Quintessentially Quirky - Going Old School

Apologies that there is still no new material from me, really, really tied up with work with the end of the financial year approaching.
Here’s another QQ from Gary.  

Quintessentially Quirky – Going Old School

One of the things Graham asked me to do, as well as feature crazy yank decks, is to look at old decks and update them.

So after careful consideration, I have decided to look back at one of favourite ever decks. The format I will be using is one that some friends and I have been looking at for casual play. Golden Age Single Team.

This format is designed to bring some structure to Golden Age tournaments and avoid the more broken combo decks. The guidelines are as follows:

1) Golden Age format for card legality. Banned cards are still banned.

2) 60 card deck minimum

3) Choose a team. 50 cards must either: mention that team in the game text, be legend stamped to a character that has that printed affiliation.

4) Against All Odds, Big Leagues and Mobilize do not count towards the 50 card limit.

Although Enemy of my Enemy is legal, you would need to run 4 copies, 2 splash characters and then 4 team-ups or the splashed character will not get any advantage from the other support cards. And that leaves no room for Flying Kick or Savage Beatdown.

The team I want to re-feature gave me my best ever constructed performance prior to last year’s Elite Series events, 25^th at Bognor 10K. I just missed out on the money due to some truly inept plays, although I still managed 6-4. Though never truly tier 1, they have always been a solid team that can cause the opponent problems, and with their recent re-feature in DC Legends, their options are wider than ever.

So I present the League of Assassins, single team style.

Firstly my old decklist:

4x Talia, Daugher of the Demon’s Head.
1x Hassim, Loyal Retainer
1x Assassin Initiate, Army
4x Ubu, Ra’s Al Ghul Bodyguard
1x Hook, Hired Killer
3x Ra’s Al Ghul, Eternal Nemesis
1x Ra’s Al Ghul, Immortal Villain
2x Merlyn, Deadly Archer
4x Bane, Ubu
2x Sensei, Martial Arts Master
1x Ra’s Al Ghul, Master Swordsman
1x Lady Shiva, Master Assassin
1x Dr Ebenezer Dark, Original Leader of the League
2x Ra’s Al Ghul, The Demon’s Head

4x Tower of Babel

4x Demon’s Head

3x Dual Nature

3x No Fear

3x Acrobatic Dodge

4x Mountain Stronghold

2x Flying Fortress

2x Pit of Madness

2x Avalon Space Station

3x Lazarus Pit

1x Base of Operations

1x Psychoville

There were some odd card choices I know, but this was immediately before DJL was released. Psychoville was the essential hidden hate card, searchable by Demon’s Head. Base of Operations worked extremely well with Talia and Sensei to smooth the draw and or make best use of their abilities.

No Fear allowed me to stun back attacks down the curve off-initiative and also stun up the curve with Ra’s Al Ghul on turn 5. It was an under-played card that seriously surprised some of my opponents.

The basic game plan was to stone wall attacks to prevent board clearance off-initiative and then KO key characters on-initiative. Dragging the game in to the later turns where Lady Shiva and Ra’s Al Ghul would end the game.

The metagame featured team-stamped combat tricks (Thunderbolt Team Tactics) and New Brotherhood, so Tower of Babel looked to be a strong play.

Sentinels still featured heavily, but this was quite a good match-up if you had odds. As Tower of Babel stopped most of their tricks and Ra’s Al Ghul could get rid of Nimrod first time.

Child Lock and Green Lantern weenie decks also looked likely, but Merlyn and Assassins Initiate would deal with them.

To show the power of Tower of Babel, my first two wins came against New Brotherhood decks that both had 2 copies of the signature plot twist in their row. So while they got a lot of stunbacks, their initiative was severely dampened. I also destroyed a Green Lantern deck simply because on turn 4 I had Merlyn behind Ubu on my opponent’s initiative. When I played Tower of Babel he couldn’t sun Merlyn as the only character able to get through Ubu was his 4 drop, and he couldn’t team attack Merlyn or use any of his attack pumps once Ubu was stunned. I then started KOing key characters each turn. With Bane showing up to help on turn 5, the game was won. It still went to turn 8 but I had swept away all the low drops and emptied the board on turn 4 and 5. So on turn 6 he had the 6 drop Sinestro and Gnort to my Ubu, Merlyn, Bane and Ra’s Al Ghul (6 drop).  

