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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