How I’d Do It: Episode 9

Aaaaaaaand we’re back. Sorry about last week, but I’ve been doing this non-stop for three months and kinda needed a break.

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This week marks the first part of a three-week series. I’ve spent the past two months talking about different elements of card design in a vacuum. I think I’ve covered all the fundamentals, so now we’re ready to move onto something a bit more advanced: we’re going to put it all together and make an Essential Collection. This week, I’m going to cover “the good guys”, and next week is “the bad guys”. In these two articles, I’ll only be bringing up their key cards– the full card lists, and my final thoughts, will be in week 3.

The subject matter for this little excercise will be my favourite ongoing series: Robert Kirkman’s Invincible.

Here’s a quick synopsis of the series’s premise for the uninitiated:

• Mark Nolan is the son of Omni-Man, the world’s most powerful superhero
• Omni-Man is a Viltrumite, a race of ridiculously powerful, yet benevolent, beings who run around the galaxy, protecting planets from harm.
• At the age of… sixteen? I think?… Mark manifests powers. They’ll grow to full strength over time, but even at a very low level, he’s super-strong, bulletproof, super fast, and can fly. He calls himself Invincible
• Mark sorta-kinda joins the Teen Team, a group of teen heroes. He aspires to someday join the Guardians of the Globe, the mightiest hero team in the world (who his father works with, though he’s not a member).
• Everything’s groovy. They live happily ever after.

So what I wanted to represent with these characters was how young and exube–

Spud.

Yes, internal dialogue device I ripped off from DocX?

You forgot the last part.

What is that you saaaaaaaay?

You covered like four issues of a 50-issue series.

Ehh, the rest is more of the same.

Oh, really? So, I guess it’s irrelevant what happens at the end of issue 7?

Okay, fine, so Omni-Man’s a psychotic murderer. So what?

And I guess issue 12’s pretty forgettable, too.

FINE. I’ll discuss your lame “defining plot advancements”.

Soooooo… it turns out that Viltrumites aren’t actually philanthropists. What they do is, they send an agent over to a world that has resources they want, and they give him five hundred years to rule over it as he sees fit (they basically get paid in advance for their services to their race) (also: Viltrumites live tens of thousands of years. So, five hundred isn’t sucking up the prime of their life, or anything like that). After those five hundred years, the VIltrumite armada shows up, enslaves the planet, sucks it dry of resources, and exterminates all life on the planet. Omni-Man technically, by Viltrumite law, “owns” the Earth, but he realized that with the large number of super-people we have, he couldn’t just take it by force. Instead, he posed as our greatest hero so he could gain the trust of our heroes– all the while, eliminating monsters and supervillains, and other threats to his eventual reign. Then, when the time is right, he starts eliminating our other heroes, so that eventually, it’s just him.

It’s the greatest villain scheme ever.

Long story short: he tells Mark, who completely flips out, and decides to fight his dad to make him leave. This turns out not to be the greatest idea.

That said, after beating Mark to within an inch of his life, Omni-Man gets this sudden pang of guilt, and flies off. And then we don’t see him again for like… twenty issues. He ran off to rule some bug planet? Or something? It’s not important.

Well, not that important.

Aaaaaaanyway. With the Guardians of the Globe dead, the government (specifically, Global Defense Agency director Cecil Stedman) tries its best to repopulate the team. Most of the Teen Team get recruited, as well as some fairly disposable heroes. Oh, and The Immortal, who got his head punched off by Omni-Man, turns out to be actually immortal, and returns from that minor injury to rejoin the Guardians. So, Abe Lincoln is a member of the team.

…oh, I didn’t mention that? The Immortal was a knight of the round table, he came to North America on the first ship that sailed here, and he was the sixteenth president of the united states.

…ok, seriously, do you get now why this series is so freaking awesome?

I guess I should talk about the cards.

