Deck Spotlight of the Week #1: Adam Warlock?!

[Onslaught]

I have a lot of nifty decks, and since I only get to play Overpower a few times a year I'll never be able to get around to using all of them. I think Overpower is so neat because there is so much room for personal style, which can overcome the raw power level of some cards. Is Spawn the easiest character to play in the game? Probably, but that doesn't mean he's the best - especially if your playstyle utilizes strengths that don't require the things that he excels at. So for these deck profiles, I'm going to try to post decks with characters that under most circumstances you wouldn't normally consider using. Sometimes they will include top tier characters for cohesion, but all of the decks will have a unique ability. For example, a team of Holocaust, Spawn, Starjammers, Spider-Woman is strictly inferior to Scarlet Witch, Spawn, Starjammers, Spider-Woman. The Holocaust deck is still good, but the Scarlet Witch version is just better. This is exactly the kind of deck I will not be posting - the "low tier" characters being used won't just be tossed in an already good deck while just hoping that they don't drag the rest of the team down too much. Instead, a Holocaust deck you could expect to see in these spotlights would be something like Holocaust, Spawn, White Queen, Bishop (R). Here, Scarlet Witch would not be better than Holocaust since his Remove Dead Pile OPD is being utilized. Whether or not this deck is better than a Spawn/Scarlet Witch deck is up for debate, but there's no doubt that it "has a reason to exist" since it does something that the Spawn/Scarlet deck can't. Hopefully that properly explains the point of these posts, so that being said...

Adam Warlock was one of the oddest characters in the game. Before he was reprinted in Monumental, his hero card and all three of his specials were very hard to get promos. Due to this, he had a sort of mystique about him that made him seem more special than other characters. I never saw a single person use Adam Warlock 3-stat in a deck, though one collector at our store did have a binder page of all 4 Adam Warlock promos (which was met with ooohs and ahhhs). To an extent, the Onslaught promo characters felt this way too, but Adam Warlock still stood out. When he was reprinted in Monumental with great art and wider access to his special cards, he still was never really popular.

For 20 points you get a max 7 dual stat character, which is more than sufficient. His OPD is a guaranteed venture winner when properly played, and he has two playable non-OPDs. Why didn't he see more use then? Well, compare him to other 18-20 point max 7 dual stat characters who had a level 7 AR. For example, the Starjammers cost one point less, had an 8 non-OPD instead of a 7 like Energy Barrage, and then Raza/Keeyah/Binary vs. Soul Gem and Cosmic Alliance. Or the Reavers for 1 point more than Adam Warlock traded Soul Gem and Cosmic Alliance for negates and Deathstrike. So, to avoid being a strictly inferior version of an existing character, an Adam Warlock deck should focus on ways to augment his unique cards that differentiate him from other similarly priced characters.

The easiest way to do this is to look at creating some synergy with Cosmic Alliance. This is an extremely powerful card that very few characters in the game possess. Off the top of my head I believe only Adam Warlock, Invisible Woman, Superboy, and Savage Dragon have this FE coded special. Adam Warlock' is especially useful since it is in an off-stat. If one Cosmic Alliance is good, then two in the same deck should be great. Luckily for us, Invisible Woman is a very useful character, filling a utility role of bringing some defense while adding a theme to the deck - chained attacks. With the ability to play five attacks in a row (or six if you begin with an Ally), your focus should be on winning by KO instead of Venture. Many times you will be able to bet one, chain off all of your attacks, then block an attack and concede. You'll be falling behind in the missions, but dealing heavy damage to your opponent's character. This strategy also can lead to winning by venture though, as seen with the Beyonder chain decks.

