Tuesday night Hobby League report

Yay for funnage!

 We have a brand spanking new player, Jeremy, whose card collection consists of a less than a dozen packs and a whole bunch of donated spares, so tonight was pretty much an anything-goes night.

 The decks:

• Spud – Injustice Gang Off Init
• Christine – Superclones
• Jeremy – Juggernaut Beats
• Myself – Morlock Evasion
• Pablo – War Paint
• Carrie – X-Weenies

First round I paired off against Pablo, and I tell ya, if I’d drawn one more pump… ONE MORE! In the end the burn is what killed me, but it was delightful watching his brow furrow in the face of Last Stand.

Second round, Pablo’s wife Carrie. This was a singular delight, not because of the game, but because I spent the majority of this round and the next holding baby Emma – less than a month old and snuggly and smelling just like a little baby should. I’m a clucky git, I freely admit it, but it was such a nice feeling holding a sleeping baby… and beating her mother at VS at the same time The X-Men put up a valiant fight, I admit, but in the end they just weren’t up to the enormous stats of Marrow and her pals. Retribution, Bums Rush and Shrapnel Blast were just gravy.

 Round three, Spud’s hidden Injustice Gang goons. I had free swings to his face, he had huge stats for the return swing…. but then, I had Caliban and Sewer System. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. He flipped a duplicate location (Earth 3?) to move Owlman visible and get a Def boost to dodge a stun, but I had the powerup and it went through anyway… and then just beat on his hidden characters. My being one-up on the curve and being to attack him when hidden pretty much tolled doom for him and another victory for the Morlocks.

 We called it there after three rounds, and I walked out with a Hush and an Espionage, and promptly traded for about half a dozen SecSoc rares. Good times, good times.

 I rounded out the evening with a casual game against Jeremy’s Juggernaut deck, and this was a great game for me in that it was the first time EVAH I’ve been able to get the Infinity Gauntlet into play. I was playing a curve Infinity Watch deck, all the gems, the gauntlet, and some random other malarkey. Monster Island proved a real pain in his butt, but what did  him in in the end was bouncing his Juggernauts with Soul Gem (costing him the helmet), and Cosmic Order. Sure, it cost me the chance to attack his 2-drop with my 3 and 4, but by leaving him with only Juggs stunned, he had no choice but to KO the big fella.

 Shiny happy fun. Next week, Random Punks.

Reimagining the Toystore

Way back in the days of $10K’s, there was one in Hamilton, ON, that I was fortunate enough to attend. It was one of my first ever competitive experiences, and I knew going in that I wasn’t going to win – I didn’t own a playset of all the high-money tutors, etc. – so I ran a little petdeck of mine that I called the Midnight Toystore.

 I entered the same deck into the VSRealms Pet Deck competition, and won myself a placing (not first, but heck, I play for fun rather than competitiveness so I didn’t expext to walk away with first prize). That was a loooong time ago in VS history, and we’ve had a whole bunch of expansions released since – time for a revisit!

The concept’s pretty simple – abuse the Midnight Sons engine (or now, Neighbourhood Watch) to get yourself any team affiliations that tickle your fancy, and grab all that lovely equipment that’s free for specific teams (or just plain borken for specific teams) and slap them all over your characters for a nice beat-o-rama. 

The essential part is, of course, the engine first- Dagger: Child of Light, Midnight Sons, and just to cover bases, 4x Neighbourhood Watch

We’re going to be equipment-heavy, so cards that can be discarded for effects are a boon as pseudo plot twists, that helpfully thumb their nose at Injustice Gang. I can’t play plot twists? No worries! Chopping Block that Lex Luthor! Muhahahaha!

So, which characters are up for consideration?

DCL, Darkseid, and a little griping

Family gathering last night, followed by a late night painting kitchen cupboards in prep for my dad and stepmum visiting from Down Under, and you know what? Nothing inspired me for my Stu-vivor 3 challenge deck.

 It’s pretty clear that I’m going to be multi-teaming it (even with the new additions to Crime Lords from MTU and MEX, the team just doesn’t have the oomph to run mono), but the question remains as to just which other teams to toss into the mix… actually, one of those teams is pretty much decided for me, but still…

 So, since I don’t have a Stu-vivor deck for you, here’s a rambling about Secret Society in DCL.

 Now, I know that UDE’s pretty much stated that separating Villains United from the Secret Society was kinda sorta iffy, but it just seems wierd to me to have VU characters tied in with SecSoc now. It’s a little problematic for team collectors like myself.

By that I mean that when a new expansion comes out, I pick a team or two, and only really make an effort to collect those teams. This way anything else I get for other teams is trade bait. The end result is that I get playsets for the teams I’ve chosen faster, and need to buy less packs overall to get what I want.

