Yesterday marked Warren Ellis' last issue on the Thunderbolts comic book, and despite the occasional delays it stands out as one of the best comics Marvel has published in ages. To honor this occasion I put together a Thunderbolts build, choosing to rely on their +1/+1 counter theme. The results were a little mixed, but I had a lot of fun and won more than I didn't.

Other noteworthy decks were Alpha Knights, Superbitches, Clash of Caps, and HULK! I really need to start coming up with some answers for The Hulk, because right now I got nothing. It should be interesting to see what our local scene looks like once people stop trying to get Hulk rares, and focus on the other awesome teams featured in MUN.

Oh, and I brought Oreos for our baked good this week. People criticized me for not baking something myself, but at the end of the night that cookie box was EMPTY! Oreos aren't so bad when you're hungry, now are they?

Deck list after the jump!

Thunderbolts Counter Abuse (BYOS, Modern)

4x Speed Demon, Whizzer
3x Green Goblin, Insanity Unleashed
4x Joystick, Fun and Games
4x Beetle * Mach, Discharged
4x Radioactive Man, Containment Suit
1x Venom, "Mac" Gargan
2x Speedball * Penance, Repentant Masochist
4x Iron Man, Mighty Avenger
3x Green Goblin, Director of the Thunderbolts
1x Karla Sofen * Moonstone, Field Commander

4x Stark Armory

4x Unregistered Combatant
4x Collect Them All!
4x Speedball is Dead
4x Ruthless Aggressor
3x Dangerous Liasons
2x Blinding Rage
1x Strategic Thinking
1x I am Doom!

3x Power Dampeners

Preferred Initiative: Evens.
Mulligan: Radioactive Man and a 1 or 2-drop.

In a perfect world your curve would be Speed Demon, Joystick, Radioactive Man, Iron Man. After that point you will want to seriously consider going off-curve. Of course, Norman Osborn isn't bad, and the right formation can ensure that your lower characters become absolutely ginormous.

In one Match Speed Demon became a 9/9 by turn 6. That's a 9/9 one drop with automatic reinforcement.. wow. That's just the tip of the iceberg, since every single character on your board will receive their share of the counter madness. With a few counters on him Radioactive Man shuts down.... well... everything. It's kind of awesome to see in action.

I'm considering switching out Moonstone for Songbird, and one of the Stark Armories for more I am Doom! But beyond that, this build makes me pretty happy. As always, suggestions are welcome.

I'll buy it though. Actually, only if every song is like this. Fuck, that original version in the background is AWFUL. Maybe I won't buy it.

Standing on bright green amps is awesome! I should start skating again just for this sort of stuff...

These photos are rad. Check out the Presets and Muse photos for something a bit different to what we in Australia see of these bands (Muse on a tiny stage?)... If only I could link straight to the one of Kim and Julian and the 'No Dancing" sign in the background... You go find it!

Is anyone trying to sell a turntable? I have way too much vinyl and nothing to play it on. The free-er the better.

Insight last night had a good program about censorship and photography. Anything with David Marr is good as far as I'm concerned.

Things sounds better with earplugs. I've read a fair few reviews around the place, and I'm hoping for a tour announcement asap... Really hoping.

We had an excellent turnout in our Hobby League this week. 9 people showed up, many of them with shiny MUN cards in hand. After skipping last week's HL it was great to have such a big crowd. Almost everyone was using new MUN, so that helped spice things up as well.

My Illuminati deck is taking longer than I'd like to compile, so I decided to make a Red Skull deck.

In the end the Top 4 was selected through Win/Loss records, which put me and the Red Skull right on top. I was shocked by how well the deck played, since I threw it together only a few minutes after showing up. Of course, I think that's what everyone else did... hm.

The Line-Up:

• 2x Hulk Warbound
• 1x Red Skull / Crime Lords (Me. Obviously)
• 1x SHIELD Army Burn
• 1x Kree Press
• 1x Secret Avengers
• 1x Heralds/Inhumans
• 1x Skrulls/Inhumans
• 1x Um.... I honestly don't recall. I'm sure it was way cool, though.

Either way, the top four was Red Skull, Hulk, SHIELD and more Hulk.

The Untitled Red Skull Project (BYOS, Modern)

4x Doctor Faustus, Johann Fenhoff * RAID
4x Viper, Madame Hydra * HYDRA
3x Sin, Synthia Schmidt * RAID
4x Red Skull, Aleksander Lukin, RAID
3x Silver Samurai, Kenuichio Harada * HYDRA
4x Master Man, Max Lohmer * RAID
3x Red Skull, Johann Schmidt * HYDRA
1x Head Case, Sean Madigan * AIM
3x Baron Strucker, Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker * HYDRA
2x Red Skull, Master of Creation
1x The Sleeper, Doomsday Device * RAID

4x Invasion Plans
4x Empire's End
4x Acts of Vengeance
3x Uncertain Legacy
3x House of M
3x Cold Storage
3x Code White

4x Cosmic Cube

Through a combination of burn, misdirection and stall the Red SKull deck is well equipped to handle a wide variety of threats. The heart of the deck is the 5-drop Red Skull, but he is only as good as the characters surrounding him. Master Man is nothing short of awesome, although I do admit that it's pretty easy for players to work around him.

