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MEV Preview: The Leapfrog

My first thought when I saw this card - "Ahh, something to help keep Victor Mancha around!"

For those of you living under a rock (Part 1)
The Runaways' main theme is "Decking" your opponent - getting them to deplete their deck and winning through an alternate win condition. Until now, that theme belonged to Arkham Inmates and the deliciously insane "Emperor Joker." But with Marvel Evolutions we've got Old Lace, another character that can ruin your opponent's day by taking them out when they've got no cards left to draw. (The nice thing about Old Lace is, she comes a turn earlier than Joker!)

As you can see, The Leapfrog helps Runaway fans capitalize on the team's theme. Not only do opponents now pay a penalty when they stun one of your characters, but The Leapfrog gives you the option to stun your ready Runaways characters yourself.

And whose to say you won't have multiple 'frogs in play? With a zero cost, it shouldn't be too hard to get multiples on the board. Getting 3 copies out on 3 characters means that 6 cards (or 1/10 the average deck) go into the KO'd pile if your board gets stunned. So think about it - if this happens on turn 4, your opponent likely drew 12 cards already anyway. That's nearly 1/3 of his deck gone by mid-game without factoring in any of the other Runaways tricks.

Granted, you'll be paying a cost for this too - it's not like you get to absorb the stun damage (where's Storm when you need her?). And a stunned character is a vulnerable one (where's The Alley when you need it?). Still, equipping The Leapfrog can be a viable strategy for keeping key Runaways around.

For those of you living under a rock (Part 2)
So what the heck is "The Leapfrog" anyway? And, if it's "The" Leapfrog, why isn't it unique?

I'll take these one at a time.

When you're a team of unregistered super-kids roaming the streets of Los Angeles, you can expect trouble to come looking for you. And if you can't outrun it, you'll need a rugged set of "wheels" that can hold about 8 people comfortably and comes stocked with dozens of evasive features (and some weapons to boot). This would be The Leapfrog. (Notice how I said it has "evasive" features? "Evasive" -> "Evasion". Get it?)

So how do you pick up one of these sweet machines? Well, it helps if your parents were part of an evil, super-powered cult and you found their secret hideout. That's how the Runaways did it. And once they figured out how to make The Leapfrog work, they were off and...well...running.

And while there is only one Leapfrog (that we know about anyway), readers of the Runaways will be quick to point out that time-traveling is a semi-regular theme in the book. Not only do the kids go as far back as 1907, but they are also visited by "early" versions of their parents, who come to lay down some whoop-ass. So it's not really a stretch to think the kids could come across multiple versions of this tank.

I can't wait to see how MEV rounds this team out. Will I finally have the viable "decking" deck I've been looking for since DSM came out? I certainly hope so.

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Today's other preview:

The Jank Has Chosen - http://jankhaschosen.com/

Tomorrow's Previews:

Planet Kalee - http://casualvs.wordpress.com/
It's A VS Life - http://onyxweaponvs.blogspot.com/

Don't forget to come back tomorrow for a few very interesting MEV-related offers...

Marvel Universe Preview - Alpha Flight: Reborn

It's time to finish what we started. Here's the full version of Alpha Flight: Reborn!

Yes, I realize the potential for abuse here is sick, but we'll get to that in a minute. First, lets talk Alpha Flight.

The Background
Many of you know Alpha Flight as this:

So who are THESE clowns?

Back in 2004 (nearly 7 years after Alpha Flight finished the second run of their own book), Marvel decided to relaunch the team. But this time they wanted to do things a bit differently. Instead of sticking to the original team (Guardian, Vindicator, Northstar, Aurora, Puck, Shaman, etc.), they had founding member Sasquatch pull together a new team in order to find the "M.I.A." original team.

And while 'squatchy had the best intentions, by his own admittance, his choice in replacements left a lot to be desired. The team consisted of:

• Centennial - A 97-year-old grump with Superman-like powers.
• Major Mapleleaf - Son of a WWII superhero who has a secret...the only thing Super about him is the flying horse he rides.
• Yukon Jack - a native Canadian (Canadian "Indian"?) with great combat skills and an ego twice the size of his muscles.
• Nemisis - A deadpool-lookin' lass with a magic blade.
• Puck - But not THAT Puck. This is Puck's daughter. Similar powers, different heights.

This team of second stringers somehow managed to bumble their way into solving the "Missing Alpha Flight" mystery and, in the process, learned a little about teamwork. But now that we had the original team back, it seems this sub-team's days were numbered. Or were they? Just when readers thought they'd finally get to read about the new adventures of the beloved ORIGINAL Alpha, that team launches itself into space and leaves us back on Earth with this group of misfits. Arrrggh!!!

