My Inexorable Slide Towards Quitting VS

I’ve been playing a lot of Star Wars Galaxies recently hence the lack of updates around here. What I’m really looking forward to though is being able to go and beat up Batman in DC Universe online. I’ve only seen brief snippets of the gameplay – the video above is the longest continuous sequence I’ve seen so far – but this looks exactly how I want a DC MMO to look. Sony have a habit of releasing online-only CCGs that dovetail with their MMOs so we may even see a new DC CCG, should the VS negotiations come to nothing.

In VS related news, I’m playing in a Modern Age tournament tonight and still haven’t decided whether to play Warbound or Crime Lords/Marvel Knights/Injustice Gang jank.

Glad To Be Human

It’s shit like this that makes me glad I’m a human and not a blowfly.

Some Predictions For Worlds

I’m not going to stick my neck out and say that player X or player Y is going to win the big show because I don’t know enough about the North American players to do that – and let’s face it, it’s going to be almost exclusively North American players competing.

Instead, I’m going to make a few predictions based on the environment and the perceived best decks.

Although Hulk/Warbound won’t be the most played deck at the event, it will be the most played deck at the top tables.

And the only reason it won’t be the most played deck at the event is the short amount of time that MUN has been available and the high proportion of rares that this deck needs to work properly. Yes, the deck is susceptible to KO effects due to its reliance at having a single hulk in play but even the most defensive build of this deck still packs some amazing attack pumps.

This is not the definitive build – I haven’t had anywhere near enough time to perfect and test it properly – but this is a good starting point for a more control oriented Warbound deck.

4 x Elloe Kaifi
4 x Miek
3 x Rick Jones
4 x Archangel
3 x Hulk, Exile
4 x Hulk, Green Scar
2 x Brood
3 x Hulk, Gladiator
2 x Korg
3 x Hulk, Green King
2 x Caiera

4 x Warbound to the End (or Origin Story)
4 x Hulk Smash!
4 x Trouble With Dinosaurs
4 x Righteous Anger
4 x Bloodsport
4 x Pathetic Attempt

2 x The Great Arena

Although I’ve only included only 2 copies of each in the deck, Korg and Caiera are nearly always the better drops on 5 and 6 – just remember to add their effects to the chain in the right order. If the game goes to 7 then a boosted Green King able to swing two or three times should be enough to win. Provided you can guarantee dropping Green Scar on 4, a second Elloe + Rick Jones is almost always the best play on 3 unless you missed Miek on 2 in which case Elloe and Miek is the way to go. Although Warbound to the End allows you to get any character in your deck, Origin Story is well worth considering as it allows you to attack with Archangel and then return him to your hand, fetch another copy and give Hulk +6 ATK for the whole turn. As I say, far from tweaked but a darn sight more reliable in the current Modern environment than the solid beats version of the Warbound deck.

Somebody will forget one of the umbrella effects granted by a removed from game Warbound and it will cost them a match.

Even just goldfishing the warbound deck, it can be hard to keep track of all of the effects to apply to Hulk. In the high pressure environment of Worlds, don’t be surprised to see players forgetting to add that +1/+1 or that Master Man can’t be reinforced thanks to Miek’s effect.

Pathetic Attempt will be the difference in at least one Top 8 match.

Pathetic Attempt is the environment defining card IMHO. Nothing in the field will consistently kill before 4 and too many decks have ways of searching out plot twists just when they need them. And it may well be a Pathetic Attempt targeting a Pathetic Attempt that ensures somebody takes Galactus home… (edited for the sake of reality)

Crime Lords will define the second day of Worlds.

I’ve already expressed how impressed I am with Crime Lords in draft and with the best 5 drop in the environment being in the common slot look for some Red Skull fuelled dominance on a lot of tables. The only stumbling block I can see to effective draft strategies is the size of the set – I opened 3 boxes of MUN and only got a single 7 drop Venom, compared to 3 copies of The Beyonder.

