[{"text":"Hey everyone, this week I want to tell you about a team I've been having fun with lately.&nbsp; I feel like the format was really shaken up by the recent B&amp;T update (you can read more about that here: https:\/\/www.dcdeckbuilding.com\/article.php?id=10838) which has allowed for a more diverse play environment.&nbsp; With that in mind, my favorite thing to do is find the most efficient characters within a tier, and then find ways to abuse them."},{"header":"skitter"},{"image":[{"src":"ski506417skitter-.jpeg"},{"caption":""}]},{"text":"Amongst the tier-1 Main Characters, Phantom Girl and Skitter are the only MCs capable of generating Power.&nbsp; Phantom Girl can potentially generate a considerable amount of Power, but I've yet to find a way to consistently trigger her more than once or twice a turn.&nbsp; With Skitter recently joining her as a tier-1, and being able to provide 3 Power (and potentially more reliably than Phantom Girl can) I began testing Skitter teams."},{"header":"testing"},{"text":"I noted right away that we need a large quantity of cards (4 or more!), and they need to be unique to one another, as well as low costed.&nbsp; This hurdle is not easy to get over.&nbsp; Getting 4 cards to reliably fit that requirement will take some time.&nbsp; Unfortunately time is not our friend, and many other teams will end the game just as you begin triggering Skitter every turn.&nbsp; We need a way to speed her up! At the onset, I assumed this team would either consist of 2x tier-1 MCs and 2x tier-2 MCs, or that it would be a 1-2-3 tier team.&nbsp; The only thing consistent between those two combinations is a tier 1 character (in this case: Skitter), and a tier 2 character, so I began testing a few teams with a random tier-3, but mostly concentrating on how well Skitter paired up with the tier-2 MC. I tried to use Aquaman for putting low cost cards on top, but this proved uneventful as I could never stack enough in one turn. I tried Deadshot to stack low cost cards on top, but he was far to slow even when he worked well. I tried Beast Boy but quickly realized I almost always just wanted to play the more expensive card if I found myself with one, and rarely used his ability. Then I tried Black Lightning and suddenly turns were so much fun!"},{"header":"black lightning"},{"image":[{"src":"bla309918black-li.jpeg"},{"caption":""}]},{"text":"His cube rulings read: - No matter which version you are playing with, this text should read as follows: &#34;Discard X cards: Put a card with cost X from your discard pile into your hand. X cannot be zero.&#34; - You can use this ability whether you have a card in your discard pile that you can return or not. Neither of this rulings are particularly useful to us yet, but here's some notes to keep in mind: 1.) This MC has been printed in many different versions, so you will see varying corporate logo's and ability text on him. 2.) Being able to discard a card and return nothing actually comes in handy from time to time, we'll get to that more later in this article. Back to BL: we suddenly have an engine from which we can reliably exchange cards that don't help trigger Skitter for cards that do. We can pitch all sorts of Starters and Weaknesses to get back a one, two and three-cost cards, which can easily be just what we need to get that bonus power from Skitter!"},{"header":"core team"},{"double":[{"src":"ski64102skitter-.jpeg"},{"src":"bla734516black-li.jpeg"}]},{"text":"After falling in love with this combination, it was still unclear what the final team composition should be.&nbsp; With 3 more tier points, we have many options.&nbsp; 3x more tier-1 MCs, a tier 1 &amp; tier 2, or a tier 3.&nbsp; I wasn't impressed with any other tier 1's, which chopped off two of the three options.&nbsp; Having settled on a single tier 3 MC to complete the team, I began testing some options."},{"header":"arsenal"},{"image":[{"src":"ars28757arsenal-.jpeg"},{"caption":""}]},{"text":"Hailing from Crisis 4, Arsenal appears to be everything this team wants to do, and more.&nbsp; The combination of Black Lightning + Arsenal allows you to begin destroying Starters as early as your first turn by doing the following: 1.) Discard a Starter to Black Lightning, return nothing. 2.) Buy the lowest cost card in the Line-Up, triggering Arsenal and destroying the Starter you just discarded. You can repeat this every turn and destroy all your Starters within the first 10 turns of the game.&nbsp; I can't fault you for choosing Arsenal as your 3rd and running Skitter + Black Lightning + Arsenal. I tested this several times, and my only complaint with it is that Arsenal doesn't trigger when you buy from the Kick stack.