VS Unleashed!

Marvel Warzone MWZ Exclusive Previews: Spider Friends

2010-03-25T23:36:00.001-07:00

Yo everybody, I hope you've been enjoying the MWZ previews sofar - I know I have. Many of you know I'm a major SF fan, and if you're like me, you've 'prolly had the same gripe with the team that I have ~ There's no 6-drop Spider-friends affiliated Spider-Man (...what? Not all of you have that gripe!? Ohwell). Today, that changes. The future is bright. The future is ... sticky?

You might be wondering what "Slinger" does - well, it's quite simple really - webbers web stuff up. They can do it to characters, places or they can use their webbing to do cool tricks. Now, this flavor can be achieved in Vs System by putting a "Web Counter" on a card in play (That's right, Web Counters are BACK!). The exact wording to Slinger is "When you recruit this character, put a web counter on target face-up card in play." Does this mean the MOR Spider-Man is finally good? I'd argue he was always good. Got better with Spider-Man, Ultimates and now is amazing with the Slinger abilities - just don't use this in a Spider-Friends mirror match! Why yes, I'll use the web counter you put on my Spider-Man while I have Spider-Man, Ultimates in play. Thanks!

Now, looking back at today's preview card. We've certainly had much easier ways to strip powers away. Mr. Sinister, Batman, MUN's Spider-Man, Secret Avenger etc. But this is different. Normally, one pathetic attempt and you can dodge a bullet. Spider-Man says "No, you need to beat my Spider-Sense AGAIN." - They can PA the trigger from when he comes in, but can they PA his activated ability? Do they have the Only Human to use their powers again? Maybe. Not likely though. Of course they could always use the power in response, but I guess you'll have to play around with this card a bit to get the timing down.
Let's talk about the other things we can do with him. Costume Change is now actually a viable search card for Spider-Clone decks! SF BYOT just got a ton better (like it needed any help)! No one wants a zombie to be their six drop anyways (Check out the Golden Age King thread on vssystem.org to see what I mean).

Yay, more legend support! This is awesome for the Legend format, which has been getting a decent discussion lately. You'd likely run Pathetic Attempt anyways, run this instead - not that you'd have any trouble getting 12 cards to reference Spidey. Notice also that the threshold is only 3 - This lets you hit a Reign of Terror when you're on odds, Mystical Paralysis, Have a Blast!, and any number of other things. Hey, maybe stopping that turn 3 boot to the head would've made all the difference. Not that SF should be losing to TNB ... ever. Maybe some decks will experiment with running this card and splashing in Spider-Man early on to trigger the alternate text - Bosom Buddies maybe? Deadpool on turn 2, a Spidey on turn 3 keeping your board around, turn 4 Cable go off? 'Prolly not a good idea, you guys can think of a better application - infact, I dare you. Come up with a good way to Integrate Spidey as a guest star to another deck, I'd enjoy that. And so would she:

The (fan-made) Heroes VS SYSTEM trading card game!

2010-02-19T17:46:00.000-08:00

Development Continues ... NOW!
Greetings true believers! It's been a long time since official product for the VS System engine has been stopped, so I'm glad to see that fan sets have been popular.
You may also know that I've been working on a Heroes fan set for about 35 months, and I apologize for that. While we're at it though, I'm going to go ahead and let you guys know it'll easily be about another 4 months of development and crafting before the set can release - Boy, I had no idea what I was getting into at first >_>
The GOOD news however is that when all is said and done, this will feel like a real expansion - that means no new keywords, nothing too broken/overpowered, and as little vanilla and as much flavor as possible - for both constructed play and sealed play support.
Those are my goals.
I can tell you now that I've revised the set at least 5 times as I've reworked things and have been looking for art; Originally the Level 5 were going to be a team. Funny thing though, hardly any of them have been printed in an online graphic novel over at nbc.com.

One major difference between the Heroes fan set and all of the fan sets currently available at .ORG is that this expansion's biggest audience won't be the users of vssystem.org - I'm directing this project straight to the Heroes fanbase, starting with 9thwonders.com.

If you're new to card games and are curious about the vs system engine, check out vssystem.org for the basics.
If you want to browse some existing cards, check out http://www.ccgdb.com/vs/ or other sections of .ORG.
If you are unfamiliar with Heroes, go to nbc.com/heroes.

Contact me with any questions, inquiries, suggestions, etc. here, at my e-mail at alex.lloyd@comcast.net or wherever else you know me on the interwebs. I'll be looking for playtesters in about 2 months.

Heroes is BACK, baby!
- Alex "OSM" Lloyd

Drafting MUN

2010-01-18T10:27:00.000-08:00

So if you guys have been living under a rock over the past few months, you wouldn't know that there was a Battle of the Border event in Toronto this weekend. We'll talk about that in another post and in the forums and over at lost hemisphere. Right now though, we're gonna take a look at a draft, card for card in each pick, and play a little drafting game.

How would you have drafted these?
(forewarning: this is post-live time - there will be times where nothing is happening. I tried to commentate a bit though)

Here's the youtube playlist of the videos:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=865C64D7863F2DB0

or

and here are the rest of the picks in pack 3 since my camera ran out of space:
then
....
....
...
....
....
(the above one would've been the last card but someone forgot about a pile early on so...)
yay 3rd pack last pick kang!

I did a decent job showing alternative possibilities in the videos except for a couple parts, which I wish I had thought to do for the pictures. I'll have to remember for next time.

I lost my first game since I attacked the guy who didn't have flight when I had a modok protecting my beetle, then I beat gday and rather than playing a third game we just played silver since I knew I wouldn't be able to otherwise. This deck was easily a 3-0 deck, I felt. Human error. It just goes to show ya, you can draft and draft and draft and if you lose focus in-game, then that can be just as disastrous as making a bad pick in a draft. See you on the forums guys!
- Alex "OSM" Lloyd

DC Final Crisis exclusive preview! Inciting Incident!

2009-11-05T22:27:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-13T16:42:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-12T21:03:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-08-06T12:45:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-30T18:30:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-08T09:54:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-07T09:43:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-06T18:02:00.000-07:00

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.
-------
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

2009-05-05T11:06:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-04T09:47:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-02T09:54:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-12T20:49:00.001-07:00

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

2009-03-03T10:15:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-23T20:43:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-19T09:02:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-15T15:16:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-12T19:13:00.000-08:00

Unleash This! #10, Battle in the Apple storytime

2009-02-11T06:48:00.000-08:00

... 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.

'till next time gang,
- Alex "OSM" Lloyd

VS: Full Disclosure

2009-02-11T05:20:00.001-08:00

Battle in the Apple Video Coverage!

2009-02-09T10:41:00.000-08:00

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]

Sheye eats a Blink

VS: Full Disclosure

2009-02-09T10:38:00.001-08:00

Attention! Special Event! Contest Inside!

2009-02-05T20:21:00.001-08:00

[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.

Unleash This! #9, A new Beginning

2009-02-04T18:33:00.000-08:00

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

I'm going on Strike.

2009-01-07T14:28:00.000-08:00

I've been a member of the vs system community for about 5 years now. This blog, created in July with activity starting in September, has been a tribute to what I feel I have owed the community. I've discussed decks I've played at events, recap, the Battle of the Border and some jank on the side (like the Bring Your Own Name format), and how to cope with the competitive decks in various formats.

That said, UDE Corporate does nothing publicly to acknowledge the efforts of the community. When we do UDE's job, creating OP, advertising, generating interest in the game, what does UDE do?

What is UDE doing right now?
What has happened to Ben Seck and Billy Zonos?
Why were the Marvel: Evolution tcg expansion articles on Facebook?
Why are all of the VS system official websites out of date?

UDE, you've proven to the gaming community that, with effort and care, you can acomplish anything. You've proven this through the latest lawsuits with Konami about Yugioh. I understand that you are a business, and you need profits, except we're profitable too! We've proven it for over a year! Why are you doing this to us?

UDE Corporate, I and the readers of VS Unleashed! will be waiting for an answer to any of the above.

- Alex "OSM" Lloyd

Unleash This! #8, OP? I have your 2009 OP right here.

2008-12-31T19:50:00.000-08:00

Let me first start by saying I hope you all are enjoying / have enjoyed the New Year celebrations.

Looking back at 2008, well how do you feel about our first PC-less year? Maybe I'm completely off my rocker, but it felt like we had more events then during the PC years; a feeling I think manifested from extensive travel to said events from a personal level.

I know you're worried about a couple things, like whether or not UDE will release more sets, or if we'll get more OP from UDE. Today, with this entry I'm gonna say screw that ideology. The Battle of the Border was the greatest success of any homegrown event I could have possibly imagined, and I am glad to be able to say more events like the BotB will happen within the first fiscal quarter of 2009 and beyond.

First up, the January Beatdown kits. while I've heard this 3rd person (thus if I'm wrong please correct me), but my understanding is that a kit was/is available to order for January.
Next, we have the Super Saturday NY coinciding with comicon, the weekend of Feb 8th. Major props to Filth & gang for putting this shindig together.
Then we've got Battle of the Border: Texas Edition the weekend of March 13th. If you're thinking about going (whether you're sure or not at this point), be sure to post in the thread on it to let unclechawie know. Also, unclechawie, keep up the good work.

... unfortunately, things look as if I won't be able to attend BotB: Texas Ed. And that is because I've been asked to help out with:

Anime Boston: VS Infiltration!*
Yeah, a local shindig for me. Good friend and fellow vs enthusiast Alex "Exiledforcefrea" Lasky is hooking us up with a weekendful of goodness. Look forward to standard constructed formats as well as Super X-over. That said, details are still being developed and things can change. This is my current understanding for his intentions for events. Again please correct me on this if I'm wrong.
This event will be May 22-24.

And that leaves us with ... Super Saturday SoCal!
My understanding of this event goes back to the "Is 12/20 too soon?" local events thread, when Eric originally wanted the Super Saturday in mid/late December. That event became the holiday event for his store and intends on having another event upcoming TBD.

That's pretty much it so far vsworld! Events packed with awesomesauce to last us through May! Great times, and Happy New Year indeed.
- Alex "OSM" Lloyd

* That's not the actual name. I said it just because I thought flavor-wise it was fitting since VS is going to be in AB, where in previous years we haven't had vs events there.

Unleash This! #7; Name this Deck

2008-12-28T20:08:00.000-08:00

-------------------------------------------------
Wow, what a crazy couple weeks it's been huh? I hope you all had a fantastic holiday with family, friends/equivalent.

I'm back after doing the tango on my school finals and the Christmas retail rush seems to have died down, I now have some decent energy to put into some hopefuly entertaining literature (would I call this stuff literature? no. But I work at a book store and as such I'm required by law to use big words =/)
-------------------------------------------------

And that brings us to this week's entry. I was playing some MEV sealed with some of the BotB participants a couple weeks ago, and two cards popped out in my matches as performing rather stellar: Alex Wilder and Random, Alex. Jeremy "Sheye" on the realms joked that I should make a deck whose theme was that all the cards shared my first name -> well without further delay, here we go!

