Kergy’s Korner #47: Unraveling the Knights


Ah, sneak peek time again. Spring may not be in the air, but it sure feels like it with the warmest weather since who knows when. And that only makes the day that much better, while traveling to the shop for the sealed flights.

I had an absolute blast; we started at 10:30 AM, we got about 24 people in the sealed flight, and due to latecomers, we got a couple of drafts in as well. And I played in all three, of course – always willing to spend lots of money on tournaments.

When the dust settled, my overall record was 8-4, finishing 3rd in the Flight, 3rd in the first draft, and winning the second draft. I was 3-2 in the Flight, losing to the 5-0 winner and the 4-1 runner-up. I was 2-2 in the first draft, losing to the SAME TWO guys, who each finished 1-2 again. I swept the second draft, mainly due to the knowledge I gleaned from the first two events, of which cards worked well with which others and what cards were must-drafts. The fact that my nemeses has gone home helped just little bit, as well.

I also got to finally meet JoFo, as he showed up for the first time to take part in a tourney I was playing in. Obviously he had been hiding out, concocting nefarious plans to take me down a peg. But I foiled him! Kergy is never without backup plans! Truly, it was awesome to meet him, and to play against him.

The final outcome of the day? CAD$70 got me 29 packs, three EA sets and the most amazing Ghost Ride t-shirt I’ve ever seen. Works for me!

So what does this all mean? Well, I figured I would draft up a list of the ten cards you should look for in a limited Marvel Knights event. While I didn’t play with every card in the set, these are my ten MVPs, which helped my decks ooze with synergy, and win a few games to boot!

No time to lose – let’s get right into the thick of it! These are my Ten Best Picks, in order.

10) Made Men
MMK-127
Plot Twist – Ongoing
Cost: 1
Ongoing: Exhaust a character you control >>> Affiliated characters you control can attack as though they had flight and gain the Crime Lords affiliation this turn. [This is in addition to their other affiliations.]
“I should like to discuss with you employment opportunities in my organization.”

This card was an immediate favourite of mine, and not just because I wrote the flavour text for it. Made Men does several things. For one, it grants you the ability to attack protected characters when your opponent least expects it. My opponent left a Caretaker in the back row, protected behind his 6-drop, and I had zero Flight on my side. I flipped Made Men, exhausted my hidden 1-drop Doop, and it was PARTY time! It also allowed me to attack or team-attack my opponent’s big drops when they were hidden behind front row characters.

The other thing that Made Men does, is grant all of your affiliated characters the Crime Lords affiliation for the turn. Since there is only one non-affiliated character in the set (Sharon Ginsberg - Lacuna gains the affiliations of all of your other controlled characters) this essentially means that every character in play on your side is a Crime Lord. This really helps with Loyalty and double-Loyalty, and it also helps on your opponent’s initiative, allowing you to play amazing defensive plot twists like Shakedown, Rough House, and No Rest For the Wicked on non-Crime Lords characters, as well as allowing you to reinforce those characters – and you can set it all up by simply exhausting the defending character!

It’s not a first pick, and it usually makes its way around the table at least once, but it’s definitely a solid card to have on your side. If you can get your hands on The Rose, as well, you can even search for it if you don’t draw it early on.

9) Gravesite
MMK-170
Plot Twist - Ongoing
Cost: 1
Ongoing: At the start of the draw phase, each player draws a card, then discards a card. Each player who discards an Underworld character card this way gains 1 endurance.

