Flesh and Blood TCG - A Disconnection

There’s a disconnect at the moment, a feeling of separation that I’m not comfortable with or wanting to feel. A level of acceptance is probably needed on my part, but that feeling of missing out (FOMO) is a huge risk factor for me and has been for a long time. 

Flesh and Blood TCG (FAB) has been a significant part of my life now for a couple of years. Most of my social and not so social gaming is playing FAB. From attending the Card Tavern once a month Armory events, playing online via Talishar, playing in the Flesh and Common Blood league to the odd Pro Quest event in person.

OUTSIDERS is quickly arriving at the point of publishing this article and it’s got all the hype that a FAB set seems to draw. But not for me, in fact this is the first set since Monarch came out, which was the first set I got to see previews for, where I don’t feel a level of excitement or anticipation. I’ll explain, so I don’t play Assassin, Ninja or Ranger classes, which are the three classes being showcased in this set. Also, I haven’t found myself interested in any of the generic cards spoiled as part of the spoiler season.

Is this Legend Story Studios fault? Of course not, this was just their next release, its nothing to do with them that it isn’t in my interest. There are plenty of folks out there who are foaming at the mouth for this set. I’m proud to be a part of the Go Again Gaming (GAG) discord community and its all the talk in there let me tell ya.

I’m not even sure why I’m so numb to this new set. Maybe it is the hero classes, maybe it’s that I know pretty much every card in the set after spoiler season and maybe its that I’m just not seeing anything that’s exciting me. I mentioned it in the GAG discord server that I get spoilers, but believe we need to keep some secrets going into the set. There should be some excitement when you open them packs and find some wonderful new cards, not just skipping to the R+ section of the pack to see what rarer and foil cards you got.

I am planning to get to a pre-release event, for the simple reason that I’ve been playing tabletop games since 2003 and I’ve never attended one. So, the idea of just being able to get to one this time around is quite appealing, a sealed event where I don’t have to worry about bringing anything other than a deck box and some sleeves. But even that is looking like it may not be happening now too, the trials of being a parent to a three-year-old. So even that slither of hype or excitement towards this set is diminishing as quickly as I’m writing this piece.

My last post was about protecting your mental health when playing this game and this post now feels like actually, I’m now suffering from a downturn regarding my own mental wellbeing.

Maybe there is an element here of FOMO and maybe there is an element of frustration to this, I’ve a second child on the way, due to be born at the end of May 2023. This will no doubt pull me out of the game at least in the interim anyway. So, the one chance I’m going to have for the foreseeable future to be a part of a ground level introduction to a set, is now fizzling and lord knows when I will be able to get another one. Also, when the next set comes out, I’ll be a brand-new dad and there won’t be the time or money to be on the ground level entry I’ve had on every set since Monarch.

I know this whole thing sounds a bit like sour grapes and I apologise for that. I hope everyone who attends these events gets some great pulls and enjoys their experience. I do believe you should focus on enjoying the journey and experience these types of events provide. Flesh and Blood TCG is a great game, and I can only see it getting bigger over the next few years to maybe plant itself into the BIG THREE of games, or expand that term to BIG FOUR. 

But for OUTSIDERS, I’m just going to say this, I could’ve done with it being swapped with the next set.

@bigboss010 on Twitter, @bigbossbookclub on Instagram and Hive Social.

Thank you for reading,

I’m Big Boss…. I’m out….. Peace!

 

 

A New Year In Flesh And Blood TCG - Preparing For Pro-Quest

 “Our mission is to bring people together in the flesh and blood through the common language of playing great games” is the keynote statement from Legend Story Studios “about us” page.

This statement is something to really keep in mind as we start the new year and we approach the start of the next competitive season for the Flesh and Blood TCG.  This of course kicks off with the Pro Quest season, which begins on 14 January 2023. We also see events like Battle Hardened taking place in cities such as Leeds in the UK.

As this season rapidly approaches, we will all be thinking hard about which decks we are going to play and how best to tackle the season. Whether that’s trying to drive Briar, Warden of Thorns, towards the Living Legend status hanging over her currently, or if its how to bring newcomer Arakni, Huntsman to the forefront of the competitive scene. 

These decisions are of course impacted by the type of player that you are and there are different types of players in any game, from social casual players to hardcore competitive players.  

I consider myself somewhere in the middle, a casually competitive player, what this means essentially is that I’m only ever able to play on a casual level, so maybe once or twice a month in person, but when I play, I’m aiming for the win. Sadly, this has only ever landed me one top 8 at a Pro Quest and a few small turnout Armory events under my belt. I’m yet to reach the proverbial mountain top myself and I don’t delude myself thinking I ever will, considering the time I actually get to play.

There are of course those hardcore competitive players, those who go to as many Armory, Pro Quest and other events as possible each week. They are looking to get the XP, the prizes and of course, the money that comes from topping those big events. There is nothing wrong with being a competitive player, not really.  

But something I have noted on multiple occasions since being more active on Twitter (@bigboss010) is the aftermath of these large-scale competitive events. The solemn and sad posts, which seep out shortly after the conclusion of the event, that search for the answers to what went wrong.

My own experience has seen also me sitting on a long train ride home to Crewe, hell bent on quitting the game because I didn’t do as well as I believed I should’ve. Having to sit and really think about my view of what I want from this game as an individual. Then coming to terms with the fact that you just can’t win them all and with the amount I’m able to play, is probably unrealistic.

So something I’ve started to be very concerned about is the mental health of the player base. This sinking feeling which seems to come from the end of an unsuccessful attempt to climb to the mountain top seems more and more common these days. 

I spoke with my good friend Martyn on my podcast (Big Boss Book Club) about his experience playing Pokemon and Magic: The Gathering at a competitive level and it’s clear this isn’t just restricted to isolated cases in FAB. 

When James White and the Folks at Legend Story studios developed this game, the gaming system and brought it to the public, I can with great confidence say, they didn’t want people getting depressed after playing. I hope their goal was to have players sitting, fist bumping or shaking hands and discussing the game. Debating those critical moves and plays. 

So this brings me back to the opening of this article. The goal is to bring people together in person, to play great games. That’s the key, playing great games. We come together for our love of this game and although we can be serious about it, aiming to win the big one. We need to remember; we are together to play this game and we shouldn’t put so much emphasis on the big W over our own well-being and just having fun. 

The friends and experiences this game can offer are practically limitless and it’s on us the current player base to make these experiences positive, welcoming and more importantly, enduring. In my mind these are the only true ways of expanding the player base and continuing to grow this amazing game.

I myself am hoping to attend the Battle Hardened weekend in Leeds, UK. I am also bringing my previously mentioned friend, Martyn with me as he is eager to get involved in a major event. What decks will we be bringing, you maybe asking yourself. Well thanks for asking.

