Hello all,

I wrote this little article up for my website, but thought I would post it here too to get some suggestions on the deck. Any and all criticism is welcome. Thanks.

Over the years I have developed many steamy love affairs (some healthier than others). These include chicken pot pie (unhealthy), one-drop army characters (healthy), silk boxers (healthy), and horrible Vs. System teams (unhealthy!). I’m not entirely sure why, but whenever a new set is released I am always fascinated by the team that inevitably stinks to high heaven. Looking at my various card boxes you will find many “powerful” teams including the topic of this rant, Kang Council.

I love the theme of the Kang Council team, that being; play a bunch of different Kang’s and then...profit. How cool is that?! It’s like what Dr. Doom always wanted, but needed Crisis On Infinite Earth’s to accomplish. Kang doesn’t need a crisis, HE IS A CRISIS! Because of my love for the Master of Time, I have delved back into the deep end of the time stream to create my latest concoction simply named, Kang.

The idea behind Kang is to slow the game down enough in the early and mid game to hopefully win in the later turns. This is known as “stalling” or “controlling” to those in the know (I think decoder rings are handed out to the knowies). This is done through several of the characters fairly strong exhaustion powers and a few golden age gems.

Behold its vanilla fury!

Characters
4 x Kang, Rama Tut
4 x Kang, One of Many
3 x Kang, Kang Kong
4 x Growing Man, Kinetic Stimuloid
2 x Kang, Kang Cobra
4 x Kang, Master of Time
3 x Kang, The Conqueror
3 x Kang, Destiny Warrior
2 x Kang, Lord of Limbo
3 x Kang, Immortus

Plot Twists
4 x Cover Fire
3 x Null Time Zone
4 x Psyche Globe
3 x Flying Kick
3 x Entangle
2 x Spheres of Solitude

Locations
4 x Damocles Base
3 x Kang Crossroads
2 x Soul World

I will now take you through a card-for-card breakdown of the magic and majesty that is Kang. Awesome!

Kang, Rama Tut
The only one-drop in the game named Kang. Rama’s inclusion is based almost exclusively on that fact. It helps though that his effect can be helpful in pushing through an attack or staving one off later in the game. Since he is concealed, it is also easy to keep him around into the later turns to continually feed the growth of the Growing Man.

Kang, One of Many
One of the newest additions to the Kang family (I’m sure it’s a loving home) has also become the two-drop of choice for this deck. His lack of concealed is strange for a low-drop Kang, but he makes up for that with a pretty hip ability to tire out characters cost two or less. To do this you must reveal a Kang from your hand, but as you can tell from the deck list, this should never be a problem.

Kang, Kang Kong
I bet Kang Kong hates One of Many something fierce. I mean, he used to be the man at the two-drop spot, but now he is relegated to second fiddle status. It’s enough to make anyone hate a version of themselves from a different time! Thankfully though, Kong still has a very useful ability that can help set you up for the later turns if One of Many doesn’t make the party on time (should that ever happen to a “master of time”?).

Growing Man, Kinetic Stimuloid
I kind of get the feeling that Kang was just talking out his ### when he came up with the name for this creation. I mean, “Kinetic Stimuloid?” Really? But I digress; the Growing Man is about the best the Council can manage on turn three considering their other options are pretty stinky. With a little help from Rama, the Man can swell to terrifying heights.

Kang, Kang Cobra
I really needed an alternate three drop to help this deck play properly and it might as well be Kang. Cobra’s ability can be useful in certain matchups, but otherwise his stats are so ###-awful I would rather stay away from him. He’s concealed though…that’s pretty cool, but most of the time he just ends up becoming what he seems to hate, that being a power-up.

Kang, Master of Time
Here’s where the real meat of the deck is. If the cards in the deck are blood and my hand is the extremities, then the Master of Time is the heart that keeps everything flowing (analogies FTW!)! I don’t play another four-drop because there just isn’t a Kang that compares and between Psyche Globe and Damocles Base I shouldn’t have to much trouble hitting him.

Kang, The Conqueror
The Conqueror is my off-initiative play of choice on either turn five or six. His ability to exhaust a five drop is very powerful and couple that with the fact that I can tire him out to entangle first and still have his ability work is icing on the cake (if I’m wrong about that someone let me know so that I can cry the sweet man tears). His stats are also solid, once turn seven comes around and he can finally dish out the beats.

