Brass Canuckles

This is a difficult time for me when it comes to writing for LH, as I’m not able to ramble on about what I’m tossing together for the Battle of the Border.

See, I’ll need any advantage I can get if I’m to stand a chance against the deckbuilding titans I’ll be facing off against; while I could normally post something here, garnering feedback where possible, playtesting and reporting results, I can’t do that when the element of surprise may well be the only thing I have going for me at BotB.

You’ve seen the types of decks I build – I gotta hold on to whatever advantage I can get

What I can ramble on about, however, is BYOTT.

I’ve been tossing a few combos around in my head, but I guess I’m just obsessed with black-clad semi-undead sword-wielding maniacs at the moment; I just love The Hand.

They’re carrying one of my favourite team affiliations, they’re ninjas, they’re a hidden army of the damned… what’s not to love? So, then, it’ll come as no surprise that I spent last night at Hobby League testing a BYOTT deck with The Hand.

For last night’s testing I teamed them up with a staple that we already know works – Marvel Knights.

Gauntlet IX: Universal

 The MEV previews continue, with joyous niftiness going up on Facebook today as Ben Seck grants us our first peek at X-Force, including Cable and a Domino card that has me pondering kill-turn combo’s.

Having her in play on the turn you toss your Adamantium Claws on Wolvie, along with Berserker Rage, et al, could do wonders to remove the threat of stunbacks from Nasty Surprises, or attack-blunting classics like Burn Rubber, or even Last Stand in Golden. And then, just to rub it in, use her along with Shadowcat for a Fastball Special. They’re both X-Men after all, and Kitty will enjoy the company in the hidden area.

Back to the business at hand, let’s toss a new challenge at Aaron.

Now, as you know, Aaron failed to complete the last Gauntlet in time for a Sunday article, but I’ve granted him a little extension. He’ll still be penalised for missing the deadline, but extenuating circumstances have brought me to a merciful state of mind, so he doesn’t have to perform a full Broadway hit. Just a chorus. While Cliff (Captain_Comet) has the final decision on just which song that chorus must come from, I’m sure any suggestions from Steph (Misguidedwonder), who should be intimately familiar with Aaron’s singing voice and thus have an idea of which songs would be most amusing, will be taken on board.

This week, I’m reminded fondly of DGL, and four cards that didn’t see a lot of play. Each potentially had quite a strong effect, but it was at the high cost of four exhaustions, and in the end the payoff just didn’t seem to cut the mustard.

Reciting the Oath
In Darkest Night
Anti-Matter Universe
Council of Power

I’ve seen a Council of Power deck that worked by using the Manhunters with the Squadron Supreme’s empty-hand theme, but what about the others?

SoL: Technical Difficulties

I know many of you were expecting the big final match report for Summer of Love today (as well as the dissemination of the remaining door prize) but unfortunately we’ve run into some technical difficulties.

In true Lost Hemisphere tradition, we’ve been working to give you a finale worthy of much rep, as a thank you for riding in the swan boat with us for the last two months.

Naturally, such a truly awe-inspiring finale requires quite a bit of work and, well, despite there being three of us working on it, we lost our resident techie for a significant period over the last week, when CaptainSpud had to charter a moose.

See, there’s not a lot of moose rental huts in the Toronto area, so he had to travel to Thunder Bay (which isn’t anywhere as dramatic as it sounds) in search of a Moose Charter Agency, which is a much more significant journey than simply driving to the local gun & liqour store to get lubricated and shoot something.

Thankfully, Spud was able to secure a Moose for a period, resolve the issue, and has since returned to us.

Finale presentation is behind schedule, but we will be doing our darndest to have it to you by the end of the week, hopefully Thursday.

Thank you for your patience.

- Gdaybloke and the Eponymous Pablo.
- (no Spud, he’s too busy)

Answering The Call: Busy Signal

You may have noticed the complete lack of a deck from Aaron today.

While I am postively aghast at this turn of events, a solid thrashing with a bamboo rod has revealed extenuating circumstances that have led me to be of a… forgiving… mood.

Not that forgiving though.

Aaron is hereby granted a 48 hour extension on his current Gauntlet challenge.

I’m not THAT forgiving, though… while he has a chance to avoid a full-on production, the cost for this extension is that he must provide at least a chorus. I’m thinking Gilbert and Sullivan, myself.

To the mother of my children

Lost Hemisphere wishes the lovely Gdaysheila a cosmically delicious birthday.

(Bill art by Cinar)

A post NOT about MEV previews!

With previews abounding and everyones heads reeling as we try to wrap our communal consciousness around Energize, Shift, and their impact on the game, it’s difficult to apply any mental energy to anything else.

Sit down for ten minutes and try – just try – to make that revamped X-Men curve deck you were thinking about, and it’s pretty much a garauntee that you’ll find your thoughts drifting towards every other Marvel Evolutions preview card, since so many of them are X-Men dual affiliated.

This has had a direct impact on the blogosphere, with everyone writing about previews and… not too much else.

For me personally, this has compiled with my painting Warmachine figures, working on the taxes and bookkeeping for my wife’s business, finally watching some Heroes episodes (after finally watching Firefly), and the general malarkey that comprises my life.

But that’s not what you’re interested in, is it…

You want to read about VS.

The further complication here is that Battle of the Border is just a few weeks away, and I’m loathe to tip my hat as to what I’m going to be playing. Anyone who knows me can probably narrow it down to four or five options, but why should I make their job easier?

Instead, let’s talk about making funky decks.

Caption Contest #22

It’s Thuuuuuuursday! Time to give you another opportunity to win rares and prize cards from my binder! Check out the pic below, make a funny in the comments, win stuff! It’s just that simple…

MEV Preview: Mimic, Team Leader

by Spud

Nobody reads the text before the preview card, so I feel safe admitting to my unclean thoughts regarding mackerel in tutus. They just look so elegant… so agile… so smooth.

Wow… it feels so good to finally get that off my chest. @_@

SoL: Feedback

As we wrap up the latest major event from Lost Hemisphere, howsabout some feedback?

Did you like the fancy bracket that Spud coded up? Aside from being visually appealing, did you find being able to click the bracket to see the decks and deckbuilder notes handy or irksome in comparison to, say, deckchecks along the lines of those we had for March Madness?

Were you satisfied with SoL presence on VSRealms? Did we overdo it? Did we underdo it? Did you miss the call at some point due to lack of presence in some respect?

What were your thoughts on the format? Too lax? Too restrictive? What are your feelings on the ban on Mobi and EomE?

Did you like the match reports? Were the more narrative reports enjoyed, or would you rather see more no-nonsense play-by-plays? Was something missing that you would have liked to have seen?

There were a lot of upsets in the results – did this make it more exciting for you, or more frustrating? Did you feel that there were terrible plays ruining your chances in the betting pools?

What are your thoughts on the prize pool? Nothing to interest you? Too freakin’ insane?

What other formats would you be interested in seeing in future events? What are your thoughts on community involvement in the deckbuilding?

Feel free to either comment here, or here.

No hobby league report today…

… mainly because we don’t want to tip our hands as to what decks we’re planning on playing at BotB

Instead, allow me to share some pics of the latest additions to my Warmachine army…

First up, Ingrid the Ogrun Bokur, bodyguard to Thor Steinhammer. Made possible thanks to Spud’s handy scultping skills.