DC Final Crisis exclusive preview! Inciting Incident!

Welcome back card floppers. Hard to believe it's November already, huh? Seems like only yesterday that we were reading up on DSM-2, and here we are in preview season again! DC certainly deserves it after the Marvel-filled 2008.

If you haven't read Spud's team preview article yet, you should do that.

With that done, let's do a review;

• Legion likes having Cosmic Counters
• Legion generally plays off-curve weenies
  
• Legion's power lies in it's members, both on and off the field.

That seems to be the general idea with the team in this set, and I think they got it spot-on; any rush deck worth anything is gonna have an emphasis on their lowbies and be able to rack damage or generate enough board advantage that their smaller frames aren't a big deal in a game.
So, what better way to make up for a small frame than to be indestructible?


Woah, look at that! Reinforcement, Indestructibility and a double Nasty Surprise all in one package! Sure, it's tough to pull off, but even getting one or two of the criteria down makes it worth while. Prior to DFC, the lowest cost Saturn Girl was 5, Live Wire 5 and Cosmic Boy 6. It's safe to say this is gonna be a bomb support card when it gets into the later turns, that's for sure. While a Legion deck might now be able to pull off a 'no plots' theme, don't leave this card out! Especially if these tri-legends get lower-cost versions; we already know Live Wire gets a 3.

Watch out Darkseid, the Legion's got some muscle.

DSM-2 Preview: New Genesis

Welcome back guys to VS Unleashed! Unfortunately, it seems through a communication accident that I failed to deliver yet another card to you guys. So, let's fix this.


Well, that's one powerful recovery effect! A free Muir Island for New Gods characters cost 3 or less. If that wasn't nice enough, if you've got everyone's favorite Highfather around, you get some endurance and a cosmic counter if they're cosmic. I believe we've found Mark Moonrider's favorite place in the universe.

Definitely a new twist on the original.


Let's compare them. The old one can recover any New Gods character you control, which can be especially convenient turns 5+. This one also gives a cosmic counter back even if you don't control Izaya or Takion <> Highfather. Especially useful if your opponent manages to stun the guy you use to accelerate resources. This one also has flavor text.

My Verdict: Both have their merits. If you're going for a NG/F4 burn deck, you'll want the DSM-2 version. NG/HoG stall, maybe you want the old one. If you're playing in a crazy format that doesn't allow your cards to have flavor text, you 1) can't play the old version and 2) need to beat over the head of the person who came up with that horrible format.

Alex "OSM" Lloyd doesn't resort to violence often, but when it comes to playing card games, you'll give him his flavor. You'll give him his flavor, and you'll like it!

DSM-2 Exclusive Preview: Orion & Dog of War

WOW, it's been a long time since I've written a piece here on good 'ole VS UNLEASHED! And what better way to reboot the blog than with a feature on some DSM-2 goodness?

Let's take a stroll down memory lane:



So, we had an 8-drop that stalls and negates and a plot twist that likes giving your team a small boost while fighting army decks and the related. I'm not sure how many of you were around back when DSM first came out, but let me tell you. This was one of the first sets that I got sealed/draft experience with, so this set holds a special place in me for it. Foolishly thinking that playing an 8-drop in a sealed deck was a good idea, always playing good guys without even noticing that they were remarkably weaker than the other teams in the set. But you know what? Sometimes it takes a mistake to learn how to do something right, and oh boy do these DSM-2 cards look just right.




Wow. That's a new take on Orion, that's for sure! Reminds me of The Sentry, Mighty Avenger from MUN. Downside, he's got cosmic. That's reasonable though, given the theme and oh yeah who the guy is. Another is that it's limited to your attack step. I'm ok with that, especially with his cosmic power basically giving himself a Pathetic Attempt that he can use over and over on himself. No Skreee!, no Spider-Man shenanigans, no Fastball Special. Team this guy up with Spider-Friends, use My Hero and stock up on recovery effects and cosmic counter effects and your opponent will be ripping their hair out! While you can wall off your opponent with any big character, using one that can't be targeted sure helps. Especially if he comes with his own legend support.

Dog of War 2.0. +2/+2 for any cosmic New God or It's Clobberin' Time! for Orion. Very nice. Giving a dude their cosmic counter back for the boost and that's just gravy. It's very cheap; there aren't too many generic ways of giving cosmic counters back. Terragenisis, The Power Cosmic Unleashed, Extended Family and We Are Legion are some common ways to do it. Dog of War fits in just fine.

So, yeah. Dog of War, welcome back to the Vs System.

Alex "OSM" Lloyd is an avid fan of the game and has contributed to the Vs System community for many years, writing articles for various fan set previews, decks, events, previews for the final UDE Vs expansion and more. He also likes Mango A-Go-Go fruit smoothies, but unlike TBS he don't earn $0.01 towards buying them whenever an Insanity deck is played in a constructed event.

Aright, fine. This blog is on life support.

Once I finish the Heroes vs set, that will be the last post on this blog. If the new Marvel tcg is good, then the blog will return in December.

/update.

Apology, Summary and Upcoming Coolness

Hey guys, it's been awhile. I've still seen you guys over at .ORG, vsrealms and [rarely] tcgplayer, but not so much here.

I've broken my promise, to you, that I would update this blog at least 4 times a month; I am sorry. I'm not going to make any excuses, because I don't really have any. Maybe what Ken [Kariggi] said about blogs is true; [something along the lines of] if you're going to say anything that has any weight in the community, you might as well say it in the forums, and I have. That isn't the reason for it, however. Maybe with last fall's failure of the website also effecting the syndicate subforum over at vsrealms, my motivation may have been declining. I certainly feel drained, as many of you may be.

Before I go on to talk about the direction I want to take this blog, I'm going to summarize my vs activity and thoughts for the past month; think of this as spark notes for the blog for this month.

1. The re-design of the Heroes set I've been working on
2. Interesting threads at .ORG and vsrealms
3. my birthday card game festivities
4. UDE's latest announcement


1) I know I keep going on and on about Heroes, but to be honest, that's not going to change. Especially with the fall of VS. I want to release a set that is good, well-received, thematic, fun, beautiful. That takes time. I'm currently looking for artwork as others are reviewing the set, including guglio, shadowtrooper, lupercal, Seph1roth5 and if you're interested, check here.

2) I'd like to give a shoutout to scottkthompson and HeroComplex for their [respective] threads on the 100 ideas and the great debate between bans and errata. Those are the ones that stick out to me; there are plenty of others as well. You guys have kept the boards interesting.

3) It started out with no plans, it was raining, and I worked a late shift the night before at a pharmacy. With stress about getting everything situated about studying in Canada [University of Manitoba] in the fall, I wasn't left with much time to think about the day. Woke up around 1, chilled for a little bit. Did you know that Sonic the Hegehog's official birthday is the 23rd? I didn't know we shared that date all these years. So, I play a little brawl with my sis. Call fellow VS player, neighbor, friend Ryan to play. He stops by, mentions going to the LGS to buy a box of magic, I tag along and we pick up a couple others and play sealed while cracking the packs. On VS playmats. We played into the late hours of the night in his poolside screenhouse.

4) WOW, huh? No matter what your position on the turn of events is, this is definitely a hot topic. I'm gonna save most of my thoughts for later this week, but I can tell you this: I desire an environment where I can participate in an active community. I'd like to play for something again. I'd like for it to be with my friends, those online and those offline. If that means I play Magic, so be it. Pokemon, I highly doubt it [gameplay is ... interesting]. Epic HELL NO [trying to sell a box I won in a sealed event]. If it means the new Marvel tcg, then I can only hope for the best.

Now, to end this entry on a good note. To make up for the lack of activity here this month, expect a video to be put up later this week.

OSM out!

Final day of story telling - Day 5

The last story we've got is from Skrullfan;

Skrullfan

1) how you met your playgroup and what you have done since then

To learn about our playgroup, as conceited as this sounds, you will have to learn about me… (yeah, sorry about that…)

I was actually the first person in our city to start playing Vs. I stumbled on it online one day (no idea how) and thought “Wow, that makes no sense to me at all.” And then I completely forgot about it. About 3 months later at a large Expo in Auckland, I saw them doing some demo’s and so I sat in and learned with the F4 starter deck. For learning how to play, they gave me my own Batman starter. And I was hooked.

I tried getting some of my friends to play, they humored me for a bit, but it wasn’t really them. Then I discovered the new store in town specializing in TCG’s and collectibles. One weekend I went in, and they were holding a Yugioh tournament. I asked for some extra help on the game, they weren’t able to help me out at that point, but told me to come back one Friday and they would be able to teach me.

So I turned up on a Friday, and no-one knew how to play. So I kept turning up every Friday cos there was another person there who seemed quite interested in the game. Fridays was also the Hobby League night for Yugioh, and they were getting around 30 ppl a week turning up for it. We would find a corner that wasn’t being used and play a few games from the basic rules I understood, and kept pulling out the rulebook to try and get a better understanding of the game.