I’m going to be bringing Briar, Warden of Thorns, for a couple of reasons really, the biggest reason is that I’ve never played her at an event before and as this is her farewell tour, I figured this maybe the last chance I’ll have to pilot her at a CC event. The other reason is that I love the Runeblade class and if you’ve ever played against me when I’ve piloted Big Vis (Viserai, Rune Blood) you’ll know I just cant do it very well and my win / loss record is HORRIBLE. So Briar felt like a good option to stay on-brand and with a class I actually enjoy while hopefully not completely jobbing out (sorry for the wrestling reference).

My friend Martyn has expressed a big interest in Bravo, Showstopper. Essentially, Martyn is a big wrestling fan, like myself and Guardian has the Chokeslam card…… Enough said really.

So to conclude this piece, I want to thank you for taking a few minutes to read this and I hope you’ll consider checking out my social media pages and my podcast.

Please remember though that although the Pro Quest season is about getting those PTIs, its also about getting together in the flesh and blood to play great games. The fundamental point of games is to have fun. So please take care of yourself, your mental wellbeing and to quote the Gamble Aware UK TV advert, when the fun stops, stop.

Rule 1 of playing great games, is to have fun and enjoy the experience. Whether you are turning up to play with Fai, Briar, Bravo, Lexi or our supreme ruler Azalea. I wish everyone the best of luck in their endeavours this Pro Quest season and I hope you all have fun. 

I’m Big Boss, I’m out…. Peace. 

Flesh and Blood Armory Event 22 March 2022 at Geek Retreat Llandudno.

So I haven’t written anything for the blog in a while, but I wanted to sit and give this event some time.

After my poor showing at the Pro Quest in Manchester, I wanted to brush off the dust and get back on the horse, so to speak. I’ve got my eyes set on attending the Skirmish event at Just Play in Liverpool in April and I figured getting some Blitz games in would start that ball rolling.

Following me confirming with the store that there was prize support this time round, as previously there hadn’t been. To put it into context, Crewe is an hour and a half drive at best and with petrol prices at the moment, if the prize was a handshake and a booster for entering, I would have left it there I think.

As I was still feeling a little let down by my Viserai deck building , I opted to run him again. I actually stripped my CC deck down and rebuilt it from scratch for Blitz. I used the following deck list:

Equipment: 9

Rosetta Thorn x 1

Bloodsheath Skeleta x 1

Arcanite Skullcap x 1

Crown of Dichotomy x1

Vexing Quilhand x 1

Grasp of the Arknight x1

Gamblers Gloves x1

Spellbound Creepers x1

Sutcliffe’s Suede Hides x1

Reds

Read the Runes x2

Mordred Tide x2

Sonata Arcanix x2

Amplify the Arknight x2

Spellblade Strike x2

Rune Flash x2

Revel in Runeblood x2

Meat and Great x2

Rattle Bones x1

Swarming Gloomveil x2

 

Yellow

Mauvrion Skies x2

Ninth Blade of the Blood Oath x2

Blues

Oath of the Arknight x2

Dread Triptych x2

Become the Arknight x2

Spellblade Assault x2

Vexing Malice x2

Maurvion Skies x2

Whisper of the Oracle x2

Skrill of Skullform x2

Blank

Gorganian Tome x1

 I do want to use the hero I’ve coined as Big Vis at Liverpool. I know its a bit boring, I have like 8 Blitz decks built, 4 of which have had investment put into them, so are probably ok in terms of competition. However, there is just something about Vis which has pulled me in from the get go. I released a Blitz deck tech episode on the podcast earlier this year, but this deck again has some changes and leans more into going an aggressive play style.

This deck is even way different to the Vis deck I ran when I first went to Geek Retreat Llandudno for an Armory, which was more of an OTK style of deck, but didn’t focus enough on it in hindsight. This was probably the reason for my result last time, although it was a reasonable 2-1. One thing I would point out is my results were posted incorrectly last time and the event has me going 1-2, not a big deal in grand scheme of things, but my GEM lifetime XP is 3 short.

The prize kit was a mix of the Christmas kit and the Everfest kit, my entry netted me two Everfest booster packs and a Seasonal Cracked Bauble cold foil. I would go on record as saying I love the Christmas themed Cracked Bauble, its so simple but looks phenomenal.

We had 6 players, including me, the event was going to go 3 rounds with no top cut and the line up was this:

1.       Me (Tom) – Viserai

2.       Stu – Dash

3.       Craig – Boltyn

4.       Ben (1) – Levia

5.       Ben (2) – Levia

6.       Lee  - Kassai

Round 1 – Stu – Dash

So this game was a bit funny, so Stu was my first opponent the last time I played at GR Llandudno and he played as Viserai too. He was then playing a much better OTK build than I was and he picked up the win. Now this time, he was also going to play Big Vis, however, he forgot his deck which he noted when he went to retrieve it from his bag to note it wasn’t there. So sadly we didn’t get our rematch per se. He borrowed one of Lee’s spare decks, which he hadn’t ever used before so straight away he was at a bit of a disadvantage.

However, he played the game very well, and his use of the boost mechanic had me on the back foot and it came very close. I had to let him reduce me down to 1 life so I could use my skull cap to defend and this then let me hit the Vexing Malice the next turn to finish him off. He had used his only Arcane Barrier card a little earlier to gain an action point. We did declare that next time he needed to use Vis and we would have our rematch.

I also convinced him to take the Rosetta Thorn too moving forward as he wasn’t too confident with it in his deck, however, after seeing it in use, he soon changed his mind.

One thing I would say, is I looked at the deck later and it wasn’t as attack heavy as I’d have expected it to be, had a few too many items in there for my liking and didn’t have Induction Chamber which was odd, instead choosing to use Hyper Driver as the free item.  Plus using the Plasma Barrel Shot over the Teklo Plasma Pistol.

1-0   going into Round 2.

Round 2 – Craig – Boltyn

Think Craig was relatively new to the game, think the deck may have for all intents and purposes been the Boltyn Blitz pre con deck.

The game itself didn’t last too long, he quickly realised he had only 1 Arcane defence, which was his Spellvoid 2 helmet. Which wasn’t going to get him far, I threw 9 Runechants  at him turn 2 with an attack action, I used Spellbound Creepers to throw in a red Read the Runes to bolster my arcane for my Rosetta Thorn swing and he opted to concede after that.

In all honesty I didn’t even blame him, I got some great draws in the game and it felt like everything was going according to plan.

We actually spoke after the game about changes he could make to the deck. Outside of upgrading the equipment, as he had no legendary equipment or Nullrune equipment, we discussed moving to the Sabres instead of the axes and getting more copies of some of the cards in the deck he was only running 1 of.

