MC/DC Prep

MC/DC is being held this weekend, and I want to talk about the decks that I'm bringing, as well as my predictions on PvP, and some bonus reveals at the end!

This will be my first Marvel Champions convention. It's actually going to be my first convention in general. So I don't really know what to expect. How many decks should I bring? Should I just bring my whole collection, or a stack of sideboard cards?

I could just throw everything into the car, and have my whole collection in case I want to swap things out, but I think that probably isn't the best idea. I don't want to spend a ton of time sifting through cards in the hotel to build decks. I just want to play the game! So instead, I'm just going to bring a wide range of decks (8-10 total) and a pile of "sideboard" cards.

Picking Con Decks

I want to bring a wide range of decks in different aspects, and to have each of the basic roles covered (damage, thwarting, and defense). On top of that, there are 3 "bonus points" that I will be focusing on: Support, Combos, and Gimmicks.

Support- I define support as a deck that goes out of their way to help other players at the table. There's a lot of ways to do this, including: defending for the table, healing characters, giving heroes or their allies upgrades, effects that let them find cards to put into play, or letting players draw extra cards.

Combo- This is similar to support in that its directly interacting with other players. The two main types of multiplayer combos are Team-Up cards and the Alliance keyword. Team Ups are great in multiplayer as two players can pick the relevant heroes, and both bring the team-up card. They don't have to worry about having an ally in play, the team-up is always active. Alliance cards can be paid for as a group, and the effect can often be shared as well, which makes them better in multiplayer. Many of these cards require characters with specific traits to be in play, which is also easier to make work in multiplayer. There are tons of other niche multiplayer combos, like putting Honorary upgrades on other players, which gives them access to traits that they can't normally gain. And there are ways to gain access to off-aspect cards as well. This can be done by getting off-aspect upgrades from other players, or using Make the Call to put an off-aspect ally into play.

Gimmicks-"Gimmick" doesn't mean bad. Many of my best decks are gimmicky. These are great choices for a con, because they do something unique and fun, and can create memorable games.

List of Decks:

• 5G Psionics (Psylocke leadership)- My favorite deck for my favorite hero! This deck is great for multiplayer, and checks all three boxes for "bonus points", so I'll be playing this a lot. Its an Uncanny X-Force deck with a twist. It uses Cell Phones and Team-Building Exercise to play cards and activate off turn. This may not seem like a big deal, but it helps out all the time. I listed 14 different situations where acting off turn is important, and there's many more than that.

• Tree Mobile Sidekick (Groot leadership)- This is just a silly gimmick deck. I have the only Groot Sidekick deck on marvelcdb, and for good reason. Groot doesn't have a signature ally, so I will be using Make the Call to "borrow" allies from other players!

• Guerrilla Warfare (Miles Protection)- This is probably the strongest deck that I'm bringing. This is a "status stacking" deck, which is a term that I made up that means that it can apply statuses and then reapply them right after they are used. This lets me status lock the villain in multiplayer. Its a powerful gimmick, and provides support by keeping the villain constantly stunned and confused.

• Magnets, How Do They Work? (Magneto Protection)- Another gimmick that can protect the whole table. Play down Multiple man for 3 chump blockers, then use the alter ego ability to shuffle them all back into my deck. Its a simple concept, but a tricky puzzle to actually make work.

• Been Caught Stealing (Jubilee Justice)- Get your item cards ready because we are going shopping! Shopping Spree can be a very powerful support for the right teammates, and this deck lets me use it over and over again.

• You Only Get One Shot (Silk Justice)- Big thwart justice is just fun! Goal is to get Silks basic thwart as high as possible and double it with overwatch. Big thwart decks are great in multiplayer.

• Silent Night (Storm Aggression)- This deck focuses on "silencing" villain cards at the table. Its full of effects that get rid of villain attachments, or prevent "when defeated" effects. It's a pretty unique deck that provides support by making the villain less annoying to deal with.

