It's been a crazy couple of weeks for me. I was on call last week and got and got very little sleep. Then I have three days off and use it to catch up on crap I couldn't do while on call. Today I'm catching up on work when fatalsync pings me online. "You've got an article for me today, right?"

"Uh.. yeah, sure."

So, I take all morning to get my TPS reports done and finally start working on the article when I get a call about the Orlando $10k (I'll be judging there, but there's a question about what my status will be as well as accomidations and such). Once that's sorted and my afternoon conference calls are done I can finally devote time to writing up the article.

In other words, I'm kinda tired and this might not be my best stuff. If that's ok with you, read on. for some MK goodness.

"And if it's not ok, go check out some of stubarnes' articles. They're better than this docx hack any day."

When DSM (aka Superman: Man of Steel) came out, one of the cards that caught my eye was Barbara Gordon. I'm a big fan of equipment cards (which goes back to when they were called Artifacts in a different game) and a bigger fan of card drawing. Barbara got her chocolate in my peanut butter and what a tasty combination it was. I've been playing a Barbara Abuse deck for a month or two and it's worked reasonably well in the eclectic Atlanta metagame but it didn't work against some of the Tier 1 decks (especially X-Stall which it seemed to always come up a couple of endurance short against).

At the Marvel Knights Sneak Preview this weekend I saw some of the Marvel Knights cards and started thinking "Hmm. . . maybe the Gotham Knights might do well with the Marvel Knights with some equipment thrown in." And, thusly was the "Two Knights are Better Than One" deck born.

"Oh. My. God. You are totally ripping off Chad's latest article, aren't you!"

Huh?

"The latest Chadmus Labs. It was all about Equipment in the Marvel Knights set and you're totally ripping him off!"

Well, I admit I did read his article before I wrote this, but this isn't straight from his article. I've been playing Gotham for a while and just added some MK tech to fill in some gaps.

"Yeah, sure. And The Terminator was completely original and had no similarities at all with Demon With A Glass Hand. You're tripping, dude."

I don't know what's worse, having a bad voice in my head or the fact it sounds like a valley gangsta poser.

"How about the fact you can't come up with a better name than 'Two Knights are Better Than One'. That causing you any problems?"

Ok, tuning him out, here's the deck list:

Characters:
4x Alfred
1x Dagger (1)
3x Blade (2)
1x Tim Drake (2)
4x Barbara Gordon (3)
1x Daredevil (3)
1x Cassandra Cain
4x Punisher (4)
2x Batman (5)
2x Daredevil (5)
1x Luke Cage (6)
2x Spider-Man (6)
1x Dr. Strange
1x Ghost Rider (8)

3x Dual Sidearms
3x Utility Belt
2x Batplane
3x Mystic Chain

4x Fizzle
3x Detective Work
3x Bat-Signal
3x Wild Ride
3x Midnight Sons

2x Wayne Enterprises
2x Latverian Embassy

The idea is to use Gotham's early curve, Plot Twist disruption and card drawing with Marvel Knight's late game dominance to clean up. You want to go evens if you have the choice. Equipped Blade on 2 (4/3 plus whatever equip bonuses), Punisher on 4 (swing, put on equip, stun, KO equip to KO character), Spider-Man on 6 (oh, did I exhaust your whole team?) and Ghost Rider on 8 (oh, did I leave you with just three guys on the field who will get exhausted by Spider-Man?) are very good when you have init. Let's break it down drop by drop.

Alfred's your primary one drop. Dagger's only there to get you your Midnight Sons. You have Wild Ride, so you can search her out, grab her, then immediately discard her to get your Midnight Sons. It'll be pretty rare when Dagger actually sees play.

"Use 'em and lose 'em. It's a wonder you ever found a woman who puts up with you."

At two, you've got Blade and Tim Drake. Blade's bonus helps him last another turn and also assists with attacking up on normal three drops. Timmy is the alternate drop here. He helps in later turns giving ATK bonuses on the offensive but you really want to go for Wesley Snipes.

The three drop is Barbara Gordon all the way. She's the draw engine in the deck and will let you plow through your deck like a fat kid through a Twinkie. Daredevil's there in case you need a Marvel Knights character for the team up, or if you can't afford to use a Bat-Signal to get your Barbara, but Hornhead's rightful place is later in the game.

"Fat kid through a Twinkie? Don't you know the body type of your average gamer? You're not worried about alienating your audience, are you."

Just as the three drop was dominated by the pre-paralysis Batgirl, the four drop is dominated by the man who definitely isn't Dolf Lundgren (no matter what mistakes Marvel's licensing division made in the past). The Jury is in and his verdict is KO, KO, KO! While you won't be equipping any 1 cost equips to him, you will be going through equips to gain and maintain board control. Cassandra Cain's a good backup since every Knights character in your hand is effectively a power up (and you should have Midnight Sons in play by this time so Knights should include Gotham and Marvel).

