[{"text":"Hello everyone! It's Coiser again, and I'm back to discuss a Main Character that is starting to gain some attention.&nbsp; Whether you plan to use him in your Arsenal of MCs or not, his popularity is high enough that you should at least know what your up against if you don't plan on drafting him."},{"header":"arsenal"},{"image":[{"src":"ars826865arsenal-.jpg"},{"caption":""}]},{"text":"Arsenal was dropped to tier 2 in February of this year, and players wasted no time sleeving him up as their destruction MC of choice.&nbsp; Triggering his ability is as simple as getting the cheapest card from the line-up, and his reward is destroying a card, often a Starter as early as turn 1!&nbsp; Keeping in mind that we need a readily available discard outlet to provide something to destroy each turn, let's first take a look at some potential pairings for him:"},{"header":"reliable discard outlets"},{"double":[{"src":"bat636807batgirl-.jpg"},{"src":"bea57152beast-bo.jpg"}]},{"double":[{"src":"bla58838black-li.jpg"},{"src":"bra542863brainiac.jpg"}]},{"double":[{"src":"cha47362chameleo.jpg"},{"src":"gre127410green-ar.jpg"}]},{"double":[{"src":"kyl953694kyle-ray.jpg"},{"src":"mis413194mister-t.jpg"}]},{"double":[{"src":"oli28610oliver-q.jpg"},{"src":"ror741673rorschac.jpg"}]},{"double":[{"src":"wea740261weather-.jpg"},{"src":"whi218227white-la.jpg"}]},{"text":"A search of https:\/\/www.dcdeckbuilding.info yields twelve MCs that can potentially help with our endeavor.&nbsp; Let's analyze each of them and see if we can't narrow the field down."},{"list":[{"listType":"bullet"},{"caption":"Batgirl - She's only interested in discarding Punches, whereas we want to be able to quickly rid ourselves of Vulnerabilities, and later any Weaknesses we might get"},{"caption":"Beast Boy - Worth further inspection"},{"caption":"Black Lightning - Worth further inspection"},{"caption":"Brainiac 5 - We would get maximum benefit from him if we planned on regularly buying five cost cards.  Since that's not likely to be the case very often, let's keep looking"},{"caption":"Chameleon Boy - Arsenal entices us to buy cheap cards, whereas Cham Boy really wants expensive cards so he'll have the option of time traveling any card from the line-up, let's keep looking"},{"caption":"Green Arrow - Arsenal's partner in crime, but perhaps not what we're looking for because he only reduces the amount we pay for the card, but doesn't actually reduce its cost which is what Arsenal checks"},{"caption":"Kyle Rayner - To difficult to use his ability early in the game"},{"caption":"Mister Terrific - Similar to Batgirl, he's only interested in discarding Punches, we can probably do better"},{"caption":"Oliver Queen - A reliable discard outlet, but at tier 4 we can probably find a more efficient means of enabling Arsenal"},{"caption":"Rorschach - Worth further inspection"},{"caption":"Weather Wizard - Worth further inspection"},{"caption":"White Lantern Deadman - Worth further inspection"}]},{"text":"From our initial twelve MCs, we've narrowed our options down to the following five:"},{"double":[{"src":"bea560616beast-bo.jpg"},{"src":"bla834596black-li.jpg"}]},{"double":[{"src":"ror851611rorschac.jpg"},{"src":"wea859504weather-.jpg"}]},{"double":[{"src":"whi622662white-la.jpg"},{"src":"car871314card-bac.jpg"}]},{"text":"Before we start evaluating potential teammates, let's revist Arsenal and see what other factors we should look for when building out the rest of our team."},{"header":"arsenal"},{"image":[{"src":"ars50930arsenal-.jpg"},{"caption":""}]},{"text":"Since we know what our objective in in playing Arsenal, we now look at the expected outcome.&nbsp; Based on having to buy the cheapest card in the line-up to trigger his ability, we can expect our deck to be comprised mainly of three cost and lower cards, with the occasional four or five drop scattered in on turns when the line-up was especially nice to us.&nbsp; Furthermore, these cards are often non-synergistic, as they are just what was available for us to buy that turn.&nbsp; That said, let's evaluate some potential partners while keeping in mind some attributes of our deck as we reach the mid game:"},{"list":[{"listType":"bullet"},{"caption":"Our deck should be smaller than average, as we'll typically gain and destroy one card per turn"},{"caption":"Largely devoid of any Starters"},{"caption":"Comprised of all different card types, the majority of which cost three or less"}]},{"text":"With these details in mind, let's evaluate each of his potential partners individually:"},{"header":"beast boy"},{"image":[{"src":"bea555780beast-bo.jpg"},{"caption":""}]},{"text":"Beast Boy has a lot to offer us here.