The Tinkerer's Vs. Workshop

01.20.05 - Darkseid’s Elite/Fearsome Five deck

  Hey all, Tinkerer back with ya again.  So today I have a fix of my very first deck submission.  I got a note from a guy named Tom who needs some help with a Darkseid’s Elite/Fearsome Five deck he made which, if I may say so myself, is one heck of an original idea.  He wanted to keep all the strength of Darkseid’s team with the control side that Fearsome Five provides.  His main problem was that he could not consistently hit his character curve, which we all know makes or breaks a game most of the time.  And now here’s the deck list he sent me.

Characters: (30)

Gole, Deep Six x4

Shimmer, Selinda Flinders, x4

Slig, Deep Six x4

Bernadeth, Leader of Female Furies, x2

Jinx, Elemental Sorceress x2

Devilance, The Pursuer x4

Darkseid, Uxas, x2

Dr. Light, Arthur Light, x2

Superman, False Son, x2

Psimon, Dr. Simon Jones x2

Darkseid, Lord of Apokolips x2

Plot Twists: (26)

Marvel Team-Up x2

World’s Finest x2

Savage Beatdown x1

Hordes of Apokolips x3

The Underworld Star x4

Omega Beams x2

Mega Blast x2

Burn Rubber x2

Acrobatic Dodge x2

From The Shadows x2

Flying Kick x2

Locations: (4)

Metropolis x2

Apokolips x2

Avalon Space Station x2

At first glance I couldn’t really see any problems with the character line-up, but after constructing the deck myself I could see the problem.  Tom is playing with 4 characters in every drop turn 1-7 and 2 level 8’s.  That makes drawing your low characters early that much harder.  After shuffling through the deck several times I was finding that I was only hitting the curve maybe once every five times.  Sometimes it was only one character off, but more often I wasn’t hitting anything until turn 3 or 4.  So I poked, and I prodded and this is what I came up with….

1 Drop:   Left it alone, there’s nothing better to use.  I would have cut it completely if it were not so critical for the team up.

Gole x 4

2 Drop:  Need to up the ante by 2 to make drawing one more consistent.  2 Desaad-Royal Torturer fit’s the bill nicely.

Shimmer x 4

Desaad x 2

3 Drop:  Slig was the only character here and I regretfully have to say that he stinks.  That said he is still Darkseid’s best character in the 3 spot.  And now we put the spotlight on Charger from the Fearsome side.  Potentially huge, we’ll use 4 of him.

Slig x 2

Charger x 4

4 Drop:  This belonged only to Bernadeth who is very good in her own right, but not always who you want to be playing.  Trok can be a little bit volatile but a monster at other times.

Bernadeth x 3

Trok x 2

5 Drop:  Nothing to change, Neutron doesn’t make sense and other Darkseid characters just suck.

Devilance x 4

6 Drop:  Drop one Dr. Light just because he serves us better as a boosted turn 9 character, his activated effect is worthless on turn 6 in this deck.

Dr. Light x 1

Darkseid-Uxas x 2

7 Drop:  4 characters in this spot are just to many in my opinion.  Superman will serve us better so one Psimon had to go.

Psimon x 1

Superman-False Son x 2

8 Drop:  Darkseid is just a beast, but all we should need is one.

Darkseid-Lord of Apokolips x1

  Now after all that not much really happened.  I upped the character count by 2, dropped Jinx all together (she did not fit with the deck’s flow), and we added in some Charger’s and Trok’s.  Total character count: 32

  Tom said he was doing well enough with his plot twist selection but also said I could tweak it if I saw any problems.  Here are a few notes I came up with…

Acrobatic Dodge:  Most deck’s can pack a full set of 4 of these cards.  They’re great to keep you in the game in case you do miss your character curve, and add some extra defense where necessary.  

Crushing Blow:  Just about the most obvious choice for a non-army deck that uses Shimmer, it’s your own version of “It’s Clobberin’ Time”.  We’ll use 4 of these too.

Hordes of Apokolips: Tom’s dead on with this one, 3 copies are just fine.  

Overload:  This is never a bad idea for any deck. It won’t always be used but you’ll be glad you have it when you need it.  2 should do the trick. (You can always keep on a Mega-Blast or Flying Kick if you find these don’t do enough for the deck.)

Savage Beatdown:  Guessing you only have 1 since that’s all you’re using, make some room in here if you can get more.

The Underworld Star:  Yup, 4

World’s Finest:  2 of these round out the plot twist’s nicely

  Onto locations:  There’ only 2 different one’s.

Apokolips:  A lot of the time this can be a reusable Savage Beatdown.  I think 2 are fine.

Metropolis:  If you don’t have a two team specific team-up card that lets you draw, 4 Metropolis is always the best choice in case that nasty Source is lurking around.

  How about a couple equipment cards?

Beta Club:  0 recruit cost and lots of extra damage make a good card in my book.  Try 2 to start with.

Now the final deck list:

Characters: 32

Gole x 4

Shimmer x 4

Desaad x 2

Slig x 2

Charger x 4

Bernadeth x 3

Trok x 2

Devilance x 4

Dr. Light x 1

Darkseid-Uxas x 2

Psimon x 1

Superman-False Son x 2

Darkseid-Lord of Apokolips x1

Plot Twists: 26

Acrobatic Dodge x 4

Crushing Blow x 4

Hordes of Apokolips x 3

Overload x 2

Savage Beatdown x 1

The Underworld Star x 4

World’s Finest x 2

Locations: 6

Apokolips x 2

Metropolis x 4

Equipment: 2

Beta Club x 2

  Of course some stuff had to be cut to make room for the changes.  Mega Blast, Burn Rubber, From The Shadows, Omega Beams, and Flying Kick didn’t make the cut.  Now I’m not saying any of these are bad choices, I just don’t think they’re right for this deck.

  Now after play testing this against a few different decks of my own, I found I was hitting the curve almost perfectly every time and even won a few games (which is a feat considering I wasn’t to sure how to play it the first couple times through.)

 Well, I hope this helped you out some Tom, write back and let me know how it goes for you and I’ll post your response in a future article of mine.  As for the rest of you, send in those deck fixes!!!

Until next time,

  Good Fight, Good Night