Vs. System.org

Last time I was here I brought you the Cyclops preview card, ‘Fearless Leader’.  This week I bring you another Cyclops (and another Scott)…  Alan Scott.  I’m stretching a little because Alan has recently gotten his missing eye back via the power of the Starheart, but a freak teleportation accident with Adam Strange’s technology during one of the million crisis events left him one eye short of… something with two-eyes.  This was most recently represented in his Checkmate version, ‘White King’, that shared a ‘lose-the-game’ condition with Ahmed, Maxwell Lord, and a much inferior Harry Stein.

His newest incarnation, available only on the UDE point store, is Alan Scott, Golden Age Engineer.  When looking at this amazing card the first thing that came to my mind was its parallels to Samantha Parrington, a card I explored in great detail a while ago in an article titled ‘Instant Harm Paragon’.  In this article, I tested Samantha’s best possible pairings with five drops to see how to best abuse her.  Alan Scott deserves different treatment because, while he can ready another character, he does so in a completely different capacity.  For example, Alan Scott is worthless in conjunction with Elektra, Masterless Assassin and Wolverine, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. because neither will become stunned during their first attacks.

It would also appear that Mr. Scott is weaker than Samantha simply because he cannot go off during the same turn he comes into play.  Sam does not come into play exhausted, Scott does.  It could be argued that this weakness of Scott’s is offset by his recovery ability which makes him much more suitable on the defense.  Though this is a weak argument when you consider that Samantha is usually targeting hidden characters that will be able to attack regardless of the initiative; and Samantha has a large butt to absorb damage on the defense as well.

So what situation would you ever want Scott over Sam (my brother Sam would get a kick out of this sentence!)?  Well I’ve thought of a couple.  The first thing I thought of was mixing Alan up with those astonishing X-Men (the team that OTHER Scott is on).  With Morph on three, Rogue and Alan on turns four and five, and Mimic on turn six, you’d be recovering everyone over and over.  X-Men Assemble would make this all the sweeter.  This wasn’t that appealing of a team-up considering how many recovery effects the X-Men already have, and the high likelihood that the new Evolutions set will help them a lot more than Alan could ever hope to!

The other idea was to stay on team.  After all, JSA is still Silver Age legal for another month or so!  Scott seems designed to stay on team because only they have a card that negates his big exhaustion drawback: Rock of Eternity.  Rock of Eternity is an incredible card that has been used to great effect before in multiple PC top 8 appearances.  Each of these times JSA was teamed up with one of Alan Scott’s other teams: Checkmate.  Checkmate has Ahmed to ensure that Rock of Eternity sees play, and backup characters to take advantage of the Rock’s readying power.  Before Alan Scott, Golden Age Engineer, these decks used turn four to underdrop little guys like Surveillance Pawns to beef up the rest of their board.  Now that the team has a proper on-team four drop, we’re going to change the strategy a little.

The backbone of the deck will stick pretty close to what’s been tread before.  On one we’ll use a bevy of awesome one drops.  Atom Smasher is a monster that grows with the curve, getting bigger even faster once Rock of Eternity is in play.  Connie Webb is crucial too since she’ll get Ahmed for us in an environment that’s missing Enemy of my Enemy.  Our other inclusion is a stat modifier; Surveillance Pawn improves the rest of our board from the safety of the hidden area while helping us meet Ahmed’s loyalty.  Because there are so many awesome one drops, and we don’t want to underdrop on turn four anymore, I’m going to limit myself to only including Jack Knight on turn two.  If we haven’t hit Ahmed by turn two and have a Connie in hand, we’ll be underdropping anyway, so a million two drops would be silly.  Jack’s card draw is too good to exclude though.

On three we’ll have Ahmed of course, but we’ll also include Michael Holt.  If we miss Ahmed, we’ll still have a curve deck that can hold it’s own.  I don’t like decks that completely crumble when one card goes missing!  Also, in case we can’t meet Ahmed’s loyalty requirements, but have Brother I Satellite ready to go, we better include a Christopher Smith to search out.  Similar logic dictates we better include an Adrian Chase on four.  Otherwise our primary four drop will be our featured character: Alan Scott.

On five we’ll include a couple of options.  If we have the initiative and know we can finish off our opponent, Power Girl, Child of Crisis is our go-to gal.  She can attack across the curve, be recovered and readied by Alan Scott, swing down the curve, ready by KOing a resource with her own ability, and attack a third time.  Holy poop!  The other five drop worth mentioning was the same that I wanted to combo with Samantha Parrington: Carter Hall.  Since you can arrange a completely exhausted board through various effects/attacks, you can make him HUGE.  Especially with hidden drops that have stuck around all game.  He’s an ideal recruit on turn five if you evens because you can drop Power girl on six and swing back with both of them, using Alan Scott on whichever gets stunned.

Since the aforementioned drops are our kill conditions we’ll ignore six and seven, except that beautiful utility card, the Phantom Stranger.  This card not only serves as a power-up, but will help make sure the right cards are exhausted before Rock of Eternity kicks in.  This is very important!  JSA Headquarters also helps in this regard, and lessens the pain that the loss of EomE causes.

One important thing to notice about these two teams, other than the complementing exhaustion themes and locations, is their fantastic equipment.  JSA has T-Spheres, and Checkmate has Laser Watch.  Despite the under-utilization of Laser Watch, it is one of the best equipments in the game (next to light armor).  Laser Watch gives +2 ATK, Range, can equip hidden characters, and replaces itself!  Both of these ‘quips also work well with the Checkmate Armory.  Everything else seemed to fall into place.  Check out the final list:

4 Connie Webb, Knight
4 Surveillance Pawn, Army
4 Atom Smasher, Al Rothstein
4 Jack Knight <> Starman, Knight Past
4 Ahmed Samsarra, White King
2 Michael Holt ◊ Mr. Terrific, Renaissance Man
1 Christopher Smith <> Peacemaker, Obsessed Outlaw
2 Alan Scott, Golden Age Engineer
1 Adrian Chase <> Vigilante, Street Justice
1 Carter Hall <> Hawkman, Eternal Champion
1 Power Girl, Child of Crisis
3 The Phantom Stranger, Wandering Hero

4 Target Acquired

4 Brother I Satellite
4 Checkmate Safe House
2 The Rock of Eternity
2 JSA Headquarters
1 Brother Eye
1 Stryker’s Island
1 Dr. Fate’s Tower
1 Checkmate Armory

4 T-Spheres
4 Laser Watch
1 Cloak of Nabu

Let me know what else you guys have tried with Alan Scott.  I was also thinking of straight JSA with all the up-the-curve theme cards.  I’m always looking for fun new ways to abuse ANY Green Lanterns!