SUMMER OF LOVE

There comes a time each year, a special time, after the rebirth of Spring, with its bouncing baby bunnies and fragrant blossoms, but before the cool touch of Auttumn, with its kaleidoscope of leafy colour and the gentle promise of snuggling by a warm, cosy fire.Yes, I’m talking about the heady, lazy, crazy days of Summer. When a boy’s head turns to thoughts of baseball in vacant lots, swimming holes and thick slices of watermelon, while young girls slip on their poodle skirts and skip down to the malt shoppe to listen to the juke box… hang on, I’m totally out of era, aren’t I…

One way or another, welcome to…

Lost Hemisphere’s Summer Of Love!

The concept: 32 decks, each a randomly assigned team-up, battle their way through a bracket to determine VS’s happiest couple.

Those getting their hands dirty:
Captain Spud, Carrbear, Eponymous, Gdaybloke

Those lending their mad deckbuilding skillz:
(in alphabetical VSRealms login order)
BALDMAN, Captain_Comet, CarlosTheDwarf, Flashback81, HomerJ, Jaxxin, Kamiza, Kansashoops, Majestic, Onyxweapon, Runaway, Soshi Kenpachi, StuBarnes, TheDerangedBear

Prize pool:
A 6′ vinyl banner, a comic older than pretty much any of us, a complete set of MAV in foil and non, a set of foil MVL uncommons, a metric craptonne of EA’s, some playmats, random swag… oh, and a complete set of Marvel Universe.

How d’ya like THEM apples???

Okay, so let’s get into some specifics.

We randomly paired up 64 teams, rolling the dice to see what sort of wild and wacky team combinations we’d end up with. Clearly, we could have just slapped together the decks… but what if it wasn’t us doing most of the deckbuilding? What if it was celebrated deckbuilders and community luminaries?

The invitations went out, the community responded, and the shenanigans are ready to commence!

But who did we turn to, you ask?

Behold! A veritable who’s who of dudes who we suckered into making decks for us! 

 

• Sean “BALDMAN” Marinelli,  owner of the world’s largest forehead, brings you Crisis Knights (Marvel Knights/Crisis) and Shake n Bake (Morlocks/Secret Six)
• Clifford “Captain_Comet” Parmeter, the most huggable podcast host ever, brings you Mask Of Steel (Superman/Doom) and Knights Errant (Gotham Knights/Doom Patrol)
• Miguel “CarlosTheDwarf” Rodriquez, the original VS blogger, brings you HK KO (Hellfire/Kree) and Green ‘rine (Green Lantern Corps/X-Men)
• Adam “Flashback81″ Kirkby, the most puzzling man this side of North Haverbrook, brings you Pate de FOES IG-ras (Injustice Gang/Future Foes) and Dark(seid) City (Darkseids Elite/Brotherhood)
• Squire “HomerJ” Kershner, jankmaster extreme, brings you ”Hi Everybody!” “Hi, Dr Spectrum!” (Inhumans/Squadron Supreme) and Titans United (Teen Titans/United Front)
• Jason “Jaxxin” Hager, who likes yelling at Hulk on foil cards, brings you Stranger Danger (JSA/Nextwave) and Box Full of Evil (BPRD/Legionnaires)
• Steve “Kamiza” Garrett, the UK’s sexiest eyes that can pull off a roundhouse kick, brings you The Claw Society (Secret Society/Weapon X) and Family of One (Fantastic Four/X-Statix)
• Brian “Kansashoops” Foley, American Maid’s favourite dork, brings you Adamantium Skrullmate (Checkmate/Skrull) and Psychopathic Reservists (Avengers/Sinister Syndicate)
• Patrick “Majestic” Yapjoco, the winningest Yapjoco ever, brings you Crime Watch (Underworld/Crime Lords) and Wolvie Smash! (Warbound/SHIELD)
• Aaron “Onyxweapon” Mead, living the VS Life in the frozen North, brings you Task Force: Revenge (JLI/RevSq) and The Revenge of Tony Danza from his tapdance extravaganza (Fearsome 5/Outsiders)
• Josh ”Runaway” Trujillo, the bravest blogger ever, brings you New Birds (New Gods/Birds of Prey) and Villain Potpourri (Villains United/Masters of Evil)
• Talulah “Soshi Kenpachi” McGillicutty, who didn’t give me his real name in his email, brings you /r/ moar cards (Infinity Watch/Negative Zone) and  On Public Urination (JLA/Thunderbolts)
• David “CaptainSpud” Tierney, with the power of 10000 potatoes, brings you Prime Qwardian Real Estate (League of Assassins/Antimatter) and Looney Bin (Arkham Inmates/Alpha Flight)
• Rian “Stubarnes” Fike, the most psychedelic player in VS history, brings you Green Weakness (Emerald Enemies/Sentinels) and Hitler’s Wristwatch (Kang Council/Thule Society)
• Paul “TheDerangedBear” Sung, renaming days of the week just for fun, brings you Warp Factor 9 (Heralds/SpeedForce) and Wild & Sticky (Spidey/WildPack)
• Oh, and Pablo (Eponymous) laid claim to The Horse Conjurer  (Shadowpact/Horsemen), while I (gdaybloke) couldn’t resist the Rebellion in New Jersey  (Manhunters/Defenders).

