Meta Prep: Adam Warlock
When building a new deck or modifying an existing one, either in the Defenders expansion or in the base set, certain parts or the metagame need to be taken into consideration. This series focuses on some of the powerhouses than and new deck should have a game plan against. If you want your new deck to do well against the established archetypes, make sure you know what you’re going up against and how to beat it.
The focus of this article is Adam Warlock. Many late game oriented decks, usually ramp decks, will prioritize Adam Warlock as a win condition. Warlock is possibly the best supporting character in the game right now, and for several reasons:
1. 13/13 is the highest attack and highest defense for base stats in the game. Keep in mind that base stats are better than pumped stats, due to cards that punish +1/+1 counters and pumps.
2.Flight. This is extremely important, as a Main Character can hide behind Adam Warlock and force you to deal with him. He cannot be ignored, and is a one man roadblock. Flight also lets Warlock strike opposing MC’s and other problem characters easier.
3.Being a Guardians of the Galaxy character, Adam Warlock can threaten an Even the Odds (which requires a GOG character.) This makes attacking him with a massively pumped character even more risky.
The most common threat with Adam Warlock is Starlord MC. This ramp-focused deck can drop him bdown as early as turn 3, though realistically turn 5-6 is what you should expect. So not only is Adam Warlock a big problem, he’s a problem even for aggressive decks trying to stun every turn.
Aggro
For the above reason, aggressive decks need to be able to have a plan to deal with Adam Warlock. If your deck is very fast, the opponent may only have 1 turn behind him, assuming you are stunning them every turn. However, you should be able to get at least 1 stun with Adam Warlock on the other side of the table. Here are the base-set options aggressive decks have:
1. Major Victory: Pushes an enemy to its back row.
a. Can get past any flier/grab, and if he lives, can do it multiple times
b. Has Range, can hide in your back row
c.Is Guardians, so lets you play Even the Odds (as most aggressive decks should)
2. Spiderman: Pulls a back row enemy to its front row
a. The best option, since it gets around multiple fliers
b. cost is a bit tough for aggressive decks to support.
3. Mystique: Copies the stats of another character
a. Can start combat even with Adam Warlock
b. Have to fight through plot twists, though her super power changes base stats, so even the odds resets her to 13/13
4. Rely on multiple pumps, stun Adam Warlock
a. Very risky, if they have Even the Odds or other plot twists
5.Team Attack
a. Better than multiple pumps, and again can be thwarted by cards like Think Again, Uncanny defense.
In general, you need to be planning your game and saving a way to deal with Adam Warlock on turn 5-6. You still need to have a stun each turn, but your deck should be able to make it to turn 4-5 without exhausting all of its firepower.
Control
In addition to some of the above options, control decks (or ramp decks) have other options for dealing with Adam Warlock.
1. Your own Adam Warlock
a. If you can’t beat him, join him! This works best in MC Loki where you can take away their plot twists, making you win combat with 1 pump.
2. Magneto: Opposing SC’s cannot recover
a.This stops Adam Warlock, since they cannot activate his Super Power while you control Magneto. Being on 6 means you have to be ramping at about the same speed as your opponent if you want to stop them, since they can drop Warlock before turn 6 often.
3. Ronan: Name a card, opponent discards all of them (see their hand!)
a. Probably the single best card in the control/ramp matchup to start with, you can discard all of their Adam Warlocks the turn before they can play him.
b. Shouldn’t be your only option, since the opponent can still draw one and play him. Also, doesn’t stop one already in play
4.Professor X: Steal a character for a turn
a.This mostly applies to the MC prof x, who can simply run the opposing MC into their own Adam warlock, and then play defense on their own turn. This will mostly work if ahead on wounds, since it doesn’t actually kill their Adam Warlock.
5. Cable/Gambit
a. Both of these can certainly stun an Adam Warlock, but are a bit hard to pull off. For Cable, you have to use him before you know if the attack will actually finish (Think again, Uncanny Defense.) For Gambit, you have to discard a 7 or 8 drop, which you likely are going to need, since it’s late in the game anyway.
Conclusion
Adam Warlock is a key of any late-game deck, so you need to have a plan against him to be successful in those matchups. Feel free to comment on your own interactions with him in the meta, and what you think works best. Also, the next meta prep topic can be up to suggestions by readers.
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