Somebody, somewhere will have come up with something that we never saw coming and will do really, really well with it.

Will it be Thunderbolts/Gotham Knights? Alpha Flight/Birds of Prey? Injustice Gang/S.H.I.E.L.D? Dare I think it – Nextwave!?

And speaking of Nextwave, somebody will get disqualified for ‘abusing’ Elsa Bloodstone’s ability.

Remember, kids – calling your opponent a ©¿π† isn’t big and it isn’t clever ;->

Remember to check in to The Mothership or VS Realms for ‘live’ coverage from the tournament floor once the action starts on Friday and good luck to everybody taking part.

My Top Ten Cards From Marvel Universe (Sealed/Draft)

As soon as I’ve had the chance to play some games with the decks I’ve built, I’ll be back with my top ten cards for constructed. In the meantime, here are the cards I think you should look out for when cracking draft packs.

10. Wolverine • Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. – HYDRA

If in doubt, go for the head. That’s what my Grandma used to say. The aim of VS is simple – reduce your opponent to 0 endurance. Make life easy for yourself – bypass his characters and hit your opponent right where it matters. Thanks, Grandma!

9. Carol Danvers – Ms. Marvel • Mighty Avenger

Her ability will flat out win you games and her stats, coupled with Flight and Range, make her no slouch in the administering beatings department either. Common 7 drops as good as this make the world go round.

8. Red Skull • Johann Shmidt – HYDRA

The 6 drop Marvel Knights Ghost Rider is nuts in limited because of his ability to make your opponent feel the pain that you’re going through. Captain America • Super Soldier is even more nuts because your opponent can’t stun adjacent characters across the curve without some kind of attack boost. Johann does both of these things and hits the table a turn earlier than either Cap or Flamehead. Be prepared for MUN limited games going to 7 or even 8 when the Crime Lords are involved.

7. Kingpin, War Profiteer • HYDRA

Nothing says ‘Smack me upside the head’ more than a leader ability that KOs opposing characters. Stick the Fatman next to the 5 drop Red Skull (see above) and let the fun commence.

6. Sharon Carter, Agent 13 • Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

MUN has some of the best concealed characters we’ve seen since, well, the last set I suppose. With Sharon around they’ve got no place to hide and their buddies can’t help them out either. In spite of this, Sharon Carter is an incredibly nice lady once you get past the fact that she killed Captain America.

5. Nick Fury – Off the Grid

In a format where you run only 30 cards in a deck, Old One Eye’s ability will certainly put a spanner in your opponent’s works. If you don’t bump off the only 7 drop in their deck, then you should at least put a speed hump in the way of their curve. And you get to control their draw next turn.

4. Grudge Match

Although there are some very viable weenie swarm tactics in MUN draft, I’d still take this over most rares in the set. This card is nearly always going to save you a stun back and how many times has the +3 from a Flying Kick been enough to win you the game on the turn before your opponent would have finished you off?

3. Death Warrant

A rare shouldn’t be this high up on a top ten sealed/draft list but then a card shouldn’t be this good in a limited environment. A reusable KO effect that costs nothing and can target hidden characters! Even if it isn’t killing a character every turn, the control it gives you is nuts.

2. What If?

Gone are the days where you sit for turns on end not being able to flip your team-up. Even if all the characters you control share the same single affiliation, you can flip this and all of the affiliated characters that come into play from that point forward gain that affiliation. If you’re heavily playing Crime Lords then 3 copies of this and Hail Hydra! In any combination means that you don’t have to stick to 2 or 3 affiliations in draft any more. Welcome to the Rainbow Nation, my friends!

1. Venom • Faithless Monster

You know how sometimes you miss the obvious when it’s staring you right in the face? That’s what happened here the first time I went through the set. Because Thunderbolts didn’t really have that much to offer overall, I thought Venom would be one of those cards I’d draft only if I was taking Thunderbolts. Screw that! This guy is almost always going to be my first pick and even if I’m not drafting SHIELD or T’bolts then I’m still likely to grab him if I see him. Dual affiliation is great; 9 up front is nice. His ability? Priceless.

