Unleash This! #8, OP? I have your 2009 OP right here.

Let me first start by saying I hope you all are enjoying / have enjoyed the New Year celebrations.

Looking back at 2008, well how do you feel about our first PC-less year? Maybe I'm completely off my rocker, but it felt like we had more events then during the PC years; a feeling I think manifested from extensive travel to said events from a personal level.

I know you're worried about a couple things, like whether or not UDE will release more sets, or if we'll get more OP from UDE. Today, with this entry I'm gonna say screw that ideology. The Battle of the Border was the greatest success of any homegrown event I could have possibly imagined, and I am glad to be able to say more events like the BotB will happen within the first fiscal quarter of 2009 and beyond.

First up, the January Beatdown kits. while I've heard this 3rd person (thus if I'm wrong please correct me), but my understanding is that a kit was/is available to order for January.
Next, we have the Super Saturday NY coinciding with comicon, the weekend of Feb 8th. Major props to Filth & gang for putting this shindig together.
Then we've got Battle of the Border: Texas Edition the weekend of March 13th. If you're thinking about going (whether you're sure or not at this point), be sure to post in the thread on it to let unclechawie know. Also, unclechawie, keep up the good work.

... unfortunately, things look as if I won't be able to attend BotB: Texas Ed. And that is because I've been asked to help out with:

Anime Boston: VS Infiltration!*
Yeah, a local shindig for me. Good friend and fellow vs enthusiast Alex "Exiledforcefrea" Lasky is hooking us up with a weekendful of goodness. Look forward to standard constructed formats as well as Super X-over. That said, details are still being developed and things can change. This is my current understanding for his intentions for events. Again please correct me on this if I'm wrong.
This event will be May 22-24.

And that leaves us with ... Super Saturday SoCal!
My understanding of this event goes back to the "Is 12/20 too soon?" local events thread, when Eric originally wanted the Super Saturday in mid/late December. That event became the holiday event for his store and intends on having another event upcoming TBD.

That's pretty much it so far vsworld! Events packed with awesomesauce to last us through May! Great times, and Happy New Year indeed.
- Alex "OSM" Lloyd


* That's not the actual name. I said it just because I thought flavor-wise it was fitting since VS is going to be in AB, where in previous years we haven't had vs events there.

Unleash This! #7; Name this Deck

-------------------------------------------------
Wow, what a crazy couple weeks it's been huh? I hope you all had a fantastic holiday with family, friends/equivalent.

I'm back after doing the tango on my school finals and the Christmas retail rush seems to have died down, I now have some decent energy to put into some hopefuly entertaining literature (would I call this stuff literature? no. But I work at a book store and as such I'm required by law to use big words =/)
-------------------------------------------------

And that brings us to this week's entry. I was playing some MEV sealed with some of the BotB participants a couple weeks ago, and two cards popped out in my matches as performing rather stellar: Alex Wilder and Random, Alex. Jeremy "Sheye" on the realms joked that I should make a deck whose theme was that all the cards shared my first name -> well without further delay, here we go!

We know we need Alex Wilder and Random, Alex in the deck for thematic purposes. Luckily, their drops don't conflict. Although, there isn't too much synergy between the two. We might have to go into Golden Age to make this work, but that said I want this to "feel" like a modern age deck ... let's see what this gets us
+ 4x Alex Wilder, Child Prodigy
+ 4x Random, Alex

Who else is named Alex? After doing a quick search on Marvel.com, DC and wiki, we've got Havok and Alexander Luthor to add to our arsenal of vs cardboard. So, now we're up to 4 affiliations. Great. Lucky for us though, Villains United are very good at teaming up. Not only that but they even have a searcher whose name is Alex!
+4 Alexander Luthor, Duplicitous Doppelganger
+1 Alexander Luthor, Insidious Impostor
+3 Alexander Luthor, Diabolical Double
(Are you loving the alliteration these 3 Alex cards? I am.)

Let's talk about Havok. After doing some research [read: reading parts of a wiki article], Alex Summers is a pretty deep fella'. He's played many roles in his various teams, ranging from the Living Pharoh's play toy to the leader of X-Factor. Did some traveling with Wolverine, fought some terrorists in Mexico, and had a thing for Polaris.

While the most vs-scene impact Havok gave us was his 4-drop from MXM, unfortunately Havok, Critical Mass won't be making the list today. While GA cards are fine, putting him in would feel too golden and would stray away from the Modern feel I want the deck to have.
+2 Havok, Age of Apocalypse
+3 Havok, Mutant X
+2 Havok, Proud Son

And what would having Havok in mean without having his brother*?
+1 Cyclops, Mutant Messiah

While looking around at some other Alex lore, I found this. We got a Sentinel O*N*E* in MUN, but this deck is pretty stretched as far as affiliations go already. Instead, let's add Valerie Cooper to the deck. She's got some background in the O*N*E* program, or at least her flavor text says she does. Also, she's X-Factor. That'll be important later.
+ 4 Valerie Cooper
+2 Layla Miller (if you combine letters from her name and the "X" from X-Factor you can spell Alex. It's the truth.)

So before we leave the character discussion, we need some 3-drops. Well, with so many low cost dudes that are important, we might have to play dr. Light, Furious Flashpoint. What's cool about him is if you can recover from playing Alexander Luthor 1 on turn 2, fetching Flashpoint, and vengeance-trigger bring in Alex Wilder on 3. It gives you a ton of breathing space for recruitment, getting bodies on the board. This build is starting to seem a little character-heavy ... might need to do some cutting as we get further along.
+4 Dr. Light, Furious Flashpoint
+1 Dr. Polaris
+1 Riptide

So how are we doing?

4 Valerie Cooper
2 Layla Miller
4 Alexander Luthor, Duplicitous Doppelganger
4 Alex Wilder, Child Prodigy
2 Havok, Age of Apocalypse
4 Dr. Light, Furious Flashpoint
1 Dr. Polaris
1 Riptide
1 Alexander Luthor, Insidious Impostor
4 Random, Alex
3 Havok, Mutant X
3 Alexander Luthor, Diabolical Double
2 Havok, Proud Son
1 Cyclops, Mutant Messiah

38 characters! That's a little heavy, we'll have to do some cutting. But that'll wait until we're done with the plot twists.

Mutant Town Messiah: I like it. possible double-usage from Alex Wilder early on if teamed up, multiple uses of Random is good to preserve board going into the following turn. Making sure Random is the defender could be tough though ...

Underground movement: ding ding

Government Sponsored: Hm maybe there's something to this character-heavy deck thing. But with so many team-ups, we're not going to have too many tricks. Also, don't forget to team-up X-Factor and Runaways, otherwise Alex won't let you use his power.

Join us or Die: a bizarre move could be to force your opponent to only have one legal target to attack. lolol. Oh ... there's also the interaction with Dr. Light. Hey, that could be good.

So if I max those cards out, I have 6 slots left. Let's go with ... 3x Coercion and 3x Mobilize. Mobi might not be a 4x just because we have insane card draw/rally with Alex Wilder, Valerie Cooper, lexi and Government Sponsored, plus Dr. Light, our main turn 3 play, is searchable via Alexander Luthor. It's also worth noting that there are 17 characters that Valerie can hit in the deck.

Final List: Alex.dec

4 Valerie Cooper
2 Layla Miller
4 Alexander Luthor, Duplicitous Doppelganger
4 Alex Wilder, Child Prodigy
2 Havok, Age of Apocalypse
4 Dr. Light, Furious Flashpoint
1 Dr. Polaris
1 Riptide
1 Alexander Luthor, Insidious Impostor
4 Random, Alex
3 Havok, Mutant X
3 Alexander Luthor, Diabolical Double
2 Havok, Proud Son
1 Cyclops, Mutant Messiah

4 Mutant Town Messiah
4 Underground Movement
4 Government Sponsored
4 Join us or Die
3 Mobilize
3 Coercion

So there you have it! Version 1.0 of Alex.dec!**
























If your name is also Alex, I highly suggest you give this deck a spin and tell me what you think. To everyone else ... be sure to try making your own name.dec. Something truly chaotic and enjoyable might come out of it.
- Alex "OSM" Lloyd

* I'd add the other brother to this list, but Vulcan sucks. lol.
** I've never felt so good about a deck that has 10 1-drops and 11 team-ups in it ... ever.

Quick Heroes fanset link

So, I've been working on this for ... about 6 months now. That said, I don't even feel like I'm 2/3 done. Still to go, I have to take the text and put it onto card layouts, format the images, find the remaining images, and I want to redo the "vanilla" Heroes characters' theme as well as make minor changes here and there to be inclusive to the 3 new keywords (Sylar as a hunter? Flavor-hotness to the max).

But yeah. It's been long enough. Here's 171 cards worth of awesomeness:

http://rapidshare.com/files/175053548/VS_System_Heroes_TCG_Activating_Evolution.doc.html

It's Finals week!

