Doom Foretold: Standard Villain Schemes

Note: This article was translated from Chinese by AI and may contain errors. Read the original Chinese version.

Introduction

Marvel Super Heroes has superheroes of every stripe, so naturally it also has villains standing on the other side. Unlike the heroes, whose abilities bloom in every direction, the villains follow the design of Marvel’s Spider-Man: connive, the ability of scheming in the shadows, is the main axis, and the newly introduced enchantment type Plan sketches out the grand ambitions of these scoundrels. So what exactly are the villains of the two Marvel sets plotting?

Deck Breakdown

The core plan of this deck is Doom Reigns Supreme.

Doctor Doom claims the title of Sorcerer Supreme and personally builds the ultimate hegemony over the Earth (One World Under Doom). To pull this plan off, we have to prepare actively and let the other villains take the stage first, creating the best moment to seize power. The decklist is as follows:

Decklist

• Sinister Waltz: Mob Lookout, Red Room Recruit, Norman Osborn, Baron Strucker, and Leader

Even if the arch-villain is a genius, carrying out a grand plan takes organized manpower, such as grunts like Mob Lookout and Red Room Recruit. They are insignificant minions in front of the superheroes, but they are important pieces for executing the plan: they come down to draw cards and chump block, and help trigger connive, mayhem and related abilities.

Where there are grunts on the front line, there are also officers in charge of planning and coordination. Norman Osborn, CEO of Oscorp Industries, is an evasive, sustained connive engine. After he transforms into the Green Goblin, each of your cards gains mayhem and a graveyard cost reduction, so cards discarded by connive can be cast the same turn. Baron Strucker, Hydra Overlord reduces the casting cost of villains, giving each newly arrived villain every turn a chance to connive. Leader, Super Genius is a connive amplifier, turning every connive from plain card filtering into card advantage.

• Arrogant Outlaw: Swarm, Carnage, and Morbius

Connive would be pointless if it were only card filtering, so outside the official organization we also need some disposable pieces that still deliver value after being discarded. Swarm, Being of Bees is a flash, flying beater that can be cast for one mana with mayhem, so you can slip it into play as you connive in the early turns. Carnage, Crimson Chaos is also a quality bruiser that comes with mayhem, and it returns a creature with mana value 3 or less when it enters, helping you build up counters on Doom Reigns Supreme faster. Morbius the Living Vampire is professional fodder: in the graveyard it works as a one-shot Anticipate, making him the first thing to throw away when you connive.

• Notorious Allies: Tombstone, Mysterio, and The Masters of Evil

We also have a few “business partners” whose interests line up with ours: criminals with exclusive connections or unusual powers who can take what they need when called upon. Tombstone, Career Criminal is the lubricant that reduces costs and speeds up the arrival of villains, and when he enters he recovers villains that died or were discarded into the graveyard, even letting you complete Doom Reigns Supreme by fetching himself. Mysterio, Master of Illusion is the main beater: he sends out as many illusions as the number of nontoken villains you control, and as long as he survives he can usually overrun the opponent in one wave, making the conditions of Doom Reigns Supreme a piece of cake. What if the illusions are not big enough? Then The Masters of Evil can pump the whole team, and if you draw it early you can discard it to search for Doom Reigns Supreme, the first step of the evil plan.

Gameplay Demo

Because this deck is built out of creatures, lacks removal, and tends to start slowly, it may not be able to hold up against fast, aggressive decks like Landfall. As long as the game goes long, though, the deck shows excellent resilience, just like an indestructible evil organization, popping up one after another to challenge the righteous heroes across the table. If your draws go smoothly, you have a chance to complete Doom Reigns Supreme on turn four, directly seizing the opponent’s cards to punish them.

Conclusion

Although this villain theme is built as a Standard deck, once I finished building it I found that the whole deck, lands included, could be held up by the two Marvel sets currently in Standard alone. In that case, I simply handled the sideboard with Marvel sets only too; if any readers want to build it, you will need to adjust that part yourselves. As for why there was such a long gap since the previous Superheroes deck article, it’s because I have been swamped lately; this piece was squeezed out of a small gap in between, and the next one will probably have to wait until I am done being busy, so please be patient, readers who like this series.