HBO PRESENTS

FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS!!!

Tonight's fight:

New Brotherhood vs. Lost City Brotherhood


TALE OF THE TAPE

In the RED corner.....


New Brotherhood


And in the BLUE corner.....


Lost City Brotherhood


LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE!!!




*bell sounds*

This one is tough:

We're not only talking about card vs. card, but decktype vs. decktype.

True. Very True.

O.K. I'll dive in first. I like Lost City Brotherhood over TNB for a couple of reasons...

I used to play Jyhad (yeah, where did THAT come from!) and we built decks to maximize options. TNB has a definite early game advantage. But what happens if you can't finish it turn five. Chances are you will most likely get pummeled by six and seven drops. With Lost City Brotherhood not only can you follow the curve and favor some of the Brotherhood's higher cost people, but you get something TNB can't do very well. DEFEND. Lost City isn't just for offense. Brotherhood already comes with a stack of power ups for attack. Use them. Save those Lost City discards when your opponent comes at you to attack. A +3/+3 on defense w/Avalon Space Station to do it again is nice. And building on the curve allows you to stay in the game if you can't get the early beat. I don't play Brotherhood often so I don't know all of the mechanics, but this is me from a logistics standpoint. Maximize Options. i go with Lost City Brotherhood

BIG BROTHERHOOD

I have played both many many times, and I have found the Big deck to be much more balanced. It can actually cause up to more damage then a TNB deck, just not as fast. You let them hit you, power up, and they get smacked back. Then you have your own attack phase anyways. The Big B'Hood is more of a stonewalla aggro deck then your average weenie deck. You also don't need many of the power rares for Big that are needed for TNB, Genosha, Savage, Feral, Ka-Boom, etc.

I think Big Brotherhood may possibly be a better deck. But in a one on one match, history seems to show that TNB usually wins. This happened in Phily and in most of the PCQ's where they met in the top 8. TNB is one of the worst matchups for Big Brotherhood, sure if the game goes too long Big Brotherhood wins, but alot of the times the game doesn't last long enough to Big Brother to start showing its late game strength.

It's not THAT bad of a matchup, we just had some bad luck in the top 8. Keep in mind that we (Jason and I) each beat multiple TNB decks in the swiss, and that includes Jason beating Matt Boccio's TNB.


-Eric

Turn 1......

TNB and Lorelei... or any BH for that matter. This is 3 attack, and she is 3 of defense. Quite possibly the best 1 drop numerically for the deck. Drop 1 power up and she is 4/4. Nice.

LC and Lorelie is 1 on offense, and an effective 3 defense due to her ability. Drop one card to power up and we have a 4 offense, and an effective 6 defense. Offensively they match up, and defensively the LC combo is more impressive.

Turn 2.......

TNB and Toad. Perfect draw is a second TNB. He is now a 7 attack, and a 2 defense. Power him up once and we have a 8 attack and a 3 defense. Not bad on 2 at all.

LC and Toad. He is a 3 attack and 2 defense. Lets power him up once also. He is now a 6 attack and a 5 defense. No other 2 drop wil innately be able to take him out. But since we are talking perfect draws, lets have Avalon Space Station out also, and re-use that powerup. He is now a 9 attack and an 8 defense.

At each and every turn, with the perfect draw assumed, Lost City is going to win out every time. Further, the power up for defense also will let you counter the higher number of smaller guys the TNB can bring out, and each attack they will be stunned in response. If you have the powerups to play you will also bounce them each time and lose no-one.

At each stage, if both have good draws, the Lost City is the more solid deck. That is not to say the New Brotherhood doesn't have a fighting chance. When they start team attacking or using other tricks like Kaboom they can sure put a hurt on any deck. But if it comes out decent, Lost City will make it to turn 5, and then the TNB build will quickly get overwhelemed by the sheer ferocity of it.

Either way the game should end by turn 5 most of the time. But most often it will be Magneto, after at elast one Genosha for cards, dropping 3 to 6 power ups on hmself to massacre a tiny back row Pyro.

WINNER!: Lost City Brotherhood

The edge goes to Lost City Brotherhood

The reason:

Relocation

Lost City can steal avalon, lost city or savage land

depending on the deck build

that theft of property leads to a 6th turn at which time lost city brotherhood will take the game

its does go either way but out of 10 games lost city should win 6-7 times

TheCaptain

TNB are also packing kaboom's which do really really nasty things to Big Brotherhood. First they can take out Lost City or Avalon Space Station. Second they slow resource development, majorly. If big brother becomes more popular, we will see more kabooms which really hurt the deck.

Lost City gets the nod.

While TNB offers some truly sick early-game advantage (especially with 2 or more on the board), Lost City keeps your characters on the board longer.

And as agressive as BH characters are, that's never a good thing for your opponent.

LC also makes up for the typically low DEF values BH characters sport.

Add to that the fact that LC works on defense as well as offense and you've got one solid card.

Combo it with Avalon Space Station and Lost City is just plain nuts.

Of course, a BH deck can make use of TNB, LC and Avalon to amazing effect but so long as I have to pick just one, it's Lost City.

TNB's a one-trick pony while LC is a fantasticly well-rounded card.

TNB

Here's 3 reasons why :

1. Early striking ability: I can't tell you how many times against a NB deck that after 2 turns you are down 5-15 endurance. That's gonna make you play differently.

2. Magneto & Genosha: the versions of TNB decks that I see tend to run at least 2 5 drop Magnetos, and 4 Genoshas. There is nothing worse than hitting turn 5, and watching a 5 drop Magneto hit, then having multiple Genosha blow up in your face. Speed kills, and that combo will speed up an already fast acting NB deck.

3. Curve: Not having to really choose over drop 5 in a big plus. It allows you to simplify and maximize your deck and deck strategy. TNB is designed to hit hard and fast, and in CCGs that not a bad strategy. :cool:

PS X men still rule!:devious:

And stop whining krazykilroy make up your robotic mind.

I've seen TNB take on big brotherhood, and if not for your son getting nervous, would have CRUSHED big brotherhood!!

Really, if TNB gets it done, they are very hard to deal with. anything past turn 5 greatly reduces it's chances to win.

The only problem with TNB in this matchup is it's extreme reliance on an early TNB. Obviously a good TNB player is going to mulligan aggresively to get it early, but it doesn't always happen. In the absence of a turn 1 or 2 TNB, the advantage is totally BB in a rout. This advantage for BB holds true even if the BB doesn't get it's combo off as it's guys are just plain bigger.

In my testing I have found that if both decks get their pieces, it's basically a toss up. A 2nd TNB early is game over for the Big Brotherhood (and all other decks for that matter). The inclusion of 4x Ka-booms seems madatory in TNB since an early Lost City that is not accounted for is nearly an unwinnable situation.

That all being said, I would actually give a slight advantage to TNB assuming the player mulligans aggresively (ie, plays the deck properly) and has 4x Ka-booms maindeck. Any other version and the advantage switches to BB.

This is what testing with my version of BB has shown anyway.