The next team up on the list of Marvel Modern teams to get examined is the Crime Lords. Will they be able to give a good showing in Amsterdam? Let's find out.

The Crime Lords are the next evolution of the Sinister Syndicate. What happens when the bad guys stop wearing brightly colored spandex and start getting serious about making some bling. They also skip the Overly Complex and Extremely Slow-moving Machinery to bring about the Ultimate Doom of Their Heroic Nemeses in favor of getting a gun and shooting the good guy.

How well does this real-world seriousness translate into the game? Well, there's some good and some bad. The Crime Lords have a lot of tricks to do with Reinforcement. When you're a part of {[card]MMK-133[/card]} The Family, The Family protects you (not to mention {[card]MMK-111[/card]} Saracen, {[card]MMK-102[/card]} Kingpin, Wilson Fisk and {[card]MMK-092[/card]} Bullseye, Master of Murder). In addition to reinforcement {[card]MMK-092[/card]} Bullseye, Master of Murder and {[card]MMK-093[/card]} Carbone's Assassins make it unappealing to attack their guys. Finally {[card]MMK-106[/card]} Mr. Fear and {[card]MMK-119[/card]} Armed Escort let you substitute one defender for another. All in all the Crime Lords make it bad for you to attack them.

"Yeah, but they don't have any real powerhouses on the offense. They're the yang to TNB or the Syndicate's yin."

They do have some good attack guys, but there aren't a lot of power houses in the Crime Lords roster.

"So what kind of deck do you have for us then? Reinforcement and mis-direction of attacks?"

Nope. I've got a team-up deck.

"WHAT? What kinda junk are you trying to pull here? You said you were only going to do mono-team decks for your Marvel Modern series. You're going to do a team up deck now?"

Well, in the comments for my previous article about the Syndicate I was lambasted for not going with the obvious team up. I figure I can't disappoint my adoring public again.

"Do I go for the 'Why should you worry about disappointing them now since you've been disappointing them ever since you schmoozed this gig in the first place?' joke or the 'What adoring public would that be? Your pet monkey and a sock puppet?' joke? Decisions, decisions."

Moving on, the Syndicate and Crime Lords have a lot of natural synergy and I would be remiss if I were to ignore that again. Given that, here's the teamed up Crime Lords/Sinister Syndicate deck.

4x Roscoe Sweeney
1x {[card]MMK-209[/card]} Lacuna
4x {[card]MSM-020[/card]} Rhino
1x {[card]MMK-102[/card]} Kingpin, Wilson Fisk
1x {[card]MMK-096[/card]} Death-Stalker
4x {[card]MMK-091[/card]} Bullseye, Deadly Marksman
2x Doctor Octopus, Otto Octavius
3x {[card]MMK-095[/card]} Deadpool
2x Green Goblin
2x {[card]MSM-084[/card]} Sandman
2x {[card]MSM-021[/card]} Venom, Eddie Brock
2x {[card]MSM-014[/card]} Dr. Octopus, Doc Ock
1x {[card]MMK-092[/card]} Bullseye, Master of Murder

4x {[card]MMK-212[/card]} Marvel Team-Up
4x {[card]MMK-122[/card]} Face the Master
2x {[card]MMK-128[/card]} Marked for Death
2x {[card]MSM-026[/card]} Sinister Salvo
2x {[card]MMK-124[/card]} Good Night, Sweet Prince
3x {[card]MMK-129[/card]} No Rest for the Wicked
2x {[card]MMK-135[/card]} Uprising

4x {[card]MMK-119[/card]} Armed Escort
4x {[card]MSM-097[/card]} Goblin Glider

3x {[card]MMK-125[/card]} Hand Dojo
2x {[card]MSM-023[/card]} Doc Ock's Lab

61 cards total

The idea behind the deck is to curve up and play the guys with the biggest ATK possible each turn starting on turn 3. You mulligan for Roscoe Sweeney and play him on turn 1. On turn 2 you use him to search for {[card]MMK-209[/card]} Lacuna (who is a Crime Lords character even while she's in the deck) and use {[card]MMK-209[/card]} Lacuna to grab a {[card]MMK-212[/card]} Marvel Team-Up every turn she is on the table to thin out your deck.