This week and next week I've got finals, but afterwards well there's a ton of great things to look forward to! Including:
> The most ridiculous theme a deck could ever have
> Sealed play breakdown for MEV, including deck breakdowns/pools
> Maybe I'll actually get around to typing up a BotB tournament report for what I ran.

Thanks again for reading my stuff guys, and Keep VS in your prayers. We're not done yet; worst case is we take the game even further in our own hands. 'Till next time!
- Alex "OSM" Lloyd

Unleash This! #6, The Quicksilver Combo goes Modern

You guys know the Quicksilver, Mutant Avenger + Quicksilver, Mutant Avenger + Legendary Battles combo I love so much, right? Well with the release of MEV, this combo is entirely re-enactable with Nightcrawler, Man of the Cloth.


We've known for over a year now that he can do similar things, but there really wasn't a reasonable substitute for legendary battles. Add to that, Quicksilver doesn't even have to be a part of the team attack whereas Nightcrawler requires it (which was mostly useful in cases where your opponent has exhaustion tricks). Well I just told you guys a moment ago that MEV fixed this problem, and how? Sewer Rats.

Now, I know this looks painful, and it is, but being able to team attack an entire board is completely worth it.

And the Marauders have some decent synergy with the X-Men. All we have to do is look at Gambit, [version] Sewer Rat for that; All of a sudden your stun effects work.

Then Sewer Rats combos greatly with X-Men Assemble. Nightcrawlers get bigger, and can stun bigger guys on their own. not too shabby. You have Cutting Loose for a +4 turn long pump, pretty much (two for each, team attacking together ...)

Then Gambit has off initiative tricks. His 6-drop, the Traitor. Three-Card Monte. Random. Well ... maybe that's taking this a little far with the Gambit support, but you get the idea. Let's see how it turned out:
---------------------------------------------
4 Gambit, Sewer Rat
4 Gambit, Le Diable Blanc
4 Night Crawler, Man of the Cloth
4 Random, Alex
1 Gambit, Death
3 Gambit, Traitor

4 Mobilize
3 Clash
4 Carrying the Torch
4 Underground Movement
4 Divided we Stand
4 Sewer Rats
3 Three-Card Monte
3 Cajun Charm
4 X-Men Assemble!
2 Graduating Class
3 Cerebro
3 Asgard
--------------------------------------

The basic idea of the deck is to get a gambit out on 2, preferrably the MEV one so you have both X-Men and Marauders out. Otherwise, Sewer Rat allows you to Graduating Class / Cajun Charmlock on initiative.

Underground Movement is there to push vulnerable characters into the hidden area (like your Nightcrawlers).

Clash and Carrying the Torch bypass uniqueness for ya. I guess you could get out multiple copies of gambit, but I'd make sure that the Nightcrawler combo is ensured first.

Three-Card Monte/Cerebro/Asgard are there to ensure that you hit with Gambit, Traitor. Basically TCM their X-1 cost dude, where X is the number of cards in your hand. That leaves you with one card in hand to swap out with cerebro/Asgard to get whatever character you want to stun their 6 with Traitor's ability.

Another way you could go, if you tweak the deck, is to shift out Gambit on 1, play gambit on 2, put 3 more shift counters on gambit on 3, with odds you can stun someone / Cajun Charm them, random on 4 off init stun their 2 exhaust their 4 brickwall then bring out a nightcrawler on 5 and a fresh gambit 2 if need be, gambit on 6, then the 2nd nightcrawler on 7 to team into their board then. Or you could avoid gambit 6 and go 2 nightcrawlers for evens on init, but that seems to be a harder route.

This deck hasn't been played at all, and might have very low consistency. That said, I'd love to hear your input. In hindsight, this deck doesn't have any off-initiative control until turn 6. Since that's the case, take odds if at all possible.

- Alex "OSM" Lloyd

Unleash This! #5, What are you thankful for?

With yesterday's street release of MEV, thousands of pack wrappers have already hit the dumpster (none by me yet, I'm stopping by a shop on my way home for thanksgiving later today). Good times, right?
Well, I'm not going to say one word about what's really on my mind, other than it evokes fear, potential depression, maybe down the line loss of self identity. But for right now, we still have vs.


I just watched a movie last week, you may have seen it; The Peaceful Warrior.
Soc and Dan say in the movie that this moment, right now, is what matters. Not fearing for the future, not thinking about mistakes past. I can learn from that, and will apply this message to the rest of this entry for your reading and visual pleasure.

I'm going to tell of the things I am thankful for in VS from the past year in chronological order (as close as I can), feel free to comment with what you are thankful for as well.

1. I'm thankful to UDE for them keeping the game going thusfar after the Pro Circuit died.

2. I'm thankful to a couple of my local friends who I played with for the last time when MVL and DCL came out for what they've given me in the duration that I've known them. This is inclusive to Mike "Aceswolf" Healey and Rich "pseudophonic" Latour. The latter showed me how to play competitively and inteligently, the former showed me how to be caring for the community.

3. I'm thankful for the subsets UDE made to accompany the marquee events for the drought between DCL and MUN.

4. I'm thankful for UDE/TBS giving bloggers the opportunity to preview MUN. I think that move made our community grow, if only for the reason that the set becomes more "personal."

5. I'm thankful for I'm_All_Noobish putting all of the MUN images on his photobucket. I used those pictures for the MUN OCTGN patch, which has been tweaked a bit with some help from flashback81.

6. I'm thankful for UDE running 4 megaweekends since the Pro Circuit died, when they originally said they would run 3.

7. I am very thankful to Ken (Kariggi) and his Christine (American Maid) for allowing me to stay with them, Patrick, Roger, Bacon and Noobish for MWNY.

8. I am thankful for having the chance to meet a ton of realmers at MWNY, including Ralph/Blues, Cliff and his sidekick Benny.

9. I am thankful to my parents for buying me a flight to origins for my birthday so I could compete at worlds.

10. I am thankful to Quackers and Jimmy for allowing me to room with them.

11. I am thankful again to meet many players at origins, including Aaron Mead and his crew, Cool Kurt and his crew (again), MSU Hitman, and others.

12. I am thankful for TBS's efforts at Worlds, congrats for his performance in the bounty hunt events, and for him placing higher than everyone resulting in him passing his packs down and enabling me to get a pack, which I got him to sign.

13. I am thankful for, in addition to meeting people for the first time, seeing familiar faces from MWNY and my local scene at Worlds. It made me feel more connected to the event.

14. I am thankful for the kindness of the vs system community, letting me borrow stuff as I struggled to get my Illuminati deck complete in time for round 1 parings (which I did, with like 5 seconds to spare). Especially Aaron, giving me a Dr. Strange secret avenger. I got my 5th copy recently and was able to give him one at the Battle of the Border to complete his playset.

15. I am thankful that my online trades and purchases this summer went well and without a hitch. Walter Soback's lot has been put to good use.

16. I am thankful to Darrius for his help and company as we treked to Cliff's for MW Indy

17. I am thankful to Cliff for driving us down and being so hospitable.

18. I am thankful to the Ring Has Chosen guys for having me on the show.

19. I am thankful for meeting Mr. Awesome, LizzardLightning, Fatalsync, Spooky and others.

20. I am thankful for Steak & Shake. They have like the best mocha milkshake ever, and they have my coffee shop in there too. like woah.

21. this one should've been mentioned much earlier, but thank you vsrealms and stu for your votes and support in the stuvivor challenge and thank you gday for being a great opponent in literature.

22. I am thankful to Jetpack Comics and Your Move Games for their marquee events and support.

23. I am thankful to TBS for granting me not one but two previews for MEV in the forms of Ice-Man and One Man Army.

24. I am thankful to Lost Hemisphere for the Summer of Love

25. I am thankful to Ralph at Jetpack Comics, casanovapooh at Nested Egg, Hills Wholesale, to Gdaybloke and the rest of Lost Hemisphere, to Cliff, The Governor's Inn and to John for your help in making the Battle of the Border what it could.

26. I am thankful to Aron's crew, Phou's crew, Ryan, Spud, Pablo, gday, Cliff, everyone for making the event festive. I will cherish this event for the rest of my life.

27. I am thankful to UDE for printing MEV. Even if it's not in Europe and Australia yet, as long as it exists then hope remains.

28. I am thankful to all who were inspired by the results of the Battle of the Border. Chawie is working hard on getting Battle of the Border: Texas Edittion ready and I hope the best for him and for my financial situation to hopefully be able to go down there. D-Block and Blues mentioned the possibility of there being a Battle of the Border: South Jersey vs North Jersey too. I'd love for the Battle of the Border to become a series of fan-made events, and for all of you who want to do something like this or have any questions, feel free to ask.

29. I'm thankful to have a couple other players on campus where I live

30. I am thankful to be a member of vsrealms.com

so, that's 30 things I'm thankful for VS System-wise. How 'bout you?
- Alex "OSM" Lloyd

Regarding The Ring Has Chosen Episode 66

While I appreciate the nod from Cliff and Squire, I have to clear up a couple things that seem to have been skewed out of proportions.