My first match was against Kree, where the power of Empire's End won me the match.

This is one of those cards that don't really stand out when you're opening up packs. However, Empire's End totally rocks. It shuts down swarm/rush strategies, and multiple copies can neuter an opponent. Dr. Faustus is also amazing with this card. Big fan.

My second match was against Skrulls/Inhumans. The match ended on turn 7, when Titannus came into play as an unstoppable force (22/22!) It appeared that I had lost until I managed to recover the Red Skull (7) with Code White, and burn my opponent for 15 damage. This secured me victory, just barely, and I continued on my merry way.

My third match was SHIELD burn. but once against Empire's End proved its' worth. Each low-cost character that came into play effectively had a zero attack, so there simply wasn't enough damage being done to secure a win.

Fourth round was Galactus/Inhumans. Galactus did an admirable job of stalling us out to turn 8, and victory came down to a matter of who had the initiative. After recruiting The Sleeper I slammed into my opponent's face for 53 damage. Ouch.

Last (but not least) was one of the two powerful Hulk builds we had. With Hulk KO'ing characters left and right there wasn't a lot I could do. My saving Grace as Viper, who sat in the concealed for the entire game and did a combined total of 18 damage. This combined with the intense burn from 5-drop Red Skull secured me the win.

So yeah, 5-0! Not bad at all! There are some aspects of the deck that need to be addressed (a HUGE lack of consistency) but in the end I was very satisfied with its' performance. Here's hoping that with some refinement I can turn the Red Skull into something even more devastating.

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Owner

Now while this is obviously an advantage in the current meta, where draw engines are abound and the pace of decks is breakneck (albeit slower since the limiting of Return from the Different Dimension and the banning of Dimension Fusion), a good duelist will use the advantage of a Protector on the field to capitalize on their own draw engine thereby setting up combos and dropping a boss monster faster, or simply by creating a more complete lock down. The two deck designs we posted focus on each of these principles respectively.

For now, let's look at the control-oriented build:

3 Kuraz the Light Monarch
2 Destiny Hero - Dasher
2 Vanity’s Ruler
2 Destiny Hero - Malicious
1 Raiza the Storm Monarch

2 Giant Rat
2 Exiled Force
2 Protector of the Sanctuary
1 Morphing Jar
1 Destiny Hero - Disk Commander
1 Elemental Hero Stratos
1 Sangan

3 Soul Exchange
2 Destiny Draw
2 Foolish Burial
1 Monster Reborn
1 Premature Burial
1 Brain Control
1 Heavy Storm

3 Solemn Judgment
3 Phoenix Wing Wind-Blast
2 Limit Reverse
1 Trap Dustshoot
1 Torrential Tribute

Now the first thing that may jump out in this build is that our strongest monster is Vanity's Ruler, needing two tributes and only offering 2500 attack points. However, since this is a control build, Ruler gives us something that will make our opponent's cringe. The inability to special summon! That will certainly slow down decks in the current environment. Couple that with the fact that Protector is limiting their draw and you will see why Ruler made our shortlist of monsters to include.

The second monster that was an easy inclusion was the duly anticipated new “Monarch” monster: Kuraz the Light Monarch.

“When this card is Normal or Special Summoned you can destroy up to 2 cards on the field. For each card destroyed, that card's controller draws a card. This card cannot attack during the turn it is Normal or Special Summoned.”

The ability to tribute one monster (often an opponent's, as per the included three Soul Exchanges) and destroy two of your opponent's cards is tremendous. And once again thanks to Protector they can't draw as a result of Kuraz's second effect! Not to mention Kuraz himself, and the ability blow up our own cards allowing us to draw two more. The general versatility of this card in it's ability to increase our draw power and take out our opponent's cards without a drawback (no pun intended) puts Kuraz as our star player with Protector.

The spells in this deck should be taken at face value, so I will move on to our trap line up, focusing on the inclusion of two particular trap cards: Phoenix Wing Wind-Blast and Limit Reverse.

First off Phoenix Wing Wind-Blast provides enormous synergy in this deck build.

“Discard 1 card from your hand. Return 1 card on your opponent's side of the field to the top of the owner's Deck.”

Phoenix Wing Wind-Blast is able to, if correctly timed, negate the advantage of an opponent's Dark Armed Dragon, stop Gladiator Beasts in their tracks, and more. Aside from what it does to frustrate our opponent, Phoenix Wing Wind-Blast gives us incredible advantage. Dropping a Destiny Hero - Dasher or a Destiny Hero - Disk Commander to the graveyard will give us costless summons, draws, or openings into later special summons.

