Elijah Burke
by Eric "Big Easy E" Norris
Revolution Format

BACKLASH (12)

Pre-match (6)

A New Plan
Attitude Adjusters
Dressed for Success
Kane® Is In My Corner!
Kelly Kelly’s Exposé
Underestimate the Competition

Strategy Notes:

The first card we are going to put out is Kane Is In My Corner! Because it is Universally Unique and only one player can have it in play, we want to get this out as soon as possible to make sure we are the ones that have Kane Is In My Corner! in our Ring. This gives us access to Kane's Antics, which will help this deck and its concept, as well as some extra firepower later in the game.

Next we're looking to put Attitude Adjusters into our Ring. This will put another card in our hand as long as it has the word Attitude in the title, and gives us access to Faction specific Antics.

The last Pre-match we put into our Ring is situational. If you need a 0F maneuver to get going, use Kelly Kelly's Exposé to find a 0F Extreme. If you are looking for any other non-Unique, use Dressed for Success and see if you can find what you need in the Ringside. If your hand is really bad, use A New Plan and hope for the best. If you think you can get by with the hand you have, use Underestimate the Competition as this will save you a bit of overturning from non-Unique Reversals throughout the game. With Elijah's ability, the overturning during the Pre-match phase is not a bad thing because it puts cards into the Ringside to use with his Superstar ability.

Mid-match (6)

Before This Gets Out of Hand
Burn Out Attitude
Grab the Tights
Maryse’s French Finish
Spinning Crescent Kick x2

Strategy Notes:

With Mid-match cards, you generally want to put in cards that help round out your deck as well as propelling you towards achieving the deck's end goals. Usually for me that means lots of Reversals. Not so with this deck.

The Spinning Crescent Kicks are there so I have a maneuver to play so I do not have to overturn 6 for not playing a maneuver. There are not too many maneuvers in the Arsenal, and if I do not have myself protected by Hail to the Chairman I need the Spinning Crescent Kicks as a backup plan. They also provide a great bridge in Fortitude.

Before This Gets Out of Hand is the only card in the deck that specifically reverses Mean maneuvers. This is a metagame choice for my area as it is something I should be able to get away with. Your area may be different. It’s a solid card that can provide you with one more turn regardless.

Burn Out Attitude is a great reversal against any other deck that is also using a Faction. It also lets you search for a card with Attitude in the title, which at the very least is putting another card in your hand you can use with your ability. And with a little luck you will have 3 Attitude Adjusters and/or Kane cards out and the first card you play next turn will have Momentum.

Both Grab the Tights and Maryse's French Finish are Antics characteristic of the goals of this deck; they are Antics that cause overturning. Grab the Tights is essentially extra overturning after successfully playing a maneuver, while Maryse's French Finish can be the kiss of death for your opponent.

ARSENAL (60)

Superstar-specifics (5)

Get Ready to Burn in Hell
Hellfire Clothesline
Kane’s Big Boot
Nothing Can Stop Me
The Elijah Express

Strategy Notes:

Kane's cards were chosen for a couple of reason. Get Ready to Burn in Hell and Nothing Can Stop Me are both early game Antics that provide Fortitude, and they also have Kane's logo which helps with getting the extra benefits from the Attitude Adjusters cards.

Get Ready to Burn in Hell is a 0F that lets you search for up to 3 non-Unique maneuvers that also does 3D. A very solid early card for this deck design.

Nothing Can Stop Me is a 3F card that bridges from Get Ready to Burn. It causes you to overturn 7 cards, which can help fuel your ability, and also dishes out 4D to your opponent. And if your next card is a maneuver, say a 6F Spinning Crescent Kick from your Backlash deck, it has Momentum.

Kane's Big Boot is great card to play if you start to fall behind in Fortitude. Once you are 5F behind your opponent, it becomes a 10F 10D Mean Trademark, a great bridge to the Elijah Express or the Hellfire Clothesline. It also has Momentum making it that much harder to reverse.

The Hellfire Clothesline is an early Trademark Colossal that you can play any card as a Follow-up to.
The Elijah Express is the only other Colossal in the deck. Though it too needs to be played after a card, it has the potential of being a whopping 20D with Momentum.

These Superstar-specific maneuvers are here simply to give some added firepower, and an added way to finish a match. Though they are not the primary form of attack, they can end a match in a hurry.

Antics (18)

A Spirited Turn of Events x3
Ashley’s an Awesome Asset x3
Candy-A%$ Attitude
Double Your Value—Double Your Fun x2
I Want It All x2
Never Give In, Never Give Up x2
Undying Attitude
Whoop-A%$ Attitude
You’re Fired, Playa! x3

Strategy Notes:

The Antics are our primary form of attack. With only so many ways to stop Antics, you basically are biding your time until you are able to unleash a Green Wave of Antics that will at least cripple your opponent.