So, yeah. It actually took me close to two months of pondering, and four re-writes of the card list, to come up with anything remotely interesting for a Guardians of the Globe team. I had a few ideas for mechanics, but they were all rather controllish and better-suited to a villain team. Heroes are actually fairly hard to design around, which is why so many hero teams in the game have “arbitrary” themes. See: The Avengers, the JLA, the X-Men, the JLI, the Defenders, etc.

I had three ideas that seemed kind of promising for a hero team, they either didn’t strike me as particularly appropriate for this hero team, or I couldn’t think of a way to do them that wasn’t a retread.

1. Substitute. It made sense to me given that the bulk of the series has been about the teen heroes’ attempts to fit into the roles vacated by the dead Guardians. Unfortunately, I couldn’t think of a single way to use the keyword that hadn’t been done already. Let’s see: refreshing cosmic counters (Titans), “comes into play” effects (Darkseid), toolboxing effects (Defenders), no-tap payments (Spidey-Friends), “guys who are better on later turns” (TBolts)… anything I could think of to do with this keyword had already been done in one way or another. I really wanted to use this theme, but without a solid twist on the keyword, it wasn’t happening. Sigh.
2. “Bonus versus specific costs”. Anything from “character can’t be stunned while fighting something of its own cost” to “combat bonuses while fighting the highest-cost character in play”. I could definitely see building a hero team around this concept, but it just seemed a little too generic. I figured I’d use it if I couldn’t think of anything else, but I wasn’t thrilled with it.
3. “Your guys can’t attack. Ever.” The concept here was to build a team around activated powers– they get “easy” combat based mostly on cost comparison, but can never cause breakthrough, so they need to find other ways to cause damage. And they can never give in to the temptation to swing a 6-drop into an unreinforceable 1-drop, no matter how they might want to. I’ve actually got a full 35-card team built around this mechanic (for a different piece of IP), so if I wanted, I could just steal the entire thing and change the art, and poof, we’re done. But: 1) I didn’t want to steal the concept away from the original team I built it for, because it fits them much better. And 2) It still didn’t quite fit the Guardians. It would fit the OLD Guardians– my concept when I developed the list was a team of heroes who are so ridiculously powerful, that combat seems beneath them. They just look at you, and poof, you’re stunned. The original Guardians were that powerful, but the new ones really aren’t, so it doesn’t fit.

It was really frustrating… I had two workable ideas I didn’t like, and an idea I liked that I couldn’t use. I resigned myself to doing the cost-based theme, and hoped it wouldn’t be as boring as I thought it would. I finished the list and moved onto the villains.

…and then BAM. As I was groggily washing my hair last Monday morning, I was suddenly hit with an idea. It wasn’t groundbreaking, nor was it game-breaking. It was an effect you could find on any of dozens of cards… but the way it comes to happen intrigued me. The more I thought about it, the more overjoyed I became– not only was this a substantial mechanical twist on a theme I liked, but it was also flawlessly well-suited to the Guardians. In the time it took me to lather, rinse, and repeat, I came up with eleven characters and three support cards.

I was a happy, happy Spud.

But what was this card, you ask? What did I come up with that I loved so much?

Why, only this:

Schadenfreude!

As I said, it’s not groundbreaking, but HOT DAMN if it’s not fun and thematic: The Guardians of the Globe will key off of the death of a founding (ie, recruited) member, and subsequent replacement by a younger (ie, substituted) hero.

The whole theme coalesced into being without me even having to try– the effects were simply logical. These cards needed to be a certain way to work; it just made sense, and flowed freely from my fingertips.

We start off the curve at 1 with two good substitutable bodies. To start off with, Black Samson is freaking HUGE for a 1-drop, which is fitting, considering he’s one of the world’s strongest (remaining) heroes. He also offers a powerful boost to whoever tags him out– enough power to jump two slots on the curve and take down a 3-drop.