&nbsp; The Line-Up is occasionally all 4+ cost cards, and because I need cards to help Skitter, your decision can come down to being forced to buy 4+ cost cards to trigger Arsenal, but which don't complement Skitter, or buying a Kick and not triggering Arsenal.&nbsp; Skitter can't benefit from 4+ cards all, and Black Lightning requires a large down payment of discarding 4 cards just to get a four-cost card back.&nbsp; Together, these three left me feeling constantly at ends with myself, and only efficiently utilizing half of my tier points at a time; not a good place to be!"},{"header":"kalibak"},{"image":[{"src":"kal412569kalibak-.jpeg"},{"caption":""}]},{"text":"At this point, our testing improved dramatically when we paired the team with Kalibak.&nbsp; Black Lightning + Skitter already inspire us to trade Starters for actual cards, and Kalibak furthers that plan, by giving us more fuel for BL in the form of cards in hand. With Kalibak, you get rewarded for discarding your whole hand to BL.&nbsp; Pitch three Starters to get back a Kick, and another two so you can return a 2-cost card to your hand.&nbsp; Playing those few cards you return will make up the entirety of your turn, but doing so means that you will be able to trigger Kalibak and draw up to 7 cards at the end of the turn.&nbsp; Those 7 cards will further fuel your next turn when you replay your whole turn again."},{"header":"Cards to watch for"},{"double":[{"src":"bla895758blank-cr.jpeg"},{"src":"hum298370hummingb.jpeg"}]},{"text":"Since Skitter only cares about cards we control (and not cards played this turn), it goes without saying that Blank is the best card in the cube for us!&nbsp; 1 cost, 1 VP, and can be returned right away and put into play with something as simple as discarding a Starter. Likewise, Hummingbird Form is a great card to recur every turn.&nbsp; Its a 1-cost card that draws us into more cards that trigger Skitter, what's not to love.&nbsp; Load up on as many 1-cost cards as you can, because they quickly trigger Skitter, and they exchange one for one through filtering your hand with Black Lightning."},{"double":[{"src":"sil539572silkie-t.jpeg"},{"src":"dar631155dark-por.jpeg"}]},{"text":"1-cost destruction cards are also top notch.&nbsp; Compared to someone like Batgirl, in our case there's nothing wrong with destroying Starters with this team.&nbsp; Batgirl specifically needs Punches to be able to utilize her ability.&nbsp; Kalibak rewards us for not playing them, so destroying them all is perfectly fine here."},{"double":[{"src":"bum151311bumblebe.jpeg"},{"src":"zoo794235zoo-keep.jpeg"}]},{"text":"Looking at 2-drops, we again see Ongoings at the top of the list.&nbsp; These cards are cheap, so maybe you can pick up two or more cards in the same turn, but more so, they are so helpful in triggering Skitter that you will rarely have a need to discard them.&nbsp; When you do, they are the cheapest to return to your hand with BL to keep the fun going turn after turn."},{"double":[{"src":"kil39617killer-m.jpeg"},{"src":"twi610191twin-des.jpeg"}]},{"text":"There are so many good 2-drops for this team that its hard to pick which stand out above the rest.&nbsp; Here are two favorites of mine.&nbsp; Killer Moth will make sure that anyone that doesn't have defenses knows what its like to gain a Weakness every turn, while Twin Destroyers let you do everything you want in this deck.&nbsp; They draw you into more cards to trigger Skitter or fuel Black Lightning, while helping you destroy any pesky Weaknesses or Starters that you have floating around.&nbsp; Don't be discouraged by your opponents getting to destroy cards, you'll gain more of an advantage from this than they will overall. In general you will be happy with just about any one and two cost cards because of how they further your strategy to trigger Skitter every turn, and because there are so few of them in the cube.&nbsp; In a typical game you will only end up with a handful of these by the end of the game, so beggars can't be choosers and all that jazz.&nbsp; You should happily pick the up throughout the course of the game."},{"double":[{"src":"air372413air-walk.jpeg"},{"src":"aqu580756aqualad-.jpeg"}]},{"text":"Three cost cards are a mixed bag.&nbsp; You'll want to buy any 3-cost ongoing you see, but outside of that you are looking for cards that draw cards, or return cards to your hand.&nbsp; Anything that can increase the number of cards you have access to.&nbsp; Its rarely correct to discard three cards to return a card from this category, but you will find yourself doing that, potentially more often than not, until you get some one and two cost cards."