STG's Top Ten Cards List

Hello everyone! STG here with my first ever article. The CBR card league was a blast, I learned a lot and enjoyed it thoroughly. So I would like to give a big thanks to The Tyrannical Mason and her efforts in organizing and maintaining such a long event, as well as the players for all of their participation. For my first article, I'm going to go over the top ten cards that are, in my opinion, the best in the game. While there are a ton of good cards in the game with some bonkers effects, to make my list the card must not be narrow in scope without good reason and should be able to perform well mostly on its own. While "Comrade in Arms" is absolutely ridiculous because of its three power cost, it's a bit too restricted to truly be the best of the best. There are some small exceptions to that as you'll read, but I feel those particular cards are there with good reason. And remember, this is only my opinion. Let's begin!

10. Scent of Fear - A card in hand is always better than a card in deck. You may read that from me more than once. Scent of Fear is very powerful in that it gives you complete information of your opponent's hand and spot removal in one nice package. Not a lot of cards can offer these together, and none so early in the game before the big threats start hitting the board. Discard strategies are powerful, and this is an essential card in that deck. Being a Daredevil card is a great bonus for his theme deck, too.

9. Claw Everything Always (Honorable Mention to Risk it All) - Claw Everything Always gets the nod here over its little brother. While they both do the same thing, the Lizard card does it in a slightly better position than the Spider equivalent. While seemingly "vanilla," it's ridiculously low power of four is just too good. Risk it All hitting for six is a lot more common than Claw Everything Always hitting for ten unblocked. Ten damage is an awful lot, which actually can make your opponent "Risk it all!" The backfire effect can be a problem for the younger Spider-man card as early in the game you will either give up information on your deck from hitting yourself or go down two cards in hand early in the game. Claw Everything Always is also better in that it's significant damage at every turn in the game and is just so good at closing out games, especially in a mono red deck (Or even blue!).

8. Slice in Half - Oppressive cards are powerful; cards that you know you are forced to block or be set behind a lot. This is one of them. A card is not only good on sheer power, but also its intimidation factor. Because you only have so many blocks in your deck, once you realize early on that your opponent is playing a DD/Elektra deck naturally you are going to hold red and yellow blocks. But will you quickly let all your yellow blocks go or hold at least one in hand in fear of this card, even if it means taking decent damage from attacks like Flipping Out and Totally Jammin? Slice in Half can sometimes cause you to lose half your deck... without even being played. It's also rather upsetting if this card does activate and you watch two or three speed blocks fly by.

7. Strange Teleportation - Taking an extra turn is wonderful. Doing damage is great too. Even better is trying to make your opponent decide which hurts them less. The best are those times you do it two turns in a row! The best part of this card is actually its power cost of nine. Usually by this point in the game, a lot of damage has been dealt making the decision really hard on your opponent. Most players almost always choose not to block it, which can cost them heavily at these later stages of the game when the decks start thinning out. If your deck is built properly, this card will punish your opponent no matter whether they choose to block it or not.

6. Erase Your Destiny - Remember when I said a card in hand is always better than a card in deck? How about that spill on intimidating cards? Erase Your Destiny is one of those cards everyone loves to hate. Being in the starter deck, I'm sure we've all randomly lost games to this card. Incidentally it's also a devilish card to put into decks it doesn't even belong in, I've lost quite a few games against themed or mono decks that have nothing to do with energy cards, and then this beast shows up and blows me out.

5. Fist? Meet Face - The Fantastic Four certainly loves their keepers and so does this card. Cards that are two of the same factor are difficult to block, and F4 can throw out enough problems to thin you out of blocks really quickly. As an added bonus, F4 "set-up" keepers such as Hungry For Battle and Turn Up The Heat will not only both boost this card and make it come out faster, but they also can't misfire. Keepers that can only be destroyed by an opposing card's effect typically do a lot of sneaky things for you and this card shows it. The beauty of this card is that it hasn't even reached its full potential yet. If you aren't aware of the Invisible Woman quest cards, I suggest you take a look at how even more ridiculous this card will be in upcoming months.

4. Beyond Defeat - Healing is easily the most broken mechanic in the game, and this Wolverine card is the king among healing cards. In healing focused decks especially, lasting to turn twelve is only a matter of time. This card lets you last even longer, or it allows you to make a serious comeback. An eleven card swing is nothing to scoff at, especially when it puts cards back in your deck while taking cards away from the opponent. This card is especially dangerous because of how often it shows up back to back given the big power cost. Healing five so late in the game can often take you out of range for your opponent to finish you off, if your opponent has used up all their game winners already.