This was one of the really interesting things about this theme, to my eyes– I got to invert the power scale. Generally speaking, VS has a fairly rigid tempo– an effect of X type and Y size is “fair” when it comes into play on turn Z. The stronger the effect, the later you can play it, because a lot of effects are simply too good to pop up and make their mark during the crucial mid-game. For example, readying effects– you generally see these on characters at 2 and under (who can’t use the readying for much of a combat benefit), or at 5 or higher (because at that point you’ve “waited out” the rush decks and earned your end-game smashes). You see very few 3- and 4-cost readying characters, because then they would make a turn 4 board wipe WAY too easy, which would guarantee a victory far too often.

Pumps use the same kind of scale. They tend to be small one-shots in the early game, and then either get larger, or more reusable, as the game wears on. The reason being, once again, that you don’t want really strong pump to be too accessible on the crucial swing turns. If Samson’s effect was a “standard” substitute trigger– “when Samson enters play, target character you control gets +3ATK this turn”– it would be far too good for a 1-drop (especially one with Substitute), so he’d likely be a 3, 4, or 5. But the way these are set up creates a really interesting inherent balance– there’s only so much damage a Substitute 1-drop can do with 3ATK. It’s useful, but since it’s restricted to such a small wielder, it’s prevented from being abused.

Continuing this concept at the 2-drop slot is the Green Ghost, who hides his replacement. “Hide anyone” is another effect that is generally avoided on low drops, but which is substantially less abusable when the recipient needs to be a 2-drop with Substitute to get the effect. These characters tend to be support-based anyway, so they’re the kind of characters you generally want to keep around for a few turns.

(I can’t think of anything else to say about Green Ghost, but I need to fill in more text so the next image lines up, so… um… did you know that the Green Ghost derives his powers from a magical medallion? And it’s not enough to wear it– his powers activate when he swallows the mystic charm. To turn his powers of intangibility, flight, and who-knows-what-else off, he has to hork it back up, which leaves his mouth and chest covered in bright green vomit.

Robert Kirkman freaking rocks.)

The 3-drop keeps the theme going by giving his successor a one-drop-level stat boost for a turn, and letting them hunt evil in the shadows.

More importantly, he gives me a chance to talk about the other half of what these “Original Guardians” do for you. While you’re certainly free to recruit them and then immediately pop them out for bonuses on a Substituter, you’ll find that you often get more benefit from waiting a turn before you do that. Many of the Founders have a one-turn effect designed to tempt you into letting them fight it out for one turn; Darkwing, for example, lets you spend turn 3 murdering your opponent’s lowbies, ensuring a clear field when he leaves play. This will often be a wise choice, because many of your Substituters’ effects will be more useful on a turn higher than their own drop level, so they might benefit from Darkwing’s boost or War Woman’s counters at a later juncture.

Jumping ahead to 6 (you’ve seen 4, and 5’s kinda boring. ), we’ve got the lots-of-fun Red Rush. His power brings us back to the argument for Black Samson on 1– there’s only so much damage a Substitute 6-drop can do by readying. Substitute characters tend to be fairly bland (since they’re so easy to splash and toolbox), so letting one ready isn’t a huge deal.

Rush’s first power also serves as a nice segue to our next category of cards. The theme I’m pushing for is that you recruit an Original guardian on its turn drop, use it for a turn, and then sub it out the next turn. I’m asking the player to take a leap of faith– don’t just sub Rush out right away, hang onto him for a turn first, use his own (quite awesome) power, and then sub him out next turn. The problem with this theory is that you’re really taking a gamble. If you neglect to sub him out, you’re a Finishing Move away from turning that 6-drop Sub into a dead card.

With that in mind, I designed the Originals’ cards to be fairly good at staying alive, at least for one turn. Three of the eight can be concealed; four have above-average DEF values; most have Flight, letting them pick “easy” targets that don’t risk stun-backs; and Rush, specifically, can’t be stunned on the attack. The cards are all designed for above-average survivability.

That said, since the whole point of this team is a focus on the body that’s leaving, and not the body that’s coming in, I figured it was appropriate to go into this aspect a little deeper. I’ve got effects that key off being substituted over, and cards that are relatively easy to keep alive for one turn. What else can I do that puts the focus on the dearly departing?

The Second Theme… OF DOOM!

