9 posts tagged “vs”
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.
The preview seasons has arrived, and boy has it arrived in style:
The full news is over at VS System.com, but a quick summary:
- Previews start next week.
- Two previews a week will be on VSSystem.com, others will be done by the bloggers.
- World Championships date and venue announced; Origins Game Fair, June 25-29, in Columbus, Ohio.
- DCX cards now available on the UDE Points Store (Though we knew that already.)
Whilst the two previewed cards themselves are pretty darn tasty, one little bit has whet my appetite even more. The Dual-Affiliation of Captain America with The Avangers and The Invaders. My moment of pure speculation is that as Marvel's title 'The Twelve' has been released in recent months, there may be an inclusion of them in the 'Invaders' team.
Obligatory Comic-Book Lore: The Invaders were the hero team of World War 2 in the Marvel Universe, consisting of Captain America, Bucky, Namor, the original Human Torch, and several others. Alongside numerous heroes of the time, they led the charge into Berlin at the end of the war, including twelve now long-forgotten heroes from when Marvel Comics was known as Timely Comics, including The Phantom Reporter, The Laughing Mask, Master Mind Excello and Black Widow.
During the raid on Berlin, The Twelve, as they're now known in the monthly comic, were frozen in time by Nazi scientists, and have awoken in the present day, with the consequences one can expect from not being around for sixty years. With the Invaders team, it just seems like too good an opportunity to waste not to have them included in this, or the next Marvel set. (Though the comic-book will be over by the time of the next release.)
Anyhows, I'll leave with a very small hint to UDE as to who I'd like to preview if given the chance:
The UK Nationals are nearly here, and the prize support is looking top-notch already, and it hasn't even all been announced yet! Today, it was made known that there'll be at least a whopping 300 extended-art cards given away as prizes. Just to impress that upon you, Three Hundred. This is on top of a whole other bunch of promo cards, playmats, t-shirts and booster packs. You name it, it's being given away. Except for that, you dirty-minded scamp.
Now, I just need to get some serious testing done over the week, and hope my card-sleeves get here through the post before Friday.
And not just my undying love for pizza and VS System. Though there is VS love involved in this entry. It's Valentine's Day coming up, and though I may not have someone to spend it with myself, I can celebrate the love of well-known comic-book characters, and so, later in the week, I'll be posting up the "Lover's Decklist", an attempt to shoe-horn in as many romantically-linked characters as possible, with some semblance of playability.
Of course, the X-Men will be the staple building block, and not just because mutants seem unnaturally randy.
Secondly, there's love in the air for music in 2008, just today I have had my senses assaulted by some fine electronica, which combined with other releases set for this year, show that electronic music could be making a big indent into the charts this year, with Hot Chip already leading the way with a UK Top 10 album and single.
So, to entertain you until my next entry on Thursday or Friday, some existing and upcoming highlights of 2008:
(Warning; some of the videos contain flashing images.)
'Bears Are Coming' by Late of The Pier
'Bathroom Gurgle' by Late of The Pier
'Ready For The Floor' by Hot Chip
Until next time, adieu.
Not had much of a chance to update the past couple of days, due to being slightly busy, and unfortunately, now I have the chance, it's not-so-good news. The Elite Series in Dundee has had to be postponed for two weeks to November the 3rd, because UDE took so long in replying to my local store's request to run it, that they can't ship out the prize-support in time for next weekend.
The weekend after on the 27th is taken up by some Magic: The Gathering thing, which will probably get a larger turnout than VS will. I still can't see the attraction, other than a cynical view of it being easier than other card games, and people can't be bothered to learn something slightly more complicated. (Our local players of MTG don't appear to be in it for the high-money tournaments, so that's not the draw.)
I'll still be getting a decklist made up, though I'm trying to decide between a competitive Doomed Earth deck, to try and make the grab for the top prizes, or go with X-Men, just because I love them.
All that jazz, and my download speed has dropped to 25 kb/s. Not good when you're trying to re-download everything you've purchased on Steam.
(For correct formatting, click this entry's title.) Since about March/April, I've been playing a Collectible Card-Game called VS. It's similar to others like Magic: The Gathering and the World of Warcraft TCG, except for that fact it's actually good, and fun to play. Instead of generic fantasy creatures and wizards, you instead get the greatest individuals known to mankind.
Superheroes.
And that's what I'm here for today.
To me, the X-Men have always embodied the concept of the superhero. Ordinary people given powers by a simple altered gene, saving the world on numerous occasions, and yet, being feared and loathed by many of those they seek to protect. And out of this courageous group, one man stands out to me, who both embodies the concept of 'cool', and can somehow make a brown trenchcoat with pink actually look good.
However, undeterred, I shall go to the trouble of building up a Gambit-themed deck, and keeping to Silver Age mechanics, save for the four cards from the dawn of time.
