Answering the Call: Deep Blue Sea

It’s a day of double-awesomeness. Not only has Chris Sims posted the entries for his outstanding Batman Nunchuks contest, but once again Aaron’s actually managed to some up with something that met with the Dark Water challenge! Yay! Enjoy – Gday

The deep blue challenge really tickled my… fancy. And with a draft screen on the line, keeping the character count below 10 was exactl the kind of challenge my twisted mind feeds on. I experimented with a Dr. Doom base hoping to abuse Lust for Power, but found the KO cost just too high to justify, especially with a 9 character max. Sure i could have played it dirty and gone for an 80 card deck with a full curve of characters and search, but I felt that was not in the spirit of the challenge.

So what did that leave me?

I changed my approach a bit, looking into characters that could grow to accomodate the curve. Cards like atom smasher, beast boy, and other counter abusers quickly came to mindb but the true element was the search factor. I needed to run minimal amounts and still give myself a reasonable shot at hitting the key characters the deck required.

This is what i came up with.

CHARACTERS (9)
3x Atom Smasher, Al Rothstein
3x Beast Boy, Garfield Logan
1x Mr. Fantastic, Haunted Genius
1x Iron Man, Mighty Avenger
1x Apocalypse, Forever Walker, AoA

PLOT TWISTS (45)
2x Superhuman Registration Act
4x Underground Movement
4x Forbidden Loyalties
4x Call of the Wild
4x Herioc Effort
4x I am Doom
4x Cannibal Tech
4x Blind Sided
4x Savage Beatdown
3x Pathetic Attempt
4x Secret Government
4x Mobilize

EQUIPMENT (6)
2x Mandroid Prototype
4x T-Spheres

Now essentially you mulligan for either Atom Smasher or Beast boy. After words, You can Secret Government for both of your 4 drops, and hopefully by turn 4 you also have either Super Reg Act or Underground Movement.

Movement is ideal since you can easily hide Atom smasher for some mid-late game beats, or you can toss some Spheres on him to brick your way to turn 3 where ideally you’ll see a Beast Boy. Beast Boy is also a good brick wall with his access to a counter offensively AND defensively, which is easy enough to ensure if you have the Smasher pushed to the hidden area.

On four we can focus on either draw, with Mr Fantastic, or field presence with the recovery and growth ability of Iron Man. More often the decision here is based less on the board situation, and more on whatever you draw. For turns 5 and later, nothing destroys the curve rate like Apocalypse himself. A 9/9 on 5 and an easy 15/15 on 6.

Now ideally I wanted my 1 to be Speed Demon, but Atom Smasher’s, cost redux on T-Spheres is remarkably helpful while looking for a Beast Boy brick wall ensuring that you get to turn 5.

Once Apoc can pay up above the curve, it’s a simple matter of timing a blind-sided for the breakthrough win. The funny part about this build however, is it COULD function just almost as well with 8 characters. However the second 4 drop is a solid underdrop in a pinch.

As always, I hope this inspires you, and Enjoy.