Absolute Flash — Exotic

Commanded by Wally West, Absolute Flash, this Gruul (red/green) 100-Card Commander Deck follows the Absolute Flash story, set on Fort Fox, a desert army base. Wally is fifteen, small and angry, the son of Colonel Rudy West, the base's security chief. Barry Allen, a physicist on Dr. Elenore Thawne's Project Olympus, offers him a job; Wally sneaks into the lab, is caught in an experiment's exotic energy and runs, dragging Barry with him. There is no Speed Force here and no mentor, only a teenager whose body keeps changing. The cast includes the Rogues of Project Olympus — Leonard Snart as Captain Cold, Lisa Snart as Golden Glider, Digger Harkness as Captain Boomerang, Jesse James as the Trickster and Mick Rory as the lava-bodied Heat Wave — along with Ralph Dibny and Linda Park of the Iron Heights mission, Jay Garrick in the Mojave in 1940, Eobard Thawne as a towering monster, Weather Wizard, the Still Point scientists, the hooded man in the mirror and a small green lab monkey called Grodd.

• Exotic: printed on 21 cards — "This creature has haste. Whenever it attacks, put a +1/+1 counter or a first strike, trample, or lifelink counter on it." Each attack you choose: grow, or give the body a new ability that stays.
• Wally in three lines: Exotic; other creatures you control with counters on them have Exotic; whenever a creature you control with three or more counters on it deals combat damage to a player, draw a card. Any counter, from any source, turns a creature into a runner.
• The planeswalker: Gorilla Grodd, Little Green Telepath can be your commander. +1 puts a +1/+1 counter on up to one creature you control and gives it haste; −3 gives your creatures hexproof and indestructible until end of turn; −7 gives you an emblem that puts a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control at the beginning of combat on your turn.
• Counter engines: Dr. Elenore Thawne, Olympus Director makes each other creature enter with an extra +1/+1 counter, Still Point Exposure adds one more, Exotic Overload doubles them, and The Blue Trinity Machine gives your creatures haste and a counter every upkeep.

Why Gruul

Red is the energy and the panic: a boy who runs before he thinks, red lightning, heat and haste. Green is the body and its mutation: growth, +1/+1 counters, a lab monkey that grew a mind. There is no blue, because there is no Speed Force to understand, and the science is what did this to him. Blue Trinity Core, Barry's Lab Badge, Rudy's Dog Tags, Olympus Lab Monkey, Fort Fox Supply Drop and Mojave Desert Trek ramp; Visions of Two Futures tutors a creature; Head-On Collision, Absorb the Heat, Lightning Into the Body, Missile Over the Desert, Thrown Into the Still Point, Colonel Rudy West and Weather Wizard, Storm Caller remove threats. The Storm Over Central City is the only sweeper: 6 damage to each creature with no counters on it, so your board stays standing. Grodd's Psychic Bond, Running Without a Map, Ralph Dibny, Keeper of the Mission and Second Chances at the Mission draw cards, and Rogues' Revenge closes the game.

Two combos are built in. The Hooded Man in the Mirror copies Fort Fox Defector with haste; the copy takes control of the Hooded Man, untaps it and lets you go again for as many hasty Defectors as you like. Mick Rory, Heat Wave adds {R} for each counter on him; equipped with Barry's Containment Suit and enough counters, he untaps himself for {3} and grows each time, for unlimited red mana to pour into Digger Harkness, Captain Boomerang.

The 35 lands include ten places from the story, from Fort Fox and Project Olympus Laboratory to The Still Point and The Mirror Dimension, with 13 Mountains and 12 Forests. A complete 100-card Commander deck plus 3 tokens, with the existing Bracket 4 designation.