I can see clearly now

A lot of folks are finding inspiration in the previews for MUN that UDE is gracing us with lately. Inspiration, like beauty, is where you find it. Sometimes it’ll be from a single card, othertimes, from something a little more unusual.

Recently the Shanghai Sheraton took it upon themselves to create a more fun, less disturbing experience for its visitors during the week-long period it took to clean the grime off their windows.

How did they do this? Well, instead of frightening visitors with the sight of a stranger hanging outside their 18th story window with a bucket and wiper in hand, they now get to see a stranger in a mask and spandex! Still with a bucket and wiper…

So I pondered how to relate this rather unusual stunt into something VS related. At first, I pondered relating it directly to Spider-Man and wondering how to use him in an unusual manner. Then, I pondered just what they were doing - cleaning windows, clearing off all the grime to allow for better viewing.

Better viewing of what, exactly?

How about… Everything?

Yup, the entire point of this deck is just to see as much as you can. Winning isn’t everything, donchaknow

There’s a few teams out there with a bunch of tricks that let you look at stuff - the top few cards of your deck, your opponent’s hands, their face-down resources - and then there’s even toys like one of my favourite tools in the Midnight Toystore,  that let you look through your opponent’s entire deck. Yup, Philosopher’s Stone is teh borken ;P

Since one of my favourite combos back in the day was Perry White and the Daily Planet, and we’re talking about Vision and Team Supes has both X-ray and Heat Vision cards, let’s include toss some Team Superman characters into a deck and see what we can come up with.

Now, as addicted as I am to mono-team play, I’d rather have some more fun with this idea, so who else can we add? There’s a good half dozen or more teams out there that have team-stamped effects that let us look at stuff…

… but only one works hand in hand with Team Superman in a manner that makes TRHC’s Cliff feel all gooshy inside.

Let’s call in the Gotham Knights, what with their Batcomputers, and see what that gives us.

From Team Supes, fitting in with our theme, we have:

• Perry White
• Dubbilex
• Daily Planet
• X-Ray Vision

From Gotham we have:

• Harvey Bullock
• Crispus Allen
• Clocktower
• Batcomputer (DCL)
• Nine Lives

Huh. So two plot twists, two locations, and four characters. Two one-drops, two two-drops. Well, I guess we have our very-early drops. Since Batcomputer needs a Batman, we’d better toss one of them in pretty early as well.

But what about the rest of the deck? In terms of characters that let you look at stuff, there’s not a lot of options as you move up the curve, unless you look at…

The Illuminati.

Lo and behold, we have a curve from 2 through 7. Not exactly an abundance of multiple drops, but no worries, we’ve got some sincere filtering going on - we should be able to find what we need.

So… at one we’ll use Perry and Harvey; Perry because of his combo with Daily Planet, Harvey because he gives us visibility of our opponent’s hand. It’s either him or Uatu, and he’ll be a Gotham Knight to fuel Nine Lives or the Clocktower.

At two, Crispus and Black Bolt. I never liked Dubbilex, I’m pretty sure he said something negative about my mother once. Black Bolt, on the other hand, I’m pretty sure he’s never said any such thing, and he’s packing the Illuminati version we’ll be relying on for what little pumping this deck will have,

At three, we need that Batman, so let’s grab Problem Solver. Why Problem Solver over Founding Member? Concealed-Optional. If we’re going to use Perry, we need someone visible protecting him, and if we don’t get Crispus on two, we’ve got no-one enabling his ability. Thus, a Batman we can recruit visibly, if need be, is a good thing. We’ll back him up with the next Illuminati member, Iron Man. With all the filtering effects, we really should have no trouble keeping him at a threatening 7/5.

At four we start dropping down to single character options from the Illuminati. Sub-Mariner’s a bit of a double-edged sword since he KO’s two of your top three cards every turn. Methinks a little recursion will be a good thing.

At five Mr Fantastic steps up, with the bonus advantage of already sharing a team affiliation with Black Bolt. 9/9’s not exactly awe-inspiring stat-wise, but his card filtering ability fits in perfectly with what we’re going for here. Theme decks FTW!

At six Dr Strange repeats the five-drop’s ability, but can go as deep into the deck as you’re willing, at the cost of your Endurance. You’d think he’d be splashed into Shadowpact decks, since he’s a garaunteed way to drop your Endurance if you’ve been unable to do so otherwise. Meh, I don’t play Shadowpact, what do I know…

At seven Professor X finishes us out, fgerrying cards from hand back onto the top of the deck. Chain this to some of the other abilities and you never know just what you’ll get to fire off. If Iron Man’s still around, this’ll garauntee that +3 ATK.

As for support stuff:

Locations:
- Daily Planet: Please, oh PLEASE, let me get this online with Perry
- Clocktower: A little filtering, resource replacement
- Batcomputer (DCL): Does the filtering for Clocktower without needing to exhaust a character

Thematic support: 
- The Illuminati: A little more filtering isn’t a bad thing
- He Who Watches: Look at all your opponent’s stuff
- Night Vision: Lets you keep an eye on what your opponent’s drawing, and lets you peek at your top card too

Combat:
- Furious Assault gives +2 ATK, and +2 ATK to someone who shares a version - like, say, all those Illuminati (or Gotham Central’s in a pinch)
- Ravaged! gives a turn-long +1/+1 to everyone that shares a version
- Shape Change lets us utilise the sifting effects for a little extra DEF

So, with absolutely no playtesting, and acknowledging right off the bat that I’m a terrible deckbuilder…

Eyes Wide Open

• 4x Perry White: Chief
• 2x Harvey Bullock: Gotham Central
• 4x Crispus Allen: Gotham Central
• 2x Black Bolt: Illuminati
• 4x Iron Man: Illuminati
• 2x Batman: Problem Solver
• 4x Sub-Mariner: Illuminati
• 4x Mr Fantastic: Illuminati
• 2x Dr Strange: Illuminati
• 1x Professor X: Illuminati
• 4x Enemy of my Enemy
• 4x Shape Change
• 4x Ravaged!
• 4x Furious Assault
• 4x Night Vision
• 3x He Who Watches
• 4x Daily Planet
• 2x Clocktower
• 2x Batcomputer: Criminal Database

Make of it what you will. I doubt it’ll win you anything other than the most very casual of fun games, but by golly, you’ll know what’s coming - both from you AND from your opponent!