Kang, Destiny Warrior
MHG brought this new addition to Kang as well. Here we find my on-initiative five-drop of choice. Against a deck that is lacking range this guy can help put their guys on lock-down. By stunning a weenie and exhausting their biggest guy I can ensure some good breakthrough and maintain my board. He can be worked around, but when he works he’s a star.

Kang, Lord of Limbo
LOL Kang! Most of the time, turn seven and the Lord will end most games if you have the initiative. Kang can send their biggest hitter off to the hidden area so that you can mop the floor with his other troops or move one of your own characters to help you maintain board for turn eight.

Kang, Immortus
The Immortus made the cut mainly because of his plot twist negating ability. But he also has solid stats for an eight drop and can dish it out if need be.

Cover Fire
Without Cover Fire this deck would suck like a vacuum cleaner! The only character in the deck that does not have range is Growing Man. The sheer amount of ranged characters coupled with the fact that a handful of them are hidden makes Cover Fire will breaking.

Null Time Zone
The NUTZ is the only good plot twist that Kang has. It is only useful about once a game though, which is why there is only three of it.

Psyche Globe
This is a card that lets me search for Kang. That makes it good.

Flying Kick
Kang may have range up the wazzoo, but he is seriously lacking when it comes to flight. The Flying Kick is a perfect pump for this team especially coupled with the Destiny Warriors ability.

Entangle
This nugget from sets past keeps the Kang’s from getting overwhelmed off initiative which is always a good thing. The Conqueror and Master of Time love this card…and so do I.

Spheres of Solitude
I’m not to sure how this card made it into the deck. I guess I just wanted another Kang Council specific card in here and this is what I came up with. It’s pretty good against some decks I guess.

Damocles Base
If I may revisit my previous analogy; if the cards in the deck are blood and my hand is the extremities and the Master of Time is the heart that keeps everything flowing, then Damocles Base is the second heart located just below the first that can push more blood…or something. This card is awesome and with it going off every turn you should always have Kang’s in hand.

Kang Crossroads
It is beneficial to the deck to get as many Kang’s hidden as possible to help maintain board. To that end we have the Crossroads. Unfortunately the Kang in question has to be stunned before it can hide, but that will happen enough to make this useful.

Soul World
It is very, very easy to power-up in this deck. With Soul World around you don’t have to worry about pitching your next drop to its doom.

When the decks have been shuffled and the game is afoot, Kang demands (what Kang wants, Kang gets) that you take the odd initiative. You’ll want to curve out the whole way activating Damocles and Soul World where it’s applicable. Turn one is dull, drop Rama if you have him otherwise move on. On two you’re going to want One of Many who should tire out you’re opponents two drop. Turn three is hopefully the Growing Man who can start to swell. If you have Rama, he should help the Growing Man, while One of Many tires out the two drop. Turn four is the Master of Time who will begin to get you massive card advantage at the end of the turn. You’re almost never going to want the Master of Time to attack because it will hurt your hand (ouch!) if he ever gets stunned, so he’ll usually help out Growing Man instead. Keep the opponents two on lockdown with One of Many or have him assist Growing Man. Turn five you want the Destiny Warrior to show up. Send him against a smaller foe to tire out their five drop. Unleash the Growing Man and call it a day. Turn six you’ll want The Conqueror who will tire out the opponents five drop. Beforehand you can entangle the four drop or maybe help Growing Man again if he’s still around. You’ll want to do everything you can this turn to stay alive so Cover Fire accordingly. Turn seven you want Kang, LOL. Ship the threat away and pummel. Turn eight you have Immortus, just in case.

The deck is actually quite versatile. It has attack power, good defense, exhaustion, and plot twist negation. Plus, this deck is a card advantage machine. The combined power of the Master of Time and Damocles almost ensures that you will be drawing five cards a turn (and discarding one). Throw in Soul World for another card and you will almost never be short on anything after turn four.

Since Curve Sentinels fall-from-grace, there has been a horrible lack of purple-headed characters in competitive Vs. I’m on a crusade to bring them back! Who will join me?! And Kang?!

you should try to find room for the fate artifacts cloak on growing man is so helpful its not even funny.

