Hi there,
Let’s take a break from the constant onslaught of Essentials List content I’ve been throwing your way. Our legacy league is still going at my FLGS. We’re now at week 18. Yes, seriously. So let’s break out some shenanigans.
After all, SR Jocasta is rife with shenanigans. So is Mighty Thor’s UC Mjolnir. What happens when the two are mixed together? They hurt like heck. But more importantly, what happens if you throw Lady Deadpool into the mix? Well, this happens…
Excuse Me, Is This Your Hammer?
The Team: If I keep running stuff like this, I may end up an outcast(a).
Format: Legacy League (all winning cards banned, including BACs)
There’s a fair bit to unpack here. First, let’s talk about the win condition. Mjolnir is intended as my main damage source. I aim to get a metric ton of bolts and use them to hit my opponent hard with Mjolnir. And now we get to Jocasta. I can hit her AND my opponent with the hammer. Jocasta’s damage then hits my opponent. Essentially, for the first Mjolnir I use, this allows me to double my damage, which is nuts. And you know what makes this more nuts? Using Lady Deadpool to get extra uses out of my Mjolnirs. It’s not like I’ll be wanting for bolts, right?
For this to work consistently, I need tons of bolts, which means ramp and fixers. First, let’s talk ramp. I put in three cards: Chwinga (for Swarm), Pepper Potts (that ramp can get quite useful), and Superhero Registration Act. That last one is especially important, because it can be doubled with Lady Deadpool. Start to see a pattern here?
Now, let’s get to fixers. I put in two cards for this purpose: Merlyn and Techno. Merlyn makes a sidekick into a bolt, while Techno then uses that bolt to make all my sidekicks into bolts. This makes my strategy remarkably consistent, at least in theory.
As for the last two cards, they’re utility. Thousand Dragon serves to discount Mjolnir; with all of my bolts, I should be able to get Mjolnir for 3 energy consistently (2 triggers of Thousand Dragon discount Mjolnir to 1 energy). And for the last card, I went for Distraction. I didn’t expect I’d keep a lot of characters active, so to survive long enough for the shenanigans to fire off, I figured that global would be essential.
And with that said, on to the games!
Game 1:
Let’s start off easy…against a crazy Infiltrate team that features Hope Summers copying the Cable that deals crazy damage with Infiltrate (jourdo, what have you created???). That was a rough one. It took both of us a bit of time to setup. I had to content with Lady Deadpool not rolling all game, so I went for Jocasta and Mjolnir straight up, with ramp and bolts galore. I smacked him with 10 damage from a Mjolnir’d Jocasta, but he kept chipping away at my life total. He had me at 11, brought me down to 1(!). I had 1 turn to deal 10 damage…and two Mjolnirs rolled with enough bolts to blast away his remaining life. I won that one by the skin of my teeth.
1-0
Game 2:
Next up, Deadly shenanigans everywhere. This time, Lady Deadpool rolled early and often. This is where the shenanigans started for real with Superhero Registration Act. I was buying so many dice throughout the game, it was ridiculous. But he was not to be underestimated. He’d use Black Bolt to tie up (and KO) my blockers with his Deadly stuff while he’d sneak characters through. Distraction saved my bacon all game. Eventually, after he brought me to 3 life, I got a massive amount of dice in a turn, and the resulting damage was monstrous. From our estimate, with all the Mjolnirs doubled by Lady Deadpool, I did lethal damage plus 27 more damage. It was glorious.
2-0
Game 3:
And now, on to the Warriors Three! Jocasta was a great threat to have on the board. Why attack with big Overcrushing bruisers with Jocasta ready to block? And I kept a mask or two handy to use Distraction on any other characters Jocasta wouldn’t stop. This gave me time to set up a bit more. And it’s a good thing, too, because Mjolnir just wouldn’t roll for a while. I had time to buy all 4 Mjolnirs, some Chwingas…and after a while I just stopped buying dice; my bag was already a mess (15 dice on one refill). But with that many dice, things were bound to go right at one point. And I eventually got a couple of Mjolnirs, enough bolts to really hurt, and all of the sudden I dealt lethal damage, in no small part because I had bought Techno (yes, seriously) and wore my opponent down a fair bit with him. And thus, slightly anticlimactically, I won.
3-0
Game 4:
It was the night for big bruisers, as I then went up against big, nasty, Overcrushing Immortals. Good thing Lady Deadpool rolled this game, because I needed her shenanigans quick. With Jane Foster, Heimdall and Superhero Registration Act, my opponent got to buy a bunch of big characters quick. But my shenanigans got going crazier than ever. I ended up with Techno, Lady Deadpool and Jocasta active. And I rolled two Mjolnirs, on burst, with 9 bolts in my reserve pool. Even though Jocasta only triggers off of one Mjolnir, this was more than enough. We didn’t even bother counting the damage. I won.
4-0
Post-Mortem:
-I completely underestimated how busted Lady Deadpool would be with Superhero Registration Act. Think about it: if I double my action twice, that’s 4 triggers. That means that, without looking at other ramp, I can draw and roll 12 to 16 dice in a turn. That is certified bonkers.
-For that matter, having Techno active with Lady Deadpool was so brutal it could almost have won by itself. I genuinely could’ve bypassed Mjolnir and Jocasta had I gotten a couple more Attune characters on the team.
-My bag control was stupendously horrible. Seriously, never run this strategy if you’re aiming for consistency. I repeatedly loaded my bag with 15+ dice (yes, seriously!) throughout the evening, and every turn was a gamble. Without my aforementioned Lady Deadpool shenanigans, it would’ve been a very long evening.
-Distraction was a life saver for all of my games (except against Infiltrate). Without it, I would’ve easily lost at least 1, probably 2 games.
So overall, this was a blast to run. An inconsistent, janky mess, but absolutely fun.