Marvel Warzone MWZ Exclusive Previews: Spider Friends

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!

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

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
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(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!

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

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

With that done, let's do a review;

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

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


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

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

DSM-2 Preview: New Genesis

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


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

Definitely a new twist on the original.


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

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

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

DSM-2 Exclusive Preview: Orion & Dog of War

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

Let's take a stroll down memory lane:



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




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

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

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

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

Aright, fine. This blog is on life support.

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

/update.