Overpower | Season Zero Seattle Regional Top 8 Review

Written by Robert Wilson

I couldn’t compete in the First Regional of Season Zero held in Seattle, but am excited to dissect the Top 8 decks for lessons and trends. I’ll break down the winning decks and how to attack the meta going into the next regional. Hopefully, this breakdown prepares you for the Second Regional of Season Zero happening in Columbus, OH, on Aug. 30th, 2025.

Season Zero Seattle Regional — Top 8

Place	Name	Front Line 1	Front Line 2	Front Line 3	Reserve	Home Base
1st	Phil Miller	Zorro	Leonidas	Dejah Thoris	Billy the Kid	Round Table
2nd	Joe Peters	Wicked Witch	Jane Porter	Joan of Arc	Morgan Le Fey	Drac. Armory
3rd	Andrew Taylor	Wicked Witch	Mina Harker	Sun Wukong	Billy the Kid	Asclepion
4th	Felipe Cagno	Zorro	Leonidas	Jane Porter	Dr. Watson	Land that Time Forgot
5th	Thomas Kiene	Mina Harker	Joan of Arc	Robin Hood	Cthulhu	Round Table
6th	Cory Simms	Zorro	Leonidas	Sherlock Holmes	Dr. Watson	221-B Baker St.
7th	Marcel Lojet	The Mummy	Sun Wukong	Robin Hood	Billy the Kid	Asclepion
8th	David S	Zeus	Wicked Witch	Billy the Kid	Korak	The Round Table

What’s Your Plan?

“What’s the plan?" means "How do you want the game to play out?" Let's look at each decklist then analyze threads across the Top 8. How did these players successfully execute their plans?

1st: Phil Miller — Zorro, Leonidas, Dejah Thoris, Billy the Kid, and The Round Table

• Phil ran a low special count — 18; five for Leonidas, six for Zorro, four for Dejah Thoris, and three for Billy the Kid.
  • Of those specials, the only multiples were three copies of Leonidas’ 300 and two copies of Zorro’s Riposte.
  • Minimized the number of unusable cards later in the game if a character is K.O.’ed.
• Phil was the only player who ran Lady of the Lake as their Cataclysm; paired with Dejah Thoris’ Fortune of Helium — two copies of the “Draw three” effect with The Gemini as a second copy of Fortune of Helium.
• Phil was the only player who didn’t run Fairy Protection as his Cataclysm Any Character special card. I love this choice. It suggests, “I’m playing to win and I want to be the aggressor.” Fairy Protection is a fantastic card, but Modern is aggressive as these Top 8 decks suggest. Having extra gas to pressure is huge and it paid off. Playing Fairy Protection as a counter to Grim Reaper is reasonable.
• Phil played more power cards than most (18), which offered flexibility.
  • So many power cards with Riposte enabled consistent follow up Teamwork attacks.

There’s no real gimmick to this deck. It's a solid card advantage-based game plan that lowered the card count to prevent discarding duplicates. It’s classic “two 8s and a negate” with Dejah Thoris providing card advantage and Fortune of Helium and a “semi-negate” to combat Grim Reaper via Protector of Barsoom.

Phil had more power cards to fuel his Teamwork cards and have leftovers for defense. This is tried-and-true strategy from Legacy that Phil plays well. If you’re coming from Legacy looking for a “Cadillac," this is a great start.

2nd: Joe Peters — Wicked Witch, Jane Porter, Joan of Arc, Morgan Le Fey, and Dracula’s Armory

• Joe used low special card counts along with few copies of specials, generating card advantage, and high-density power cards (17) to fuel four Teamwork cards.
• Joe leveraged Wicked Witch’s Harness the Wind in a pivotal battle to generate card advantage with Jane Porter’s Not a Damsel In Distress and/or venture advantage with Joan of Arc’s Burned at the Stake.
• Joan of Arc’s Early Feminist Leader generates card advantage round-after-round, allowing the entire team to trade favorably with power cards for defense. Many of the lower-level power cards are intellect or combat power cards. 
  • Dracula’s Armory is a fantastic home base for this team to generate card advantage and provide the offense to “go over the top” or use lower value power cards to trade up defensively.

This is a solid and synergistic deck with a defensive hook. This deck was slept on, but Joe brought it to the forefront. 

3rd: Andrew Taylor — Wicked Witch, Mina Harker, Sun Wukong, Billy the Kid and Asclepion

Andrew brought a deck most were not ready for. His use of Sun Wukong and Wicked Witch gave two “Vertigo” style effects between Sun Wukong’s Transformation Trickery and Wicked Witch’s Harness the Wind. He could shift the opponent’s attacks-at-will.

The deck has two 8-stat characters. Mina Harker ties the room together with three copies of Tracking Movements to stop an opponent’s big special, negating Grim Reaper, or remove a special card permanent record hit to trigger Asclepion.