Psyche globe can be swaped with mobolize if you have those cards. In my build i didn't play NTZ but i did play 4 spheres of solitude. I also would go with beatdown > kick and i didn't find to much usefulness in kang kross roads.

i never thought of soul world but it might be helpful

Where's Time Thief?

I can't believe so few people who could run that do.

Being able to remove your opponent's win condition from the game=evil.

I agree. Time theif is a bomb card for Kang. The ability is just so good, why would you not run it?

As far as pumps go, flying kick and big leagues are pretty good. My build has 2 Armageddons in it just because i know the deck will go to at least 6, maybe more.

time thief ???????? are you guys serious?

First off, thanks NeoVid, Boris, and D-Block for your input. I will now handle all your suggestions one at a time.

D-Block - I definitely know where you're coming from with the Cloak. It is a great card no matter how you slice it and anything that can make the man of Growth even more formidable is always good in my book. I also understand your feelings about the Crossroads. I'm thinking of reducing it to a two of honestly. I use it enough to hide Kang's that it is usually worth it for me. As far as Savage and Mobilize go, I have neither and because my love of money is greater than my love of Vs. I don't think I'll be getting them any time soon. And besides, the only character I can't search for with Psyche is Growing Man and I usually draw him anyway.

NeoVid - Time Thief was in my original build of this particular Kang deck. I love that card like I love taffy, but unfortunately it's usefulness against my friends was small indeed. Around these parts there is a lot more beatdown decks than alternate win decks or combo decks so removing one flying kick from a deck of 20 pumps just is not worth the effort. But that is the glory of Kang anyway, the ability to mix and match when the need arises.

BorisVonUsky - Dropping Armageddon on somebody must feel absolutely fantastic! I am also without Armageddon's or else I would give them a whirl.

My flatmate runs a Kang deck, very much like this one with a few exceptions.

Firstly, where is Lord Kang? The deck you've made does what it does very well, but I see few options for offense. Lord Kang makes this easy and painless. Plus you dont seem to have any other 6-drops.

Time Thief is essential for the same reason I run it in my Doom deck: The Late Game. Remove your opponents high drops from the equation, and there's no-one to oppose you on those later turns when you have the biggest characters. Dropping Immortus on 8 is only really useful if your opponent is grinning at you from behind an enormous 8 drop of his own, with an ability he can actually use in play.

Besides all that... I like it. Respect for the mono-team! :p

Please take this as constructive critisism.

Howdy Jaeger and welcome to "Kang Talk!" All Kang most of the time!

Don't fret none, I take all criticism as constructive. It's the only way I get through work every day. That and coffee...well mostly coffee.

I honestly just forwent the six drop in this deck because Lord Kang is just a watered down version of the Captain America six drop, but with far worse art. The five drops are just so much better for what this deck wants to do, which is exhaust to finish on seven.

There is a lot of love in the thread for Time Thief! I think I'm starting to catch the fever myself. How many copies do people feel is good in here. I have a gut feeling that two will be good enough considering how much draw the deck has and also since it seems to really only be useful once (maybe twice) a game.

I'm drinking the cool-aid, now tell me how much I should drink!

I run the exact same deck, with a few changes.

First, a few suggestions:

LORD KANG! Gosh man, come on! Powered-up attackers adjacent to Lord Kang cannot be stunned?! Maintains board advantage for the crucial turn 7 and can protect against those "nasty surprises" ;-) If he's not your cup of tea, you could run Tempus. He's not Kang, of course, but he can put any number of KC characters you need into the hidden zone at the cost of an exhaustion. Doesn't so much fit the "ALL KANG, ALL THE TIME!" theme, but he's like a better Kang Krossroads without the stun condition.

I don't really run Kang Kong, either. Never found him to be useful enough. Spheres of Solitude is to ruin teams with heavy team-stamped abilities. Like you said, it has its uses... but not much.

Otherwise, have you found your deck to be shockingly powerful? I built my Kang deck on a whim, just something for fun, and RAN OVER everybody at the local card shop! There were Defender decks, TNB, AGL, Teen Titans, you name it... The endless power-ups is enough to send Kang over the edge against most decks. Or if someone is running stall, just blow up Growing Man. I had that bad boy up to 34/32 at one point!

I like your deck and I like Kang! He's a cool guy my book, and I hope he gets more cards and legacy content soon.


