After Marvel’s Secret Invasion, it seems that the current trend in the Marvel Universe is to allow the Bad Guys to actually Rule the World. I think it started off with Thunderbolts, it was a good idea and it still is up to now. (This is of course Marvel we are talking about. DC had Suicide Squad way before Marvel had T-bolts). So, with that in mind, I looked around for the two teams that would have people most likely to end up as your boss, should they take over the world.
I’m a fan of the Classic Super-villain team-up, so I had to use Sinister Syndicate. They are easy enough to use, straight foward in their purpose of defeating the Spider and taking over New York. But which team would be able to support this team’s knack for violence and destruction. Enter…
Crime Lords.
Sure enough, it wasn’t too long ago that they already joined forces “Honor Among Thieves” and all that, this time around, let’s see if we can do something a little more tricky than straightforward strongarm tactics. Both teams received a bunch of new cards recently. Sinister Syndicate during Marvel Teamup and Crime Lords in Marvel Universe. Their upgrades pretty much meant new headaches for their opponents as they shifted their tactics. Crime Lords are now a little more offensive and Sinister Syndicate got a lot more offensive. So what makes them any different from before?
They got a lot trickier in their attacks. They have replaced the full frontal assault to attacks coming from any direction and catching your opponents offguard. In fact, they can now punish opponents who try to attack them, thinking they would be weak defensively. The question now is, can you handle them?
“The Other Crime Syndicate”
Characters:
3x Basilisk, Basil Elks
2x Slyde, Jalome Beacher
2x Doctor Faustus, Johann Fennhoff
3x Trapster, Peter Petruski
3 x Black Tarantula, Carlos Lamuerto
4 x Red Skull, Aleksander Lukin
2x Albert Malik <> Red Skull, Axis of Evil
2x Doctor Octopus, Otto Octavius
3x Kingpin, War Profiteer
3x Green Goblin, Norman Osborn
2x Red Skull, Johann Shmidt
2x Venom, Eddie Brock
1x Taskmaster, Mnemonic Assassin
2x Hulk, Joe Fixit
Locations:
2x Doc Ock’s Lab
Plot Twist:
3x Flying Kick
3x Crackshot
3x Nasty Surprise
3x What are Friends For?
3x Planet of the Symbiotes
3x No Man Escapes the Manhunters
3x Assault on Hellicarrier 13
3x The Contract, Team-up
Total: 60 cards
How this deck works:
It’s pretty much a basic attack deck, look for an opening and stick it to your opponent. However, the deck shines when you need to take out your opponent’s characters. From hidden hate to exhaust tricks, to KO, this deck pretty much has it all. To counter hidden characters, use Slyde and Basilisk in conjunction. For control of characters, you have Basilisk and Trapster early on. Then Doc Ock 4 and Assault on Hellicarrier 13 for the later turns. Character KO comes in the form of Kingpin on 4, Green goblin on 5, Venom on 6. All of them forces your opponent to think twice about their formation. Defensive tricks are in the form of 3 and 5 drop Red Skull, and Joe Fixit. Taskmaster will provide extra muscle as he copies the numbers of a chunky 7 drop. All the Plot Twists are combat plot twists, allowing the player to simply keep up the pressure, and using the lower cost characters to take out the bigger characters or those that shield the bigger characters, you give your own characters the chance to pull off their tricks.
After that, the deck pretty much runs itself. There’s really not much to do about, just make sure that you can control your opponent’s moves.
Let’s see what the next week brings in.
