And our legacy league keeps on trucking! We’re at week 7 of…well…who knows? We said we’d keep going until Wizkids releases a new set, and we still don’t know when the next one is coming out. So we’ve still got a ways to go with this. And this week…
Justice Prevails
The Team: For great Justice!
Format: Legacy League (week 7) (all cards from winning teams banned, including BACs)
Ok, at this point in the league, there are a lot of key pieces out of the way, including Green Devil Mask. This means that I can afford to run strategies where I rely on having lots of characters. Enter Justice. With enough sidekicks active (and keeping 2 sidekicks out is not that onerous), he is a nice beat-stick for his cost. I decided to complement this with Crystal, to make it easier to roll sidekicks reliably. This made SR Jubilee an obvious fit, as I can convert those sidekicks to damage (plus, it gave me an excuse to finally use that sweet alt-art I got from Worlds).
I needed some removal, though, and Jubilee only does so much. I threw in Venom. He’s an old-school favorite of mine who makes it really hard to rely on sidekicks to block (they’re KO’d as soon as they get fielded). Of course, I used him alongside Archnemesis!, using the global so that characters like Collector (low A, high D) can easily get KO’d.
And seeing as I want sidekicks fielded, I threw in Instant War, which fits really well with the strategy: if I have Venom and Jubilee active, you lose sidekicks as soon as they’re fielded, and I get to damage you or your characters as I field my own sidekicks. And those sidekicks then buff Justice.
I threw in Kree Captain and Heimdall to make it easier to get Venom reliably. I also added the OP Black Widow to slow down opposing strategies and give myself the time to set up. As for Morph, he was there more for curiosity; I saw Ben run him at Worlds, and while he never used it against me, I heard it had helped him otherwise. I thus wanted to give Morph a shot.
And with that said, on to the games!
Game 1:
I started off against a Warhammer-focused team, with lots of mid-range offensive pieces (e.g. the 4-cost Thunderwolf Cavalry). I took a slower approach in this game, going for Jubilee and Venom rather than rushing with Justice. I also got the Instant War shenanigans going. My opponent was using Foetid Bloat-Drone to KO my whole field most turns. On one turn, though, his Bloat-Drone landed on level 1 (only 2A), and Venom+Archnemesis got the drone off the board before he could attack. The following turn, I got enough characters on the board to swing in for the win.
1-0
Game 2:
Next up, Ultraman, with Boom Boom, Yuan-ti and R Wasp for extra damage. In theory, Venom sounded like a good play to stop his Boom Boom and Yuan-ti from entering the field. In reality though, I chose to get OP Widow out to counter Wasp (and Yuan-ti’s Attune) and go for cheap Jubilee and Justice dice. It worked quite well; I was rushing him down faster than he could get his characters out; Venom never became necessary, as my weenie rush won me the game before Ultraman even got fielded.
2-0
Game 3:
And for my final test of the night, Collector+Nobby! (how the heck is that not banned yet?) Justice, Jubilee, Venom…everyone got to shine here! OP Widow kept me alive against Nobby (thankfully, there’s enough villain control banned that the team wasn’t villains-only), Jubilee pinged off opposing Kree soldiers, and Venom+Archnemesis kicked Collector’s butt right off the board. At some point, I dealt 15 damage in one attack (holding Widow back for defensive purposes) to get all of my big hitters off the board before Dwarf Wizard could blank them (again, how the heck is THAT guy not banned yet?). Smart play, as Dwarf Wizard came out shortly after. Then, it was just a matter of getting enough attackers on the board to deal the remaining damage. Despite missing lethal on one occasion (forgot to use Archnemesis!), I eventually won.
3-0
Post-Mortem:
-I’d forgotten how fun Justice could be. Sure, his fielding costs are hot garbage, but just holding sidekicks back while swinging with a big battering ram is always fun.
-He only worked well because he had the perfect supporting cast though. Venom and Jubilee, used alongside Instant War, was the perfect way to trigger Justice and take care of opposing blockers.
-Morph was funny. If it weren’t for Venom, he would’ve been an all-star against Collector. As it is, he was occasionally useful, but not that impressive.
-Widow was a good call against the local meta. With her out of the way, though, I will have to figure out some way to deal with Ultraman and Collector (not to mention Wasp). Might be tricky.
-Crystal was unnecessary; I managed to easily get sidekicks fielded without her. Buying Instant War was consistently the better call, as it got shenanigans going.
Aaand crap, I just got several of my favourite cards banned in one go. Well, got to keep trucking on. Next week, will I be desperate enough to include C Vixen? Nah, not yet. I’m amazed at how many awesome teams are still legal, actually; here are a just a few examples of combos that are still legal:
- Tsarina+Green Goliath+Patch (you could even use ID Card in there!)
- Gobby+Parallax
- Nobby+Collector
- Ultraman+Kryptonite+Boom Boom
- Babs+R Bruce + U Alfred + Magic Missile
Ok, maybe there is still some fun to be had in this league after all. See you guys next time!