Also, easy on the Kool-Aid.. there was a big group of people that made that mistake once.

Especially if you're running Entangle there really isn't much reason NOT to run Lord Kang. And Ultimate Kang > Destiny Warrior easily.

I'm loving all the chatter over Kang. I'm glad to see others have seen the light.

Doomfaithful - I definitely understand where everyone is coming from with Lord Kang. He used to be automatically in every Kang deck I made. I just never had much luck with the fella, but that was before I actually formulated a plan with this deck. Perhaps I'll give him a second chance because of your and others suggestion. As far as the Kong goes, if he has to show up he does, and then he usually finds Damocles if I haven't drawn it already. Otherwise he's just a lamo. And honestly I was a little surprised at what Kang could do with a little help. If anyone from UDE is reading this, Kang needs an equipment card that gives an ally ability in the realm of "when a character named Kang becomes powered up it gets an additional +1/+1." Perhaps I'm just dreamin on that one.

And don't worry about the Kool-Aid, it's Kang flavored. Mmmmmm, takes like victory!

darkswarm - The peer pressure has gotten to me. Lord Kang is back in and God Save Us All! As far as Ultimate Kang is concerned, honestly I never really found him effective. I basically need to hit my 1 drop Kang or get my 2 drop hidden with crossroads if his effect is going to work to its fullest. Otherwise there is no way in Hell I would stun the Master of Time and eat those 2 free cards. Otherwise they would just roll everyone else and get him last leaving me without an option. The same would probably happen to Destiny Warrior too, granted, but his effect could then possibly be used on offense against a deck without a lot of range.

Now as far as the deck is concerned I have made the following changes thanks to everyones input.

-1 Kang Kong
-1 Kang Destiny Warrior
-3 Kang Crossroads
+2 Lord Kang
+1 Flying Kick (my own suggestion)
+2 Time Thief

Making the deck look something like this:

Kang
Characters
4 x Kang, Rama Tut
4 x Kang, One of Many
2 x Kang, Kang Kong
4 x Growing Man, Kinetic Stimuloid
2 x Kang, Kang Cobra
4 x Kang, Master of Time
3 x Kang, The Conqueror
2 x Kang, Destiny Warrior
2 x Kang, Lord Kang
2 x Kang, Lord of Limbo
3 x Kang, Immortus

Plot Twists
4 x Cover Fire
3 x Null Time Zone
4 x Psyche Globe
4 x Flying Kick
3 x Entangle
2 x Spheres of Solitude
2 x Time Thief

Locations
4 x Damocles Base
2 x Soul World

I'm not going to get a chance to test this sucker for a bit because of work, but don't let that stop the discussion.

Time thief scares me!!!
I would hate it if my opponent got rid of my only 7 drop or something.

since your playing golden age press the attack just screams out in this deck some times an under drop of kang kong is really good search out that cover fire drop some 1 drop kang's cover fire for +8 ahhhhhhhhhhh man i love it =) kang FTW

Let me start off by saying I started playing VS when MOR was released and had to quit shortly after DOR because of personal situations. i came back towards the end of DGL and the release of MAV and Kang was the first deck I built. Every body else was building Avengers and Faces and gave away their Kang stuff to me. I made them pay going on a 2 month binge of beatdown that has yet to be lived down in my local play group.

The basic idea I used was play as many kangs as you can(under-dropping am good!) and pump Growing Man to absurd heights. I've been able to get his stats up to 20/20 by turn 6. Then with the help of Master of Time, Ultron<>Crimson Cowl I would punch them right in the face with and 100+ attack GM, using Press and Team Tactics. Needless to say I've never gotten anymore free cards from them.

Later builds included the Fate set, Time Thiefs and Red Shift as t3ch. Also use Mr Mxy with Master of Time and your hand will never be happier.

That equipment idea just made me poop my pants a little. That would make Kang incredibly powerful, as long as no one is running Magical Lobotomy against him ;-)

Also, try running 4x Thanagarian Invasion and see what you think. +1 ATK and flight to everyone attacking that turn!! YIKES! It'd be great on your kill turn, especially if you run Flying Kicks and Big Leagues like I do. I took out Spheres of Solitude and put in 4x Big Leagues... woo, talk about beatdown.

Kang FTW, ladies and gentlemen. Let it be known.