VS Player

When you look over their cards, the Sinister Syndicate really only has one theme that seems like it will be playable in a Constructed environment and that's the weenie rush. The Syndicate has a lot of good 1 and 2-drops, with some real standouts. One of the best is Answer. His ability to pretty much always stun their biggest drop will really come in handy when you're playing against a curve deck. There are a lot of other good low drops. I personally like most of the characters that are oversized but cause you to lose endurance like Electro. In addition to the off-curve capabilities of this team, they have one of the best six-drops around in Doc Ock. Anyone that basically gives out free stuns is someone I want on my team. His Loyalty will keep him from showing up in any toolbox decks and the Syndicate doesn't have a lot to make a good curve team, IMO. That's a real shame because Doc Ock is very good.

The Syndicate support cards mirror their characters in that most of the good ones will be in an off-curve deck. One thing that's a little disappointing to me is the power of the cards that cost you endurance equal to your resources. The price on these cards is relatively steep and many of them have effects similar to other cards that don't have the endurance cost with them. Demonic Association for example. This card is more heavily team-stamped than Big Leagues with a greater cost for the same effect. I think they could have pushed the power on these cards a little more.

There are three real standouts to me for the SS Swarm deck, Spider-Hunt, Ravencroft Institute, and Legacy of Evil. Between Spider-Hunt, Ravencroft, and Carnage's boost power, whatever turn you go for the kill, all your 2-drops should be at least +6 ATK. Throw in a Faces of Evil or three and you're going to have a monster army. Here's a Silver Age decklist to start with for Sinister Faces.

4 Yellowjacket
4 Beetle
1 Answer
1 Black Tarantula
2 Carnage
1 Chameleon
1 Electro
1 Fusion
1 Lizard
1 Razorfist
1 Slyde
1 Spider Slayer
1 Swarm
1 Trapster
1 Vulture
1 Shocker
1 Radioactive Man
1 Paul Ebersol
1 Nathan Garrett
1 Melter
1 Melissa Gold
1 Speed Demon
1 Ogre
1 Melissa Gold
1 Joystick
1 Erik Josten
1 Dallas Riordan
2 Beetle Mach 1

4 Legacy of Evil
4 Ravencroft Institute
3 Spider Hunt
4 Hard Sound Construct
2 Mystic Summons
4 Faces of Evil
4 The Wrecking Crew
3 Stormfront 1

I realized after I built this list that DGL is still legal in Silver, so this deck should also have Birthing Chambers and Kyle Rayner to fetch up the Hard Sound Constructs. Poison Ivy would also allow some added flexibility in the support cards.

I haven't played this deck at all yet, but I think you want evens to make turn 6 your kill turn. An ideal turn 6 would include a boosted Carnage, Spider-Hunt, Ravencroft a 2-cost, Hard Sound Constructing something and firing off a good Wrecking Crew. It sounds like a lot I know, but even just a small amount of global pumps will make your guys really big. The Masters of Evil add a lot to this deck. Yellowjacket and Beetle are both great cards for off-curve strategies and allow quite a bit of flexibility in your allies. They are also half of the Faces of Evil team-up. Possibly the best card the Masters bring to the table is Hard Sound Construct. This card is ridiculous, especially when combined with all the global pumps this decks runs.

The Thunderbolts are really only there to fulfill the Faces requirement, but their characters aren't bad either. They also give you access to Beetle Mach 1 to get your team-ups.

In Modern Age, it's hard to say whether there is a good enough team-up to get the Syndicate deck to the top. The Masters of Evil are probably the best off-curve team in the game and without them the Syndicate deck may fall short. It still has a lot of firepower though and there are a couple of teams that would make decent team-ups with them.

The Legionnaires and Titans both have decent off-curve options, but the most likely team-up in Modern Age (at least until World's Finest) is going to be with the JSA. The 2 Mr. Terrifics, Kate Spencer, and T-Spheres are all good additions to the deck and the JSA has some decent off-curve characters as well. The power up JSA's attacking up the curve with Syndicate's raw off-curve power may be a viable team-up, but only playtesting would tell.

That's all I've got for today, but next time I'll cover Underworld.