Roshambo has quite a unique effect, we have had effects that trigger from luck. We have had effects that exhaust multiple characters, but what we have not had is a card that may exhaust nobody, but may get everyone. It is simply put, the nuts.
Fearsome Five would like to have this, for the off initiative that Shimmer cannot
do her thing. Shimmer has some pretty decent interactions with the arkham inmates characters Charaxes and Anarky for example. She also plays nice with Smiles Everyone, Hush and Clayface. Plus we get the added bonus of keeping the game on Five if we so wish to do. Because nothing is funnier to do when you have your pick of characters at 5, and your opponent most likely has one or possibly two different characters at each cost. Especially in the current meta with legend decks being so rife, Neutron also has the ability to kick your opponent in the nads. Or, another possibility is to get to Psimon and then go Kaboom Crazy and make sure that they dont ever recruit anyone ever again.
Gotham Knights would also be a pretty good match, they have the draw/search needed to get to Roshambo, they also have a lot of control in them, to go and help. Dick Grayson, Sidekick would also help a little in keeping board presence and Dinah Laurel Lance at 3 and 4 also helps with the exhaustion effects. If you are feeling brave enough you may even want to boost out Ragman. Wit the right pumps, board clearance could come into effect helping with the few exhaustion effects that gotham knights do have. Gotham have some pretty #####in’ support, though none of it exhausts pretty much all of it controls, which could help to get the game along.
For a while I thought that crime lords could possibly work. A bit of Reinforcement when I dont have the initiative and then a bit of exhaustion from Roshambo and the Masked Marauder with a lot of the crime lords stun back abilities and reinforcement, I may be able to the keep the game alive for a long long time.
I also thought that Underworld could be pretty good, because with an Infernal Gateway, Babs and Mxy it could be used every. Single. Turn. At only a one card loss, and with some of the recursion effects around Black Rose, Soul World etc, it could quite easiliy done with no card loss at all. With Blackheart at 4, gaining a little board advantage could help a lot with Roshamboing your opponent. With Nightmare on 7 it can be used even more. Getting you to a turn 8 with Noble Kale kicking ###.
Another team that could possibly benefit from a dose of Roshambo is Green Lantern. At first the themes seem a little meshy, but after thinking about it I realised that it may not be as silly as it sounds. Rain of Acorns kicks ### with exhaustion where Roshambo cannot, which can be handily searched for via a Kyle Rayner, Hal Jordon or a Tomar Re. They also have some nice neat endurance gain effects that can help to keep the game alive for many many turns. Namely Jade, Katma, Reacharging the Ring and Sector 2814. Hopefully allowing the deck to get to a boosted Kyle Rayner following up with any kind of 9 drop you can muster. Hal Jordan and Zero Hour, Kyle Rayner, Galactus, whatever takes your fancy. They also have a few draw effects, not many ongoing draw effects but a few ones here and there which are useful once a Beside Myself is online.
The Heralds of Galactus also prove to be pretty good. At two they have the Silver Surfer who needs no explanation. At 3 they have Air-Walker who likes to stall, Plasma who can make with the endurance gain and Frankie who likes to go beside herself. At 4 they have the wonderful Invisible Man who can keep your endurance nice and high, and Terrax can get some board presence which is nice, which means one less target for a roshambo. At five they have a rather nice Redshift who can also be used to get rid of any equipments/turn pumps/boost effects. At six they have a few choices, Terrax and Silver Surfer seem like the best options at this particular drop. Terrax to help catch up from some pesky Finishing Moves and also to narrow down the targets for finishing moves. Silver Surfer is pretty good at catching up from Finishing Moves as well. At 7 Galactus seems like the best choice to go with as he can do well to get you around to the next turn, saving yourself 7 endurance. Then again maybe sticking to Two Face would be the best option. At eight and nine, we have little options so an Emporer Joker followed by Galactus seems pretty decent.
Doom also likes to play Roshambo. He is a ballsy person and has some very nice friends to help him. The Puppet Master and Robot Sentry are good at a little exhaustion on 2. At three we have the the Doom himself who can get himself a Mystical Paralysis or instigate a game of Roshambo, and Pacifier Robot good for a little board presence. At four we have the Diabolical Genius who can Mystically Paralyze someone and then save it for another turn, or help with some double Roshambo’s. He is also pretty useful at kick opponents hands in the nads. The Power Hungry doom can help to use Roshambo, turn after turn. Kang is also pretty funny at 5, in an effort to make sure they never get to attack. The Sorcerer Savant is pretty useful in reusing certain plot twists as well.
So, the winners I went with in this situation was…
Spider-Friends.
So, why spiderfriends? Between Gift wrapped and the Various Spidermen, I think it is a pretty reasonable match.
So, without further ado.