First, money.

* Ralph, the owner of Jetpack Comics, put down the deposit on the room. Not me. Ralph was paid back and compensated for the deposit from a portion of the $ me and John received from the participants' $15.00 entry fee. In addition, he contributed 25% discounts to the store as participation, gave $25.00 in store credit to the person who won the event, and donated two prize kits to the pool as well.

* I didn't get financially shafted; I was compensated for the boxes of product used for the Super-Crossover. A valid and proportionate share was given to Spud for letting us use his box of MUN in the sealed event as well. It's true, I spent plenty of hours calling various places, ordering things, confirming details and costs and such sure. But really, I did that because it needed to get done, not so much for any other reason. You guys dedicated the weekend to us, it's only fair that I bust my ass to make sure you guys wouldn't be disappointed.
My donation to the prize pool included:
* 11 other playmats (I kept one for myself for selfish reasons)
* The foreign MOR rares (that I bought this past summer from Walter Sobac)
* an odd assessment of MUL (nothing too extravagant)
* The trivia packs my team won at Gencon (DSM and MMK)

so really, compared to Lost Hemisphere and Matt "VS_Savant2" Robertson and Cliff, this was quite reasonable. Please don't think I was financially shafted.

Next, on UDE, no, they did not assist with this event at all. This was 100% fan-run.

When I got home from work on Wednesday night (the night Cliff and Squire recorded TRHC ep 66), I had a facebook chat with Cliff, and some of what Cliff mentioned in the podcast came up in our conversation. I made sure to address his concerns as I have addressed my reactions to them here in our facebook conversation, so I would like to ask for you all to not hold anyone responsible for this relatively reasonable miscommunication. Because that's what it was. Cliff mentioned rumors flying, and I'm sorry but I was too busy having fun and trying to be a good host to talk about how the event came to be, and if I had addressed them there then this all could have been avoided. My previous entry on how the Battle of the Border came to be hopefully addresses the related details more accurately.

Thanks again everyone, for reading this, for your support, and your respect. Thank you Cliff and Squire for naming me the Hero of the Month TRHC equivalent for the month of November, I'm honored. I appreciate your efforts, everyone, for making VS System everything it can be. Thank you for the respect you show me on the realms, and I can't wait to post there with you guys soon.

- Alex "OSM" Lloyd

Battle of the Border!: TBS, I'm sorry.

Just a heads up, this is basically my event designer diary entry.

I look back fondly to the events that happened this past weekend; The Battle of the Border. It was a ton of fun, you don't need me to tell you - other participants already have.

I'd like for one thing to be clear before I continue - I loved the Pro Circuit, I loved the events this past year (even MWNY was redeemed by a Cliff hug), so please allow me, TBS, to apologize for the feedback from this past weekend's event consisting of things like "better than any event ever." I'm sure they appreciate the events you guys have put on, and I hope you don't take it as your events weren't enjoyed - because they were. By many.

Also, a true unsung hero - Matt "VS_Savant2" Robertson. I'd link you to his profile so you could give him rep, but vsrealms.com is down (and so are all of the sister sites). This guy is pure goodness; He sent not one, but TWO carepackages to me to be used as prizes, and he didn't participate or anything. Here's what he supplied us with:
---------------
* Superman Lunchbox (won by Cliff)
* X-Men 3 movie (won by Steph 'misguidedwonder')
* Iron Man comics (given to everyone as participation)
* Modern/Golden Rares, foils & EAs (given out to multiple recepiants)
* Spider-Spud (won** by Spud)
* 2 Deckboxes (combined with others and given out to multiple recepiants)
---------------
I mean, seriously. All this stuff, plus the cost of shipping, out of pure generosity.
The VS community owes you.

Now, back on track. I'd like to narrate the course of events that led us to this spectacular event taking place:
First, Let's go back. Back to VS Worlds, this past July - I meet Aaron Mead and Steph. Now, as awesome as that was, I had no idea this encounter would be the spark next to an oil drum that would result into the sky being lit up like fireworks (ok so I'm not that great with metaphors, psych major here). We played in the Golden Age event the Thursday of Origins, and I swear I've never laughed as much as when I played my Spider-Clones against Aaron's New School (I think he used similar words when recounting the tale).

The next significant piece was Steph being convinced to join us on vsrealms, and I was reminded again of Aaron's awesomeness, and passively suggested that if we were given the opportunity, playing again would be great. Since we live so close to the Canadian/US border, I used the words "Battle of the Border" to highlight the epicity of what said encounter would be like (because it was, in every sense of the word, completely epic playing at Worlds). What with Steph's thread being called "Hello from Eastern Canada" resident Spud & Gday joined in on the conversation, and agreed that it would be excellent to play.

Suddenly, this comment, desire to relive an amazing vs experience was coming alive (and Jebus Aaron we didn't play once! we'll fix that at BotB2).

We started talking about where such an event should be held, and after a week or so (now mid-late July), We settled on Rochester NH on the grounds that we needed local presence, and relative central-ness to everyone (except Gday's crew). A close runner-up would have been Niagra. While we're talking about location, just a quick note that (well at least I felt that-) whoever hosts the event should put up more than those traveling. I feel this way because we don't have to spend a crapton on gas, we don't have to get hotel rooms, we can still live relatively normally in the duration. While I appreciate your praises alot, don't forget that you guys played a major role as well - I thank you for traveling the distance, going the extra mile to be here.

So now that the location has been decided on, John Tauron_Nox went to Ralph (owner of Jetpack Comics) to see about finding us a place to play. Ralph has done this sort of thing before, runs numerous comic-based events in the city of Rochester, and is a true saint. The store doesn't really have too much gaming space (IE they can't fit 30+ people for an event of this calibur) so the urgency to find a place to play was heightened. More on this in just a sec.

Next, we needed to figure out what exactly would be in the event: by this time (early-mid august) I had missed my local GA BYOT, and I love the concept for the format (anything that can let me play quicksilver, mutant avenger and pseudo-infy attack has to be good in my book). It felt like a very thematic format, and we can say the Avengers played against the Alpha Flight***.
We actually had a vote, and although a couple guys wanted modern, the majority wanted GA BYOT. Me being the great compromiser I am I suggested that modern be casually played in hotel rooms. I'm glad what basically came out of this was that Friday was the meet & greet event, so by the time we all went to the main event we knew eachother. We agreed to play super x-over sealed if there was time.

Then, when everything seems to be going great, I get a PM from Tauron_Nox saying that Ralph couldn't find a reasonable location (It was worded a little differently but this is the basic message I got). With John being busy and Ralph at a dead end, and with the event less than 3 months to go I started to panic. I tried looking at Special Events New England, New England Tent Rentals, and checked with gamestores I knew had the room for us.

I ran into the same wall Ralph ran into, it seems. Then, I turned to my 2nd best friend in the world, google.com. At this point I was gasping at straws. Somewhere in that first page of the google search was The Governor's Inn, and I thought 'gee, that sounds like a decent place.' Right in Rochester. So, I gave 'em a call. What would it hurt, right? So I call them and get some info, and tell them I'd have someone take a look (I mentioned this place to John and Ralph, they check it out). We get the green light; $200 per timeslot, 2 timeslots in a day. $400 for a day. $100 down payment.

Me, never having done this sort of thing before, I ask Ralph/John if that's a good price. They jumped on it. The raincloud's silver lining grows brighter. Even better, Matt Robertson's package came in. On the forums, Gday says he'll chip some prize support in, and Matt responded by sending yet another package. I love them generous folk.

Three weeks out. I haven't spent one cent yet. I figure it's about time to start shopping around for boxes for the super x-over (I get paid bi-weekly if that's a good enough excuse). I get the idea that having playmats would be cool for the event (hence the multiple threads on the subject).
Eventually I'm lead to casanovapooh on the realms, and am told I'm too late to make the playmats. But, if I hurry, I could get something in and he'd try to get it out.
By this time I had already asked Spud if he'd get something together, and have seen plenty of nice images. I needed something quick, and I made the playmat as we know it in under 2 hours. Considering it was done with paint and considering I'm sucky when it comes to all forms of art (computer graphics included, just look at the vs symbol of this blog's header).
I had to ask casanovapooh to add the text to the playmat.

Two weeks out. Trouble comes up with people who were previously on the "definitely coming" list. I weasle one into going, but couldn't get Darius. ahhh. Gotta fix that for next time. Also, Scott tells me of a super duper prize (as we now know as galactus poster).

One week out. I get a call from the governor's inn saying that they had a cancellation and that if we moved rooms we'd get 1/2-off. hells yeash! Also, the entirety of the prizes arrive from my end of things & Matt's.

Then, the day comes ... It's Friday, 11/7. The day everyone gets here. Let's pause the game here, and continue our story next time shall we?