Towards the end of a Friday night, 3 guys from the Yugioh group came over (the judge and a couple of friends) to learn more about this game, as some guys they knew in Auckland had told them to start playing. So I showed them what I knew, and with their background in TCG’s already, they picked the game up really fast and we ran with it.

Since then, we’ve been our own little group (I decided to call us C.H.E.A.T’s – Cambridge and Hamiltons Experts and Try-hard’s). Even though I had been buying since MAV, the first event we went to was the MHG pre release. The group has changed a bit over the last few years, but it’s still me and those 3 guys from Yugioh that play the game no matter what. There’s 5 or 6 of us that meet each week to play and deck test for the next fan run tournament, and I’m not the greatest player, but I have a lot of fun.

With the last few set’s being pretty thin on the ground and no hobby league support since DCR, we try to get one or 2 playsets of rares, and then depending on our deck, we share cards around. We have a friendly rivalry going on with Auckland, and more often than not we come out the victor, but it’s always a challenge and a lot of fun.

Most of the events get listed here.

2) Write about the people you've talked to online, experiences with that and how it has affected you VS experience.

I’ve spoken with a few different people over the years, each of which has really helped me understand the game a little bit more in a different way.

First was Shane Wiggans. I started out asking him what was meant by a Toolbox deck. Even after he explained it to me, I was still confused. So to keep a little bit of dignity, I did what I thought was best, and said “Oh, ok.” I found and re-read his email the other day, and I finally understood it. Yay for me!

I also spent time talking with him about what he thought would be the next big team and his opinions on the Skrulls. He thought they had potential. That’s what I wanted to hear, and I started to focus on them quite a bit. That was probably one of my biggest learning curves as far as deck dynamics and themes go. Yep, I net-decked a lot and I still do, and I really did learn so much with that deck.

The next person I spoke with was Rian Fike. Once UDE cut their international support for Vs, I remember there was a large amount of anger and backlash going on. As a result, I sent him an email, simply trying to share my experiences with the game. I sent him the following email (posted here along with his reply), and it wound up being used as part of an article he wrote for UDE.

My latest online interaction was with G’daybloke through Vsrealms. Late October last year was run the Unofficial NZ Vs Champs, and I didn’t know what to run. A few messages with G’daybloke and I returned to my little Skrull pet. That took me to a top4 finish when it decided to implode on me turn 3. I run 8 3drops in the deck, and I didn’t have a single one of them. Without it, I didn’t have the team-up available to get Mobilize or any other searchers online. And it narrowly went down to a Squadron Supreme no-hand build (by 10 points I think it was).

Each time, I have learned so much. Learning so many principles about decks and deck building, learning that the game doesn’t dictate my passion for and enjoyment of the game, and that the new decks aren’t always bigger, badder and stronger than some from long ago. These experiences that I’ve had – especially one so public as the article by Rian – has gone on to buoy not only myself, but also our group and also the Vs scene in both Hamilton and Auckland. And it’s this sense of community, that we can come together for questions, answers and advice or simply to voice our thoughts, that has enabled us to keep going and enjoy this fantastic game of ours.

3) If you lurked, why? Would your experiences have changed if you posted more often?

I lurked because I research. I look at what other people have discovered and see if I can apply it to my own situation. I’m not a good player. I’m useless at deckbuilding. I prefer allowing those that know what they’re doing being able to share informative comments that can benefit everyone. If I don’t know something, I ask.

4) Was there a tournament, whether it be a Pro Circuit, a PCQ, other marquee event or hobby league, that you tested for extensively? Who did you test with? Why did you choose what you ran? How did you do? In hindsight, would you have done anything differently?

There are a few different experiences that I have had with building and testing decks for different situations, but 2 stand out.

The first deck I really looked at and tested was for my first PCQ. We had MXM released, and myself and Jared both decided to run Morlock Evasion. Our decks differed slightly in some of the more techy points (he preferred to run Backs Against The Wall whereas I preferred to run Team Spirit), but otherwise they were the same.

In the testing leading up to it, we were trying to see what version would work better – a beat down version focused on Hump, or the Evasion version based upon Storm and Marrow. Closer to the time, I chose to run with Storm and the other Evasion beasties that went with it.

Decklist
• 4x Tommy
• 4x Electric Eve
• 3x Artie
• 2x Tarbaby
• 1x Postman
• 1x Leech
• 3x The Creeper (DJL)
• 1x Healer
• 4x Storm
• 2x Marrow
• 1x Callisto

• 4x Bums Rush
• 4x Shrapnel Blast
• 3x Team Spirit
• 4x Retribution
• 4x Morlock Justice
• 4x Bloodhound
• 4x The Alley
• 3x Birthing Chamber
• 2x The Hill
• 2x Sewer System

Other Options
• Mind Gem
• Last Stand
• Backs Against The Wall

On the day, I thought I was doing quite well. I won a few games lost another one, and in my last game, everyone started crowding around as their games finished, watching how we were doing. My opponent was playing a Doom deck (from what I recall, with a recurring Ultron). I was well and truly in control and looking at sealing a victory. I had Marrow face up and Electric Eve, with 4 or 5 other characters evaded and face down. He declared an attack into Electric Eve, I did a quick calculation and figured “Yep, I can take the hit and still win.” So I did. He went into Marrow with his last remaining character, we both went down. I was still ahead by 1 endurance. And then he dropped a Meltdown and gained 2 endurance. I found out later that my mistake of not evading Electric Eve and not forcing him into my Marrow cost me a Top 8 cut. I was gutted.

Lesson Learned: If you’re going to win, win by as much as you can cos you don’t know what’s going to happen.

The other occasion was at the Unofficial NZ champs last year. After some discussion with Gdaybloke, I decided to run my Skrull deck again with a few other toys from the latest set at the time – MUN. I was still tweaking it on the morning of the event, not sure on a couple of things, but deciding to throw in 2 Attilans at the last moment. I also discovered a handy dandy use for Exploiting The Flaw in conjunction with the new 5drop Elektra.

Decklist
• 4x Lockjaw
• 3x Blackbolt, Enemy Within
• 4x Franklin Richards
• 2x Warskrull
• 4x Wolverine, Skrunucklehead
• 4x Captain America, Skrull Imposter
• 3x Elektra, Pawn of the Gorgon <> Hydra
• 2x Super Skrull, Kl’rt

• 4x Interstellar Offensive
• 4x Savage Beatdown
• 4x Mutopia
• 3x Extended Family
• 3x Act of Defiance
• 4x Mobilize
• 3x Exploiting the Flaw
• 3x Invasion Plans
• 2x Pathetic Attempt
• 2x Great Refuge
• 2x Attilan

Other Options
• Tarnax IV
• Titannus
• Call To Arms (because I don’t actually own any Savage Beatdowns)


I’d attack with Elektra on 5, gaining the KO on the character. Then I would attack their 4drop with Lockjaw. People always looked at me sideways when I would attack their 4drop with Lockjaw, and then they would wince when I dropped an Exploiting the Flaw to change their attacker to Elektra. Second character KO’d. If I was really lucky, I’d have a second copy available to use with Franklin on their 3 drop. So on turn 5, I would have KO’d their 5, 4 and 3 drop characters, leaving Wolverine, Captain America and usually an 8/8 Skrull Blackbolt to jump up and down on their 2 drop.

I was doing quite well. It hiccupped a little bit on round 3 where I narrowly lost to an agro Hulk deck, but otherwise I was cruising along quite happily. I qualified in 7th place. I went up against a jank filled Fantastic 4 which I had played earlier that day. My deck ran perfectly, and I wiped the board with him completely and totally. That put me into the Top 4, my highest placing ever. Yay me!

I went up against Leon, running a Squadron Supreme No Hand build. I was confident of doing well, if not winning comfortably. Unfortunately, this is the game where my deck died. Turn 3, I had Lockjaw and Franklin in play, I had Mobilise and Extended Family in the row, along with a Mutopia in the hand. However, I didn’t have a 3 drop to play which would have made everything run sweetly. I did have 2 Elektra’s. But that didn’t help. I think I had Blackbolt, so I could get a team up online, but that meant missing a major drop which hurt. I went with Wolverine on turn 4 to get the extra punch, but not having Captain America hurt too much. Turn 5 I pulled back a lot, turn 6 I dropped Super Skrull, but his Nuke cleared it out and he caused too much damage direct for me to cope. I lost by about 15 endurance. I was gutted.

A couple of other decks I’ve toyed with that I am happy I made myself is my little team attack deck, trying to abuse the synergy of 3 drop MAV Quicksilver and 3drop MUN Nightcrawler. It tries to use 2drop MAV Wasp and Legendary Battles along with Playroom to gain the win. Additional help comes from 1drop MUN Speed for the extra attack and MUN Cammi giving the pseudo team-up, along with the 4drop JLI Kimiyo Hoshi for the team attack punch. Unfortunately, as all of the characters are visible, Wasp is pretty vulnerable to KO effects (like MAV Natasha Romanoff and such). Side point: it totally hammers the nails out of a Galactus Raid deck.

