Well, I'm finally selling my guitar.
I've thought about it for a long time and I never could bring myself to do it, but now I really want Marvel Universe and it's getting scarce all ready. So... Up on ebay it goes. If anyone is interested it's an Ibanez 7-string, RG 7620 from 1999 made in Japan in Vampire Kiss red.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170228413360
Local pick up is an option.
-Mike
Continue reading...
Showing posts with label Marvel Universe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marvel Universe. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Sunday, June 8, 2008
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...
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...
Saturday, June 7, 2008
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...
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...
Friday, June 6, 2008
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...
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...
Monday, May 12, 2008
Crime Lord / Hydra Previews Begin!
Read the preview article at VS System . com!
I'm kind of disappointed they aren't doing Hydra as their own team. From what the Wiki says on Winter Soldier, I don't know if he'd have the Hydra affiliation anyway, so there may still be hope of the Hydra name being put on some characters ala The Rogues in DCL. I just wanna see the symbol, you KNOW it's gonna be cool looking on a card!
With that said, I'm very excited about the Crime Lords. Death Warrant is so damn cool. Everything in this set seems to get me excited. Except the lame Thunderbolts Bullseye, anyway. I'm dying to see a deck drop 2-3 Death Warrants onto an opponent's field on turn 4 and see the look of dread come over my opponent. "Wanna pass on your attacks?" Nasty Surprise has never looked this good since Overload was banned! Since it's not unique and it IS concealed-optional, it's pretty safe once you get it on your opponent's side of the table. There are certainly tricks to kill it. Level 12, Zinco, Bodyslide.
Another worry is it being moved though. Wonder Woman can change where it lands and if they have enough characters it doesn't matter how many Warrants you sign this turn, none of them will end up on Wondy.
Of course that leads us to my favorite bit of text on the card! "Return death warrent to its owners hand" means that after the contract is cashed in, you get to sign it out on someone else! Bucky is okay, I like him, but in a bubble he's not exciting. Not to me. Very good, obviously, because any out of combat stun (especially since it doesn't have a cost of character restriction!) is an effect you cannot over look as it is likely very powerful. I mean, look at Roy Harper <> Arsenal from DOR, you'd think blowing up a resource and exhausting your own board would be the end of your game, but he was easily one of the most abusable cards to ever hit a VS board! So, Bucky, most definitely a power player.
But Death Warrant? That makes him exciting. Very exciting. Imagine if you will a wall of 1's and 2's that plays this version of the Winter Soldier on 3, 4 and 5. Now give them a mass reinforcement effect and a full compliment of Death Warrants. He becomes the World's most deadly contract killer. Who do you want to cap? Worried they'll attack him first with some unimportant drop? Hide him. He doesn't even have to activate so you can even exhaust HIM to play the Death Warrant to begin with!
THAT is cool. Very, very cool. Here's to getting us some 1 and 2 drop Bullseye, Deadpool, Taskmaster and Crossbones to play with Winter Soldier, because I'm dying to turn this into a serious deck and it can't get any better than actually being full of contract killers. Hmmm, Crime Lords could also see a version of Katrina Luisa Van Horn when she was known as Man-Killer too. If it has to be a team up deck the Thunderbolts might also have Killer Shrike and obviously Bullseye is on the team, even if I dislike the version we've all ready seen. The Cat (Shen Kuei) could have a spot on the Crime Lords. Which I would like to see after the issues of Cable and Deadpool I've been reading. He seems to be a very cool character.
I can't wait to see what the rest of the week brings, hopefully that blanket of reinforcement I'm hoping for. Maybe the "even bigger flying carrier" that will be previewed Thursday on VS Realms?
-Mike Continue reading...
Monday, April 28, 2008
Radioactive Waste! - A Preview Inspired Deck Idea
Thunderbolts Week begins for Marvel Universe previews and the first card I saw was a new version of Radioactive Man. Instantly I had an idea in mind... Because I've always loved counters and this adds another thing I love with counters, Control.
What's the plan? I wanna lock my opponents out of plot twists on turn three and hide this bad boy in the hidden area. Doom Patrol is the obvious answer for counters and I think to hide him the best option is Charles McNider <> Dr. Mid-Nite. I think I'll call it...
RADIOACTIVE WASTE!