The most frustrating thing for me when I play my Titans substitute deck is when I have two Substitute 3-drops in my hand ready to come out next turn, but I lose all my 3-drop “shells” to this turn’s combat. It’s… frustrating.

Cecil basically acts as a temporary recovery effect. He won’t get you the character you lost (since they come back blank and immediately die again), but instead, he gives you the blank shell to substitute back over. He’s an essential part of playing the Substitute build– possibly even worth undropping for if you miss him.

I really liked that mechanic I gave him– “KO that character at the start of the combat phase”. Continuing the theme of focusing on the bodies that leave, I came up with a few more ways to key off of it.

The Immortal is a Substitute shell that just never goes away. You can’t just throw him into combat with no heed for his life– after all, he’s not going to make it into the next combat phase. But note something different about him compared to the other Founders– he has Substitute. I figured it was appropriate to tie him into both themes, since he was a member of both iterations.

The Immortal has a fun little combo with himself– as long as you have more copies of him, you can just keep popping him into play. Or, you can pop him out for one of the other 1-drops the Guardians have access to. Whatever suits your fancy.

Martian Man is the third interesting way I thought of to use this little mechanic. Essentially, he lets you swap him out for ANY Substitute you want. He can get you Card Draw Barbie, he can get you Hellcat, he can get you Ravager… or he can just get you Invincible. And he stops you from simply getting lowbies to swarm out with, because if you recruit what you fetched, you’re going to lose him at combat.

He actually used to have a separate power in addition to that one, which allowed him to “sub back in” from the RFG zone over any 3-drop at the start of recovery, essentially letting you re-toolbox him every turn. The power was cut mostly for space, but it also just seemed a little too abusive. I’m not sure exactly HOW it was abusive… it just felt that way. Or something.

Legion of Substitute Heroes

Hmm. It’s 10:30 on Thursday and I want to finish this thing before I go to bed, so I’ll only look briefly at the Substituters on the team. To be honest, they’re not that interesting, so it’s no big loss to gloss over them.

I only did one really “new” thing with the Subs on the team: I invented a new subcategory of Substitute. Substitute - Only is exactly what it sounds like– you can’t recruit the character, they can only enter play by Substitution. Another way to look at it is that those characters have an additional cost to recruit– discarding a card with the same cost as them.

The application of the keyword is pretty straightforward. Since they have a more stringent requirement to enter play, they get to be a little more powerful than similar cards. Monster Girl, for example, is almost exactly like Beast Boy - Party Animal, except she starts out two points bigger and slowly shrinks. You’ll need to sub her in repeatedly over herself if you want to keep her beefy.

I didn’t put a ton of “Substitute Only” guys on the team, because powerful subs + powerful sub-outs might end up with too much aggregate power. I just tossed in a few to keep the team interesting– and there’s always a regular Sub at the same drop if you don’t want to risk it. The alternative to Monster Girl is the first Invincible on the curve.

He was a card I liked a lot from the build I did with the “bonuses against certain costs” theme I mentioned at the beginning. Invincible is the Global Defense Agency’s trump card, the guy they call in to handle the toughest threats nobody else can handle. And he always manages to handle them (since he’s always getting closer and closer to being as strong as his dad), except when the plot demands otherwise. Soooooo… I figured it would be fun to make him the “go-to guy” for handling your opponent’s biggest guys.

Even beyond the obvious standalone benefit of that power, he also ties in quite nicely with the Original Guardians above. If you recruit Darkwing on 3, and then wait to sub Invincible until 4, Mark will be big enough (thanks to Darkwing’s leaving-play buff) to handle an average 4-drop with no additional pump, without taking a stun yourself. It’s a solid recipe for clearing your opponent’s board and creating a solid foundation for the rest of the game.

I’m tempted to end it here (so very tired…), but I’ll drop you one more card before I close this up. This card is two important things. First of all, it’s the Guardians’ exit strategy.

Second, he’s an incredibly unhelpful preview of next week’s cards.

Heh. I’m a jerk.

-Spud