My other pet deck is my counter burn deck. 2drop DCL Argent, 3drop DCL Beast Boy with his legend support cards, 4drop MUN Iron Man with Stark Armory and Extremis Upgrade, 5drop MAA Holocaust to rip all of those counters off and hurt the opposition quite badly, followed by 6drop Beast Boy. SERIOUSLY hurts Shadowpact Black Briar build. I’m looking at using the 2drop MEV Forge and I’ve recently received my Superman Robots, so I’m looking at working them into the build. My major problem is gaining consistency from it all.

So those are my major experiences from deckbuilding and testing and the results I have had with them, good, bad and unsuccessful.

OSM Responds - THE QUICKSILVER/NIGHTCRAWLER DECK IS AMAZING!!! *ahem*. Anyways, it sounds like even though the game gave you difficulty at first, you kept at it. There is definitely something to be said about that, like many of the vs experiences that have resulted from your determinism. Having access to the people in the community for help is another great thing as well; your experience with Shane Wiggans must've struck deep. I hope to hear more about your events and how your pet decks come along. You've won a foom mat and the matching foom art card!

Just a reminder - if you have participated in this event, please send me your addy so I can give you your stuff.

Day 4 of the VS Unleashed! Stories

Today we get to look at what Owenstar has to say:

Owenstar

Lets begin were we all began! Though for me it will be circular in nature which
you will shortly understand. I began my versus hobby/career/passion (whatever) where most games (for me at least) begin. My best friend John and I have always led the way among our group of friends when picking hobbies or anything really to break up the time.

From outdoor games of basket-brawl, to football, softball, and back into the house for those cold weather games of Monopoly and Heroquest. John and I have always led the pack curing boredom with our friends. We have played it all, from miniature games like HeroQuest, Warhammer 40k, and Battletech. We even invented a few of our own games just using the miniatures from others and making games that were fun and of the mind rather than restrictive like D&D. (Plus we used to smoke a ton of pot! Hahahaha so our minds were nothing if not creative)

So lets get to the cards right? We have played a bunch Magic, Rage (I loved this one), D&D, Vampire, Battletech (another really fun one), Star Trek, Star Wars, you name it about 15 years ago or so we tried it. Our group of friends for the most part hung in the entire time playing every game John and I jumped into. Sure it wasn’t cheap, but for the most part they came along just to see what we had gotten into. The passion never really burned as deep for any of them as it did for John and I. We simply couldn’t get enough, looking back I am glad we did it. As now that we are old and have families we have built in excuses for hanging out and wasting time together.

Ok, so back to the cards. Magic had caught on well with our group. The color wheel gave options to play so many decks. I loved the Agro of Red, Mike [liked] the death and horror of black (you have to know the dude, Joe patched together all kinds of random alternate fit wins decks or artifacts, Dave loved white, and John, my rival loved the control from blue decks. Everyone else fit somewhere in between. Magic was the game for us. Our group enjoyed it, but it didn’t hold us together as 15-18 year old guys.

We played Overpower, none of us understood how the game was actually meant to be played but it had comic book characters in it. Most of us had grown up reading comics, Mike worked in the local comic shop so we got smoking deals on product which is how our passion carried on for so long and through so many games. So Overpower was our real love, even though we had no idea how it was meant to be played. Making our own team with our personal favorite characters? You have to be kidding me! Looking back at how piss-poor the mechanics were and how difficult the game was to play, I cant believe we spent so much money on it. We loved it though and it probably laid ground work for VS to be made.

When Overpower went and reprinted many of its cards with some new mechanic everyone kind of lost interest. As kids who spent a lot of money we just didn’t want to do that again. So we played Magic but it was off and on. We hit an age where Jobs became reality and free time became less we kind of drifted apart. That’s not to say we didn’t all still hang out, it just wasn’t as much as we didn’t have that major excuse.

Fast forward a few years and Recharge hits the shelves! Whoo hoo this is it we think, but that fell on its face. Now we had been bitten by so many different games and most of our friends had really given up on John and my crazy games stuff. We really just had kind of given up. No one wanted to invest money that was now to mortgages and children into some silly hobby we wouldn’t continue playing.

BOOM! We had struck gold. A game that crosses over Marvel and DC? It plays
similar to chess? It’s not all based on luck? Had we just caught lightning in a bottle? To us yes we had. I found VS and brought it home to everyone. Of course my partner in crime was there from the start. He wasn’t gonna let me down. It took some time and convincing (not to mention the free cards) to get the other boys and girls all in, but it was well worth it. VS changed lots for our group, of the 8 people who play it most out of the 15 who know how, 4 are relatives of John. It keeps his family close! Some of our friends have dropped off at some point, but all of them keep a couple decks so when we are getting together, they too can join in.

I have so many “groups” I call home to. Lets call the one I just wrote about “Family” from now on. So the family group has done lots of really fun stuff. We have playtested for PCQ’s. We also read FAQ’s and would stay up playing before the release celebrations. We set up our own “hobby” league nights were we get together. We have had tournaments in our basements, ordering cases of the new stuff and playing sealed (inviting the actual store/hobby league guys into our homes). During the heyday we all attend our store’s hobby league and would even attend a few from the city 35 miles south. My favorite times have been our basement tourneys! Bring your own box, bitches! Hahahahaha. What we would do is order everyone a box of whatever set they wanted or could afford. John and I would buy two blister boxes of Spiderman and Marvel Knights or Superman to hand out as prize packs. So each person would get a box and donate 4 packs to the prize pool and we would rank the sets and throw in the cheap stuff too. I want to say even the last place person walked away with damn near 10 prize packs or more. We even ordered a set of the old tins once and had origins as prize packs to go with it. It was a blast cause you had no idea what you would face. I had so much product in my basement, it looked like I was a retailer. We are planning another one of these soon.

ONLINE: This was a new direction for us lowly basement players without high competition. I originally came online to search out card listings and previews. I went to all of the staples and started reading articles and such. I found myself fascinated by the community. Being a member of a few message boards prior to joining VS based ones, I had an idea what I was getting into. I was a great player in a small pond here at home. Meeting people online changed the way I looked at this game, but I will get to that later. So there I was learning more about VS than I probably ever wanted to. I honestly think what kept me online was the trading. I met guys like Mike Lopez, KardKrazy, VSU Dragon, and Ozzie from the TCG player site and became pals with them. I loved reading trade lists and trying to make trades. I got ripped off a few times, but it hasn’t stopped me. (And yes I remember each and every one of you and I will find you one day from California to Canada). I have traded beta magic cards for VS, I traded a PSP for VS. The trading community is what made online VS fun for me. I met lots of great traders at the realms too guys like Flashback, Lastchance, and Plaid Warlock. The TCG guys were always the fun to be around and chat with on AIM crew.

The realms guys were [mostly] dicks, thought I gained valuable insight on being a better VS player there. I loved reading about deck design and strategy. Updates on the Pro Circuit and what people were playing with. I know a lot of home school guys claim this huge hate on “net decking”. I always saw versions of decks being played in hobby league. VS cards go together in a multitude of ways, but avengers reservist is still avengers reservist no matter who made the deck. Small tweaks doesn’t change the premise behind how something is meant to work. I explained almost everything is a version of something else, so what is a net deck? I always changed my decks to fit the local meta. As a player who didn’t have time to work out all of the kinks, I enjoyed sharing ideas with other people. Net decking and online team playing really helped my game.

OSM Responds - The groups we enter the card game world with sure leave an impression. I'm glad you have such good friends that you have had these experiences with; it makes me think of the times I've turned cardboard sideways against my neighbor [Ryan]. On trading, I'm sorry that some of your trades have turned sour, hopefully the positive ones outshine the worse ones. You and I both have learned a ton from being members of the vs communities, from deck design to metagame adaptation. I'd be willing to accept your adaptation of netdecking, well except that there were people who would copy/paste the lists and run them. I'll be sending 10 MEV rares, 5 subset cards and a Coming of Galactus box!

One story left, be sure to check it out tomorrow!
- OSM

Storytime Part 3! VS Unleashed!'s contest halfway point

By now, you guys know how it works. I give you stories, I respond to the stories and I give stuff away. That said, today will be the last day for me giving you guys 2 stories a day - what does that mean for tomorrow and Friday? Well, one story. Duh. It's just that they've got enough material to hold down an entire entry with their own massive bulk.

I now give you two stories from Shadowtrooper!

Shadowtrooper

Online Experiences - Trading and Friends Acquired Along the Way

I remember the day I decided to start trading online. I was scared and worried I would get ripped off. Heck when I started reading the Reference Rules, only to then take a quick look the the number of trades most online members had I thought I was going to be mailing first forever. Still I decided to go for it because quite simply I couldn't keep buying the singles I needed for certain decks and the card pool in my play group was becoming more and more limited.
I remember my first trade was with StaticCat over at TCGPlayer. During the trade we quickly became good friends and managed to do quite a few other trades after the initial one. It was actually the first real friendship that I can say I made online thru Vs. We even ended up doing 7 episodes of Group Therapy Battles, which a lot of people seemed to enjoy.
Trades continued to be done until I decided to do my first purchase. This time KardKrazy was on the other side of the screen. I remember it was for 4 EA copies of Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius. I had interacted with KK for quite sometime but never had I dealt with him before. This time I was mortified because it had been several weeks (5 if I recall correctly) after the purchase had began and still no cards. By now it wasn't that I was scared of being ripped off, but more about being put off and disappointed enough never to trade or buy again. Something amazing happened KK offered to send me the money back. I couldn't believe it. Just to keep his online trading/buying/selling reputation intact KK was about to to take a hit by losing the 4 cards. It was truly a testament of the quality of community we have. Even after thinking for those 5 weeks that KK had just ripped me off his actions were enough for me to take action and tell him that it wasn't fair for him to take the hit alone so I told him to only send me half the cash that way we would both lose a little. Even more I decided to give the cards another week just in case.

