Continuing First Impressions.

So we've now seen the entire set and I can't get over how amazing some of the cards are. I've got at least 3-4 different decks brewing in the back of my head. Things that just... Well, they're pretty cool in theory. We'll see if they pan out. If nothing else it's a lot of fun decks in mind.




Good: He draws a card every turn, including the first turn he's in play. He's also the new Bizarro. He adds a Legend to his bag of tricks every turn. Wolverine. Hulk. Captain America. Red Skull. Batman. Superman. The Captain is whoever you want him to be. A 7/6 reservist with flight, range and that amazing an ability?

Bad: Nextwave. I love the team, I love the comic, but he's gonna be off team in most builds. There's no Reservist search in modern. Thank God it's so each to team up. Avengers let you deputize anyone and everyone, War Bound says your on the team whether you like it or not and the Reg/Anti-Reg team-ups put everyone in your deck on the list. Otherwise it'd be strictly Straight To The Grave.





Good: First of all it's Spider-Girl. One of my favorite characters and one of the biggest stacks of books in my collection. I have about 70 Daredevil books, 74 Spider-Girl issues and Spider-Man may beat both if I count Ultimate Spider-Man, but I'm not sure.

The ability is great. At the cost of 3 endurance you can turn off everything that makes an opponent's character good. Even if she had to attack to use it, this would be good. But she has evasion!

Bad: Spider-Friends only. With Worlds looming and MTU out of modern, she probably won't be a major factor at the event. At the cost of 3, she also has to fight off notoriously strong characters like Poison Ivy: Intoxicating and Ahmed Samsarra for power slots.



Good: Everybody should know how much I miss Slaughter Swamp. Asgard looks to fill a bit of the gap between Slaughter Swamp and Soul World. For Marvel Universe I think it does nicely, depending on your team. For example the Avengers Rally so much that I think it's better than Slaughter Swamp because you're likely just increasing your hand size at will as opposed to discarding a card. There's even a location Alias Investigations that just lets you Rally for a card type of your choice for an activation. The two of them together are better than Slaughter Swamp.

Bad: The two of them together are better than Slaughter Swamp. Sure, Ahmed will search them both out in Silver. But that's a lot of row space to take up. Is the effect worth it? Probably. But what about now? Right now, it seems like a lot of effort for a non-rally based deck with not that much payback. You can still just draw it next turn, but if you need a card NOW, then it's troubling.



Good: Huge pump for Army decks. It also works very well in the swarm Secret Avengers build I wanna play. I don't know if it's Worlds worthy, but it seems quite good. So much card draw, so many good cards. If you swing with two characters, the bare minimum, this nets you +2 attack. That's okay. But then with 3 team attackers? It jumps to +6 attack. That's all most Wrecking Crew! Three one drops with +6 attack can hit most fives.

Bad: They have to share a version to pump. Though you don't have to have nothing but Secret Avengers in the team attack, you only your attack boosted if you have at least two characters that share a version. It's very nice, but it's definitely a niche card. Army decks love it.





Good: Built in Bodyslide. For a swarm deck, hiding a couple characters on a key turn until YOUR attack step could be key. 5/4 stats, range, reservist, lets you use the actual card Bodyslide and all that for just 3 resources. Also gives you the X-Men team. Very nice.

Bad: The built in Bodyslide costs 2. That's a bit steep for a swarm deck wanting to spam out characters and downright inexcusable for a deck that wants to curve. Why boost when you can just run Bodyslide anyway? Okay, you technically get two Bodyslides, but if you run 4x Bodyslide none of them cost you resource points.





Good: First of all, I'm VERY glad the 4-drop Bullseye isn't the only Bullseye card in the set. I was very disappointed by the 4-drop, who I think is rather unexciting. This guy however is damn nice. Starting turn 3 you get to stun their two drop just by exhausting. He's got Substitute so if you hit a different two drop earlier, Bullseye can always take their place. Or if you have a better 2-drop for the job at the time you play them and when the opponent's two drop becomes pesky, call up Bullseye to take care of it.