At the five drop, you've got a bit of variety. Double stun Batman's good on offense (since his double stun happens when he's attacking) and will help a lot next turn when you hope to have initiative, but his stats aren't the best and he's got a big target placed on him because your opponent doesn't want him around next turn. Daredevil's probably your better play since he can stun back easier and you can use his alternate art promo from the Sneak Preview.

"Show off."

At the six drop I gotta say Luke Cage is your bad mutha-

"Shut your mouth!"

I'm just talking about Cage.

"I can dig it."

He's a 14/12 and doesn't need a team up. I'd take that street smart brother with skin of steel any day if I didn't have initiative. But Aunt May's Nephew is Spectacular. I can see Danny Mandel a few months ago saying "Y'know, Pleasant Distraction's a good stall card, but it's not powerful enough. What if we made it a character and mixed it with some BALCO cream? Yeah, that's the ticket. And maybe it'll hit over 50 home runs this Pro Circuit."

"You watch PTI and you think you know sports? And you call me a poser?"

Turns seven and eight it's time to bring out the big guns. Dr. Strange on seven lets you have some options by letting you move your guys to the Hidden Zone if you want (a good thing if you've been able to keep some of your smaller drops around until now). And Ghost Rider's a brick.

Equips are all zero cost so they can be played on anyone and you won't have to play below the curve. Dual Sidearms gives you an ATK bonus and Range. I thought about replacing it with Jetpack, but with Batplane you'll hopefully be getting flight anyway. Utility Belt not only gives you some effect hate, but you get flight and range (something most people overlook until it's too late). Batplane gives all your GK guys flight (which should mean all your Knights) and you can use it to bounce someone back to your hand if you have the Fizzle, but don't have the character to use it with. And Mystic Chain's all about making everyone Catwoman (without having her sub-par stats). You'll need to maintain some board presence to be able to play it, but the draw should be worth it.

For Plot Twists you've got two flavors of character search. Both are easy to use (exhaust as a defender for Bat-Signal or pay endurance for Wild Ride). Midnight Sons is there as the team up and is searchable by Dagger. Salvage helps with recycling Equipment and Locations that get KO'd. Fizzle and Detective Work are there for Plot Twist hate (and, with Salvage and Midnight Sons out, you're just hoping they're dumb enough to try using Foiled so you can negate the effect and draw a card with Detective Work).

And lastly, we have the two locations. Wayne Enterprises is a power-up for equipped characters (and with 11 equips, you should have plenty of those) and lets you move equipment to better characters so you have more flexibility about who gets Barbara Gordon's help when stunning guys. Latverian Embassy makes it so you can use your Fizzles and Detective Works more judiciously and, with all the card drawing you should be doing, it's reveal cost is pretty negligible. Against Curve Sentinels, popping this on their Reconstruction Program or Cover Fire is pretty much game over. Being able to restrict your opponent's play style is very powerful and I think Latverian Embassy is one of the tremendously underrated cards in the metagame right now.

"Underrated in the metagame? And how many $10ks have you won, Mr. Smartiepants?"

Well, I'm no VS_Master, but I've played him near a TV.

So, Marvel Knights does have some new equipment as well as some cards that promote equipment use. I see Pier Pressure/FF Toys getting teamed up with Marvel Knights pretty often. Also, the ease of teaming up with Marvel Knights makes them much easier to splash into a deck than some of the older teams. You have the character searcher to grab the team up searcher to grab the team up. From there it's off to the races. If only Wild Ride weren't rare, I'd say Marvel Knights is the best team around. As it is, I still like the Gotham Knights.

"You complain about one rare from Marvel Knights when Gotham's got a bajillion! Fizzle, Alfred, Detective Work, Barbara Gordon . . are you crazy?"

Nope. I just have playsets of all those. I have to go get the Marvel Knights playsets. Anyway, that's it for me. Let me know what you think and/or if I missed anything.

"What a marooon."

i like ur article. i also like barbara. ive seen a B&B deck that totally abuses her . she is an amazing card

Wow! Great deck. Thoroughly thought out built wonderfully.

Barbara is hot, indeed. The article is pure, and fresh. What I need to know...

Where'd you get the model for that banner? Dave's "Sexiest Man" trophy is in jeopardy.

See you in two weeks,

Stu

If you're so focused on Punisher - Jury, why not the 1-cost Equips? Advanced Hardware and Personal Force Field spring most obviously to mind. Also, War Wagon? You have Mystic Chain in there, and you have ickle characters in the lower drops, it's a solid turn 2 play on Blade, as it powers him up and then lets him snipe their stunned 3-drop on turn 3 when they attack into or are attacked by Babs.