To my surprise the cards got here. They came in a plastic bag with a letter from the Post Master apologizing to me because apparently the cards got stuck on the conveyor belt and they had some trouble deciphering the addy.

Let me tell you boys and girls sending cards in top loaders is not just to avoid bending, without them the cards would of have been mutilated beyond recognition.
I felt good and bad at the same time. I felt bad that the thought of KK ripping me of ever crossed my mind. Yet at the same time I felt good in knowing that the community I was a part off was more than just flaming and bashing.
KK and I quickly became great friends after that, and we even ended up being members of the Illuminati over at TCG., and we have worked on several projects including: the AoA Raid set, and the up and coming MDC set.
The online trading community at TCG was small so once MUN came out I decided to try my luck at VsRealms. This time I wasn't so worried about people ripping me off, if my experiences on TCGPlayer showed me anything was that I could trust my community. So starting from 0 trades yet again I plunged in.
Fast Forward a couple of months.
I met a lot of good people in Realms and while some trades were harder to complete than others I never got ripped off. Sadly I must accept that I gave 3 negative feedbacks during my time trading in Realms, one of which I really wish I could take back, I'm looking at you CaptainCuba. It was during the time that left Realms sacred forever. PMs like much everything else got screwed up and after an addy exchange. I tried contacting Cuba but alas it was a failed attempt. Since at this time my references were higher than his I proceeded to leave negative feedback since he had to send first. Wouldn't you know it. if I would of waited a couple of extra days I wouldn't of had to leave negative feedback. CaptainCuba managed to contact me and he wasn't upset at all, or at least he didn't show it. We started talking and we completed the same deal we had with a slight variation on cards that I already had managed to trade. Boy did I feel bad when the cards got home. Cuba sorry again for the negative.
Can't go on without naming a few online buddies I have managed to acquire thanks in part to trading with them over at Realms and some of them then continued to trade with me in VsSystem.org: Bliven731, unclechawie, Roswell, InsanityFTW!, Doomstat, and most importantly jaddict1. Thanks for everything guys.
Now if I have to end this long trip down memory lane then I must end it with jaddict1. I posted this story some time ago over in the trade section of VsRealms and I think it is quite fitting that I end my story showing everyone that there is hope for our community even if at some level of which you don't even participate.
I made a deal for a trade with jaddict1. Nothing unusual since he and I had traded a couple of times over at Realms. Thing was that he got my end of the deal and I didn't get mine, which kind of worried me because we had traded like 4 or 5 times before that. I sent a PM to him regarding the deal and apparently the envelope containing single card we had traded for was misplaced and never made it to the Post Office. He was kind enough to take the blame and decided to send me a little something extra just because of the delay. I thought cool some crappy rare or overabundant EAs as is the case when most people send apology extras. Boy was I wrong.
The very next day the mailman came and left a pick up slip because I wasn't home at the time. I proceeded to leave positive feedback since I knew it was from him because of the name in the slip (not even Batman has these kind of detective skills). I picked up the cards and much to my disbelieve not only was the card we traded for in the envelope but the bonus card was a My Name Is Peter Parker... a card that I don't believe was crappy rare, heck at the time the card was worth like 10 bucks. But it didn't stop there. This guy sent the cards to me via Express Mail paying a postage of $16.90. Needless to say I was amazed that he would pay more that the actual value of the card we traded for. We would of actually saved not only cash but an extra rare if he would of had bought the card online.
To say I was perplexed is an understatement. I was instantly inspired, and strived from that moment on to become a better trader myself.
I knew I had some cards that he wanted but I wasn't to keen on trading, but I said to hell with it. The cards I didn't want to trade instantly became a gift and i sent him a bunch of army characters, and a few Shadowpact rares that he wanted from my personal collection. It was hard to break my play sets, but as far as I was concerned he had earned them.
I then proceeded to start a thread telling everyone in the trade section of what he had done. I felt like everyone should know the quality of trader that he was, in hopes that people would get inspired as I was inspired to become a better trader.
I know some people like OSM who started to do online trades recently and I was lucky enough to have traded with him felt or feel reluctant to trust someone who they don't even know by their real names. Trust me if you keep to the ref rules you will have no problems. I'll be honest, this community has a few bad apples, but my trading experiences (over 100 trades so far) have taught me that even when they are complete jerks in the forums they will do whatever they have to do to make sure the deal is done to a satisfaction.
I will never regret having traded online. Even if I would of been ripped off I'm sure that the things I have learned and gained from the experiences would of have been worth it.

End Entry 1 on Trading.

OSM will save his response until the end of the next story from Shadowtrooper.
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It was around the time that MTU had just been released. A friend of mine started working on a brand new gaming store that was opened not 15 minutes away from my house walking distance. He basically ran the store, as the owner didn’t know much about gaming. I wanted to see if I could find some new people to play Vs since I had been out of the scene for a while thanks to my 2 existent playing partners getting hooked on drugs and trying to steal my cards, but [at the gaming shop] my hopes were shattered when all I saw was MtG fanatics. The store I played had a real prick as an owner and he wouldn’t support the game cause we were only 5 players left.

Anyway I helped my friend out whenever he needed someone to be the 8th man in a MTG draft and while I did get to draft for free I was not happy playing. I wanted, no I needed to play Vs.

About 4 weeks later an old friend of mine moved back to town and he had some of his old Vs. decks around. When I say old I mean a straight MOR Doom deck. Anyway we decided to meet every Tuesday to play a few games and I was in heaven again if only for those brief hours.

On one of those Tuesdays a new guy walked in and he played Wow, Crappy-Oh, HeroClix, and God knows what else. He managed to get to the table I was playing and he jumped for joy when he saw people playing Vs. Needless to say we began playing and talking and next week we met yet again. It just so happens that he had 3 other friends that also played Vs. and I’m happy to say we hit it off.

It’s been almost two years and while our playgroup grew 3 more players it also went down 5 players. We lost both local stores and the nearest one doesn’t support the game. I get sad like you wouldn’t imagine when a player of our group leaves it’s hard not just because they quit the game but because they also grow more and more distant, as if the glue that held us together is no longer there.

My playgroup is down to 4 players and we don’t care that UDE left us in the dark we will play until our sleeves break apart. After that we will play until the cards can’t be read anymore, and the pictures are faded. Once that happens we will write the text of the cards, draw the damn pictures and buy new sleeves. Yeah buying new sleeves would have solved us a bunch of trouble but who cares? Long Live Vs.

OSM Responds - Until .org, except for one case I bought all the singles I needed from online. I regret it. I missed plenty of opportunities as you describe where friendships can be forged. That said, I was never really scared about trading - I figured I was well enough known in the community that no one would want to steal from me, or if they did then having to hide from the community would hurt their vs experiences. I didn't trade because I figured it was just easier to buy the cards. I'm glad I've had the opportunity to do the trades I've done with you, unclechawie, hanzo, vader. It certainly builds trust within the community when trades are done successfully.

On the piece of your local scene - Drafting Magic isn't that bad, is it? Well, if the players aren't cool people, then yeah I can see that not being too enjoyable. I'd rather draft VS than Magic any day, just saying. On the VS players, having a group of people that you can regularly play cards with is amazing. I wish I had that luxury - well, now that I'm home for the summer I can meet up with my neighbor [Ryan]. I'm glad to see that you're still playing strong; it seems to be harder to get in games these days. Once the Council churns out a set or two hopefully we'll see a rebound.

Trooper, your efforts to help me with this event are noted. When it seemed like coverage would be a problem, you stepped up and submitted another entry. For that, I am sending you a custom playmat!

'Till tomorrow gang [and at a much more reasonable time],
- OSM

Storytime Part 2! VS Unleashed!'s contest day 2

Today, we'll be taking a look at entries from bkwrds and Fiend28!

bkwrds

1) I was introduced to Vs by a friend of mine who really just wanted to play bad kitchen table decks. He encouraged us to buy Spider-Man starters as they were selling for $10 at the LCS. He stopped buying cards after DCR and stopped playing shortly thereafter, as the two of us he had taught to play had kind of... figured out how to build winning decks? and Andrew was stuck on first gear, so he'd lose every time. [My friend] also taught [another friend], who I still manage to play about once a month, maybe less. [the second friend] hasn't built anything new since we tested for the 1st City Champs, so it's getting a little stale for me.