We know we need Alex Wilder and Random, Alex in the deck for thematic purposes. Luckily, their drops don't conflict. Although, there isn't too much synergy between the two. We might have to go into Golden Age to make this work, but that said I want this to "feel" like a modern age deck ... let's see what this gets us
+ 4x Alex Wilder, Child Prodigy
+ 4x Random, Alex

Who else is named Alex? After doing a quick search on Marvel.com, DC and wiki, we've got Havok and Alexander Luthor to add to our arsenal of vs cardboard. So, now we're up to 4 affiliations. Great. Lucky for us though, Villains United are very good at teaming up. Not only that but they even have a searcher whose name is Alex!
+4 Alexander Luthor, Duplicitous Doppelganger
+1 Alexander Luthor, Insidious Impostor
+3 Alexander Luthor, Diabolical Double
(Are you loving the alliteration these 3 Alex cards? I am.)

Let's talk about Havok. After doing some research [read: reading parts of a wiki article], Alex Summers is a pretty deep fella'. He's played many roles in his various teams, ranging from the Living Pharoh's play toy to the leader of X-Factor. Did some traveling with Wolverine, fought some terrorists in Mexico, and had a thing for Polaris.

While the most vs-scene impact Havok gave us was his 4-drop from MXM, unfortunately Havok, Critical Mass won't be making the list today. While GA cards are fine, putting him in would feel too golden and would stray away from the Modern feel I want the deck to have.
+2 Havok, Age of Apocalypse
+3 Havok, Mutant X
+2 Havok, Proud Son

And what would having Havok in mean without having his brother*?
+1 Cyclops, Mutant Messiah

While looking around at some other Alex lore, I found this. We got a Sentinel O*N*E* in MUN, but this deck is pretty stretched as far as affiliations go already. Instead, let's add Valerie Cooper to the deck. She's got some background in the O*N*E* program, or at least her flavor text says she does. Also, she's X-Factor. That'll be important later.
+ 4 Valerie Cooper
+2 Layla Miller (if you combine letters from her name and the "X" from X-Factor you can spell Alex. It's the truth.)

So before we leave the character discussion, we need some 3-drops. Well, with so many low cost dudes that are important, we might have to play dr. Light, Furious Flashpoint. What's cool about him is if you can recover from playing Alexander Luthor 1 on turn 2, fetching Flashpoint, and vengeance-trigger bring in Alex Wilder on 3. It gives you a ton of breathing space for recruitment, getting bodies on the board. This build is starting to seem a little character-heavy ... might need to do some cutting as we get further along.
+4 Dr. Light, Furious Flashpoint
+1 Dr. Polaris
+1 Riptide

So how are we doing?

4 Valerie Cooper
2 Layla Miller
4 Alexander Luthor, Duplicitous Doppelganger
4 Alex Wilder, Child Prodigy
2 Havok, Age of Apocalypse
4 Dr. Light, Furious Flashpoint
1 Dr. Polaris
1 Riptide
1 Alexander Luthor, Insidious Impostor
4 Random, Alex
3 Havok, Mutant X
3 Alexander Luthor, Diabolical Double
2 Havok, Proud Son
1 Cyclops, Mutant Messiah

38 characters! That's a little heavy, we'll have to do some cutting. But that'll wait until we're done with the plot twists.

Mutant Town Messiah: I like it. possible double-usage from Alex Wilder early on if teamed up, multiple uses of Random is good to preserve board going into the following turn. Making sure Random is the defender could be tough though ...

Underground movement: ding ding

Government Sponsored: Hm maybe there's something to this character-heavy deck thing. But with so many team-ups, we're not going to have too many tricks. Also, don't forget to team-up X-Factor and Runaways, otherwise Alex won't let you use his power.

Join us or Die: a bizarre move could be to force your opponent to only have one legal target to attack. lolol. Oh ... there's also the interaction with Dr. Light. Hey, that could be good.

So if I max those cards out, I have 6 slots left. Let's go with ... 3x Coercion and 3x Mobilize. Mobi might not be a 4x just because we have insane card draw/rally with Alex Wilder, Valerie Cooper, lexi and Government Sponsored, plus Dr. Light, our main turn 3 play, is searchable via Alexander Luthor. It's also worth noting that there are 17 characters that Valerie can hit in the deck.

Final List: Alex.dec

4 Valerie Cooper
2 Layla Miller
4 Alexander Luthor, Duplicitous Doppelganger
4 Alex Wilder, Child Prodigy
2 Havok, Age of Apocalypse
4 Dr. Light, Furious Flashpoint
1 Dr. Polaris
1 Riptide
1 Alexander Luthor, Insidious Impostor
4 Random, Alex
3 Havok, Mutant X
3 Alexander Luthor, Diabolical Double
2 Havok, Proud Son
1 Cyclops, Mutant Messiah

4 Mutant Town Messiah
4 Underground Movement
4 Government Sponsored
4 Join us or Die
3 Mobilize
3 Coercion

So there you have it! Version 1.0 of Alex.dec!**

If your name is also Alex, I highly suggest you give this deck a spin and tell me what you think. To everyone else ... be sure to try making your own name.dec. Something truly chaotic and enjoyable might come out of it.
- Alex "OSM" Lloyd

* I'd add the other brother to this list, but Vulcan sucks. lol.
** I've never felt so good about a deck that has 10 1-drops and 11 team-ups in it ... ever.

Quick Heroes fanset link

2008-12-19T20:42:00.000-08:00

So, I've been working on this for ... about 6 months now. That said, I don't even feel like I'm 2/3 done. Still to go, I have to take the text and put it onto card layouts, format the images, find the remaining images, and I want to redo the "vanilla" Heroes characters' theme as well as make minor changes here and there to be inclusive to the 3 new keywords (Sylar as a hunter? Flavor-hotness to the max).

But yeah. It's been long enough. Here's 171 cards worth of awesomeness:

http://rapidshare.com/files/175053548/VS_System_Heroes_TCG_Activating_Evolution.doc.html

It's Finals week!

2008-12-10T21:52:00.000-08:00

This week and next week I've got finals, but afterwards well there's a ton of great things to look forward to! Including:
> The most ridiculous theme a deck could ever have
> Sealed play breakdown for MEV, including deck breakdowns/pools
> Maybe I'll actually get around to typing up a BotB tournament report for what I ran.

Thanks again for reading my stuff guys, and Keep VS in your prayers. We're not done yet; worst case is we take the game even further in our own hands. 'Till next time!
- Alex "OSM" Lloyd

Unleash This! #6, The Quicksilver Combo goes Modern

2008-11-30T19:05:00.000-08:00

You guys know the Quicksilver, Mutant Avenger + Quicksilver, Mutant Avenger + Legendary Battles combo I love so much, right? Well with the release of MEV, this combo is entirely re-enactable with Nightcrawler, Man of the Cloth.

We've known for over a year now that he can do similar things, but there really wasn't a reasonable substitute for legendary battles. Add to that, Quicksilver doesn't even have to be a part of the team attack whereas Nightcrawler requires it (which was mostly useful in cases where your opponent has exhaustion tricks). Well I just told you guys a moment ago that MEV fixed this problem, and how? Sewer Rats.

Now, I know this looks painful, and it is, but being able to team attack an entire board is completely worth it.

And the Marauders have some decent synergy with the X-Men. All we have to do is look at Gambit, [version] Sewer Rat for that; All of a sudden your stun effects work.

Then Sewer Rats combos greatly with X-Men Assemble. Nightcrawlers get bigger, and can stun bigger guys on their own. not too shabby. You have Cutting Loose for a +4 turn long pump, pretty much (two for each, team attacking together ...)

Then Gambit has off initiative tricks. His 6-drop, the Traitor. Three-Card Monte. Random. Well ... maybe that's taking this a little far with the Gambit support, but you get the idea. Let's see how it turned out:
---------------------------------------------
4 Gambit, Sewer Rat
4 Gambit, Le Diable Blanc
4 Night Crawler, Man of the Cloth
4 Random, Alex
1 Gambit, Death
3 Gambit, Traitor

4 Mobilize
3 Clash
4 Carrying the Torch
4 Underground Movement
4 Divided we Stand
4 Sewer Rats
3 Three-Card Monte
3 Cajun Charm
4 X-Men Assemble!
2 Graduating Class
3 Cerebro
3 Asgard
--------------------------------------

The basic idea of the deck is to get a gambit out on 2, preferrably the MEV one so you have both X-Men and Marauders out. Otherwise, Sewer Rat allows you to Graduating Class / Cajun Charmlock on initiative.

Underground Movement is there to push vulnerable characters into the hidden area (like your Nightcrawlers).

Clash and Carrying the Torch bypass uniqueness for ya. I guess you could get out multiple copies of gambit, but I'd make sure that the Nightcrawler combo is ensured first.

Three-Card Monte/Cerebro/Asgard are there to ensure that you hit with Gambit, Traitor. Basically TCM their X-1 cost dude, where X is the number of cards in your hand. That leaves you with one card in hand to swap out with cerebro/Asgard to get whatever character you want to stun their 6 with Traitor's ability.

Another way you could go, if you tweak the deck, is to shift out Gambit on 1, play gambit on 2, put 3 more shift counters on gambit on 3, with odds you can stun someone / Cajun Charm them, random on 4 off init stun their 2 exhaust their 4 brickwall then bring out a nightcrawler on 5 and a fresh gambit 2 if need be, gambit on 6, then the 2nd nightcrawler on 7 to team into their board then. Or you could avoid gambit 6 and go 2 nightcrawlers for evens on init, but that seems to be a harder route.

This deck hasn't been played at all, and might have very low consistency. That said, I'd love to hear your input. In hindsight, this deck doesn't have any off-initiative control until turn 6. Since that's the case, take odds if at all possible.

- Alex "OSM" Lloyd

Unleash This! #5, What are you thankful for?

2008-11-26T08:01:00.001-08:00

With yesterday's street release of MEV, thousands of pack wrappers have already hit the dumpster (none by me yet, I'm stopping by a shop on my way home for thanksgiving later today). Good times, right?
Well, I'm not going to say one word about what's really on my mind, other than it evokes fear, potential depression, maybe down the line loss of self identity. But for right now, we still have vs.

I just watched a movie last week, you may have seen it; The Peaceful Warrior.
Soc and Dan say in the movie that this moment, right now, is what matters. Not fearing for the future, not thinking about mistakes past. I can learn from that, and will apply this message to the rest of this entry for your reading and visual pleasure.

I'm going to tell of the things I am thankful for in VS from the past year in chronological order (as close as I can), feel free to comment with what you are thankful for as well.

1. I'm thankful to UDE for them keeping the game going thusfar after the Pro Circuit died.

2. I'm thankful to a couple of my local friends who I played with for the last time when MVL and DCL came out for what they've given me in the duration that I've known them. This is inclusive to Mike "Aceswolf" Healey and Rich "pseudophonic" Latour. The latter showed me how to play competitively and inteligently, the former showed me how to be caring for the community.

