Welcome back to Team Brew Switcharoo! Here, we take a random selection of cards from the Team Builder and try to create a Team that is somewhat functional.
The Rules
We are not going to keep the team as the Team Builder gives us. We will be allowed to make substitutions based on some limitations. The limitations for this challenge are as follows:
- I am only allowed to substitute 4 cards from the initial selection.
- I must follow a randomly selected “rule” to build the Team around.
Last time, we decided to start things off easy with a Modern Marvel build. We will continue that trend and try something from the distinguished competition. The rule we will build around for this week is…
Modern DC Only
All cards must be from DC sets and be Modern legal. Again, I did cheat a little with the random selection of cards in that I did limit it to Modern and DC. Next time, we will open it up more fully to increase the difficulty of the challenge.
The Cards
You can click on the image above if you want to play along. When I saw this group, I think the centerpiece of this build is pretty obvious…
That’s right. We are going to totally ignore the obvious Attune/Ping set-up here and try for something new. Negative Man look interesting in his Aftershock ability. Aftershock is hard to pull off, but I think we can try and make something work. For this to work, I need Static Field off the board as that Global makes an attack focused Team.
Scarecrow kind of has some synergy with Negative Man. Why not try and make this work here? My Opponent KO’s Negative Man and instead of getting prep from his ability, their Used Pile becomes clogged. Removing Negative Man is going to be the tricky part with his beefy defense, but I think there is a solution to that.
If I am now leaning into Scarecrow, it makes the most sense to drop the Justice League from this build. Easy drops for Green Arrow, and Batman. Harley is actually going to be tricky to KO with the restrictions in place, so I doubt her ability will make much of a splash here. Zatanna’s Attune might actually be useful (not in the way you think) here, so I think she might be the better keep on this build. So, I think my cuts will look like this:
The Substitutions
My win condition is to try and get Negative Man KO’ed or otherwise removed by my Opponent. With his beefy defense stats that is a tricky ask. However, with the Bizzaro Global it may not be that bad. You can flip Negative Man’s stats and now have a threat in an Attacker and something potentially easier to KO. That gives Aftershock a chance here.
As always, Ramp is a bit of a challenge here. Let’s take care of that and get some extra bonus out of Atlantis. This card serves a couple of purposes. The Global is decent Ramp… AND gives my Opponent a Sidekick maker that could help out Negative Man do his thing. The card ability will let me Ramp up to some of my bigger characters and help out with those less than ideal rolls.
Atlantis will also pair well with Zatanna. I said her Attune would come in handy. Atlantis will trigger that and I can use it to soften up Negative Man instead of hitting my Opponent directly. Oh yeah… the shields will also help power the Bizzaro Global.
Since I have a Villain centric Team here, I think I need a cheap Villain to help the cause. Black Manta makes some sense here as his ability will for sure trigger with this build. Again, he will benefit from the Bizarro Global as well.
For my final substitution, I need another BAC. Unfortunately, something with a decent Global is not really there in Modern DC. I flip flopped between Power Almighty and Thrown Brick. Either would actually work here, but I ultimately went with Power Almighty. Why? It is actually really good Ramp and I didn’t want to get yelled at for not going the Attune option if I had chosen Thrown Brick. 😛
Those are the substitutions I chose to make on this group of cards. For those playing along, here is the final Team Builder link:
Modern DC Switcharoo
Here is the plan: I want to get Scarecrow and Negative Man out along with Zatanna. I will be swinging with Negative Man early and often. I will use Zatana’s Attune in order to hit Negative Man and reduce his defence. Flip Negative Man with the Bizarro Global and one of two things happen. My Opponent KO’s Negative Man and Aftershock triggers, or they take some larger chunks of damage since the stats are flipped (now 4A-7A).
With Scarecrow out, my Opponent gets no bonus (ie Ramp) from their Sidekicks being KO’ed. They go to Used instead which is a strong effect. However, this is a double edged sword. I may want to minimize my Sidekicks at some point in the game.
However, if I do get stuck with Sidekicks in the Used… Poison Ivy could actually be decent here. In theory, her ability could trigger if I keep my Used Pile filled with the little white dice. She would not be a focus, but something to pivot to if the opportunity arises. She also could benefit from the Bizarro Global with those big defensive numbers.
Black Manta is that cheap attacker that I can use if my Opponent decided to try and dance around Negative Man. The stat bump (combined with the stat flip) will work really well on this Team to give me a fairly seriously statted threat across the board.
Solomon Grundy would likely not see play because of his cost, but man that ability could work well on this build. Instant removal of just about anything is never a bad thing. Situational at best on this Team.
If the plan works, I should be swinging with multiple high attack characters that my Opponent must decide to take the hit from, or deal with the Aftershock ability. Either way, something should happen.
Now, this Team is all on paper right now. How would it actually function? I don’t know… but I would actually play this in a heartbeat.
What do you think? How would you change the Team? What would you do differently? What random meta rules do you want to see in future TBS articles?
Let us know in the comments below. Talk to us on all of the Socials @dmNorthTV. Send us an email at mailbag@dm-north.com. We would love to hear from you.
Thank for reading!
– jourdo