Welcome back to another Pulse of the Meta – a periodic article series where we check in with the MetaX community to bring you not just what we at MetaManiacs think, but give you some insight into what the larger community thinks and how the wider playerbase responds to questions about the MetaX TCG!
Each time we prep for one of these articles, we’ll be posing a community question on our Facebook page, so make sure you are following us there to see when a new question goes up! We’ll try and vary who we are choosing answers from each time, so if yours didn’t get picked for a particular question, just try again next time! We value all the feedback we get but we simply pick and choose answers based on providing as wide a scope as possible to answer the question.
This month’s Pulse of the Meta question is prying into Traits – those keywords on characters that help define which decks you play and which cards work together with others. MetaX has seen a host of different Traits so far and will have many more to come in the future, but what we wanted to know this month was: Which current Trait would you like to see more support for in the future, and why?
Feel free to add your own thoughts to the thread above, or scroll down to hear what others had to say, and some of our own thoughts on their great choices!
Jeff Ricker: Bat Family
Our first comment is from Jeff Ricker, who wants to see more support for the just recently released Bat Family, pointing out that Batman – Prepared makes for the ideal “boss monster” for the deck. I like to think of Bat Family as the “playing fair” trait – they don’t have any one particular gimmick that makes them stand out above the rest of the traits, but they keep you in the game with card draw (such as Nightwing – Fearless Acrobat and Batwoman – Kate Kane) and by protecting your board or using characters like Terry McGinnis – Batman of the Future to prevent the opponent from gaining too much advantage with efficient events.
As “the great balancer”, a Bat Family deck may find itself with plenty of ways to hang on to a game, but not always enough to tip the scales in its favor, so a small injection of potency may be just what the trait needs to bring it up on the same level as some of the top decks right now. But even as is, a Bat Family deck is no slouch – one made it into the Top Cut of the 2018 GenCon $2K, in fact – and if the right match ups come up, decks that aren’t prepared to play more fairly can find themselves on the losing end of the score sheet. But if a boost is warranted, with the host of popular characters that have donned the mantle in Gotham over the years, there would be plenty to pick from to add to the Trait down the line!
Mason Knox, Ty Tracey, and Brendan Atlas: The Green Lantern Set
By far the most common response to this question was some form of the Traits from the Green Lantern expansion – and, in particular, the iconic Green Lanterns themselves! And it’s no surprise – following the two traits released in Justice League, Green Lantern pulled the game in a very different direction by suddenly introducing NINE more Traits – along with a handful of Heroes and Villains. While there are a lot of potent combinations of Lanterns you can build decks around, anyone wanting to really devote to a single Corps may find themselves wishing for another wave of support to bring them more options at the very least. So here we’ve group up three of such responses, looking at some different facets of how such a wave of support could be implemented.
Mason Knox (MetaManiacs Podcast host!) and Ty Tracey both dove into the Green Lantern trait from a mechanical standpoint, and it seems like they are on the same page – the Green Lanterns had the highest quantity of characters in a single trait in the Green Lantern expansion, but a look through the list will find you pulling in several different directions if you are looking to build a dedicated GL deck. Whether the further support came in the way of new Characters to perhaps champion the trait (Green Lantern – Emerald Knight is an excellent card, but perhaps doesn’t have the “oomph” Mason is looking for to guide the team on the battlefield), or more Events or Battle Cards that provide more unique bonuses to focus on in exchange for using the less-focused character lineup as Ty suggests, in any case. such support could certainly help launch the Corps into the competitive arena in a big way. While cards like Power Ring and 7 Strength/Intelligence/Special (R140-GL) do exist, they are perhaps on the slightly weaker end than where trait-stamped effects have landed in development more recently, so a boon to these older traits might be warranted!
However, I would be remiss to neglect to mention that Ty, did, in fact, make it into the top cut of the MXOLT I with his Green Lantern tribal deck – check out the decklist near the bottom of this link! By combining Green Lantern – Abin Sur, Kilowogg – Drill Sergeant, and the Attack on Titan event Cunning Plot, Ty was able to create a crafty board control combo enabled by the tutoring strength of the GL Corps. Where there’s a will, there’s a way!
Our third comment of the bunch is from Brendan Atlas, who is clearly a fan of the GL lore like me – Brendan just wants to see more of the “deputized” lanterns from the Blackest Night storyline, and I cannot possibly agree more. That part of the storyline is definitely one of the coolest – seeing which non-Lantern DC characters were chosen by the rings and how their personalities and power sets fit into the Lantern universe felt like the coolest part of a crossover to me – and MetaX is all about crossovers, so it’s a shame that only half of them made it in! Perhaps someday there will be a chance for redemption and Lex, The Flash, and Mera – who hasn’t even been on any card yet – will yet be able to give their oaths!
Tony Mundell: Human
Okay, I set myself up for this one. Fair play, Tony – the Human trait has been seen on precisely one Character thus far, Grisha Jaeger – Doctor from Attack on Titan, making it definitively the Trait in most need of support. But ask and ye (might) receive: We’ve already had hints of such support in Teen Titans GO! on the Panini Games Blog! Check out this quote from the blog post on January 18th:
“The next set contains a Human Character with one of the most enticing rejuvenating effects seen to date.”
Now, whether or not you’ll be able to immediately build a Human deck remains to be seen, but with cards like 3 Strength/Intelligence/Special (U97-BM) available to all traits to use, perhaps there’s a chance!
In the mean time, while you are trying to brew up decks, make sure you pay a visit to Tony’s Toyboat website, where, in conjunction with MetaXDB, you can create deck visualization images to share with your friends and the community. We use Toyboat in our deck profiles as well – it’s a great tool to have, so make sure you use it and consider supporting MetaXDB on Patreon!
Until Next Time
That’s going to wrap up this month’s Pulse of the Meta, but we will be back in March with a new question and some fresh new ideas from you guys in the community! If you’d like to see your ideas featured in our next article in the series, make sure to like and follow MetaManiacs on Facebook so you don’t miss when we post our next communal question!
Until then, keep the Meta in your heart beating strong!