I think there’s a simple message here, kids; Crime Lords and SHIELD are the way to go in MUN draft. Sure, other affiliations have a few bombs but if you draft Crime Lords – or more correctly, HYDRA – right, the entire set opens up to you.

Great News – Cary Bates Returning to Comics!

The Pulse is reporting that Cary Bates will be making a long-overdue return to comics this summer with a brand-new mini-series for Marvel entitled True Believer.

This is awesome news. The epic Cary Bates run on The Flash is my all-time favourite run on a title by any creator and is the reason I’m still collecting the book so long after it turned to crap.

And, being a massive gossip hound myself, the premise for the series sounds pretty neat too.

It’s a new take on the group book. Although the True Believers have powers they’re not super-heroes per se, but a group of counter-culture subversives, each with his and her own reasons for lashing out at the disinformation routinely put forth by the establishment. They’re willing to take on any government, organization, group or individual that traffics in secrets or lies, cover-ups or conspiracies.

Popbitch meets Transmetropolitan in the Marvel Universe – Bring it on!

Oh, and here’s the first call for a Mavis Trent VS card :->

Marvel Universe – First Impressions

First of all, let me get this out of the way: Nextwave – WTF?

As much as I like the direction VS has been heading in recently, aiming more for the casual than the competitive player, this is a step too far IMHO. When I saw the original previews I, like many others, naturally assumed they were an April Fools’ joke and, although I got upset at UDE wasting time on it when they could have been posting better content, left it at that. Did they really have to be part of a main set rather than participation and prize cards for Hobby League? Geez, there’s no Jessica Jones card (again!) and this crap takes up 5 slots in the set!?

Rant over.

Other than that, OMFG! People have posted long and hard on teh interwebs in recent months about the power creep that has occurred over the past few VS sets, well forget about that – Marvel Universe is all about power surge! If this set had been printed two years ago then there are about a dozen cards in the set that would end up on the banned list and the only reason they probably won’t be banned in the current environment is that the entire set is turned up to 11!

For me, the highlight is the Warbound affiliation. Other than reading the 5 issue mini-series I know nothing about Planet Hulk/World War Hulk and, aside from collecting a run of the Incredible Hulk during the mid-90s, Hulk isn’t a character I have any fondness for. In terms of sheer power and playability though, this is the MUN affiliation for me. Every affiliated and team-stamped card is playable in constructed and there are several generic plot twists that slot right into a Warbound deck – I don’t think the use of the Hulk on the artwork for Trouble With Dinosaurs is a coincidence…

Crime Lords is an affiliation that looks to have massive potential as well, and my first thought was to team them up with Marvel Knights or Injustice Gang. My second thought was just pick the best hidden characters in each slot from all three affiliations, fill out the deck with the beefiest blue attack pumps in the environment and don’t bother with the team ups. Watch this space.

On a more general note, other than the overall power level of the set going through the roof, I have to applaud the development team for how they’ve handled team-up cards. Underground Movement and Superhuman Registration Act add a lot of flexibility when it comes to deckbuilding in all formats (probably a little too much flexibility in Golden Age…) and are the appropriate rarity to not imbalance limited play, whereas almost all of the other team-up cards avoid the standard ‘play only if X and Y are affiliations among characters you control’ to actually do something creative with team ups.

Now that I’ve had a few hours to digest the spoiler, here are my initial top 5 cards from the expansion.

5: The Beyonder • Inhuman – 2 cards to recover anybody, whenever you like seems like a good trade-off to me, even if it is a one-time deal. And in a parallel universe somewhere, you’ll actually get to turn 10 and play him.

4: Wolverine • Agent of Shield HYDRA – A lot of words have already been expended online about how nuts Wolvie’s ability is with all of the legend support that already exists for him. Throw in some of the support cards from this set – *ahem* Cold Storage – and he’s an archetype waiting to happen.