3. Panther in the Mist - Unblockable cards are underpowered, cost quite a bit, and/or have tough requirements for a reason. Not this one. Have you ever wanted to play a deck that absolutely does not care what your opponent is doing? Well slap together everyone's favorite Black Panther keepers and this bad boy! This is one of the few cards in the game that forces a combo to happen no matter what, and it hurts everytime. Did you know, King and Queen sets off once Panther in the Mist starts the chain of blowing up all of your Panther keepers? (That was a mouthful). Even better is that this card is still strong without its supporting cast of red keepers. Four for four unblockable with such an easily requirement is very strong, and it's easily boosted with Soul of Wakanda. I know most players have played this deck because of how silly this card is, I don't even know why I should bother to say so much about how much this crazy card does. Some players may wonder why this made my list over King and Queen, it's because K&Q can actually be stopped and is very predictable. K&Q also forces a red block out of hand, which makes Black Panther "blow up" keepers more threatening, which makes Panther in the Mist even more threatening (Another mouthful). The important bit to remember, this card absolutely cannot be stopped and if your blocks betray you I wish you good luck in having a chance at winning that game.

2. Grand Theft - Did your opponent just try to drop some huge awesome card on you? Well here is one of the best punishments for it! The surprise factor of this card is off the charts; while your opponent can try to play around cards like Slice in Half and Erase Your Destiny, this card is a problem on a whole different level. It's rather unreasonable to be prepared for this card as a dual speed factor, even worse when your opponent randomly places it into any deck that needs to fill in red blocks. When you see this card, especially when not a part of a particular theme deck, sometimes you think twice about playing your huge cards because you'll usually take six damage for your troubles. It's more crippling when your opponent is prepared to block your big card and then punish you for it. But unfortunately, you typically want to play your big cards to win games and Grand Theft is there to make sure you suffer for it each and every time.

1. Supernatural Soda - Coming in at the number one spot is Supernatural Soda, one of two cards I have no idea how got approved (The second I'll mention later). Few keepers in the game demand an immediate answer, but none of them are as powerful as this. An unchecked Soda will often win games by itself just by sitting there healing you like crazy. The power coin flips once every turn and there more than enough tricks to abuse this card; the scales are tipped heavily in your favor with this card online. This card will make you understand the importance of having solid keeper destruction in your deck or you will lose games to it, very often. If you have two or more of these in play you have probably already won the game and your opponent should just stop playing. Yes, it's possible for your opponent to still come back but odds are heavily against them once this gets going. While the similar Aura Drain is a guaranteed heal on your turn, Soda can potentially heal you twice as much, and cannot be misfired. This card is the gift that keeps on giving and quite honestly gives way too much, letting you steal games from your opponent you should have never won.

Honorable Mentions:
These cards, while powerful, may be a little too narrow or just shy of making my top ten. But they are still incredibly scary cards and powerhouses we have all come to love or hate. Links are provided as there will be no images.


King and Queen: This card needs no introduction and does a lot of great work. I feel that Panther in the Mist is the true backbone of the Black Panther/Storm deck, but some players may disagree.
Perfect Solution: "A card in hand is always better than a card in deck." So let's turn all of our cards into cantrips so that we always have a stocked hand full of options!
Improbability Field: This card is the enabler for all sorts of tricks and nasty things. There are some cool combos you can do with more than just Scarlet Witch cards, so do explore it for yourself!
Fools, We'll Show You All!: All the benefits of "Mental Invasion" without the guessing game, this card has a convenient cost to punish those team up attacks your opponent is holding.
Ace of Hearts: This card does a lot of good things for you, and unlike most character-themed keepers it doesn't misfire itself. Joy! This card is going to get even better when Gambit's quest is released.
Fantastic Force: While there are a few dual factor cards with the same stats as this card, the amount of support it gets from Turn Up The Heat, Cold Fusion, and Power Lifting makes this one king.
Punch Out: Its a combo card much like Panther in the Mist, but unlike Black Panther this card can be stopped, costs way more and is predictable. But it is dual factor and still packs a punch!
Comrades in Arms: Someone remind me why this costs three? I'll be featuring this card in a later article, so I'll talk about it then. Stay tuned!
Protective Shell: This is the other card mentioned alongside Supernatural Soda. While currently unreleased online, this card is nightmarish in the physical card game. This card enables so much nonsense to happen I don't even want to talk about it. You'll see for yourself when it's released online. If it were already available, it would easily take the number two spot.

That was a long spill, but I hope you enjoyed it. Remember, this list is only my opinion. My next article won't be as long, so I hope you'll come back to check out my future writings. Thanks!