3. I'm thankful for the subsets UDE made to accompany the marquee events for the drought between DCL and MUN.

4. I'm thankful for UDE/TBS giving bloggers the opportunity to preview MUN. I think that move made our community grow, if only for the reason that the set becomes more "personal."

5. I'm thankful for I'm_All_Noobish putting all of the MUN images on his photobucket. I used those pictures for the MUN OCTGN patch, which has been tweaked a bit with some help from flashback81.

6. I'm thankful for UDE running 4 megaweekends since the Pro Circuit died, when they originally said they would run 3.

7. I am very thankful to Ken (Kariggi) and his Christine (American Maid) for allowing me to stay with them, Patrick, Roger, Bacon and Noobish for MWNY.

8. I am thankful for having the chance to meet a ton of realmers at MWNY, including Ralph/Blues, Cliff and his sidekick Benny.

9. I am thankful to my parents for buying me a flight to origins for my birthday so I could compete at worlds.

10. I am thankful to Quackers and Jimmy for allowing me to room with them.

11. I am thankful again to meet many players at origins, including Aaron Mead and his crew, Cool Kurt and his crew (again), MSU Hitman, and others.

12. I am thankful for TBS's efforts at Worlds, congrats for his performance in the bounty hunt events, and for him placing higher than everyone resulting in him passing his packs down and enabling me to get a pack, which I got him to sign.

13. I am thankful for, in addition to meeting people for the first time, seeing familiar faces from MWNY and my local scene at Worlds. It made me feel more connected to the event.

14. I am thankful for the kindness of the vs system community, letting me borrow stuff as I struggled to get my Illuminati deck complete in time for round 1 parings (which I did, with like 5 seconds to spare). Especially Aaron, giving me a Dr. Strange secret avenger. I got my 5th copy recently and was able to give him one at the Battle of the Border to complete his playset.

15. I am thankful that my online trades and purchases this summer went well and without a hitch. Walter Soback's lot has been put to good use.

16. I am thankful to Darrius for his help and company as we treked to Cliff's for MW Indy

17. I am thankful to Cliff for driving us down and being so hospitable.

18. I am thankful to the Ring Has Chosen guys for having me on the show.

19. I am thankful for meeting Mr. Awesome, LizzardLightning, Fatalsync, Spooky and others.

20. I am thankful for Steak & Shake. They have like the best mocha milkshake ever, and they have my coffee shop in there too. like woah.

21. this one should've been mentioned much earlier, but thank you vsrealms and stu for your votes and support in the stuvivor challenge and thank you gday for being a great opponent in literature.

22. I am thankful to Jetpack Comics and Your Move Games for their marquee events and support.

23. I am thankful to TBS for granting me not one but two previews for MEV in the forms of Ice-Man and One Man Army.

24. I am thankful to Lost Hemisphere for the Summer of Love

25. I am thankful to Ralph at Jetpack Comics, casanovapooh at Nested Egg, Hills Wholesale, to Gdaybloke and the rest of Lost Hemisphere, to Cliff, The Governor's Inn and to John for your help in making the Battle of the Border what it could.

26. I am thankful to Aron's crew, Phou's crew, Ryan, Spud, Pablo, gday, Cliff, everyone for making the event festive. I will cherish this event for the rest of my life.

27. I am thankful to UDE for printing MEV. Even if it's not in Europe and Australia yet, as long as it exists then hope remains.

28. I am thankful to all who were inspired by the results of the Battle of the Border. Chawie is working hard on getting Battle of the Border: Texas Edittion ready and I hope the best for him and for my financial situation to hopefully be able to go down there. D-Block and Blues mentioned the possibility of there being a Battle of the Border: South Jersey vs North Jersey too. I'd love for the Battle of the Border to become a series of fan-made events, and for all of you who want to do something like this or have any questions, feel free to ask.

29. I'm thankful to have a couple other players on campus where I live

30. I am thankful to be a member of vsrealms.com

so, that's 30 things I'm thankful for VS System-wise. How 'bout you?
- Alex "OSM" Lloyd

Regarding The Ring Has Chosen Episode 66

2008-11-15T16:52:00.001-08:00

While I appreciate the nod from Cliff and Squire, I have to clear up a couple things that seem to have been skewed out of proportions.

First, money.

* Ralph, the owner of Jetpack Comics, put down the deposit on the room. Not me. Ralph was paid back and compensated for the deposit from a portion of the $ me and John received from the participants' $15.00 entry fee. In addition, he contributed 25% discounts to the store as participation, gave $25.00 in store credit to the person who won the event, and donated two prize kits to the pool as well.

* I didn't get financially shafted; I was compensated for the boxes of product used for the Super-Crossover. A valid and proportionate share was given to Spud for letting us use his box of MUN in the sealed event as well. It's true, I spent plenty of hours calling various places, ordering things, confirming details and costs and such sure. But really, I did that because it needed to get done, not so much for any other reason. You guys dedicated the weekend to us, it's only fair that I bust my ass to make sure you guys wouldn't be disappointed.
My donation to the prize pool included:
* 11 other playmats (I kept one for myself for selfish reasons)
* The foreign MOR rares (that I bought this past summer from Walter Sobac)
* an odd assessment of MUL (nothing too extravagant)
* The trivia packs my team won at Gencon (DSM and MMK)

so really, compared to Lost Hemisphere and Matt "VS_Savant2" Robertson and Cliff, this was quite reasonable. Please don't think I was financially shafted.

Next, on UDE, no, they did not assist with this event at all. This was 100% fan-run.

When I got home from work on Wednesday night (the night Cliff and Squire recorded TRHC ep 66), I had a facebook chat with Cliff, and some of what Cliff mentioned in the podcast came up in our conversation. I made sure to address his concerns as I have addressed my reactions to them here in our facebook conversation, so I would like to ask for you all to not hold anyone responsible for this relatively reasonable miscommunication. Because that's what it was. Cliff mentioned rumors flying, and I'm sorry but I was too busy having fun and trying to be a good host to talk about how the event came to be, and if I had addressed them there then this all could have been avoided. My previous entry on how the Battle of the Border came to be hopefully addresses the related details more accurately.

Thanks again everyone, for reading this, for your support, and your respect. Thank you Cliff and Squire for naming me the Hero of the Month TRHC equivalent for the month of November, I'm honored. I appreciate your efforts, everyone, for making VS System everything it can be. Thank you for the respect you show me on the realms, and I can't wait to post there with you guys soon.

- Alex "OSM" Lloyd

Battle of the Border!: TBS, I'm sorry.

2008-11-11T09:07:00.000-08:00

Just a heads up, this is basically my event designer diary entry.

I look back fondly to the events that happened this past weekend; The Battle of the Border. It was a ton of fun, you don't need me to tell you - other participants already have.

I'd like for one thing to be clear before I continue - I loved the Pro Circuit, I loved the events this past year (even MWNY was redeemed by a Cliff hug), so please allow me, TBS, to apologize for the feedback from this past weekend's event consisting of things like "better than any event ever." I'm sure they appreciate the events you guys have put on, and I hope you don't take it as your events weren't enjoyed - because they were. By many.

Also, a true unsung hero - Matt "VS_Savant2" Robertson. I'd link you to his profile so you could give him rep, but vsrealms.com is down (and so are all of the sister sites). This guy is pure goodness; He sent not one, but TWO carepackages to me to be used as prizes, and he didn't participate or anything. Here's what he supplied us with:
---------------
* Superman Lunchbox (won by Cliff)
* X-Men 3 movie (won by Steph 'misguidedwonder')
* Iron Man comics (given to everyone as participation)
* Modern/Golden Rares, foils & EAs (given out to multiple recepiants)
* Spider-Spud (won** by Spud)
* 2 Deckboxes (combined with others and given out to multiple recepiants)
---------------
I mean, seriously. All this stuff, plus the cost of shipping, out of pure generosity.
The VS community owes you.

Now, back on track. I'd like to narrate the course of events that led us to this spectacular event taking place:
First, Let's go back. Back to VS Worlds, this past July - I meet Aaron Mead and Steph. Now, as awesome as that was, I had no idea this encounter would be the spark next to an oil drum that would result into the sky being lit up like fireworks (ok so I'm not that great with metaphors, psych major here). We played in the Golden Age event the Thursday of Origins, and I swear I've never laughed as much as when I played my Spider-Clones against Aaron's New School (I think he used similar words when recounting the tale).

The next significant piece was Steph being convinced to join us on vsrealms, and I was reminded again of Aaron's awesomeness, and passively suggested that if we were given the opportunity, playing again would be great. Since we live so close to the Canadian/US border, I used the words "Battle of the Border" to highlight the epicity of what said encounter would be like (because it was, in every sense of the word, completely epic playing at Worlds). What with Steph's thread being called "Hello from Eastern Canada" resident Spud & Gday joined in on the conversation, and agreed that it would be excellent to play.

Suddenly, this comment, desire to relive an amazing vs experience was coming alive (and Jebus Aaron we didn't play once! we'll fix that at BotB2).

We started talking about where such an event should be held, and after a week or so (now mid-late July), We settled on Rochester NH on the grounds that we needed local presence, and relative central-ness to everyone (except Gday's crew). A close runner-up would have been Niagra. While we're talking about location, just a quick note that (well at least I felt that-) whoever hosts the event should put up more than those traveling. I feel this way because we don't have to spend a crapton on gas, we don't have to get hotel rooms, we can still live relatively normally in the duration. While I appreciate your praises alot, don't forget that you guys played a major role as well - I thank you for traveling the distance, going the extra mile to be here.

So now that the location has been decided on, John Tauron_Nox went to Ralph (owner of Jetpack Comics) to see about finding us a place to play. Ralph has done this sort of thing before, runs numerous comic-based events in the city of Rochester, and is a true saint. The store doesn't really have too much gaming space (IE they can't fit 30+ people for an event of this calibur) so the urgency to find a place to play was heightened. More on this in just a sec.

Next, we needed to figure out what exactly would be in the event: by this time (early-mid august) I had missed my local GA BYOT, and I love the concept for the format (anything that can let me play quicksilver, mutant avenger and pseudo-infy attack has to be good in my book). It felt like a very thematic format, and we can say the Avengers played against the Alpha Flight***.
We actually had a vote, and although a couple guys wanted modern, the majority wanted GA BYOT. Me being the great compromiser I am I suggested that modern be casually played in hotel rooms. I'm glad what basically came out of this was that Friday was the meet & greet event, so by the time we all went to the main event we knew eachother. We agreed to play super x-over sealed if there was time.

Then, when everything seems to be going great, I get a PM from Tauron_Nox saying that Ralph couldn't find a reasonable location (It was worded a little differently but this is the basic message I got). With John being busy and Ralph at a dead end, and with the event less than 3 months to go I started to panic. I tried looking at Special Events New England, New England Tent Rentals, and checked with gamestores I knew had the room for us.