3: Superhuman Registration Act – It teams up everybody on your side of the table, even unaffiliated, and effectively makes your hand bigger by one card. It’s threshold is one higher than your common or garden team-up but how often do you really need to team up before turn 3?

2: Grudge Match – Curve decks just got scary again. +3 to either ATK or DEF would have made this playable, +3 to both renders this card stupid.

1: Life Model Decoy • More Human Than Human – It’s very easy to make an argument that playing a LMD will almost always be the correct play when it hits the table. There’s enough search in the environment to go and hunt him down and, because it only gains the text of the opposing character after it’s entered play, it gets around any nasty come into play penalties. I’d certainly think twice about playing Fin Fang Foom if I knew my opponent was running four of these bad boys. Even Loyalty seems a small price to pay for this amount of flexibility.

There were plenty of contenders for this list but these are the 5 that I thought stood well in isolation and didn’t rely on team stamping, combos or building your deck a certain way. Once I’ve had time to digest the set properly, I’ll be back with my top 10.

My Tuesday Jankfest #2 (only a day late…)

Thomas Oscar Morrow is pissed off. After escaping from the DC Multiverse through a gap in the bleed he found himself on Earth 616 of the Marvel Universe and facing the prospect of superhero registration. Never one to conform, the good professor stepped back through the bleed to recruit some of DC’s finest weenies to join up with their Marvel counterparts and help Tony Stark stick the SRA where the repulsor ray doesn’t shine!

Ever since the release of the Justice League expansion, I’ve been looking for a way to make T.O. Morrow work and get an army of 2 drops on the board. My initial build involved Kelex to go and grab a Mosaic World and Professor Ivo to hunt for T.O. Morrow and although it was fun to play – when I could get all of the pieces in place – its consistency left a lot to be desired.

Flash forward a few years and now, with the release of several new expansions and the help of a couple of MVU preview cards, Thomas and chums are ready to go to town.

Characters

1 drops
4 x Sue Dibny – Charismatic Coordinator

2 drops
4 x Professor Ivo – Anthony Ivo
4 x Maxwell Lord – Financier
1 x Kate Spencer <>Manhunter – Fearless Renegade
1 x Sarge Steel – Knight
1 x Dr Psycho – Mental Giant
1 x Talia – Beloved Betrayer
1 x Red Tornado – John Smith
1 x Speed Queen – Female Fury
1 x Bart Allen <> Kid Flash – Heir to the Mantle
1 x Krypto – Guard Dog of El
1 x Kelex – Faithful Servant
1 x Natasha Romanoff <> Black Widow – Super Spy
1 x Shape – Malleable Mutant
1 x Melter – Bruno Horgan
1 x Clumsy Foulup – Puppet Dictator
1 x Toad – Mortimer Toynbee
1 x Electro – Shock Jock
1 x Forge – Inventor Extraordinaire
1 x Luke Cage – Steel-Hard Skin
1 x Dazzler – Rock Star
1 x Crimson Commando – Freedom Force
1 x Plague – Death Walker
1 x Iron Fist – Danny Rand
1 x Captain America – The Patriot <> Secret Avenger

3 drops
4 x T.O. Morrow – Thomas Oscar Morrow

Plot Twists
4 x Superhuman Registration Act – Team-Up
4 x Membership Drive
4 x Crowd Control
4 x Finishing Move
2 x Forged in Crisis

Locations
4 x Birthing Chamber

Maxwell Lord is the key to grabbing Superhero Registration Act and Sue Dibny is included as the sole 1 drop to go and find him. Professor Ivo digs out T.O. Morrow who you really want to hit the table on turn 3. Turn 4 onwards, pay the resource point and start swarming! On turn 4 you can get 6 resource points worth of characters into play, turn 5 that jumps to 8 and turn 6 nets you a massive 10 resource points worth of recruits. Crowd Control keeps a lid on the breakthrough while Forged in Crisis and Finishing Move keep your opponents numbers down.