Turn 3 your drop of choice is {[card]MSM-020[/card]} Rhino. I used to be on the fence about him, but I've become a believer in the horn headed one. There's some coverage here as well in case you lose Roscoe early, but {[card]MSM-020[/card]} Rhino's your boy. From there you curve up with {[card]MMK-091[/card]} Bullseye, Deadly Marksman turn 4, {[card]MMK-095[/card]} Deadpool turn 5, {[card]MSM-084[/card]} Sandman turn 6 and {[card]MSM-014[/card]} Dr. Octopus, Doc Ock turn (if it gets that far).

{[card]MMK-212[/card]} Marvel Team-Up is a vapor card with {[card]MMK-209[/card]} Lacuna in the deck. It's like playing with a 57 card deck since she can deck thin every turn. {[card]MMK-122[/card]} Face the Master and {[card]MMK-128[/card]} Marked for Death fit into the "You wanna piece a me?" theme. You attack my boys, you get hurt. You put one of my guys in the hospital, I put one of yours in the morgue. {[card]MSM-026[/card]} Sinister Salvo lets me use a weenie on the defense to do some damage as well as make all my guys eligible for {[card]MMK-129[/card]} No Rest for the Wicked. {[card]MMK-124[/card]} Good Night, Sweet Prince is anti-hidden tech and will let me swing into an otherwise protected weenie for lots of breakthrough damage with my biggest guy. And {[card]MMK-135[/card]} Uprising helps me attack and defend up the curve (which is why it's in here instead of {[card]MSM-030[/card]} No Fear).

{[card]MMK-119[/card]} Armed Escort is best played on your weenie guys to let you re-direct attacks onto your small guys and leave your big guys for swinging back when you don't have initiative. If they swing into a small guy, re-direct the attack, reinforce and you'll lose only a fraction of what you would have lost (and if you can pump them up with {[card]MSM-023[/card]} Doc Ock's Lab, you can stun someone they thought was safe from retribution). {[card]MSM-097[/card]} Goblin Glider's all about bringing the pain, and with no {[card]MOR-206[/card]} Overload in the environment, you have {[card]MSM-030[/card]} No Fear of having your own equipment used against you.

{[card]MMK-125[/card]} Hand Dojo and {[card]MSM-023[/card]} Doc Ock's Lab are the locations in the deck. {[card]MMK-125[/card]} Hand Dojo is so good on defense and will make your opponent think twice about attacking down the curve. {[card]MSM-023[/card]} Doc Ock's Lab lets you swing up the curve on the offense or give you just enough of a pump when necessary to stun one of your opponent's attackers in return on the defense.

"So, how does it do against other modern decks?"

If it gets a good draw and hits its drops, it does pretty well. If it doesn't, powerhouse decks like X-Statix, Spider-Friends or Marvel Knights can really wreck it. It doesn't deal as well with adversity as some other decks.

"If you could do breakthrough as a defender, this deck would really rock."

Oh yeah. Unfortunately, you can't really do as much damage in return as your opponent's doing to you, even if your stunning up the curve on defense. Putting in more reinforcement options in the deck dilutes the attack potential for not a lot of return (though having Dr. Octopus on turn 7 really helps out . . . though, if you get to turn 7, things aren't going as you planned since your guys should have done a lot of breakthrough before then to end the game).

So, there you have it. If you've got some suggestions for improving the resiliance of the deck, I'd be happy to hear them. I'd love to play a CL/SS deck at one of the Marvel Modern PCQs and I'm looking forward to seeing how they do in Amsterdam.

why don't you run Kirigi as a 6-drop? He works really well for me because you can target him with, say, No Rest For The Wicked and he gets a +2/+6 or even 9 pump. that is really sweet in any deck. Plus, the hidden character attack is sometimes really helpful

I'll second the Kirigi at 6 drop as well. That gives you hidden character attack hate. Use him instead of Sandman.

