07/06/2008

Deck Deconstruction: Secret Society (Modern Age)

by Mike Jiles

(Here is the Deck Deconstruction of the Top 4 World Championship deck, by famed Team Wiscago deck-builder, Mike Jiles)

Secret Society

Characters
• 4 The Riddler, Riddle Me This
• 1 Chemo, Toxic Waste
• 1 Dr. Polaris, Polar Opposite
• 4 Dr. Sivana, Mad Scientist
• 2 Charaxes, Moth Monster
• 4 Poison Ivy, Intoxicating
• 1 Sinestro, Yellow Lantern
• 4 Gorilla Grodd, Grodd Awful
• 3 Black Manta, Underwater Marauder
• 2 Deathstroke the Terminator, Killing Machine
• 1 Mr. Freeze, Cold-Blooded
• 1 Doomsday, Engine of Destruction

Plot Twists

• 4 Savage Beatdown
• 4 Straight to the Grave
• 4 Agility
• 3 Mobilize
• 3 Going Ape
• 3 Unnatural Selection
• 2 Pathetic Attempt
• 1 Master Plan

Location

• 3 Birthing Chamber
• 3 Remote Facility
• 2 Gorilla City

Ok, to start I never intended to play Secret Society at Worlds. It was in our gauntlet, which is weird as it wasn't in some others from the responses I got at Worlds. Prior to Friday I had played the deck maybe about 5 times online, and maybe twice in real life. When I got to Columbus on Thursday, I played some games with what I had been spending most of my time testing, A [Hail Hydra] deck playing powerful people from different teams, using [Mobilize] and [Cosmic Cube] for search. That night, however, my draws were quite bad. I played like 10 games and won like 1. I quickly dug through my bag to see what else I had with me. The only decks I had were World's Finest, Secret Society, Teen Titans Reservist, and a Punisher deck.

I knew I couldn't play WF as it had very bad game agaist alot of MUN decks. TT Reservist, while alot of fun, just wasn't fast enough for what type of deck it was. The Punisher deck just wasn't very good. Secret Society was the most consistant deck I had, and that's always important. Then I did some number crunching:

WF: Almost all of their plot twists cost 3, meaning Riddler can turn off the decks turn after turn with pretty good frequency.

FF: [It's Clobberin' Time], [Mobilize], [Signal Flare] and [Force Field Projection] all cost 3. [Savage Beatdown] and [Family of Frou] cost 4. That, added with recurring KO effects, means I should be able to jam out 50% against them if need be.

MKO: They play alot of 1 cost plot twists and some 1-drops, meaning I might be able to protect my 3 from being [Quick Kill]ed. That and KO'ing their guys really changes a couple things.

Riddler was my fall back for decks I hadn't really thought about. That, and KO effects. When in doubt play as many [Savage Beatdown]s as possible, [Black Manta] can make it go pretty aggro against stall decks and the DEF pumps hold off the other faster decks. The curve choices were really conservative, playing all the characters in Secret Society Curve that people know are good. I decided not to play [Monkey See, Monkey Do], because it seemed like a waste. Most decks have a small hidden dude they could care less about, I didn't want to exhaust my 4 for their hidden 2.

I cut the 8-drop I had in the deck right before we started on Friday. I put in a 3rd 6-drop, which was good as I didn't miss that all day, but most games went to turn 8. Not sure if that was right, but [Doomsday, Engine of Destruction] was so big he rarely mattered. Doomsday is big enough that with a DEF pump or two he can bounce a team attack from a 5-drop and a 6-drop, which is huge, especially if you have Riddler hitting a pump cost.

Most decks I played in Day 1 were Aggro, or Control. [Chemo, Toxic Waste] kept me in control match-ups until I could deal out the damage and Riddler held off aggro decks.

My plan for Secret Avengers Reservist was the same for All Aggro decks. My plan vs. [Sniper Shot] and Dan Clark's deck was to spam Chemo while beating him up. I hadn't really thought about it much, though.

Over all it was a consistent deck with board control, and a little to a lot of plot twist control. it was good at the time, but I probably should have put in a [Have a Blast!].