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xphoenix87

The Winds of Change

Friday, June 17, 2005  As soon as I write an article about a new, metagame defining deck, UDE goes and kills it off. In case you’ve been living under a rock recently, I’ll explain what I mean. On June 15th, UDE made the first power-level correcting errata, and the first banning of a card in the history of VS. I can’t say it better than the official announcement, so I’ll just give you that.

“6/14/05
Card Errata and Banning Update
The following card has received errata effective July 1st, 2005:

Rama-Tut, Pharaoh from the 30th Century
Original Text
When Rama-Tut comes into play, if you control Dr. Doom, you may return target plot twist card from your KO'd pile to your hand.
New Text
When Rama-Tut comes into play, if you recruited him and you control Dr. Doom, you may return target plot twist card from your KO'd pile to your hand.

The following card has been banned from Golden Age constructed play starting July 1, 2005: Overload”

The first of these was rather expected. It effectively kills the Dr. Light deck that I showed you guys in my last article since Rama-Tut’s effect no longer goes off when Dr. Light grabs him from the KO pile. The other announcement was pretty unexpected, and it makes a huge impact on the current metagame. A lot of people have been very upset with the commonly used combo where you use Savage Beatdown or Nasty Surprise on an opponent’s character just so that you can Overload them and get a free stun. Most people were calling for the attack pumps to receive errata that limited them to targeting your own characters. It even seemed as though that was the path UDE was heading down when the F4 starter deck came out and had reprint versions of Flying Kick that only allowed you to target your own characters. As a result of this, the banning of Overload took nearly everyone by surprise. Now, I’m not going to spend this article telling you whether or not I agree with these changes. What’s done is done, and we just have to adapt to it. Instead, I’m going to write about how this changes the game of VS. The Rama-Tut errata is rather simple. It was done with the express purpose of killing one deck, and that’s all it did. Rama-Tut goes back to being an almost unplayable card, and the Dr. Light Abuse deck simply becomes no more. However, the banning of Overload will bring about massive changes in the metagame, and that’s what I’m going to talk about.

So, Overload is gone, no more, outta here. What does that mean for the VS metagame? Well, for one thing, it means that there won’t be any more of your opponent double Savage Beatdown then Overloading your 5 drop. The SNO combo (Savage Beatdown/Nasty Surprise/Overload) that was one of Curve Sentinels’ biggest weapons is gone now. This also means that the need to tech in Not So Fast is gone, since Overload was usually the only card that was used to stop. So, the real question is how does this ban affect the current tier 1 decks.

Curve Sentinels- CS takes a huge hit from the loss of Overload. SNO was a big weapon for this deck that it could easily fit in because of all the free space the deck has. On the other hand, CS decks now have a crazy amount of space in which to load various tech cards. I would expect to see CS decks running a full set of defensive pumps (Cover Fire and Acrobatic Dodge) to combat a meta where attack pumps will now run rampant.

Teen Titans- This deck just jumped from being powerful to being obscenely good. No more Overload means that Bastion can’t pump and stun your Tim Drake before combat. It also means that Arsenal goes back to being the single most deadly card in the format. You can pump all you want because there’s no need to fear him getting overloaded. Also, dropping Overload and Not So Fast from the deck gives you a lot more space to play around with. I think that the ban of Overload just jumped TT up to the top deck in the metagame, as it was really the only card that held Arsenal to a manageable level.

The New Brotherhood- This was a godsend for TNB decks, which may have benefited more from the ban than TT decks did. You no longer have to worry about playing Not So Fast and can use those spaces to fit in even more attack pumps. The deck is still dependant on getting decent draws, but there is no deck that can match the sheer attack abilities of TNB right now, and the only really good counter card we have for it is Flame Trap. Definitely one of the top 5 decks in the game post-ban and I would say probably top 3.

Gamma Doom/EMS/New School/X-Stall- I’m going to lump all 3 of these decks together because this change basically affects them all the same way. The decks didn’t rely on attacking, so Overload neither hurt them or helped them. However, the ban of Overload opens up more spots in other decks to tech against these combo decks. Overall then, these stall decks are hurt by the ban of Overload simply because they aren’t helped by it.

Fantastic Fun- This is a hard deck to gauge in light of the ban. On one hand, the deck always had A Child Named Valeria to prevent Overload from doing much damage. Overload wasn’t really a huge threat against this deck and the deck never used Overload, so it might seem like it would be in the same situation as the above decks. However, this change in the game also will bring about a huge rise in the number of TNB decks that are played, which is a great matchup for FFun decks. It’s tough to judge how FFun will react to the change, but I think that it will stay a competitive deck, and maybe even benefit from the change.

Xavier’s Dream- Not really hurt or helped much by this. One of the things that helps it is that the opponent’s only hope against the deck was often to try and Overload their own characters to try and prevent the Dream from going off. However, it is also hurt by the fact that this opens up more space in decks to drop in Have a Blast or other tech cards. Overall though, not hugely influenced.

I think I covered most of the top decks there. At any rate, it’s certain that the metagame will change. I, for one, am wildly excited to see how the game shakes out in this post-ban environment and I hope that some decks which weren’t viable before see the light of play.

Hopefully I’ll have an article about one of my tricky little decks for you guys next week. Until then, enjoy using your attack pumps without fear of Overload (ding dong, the witch is dead).

-xphoenix87