Now to further this newly formulated theme, I'd like to choose a nice offensive Battlesite. Ideally, it will have something that works very well with Soul Gem too. The first thing that comes to mind with Soul Gem is a BL coded special - play when opponent concedes battle, opponent may not concede. Not only will this allow Adam Warlock to pick on and KO a utility character like Spider-Girl when you Soul Gem, but a BL would also have tremendous synergy with your ability to chain attacks. Imagine a scenario where your opponent is on the ropes with only one or two cards left to defend against attacks, so he concedes to keep from losing a character. After you BL, you could KO one or even two characters with a FE into FE chain! Looking at Battlesites with access to the BL, The Big Apple is perfectly suited for this deck's goals. Not only does Spider-Man provide Taunt, but it also happens to be one of the few battlesites with a JW - and it's off stat which is always tasty. Since you want to maximize the chance that you have a Taunt when it would be most useful, I'd run three Spider-Man activators: Taunt, Avoid, and his AA. Heroes for Hire with Black Knight and White Tiger, Falcon either the KL or his 6e, maybe experiment with Atlas for the Thunderbolts, Hypersenses for Daredevil, and the 7f and numerical avoid from Morbius.

From here, there are a few ways to go. As is often the case with off the wall decks like this, now you have to choose between an 8 stat character or a negate (side note: it always bugged me that an 8 stat character never got a negate, he would fill a lot of gaps in some decks...though it would be very difficult to balance a character like that so he would need to have mostly crappy specials. Doom with a negate would have fit this role perfectly due to his mostly useless specials and awkward 20 point cost). Due to Invisible Woman's inherent, sometimes you can win Ventures against passive Spawn/X-Man based decks solely by playing defensive yourself. If you wanted to follow that path, Scarlet Witch, Invisible Woman, Adam Warlock, Spider-Woman in reserve is the way to go. Spider-Woman's 9 or less combines with Invisible Woman to give you a mini side theme of a defensive wall, while Scarlet Witch's AI helps clear out negates for your Soul Gem or chaining. The last two slots are pretty open though, that's just my personal take on what to use.

The final decision to make would be which Mission set to use. Normally when you have a Battlesite deck without an 8 stat character, you almost are automatically forced to go to Infinity Gauntlet for the No Any Heroes event. In this case you could also utilize the No Fighting Power Cards as well. Also, if you happen to care about theme then Adam Warlock with that mission set also makes sense. However, I think this deck deserves something a little more sophisticated than the standard event package. As luck has it, the alternative to the No Any Heroes event happens to be in a mission set that has a kick ass effect for the purposes of our deck. First off, Maximum Carnage features an event that prevents OPDs from being played for the battle. Your OPD count is low (Soul Gem, Invisible Ram, Hex Power) so it hardly effects you, while conversely it turns off your opponents Any Heroes, his 7 anypower (which you don't need to run), and his deck should likely run more OPD specials than your paltry 3. Next, you have Lambs to the Slaughter, which says to continue the battle with no venture and no conceding. A little risky perhaps, but since you know it's coming you can plan your turns accordingly. Ideally, you would use your chaining ability (or a Soul Gem/Taunt turn) to KO a character before the event comes up, giving them unusable discards later on and card disadvantage on the turn that nobody can concede. Even in a worst case scenario you have a 50/50 chance of going first in the turn that the event comes up, meaning you can blast off a big chain and hope that they did not have a hand that turn that can deal with it.

So there you have it, a uniquely competitive deck that would surely leave your opponent scratching his head when you revealed your team using Adam Warlock with the rarely seen Big Apple battlesite. That's something that can't be overlooked- the surprise factor. If you were to use this deck in a tournament back in the day, nobody would have been planning their turns around avoiding Taunt.

Upcoming articles in this series:
-Ghost Rider (in a very odd discard deck featuring Sunfire's OPD)
-Neron: perhaps the most underrated 8 stat in the game and why he works so well with Concrete Jungle
-Sabretooth: my favorite reserve character
-And the role of three stat 776 characters in competitive decks...

[The Dude]

This was a good read and could definately be fun to play.

