STARTING HANDSIZE:  6

SUPERSTAR   VALUE:  3

SUPERSTAR ABILITY:  Your Kurt Angle Arsenal and Backlash deck may contain both FACE and HEEL cards.  MRP

AWESOME PYRO
Pre-Match Event
At the end of the Pre-Match phase, place this card in your Ringside pile and look at your starting hand. You may then choose to shuffle your starting hand into your Arsenal and redraw the same number of cards.
If played by Kane, Chris Jericho, Chyna or Kurt Angle, draw 1 additional card when redrawing.
F: 0  D: 0
(Common: Backlash)

GREAT TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE
Action
Draw 1 card.
When this card is in your Ring area, all your Submission maneuvers are +1D.
You may not have more than one Great Technical Knowledge card in your Ring area at a time.
If played by Kurt Angle or Chris Benoit, submissions are instead +3D.
F: 1  D: 0
(Common: Backlash)

MAINTAIN HOLD
Action
Play after a successful Submission maneuver not reversed and end your turn. You and your opponent may not play maneuvers or actions until your opponent reverses the maintained Submission. On your turn, during the main segment, the Submission does its damage, along with any other abilities on the card. If a reversal is played by your opponent or is revealed while applying damage, both Maintain Hold and the Submission maneuver remain in your Ring area, but you may no longer use the ability of this Maintain Hold card.
F: 10  D: 0
(Rare: Premiere/Survivor Series)

BILLION DOLLAR PRINCESS
Action
Cannot be played against Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley.
This card can only be played if the total Stun Value in your Ring area is greater than the Stun Value in your opponent's Ring area.
Search your Arsenal for any 3 Superstar Specific Foil cards, show them to your opponent, and place them in your hand. Then shuffle your Arsenal and end your turn.
F: 10  D: 0
(Rare: Mania)

JUDGMENT DAY
Action
Cannot be reversed by the card titled No Chance In Hell!
Choose one: You may shuffle a number of cards from your Ringside pile into your Arsenal equal to the number of FACE or HEEL cards in your Ring area, or your opponent must overturn a number of cards equal to the number of FACE or HEEL cards in his Ring area.
F: 14  D: 0
(Uncommon: Mania)

In The Ring:  Kurt Angle is a wrestling genius, one who can easily switch from brawling to grappling, and just as quickly having you tapping out - extremely versatile, a man who can both win the crowd over, yet resort to cheap tactics just as easily.

In The Game:  Angle's ability reflects this, as he can have Heel and Face cards in his deck - and not even Critical Injury or Cerebral Assassin can hinder it.  His foils adapt easily to just about any style of deckbuilding, making Kurt Angle easily adaptable to whatever style you prefer to use.

Using All Foils/Uniques:  Kurt's Trademark Finisher (Olympic Slam) is standard, though with a bit of a bonus for reversing from hand.  But his new TMF, Angle Lock, is a nice extra, especially when coupled with the new match Stipulation, First To Tap Out Match, which can lead to a surprise victory against an opponent. Where Are Your Medals? is a strong reversal, and while It's True, It's True! is a bit less intimidating, it's additional abilities can often help pull a win out of certain defeat.  Each of the three I's, on their own, are powerfully beneficial:  Intensity can put many maneuvers over the crucial 7D to limit your opponent's ability to reverse them; Integrity's great card advantage makes up for the small handsize; and Intelligence is fantastic, granting permanent insight to your opponent's abilities, especially if you want to use Heel Turn.  Not to mention that getting all three of them gives the recovery bonus, which is versatile enough to return Heel maneuvers and Face actions (for example) back into your Arsenal.

Using Some/No Foils/Uniques:  The Superstar Ability will work with or without any foils; in fact, the only one that has any interaction directly to it is It's True, It's True, as it is both Face and Heel.  You certainly could play without some or all of the foils, but it seems Angle is one of only a few where his foils can work in nearly any deck.  Even if you have a Control-type deck which sets up at 12F, only Angle Lock and Olympic Slam would not be used.  Seeing how this would grant you 1 super-ultra-omni reversal, permanent peeking ability, a 2-card Draw Phase, and +3D to any maneuver you may want to play (as well as putting up to 7 cards back in your deck), there's only a very rare deck that won't use most (if not all) of the foils.

Deck Ideas: The card most obvious to build an Angle deck around (in my opinion) is First To Tap Out Match, along with Great Technical Knowledge, especially with the Clutch Onto Opponent/Apply Illegal Leverage combination - once Intensity and GTK are out, Ankle Lock-ing someone for 8D can be devastating, especially once you've weeded out all the Break The Hold cards (consider also Maintain'ing a Test Of Strength!)  With experimentation, just about any deck style from Aggro to Control, from mono decks to rainbow styles can be used for Kurt!

Recommended Stipulations: First To Tap Out is clearly the obvious, but if Submissions aren't your cup of tea, you can check out No DQ for protection against your Heel cards. Also, Not Done With Any Flair can allow you additional benefits while opening the door for playing an extra Awesome Pyro.

Watch Out For: Cards that take other cards out of your Ring area - Tap Out Match is meaningless if someone decides to Shake It Off or Gut Punch it away, and the conditions of the 3 I's don't work if they're removed by Feign Strike or Money Talks. Also, Foley Is Good could slow you down a bit, requiring you to use either Angle Lock or Figure Four Leg Lock unless you can get it out of play.

How I Play:  I use a Grapple/Submission hybrid with an Aggressive style, focusing on getting GTK out early on.  Grapples like Headlock Takedown and Fisherman's Suplex help build Fortitude fast, as do Leverage and Claw.  I've also got great mileage from Charismatic Style, especially for grabbing one of the 3 I's - and I tossed in 1 Moonsault just for authenticity!