Characters - 35
Aunt May, Golden Oldie
Amadeus Arkham, Architect of Insanity
Mad Hatter, Mad as a Hatter
Mr. Mxyzptlk, Troublesome Trickster
Black Cat, Nine Lives
Blade, Nightstalker
Night Thrasher, Dwayne Michael Taylor
Charaxes, Moth Monster
Crime Doctor, Bradford Thorne
KGBeast, Anatoli Knyazev
Poison Ivy, Deadly Rose
The Riddler, Brain Teaser
Charaxes, Drury Walker
The Joker, Joker’s Wild
The Joker, Out of His Mind
Dr. Doom, Richards Rival
Spider-Man, Webhead
Luke Cage, Neighborhood Watch
Mattie Franklin, Reserve Webhead
Hush, Mystery Man
Hush, Silent and Deadly
The Riddler, Multiple Choice
Spider-Man, The Sensational Spider-Man
Spider-Man, Parasitic Host
Matt Hagen <> Clayface, Man of Clay
Scarecrow, Fear and Loathing
White Tiger, Hector Ayala
Venom, Lethal Protector
Daredevil, New Kingpin
Spiderman, Outlaw
Mr. Freeze, Dr. Victor Fries
Spider-Man, Stark’s Protege
Spider-Man, The Amazing Spider-Man
Two-Face, Split Personality
Bat-Mite, #1 Fan
Plot Twists - 18
Roshambo
Chilly Reception
Gift Wrapped
Beside Myself
Money Talks
Fear and Confusion
Glass Jaw
Smiles Everyone
Indebted
Enemy of My Enemy
Usual Suspects
Call In a Favour
Ring of Fire
Spider Senses
Burn Baby Burn
Pick a Card
Forbidden Loyalties, Team-Up
The Hook-Up, Team-Up
Locations - 5
No Man’s Land
Arkham Asylum, Team-Up
Stark Tower, Team-Up
Slaughter Swamp
Empire State University
Equipments - 2
Ego Gem
Mind Gem
So, lets take a little look at the deck. I am only going to explain a few of my choices, as it would take a whole week to read explanations for every single card. I’ll run you though the interesting choices in the deck.
The Riddler, Brain Teaser at two is pretty funny. He can quite easily stop any of the deck wrecking Pathetic Attempts or Only Humans. I always liked this card but it never saw enough play for my liking, which is why I play it at every opportunity and in this case rightly so. He can stop so many things, and in a deck that will draw many cards we will have the choice to stop plot twists of a cost of our choice. Stopping Pathetic Attempts and Beatdowns in one swift activation is one of the most annoying things that I can think of happening to a player.
I went with two of the Jokers at 3, who will both allow me to purify my hand. Out of his mind is simply amazing, a mid game pitch to enemy and we suddenly have a new hand with a character of our choice.
Along with all of the exhaustion effects we have a nice couple to match them with. Hush, Silent and Deadly is enough to make a deck around and it has been done already. With all the exhaustion that Roshambo has to offer, he can take his pick. As can his partner the Mystery Man, who can force people to not ready. It may not be quite as good, but it is a pretty good choice, because he never has to actually stun the character.
Matt Hagan is pretty #####in if you can get the exhaustion on the go, with a No Man’s Land active and maybe a few other effects he can go wild, but he shines on your opponents attacks.When they really have to hit him first. Otherwise, oh dear.
Spiderman, Outlaw is pretty much Two Face but from a different universe. Sure he is off team, but can still work with Gift Wrapped. Then he allows Two Face to do his thing on the next turn.
One card that could be usefull is Fear and Confusion, especially with a few evaders. Attack, exhaust and evade. All is well, with the added benefit of boosting the attack a little.
Smiles Everyone and Money Talks are there to help nuke your opponents biggest characters, and therefore the amount of characters that you have to hide from.
Arkham Asylum is fantastic in this deck with just about everything, Charaxes, Smiles, Hush and Hush. Empire state University, is fantastic as it will allow me to get two cards closer to the all important Beside Myself. Therefore will be able to get a hell of a lot closer to my wonderful exhaust effects.
DCX - Roshambo Ratings:
Deck Strength: 8 - Being an insanity deck it has a lot of flaws, even with 4 tutors it is still an insanity deck.
Deck Theme: 9 - Stall is a pretty standard theme, but a pretty boring theme if done in the norm, but with arkham inmates could be kindafun.
Ease of Use: 6 - This is not an easy deck to play, insanity decks never are easy to play.
Fun Factor: 7 - Fun, Fun, Fun. Boring, Boring, Boring. Fun, Boring insanity decks are fun. Stall decks are boring.
Overall: 30/40
So, what have we learned? Insanity is fun. We also learned that the Ring of the Sinestro Corp is next