I ran into the same wall Ralph ran into, it seems. Then, I turned to my 2nd best friend in the world, google.com. At this point I was gasping at straws. Somewhere in that first page of the google search was The Governor's Inn, and I thought 'gee, that sounds like a decent place.' Right in Rochester. So, I gave 'em a call. What would it hurt, right? So I call them and get some info, and tell them I'd have someone take a look (I mentioned this place to John and Ralph, they check it out). We get the green light; $200 per timeslot, 2 timeslots in a day. $400 for a day. $100 down payment.

Me, never having done this sort of thing before, I ask Ralph/John if that's a good price. They jumped on it. The raincloud's silver lining grows brighter. Even better, Matt Robertson's package came in. On the forums, Gday says he'll chip some prize support in, and Matt responded by sending yet another package. I love them generous folk.

Three weeks out. I haven't spent one cent yet. I figure it's about time to start shopping around for boxes for the super x-over (I get paid bi-weekly if that's a good enough excuse). I get the idea that having playmats would be cool for the event (hence the multiple threads on the subject).
Eventually I'm lead to casanovapooh on the realms, and am told I'm too late to make the playmats. But, if I hurry, I could get something in and he'd try to get it out.
By this time I had already asked Spud if he'd get something together, and have seen plenty of nice images. I needed something quick, and I made the playmat as we know it in under 2 hours. Considering it was done with paint and considering I'm sucky when it comes to all forms of art (computer graphics included, just look at the vs symbol of this blog's header).
I had to ask casanovapooh to add the text to the playmat.

Two weeks out. Trouble comes up with people who were previously on the "definitely coming" list. I weasle one into going, but couldn't get Darius. ahhh. Gotta fix that for next time. Also, Scott tells me of a super duper prize (as we now know as galactus poster).

One week out. I get a call from the governor's inn saying that they had a cancellation and that if we moved rooms we'd get 1/2-off. hells yeash! Also, the entirety of the prizes arrive from my end of things & Matt's.

Then, the day comes ... It's Friday, 11/7. The day everyone gets here. Let's pause the game here, and continue our story next time shall we?

- Alex "OSM" Lloyd

** I rigged the dice-roll on that one
*** NONE of the Canadians ran Alpha Flight. What's up with that???

Battle of the Border: The Warriors Left Standing

2008-11-09T20:57:00.000-08:00

While no-one got shot, stabbed, or cleaved, plenty got smacked around (even to the back of the head). Here are the lists of the rest. *Of what I've been given. Still need the 2nd place and 3rd place lists*

1 - Phou Phommavong
Characters 30

4X Boliver Trask
6X Hounds of Ahab
5X Sentinel Mark 2
5X Sentinel Mark 5
4X Nimrod
4X Bastion
2X Cassandra Nova

Plot Twists - 27

4X Mobilize
4X Search and Destroy
4X Cover Fire
4X Savage Beatdown
4X Finish Move
4X Reconstruction Program
3X No Man Escapes the Manhunter

Location - 3

3X South American Sentinel Base

2 - Glenn Aissis

3 - Robert Bender

4 - Ralph Edwards
Characters - 26
12 Anti-Green Lantern
4 Chomin
4 Xallarap
3 Fiero
3 Felix Faust
Plot Twists - 30
4 Trial by Fire
4 Blinding Rage
4 Mega Blast
4 Cosmic Conflict
4 Big Leagues
2 Surprise Attack
4 Banished to the Anti-Matter Universe
3 Emerald Dawn
1 The Ring Has Chosen
Equipment - 4
4 Ring of the Sinestro Corps

5 - Aaron Mead - Running "Shaft!"
*Note, all versions of characters are Ultimates unless stated otherwise.
Characters - 31
4 Wasp
4 Clint Barton
4 Nick Fury
2 Natasha Romanoff - Mighty Avenger
4 Hank Pym
1 Natasha Romanoff
1 Lady Deathstrike MUN
4 Iron Man
3 Captain America
2 Thor
1 Death MUN
1 Beyonder MUN
Plot Twists: 22
4 Liberation Day
4 Mobilize
4 Ultimate Human
1 Gah-Lak-Tus
4 Savage Beatdown
2 Now I'm Fighting Dirty
1 License to Kill
Locations: 3
3 Triskelion

6 - Pablo Felices Costello
1-drops:
4x Wong – Mystical Manservant

2-drops:
4x Tania Belinskya <> Red Guardian
2x Beast – New Defender

3-drops:
4x Hellcat
1x Hawkeye – Loudmouth

4-drops:
4x Samantha Parrington

5-drops:
4x Hulk – Grumpy Green Goliath

6-drops:
1x Silver Surfer – Prodigal Herald
1x Wendell Vaughan <> Quasar

7-drops:
1x Hulk – Strongest One There Is

Plot Twists
4x Flying Kick
4x Mega-Blast
4x Mobilize
4x The B-Team
4x Bloodsport
4x Press the Attack
4x Righteous Anger
2x Hulk Smash
2x Astral Projection

Locations
3x The Great Arena

7 - David Tierney (Spud)
1-drops:
1x The Penguin – Gentleman of Crime
1x Catwoman Cat’O Nine Tails
1x Amadeus Arkham
1x Mad Hatter

2-drops:
1x KGBeast
1x Calendar Man
1x Charaxes – Moth Monster
1x The Penguin – Crime’s Early Bird
1x The Riddler – Brain Teaser
1x Tally Man

3-drops:
1x Blockbuster
1x The Penguin – Arms Merchant
1x The Penguin – Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot
1x The Joker – Out of his Mind
1x Great White
1x Charaxes – Drury Walker
1x Mr. Zsasz

4-drops:
1x Poison Ivy – Pamela Isley
1x Hush – Mystery Man
1x Hush – Silent and Deadly
1x Batzarro
1x The Joker – Headline Stealer
1x The Joker – Laughing Lunatic

5-drops:
1x Killer Croc – Waylon Jones
1x Matt Hagen <> Clayface – Mud Pack
1x Scarecrow – Fearmonger
1x Scarecrow – Fear and Loathing
1x Catwoman

6-drops:
1x Two-Face – Heads or Tails
1x Sondra Fuller <> Clayface
1x The Joker – Killer Smile
1x The Joker – Crazy for You

7-drops:
1x Two-Face – Split Personality
1x Basil Karlo <> Ultimate Clayface

10-drops:
1x Death – Second Force of the Universe

Consistency
1x Jack-In-The-Box
1x Ego Gem
1x Secret Origins
1x Usual Suspects
1x Mobilize
1x Beside Myself
1x Pick A Card
1x Certifiable
1x Prison Break

Pump
1x Stryker’s Island
1x SKREEEEEE!
1x Burn Baby Burn!
1x Savage Beatdown
1x Glass Jaw
1x Flying Kick
1x Nasty Surprise

Board Control
1x Money Talks
1x Kidnapping
1x Finishing Move
1x Death Trap
1x Smiles, Everyone!

Misc.
1x Frog of Thunder
1x No Man’s Land
1x Chilly Reception
1x Roshambo
1x Have a Blast
1x Siphon Energy

8 - Clifford Parmeter
1-drops:
3x Zabu
3x Aunt May – Golden Oldie

2-drops:
3x Blade - Knightstalker
3x Black Cat – Nine Lives

3-drops:
2x Ka-Zar
1x Mattie Franklin – Reserve Webhead
1x Darkhawk

4-drops:
4x Spider-Man – Sensational Spider-Man

5-drops:
2x Venom – Lethal Protector
1x Phil Urich – Green Goblin
1x Michael Collins <> Deathlok

6-drops:
4x Wolverine - Canucklehead

7-drops:
1x Spider-Man – Amazing Spider-Man
1x Spider-Man – Stark’s Protege

8-drops:
1x The Sentry – Golden Guardian of Good

Plot Twists
4x Gift Wrapped
3x Trial by Jury
3x Need for Speed
3x Indebted
3x Nasty Surprise
3x Blind Sided
3x Pathetic Attempt
2x Savage Beatdown
1x Trouble with Dinosaurs

Locations
2x Empire State University

Equipment
2x Ego Gem

So I got a PM today,

2008-11-09T20:50:00.000-08:00

And it came from unclechawie. He asks:
------------------
"OSM,

I'd like to replicate BotB here in TX. Any insight you can provide into how to make this a great an invent as possible would be much appreciated. Thanks for your help."
------------------

My response: Plan things out 3-5 months in advance. the Battle of the Border this past weekend was awesome, but there were a couple things that could have gone better if we had more time (the playmat would've had different art). I also suggest you get into regular contact with a space rental place unless your local hobby league shop has room for 20-40 players. The Battle of the Border had a ton of prize support from different parties; Gdaybloke's crew chipped in, Cliff chipped in, VS_Savant chipped in, me and others all chipped in. People brought cool and different things; it was sort of like a pot luck. We're fortunate to have people in the area to help out; I wouldn't have asked them personally to chip in but I'm very glad they did and I feel like it helped to give everyone a positive experience. Everyone left with at least two decent prizes, not to mention around 20 promos per player.

Advertise the event at least 2-3 months out so people can make plans. Drill it into people, convince them to go! I feel like we decided on GA BYOT a little late and potentially we could've had more people from Rhode Island show.

We were fortunate to have a spot for 12 hours of play; even then, it felt rushed. In the beginning it seemed like we had plenty of time but it slipped away. I guess that's when you know you're having a good time.

On the playmat, I bought 12 copies. Nested Egg Gaming gave me a discount because it was for a big event; hopefully they can do the same for you when you get to that point of the planning stage.

We had a constructed event and a sealed one. We also had a meet and greet the previous night, which was casual play and a draft. Maybe that model will work for you, or maybe you'll want to try something different.

Call it the Revenge of the Alamo, lol. Hope this helps.
--------------------

So, I figured I'd share this with the entire vs community.
Next up will be the top-8 decklists from the Battle of the Border, and after that will be commentary.
'Till next time gang!
- Alex "OSM" Lloyd

Battle of the Border: The Combatants have gathered

2008-11-08T00:44:00.000-08:00

It seems the participants have made it through the Wretched Path of Doom unscathed. As they relax and prepare for the following day's trials, casual play ensued. The night wrapped up with a 2-pod MUN draft, and here are the results:

Is this a sign of what is to come? Should I expect complete and utter defeat? Well, I will if I don't get some sleep soon, so I'll leave it at that. Actually, no. What I'll leave you with is this: Spud's real first name is David.

- Alex "OSM" Lloyd

Battle of the Border! High Noon is coming

2008-11-06T21:03:00.000-08:00

As the warriors gather, in preparation for travel, the sun begins to rise. They have gone through some trials, but yet they still have more to come. The next one shall prove difficult; the Wretched Path of Doom. Ensnarled within include rabid beasts, needle ceilings, and a mid-level boss battle. However, if they survive the Wretched Path and reach the Colosseum, then the light of High noon shall shine upon them as they wage war with the enemy of the opposing side.