I might bring a few more decks than this. I'm thinking about making a Falcon deck and maybe an older hero like Black Widow. I'm working on a deck or two specifically for PvP too!

Sideboard

I wont go into any specific sideboard cards for individual decks, but I will also be bringing a stack of general sideboard cards that will be useful in a lot of situations. This is what I came up with:

• Player Side Schemes- Many of these can either go from useless to must-have depending on the group. There aren't all that many of them, so I'm just going to bring them all just in case.

• Pool- Similarly, there's only about 50 total Pool cards. I'm just going to bring all of it, that way, any hero that I brought can also be played in Pool.

• Helicarrier- Someone in your group is probably playing Build Support, and this is a great one to just throw into your deck if you don't have any better support cards. This is also great to swap with X-Jet or Quinjet so you don't have to fight with your team for those cards.

• Clarity of Purpose- There's a handful of heroes like Hulk, She-Hulk, Spider-Ham, and X-23 who would love to have this upgrade. If someone like that is in your group, just throw a copy of this into your leadership deck.

• Team Up cards- I'll bring the team up cards for each hero that I'm playing, in case I get into a game where someone is playing the other hero.

• Sidearm- This can be played on other player's allies, and its also if someone plays Locked and Loaded, its a weapon if you don't have any other ones.

• Cell Phone- I have 3 copies in decks already, but I thought it was important to mention this one anyway. Everyone at the con should have at least 1 Cell

PvP Initial Thoughts

I don't have the Civil War box yet. I don't really know how PvP will be or if I will enjoy it, but I'm looking forward to trying it at MC/DC. As for how it will likely work and what kind of decks would be good, I have some thoughts:

PvP is essentially a race. You want to defeat your opponent's leader before they defeat yours. At the same time, you still need to stay alive and prevent the main scheme from completing as usual. With all of this in mind, there are 4 factors that I think will be important for picking a good PvP deck:

1) Tempo- Since it is a race, you don't have the luxury to sit around multiple turns slowly building out. The fewer turns it takes you to start dealing damage, the better. Cards that do multiple things at once are often good for tempo. If you can both deal damage and heal, that can let you stay in hero form longer and not have to spend time flipping down to heal. Allies are a good example of this, they can deal damage, thwart, and then block a hit.

2) Survivability- You don't want to waste too much time just trying to stay alive. Heroes with extra HP, status effect generation, or healing in their kit will have an advantage here. Flipping to alter ego to heal not only will use up your basic activation for recovery, it also lets the villain scheme. You'll then have to deal with that threat later, using more resources that could have gone to damage.

3) Consistency- Janky combo decks are fun and totally work fine in PvE...but in competitive play, you want as few variables as possible. Avoid having too many "dead cards", add redundancy for important cards, and try to have a smooth cost curve.

4) Versatility- Your opponent will sometimes be able to choose which bad cards you get. So you should probably avoid having too many glaring weaknesses. Can you survive a big hit? Do you have piercing or a way to ping off tough cards? Do you have a way to remove villain upgrades? (with different resource types, or Sunfire) Can you quickly burst down a nasty minion or side scheme?

Before I wrap it up, here are some alt-art promos (not directly associated with MC/DC) that I will be bringing. I have a very limited supply of them unfortunately, but I'll be looking to give them all out at the con!

Really love how this this Tony Stark Build Support came out!

The Fantastic 4 fit into each of the Specializations perfectly! And just in time to help us fight Dr. Doom this weekend!

I am NOT a professional custom card designer. Some of these are a little rough around the edges. But I really love them, and hope you like them too! I'm bringing around a dozen Tony's and 10 sets of F4 Specialized training to share. If you miss out, I'll try to bring some next year, and I'll make it available for you to print and play yourself.

Looking forward to meeting everyone this weekend, and I plan to do a recap article afterwards! (maybe more PvP discussion too, depending on how it goes)

That's it for now. Its time for me to get back to cookin up PvP decks...