- Alex "OSM" Lloyd



** I rigged the dice-roll on that one
*** NONE of the Canadians ran Alpha Flight. What's up with that???

Battle of the Border: The Warriors Left Standing

While no-one got shot, stabbed, or cleaved, plenty got smacked around (even to the back of the head). Here are the lists of the rest. *Of what I've been given. Still need the 2nd place and 3rd place lists*

1 - Phou Phommavong
Characters 30

4X Boliver Trask
6X Hounds of Ahab
5X Sentinel Mark 2
5X Sentinel Mark 5
4X Nimrod
4X Bastion
2X Cassandra Nova

Plot Twists - 27

4X Mobilize
4X Search and Destroy
4X Cover Fire
4X Savage Beatdown
4X Finish Move
4X Reconstruction Program
3X No Man Escapes the Manhunter

Location - 3

3X South American Sentinel Base

2 - Glenn Aissis


3 - Robert Bender


4 - Ralph Edwards
Characters - 26
12 Anti-Green Lantern
4 Chomin
4 Xallarap
3 Fiero
3 Felix Faust
Plot Twists - 30
4 Trial by Fire
4 Blinding Rage
4 Mega Blast
4 Cosmic Conflict
4 Big Leagues
2 Surprise Attack
4 Banished to the Anti-Matter Universe
3 Emerald Dawn
1 The Ring Has Chosen
Equipment - 4
4 Ring of the Sinestro Corps


5 - Aaron Mead - Running "Shaft!"
*Note, all versions of characters are Ultimates unless stated otherwise.
Characters - 31
4 Wasp
4 Clint Barton
4 Nick Fury
2 Natasha Romanoff - Mighty Avenger
4 Hank Pym
1 Natasha Romanoff
1 Lady Deathstrike MUN
4 Iron Man
3 Captain America
2 Thor
1 Death MUN
1 Beyonder MUN
Plot Twists: 22
4 Liberation Day
4 Mobilize
4 Ultimate Human
1 Gah-Lak-Tus
4 Savage Beatdown
2 Now I'm Fighting Dirty
1 License to Kill
Locations: 3
3 Triskelion


6 - Pablo Felices Costello
1-drops:
4x Wong – Mystical Manservant

2-drops:
4x Tania Belinskya <> Red Guardian
2x Beast – New Defender

3-drops:
4x Hellcat
1x Hawkeye – Loudmouth

4-drops:
4x Samantha Parrington

5-drops:
4x Hulk – Grumpy Green Goliath

6-drops:
1x Silver Surfer – Prodigal Herald
1x Wendell Vaughan <> Quasar

7-drops:
1x Hulk – Strongest One There Is

Plot Twists
4x Flying Kick
4x Mega-Blast
4x Mobilize
4x The B-Team
4x Bloodsport
4x Press the Attack
4x Righteous Anger
2x Hulk Smash
2x Astral Projection

Locations
3x The Great Arena


7 - David Tierney (Spud)
1-drops:
1x The Penguin – Gentleman of Crime
1x Catwoman Cat’O Nine Tails
1x Amadeus Arkham
1x Mad Hatter

2-drops:
1x KGBeast
1x Calendar Man
1x Charaxes – Moth Monster
1x The Penguin – Crime’s Early Bird
1x The Riddler – Brain Teaser
1x Tally Man

3-drops:
1x Blockbuster
1x The Penguin – Arms Merchant
1x The Penguin – Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot
1x The Joker – Out of his Mind
1x Great White
1x Charaxes – Drury Walker
1x Mr. Zsasz

4-drops:
1x Poison Ivy – Pamela Isley
1x Hush – Mystery Man
1x Hush – Silent and Deadly
1x Batzarro
1x The Joker – Headline Stealer
1x The Joker – Laughing Lunatic

5-drops:
1x Killer Croc – Waylon Jones
1x Matt Hagen <> Clayface – Mud Pack
1x Scarecrow – Fearmonger
1x Scarecrow – Fear and Loathing
1x Catwoman

6-drops:
1x Two-Face – Heads or Tails
1x Sondra Fuller <> Clayface
1x The Joker – Killer Smile
1x The Joker – Crazy for You

7-drops:
1x Two-Face – Split Personality
1x Basil Karlo <> Ultimate Clayface

10-drops:
1x Death – Second Force of the Universe

Consistency
1x Jack-In-The-Box
1x Ego Gem
1x Secret Origins
1x Usual Suspects
1x Mobilize
1x Beside Myself
1x Pick A Card
1x Certifiable
1x Prison Break

Pump
1x Stryker’s Island
1x SKREEEEEE!
1x Burn Baby Burn!
1x Savage Beatdown
1x Glass Jaw
1x Flying Kick
1x Nasty Surprise

Board Control
1x Money Talks
1x Kidnapping
1x Finishing Move
1x Death Trap
1x Smiles, Everyone!

Misc.
1x Frog of Thunder
1x No Man’s Land
1x Chilly Reception
1x Roshambo
1x Have a Blast
1x Siphon Energy


8 - Clifford Parmeter
1-drops:
3x Zabu
3x Aunt May – Golden Oldie

2-drops:
3x Blade - Knightstalker
3x Black Cat – Nine Lives

3-drops:
2x Ka-Zar
1x Mattie Franklin – Reserve Webhead
1x Darkhawk

4-drops:
4x Spider-Man – Sensational Spider-Man

5-drops:
2x Venom – Lethal Protector
1x Phil Urich – Green Goblin
1x Michael Collins <> Deathlok

6-drops:
4x Wolverine - Canucklehead

7-drops:
1x Spider-Man – Amazing Spider-Man
1x Spider-Man – Stark’s Protege

8-drops:
1x The Sentry – Golden Guardian of Good

Plot Twists
4x Gift Wrapped
3x Trial by Jury
3x Need for Speed
3x Indebted
3x Nasty Surprise
3x Blind Sided
3x Pathetic Attempt
2x Savage Beatdown
1x Trouble with Dinosaurs

Locations
2x Empire State University

Equipment
2x Ego Gem

So I got a PM today,

And it came from unclechawie. He asks:
------------------
"OSM,

I'd like to replicate BotB here in TX. Any insight you can provide into how to make this a great an invent as possible would be much appreciated. Thanks for your help."
------------------

My response: Plan things out 3-5 months in advance. the Battle of the Border this past weekend was awesome, but there were a couple things that could have gone better if we had more time (the playmat would've had different art). I also suggest you get into regular contact with a space rental place unless your local hobby league shop has room for 20-40 players. The Battle of the Border had a ton of prize support from different parties; Gdaybloke's crew chipped in, Cliff chipped in, VS_Savant chipped in, me and others all chipped in. People brought cool and different things; it was sort of like a pot luck. We're fortunate to have people in the area to help out; I wouldn't have asked them personally to chip in but I'm very glad they did and I feel like it helped to give everyone a positive experience. Everyone left with at least two decent prizes, not to mention around 20 promos per player.

Advertise the event at least 2-3 months out so people can make plans. Drill it into people, convince them to go! I feel like we decided on GA BYOT a little late and potentially we could've had more people from Rhode Island show.

We were fortunate to have a spot for 12 hours of play; even then, it felt rushed. In the beginning it seemed like we had plenty of time but it slipped away. I guess that's when you know you're having a good time.

On the playmat, I bought 12 copies. Nested Egg Gaming gave me a discount because it was for a big event; hopefully they can do the same for you when you get to that point of the planning stage.

We had a constructed event and a sealed one. We also had a meet and greet the previous night, which was casual play and a draft. Maybe that model will work for you, or maybe you'll want to try something different.

Call it the Revenge of the Alamo, lol. Hope this helps.
--------------------

So, I figured I'd share this with the entire vs community.
Next up will be the top-8 decklists from the Battle of the Border, and after that will be commentary.
'Till next time gang!
- Alex "OSM" Lloyd

Battle of the Border: The Combatants have gathered

It seems the participants have made it through the Wretched Path of Doom unscathed. As they relax and prepare for the following day's trials, casual play ensued. The night wrapped up with a 2-pod MUN draft, and here are the results:




Is this a sign of what is to come? Should I expect complete and utter defeat? Well, I will if I don't get some sleep soon, so I'll leave it at that. Actually, no. What I'll leave you with is this: Spud's real first name is David.

- Alex "OSM" Lloyd

Battle of the Border! High Noon is coming

As the warriors gather, in preparation for travel, the sun begins to rise. They have gone through some trials, but yet they still have more to come. The next one shall prove difficult; the Wretched Path of Doom. Ensnarled within include rabid beasts, needle ceilings, and a mid-level boss battle. However, if they survive the Wretched Path and reach the Colosseum, then the light of High noon shall shine upon them as they wage war with the enemy of the opposing side.

-------------------------

Have I set the tone? Are you anxious, warriors? And of you, those who are watching, chanting, cheering from the stands?