Although the deck is far from competitive, I love the synergy between many of these cards and some of the combos that are possible. The Luke Cage/Iron Fist combo is one of my favourites and it’s one that dovetails quite nicely with the +1/+1 counter theme that the deck seemed to spawn organically. Captain America and the Superhero Registration Act are the perfect partners, not only thematically but also in terms of gameplay while Crimson Commando and Membership Drive take the theme one step further. Forge is a dream in a deck that runs nothing bigger than a 3 drop while Speed Queen can contribute to the attack and then ready to exhaust for a Finishing Move. Birthing Chamber was just made for this deck and, other than the key components, the 2 drops are included as single copies to maximise the number of recruits per turn.

Possible tweaks I can see myself making to this deck are running more than a single copy of Captain America if he proves to be as good as I think he can be, and trying to incorporate Quicksilver – Inhuman by Marriage for his double swing ability.

OK, so this Tuesday Jankfest thing seems like becoming a semi-regular feature here, doesn’t it? Be sure to call back in a couple of weeks when I’ll share with you all the jank that is the Intergang/Superman Robots deck.

My Tuesday Jankfest

So it occurs to me looking at the blog that not only am I slack in updating it but there’s also a dearth of VS content here. Allow me to rectify that forthwith with a healthy dose of jank!

It may be obvious to some of you that my favourite X-Man is the blue-skinned teleporter, Nightcrawler and today I present to you a deck that makes the most of his finest Vs incarnation: Man of the Cloth.

Up until the release of Legends, our German chum had been given short shrift. Origins gave us Fuzzy Elf and Kurt Wagner, both of which implemented his teleporting ability by allowing him to attack as if he had flight and range without actually giving him either of those attributes. The Kurt Wagner version edged out Fuzzy Elf by virtue of his not stunning while attacking ability. Neither was fantastic, however.

It would be a couple of years before the pointy-tailed teleporter would show up again in the Marvel X-Men expansion and the X-Men starter deck. Both of these versions were quite aggressive and out of character – Swashbuckler had 6 attack on a 3-drop and an ability to help remove reinforcement to get most of it across as breakthrough. Teleporting Teammate from the starter set was just as belligerent with 9 up front on a 4-drop although it did come with the ability to reinforce itself – or a teammate – which made up for his paltry 6 defence. Still nothing to write home about though.

Another couple of years passed and the release of Marvel Legends bought with it another version of Nightcrawler, this time one that could hold its head up high. Man of the Cloth is very similar to Quicksilver – Mutant Avenger from the Marvel Avengers expansion, the main differences being the stats switching around – Nightcrawler is an aggressive 5/4, Quicksilver a more sedate 4/5 – and MotC lacking the Reservist keyword. Although the main ability – ready when a team-attacked defender becomes stunned – is functionally similar, Nightcrawler has to actually take part in the attack to ready whereas Quickie can just sit there letting his teammates do the dirty work and then ready for free. Some nice synergy between those two though which gave me the starting point for a pile of jank that I like to call BFF – Best Friends Forever.

Characters

1 drops
4 x Beast – Furry Blue Scientist
3 x Multiple Man – Army
2 x Archangel – Angel
1 x Shadowcat – Phase Shifter

2 drops
4 x Natasha Romanoff Black Widow – Super Spy
3 x Cyclops – Slim
2 x Dazzler – Rock Star
2 x Wasp – Janet Van Dyne-Pym
1 x John Walker US Agent – Loose Cannon

3 drops
4 x Nightcrawler – Man of the Cloth
4 x Quicksilver – Mutant Avenger

4 drops
3 x Carol Danvers Warbird – Galactic Adventurer
3 x Vision – Young Avenger
(this was Professor X – Headmaster but when I saw the preview this guy had to go in. Obviously, I’ve not tested the deck with Vision in it but you get the gist)

Plot Twists
4 x X-Men United
4 x Legendary Battles
4 x Fastball Special
3 x Battle Tactics