Things looked up for a while when I moved to a new town for work, about 80 miles away, and there was a scene with 7(!!!) guys. I wasn't always flush with money for cards like those guys were but obviously being the 8th man I was welcomed with open arms. Somebody had a new booster box every week when we played, so there was always limited of some kind, which is sadly my favourite. Unfortunately, they're now 80 miles away and meet on Sunday nights... my current situation REQUIRES that I work Sunday nights, so I get to play with them... never. I see them at tournaments and we carpool, so that's a plus. Good guys, though. Really smart. We all went to the Burlington event and had a total blast.

2) Online is where Vs came to life for me. Always people to play on MWS, tournaments to participate in, people to send cards to and receive cards to (I still make minor trades, I just get geeked out over getting cards I'm looking for) and making about 500 posts on VSR before it shut down. I'm actually a lot more active here on .org as there are fewer people posting. I have been on MWS since 2006, playing bunches of games against bunches of opponents, missing sleep, seeing cool decks, playing against some of Vs Royalty (Spooky, Shane, David Leader, Alex Jebailey, ThugMo, and so on...) and holding my own. Built some fun decks of my own, and used cool combos featuring rares I can't afford. I.. love it, and I still get in as many games as I have time for.

Sidenote: I get a great big kick out of Scott's 100 Ideas as I can remember a lot of what the old decks looked like from memory and know what kinds of decks I like to play with. 30 cards is a fun number for me, I don't know why it works so well, but it does. When I deckbuild I spend a lot of time choosing between 2 slots/3 slots and 3 slots/4 slots... 30 card constructed kind of does away with that, and it's nice.

3) I never lurked. I always wanted to put my piece in, on the off chance I knew what I was talking about.

4) You know, I never made it to a PC, or even a 10K. I have half a mind to try a new game when my kids are older, just so I can get the feeling of going to a tournament with 80-100 people and money on the line. I did test for the first City Champs... but it didn't go so well. I never really had a real group of people to test with, and I could convince people to play against me... but they didn't understand what I wanted to do. I took an Inhumans/Hellfire team-up to the first City Champs and thought that it would do really well, because the deck had a lot of good tricks. It whiffed... badly. I lost the games I had a chance in through BRUTAL play error and when my deck hit I'd run into tricky high-level ninja shit like Fated-Up Secret Society... FTL. Is there a remedy for BRUTAL play error? Because it's a small problem I have.

I remember telling my friend that I wanted to test for 10k Toronto (the Silver Age JLOA one that Jacob won) and I had a really bad X-Men deck based on playing the Energy plot twists (it was bad but fun) and I kept losing to one friend who had Savage Beatdown and Blind Sided in the same deck. It made me so mad! and he didn't understand why I didn't want to lose that way. Anyway, I wrote the date down wrong for 10K Toronto and totally missed out, took a shift, it sucked. Sounds like going sucked from the people I know that went.

I did go to a PCQ for Heralds, and finished 5th out of 20. Not bad for my first PCQ slash 3rd time playing Sealed... I got to play against the guy who built the Parademon loop deck for the first time. Isn't it sad when your fav opponents move on? Anyway, finishing as the highest "amateur" gave me a free deckbox! I'm looking at it right now, it's one of the coolest times I ever had playing Vs.

Bright side to the story about the Inhumans/Hellfire deck -- I was trying to get ready for the Burlington BYOTT last month. I wanted to build a rushy rush deck, something faster than that Avengers/Brotherhood nonsense. It was going to be MOE and Syndicate. I built the deck on MWS, tested it, played it against some good decks (thanks, Bircher!) and won... did pretty good with it. So I'm trying to build it, and I can only find 1 Goblin Glider (Seriously?) and 2 The Wrecking Crew... it's now 3am, and I need sleep because I'll have to be up at 8am or whatever to make it to Gday's tourney on time.
Screw it. Believe it or not, my Inhumans/Hellfire deck is still pretty together... so... why not just take the team-ups out? So I did! Add in 4x Waking the Ancestor (AWESOME card) and 2x Cardinal Law to make up the cards the team-ups took. The deck did well.. I placed 5th, with zero testing! Put the deck together in the convention hall itself. Two of the guys I drafted with placed 1st and 2nd. Very cool. We drafted MEV and I forced X-Statix, LOL. It was fun. Gday gave everybody 30 or so MUL and MEQ and when I told him I had never bought any DC he demanded I take all his Chaff from DOR to DLS... playsets for every common and uncommon! Wow, what a nice guy. What a prize. Best tournament I have ever attended, I wish I could go back this weekend.

OSM Responds - I'm seeing a trend here; whenever vs players move, generally they move to a place where there are more vs players [by coincidence of course]. Ain't that somethin'. It's a shame that work can't always mesh with card flopping, but maybe a bright side is, well you said your friends said the 10k didn't go so well. I guess since you worked that day, that'd be a net-gain right? Limited is a ton of fun; I like it so much I've played with opened cards and make random pile drafts. I'm glad to hear that your experiences with Gday's event were great. Unfortunately, I don't have quite the prize stash that Gday has so I'll be sending you 10 vintage EAs, 5 subset cards and 5 MEV rares. And some DC stuff I dig up, since you mention having the commons/uncommons from DOR-DLS.

Fiend28

For your contest I am going to have to go with Question #4. I never had much of a playgroup as Vs never really caught on down here in my part of North Carolina. All in all, I only got to play maybe a year of Hobby League and sometimes those nights we would only get 4 or 5 people. I would like to comment on question #2 for a sec and say that Carlos the Dwarf with his website and all the shenanigans that they do over on the Lost Hemisphere have kept me interested longer in the game then if I was just surviving on my own instinct.

Any who enough babbling onto Question #4. The tournament that I remember testing for the most and also remember the best because of the outcome, would be a local PCQ I believe that was set during DC Modern Age when Justice League and Infinite Crisis was legal.

Going into the tournament the top decks were “Fate Society” secret society with the fact artifacts abused Deadshot and fating up your biggest drop every turn. Usually got the full set out by turn 2. The Shadowpact/Secret Six deck that was popular for awhile I believe the secret six was used to help with search. Involved conjuring out big guys. Good Guys was still popular but not seen as a top deck. I’m assuming there was some Checkmate build as well since that deck seems to be always be good no matter what tourney it is in. I absolutely loathe checkmate though and probably have blocked out any involvement Checkmate may have had in the tourney.

I want to say that Secret Society was seen as the best deck as a pro had just won a major tourney with it. At the time that I started thinking about deck lists for the tourney I had a pretty serviceable Good Guys deck built. It wasn’t complete on some of things you would think that are an automatic four of in the deck but back then I had a limited budget on cards. It did play like any other good guys deck just maybe not as consistent. The other nifty thing about the deck was I was good with it. I understood the whole nuisances of the Ally effects and how to play the deck effectively. Even though I liked the deck a lot I listened to all the people that said it wasn’t right for the tourney and looked at some of the decks that sprang out of Infinite Crisis. As much as I hated Checkmate I also hated the Fate Artifacts and so even though Secret Society was seen as the best deck, there was no way in hell that I was going to play that deck.

Shadowpact seemed interesting, but I did not have all the parts for it to make the best version of it. Also if I remember correctly I believe my friend Mitch was trying to build them for the tourney so whatever cards I did have probably went to Mitch that day. So as you might have figured out I decided to go with Good Guys as it seemed to be the best deck for me, and plus win or lose I should have fun playing the deck no matter what.
When I began testing for the tourney, my main goal was to try and find a way to make the Secret Society match better. I felt like Good guys were consistent enough that I would have a decent enough time against the rest of field. Call it good draws or just plain good luck I always found Maxwell Lord to be useless in the deck since I always seemed to hit my team up, and would usually want Booster on two anyways, so the first thing I decided to do was replace Maxwell with Elongated man at my two drop. My feeling being that I could get him out on two and try to blow up their Fate’s Tower as quick as possible so they couldn’t switch it to their higher drop each turn. I want to say some Multiverse Power Batteries were thrown into the deck as well to try and Ko the fate set once they got it out.

Other than that I didn’t change much to the deck, Good Guys does what it does and hopefully you come out on top, you start to make too many changes and you mess up the consistency of the deck. I tested with a friend of mine that used to be big into VS but didn’t play much anymore, after testing I was still fearful of the Society match up but pretty confident with the rest.

As for the tournament I remember my losses better than I remember my wins. I know that I played against Secret Society twice, and went 0-2. Even though I lost both matches they were hard fought, and it didn’t help that in one match I had the most horrible luck of successfully replacing his Fate’s Tower with Elongated Man into another Fate’s tower, that proved to be back breaking as he was able to move it over to his bigger drop and smash face.

The other highlight of the tourney was a local group that built their own concoction of JSA JLI good guys, which really abused the identity mechanic to do some Ally shenanigans. The first time I played against it I got some bad draws and lost the match the next time against a different opponent but from the same team I got the win. Those matches there accounted for a 1-3 record I believe I finished 4-3 with wins over a JSA deck and JLA somewhat trinity deck and not sure who else.