 Now I find myself with a bunch of characters that, if I want to tie them in with their earlier versions, I’m going to have to backtrack and grab VU stuff. All in all this isn’t a big deal, since SecSoc’s quite playable in and of itself in DCU, but then it comes down to the choice of Legends.

Darkseid got a card in the original SecSoc, and there’s no denying a character of his stature is Legend worthy, but seriously – he has his own freakin’ team! To make the most use of his Darkseid Legend stuff I’m going to have to go back and trade for/collect all the Darkseids from DLS! Gah!

 To make it worse, I had picked up a LOT of Darkseid rares from DLS, but over time they’ve pretty much all been traded away. Fie and poop.

Finding a place for the displaced…

There’s a lot of blogs out there, so this is just another one to get lost in the stream of random ramblings. Some may find it informative and useful, others may find it nothing more than a self-serving ego pump. After all, there’s such a pressing need for everyone to know MY opinions, right?

The general idea is that I’ll post stuff related to the VS. System card game – deck ideas, card art ramblings, general stuff of interest. Don’t expect anything useful, I’m not sure I can live up to that kind of expectation

Regardless, on with the ramblings.

Stu-vivor Round Three

And we have our challenge…

Round Three Challenge:

“Build a deck with these restrictions:

1. Choose either Marvel or DC, and add Hellboy.
2. Use four copies of a single card from EACH of the chosen company’s previous expansion sets, including the Hellboy Essential Collection.
3. Use all other Constructed deckbuilding rules and fill out the rest of the deck.

Then explain what the theme of the deck is, how it would run, and throw in some flavor for… flavor.”

And then, just because Stu’s Stu and this is, I reiterate, just for fun, he posted this little addendum to the rules:

“Oh yeah, I forgot one other rule. gdaybloke must use stilt man. obv.”

 If I’m using Stilt-Man, then I’m already pigeonholed into the Marvel cards. No worries there, though coming up with a theme could be interesting. Stilt-Man works off opponents getting counters, and the Marvel side of things isn’t exactly packed with counter-giving effects… but thoughts are a-percolatin’, oh yes they are…

Stu-vivor Round Two

Having come second in the first round of Stu-vivor, the pressure was on for round two…

The second round challenge: “Tell us about your favorite three-card interaction. Then pick one existing card that needs two support cards to make it shine, and create two fantasy cards that would make it a three-card interaction even better than your favorite.” 

Let me just start by saying a big thank you to those who voted for me in round one… to come second only to such an esteemed personage as the mellifluous WalterKovacs is an honour indeed. Thank you for humouring my eccentrecities.Round two and the three card combo concept… Lordy, there are sooo many combos out there to list here that are exorbitantly fun, be they actually competitive or not….My runner up would be DGL’s Johnny Quick, Thunderous Onslaught, and Matter Convergence. Now with DCL’s Flash stuff there’s better, more reliable multiattacking combos, but whaddayagonnado, I love me the classics.

For my winner, I need to state the caveat that the vast majority of the games I play are casual. That means ban lists aren’t really an issue, and decks relying on older cards, legal only in Golden Age, are common. I’m also a big fan of beats decks. I’m not huge into stall, I’m not huge into control, but I love some good, solid beats. Being as I’m not the most technical player, I’m also like to kiss.

No, not snog, but keeping it simple. Make something overcomplicated and you end up with the Anti-Life Equation all over again as peoples brains melt trying to wrap their head around the best way to use the cards. So, in the spirit of bringing the beats and keeping it simple…

MVL brought us the ever lovely Elektra: Masterless Assassin, queen of beating to the face. It also brought us Hulk: Savage Hulk, a double edged sword that can make or break the wielder. Now, drag your mind all the way back to MOR, and you get a little golden gem in Team Tactics.

Get the picture? See what’s happening here?

Elektra can always attack to the face. She has a decent attack, but slapping some pumps in there can make her truly vicious.

Hulk burns away your endurance for an attack pump from hell; it’s not uncommon to see him at 30+ ATK

Declare your attack with Elektra, bypassing every little defense your opponent has – not even a Force Field Projection will stop the (*dun dun dun*) Masterless Assassin, since there’s no Defender to remove from the attack. Play Team Tactics, exhausting the Hulk, and suddenly she gets an attack pump equal to his ferociously ginormous ATK.

Now, it may just be me, but as a general rule, most decks can’t handle a 30+ attack to the face on turn 6. Yes, you’re on 0 endurance yourself, but you just knocked your opponent well below that, and if he wants to retaliate he first has to get through that exhausted Hulk, who’s behaving himself very well as a wall.

Let’s face it, it’s a simple, yet bifftastic, little combo.