Ashley's an Awesome Asset is a big weapon in this Arsenal. This gives all of our Antics the ability to do damage, up to 3 cards overturned per Antic. It’s important to get these out as soon as possible.

You're Fired, Playa is another lynchpin in this deck. It returns itself and 1 card from the Ringside to the bottom Arsenal and allows you to draw 1 card. This coupled with Elijah's Superstar ability, you'll have tremendous recursion and you'll be able to pull cards through your deck quickly. On top of that, since it does put itself on the bottom of the Arsenal instead of the Ring, you can constantly use this card while Ashley's an Awesome Asset to do constant damage to your opponent.

Undying Attitude adds to the engine. Not only does it allow you to draw 1 card, but also once in the Ring it can end your opponent's turn by putting itself into the Ringside after a maneuver has finished doing its damage. Once in the Ringside, you can use your ability to put the Undying Attitude on the bottom of your Arsenal so you can use it again later.

Candy-A%$ Attitude allows precision hand destruction, while Whoop-A%$ Attitude change my Extremes into Trademarks making them harder to reverse. Double Your Value-Double Your Fun not only provides 2 printed Fortitude itself, but also doubles the printed Fortitude in the Ring so I can get Ashley’s an Awesome Asset as early as possible. I Want It All lets you pull through the deck even faster, while Never Given In, Never Give Up can protect two Antics with Momentum if you are behind in Fortitude. A Spirited Turn of Events are the big guns of the deck as they can cause a huge swing allowing you to put 9 cards on the bottom of the Arsenal and, with Ashley's an Awesome Asset out, cause your opponent to overturn up to 9 cards.

Antic-Reversal Hybrids (3)

Hail to the Chairman x3

Strategy Notes:

Unfortunately, we do not have a Storyline in our Pre-match since Elijah Burke does not have one. So we will not be able to use this as a Reversal. As an Antic, it allows us to shuffle our Arsenal to get all those cards on the bottom closer to the top of our Arsenal so we can get our hands on them quicker. The other aspect of this card is if your opponent does not play a Storyline, each one of these reduces the overturn affect we would receive if we did not play a maneuver during the turn. This can free us up from having to play maneuvers at all if we can get all of them out. Until then, if we can't take overturn 6, we need to poke them with the small maneuvers to avoid being reversed on the overturn and then play Antics.

Maneuvers (10)

A New Breed Unleashed
Eye Rake x3
Homicidal Lunge x3
Toe Smash x3

Strategy Notes:

Only 10 maneuvers. They are there for early Fortitude, and then just to poke our opponent with so we do not need to overturn 6 cards every turn. This build does not necessarily need a lot of Fortitude to get where it is going. Once it hits 15F, it can play any of its Antics and we also have Double Your Value—Double Your Fun to finagle our way there. These are essentially defense against having to overturn 6. Playing 1 a turn is all we are looking to do.

Reversals (24)

Clean Break x2
Instinctive Reflexes x2
Masochist at Heart x2
Not What We Came to See! x3
Overexposure x3
Roll Through x2
That’s Extremely Un-Original x2
The Second Solution x3
Why Don’t You Kiss My A%$? x3
You Telegraphed It x2

Strategy Notes:

This is definitely an odd assortment of Reversals. Because of the recursion built into the deck, I'm more looking for stopping the damage in the Arsenal than from my hand. Once the reversal is in my Ringside, I can use my ability to put back on the bottom of the Arsenal for the next time they throw a maneuver at me.

The Second Solution is there to free up some space. With the 2D it delivers and the 2 card drawing, it’s a very effective Reversal for most of your Cores. And while The Second Solution covers the Assault, Hold, or Throw Cores, Not What We Came to See covers the Extreme Cores and also gives me 3F and 2 card drawing. While Elijah's hand is small in the beginning, these reversals can quickly buff up his hand.

After these initial maneuver Reversals, the rest are going to be shuffled into the deck to stop maneuvers on the overturn using our ability. For Fortitude reasons it would be great to have some of them in our hand, but if they end up in our Ringside, they become reusable with Elijah's Superstar ability.

Why Don't You Kiss My A%$ is our only Antic reversal, so if we find this in our hand, we'll want to keep it.

Final Strategy Notes:

I like to call this deck the Elijah Experiment because it delves into trying to beat your opponent with Antics instead of Maneuvers. Utilizing Ashley's an Awesome Asset and You're Fired, Playa! you'll have a constant overturn effect applied to your opponent. There are only so many Antic reversals an opponent is going to have in his deck, and you are going to try and crash through them using a Green Wave of Antics. Utilizing Elijah Burke’s Superstar ability, you should be able to set your hand as you go, jumping on the opportunity to unload a wave of Antics on to your opponent. Not only do you get to set your hand, but by utilizing his Superstar ability, you will be able to put back the reversals you need to keep you in the game long enough to achieve victory.