But our practice of exploiting our faster draws and limiting our opponent's field and hand doesn't end with Phoenix Wing Wind-Blast. The inclusion of Limit Reverse gives us just as much of an advantage.

“Select 1 monster with 1000 or less ATK from your Graveyard, and Special Summon it in Attack Position. If that monster is changed to Defense Position, destroy it and this card. When this card is removed from the field, destroy that monster. When that monster is destroyed, destroy this card.”

Limit Reverse may just be what really sends our opponent's over the edge. With the majority of removal and control in the current meta monster-based, Limit Reverse will exploit our position even further. The rat box that we are running gets out Protector quickly, it's true, but it also allows us bring out Exiled Force, the bane of Gladiator Beast Heraklinos. And after we have sacrificed a free exiled to kill off a boss monster, we can flip limit reverse to do it again later should the opposition be able to recover. Or we can simply pull back our good buddy Disk Commander, draw two, and tribute it for Kuraz.

Well, dear readers, I hope this build and analysis of its synergies helps you in designing your own decks or even in running this one. From The Playmat, this is Jesus saying: Good day, good luck, and good playing.

3 Kuraz the Light Monarch
2 Destiny Hero - Dasher
2 Vanity's Ruler
2 Destiny Hero - Malicious
1 Raiza the Storm Monarch

2 Giant Rat
2 Exiled Force
2 Protector of the Sanctuary
1 Morphing Jar
1 Destiny Hero - Disk Commander
1 Elemental Hero Stratos
1 Sangan

3 Soul Exchange
2 Destiny Draw
2 Foolish Burial
1 Monster Reborn
1 Premature Burial
1 Brain Control
1 Heavy Storm

3 Solemn Judgment
3 Phoenix Wing Wind-Blast
2 Limit Reverse
1 Trap Dustshoot
1 Torrential Tribute

That's but one of two decks we made based around Protect of the Sanctuary. We took some ideas from Adam Corn on both. The second was based on Dark Armed Dragon. You can find it below.

3 Kuraz the Light Monarch
2 Destiny Hero - Dasher
2 Destiny Hero - Malicious
2 Dark Armed Dragon
1 Raiza the Storm Monarch

2 Protector of the Sanctuary
2 Gravekeeper's Spy
2 D.D. Crow
1 Morphing Jar
1 Elemental Hero Stratos
1 Destiny Hero - Disk Commander
1 Sangan

3 Soul Exchange
2 Allure of Darkness
2 Destiny Draw
2 Foolish Burial
1 Monster Reborn
1 Premature Burial
1 Brain Control
1 Heavy Storm

3 Solemn Judgment
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Trap Dustshoot
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Crush Card Virus

I'll have Dan explain the syntax of the decks to you in the next post, as I'm too tired and lazy. Thanks for reading!

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 Whether your dream deck is one for relaxing or entertaining, a great deck can add style, fun and a relaxing oasis to any backyard.  A backyard deck can transform your property into an outdoor space which compliments your home, landscaping and personality. 

A deck can add texture and levels of interest to a flat backyard.  A deck can create anything from a private oasis to an open air dining area.  The fun thing about decks is that it can be whatever you want it to be, let your imagination take over!

Mention this blog and receive a free landscape design with signed contract

Be warned. There is nudity, and fire, and lots of pointy-looking teeth. I suppose you could consider some images disturbing...but don't. To do so would be to deny yourself the joy of studying the meticulous details and vibrant colours in each card, which would be a crime.

It's a bit Thothy (quite a lot Thothy actually), and maybe also a bit Cosmic Taroty, but mostly it's very Amun Ra-y. The creator admits it will probably take decades to complete. I say, you've got 21 cards already...publish us a majors-only version and that should keep us happy for a while (though, probably not until you're a hundred).

It's also listed at Aeclectic if you'd rather not see any flames.

I traced the outline onto card and then added the individual elements in freehand. Never again will I dare to judge Rachel Pollack's drawing ability - it's a lot harder than it looks!

Anyway, here's her card and my copy:

I haven't coloured it in yet and may not do. I think it would be fun to create - or, rather, recreate - the whole deck this way. It was a great way to get acquainted with the card and consider the possible symbolic meanings. To me, the large bird above the sleeping woman's head seems like a guardian, protecting her and watching over her as she dreams. Just as the stones form a protective circle around her. And the snake slithering beneath her represents her dreams, which flash with hidden meaning and insight in her resting mind.  

Anyway, I've been looking back at it this evening and maybe it is worth salvaging. I'd actually only finished eight cards, and half of them I'm not that happy with. But I rather like these - the Fool, the High Priestess, the Star and the Sun:

Anyway, I just thought I'd share, seeing as this may be the only exposure they'll ever get...