-------------------------

Have I set the tone? Are you anxious, warriors? And of you, those who are watching, chanting, cheering from the stands?

The rules of combat are as follows:
* GA BYOT constructed
* 7 rounds (most likely anyways)
* 1v1 contests
* Team Rules apply (will elaborate)
* Solo Performance will be awarded as well

now my elaboration:
As to decide who are the fittest, finest warriors in the lands, player game averages will be averaged again together to form team averages. The greater of the two shall emerge from the Colosseum victorious. The averages will work because playing against teammates wouldn't change the average one way or another.

There will be many prizes, and of them, included are these:
* Complete sets of two Golden Age expansions in foil and nonfoil
* Modern Age Rares
* Modern Foils
* Foreign Language cards
* EAs/Promos
* Secret Super Duper Earning Condition Prizes of Grandeur
* Comics
* Movies
* Jetpack Comics discount / Store Credit
* More secret specialty prizes

What are these specialty prizes about? Well ... things are going to be interesting. Sometimes, a Warrior might find a trusty edge buried in the desert sand just as decisive peril might strike. While these won't affect game outcomes, how your game comes out might play a factor. We'll have an eagle in the sky keep a lookout for those who have proven themselves worthy and fortunate.

Lemme Hear you BATTLE CRY!

- Alex "OSM" Lloyd

Prizes for the Battle of the Border

2008-10-27T11:02:00.001-07:00

Everyone is leaving with stuff. What, might you ask?
Well, there is going to be:
* Complete sets of two Golden Age expansions in foil AND nonfoil
* Modern Age Rares
* Modern Foils
* Foreign Language cards
* EAs/Promos
* Secret Super Duper Earning Condition Prizes of Grandeur
* Comics
* Movies
* Jetpack Comics discount / Store Credit

And This.

Edit: Thanks to Casanovapooh on the realms for the playmat's emblem and printing them.

"Paint-shopped" by yo. Feel free to send me criticism, but I think it turned out good. Also, there's going to be 12 of these badboys floating around. That's right! 12! If there are 30 people in attendance (as projected), that means you have better than 1:3 odds of walking away with this pretty.

* Prize support helper people guys include Matt Robertson, Chris Miller, Scott Hamilton, me and others.

So what do you guys think? Is this stuff worth treking out to NH to battle it out for? I think it is.
- Alex "OSM" Lloyd

Unleash This! #4, In preparation for BYOT GA in Mass

2008-10-22T14:35:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to the Unleash This! series, and this time around, I'll give an in-depth look into the deck I'm more or less going to play at Your Move Games's GA BYOT event this Sunday at 2pm.

As far as what I'm running, well, let's just say I didn't want to play something that is 'predictable' of me (ie choosing SF). Thing is, I'm well experienced with Spidey. Figured this would give me an opportunity to try him out in a different setting where he wouldn't have his black cat, his ESU or even Sensational Spider-Man. So I wrote down a short list of the other affiliations he's been on:
Fantastic Four
Marvel Knights
Avengers
SHIELD

Next I thought about what I'd run into. For my local meta, that includes revenge sqad, Doom, Morlocks and I'm thinking there'll be some more short curve/rush decks.

With MUN relatively recent, I thought it would be most fun to put my recently spent dollars to work, and from the above Spidey list, the Avengers seem to have the most toys to play with in Golden Age.
Now the list:
-----------------------------------------------------------
2 Rick Jones, A Hero's Best Friend
3 Wasp, Janet Van Dyne-Pym
4 Natasha Romanoff <> Black Widow, Super Spy
3 Quicksilver, Mutant Avenger
3 Hawkeye, Loud Mouth
3 Iron Man, Mighty Avenger
2 Hawkeye, Clinton Barton
2 Sub-Mariner, Namor
1 Spider-Man, Secret Avenger
1 Monica Rambeau <> Captain Marvel, Lady of Light
4 Captain America, Super Soldier
2 Spider-Man, Stark's Protege
1 The Sentry, Mighty Avenger

2 Mobilize
4 Avengers Assemble!
4 Switching Sides
2 Pathetic Attempt
2 Gift Wrapped
3 Against All Odds
4 Legendary Battles
4 Carrying the Torch
3 Stars and Stripes
------------------------------------------------------
The deck wants odds.

While this deck doesn't have that much tech, at a first glance it's (hopefully it is) obvious that this deck is packing a ton of combat control. In the BYOT format, I think players are going to rely more on the combat phase than we've seen in Silver or even Modern Age (Wolvie.dec / Illuminati).

That said, here's the turn-by-turn synopsis:
Rick Jones is really there to enable the team attack effects and to protect me from scary-huge attacks. By two it'd be nice to hit a 2-drop. Hitting Natasha means if you hit Quicksilver on 3, you get to stun 2 guys and attack to the dome and they lose a guy (Natasha nails the 2 or 3, Quicksilver readies after taking down the guy you team attacked).
Speaking of 3, I've found that while Hawkeye is preferred against rush, because your main 4 is Iron Man, you can play hawkeye against normal curve decks too and watch Hawkeye's attack soar! Really Hawkeye is there to make getting evens much easier to handle.
Quicksilver, while making good on the team attack mentioned above, he's great if you can get a 2nd out; an awesome thing about Carrying the Torch is that you can break uniqueness, so on turn 4 you can have your quicksilvers team attack into your opponent's entire board with a legendary battles.

So that covers your players for the first 3 turns.
Moving into turn 4, again because of Carrying the Torch, you can have both hawkeyes in play. Realistically, I'd only imagine doing this against kree or Sinister Syndicate or Moloids. Everything else, Iron Man is your man. Name him Captain America, recover him with stars and stripes and recover your entire board (note, he'll have to be ready or exhausted whenever an adjacent character would become stunned, so Dr. Silva has one up on Iron Man I guess).

Also note this is the turn Switching Sides goes online.

Going into turn 5, you have 3 choices, and really none of them are bad. Spider-Man is there to handle the opposition during their initiative, Monica Rambeau is there to add insult to injury and Sub-Mariner is just an all-around really great 5-drop. Need to find your latecurve characters? Hope to row a search plot from his leader effect. Go ahead Hawkeye, stun their 4-drop with your 7 attack! (5 + 1 counter from Iron Man plus 1 ATK from Sub-Mariner).

Turn 6 is cap. He's got potential both on and off init, is a leader, and is named Captain America. What's not to like?

Turn 7 is Spidey. If needed you can break uniqueness again. Ya'll know what he can do, exhaust the problematic dudes.

Turn 8 throw them into the sun!

Quick recap of the combos:
Quicksilver + Carrying the Torch + Quicksilver + Wasp/Legendary Battles
Hawkeye 3 + Carrying the Torch + Hawkeye 4
Iron Man + Carrying the Torch + Stars and Stripes

As of now, something that might still question you is why the 1 copy of Big Leagues? Well, no card in the game, imo, more truly captures the flavor of the format than Big Leagues.

Alex "Orange_Soda_Man" Lloyd is a frequent poster on the realms and can't wait to see how Spidey faires in a different environment. Whether he'll pervail with the help of his Idol Captain America or if he'll be accused of acting phony, we'll soon find out. If you've hacked into the Avengers Mansion and uncovered this information in time for your own gain come this Sunday, then power to you. The Avengers have been Assembled.

Seeking Help from Artist: Battle of the Border

2008-10-19T23:35:00.000-07:00

Basically, I'm looking into buying some custom playmats from casanovapooh, but I'm no artist. Actually, I have no artistic talent at all.

I'm planning on getting the playmats for the top 2 players from each side of the border, Canada vs USA.

As for the details for the image, I was given this link for the dimensions.
What else I'd like:
The words "Battle of the Border 2008" on there.
n that, go wild. Use existing images. Draw your own. Anything. Even sign it if you want. What will you get? The undying love of all the participants, some point cards and some MUN rares.

Heroes: Activating Evolution TCG fanset details

2008-10-14T12:25:00.001-07:00

I apologize for the lack of posts this week; testing with school can do that. However that shouldn't be enough reason for me to deprive the vs community of effort on my part, and I will deliver.

As many of you know, I've been working on a fanset for the Heroes tv show, and all that needed to be done was to template the cards. Well, I've downloaded the program used to make cards and have made some. Why don't I go ahead and show you one?

Oops, forgot to make it a rare. Well, it is. I'll edit this enty later.

Now, I know the image looks a little choppy, and that this card doesn't show you anything about the flavor of the set, so here's the definition of the two new keywords, Surge and Accumulative!

Surge: When this character enters play, at the start of the recovery phase this turn, put a surge counter on it.

While this character has a surge counter on it, its surge text is active.

Reminds you of cosmic-surge, right? Basically, the name was chosen for that reason. The big difference here is that you don't lose the counter when you become stunned, and you can get the counter even if you're stunned at the start of the recovery phase. It's meant to show how characters learn about their powers, and can learn to strengthen them or they might even learn new ones - like Matt Parkman and Hiro Nakamura. Just a quick note, surge may change or refer to an existing powers text or it may add a new power to the card for this developmental reason.

And the next keyword, Accumulative!
Whenever this character would be KO'd due to uniqueness, you may remove this character from the game instead. If you do, the accumulative text on this card applies to all characters that share the same name as this character.

This power relates to those who can get more powers, like Sylar, Peter and Monica. It would be a bummer if you worked so hard to get them more powers, and then just have them KO'd due to uniqueness and lose their powers, right? Well, Accumulative aims to ease the pain a little bit. You might even see the power "Accumulative: character X has all the powers character X has had this game."
Oh, that sounds powerful. If I didn't know any better, this set might have a theme about people with powers or something.

* I'd like to give a shout-out to lupercal over at vsrealms.com for his insights and help with cleaning up some of the text.

Unleash This! #3: Heroes comes to VS! (fan set)

2008-10-09T12:37:00.000-07:00

That's right Heroes fans, the Heroes tcg: Activating Evolution Set (fanmade) is coming out soon! Over the past few months, I've been designing/tweaking my own fanset for Heroes. With it comes the addition of two new keywords, Surge and Accumulative! The set is 171 cards, 57 rares 57 uncommons 57 commons. Teams that will be featured include:

Heroes
The Company
Level 5
Petrelli
Bennet
Yagamotto
Sylar

I am just one step away from releasing this set to you guys, what to know what it is?

Templating! That's it! I have very nice looking word and excel documents for the set at the ready.
If you would like to take a look at the text version, I'd love to hear some input! All you have to do is message me via e-mail or PM me on vsrealms.com about it.

Additionally, if you have any image suggestions (I have around 100 or so), post up and I might use it.

Oh, and if desired, we can go through a previews system like what DCU went through.
I hope you guys are enjoying MEV previews.

