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