Unlike the Marvel side of the bracket, these are the two decks I expected to win the DC side. The only other one I might have guessed would have been JLA, but they lost their first match up so that had no chance. I don’t know why the Green Lanterns would be fighting the Teen Titans, but feel free to invent your own backstory!
After this, I am going to take a week and then we will start the finals. I have decided to make the finals best of 3 games since I have no reason not to. Good luck everyone!
This is the first semifinal matchup and will determine the champion of the Marvel side of our tournament. Looking back, I would not have predicted these two decks getting here. I would have predicted Sentinels and maybe Avengers instead. I didn’t fully recognize how well Underworld cards work together until now. This is it!
This match up clearly features the longest title possible! More than that, it features one of the main stall style decks in GL against one of the main rush style decks in JLI. It seems likely that if the game is over in 6 rounds or less, then JLI will have one and if the game drags on, then GL will likely take it.
Both of these decks have some big plot twist cards that can change a game. Avengers ones are based on having reservist characters and Underworld’s are all about having characters in their discard pile. Both often end up close to losing only to pull out a huge round and win. It should be an exciting match up.
When VS first came out, Teen Titans was one of the strongest decks. It is a combination of lots of efficient characters and easy ways to power them up that make the deck strong. When the Superman expansion came out (Revenge Squad is from there) people noted that it was the weakest expansion. So this is the most heavily favored match up so far. However, there is always some luck of the draw and you have to actually play the games.
This is not a very thematic matchup; I don’t know of any significant time when the X-Men went up against any incarnation of the Sinister Six, but that is how the tournament has gone. X-Men have some individually strong drops and have bonuses to team attacks. Sinister Syndicate has strong characters that often have some drawbacks. They also have some unique ways to purchase extra attack power. May the best team win!
After a bit of hiatus, we finished round two. It has been a while, so let’s take a look through the bracket.
Quarterfinals!
Marvel Side
The X-Men deck defeated its traditional adversaries in rounds 1 and 2, including the powerful Sentinels deck. It remains to be seen whether they can have the same success against foes from other comics series. The Sinister Syndicate deck is not very special on its surface, but it general strength and consistency have led it to victory against the heroes and crime families of New York. These decks seem well balanced to me and the game could easily go either way.
Underworld defeated both the Squadron Supreme and the Fantastic Four. It has powerful cards that utilize the KO pile and when things come together it is hard to stop. Apparently, Underworld’s threat has gotten so large that Earth’s Mightiest Heroes have stepped in. The Avengers demolished the Masters of Evil, but pulled off a close one against Kang. Have they proven they can win in both good and bad times, or exposed a weakness that Mephisto and friends can take advantage of?
DC Side
The most heavily favored quaterfinal match up has to be Teen Titans over the Revenge Squad. The Revenge Squad defeated Team Superman and the New Gods, so they earned their place, but everyone knows that their section of the bracket was the weakest. Still, we underestimate Lex Luthor at our peril. Teen Titans is one of the strongest overall decks remaining with great power up and character synergy. Beating both the League of Assassins and Arkham Inmates, they are eager for another fight.
The Green Lantern Corps successfully overcame the Emerald Enemies and Antimatter decks. A slow playing stall deck, they will have an interesting challenge against the rush style JLI. JLI is a deck I haven’t played much, but they have impressed me with how well the different aspects support each other. They are however on a timer since they have no characters above 5. If GL can stall, they will most likely win. This is also the only good vs good matchup in the quarterfinals, but we will likely see more to come.
It all kicks off next week with X-Men vs Sinister Syndicate!
Obviously, the Injustice Gang eliminated the Justice League of America in the last round, so the JLI has to step up and counter the threat. JLI is a deck with lots of bonuses for having few resources and many low cost characters. They also have a lot of ally effects that trigger when characters are powered up. Injustice Gang forces their opponents to draw extra cards and then gets bonuses based on the number of cards in their opponent’s hand.
This is a pretty good thematic match up since Kang the Conqueror is a common Avengers antagonist. The Avengers use a lot of reservist cards and effects that play off of that in addition to a few powerful characters. Kang Council is weird since all its characters are named Kang and they can easily power anyone up. They have some hidden characters and many unique effects.
These two teams are sorta weak on paper, but you never know when things will come together. New Gods are strong rounds 2-4 and then again in 7-8 if it lasts that long. Revenge Squad is strongest in rounds 4-6, but slows after that although it all depends on draws of course.
Ra's Head 