The Boss
Body
OrderBeginnerSett builds around buffs, durable threats and fights that would be trades for another Legend. Kingpin rewards the wider board, while Showstopper brings a saved unit back into the contest.
Pick Sett if you like building a board that can take a fight and keep its best unit afterward. Think twice if you want protection that works without holding Power or setting up a buff.
The Boss can spend a buff, a Power and his own readiness to heal a dying friendly unit and recall it exhausted instead. Kingpin turns a battlefield of buffed units into a larger Tank, and Kinkou Monk supplies two of those buffs in one play. The protection is valuable, but it does not keep the saved unit on its battlefield or ready it for another attack.
The Boss
Legend
Sett, Kingpin
Chosen Champion · Order
Kinkou Monk
Key card · Body
Sett wants a board worth keeping. A buff makes a unit larger and gives The Boss something to spend when that unit would die. With the Legend ready and a Power available, you can heal it, exhaust it and send it to base instead. That changes which fights you can afford to take, especially after investing in an empowered threat. It does not make the board unkillable. The saved unit leaves the battlefield, loses its buff and cannot immediately make a standard move. Sometimes letting a cheaper unit die is better than spending the Power that protects the real threat or takes the next point.
Use affordable units to establish the board, then add buffs without giving up development. Kingpin becomes stronger for every buffed friendly unit at his battlefield, including himself, and Tank lets him take combat damage ahead of the units you want to preserve. Strong individual threats also turn Challenge and Rampage into removal: the units deal damage to each other without needing to share a battlefield. The Boss can keep your side of that trade alive. Showstopper then buffs a friendly unit at base and moves it back to a battlefield, giving the deck a way to recover presence after a save. The point comes from the unit actually reaching the field, not from the removal by itself.
Kinkou Monk · Pit Rookie · Sett, Kingpin
Rookie buffs another friendly unit; Monk buffs up to two others. Kingpin gains one Might for each buffed friendly unit at his battlefield, so buffing Kingpin himself adds both the normal buff Might and another point from his ability. Punch First's temporary five Might and Kayle's Empower bonuses are not buffs. They make a unit hit harder, but do not qualify it for The Boss's protection unless it also has an actual buff.
Kayle, Justified · Challenge · Showstopper
A buffed, twice-empowered Kayle has eight Might. Challenge can trade her damage with an eight-Might enemy, while The Boss spends her buff and a Power to save her. She stays twice empowered because Recall keeps her on the board. Showstopper can buff her again and move her to the cleared field. She is still exhausted, though: the play restores presence, not another attack. Challenge, the save and Showstopper cost three Energy and three Power together, including the required Body payment for Challenge.
Irresistible Faefolk · Rengar, Trophy Hunter · Vi, Peacekeeper
When Faefolk moves to a battlefield, it can pull an enemy unit to that same field. That can remove a blocker from somewhere else, but a one-Might Faefolk may need help with what it brings over. Rengar and Vi can add bodies through Ambush. Vi stuns when she first becomes an attacker in a combat, not simply because she entered during combat; using her on defense does not supply the stun. Check the resulting combat before treating the relocation as removal.
11th place · Castle Black TCG: Vendetta Summoner Skirmish I At CARDTOPIA, 2026-08-30
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Deck total $168.17
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535412212I like this Kingpin list because the buffs have enough bodies to work with. Three Rookies and three Monks protect the threats you care about, increase Kingpin's Might and help Initiate reach its draw requirement. The three Challenges and three Rampages then give those threats a job even when moving them would be awkward. Kayle is the longer-term investment: keeping her Empower through a save matters much more than preserving an interchangeable small unit. I would be careful with the three Punch Firsts. They can make a fight decisive, but two Body Power is a real cost in a deck that wants to keep another Power for The Boss. The best turns are usually the ones where you know which unit can be lost, which one needs saving and where the surviving threat will end up. Winning the damage exchange is only part of it.
Valley of Idols · Sett, Kingpin · Rengar, Trophy Hunter
Valley gives each unit played here the option to buy a buff for one Energy. That can make a direct Kingpin deployment or an Ambush body eligible for The Boss without another unit supplying the buff. It helps the opponent too, and moving a unit here with Showstopper does not trigger it. I would start here when the hand can develop onto the field and still pay for the buff and protection.
Risen Altar · Kayle, Justified · Legion Marauder
Once you control Altar, its discount makes Empowering your units here less expensive. Kayle's three-Energy activation can cost two, and Marauder's one-Energy option can cost zero. That makes holding the field productive, but Empower still neither buffs nor readies the unit. I would choose it with an opening that can claim the field and put an appropriate threat there, not when it delays the first contest to save Energy later.
Star Spring · Showstopper · Kinkou Monk
The first nontoken unit each player plays here each turn can move another friendly unit here back to base. You can develop a replacement holder, bring a threat home and use Showstopper to send it to the field that needs it. This movement keeps its existing investments and does not require spending The Boss. It also does not ready an exhausted unit, and Showstopper's move cannot trigger Spring again. Choose it when rearranging established units will help recover position; moving the only useful holder away is not a benefit.
Decree of Strength · Sabotage
Strength takes a Mind card from the revealed enemy hand, including a unit. Sabotage can take any nonunit but cannot take a unit. Bring the effect that reaches the actual card you need gone, trimming a slow investment or a fight that has not been useful. I would not strip out the cheap bodies and buffs just to add disruption; the remaining combat cards still need them.
Decree of Unity · Challenge · Rampage
Unity kills an enemy Chaos unit or Gear for two Energy and an Order Power. Against those actual targets it can replace a less reliable damage exchange, especially when growing a unit large enough to fight is the problem. It does not kill every unit in a Chaos Legend's deck. Keep the general fights when the threats you need to answer do not have the required domain.
Salvage · Akshan, Mischievous · Forge of the Future
The extra Salvage is the straightforward Gear answer with a draw attached. Akshan can steal a consequential Gear after paying his additional two Body Power; Equipment attaches to him, and the control change lasts only while he stays on the board. That is a four-Energy, two-Body commitment competing with combat and protection. The second Forge instead supplies a Recruit and can clear useful cards from an opposing trash. Swap out the least useful slow threat or fight for the job the matchup actually presents, rather than adding every utility card together.