So when top 8 was called I did not make it, though I was very close I believe I finished 10th. The story does have a happy ending though as I was the highest person without pc points, and won the top amateur prize. That earned me a Heralds of galactus tin and mat, and I believe some EA’s

It was nice to walk away from my first major tournament with some prize, even better to do it with a deck that I really liked and not just some deck that I picked cause it was good.(I realize the irony of Good guys being a good deck, but this was after its heyday)

I had a lot of fun and I wish I could have attending more tournaments like that, but as we all know, the money was pulled out of Vs not too long after that.
I hope you enjoyed my retelling of my tournament experience.

OSM Responds - Your hatred for Checkmate is something we have in common; Ahmed Samsarra, why couldn't your name be Batman?? I like how you evaluated the metagame and adjusted appropriately; Multiverse Power Battery was really good back then. Elongated Man seems a little janky, but considering what was available to Good Guys during DCMA DJL/DCR, Elongated Man sounds like a solid play. Do you regret losing Maxwell for the Team-Up? I know many builds run 1 copy because of Sue Dibny being able to search him out. As for the swag, that's awesome. I wish UDE ran more events, but at least we've had some of these experiences. I'll remember what I've experienced from VS for the rest of my life. I'll be sending you 3 Art Cards, 12 Modern Rares and 4 Subset Cards.

That brings Day 2 to a close - be sure to send in those addresses. Stop by tomorrow and I'll have two more stories up.
- OSM

Stories of our Time - VS Unleashed!'s Time Platform Ride Contest Day 1

Hey guys, and thanks for your participation and interest in this event. As far as entries go, I received entries from 7 people. So, here's what's going down:

• Every Day, I will post another story
• I will have my response afterwards
  
• At the end of the post I will post what the storyteller won
• I will need addresses of all the participants. Please get that information to me.

Here were the choices I gave writers to write about:

1) how you met your playgroup and what you have done since then
2) write about the people you've talked to online, experiences with that and how it has affected you VS experience
3) If you lurked, why? Would your experiences have changed if you posted more often?
4) Was there a tournament, whether it be a Pro Circuit, a PCQ, other marquee event or hobby league, that you tested for extensively? Who did you test with? Why did you choose what you ran? How did you do? In hindsight, would you have done anything differently?

Each day, I'll post a new story. Today we take a look at what xpuppykickerx and Punkazzinc have to say:

xpuppykickerx

1. I met my Vs. group through playing Star Wars minis. A few of the guys playing SW:M, also played Vs. I was given the Spider-Man starter and was instantly hooked. Since then, I've set up many drafts of the older sets to help new players get into the game for a lighter price. We set up a donating area in our gaming store for new players to get playsets of commons and uncommons. Soon, the store is going to create some legend cards and maybe even a store set.

2. I've had a lot of odd-ball questions while playing with a friend over at my house, and without our entire group to help judge an outcome, I've turned to the message boards (here and VSRealms) for a solid answer. Everyone is always really helpful, and I'm always told a reason why something works the way it does, rather than just be given an answer.

I've also had a lot of quality trades and sales from VSRealms. Trades were equal and the prices on the sales were always of value.

3. I would like to start posting more, rather than lurking. A lot of the time, it seems there is already a valid answer to a question, or I just don't have time lately to test new deck ideas.

4. The only testing I've done was with a hobby league. Right after the Coming of Galactus set came out, a DC fan I play with, started to develop an Arkham Asylum raid deck. I had a very positive experience with helping test the system and creating cards for it. I used a lot of same decks against the DC raid deck as I did the Galactus deck for some very interesting results.

OSM Responds - I think it's pretty cool that you guys got into the creating fantasy cards scene. It's fun stuff. I hope you do start posting more; sounds like of the experiences you've had with the online community they have been positive ones. Even though you don't go into great detail with a specific question, I'm glad someone did answer all 4 questions in an entry because I feel like it's a great way to start out the week of storytelling.
For your effort, you've won 10 random MEV rares and some subset promos!


Punkazzinc

MY LOVE OF THE VS SYSTEM

First off, lemme tell you about myself. I suppose it’s safe to say that I love the VS System. To start I’m a very big comic book fan. I have been reading them for quite a long time, but card games? I was pretty lost.

I never had much experience with those. I played Magic the Gathering when it first hit the shelves. It never really captured my imagination as VS did. I remember when my buddy, a comic shop owner named Ben, showed me the starter deck for Batman vs. The Joker I was blown away. “So, it’s kinda like Magic, only with superheroes?” That’s the question that I would later use [as] a definition of the game.

I could take a card named Batman, The Dark Knight, and totally bitch-stomp a card named Wolverine. Use a card called flying kick or Heat vision. I was in my own nerd paradise. I bought the starter deck, and a couple of packs of Man of Steel. I’m a DC Comics fan after all.

Needless to say you always need more cards than a starter and some boosters. I started buying Marvel Knights, hoping for a Punisher or Blade so I could throw out some mean crossovers. I usually lost, but then again my decks were comic inspired, not tournament inspired. A while later I ended up moving from south central Washington State to the Coastal City of Seattle. I left my hometown VS playing buddies behind.

It wasn’t long before I found a new group of players at The Comic Stop in Lynnwood. (Stop in if you’re able, it’s a great place unless Brian is there-ED.) I’ll tell you this; I was totally out of my element. I was using a New Gods/Team Superman deck that really didn’t have a strategy. I won’t forget the first few weeks, simply because I got whupped, bad. The guys wanted to take it easy on me, even had a bit of a vote, but I told them I’d never learn if they went light on me.

Soon I found a purpose for my deck. I’d pack in bigger characters, big pumps, and a few negating effects. It was far from perfect, but dammit I loved that deck. It’s got me smiling just thinking about it. I was one of the only people to use Escape Artist so I could clear my board for Fortress of Solitude to work.

It baffled my buddies, and angered them since attackers couldn’t ready after being removed from the attack. I’ll never forget the first time I came across a Netdeck. I played against Teen Titans, Roy Harper abuse. I was absolutely destroyed by that stupid deck. When I congratulated him on building a great deck, that’s when he told me it wasn’t his.

I know a lot of people say that netdecks have been around, mind you I was still new at this. I’ve a great hatred for them simply because they are a crutch for those without any hint of imagination. When I meet Brian Eugenio, Ryan Jones, or Wijaya I’ll be sure to congratulate THEM on beating me. After a while I finally started to pick up on better strategies. I came in pretty late, around the time of Avengers & JLA expansion.

It was a blast to be playing with my group at that time. I remember when I went to the X-men pre-release and took first in the sealed tourney there. A few of my buddies, visiting from the valley, had bought me a WWE “spinner” championship belt. The next Friday I came in with the belt over my shoulder and we had some laughs. Yeah, it was a great group of guys.

We were all pretty varied in style. There were a few of them who liked nothing better than to netdeck, they had dreams of going to one of the PC’s and being top 8. Then there were a couple of guys like me, totally jank-tastic. Every week was something different. Friday night VS, that’s what I’d look forward to.

Derrick and his “Ultimate burn” deck punished you for even breathing. Kosted and his “Arkham/Fearsome 5” that I can only remember working twice in its existence. Pearson and his “Ultimate defensive deck” that utilized nothing but +x DEF boosts. Me and my “Swingin’ Thing” deck that I built simply because it sounded dirty and I wanted to find uses for Yancy Street.

Of course life happens and bills need to be paid. Around the time of the Marvel Team-up expansion I had all but stopped playing. A new job on grave shift, and suddenly I wasn’t making those Friday nights anymore. It wasn’t just the game that I missed; it was the guys and our weird sense of humor. I wonder if everyone has a group similar to this.

Just recently I’ve started playing and buying cards again. I think I’ll start e-mailing those guys. I do miss it, when that happens I usually pull out my cards and play around with random teams. I’ll try and remember great match-ups or how we completely wrecked each other’s strategies. There are lots of great memories.

The guys I originally started playing VS with are still here, and we find time to play when we can. I wonder, no, I hope everyone has had the same types of experiences that I have. VS is such a great game that inspires creativity, and in the right environment a completely unforgettable atmosphere. I think I’ll go work on that New Gods deck…

OSM Responds - The experiences we have with other people at hobby leagues are things worth treasuring; I hope you're able to reconnect with them. I just recently reconnected with most of the members of my hobby league from 3 years ago. As far as netdecks go, creativity isn't limited to how one builds their deck, but also in how the deck is played. While I understand your dislike for people playing netdecks, I hope that you can accept it for that. Or what about the times you beat the deck? Doesn't it feel accomplishing to beat a netdeck with your own deck?

Thanks for the entry - you've won 10 random MEV cards, 10 subset cards and 3 art cards!

I'll be back tomorrow with another entry.
- OSM

Unleashment! #2 ~ Game Designer notes

WARNING: This is a very, very long entry. /warning.

Wow, I haven't posted here in a long time! Well, part of that is because I really want the contest to be featured, and maybe another is I'm spending too much time posting over at [vssystem].ORG about the janktastic Time Platform deck.