The rules of combat are as follows:
* GA BYOT constructed
* 7 rounds (most likely anyways)
* 1v1 contests
* Team Rules apply (will elaborate)
* Solo Performance will be awarded as well

now my elaboration:
As to decide who are the fittest, finest warriors in the lands, player game averages will be averaged again together to form team averages. The greater of the two shall emerge from the Colosseum victorious. The averages will work because playing against teammates wouldn't change the average one way or another.

There will be many prizes, and of them, included are these:
* Complete sets of two Golden Age expansions in foil and nonfoil
* Modern Age Rares
* Modern Foils
* Foreign Language cards
* EAs/Promos
* Secret Super Duper Earning Condition Prizes of Grandeur
* Comics
* Movies
* Jetpack Comics discount / Store Credit
* More secret specialty prizes

What are these specialty prizes about? Well ... things are going to be interesting. Sometimes, a Warrior might find a trusty edge buried in the desert sand just as decisive peril might strike. While these won't affect game outcomes, how your game comes out might play a factor. We'll have an eagle in the sky keep a lookout for those who have proven themselves worthy and fortunate.

Lemme Hear you BATTLE CRY!

- Alex "OSM" Lloyd

Prizes for the Battle of the Border

Everyone is leaving with stuff. What, might you ask?
Well, there is going to be:
* Complete sets of two Golden Age expansions in foil AND nonfoil
* Modern Age Rares
* Modern Foils
* Foreign Language cards
* EAs/Promos
* Secret Super Duper Earning Condition Prizes of Grandeur
* Comics
* Movies
* Jetpack Comics discount / Store Credit

And This.

Edit: Thanks to Casanovapooh on the realms for the playmat's emblem and printing them.

"Paint-shopped" by yo. Feel free to send me criticism, but I think it turned out good. Also, there's going to be 12 of these badboys floating around. That's right! 12! If there are 30 people in attendance (as projected), that means you have better than 1:3 odds of walking away with this pretty.

* Prize support helper people guys include Matt Robertson, Chris Miller, Scott Hamilton, me and others.

So what do you guys think? Is this stuff worth treking out to NH to battle it out for? I think it is.
- Alex "OSM" Lloyd

Unleash This! #4, In preparation for BYOT GA in Mass

Welcome back to the Unleash This! series, and this time around, I'll give an in-depth look into the deck I'm more or less going to play at Your Move Games's GA BYOT event this Sunday at 2pm.

As far as what I'm running, well, let's just say I didn't want to play something that is 'predictable' of me (ie choosing SF). Thing is, I'm well experienced with Spidey. Figured this would give me an opportunity to try him out in a different setting where he wouldn't have his black cat, his ESU or even Sensational Spider-Man. So I wrote down a short list of the other affiliations he's been on:
Fantastic Four
Marvel Knights
Avengers
SHIELD

Next I thought about what I'd run into. For my local meta, that includes revenge sqad, Doom, Morlocks and I'm thinking there'll be some more short curve/rush decks.

With MUN relatively recent, I thought it would be most fun to put my recently spent dollars to work, and from the above Spidey list, the Avengers seem to have the most toys to play with in Golden Age.
Now the list:
-----------------------------------------------------------
2 Rick Jones, A Hero's Best Friend
3 Wasp, Janet Van Dyne-Pym
4 Natasha Romanoff <> Black Widow, Super Spy
3 Quicksilver, Mutant Avenger
3 Hawkeye, Loud Mouth
3 Iron Man, Mighty Avenger
2 Hawkeye, Clinton Barton
2 Sub-Mariner, Namor
1 Spider-Man, Secret Avenger
1 Monica Rambeau <> Captain Marvel, Lady of Light
4 Captain America, Super Soldier
2 Spider-Man, Stark's Protege
1 The Sentry, Mighty Avenger

2 Mobilize
4 Avengers Assemble!
4 Switching Sides
2 Pathetic Attempt
2 Gift Wrapped
3 Against All Odds
4 Legendary Battles
4 Carrying the Torch
3 Stars and Stripes
------------------------------------------------------
The deck wants odds.

While this deck doesn't have that much tech, at a first glance it's (hopefully it is) obvious that this deck is packing a ton of combat control. In the BYOT format, I think players are going to rely more on the combat phase than we've seen in Silver or even Modern Age (Wolvie.dec / Illuminati).

That said, here's the turn-by-turn synopsis:
Rick Jones is really there to enable the team attack effects and to protect me from scary-huge attacks. By two it'd be nice to hit a 2-drop. Hitting Natasha means if you hit Quicksilver on 3, you get to stun 2 guys and attack to the dome and they lose a guy (Natasha nails the 2 or 3, Quicksilver readies after taking down the guy you team attacked).
Speaking of 3, I've found that while Hawkeye is preferred against rush, because your main 4 is Iron Man, you can play hawkeye against normal curve decks too and watch Hawkeye's attack soar! Really Hawkeye is there to make getting evens much easier to handle.
Quicksilver, while making good on the team attack mentioned above, he's great if you can get a 2nd out; an awesome thing about Carrying the Torch is that you can break uniqueness, so on turn 4 you can have your quicksilvers team attack into your opponent's entire board with a legendary battles.

So that covers your players for the first 3 turns.
Moving into turn 4, again because of Carrying the Torch, you can have both hawkeyes in play. Realistically, I'd only imagine doing this against kree or Sinister Syndicate or Moloids. Everything else, Iron Man is your man. Name him Captain America, recover him with stars and stripes and recover your entire board (note, he'll have to be ready or exhausted whenever an adjacent character would become stunned, so Dr. Silva has one up on Iron Man I guess).

Also note this is the turn Switching Sides goes online.

Going into turn 5, you have 3 choices, and really none of them are bad. Spider-Man is there to handle the opposition during their initiative, Monica Rambeau is there to add insult to injury and Sub-Mariner is just an all-around really great 5-drop. Need to find your latecurve characters? Hope to row a search plot from his leader effect. Go ahead Hawkeye, stun their 4-drop with your 7 attack! (5 + 1 counter from Iron Man plus 1 ATK from Sub-Mariner).

Turn 6 is cap. He's got potential both on and off init, is a leader, and is named Captain America. What's not to like?

Turn 7 is Spidey. If needed you can break uniqueness again. Ya'll know what he can do, exhaust the problematic dudes.

Turn 8 throw them into the sun!

Quick recap of the combos:
Quicksilver + Carrying the Torch + Quicksilver + Wasp/Legendary Battles
Hawkeye 3 + Carrying the Torch + Hawkeye 4
Iron Man + Carrying the Torch + Stars and Stripes

As of now, something that might still question you is why the 1 copy of Big Leagues? Well, no card in the game, imo, more truly captures the flavor of the format than Big Leagues.

Alex "Orange_Soda_Man" Lloyd is a frequent poster on the realms and can't wait to see how Spidey faires in a different environment. Whether he'll pervail with the help of his Idol Captain America or if he'll be accused of acting phony, we'll soon find out. If you've hacked into the Avengers Mansion and uncovered this information in time for your own gain come this Sunday, then power to you. The Avengers have been Assembled.

Seeking Help from Artist: Battle of the Border

Basically, I'm looking into buying some custom playmats from casanovapooh, but I'm no artist. Actually, I have no artistic talent at all.

I'm planning on getting the playmats for the top 2 players from each side of the border, Canada vs USA.

As for the details for the image, I was given this link for the dimensions.
What else I'd like:
The words "Battle of the Border 2008" on there.
n that, go wild. Use existing images. Draw your own. Anything. Even sign it if you want. What will you get? The undying love of all the participants, some point cards and some MUN rares.

Heroes: Activating Evolution TCG fanset details

I apologize for the lack of posts this week; testing with school can do that. However that shouldn't be enough reason for me to deprive the vs community of effort on my part, and I will deliver.

As many of you know, I've been working on a fanset for the Heroes tv show, and all that needed to be done was to template the cards. Well, I've downloaded the program used to make cards and have made some. Why don't I go ahead and show you one?


Oops, forgot to make it a rare. Well, it is. I'll edit this enty later.


Now, I know the image looks a little choppy, and that this card doesn't show you anything about the flavor of the set, so here's the definition of the two new keywords, Surge and Accumulative!

Surge: When this character enters play, at the start of the recovery phase this turn, put a surge counter on it.

While this character has a surge counter on it, its surge text is active.

Reminds you of cosmic-surge, right? Basically, the name was chosen for that reason. The big difference here is that you don't lose the counter when you become stunned, and you can get the counter even if you're stunned at the start of the recovery phase. It's meant to show how characters learn about their powers, and can learn to strengthen them or they might even learn new ones - like Matt Parkman and Hiro Nakamura. Just a quick note, surge may change or refer to an existing powers text or it may add a new power to the card for this developmental reason.

And the next keyword, Accumulative!
Whenever this character would be KO'd due to uniqueness, you may remove this character from the game instead. If you do, the accumulative text on this card applies to all characters that share the same name as this character.

