Facing up to Revolution
by Drew “Darth Weasel” Barton
Raw Deal Staff Writer
darthweasel@hotmail.com

From almost the moment rumors of the content of Revolution began circulating the Internet Raw Dealers were hearing rumblings of incompatibility between prior sets and Revolution. Many, though not all, of the fears seemed to run along a common thread; “With all the new Maneuver types I won’t be able to Reverse everything.”

This is an important statement with some validity. It is always important to remember that Raw Deal is enjoyed in many different ways. For many of us it is more fun when both players generate not just a hint of Fortitude but 20 or 30 or more Fortitude for each player in most matches. For other people it is more fun if they can completely dominate their opponent, keeping them from getting even a single card successfully played more often than not. Some people prefer “scoop” games that end in a turn or two whereas other Raw Dealers prefer long, drawn out affairs where any one turn may not hold any particular importance.

In the interest of full disclosure I will freely admit that my personal preference, and again I emphasize…this is a personal preference and I in no way, shape or form question the validity of you playing the game the way you prefer….but my personal preference is the first way mentioned. I would much rather lose a game where both players attain 20 or 30 Fortitude than win a game where one player or the other struggles to accomplish anything.

With that said I think there are some cards that will prove of a benefit to people who are trying to lock down as many games as possible. This article will attempt to examine some cards and/or combinations that might prove of help to you in more effectively dealing with the new strategies being thrown around since the release of the newest Raw Deal expansion, Revolution. As I often do, I should warn newer players that these strategies refer to All Axxess and if you try them in Revolution your results may vary. Mostly they will vary from other people mocking you to other people disqualifying you since the cards I am about to mention are not legal in Revolution….

The problem of course is simple. Raw Deal has drifted towards a Reversal heavy game where it is not uncommon to see a deck with 40, 50 or even more Reversals. And that was while there were 5 basic Maneuver types…Strike, Grapple, Submission, High Risk and Trademark Finisher. Of course, with the advent of Revolution we now have Assault, Hold, Throw, and Trademark added to the mix. Many people have rightfully pointed out that if you build a deck capable of dealing with all of these you will have no space left for anything else.

Part of the problem is selecting your initial Reversal base. An easy way to deal with the Strikes, Grapples and Submissions is either the classic Step Aside. Escape Move, and Break the Hold/Strangle Hold/Reach for the Ropes combination or else the ever more popular A Revolution of the Mind as more of a space saving utility card. A Revolution of the Mind already became slightly less popular as many Shoot Cards came with the text “Cannot be Reversed by the card titled ‘A Revolution of the Mind’ but it is still extremely popular. Now on top of that you need to add Reversals to deal with the new Revolution Maneuver types.

Two of the most common answers to that have been Hold the Phone and Elbow to the Face. All of the starting Revolution Maneuvers are reversible by either with Hold the Phone requiring 2 Fortitude and Elbow needing your opponent to not have any Damage boosting for some of their high end starting Maneuvers. Many people mentioned that was their plan to deal with the new Maneuver types and it is an excellent plan. However, some Superstars (Big Poppa Pump and the Largest Athlete in Sports Entertainment come readily to mind) had the potential to ignore the starting base and pound their opponent with huge hard to reverse starts using the high-end Revolution cards. This can be problematic for people without a 0 Fortitude omni-Reversal. For Heels it requires 10 Fortitude to reach Omni-Reversal range (Manager Interferes) and for Faces it requires 15 Fortitude (Sloppy, Very Sloppy). Or does it?

Face decks actually have the potential to develop a near omni-Reversal at 0 Fortitude on their first turn. It requires a little bit of search and your opponent having neither Volley This nor one of the key cards from this combination in their Hand or Ring area.

The first card a Face deck would need search for is from Unforgiven;

68/198
Marking Out
Action: Face
Remove 2 cards in your opponent’s Ringside pile from the game.
When this card is in your Ring area, non-unique maneuvers played from your opponent’s hand also count as Action cards until the end of his turn.
Throwback
F: 0 D: 0

As you can tell this is a key card to get on the board. It gives you an added level of Reversal protection. You could use Volley This, There Are Two Things You Can Do, No Chance in Hell, and even Just Bring it! As reversals against the non-unique maneuvers your opponent plays. Even better, you can combine it with this staple from Divas Overload;

73/172
Rules Were Meant to be Broken
Pre-match Event
Your Starting Hand Size is -1.
When this card is in your Ring area, you may discard 1 Maneuver card and 1 Action card to reverse any Action card and end your opponent’s turn.
F: 0 D: 0

Now, this is hardly revolutionary. For a brief time this combination was used to amp up the power of The Leader of the Edge Army and to a lesser degree the Highlight of the Night. But now it is more powerful than ever. Instead of needing to fill your deck with Reversals for two widely divergent Maneuver sets, for Actions, and for Antics, you have a much diminished need for a Reversal base if you can reliably get these cards in Hand and Ring area and have the ability to always have a Maneuver and Action in Hand.

The classic method of course is Shoot Headlock and I Can’t Be Reading This Right but recent sets have brought some interesting new tools. A deck that uses Dynamics or Technicals has dual purpose action going on that can render the aforementioned combination unnecessary. A deck with recursive capabilities can make excellent use of My Name is Matt Striker and I am Your Teacher to grant himself a nearly unlimited supply of Reversals with just 3 or 4 Dynamics which frees up a great deal of space as well.

Also, you can find unlikely combinations that make this method even more powerful. Kurt Angle was heralded as taking a huge hit from the cessation of releasing new Face and Heel cards. However, he has a huge advantage. He can combine the early game Marking Out with late game Manager Interferes to give him a powerful defense without the card intensive strategies some other decks might fear. Torrie Wilson can easily access Marking Out (T) in the early game. Other examples abound but these are two decks people have mentioned that were rendered unplayable by the advent of Revolution. Instead, it is possible they received one of the largest boosts of any Superstars.

This is not the be-all and end-all of strategy by any means but you might find it a space saving option if you want to maintain some ability towards Reversals without packing 60 Reversals in your deck. Hopefully it gives you some ideas you can take out there and experience even more fun in your Raw Deal games. Ironically, this is a strategy I genuinely hope I never encounter…but if I do, I know it is because someone is able to play Raw Deal the way they enjoy even in the Revolution expansion era of Raw Deal.