BEARSDAY: Random Bear

The next Marquee Events is Silver Age Random Punks. Unlike this month’s Modern BYOS – let’s never do this again please! - I'm actually really looking forward to this event. It's not so much the format itself that I'm juiced about - although I have no complaints about it - it's the prizes; The Batman, Founding Member shirt is simply incredible. I thought the Hulk shirt was a masterpiece of design work but this completely tops that one. While UDE's shirts never fit me comfortably or well, I still plan on rocking these out in public.

In addition, they’re going to give out Clash of Worlds! This is, without a doubt, the most anticipated Hobby League prize since X-Men Assemble. I fully expect this card to raise $20 or more a pop. I cannot emphasize this enough; unless you’re wiping your butt with hundred dollar bills you need to head to your local Hobby League, especially if you plan on going to Worlds.

I also have to give major kudos to UDE for awarding this to second through fourth place, which allows more of them to spread through the environment but also encourages competitive play to win them. I missed out on the X-Men Assemble craze - I need one for my cube, any sellers? - but I have no plans on missing out on Clash of Worlds and neither should you or anyone else.

Thus, I would not be surprised if the kiddy gloves come off and a lot of people bring their big guns for this tournament. Those are so awesome prizes.

So to help give you that extra edge, here’s my take on the format:

Move Brick, Get out the Way

This part is very abstract so you might need to read it a few times. I could be completely wrong but this is what I feel the fundamental conflict of the format is:

If you go through the spoilers for all the legal cards in the format, you will notice that pumps are pretty mediocre in this format. The best generic pump in the format is +3 ATK. There are certainly larger pumps, but they are both team stamped and conditional.

This in and of itself isn't necessarily an issue; + 3 ATK is the sweet spot, always guarantying you a swing one spot up the curve.

The real issue is that control decks in this format are operating under a paradigm of + 4 DEF.

For example, Ahmed’s first activation is frequently to row out a Checkmate Safe House so Brother I Satellite fix their curve. That Safe House – which was meant to fix their curve - and an active Ahmedrepresents an ‘unintentional’ + 2 DEF.

There are a whole lot of effects that give you + 2 DEF too: Knightmare Scenario, Shrink, Army of One, Super Hero Showdown,and Shaw Industries being the big ones. The cards listed above are either used in tandem, played with Ahmedor both. Consequently, it is very reasonable to expect an opponent to have defensive pumps in values of four or greater as soon as turn four.

Finally and most importantly: the Fate Artifacts also give you + 4 DEF.

In Silver Age, aggressive decks can mow over fated characters with large pumps like Savage Beatdown , Blinding Rage, or Big Leagues . It's awkward and far from ideal, but we understand that being forced to use a large pump to deal with a fated character could be worse... like what we see in Punks.

See, with aggressive decks working with mostly + 3 ATK pumps, one pump is no longer enough to get you across a fated character. You need to play two, power-up, or have a static buff. Thus, instead of slowly burning off cards over the course of the game, rush decks hemorrhage cards.

The last time we've seen ATK and DEF pumps so comparable was DJL/DCR Modern Age. The top decks - Checkmate, Good Guys, Deadshot - in that format all had a focus on brick walling too.

This dilemma is not irresolvable, but whereas Fate Artifacts, Safe Houses and DEF pumps fit effortlessly into Checkmate/X decks, loading your deck with passive buffs and card drawing is harder and threatens to dilute your deck. Consequently, I do not see any incredible incentive to play some sort of turbo ‘face-you’ deck.

Unless your name is Erick Reyes, I'm sure you can play something better – burn!!!

Can't a Monkey Dream?

If you are inclined to play a rush deck, the best place to start with is likely a concealed/substitute deck. The big draw here is three different static ATK enhancers - The Hellfire Club, Hunte Castle, and Joining the Darkseid - Team-Up- which directly help counter Safe House activations and improve your chances in an attrition war. Darkseid also has one of the few + 4 ATK pumps in Dark Fury , and Unravel Reality to close and disrupt.

Which teams you want to pair together is really up to you and is very open ended given that there’s two generic search and a good deal of overlap in strategy. Darkseid and the Birds of Prey offer you card drawing in Furnace of Apokolips , Barbara Gordon ♦ Oracle - Hacker Elite, The Hook-Upand Dark Firestorm to help you mass into the pumps tech cards you need.