&nbsp; Since we have an assortment of card types, its reasonable to think that as soon as we start buying bombs we'll be able to reliably recur them when the situation presents itself.&nbsp; Beast Boy let's us convert early cheap cards we've picked up (that might have little to no benefit for us) into late game bombs we can recur regularly.&nbsp; Some examples:"},{"double":[{"src":"ato190763atomica-.jpg"},{"src":"biz997717bizarro-.jpg"}]},{"double":[{"src":"acr31912acrobati.jpg"},{"src":"ice422181iced-ove.jpg"}]},{"double":[{"src":"bla276356blaster-.jpg"},{"src":"cro139790crown-of.jpg"}]},{"text":"Pairing with Beast Boy allows for the early game destruction we want, with the potential of late game recursion, and we still have two tier points to spare.&nbsp; What's not to love?"},{"header":"black lightning"},{"image":[{"src":"bla818799black-li.jpg"},{"caption":""}]},{"text":"After reviewing our expected position at the mid-game, Black Lightning doesn't look like he offers us much outside of being a reliable discard outlet.&nbsp; BL seems best when he's discarding a hand of vuln's and weaknesses to bring back a power card.&nbsp; In our case he'd be discarding all non-starters to recur something, which seems to be a job better suited for Beast Boy, as mentioned above."},{"header":"rorschach"},{"image":[{"src":"ror99681rorschac.jpg"},{"caption":""}]},{"text":"Malkoir penned a great guide for Rorschach (you can read that here: https:\/\/www.dcdeckbuilding.com\/article.php?id=10788), so I'll just touch on his benefits when fighting alongside Arsenal.<br><br>Rorschach is another reliable discard outlet on turn one, and he is the best we've seen so far, having the capacity to turn our discarded vuln into a Punch or better.&nbsp; As the mid to late game comes around our decisions become harder, albeit maybe not by much.&nbsp; Although we might find ourselves discarding non-Starters, often we'll have at least a few cards which mine as well be Starters if we play them:"},{"double":[{"src":"bat405334batmobil.jpg"},{"src":"com756596commissi.jpg"}]},{"double":[{"src":"r02822687r02-cons.jpg"},{"src":"oce131980ocean-ma.jpg"}]},{"text":"Rorschach allows us to convert our worst performing cards into real cards when we find something worthwhile on top of an opponents deck.&nbsp; To that end, his effectiveness on the team is increased tremendously when facing down an opposing Black Manta."},{"header":"weather wizard"},{"image":[{"src":"wea347872weather-.jpg"},{"caption":""}]},{"text":"Weather Wizard was last seen atop the standing fighting alongside Harley Quinn (you can read about that here: https:\/\/www.dcdeckbuilding.com\/article.php?id=10804), and he hasn't found a home since then.&nbsp; Similar to a few others we've considered, Weather Wizard will let you quickly sift through the few remaining cards you have to find what you need.&nbsp; If you managed to pick up a bomb high cost card, and as you move into Super Villains, Weather Wizard will happily sift through the low cost cards you picked up in order to find it.&nbsp; He comes equipped with Teamwork which has led many players into the top 8, so that aspect should not be overlooked.&nbsp; Unfortunately I don't think that utility makes up two-tier points worth, and I might look to Beast Boy if I wanted to go down this path."},{"header":"white lantern deadman"},{"image":[{"src":"whi788278white-la.jpg"},{"caption":""}]},{"text":"WLDM comes in as the least-reliable for early game synergy with Arsenal due to his different color card clause.&nbsp; This means you'll likely miss on turn one, and potentially miss on turn three after you shuffle (unless you draw the card you bought and want to use it towards his ability).&nbsp; Making up for that inconvenience is a potentially game winning ability which allows you to choose and play the best card from another players hand.&nbsp; Compared to Rorschach who only gets a chance at the top card, WLDM can be useful vs a multitude of teams that look to stack their own deck for use in later turns.&nbsp; Its a trade-off that can pay dividends in the right matchups, so if you see Aquaman, Deadshot or Shazam across the table you can't be criticized for enlisting the White Lantern bearer to your team."},{"header":"closing thoughts"},{"text":"Hopefully I've given you some tips on how to evaluate potential teammates when picking an MC to build around, as well as given you some insight into plausible teammates for Arsenal.&nbsp; With tournaments later this month in Oklahoma (https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/events\/340036286616376\/) as well as North Carolina (https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/events\/2145133138866393\/) you still have time to get in some games with these teams and be prepared to play either with, or against, them!<br>"}]