4x Elasti-Girl, Rita Farr
3x Atom Smasher, Al Rothstein
4x The Chief, Niles Caulder
2x Erik Josten <> Atlas, Kosmos Convict
4x Radioactive Man, Containment Suit
4x Charles McNider <> Dr. Mid-Nite, Golden Age Academic.
2x Holocaust, Age of Apocalypse
1x Robotman, Cliff Steele
1x Beast Boy, Freak of Nature
3x Dayton Manor
4x Enemy of my Enemy
4x Freak Out
4x Misfits
4x Heroic Effect
4x Forbidden Loyalties
3x Counter Terrorism
3x New Identity
55 Cards
I figure that leaves 5 cards for MUN to fill in, with Counter Terrorism and New Identity being easy to cut for better alternatives. The theory is simple. Put counters on Radioactive Man, immediately on turn 3. Lock out your opponent's twists so they can't get enough attack to stun him, hide him on 4 and keep adding counters to your board until you can just win out with Holocaust burn.
Heroic Effect, Counter Terrorism and Forbidden Loyalties all work on Radioactive Man whether you hit Doom Patrol or not, but obviously the idea is to team up Doom Patrol and Thunderbolts so you can Freak Out onto old Chen boy. Misfits lets you smooth the curve and Enemy is Enemy, no need to explain that one. Dayton Manor is perfect if you team up on three and is reusable every turn. On 6, and I can easily see even turn 5, you can flip another one without caring that it's going to KO a resource if you plan to win that turn.
Anyway, that's the idea. Can't wait to see how much better it gets during the week!
-Mike Continue reading...
What's the plan? I wanna lock my opponents out of plot twists on turn three and hide this bad boy in the hidden area. Doom Patrol is the obvious answer for counters and I think to hide him the best option is Charles McNider <> Dr. Mid-Nite. I think I'll call it...
RADIOACTIVE WASTE!
4x Elasti-Girl, Rita Farr3x Atom Smasher, Al Rothstein
4x The Chief, Niles Caulder
2x Erik Josten <> Atlas, Kosmos Convict
4x Radioactive Man, Containment Suit
4x Charles McNider <> Dr. Mid-Nite, Golden Age Academic.
2x Holocaust, Age of Apocalypse
1x Robotman, Cliff Steele
1x Beast Boy, Freak of Nature
3x Dayton Manor
4x Enemy of my Enemy
4x Freak Out
4x Misfits
4x Heroic Effect
4x Forbidden Loyalties
3x Counter Terrorism
3x New Identity
55 Cards
I figure that leaves 5 cards for MUN to fill in, with Counter Terrorism and New Identity being easy to cut for better alternatives. The theory is simple. Put counters on Radioactive Man, immediately on turn 3. Lock out your opponent's twists so they can't get enough attack to stun him, hide him on 4 and keep adding counters to your board until you can just win out with Holocaust burn.
Heroic Effect, Counter Terrorism and Forbidden Loyalties all work on Radioactive Man whether you hit Doom Patrol or not, but obviously the idea is to team up Doom Patrol and Thunderbolts so you can Freak Out onto old Chen boy. Misfits lets you smooth the curve and Enemy is Enemy, no need to explain that one. Dayton Manor is perfect if you team up on three and is reusable every turn. On 6, and I can easily see even turn 5, you can flip another one without caring that it's going to KO a resource if you plan to win that turn.
Anyway, that's the idea. Can't wait to see how much better it gets during the week!
-Mike Continue reading...
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Fantastical Zombies! The Marvel Zombies Essential Collection.
Little late, um, oh yeah, I meant to do this Monday... LOL Yeah. Reason being the DC announcement kinda depressed and scared me to be honest. BUT! Soldier on, is my motto.
So, the theme of the Marvel Zombies is weenie rush with lots of dead bodies sticking around. You've seen Hawkeye, I flirt with broken-ness a bit more, but not a LOT more, I promise. Hehe.
So Loyalty - Hardfast prevents you from playing Zombie Thing with anyone but the FF and MZ, otherwise you KO him. Zombie keeps you in play if you're recovering somebody else in the recovery phase.His other restriction prevents him from having greater than 3 attack. This builds in a limit to how much damage he can do. The reason is because, obviously, he's free. What is his real purpose if you can't even play a flying kick on him?
He's there to be a body. There are multiple effects for the Marvel Zombies that care about bodies. KO'ing bodies most specifically. There are also costs that require you to control stunned characters or give you bonuses based on the number you control. So Thing and his 0 defense are very friendly to the deck.
