Thursday, May 8, 2008

The Ongoing Hunger of Zombies! The Marvel Zombies Essential Collection.

Within the evil Zombie versions of the Fantastic Four I mentioned that the Marvel Zombies had some really cool Ongoing Plot Twists for the rotting Invisible Girl to grab at the cost of a stun. I'm going to show them to you in chronological order of how the events they represent in the comics happened. How did this nightmare start you ask? Well it started with an arrival.

In this universe, a version of the Sentry came from an another dimension infected with the zombie causing virus. As he began killing and eating people he spread it to others. Quickly super heroes were rising from the dead left, right and center! Quicksilver's zombification didn't help their chances of survival.

Like most decks that play a lot of characters the Marvel Zombies need to refill their hand somehow. I figured giving them their very own Birthing Chamber would be flavorful with the idea being spreading the virus leads to new recruits which is represented by refilling the hand and KO'd pile as Birthing Chamber does. Limiting it to one copy is very obviously a necessary evil. Besides you can always add Birthing Chamber if you want more copies face up!


In the first issue of the official Marvel Zombies series, the Silver Surfer makes an appearance. We all know what this means. The Herald of Galactus is there to see if the world is suitable for his master to devour.

Unfortunately for him, the zombie Hulk figures out a way around the fact that none of his undead compatriots can seem to bite through his silver skin. Once Hulk bites off his head the other zombies renewed their effort and peel back the "candy coating" and dig into the soft juicy bits. This had the unexpected side effect of granting each of them a bit of the Power Cosmic residing in the Surfer's body.

(More on that next time!)

The effect allows you to get another use out of characters like Zombie Invisible Woman or Zombie Colonel America. And if you replace the now used up plot twist you can attack with a character who's been lying around such as Zombie Wasp or get another use out Zombie Iron Man's effect. You'll get to see THOSE cards in a couple weeks. :)


Using the power granted by the Silver Surfer and nifty little gizmo that Hank Pym whipped up, the zombies take down Galactus. And then they eat him!

Yeah. That Galactus! You thought they got a power boost from Silver Surfer? You ain't seen nothing yet! Taking the power of Galactus wasn't without losses. The zombies even had to kill some of their own in the fight for dibs on dinner.

As a team that tries to swarm, I felt a global pump was pretty much standard fare. I made it nice and costly to play and keep around because it's easy for a zombie swarm to build up and overwhelm, but they always lose a few in the process. That's just how they work and these zombies are no different.

Hopefully the cost will be offset by your ability to play more zombies than your resources normally allow. Which in turn is why you'll want the effect so bad in the first place, hehe.


The final Ongoing Plot Twist I have to show you represents the end of the first Marvel Zombies series. When, after devouring Galactus and absorbing his vast cosmic powers, a group of the zombies begin to travel space and like the single entity Galactus before them... They munch their way across the galaxy, eating one planet at a time! For they hunger! They are The Galactus! Hey, who knew, Galactus pluralized is still just... Galactus!

This Plot Twist lets you eat your opponent's locations for a nice mid-game snack. The Survivors team has some rather key locations, seeing as Hidey Holes are the best method for avoiding death in your standard zombie apocalypse. Considering the Galactus eat the planets I thought a little End gain was appropriate. It was a Heralds subtheme and it was was Galactus did. The fact that it's reusable is all the better.

So, there you have it. Next time join me as I show off the one piece of Equipment I gave the Zombies.

-Mike

2 comments:

Pi_3.14159... said...

I have to say, this is an interesting theme. I like it.
It Arrives seems to be a good card. Normally, it would be something like Birthing Chamber (once per turn), although with other things, you can pull it off multiple times. I think it is cool.
Head is Mostly Skull is an interesting card. You get a recovery and save yourself endurance loss, but lose a character that you probably could lose anyway. It needs much better phrasing, but is cool. The title and image are awesome though.
Power Cosmic Devoured is very powerful (TNB, anyone?), although comes at a steep cost. Basically, you can get it once for +2 ATK and KO one character, or use it multiple times and KO a character per turn. I don't know about how power would fit with the restrictions, but it has potential.
The Galactus Come is pretty awesome as well. Disruption and life gain, and you can do it multiple times. Again, phrasing is kind of bad, but otherwise, a good card.
I think my main problem with The Galactus Come and Power Cosmic Devoured is that they have too low of a threshold for something that was so late in the comics that was so epic. Still, they are good cards. I'm not sure how well they'd do in play, but I like the concept and construction. Keep up the good work (of showing us cards you made a while ago)

RanmaSolo said...

You know, I never thought about the idea of making them later thresholds to represent that they happen later in the series. That's a really cool idea...

Hmmm... Maybe move PCD to 4 but give you +3 attack? It is pretty costly to keep it going.

-Mike