While others I’ve spoken to found this card to be much better than I did – and would undoubtedly rank it higher – I certainly give it kudos as a very solid pick. Aside from the nice little endurance bonus, if you’re playing Underworld that is, the mere fact that its primary ability is not team-stamped is a major plus. In fact, I really like the mass of team-stamped cards that have a primary generic ability with a team-stamped, or double-stamped, bonus

The pro to this card is that it really helps you curve out – especially in the later rounds. Because it’s a 1-cost, you can get it into play early, and reap those benefits right away. And if your opponents are unprepared, they may find themselves making poor discard decisions on their end. Gravesite also feeds your KO’d pile with Underworld characters, which adds all sorts of synergy to Underworld decks, which often like, if not rely on, their own festering corpses rotting in the KO’d pile, raring to be resurrected (or at least zombified…)

The only con, aside from trying to break the habit of immediately drawing two cards at the beginning of the turn (I can’t tell you how many times we forgot on Saturday…) is that you’re giving your opponent the same advantage that you have in terms of curve benefit. Your opponent gets to cycle through his/her cards, too, and that means filling out the curve on both sides. That can make this card dangerous, and that is why I rank it lower down on this list.

8) Vanessa Fisk, Mob Matron
MMK-118
Cost: 1
ATK: 1
DEF: 1
Concealed. [This character comes into play in the hidden area.]
Discard Vanessa Fisk >>> Characters you control get +1 ATK while in the hidden area this turn. Use this power only while Vanessa Fisk is in your hand.
“Behind every great man is a ruthless woman.”

Tryks, Army
MMK-158
Cost: 1
ATK: 1
DEF: 1
Flight
Discard Tryks >>> Target character gets -1 ATK this attack. Use this power only while Tryks is in your hand.
The final stage of the Vapor Vultur Vampyrus virus, Tryks are feared by vampires and humans alike.

I put these two cards together because they are there for the same reasons. While I generally ignore 1-drops in sealed or draft decks, certain cards serve good purposes. These two cards are basically 0-cost plot twists that can double as 1-drops if you so desire. But you won’t really want to use them as characters, because their abilities are so much more effective.

The 1-drop Doop is a great card, and basically gets an honourable mention on this list. He can search for a solid team-up equipment card, and can stay hidden the whole game, giving you a permanent +1 ATK to any attacker who needs it by team-attacking with them, and also being a tool to exhaust for cards like Made Men. And if he gets sucked out into the visible area, you can simply KO him before he’s attacked – no harm, no foul.

These two cards you DON’T want to have to play, however, because they may end up hindering you in the end. But in your hand, they can do so much more damage. I loved seeing one opponent get completely flustered when I dropped a Tryks to reduce his attacker to just below what he needed to stun my 6-drop. And there was one game where I dropped two Vanessa Fisks on my initiative with three hidden characters, giving them all +2 ATK the whole turn – on offense and defense.

And, because these cards are so low on the scale, you can often grab them really late in the game. I picked up at least one of each within the last few cards of a draft pack. A solid sleeper pick, for sure!

7) Anarchist, Man of the People
MMK-046
Cost: 7
ATK: 16
DEF: 16
Range
When Anarchist comes into play, you may KO all other characters you control.
“This is my gig! So back off!”


I know, I know, you heard me griped about the X-Statix all week, and now I’ve already touted two cards as solid cards. Well, I won’t be playing X-Statix any time soon due to my bitter hatred of them, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to ignore the solid cards in limited just because I don’t like the characters.

Anarchist Is by far the most massive, playable character in the set. I don’t tend to play 8-drops, because limited games just don’t hit Turn 8 very often. And the only 7-drop that comes close in girth is Bullseye with a 17 ATK but a pitifully low DEF. This means that every drop but one will need an offensive boost of some sort to take yours down, and that you can stun your opponents’ 7-drops without losing yours. And he screams to be abused with Never Give Up!

If that wasn’t good enough, his ability takes the cake. While you won’t always want to use it, depending on what else hits the table, cards like Spin Doctoring and X-Statix Café make it very tempting.

I can’t think of any other 7-drop I’d put into my deck over Anarchist. He IS the late-game.

6) Dracula’s Castle
MMK-168
Location
Cost: 2
Activate >>> Target defender gets +1 DEF this attack.
Activate, put an Underworld character card from your KO’d pile on the bottom of your deck >>> Gain 3 Endurance.
The villagers say it was built from blood and bones.

A defender of your choice gets +1 DEF every turn. No team-stamp. Need I say more?






