So I played my first actual game using the JLA team last night and all I can say is...meh. I mean Ally is alright but it just doesn't seem powerful at all. Add to that the fact that none of the JLA cards seem to have any synergy whatsoever besides Ally, it just seems like a pretty weak team overall.

So now that most of you have had a chance to play with the new set a little bit, what do you think of it? Will it actually see some use or will it become another maligned keyword like cosmic was/is?


On a related not, Dual Affiliations kick ass.

Ally's actually an interesting ability, and there are synergies... just not necessarily between allies.

John Stewart's ability, for example, seems weak sauce on first glance, but it's proven to be immensely useful when you combine it with any of a range of effects. Oa, Wall of Will, Satellite HQ, Guy Gardner (7 or 5), Boodikka, and Secret Sanctuary (on defense) all combo well with it. Further, using those with some other characters like Zatanna can benefit you greatly.

Some other Ally effects that stand out in my experience are Hawkman, either Booster Gold or Conner Hawke (a perfect 3-drop pair, BTW), Firestorm, and Batman. Yeah, Batman... when you save a power-up or two for him, it can quickly mess with an opponent's offensive or defensive options. One of my favorite three-card combos is Firestorm, Hawkman, and an Nth Metal; you get to attack up with an 11/9 that lets you draw a card. Keep this us for a few power-ups, and you can cycle pretty far into your deck for minimal cost. Good stuff.

When I've heard of ally, it seemed sort of a late-minute idea compared to leader/reservist or willpower/concealed. But I guess every set can't have a game-breaking mechanic.

But cosmic? That was either

A)someone high up in ude REALLY hates superman.

B)it was thought of last minute cause MOS was pretty rushed and had not enough play-testing

C)a result of bad cheese :p

As for JLA, yeah, they don't seem much in the working together department. Heros welcome is nice but other then that they feel like a regular beats deck. The JLI,SS and IJ came with their theme totally built into each other, so that's why they have more obvious synergy. But the set is still newish, I've probably miss something and a JLA player will wipe the floor with me with things I've never expected. Least I hope so.

All I can say is that if you hate the JLA, just watch your back... Teleport Tube alone is a hilarious card that can do mean things. It stops the Avengers' off-init tricks, and it can always force an opponent to waste a reinforcer, because that's the funniest stuff ever:

Me: "I'll send the 7-drop Wonder Woman into She-Hulk. No effects if it's legal."

N00b: "Alright. I'll replace this Dane Whitman to give her invulnerability, reinforce with Hawkeye, and play Heroes in Reserve... that'll make her attack... 15. So, I'll take nothing and you'll take 7, right?"

Me: "Oh, snap, really? That's pretty bad. Well... [hand clap] I'm outta here." [playing Teleport Tube]

N00b: "Ha ha... uhm, what?"

Me: "Yeah, I'll just go ahead and ready her now, and, y'know, not take my 7. I'll just swing Firestorm into her then, cool?"

N00b: "That's so broken!"

Me: [grin] "Nah..."

Ally as a general mechanic isn't great, since it's essentially a bunch of triggered powers based off of a less than amazing type of combat pump, but it stands out as being a pretty useful means of applying solid powers in a slightly less aggressive format than we have currently.

I've had some success with a JLA ally deck, and here's what I can say:

(a) They have plenty of ways to power up ... assuming you can keep the handsize up. So far the best ways to do that have been using the JLI signal device, using Mag Seven early in the game, and Firestorming as much as possible.

(b) The Hawks (Shierra and Katar) are key ... being able to grab your Nth metals reliably is important as for the cost of playing an extra card one turn ... you get continuous power ups that don't hurt your handsize as long as the character is on the board. Also, if you have Reform the League up and running, being able to swap any card in hand for a Katar to get another power up after powering up the first time is a good desperation move.

(c) Many of the games ended by turn 6 or 7 ... it's a rush deck that has to play fast. I'll likely cut Martian Manhunter from the deck completely. I may even consider replacing 7-drop Wonder Woman for more copies of Aquaman, because ... with Reform the league, the cards he gets back are likely going to ammount to the same as Wonder Woman's ability in terms of the ammount of free power ups you get ... and you get to choose when and where to use them.

(d) The most useful ally abilities are:

Illusionary Warriors [I'm considering including them in the build ... unless I go for a team up with JLI]

Booster/Conner - the extra attack or defense is nice ... considering it's from a 2 drop and compared to the other effects at that level

Shierra - She's your 3-drop of choice, but Aquaman [more for being able to tutor for 7-drop without losing as much handsize] is nice as either a Wolverine sized drop and/or a way to clear out annoying cards that your opponent can reuse.

Katar - He's the bomb diggety of course, but you can definately have very nice initiatives with Dinah's exhaust effect.

Firestorm - He's too important when you are dumping your hand as fast as the deck will likely require. Ollie can be useful in a few matches, so he could be a nice back up

Batman - I don't even know if there is another JLA or JLI Ally at this drop ... Flash is a pseudo Ally that works well as a back up in the right match up.