But no longer! In fact, just yesterday while I was in Astronomy Lecture I decided to take some notes:(can't read this? Might want to print it out and use a mirror, I used photobooth to capture it, lazy me)

So, I've been thinking about making a Heroes Card Game. For awhile, actually. I post over at 9thwonders.com, and I PM'd the mighty truk [a mod there who plays VS System] on his thoughts about a Heroes card game and he suggests that a fanset be made first. Understandable.
So, this past summer, that's what I did.


That is one of four-ish cards that made it to the template stage. The other 170 cards are here in text form. It still needs plenty of work, and is far from done before it becomes, what I feel to be, a finished and polished VS set. And yet I wander over to a new project! Wow, maybe I'd fit in over at UDE, huh?

Anyways, onto the Heroes game itself. The TL;DR of the game is it is a mix of DBZ 2000, VS, Chess and the Settlers of Catan.

The first thing I wanted when I started brainstorming was that I wanted there to be a main character per deck, otherwise everyone would play Sylar [everyone still might play Sylar] and if characters die, then the group of fans of the show who love watching their favorite character and following that character might feel left out. I didn't want that. So, here's a page from the DBZ book; they have what are called main personalities. When you play a game of DBZ, you have a character who represents your deck. Think W0W. Except the character can't die. But that goes into how damage is calculated, your deck is your life ... that's a whole 'nother ball game. What you should get out of this is whoever you choose to represent your deck, they're gonna be important.

The next thing was how to address the issue of 'weak, yet important' characters like Izaac Mendez and Angela Petrelli. Well, if you're going to have a main character, maybe it would be cool for that character to 'protect' your other characters. In DBZ, you can have allies. You'd play them in a similar fashon to how you'd play other cards in your deck, but the big difference is that allies can be sent to the discard pile while your main character can't. Short of Claire Bennet being able to spontaneously regenerate herself, I'd think it'd be fitting for the characters you bring into play other than your main character [like your Izaacs and your Angelas] can be sent to the discard pile. It's also worth noting, that if you were to crack open a pack of cards, that there's no difference between main character cards and character cards; it'd just depend on how you build your deck.

Now, how is your main character going to protect your other characters? Well, I guess that would bring us to the chess reference:


I'm thinking the blue square is where your main character will start, and the red is where your opponent's main character will start. The bottom row will be your Prep Row, and the top will be your opponents'. It's entirely possible to design maps for multiplayer; but I don't want to cross that road quite yet. I'm thinking characters that you play from your hand will enter via the Prep Row. Maybe any of the 5 squares. Between moving characters, attacking, and playing effects, this style I'm hoping will be highly enjoyable.

Now, a 5 by 5 playing field? really? Sounds grand, I know. But, look at how many rows are in VS: 6! You have your Resource Row, Support and Front Row and then those of your opponent. In Yugioh, there are 4 Rows: Spell/Trap card Zone, Monster Zone, and those of the opponents [minus the Fusion/Synchro, the Field Magic Spell, Deck and Graveyard zones] so really, a 5 by 5 isn't too much of a stretch by any means. I'm thinking about buying custom playmats to make this even easier.

This 5 by 5 doesn't cover everything though; There's still the matter of the Deck/Discard/RFG piles. I guess they'll be on the outside of the grid. I was thinking about a spot for locations and continuous modifiers, but then I came up with a great idea:

Modifiers will take up spots on the grid. Even further, bonuses might happen for characters on those modifier spots. I'm thinking locations could be put on the map, maybe effects that hurt your opponent too. Let's say I have a card called flame wall with a picture of the train from the season 1 opener and it has an effect of the sort like characters cannot enter this square unless they have Flight or Spontaneous Regeneration. That'd be neat, huh? Of course, these could be very powerful since having control over the board [literally] would put your opponent in a tough spot. Let's call these cards Event-Map cards, similar to Ongoing Plot twists are a subtype of Plot Twists, things that effect the map will be subtype of Events.

Which leads us to the Character Card [well, kinda, what with talking about character abilities]. I'm thinking the layout of the card would be similar to VS/Magic/WoW; Name at top with version [Except I like how they do it in DBZ with the name, (description of character) rather than having a separate line]. Attack/Def will be on the bottom. In the middle, there'll be a Movement number. Pretty much, unless you have Super Speed, that number is going to be 1. That is how many squares you can move per turn.

Will characters have a cost? Yesh. It depends on your main character though. Both Players' main characters will start as level 1 characters. Other characters you play can be of cost 1. You can't play a stronger character ... until your main character levels up. That's right, leveling up characters! I'm thinking the only fair way to balance this is to say you can only play 1 character per turn. That also means cards that destroy characters will have to be played scarcely; either by limiting the number per deck, making the cost really high, or making the scope of the effect very limited [can only kill Arthur Petrelli, for example].

But, I've gotten off track. So, we know the character card will have a name, description, cost, attack, defense, movement value, and game text. What else? Well, because of the different factions in the show, and how they're constantly changing, using a 'color-based' system just doesn't make sense. However, can one make an argument that, while they are constantly acting in their best interests, that their goal is of something heroic or villainous? I'd say so. Thus, Characters will be stamped with a 'Hero' or a 'Villain' label. I'm thinking the label will appear where the pre-type of creature appears on magic cards [like Legendary or Artifact], or where the first affiliation appears in VS under the more recent printing. Then, in where the creature subtype or the secondary affiliation would be, for Heroes, it would be their ability. For Claire, it would be Spontaneous Regeneration, Nathan would be Flight, Hiro would be Time/Space Manipulation. I'm thinking there can be multiple abilities listed; for example, Hiro's mastery over Time is a completely different power from his mastery over Space [as we've seen so clearly two weeks ago on E4.20, Cold Snap]. The Hero cards will have a natural eclipse watermark behind the gametext and will feel blue-ish in coloration, while the villain cards will feature the Season 3 Villains eclipse as their watermark and will generally be more red-ish in color.

Next, Rarity. I feel that putting the rarity where it is in Magic doesn't make sense, and it can't be put where it is in VS because of the movement number. So, where on the card does that leave? The Upper-Right corner; I'm thinking as a coloration of [this card's number/total cards in set]. Example, if it were a rare and it was number 14 in a set of 95, it would read 14/95. Maybe inside a set symbol. Like the first set could be named Activating Evolution, and the symbol would be a book.

I haven't quite figured out how combat is going to be resolved, but I really like the ready/exhausted/stunned system that VS has. Here's what I have sofar:

Ready ~ Ready
Exhausted ~ Engaged
Stunned ~ Dazed

and I'm thinking the game will be played turn by turn. But then if I daze us both on my turn, when you go and recover your guy, my guy is still dazed so what do you do etc. Maybe if I put a "Whenever a character becomes dazed, that character cannot attack the turn it becomes undazed" rule into place then back to the previous scenario, On my turn I daze us both, your turn you undaze, no one to attack, rules state you can't attack anyways, you're good. My turn, I undaze, I can't attack you because I just undazed this turn. It then goes to your turn, and you could attack me. Thus the balance you attack me then I attack you is reached. And I just thought of that rule while I've been typing this; there's soo much to iron out.

Next up is turn order. Right now, I'm thinking:

1. Draw
2. Undaze
3. Pre-Combat
4. Movement
5. Combat
6. Post Combat
7. End

1. Draw - draw a card. Nothing special.
2. Undaze - makes sense to do it before movement; even injured people can move.
3. Pre-Combat - play a character, lay down locations. Maybe I'll get rid of the Location Type, I don't know. I mean, just because the Season 1 Showdown happens at Kirby Plaza, Should Kirby Plaza itself have a different effect? There's a ton that happens in DC especially in the Fugitives Arc; leaving one effect for an entire location seems kinda' restraining. Locations stay in for now, but I can't see how they'd be any different from Event-Map cards. Ohwell. Yeah, this would be the time to play those cards too.
4. Movement - Moving diagonally counts as two squares. Other than that, move however you want as long as you're within your movement range.
5. Combat - if you're within range of somebody [one square unless said otherwise], then calculate damage the same way you do in Magic; the only difference is that Main Characters Daze, while other characters actually die.
6 - Post-Combat - do whatever you want that you could do in the Pre-Combat step; however if you've already played a character, you can't play another character in the Post-Combat Step. Playing characters are limited to once per turn.
7 - End. Doesn't do anything unless an effect in play says so.

I think it's important that the movement step is before combat and after pre-combat; otherwise an opponent can put potentially 'bully' you. A couple other closing thoughts; I think playing characters should be encouraged. Characters on the show get from point A to point B with the help of others; Hiro/Ando. Sylar/Victim. Ted/Matt. I'm thinking of the card types as being Characters, Events, Locations, Items, and Motivations. Motivations might be stripped down the line, but basically, what lies at the core of every character? Their motives. HRG is the family man, or the company man. Hiro wants to be a hero. Peter wants to help people. Sylar hungers. These cards would be like Alternate Egos; except they'd be very limited and maybe only usable once per game or something. Maybe it would allow for partnerships, like team Matt/Suresh/Peter in the flashback episode about HRG.