5) Midnight Sons
MMK-037
Plot Twist - Ongoing
Cost: 2
Play Midnight Sons only if you control a Marvel Knights character.
Choose a team affiliation.
Ongoing: Characters you control, as well as cards in your hand, deck, and KO’d pile, that have either the Marvel Knights or the chosen affiliation have both affiliations.

Hypnotic Charms
MMK-171
Plot Twist – Ongoing
Cost: 1
Play Hypnotic Charms only if you control an Underworld character.
Ongoing: Affiliated characters you control and affiliated cards in your KO’d pile have the affiliations of each character in your KO’d pile. [This is in addition to their other affiliations.]

Two of the best team-up cards this game has ever seen. Midnight Sons is beyond amazing, for two reasons:

1) You choose the second affiliation, so you don’t even need a second character in play. This means that you can prepare for any loyalty or double-loyalty in the game before you even recruit the character simply by flipping Midnight Sons and naming the necessary secondary affiliation. Your Marvel Knights character gains that affiliation, and voila! Loyalty solved. The same goes for team-stamped locations and plot twists.

2) It has a built-in search card. Simply discard Dagger and find your Midnight Sons. Dagger is yet another of many characters who moonlight as plot twists…

Hypnotic Charms is also special, and works wonders with Gravesite, among other cards. One thing that is so amazing about it is that it’s a super-team-up; as long as the characters remain in your KO’d pile, your controlled characters gain every single affiliation represented in that pile.

And it also has that built-in search card. Not as useful as Dagger, Morbius has to be recruited to search for it, and with his low defense, you may be better off passing on him, but he can get you that team-up, if needed, on Turn 3.

In limited, especially using Marvel Knights, team-ups are extremely valuable cards. These two are at the top of the heap.


4) Lacuna, Media Darling
MMK-209
Cost: 2
ATK: 2
DEF: 2
While in play or in your deck, hand, or KO’d pile, Lacuna has the team affiliations of each character you control.
Activate >>> KO a resource you control. If you do, search your deck for a card named Marvel Team-Up, reveal it, and put it face down into your resource row. Shuffle your deck and discard a card.

Lacuna is a great 2-drop to draft, because she can be on every team at once. She has decent stats, and can fill in at the 2-spot, no matter what teams you’re focusing on, because every character on the field can team-attack with or reinforce her – and she can be the target of team-stamped plot twists as long as you control a character (even one who’s stunned) of that affiliation.

The key here is that she gains the affiliation rather than simply being able to act as though she had the affiliation.

The second reason to love Lacuna, and a reason why you may want to scoop her up fairly early, is that she can activate at any time to search for a Marvel Team-Up.

You all know what MTU does – it’s the same card as in Marvel Origins. Only this time it’s COMMON, so you have a solid shot of seeing at least one go by in a draft. The cost of her search isn’t too high – simply use her after having used a plot twist, or to dump a character you were forced to resource – as you’re replacing the KO’d resource, so you won’t fall behind on the curve, and discarding one card is not a huge cost - especially when that cost pays for a team-up that is not team-stamped in any way and can team-up any and all affiliations. If you get the Lacuna/MTU combo going, you already have a major leg up on your opponents.


3) Weapon of Choice
MMK-220
Plot Twist
Cost: 2
As an additional cost to play Weapon of Choice, discard two cards. Search your deck for two character cards with different names, each with cost equal to the number of resources you control. Reveal them, Target opponent selects one. Shuffle that one back into your deck and put the other into your hand.

Some call it the money card, and some call it dead weight. Some say it costs WAY too much, and others say it’s a small price to pay to curve out.

I like the last one. I have no problem dumping two cards if it means that I hit my curve – those cards are usually not important enough that they’ll save me from being curb-stomped when my opponent rams my lower drop’s face into the KO’d pile.

I was fortunate enough to pull two of these gems on Saturday; one in my sealed and one in my first draft. I used each of them, and they literally won games for me. Out of the five games in which I used them, I won 4, and in that fifth game I missed another drop.