Now, as for a card that needs a little lovin’ to make it great, I’m going to give you a break from my campaign to improve my beloved Wilbur Day, since you know as well as I do that he’ll be reappearing in Marvel Universe when the Crime Lords come back, and I’d hate to compete with UDE R&D who are no doubt right now working on cards to give him the Legend treatment… Well, they better be…or… or… I’ll cry… and no-one wants to see that…

(*cough*)

… but according to the rules of challenge I have to define a three card combo that’s “even better” than the one I listed above, the elements of which are basically an enormous smack to your opponent’s endurance, and a brickwall to hinder retaliation. Those effects are nifty, I’ll quickly state for the record that I’m not out to make broken cards – I’d rather stuff be thematic than uber. To that end, my proposed combo won’t be as bifftastic, but with any luck will be more flavourful and thematic, this “better” along those lines.

Since they haven’t printed a Beta Ray Bill with enormous Korbinite muscles for me to improve upon, and there’s no Spidey 2099 to stealth his way past defenders to kick opponents in the jubblies, there’s only a few of my favourite characters left….

I choose you, Jennifer Walters!

There are four versions of everyone’s favourite gamma bombshell, including, well, Gamma Bombshell from MAV. For the purposes of this little shindig, we’re going to look at the version so groovy, it not only became our first alternate foil, it’s also one of the few cards have available to us that was reprinted with all new art. Notable indeed!

Of course, I’m talking about:

Quote:

She-Hulk, Green Jeans MOR059 / MFF009 Cost 5; Fantastic Four; ATK 8,DEF 9 At the start of the combat phase, She-Hulk gets +1 ATK this turn for each front row character target opponent controls.

Quite respectable stats for a 5-drop from MOR. On initiative she may only end up an 8/9 if your opponent hides in the support row; off initiative, unless your opponent’s packing range, they’re going to either have to accept Shulkie having a higher-than-printed ATK, or sacrifice potential attackers.She’s no Thing: Heavy Hitter, but she’s a respectable alternative, especially if you don’t want to lose your 3-drop Thing, or are planning on recruiting Thing on turns 6 or 7. In the end though, a smart opponent can work around her text, minimising her impact and effectively turning her into essentially a blank 8/9 or 9/9.So, drawing on the current series of She-Hulk comics (five TPBs available now, good readin’ y’all!), let’s make her a bit more biffalicious.

In terms of making her even more buff, during one arc she went up against the Champion, one of the elders of the universe. To take him on she underwent training with the deadliest woman in the galaxy, Gamora, and buffed up to the point where her strength levels were such that even Hercules, demi-god of Strength and one of the heaviest hitters on the Avengers roster, wasn’t even in the same league any more. She did need the motivation of going up against the Champion to pull this off though, so I suggest the following:

Quote:

Rise To The Challenge Plot Twist, Threshold 3 Target She-Hulk you control gets +X ATK this turn, where X is equal to the cost of a character an opponent controls. By the fires of eternity, woman! What has happened to you? – The Champion

This should put our beloved Jennifer in stun range of most of the 7 drops out there, and anything below that, and a genuine threat to whatever your opponent does have in play regardless. That it works on defence too is a reflection of the combat training she undertook with Gamora, as shown when she defeated the much stronger Abomination, and then later put Iron Man in his place (until he cheated – damn nanites!).Now we have a Shulkie all buffed up according to the biggest threat your opponent has on the board, but there’s still that little Reinforcement mechanic that can turn that lovely huge ATK into a no-break whump. There’s a few ways we can look at this, but they all barrel down to removing the potential to reinforce.Now, when She-Hulk was on trial for deliberately messing with the time stream, a fine upstanding gentleman who goes by the name of Razorback came forth to tell the tale of when the two of them were taking fire from aggressive alien foes, and were doomed – DOOMED I tells ya – until Jen went outside the ship in her space suit to take the fight the foe. One of the Piratasaurs (no, I kid you not) nailed her with a lucky shot that destroyed her space suit, leaving her more… um… ample… God-given, Gamma-enhanced assets on full display. The piratasaurs were stunned into complete inaction by the sight of her green gazoombas, that they drove their pirate spaceship directly into an asteroid, thus neutralizing their threat.

So… now that we’ve worked our way through a short tale that’s rather awkward to tell in mixed company, how do we reflect this ability to rend folks speechless at the sight of her gamma gorgeousness? How should we best portray, in card form?

Quote:

Gammalicious Plot Twist, Threshold 3 Discard a card named She-Hulk -> Move one or more target characters an opponent controls with a total cost of X to the front row, where X is the cost the the She-Hulk you discarded. I mean, c’mon, they’re out to here, man! – Razorback

Now, this one represents Shulkie’s loveliness drawing onlookers forward. If you don’t have a She-Hulk in play, you can think of it as her distracting your foes from the sidelines, drawing them in for a closer look, thus moving them out of position to reinforce their teammates.If you happen to have Green Jeans in play, the character card we’re supposed to be enhancing here, then you can think of it as all those potential reinforcers just trying to get closer to her, and in the process feeding her card text.While we’re at it, the mind boggles wondering what the art team would put on that card…

Now the three cards as a combo? You’ve got an 8/9 base, pumped equal to your opponent’s biggest character by Rise To The Challenge, and then further pumped by Gammalicious moving opposing characters to the front row, where they can’t reinforce. Again not an overly complicated combo, but I think it’s flavourful.