But, as sad as it was to be left with this team of wannabes, there's no questioning the fact that their exploits were pretty darn amusing. Take, for example, their "Days Of Future Present: Past Participle" storyline. The team has to go back in time to "fix" the past, so the present can be saved from a terrible threat. But the only way they can get back in time is to sacrafice themselves to Nemisis' magic blade in small groups. If their mission succeeds, then they will be brought back to life (cuz if they fix the timeline, then they never would have had to fall on her sword in the first place). Unfortunately, the first group fails. In fact, they mess up the timeline even more. So Nemisis kills group two. They fail as well. Worse than the first group. Things EVENTUALLY work out for the team, but it's a pretty convoluted and entertaining adventure (collected in "Alpha Flight Vol. 2: Waxing Poetic").

OK - enough about this team of misfits. Let's look at the card!!

The Power
Pull any Plot Twist or Alpha Flight Character Card out of your KO'd pile. You don't have to pay 5 endurance like the Titans. You don't have to be running Secret Society. You just have to burn one plot twist. Crazy!

Keep in mind that the theme of this team is "play tons of PTs, get crazy advantages". So Alpha Flight: Reborn goes down real well with Weapon Omega and Beta Ray Bill. Play this bad boy, then play the plot twist you pulled out of the KO'd pile. Didja pick Siphon Energy? Then once you've chosen a target, you've already played 3 PTs towards Bill's effect. Hit your characters with a couple of Flying Kicks (yours OR your opponent's...if you're playing Weapon Omega) and maybe another search card, and BAM!, your opponent just lost his 5-drop before Turn 7 combat begins. Not bad!

So the real drawback here is the team stamp. As TBS told us, Alpha is not really going to "fly" as a solo team. You're looking for a team-up here. So which teams would benefit from this type of twist? Actually, I think the real question is, which teams WOULDN'T? 

Off the top of my head, I can think of a few "Big Impact" Plot Twists in Modern that would benefit greatly from being played 4+ times in a game:

Bat Got Your Tongue?
Berserker Rage
Brains and Brawn
Family of Four
Firewall
Full Throttle
Impervious
Only Human
Teen Titans Go!
The Next Brotherhood

There are obviously plenty more to add to this list. The question is, will it be worth it to team with the Canadian Supergroup? We'll just have to wait to see how the rest of the Flight rounds out.

And now, a Bears-eye view:

The Bear
This card is really hard to evaluate in the abstract, since how good it is is dependent on the quality of whatever it is returning. Don't get me wrong: It has a good effect, but the only thing that I can say about it is that it does what it does, and if you need to do what it does you'll play it. If not, you won't.

More specifically, if you are already playing Alpha Flight you will probably play it, it'll probably be one of the best cards in your deck. However, if you are not playing Alpha Flight, you probably won't be playing it since it's likely not worth the squeeze especially without Enemy of my Enemy.

The last card similar to this was Sorcerer's Treasure. Reborn is better in most ways since you can return a character - which is a benefit, but probably not the reason you're playing this card - and doesn't force a team stamped discard. It also has the benefit of not removing the recurred twist from the game, so you can keep returning the same plot twist.

This is really synergistic with the Secret Society, and the ability to chain copies of Alpha Flight: Reborn in the KO'd pile together is something Beta Ray Bill really likes.

I think this card probably isn't going to have an impact on either Silver or Modern, especially with Enemy of my Enemy gone from the former. You'd need to have something particuarly awesome to force you to have that Alpha Flight character in play. If you can recur something broken, then this card is incredible, which is exactly the case in Golden Age.

When people think of Golden Age broken decks, Rigged Elections is probably the first that comes to mind. Rigged Elections no longer has the ability to easily play out a bunch of free characters, as it did shortly after the release of Heralds of Galactus. This glut of recruit burdens the deck to cough up more mass re-readies.

This card does that, quite easily too. The fact that the card requires you to only control an Alpha Flight character and not discard means its incredible with Hypnotic Charms and Lacuna, Mirage - Miriam Delgado, or the one drop Chameleon - all of which can render the condition meaningless.

With UDE running a Golden Age tournament prior to Worlds, I think this card just might be the one that pushes Rigged Elections into a consistent turn four kill.

Unless you have Sage and Bad Press. Just saying.