2-0   going into Round 3

Round 3 – Lee – Kassai

So at first I was worried here, the last time we played, surprisingly in round 3 of the last event I attended there, he was also playing Kassai. With the Everfest cards and updates, I figured this would be a less favourable match for me. This however, was quickly settled as he mentioned he’d not had chance to do anything to the deck since we’d last played. So I knew he didn’t have any Arcane Barrier cards or the cards from Everfest to hinder me.

I did a mini pivot here and opted to try a semi-OTK style, by turn 2 I managed to land 9 Runechants on the board and fired them off with a Ninth Blade of the Blood Oath, landing him on 1 health. Next turn, I sent another Runechant at him to get the W with Vis.

Once he has sat and updated the deck with the Everfest cards and slips in a Nullrune Hood, thats gonna be one hell of a deck. If I had the legendary cards’ I’d be playing her myself in all honesty.

3-0   at the end of the event. 

Was super happy with the result and made me feel a little more confident on my deck choice and direction to head towards going into the Skirmish season.

Its good to see the community there growing, as the last time I was there the player count was 4 and that was due to 1 guy being drafted in at the last minute. He hadn’t intended on playing at all. So to see that number increase by 50% and the store to be getting prize support is very encouraging.

I scooped a Bravo, Star of the Show playmat for my effort, which actually marks the first Flesh and Blood playmat I’ve won, hopefully will not be the last. I’d like the thank Geek Retreat in Llandudno for hosting the event and putting up the prize support. Actually intend on getting back to play again at some point down the line. Need to have that final showdown with Stu playing his Viserai deck.

Thank you so much for checking out the post, you can follow me on Twitter @bigboss010, on Facebook and Instagram @bigbossbookclub. The Big Boss Book Club podcast releases every Monday online via Spotify, Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and pretty much anywhere else you can listen to podcasts.

Thank you again, I’m Big Boss..... I’m Out..... Peace.

Flesh and Blood TCG - The Beginning

So, when I first heard about this game via Team Covenant on their podcast and YouTube channel, I didn’t pay much attention. After all, it’s a trading card game (TCG) and I had no intentions of ever getting into that trap again after my experiences with Yu-Gi-Oh / Vs System / Raw Deal. Boy was I wrong.

 

I saw the starter decks being sold on pre order via the Bearded Card Trader and I figured, I’d give the starter decks a punt, three of the four ( I don’t know why) and then waited for my pre order to arrive. In the meantime, I saw more F&B content being posted onto the Covenant YouTube channel and heard more and more via their podcast too. So, when I saw the latest Blitz decks being available for pre order on Zatu Games, I opted to also pick them up too…… you see where this is going.

 

Anyway, the original starters arrived, and I opted to keep them sealed until I would actually get to play them. However, the same cant be said for the Blitz decks. Although at first I saw the prices of F&B sky rocketing online, so a part of me thought “I might just hold off and resell for some money”… which lasted all of 2 hours. I opened the Levia and Chane Blitz decks first, because as you may already know, I’m much more aligned with the bad guy side of things in… well… everything.

 

I stared at the cards for hours, with no clue what they meant, did or how they would be used in the game. From there I ventured into more online content of the game to learn how to play. I watched a few of Covenant’s live plays, a few “Learn to Play” videos and some deck build tips videos.

 

The game itself seems and on paper reads, very complicated. Between layers, combat chains and keywords such as Boost, the game screams complex. However, when you just watch the game being played, its not that complicated. You take the LCG Marvel Champions cost system to play cards, mix it up with a UFS style of combat, throw in a sprinkle of Warhammer 40K Conquest and you get a game which brings a lot of depth!

 

With only one action point per turn and only four cards in hand (most of the time), you must think about each move, not just their costs, but also the follow up from that as well. As the opponent, you need to select which cards you are willing to bin to defend your health, as when it gets to your turn, you will only have left, what you had left at the end of the attackers turn. Should you bin your whole hand, your turn can be a massive waste.

 

There is the “arsenal” slot too, which you can use to keep that key card for later or put your opponent on edge, not knowing quite what potential massive hitter you’ve just put in a key position on your board.

 

This all brings a wonderful level of interaction between the players, something I’ve felt is missing from the main TCG I’ve played over the years, Yu-Gi-Oh. Where you just sit there and wait for the end in what will most likely be a One Turn Kill (OTK) or First Turn Kill (FTK) situation. A most depressing thought when sitting down to play.

 

My friend Stu and I sat to play the Levia and Prism Blitz decks off against each other. Although it took over an hour to play this 15-20-minute game, you can understand why when you have two people that have no real clue what they are doing. Yet, at the end of the game, it was really close, and I couldn’t think about anything else, but playing again. Now I’ve not felt that way about any competitive game since Warhammer 40K Conquest.

 

I toddled off and bought a sealed box of the Arcane Rising booster set from eBay. Once it came, I had this mad idea of keeping it sealed, using the Blitz decks to get my mates into the game and then suggesting a sealed or draft event with the box. Boy, that lasted a week I think, then I opened the boosters. I also bought an additional 18 booster packs and pre ordered 12 Monarch booster packs too. I’ve also spent an unfathomable amount on single cards via eBay and Tecklo Cards.

 

What did that leave me with you may ask? Well I have opted to only go with Blitz decks now due to the lack of playsets in my possession. So I have built Dash, the Mechanologist hero first. Essentially, I love her artwork, she looks like a mix of an Al Bhed from Final Fantasy X and one of those Steampunk people. Also reading how the Mechanologist cards operate, I really liked the idea of this fast furious assault which can take place should all the cards come together in the right way. The Boost keyword makes this possible, by banishing the top card of your deck and (fingers crossed) revealing another Mechanologist card, the card your playing gets Go Again, a critical piece of the puzzle. Go Again essentially means you get another action this turn.

 

Her ability to grab a cost 2 or lower item from your deck to start the game with is phenomenal and gives this flurry an initial boost (pardon the pun). Playing Dash you get this feeling of flying an X-Wing down the Deathstar trench, that fast break-neck assault where should you put a foot out of place, it will all fall apart quickly. I love it. Its so different to anything I’ve ever played before and its an exciting playstyle. Of course, you can play a different style where you focus on the Mechanologist guns, but I like the Boost Flurry style myself.  

 

The other deck I opted to go with was the Runeblade warrior Viserai. This character is the polar opposite of Dash in almost every way. His combination of witchcraft and swordsmanship gives him a much different feel than Dash as the speed is replaced by a more tactical approach. Where Dash throws this flurry of smaller attacks to weaken their opponent, my experience with Viserai is that you build up your Runechant tokens and then throw a biggish attack to hit your opponent for both Arcane (using the ability on the tokens) and standard damage. My play testing saw me generate a whopping nine tokens over two turns, so when I played an actual attack, all the tokens abilities triggered, with all of them being destroyed to deal 1 Arcane damage per token to the opponent. Good luck defending that!!

