We had 14 players at our Elite Series, including a decent number of players that frequent VsRealms. I hadn't gotten the chance to play too much before this event, so I wanted to avoid taking a deck that gave me a large number of opportunities to make a play error. I didn't want to be "that guy" playing QuickFate, though. So when I realized that I wanted a (1) mono-team (2) short-curve deck that (3) has a chance in hell against QuickFate, I decided to go with an updated version of MKKO, utilizing a lot of new MVL cards.

Here is the deck I played:

Obviously, the numbers in this build are not optimal. I'm sure you can see where concessions had to be made because I didn't have the cards (Frank Drake, Spider-Man, etc.) It was drawing very consistently, however, so I thought I had a good shot.

Round 1 vs. Hellfire Club / Birds of Prey
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This match was in my favor early because of KO effects. He missed on 1 while I hit Black Widow. Turn 2 saw him dropping Sage to my Punisher. Turn 3 was big for me -- I played my backup drop, Cloak, while he played Mastermind hidden. Before combat had started, he elected to exhaust Sage to Memory Probe. This made my turn 10x easier because I wouldn't have to run Punisher in for the double-stun; I had a Crushing Blow. Black Widow went into Sage with a Crushing Blow, getting out of the stun. Cloak flew into Mastermind with a Uni-Power, again, with a one-way stun. Punisher swung directly. His turn 4 visible Madelyne Pryor got Quick Killed after Wolverine went into Mastermind and Cloak attacked Maddy with some pump. Punisher swung directly and then KOd Mastermind, so the opposing board was empty going into turn 5. He had Shinobi Shaw with Shaw Industries and an Army of One, but it wasn't enough to overcome the endurance deficit when I dropped Vengeance and threw on some Beatdowns.

1-0

Round 2 vs. Doom Splash Stall
===================
This deck seemed really cool, with Puppet Master / Rogue / Mimic / Doom stuff going on. I curved out perfectly, however, while he missed both Boris and Puppet Master. Turn 3, the board was my Frank Drake, Punisher, and Ghost Rider against his Dr. Doom (3), which put an X-Men United on the top of his deck. Turn 4 I hit Elektra, and he hit Rogue, Power Absorption. Ghost Rider went up the curve into Rogue with a Flying Kick for the double stun. Seeing Punisher on the board, my opponent jumped the gun a bit and KO'd Rogue with Doom's effect immediately. This left Punisher free to swing into Doom with a Big Leagues, while Elektra attacked directly with a Beatdown and Black Widow got in for 2. I can see what he was thinking, but the Quick Kill in my row on Dr. Doom ensured that he was going into 5 with a clean board either way. I can't remember what happened on 5, but I know I hit Vengeance and it was too late for a retaliation on his part.

2-0

Round 3 vs. Brotherhood Reservist
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This game was close the entire way through. I had evens. I hit Black Widow on 1 to his nothing. On 2, I dropped Punisher while he played Chrome and a free Amelia Voght. I knew I had to stabilize the board quickly, because Next Brotherhoods would really spread the damage around if I let him amass too many characters, considering my board was hidden. Luckily, I had the all-important Dark Alley in my row. Black Widow attacked Chrome for the double stun, and Punisher went into Amelia with a Dark Alley activation. Next turn, I had Ghost Rider while he had Senyaka from the row. I took 10 directly. Punisher attacked into Amelia again, with the Dark Alley. Black Widow double stunned with Chrome. I attacked Senyaka with Ghost Rider. Unfortunately I wasn't able to make any particularly good attacks this turn because I lacked pumps. I figured KOing Senyaka would be worth it, even though I'd be left with only a Ghost Rider. I got the one-way stun and then proceeded to KO Senyaka with Punisher. On 4, I had Wolverine and he had Spoor. I'm not sure exactly how this played out, but I'm pretty sure he maintained the same board going into 5 while I had to KO Ghost Rider. On turn 5, he hit Sabretooth while I had Vengeance. I had a decent endurance lead, but losing Ghost Rider hurt, and I knew he had a slew of pumps in hand. He was able to attack into Wolverine with Sabretooth and attack into Vengeance with Spoor, after throwing on The Next Brotherhood, Air Strike, and some other pumps. Luckily, he forgot that he had a plot twist in his resource row and only got +2 off the Air Strike, so after I powered-up with Vengeance, endurance totals were left at -9 to -9. I hit Ghost Rider (6) next turn, and when Vengeance attacked into Sabretooth for the mutual stun, the 17 or so damage it did was more than enough to seal the deal. Quite the nail-biter.