Zombie Invisible Woman is the best bet to keep the deck on track. She searches for your key plot twists she grabs characters and she fulfills the stunned character requirements that fuel some strong effects.
A nice 2/3 for a 2-drop with concealed-optional. I've always loved Concealed - Optional. You can either protect her and use the ability every turn or you can put her out on the lines and attack with her... And if the attack goes bad, use her effect to go set up next turn. Or, if your opponent's attack goes a little too well, then you can use her effect and negate the effects your opponent has played on an attacker.
I'll make sure to show one of the awesome Ongoing plot twists she can snag next week!
Continuing up the curve is Zombie Human Torch. Human Torch usually is a burn character and he usually has good attack and bad Dee, so he was rather easy to design. 6/3 is good, but his real power is in the ability!
"Activate -> KO a character you control, target opponent loses endurance (uh oh, typo!) equal to that character's attack. Use this power only once per turn."
Is your attack about to go south? Did somebody negate a lot of your attack long pumps by killing a defender? Are they going to remove an attacker? Force Field Projection, Science Spire? Kill that attacker and do all that damage straight to the face! Characters still have attack while stunned too, so remember that zombie sitting around, doing nothing for you? Kill it, hit the face, make use of them! Hell yeah!
Flight and range make him a good attacker, but I think you'll often find yourself activating instead of attacking. And obviously make Human Torch a very strong defender. Again he's Concealed - Optional, so that you really have the choice of what you want to do with him. I think it adds a very interesting and fun level of strategy to your rush decks having a lot of Concealed - Optional.
Thematically Concealed works well for zombies, but I thought at the time it worked especially well for these four because they end up coming across the divide and into the Ultimate Universe. They do this when Zombie Reed tricks Ultimate Reed into building an interdimensional teleporter that then brings Ultimate Reed to Zombie Earth and allows Zombie Reed to take his Frightastic Family to the Ultimate Universe where they do battle with the rest of the Ultimate Fantastic Four.
What is the cost of 3 resource points? You can get 1 for free many ways. Including the new, awesome, previews of MUN that StuBarnes revealed on his blog (see link to your left!) where Squirrel Girl pops out a one drop friend when she comes into play. Shadowpact lets you pay 15 for 1 resource point up the curve and it's restricted to only Shadowpact character cards, period with it's "printed" restriction. But down the curve is much less expensive, your 3-drop Nick Fury can bring in 2 characters each turn for the cost of an exhaust! With a team-up for Anti-Matter that's a pair of 4/4 Anti-Green Lanterns! 8 damage a turn!
By limiting Zombie Mr. Fantastic's effect to Zombies, as well as forcing you to bring out 3 characters, it makes it much harder to just power out a sick 3-drop. Ahmed? No need to apply here, buddy. This is another reason for the 0-drops. It rewards you with the ability to bring out the undead Torch (...or Wolverine! More on that later.) with his buddies Thing and Mr. Fantastic. Still, there's plenty of good 1-cost targets for this ability.
And there you have the Zombie Fantastic Four! Please feel free to comment here or if you want to start a thread on VSRealms and link it in the comment section!
See you next time, when I show you some Zombie plot twists!
-Mike Continue reading...
Monday, April 7, 2008
Marvel Universe Previews! Captain America = Counters FTW!
Marvel Universe Preview: The Avengers
If you haven't seen the new previews from VSSystem.com, go check them out! They also drop one hell of a cool tidbit about how there's going to be six character cards dedicated to Captain America! NICE! Now, I'm sure one of those is going to be Bucky <> Captain America and I bet we get a Punisher with the version Captain America too! We all ready have the really cool art for that.
What I'd really like to talk about though is the Captain America 2-drop. Over on the realms in the preview thread (Read It Here!) there's been a fair amount of discussion about this character all ready. Like how he goes well with Avengers Reassembled, but I think that was obvious in the preview. The idea I really like is Captain America, Cable-3 and Bodyslide! Imagine if you will a deck... Sort of like this...