So how does the deck change since then? What cards have been released to support the team? Prior to Legends it looked like this:

Seibo’s Garden is a decent card if you are recovering your own characters. Even one +1/+1 counter can make life difficult for your opponent. But it is a bit too situational and the effect not so massive.

Nyssa Raatko was the player designed card, and is potentially ridiculous. But I am not sure you have enough exhaustable locations to recover anybody really good.

Talia, Daughter of Madness was a decent card simply because there are a few discard outlets in the League deck, but was probably not good enough when measured against Bane.

Talia, Beloved Betrayer however is a decent 2 drop with a relevant ability that improves cards like Pit of Madness. Plus the juicy stats are an added bonus. She also allows you to include Science Spire in your deck…. If you wanted the team up.

So far we have seen a decent 2 drop and a possible 6 drop, but the other choices are not too attractive. Other than team stamped cards however, there were a couple of other cards that screamed to be abused.

Tricked Out Sports Car provides decent bonuses, especially as the League is very short of natural range or flight. But better than that, the alternate recruit cost is easily paid.

Soul World fulfilled the same function as Avalon Space Station, but instead of a discard you could just pay some END instead. With the potentially challenging hand size issues the deck faces, this could be a big benefit.

Then along came DC Legends. They reprinted the signature cards, but changed the focus from location control and late game, to an aggressive beatdown and recovery deck. Cycling locations rather than maintaining a face-up row. Making Ra’s a legend was also logical as he already had some legend-stamped cards anyway (Mountain Stronghold and Lady Shiva).

I’ll do a complete review of the DC Legends re-feature in the near future, but for now I’ll just focus on the cards that I think need to be considered:

Lazarus Pit, Death’s Door is the new version of the Lazarus Pit and it rocks. A recovery effect that only costs 4 END and a replace effect is powerful. Combine it with Bane on turn 5 and it is plain silly. (I think this is why Bane didn’t get re-printed)

The Demon’s Quarters provides more ways to abuse Ra’s Al Ghul off-initiative. So has to be worth considering.

Shrike, Boone is an under-estimated 6 drop in my opinion. Especially when considered with the next card.

Harsh Judgement looks to be a minimal effect, but this card can make life extremely difficult for your opponent.

So how would the list change for Golden Age with the new cards that are available?

4x Talia, Beloved Betrayer
(replaces the other Talia simply because the stats are better and her interaction with Pit of Madness makes your off-initiative turn easier).

2x Hassim, Loyal Retainer

(Better than Assassin Initiate who was mainly there for the Child Lock and Green Lantern match-ups. A really strong attack pump in the late game)

4x Ubu, Ra’s Al Ghul Bodyguard
(still the best 3 drop they have. Just mulligan for a 2 drop!!!)

1x Hook, Hired Killer

(A decent effect against off-curve decks, potentially swap for the new Mad-Dog 3 drop))

 3x Ra’s Al Ghul, Eternal Nemesis
(Still the best 4 drop they have)

1x Ra’s Al Ghul, Immortal Villain

(A tech card for location heavy decks like Checkmate and Inhumans)

2x Merlyn, Deadly Archer

(Rarely dropped on turn 4, he is a game winner against some decks)

4x Bane, Ubu
(Will always be the primary 5 drop of choice, as with the new Lazarus Pit he is walking field advantage for 4 END)

2x Sensei, Martial Arts Master
(Still my preferred 6 drop. His ability is useful and he sets up a Dual Natured Bane on turn 6 with his lower defence than normal)

1x Nyssa Raatko

(In to replace the 6 drop Ra’s Al Ghul, but still counts as him for recruiting Lady Shiva)

1x Lady Shiva, Master Assassin
(What is not to like on initiative!)