},{"double":[{"src":"lig896581lightnin.jpeg"},{"src":"per651242per-dega.jpeg"}]},{"text":"Nothing makes a Black Lightning team feel complete like a good ol' Lightning Strike or Per Degaton.&nbsp; You'll never regret buying either of these cards, but if you ever find yourself having to choose between which to buy then Lightning Strike gets the nod because of the additional card draw.&nbsp; The main reason you buy either of these is for the &#34;+1 Power for each card discarded...&#34; ability, and then you go crazy discarding to Black Lightning as normal. For instances, it's a completely reasonable play to discard five cards to BL, return Per Degaton, and play him for 7 Power.&nbsp; There are worse ways to win!&nbsp; Never the less, adding either of these cards to your deck turns the power level up another 10 notches."},{"header":"cards to avoid"},{"double":[{"src":"xra269590xray-vis.jpeg"},{"src":"sha43929shadow-t.jpeg"}]},{"text":"For the most part, almost any cheap card you buy will be of some use.&nbsp; That said, X-Ray Vision has come back to bite me more times than I care to count.&nbsp; The idea seems great: its another cheap card that can trigger Skitter, and the Line-Up is to expensive otherwise and I already have four Kicks!&nbsp; Seems like an auto-buy, but in this case I recommend passing on it and buying another Kick.&nbsp; The problem with X-Ray Vision is that sometimes your opponents decks are so bad that they'll all flip over Starters!&nbsp; What a disaster, and this happens to me time after time.&nbsp; We go out of our way to not play any Starters so we can trigger Kalibak, and then X-Ray Vision forces us to play our opponents Starter -&gt; such a beating.&nbsp; Avoid this card like the plague! Shadow Thief isn't nearly as bad, just don't get caught up with the idea of returning opponents cards to your hand so you can discard them and get back another card.&nbsp; &nbsp; While cute, this idea typically backfires, as you make your opponent's deck better (by taking their card) while making your own worse.&nbsp; Not a sound game plan, although doing it once or twice here or there won't derail your whole strategy.&nbsp; Stick to returning your own discarded Starters if\/when you can and you'll be fine."},{"double":[{"src":"mos180771moscow-.jpeg"},{"src":"tam323747tamaran-.jpeg"}]},{"text":"There will come a point in the game where you'll have a little extra power, but nothing really notable to spend it on.&nbsp; Maybe you've got 5 power and have to decide between another Kick or start buying cards that don't trigger Skitter.&nbsp; When this happens, I reach for utility Locations if they are available. You'll rarely have trouble triggering Moscow, and Tamaran is a free +1 Power every so often while your either milling away Starters or putting something into your discard pile that is worthy of returning to your hand with Black Lightning. Once your deck starts generating considerable power every turn, your going to have to start diluting it down with cards from the main deck.&nbsp; I have the best results purchasing the single most expensive card I can, so if you have 8-power, buying a single 7 cost card dilutes your deck less than buying two 4-cost cards does, and preferably that one single card will be the SuperVillian if you have enough Power."},{"double":[{"src":"des265917despero-.jpeg"},{"src":"joh577289john-con.jpeg"}]},{"text":"In case you find the Line-Up devoid of other options, try to only buy expensive cards (i.e. cards that don't trigger Skitter) if they replace themselves by drawing into other cards that will trigger her.&nbsp; Otherwise you run the risk of getting turns where you fall a card or two short of triggering her which will make you want to kick yourself."},{"header":"closing thoughts"},{"text":"Its expected that you will struggle with this team the first few times you try it, because this team forces you to make decisions that you typically don't need to make with other teams.&nbsp; With Sinestro you Attack, with Donna Troy you buy Defenses.&nbsp; This team is unique in that you are presented with a plethora of options each turn, and you having access to your whole discard pile means that finding the optimal line of play isn't always easy or straightforward. Keep at it a few games and you'll get faster and more in tuned with how the deck should run.&nbsp; After a while you'll start to enjoy the pleasure of drawing seven cards at the end of each turn while at the same time become minorly annoyed by the constant ravings of your opponents on how broken your team is, and how is that combo legal! Until next time, may Blank forever be the best card in the cube! "}]