Simply put, in a limited environment where you play multiple affiliations and often have fewer characters at a drop than you’d like, any search card is a good card – and one that has no team-stamp and can be used any time from Turn 2 onwards (and I did use it on Turn 2 at least once…) is an auto-1st pick. There is almost no card I would select ahead of this.

2) Phat
MMK-062
Cost: 1
ATK:1
DEF: 1
Boost X: When Phat comes into play, you may discard an X-Statix character card. If you do, put two +1 ATK / +1 DEF counters on Phat for each resource point you spent on X.
It be the Mastah P.H.A.T. bringin’ it down original X-Style, y’all!

Speaking of auto-first picks, Phat is definitely a number one pick. He is every drop at once, and all for the low price of a single X-Statix character card (because without that discard restriction, he would be simply bordering on BROKEN!).

You’re low on 5-drops? Try Phat! You missed your 3-drop? Phat to the rescue!

I grabbed Phat in my second draft, and he was a third pick. I used him only once. It was as an 8-drop. A 15/15 Phat with Anarchist already in play. My opponent blinked once and then scooped.

Make no mistake about it, Phat is one sick lil puppy, and he is one of the superstars of this set.


1) Advance Recon
MMK-211
Plot Twist
Cost: Play Advance Recon only during your first attack this turn.
If a character you control would cause breakthrough this attack, you gain twice that much endurance instead.
First rule of war: Know your enemy.

If there was one card I would forego Weapon of Choice for, one card I would think about skipping Phat for, it would be this. I first encountered it when it was used AGAINST me in the sealed, and I immediately fell in love.

Rather than go into long, boring detail about it I will keep it to one comment and one short story.

The comment: in constructed this card wouldn’t be nearly as powerful. Restricting it to the first attack was a very intelligent design, because you really have to be careful - reinforcement is evil. But in limited, where players tend to run so many different affiliations, and there are often smaller characters with nobody to save them, this card simply ROCKS. Throw in Made Men, which grants all of your characters flight, and you’ll be in endurance heaven!

The story: it’s simple, and you saw it under Made Men. My 7-drop Anarchist, my opponent’s Caretaker in the support row, no reinforcement. I flipped Made Men and swung into him. I flipped Advance Recon, gained 30 endurance, then dropped that Turn 8 Phat.

Advance Recon is simply a late-game game-BREAKER. Pass on it, and it may come back to haunt you – in double digits.

In practice, I find Hypnotic Dreams is a lot less useful than people think in sealed play. Unless you draft a lot of Underworld tech, it mostly just sits there in your resource row being useless until about turn 4 or 5 and THEN it starts working.

In comparison, if you draft reasonably well on the Marvel Knights, Midnight Sons is a godsend - easy to use and extremely effective.

I also think MK may be the first set where certain characters are more important to draft than plot twists. With the exception of Advance Recon and Marvel Team-Up, there really isn't a crucial non-affiliated non-rare plot twist this set. The Knights have all the strong pump cards (Hell's Fury is about the only attack pump that's unaffiliated and useful), the Crime Lords have most of the strong defensive cards (Moving Target is just so bad), and X-Statix and Underworld have a lot of support cards that are generally mediocre in limited play.

At our sneak preview, without exception, it was characters that were winning the day, with teamups being a close second. Did you get the cards necessary to effectively play a dual-loyalty Deathwatch, Blade, or especially Elektra? Did you pull any Marc Spector or Luke Cage, or maybe a Jigsaw? Did you pull Cobra AND Mr. Hyde? Did you have to rely on a lousy Orphan or Nightmare for your 7-drop rather than Bullseye, Daredevil, or especially Anarchist or Varnae?

I think this is because throughout the set, there's lower DEF values than ATKs (the only good walls in the set are mid-range X-Statix, and meanwhile there are boatloads of characters who are above the curve on attack at every drop rank, often ridiculously so), tons of vicious ATK pump and very little in the way of simple DEF boosts (lots of reinforcement and ATK boosts on the defense, but little in the way of DEF boosts) or recovery tech.