1x Dr Ebenezer Dark, Original Leader of the League

(The new Nyssa Raatko is very good, but he is also potentially a real brick wall)

2x Ra’s Al Ghul, The Demon’s Head
(the big finisher of the deck. He turns off so many opponent decks it borders on mean)

4x Tower of Babel

(Still one of the most powerful plot twists in the game. It wrecks some decks so badly that it actually used to feature in pro guides under “Defining a Match Up!”)

4x Demon’s Head

(Location search is never a bad thing)

3x Dual Nature

(I love this card, always have. Surprise reinforcement is good. A second Bane is very harsh and a late game Merlyn can be match winning)

3x Harsh Judgement

(Works well on or off initiative)

3x Tricked Out Sports Car
(Get one of these on either Ra’s or Bane and see how much this ruins the opponent’s day)

4x Mountain Stronghold
(Character Tutor and free reinforcement is good. Exhaustable for Tricked Out Sports Car. It is all good!)

2x Flying Fortress

(Flight and +2 ATK every turn. So very handy)

2x Pit of Madness

(Defensive Pump helps with the stopping attacks)

1x Avalon Space Station

(Recursion is good)

1x Slaughter Swamp

(diversifying recursion is better than having all eggs in one basket)

3x Lazarus Pit, Deaths Door

(simply too good with Bane to pass up!)

1x Soul World

(more recursion and hand advantage)

1x Sewer System

(When you absolutely have to get to that key character with an auto-koing Ra’s Al Ghul, accept no substitute)

 This is not the perfect build, but it is one I would be happy to use in a tournament where it was legal. While the combat tricks are not many, the impact of Tower of Babel should never be over-looked. There are a lot of decks it simply wrecks. Also the KOing power of this deck can also seriously crimp the ability of other decks to maintain a field. A curve deck that loses its 4 and 5 drop on turn 5 (easily achievable with initiative) is pretty much knackered from there on.

Harsh Judgement may be all that is needed to force decks to team attack or blow attack pumps, and wasted attack pumps are always a good way to make opponents lose.

Tower of Babel simply beats off-curve decks. Once they cannot team-attack, their options are extremely limited.

Using Dual Nature to cheat out a second Bane will generally KO their 6 drop. A Merlyn brought in to play on your opponent’s initiative if you have a green resource row will also make them curse.

Once you get your nose in front with board presence, your opponent will find it very difficult to get back in to the game.

League of Assassin decks are always difficult to over-run. Ubu makes the order of attacks difficult for the opponent, and can always be reinforced if necessary. Not to mention his big stats! Ra’s Al Ghul is often reinforced by the Mountain Stronghold. Both of which often leave the League of Assassin player well placed to reach the later game where their more powerful board control effects begin to kick in.

You also don’t need to push for damage, as your late game is better than a lot of decks out there. Therefore the game is often likely to go on longer as you are taking less stun damage on their turn. Once Bane is in play, the only character you are bothered about stunning on initiative is the biggest one, as they don’t recover. So a single safe attack works better than lots of daring ones. This starts the momentum swinging towards the League player, and once that starts it is difficult for the opponent to regain.

The preferred initiative is Odds as a Tower of Babel on turn 4 will stop you taking much damage from your opponent if you still have your 2/3/4 drops in play. Ubu will almost un-stunnable by a lot of decks.

Turn 5 you can push home the advantage by stunning their 5 drop with Ra’s and Ubu and then Bane their 4 drop. They will lose their 5 drop and you will not lose anyone. (If you have the Lazarus Pit, you should consider the mutual stunning their 4 and 5 with your and then recovering Bane, as you will probably kill both their 4 & 5 drops)

Turn 6 they get to attack with a 6 drop and a 4 drop. (if they are lucky) They will have to get rid of Bane or face losing their 6 drop as well. Again, you should be able to reinforce most attacks.

Turn 7 you should be able to drop Lady Shiva (KOing your 6 to keep Ra’s around if necessary) which KOs the opponent 7 for free. Bane should then be able to get rid of any remaining characters.

Turn 8 you drop Ra’s Al Ghul who stops most decks cold.

In a format designed to be team-stamped, the potential for the League of Assassins to exceed past glories is huge.