[{"text":"Hey everybody, We've still got a few more weeks of winter left, and here to see you off is none other than the Flash's frosty foe, Captain Cold! Almost every other Main Character from Crossover 5 has had time in the tournament spotlight, several of them making finals appearances, but their leader has long been waiting for his time to shine. The Teamwork nerfs of 2018 tried to send Cold to the icebox, but he's not down for the count! He's still a solid MC and can bring a lot to the table. "},{"header":"captain cold"},{"image":[{"src":"cap198187captain-.jpg"},{"caption":""}]},{"text":"Captain Cold's power comes in two parts. His first ability states that the first time you buy a card from the Line-up that costs 3 or less you may Teamwork a foe, rewarding you for buying up a lot of cheap cards. His second ability lets him Teamwork a foe once per turn in exchange for giving that foe a VP token, the classic Crossover 5 MC ability. It is important to note that while both of these Teamworks determine a foe randomly, only the second one gives out a VP. Fitting that the leader of the Rogues would be able to Teamwork twice as often as his teammates! So what can we do with this MC? Captain Cold favors a farming style of play, giving you a couple chances at small boosts to put you at just enough power to buy another card after you buy something cheap. And in situations where the lineup is filled with more expensive cards, you can still use Captain Cold's second ability to try and inch yourself into range of buying a powerful card while your opponents are left frozen in their tracks fumbling with kicks. Cold\u2019s first few turns can be weak since his first ability usually won't get you enough power to actually buy another card unless you find some 2-costs or end up with a hand of 5 punches, but once you have a few solid cards in your deck though and can hit 4 or 5 power regularly, you'll be in a good spot to start farming. So to build a team for Captain Cold, we want to either find him MCs that let him get to his farming ASAP, or that eventually turn all of your cheap pickups into more power. With that in mind, I'd like to start with what is my favorite Captain Cold team: "},{"header":"Captain Cold (3) + Cheetah (3)"},{"double":[{"src":"cap568878captain-.jpg"},{"src":"che688419cheetah-.jpg"}]},{"text":"Cheetah loves farming cards almost as much as Captain Cold, and serves as a mid-to-late game win-more MC that really gets you snowballing once you get over the initial hurdle of buying or gaining 2 cards. Once you start thinning out your deck, you\u2019ll get more turns at 4-5 power and more chances to keep buying 2 cards a turn, thinning your deck even further. Once you run out of do-nothing cards, or if the lineup is especially expensive, you can start using Cheetah's ability to draw a card instead, adding even more gas to your farming engine, or even getting you in range of buying the supervillain after a Teamwork. Cheetah also doesn't rely on the lineup like Cold does, even triggering off of Weaknesses you gain during your turn, making cards like her namesake from the Base Set and Bizarro Power from Forever Evil great pickups. The team's biggest weakness is its early game, where it has to give away VPs if it wants to try and keep up with faster teams. Similarly, expensive lineups can freeze you in your tracks and stall out that crucial first 2-card purchase. "},{"double":[{"src":"che243558cheetah-.jpg"},{"src":"biz137616bizarro-.jpg"}]},{"header":"Captain Cold (3) + The Flash (2) + Skitter (1)"},{"double":[{"src":"cap143231captain-.jpg"},{"src":"the684666the-flas.jpg"}]},{"double":[{"src":"ski811443skitter-.jpg"},{"src":"car21187card-bac.jpg"}]},{"text":"Here we have a team that lets Captain Cold do his thing and just tries to make sure he has the most opportunities to succeed. There are currently 256 main deck cards that cost 3 or less, which is about 37% of the main deck. This means that in the opening lineup you're about 90% likely to see at least one of these cards, but the real issue is that most players will buy up all these cheap cards in the first couple turns and leave the expensive ones, so after just one round of turns you might go from a lineup full of cheap cards to a lineup with only 1 or 2. The Flash helps thaw out a locked lineup and expand your options, while also giving you a small discount on the new card, all benefits a farming team is happy to have.&nbsp; (Note: if Flash flips a 4-cost card into the lineup, buying it won't trigger Captain Cold; Flash reduces the cost you pay for the card, but he doesn't lower its actual cost which is what Captain Cold checks.)&nbsp; Skitter helps to round out the late game of the team by turning your wide range of cheap cards into a lot of power. She won't trigger until a while into the game, but +3 power is quite a lot. The biggest issue with this team is that both Captain Cold and The Flash are very reliant on buying cards from the lineup. If the lineup is too expensive and you're stuck buying Kicks, you're going to fall way behind. You'll also be telegraphing your team in Tiers 1 and 2 (unless you can get creative and find another tier 3 to substitute for Cold!), giving your opponents early information about the draft and better setting up their picks. "},{"header":"Captain Cold (3) + Animal Man (3)"},{"double":[{"src":"cap798844captain-.jpg"},{"src":"ani42390animal-m.jpg"}]},{"text":"Animal Man trades utility and late game strength for speed, and turns Captain Cold\u2019s cheap cards into a mid game power boost. Animal Man also isn't as dependent on cheap cards, letting you still end up in a strong position even if you need to spend the first few turns reaching for 5+ power to get expensive cards out if the line-up. And if you do manage to farm 2 cards a turn, Animal Man will trigger that much more often. There's not really much else to say about this duo, Animal Man is pretty simple and straightforward. The biggest downside of this team is that the +2 power from animal man will fall off later in the game, so if someone else starts to run through the Super Villain stack then you'll have a hard time catching up.&nbsp; The double teamwork option of Captain Cold certainly helps in triggering Animal Man though, so you can often trigger him earlier than you might otherwise think."},{"header":"Conclusion"},{"text":"Captain Cold may not be the king of the early game, but if you can get him enough support and a little bit of time then he'll be Teamworking and buying up cards left and right. Give him a try in some of your games and see for yourself! That's all for this week, but stay tuned for something coming soon that should be a little...spicier. "}]