So there you have it! She-Hulk: Green Jeans, a card that was okay, but nothing too special, and two cards that could make her that much niftier… while also making it possible to play a She-Hulk Legends deck, a dream we should all share. An attack pump, and a way to remove reinforcers, that both tie in to comic continuity! Whoda thunkit!

Again, thank you for indulging me!

Gdaybloke.This ramble netted me third place (tied with two other entrants), and thus, on to round three!

Stu-vivor Round One

The basic reason I started this blog is Stu-vivor. Stubarnes, mild mannered alter-ego of the eponymous Rian Fike of Full.Body.Transplant, posted a challenge as VSRealms. Just for fun, a writing exercise to challenge our wit and wisdom.

 The first round challenge: “Choose one Vs. System card. Tell us all about it. Include personal anecdotes, comic book history, tech talk, art critiques, or anything else that would make you a candidate to stay on the island. You can love the card, you can hate the card, but the card you choose is your ticket to stardom. One card to rule them all. Take your pick, and state your case.”

 My entry had to be about one of two characters, but there’s no Beta Ray Bill card yet. Thus, Stilt-Man it was!

My entry:

I think some folks out there would be disappointed in me if I didn’t bring up the tallest man in VS, Wilbur Day.That’s right. Stilt-Man. 

As an Australian, it’s ingrained in me culturally to love the little man, to be a fan of those fighting against impossible odds.

Let me tell you why I like Wilbur Day as a character.

For a start, he was named Wilbur. Not a burly man name, not a strong name, and considering when he would have been young, chances are he copped more than the odd Mr Ed reference. I don’t imagine his childhood would have been much fun.

Then he gets his hands on some armour. Combat armour. Complete with a wrist mounted gun. And… yes, stilts.

What does he do with said armour? He goes out into the streets of New York – streets defended by the likes of Spider-Man, Daredevil, Luke Cage, the Punisher, yadda yadda yadda – and embarks on a life of crime, armed with… legs that extend.

There’s no way he couldn’t have known that his gimmick was lame. There’s no way he couldn’t have realised that pretty much every hero this side of Frog Man was going to kick his arse.

And yet, with stilts as his gimmick, he played the supervillain. Seriously, can you IMAGINE the size of this guy’s metaphorical balls???

Wilbur Day’s is a real David and Goliath story, only this time “David” is the tall, evil one.

Continuing the legend of this man who stood head and shoulders above the rest of New York’s super-villain community, we find out he managed to wed Princess Python, a smoking hot redhead with a snake act. Our boy Wilbur’s gotta have something going on for him!

And in the end, what is it that takes him out? A bazooka to the crotch from the Punisher, just when Wilbur’s trying his hand at being one of the good guys. What a way to go. A tragedy, a terrible shame.

Sigh. At least the guys at Wizkids had the sense to make him the tallest heroclix they’ve ever produced. Seriously – in clix form his legs have detachable sections, and there’s no limit to how many sections you can stack in there. You can just keep making him taller and taller and taller.

Anyway, why do I like the card?

Largely sentimental. If you’ve read this far you know that I’m fascinated by the character (and I get a geeky pleasure out of watching artist’s faces when I ask them to sketch him at comic conventions – though I’ve collected about half a dozen sketches thus far).

Thematically?

He starts off as a pretty unremarkable 3/2 Crime Lords rare. But what does he do when an opposing character gets a counter? He cranks it up!

Every time an opposing character comes into play with a token, or gains a token of any sort, Wilbur hits the “up!” button on his suit controls and gets that little bit bigger. +1/+1 every time.

In the end he can theoritically be the largest character on the board, drowning in a flood of his own +1/+1 counters (the largest I’ve gotten him to is about 16/15 – Oh, how I love playing him against cosmic surge…)

… and all that time, he’s just a 2-drop, still vulnerable to those lowbie-killing effects like Gambit’s exploding cards, TELBET’s rocky biceps and the like.

He might reach the sky, but one well-placed kick to the metal shin and down he comes.

He may be far from the most competitive card out there, but for my money, he’s nice and thematic and has that underdog appeal that just cries out to me.

RIP Wilbur Day – Even when sinking low, he stood tall.

I’m delighted to say that of the 14 entrants that progressed to round two (not that that really means much, since this is for fun and people can jump in at any point), I received the second-most votes, right behind the ever-mellifluous WalterKovacs, and progressed to the next round.