Today’s review is the short stack.  The Purifiers team only has six real character cards to choose from, but some of them are pretty interesting.  The team should seem familiar to anyone who saw X2.  The Purifiers weren’t actually in the movie, but one of their head honchos, William Stryker, was the antagonist, so building this deck is as close as you’re going to get to acting out the movie!  Plus, we’ve got some returning powerhouses that you might be interested in.

Read on to see if they’ve aged like fine wine… or like the beer that’s been in the trunk of my car for a year!

MEV-229 – R – Bastion, Prime Sentinel

It’s unfortunate that the first two cards that I review for this team are two of its worst cards.  If you want to hear nice, happy things, please skip ahead a couple slots.  Bastion shames his older version even though he’s thematically very similar.  Bastion discards an army card to drop a character -1/-1 for the turn.  His old version discarded an army character to give a character +1/+1 for the turn.  The old Bastion allowed you to build a wall that your opponent had to climb over, sometimes repeatedly.  The new Bastion will just stop one of your opponent’s characters from stunning one of you yours while guaranteeing you stun that character back.  After that one attack, you’ll probably be out of cards and your opponent’s game plan will resume.  It’s also worth noting that his ability only nets you a -1/-1, while the character card he would likely be discarding in Modern Age, The Purifiers, nets you a -2/-2 pump when discarded for their own ability!  That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.  Bastion is definitely a very big disappointment to many after his last incarnation; however, there might be some use for this mutant hater…  Perhaps combining him with Shiva, Army?  That way every Shiva you discard to his ability helps your on-board Shivas get stronger.  Then there’s those Altantean Warriors who actually enjoy sitting in the KO’d pile.  Maybe someone, somewhere can break him.  I’ll give him a slightly higher limited rating because he could turn old drops that happen to be army characters into pumps.

• Constructed Rating: 2
  Limited Rating: 3

MEV-230 – U – Lady Deathstrike, Lady for Hire

When I first read this card I thought it would be the lynch pin of any Purifier deck, then I read the card again and realized she could not attack to the face.  The fact that her defense was lower than average was enough of a drawback, they should not have also restricted her from attacking directly because that completely neuters her.  I’d rather use turn three to drop three more The Purifiers than a three drop that will stun back against a two drop and never be able to ready.  Her six attack has appeal in limited, but in constructed she’s got nothing going for her.

• Constructed Rating: 1
  Limited Rating: 2

MEV-231 – U – Matthew Risman, Leader of the Purifiers

For any army-based team like the Purifiers to succeed, there needs to be a way to get cards into hand.  After all, it’s hard to flood the board with your one drops when you only have a couple of them in hand.  Matthew’s ability goes a long way towards helping this cause by rallying for The Purifiers every time he enters combat.  Most rally effects just trigger when a card enters play, and that’s it.  The fact that Matthew can get a couple of chances to fill your hand is pretty cool.  In the limited environment he will do nothing but put a bunch of cards at the bottom of your deck when he fails his rallies, because unless you get seven Purifiers in your packs, his odds of doing anything are dismal.

• Constructed Rating: 4
  Limited Rating: 1

MEV-232 – R – Nimrod, Killing Machine

Nimrod is a really great card in a Modern Age Purifiers deck.  You can KO an already stunned army character that you would have been losing anyway to guarantee that Nimrod sticks around another turn.  That’s a very good investment for four resource points.  It’s probably worth noting Nimrod’s thematic similarity to the old Nimrod, but this version pales in comparison to his old version.  The old version required you to attack through him twice in one turn, effectively taking away an opponent’s initiative.  This version of Nimrod also sticks around, but the fact that he has to wait until the recovery phase to work makes him much weaker.  There’s also the fact that he’s a four drop instead of a five drop, so he’s competing directly with Mark V for a spot in a Golden Age Sentinels deck.  Not too many people will break up the one-two punch of Mark V on turn four and Nimrod on turn five to play this new Nimrod.  In limited, Nimrod will be very situational because he requires a KO of an army character to use his ability.  Board advantage is huge in limited though, so if you do manage to pull him off, you are going to be very happy.  He’s also a 8/7 flight/range character, which is pretty darn great.

