Good Night, Sweet Prince

In honor of the Crime Lords month trend that has popped up, I thought I'd do my own little homage to one of the best teams in the game. Now, I was not always the purely average, middle-of-the-road (but handsome and stylish) deck-builder that I am today. I was once a new player, stubbornly refusing the not-big-enough starter decks or far simpler mono-team decks in favor of my own genius creations.

Ah, to be young again.

To make a short story even shorter, I shall present you now with a fairly faithful recreation of that deck. I say fairly faithful because I remember certain drops much better than others - and the deck changed literally every time I opened a pack.

So here, my friends, is...

KANG LORDS X

3 Roscoe Sweeney, Fixer
3 Dazzler, Alison Blaire
3 Vanessa Fisk, Mob Matron

4 Kobra, Klaus Vorhees
3 Bishop, Lucas Bishop

2 Mr. Hyde, Calvin Zabo
3 Kingpin, Wilson Fisk
2 Banshee, Sean Cassidy

2 Echo, Maya Lopez
2 Jester, Jonathan Powers
2 Masked Marauder, Frank Farnum
1 Kang, Earth Mesozoic-24

2 The Russian, Contract Killer
2 Cyclops, Scott Summers

2 Colossus, Peter Rasputin
2 Storm, Weather Party

1 Kang, Lord of Limbo
1 Wolverine, Berserker Rage

Characters, 40

3 Face the Master
4 Good Night, Sweet Prince
3 Marked for Death
3 No Rest for the Wicked
4 Rough House
1 Sold Out
3 The Family
1 Untouchable
3 Fastball Special
4 Marvel Team-Up
1 Made Men
2 Psyche Globe
3 Spheres of Solitude
3 Burn Rubber

Plot Twist, 38

Yes, this 78-card monstrosity was responsible for a great many victories in its day. I mean, also a great many losses - can't forget that. It was these three teams because these were the three teams I had the most cards for - right there, you can almost taste the prodigious care that went into my deckbuilding.

So, the plan? The way the deck played was, I hoped, desperately, to draw Roscoe Sweeney on turn 1. I don't think I ever did. Then I wanted Kobra on turn 2, 'cuz then I knew I'd have a 3. This was also comparatively rare. In reality, I dropped whatever I had to to stay alive until turn 7, when Kang, Lord of Limbo came in for the win. When Kang moved their smallest character off to the hidden area, they thought they were getting a massive benefit of some kind, that I had just, unwittingly perhaps, protected them from that damage. Oh, how deliciously wrong they were. My favorite card at the time, the card that I proudly had traded and bought to get a full playset of, was Good Night, Sweet Prince. I liked looking at it. I loved saying it. I would, at the start of my attack step on turn 7, smile condescendingly at my befuddled opponent and say, all saccharine sweet, "Goodnight, sweet prince." I might even be tempted to reach across the table, to pretend to stroke their cheek once, lovingly. And then Kang, with all his 15 ATK glory, would pound the ever-living hell out of the poor, unreinforceable bastard.

Thus did I win - sometimes. I could also hope for a Wolverine sighting on 7, which became more and more important as the sets came out. JLI Four or Fewer hated either ending. And, eventually, the deck was dismantled. I learned that 60 cards really are better than 80. I learned that search was my friend, and that I should probably use occasional attack pumps. I've learned a lot about the game since then, but I keep hoping to see the Crime Lords again sometime. The reinforcement theme was fun - the ability to give your opponent the initiative, laughable. And, there's always that tiny, hidden desire, to be able to buy yet another foil playset of one of my favorite cards in the game. It would be an absolutely brutal card today, with the prevalence of hidden beats. And I would love every second of it.