The Point Store Has Been Good To Me

Today:

Yesterday:

BYOS wasn't so bad to me either:

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We took Baby The Dwarf out for her first seafood dinner last night. She was a bit concerned when she saw the menu:

But Mommy The Dwarf walked her through the selections:

And she finally settled on Bread and Butter Platter for four:

"Um - you guys are gonna help me eat this, right?":

Marvel Universe Preview: Mandarin, Tem Borjigin

Ladies and Gents, Vs-blog.com is proud to present - Mandarin, Tem Borjigin!

The Background
I love this character. For those of you unfamiliar with Iron Man's nemesis from the East, let me bring you up to speed:

+ Mandarin was once a well-respected official for the Chinese government. He had it all - wealth, power, women. But then the Communist Revolution rolled in and he lost everything.

+ In order to get everything back, he ventured into the Valley of Spirits, found a busted up, century-old alien ship, studied their science, and helped himself to 10 rings he found on the ship. Once he realized how kick-ass these special rings of power were, he decided to take the next logical step - world domination. Fortunately for the world, Iron Man was there to stop him time and time again.

+ After countless confrontations between Mandarin and Iron Man, Mandarin finally "died" when his fortress exploded in a battle with Iron Man in the late 90's.

+ 10 years pass. In 2007, a group of bad guys finds our villain alive (gasp!), chained up in a prison. They free him, only to find that there is something different about him...something missing. Namely - his hands. Pretty hard to wear ONE ring, let alone ten, when you've got no digits. The solution? They plug the rings directly into M's back. Ouch!

+ Fake hands and a back full of rings in tow, Mandarin (under the alias "Tem Borjigin") plans to create and release a deadly virus - wiping out life as we know it. Shell-head steps in and the two arch rivals clash again. The battle is fierce, but it ends as one might expect...with Mandy losing his precious rings and, once again, his life (at least until Iron Man II comes out).

As you can see from our preview card, the art and version reflect the most recent incarnation of the ring(s)-bearer - the "Tem Borjigin" phase.

The Power
So we've got a 3-drop that can take out an 8 drop? And then, if fortune smiles upon your draw power (or "rally" power), you can immediately take out their 7-drop as well? During any phase? And your character can still attack afterwards? And he (hopefully) fetches you an equipment card each turn? Yeah - I'll take it!

I'd always wondered how UDE was going to pull this guy off. His 10 rings of power would each make killer equipment cards. But as we learned from the various gems in MTU, collecting powerful equipment cards isn't all it's cracked up to be. It's hard enough to dedicate your deck to three Fate Artifacts. Can you imagine what it would be like to play a Mandarin Legend deck? 4x Mandarin, 10 x rings, 4 x equipment recursion/search...that's over 1/4 of your deck right there! It would never work.

But leave it to the gang at UDE to come up with a solution. Instead of relying on finding 10 specific pieces of equipment to fuel Mandarin’s power, all you need is 10 cards in hand. While this may sound like a lot, don't forget:

1. It takes 10 cards to fuel a similar effect for Deadshot - Floyd Lawton. Sure, those are in the KO'd pile, but Secret Society's mechanics make it relatively painless to pull off. Will the Crime Lord mechanics do the same for Mandy here? Which brings me to my next point:

2. We haven't seen everything the Crime Lords can do yet.

The Bear
And now I'm passing the mic to everybody's favorite Bear to close this preview out by shedding some light on the proper ways to abuse this bad boy:

This card is incredibly well designed both in terms of game play and flavor.

First, his 6 DEF is helpful at keeping him alive to the later turns where his power is best. Admittedly, his stats are somewhat irrelevant since he works best as an under drop.

Then there's his triggered ability: It's very flavorful given that the Mandarin's power comes from his rings. In terms of game play, it helps enable his second ability, and is especially potent at that since there are many equipment related cards conducive to card drawing. His 6 DEF also translates into more triggers of this ability then normal.

Finally, we get to his last ability; discard ten cards to stun a guy.

Jeez.

My first impression of him was unreasonably negative; although discarding ten cards is very flavorful, that’s a good chunk of change you're dumping.

Still, stunning a character of any cost at any time is an effect that deserves a second examination.

When trying to guesttimate how good a preview is, I look to similar cards from the past. The Mandarin is somewhat unique but comparable to The Infinity Gauntlet - which required six cards to enable - and to a lesser extent the SNO - Savage Beatdown, Nasty Surprise and Overload - combo, both of which saw play.

The difference is that Mandarin's commitment in deckbuilding is quite small. While you can certainly build around him, this evil man doesn't ask you to play bad, narrow, or even situational cards to enable him. He doesn’t have to be your plan A – you could use the card drawing in your deck to build toward something else and have him as a contingency plan.

All Mandarin asks of you is to draw cards, something which you probably want to do in the first place. In return, this Crime Lord eagerly takes all the excess characters and locations you’ve drawn and converts them into something ridiculous.

