The Formula to Winning

[DerKire]

Many people come up to me and always ask me, "How do you win all the time?". By many, I play in a group of 6-8 people. We browse the forums on here, will watch the you tube videos of matches from the recent tournaments, and "try" new character for decks. With our play group being so small, not everything has to be so competitive, however, it always ends up that way. So when I go to build a "new deck" I think to myself, what do I need in the deck. Really the answer is simple. When I look at the characters that were used in the tournaments, again the answer is right there. Every good deck has the same things in them. From there it's a matter of luck and knowing the other deck and how that person is going to play the deck. I personally have a stable of four decks that I think are top tier, and fine tuned. When I go through the the decks it's pretty much a template, with inner-changeable characters. Does this take the fun out of Overpower... maybe a little. Would it be nice to see other characters... I guess so. But how can you justify replacing a character, when there is always someone better? Back to the formula... If you have these things in a deck, you will always have a chance to win. First thing you need in your deck is a negate, right away you are narrowed down to a few characters to play. Most everyone will play Scarlet Witch, Beast: The Brute or Reavers(Donald Pierce). I on the other hand fancy Mojo. Of the eight with AO 6 are playable(Sorry Mole Man and Serpent Society). Next you need teammate avoid. This almost a lock for the reserve. Again, not many have them that are playable. Dr. Strange is the best for this due to his two stat and 8. Sabretooth is a two stat with an 8 also, avoid is not as good. Then we have Spider-Women and Silver Sable. Again the character pool has really shrunk. If your reserve doesn't have an avoid, the only other option is to back up a stat from the front row. This is where Luthor and Thing have been seeing play. So now we have a negate and a avoid from reserve. Next thing that is great to have is a character with good attacks, but can also avoid himself and others. Now this sounds like a lot, but its pretty easy when Spawn is around. Again, this could be Invisible Women: Malice, and to an extent Inhumans or Colossus. Once you have those three components you just add Starjammers and call it a day since they have top tier specials. It doesn't have to be Starjammers, but you need someone with great stats and good offensive specials. This can be H4H, Mauraders, Capt. America, X-Man. All of what I said is obvious, and its more of a rant. I spend some time here on the forums, and will read about how people want to "ban" certain characters from decks for tournaments. I think that is silly. With all the character options out there, does it suck to see the same 20 characters always played? Probably. Is there really anything to do to change this? I don't think so. You just have to play better. This game has been around for 20 years, and I would say the most important thing is bidding. I am not a fan of placing out my hand like I see a lot of people do. I have the old school mind set of not wanting my opponent to know what I have, and I find it to be very effective. Don't get me wrong, I do place. But not to the extent I see on some of the videos. Again, no real objective out of this... just typing away.

[AO user]

Almost year anniversary to reply, but placing is 2 things: intimidation and or card advantage.  My opponent once placed an AS 9, an AQ and 3 tw with 3 power cards. Thats right he went open handed. My current hand couldnt win venture against that. Could even lose  a hero. I placed what i could  had to keep 3 cards in hand. I ventured one and conceded.

So now he's up 2 venture and drawing 8 more cards.   It was over quickly. 

I dislike the limited pool of players for negates.  Ive already posted about a fighting AO with brutes grid reversed 1763 would lead to more fiighting teams in tourneys.  But someone took first with team EJ. That was refreshing.  OP Lives!

[BasiliskFang]

card count before betting missions and intimidation with your hand or placed cards.

I do too understand that the game has reached a critical boiling point. In a way, a HCD, Highest Common denominator.

Last time I played, I lent my friend my really strong decks and he started to see why I would only lose with bad hands or bad decisions. Even though the decks he built would win he didn't build them HCD.

[BasiliskFang]

by not placing, you give your opponent the opportunity to have the upper hand if they place and then concede.

[steve2275]

avoid duping and being a horrible card shuffler

[BasiliskFang]

avoid duping and being a horrible card shuffler

use dragon shields or UP eclipise