A Beginner’s Guide to Revolution
by Drew “Darth Weasel” Barton
Raw Deal Staff Writer
darthweasel@hotmail.com

If you are brand new to Raw Deal and looking at the cards wondering how they might apply there are several things that might not be obvious at first which veteran players might be able to help you understand with their experience. This article will attempt to help newcomers to Raw Deal understand some of the nuances of the game and why you should use select cards that, on the surface, might not seem worthy of inclusion in your deck.

The first lesson has to do with the Backlash deck. It is assumed that by the time you start reading this article you will have looked at your cards a good deal and probably played a few experimental games. Your Backlash deck consists of the horizontally oriented cards and can be a key to winning or losing a game. If your Backlash deck does not mesh well with your Arsenal then you have given yourself a tremendous disadvantage that might be too much to overcome. With that in mind you should always take particular care when constructing your Backlash deck.

There are a few cards newer players might not recognize the value of. Here is one example;

79/130
Underestimate the Competition
Pre-match: Event
Overturn 8 cards.
Your opponent’s non-unique Reversals deal no damage.

If you are just starting out in Raw Deal you might be intimidated by the 8 card overturn. After all, 8 cards are a significant portion of your deck…13.33333% if you want to be relatively precise. Don’t dismiss this card out of hand, however. Remember, if you fail to attempt a Maneuver on any given turn you give up 10% of your deck each time. Just two turns without attempting a Maneuver equals 12 cards, a very significant hit of 20% of your deck. That means that on a high percentage of your turns you will be playing Maneuvers.

A cursory examination of the applicable Reversals in the Revolution format will quickly bring you to the realization that if your opponent has applicable Reversals in hand just 2 or 3 times in a game he will do more than 8 Damage to you. By doing it yourself at the beginning of the game by using Underestimate the Competition you can remove the fear of being damaged by your opponent’s non-unique Reversals and become more aggressive which in turn gives you a better chance to win. Couple that with the realization there are ways to return the cards you overturn to Arsenal or even bring them into your Hand and suddenly the initial 8 card overturn is a reasonable price to pay for the advantages it gives you down the road.

Another example of a card you might be tempted to dismiss as less valuable would be this;

73/130
Ring Psychology: Assault
Pre-match: Event
Successfully play an Assault: put up to 1 Hold or 1 Throw from your Ringside into your hand.

You might think just one card so heavily dependant on other factors would be of limited value. And indeed in some builds you will find that is true. Other times, however, it can turn a deck into a finely tuned wrestling machine that will always have answers for almost anything the opponent attempts. Take Rey Mysterio for example.

111/130 (STARTER DECK – FOIL – Rey Mysterio)
Rey Mysterio (Superstar Card)
Starting Hand Size: 8
Superstar Value: 4
Superstar Ability:
Once during each of your turns, you may discard 1 card: search your Arsenal for up to 1 Assault, reveal it, put it into your hand, and shuffle your Arsenal.

Each turn Mysterio has an excellent chance to have an Assault to attempt, particularly if he has Gone-Not Forgotten in his Ring area. Then when he successfully plays an Assault and has a Ringside pile of any appreciable size he can either snag an applicable Hold if his opponent is using a lot of Throws or an applicable Throw if his opponent is using a lot of Assaults. This gives him an excellent chance to have the Reversals he needs when he needs them if he has previously taken damage…even from playing Ring Psychology: Assault. And of course he can search for an Assault to use as a Reversal if needed and then throw a Hold or Throw as a Maneuver to catch his opponent off balance.

As you can see, carefully crafting a Pre-match that reinforces your Superstar’s ability and deck theme is something that easily can make your deck much, much better. In time, everything written above will make a great deal of sense to you. I can assure you that many veteran players will not have read this far simply because almost all or perhaps even everything said above is something they know instinctively…but I can also assure you a lot of us took quite a while to realize some of those things. You can skip ahead of some of our mistakes simply by learning from where we have been.

Almost as important as your Pre-match is your Mid-Match selection. It is important when building it to take into account at least two factors. First, does it fit with your play style? Second, if your opponent stops you from playing those cards can you still win the game? (Take a moment to go to the spoilers or, better yet, the physical card if you possess it, and read the Pre-match card titled Previously Unannounced Match.)

If your deck can be devastated by the available Antics you would be well served to pack even 2 or 3 copies of Talk is Cheap and/or Keep Your Eyes Open or its Game Over. On the other hand, if you are packing a lot of Antics and sometimes find yourself struggling with the Aggression rule, you might be better served filling your Backlash deck with more Maneuvers. Finally, the card It’s All Lead to This is a phenomenal card, a probably game winner any time it is successfully played. However, if you do not build your deck in such a way that you consistently have 4 cards targeting a specific area then it will not help you. This might seem intuitive but I can tell you from experience, even the most veteran player occasionally finds an unplayable card in his deck. Any wasted space gives your opponent an extra advantage.