Anyway. That's my thinking.

i was playing xstatix and on turn one i got coach turn two i got bloke and turn two i undropped and got a lacuna and doop. my opponent only had one character visible and its stats were 2/2. I played advanced recon on bloke and powered him up and exhausted my other 3 chars for blokes ability and nailed him for 7 b-thru. some people say...meh...14 life turn 3...you'll just lose it all by turn 5, but that wasn't the case, my life stayed above 50 till turn 7. :P

go X-statix go! (yeah right but they were fun)

I was very disappointed you had to get in the top 20 in vegas to get the ghost rider shirt. 58th just got me the doom shirt and another bamf. anyone wanna trade me shirts?

Though it is team-stamped I think Head Shot ranks up above some of the cards you have chosen. It's ridiculous on offense with Marvel Knights.

I second the Head Shot, and Hypnotic Charms helped me to use it. Is it just me, or is the Limited game drastically different than before? I don't get the same feeling here, with all the KO pile effects and team stamped twists (and team-ups to feed them!). It feels fun again, more fun than the previous two sets.

I used MK/Underworld for the preview. I had Hypnotic Charms in play for 3 of 4 games and it was working well. Plus it's a common, so I think it's a good card with a lot of potential. I can see including Night Vision in Underworld decks to help make timely discards for teamups.

JLovegrove

I think it's crazy random and found it fairly frustrating, but that could just be because I don't know the set all that well.

i won one of the flights for my soooo awesome ghost rider t-shirt and got me 11 packs and 5 for entering so 16 packs for 20 bucks sure why not i love this new set i traded so much at the pre-release i got an underworld deck already built i cant wait to buy boxes. :)

Steppenwolf and Advanced Recon will happily go together. Give him a club and you can not only do double cost damage but gain back END at the same time. Play Devilance on 5 and a boosted Steppenwolf on 6, give both a club and toss in a Hordes or two, and you're talking some serious END gappage.

Does Advanced Recon override Vulture's ability or would they stack?

Advanced Recon and Blindsided baby! Yeah, you can't draft blindsided, but it would be fun.

are you responsible for NOT writing the flavor text for deadpool?

cuz if so, then we need to have a little chat.

I'd have to throw the montrously big Luke Cage (6) in there as MVP. He was amazing for me, the opponent often had no answer.

War Wagon is another very good card, even if you only get to use it once.

I'd rank Gravesite around number 5 or so, slightly higher, because it usually won me games. I only hesitated to flip it if the opponent looked Underworld heavy.

Lastly, you are completely correct about Made Men. It's an amazing card, and ongoing? Always goes in the deck, especially since the set seems to (logically) have a lack of flight.

Is this article for real?? Or is this some plot by team realms to spread misinformation about limited.

Listing limited MVPs that are rare is usually not terribly usefull but since you broke that seal . . .

Where is wild ride, quick kill, judge jury executioner. These could quite possibly be 3 of the best 5 cards in this limited environment and none of them made your list.

The other bombs, you say? How about marked for death, a reusable nasty suprise, that card is veritably broken

Psychoville allows you to control the two zones, you need their guy exposed done, you need your guy to block, done.

There is that 0/1 crime lords guy that tutors for every drop, an 11/11 5 drop that reinforces all your dudes.

And then, of course, there is WAR WAGON. Dear Gawd!!!! What were they thinking this card is deee nutz.

Notice i havent listed any combat pumps. The majority of the characters in this set are defensively challenged but attack happy. The set is littered with 5/3, 8/6, 14/9 characters. This means it takes little to no effort to attack across the curve, and not much gas to go up the curve. Gone are the days of 6/8 4 drops. What this also means is that turn 7 in sealed is not a reality, in draft maybe a little more of a concern.

In the 7 rounds of pre release play I only made it to turn 7 in two games and my deck had only 2 combat pumps (+2 hidden dude, and punishers armory) All too often in sealed my opponent would play a concealed drop on my initiative and thats really all she wrote. I would highly advise always taking even initiative in sealed, they play a 6 drop concealed character and it's lights out.