• Constructed Rating: 5
  Limited Rating: 3

MEV-233 – C – The Purifiers, Army

The Purifiers are a fantastic army card.  Not only are they 2/1 characters with range, but they are also essentially a plot twist that drops a characters stats by either 2 atk or 2 def.  As a plot twist alone this card would be pretty decent.  After all, if an opposing character is attacking one of your guys, this card could be used towards a stunback, or to help you stonewall your opponent.  If you happen to hit one of these when you have a spare resource, you could even recruit this gem (who would’ve thought?)!  A solid card in limited and constructed.  In fact every single one of these you crack HAS to be included in your sealed deck.  You’d be silly not to play this!  It’s unfortunate the team doesn’t have more support cards that help army characters out.  Did someone just say team-up?

• Constructed Rating: 4
  Limited Rating: 5

MEV-234 – R – William Stryker, Fundamentalist

William Stryker is fantastic in a Purifiers deck for a couple of reasons.  Like Matthew before him, he can help you flood the board with Purifiers.  His ability brings those great one drops back from the KO’d pile every turn.  You could even use him in a curve deck to constantly recur a -2/-2 pump.  Just let him chill in the hidden area and cycle that same card over and over.  If your opponent was unable to get him out of the hidden area, and the game goes to turn six (not unlikely) he can recur a sing Purifier five times!  That’s -10/-10 over the course of the game.  Just like Matthew though, his ability his very restricted in limited.  However, if you got two or three The Purifiers, he might just be worth running; after all, recurring pumps every turn will give you the win in this environment.  Very cool!

• Constructed Rating: 5
  Limited Rating: 3

MEV-235 – R – Purified

Purified is almost like the Utility Belt for the Purifiers team.  It negates activated abilities, plus has the added bonus of KOing the character with the activated power if you manage to stun it.  I like how it makes you really feel like you’re hunting down mutants.  You’re specifically targeting people with ‘abilities’ and trying to KO them.  In practice though, this card might be too specific to be useful.  After all, if your opponent’s deck has no activated abilities, you’ve just wasted 3-4 card slots in your deck.  I really wish this card targeted payment effects instead of just activated effects, as is I just don’t think it’s going to be used a whole lot.  In limited it’s useless because you specifically need to discard The Purifiers to use it.  Maybe if energize becomes an overly abused mechanic, this card will see play!

• Constructed Rating: 2
  Limited Rating: 1

Cards outside of the Purifiers section:

MEV-025 – U – Rictor, Depowered

This card is not a friend of the Purifiers team.  After all, he’s got an ability that gives you bonuses for playing characters with activated abilities, but he’s the only one on the team with an activated ability!  That means he will only be used for his other affiliation: X-Factor.  As an X-Factor character, he’s much more playable because the X-Factor team has a ton of characters with activated abilities.  Rictor does only gain one endurance for each character with an activated ability, so the only way I can think to abuse him is to run him in a Multiple Man deck and try to fill the board with activated abilities.  I’d like it better if this ability burned your opponent instead of gaining you life, because then he would play the same role Senator Kelly did in Wild Vomit.  In limited he will gain you some life over the course of the game, but if your deck doesn’t have a ton of activated abilities, there are probably better two drops.

• Constructed Rating: 3
  Limited Rating: 3

There you have it.  An army based team with some potential.  They’ve got a fantastic army character;  They’ve got cards to help them flood the board;  Finally, they’ve Rian Fike in their corner simply because of their version!  I’m not sure if the Purifiers have enough to go mono team since they lack some team-specific pumps or out-of-combat stun tricks, but they do have some great cards in their arsenal.  I’m sure there’s a team-up out there that will make this team extremely competitive.  The S.H.I.E.L.D. army burn deck has recently made a splash in the meta, and the Purifiers might fit in with them splendidly.  After all, when all the S.H.I.E.L.D. effects bounce your army characters back to hand, you’re really just getting a bunch of attack pumps back!

The gauntlet has been thrown down.  Stu… heck, anyone…  make this happen!