1. Having multiple Vertigo style shift effects provides redundancy.
   1. In the later rounds of a long event, players at the top tables know what each other are playing. Most are prepared to save a negate for Grim Reaper. The Gemini, Transformation Trickery, and Harness the Wind overload special card defense. This is compounded when Transformation Trickery and Harness the Wind are played defensively. Having multiple shift effects protects 8-stat characters from an unexpected K.O.
2. This deck isn’t likely to dupe out.
   1. The fastest way to lose is to have a hand full of duplicates and/or unusable cards. Andrew mitigated this by running a slim 18 special cards: Tracking Movements was the only card in multiple copies. The power pack is slim: two copies of power card values 3 through 7 and three copies of level 8 power cards. Over a long event, reducing duplicates or multiple unusable cards minimizes variance.
3. You don’t always need to trigger Asclepion.
   1. Between Sun Wukong’s Grasp of the Five Elements, Mina Harker’s Tracking Movements, The Hunger, and a single copy of Preternatrual Healing, there are multiple ways to trigger Asclepion and plenty of offensive cards to draw. Asclepion generates card advantage on top of an offensive action to maintain pressure. 

This is a creative deck combining the classic “two 8s and a negate” approach with multiple shift effects. It’s easy to see why Andrew was successful. I look forward to what he comes up with next.

4th: Felipe Cagno — Zorro, Leonidas, Jane Porter, Dr. Watson, and the Land That Time Forgot

Felipe brought a twist: a hard-hitting deck ensuring we don't forget about The Land that Time Forgot. 

• You’re only going to forget once.
  • If unsure about a hand and decide against conceding before the battle thinking, “I’ll play a few cards and run if I need to,” that’s a recipe for disaster against a deck like this.
  • If your opponent uses The Land that Time Forgot as a homebase, watch out for post-concession level 8 power card attack.
  • We see a string attack strategy between 5 Teamwork and 3 Ally cards that can force a concession only to be followed by a 7 or 8 power card attack. This deck rewards big venture bets and putting the opponent in an awkward spot of conceding pre-battle if their hand may be weak.
• Great threat assessment.
  • This list strikes me as one that Felipe tuned after grinding games. Running the full suite of Jane Porter specials and only four of Leonidas’ specials suggests Felipe believed his opponents would target Leonidas first and, therefore, decreased the number of specials.
• She’s not a damsel in distress.
  • Most use one or two specials for Jane Porter, considering her a weaker 16 threat level character. I like the full spread. If an opponent goes after Jane Porter for cheap venture, it plays into Not a Damsel in Distress.
  • Lady of the Jungle and Ethnoarchaeology can lock key opposing character, feeding a concession, when they'd be vulnerable to a post concession attack via The Land that Time Forgot. This is a great use of Jane Porter.

5th: Thomas Kiene — Mina Harker, Joan of Arc, Robin Hood, Cthulhu, and the Round Table

Thomas’ deck proves success without following the formula of the other Top 8 decks is possible. This deck eschews the “high power card count and low special card count." Instead, it is the inverse: playing 23 special cards and 13 power cards.

The plan is string-attacking the opponent to death. Call of Cthulhu looms overhead, able to K.O. seemingly safe characters who may have sustained multiple hits, even if they’ve prevented the spectrum K.O.

• The String Gang
  • My favorite thing about this list is how many string attacks it presents. In addition to four Ally and three Teamwork cards, there are two copies of Cthulhu’s Network of Fanatics, three copies of Joan of Arc’s Inspirational Leadership, and one copy of Robin Hood’s Master Archer — they all enable two additional attacks.
  • Using any of these specials with an Ally means a potential string of four attacks. Big, consistent string attacks drain an opponent’s defense, putting them in the prisoner’s dilemma of having to trade down by using a high value power card or premium defensive card to prevent a spectrum K.O.
• Rallying the Allies
  • This deck uses Rally Our Allies event well and generates card advantage if the opponent is not using many Ally cards. Consider running at a minimum two Ally cards to prevent opponents from gaining card advantage.
  • Be cautious using this event as we’ve seen how prevalent Ally cards are at the top tables.
• No burning today, Joan.
• Joan of Arc’s Burned at the Stake is harder to take advantage of without having a shift effect like Sun Wukong’s Transformational Trickery or Wicked Witch’s Harness the Wind. I like the inclusion as it can protect Joan of Arc or deter attacking her.

Overall, a fantastic game plan. This deck presents an aggressive strategy that can quickly K.O. a character seemingly out of nowhere and proves a great idea goes a long way.

6th: Cory Simms — Leonidas, Sherlock Holmes, Zorro, Dr. Watson, and 221-B Baker Street

The Cadillac factory is alive and well in Columbus, OH. If “two 8s and a negate” is a good strategy, then “three 8s and a negate” must be better. There’s nothing fancy about this deck; it combines solid offensive tools with more defense to leverage experience and skill.

• The game is afoot!
  • This is the lone 221-B Baker Street deck in Top 8 and uses it well. Zorro’s Ancestral Rapier and Sherlock Holmes’ Probability Evaluation don’t generate card advantage, the former can be card negative. Taking out an opponent’s Grim Reaper and/or Merlin’s Magic, pushing them to the power pack sooner can prevent the opponent from landing their haymakers. Sherlock Holmes’ Irene Adler is a devasting attack when successful and a strong as the final string attack.
• Sometimes doing nothing is best.
  • Dr. Watson’s Not a Bad Detective trades for the worst card in the opposing player’s hand; its not worth conced