I'm not sure if this is the best approach to the teamup between the two or not. I have a feeling that an Honor Among Thieves build with mostly weenies is going to prove nastier than a curved team like that presented here. However, the Crime Lords do provide a bigger pool to draw from for bigger drops in the curve.

I think instead of Armed Escort, Mystic Chain would work. It solves the problem of an ever dissolving hand that the SS brings, plus it really does a number on the opponents hand coupled with sadistic choice.

I don't understand why you have multiple characters at each drop point. On 5 you say you want Deadpool, yet you have 3 of him and 2 Goblins. Why would you do that if your strategy is to get out Deadpool on turn 5? 4 Deadpool, and 1 Goblin just in case, would seem like the better decision to make. Same with your 6-slot, it would make more sense to have 4 Sandman instead of having the slot split with Venom. Having more of a character also helps with power-ups, which is crucial in this type of deck.

Sorry for sounding stupid docx, it comes naturally to me, but I had a question about your article. I read the Doc Ock's Lab, and is it just me or does it only work on offense? And not on defense.... I may be wrong. :ermm:

I was just going to comment on the same thing. Doc Ock's lab is attacker only.

I think a Crime Lords/Syndicate weenie deck would do better than trying to hit the curve. That's where Goblin Glider can really shine. In this deck you're only going to get to play it if you miss a drop. I really don't like Sandman, he's too fragile and I think a lot of decks will take you to turn 7. If he was a 10/10 that got four counters I would like him sooo much more.

If you want to go Crime Lords and go curve then I'd suggest Crime Lords/Underworld. Roscoe at 1, Werewolf 2, Morbius 3, Saracen 4, Deathwatch 5, Kirigi 6, and Bullseye or Varnae at 7. Got access to some great plot twists like Blown to Pieces, No Rest for the Wicked, Strength of the Grave, and Black Magic. Gravesite and Weapon of Choice could be used to help hit the curve. Strong locations like Hand Dojo and Dracula's Castle.

Rhino is good i'll give you that, but him with Kingpin, Wilson Fisk is even better, he's a 7 6 on defence when reiforced and if you boost the kingpin and put the counters on rhino he becomes a 9 6 3-drop that gets plus while reiforced

Yes Kirigi instead of sandman. Looks nice from there. CL is a really good and underestimated team.

Well, few things......

1) If you try for curve then lose the Gliders. They only help you when you miss curve, and you never want that in this deck.

2) Make sure you have 1 Crime Lord at every drop. That way even if you miss your team-up, and can;t get roscoe out until turn 5, you can use him to fetch some higher drop characters.

3) NO Syndicate deck, team up or otherwise, should EVER not have Sadistic Choice in it.

Now, a weenie swarm with Honor Among Thieves is a better place for the Glider, and for Inside Job and a few other cards as well.

Come on man. Why ain't electro in there? That and rhino makes you control the first 3 turns. throw in total anarchy and control the first three turns. Oh yeah and sand man can get Xed for Kirigi.

I disagree with using Lacuna every turn you can, simply because she requires a discard too.

But this looks a lot like the Crime Syndicate I play.

Although, now that in the morning I read the article fully, this doesn't seem like my Crime Synidicate deck.

Goblin Glider doesn't belong unless you plan on playing multiple characters at least one turn. Possible, but according to the article, not your goal. I would look at playing Rhino and Roscoe on turn 4, then play Gliders, but you have no good characters for them. In fact, with Armed Escort, you may not have character to equip anymore. I'd drop all 4.

The spread of characters is (as StarScream said) very strange, as 4 and 1 makes more sense than 3 and 2. And 1 Crime Lord minimum at each drop is important for Roscoe.

With all the reinforcement and defense the Crime Lords have, they practically demand to go to turn 7 at least. Probably 8. Since neither team has an 8 drop, this could lead to problems surviving. At the very least, I've learned that I'd like to have 2 Seven drops to be prepared.

I like the inclusion of Sandman. To the doubters, imagine how hard it will be for the opponent to stun him at his huge 14/14 when the attacks can be redirected easily. Possible to break through, but certainly not easy.