So, last week I had a very brief run down of Parallax, and my thoughts on him. This week I give you, Alan Scott the golden age engineer.
Alan Scott is something new. There have been effects similar to this in the past, but not quite as powerful as this. There have been cards that ready characters that still allow for breakthrough, and each have been used and abused.
The latest card of it’s kind was To Me My X-Men!, which hasn’t been abused as much as it’s predecessor Press the Attack, was mostly because the newer ‘functional reprint’ has been stamped onto the X-Men team. Another ready effect that has been abused was stamped to a rather pretty lady.
Samantha Parrington is a back-up character that allows for double attacks, and the team she is on likes that and helps her to do it. This can be abused with any number of characters and cards to kick some major ###, some of which include Savage Hulk, Elektra and Rhino. All of which have a pretty simple crush kill theme to them.
Alan Scott allows for a few more tricks including stun effects, vengeance, activation and surviving attack steps. One such trick is to use Alan Scott and Rogue, Power Absortption to keep each other around then go for the kill with somebody on a later turn with 3 attacks. With this it can pretty much be tailored to your liking, competetive, but not as fun as it could be.
This is the deck as built by Paul “TheDerangedBear” Sung.
1x Mr Mxy
4x Jaime Reyes
4x Archangel
4x Lockjaw
4x San
4x Deadshot
1x Quicksilver,
1x Alan Scott
1x Rogue
1x Terrax, Harbinger of Ruin
1x Scaleface
2x The Phantom Stranger, Wandering Hero
4x Enemy of my Enemy
4x Straight to the Grave
4x Cannibal Tech
4x Dr Fate’s Tower
4x Soul World
1x X-Corp Amsterdam
1x Stark’s Tower
1x 31st Century Metropolis
1x The Alley
4x Helm of Nabu
2x Amulet of Nabu
2x Cloak of Nabu
1x Steel Girder
Looks pretty solid and competetive, but as he says “not very fun”, and I am taking his word on it. Mostly because I hate the Fate Artifacts with every fiber of my being. But as you can see, it does look pretty #####in.
So, another potential for this deck is to use the Human Torch, Flame On! to burn for a shedload of damage, and if you use the Rogue Trick, it can get a little silly. 39 endurance burned on turn 6 is pretty devastating. I was looking at something along the lines of:
3- Human Torch, Sparky
4- Alan Scott, Golden Age Engineer
5- Rogue, Power Absorption with a Mindtap Mechanism.
6- Human Torch, Flame On!
Though it looks quite timid in the earlier turns, it can burn for at least 39 on turn 6, which will end most games in your favour.
Another thought was to go with the obvious Power Girl, Child of Crisis. I think that 3 attacks on turn 6(or 2 on 5) is too good to pass up, and considering that the earlier turns are still up for grabs, the Black Panther can go about his business and fetch a steel girder to pass along to Power Girl with the Fates tower later in the game, so not only can she attack 3 characters, but KO 3 characters.
The Punisher would also be a good candidate for some golden age engineering. Equip him with a Scattergun are you are pretty much going to clear their board. That’s right 4 stuns 2 of which are fatal, which is pretty good by my accounts. As for this curve I am thinking that this one goes something along the lines of.
3- Black Panther fetching a Mindtap Mechanism
4- Alan
5- Punisher with Scattergun and the Panther ships his mindtap mechanism
So, what did I settle on? Here goes.
DCX - Alan Scott
1x Mr Mxyzptlk, Troublesome Trickster
4x Jakeem Williams, JJ Thunder
4x Crime Doctor, Bradford Thorne
4x Wesley Dodds The Sandman, Golden Age Gunman
4x Dr. Polaris, Force of Nature
2x Michael Holt Mr. Terrific, Renaissance Man
4x Alan Scott, Golden Age Engineer
2x Mr. Freeze, Brutal Blizzard
2x Thunderbolt, Yz
3x Hunter Zolomon Professor Zoom, Sinister Speedster
4x Coast City
2x Power Gem
4x Enemy of My Enemy
4x Call In A Favour
4x Blinding Rage
4x Coercion, Team-Up
4x What are Friends For?
4x Pathetic Attempt
So, now for a quick rundown.
Crime Doctor, The Sandman and Dr. Polaris are all there to try to keep the game at a manageable pace and make sure that your characters stay around as long as possible. They each have their own little exhaust effect, some a little better than the others, but they all serve the same purpose.
At five we have Mr. Freeze and Thunderbolt. Mr Freeze has the ability to limit the damage that an opponent can do on turn 6, where as Thunderbolt will allow me to get anything that I think I may need.
So at 6 we have Hunter Zolomon. he is pretty much the choice of characters on and off initiative, as we can get him to work both off and on initiative. So, what happens is you form up with Zolomon in front of Alan, and tap coast city, thus making Alan impervious to attacks until they get through Zolomon. Then when the opponent attacks Zolomon you let it go through, but as his vengeance effect goes on the chain targetting Alan, you activate Alan on Zolomon. Then as it resolves, Alans effect makes Zolomon get back up, and Zolomon readies Alan. Making the attack rather pointless after the damage has been dealt.
So, onto the other half of the deck. We have the Coast City, to help with Dr. Polaris and Zolomon, to try to get the attacks to go the way you want them to.
We also have Blinding Rage and What Are Friends For?, which will help with Zolomon to get him stunned and keep the attacks rolling out. The more stunbacks we get, the more attacks we get it’s that simple.
Pathetic Attempt is there to stop, everything. Well not quite everything, but it can help to stop a Mystical Paralysis, Puppet Master or Only Human. All of which are pretty damn annoying when played against any deck, but against this one it just makes you cry inside.
I think that is about it for the rundown, now onto the rating.
DCX - Alan Scott Ratings:
Deck Strength: 9 - Just so you know, I am not rating these based on the other decks in the meta, but in comparison to the other DCX decks
Deck Theme: 8 - The theme of this deck is pretty weird, pretty funky and pretty darn cool. I love decks that punish my opponent for something that is the norm.
Ease of Use: 6 - This is not an easy deck to play, because there are things with the chain, and lots of things to be taken into consideration.
Fun Factor: 8 - Fun, Fun, Fun. But it does not come without it repetetiveness, because of the overly favoured drop it has the tendency to get very repetetive.
Overall: 31/40
Apologies for yet another short article today, but as soon as I pick a reasonable card they will get more thorough. I hope.
Next Week comes a risky choice
