As some of you might remember, last week in our Council Update we threw out a deck-building challenge to Aaron Mead (Onyxweapon). We wanted to see how well he could make a deck that abused the Royal Flush Gang. The Royal Flush Gang are a rarity in that they’re one of the few cards in Vs. that allow you to have more than 4 in a deck. We could smell potential abuse here, but We needed an expert to flesh it out for me. Enter Aaron…Alright the concept is simple enough, make Royal Flush Gang do cool things while (ideally) murdering your opponent.
Image provided by ccgdb.com
My first impression was rather obvious. Lets just run every card that can become Royal Flush Gang: The Captain, Clayface, and of course some fun Carrying the Torch shenanigans.
Unfortunately, just getting the name in play isn’t enough. We need to actually play the original cool to take advantage of it’s effect. And therein lies the challenge of these crazy kids. So let’s look into a rush shall we?
Obviously all 5 Royal Flush Gang (RFG) 1 drops are a must, and when it comes to abusing them, we need to consider ways to keep playing them. S.H.I.E.L.D. should do nicely; they have a recursion teamup and Helicarrier can keep those RFG’s spinning back to the hand. For a little help in the recursion department Origin Story is a perfect fit.
For SHIELD characters I was a little put off, SHIELD Agents are completely viable however with SHIELD burn and SHIELD simmer both pretty established builds, I wanted to avoid making the deck feel like, “SHIELD burn featuring some Royal Flush Gang cards”.
As I pondered these things, I stumbled across Carrying the Torch. Hard to accomodate if using it means removing a RFG in the graveyard from play…
Or is it?
Carrying the Torch + Triskelion = any character becomes Royal Flush Gang. AND I get the Gang back?
Hmmm…. interesting.
So officially shelving the army premise in favor of Ultimates, I grabbed a playset of Wasp, Ultimates; Scarlet Witch, Ultimates; a couple Clint Bartons; and of course my all time favorite card, Nick Fury, Ultimates (aka: Shaft).
Since Triskelion is in the mix, agressive pumps are a must. And we’ll want chain-able pumps before combat in case things get hairy and we need to chain to a pre-turn 4 Triskelion activation. Practising this build, it obviously looks for an odd itiative, since The Captain really brings it all together, and some liberal Triskelion activations on 4 can relatively easily result in 3-5 RFG’s in play and a face up Helicarrier. In one game on turn 5 I actually had Wasp Carrying the “RFG” Torch, The Captain as RFG and all 5 RFG’s in play with a face up Helicarrier.
For those of you doing the math at home that’s an 8/2 Wasp, a 12/6 The Captain (no SHIELD affiliation for a Helicarrier bonus), an 8/1 RFG, a 7/1 RFG, a 6/1 RFG, a 5/1 RFG and a 4/1 RFG with a couple Crackshots for my Wasp.
Obviously, this is pretty ideal and even I’ll admit the build hinges off an odd initiative; however, a turn 4 init with a “Torched” Nick Fury is possible for some pretty decent beats as well.
Either way, enough talk from me.
RFG abuse. Get it? RFG means TWO things!
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Characters: (22)
5x Royal Flush Gang, full house
4x Scarlet Witch, ultimates
4x Wasp, ultimates
2x Clint Barton<> Hawkeye, ultimates
3x Nick Fury, ultimates
4x The Captain, can’t remember his real name
Plot twists: (30)
4x Origin Story
4x Secret Files
4x Carrying the Torch
4x Gang-up
4x Secret War
4x Flying Kick
4x Crackshot
2x Liberation Day, ultimates
Locations: (8)
4x The Triskelion, ultimates
4x S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier
Obviously, some other fun tweaks can be done to improve deck performance, and I invite any to feel free to improve on any decks I “Answer the Call” with.
Take care guys! And keep on playing!
Just a clarification on your RFG math. I’m pretty sure that the RFG effect is a cloud effect, meaning that if you play all 5 in the same turn, they all interact, granting +5 atk to each other.
If that’s true this deck just became nuts!
Is this the place where I complain about stealing my banner? j/k
Glad to see you back behind the wheel, Aaron! Now make a Stormbreaker deck!
LOL, I just asked Aaron if you would be OK with it and he hasn’t gotten back to me yet! Thanks gday, I don’t have the skills to make one myself!
All good, Scotty!
unless there is an errata i am in the dark on, RFG is a trigger effect. not a cloud effect. maybe HC has some input in this regard, but it looks pretty cut and dry to me.
I believe homer is correct. It would be like saying “hidden characters you control get +1 atk this turn.”. It’s not just the hidden characters that were in play at the time the effect resolved. It applies to any and all hidden characters you control during the given turn. Same thing here. “All RFG get +1 atk this turn” for as many RFG as entered play during the given turn.
HC Signal!