I'll be curious to read your Neron post as I've long been of the belief that 8-Intellect is almost uniformly useless. Seriously Reyes could legitimately be argued as the best character that can play 8 powercards and she only plays Intellect defensively. (Okay yea there is Mr. Fantastic but he's more of a double-niche character FF Plaza or Intellect Draw decks than the type of heroes who dominated back in the day).

BTW I always kind of liked the design of no 8s who negate. The 8s have enough of an advantage as it is. But I do have some homemades made by Maenza who gave Luthor both a negate and a white 8, and needless to say he goes from practically worthless to a frightening beast overnight if you play him with those. (Admiteddly I came very close to not printing them as I do with homemades who seem broken but I firmly believe the most iconic characters should be among the most powerful so simply because it is Luthor I went with it).

[Onslaught]

I'll be curious to read your Neron post as I've long been of the belief that 8-Intellect is almost uniformly useless.

I think with the way the game is set up currently (with teamworks that can get above a 9 to block being the most important thing on offense), any 8 stat character with a few playable specials is pretty valuable. For example, my friend wanted to use Mr. Sinister so I put together a lineup of Sinister, Reavers, Spider-Girl, 3 stat Spider-Woman in reserve. There are only three Sinister specials in the deck, but 9 cards total that only he can play. I think that's one of the keys to making the less popular 8 stat characters work, you have to aggressively criss cross their stats to fully maximize the power of the 8.

In Neron's case it's a little different since he is already a dual stat character, as well as having a unique suite of specials that make him playable right off the bat.

[drdeath25]

Mr. Fantastic is a very useful 8i character (even when not using FFPlaza), I use him in one of my decks, which i consider to be competitive.

Malebolgia and Lex Luthor are also great 8i characters to put in reserve, if you can delay to the power pack its almost a guaranteed win.

I love Neron, he was a VERY underrated character, i cant wait to see your "Deck Spotlight of the Week" on him.

My Point is..... Dont underestimate 8i characters! (except Dracula, he sucks).

[Nostalgic]

Onslaught, I was curious if you use any homemade cards, or additional house rules when you play?  You definitely show great strategic insight into the game, but I know there are a number guys on this forum that use homemade cards. CCTelander has sought to make every character usuable through new special and developed a number of specials for characters based on various 'strategic themes'.  For instance, a character might have several specials that burn cards from the opponent's deck (like Ironman's BW card), or another might have several specials that manipulate venture, or disrupt placement.  I've started using these cards in and they've definitely added new life to our games. Anything like that going on in your neck of the woods?
Post Merge: July 11, 2011, 10:03:25 PM

My Point is..... Dont underestimate 8i characters! (except Dracula, he sucks).

Depends on if you use homemade cards. 

[drdeath25]

Sounds to me like Onslaught plays using tournament rules. The way the game was meant to be played.

I have only played Onslaught using tournament rules, but one time we allowed the Marvels cards to be played, and that made for some interesting new deck building.

[Onslaught]

I actually worked for a card game company and have a good deal of insight into the CCG design/balancing process, and even with that background I'm not comfortable playing with homemade cards. I can understand why some people like them, but I am just weird about authenticity and things feeling "official" even though the game has been dead for ten years.

Of course there are some tweaks I'd like to implement to the rules, or new cards I'd like to design for the iconic characters, but at what point do you draw the line? Also, after a certain amount of changes you might as well be making your own game from the ground up.

The farthest I would go would be to allow use of Marvels cards, but only if they could be printed at a quality level that was indistinguishable from the existing cards - and even then I'd only resort to this if I completely exhausted every single nook and cranny of the existing game, which I'd say is a long ways from happening. If the theoretical Marvels environment became stagnant after a period of time too, I might possibly begin considering using the DC3 art checklist to try to fill in some gaps to "finalize" the game (make sure there is an 8/7 of every combination, i.e. 8 fighting 7 int for Deathstroke, give DC locations, give Batman and Superman single cards that make them playable in one fell swoop like Spider-Man's Marvels card would do for him, etc)

[Bios]

Official x Homemades

I've seem people bothered with the very idea of using homemade cards. Honestly I just don't understand why bothering at all? Using homemades or not is a personal choice. Of course, if you are playing with someone that is not familiar with homemades or someone who just don't like to use them, you can show how educated you are by simple not using homemades.

