Friday, October 3, 2008

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?

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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.

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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.*



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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!
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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).

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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.

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