In fact, thinking about it, I'd probably run completely different equips. I'd run Jetpack, I'd run War Wagon, I'd probably run Personal Force Field, I'd probably run a couple of 1-ofs to Alfred for, Batmobile, Flamethrower maybe, Advanced Hardware maybe. (Tutor for Batmobile and drop it onto Punisher - Jury when he's attacked seems pretty strong)

I think you just want to be more aggressive. Punisher's acceleration ability is somewhat wasted with only 0-cost equips rather than PFF or Hardware, Blade turn 2 with a Jetpack is absolutely ferocious and War Wagon seems like an incredible damage and board control tool.

After making the equips more aggressive, I'd probably drop some of the higher cost characters. You have up to 8 of the best tutors available, so I'd probably only play a single 7 and single 8 drop, and one each of maybe two six drops.

You're Right ! she have an amazing effect, I like use her effect with terra and roy harper :P ( in the TB&TB )I think Cyborg is usefull just in a deck with Barbara Gordon Batgirl :D

>Where'd you get the model for that banner? Dave's "Sexiest >Man" trophy is in jeopardy.

Bwah hah hah! Hey, I think Danny looks pretty good there... I mean Dylan. :)

(Dylan was mistakenly called Danny by the TO last weekend at the Atlanta Sneak Preview)

JLovegrove

I wanted to make sure the equips would be usable by anyone and not have to play under the curve. The Barbara abuse deck relies on getting as many equips out as possible. Punisher is pure board control. Getting the equip on him is nice, but it's KO'ing the equipment to clear the board that he's there for.


I've been hosed a few times by having to discard my single 7 or 8 drop for one reason or another. Also, if I draw my 7 or 8 drop naturally, I don't have to feel nearly as bad when I Bat-Signal or Wild Ride for a lower drop (especially when I'm not the only one to play Fizzle/Detective Work).

I thought this article was ok, except that the witty quips at yourself could have been toned down a bit. I really like the idea of running Lat. Embassy in this deck though, it seems like it would take the denial of GK that extra mile.

This is what I came up with after some tinkering around.

4x Alfred (1)
1x Dagger (1)
4x Blade (2)
2x Spoiler <> Robin (2)
4x Barbara Gordon <> Batgirl (3)
2x Batman, World's Greatest Detective (3)
4x Punisher, Jury (4)
1x Cassandra Cain, Batgirl (4)
3x Daredevil, Matt Murdock (5)
2x Batman, Caped Crusader (5)
1x Dick Grayson <> Nightwing (6)
1x Luke Cage, Power Man (6)
1x Dr. Strange, Stephen Strange (7/8)
1x Ghost Rider, Danny Ketch (8)

4x Utility Belt
4x Jetpack
2x Personal Force Field
2x Advanced Hardware
1x Batmobile
1x War Wagon

4x Fizzle
4x Wild Ride
4x Midnight Sons
2x Bat Signal

2x Wayne Enterprises


The last two cards to go in were the second Batman, Caped Crusader and the War Wagon, so those are probably a decent place to start if you want to cut cards for Latverian Embassy. However, Embassy seems a little unreliable to me, so I'd probably refrain from running it myself.

I'm really not sure about Batplane and Latverian Embassy in the deck. I mean you're already playing Utility Belt and with Wayne Enterprises you can move it around. It kinda works against Mystic Chain as well and it doesn't provide any attack boost in a deck running no attack boosting plot twists. As soon as you flip Latverian Embassy your opponent is no longer going to lay down any duplicate plot twists. I'd say at most you might get 1 or 2 cards stuck face down in his resource row. Is that really worth 2 slots in your deck? I'd say cut it for an extra Wayne Enterprises and something else.

Personal Force Field just works too well with Punisher not to include in the deck. Stick it on him so he doesn't stun during the attack and then blow it up to KO the character.

The 11 equipment I'd suggest running:
4x Dual Sidearms
3x Utility Belt
2x Personal Force Field
2x Mystic Chain

Dr Strange is really better as an 8 drop than a 7 drop with his boost. I'd maybe forego Ghost Rider at 8 and play another 7 drop in the deck to save turn 8 for the good doctor, especially if you're wanting even init.

The problem with playing a different 7 drop is the pickin's are slim.

- 7 drop Batman doesn't work if you don't have the cards in hand.

- 7 drop Daredevil is Concealed, pops out into the visible area if you're low on endurance and will KO your preferred five drop.

- Boosted Azrael has great ATK, but will get stunned quickly on defense.

If you're staying within the team, Dr. Strange has equal stats to Daredevil and provides some flexibility as far as formations go. Dropping him on 8 to clear your opponent's visible area for direct attacks is nice as well, but I'd just rather KO them with Ghost Rider in the first place.

you do know that latverian embassy says that your opponent can't play ANY copies of the plot twists in his resouce row. that includes from his hand. this is why latverian embassy is so good. when your opponent sets that one TTG in his resource row (incase you're playing common enemy) BAM latverian embassy shut the deck down. also it shuts down your opponents detective works. it really shuts down most things your opponent will put in the resource row, because they want to keep their charecters, and unless you're facing league of assasins there aren't that many locations per deck. latverian embassy is a great filler card in almost any deck.