4 posts tagged “system”
This was supposed to be posted on Wednesday, and the Wednesday before that...and the Wednesday before that. Unfortunately, Wednesday seems to be a darn-awful day to try and get anything done. Plus, I've had to start getting down to business with my revision for a couple of exams next week. So, I finally present; the deck I won't be taking to the World Championships, but would love to:
Horse Patrol (Modern)
Characters
4x Elasti-Girl, Rita Farr
4x The Infinites, AoA
4x Sugar Man, AoA
4x Mento, Steve Dayton
4x Negative Man, Larry Trainor
4x Dark Beast, AoA
3x Robotman, Cliff Steele
3x Apocalypse, AoA (5-drop)
2x Beast Boy, Freak of Nature
1x Mikhail Rasputin, AoA
1x Apocalypse, AoA (8-drop)
Plot Twists
4x Freak Out
4x Heroic Effort
3x Marvel Crossover
4x Misfits
3x Pathetic Attempt
2x Omnipotence
2x Strange Days
Locations
2x Dayton Manor
2x Breeding Pens
It's a standard Doom Patrol/Horsemen of Apocalypse team-up, with the aim of surviving through until Turn 5, and then dumping as many +1/+1 counters onto the 5-drop Apocalypse as possible. I had a version of this deck floating around back when DC Legends first came out, but this is the first time I've updated it to include The Infinites and Breeding Pens. Unfortunately, the deck tends to not hold it's weight against some of the bigger decks out there, which is why the Pathetic Attempts and Omnipotences are included. As it's not quite as competitive a deck as my Brotherhood one is, I'll not be considering using this for the World Championships in June, but it's one that sees play online from time to time. Also, I'm still awaiting many of the cards from the UDE Points Store, so this deck can't be created by me in real-life just yet anyhow.
I've also had to skimp on my views on the new Marvel Universe Hulk cards previewed this week, thanks to the revision again. So, whilst I can't fit them all into this one post, I'll place up the one that's most intriguing for me.
So, you may simply be thinking; "It's a Hulk-stamped ungodly +8 ATK card. Aside from making me go and cry in the corner, what's the big deal?" Well, the deal is Mystique, Shapely Shifter. From Turn 4, she can go "Hello, I'm now called Hulk. Give me the +8 ATK goodness please." A rather nice addition to my Brotherhood deck, and if I can get a playset of this card, Sabretooth may have to make way for the shape-shifting lady.
And in addendum, I finally get my loans/grants for this term at University tomorrow, so I can go and pre-order my boxes of Marvel Universe, and buy the singles I need to finish off my Modern Brotherhood deck. If I can find copies of Random that is.
The new Hulk preview is up, and it's an extremely potent Plot-Twist:
This card works in a similar fashion to Caiera from yesterday, allowing at a basic level, the opportunity for your Hulk to swing twice in one round, which coupled with the inevitable +ATK effects we're likely to see, is going to be some serious damage to your opponent's endurance. The difference with this card is the fact that the effect is usable two whole turns earlier, and without the cost of removing some of your board presence. It comes at the price of stunning the Hulk you want to use the effect on, and losing the card's cost in endurance, but between 3 and 8 endurance is a small price to pay in the grand scheme of things.
Now, with what very little we've seen so far, Hulk is going to be one seriously tough character to put down, and keep down. The question is; how do we do that? Before today, it seemed that an out-of-combat stun, and a Finishing Move would very likely clear the board for your own characters to hit straight-to-the-face, with Hulk's apparent strategy of having only one character in play each turn. Now, with this card, all manner of 'Target' effects are rendered useless as of Turn 4, provided they have this card, and more than likely some copies of Pathetic Attempt. So how do we try and sort this situation out?
My answer right now? Alternate win condition.
Of course, it's a Brotherhood way of dealing with things, as the X-Men don't appear to have anything that can deal with Hulk efficiently until Turn 7, with Professor X, World's Most Powerful Telepath. This card used against Hulk, Savage Hulk is potentially a game winner, until it gets negated with today's previewed card thanks to the Professor's 'Target' effect. Thus, the answer lies with the Brotherhood, and an odd concept for them; stalling. Why, I hear you ask?
Simple, this card: Xorn's Takeover.
Provided you can get the card out on Turn 4, then a Turn 6 win is possible. Against normal decks, this card suffers from Brotherhood decks ideally wanting to keep characters in play to cause damage, and get the game over with as quick as possible. In this case, we only need to potentially stun/remove one opposing character each turn, due to Hulk's lone-character play. There are two ways I can see of doing this:
1.) Deliberately sending non-beefed up characters into Hulk without any help, to ensure they get stunned whilst attacking, and Hulk doesn't, before sending in one character with enough +ATK to stun Hulk, and a low enough DEF to get stunned back. The board is all stunned, and Xorn's Takeover gets one of it's counters added.
2.) Getting to the Recovery phase with a lone Magneto in play, then playing Metallic Assault to get rid of Hulk and Magneto, leaving the board empty.
There's also the option of using the Target-based effect of Finishing Move, but it's risky with Righteous Anger and Pathetic Attempt being around.
So, the question remains; what can you think of that'll defeat Hulk....or is he simply unstoppable?
Blimey, slightly info-packed today it seems. Over at VSsystem.com, there's not one, but two previews of new Hulk cards from the forthcoming Marvel Universe set.
Looking at the 4-drop Hulk, the usage of a 'gamma counter' indicates a number of similar effects will be in play for Hulk, and possibly the Warbound team as a whole. Obviously, it takes it's influence from the 'Cosmic' ability, whilst ensuring that a team-up with Cosmic teams such as Heralds of Galactus doesn't result in Hulk being given a godly amount of counters to result in a broken card. I notice that his ability to stun 2-drop characters in play doesn't specify just opposing characters, which means some tactical consideration is probably needed as to whether getting rid of the enemy's 2-drops is worth the cost of your own as well. However, with "The" Ben Seck's description of a 'lone-character' system for the Warbound team, mostly focusing on Hulk, it seems likely you won't have a 2-drop in play at Turn 4 anyway, which mitigates the effect the ability will have on yourself.
The second card, Caiera, initially seems a little weak for a 6-drop ability, until you notice that the text Hulk gains doesn't include the phrase 'cannot cause breakthrough', meaning that, for instance, you can use Hulk, Savage Hulk twice in a row, so that if somehow you didn't win the game on your first swing with the character, your newly-found second attack is going to cause even more serious damage. A very effective tactic if the opponent manages to reinforce the first time round, and also another potential game-ender in a Coming of Galactus game.
That's the only cards that were previewed for today, with more coming up during the week, the links to which can be found in the article on VSsystem.com
The newest VS event I can't take place in due to no local Hobby League is here, and it's a Modern: Bring Your Own Set (building teams only from one of the four most recently released sets) tournament. Details can be found HERE. The main reason that yet another event that's passing me by has caught my attention, is this:
Whilst it's partially ruined by the horrible "Chill Out!" phrase, there's not much that can compare with Mr Freeze for sheer awesomeness, and it's definitely my favourite playmat since the X-Men one from the Elite Series last year. I'm not sure how many there's been since the X-Men one, but even so, still awesome.
Just a shame I'm probably never going to own one.
