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