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!
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.
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.
... what, did you think the video coverage was all I was going to do? HA! I'll break this down into 4 sections: The Wombo Combo deck breakdown, the drive down, the overnight bash / BitA prep and then the actual games report for MA and SA.
So, what is a Wombo Combo?
And what does that have to do with VS?
.... yeah. You see it now, right? Imagine this sexiness: Two of these Nightcrawlers and two sneak attacks. Let's throw them into the hidden area so you can do it on initiative and off. Ridiculous? Well, that's when you know you have something worth looking into, that's for sure. Here's the list:
4x Moonstar, Danielle Moonstar 4x Caliban, Pestilence 3x Beast, Wild and Woolly 3x Cyclops, Mutant Hunter 3x Nightcrawler, Man of the Cloth 1x Nightcrawler, Hit Factory 1x Black Manta, Underwater Marauder 1x Cable, Temporal Traveler 1x Gambit, Traitor 1x Havok, Proud Son 1x The Beyonder, Inhuman
4x Messiah Complex 4x Mobilize 4x Pathetic Attempt 4x Sneak Attack 4x Straight to the Grave 4x Underground Movement 3x Carrying the Torch 3x Concussive Force 3x For Great Justice! 2x Call in a Favor 2x Savage Beatdown ---------------------------------------------------
Just a few interactions: Cyclops functions as a 1-attack-long sneak attack Cable 6/Black Manta + anything = can use a plot twist 2-4 times [if you've drawn a 2nd copy] Nightcrawler + Nightcrawler + Sneak Attack + either SA/Black Manta/Cable: Main combo SttG + Carrying the Torch = insta name-grabbing
I'll leave it at that for now, there'll be more about how the deck works in game reviews later on. ******************************************************************
The Drive Down
So, I leave Concord NH to go up to Jetpack in Rochester to pick up Jeremy [Sheye]. Spent some time at Jetpack while waiting; picked up and read Dark Avengers #1, talked with the guy holding down the shop and one of their regulars about Watchmen, Wanted and just superhero movies in general. Nothing too exciting. Picked up 3 boxes of MEV and Sheye showed up.
We first stopped off at shamilton777's place, where I was greeted by his wife; Scott Hamilton let me use 3 mobilizes for the Battle in the Apple and he gave me some common/uncommons for my Alex.dec and it's a shame he couldn't go. Please praise the dude; he rocks.
The road was pretty smooth, no real traffic. Only blip was heading south on 495 en route to Lowel, MA. ... Except trying to find gas. Seriously, at 8-9pm at night you should be able to find a damn gas station in Rhode Island on 95 south, and heaven forbit that I want a self serve one!
So we finally get to NYC. I loop around Broadway st twice while looking for the McDonalds where Ralph [blues686], [thevisionary] and crew are playing. I buy some food to feel justified in using their space for playing VS; they didn't really mind. We played for 9 hours. lol.
Most of that time was spent playing a Rochester Draft; basically, if you haven't read the thread over at the realms yet you open 3 packs for each player, shuffle all the cards together into one communal deck. flip over two cards for every player; if there's 4 players, flip over 8 cards. Find a way to designate someone as picking first. They take a card, then the 2nd player, then the 3rd etc until you get to the last player. The last player takes two cards. Then the 2nd-to-last player takes their 2nd card. etc. etc. until the person who took the first card is left with the last card. Then the person who picked 2nd gets to pick first in the next round.
When we weren't drafting, we were playing modern and silver. I whiped out the nightcrawler deck and did poorly; the deck takes a couple games to get used to, like pretty much all decks. Getting used to wanting to play moonstar multiple times was a little hard. I'm glad I did this though because it clearly paid-off for the main event [is this talking about what is to come thing killing ya yet? lol] And I also got the only win I'd get all weekend with SF/Illuminati; it was against a meat market deck, and go figure I lose to hgrablewski's variant in the actual silver event.
So then there were three of us left as Ralph and everyone else left to get some sleep: Me, Jeremy and [uuhhh .... the Juggernaught from my videos? Sorry dude your name totally escapes me right now. I'm at a meineke car fixing place and my mind is adrift so comment and I'll fix this.]
We left McDonalds, drove two streets closer to the event, parked. I ask a trash man if it's ok to park where I was [because the NYC signs are kinda hard to decipher to me as a foreigner and because I've already had a run-in with the NYC police while trying to park at McDonalds].
So we walk to where the event is supposed to go down; there's a door on the street that leads to 6 residential apartments in between two businesses. Within Moments, Chance shows up with his gf and bud. after a quick introduction, we help them set up in the 5th residence area where there's a studio loft [and I take the first video].
... then we wait. I call Cliff, turns out he went a little past where we were. I direct him to us. I stand outside again. I call him while he's outside, I see his arm in the distance put the phone to his head and I knew he was here. He asked if I was in blue and I asked if he was in a grey sweatshirt and I jumped up and said YES!!