 

Although this feels almost brutish in its deployment, it doesn’t have that mindless Hulk style violence feel that the Brute characters exude in their playstyle. Runeblade have this almost Warrior-esque vibe while throwing in a sprinkle of Wizard Arcane damage style. Overall I am really growing to enjoy that Runeblade style of play.

 

Onto the third and fourth decks, at the time of writing this, haven’t been built yet. My current choices are Levia, the Shadow Brute and Rhinar, the normal Brute. Although, Rhinar is currently subject to change. Two Brute decks, may just be overkill when I want to experience multiple styles of play.

 

Regardless of what happens with my next two decks, I can tell you this with a level of certainty, I’m gonna enjoy playing the decks I end up building.

 

In summary, the play experience you get with Flesh and Blood is very interactive, its engaging with the people playing on both players turns and this brings you into the game in a way I’ve never really had in a competitive environment. Yes, the rules seem abundant and overly complicated, but when you actually just sit and play, it all kind of comes together. This game, the mechanics, the lore and the artwork, all come together to bring a new kind of game, which gives you a different feeling with every hero you play.

Thank you for reading, you can follow me on Twitter @bigboss010 or on Instagram @bigbossbookclub and even check out the podcast on Spotify:  

 

https://open.spotify.com/show/4WzsTV3YrQPfLWplbCWWFi?si=WN3w63NCQw6CJ2OwOsEcqQ&dl_branch=1

 

I’m Big Boss….. I’m out….. Peace!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Arkham Horror The Card Game - Who Is The Best SOLO Investigator?

 

This question could result in years of debate. I’m not here for that, however, I’d like to throw out some ideas I’ve had to try to answer this question.

I think we need to ask the question first, what makes a good solo investigator? Is it the class? The deck building requirements? The stat lines? We could talk for hours about all of these too! So I’ll talk about a couple of things which I feel are really important to solo play and which investigators are best suited to take advantage of this.

In Arkham Horror, the most valuable resources in my honest opinion are Actions and actual Resources. In solo play, you don’t have tag team partners to rely on should your turn not go according to plan or even to pick up from where your turn leaves you. So actions are more valuable than any asset in solo play, unless that asset gets you more actions of course. The more actions you have in your turn, the more you can do, whether that is combat or investigating.

Now actual resources are just a step behind in value, resources get you the tools you need to get you where you need to be. Whether that’s buying allies or whether that’s purchasing assets. Resources can help boost stats or even allow you to avoid testing altogether.

Once you’ve established that you need actions / money to get by in the game, I would always say it makes the class choice all the more easy, for me this leads me nicely to the Rogue class. I know what you’re thinking, I always talk about how Rogue is my favourite class in Arkham Horror LCG, but please hear me out. The Rogue class has become a lot more prominent in terms of being able to investigate, especially with cards like Lock Picks, Lola Santiago and Intel Report to name but three. Since this stat is one of the two main stats in the game, this faction more than holds its own in the modern card pool.

The other main stat of course being combat, which of course Rogue’s have their own stockpile of ass kickery which they bring to the table varying from the 38”  Derringer, Lupara and Chicago Typewriter. The Rogues are able to bring a good deal of combat skill to the game should they need to especially with tactics such as Sleight of Hand, allowing some of these weapons to slip in as a fast action, let off their ammo and then return to hand to be used again later. Rogues are tricky and sly if nothing else.

Rogues also get cards like Hot Streak, Faustian Bargain and Pay Day, which gives them a huge resource advantage. As already mentioned, these cards allow you to play those investigation and combat assets notes above. Whoever said money won’t solve your problems, never played this game I can tell you.

Actions are a Rogue’s best friend, no other class can get these extra actions in the same way. Let’s start with Leo De Luca, this ally asset grants you an extra action each turn, what more is there to say. Once you start gaining experience points, this progresses further with cards such as Fence, which gives any Illicit card either a -1 cost reduction or the Fast trait, which means it won’t cost you an action to play it. Ace in the Hole, grants you a one off bonus of three extra actions.

Yet one of the most consistent ways of getting extra actions is with the Rogue’s own abilities. Tony allows a combat or engage action, provided they are on his bounty list. Skids can simply buy another action with two resources and Finn can only use his extra action for evading. Still these are great options in all cases. Although lets ignore Tony for now, his investigation stats aren’t much to be desired when playing solo.

This leaves us with Skids O’Toole, Jenny Barnes and Finn Edwards. Let’s look at Skids first. He has a solid stat line with 3 combat and 3 investigation, which will be fine early campaign I’d imagine with the support which is available at that time for you. His deck building allows him to play up to level 2 Guardian cards. This does give you access to some action gaining cards like Police Badge, which also boosts Skid’s pretty poor Willpower stat and even some nice investigation support too, with cards such as Scene of the Crime, allowing up to two clues to be grabbed from a location. His ability to pay two resources to gain an action once per turn is also pretty useful in itself. You may not need this ability each turn but will be incredibly useful when its needed and cards such as Leo De Luca to hand will mean Skids can get an impressive five actions a turn with little effort.

Skid’s weak point is his Willpower stat, at only two it brings terrible peril when facing the mythos. However Guardian do provide some skills which can help buffer this though, so I guess it’s a risk going into the campaign. If the deck is built to truly utilise the actions, you can mitigate this weakness by being able to get through the actual scenario much quicker, therefore, lowering your exposure to the mythos.

His fight stat allows you to be reasonable in combat if needed, but his four evasion stat means he gets a boost when using Lock-picks and can evade consistently. These evasions can allow you to trigger cards like Pickpocket, which being illicit could be played as a fast action under Fence and when you evade allows you to draw a card, so again, utilising that action efficiency to get a free card draw. All these triggers, free actions allow you to take a real advantage during the game and can result in a much quicker win.

Now of course that leaves Finn, who’s use of the Illicit cards can really work towards good action economy when combined with Fence and because he can access a limited number of survivor or seeker cards, he can also gain some action economy.

Finn’s ability is a useful one for enemy management, as he can evade for free once per turn, which maybe a great way of saving combat actions for when they really needed. His dual stat line of four on evasion and intellect mean he can really work the evade angle and the Lock-picks card, by investigating at a total value of eight when using this card. His signature cards are all Illicit so can work with Fence to be either reduced in cost or made to be a fast action, making them free. 

Sadly his Willpower is really low at a stat of one and won’t be helping you no matter what skills you pack in your deck. So you might as well focus on doing the rest well. If you went with the Survivor splash you could include Lucky, Look What I Found or similar card to take advantage of those failed tests to try and succeed instead. However, I think I’d rather go with a Seeker splash and use Working a Hunch and Field Work to sure up my action economy. Working a Hunch allows you to get a free clue with its ability and Field Work triggers when you enter a location and gives you +2 to a stat of your choice for the next skill test you make. Both of these give you stuff for what is essentially free of charge outside of their own resource cost or initial action cost in the case of Field Work.