Bad: 2/2? If they don't have a two drop out he's kinda sitting in the hidden area hoping you have something to exhaust him for. And if they have hidden hate, he's gonna be a rail for the freight train to your face.




Good: Then again, maybe Bullseye is a 4/4. Exhaust to stun a two, play this, recover and he's a hidden Kyrpto with an ability instead of a draw back. Speedball is Dead plays very well with some of the Thunderbolt characters like Speed Demon who will gain reinforcement, Joystick who will gain Invulnerability and of course my favorite Radioactive Man who will lock up Plot Twists with a cost of 2. Plus it makes him as big as Hulk! You can also kills pumps with it if you're going to take breakthrough anyway, you stun your character, take the damage and recover them anyway, better than before.

Bad: It can start to get really costly if you try and use it on a 4 drop. Especially if you double dip like evasion with old Electric Eve. It's really just all in how you play it.

All right, that's it for now again, I'll be continuing this whenever the mood strikes me. Maybe even more tonight.

-Mike Continue reading...

More MUN First Thoughts.

These are all just the quick, first impressions I'm having as I browse through the scans provided by im_all_noobish over on VS Realms in this thread. There's so many amazing cards, but I'm only picking out the ones that really strike me as stuff I have to take about. I might do some sort of set review later, but I'd want to play with the cards a bit before then.


Good: I was worried that the Illuminati would have trouble with cards like Have a Blast and resource row disruption, but Sub-Mariner here offers you a way to mitigate the effectiveness of row replaces.

Bad: Yet another cost of "exhaust two different members of the Illuminati" and still no The Order, Cosmic Radiation or even To Me My X-Men. Despite the fact that they CAN use Cosmic and To Me My X-Men, one is Golden Age and the other just isn't enough juice. I was thinking and hoping they'd be a strong control deck, but I'm not so sure anymore. Great effects do not a great deck make. There needs to be synergy. And exhausting all your guys for all your effects is not so hot.





Good: It does something that was too powerful even at a cost of 5 plus the cost of the stolen character without a recovery, but for only an exhaust. If your four isn't stunned while attacking, then exhausting a 3 would be a pretty sweet play. Avengers have some pretty nice cards and I can see that happening with frequency.

Bad: You have to exhaust a character to steal stunned character. You might often be better served just attacking or playing a Finishing Move effect. It might tempt you into trying to do something like teaming up SHRA w/X-Men and Avengers so you can recover the stolen character which could be good, but it's one of those things where you might be trying to hard to make something good, great and instead coming up with something marginal.

Good: There's a free character to exhaust for Switching Sides, right there. The Avengers have a lot of Rallying for characters and they also have a fairly decent ability to put things on top of your deck, so the likelyhood of Echo <> Ronin being free is rather high. Reservist, 2/3 _and_ a Crime Lord? Well, you have me sold. Amelia Voght 2.0.

Oh the art is awesome? Yeah, it is. There's enough Ninjas in this set all ready to make me giddy. Let's not forget there's even a plot twist Ninjas! Ninjas! Ninjas!

Bad: Um,... I can't see her boobs in that costume? Yeah, that's probably it. Oh, um, concealed instead of concealed--optional I guess. It's always nice to have a choice. Especially since she's free, it would be nice to soak up some attacks with her.



Good: He's a 9/8 four drop off initiative with only one draw back. He's a freakin Nazi.

Bad: He's not an amusing Nazi like the schmucks on Damn Nazis. He doesn't look goofy. He's very serious looking. And while I hate the revisionist alternative of editing the giant swastika out of his picture, I have to admit I might feel uncomfortable playing him in some situations. "You shall call us The Master Race." Yeeeouch. This might be the first card I ever deface with a sharpie.

Gameplay wise, he kinda sucks when you have the initiative because his ability means nothing as an attacker. I'd think he's more of a backup character unless Crime Lords dig the odds. And Kingpin-4 may be a better off-turn drop anyway!