Now, we couldn’t make it just simple team-up decks, where’s the challenge in that? We’d end up with mono decks with one or two splashes. Bah.

No, decks had to adhere to some specific BYOTU (Bring Your Own Team Up) guidelines:

1. Each team must have no less than 15 cards stamped to that affiliation in the deck
2. No more than 20 cards in the deck can be generica – ie, stamped to no team at all
3. No cards stamped to any other affiliation are permitted.
4. No Mobilize, no Enemy of my Enemy.
5. Cards stamped to a character (ie Legend cards) do not count towards the 15 card minumums, but neither do they count towards the 20 card maximum allowed generica
6. Cards that target resources cannot target a team-up if it’s the last team-up that player controls.

The decks have been split into brackets, ensuring that no deckbuilder’s two decks will end up fighting each other (unless they both make it through to the final match). The brackets themselves will be revealed over the next few days, though you can get started with a little peek at the Rose Division!

Of course, what you’re REALLY interested in is the prizes. It’s okay, you can admit it.

Deckbuilder prizes:
The builder of the winning deck chooses which of these he would like; the runner-up gets the other option:

• One (1) 6′ tall vinyl Dr Fate banner
• One (1) Marvel Tales #2 (1965)

 

 

Prom King & Queen prizes:
The public will have the opportunity to choose, As soon as all four divisions are revealed, who they think the winning team-up will be. As with the Ponies in March Madness, each team-up can only be claimed by a single participant.
The winner of the Prom contest chooses which of these he would like; the runner up gets the other option:

• One (1) complete set of MAV in both foil and non (440 cards)
• One (1) complete set of MVL Uncommons in foil (55 cards)

All participants in the Prom will receive EA’s and prize cards based on the performance of their chosen deck.

Betting Circle prizes:
The public will have the opportunity each round to choose a division, and within that division choose the winners of each match. Points will be awarded in a similar fashion to March Madness.

I just can't believe the awesomeness

The participant with the most points at the conclusion of the event will win:

• One (1) complete set of MUN (330 cards) generously donated by UDE (who says they don’t love us???)

All participants in the Betting Circle will receive EA’s and prize cards based on their participation and their accumulated points.

 

Door prizes:
The following will be given out at the discretion of the Lost Hemisphere staff – some at random, some based on pre-determined criteria (we’re very secretive – though it assuredly includes active participants in the VSRealms threads).

• One (1) custom playmat, donated by Sean Marinelli
• One (1) Fin Fang Foom playmat
• Two (2) Batman Starter Decks
• Random swag that I’ll be picking up at the Toronto FanExpo on the 22nd 

VSRealms, our home away from home
As always, discussion for the event can be had at the following thread at VSRealms: Linky McLinkerson

We will be accepting picks for winners as of August 11th; No picks will be accepted before this time, and they will only be accepted in the appropriate threads we will start at VSRealms. (links pending)

Games will commence August 18th 2008; as of 7PM EST 08/18/08, no further picks for Prom King & Queen and first round match-ups will be accepted. Availability for picks for second round match-ups will be announced at the conclusion of the first round games.

Welcome to the Summer of Love…