Locations
4 x Harry’s Hideaway
3 x Playroom
2 x Worthington Industries – X-Corp

The theory behind the deck is simple. Take even initiatives, get teamed up as soon as possible, keep their numbers down with the extra stun from Nat Romanoff and the bounce from Carol Danvers (her ability, you filthy minded…), keep your dudes around with Harry’s Hideaway and then go nuts on 6 with Legendary Battles, Battle Tactics, Playroom and the shiny new Vision from Marvel Universe. Fastball Special should help you deal with any fat that hits the board and X-Men United can be replaced if you find yourself in a tight spot about to take a massive amount of breakthrough. When I get the chance to test this with Vision – Young Avenger I have a suspicion I’ll be trying to fit 4 copies of Press The Attack in here so that he can work his mojo more than once a turn. Come to think of it, the new 2 drop Captain America makes a pretty strong case for inclusion in this deck.

It’s as janky as hell and, as it’s only Golden Age legal, you’ll win probably one out of every ten games you play with it but when you get Quicksilver and Nightcrawler working in unison – especially in conjunction with Wasp or Legendary Battles – then I can’t think of many finer sights in VS.

Now, about that Nightcrawler legend in Marvel Evolutions…

Preview Fatigue? No Way!

So we’re almost halfway through the Marvel Universe previews and so far we’ve seen:

The Avengers: Cap heavy previews but only to be expected as he’s a legend in this set. Nothing excites me as much as the Reservist build did first time around with The Avengers but who knows what the rest of the set will bring.

Warbound: A team I had no real interest in before the previews but my interest is now piqued thanks to their X-Statix-like nature of only having a single character in play for extra bonuses. My first impression is that their card pool will be too small and they don’t look like they’ll play nicely with other Modern Age teams.

SHIELD: The army guys didn’t do much for me so neither did the Nick Fury or any of the other cards that support the weenie swarm strategy. Thor is probably useless as 7 drops are for wimps. Stark Armory looks interesting though…

Thunderbolts: One of my favourite teams in VS look like they’re getting the shaft by only getting the mini team treatment. So what is that? 3 mini teams in this set – Warbound, Alpha Flight and Thunderbolts?

Illuminati: I love how characterful it is that UDE are retconning the Illuminati into VS in much the same way Marvel did into their continuity. It’s also a really neat way of getting around the need for an Illuminati affiliation which would have been silly the minute you teamed them up. Lots of uncommons too.

The most interesting aspect of the previews for me is the cards that don’t fit into any of the teams. Winter Soldier is great for aggro-control decks with the only drawback being that he’s the same drop as Punisher – AGB while Superhuman Registration Act is nuts – teams all your guys up (even unaffiliated!) and effectively gives you an extra card in hand all for the princely sum of flipping a turn later than most regular team ups. And on top of that we have the news that the next set will be a mutant-centric (again!) Marvel one rather than DC and a heavy hint that we’ll be seeing Spider Friends (again!) in 2009.

So what’s left for preview season? Alpha Flight are definitely in the set so we should see some of those boys and girls spoiled in the next month or so. I’m praying that Nextwave are a joke so which teams are left to be spoiled? Where are the bad guys in this set? We know that there’s legacy content from the cards already spoiled but just how much is there going to be? Is it really still 5 weeks before this set is released!?

Wow! What a week.

Three really great things this week.

Iron Man movie: My expectations for this flick were high but they actually managed to surpass them! Downey Jr totally owns the role of Tony Stark from his first second on screen until his last and every other bit of casting is spot-on. Not only is this the best Marvel movie to date, it’s IMHO the best SF movie since Gattaca. Just make sure you stay in your seat until the credits have rolled…

New Avengers #40: More rampant retconning from Bendis in another story that probably should have been done as a one-shot rather than as part of an ongoing series. All is forgiven for the Skrull reveal at the end. Now, based on this issue, how are they going to explain away all of those 70′s heroes in the Savage Land?

DC Universe #0: So it’s a sampler rather than a prologue but can it really be true? The return of Barry Allen!?