3-0

Round 4 vs. Checkmate/VU
=================
I was a little worried about this matchup, but was able to take a surprisingly convincing victory after getting the nut draw and my preferred odds. I recruited Black Widow and he missed. Next turn, he put a Cloak and a Helm on Dr. Psycho, and I just dropped Punisher. He hit me for 5, and then I attacked into him with Black Widow, flipping a Flying Kick. Punisher attacked directly, and then KOd Dr. Psycho. He had trouble regaining momentum after losing two pieces of the Fate Suit. The rest of the game played out as you might expect, with me hitting Ghost Rider and Wolverine and him hitting Ahmed and Vigilante. He dropped Bizarro on 5 with an Amulet and a Cloak, but when I attacked him with Vengeance and two Beatdowns, it was over.

4-0

I was happy (to say the least) that I had 4-0'd the Swiss and gotten into the finals. My brother was playing next to me, and pulled out an extremely close game as well, cementing a 3-1 record. Unfortunately, he was the 4th seed, so I had to play him in round one of the top 4.

Top 4 -- Round 5 vs. Checkmate / JSA / JLI Rock
==============================
I knew this deck inside and out, but it wasn't to be. We both hit pretty standard curves. On 4 he recruited Peacemaker and a Surveillance Pawn, and used Peacemaker's Backup effect on himself. Hurt me pretty badly by readying Peacemaker with Rock of Eternity. Negative Zone pulled my Wolverine into the visible area, and Peacemaker (with the Pawn +1 and a Brother Eye) was able to stun both my Wolverine and Ghost Rider in the same attack. We both knew turn 5 was do or die -- he hit his preferred Power Girl while I had Vengeance. I swung Vengeance into Power Girl for the double, and took Wolverine in with a couple pumps, hoping it'd be enough. It was something like my 11 to his -8. He did a Traitor to the Cause on Power Girl. *Illegal Quick Kill here that didn't affect the outcome of the game* Ahmed and Power Girl attacking to the face for over 30 did me in easily.

Ah well, I still had a good performance and got the Spider-Man, Zombie. And my brother went on to win in the finals and take home the mat and promos, so that was cool.

It was a great tournament all in all, and I'd like to thank ATF for being really accommodating and all the people from VsRealms there I ran into for being so laid back.

For the record, you couldn't Quick Kill Power Girl anyways so don't feel too bad.

Great report... MKO is one of my favorite decks and I thought it would do well in this format. I guess it was hard to make room for Punisher-4 and some equips.

Hahaha, good catch. Good thing I lost that game, or I would have felt like an ###.

I debated adding in Punisher-4 and equips, and maybe even using Black Panther-3. But in the end I went for the more streamlined approach. Not sure if it was better, but it worked out.

signing in.

3 A Proud Zinco Product
4 Air-Walker™ ~ Gabriel Lan
1 Barbara Gordon <> Oracle, Hacker Extraordinaire
2 Bat Got Your Tongue?
1 Batman, Cape and Cowl
4 Black Cat™ ~ Nine Lives
4 Creation of a Herald
1 Crime Doctor, Bradford Thorne
2 Mind Gem ~ Unique ? Infinity Gem
4 Empire State University
4 Enemy of My Enemy
2 Galactus™ ~ Devourer of Worlds
1 Galactus™ ~ The Maker
2 Gift Wrapped
4 Lockjaw™ ~ Inhuman's Best Friend
1 New Baxter Building
1 Only Human,
1 Red Shift™ ~ Rift Walker
3 San™ ~ The Alienated One
1 Slaughter Swamp
1 Soul World
1 Spider-Man™ ~ Stark's Protégé
3 Spider-Man™ ~ The Sensational Spider-Man
1 Terrax™ ~ Harbinger of Ruin
1 The Sentry™ ~ Golden Guardian of Good
1 United Planets HQ ~ Team-Up
4 Waking the Ancestors
1 Worldeater apparatus
1 Human Torch ~ Invisible Man

I went 2-2, only because My deck exploded on me not once but twice.
one game I didn't draw a playable guy until 6 (auto scoop).
Another I drew all 4 creation of a herald, no herald, no galactus, no enemy, no black cat, no san, no lock jaw, 3 esu.

Most notably, this deck beats the mirror thanks to worldeater apparatus, regardless of initiative.
side note, damn unpredictable meta! lol.