Very similar to Skid’s Finn can fight if he needs to, but the evasion maybe the better part of valour when dealing with enemies and can also get the effect from Pickpocket if in play, so gets that extra card. Finn with Pay Day can draft a massive amount of resources should he have a great turn. Between his own free action, his standard three actions, a free illicit action from Fence, a potential sneaky free Working a Hunch and a Leo De Luca bonus action, giving a total of seven potential actions. If Pay Day was that free Fence action, you’d get 7 resources, for just playing your turn and I don’t think anyone would complain about that.

So Jenny Barnes, at first look she doesn’t seem like the perfect solo investigator. She has a three stat line across the board and doesn’t scream a specific route to play. However, that makes her unbelievably flexible. Her ability means you get an extra resource each turn which is action saving if nothing else, so like Preston she can gain a good resource pool quicker than most investigators. She can also play up to five level zero cards from any other faction in her deck as part of her deck building requirements. Some useful contenders would be Dr. Milan Christopher, he gives you that extra intellect and allows you to gain a resource when you successfully investigate a location. Of course you lose Leo De Luca in the process, but the resources and be levied against tests in the game to provide a substitute to the extra action. 

Cards such as Lucky from the survivor class are an option, as they can sure up her rather bland stat line, but truth be told the potential is endless for those five splash cards. Arcane Studies from the Mystic class allows her to boost her non Hard Knocks stats (Intellect and Willpower) using your resources too and was a choice I went with when I made her for a solo campaign. Between cards like Dr Milan, Lone Wolf, her own ability and other resource generating cards, she can get herself a good resource pool. Then adding the standard array of Rogue upgrades, she can get massive stock piles of cash to use as she wishes and additional actions to make them more effective. 

Throw in the Rogue cards which give you bonuses for having lots of resources, these include Money Talks and Well Connected which give you better benefits the more cash you have. So, although she doesn’t get the standard extra free action the other two offerings have, she makes up for it with having the highest Willpower to tackle the Mythos and being able to generate an insane number of resources, should you get the engine going.

I think outside of the Survivor class and Ursela Downs, you’d be hard pressed to find a better solo play investigator, than from these Rogue class heroes. With their action generating cards and resource generating cards in abundance, they allow for tremendous economy in solo and multiplayer games. However, in solo, where this is even more critical, it shines the brightest.

Thank you so much for reading. I hope to get a few more articles done moving forward and you can also check out my new podcast, the Big Boss Book Club on Spotify, Anchor and Google Podcasts.  

I’m Big Boss…. I’m Out…. Peace

Classic Game Deck Review: Warhammer 40,000 Conquest – Packmaster Kith

Was sitting at home enjoying the weekly Throwback Thursday live stream posted by Team Covenant on YouTube, if you are into card / board games, I would recommend checking them out on their channel. This week’s stream was a throwback to an LCG which hasn’t long been out of production and that’s Warhammer 40,000 Conquest by Fantasy Flight Games.

Now anyone who knows me, knows how much I was pumped for this game to be released. I’m not the biggest fan of the 40K table top, but the storylines in the back, I’ve always enjoyed and the chance to get those stories in a format I could enjoy, was well received. The game started with 7 factions initially and added 2 more over the life span of the game, which sadly was only a couple of years as Games Workshop and Fantasy Flight parted ways.

The aim of the game was simple, you had to fight for victory on multiple planets until you obtained 3 symbols of the same kind which were located on each planet (3 symbols to choose from) or kill your opponent’s Warlord. Both plans are great fun to try and accomplish and some decks are more focused on one of those win conditions than others.

My favourite deck going into the game was the Dark Eldar faction starter commander, Packmaster Kith. Eventually she would be the top tier Warlord and take home multiple national, local and world championships. Each deck was able to take 1 of 2 sets of allies, Dark Eldar could take either Chaos or Eldar allies as part of their deck construction. An interesting element of Conquest was that each Warlord had to take a set of 8 cards specific to them before any other cards could be added to the deck, when listing the decks I’ll put a * next to those.

I originally went with Eldar as my allies, they had a couple of really good board control cards which would allow you to win Command Struggles pretty consistently, with Command being the way you get your extra resources and additional cards. From a thematic angle, I don’t believe Chaos and Dark Eldar would team up, they kind of have conflicting goals. Yet, before I went to the Midlands regional event for Conquest, I had spoken with my mates who play and a few folks who were on the online forums and they convinced me that Chaos allies were going to be better overall to give me slightly more firepower.

On the back of that, I changed to the deck and went to the Regional event. I went 5-0 in the swiss rounds and then got past the quarter finals to the semis, where sadly, my day ended and I came in 3rd. However, this deck was so consistent throughout the day and I felt so much more confident with how it played in comparison to the previous incarnation. So without further delay, please see the list below.

 

Packmaster Kith

10x Khymera Tokens

 

Army - 27

4x Kith’s Khymeramasters *

3x Rogue Trader

3x Void Pirate

3x Klaivex Warleader

3x Murder of Razorwings

3x Sllyth Mercenaries

3x Chaos Fanatics

3x Bloodied Reavers

3 x Incubus Warriors

2x Syren Zythlax

 

Events 12

3x Archons Terror

2x Pact of the Haemonculi *

3x Gut and pillage

2x Raid

2x Warp Storm

 

Attachments 6

1x Agonizer of Bren *

3x Promotion

2x Suffering

 

Supports- 3

1x Khymera Den *

2x Archons Palace

So a pretty box standard list for Kith at this stage, I would imagine there would be very little difference in any Kith deck if you did any research into it. So I’ll go into a breakdown of what the cards are needed / used for.

Pack Master Kith

This Dark Eldar warlord has 6 hit points, 2 attack power and the ability to deploy a Khymera token to the same planet she commits to during the commitment step. This is where each player sends their warlord to a planet they wish to have a combat round on. This ability means you get 2 units for 1 when she commits, which is never bad and when a warlord arrives on a planet, unless there is another warlord there, they will automatically win the command struggle on that planet. If there is another warlord there, it’s based on how many command icons are at that planet instead.

Kith gets a reputation as the best Dark Eldar warlord, which isn’t without merit and following the game being discontinued, you’d be not far off saying she had more big tourney wins than any other warlord. A couple of times at the Midlands regional event, when my opponents saw who I was playing, they just sighed. *sorry guys*

Compulsory cards – (cards with * by them)

Khymera tokens

This token is mini card which is kept separate from the main deck and will appear on the field when certain card effects activate. It’s got 2 attack and 1 hit point, so won’t be around for long, but should do some damage in that time or at least provide fodder so your other units can fight. No token cards in Conquest supplied Command icons, so contributed nothing to the command phase.