Anyone has the right to express personal convictions, but when I hear opinions about how homemades make the game feel inauthentic or how they challenge the spirit of the game, I just fell like being
offended sometimes, even it doesn't seem direct offenses.

OverPower can be interpreted as the existing cards, or as the mechanic that controls how the game works. If you respect the mechanic it is possible to give the game some continuity by adding some unoficial cards.
Making homemades is an art. It requires long hours of characters background research, image searching, keeping the cards balanced, lots of test play and some skill.

Homemade cards are not made to be adopted as official or to be used by a legion of players. And the reason for that is simple: the homemaker just doesn't have the rights of the game!
And if you have something that isn't official, doesn't matter how good your stuff is, it will reach only small groups of players.
Even the official cards don't avoid criticizm all the time. Why Superman isn't  a level 8S? How come Spidey has lame specials, while characters that I barely know have great stuff? The only reason why we use them is because they are the official cards!

Discussing why we should use homemades and why we shouldn't is a pointless discussion. One can enumerate lots of reasons to use them and the other will bring the same amount of reasons not to use them.

I think people just need to relax and respect each other opinion without criticizing personal choices. If you think the game is good enough with the original cards and rules, keep playing it that way. I am sure the original game has plenty of options to be explored. BBH keeps proving that to me. He already kicked me with his infamous Avenger's Mansion deck, his totally improbable team with Rhino/Dazzler/Brood (3 stat)/and Galactus, and he even won using a lousy Ravencroft deck. This guy is the king of unusual! But if you have fun playing with your own homemades or someone else's, you know why it's worth to doing so.

I still working in an online OP program that allows playing with official or homemade cards, but without mixing them. What I want is to respect personal choices, after all we love the same game.

[BigBadHarve]

Mr. Fantastic is a very useful 8i character (even when not using FFPlaza), I use him in one of my decks, which i consider to be competitive.

Malebolgia and Lex Luthor are also great 8i characters to put in reserve, if you can delay to the power pack its almost a guaranteed win.

I love Neron, he was a VERY underrated character, i cant wait to see your "Deck Spotlight of the Week" on him.

My Point is..... Dont underestimate 8i characters! (except Dracula, he sucks).

Don't knock Dracula. He has his uses too. But yes, Intellect teams are formidable, I can't imagine why anyone would consider them to be useless. Granted, it would be nice if there were some more powerful cards unique to Intellect characters, but they're still worthy.

I am sure the original game has plenty of options to be explored. BBH keeps proving that to me. He already kicked me with his infamous Avenger's Mansion deck, his totally improbable team with Rhino/Dazzler/Brood (3 stat)/and Galactus, and he even won using a lousy Ravencroft deck. This guy is the king of unusual! But if you have fun playing with your own homemades or someone else's, you know why it's worth to doing so.

Thanks for the praise, but I would say that I'm more like a whipping boy to the unusual, and she's a harsh mistress.   Incidentally, I've had to modify my Galactus deck. I'm a dolt, and forgot to account for the cost differential on Brood being 3 stat putting the deck above the sum deck rule, so I had switch them out. I'm trying it with Angel, but of course any reasonable 16 point fighting character would also suffice for that deck.

There are a lot of underused characters. I like trying variety. After all, not every deck needs to be tournament worthy. If we're playing online and for fun, why not try crazy combinations? The OP Online program has a random check challenge which is interesting. I tried it out and got a deck consisting of Absorbing Man, Enforcers, Metallo and Morbius. It made for a rather fun team, one that I'd never in a million years have thought to create.