Supes is the only 7-drop Ally ... and for the most part, either Wonder Woman or Aquaman are more useful for the build because you'll want to get as much use out of the Ally effects you have on the table already.

I don't know guys, I built a JLA deck out of 2 boxes in like an hour, all based on synergies i found between allys. Now, EVERY effect doesn't necessarily 'work together', but the ones that were key in my deck were Shayera on 3, go get Katar or Nth Metal, using Reform The League. Shayera pretty much assures you make your 4 drop if you don't have it with a single power-up, and if you do, you start digging for Nth Metal, JLA Signal Device. Hawkman hits on turn for at 8/8 and is 9/9 as soon as he attacks or defends because he powers up, letting Shayera go get more Nth Metals, Hawkmans, JLA Signal devices.

This deck has not lost against New Brotherhood, Avengers, Avengers/Thunderbolts up to this point. I never got past turn 6 (which sucked because i wanted to play ANY of my JLA seven drops, let alone my 8 drop J'onn). Winning before turn seven with a deck 'right out of the box' seems like a good deck to me.

Something else to watch for is Secret Sanctuary. The right JLA curve can use this fairly effectively as a way to generate free power-ups on the defense. John Stewart, Zatanna, Hal Jordan (6), Wonder Woman (7), and Aquaman (7) can all grab copies of at least one version of their own cards with their base WP, and JS works with the 3-drop Aquaman to grab other copies of that version for more. I can't claim it's the best card for that purpose, but it's more card-efficient than anything else on the defense if you can do it more than once in a game, and that's something to keep in mind. Never mind that JS / Zatanna / HJ is far from the worst curve you can assemble for the JLA, and that might be the basis of a deck right there.

It seems on the surface that Ally will last a lot longer than Cosmic. Blue Abuse did a bit to redeem Cosmic. A very little bit. Ally, however, keys on something that is not just a fringe ability. Power-ups are one of the core mechanics of the game. Not even looking at Lost City, I can see a hand full of Wild Sentinels and some sort of Ally monster in my future.

Stu, let me introduce you and Longshot to my good buddy, Starro. He loves those 1-cost Army characters. ;)

Freaky, I was looking at him on the Cardlist as you typed that. I don't like to stall at all, but for him I will make an exception. How do we fit Ally in?

Uhm... you don't, and just start a new thread instead? ;) lol

I guess you can get nuts with power-ups when you've got Connor Hawke and Katar Hol on deck with a Wild Sentinel, since that can net +4 ATK per power-up, and using Longshot for Wild Sent & something else would be nice (just not sure what, honestly).

But really, I think he's better served in a Sentinels team-up with another Army team. War Without End / Ultimate Sacrifice and Crowd Control / Funeral for a Friend are hot cards for the build, and Cyclops or Infestation always approve of massive hordes of those 1-drops. I'm guessing the IG/Sent/X-M team-up would be the way to go.

Huh? Go read the JLA Black Canary text and tell me you can't find a use for her. Hawkman with Nth Metal gives a 9/9 on turn 4. Tried out Zatanna or Firestorm yet? Conner Hawke?

Ally is definitely better than Cosmic. It takes some extra thought about the order of play to optimize, but used properly, it's game-breaking.

Synth

I totally felt ally was bleh until i got a deck working with it for me. It felt like all i was doing was spinning my wheels, not impacting the game on the other side of the table enough. So i cut to the chase and went with this strategy:

take evens
turn 1 atom or nothing
turn 2 connor or elongated or atom
turn 3 hawkgirl, power- up..blah blah, have hawkman and nth metal ready to go.
turn 4 hawkman and nth, BEATINGS, search out trident.
turn 5 maritan manhunter, play some defense, reinforce, stunback, keep MM from getting stunned, etc..
turn 6 Steel w/ Trident and atom, hawkman swings up curve, double power up makes him a 14/10 (sac nth w/ steel's power if you have to) Steel swings at thier 5, MM cleans up, atom can nice try! or swing. No mans, savage beatdown, etc.. should be 50.

No longer spinning my wheels, i'm laying down the BEATINGS. Dig it.

I guess your just an agressive player. I'd rather clear a field than do tons of breakthrough myself. However, i didn't Golden Age anything in my deck and it worked fine against everything i played it with. Steel KOing Equipment- JLa sig device is my first choice, before sacking Nth Metal..but the signal device keeps putting characters in your hand. 5 drop Firestorm netting you a card for 3 endurance is actually pretty good considering how much endurance the JLA seems to save powering up all over the place.

By themselves they may not be 'big beats', but they obviously knew what they were doing making the JLA powerful, but balanced.

It's funny you say that, when i started playing, i felt the same way, always looking to maintain board control. And as good as that is, for obvious reasons, you don't win the game by having more dudes in play.

On the flip side, when i swing on turn 6, i do clear the field, and maybe even have a free shot with my last guy. IF i don't manage the 50, I'm looking at having MM and Steel left for the next turn, maybe Hawkman, and then dropping Superman for turn 7. The opponent should only have 2 guys, normally thier 6th and 7th drop.