This power relates to those who can get more powers, like Sylar, Peter and Monica. It would be a bummer if you worked so hard to get them more powers, and then just have them KO'd due to uniqueness and lose their powers, right? Well, Accumulative aims to ease the pain a little bit. You might even see the power "Accumulative: character X has all the powers character X has had this game."
Oh, that sounds powerful. If I didn't know any better, this set might have a theme about people with powers or something.

* I'd like to give a shout-out to lupercal over at vsrealms.com for his insights and help with cleaning up some of the text.

Unleash This! #3: Heroes comes to VS! (fan set)

That's right Heroes fans, the Heroes tcg: Activating Evolution Set (fanmade) is coming out soon! Over the past few months, I've been designing/tweaking my own fanset for Heroes. With it comes the addition of two new keywords, Surge and Accumulative! The set is 171 cards, 57 rares 57 uncommons 57 commons. Teams that will be featured include:

Heroes
The Company
Level 5
Petrelli
Bennet
Yagamotto
Sylar

I am just one step away from releasing this set to you guys, what to know what it is?

Templating! That's it! I have very nice looking word and excel documents for the set at the ready.
If you would like to take a look at the text version, I'd love to hear some input! All you have to do is message me via e-mail or PM me on vsrealms.com about it.

Additionally, if you have any image suggestions (I have around 100 or so), post up and I might use it.

Oh, and if desired, we can go through a previews system like what DCU went through.
I hope you guys are enjoying MEV previews.

Until next time,
- OSM

Marvel Evolutions Preview: One Man Army

Welcome back to VS Unleashed X-Factor preview week! This time around, I'll be giving you guys an exclusive first look at yet another legend card for Multiple Man! Just a quick recap on what's been previewed already for the guy so far:
Jamie Madrox <> Multiple Man 5
Re-Absorbtion
Multiple Man, Army*Hydra
Multiplicity

So, that makes for 5 previews (including this one) so far. Well, the theme for him certainly seems to be about how well he works with other copies of himself; He can bring multiple copies of himself out, he can reform himself into card draw and life gain, exhaustion effects and he even has attack pumps via Multiple Man 1's activate power. ... what is missing? What could UDE possibly have left in the tank to throw at us? How about this.





That's right, folks! Now he can maintain an entire board! Now, before you start thinking that this card is very situational because of there being a limit to the # of Jamie Madrox 5s you're allowed in your deck, TBS gave me permission to tell you guys a secret:

He's getting a 2-cost army character card too.

There. By now, your mind has 'prolly exploded. Mine has. While I'm recovering, let's break it down:
* low threshold means it's going to be usable from the get-go
* serves as a counter to ko effects
* makes Multiple Man resilient to mass-stun effects like Hawkeye or The Stamford Incident
* will only be a dead card when you don't care it is a dead card:

For this to be a dead card, the only two situations (I can think of) are if your characters aren't getting stunned, or more specifically if your opponent is playing stall. Why I don't think you'll mind is because against stall, how in the world will they be able to keep your board locked down? With Iceman, as I previewed yesterday? Psh, you can use your guys for other stuff. You can To Me My X-Men (since he's got army X-Men versions you'll surely be using), and let's face it: Iceman can only lock down one or two guys. You're going to have a banquet-full of MMs. It's gonna be like:


yeah. Just like that. Oh Snap is right.

Now, if only there were a way to stun your MMs ...
wait. Here's some synergy:
Marvel Zombies! go ahead, stun your MM and recover a character - then use one man army to recover the MM too! if you have two non-MM stunned characters, then with this two-plot combo you can go into the next turn with a full board.

Next up:
How many of you guys remember Harvey Bullock from DOR?

now, he used to be a big part of a GCPD stall deck. The point? Multiple Man from MXM copies affiliations, right? I tinkered around with this interaction, included Invisible Woman Invisible Girl and her affiliation to be able to pack cosmic radiation. The only problem with the deck? It was too easy for my board to be destroyed.

That problem is now solved, thanks to One Man Army! OK, I'll recover my board. And while I'm at it, let's cosmic rad, exhaust some MMs for Harvey, and exhaust some more characters.

Another thing about this card --> It isn't phase-stamped. Use it whenever!

Honestly, if we get a generic "Stun a character you control --> Do X." card or a cosmic rad for Multiple Man, there's going to be a ton of crazy stuff that you could do with him, not that there isn't already a ton of awesome things that can be done with him now.

'Later gang, and thanks for reading!

Alex "OSM" Lloyd is currently suffering from multiple-tosis, and his mind has exploded from many ideas based around multiple man and multiple teams and crazy recovery-ready-exhaustion shenanigans like the one posted above. If you think you are suffering from multiple-tosis too, post here with your symptoms and we as a community can come up with a diagnosis.

Mavel Evolutions Preview: Iceman, Jack Frost

Welcome to VS Unleashed! I hope you're thoroughly enjoying X-Factor previews Week; Just incase you haven't seen all the previews thus far, check here.

Bobby Drake has had 6 versions until now; 4 of them involve keeping people down cold. You'll be happy to know that his flavorful theme continues:



Now, before I get into my impressions of the card, lets break him down:
* average 3-drop stats
* range
* fits the energize theme
* awesome picture
* his power:

Let's get into that. He basically can "lock down" two characters a turn. Starting turn 3. Um, wow! He is useful both on-init and off, since his power isn't phase-stamped or step-stamped. That said, his power is usually going to be optimized on your initiative, since lock down effects on-initiative are pretty much the same as off-initiative exhaustion effects (except better).

Now, this guy doesn't say remains exhausted this turn, but rather he remains exhausted. I don't think that's broken or anything, far from really. If you're facing off against quickfate, where characters can ready and attack again, this serves like a force field projection. That said, and what the biggest thing to overcome I think, is that he can only target exhausted characters.

That's fine and dandy for anyone who attacks, but here's something that might throw a wrench in your gameplan; his energize will trigger after the attacker has already exhausted. That means this guy has a huge target over his head. That said we've seen plenty of exhaustion effects in the form of Cyclops, Polaris and Concussive Force that should make this potential problem disappear.

Now, just based off of the previews we've seen so far, it seems X-Factor seems to be a bit of a stall team; I'm impressed. I'm impressed, and, I see potential. Possibilities. Who would you team this guy up with? #1 on my list is the Inhumans; waking the ancestors and consistancy and Attilan make for great stall tools. You'll be locking down so many characters, just imagine your opponent's frustration. Then there's the Spider-Friends; Gift wrapped, Sensational, and one of the game's strongest draw engines make for a good fit as well.

In Golden Age, this guy might be a tech pick against Rigged elections and is sure to see play in the GA X-Stall deck. Silver, as I mentioned the Inhumans and SF have synergy. Modern, well let's wait for the set to be released, but as of now, I think it won't have as strong of an effect; Hulk can go hulk 3 - brood - hulk 5 to straight-ko him, society can steal him, and Wolverine Direct Attack.dec can team into him first, then go to the dome. Then again, I think X-Factor definitely has/will have the tools to slow down that deck, and maybe that will be enough. For modern, again, it's too soon to tell.

If you have any combos, suggestions or would like to post your thoughts on Iceman, Jack Frost, feel free to post so and I encourage it. Check back tomorrow for more MEV Previews, and if you haven't already, check out VS-Blog.com for another preview!

Battle of the Border is coming!

While we're all excited for MEV previews right now, let's not forget that the most epic of awesome battles between Canada and US (besides the war of 1812, although I might not call that "awesome"), the BATTLE of the BORDER is going down on November 8th, 2008.

The format is BYOT GA.

The place? I've got a few places lined up. It was decided awhile back that the most central and travel-friendly place for all voiced participants (Gday and Spud near Niagra, Cliff in northern NY, Aron "Onyxweapon" Mead in NB and another scattered group in New England, we have decided that the blood* will be spilled in Rochester, NH. I'll edit this within the week as the exact location is finalized. EDIT: The Governor's Inn is a contender right now. Stay tuned, and see end of blog entry.

The prizes? Everyone is walking away with something. That said, we have some goodies from Matt "Vs_Savant2" Robertson of prizes to give out, we have FULL FOIL SETS (GA) from Gdaybloke. We have some other potentials who might contribute; before Jetpack's departure they were going to chip in and another gaming shop might as well.

The winning team:
When you sign up, you will choose a side (CA if you're from there, US if you're from the US, and if you have dual citizenship, we'll figure something out. Maybe balance out the teams). The averages of your wins vs your losses (say you go 4-3 in 7 rounds and another went 6-1 and your team has 2 members, you would have a final score of 5-2). The winning team will get extra goodies.

Food: If you guys want, we can all order pizza or something. If that's not what you're gonna want, there's a bunch of other food places around.