Kith’s Khymeramasters

This card is Kith’s signature unit, when its deployed to the field it brings a Khymera token with it. To put this into context, Kith spams these Khymera tokens to bolster the decks weak overall attack. This unit only has 1 attack and 2 hit points and provides 1 command hammer, which is better than nothing and will help secure the command win in some instances.

Agonizer of Bren

This attachment provides the attached unit +1 attack for each Khymera token you have out. Now that sounds great, but it can’t be attached to your warlord, which is crazy. If I’m honest I only ever used this card for its shield value. So this card can block 3 damage when discarded from your hand when damage is dealt to a unit you control, hence “shield”. Most events / attachments have shield icons, which can be used to help your units in combat.

Khymera Den

This support or “location” is a massively useful piece of the Kith arsenal. Once per turn you can exhaust this card to move any number of Khymera tokens from any location to 1 location. Now when you have built up a massive force of tokens on 1 of the planets and you need reinforcements on another, this card brings them.

Pact of the Haemonculi

This card for ages didn’t feel right in the set, for the cost of 2 resources and sacrificing one of your units, you get to draw 2 cards and discard a random card from your opponent’s hand. However, when this deck gets going, the aim is to restrict the number of cards your opponent is drawing during Command, so they have little to no options on their turn. So this card does assist in that, on top of that, when using Murder of Razorwings, the discarding effects mount up. This also gives 1 shield icon, should you need it.

So that’s the Warlords compulsory card pool. It brings a nice flavour to the build and gives a base for the deck to develop into a command heavy and control heavy deck. If you read my last Classic Game Deck Review (https://bigboss010-genesisblog.blogspot.com/2020/05/classic-game-deck-review-vs-system.html) you’ll know that control builds are a favourite of mine, only this time, instead of giving my opponents loads of cards they can’t use, I want to stop them getting cards outside of the standard draw phase each turn.

So lets take a look at how that tactic comes together. First I’ll look at the command cards, these are the cards that allow me to win the command struggles on each planet during the game.

Chaos Fanatics

This 2 cost unit, has 2 hit points and 1 attack. So is a cheapish unit with an ok amount of health, but more importantly, it has 2 command icons. Although it has no ability, the 2 command icons will go far when determining who wins the command on the planet this unit is deployed to.

Void Pirate

This is a 1 cost, neutral unit, so this unit can go into any deck, other than Tyranids from what I can remember. This unit has 1 hit point and 0 attack, however provides 1 command icon and if this unit is present when you win command at the planet, you get to draw 1 card. So as an example, if you win command at a planet which gives you 1 extra card and 1 extra resource, this card will increase the card value by 1, so 2 cards instead. Not a bad thing to have when you are trying to get those combo cards.

Rogue Trader

This is the same as the Void Pirate, however, this unit will give you an extra resource instead of a card. So again, not a bad thing to have when you are needing to spend resources to get out those combo pieces. 

Promotion

This 0 cost neutral attachment, can be placed onto any Army unit (non-token or warlord) and it bestows 2 additional command icons. Add this to your Rogue Trader or Void Pirate to boost its ability to win command or any other unit in fact if it’s the difference between you winning a planet’s command and losing it.

Sllyth Mercenaries

This is the last card in my “Command” card package. This Dark Eldar unit costs 1 to bring out, it has 2 command icons, 2 attack and 2 hit points. I know, what could possibly go wrong. Well. They are mercenaries, so as an Action, any player, can pay 2 resources, to move these guys to their side of the board. Although I think I’ve maybe seen someone do that once or twice, it’s never been an issue. This would be your last card played in a round, to ensure your opponent can’t buy it or when your opponent doesn’t have the resources to buy it. So overall, you’d play the previous cards first, but this is a great back up plan or final card each round.

 

So those are the Command cards in the deck. They form the groundwork for the deck to work, they allow you to win Command, while stopping your opponent from doing so and in some ways, that’s actually more important to the overall plan.

This deck relies on disruption, to stop cards being played and to make sure Command struggles are being won. So the deck has a couple of little tactics in that department, so they are up next.

Archons Palace

This Support card is amazing in this build and really is key for reducing the command wins your opponent may get during the game. Its 2 cost and when your opponent wins a Command struggle on a planet, you can cancel either the card rewards or the resource rewards obtained from that command win. This deck will focus on the cards being drawn, the less cards your opponent has, they less they can play and the less they can shield during combat.

Murder of Razorwings

This 1 cost unit brings 1 attack and 1 hit point to the table. It has 0 command icons, however, its ability forces your opponent to discard a random card from their hand. This fits in nicely with the Pact of the Haemonculi card and the plan overall, if the opponent has 3 cards in hand, discarding even 1 can be critical to you winning.

Raid

Now this doesn’t fit exactly into the above in terms of stopping card draw, but this 0 cost event allows you to steal 1 of your opponent’s resources if they have more than you. Because this deck focuses on stopping the card draw, your opponent can be left with a heft amount of resources. With you being able to spend all yours, being able to nab 1 or 2 of your opponents, massive help. This card also supplies 2 shield icons, which is never a bad thing.

Archons Terror

Again, another card that doesn’t directly fit into the mould regarding stopping your opponent draw, but this 2 cost even allows you to rout an opponent’s army unit. Routing is where you exhaust the target unit and move it from the planet it’s on, to the opponent’s HQ, where it is out of action till next turn. So if you’ve choked your opponent’s card draw enough they can only get 1 or 2 units out in a turn, this card can massively impact their plans and help you pick up the win.

So I think that covers it for “disruption” cards or the cards that loosely link to that plan. The next step is our combat package, it’s great to be able to disrupt your opponent to a point they can’t do anything, but in this game, you need to get combat wins either to take planets or to kill the opposing Warlord. Dark Eldar are a little bit of a glass cannon, they hit hard, but they cannot take a punch back.

Incubus Warrior

This card pulls a bit of double duty, it’s a 2 cost army unit which has 2 command icons, 3 attack and 1 hit point. So it’s not only one hell of a hand in combat with that 3 attack, but it’s got 2 command icons to help with that all important command phase.

Bloodied Reavers

This little 2 cost unit has 2 attack, 2 health and 1 command icon. Its ability is where it shines, as when it’s on a planet with a Warlord, yours or the opponents, it gains 2 extra attack. So very handy when you’ve got that big fight on a planet, and with 2 hit points, you are more likely to keep this guy around longer than an Incubus warrior. Plus in the right situation, its got more attack than them too.

Syren Zythlax

This unit is a little star in its own right. It’s a 3 cost unique army unit, which means is has a certain level of protection from a lot of card effects. It’s got a nice 2 attack and 3 hit points. A solid 2 command icons and its ability is one of my personal favourites. When an opponent deploys a unit to the same planet as the Syren, it exhausts. Which means it’s useless in the first round of combat and it doesn’t get counted towards the command struggle. So I guess this also slips slightly into the disruption bracket too.