It was like a family reunion of vs players.
So we go back up, I take video 2, and we hear about the train thing. super-fun .... I pay chance and turn in my decklist and we start as soon as blues and Mike [filth] show up. ##############################################################
Round 1: OSM vs ishmael [X-Force/Weapon X] I got all of my combo pieces except for carrying the torch. Oh how I wished I could get a torch ... I draw ~8 cards with Moonstar by playing her 3 times [turns 1,2, and 4]. Turn 3 I recruit nightcrawler and on 4 I recruit a cyclops. He kills cyke while my Nightcrawler looks away in pain while in the hidden area. Turn 5 I recruit Black Manta, but with no real way to stop the onslaught I SttG for the Beyonder, Messiah complex with boost to gain 10 and pass to him. He attacks manta, I stun. I use beyonder to wall and I survive to the next turn. Turn 6, looking down a Huge board I still haven't gotten a carrying the torch. I remember wishing moonstar could work in the build phase so I could dig for one, but that wouldn't work anyways because I'd have passed my set resource step to recruit moonstar. So instead I recruit cyke, concussive force, mobilize for another cyke [my 3rd copy, 1 in yard], KO the cyke in play to recruit another cyke and I use manta to get another concussive force to do it again. He manages to pump out and kill me that turn anyways. 0-1
Round 2: OSM vs Joe from Edgeworld [running Endgame.dec aka bring out 8-drops on 5] Turn 1 I recruit moonstar to his riddler. I nab 3 plot twists on the bounce. Turn 2, he recruits bullseye to my beast. Turn 3, I recruit nightcrawler to his poison ivy. he SttGs for a 2nd riddler, and brings it into play via ivy. he flips thunderbolt mountain and gets a 4th resource and stuns beast via bullseye. He flips up birthing chamber. He sends ivy into nightcrawler. I respond by flipping up Underground Movement, Nightcrawler goes hidden and hits the dirt. I lose beast in the recovery. Turn 4, I shift out caliban to try to tie up some of his draw [because he's got an insane amount of it]. I also bring out moonstar again, and a resource point goes to waste. he brings out blizzard and I can't remember who else so it must not have mattered or he didn't bring anyone else in. Nightcrawler doesn't do much, and I get 2 more plot twists with moonstar. She is soo good =0 Turn 5 he brings in thanos and mimic 2-drop, copying thanos. It might've been turn 6 he did this, or maybe he also played mimic on 6 too. Point is his board doesn't change too much. ... until the combat phase on 6 and time was called on 5. I recruit a cable 6-drop, I have evens. He uses thunderbolts mountain 3 times via the location, thanos and blink. those 3 resources plus the 6 already in play, he easilly uses back from the dead on 8-drops. he flipped government sanctioned [I forget the X-factor guy he had in play .... beast maybe?] and used First class on 8-drop Ghost Rider. I send Cable into Ghost Rider with a sneak attack and a savage beatdown. he activates ghost rider to KO my black manta and nightcrawler but I use Pathetic Attempt to stop it. he stuns and cable doesn't. I flipped down For Great Justice with Cable, which I had used to gain 14 endurance twice. I also used black manta and nightcrawler with SttG and a messiah complex to gain 10 for beyonder. I'm in the high 60s to his mid 30s. He brings out darkseid via back from the dead, but leaves him stunned. I have beyonder in my hand so he can't win with Darkseid's effect. He attacks me for a bajillion, and I beat him by 7 endurance. Chance recorded my initiative on 6 for coverage pt 3. He put the match in as Joe's win, and it took a minute to fix but it's all good. Shock and awe I guess. Major props to the EW guys for making that deck ... it's nuts. That said, in a field where people are packing for great justice for the exiles matchup anyways .... I'd blame exiles for the loss if I were you guys. They're super-lame. 1-1
Round 3: OSM vs TOGIT store owner [Radman.Ironman.dec] not too much to say about this one. he has recovery effects; what good is my team attack combo? I get locked out on 5. 1-2
Round 4: OSM vs Jean Grey Legend [I believe] it might be that my memory is poisoned by talking to Jeremy and another Summers player about the deck, but I want to say I played against it and they missed pretty badly. My deck was firing on all engines. 2-2
Round 5: OSM vs hgrablewski [Cold Soldier.illuminati.dec] He Electra Situationed my Moonstar!!!! well, I did draw 9 cards with her ... This was the only game I recruited Gambit, which saw play on turn 8. He goes the illuminati curve until 4 which is when he played James Barnes Winter Soldier and snipes my 3-drop. From then on I got the picture and played around the nazi bastard and I sacrifice the Calibans I'd have shifted to stay on-curve. I don't even bother trying to get the nightcrawler combo to go off because of the hidden board and I have no way to hit hidden [who plays hidden when Exiles is in the meta?? Caliban saw shifted play on 2 and 4; on 4 I recruited moonstar and he electra'd moonstar so I moved her hidden and kept her around as a messiah body. then it was manta/cable/havok/gambit. He goes Winter Soldier/ironman/Dr. Strange/blackbolt/wiffs. I almost wanted to go to turn 10 and bring out the Beyonder.I kept 2 3-cost plot twists in my hand for gambit on 8, stunned sub mariner and cable/suprise attack/savage takes down the 7-drop turning down savage and havok [who was also electra'd] takes down dr. strange with that savage. 3-2
Round 6: OSM vs JLA Flash Legend Dude you got the bad beats. Not only did I get the nuts on you, but you missed your primary 3 and 4. Me locking you out of attacks on your init with a Carrying the Torch'd nightcrawler and a cyclops with concussive forces didn't help things too much either. 4-2
I Top-8. I drop. ... WHAT??? of course. I already have a wii; why do I want another? Let me get a couple of things straight: I play this game out of pure love. ... plus I had already pre-paid for the silver age event. And I wanted to play SF/Illuminati, which I thought was gonna run rampant in the event like it did at Gencon Indy. Well, Karma is a B****, and I lost every game.