Cost: as of now, it's $20. When I get an exact cost of rental, this will be edited.
EDIT: See end of blog entry; cost should be 10-20$

Also, I apologize for a lack of communication this weekend; school internet is undergoing a process that involves restricting ports (to dissalow online gaming, downloading and other stuff), so me my roomate and a few others chipped in to have our own private line installed (which is what I'm using now). No more downtime, huzzah!

*by blood I mean the intense act of card flipping.

hang tight gang,
Alex "OSM" Lloyd
-------------------------------------------------

THIS JUST IN!!!!

While details aren't confirmed yet, The Governor's Inn sounds very reasonable. I just got off the phone with them, and they are sure they can accommodate us. A rough estimate on space rental is 200-300;
I'm going to go up there and look around later on.
Also ~ I have talked to Ralf from Jetpack, and I wholeheartily apologize for creating the misconception that you do not support Battle of the Border, and further, appreciate all support you are willing to give this event.

20 Interactions involving the 6 MEV cards previewed thus far.

With the first of the previews up already, the familiar excitement of the preview season returns to the vs community. The flow of creative thoughts and energy might already be overtaking you, filling you with ideas as to how these few cards and the themes that we can speculate from them will affect the game as a whole. Here's how it's hit me, and maybe these interactions will serve as a channel to you, to spark something bigger.

Let's start with Brian Eugenio's card:

"Super Skrull has the affiliatons of each opposing character. Discard a card --> Choose one: Super Skrull has energize, evasion or invulnerability this turn. Use only once per turn. Activate --> Choose one: Target player discards a card; target player replaces a face-up resource; or target player loses 3 endurance. Use only during the combat phase."

Wow, he's a knockout! If you haven't heard yet, energize basically say "whenever this character defends, ready it." Now, that basically means you can use one of his activate powers twice. awesome. That said, he still can have evasion / invulnerability, which shouldn't be overlooked. Let's tackle the obvious first; energize.

INTERACTION #1 - ICE

Her power is easier to activate now than ever before. Looking for something to bring to a post-Mev GA BYOTT event? JLI/Skrulls!
If you trigger the power-up (Nth Metal, Katar Hol, another copy of Super Skrull) then you already have someone to exhaust with for her effect --> Super Skrull. Energize, he readies, you power him up, and Ice triggers. You exhaust Super Skrull again, and vwala! You've locked down a crazy mofo. Who dares to attack your Super Skrull, the world champion?




INTERACTION #2 - THANOS

Well, if you hide Thanos and you really want your energize to go off ...

INTERACTION #3 - MECH BAY
What is it with me and stall, huh? Well, at least this one will be much easier to pull off, and will work for whatever energizers you use.

INTERACTION #4 - EGO GEM
Discard a card to draw a card? Not bad. Also, I can pick up evasion to evade and give the gem to someone else if need be (like a lategame discard for a mobilize. A painful play, but it's nice to know it's there).


INTERACTION #5 - WINNING
Here's what I think he's going to do: In the mainstream skrulls deck, you don't have too many visible dudes. If he's the only visible guy you have, he basically allows you to discard a card to burn for an extra 3, and really that might be what he does the most. Off initiative, burning for 6 is good I hear. Also, if you haven't noticed already, Cap's Shield and Tony's armor are in the background of Super Skrull's pic; recognition for Matthew Ross's 2nd place performance at worlds maybe?

-------------

CYCLOPS, MUTANT MESSIAH MEV-009
"Loyalty, Energize. Activate --> Exhaust target character.
It's controller loses endurance equal to its cost."

INTERACTION #6 - RESET
This might be what works best with him if you're planning on attacking with him on turn 8 ~ Energize kicks in, you reset. their attacker readies, and you exhaust them with Cyke's effect! Great, now how am I supposed to get my hands on some resets??

INTERACTION #7 - THE SLEEPER CELLS
It's turn 8. You're Running (at least 1) X-Men. odds are you're going to have a bunch of guys, and being able to reuse this guy's effects multiple times will win you games you shouldn't win. Similarily, other cards that will ready characters like Samantha Parrington, Press the attack, or even Outback Stronghold will all have the same result.

-----------

CONCUSSIVE FORCE MEV-034
"To Play, exhaust a Cyclops you control. Target opponent exhausts two ready characters he controls."

....

INTERACTION #8 - CYCLOPS, MUTANT MESSIAH
Exhausting 3 characters is better than exhausting 2. With a 2nd copy, that's 4 characters instead and you don't bother using Cyke's power at all. But, what are you stalling to? Galactus? I would.

INTERACTION #9 - THE CAPTAIN
JUST incase Cyke doesn't get a 4 or less, we have the captain. Then again, even if there was a Cyke that fit that description, the captain is already in plenty of toolbox variants that could benefit from the inclusion of some double stall power. Not to mention the draw power from his effect is a nice perk.

INTERACTION #10 - CARRYING THE TORCH
What's better than Concussive Force? Being able to use it multiple times in a turn, because you have more than one Cyke. Or maybe you'd rather your Cyke do other things. Like exhausting target character and burning them. Yeah, that might be a sound play.

INTERACTION #11 - Spider-Friends
While this isn't an interaction per se, I think all these exhaust effects that Cyke is getting seem to compliment the SF stall theme.

INTERACTION #12 - WAKING THE ANCESTORS
What's better than exhausting characters? Locking them down. Keep in mind, you should be playing Waking the Ancestors on your initiative, so your opponent doesn't have the characters to use during their attack step during their initiative the following turn.

INTERACTION #13 - OMNIPOTENCE

Pathetic Attempt sucks.*



----------------



JAMIE MADROX MEV-016

"Whenever Jamie Madrox becomes stunned, you may remove him from the game. If you do, put any number of characters with the name or identity Multiple Man and combined cost 5 or less from your hand and/or KO'd pile into play exhausted."

This guy reminds me of Tattooed Man, only this guy's got cookies.

INTERACTION #14 - MIDNIGHT CRAVINGS

Double the cookie awesomeness. While we're at it, let's add some Martian Manhunter to the mix and run a dual cookie legend deck. Totally.


INTERACTION #15 - JOIN US OR DIE
Basically, you swing with The big guy, and if he doesn't get stunned, stun him out for the little ones! What can you do with a bunch of little MMs? You could combine it with ...

INTERACTION #16 - STRATEGIC THINKING
Now you have BIG little MMs!
---------------

RE-ABSORPTION MEV-043

"To Play, KO X characters you control with the name or identity Multiple Man. Draw X cards and gain X endurance."

This card is just begging for combos.

INTERACTION # 17 - THE TRISKELION + MULTIPLE MAN MEV-016

Just a quick note on the Triskelion:
The Triskelion
Location
Cost 2
Flip only if you control an Ultimates character.
If a card would enter your KO'd pile, instead remove it from the game.
Activate, remove your hand from the game-->
Return target card from your removed from game zone to your hand.


Here's the interaction: Multiple Man 5 stuns. His effect triggers, removing himself from the game. Put 5 army dudes out (preferably from hand). Activate Triskelion, bringing back Multiple Man 5. Play Re-Absorption, gaining 5, drawing 5 and KO-ing the little MMs in play. You filter, get board when you need it (keep in mind Re-Absorption can KO stunned MMs), and you can do it again the next turn. Keep in mind you need an Ultimates character to make this work; shouldn't be too hard.

INTERACTION #18 - CtT + CtT + Monkey See Monkey Do + Grodd and Multipleman in the yard. (or CtT + Multiple Man in yard + Switching Sides)
This one might get confusing. Basically, you turn your MSMD-er into grodd (or you could run grodd but he has his own KO effect so Re-Absorption wouldn't work as well). You then MSMD their guy, CtT it into Multiple Man, and KO their "Multiple Man" for Re-Absorption. Again since the character KO'd can be stunned, switching sides can work for this interaction as well (and it'd be a heck of alot simpler).

---------------


IN ZE MUNICH CIRCUS MEV-251
"Play only if you control Nightcrawler. [insert remaining text here]"

I think this card is much better than people are giving it credit. Seriously.

INTERACTION #19 - LEGEND FORMAT
Unless you go GA, there are only two Nightcrawler cards legal for this format. UNTIL NOW! If you were to play in a Legend format that allowed MEV previews**, then this card would enable you to legally run a Nightcrawler Legend Deck!

INTERACTION #20 - ALPHA FLIGHT
Think about it. If you're playing against rush, or swarm, or some other concoction where there are a bunch of little guys ready and willing to reinforce, your John Walker <> US Agent is not going to be happy. That's where Nightcrawler, Hit Factory comes in! His ability allows him to make short work of army decks. Also, since you have Nightcrawler in play, you can play this snazzy little plot twist and have no fear of a BGYT or From the Darkness or PA or Omnipotence (since "ze" and "the" are two completely different words, and who would name this card anyways with Omni?) and there's no time stamping to this card! You can play it whenever you want!
If I was a northernerer, I'd be very pleased.