Good: Mutant of the Year was a key card in Adam Prosak's Devil's Due deck that won the last PC LA. This provides the same effect, none of the Loner drawback, plus a global D-pump. If you can get Suzie Secret Avenger visible she's got a huge rear end to soak up endurance.

Bad: On the other hand, it's better to just leave her cute butt in the hidden area because unlike Mutant of the Year, when you stun Invisible Woman your inaccessibility goes away and you're once again open to the nasty world out there waiting to burn you, exhaust your characters and discard your hand.





Good: They can usually only stun one of your team attackers anyway, right? Two cards from the hand to recover and ready an Avenger you control. That seems okay. But this is what probably makes Switching Sides so crazy. Team attack up the curve to their big drop. Recover and ready the guy they stun and exhaust him to steal their drop.

Bad: The fact that you have the option really makes these little downside to this card. If you HAD to discard two cards I really wouldn't like it. Three is just the right turn to start wanting to play the effect and options really leave it to do whatever you need it to, without excessive cost.









Good: I will call him Bob.

Bad: I might want to sharpie on him too... :(










Good: So, yeah, this guy hits turn 2. Goes away and turn three you fate up the Hulk cannon, blindside the crap out of someone with him, turn four Brood dies Hulk-KO, Turn five you play someone who can take the fate set... Turn six you play THIS guy...

Who takes the Fate suit, eats his dopple ganger and is an insane 20/20, no reinforcement, KO machine.





Oh... Bad? There's bad in the Hulk cards? Um, I guess that you have to choose between a couple of the Hulk drops and the INSANE effects Hulk gets for the entire game when his buddies die. Like I don't think you wanna really play the four drop Hulk when you can play Brood, have a bigger drop than their turn four anyway and then kill it... With your three drop.

That's it for now, I'll pick up more tomorrow.

-Mike Continue reading...

MUN Hits,... And Knocks Out Teeth Everywhere!

I can't even begin to tell you how amazing some of these cards are. I'm gonna post a couple here and talk about them, with MASSIVE thanks to im_all_noobish on the Realms and his thread of scans from Marvel Universe.


GOOD: Savage Beatdown... Every turn. Defensive pumps every turn. This guy is great. Like Garth or Black Manta without paying 3 endurance. Plus he really helps you in your quest

BAD: You have to target John Walker with it and it's only once per turn. So sadly you couldn't bounce your search card and be oncurve every turn after 4. Okay, maybe that's not a BAD thing so much as a, "Wow, I misread the card for a second" thing. lol




Good: Brood Creature 2 of 6. LOL That just cracks me up for some reason. Hulk made friends of the Brood, eh? Didn't know that. That's pretty interesting. It's ability? WOW. So I see it like this... Hulk is fated on 3. Turns 1-2 were getting Villains United on the board. Join Us Or Die on the Brood. Hulk Loner KO's their four, KO's their three and probably has a +8 attack on one of those swings, making it for 19.


Bad: There's bad? Um, you might wanna play 4 drop Hulk? Eh. Why bother. lol




Good: Oh wait, did I say you needed Villains United characters on the board!? Hahaha, silly me. If you miss them you just play THIS instead. Midnight Sons for the Hulk. Hulk a uniter! Hulk mash enemies together until they one giant friend-blob!

Bad: There is no downside. Hulk plays with any toys he wants, because he's the Hulk and if you don't let him... He'll just get angry. And "you wouldn't like him when he's angry."





Good: You can hide anyone you want, Mobilize for anyone you want, Big Leagues anyone you want. This is very cool. I imagine this will be involved in some cool combos. It fits in my Radioactive Waste deck very nicely. Offense, defense, it doesn't matter.

Bad: There's very many cards I am afraid of in this set all ready. There's a 2 drop Spider-Woman with Evasion and Invulnerability that I guarantee will be combo-tastic in SOMETHING eventually. I think we're ripe for a banning.



Hmm, having some trouble with Blogger, so I'll stop here for now. Check back later for more MUN filled posts as more cards are spoiled and I keep telling you what I think. Cause, that's kind of the point of a blog!

-Mike Continue reading...