Finally, the win condition. How do you win? Right now, I'm thinking of these three ways:
1) 20 Eclipse points - whenever you kill an opposing character, gan an eclipse point. Whenever you daze an opposing main character, gain eclipse points equal to that character's cost. There'll also be card effects that give you points too.
How to level up? Spend 5 Eclipse points. But if you're taking away from your win condition, then it's only fair to:
2) Evolutionary Victory - reach your highest level. To have a character be your main character, you'll need to have at least the level 1-3 of that character. If your opponent has a level 4 character that they can get to and you can only get to level 3, then you cannot win by Evolutionary Victory. This encourages that players play the higher levels.
3) Forced Surrender Victory - occupy all 5 Prep row squares that belong to your opponent. This will encourage players to play more characters and to protect themselves.
4) Alternate win - Some sort of win condition, like blowing up New York or something.


Well, that covers everything I've done so far. I'd love to hear your thoughts and thanks for reading!
- OSM

Unleash This! #12: Take a trip on the Time Platform

With the events from January of UDE letting us go long behind us now, we've clearly had some time to think, to do other things, and whatever else it is you guys do. There's only so much time, right? Well I think we've passed the worst part of the roller coaster that is VS, what with our temporary council in place, plans for Worlds underway, and Battle of the Border: Texas Edition taking place this weekend, we have plenty of good home-brewed awesomeness to look forward to.

So, what can I possibly be jabbering about? We've had 5 years of history together thus far, and soo much has happened. Life-changing events; stories of victory, stories of self-actualization, of forming new and lasting relationships. Of Tournaments. Of Strategy discussion. Of General chatter. Of Contests. That's right guys; I'm finally throwing out a contest like I promised back in September.

Here's what I want (choose one); I want your stories. I want to know, in narrative, of what you have experienced. It can be:

1) how you met your playgroup and what you have done since then
2) write about the people you've talked to online, experiences with that and how it has affected you VS experience
3) If you lurked, why? Would your experiences have changed if you posted more often?
4) Was there a tournament, whether it be a Pro Circuit, a PCQ, other marquee event or hobby league, that you tested for extensively? Who did you test with? Why did you choose what you ran? How did you do? In hindsight, would you have done anything differently?

I'm expecting these to be detailed; take as many pages/paragraphs as you need to get your thoughts across. If you're willing, I'll be posting all entries in this blog as articles.

So, what are the prizes?
I've got playmats, MEV rares, foils, alternate art cards, I can give you point cards if you didn't redeem a jinx gift card yet [or if you play wow], I've got some subset stuff don't worry about it I've got enough to reward and acknowlege everyone who participates.

Deadline is May 1st. Feel free to ask any questions.

Good luck and happy writing!
- OSM

Unleashment! ~ A non-vs column

I thought I'd introduce a new column to all things Unleashed!, and with the way life is going, the excitement of the temporary council, the recent Full Disclosure and the Age of Apoc raid set, There's a ton going on. So, I'm not going to add to the chaos in this column.

I'll still have regular VS-related content, and hopefully it'll be at least 4 times a month. To fill the void and to keep this blog active, I'm going to add elements from the Heroes tv show and Super Smash Bros Brawl. Rarely I might post something else too.

Between this to look forward to [if you're interested in it], the path our game is taken and all other things that might be going on for you, rest assured I'll remain as an active poster on vsrealms, .org and [once my registration goes through] tcg player.

Now I'll show you! ARRRAAAUUGHH!!!!

(I'm a Sonic Main in SSBB)

Later gang!

- Alex "OSM" Lloyd

AoA Raid Set Previws: Caliban <> Pestilence and Famine

Huh? Don't know what this is about? Well, if you haven't read this.

So, we've got an exciting new raid set for multiplayer. This time, you're saving the planet one continent at a time [I guess Apoc doesn't have a thing on Galactus huh?]

Well, much like Galactus' Heralds, Apoc has his Horsemen. Let's take a look at one of them:


For the record, these cards were made with regular gameplay [outside of the raid deck] in mind.
I think this guy is pretty neat; I mean it's clear that he was made to function flavorfully along the lines of Caliban, Pestilence from MEV. When you're playing against 4 players, you can get this guy out on turn 3 since you start out with two extra resources. Then since the first turn is just a turn where "the line is drawn," it's kinda like you get him out on turn 2, just like his counterpart. That's pretty good. And then there's his vengeance power; WOW! Causing 3-4 cards to be lost per stun is ridiculous. Imagine if outside cards were allowed; Join us or Die! would break this card in half.

Infact, why not run this guy in a golden age Villans United deck? If you use a global team-up and a team up with VU, you can JUoD with Caliban very easily. plus, JUoD isn't phase-stamped so you could pull this off during the build phase before your opponent sets a resource. For BYOTT, team up with Infinity Watch, use Sub-Mariner/Atlantis, birthing chamber, Moondragon and reuse JUoD ...

That actually sounds quite strong. There surly isn't a way to abuse him in the raid deck games, ... is there!??

Let's move on to Famine:


... woah! While limited in use, it would certainly neuter any Exiles tech that we've seen implimented lately like Messiah Complex + SttG + The Beyonder. This card is gonna be a killer tech card in constructed play. In the raid deck, I'm not so sure how effective it will be since every continent has its own life force of endurance for your team to use [and thus your endurance will be reset pretty much every turn].

That's it for now! Be sure to check out The Blues Effect tomorrow for more previews!

- OSM

Full Disclosure: MEQ #023

She is mystifying; for one, she's a fleshy. What have we seen so far? a shield, a couple hammers, and an airplane. Obvious equipments. What is this one supposed to be? Are you supposed to throw her at your enemies like a dummy? Assault and Battery, I don't approve. It makes you wonder a couple things. First, who is this woman and what does she have in relation with the rest of what we've seen so far? Next, which is basically the same question worded the other way around, is well is there anyone or anything that is related to the cards we've seen so far that could possibly be related/associated with this woman?

I'll let you ponder that. Or, you can watch the following video:

INTRODUCING:
IRON MAN, THE SHINY KNIGHT!

*roar*

You'll have to excuse me. When I first saw this guy, the first thing I thought was "how would yugi recruit him?" Plus ... Knights slay Dragons. So it fits. [btw, that was the first video I've ever edited, so I apologize if the audio is a little off].

That aside, this guy is RIDICULOUS. He enables a TURN 4 GAUNTLET! [*on a perfect draw]
And that is just with him being a 2-drop Iron Man! You might be thinking that the 3-drop from MEV after he stuns a hunted character equates to being a 1-drop Iron Man [3 cost then the 2 for the freebie] but I don't like relying on my opponent for my deck to work. It's also initiative dependent. The Shiny Night? He'll be your hero on and off initiative.

I've been tweaking my Illuminati deck for him, and I gotta say, he's a very nice addition. Also what with the Illuminati have a 2-cost search in Secret Government, running even 1 copy of the Shiny Knight is very much viable.

What equipment would you run in Illuminati though? I mean the deck is tight as it is. That said, MEQ gave us a couple wonderful trinkets in the form of web shooters and the cloak of levitation that are worth looking at. My list now also calls for a copy of Extremis Upgrade.

Pet decks aside, you noticed his effect too right? Draw power has proven itself to be a very powerful element to the game. Look at Sage in the Exiles deck: Drawing 6-10 cards per shift? She certainly helps you draw into your warp shards, beaks and bodyslides [variant-dependent]. I can see Iron Man leading an army of 1-drop Multiple Man all equipped with Mandroid Armor. All your guys stun, you draw a bunch of cards, and then you One Man Army away a 2-drop Multiple Man to recover all of your Multiple Man army dudes.

Even without trying to make a combo out of it, you'll at least get his effect off once, since it triggers for himself too [assuming you gave him an equipment], much like how Black Cat, 9 lives and any other when a character you control becomes stunned effects go off. So basically he's either good or awesome.

... do you know what else is awesome? The Ring Has Chosen, the super-cool podcast starring Cliff and Squire. I have a feeling there's gonna be one last preview, one last VS UDE printed card, ever, that they just might have on the front page of vssystem.org tomorrow.

It's been one hell of a ride, guys. It's now our time. Let's steer the ship, to wherever we want to go.

- Alex "OSM" Lloyd

Unleash This! #11: It's a Miracle! Battle in the Apple Finals

That's right vs-world! By some miracle, I have below the ACTUAL final match between Jeremy [Sheye] and Ralph [Blues686] from last weekend's Battle in the Apple event!

Below is the video, and beneath that will be my thoughts:



Acting: Captain Falcon as Ralph and Black Shadow as Jeremy

Well ... actually ... that's not exactly how it went down. Here are the differences:
* There was much more usage of the middle finger in the actual match
* Not enough Razzing on the winner
* The world didn't blow up before a second game could be played where Black Shadow tries to kill himself while mocking/razzing on Captain Falcon
* Ralph is nowhere near as cool as Captain Falcon
* Not enough side commentary on how lame Captain Falcon is
* There was no concern for Ralph's status of being ok [the guy in the ship who says Captain Falcon]
* Captain Falcon is much cooler than Ralph. Period.

And finally ... There was no mention of Ralph's hair smiling.



- Alex "OSM" Lloyd