 

Klaivex Warleader

You want a unit that’s worth every penny, this is it. Its 4 cost, 3 attack, 3 defence and 2 command icons. Its ability allows you to automatically kill a target unit which already has damage when it enters play, on top of that, it has the Ambush keyword. This means you can pay to deploy this unit from your hand, during the combat phase and that is what makes this unit the MVP of the deck. All you need to do is hit that big unit for 1 damage elsewhere and then drop this guy to finish it off and still get an attack out of it. 5* card.

 

Warp Storm

I’ve left this till last as it’s the only real combat event. This combat action is 3 cost, has 1 shield icon and allows the player to deal 2 damage to every unit (which hasn’t got an attachment on) at a planet, or at a HQ. So this card, played carefully can really hurt an opponent’s forces. I’d never play it on a planet where you have units, but targeting an opponent’s HQ at the end of the combat phase, can result in a lot of units being killed.

 

That leaves just the left over cards. I guess these are utility cards, they have their own benefits which can really help you over the course of the game.

 

Gut and Pillage

This 0 cost event has the ability to net you 3 resources should you win combat on a planet that has a RED icon (don’t ask me what their actual names were). So with some pricey cards in the deck, you need to make sure you’re getting the resources to pay for them. Between this and Raid, you’ve got the tools you need. With 1 shield icon, you can also use for a little bit of protection too.

 

Suffering

Now this attachment is used for 1 reason, it has 2 shield icons. That’s it. Its ability is to lower the attached units attack by 2 and costs 1 resource. However, the ability is useful in certain situations, but I’ve never used it for anything else than a shield.

Packmaster Kith was the character that caught my eye and got me interested in Warhammer 40,000 Conquest, I never knew it would become the Phenom that it was in tournament play, but that never bothered me. I love this character, the art work, the cards and the decks I built with them. Even when the released the next 2 Dark Eldar warlords, I just never got into them in the same way and it’s because of just how cool this character was.

The game itself was a very good game, mechanically and thematically. It’s just a shame it got cut short before they were able to balance out the board. Chaos and Dark Eldar were just large and in charge by the time the game ended. Yet I felt Space Marines and Tau were really catching up. The Necrons also hadn’t long been released, so they had very little support by the end, which is also a shame because they had great potential.

If you want to see the game in action, I managed to get myself on YouTube when playing online and the video is still there at this link: https://youtu.be/vsjwlOI1ks0

This is right up there with the original Vs System in terms of games I truly miss and I still have all my cards, play mats, covers and tokens for this game. I’ve rather enjoyed delving back into these out of print games, I do have another couple in the back and I’m going to get something written about them too.

You can keep following all the action on Cheap Shot Entertainment on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. There is the YouTube channel and BlogSpot too. Also check me out on BlogSpot (I posted a link to that above, but just in case, https://bigboss010-genesisblog.blogspot.com)

I’m Big Boss….. I’m Out……. PEACE! 

Twitter @bigboss010 and Instagram at Bigbosstp010.

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Classic Game Deck Review: Vs System – Golden Age – Injustice Gang

So due to the lock-down, I’ve had plenty of time when not working from home to sit and look at some of the older card games I’ve played. The original version of the Vs System pitted comic book characters from the Marvel and DC franchises against each other in a team vs team format. So you could have the Avengers vs Justice League, X-Men vs Legion of Superheroes and even bad guys such as Dr. Doom vs Secret Society. I truly loved the game and it was a shame when the game was discontinued. Although re-birthed in a new format as the Vs System 2PCG, it doesn’t quite have the same magic the original version did. So I wanted to do a retrospective look at a deck which I was greatly fond of.

This deck was my absolute favourite deck to play in the original version of the Vs System game. Not just because it seemed to beat everyone locally all the time, but because of the characters that were in it and how the deck actually worked. If the deck were in Yu-Gi-Oh, it would be considered a “Burner” deck, a now archaic build, but still one I love to this day. The aim is to attack your opponent’s life points directly, with effects and abilities instead of actual attacks. This mean the deck was rather defensive in nature and focused on locking your opponent down so they could play very little and do very little each turn.

To those who do not know who the Injustice Gang are, it’s a super villain team with Lex Luthor at the helm. The roster included many of the well-known villains of the DC universe. This deck contains mainly Batman enemies to be honest. We have Penguin, Joker and Scarecrow making the bulk to the roster. This is then enforced by IQ, Owen Mercer’s Captain Boomerang, Abra Kadabra and of course, Lex Luthor.

So let’s get to the list:

Characters:

4 x Penguin – (DCL-128)

4 x IQ - (DJL-088)

4 x Owen Mercer * Captain Boomerang - (DLS-220)

4 x Lex Luthor - (DJL-090)

4 x The Joker - (DJL-089)

4 x Scarecrow – (DJL-097)

3 x Abra Kadabra – (DJL-076)

Plot Twists:

4 x Criminal Mastermind – (DJL-103)

4 x All Too Easy – (DJL-102)

4 x Secret Files – (DJL-111)

4 x Power Siphon – (DJL-109)

3 x Political Pressure – (MOR-209)

4 x Acrobatic Dodge – (MOR-173)

3 x Gang Up – (DCL-147)

3 x Evil Genius – (DCL-146)

Equipment:

2 x Laughing Gas – (DCL-140)

Location:

2 x Injustice Gang Satellite – (DJL-107)

Now to breakdown why these cards are in the deck and how critical they are to the plan working.

The Penguin * Gentleman of Crime

So this level 1 character is a hidden character, and whenever it attacks a player directly, both players draw a card. This is used for many things in the deck, as its hidden, I can exhaust it for the effect of Criminal Mastermind multiple times without worrying about him being KO’d and as pretty much no one I know uses level 1 characters, the extra draw comes in real handy when he attacks turn 1. This character is also great when teamed up with the All Too Easy plot twist late game when it’s attack can go up to stupidly high levels.

IQ * Ira Quimby

This level 2 character is the cornerstone of this deck and only gains more value as the game progresses. Every time your opponent draws a card, they lose one endurance. This deck will have your opponent drawing a lot of cards throughout the game. I think at a point, I’ve had my opponent drawing 6 cards per turn on average and this can be more depending on the cards you have. Thanks to it having Ranged too, it can stay on the back row to keep him around as long as possible.

Owen Mercer / Captain Boomerang * Diggers Son

This level 2 character was a bit of a last minute throw in and replaced the original Captain Boomerang IG character. I found that my opponents were using the power-up ability to ditch cards from their hands to decrease the power of Scarecrow when he hits the table turn 5 or 6. So Owen’s ability to hit the opponent for 1 endurance for each card in their hand when they power-up, can really impact this and make the opponent think twice.

