Thanos is the boogeyman of the format. There are a few different ways to build him and each have their advantages and disadvantages. Regardless of the build, he is usually a force to be reckoned with. Often players talk about him needing a ban, but recently a few more decks have been able to fairly consistently take down "The Mad Titan". With all of these new decks running around, is the mad titan still relevant and a powerhouse? Yes he is.

Today we will look at an alternate build for Thanos, a combo version that was inspired by a post in the VS 2PCG Collective on Facebook. Others have taken to the deck and made their own unique changes to the Glass Cannon shell posted and I will share a sturdier more consistent shell, yet usually a little more cautious version with some consistency over the explosiveness of other posted versions. It has some advantages and disadvantages over normal Thanos Lists. First, let's take a look at "The Mad Titan" and what he is all about.

Leveling

The Mad Titan - Level Up (6) When a character on any side gets KO'd, Thanos gains an XP.

Leveling Thanos seems pretty straight forward. KO some guys which will happen naturally and get big quick. With decks like Luke Cage or Hulk not playing many early characters to KO, some decks playing lots of multiple wound characters, or characters hiding behind a large Storm or Captain Marvel, it hasn't been quite as easy to level the traditional way of just letting it happen.

Often Thanos deck will suicide characters into bigger characters to get enough XP to level. When Goblin Queen came out, it was a big boost to the deck as one card can create multiple tokens and nearly level Thanos all by herself. In our deck we will plan to get Goblin Queen out early with the help of Pixie or Mantis and try to level up quickly so that we can use The Infinity Gauntlet super power on our opponent.

Super Powers

Court Death - Main : Shuffle each character in a KO pile into its deck. Then, put that many +1/+1 counters on Thanos.

This power alone, especially in a long game can just beat other decks who can't deal with a large threat. It is a very powerful ability which many decks struggle to overcome. The primary goal of this combo deck is use The Infinity Gauntlet, but in times where we can't, this is a very potent ability that will still often be used.

Court Death also heavily hurts the Valkyrie combo decks and can aid in protecting our own characters in KO piles from Satana SC.

The Infinity Gauntlet - Main : For each enemy player, stun their main character, KO one of their resources, KO one of their supporting characters, and they discard their hand.

The most powerful ability in the game, hands down. Yes, I've had games where I've used it multiple times and still lost, but it is very hard to recover from and some decks have no chance of recovering from it. The faster we can get to The Infinity Gauntlet, the better. It can be quite taxing to get all of the resources lined up, but this deck tries to maximize our ability to level quickly and get the resources needed to use The Infinity Gauntlet.

Decklist

Thanos - Pixie Loki Combo

Deck Archetype: Thanos Combo
Deck Author: PauperTim

Main Characters

• Thanos (MC Level 1) [BANNED]
• Thanos (MC Level 2) [BANNED]

Supporting Characters (21)

• 4 Mantis
• 4 Pixie
• 4 Goblin Queen
• 4 Loki
• 1 Dormammu
• 4 Thanos

Plot Twists (11)

• 4 Build a Better World
• 4 Femme Fatality
• 3 Shock to the System

Locations (28)

• 4 Academy
• 4 Arcadia
• 4 Fortress
• 4 Laboratory
• 4 Madripoor
• 4 The Vault
• 4 Training Ground

Card Choices

Pixie can get an early character out to ramp you, loki to draw more cards, level you with Goblin Queen, or bring home the bacon late game with Dormammu. It has a lot of utility for such a low drop and is a key part of the deck.

Goblin Queen is amazing and can sometimes allow a turn 2 or turn 3 Infinity Gauntlet with Pixie or Mantis. It shouldn't be your goal to always try for it turn 2, but it is a possibly. Also turns on Femme Fatale to take out a Cosmo or Scarlet Witch that is trying to wreck your Infinity Gauntlet plan.

Loki helps draw cards and find more resources for The Infinity Gauntlet as well as looks for a crucial Femme Fatale, or other pieces to help you win the game. Thanos Supporting Characters help make sure you can get cards off of Loki.

Dormammu late game can seal up a game by bringing back a threat that can turn the tide of the game from a Cosmo or Yondu, all the way to an Adam Warlock or Ghost Rider. We don't want to Pixie into him usually though, so there is only a single copy. Usually he is played from the hand after drawing loads of cards with Loki and can team attack with Thanos if needed.

Mantis may look a bit odd but turn 3 goblin queen or double mantis into turn 4 Loki and drawing extra cards is very good. If you hit this with Pixie it is still good though late game you could keep a Mantis in hand and play it with pixie so you won't hit another Mantis.

Play Instructions

The first thing about playing a deck is figuring out what it is supposed to do, and when you should mulligan. Mulligans can be very tough decisions but as you learn the deck more by playing, it becomes a bit easier. This is even more important in combo decks because you need a certain sequence of cards usually to win. We are a comboish deck, but we are content with playing things out rather normally as well.

Ideally you want everything you need in your hand, but that is living in Magical Christmas Land and we won't have a crazy hand every game. Compared to the other Glass cannon versions, we can keep a larger number of hands and know things will go decently at least. We don't need to mulligan to get Pixie and a blue source so we can try to go off turn 2.

How does the deck function and what does it need then so I can Mulligan properly?

Plan A is to mantis turn 2, goblin queen turn 3 with a . That is the same as most standard Thanos Decks now. Get goblins and smash them into things to get XP.

Plan B is to Pixie something into play early in the game. The things you can hit are Mantis, Goblin Queen, A-Force Loki, Dormammu. You can't hit pixie or Thanos because they would be in play, though by the time you pixie you may also have other characters in play. Hitting Mantis gives you resource and an experience (take that Nick Fury!). Hitting a Goblin Queen without a up would not do much. Hitting an A-Force Loki does nothing if you can't power anything up except just attacking for 7 (or 8 if team attack with Pixie). Hitting Dormammu early usually doesn't do too much but late game stealing a fallen enemy Supporting Character can be huge. You have a low probability to hit Dormammu due to only being one copy as well.

The way to play this if you aren't under attack by a Roanan/Helmut deck is to wait until you can meet most, if not all of the ways to make Pixie's super power useful(If under attack by Ronan/Helmut, you may have to try to go off as a glass cannon and hope for the best). A source for Goblin Queen, a Thanos, Pixie, or A-Force Loki in your hand in case you hit Loki, and if in the late game, a and if you hit Dormammu. I wouldn't really worry about Dormammu typically unless there is something you really need to grab like a Cosmo or Yondu to help shut down the opponent's plan.

Now back to deciding to mulligan or not, you have to see where your hand can develop and estimate the probabilities of you drawing the things you need to advance your plan in the right direction. If you have a Mantis, and sources for example, you can either draw a Pixie or possibly Goblin Queen by turn 3 and do something pretty great. If you have Pixie, , and a Thanos, Loki, or another Pixie SC, you are sitting well. You want to figure out your odds of drawing into what you need towards what you want to draw.

Past mulligan decisions, just try to read the board state and what you are aiming to do. Ideally you want to level, then gauntlet. The Mirror match can be very interesting and it takes some thinking and clever play to pull out a win typically. Once you Gauntlet, they typically can gauntlet shortly after but you can recover easier with Loki. They will often have more initial wounds on you though so you will have to fight your way back into the game.

I've played this against most of the top tier decks and done fairly well, often losing to play mistakes only. Only one game that I just had horrible luck and had no chance in when the odds were pretty good for me to draw what I needed. This isn't a deck for the faint of heart and it requires quite a bit of finesse to pilot, but it is powerful and fun.