What to do with Death Fractured Frontier
The Fractured Frontier version of Thanos has taken the game by storm, but this week sees the release of what is probably the next most anticipated Fractured Frontier variant, Death! If you thought Jane's Gun/Mjolnir and Psylocke's Blade-Guns were cool... well, get ready for... scythe rifle! Here is everything I'm excited to try with Death Fractured Frontier.
Is she Death Hela?
Isn't Hela already death Hela? Reviving cards to random locations makes Death FF kind of like Hela for Destroy, but the major difference between reviving a Discarded card and a Destroyed card is that you have to pay for the Cost of a card before Destroying it! Hela is a way to cheat high-Cost cards out onto the board. Death is something entirely different. Let's explore the types of cards you'll want to revive.
Top Revival Targets
The ideal targets for Death Fractured Frontier are cards that have some kind of impact or benefit when you play them out the first time, and then have an additional benefit or duplicated effect when Death revives them. This means we're looking for cards that are cheap enough that we can Destroy them before the final turn (Magik can help!) and cards that actually end up in the Destroy pile (sorry, Deadpool and Wolverine fans).
Partners in Crime
Death FF has a chance to revitalize some cards that have seen reduced play and can take advantage of some recent buffs (in anticipation of her release??). Here are some of the more exciting enablers and partners for the new Death.
Scosco's Day One Death FF Decks
Miserable Fiery Death
Misery is the most promising concept with Death. Reviving Sage (potentially more than once!) is a lane winner, while Firehair and Venom can compete for other lanes.
Fantoms
Fantomex already has a set of 12 cards that work well for him, so Death may struggle to make it into the deck. Still, Zombie Captain Marvel into Death is a strong enough final turn that it's definitely worth exploring.
BPD
There are plenty of ways to make giant Black Panthers, but Death allows us to make giant Sages and Firehairs to go along with them.
DarkDeath
Darkhawk has been experiencing a mini-renaissance this season and Firehair has always been a great pairing with the deck. This deck can't really play out all three of Darkhawk, Death, and Thanos very often, but some combination of two, depending on what you're facing, should get the job done pretty often.
Super Destroyer
A sequence of Supergiant, Death FF, and Destroyer allows us to destroy on the last turn and bring cards back after Supergiant's effect wears off at the end of the game. The trick is finding enough useful effects from those first three turns to make this worth it, since Death FF just brings cards back and doesn't provide any additional benefit on her own.
'Mammu Death FF
Death just kind of acts as icing on the cake of what Dormammu is trying to do anyway. Instead of Bucky, let's try Wade Wilson to help us thin a big and increase our chance of playing (at least one!) Death.
Is She Worth It?
She's a brand new 5-Cost build-around that will form the core of a new archetype. While I'm not entirely optimistic about the power level of this archetype, you will need her if you want to play it. The hoops you have to jump through to get use out of her is reminiscent of Morgan Le Fay, Dormammu, and other (somewhat underwhelming) past Destroy-oriented build-arounds. She can be shut down by the same things that shut down Hela and I think the hurdle of drawing what you need to Destroy, paying for it, and then actually Destroying it is super high. Still, the Misery stuff is exciting enough that I think she has a shot at at least one powerful and effective build and there are a lot of moving parts to her that will reward those who are willing to put in experimentation time.
Paid Subscribers will find a few more Death FF decks below the paywall, including the most fun Magik shenanigans decks I can see being fun with Death Fractured Frontier!