Lex Luthor * Nefarious Philanthropist

So, sexy Lexy hits the table turn 3 and supercharges IQ’s ability as of turn 4. Your opponent draws 2 additional cards and then can only play 1 Plot Twist on that turn, this ability isn’t optional. So, we have a great combo piece with IQ here and is another key piece to the strategy of the deck. Due to the restriction placed on Plot Twists, your opponent is left with cards in hand they cannot use, waiting for Scarecrow to land on the board. On a separate note, this is my fav Vs System character card.

The Joker * Headline Stealer

Level 4 sees the Joker making his debut, this version of the character is similar to the same level Doctor Doom from the Marvel Origins set, but to me, a lot cooler. He has a good set of stats for a level 4 at 8 attack and 7 defence. His ability means your opponent can only play Plot Twists from their hand that cost more than the number of cards they have in hand. So you team this with Level 3 Lex Luthor and you’ve got your opponent playing 1 Plot Twist a turn and it has to be from their resource row. With the defence and boosts given by plot twists and equipment in this deck, Joker can be hard to get rid of.

Abra Kadabra * Citizen Abra

This was also a last minute throw in too, due to his ability to stop an opponent who has 5 or more cards in hand from being able to discard cards for abilities. My Cousin would play his Sentinel’s deck against me and come level 5 would bring out a character (I forget the name) which would allow him to discard any Sentinel to power up any Sentinel. This pushed me to add not only this character to stop him using the ability, but also Owen Mercer, in case I couldn’t get this guy out. As this guy then draws a target on himself, his second ability to KO an adjacent character to move to the hidden zone, really made him worth it. A very TECH card and would only see play if needed.

Scarecrow * Psycho Psychologist

This is the star of the show come turn 5 generally. Paying 3 of your endurance to have your opponent lose X endurance, where X is equal to the number of cards in their hand. With your opponent only able to play limited cards each turn, this character will end the game generally on his first turn on the board. After IQ has well and truly worn down your opponent, Scarecrow will quickly finish them off. His ability to also come out turn 6 and make everyone draw 3 cards extra, also makes him viable to keep hold of an additional turn should you need to. Not gonna lie, this pretty much never happened.

So that wraps up the line-up of evil doers in the Injustice Gang for this deck. Now to move onto those critical Plot Twists, Equipments and Locations.

Criminal Mastermind

A 1 threshold cost Plot Twist is one of the bases on the deck. For the cost of exhausting an IG character, both players draw a card at the start of the Build step each turn. With Penguin sat in the hidden area, you have a quick expendable character to use for this cost and the benefits are amazing. Teamed with IQ and later Scarecrow, this can really cause problems for your opponent, the more you have out. If you have all 4 down, with Lex Luthor on the board, your opponent is drawing 8 cards per turn. That’s 8 damage from IQ and adding 8 to the damage done by Scarecrow later. Just a key card in the deck

All Too Easy

This is the main offensive card for this deck, adding X attack and taking away X defence from one of your IG characters, where X is equal to the cards in your opponent’s hand. Although it guarantees your character will be stunned in the combat, since you have a level 1 Penguin in your hidden area, this can result in a big character of your opponents being taken out with limited cost to you. Isn’t useable till a bit into the game though, as it is 3 threshold cost, but you aren’t using this generally till later anyway.

Secret Files

So, when most players are going for the old Mobilize card, I’ll stick to my secret files. Not only do I get to go grab an IG character from my deck, but my opponent gets to go grab an affiliated character too. So adding a character to my opponents hand is a risk, but with them being unable to discard for abilities and losing some major points if they power up, I’ve never once hesitated using this card to go get a character I need. 2 Threshold cost, so useable pretty much straight away and if I don’t have IQ in my hand, this goes and gets it for me.

Power Siphon

This 1 threshold cost defensive gem of a card is another key to keeping around those characters like Lex and IQ until you can get Scarecrow out on the board. Ok, you have to exhaust the defending character, but as I mentioned early in this article, the aim isn’t to really do much standard combat with this deck. Your character gets – X attack and + X defence where X is the number of cards in the opponents hand. So the opposite of All Too Easy.

Acrobatic Dodge

The original defence card. Giving basically a – 3 attack and + 3 defence stat to any character who is defending, this is another easy pick for the deck. This card was released in the original Marvel Origins set and has been a staple to me ever since. Would play 4 of these in all my decks if I could.

Gang-Up * Team-Up

Pretty easy to justify this in the deck, it’s a quick “each player draws 1 card” with a 2 threshold cost. I’ve multiple affiliations in this team to warrant it and the drawing just fits in with the theme.

Evil Genius

A specific card for Lex Luthor, where I can exhaust him to have all players draw cards equal to his cost. So in my case 3 cards, not a bad way to fuel IQ and of course, Scarecrow later on. Easy include at 3 copies. Didn’t see a point in 4 as id never use that many and 3 makes it more likely to draw.

Political Pressure

This card really was added again, due to my cousins Sentinel deck. Having an opponent play multiple characters per turn is a big no for this deck. We need to keep you locked down as much as possible. So this really ties into that and paying 4 endurance to turn it face down in your resource row means its replay able. So due to this, I’ve only included 3 copies and at 1 threshold cost, its useable right off the bat.

Injustice Gang Satellite

So only the 1 location in this deck and I’ve just gone with 2 copies. It’s a cool location with the ability to KO a stunned character costing less than the number of cards in your opponents hand by simply discarding an IG character once per turn. 4 threshold, means it isn’t seeing play till late game, hence the low number of copies. Most of the games will end turn 5 when Scarecrow comes in. So you’ll get maybe 1 or 2 uses from this.

Laughing Gas

A 0 cost equipment and at a low 2 copies in the deck too. Although I love the ability on the card, essentially turning my level 4 Joker into Scarecrow should he deal any breakthrough damage, this card doesn’t usually see much use, as mentioned, I’m not too focused on doing standard combat. However, should the tactical situation arise, this card can be a great way to end the game turn 4.

So there it is. I’d looked at multiple replacements for some of the cards in this deck to try and make it more combat ready, but felt like when I did that, it took from the focus of the deck. Which is simple. To give my opponent loads of cards, as I’m a generous guy, but, to make sure they could never use them, while I work “behind the scenes” to beat them. All in the name of Injustice.

As I said to my cousin after I beat his Modern age Horsemen of Apocalypse deck…. Better luck next time.

I’m likely to do another one of these classic game deck reviews, as I’ve quite enjoyed going over some older tactics and playstyles. I’ve got games such as WWE Raw Deal and YuGiOh which I can draw from to look at. Plus I’ll continue to post about Arkham Horror LCG and other games I’ve got going on, plus any wrestling I fancy taking on.

Thanks for reading, you can catch me on my Genesis BlogSpot, the Cheap Shot Entertainment BlogSpot, on Twitter @bigboss010 and Instagram at Bigbosstp010.

I’m Big Boss, I’m out….. Peace.

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