Until next time,
- OSM

Marvel Evolutions Preview: One Man Army

2008-10-08T18:48:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to VS Unleashed X-Factor preview week! This time around, I'll be giving you guys an exclusive first look at yet another legend card for Multiple Man! Just a quick recap on what's been previewed already for the guy so far:
Jamie Madrox <> Multiple Man 5
Re-Absorbtion
Multiple Man, Army*Hydra
Multiplicity

So, that makes for 5 previews (including this one) so far. Well, the theme for him certainly seems to be about how well he works with other copies of himself; He can bring multiple copies of himself out, he can reform himself into card draw and life gain, exhaustion effects and he even has attack pumps via Multiple Man 1's activate power. ... what is missing? What could UDE possibly have left in the tank to throw at us? How about this.

That's right, folks! Now he can maintain an entire board! Now, before you start thinking that this card is very situational because of there being a limit to the # of Jamie Madrox 5s you're allowed in your deck, TBS gave me permission to tell you guys a secret:

He's getting a 2-cost army character card too.

There. By now, your mind has 'prolly exploded. Mine has. While I'm recovering, let's break it down:
* low threshold means it's going to be usable from the get-go
* serves as a counter to ko effects
* makes Multiple Man resilient to mass-stun effects like Hawkeye or The Stamford Incident
* will only be a dead card when you don't care it is a dead card:

For this to be a dead card, the only two situations (I can think of) are if your characters aren't getting stunned, or more specifically if your opponent is playing stall. Why I don't think you'll mind is because against stall, how in the world will they be able to keep your board locked down? With Iceman, as I previewed yesterday? Psh, you can use your guys for other stuff. You can To Me My X-Men (since he's got army X-Men versions you'll surely be using), and let's face it: Iceman can only lock down one or two guys. You're going to have a banquet-full of MMs. It's gonna be like:

yeah. Just like that. Oh Snap is right.

Now, if only there were a way to stun your MMs ...
wait. Here's some synergy:
Marvel Zombies! go ahead, stun your MM and recover a character - then use one man army to recover the MM too! if you have two non-MM stunned characters, then with this two-plot combo you can go into the next turn with a full board.

Next up:
How many of you guys remember Harvey Bullock from DOR?

now, he used to be a big part of a GCPD stall deck. The point? Multiple Man from MXM copies affiliations, right? I tinkered around with this interaction, included Invisible Woman Invisible Girl and her affiliation to be able to pack cosmic radiation. The only problem with the deck? It was too easy for my board to be destroyed.

That problem is now solved, thanks to One Man Army! OK, I'll recover my board. And while I'm at it, let's cosmic rad, exhaust some MMs for Harvey, and exhaust some more characters.

Another thing about this card --> It isn't phase-stamped. Use it whenever!

Honestly, if we get a generic "Stun a character you control --> Do X." card or a cosmic rad for Multiple Man, there's going to be a ton of crazy stuff that you could do with him, not that there isn't already a ton of awesome things that can be done with him now.

'Later gang, and thanks for reading!

Alex "OSM" Lloyd is currently suffering from multiple-tosis, and his mind has exploded from many ideas based around multiple man and multiple teams and crazy recovery-ready-exhaustion shenanigans like the one posted above. If you think you are suffering from multiple-tosis too, post here with your symptoms and we as a community can come up with a diagnosis.

Mavel Evolutions Preview: Iceman, Jack Frost

2008-10-07T19:54:00.000-07:00

Welcome to VS Unleashed! I hope you're thoroughly enjoying X-Factor previews Week; Just incase you haven't seen all the previews thus far, check here.

Bobby Drake has had 6 versions until now; 4 of them involve keeping people down cold. You'll be happy to know that his flavorful theme continues:

Now, before I get into my impressions of the card, lets break him down:
* average 3-drop stats
* range
* fits the energize theme
* awesome picture
* his power:

Let's get into that. He basically can "lock down" two characters a turn. Starting turn 3. Um, wow! He is useful both on-init and off, since his power isn't phase-stamped or step-stamped. That said, his power is usually going to be optimized on your initiative, since lock down effects on-initiative are pretty much the same as off-initiative exhaustion effects (except better).

Now, this guy doesn't say remains exhausted this turn, but rather he remains exhausted. I don't think that's broken or anything, far from really. If you're facing off against quickfate, where characters can ready and attack again, this serves like a force field projection. That said, and what the biggest thing to overcome I think, is that he can only target exhausted characters.

That's fine and dandy for anyone who attacks, but here's something that might throw a wrench in your gameplan; his energize will trigger after the attacker has already exhausted. That means this guy has a huge target over his head. That said we've seen plenty of exhaustion effects in the form of Cyclops, Polaris and Concussive Force that should make this potential problem disappear.

Now, just based off of the previews we've seen so far, it seems X-Factor seems to be a bit of a stall team; I'm impressed. I'm impressed, and, I see potential. Possibilities. Who would you team this guy up with? #1 on my list is the Inhumans; waking the ancestors and consistancy and Attilan make for great stall tools. You'll be locking down so many characters, just imagine your opponent's frustration. Then there's the Spider-Friends; Gift wrapped, Sensational, and one of the game's strongest draw engines make for a good fit as well.

In Golden Age, this guy might be a tech pick against Rigged elections and is sure to see play in the GA X-Stall deck. Silver, as I mentioned the Inhumans and SF have synergy. Modern, well let's wait for the set to be released, but as of now, I think it won't have as strong of an effect; Hulk can go hulk 3 - brood - hulk 5 to straight-ko him, society can steal him, and Wolverine Direct Attack.dec can team into him first, then go to the dome. Then again, I think X-Factor definitely has/will have the tools to slow down that deck, and maybe that will be enough. For modern, again, it's too soon to tell.

If you have any combos, suggestions or would like to post your thoughts on Iceman, Jack Frost, feel free to post so and I encourage it. Check back tomorrow for more MEV Previews, and if you haven't already, check out VS-Blog.com for another preview!

Battle of the Border is coming!

2008-10-06T15:44:00.000-07:00

While we're all excited for MEV previews right now, let's not forget that the most epic of awesome battles between Canada and US (besides the war of 1812, although I might not call that "awesome"), the BATTLE of the BORDER is going down on November 8th, 2008.

The format is BYOT GA.

The place? I've got a few places lined up. It was decided awhile back that the most central and travel-friendly place for all voiced participants (Gday and Spud near Niagra, Cliff in northern NY, Aron "Onyxweapon" Mead in NB and another scattered group in New England, we have decided that the blood* will be spilled in Rochester, NH. I'll edit this within the week as the exact location is finalized. EDIT: The Governor's Inn is a contender right now. Stay tuned, and see end of blog entry.

The prizes? Everyone is walking away with something. That said, we have some goodies from Matt "Vs_Savant2" Robertson of prizes to give out, we have FULL FOIL SETS (GA) from Gdaybloke. We have some other potentials who might contribute; before Jetpack's departure they were going to chip in and another gaming shop might as well.

The winning team:
When you sign up, you will choose a side (CA if you're from there, US if you're from the US, and if you have dual citizenship, we'll figure something out. Maybe balance out the teams). The averages of your wins vs your losses (say you go 4-3 in 7 rounds and another went 6-1 and your team has 2 members, you would have a final score of 5-2). The winning team will get extra goodies.

Food: If you guys want, we can all order pizza or something. If that's not what you're gonna want, there's a bunch of other food places around.

Cost: as of now, it's $20. When I get an exact cost of rental, this will be edited.
EDIT: See end of blog entry; cost should be 10-20$

Also, I apologize for a lack of communication this weekend; school internet is undergoing a process that involves restricting ports (to dissalow online gaming, downloading and other stuff), so me my roomate and a few others chipped in to have our own private line installed (which is what I'm using now). No more downtime, huzzah!

*by blood I mean the intense act of card flipping.

hang tight gang,
Alex "OSM" Lloyd
-------------------------------------------------

THIS JUST IN!!!!

While details aren't confirmed yet, The Governor's Inn sounds very reasonable. I just got off the phone with them, and they are sure they can accommodate us. A rough estimate on space rental is 200-300;
I'm going to go up there and look around later on.
Also ~ I have talked to Ralf from Jetpack, and I wholeheartily apologize for creating the misconception that you do not support Battle of the Border, and further, appreciate all support you are willing to give this event.

20 Interactions involving the 6 MEV cards previewed thus far.

2008-10-03T18:55:00.000-07:00

With the first of the previews up already, the familiar excitement of the preview season returns to the vs community. The flow of creative thoughts and energy might already be overtaking you, filling you with ideas as to how these few cards and the themes that we can speculate from them will affect the game as a whole. Here's how it's hit me, and maybe these interactions will serve as a channel to you, to spark something bigger.

Let's start with Brian Eugenio's card:

"Super Skrull has the affiliatons of each opposing character. Discard a card --> Choose one: Super Skrull has energize, evasion or invulnerability this turn. Use only once per turn. Activate --> Choose one: Target player discards a card; target player replaces a face-up resource; or target player loses 3 endurance. Use only during the combat phase."

Wow, he's a knockout! If you haven't heard yet, energize basically say "whenever this character defends, ready it." Now, that basically means you can use one of his activate powers twice. awesome. That said, he still can have evasion / invulnerability, which shouldn't be overlooked. Let's tackle the obvious first; energize.

INTERACTION #1 - ICE

Her power is easier to activate now than ever before. Looking for something to bring to a post-Mev GA BYOTT event? JLI/Skrulls!
If you trigger the power-up (Nth Metal, Katar Hol, another copy of Super Skrull) then you already have someone to exhaust with for her effect --> Super Skrull. Energize, he readies, you power him up, and Ice triggers. You exhaust Super Skrull again, and vwala! You've locked down a crazy mofo. Who dares to attack your Super Skrull, the world champion?

INTERACTION #2 - THANOS

Well, if you hide Thanos and you really want your energize to go off ...

INTERACTION #3 - MECH BAY
What is it with me and stall, huh? Well, at least this one will be much easier to pull off, and will work for whatever energizers you use.

INTERACTION #4 - EGO GEM
Discard a card to draw a card? Not bad. Also, I can pick up evasion to evade and give the gem to someone else if need be (like a lategame discard for a mobilize. A painful play, but it's nice to know it's there).

INTERACTION #5 - WINNING
Here's what I think he's going to do: In the mainstream skrulls deck, you don't have too many visible dudes. If he's the only visible guy you have, he basically allows you to discard a card to burn for an extra 3, and really that might be what he does the most. Off initiative, burning for 6 is good I hear. Also, if you haven't noticed already, Cap's Shield and Tony's armor are in the background of Super Skrull's pic; recognition for Matthew Ross's 2nd place performance at worlds maybe?

-------------

CYCLOPS, MUTANT MESSIAH MEV-009
"Loyalty, Energize. Activate --> Exhaust target character.
It's controller loses endurance equal to its cost."

INTERACTION #6 - RESET
This might be what works best with him if you're planning on attacking with him on turn 8 ~ Energize kicks in, you reset. their attacker readies, and you exhaust them with Cyke's effect! Great, now how am I supposed to get my hands on some resets??