Alex Lloyd likes coming up with Janky interactions, and with enough tries, eventually one of them will flow all the way down river. Whether or not any of these reach your watering hole, only time will tell.


* I actually like the card. That said, esp. when I stall, I have so many targeting effects that PA doesn't really effect me much. That said, it's right there for when they try to HA! my Underground Movement.
** I hope you all have this opportunity.

Unleash This! #2 When lunch and vs collide and when Heroes meet up

Welcome back to the Unleash This! column, dream team!* You may have read in passing that I've taught a guy at my college how to play and found another person who used to play a little at orientation this year. Well, I ran into this person again at lunch and something amazing happened --> my vs fire started to burn brighter. I went total-geek, in response to his questions about the X-Men, Wild Vomit, Syndicate Rush and more.

Question #1
I heard of a match where Wolverine absolutely tore apart an entire field of Sentinels (Pre-MVL). Is Wolverine really that good?

A: I'm guessing that Wolverine, Beserker Rage was the card you heard about --> and yes, he's pretty good. Usually, if you get to turn 7 and whip this guy out, your opponent won't have too many characters cost 4 or less. That said, if your opponent is running wild sentinels where everything is cost 4 or less, Wolverine would just go to town on them. However, the odds of a Wild Sentinel deck getting to a late turn like 7 isn't all that great (or at least their chance at winning goes down as the game progresses), since the Wild Sentinel deck aims to win on 4-6.

So, no. Wolverine isn't busted by any means; he's just really good at what he does /cheesyflavortext.

Question #2

How good are the Avengers? What do they do?

A: The Avengers are a very viable team, and they've had some great showings in past events. They have a couple things going for them:

• They have a great team attacking theme
• Having the ability to recruit characters from your resource row can make in-game decisions all the easier.
• Having effects tied into the reservist theme only enhance their viability
• Iconic characters with awesome powers? Iron Man, Mighty Avenger, Spider-Man, Secret Avenger, The Sentry, Mighty Avenger? They. Are. Awesome.

I honestly think the Avengers are the most versatile team in the game; You can rush, you can curve, and as of MUN, now you can stall. Your rush game, as we've seen at worlds, is a very strong reservist build. The curve build, I'd like to refer to as the build that relies more on team attacking. In the oldschool Avengers Reservist build, you short-curved to 5/6. That said, you had Black Widow, Black Panther, Quicksilver Mutant Avenger and Carol Danvers to fit the team attacking theme. I've even seen some decks try to abuse Quicksilver's team attacking power by trying to get 2 copies of him into play to team attack an entire board!** Finally, they can stall? Yes. Just some characters that fit the theme: Hawkeye (all), Iron Man 4 and 5, Spider-Man (Access to Gift Wrapped), Cable Secret Avenger, Bill Foster, Stature, and not to mention the team has a bunch of combat-based trickery (like not stunning, pumps etc.).

Question #3
Is Onslaught any good?

A: He is ... but if I'm going to turn 9 because that is what I aim to do, I'd rather drop down Galactus or The Fallen One. They are game-enders. If I drop Onslaught, he's rather conditional; my opponent might have a chance to respond, chance to attack first, might have multiple teams in play. He just has a bunch of variables and I'm not a statsman. I don't play pokemon tcg because effects that depend on how a coin flip turns out don't appeal to me (not to mention they're nasty little buggers). That said, Onslaught works very well in combat-stall-esque decks like Kariggi's Fantastic Four Life Gain (which I'll add a decklist if I get one.). Another honorable mention would have to go to imperidex; he's been in plenty of stall decks and as recently as Brian Eugenio's Sniper Shot deck.


Question #4
For when we play later, can you build me something with Carnage and Venom?

A: Certainly, Greg. SynSyn Rush it is.

----------------------------------------------------
The Easter Egg to this entry is going to delve a little into 9thwonders.com, the official NBC Heroes tv show forum where I've recently signed up. I've got something in the works for both forums, and while looking around the fan creations forum I saw that themightytruk is a moderator over there. Does the name sound familiar? It might, as he is a poster on the 'reams too! After a nice exchange of greetings, I noticed a couple of his creations:







Alex Lloyd is a frequent poster on vsrealms.com as "Orange_Soda_Man" and is starting a new journey on 9thwonders.com as "OrangeSodaMan" to become a true Hero. If you would like to help him or wish to embark on the path of Heroism yourself, I encourage you to take a page from themightytruk and make a card, whether on cardboard or a creation of a different sort in your life.

*I refer to all groups of people I am addressing at once as Dream Team. I must've heard it somewhere or something.
** That's gonna have to wait for another time.

Are you a fan of BYOTT? You shouldn't be.

With the latest marquee event announced as being Bring Your Own Two Teams, I am deeply saddened. If you've been following the Summer of Love, you might be in the same boat as me on this.
Just so we're all on the same page, here's the rules for BYOTT:
1. Players choose two teams for their deck and they are automatically crossed-over
1a. No team-ups needed to cross over the chosen teams
2. Players may only play with characters from, or cards that reference, one or both of those teams.
3. They may not play with "generic" cards.

.... so what is so bad? Other than the "generics aren't allowed" rule, this format is completely abuse-able. While surfing around on vsrealms.com, I came across lordoflimbo's X-Men/Pro-Registration deck.
....
No offense to LoL, great deck and all, I just don't think it fits with the flavor of the format. Pro Registration? seriously? Now, let's look at a REAL team-up format:

BYOTU (Bring Your Own Team-Up)
courtesy of Lost Hemisphere
0. Name two teams
1. Each team must have no less than 15 cards stamped to that affiliation in the deck 2. No more than 20 cards in the deck can be generica - ie, stamped to no team at all 3. No cards stamped to any other affiliation are permitted. 4. No Mobilize, no Enemy of my Enemy. 5. Cards stamped to a character (ie Legend cards) do not count towards the 15 card minumums, but neither do they count towards the 20 card maximum allowed generica 6. Cards that target resources cannot target a team-up if it’s the last team-up that player controls.

The biggest thing here, imo, is that this format forces representation from both teams. Let's take a look at Warp Factor 9, Speedforce/Heralds of Galactus:
-----------------------------------------------------
By TheDerrangedBear
Characters (32)
1-drops
3x Jaime Reyes
1x Galan

2-drops
4x Silver Surfer, Skyrider of Spaceways

3-drops
4x XS, Super Fast
2x Air-Walker, Gabriel Lan

4-drops
4x Barry Allen ~ The Flash, Crimson Tornado
1x Human Torch, the Invisible Man

5-drops
4x Wally West ~ The Flash, The Fastest Man Alive
1x Wally West ~ The Flash, Keystone Cop
1x Frankie Raye ~ Nova, Harbinger of Death

6-drops
2x Barry Allen ~ The Flash, Founding Member
1x Terrax, Harbinger of Ruin
1x Destroyer

7-drops
1x Silver Surfer, the Last Zenn-lavian

9-drops
1x Galactus, Devourer of Worlds

10-drops
1x Beyonder, Inhuman

Plot Twists (15)
4x Cannibal Tech
4x Kindred Spirits
3x Full Throttle
2x Omnipotence
1x I Hunger
1x Inspiring Demise

Locations (5)
3x Dr Fate's Tower
1x Alias Investigations
1x Elemental Converters

Equipment (8)
2x Light Armor
2x Silver Surfer's Board
2x Helm of Nabu
1x Amulet of Nabu
1x Cloak of Nabu
---------------------------------------------------

I picked this list for a few reasons:
- represents both teams on the curve
- the strengths of the teams are fit together cohesively (Wally West + Air Walker for example)
- the generics*

* The fateatron might be getting old for a bunch of you, and that's fine. I think the way Surfer's Board, Silver Surfer, Skyrider of the Spaceways and how Alias Investigations work together is a great example of how generics could enhance a theme; The Heralds have great search power with Creation of a Herald to begin with, and having this little engine seems to fit (even if CoaH isn't in the list).

I fell this list has both what I'd want to see from generics and what I wouldn't.

Now here are my predictions for BYOTT:
- There will be no rush decks
While some may try to make the decktype work, not having access to: Blinding Rage, Savage Beatdown, Flying Kick, Crackshot, the fatatron, devastating blow, Stryker's Island and even Big Leagues,
would make things harder. That said, brotherhood should still do well and so should any other team with access to on-team pumps. Erick might sit this one out since MKKO is a very different deck without their generic pumps.
- Gotham Knights and other teams with negation are going to do very well. I think Cliff's and others' GK/JLA decks will do very good. Money.dec saw play at worlds, and they only get better here without as much of a threat from rush decks.
- I'd expect a Heralds/Inhumans or SF/Heralds revival. I think they're the most viable stall decks in the format; Doom is nothing without his mystical paralysis.

That's it for now. If you'd like to defend the BYOTT format, go for it. Please do. Discussion is good, and if I'm missing something, I'd like to hear it. Later gang.
- OSM