4x Rick Jones, A Hero's Best Friend
4x Archangel, Angel
6x Multiple Man <> Jamie Madrox, Army
4x Captain America, The Patriot - Secret Avenger
2x Spider-Man, New New Avenger
2x Longshot, Hero of Mojoworld (Or better yet, Amelia Voght, Acolyte! As suggested by Flashback81)
4x Cable, Nathan Summers
1x Sage, Xavier's Secret Weapon
4x Black Panther, T'Challa
2x Wonder Man, Simon Williams
1x Blackbird Blue
2x X-Corp: Amsterdam, X-Corp
4x Enemy Of My Enemy
3x Time Breach
4x Bodyslide
4x Heroes In Reserve
4x Forbidden Loyalties
3x Counter Strike
3x Fastball Special
61 Total
Only imagine you've seen all of Marvel Universe, you gave it more than 5 minutes of thought and you tested it. As vs_savant2 pointed out in the VS Realms thread above if you pull out a full pump on T'Challa on turn 5 he's a 9/8 all ready. Drop Captain America successfully and he's a 10/9, plus Cap at 4/3. 14 attack for 5 points? Sweeet. Bodyslide Captain and that's 16 attack on turn 5. I'd imagine Counter Strike and maybe Time Breach would be easily replaced with better cards, but this is all off the top of my head.
If you play Angel, Captain America, Cable and then 2x Multiple Man, Bodyslide Captain America and play a second Captain America... Let's say you kept Angel.
Captain America on 2 = 2 +1/+1 counters. Captain America on 4 = 5 +1/+1 counters. Captain America on your attack step on 4 = 6 +1/+1 counters. 13/13 is a damn nice chunk of stats even divided six ways. Imagine if you Bodyslide the new Captain? Imagine if you Bodyslide the new Captain and play a THIRD Captain America instead of 2 Multiple Man.
(Throwing in a free Amelia adds 2-3 counters the first way, 5 with the double Bodyslide.)
Very cool.
-Mike Continue reading...
If you haven't seen the new previews from VSSystem.com, go check them out! They also drop one hell of a cool tidbit about how there's going to be six character cards dedicated to Captain America! NICE! Now, I'm sure one of those is going to be Bucky <> Captain America and I bet we get a Punisher with the version Captain America too! We all ready have the really cool art for that.
What I'd really like to talk about though is the Captain America 2-drop. Over on the realms in the preview thread (Read It Here!) there's been a fair amount of discussion about this character all ready. Like how he goes well with Avengers Reassembled, but I think that was obvious in the preview. The idea I really like is Captain America, Cable-3 and Bodyslide! Imagine if you will a deck... Sort of like this...
4x Rick Jones, A Hero's Best Friend
4x Archangel, Angel
6x Multiple Man <> Jamie Madrox, Army
4x Captain America, The Patriot - Secret Avenger
2x Spider-Man, New New Avenger
2x Longshot, Hero of Mojoworld (Or better yet, Amelia Voght, Acolyte! As suggested by Flashback81)
4x Cable, Nathan Summers
1x Sage, Xavier's Secret Weapon
4x Black Panther, T'Challa
2x Wonder Man, Simon Williams
1x Blackbird Blue
2x X-Corp: Amsterdam, X-Corp
4x Enemy Of My Enemy
3x Time Breach
4x Bodyslide
4x Heroes In Reserve
4x Forbidden Loyalties
3x Counter Strike
3x Fastball Special
61 Total
Only imagine you've seen all of Marvel Universe, you gave it more than 5 minutes of thought and you tested it. As vs_savant2 pointed out in the VS Realms thread above if you pull out a full pump on T'Challa on turn 5 he's a 9/8 all ready. Drop Captain America successfully and he's a 10/9, plus Cap at 4/3. 14 attack for 5 points? Sweeet. Bodyslide Captain and that's 16 attack on turn 5. I'd imagine Counter Strike and maybe Time Breach would be easily replaced with better cards, but this is all off the top of my head.
If you play Angel, Captain America, Cable and then 2x Multiple Man, Bodyslide Captain America and play a second Captain America... Let's say you kept Angel.
Captain America on 2 = 2 +1/+1 counters. Captain America on 4 = 5 +1/+1 counters. Captain America on your attack step on 4 = 6 +1/+1 counters. 13/13 is a damn nice chunk of stats even divided six ways. Imagine if you Bodyslide the new Captain? Imagine if you Bodyslide the new Captain and play a THIRD Captain America instead of 2 Multiple Man.
(Throwing in a free Amelia adds 2-3 counters the first way, 5 with the double Bodyslide.)
Very cool.
-Mike Continue reading...
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