Crime Lords Guest Article: Pretty in pink!

Without a doubt one of the coolest things about being a part of the ongoing VS blogosphere revolution is diving headfirst into a huge pile of blogs written by guys cooler than a bunch of rather cold things. One of them won my affection simply by the premise of his blog - the immense undertaking, to create a deck for every affiliation in VS by the end of the year.

KaleeshWarrior heads up Planet Kalee,  where he tickles our frontal lobes with decks revolving around that wonderful concept, fun. If a deck just happens to be competitive as well, great, but the core of this talented writer’s blog is sharing his love of the game.

Lost Hemisphere is proud to welcome guest writer KaleeshWarrior, as we present for your enjoyment his contribution to Crime Lords Month - the prettiest ninja ever to wear pink tabi, Kirigi.

Ninjas are always a beautiful sight. Who doesn’t want to be a ninja? No rules, no problems, you just sneak around in the shadows and cut people’s heads off. Is there a better life?

I’m here doing a guest on Lost Hemisphere because gdaybloke asked if I was interested. My response was something along the lines of “Of course I’m interested!” So I sent gday a list of guys from the Crime Lords that I was willing to do a bit of a write-up on and he let me know which ones were still available. When I found out that demon ninja Kirigi was open for an article, how could I not pounce at that opportunity?

Kirigi is a ninja. I mean, what else could he be considering the fact that he runs around in robes with a sword? Now, Kirigi is no ordinary ninja. According to legend, he has existed ever since the times of feudal Japan. His name is enough to invoke fear in all other ninjas. Kirigi first appears in Marvel Comics when he is resurrected by the Jonin, leader of The Hand, in a trap to kill Elektra and Daredevil. The two red-clad vigilantes had thought they were going to assassinate the Jonin but instead ran into the legendary Kirigi.

They fight for the first time, during the course of which Elektra stabs Kirigi through the chest with both of her sais. The legendary ninja doesn’t even flinch, pulls out the sai, and keeps on going. Elektra is finally able to end the fight after stabbing Kirigi a third time, this time with the ninja’s own sword. This forces the assassin to run off and lick his wounds in an abandoned church, killing anyone that got in his way.

After taking a day to heal his wounds through meditation and mystic ointments, Kirigi attacked Elektra another time. After another long battle, Elektra was forced to flee. She jumped into a semi-truck and, well, we’ll let pictures tell how this battle ended.

Now, Kirigi’s Vs. System incarnation shows just how bad this ninja was.

Six-drop 12/11 with Loyalty. Well, that seems pretty lame right there. Payment effect that lets you attack hidden characters, big deal considering 99.9% of Crime Lords builds don’t really want to attack. However, his triggered effect is the bomb. If he’s the target of a plot twist, instant +2 attack. Let’s say an opponent targets him with Mystical Paralysis but you Pathetic Attempt it. He still gets the +2 because he was targeted so you just turned the opponent’s exhaust effect into an attack pump. This effect also turns a Flying Kick into a Savage Beatdown, a Savage Beatdown into a bigger Armageddon, an Armageddon into a Team Tactics using an oversized 4-drop. Kirigi loves his attack pumps.

So, with all that said, what sort of a build would Kirigi be good in? Well, he’d be really good in the sort of build that is rarely seen in Crime Lords: an aggro build.

Ninjas in the Night

Crime Lords
Golden Age

Characters:
4x Roscoe Sweeny-Fixer
4x Cobra-Klaus Vorhees
4x Mr. Hyde-Calvin Zabo
3x Owl-Leland Owlsley
3x Bullseye-Deadly Marksman
3x Masked Marauder-Frank Farnum
4x Deadpool-Wade Wilson
4x Kirigi-Master Assassin
1x Elektra - Leader of the Hand

Plot Twists:
4x Face the Master
4x Savage Beatdown
4x Crackshot
4x Flying Kick
4x Mobilize
3x Good Night, Sweet Prince
2x Uprising
2x Need for Speed

Locations:
3x Hand Dojo

This deck is really, really simple. You want even initiatives. You use Fixer to hit your curve. Cobra is a searching 2-drop that gets bigger when you hit your 3. Owl’s an off-drop who provides much needed flight. Bullseye is an oversized 4-drop and Masked Marauder is nearly free exhaustion which can open up a breakthrough window when the time is right. Deadpool is a 10/8 concealed who can swing up into a 6-drop with 13/8. Then you’ve got the all important Kirigi and Elektra who you should hopefully never be forced to play since she’ll likely get Pathetic Attempt-ed on sight.

You want to do a bunch of damage going into turn 6. On turn 6, you play Kirigi. Hidden area guys are pretty popular (Ahmed, Barbara) so you could very easily have a breakthrough window right there. If you do, pay the 5 endurance and swing Kirigi over into them with a bunch of pumps for huge damage (Say you’ve got Kirigi, a Crackshot, a Flying Kick, and a Beatdown. That’s a grand total of 29 attack on turn 6). If they try to reinforce, you can hit Good Night, Sweet Prince and make them lose it anyways. This is also an excellent time to play Need For Speed which can ready Kirigi and give him another +2 attack with which to smash face with.

In the event of an opponent not having hidden characters to smash, you simply use Masked Marauder to take care of a reinforcer, you swing Deadpool up to the opposing 6-drop for the stun, and then you swing down with Kirigi into whatever the lowest non-reinforceable drop is. Again, a half decent draw and Kirigi can win you the game right then and there.

Now, I’ve not playtested this deck but it looks decent-ish to me for a casual build. I could probably do better but I wanted to go as aggro as possible, just because it’s the opposite of what the Crime Lords are supposed to do. Anyone who wants to try to play this deck, let me know how it works.

Now that my article’s done, I’d like to thank gdaybloke for the opportunity to write this for Lost Hemisphere. It’s been a great honor to be given a guest spot on one of my favorite blogs. Thanks for reading this article, and don’t forget to always live life like there’s a ninja behind you waiting to kill you. Life’s much funner that way.