Roll Some Energy!

It shouldn’t be a surprise to most of you that Energize is a keyword I really enjoy. Last time I tried it, my Domino team didn’t do too badly. So I wanted to try a stab at a different use of Energize. As our Legacy League shows no signs of slowing down, and our ban list gets gigantic, I decided it was time to…

Roll Some Energy!

The Team:  Because why rely on characters when you can roll some energy, am I right?

Format: Legacy League (all winning cards banned, including BACs)

With this build, I am putting myself squarely in the sights of the Parallax trap. Hardly a very wise idea, but quite fun. The way it works is that I hope to roll Deadpool and Magik on double energy repeatedly through Parallax, both to trigger Energize and to trigger damage from Domino. My characters get bigger, I draw more dice, and I can thin out blockers. Definitely a lot of room for shenanigans here.

Not a useful strategy if I don’t have characters to buff with Deadpool though, so I went for a regular favorite: Batiri Battle Stack. And just in case they roll energy, I added Too Big To Fly for the global. For that extra damage to hit my opponent, I put in Madame Web.

The rest of the team is utility: Investigation for added ramp, Cold Gun as defense against unblockable characters, and Human Paladin in case someone runs big non-combat damage like Gobby or Nobby.

And with all of that said, on to the games!

Game 1:

My first game was against an assortment of Deadly characters. Essentially, you block, you die. Problem for him is that I really don’t mind when that happens to someone with Energize. Went for some Investigation ramp, alongside Magik and Domino, alongside a ton of Batiris. Because I didn’t have to worry about a big game-ending attack from him, it gave me time to set up (and eventually buy Deadpool). And when my strategy fired off, it got nuts pretty quickly. I’d use Parallax to trigger dice drawing, damage and buffs all in one. I went from “ok, this should be a fun turn” to “um, I’ve got lethal now” out of absolutely nowhere. I won.

1-0

Game 2:

I followed this up against a Wong+Insect Plague rush team. Lucky for me, she couldn’t roll a fist to save her life. This forced her into her secondary strategies (unblockable Merlyn and unblockable Joker). I got Investigation for ramp, Cold Gun to prepare for her unblockable damage, and then I got the pieces of my combo like in game 1. She got the UC Human Outlander to buff her sidekicks, in order to defend against Domino’s damage, but on the turn where I set up my big attack, I used Cold Gun to KO the Outlander, with Domino making quick work of her sidekicks while I buffed my stuff with Deadpool. A big attack fired off, and I won. (Wait, I’m 2-0 with this? What?)

2-0

Game 3:

For my final game of the night, I went up against a Green Goliath control build. This was a rough game for him at first; it took him a long time to get Hulk out. But when he did, I essentially had no answer. I tried to use Deadpool’s ability to make my stuff big enough to withstand Hulk’s damage, but it quickly became hard to manage. It doesn’t help that he was using Black Cat and preventing me from fielding at level 3. This made me use Parallax far too much. I should’ve gone for Madame Web this game, as I had an opening for 2-3 turns where my opponents simply didn’t roll bolts, but I spent that energy on Parallax, which was a bad call; I was unlucky on those rolls, and it ended up just being a waste. He eventually got a good roll, wiped my board with Hulk and he won. There were some lessons learned from that one for sure.

2-1

Post-Mortem:

-I will gladly admit that I underestimated Domino, Deadpool and Magik. It was slow, but when all three got going, the team was surprisingly effective.

-It was crucial to have Magik around when I’d start the combo. Without her ramp, it was hard to draw the energy to keep things going. She was a huge help. I didn’t use her on Game 3, and that was a mistake.

-This team really needs Parallax to do well though. This strategy would have a really hard time doing well in a Modern environment.

-Parallax is, predictably, also this team’s biggest weakness. Remember everyone; Parallax is a trap! You could have enough energy for a Hulk, and have it all disappear in a second.

-Unfortunately, because I had a lot of dice to purchase, it was hard to find the right time to buy Madame Web. This really hurt me in the last game. I should’ve waited before using Parallax that game (good illustration of my previous point).

-Human Paladin was an unfortunate choice; my opponents had all gone for some combat damage-based strategies, making him all but useless. It’s not a bad card, but it was not the right pick here.

-I originally wanted to use the Squirrel Girl from CW that produces tokens on this team. I already had to buy so many other things, but I keep thinking she would’ve been a good fit. Field all of the Squirrel tokens, buff them all, and charge. Perhaps in a different build.

So overall, this was certainly a team worth trying, and probably my favourite use of Energize so far. I’m starting to look forward to the end of our league though; we’re really starting to run low on ramp options. It’s supposed to last until D&D comes out. Hopefully that’s pretty soon!