INTERACTION #7 - THE SLEEPER CELLS
It's turn 8. You're Running (at least 1) X-Men. odds are you're going to have a bunch of guys, and being able to reuse this guy's effects multiple times will win you games you shouldn't win. Similarily, other cards that will ready characters like Samantha Parrington, Press the attack, or even Outback Stronghold will all have the same result.

-----------

CONCUSSIVE FORCE MEV-034
"To Play, exhaust a Cyclops you control. Target opponent exhausts two ready characters he controls."

....

INTERACTION #8 - CYCLOPS, MUTANT MESSIAH
Exhausting 3 characters is better than exhausting 2. With a 2nd copy, that's 4 characters instead and you don't bother using Cyke's power at all. But, what are you stalling to? Galactus? I would.

INTERACTION #9 - THE CAPTAIN
JUST incase Cyke doesn't get a 4 or less, we have the captain. Then again, even if there was a Cyke that fit that description, the captain is already in plenty of toolbox variants that could benefit from the inclusion of some double stall power. Not to mention the draw power from his effect is a nice perk.

INTERACTION #10 - CARRYING THE TORCH
What's better than Concussive Force? Being able to use it multiple times in a turn, because you have more than one Cyke. Or maybe you'd rather your Cyke do other things. Like exhausting target character and burning them. Yeah, that might be a sound play.

INTERACTION #11 - Spider-Friends
While this isn't an interaction per se, I think all these exhaust effects that Cyke is getting seem to compliment the SF stall theme.

INTERACTION #12 - WAKING THE ANCESTORS
What's better than exhausting characters? Locking them down. Keep in mind, you should be playing Waking the Ancestors on your initiative, so your opponent doesn't have the characters to use during their attack step during their initiative the following turn.

INTERACTION #13 - OMNIPOTENCE

Pathetic Attempt sucks.*

----------------

JAMIE MADROX MEV-016

"Whenever Jamie Madrox becomes stunned, you may remove him from the game. If you do, put any number of characters with the name or identity Multiple Man and combined cost 5 or less from your hand and/or KO'd pile into play exhausted."

This guy reminds me of Tattooed Man, only this guy's got cookies.

INTERACTION #14 - MIDNIGHT CRAVINGS

Double the cookie awesomeness. While we're at it, let's add some Martian Manhunter to the mix and run a dual cookie legend deck. Totally.

INTERACTION #15 - JOIN US OR DIE
Basically, you swing with The big guy, and if he doesn't get stunned, stun him out for the little ones! What can you do with a bunch of little MMs? You could combine it with ...

INTERACTION #16 - STRATEGIC THINKING
Now you have BIG little MMs!
---------------

RE-ABSORPTION MEV-043

"To Play, KO X characters you control with the name or identity Multiple Man. Draw X cards and gain X endurance."

This card is just begging for combos.

INTERACTION # 17 - THE TRISKELION + MULTIPLE MAN MEV-016

Just a quick note on the Triskelion:
The Triskelion
Location
Cost 2
Flip only if you control an Ultimates character.
If a card would enter your KO'd pile, instead remove it from the game.
Activate, remove your hand from the game-->
Return target card from your removed from game zone to your hand.

Here's the interaction: Multiple Man 5 stuns. His effect triggers, removing himself from the game. Put 5 army dudes out (preferably from hand). Activate Triskelion, bringing back Multiple Man 5. Play Re-Absorption, gaining 5, drawing 5 and KO-ing the little MMs in play. You filter, get board when you need it (keep in mind Re-Absorption can KO stunned MMs), and you can do it again the next turn. Keep in mind you need an Ultimates character to make this work; shouldn't be too hard.

INTERACTION #18 - CtT + CtT + Monkey See Monkey Do + Grodd and Multipleman in the yard. (or CtT + Multiple Man in yard + Switching Sides)
This one might get confusing. Basically, you turn your MSMD-er into grodd (or you could run grodd but he has his own KO effect so Re-Absorption wouldn't work as well). You then MSMD their guy, CtT it into Multiple Man, and KO their "Multiple Man" for Re-Absorption. Again since the character KO'd can be stunned, switching sides can work for this interaction as well (and it'd be a heck of alot simpler).

---------------

IN ZE MUNICH CIRCUS MEV-251
"Play only if you control Nightcrawler. [insert remaining text here]"

I think this card is much better than people are giving it credit. Seriously.

INTERACTION #19 - LEGEND FORMAT
Unless you go GA, there are only two Nightcrawler cards legal for this format. UNTIL NOW! If you were to play in a Legend format that allowed MEV previews**, then this card would enable you to legally run a Nightcrawler Legend Deck!

INTERACTION #20 - ALPHA FLIGHT
Think about it. If you're playing against rush, or swarm, or some other concoction where there are a bunch of little guys ready and willing to reinforce, your John Walker <> US Agent is not going to be happy. That's where Nightcrawler, Hit Factory comes in! His ability allows him to make short work of army decks. Also, since you have Nightcrawler in play, you can play this snazzy little plot twist and have no fear of a BGYT or From the Darkness or PA or Omnipotence (since "ze" and "the" are two completely different words, and who would name this card anyways with Omni?) and there's no time stamping to this card! You can play it whenever you want!
If I was a northernerer, I'd be very pleased.

Alex Lloyd likes coming up with Janky interactions, and with enough tries, eventually one of them will flow all the way down river. Whether or not any of these reach your watering hole, only time will tell.

* I actually like the card. That said, esp. when I stall, I have so many targeting effects that PA doesn't really effect me much. That said, it's right there for when they try to HA! my Underground Movement.
** I hope you all have this opportunity.

Unleash This! #2 When lunch and vs collide and when Heroes meet up

2008-10-02T12:30:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to the Unleash This! column, dream team!* You may have read in passing that I've taught a guy at my college how to play and found another person who used to play a little at orientation this year. Well, I ran into this person again at lunch and something amazing happened --> my vs fire started to burn brighter. I went total-geek, in response to his questions about the X-Men, Wild Vomit, Syndicate Rush and more.

Question #1
I heard of a match where Wolverine absolutely tore apart an entire field of Sentinels (Pre-MVL). Is Wolverine really that good?

A: I'm guessing that Wolverine, Beserker Rage was the card you heard about --> and yes, he's pretty good. Usually, if you get to turn 7 and whip this guy out, your opponent won't have too many characters cost 4 or less. That said, if your opponent is running wild sentinels where everything is cost 4 or less, Wolverine would just go to town on them. However, the odds of a Wild Sentinel deck getting to a late turn like 7 isn't all that great (or at least their chance at winning goes down as the game progresses), since the Wild Sentinel deck aims to win on 4-6.

So, no. Wolverine isn't busted by any means; he's just really good at what he does /cheesyflavortext.

Question #2

How good are the Avengers? What do they do?

A: The Avengers are a very viable team, and they've had some great showings in past events. They have a couple things going for them:

They have a great team attacking theme
Having the ability to recruit characters from your resource row can make in-game decisions all the easier.
Having effects tied into the reservist theme only enhance their viability
Iconic characters with awesome powers? Iron Man, Mighty Avenger, Spider-Man, Secret Avenger, The Sentry, Mighty Avenger? They. Are. Awesome.

I honestly think the Avengers are the most versatile team in the game; You can rush, you can curve, and as of MUN, now you can stall. Your rush game, as we've seen at worlds, is a very strong reservist build. The curve build, I'd like to refer to as the build that relies more on team attacking. In the oldschool Avengers Reservist build, you short-curved to 5/6. That said, you had Black Widow, Black Panther, Quicksilver Mutant Avenger and Carol Danvers to fit the team attacking theme. I've even seen some decks try to abuse Quicksilver's team attacking power by trying to get 2 copies of him into play to team attack an entire board!** Finally, they can stall? Yes. Just some characters that fit the theme: Hawkeye (all), Iron Man 4 and 5, Spider-Man (Access to Gift Wrapped), Cable Secret Avenger, Bill Foster, Stature, and not to mention the team has a bunch of combat-based trickery (like not stunning, pumps etc.).

Question #3
Is Onslaught any good?

A: He is ... but if I'm going to turn 9 because that is what I aim to do, I'd rather drop down Galactus or The Fallen One. They are game-enders. If I drop Onslaught, he's rather conditional; my opponent might have a chance to respond, chance to attack first, might have multiple teams in play. He just has a bunch of variables and I'm not a statsman. I don't play pokemon tcg because effects that depend on how a coin flip turns out don't appeal to me (not to mention they're nasty little buggers). That said, Onslaught works very well in combat-stall-esque decks like Kariggi's Fantastic Four Life Gain (which I'll add a decklist if I get one.). Another honorable mention would have to go to imperidex; he's been in plenty of stall decks and as recently as Brian Eugenio's Sniper Shot deck.

Question #4
For when we play later, can you build me something with Carnage and Venom?

A: Certainly, Greg. SynSyn Rush it is.

----------------------------------------------------
The Easter Egg to this entry is going to delve a little into 9thwonders.com, the official NBC Heroes tv show forum where I've recently signed up. I've got something in the works for both forums, and while looking around the fan creations forum I saw that themightytruk is a moderator over there. Does the name sound familiar? It might, as he is a poster on the 'reams too! After a nice exchange of greetings, I noticed a couple of his creations:

Alex Lloyd is a frequent poster on vsrealms.com as "Orange_Soda_Man" and is starting a new journey on 9thwonders.com as "OrangeSodaMan" to become a true Hero. If you would like to help him or wish to embark on the path of Heroism yourself, I encourage you to take a page from themightytruk and make a card, whether on cardboard or a creation of a different sort in your life.

*I refer to all groups of people I am addressing at once as Dream Team. I must've heard it somewhere or something.
** That's gonna have to wait for another time.

Are you a fan of BYOTT? You shouldn't be.

2008-10-01T10:58:00.000-07:00

With the latest marquee event announced as being Bring Your Own Two Teams, I am deeply saddened. If you've been following the Summer of Love, you might be in the same boat as me on this.
Just so we're all on the same page, here's the rules for BYOTT:
1. Players choose two teams for their deck and they are automatically crossed-over
1a. No team-ups needed to cross over the chosen teams
2. Players may only play with characters from, or cards that reference, one or both of those teams.
3. They may not play with "generic" cards.

.... so what is so bad? Other than the "generics aren't allowed" rule, this format is completely abuse-able. While surfing around on vsrealms.com, I came across lordoflimbo's X-Men/Pro-Registration deck.
....
No offense to LoL, great deck and all, I just don't think it fits with the flavor of the format. Pro Registration? seriously? Now, let's look at a REAL team-up format:

BYOTU (Bring Your Own Team-Up)
courtesy of Lost Hemisphere
0. Name two teams
1. Each team must have no less than 15 cards stamped to that affiliation in the deck 2. No more than 20 cards in the deck can be generica - ie, stamped to no team at all 3. No cards stamped to any other affiliation are permitted. 4. No Mobilize, no Enemy of my Enemy. 5. Cards stamped to a character (ie Legend cards) do not count towards the 15 card minumums, but neither do they count towards the 20 card maximum allowed generica 6. Cards that target resources cannot target a team-up if it’s the last team-up that player controls.