vs Cuba's AF/GK: skree? totally lame. scoop-SCOOP!
vs MKKO: What is it with playing against hidden hate? LAAAMMMMMEEEEE!!!!!
VS hgrablewski's UW: crap draw. I deserved it though, what with the Wombo Combo deck drawing very well for me during the Modern anyways. I just didn't have enough exhaust tricks.
So, that's pretty much it. I recorded some of the Finals, got someone else to record the rest, did a little trading and a glorious trip it was.
If you want to see my intro videos of me on the road, they're on my youtube page. Otherwise let's skip to the good stuff. Also there's some lost footage of the aftermath of the event; only 1 card gets destroyed on camera! More on this later:
Prep pt 1
Prep pt 2
Coverage pt 1
Coverage pt 2
Coverage pt 3
Bear Hug
Coverage pt 4
Interview with Ralph [Blues686]
[saved space for final match which is still uploading]
[yes, you can click the picture twice to make it bigger]
Note: This is NOT a VS Unleashed! contest, but rather one for the Illuminati of TCG Player dot com.
Basically, it's Dual-legend with a twist; first, the two characters must have dated eachother / been in a romantic relationship of some sort. Also, for one of your legends the cards that count towards legendary status include artwork, but only for one. The other needs to be total legend.
A couple questions that I have that I don't know yet and will get an answer for shortly are: 1) gay couples 2) cards that reference both characters count double or singularly?
Updates coming soon. That said, I'd get to work if I were you; deadline is in less than a month. Good luck and have fun guys!
- "OSM," on behalf of shadowtrooper from the realms.
With UDE's announcement of VS' cancellation, I will keep my promise from last month's entry and I will resume writing, for our mutual entertainment, to attempt at keeping interest in the game, and to dedicate more of me to you guys.
You know I post in the forums ... a ton. Well, that's not gonna change. Why have I been posting so much over there when I could be writing up a blog entry? Well, I was waiting for, what I felt, was the right time; something to relate to our fan-made OP journey.
Well, that time is fast approaching with the Super Saturday New York this Saturday. If you haven't heard of it yet, then you're not really reading this blog entry because you'd have to live under a rock [with no internet access no less] because we've been posting about it everywhere [This is the point where if you actually didn't know about it to look for it].
So, what might that something be? Well, how about something to look forward to, that VS has never officially had: VIDEO COVERAGE!!! That said, there are two previous cases of this happening; once at a BYOT event over in England and once for a Salem Mass DCL draft tapped by Aceswolf which I don't think ever got uploaded =/
Here's how it's gonna go down: I'll start out before I leave Then when I reach stop A Then a little bit of when we're at stop A Then Maybe tape a conversation as we go from stop A to B Then a split second at stop B Then maybe more on the road stuff. Surely a glimpse of a 24-pack of a certain fizzy orange beverage. Then the final stop will be the tournament site itself; wrap-up will be a different presentation.
Of course, I haven't said one word of this to Sheye, and whether or not he reads this before I throw the camera at him who knows. Actually ... Yep, he'll read this. Then message me like 'I'm not gonna be your cameraman' and then I'll be like 'I promised the VS community that they'd get video coverage! I'm not gonna break my promise' then he'd be like 'why don't you hold the camera?' and then I win by saying 'I'm driving. 'Nuff said.'
Note: I won't be mean such that I'd make him hold the camera the whole time; otherwise I wouldn't be able to record him raging at Blues682 for running Exiles =0
So, a condensed list of what to look forward to this month: * Video Coverage of SSNY * Can you guess what Blink 3-drop and Metaknight have in common? * Recent format, New twist [not BYON] * A super-secret awesome thing, although that might be further down the road
and maybe I'll dabble into the Galactus raid deck a bit. I found some unused custom planet cards that I want to mess around with.
Keep at it fellow VS True Believers; we've got a new journey ahead of us. - Alex "OSM" Lloyd
