifftastic, and I’ve already got it assembled… but I have the urge to play something different.

So the questions, then, are what deck DO I play, and do I really want to hand Carrie Family of Four? Hee…

We’ve already covered the facts that I like mono-affiliation decks, I’m mainly a Marvel collector in the past, and even then I only collect specific teams. As such, we have available to us:

• MTU: Spider Friends, Defenders
• MVL: Fantastic Four, Marvel Knights
• DCL: Secret Society

I didn’t collect playsets of any of DWF’s teams, and my DCL SecSoc playsets still have gaping holes in them (Hey Mister, can you spare a Black Manta?), so that leaves us with the four Marvel teams. If we look to avoid the obvious Family of Four deck, that leaves us with three teams to choose from for the two decks.

For today’s rambling nonsense, let’s make something that goes boom. I was tempted to grab Powell from last week’s deck, but that would have just railed against my mono-favoritism.

At the one-drop slot I’m going to run Black Widow: Femme Fatale, and Frank Drake: Nightstalker. The Widow gives us a hidden attacker, a means to get rid of opposing 1-drops, and dammit, I loves me a red-headed Russkie superspy. Frank’s a self-sacrificing soul who both pumps an a pal, and removes himself as a potential breakthrough magnet. What a good lad he is.

At two, I’m completely giving in to whimsy. Blade: Vampire Slayer and Blade: Nightstalker. One’s hidden and adds burn, the other’s visible and  packs an anti-readying effect. Both are pretty nifty in their own right, and the sheer concept of running 7-8 of the same character, albeit different versions, at the same drop just tickles my funny bone. It also helps that that’s a heck of a lot of powerups for the two-drop.

Three makes my brow crinkle, since there’s fun stuff. Morbius doesn’t do much damage, but the 6 point endurance swing is nice. Echo stuns ANYONE for 3 endurance. Cloak lets us hide people, or move opposing blockers out of the way. Ghost Rider gets a nice big attack. Marvel Boy cycles equipment, Spidey adds an exhaustion effect. Who to choose? WHO TO CHOOSE???

Four’s a little easier. Elektra slaps people to the face oh so nicely… and to give us a visible alternative, since I’m trying to have both options at each drop, Punisher’s KO-when-equipped effect is just too nice.

At five we’ll grab Vengeance – I hear he’s very grabbable. Of course, he burns whenever you squeeze him too tight… so let’s give our opponents the opportunity.

At six, to finish our little curve, we’ll go with Hulk. We need to finish it on turn 6, so we may as well make a big impression. Go big, or go home…

Now, why do we need to finish on turn 6? Because we’re running four Rigged Explosives, and the ideal plan is to flip two up on turn 2. That way, unless we’re smooshed prior to turn 6, our opponent’s taking a 20 pt burn at the start of the combat phase, and we’re losing two resources.  Like I said, I want to make a deck that goes BOOM!

For tutors, we’ll run four Wild Rides, two Heroes of Two Worlds, and a single Call In a Favor. Cos I only own two Ho2, and one CIaF. Meh. Seven tutors means we should be good running half a dozen characters at each drop, though we need to run three of each to make them viable for Ho2W.

We want to include equipment for Punisher (and Marvel Boy), so Katana’s are a good start. Brass Grills are a nice followup. In terms of pumps we’ll go with the functional reprint of one of my favourite defensive pumps, Defensive Formation, if only because I haven’t used it in a deck yet (and we can give range to those few characters that don’t have it with Desert Eagles), Big Leagues for some bifftasticness, and since I can’t find my Blind Sided’s right now, we’ll go with the poor man’s alternative and run Monkey Business. Either moves a reinforcer, or pulls a protected character out to be smacked. Not as groovy, but not completely useless.

So, at 60 cards, the deck I wish had Ben Grimm in it so that I could legitimately call it….

Things that make you go Boom!

• 3x Frank Drake: Nightstalker
• 3x Black Widow: Femme Fatale
• 3x Blade: Vampire Slayer
• 3x Blade: Nighstalker
• 3x Marvel Boy: Noh-Varr
• 3x Morbius: Biochemical Bloodsucker
• 3x Punisher: Guns Blazing
• 3x Elektra: Masterless Assassin
• 3x Vengeance: Spirit of Vengeance
• 3x Hulk: Savage Hulk
• 3x Katana
• 3x Desert Eagle
• 2x Brass Grill
• 4x Rigged Explosives
• 4x Wild Ride
• 2x Heroes of Two Worlds
• 1x Call In a Favor
• 4x Big Leagues
• 4x Defensive Formation
• 3x Monkey Business

Each drop has one visible and one hidden option – choose as needed. There’s three of each character, so Ho2W can hunt out any of ‘em.

Turn one, ideally? Rigged Explosives in the resource row, either 1-drop character. Natasha if your opponent has one-drops, Frank if not.

Turn two, a second Rigged explosives, and lets go with Blade. Flip both Rigged’s.

Turn three onwards, just beat where you can, use the Desert Eagles to spread Range around to those who don’t have it naturally, using Noh-Varr if needed to help. Punisher gives you a KO effect, just do some damage until the bombs explode, and save a Monkey Business to ensure you get the most out of Hulk.

Pretty straightforward, nothing tricksy, and yet it goes BOOM!. The kind of deck that makes me smile.

Now, of course, I need to decide if I want to play this one myself, or to pass it on to Carrie. Ah, the decisions never end.

Next post: The second Modern deck?