(Speaking of which, Ludin “RocketGurl” Romero recently told me that he felt Barbara Gordon ♦ Oracle - Hacker Elite was the best three drop in Silver Age. While I don’t agree, I completely understand why he thinks that and recommend all of you play Barbara Gordon ♦ Oracle - Hacker Elite on three for this format even if she’s off-team; she’s just too good.)

You could also eschew the substitute route and just stay with concealed dorks. I have heard good things about an Injustice Gang/Hellfire Club deck from the creative players of Sacramento, California. This archetype has two search effects and a good number of passive modifiers. All Too Easy and White Martian both give you good reach.

If you really have an aggressive inkling, I think MKKO is probably the best, despite the fact that it’s not as aggressive as other hidden decks. KO is just an incredible answer for the Fate Artifacts and Wolverine - Covert Predator is plain good.

In general though, I think you probably want to stay away from pure rush.

You Knew this Was Coming...

Big surprise; Checkmate is the best deck in the format. It has the largest pumps in Brother Eye and Target Acquired , access to DEF pumps, and is great at enabling all sorts of goodness.

If you want those copies of Clash of Worlds, you should probably play Checkmate.

I myself love Hellboy and control decks, but I am probably going to play Press Chess - Checkmate/Kree – in all the local events. The archetype gains some goodness with Black Thornand Birthing Chamber, and press is just on another league in terms of power. Good team + good team = broke.

Kree offers you good tech cards like Ronan the Accuser - Starforce and Korath the Pursuer - Starforce. Remember when I said Brother Eye is the best pump? Hala , Live Kree . . . or Die! , and The Lunatic Legion are pretty close behind… and you get to play all of them.

If you don't want to play something that reeks of pure evil, but want the consistency Ahmed provides:

Checkmate/Hellfire: Enhances your brickwalling capability with Shaw Industries - which Ahmed can find - and Army of One. Rook Control is tailor made for this archetype. Join the Club! also helps you find Ahmed when you need to – you reading this Kev?

Checkmate/BPRD: This Checkmate deck is probably the only one with an “Oops I win” draw since Pancakes and Break Off The Horns have effects that are generally seen as rares. Double Pancakes or Break Off The Horns is very hard to handle when it’s growing a fated Hellboy. <3

Checkmate/MK: Similar to Tim Rivera’s build from Chicago: fate up Punisher and go to town. The New Baxter Building /Laser Watch /Black Thorn engine is still here but is more crucial since you have neither Wild Ride or Enemy of My Enemy.

Mono Checkmate: Lots of equips, lots of pumps with large Kings are good times. Not nearly as flavorful or fun as the aforementioned archetypes though.

What Else?

The big thing for me is the Morlocks. I think they are going to be a huge contender.

Evasion is basically concealed except you can't be hidden hated. It also renders you completely immune to Punisher - Guns Blazing. There’s no Total Anarchy here to punish you for turning your guys down at will.

Beyond that, the sewer people have Shrapnel Blast - + 4 DEF is key remember? It can decimate hidden characters with Caliban and fix their curve with Bloodhound . Marrow is one of the few cards that can naturally fight Fated characters, and don’t get me started on the prospect of Fating her up.

Speaking of trading with fated characters, Retribution is one of those elite few pumps that can hit for more then three.

Michael "BigSpooky" Barnes demonstrated in the pre-MegaWeekend Silver Age tournament the strength and synergy of Morlocks with X-Men Assemble with a well deserved top 8. You can now add to that awesomeness by playing Survival of the Fittest - Age of Apocalypse too.

I'm strongly considering playing this deck instead of Press Chess, but since Morlocks are ugly and I’m very superficial this is a team-up that’s probably not going to happen.

I highly urge you to try them out if your goal is to win but also without playing Ahmed.

This is just some brief thoughts on the format without delving into it too deep. I would not be too worried about any combo deck viable here would likely have been played in better form in normal Silver Age. If you are more interested in this format I would direct you to here: http://www.geocities.com/majesticno10/ . Patrick “Majestic” Yapjoco and Ludin “RocketGurl” Romero are great writers and I highly encourage you to read their thoughts on the matter.

Peace

-TDB

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Carlos here to say two things:

1. Mmmm...Morlocks! May be too ugly for Paul, but I might take 'em for a spin. Then again, I do loves me some Hellfire...

2. My Auctions Are Ending Right Now!! Check 'em out - they're going cheap and they're going soon.

Comments

[Michael]

Hey Paul, I think I have an extra Assemble somewhere that I could be persuaded to part with. I'll take a look this weekend and get back to you.