Per request, from the MVL FAQ:
“The rules for continuous modifiers from effects have been greatly simplified. Previously, such modifiers were divided into those that flagged applicable cards as they were created (or gave them “hats” that they kept regardless of what happened subsequently) and those that didn’t flag (or created a “cloud” that cards could move in and out of regardless of whether they were in it to begin with.)
The simplification is that all such modifiers are now clouds. No cards are flagged as they are created.”
This rules applies to all continuous modifiers from effects. So, yes, Royal Flush Gang’s modifier applies to RFGs that enter play later in the turn and characters that become RFG later in the turn.
For any who want the official CRD language, btw, this FAQ entry is codified at 513.2c: “A continuous modifier from an effect doesn’t flag any objects as the effect resolves. Such a modifier continuously checks what objects it applies to, so it can affect objects that weren’t affected when it was created and can stop affecting objects that were affected when it was created.”
A somewhat more complex issue for this deck concept, though, is the interaction between Carrying the Torch and Triskelion. It’s not the most straight-forward interaction, but based on my first impressions—using Triskelion to recur a card you removed with Carrying the Torch would cause that Torch to stop granting its chosen character any names. From the CRD: 513.3b “Continuous modifiers from continuous powers will always use information from the current game state.” Also recall TBS’s comments about Mystique with Carrying the Torch, that the Torch continuously checks the name(s) of the removed card.
Unclechawie, the reference to Roal Flush Gang is a reference to the card itself. not all RFG’s. for example:
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This text does not refer to all RFG’s in play. it refers to itself. with the exact same wording structure as:
Batman, Caped Crusader:
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Now we know batman’s effect does not apply itself to every batman in play… why would Royal Flush Gang be any different?
When a card is intended for use with multiple cards in this situation we typically see an additional qualification applied. We see an example of this in cards like:
Cunning Strategy:
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Now i haven’t seen any errata on RFG but as the text stands PRINTED ON THE CARD, it absolutely does NOT refer to other recruited RFG’s.
apologies my post seemes to have excluded effect texts relevant… here is the proper post….
Unclechawie, the reference to Roal Flush Gang is a reference to the card itself. not all RFG’s. for example:
-When Royal Flush Gang enters play, all Royal Flush Gangs you control get +1 ATK this turn.-
This text does not refer to all RFG’s in play. it refers to itself. with the exact same wording structure as:
Batman, Caped Crusader:
Whenever Batman stuns a defender, that character’s controller loses endurance equal to its cost.
Now we know batman’s effect does not apply itself to every batman in play… why would Royal Flush Gang be any different?
When a card is intended for use with multiple cards in this situation we typically see an additional qualification applied. We see an example of this in cards like:
Cunning Strategy:
Whenever a Tim Drake you control stuns a character while team attacking this turn, return that character to its owner’s hand.
Now i haven’t seen any errata on RFG but as the text stands PRINTED ON THE CARD, it absolutely does NOT refer to other recruited RFG’s.
It kind of sounds like you two are talking about two different things.
Each Royal Flush Gang’s power certainly only triggers for that particular RFG entering play. Aaron, I think this is what your what your comment just above this one is saying, but I don’t think unclechewie was suggesting otherwise.
The continuous modifier that each Royal Flush Gang’s effect generates, on the other hand, does apply to every RFG you control, just by the text—based on the description of the deck you gave, clearly everyone agrees about this. And the point being made above was only that the group of “all RFGs you control” will be continuously updated as cards are brought into play or given new names. Each RFG’s +1 ATK modifier will apply even to RFGs that were brought into play or given the RFG name after the modifier was created. It won’t apply, on the other hand, to characters that lost the RFG name (or that your opponent stole) after the RFG’s effect resolved.
So if I recruit 2 RFG, both would be 3/1? Their original 1/1, plus a +1 atk modifier from both of their text boxes?
Yes
Yep—though remember that the +1 ATKs are independent of the characters and their text boxes, since the RFGs have triggered powers rather than continuous powers.
Onyx, HC is correct. I was referring to HomerJ’s thought that all your RFG’s would get +1 for every RFG that entered play in a given turn.
Scottkthompson, that would be a yes.
/facepalm.
got so hung up on the answer i kinda forgot the question.
alas, i missed that little word “all” in RFG’s effect. and stood on my soapbox a bit prematurely.
That makes them absolutely amazing, for those of you taking notes. However it does cause me to want to lean away from triskelion since we now know it doesn’t work. But carrying the torch could still see some interesting combo use during the combat phase.
I’ll be sure to make my next answering the call a bit more rules appropriate, it’s been a while, after all.
Out of curiousity, do you have an idea what your new list would look like? I only ask because I’m putting Royal Flush Gang in The 198!
even with the challenges, i’d most likely stick with a build similar to this. although i could see triskelion leaving and dropping the ultimates in favor of shield burn shenanigans with some army love and a hidden nick fury(non ultimates) pushing more burn out.
however if you wanted that much burn there’s no point bothering with RFG is there?
Wasp can’t use Carrying the Torch anyways. 3+ cost dudes only.
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