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Modern Age Metagame at a Glance
Brian Foley
3/31/2008 
 Click here to discuss this article!In my City Champs Week article, we took a look at the current Silver Age metagame in light of the results of the first Mega Weekend event in Los Angeles. With Mega Weekend Chicago just around the corner, I thought it might be interesting to take a similar look at the Modern Age metagame. I won't be going to Chicago, unfortunately, but the decks I'll be discussing today are the ones that would constitute my test gauntlet if I were. * The undisputed king of The Hill in Modern Age right now is Injustice Gang concealed beats, which landed three players in the top 8 in Los Angeles. A remarkably simple deck to build and play, it is also relatively inexpensive, making it doubly attractive. All of the characters are commons and uncommons, and aside from Mobilize, the only hard-to-come-by rare is Crime Syndicate of Amerika, which you could play without if you had to. How easy is it to play and win with? Midway through the Modern Age tournament in LA, my 13 year old son was 4-1 with a subpar build of the deck. ‘Nuff said.
So what's a good build? With this deck, I prefer the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) approach epitomized by Wayne Waitman's deck from LA: 4 Catwoman, Cat o' Nine Tails 3 Penguin, Gentleman of Crime 4 Superwoman, Earth 3 3 Johnny Quick, Earth 3 3 Black Manta, Deepwater Denizen 3 Owlman, Earth 3 4 Jemm 1 Ultraman, Earth 3 4 White Martian, Earth 3 2 Prometheus, New Year's Evil 4 Savage Beatdown 4 Big Leagues 4 Crime Syndicate of Amerika 4 Blinding Rage 4 Secret Files 2 Mobilize 3 SKREEEEEEE! 4 Hunte Castle There are a few changes I would make to his deck if I were playing it (more Mobilize and SKREEEEEEE!, only 2-3 copies of Hunte Castle, Flying Kick instead of Blinding Rage, a few tweaks to character counts), but that's just nitpicking. His deck is an excellent model for the archetype, and a good list to use for a test gauntlet. How do you beat this deck? Being able to attack the hidden area is usually critical, even better if you can do so without targeting opposing characters (since some builds play Pathetic Attempt). Brickwalling attacks is another good strategy, since the deck wants to win on 5, 6 at the latest. The longer you can drag out the game, the more likely you are to win. KO'ing their characters, to keep their field from growing every turn, can also be effective. The deck is generally very good at keeping its entire field on every turn, much like a Skrull deck, and if you can stop that from happening, it becomes much easier to prevent them from winning quickly. * Another very strong deck in this format is the Elektra deck, like the one Shawn Liedle made top 8 with in LA. The basic idea behind the deck is to recruit Elektra, Masterless Assassin on turn 4, and attack directly with her once. On turn 5, you want to recruit Samantha Parrington alongside Frank Drake, Nightstalker (I have no idea why Shawn didn't play him in the deck, but I would). Pump Elektra as much as you can with for-the-turn attack pumps (Frank Drake, Tania Belinskya, Flying Kick, Crackshot, Combat Reflexes), and activate Samantha so that Elektra can attack directly twice. The last time I tested this deck against someone, they took 20 in damage by the end of turn 4, and then Elektra hit them twice on 5 with 25 ATK, putting them at -20. “Your swing?”
This deck is also very easy to play well, and no more expensive to build than the Injustice Gang deck, so I'd expect it to be well represented in Chicago. Here's the build that I've been fooling around with: 4 Frank Drake, Nightstalker 4 Wong, Mystical Manservant 4 Daredevil, Fearless Survivor 4 Tania Belinskya <> Red Guardian 4 Hellcat, Patsy Walker 2 Cloak, Shadowmaster 4 Elektra, Masterless Assassin 4 Samantha Parrington <> Valkyrie, Chooser of the Slain 1 Devil-Slayer, Eric Simon Payne 1 Wendell Vaughn <> Quasar, Protector of the Universe 4 Flying Kick 4 Crackshot 4 Wild Ride 4 The B Team 4 Combat Reflexes 4 Pathetic Attempt 4 Savage Beatdown This deck is very hard to beat if you don't have any answers for it, but much easier to beat than the Injustice Gang deck if you do. If you can jump into the hidden area and hit Elektra on turn 4 before she can attack, that will help a little, and if you can KO her, that will help a lot. KO'ing Elektra on 4 makes it impossible for her to double-swing on 5, which is where this deck absolutely kills you. Failing that, if you can get the odd initiatives and prevent Samantha from targeting Elektra, that's huge. This deck absolutely hates Wonder Woman, Ambassador of Peace and especially Lex Luthor, Metropolis Mogul. The most simplistic plan would be to take odds and swing into the hidden area on turn 5, stunning Elektra before she can attack. But if you can't win on that turn yourself, you are merely prolonging the inevitable, because she'll just swing twice on 6 instead. * My current favorite deck for the format is the Revenge Squad ongoing deck, like the one Ludin Romero took to the finals in LA. It's an aggro-control deck, and it has answers for almost every other deck you could possibly face. I never got a chance to play against Ludin in Los Angeles, but I did face Patrick Yapjoco, who was playing a similar deck, and he completely owned me and my Fantastic Four deck. I mean, completely. He could stop me from playing key plot twists. He could stun me on every one of his attacks. And he could stun me back on every one of mine. If it hadn't been so sad, it would have been comical. Ludin's deck is an excellent starting point if you want to play the deck yourself, and obviously an excellent build to test against. 4 Winslow Schott <> Toyman, Child's Play 4 Brainiac 13, Mental Giant 4 Professor Emil Hamilton <> Ruin 2 Ultraman, Despot of Kandor 4 Metallo, Kryptonite Heart 1 Atomic Skull, Cursed 4 Preus 2 Doomsday, Evolution Advanced 1 Lex Luthor, The Everyman 4 Terra-Man 4 SKREEEEEEE! Click here to discuss this thread!
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