March Madness Deckcheck: Anti-Matter

by Gdaybloke

I’ve got an unabashed love for underdogs. Teams that just don’t get a lot of love, that no-one seems to froth over, that don’t have 100+ page strategy threads at VSRealms – these things are right up my alley.

I have playsets of every Squadron Supreme  card, every Manhunters card, even every Secret Six card (though admittedly, there’s not that many). Much as the Squadron had some success with their no-hand build before fading from the limelight, Anti-Matter had a brief moment of glory with the Anti-Green Lanterns before being pretty much written off by all and sundry in favour of… well, almost everything else.

DCL brought a little love back to the Anti-Matter affiliation with their twisted reflections of the JLA, but as great as they are in a hidden Injustice Gang build, I wanted to focus on something a little more “classic” for the March Madness deck.

That said, I’m always wary of tossing all my eggs in one basket, and traditionally play curve, so I couldn’t resist my own nature in ensuring that the deck had drops up to and including the 6-slot.

Bah, enough rambling. Deck!

• 8x Anti-Green Lantern: Army
• 3x Chomin: Qwardian Spy
• 3x Xallarap: Anti-Green Lantern Corps
• 2x Owlman: Earth 3
• 3x Fiero: Qwardian Conglomerate
• 1x Element Man: Qwardian Conglomerate
• 1x White Martian: Earth 3
• 1x Sinestro: Lantern in Exile
• 3x Q Field
• 3x Banished to the Anti-Matter Universe
• 3x Thunderous Onslaught
• 3x Birthing Chamber
• 3x Ring of the Sinestro Corps

8 Anti-Green Lanterns open the gate; 4/4 with flight and range makes them about the bifftasticiest 1-cost army character in the game, right? Sure, there’s that whole “At the start of the Recovery phase, toss this character in the KO pile like a piece of rubbish”, but until that happens you’ve got a 1-drop that can stun 1’2, 2’s, and even some 3’s. Or, ya know, just smack 4 points of damage straight to the face.

But you know, that’s just not enough, and UDE’s been kind enough to give us a new toy to play with – the Ring of the Sinestro Corp. The AGL’s going to self-KO anyway, so why the heck not! Let’s make him 6/6, then our little 1-drop suicide bombers can stun all the way up to 4-drops!

If Chomin decides to show his face, then our uber-AGL will even stick around for an extra turn or two… or, should we want a little more oomph, Hellooooo Xallarap. Pull out a ring and what do you get? An 11/11 3-drop. Need I point out that that’ll take down pretty much every bloody 5-drop in the game with the exception of DGL’s Rocket Red? A Manhunter card, for cryin’ out loud.

Characterwise, that’s pretty much what I’m hoping for in the early game – AGL’s, Chomin, Xallarap and rings.

But you know, the best laid plans of mice and blokes… so we’ve got some curve elements just in case.

Owlman makes any AGL’s we’ve got out a little larger off initiative. Fiero provides a wall for defense if we’re bleeding, with a little added burn. Element Man will let us pull hidden dudes out to be walls if needed, and White Martian is just another pump – one 5-drop if we have initiative, one if we don’t.

Sinestro’s there because I wanted a 6 in place, and well, his ability to remove a reinforcer or wall to the hidden area, nicely out of the way for smashy goodness, could prove real handy.

It’s why we’re running Banished to the Anti-Matter Universe, actually. Sure, it stops us stunning folks, but we want to kick hard and fast to the face wherever possible.

Thunderous Onslaught is a bonus pump (and unstunnable attackers means we have a defensive wall after it’s done), Q Field’s for our own hidden/visible shenanigans and some card draw, and yes, the deck should get one if not two uses out of Birthing Chamber as well.

Basically, the deck’s all about being smashy by having enormous (if self-destructive) attack values, and by removing those who would interfere with our smashiness to the hidden area. Nothing hideously complicated, just a lot of beating…

…as was proven in the first round by the Anti-Green Lanterns trampling all over Nightcrawler, Wolverine and Archangel: Aeroballistic

In an AGL build, those bloody Sinestro Corp Rings are teh borkens. W00t!