You will be surprised at how much difference little things like that can make. As Whitey Herzog, the long-time and Hall of Fame candidate manager for the St. Louis Cardinals, once pointed out in You’re Missin’ a Great Game (New York, 1999) over the course of a hundred games or so, a little advantage might not make a difference in any one specific game but over the course of a hundred it can result in 20 or 30 opportunities. Add together enough of those minor advantages and suddenly you have an unexpectedly large amount of success. Then again, are you really sure you want to take advantage of advice from a guy who couldn’t coach a man who stole 110 bases how to outrun a tarp?

Once you have selected a Superstar, designed your Pre-Match (and possibly Mid-match, although when you design that is open to debate) you are ready to put together your Arsenal.

Right about here I am going to throw out a request to Rob Maslen of the Squared Circle. He has been playing for about as long as I can remember and not too long ago he had a thread in which he was discussing what Reversal base to use when playing Revolution format games. There was a lively and valuable discussion. Rob, if you have the time and inclination I think it is safe to say an article from you about your thought on the Reversal base in Revolution is something that any new player…and, for that matter, most of us veteran players as well…can benefit from. If he has the time and inclination, he will do a far superior job to anything I can lay out here so we will leave that for another time. I will say this, however…don’t get so caught up in having a Reversal for everything that you forget to leave room for your deck to figure out ways to win the game.

When selecting your Maneuver base, look for ways to have them work together. For example, if you use Roundhouse Punch (2/3, Head) [The shorthand used here is Fortitude Cost/Damage/Target area so a 4/5, Neck costs 4 Fortitude to play, does 5 damage and targets the neck.], Running Lariat (5/6, Neck), Bow & Arrow (5/6, Arm), Bulldog (6/7, Head), Dragon Sleeper (8/9 Head), Discus Punch (13/14, Head), STF (14/15, Neck) and Clothesline (16/17, Neck) you will be able to recur a large number of cards. However, if you have chosen for whatever reason to not pack Antics then there would be no reason to include the Bulldog.

On the other hand, you could build a design that plans to pick up needed cards from Ringside. In this case you maneuver selection might include Spinning Heel Kick (4/5, Chest), Sleeper (4/5 Neck), Atomic Drop (4/5, Back), Ankle Lock (11/12 Leg), and Power Slam (12/13, Back).

There are other themes possible and it is even at times a good idea to use none of these themes or to mix them. However, you will find that reinforcing a theme will often make your deck more effective. It also presents yet another deck building challenge. You will not in the Recur theme that you really need 5 or 6 Fortitude for your deck to function effectively. This will affect which starting maneuvers and perhaps even your Reversal base. You need to get to 5 or 6 Fortitude as rapidly as possible.

On the other hand, the cards intending to snag needed material from Ringside has far more choices available at just 4 Fortitude. However, to provide balance, the recursion cards are much more focused in their Target areas (4 Head and 3 Neck) whereas the Ringside manipulation theory targets 4 areas, only one of them twice. These are things to consider when putting your deck together.

There has been a lot of information disseminated in this piece and a lot more that could be passed on. I will close with one final piece of advice for your entry into Raw Deal. That has to do with finishing building your deck.

Coming up with a sound theory, putting together 6 Pre Match cards that work together and 6 Mid-Match cards that work together, building a 60 card Arsenal that has a good mix of Reversals and Maneuvers, sleeving them and sitting down to play is not the end of the deck building process. Try a few games. See what works and what doesn’t. Is your opponent hitting you with Momentum cards you can’t stop? Put in a couple copies of You Telegraphed it. Is nobody using Momentum? Put in a couple copies of Throw Into the Ring Ropes. See how it works. Figure out if your local area will require you to pack Masochist at Heart or if nobody is playing Colossal cards then take it out in favor of something that is useful more frequently. It is important not to assume that simply putting your initial deck together will result in the best possible build. You will often find changing just one or two cards can make a surprisingly large impact in how your deck performs.

Most of all, remember this is a card game. Have fun with it. And never hesitate to ask for advice. I have found the Raw Deal community one of the friendliest groups around when playing. In our local area I have often seen, during tournaments, veteran players helping out newer players by suggesting possibilities they might have to reverse key cards. If we keep expanding that sort of spirit then the outcome of the games will be secondary to your pure pleasure at playing the game.