Staple cards every deck should have

[Palatinus]

I am wondering what cards should be in every deck.  I know that Beyonder as an activator is one that has been mentioned as very useful for any deck.  Another that I have heard is necessary is the ability to negate.  Are there other cards/card types that every deck needs?

[drdeath25]

Typically every Battlesite deck will have a Beyonder Activator.

Every Any-Hero Deck will have a DoW, Bastion, Power Leech, Guardian, and maybe a few more.

And almost every other deck will use a 5 Multipower, and possibly an A-Next.

[Palatinus]

How disadvantageous is not having some of these cards.  For instance, i don't have a Beyonder, DoW, or 5 Multi-power.  Also, I don't use A-Next so I must be missing what is good about it.

[drdeath25]

Out of the 3 you listed, the biggest disadvantage to you would be playing a Any Hero deck without DoW. DoW was essentially made, because almost everyone switched over to using battlesites instead of any heroes. I suspect you could get away with not having a Beyonder or 5M.

[Palatinus]

I like Any-Heroes but I don't think I have a lot of the really good ones and I wind up liking Battle-sites better.  I do wish I had a Beyonder though.  It seems like such a fun card all around for its usefulness and uniqueness.

[metaphist]

DoW definitely rapes Battlesites, so I'd say that's the most important thing for an Any-Heroes deck. It sounds like a game-winner to me.

Things like 5M, 8A, and Beyonder are nice but not deal breakers. As said, Beyonder is the most attractive Battlesite card though.

As far as I know, the general essentials are negates, avoids, 9+ attacks. Any deck with at least 2 of each should be able to hold it's own I would suspect. I'd like to see the "Unbeatable Decks" thread validate this, though.

[Palatinus]

Something I always like to do is find ways around what is considered to be the standard way of doing things.  For instance, making a deck with none of these things in it and seeing if I can make it work and competitive.

[BigBadHarve]

My ten staple any heroes:

Leech
Bastion
DoW
Guardian
Web Head
Confusion
New Universe
JLA
Death from above
Gamma Terror

These ten cards almost always see play and come in handy. Occasionally, I'll use an urban hunters, which I've found fun once in a while, but it's hardly a staple.

Something I always like to do is find ways around what is considered to be the standard way of doing things.  For instance, making a deck with none of these things in it and seeing if I can make it work and competitive.

I agree. You need to think outside the box in order to find new ideas. OP online has enabled me to try out a crapload of things I never would have tried with real cards (primarily because of the time it takes to assemble and sleeve a real deck).

So I'm all for taking out the usual staples to see what you can find.

I'm thinking for an upcoming meetup, that it might be fun to do a 'no any hero, no battlesite' theme, so that each team is reliant on it's own abilities.

-BBH

[gameplan.exe]

I'm thinking for an upcoming meetup, that it might be fun to do a 'no any hero, no battlesite' theme, so that each team is reliant on it's own abilities.

-BBH

I love this idea!

[Palatinus]

That sounds like a really neat idea.  I mean, for me, that's the way I have played most of the time I've played Overpower.  I only found out about location cards years after the fact and I never really had many Any Heroes.  I still don't have JLA, Dow, or New Universe.  I can't remember if I have a Leech.  I know my wife has one and that is the reason why I make sure I have a Negate handy.  Leech is killer!

[Nostalgic]

Power cards. 

Just saying they're the only cards that are indispensable.... 

[BigBadHarve]

Power cards. 

Just saying they're the only cards that are indispensable.... 

Umm... Power cards? What are they? I'm not sure I've ever used them... 

-BBH

[Nostalgic]

Power cards. 

Just saying they're the only cards that are indispensable.... 

Umm... Power cards? What are they? I'm not sure I've ever used them... 

-BBH

They were used to "power" universe cards, which are useless.  So since nobody uses universe cards power cards must have become obsolete. 

[Palatinus]

Power cards. 

Just saying they're the only cards that are indispensable.... 

Umm... Power cards? What are they? I'm not sure I've ever used them... 

-BBH

They were used to "power" universe cards, which are useless.  So since nobody uses universe cards power cards must have become obsolete. 

I have been teaching my mom to play and we have only been using cards from the original Overpower set so there are a lot of universe cards getting used, let me tell you.  She just beat my awesome deck of Beast, War Machine, Rouge, and Colossus with her deck of Storm, Jubilee, Silver Surfer, and Invisible Woman.  It was close though.  Went to the first hand from the power pack.

Also, teamwork cards are universe cards.  And everyone plays them.  So there is at least one reason to use power cards.  I can see a deck being built without power cards though.  It would be an interesting thing.  Is that something people have done?

[JohnL]

Power cards. 

Just saying they're the only cards that are indispensable.... 

Umm... Power cards? What are they? I'm not sure I've ever used them... 

-BBH

They were used to "power" universe cards, which are useless.  So since nobody uses universe cards power cards must have become obsolete. 

I can see a deck being built without power cards though.  It would be an interesting thing.  Is that something people have done?

In the FF Plaza era I had a Shadowcat deck that could reliably beat FFP decks (unfortunately it lost to most other decks). It had 3 power cards I think and could have easily done without those. I called it the Proxy Deck because it had 24 copies of Shadowcat's Ghostly Phase so you pretty much had to use Proxies!