-BBH

[Nostalgic]

This statement....

I actually worked for a card game company and have a good deal of insight into the CCG design/balancing process, and even with that background I'm not comfortable playing with homemade cards.

...makes this statement understandable. 

The farthest I would go would be to allow use of Marvels cards, but only if they could be printed at a quality level that was indistinguishable from the existing cards -

As for for the sense of authenticity you mention I refer you to a bit of literature from the time period.

I can understand why some people like them, but I am just weird about authenticity and things feeling "official" even though the game has been dead for ten years.

Post Merge: July 11, 2011, 10:03:07 PM

Sounds to me like Onslaught plays using tournament rules. The way the game was meant to be played.

I'll just emphasize the portion of the brochure I noticed for Dr. Death's sake.



Well all know the game had multiple designers working on the specials throughout its run.  These people had different visions and understandings of the game and I think is a major reason why some early characters may have got the short end of the stick regarding they're specials.  Anyway, after 10 years I think some of the guys here have great concepts for card designs and with hindsight being 20/20 can definitely contribute to the richness of the OP experience with their homemades.  To each his own as we say, but I think homemades are a whole new level of fun.

[gameplan.exe]

I don't understand how chaining FE specials like this...

Off the top of my head I believe only Adam Warlock, Invisible Woman, Superboy, and Savage Dragon have this FE coded special. Adam Warlock' is especially useful since it is in an off-stat. If one Cosmic Alliance is good, then two in the same deck should be great. Luckily for us, Invisible Woman is a very useful character, filling a utility role of bringing some defense while adding a theme to the deck - chained attacks. With the ability to play five attacks in a row (or six if you begin with an Ally), your focus should be on winning by KO instead of Venture.

... is allowed, considering this rule:

(9) Specials that allow a follow up can be played after another Special that allows a follow up. If a Special allows for teammates to make follow-up attacks, then any follow-up actions allowed by Specials played as a result of that are all lost. If the Special granting a follow up has been played following a non-Special card (like an Ally card) then the follow up attacks are not lost.

Am I missing something? Don't get me wrong, I love chaining attacks, but I thought you couldn't do it this way...

[CoS]

I love chaining attacks, but I thought you couldn't do it this way...

I agree to the above. Back in the day when these FE specials first came out Adam Warlock, Invisible Woman, and Dr. Strange all may a front line appearance against me. let us just say that with Dr. Strange's two OTHER chaining cards (CY & DG) he was dropping his entire hand in the first attack turn....

Until I pointed out this rule. Then madness stopped.

[BigBadHarve]

I love chaining attacks, but I thought you couldn't do it this way...

I agree to the above. Back in the day when these FE specials first came out Adam Warlock, Invisible Woman, and Dr. Strange all may a front line appearance against me. let us just say that with Dr. Strange's two OTHER chaining cards (CY & DG) he was dropping his entire hand in the first attack turn....

Until I pointed out this rule. Then madness stopped.

Actually, a continuous chain from a single character (Like Dr. Strange) is acceptable under the meta rules. It's when you get situations like Invisible Woman's team co-ordination that the rules kibosh any additional follow ups.

So, you could use Strange's eldritch blasts (2E +2 additional attacks), make your second attack his catastrophe magic (4E + 2 Pc attacks) for a 5 hit string (6 if leading with an ally or AA special etc.)

But if you started with Cosmic alliance or team coordination, any additional cards played that allow follow up attacks lose the follow up.

-BBH

[CoS]

Yea starting off with the cosmic alliance was my beef.

[BigBadHarve]

Yea starting off with the cosmic alliance was my beef.

I can see why, but I think it's a fair strategy. If it works, it can hurt, but there's a lot that can go wrong too. A single negate will stop that string. If all you have are attacks and your opponent goes first, a single teamwork can screw you because the odds are you'll lose a character before you can hammer your opponent with your string.

I'm about expanding strategies, rather than limiting them.

-BBH