The biggest thing here, imo, is that this format forces representation from both teams. Let's take a look at Warp Factor 9, Speedforce/Heralds of Galactus:
-----------------------------------------------------
By TheDerrangedBear
Characters (32)
1-drops
3x Jaime Reyes
1x Galan

2-drops
4x Silver Surfer, Skyrider of Spaceways

3-drops
4x XS, Super Fast
2x Air-Walker, Gabriel Lan

4-drops
4x Barry Allen ~ The Flash, Crimson Tornado
1x Human Torch, the Invisible Man

5-drops
4x Wally West ~ The Flash, The Fastest Man Alive
1x Wally West ~ The Flash, Keystone Cop
1x Frankie Raye ~ Nova, Harbinger of Death

6-drops
2x Barry Allen ~ The Flash, Founding Member
1x Terrax, Harbinger of Ruin
1x Destroyer

7-drops
1x Silver Surfer, the Last Zenn-lavian

9-drops
1x Galactus, Devourer of Worlds

10-drops
1x Beyonder, Inhuman

Plot Twists (15)
4x Cannibal Tech
4x Kindred Spirits
3x Full Throttle
2x Omnipotence
1x I Hunger
1x Inspiring Demise

Locations (5)
3x Dr Fate's Tower
1x Alias Investigations
1x Elemental Converters

Equipment (8)
2x Light Armor
2x Silver Surfer's Board
2x Helm of Nabu
1x Amulet of Nabu
1x Cloak of Nabu
---------------------------------------------------

I picked this list for a few reasons:
- represents both teams on the curve
- the strengths of the teams are fit together cohesively (Wally West + Air Walker for example)
- the generics*

* The fateatron might be getting old for a bunch of you, and that's fine. I think the way Surfer's Board, Silver Surfer, Skyrider of the Spaceways and how Alias Investigations work together is a great example of how generics could enhance a theme; The Heralds have great search power with Creation of a Herald to begin with, and having this little engine seems to fit (even if CoaH isn't in the list).

I fell this list has both what I'd want to see from generics and what I wouldn't.

Now here are my predictions for BYOTT:
- There will be no rush decks
While some may try to make the decktype work, not having access to: Blinding Rage, Savage Beatdown, Flying Kick, Crackshot, the fatatron, devastating blow, Stryker's Island and even Big Leagues,
would make things harder. That said, brotherhood should still do well and so should any other team with access to on-team pumps. Erick might sit this one out since MKKO is a very different deck without their generic pumps.
- Gotham Knights and other teams with negation are going to do very well. I think Cliff's and others' GK/JLA decks will do very good. Money.dec saw play at worlds, and they only get better here without as much of a threat from rush decks.
- I'd expect a Heralds/Inhumans or SF/Heralds revival. I think they're the most viable stall decks in the format; Doom is nothing without his mystical paralysis.

That's it for now. If you'd like to defend the BYOTT format, go for it. Please do. Discussion is good, and if I'm missing something, I'd like to hear it. Later gang.
- OSM

Unleash This! # 1, SF/Illuminati, Avengers BYOT and Real stuff.

2008-09-27T22:28:00.000-07:00

Here it is, folks. The inaugural entry (because laying down what this blog is about shouldn't count imo). *Weeps manly tears of awesomeness*
So, story time. Spider-Man got me into this game, and after playing a few different SF decks, I've grown fond of stall-themed ones. This grew to include Heralds, Inhumans and most notably as of late the Illuminati. So as I'm getting ready for VS Worlds at Origins, and I'm looking at all the decks that could stall, Illuminati stands out like a beacon. I go to the light. I miss out on day 2 going 3-4. But, I wondered, what went wrong with them? I was getting pounded by mkko, disrupted by fan4, and PA'd by everything else. It was as if playing with the Infinity Gauntlet wasn't worth it anymore.
The time rolls around to get ready for Gencon. As I'm scrolling through the list of events, I see Silver age is up on Thursday. While waiting in between rounds during the MUN Sealed, I saw some of the Origins SA going on and saw Moloids did ridiculously good. My testing gauntlet included that, and I figured the safest and most me-ish of me would be to run SF Stall. So I search through OCTGN and pull out my latest SA list of SF and put it into a sticky note (I love that application, seriously.). Lazy me, my Illuminati list was still up in a sticky and I saw it as I was pasting the SF list in. It got me thinking. Hey ... they both stall ... Illuminati failed to stop the beats for me at Worlds, maybe they can get some Sensational aid. That's all it was at first, 8 slots. Sensational and Giftwrapped. As I was making the space for them, some of the illuminati tricks, like the 100 ideas and the infinity gauntlet, didn't seem as important as when the deck was mono-Illuminati. From there, I flat-out mesh them together and here's what came out of the melting pot:
---------------------------------------------------
SF Illuminati, vsrealms event
Characters: 25
4 Professor X, Mutant Benefactor
3 Aunt May™ ~ Golden Oldie
4 Black Bolt, Enemy Within
3 Black Cat™ ~ Nine Lives
1 Dr. Strange, secret avenger
1 Mr. Fantastic, Protector of the Power Gem
1 Sub-Mariner, Protector of the Time Gem
1 Black Bolt, Protector of the Space Gem
2 Spider-Man™ ~ The Sensational Spider-Man
1 Iron Man, Protector of the Reality Gem
1 Human Torch, Herald
1 Spider-Man™ ~ Stark's Protégé
1 The Sentry, Mighty Avenger
1 Galactus
Plots: 31
2 Waking the Ancestors
4 Clandestine Operations
4 Gift Wrapped
2 Pathetic Attempt
4 Mobilize
3 Omnipotence
4 Secret Government
3 The Elektra Situation
4 Underground Movement, Team-Up
1 Call in a Favor
Locations: 4
4 Empire State University
---------------------------------------------------

In hindsight, I'd add more Sensationals, take out an aunt may and I'd try out Human Torch (the MEX SF one) like what TDB has.
That said, the deck is rather fluid. You can play Black Cat on 2 or 3, and you have the first 3 turns to get 2 members of the illuminati online for Clandestine Ops. Even then if you miss that on 3, turn 4 you have Sensational and if you've got a giftwrapped then that does the same thing and you get an extra turn to try to get clandestine ops up. It's got the standard mobilize/UM interaction to hit my lategame, and that's enhanced by SF's awesome draw engine. If need be Sub-Mariner 3 can dig me back a ditched card, so hitting turn 1 prof or black bolt turn 2 black cat turn 3 sub mariner is pretty much as good as it gets. Iron Man is a reusable GW on a stick. Invisible Man worked for Brian, and he saves me a slot that PA would've otherwise taken. In initial testing I used Mr. Freeze (the remove 10 cards to lock everyone down Inhumans style), but it didn't work too well; I wasn't dumping enough cards to use it consistantly.

That's it. Maybe next time there'll be a tournament report, but I've really got to get moving on.
******************************************************************

AVENGERS BYOT

Now, I haven't been to a BYOT. Nope, I missed out on mine since I was working. But here's what I was thinking of doing: Using leaders, Spider-Man, secret avenger, and the team attacker tricks, I figured I could beat-stall pretty well. I didn't want to do clones, mostly because that's what the guys were expecting. The deck is very casual at this point, but here goes:
---------------------------------------------------
Characters 32
1 Natasha Romanoff MAV
4 Wasp MAV
2 Captain America MUN

4 Quicksilver, Mutant Avenger MAV
3 Hawkeye MTU

2 Hawkeye MAV
4 Iron Man, Mighty Avenger MUN

3 Sub-Mariner MXM
1 Spider-Man MUN
1 Wolverine, Secret Avenger MUN

4 Captain America, Super Soldier MAV
1 Luke Cage MUN

1 Hercules MAV
1 Spider-Man MTU

Plots 28
3 Legendary Battles
4 Savage Beatdown
4 Avengers Assemble!
1 Call in a Favor
1 Mobilize
3 Gift-wrapped
4 Carrying the Torch
2 Big Leagues
3 Switching Sides
3 Stars and Stripes
--------------------------------------

I'm sure you guys have plenty of questions, and hopefully most of them will be answered by this: I don't own 4 copies of every card ever (yet). Next, Avengers Assemble! plus stars and stripes plys carrying the torch is awesome. CtT works with Spider-Man so that anyone can use Giftwrapped. It even lets me break uniqueness so I can have two quicksilvers in play and use legendary battles! If I'm dealing with TNB or an akin rush deck, Hawkeye on 3, CtT then Hawkeye on 4 will clean them up pretty good. Iron Man + stars and stripes can recover my entire board. Switching sides is brutal, but I'm not sure if it's a 4-of. Either way, in 7 boxes I've only gotten 3 copies, go figure =/
So yeah, this section is rather brief but if you're going to the Battle of the Border, maybe you'll see a variant of this there.
*******************************************************************

This final part of the entry is going to be about you. Whether it's your vsrealms s/n, your real name, both work just fine. If you had 30 character versions in vs, what would your version be?
Examples might be student, father, cubicle worker.
Or they might be Exiled, Heric effort, new perspective.
Here's my list:
Carbonized Crimefighter
Forum Fever
student
devoted son
new perspective
blog-o-rific
Ya-tah!
barista
beacon
*caffeine addict
pro circuit competitor
jank magician
that's what she segued
Heroes fan
army (WHAT!???)
Spider-Friendly
WAWA
positive thinker
Res Life
*Tennis Coach
United we stand
college bound
proactive
disciple
crisis intervention
English Invasion
king me
mediator
abudiabudai
full circle
-----

There. That wasn't so hard. Now you try. You don't have to do 30, and you don't have to type them up. Sometimes it might just be enough to reflect on who you are through some vs cardboard.

'Till next time gang,
- Alex "Orange Soda Man" Lloyd

Here's what to expect from this Blog.

2008-09-26T08:52:00.000-07:00

First and foremost, I'm a college student. I'm lazy. And I'm insanely passionate about VS System. That said, I can guarantee an entry a week. If I'm up to the challenge, I'll post more. Maybe start a few columns. Here are a couple that are on my mind right now:

Subconscious Interactions - Interactions between cards you normally wouldn't think of

CotM - Card of the Moment. I'm a college student, I can't be doing Cards of the Day. Or can I?

The Eclipse - I'll let you guys guess on that one.

I'll toss you guys a bone every now and then too; that's right, contests. I've got plenty of envelops, stamps and rares that are eating away space in my dormroom or car trunk that might see the light of day more in your hands.

Entries will start regularly within the next week. Suggestions, Advice and more are all welcome.

OH YEAH - I'm not an artist. That said, if you want to be super-cool and make something visually amazing for this blog, I'm totally sending you some modern rares and giving you some rep. Oh snap, the blog's first contest is underway already.