SoL Rnd 1: Shake ‘N Bake vs. TF: Revenge

Round one is nearing completion, and we’ve definitely saved some of the scrappiest decks for last. Today, we’re pitting Baldman’s Shake ‘N Bake, a Morlocks/Secret Six board hoarding deck, against the extremely aggressive Task Force: Revenge, built by OnyxWeapon. TF:R is basically just a huge pile of random guys plus board-wide pumps, so it’ll take some fancy maneuvering from the Shakers to stall this one out.

Let’s see how it goes down!

-Spud

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Pablo wins the roll and takes odds; both players mull.

Pablo starts off the game with Mad Hatter, while Spud drops Sue Dibny, searching out a Booster Gold. Hatter beats her up to do some (minimal) break, and it’s off to turn 2!

Pablo 49, Spud 48

I was going to cut the speech bubbles out of this, but honestly, it's funnier when you leave them in.

Spud’s turn 2 is the splendiferrous Terra-Man, who he forms in the front beside Sue. Pablo brings out Tar Baby protecting his 2-drop. During combat, Spud declares Terra-Man into Tar Baby, and once it’s legal, flips Battle for Metropolis to put Terra-Man at 4/3 for a dual stun. Next, he sends Sue into Hatter; neither player has any tricks, and both stun and subsequently bite the dust.

Pablo 46, Spud 46

Pablo has turn 3, and plays Help Wanted from his row to dig for a character (and hopefully a Morlock, to turn HW into a team-up). Sadly though, the only 3-drop he reveals is Catman, so he doesn’t get the team-up part of the card. Spud’s drop for the turn is Ruin, followed by a free Mr. Mxy in the back row behind Ruin.

Pablo laments his lack of decent attacks (knowing that Terra-Man can

Cat vs. Shark: The Eternal Struggle Rages On

grow to a 5/5 this turn, and is thus out of Tar Baby’s reach), so he settles on Catman into Ruin. Mxy reinforces and both characters stun, but Spud doesn’t fire Ruin’s power because a) his row is fine as-is, and b) he just forgot to. Pablo runs Tar Baby into Mxy to bounce him, and then passes. On Spud’s return swings, he sends Terra-Man into Tar Baby. Once it’s legal, he flips Executive Privilege and Mob Mentality, pumping TM to 9/5. Not bad for a 2-drop!  Pablo evades to keep his dude, but Mob Mentality lasts for the turn, so Spud simply dives in for 9 direct. During recovery, Spud pitches a spare Ruin to Executive Privilege, taking a Terra Man and a Dimensional Deal from the top of his deck.

Pablo 31, Spud 42

Turn 4 is Spud’s, and he starts by boosting Booster Gold, then brings out Hope and Maxwell Lord (pitching to Max to get a Justice League Task Force), and finally another free Mr. Mxy. Pablo recruits Storm, and forms her behind Tar Baby.

"How YOU doin'?"

Spud leads his attacks by flying Ruin into Storm; once it’s legal, Spud flips a second Battle for Metropolis and plays a Mob Mentality from hand to get up to 9/4; both characters stun, and Spud nukes Executive Privilege to get a Toy Soldiers. Next, Spud sends Terra-Man into Tar Baby at 9/7 for a one-sided stun. Then Spud does some math; after a minutes or two, he sends Max and Booster into Pablo’s face for 5 (they aren’t teamed up yet), and then Hope goes in direct for her own 5. Finally, with Pablo sitting on 5 and Spud’s Mxy sitting at 4/2, he sends him in direct, KOing Hope to turn down and replay Mob Mentality on him. Pablo goes to -3.

Pablo finishes the game by sending Catman into Booster with a power-up, playing two copies of Morlock Justice from his row for an additional 4 burn.

Final score: Task Force: Revenge 28, Shake ‘N Bake -3

Yikes, that was painful… fastest game so far in the bracket. TF: Revenge hit all it needed and more, having 3 board-wide pumps on the board on turn 4, and another two waiting in-hand. The sheer amount of layered pump this deck has access to is insane… something tells me Shake ‘N Bake may not be the last deck that gets torn apart by Terra Man and his posse of ruffians.

-Spud