This card is a perfect fit with Beside Myself and Certifiable. Another route is Ego Gem on Speed Queen or Quicksilver. If you natural the Ego Gem on a re-readier on turn two – playing four’s not that bad since we want to hit equips with our Rally – you can get this guy active very quick especially when in concert with New Baxter Building and Harvey Bullock - Bishop.

I also think he has potential in Spider-Heralds off the back of Empire State University, Black Cat, Elemental Converters and both the three and five drop Frankie Raye. Maybe throw in Moondragon for some extra fun?
There’s also a good amount of card drawing in Modern too, with Oracle, Evil Genius and Criminal Mastermind. Ironically, he’s also quite good against the Injustice Gang.

If you really want to be a jerk in casual play, I would steer you towards a combination of Avalon Space Station, Soul World, Secret Sanctuary, Mr. Mxyzptlk , The Phantom Stranger, and Harvey Bullock - all of which recycle cards so you only need to discard four cards to stun with the Mandarin.

As with all the previews as of late, I'm sure someone will point out that discarding ten cards to get Pathetic Attempted or negated by Batman - Cape and Cowl is pretty lame.

Yes, it is.

But you know what's even lamer? Having your opponent stun your largest drop - possibly even your two largest - without even attacking you.

3 Things for Today

#1. I Need MUN Money!
As some of you may have seen in my sig on VsRealms, I'm looking to raise some cash for MUN. I'm also looking to get rid of most of the DVDs in my collection to make way for Blu-Ray. Amazingly enough, these two desires go hand-in-hand with the help of ebay. And hey - YOU can benefit from this by getting a great deal on some cool, used (but in great shape) DVDs. Here are just a few of the 26 titles I have up right now:

Click here to check out everything I've got up there now.

#2 Get Your Pens Ready - It's Contest Time!
The Deranged Bear and I love to read tourney reports. In fact, we just can't get enough. So we're going to have a contest here to make sure we get some killer reports from MY:NY. We've got two great Grand Prizes - one for Best Tourney Report, and another we'll give randomly to the writer of one of the reports. Details will come later this week.

#3 Come Back For A Visit Tonight At Around 9 p.m. PT/12 a.m. ET.
I've got a little something to help you "ring" in your Tuesday.

The Illuminati: A Pathetic Team?

In case you missed Monday's Vssystem.com preview, it focused on the newest "mini-team" in Vs. - The Illuminati.

The six members of the Illuminati are: Black Bolt, Dr. Strange, Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic, Professor X, and Sub-Mariner, regardless of their versions. To be "different" members of the Illuminati, characters must have different names.

There are some decent versions of the above characters, but synergy is lacking for the most part. Therefore, the new support cards should be kick-ass to make up for the lack of "team-ness" of this secret team. Like THIS one:

Cliff and Homer of "The Ring Has Chosen" fame brought us the above preview. A plot twist with great, but costly, game breaking effects that can practically secure a victory...unless your opponent plays Pathetic Attempt .

Why, for the love of Gog, does Gauntlet target?!? The fact that it targets practically kills it before it even hits the tables. Because, with cards like the five below coming up, don't think for a second 4x Pathetic Attempt won't become an instant staple in the Modern Age:

I was talking to my buddy, Crash, and he was hoping for some great negation from a Professor X support card. That may be the only thing that can save The Illuminati. Well, that, 4x Omnipotence, and some luck.

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UPDATE 1:

Now THAT's what I'm talking about.

UPDATE 2: Please read the comments below, as BigSpooky points out that I made the wrong call on the PA thing. Then I counter by pointing out that he's right. It's vicious.

MUB: Marvel Ultimate Battles

So I finally got me some cards:

$9.99 for the starter, $3.99 for each 9 card booster pack (ouch!) at Target. (I don't actually mind paying $4 for a booster, but I'd like the card count to be in the double digits at least.)

We ripped into the starters first:

After a few slow games and some minor confusion ("Can a wounded Hero attack?" "Do I remove KO'd Heroes from play?" "Did I really just lose on turn 1?") we were up to speed and playing some 15-20 minute games. It was kinda cool to have something quick to play between Vs. games. It's in no danger of replacing my favorite game, but I will admit I'm interested in purchasing a few more boosters.

Here are a few of the cool cards I got from my boosters:

Clockwise from top left: Magneto (50 Speed/70 Power/50 Mind) and Spider-man (60/60/60) are Hero Cards, Invisible Woman is an Upgrade Card (70/50/60 - "Your opponents' allies cannot intercept") which is worthless to me until I get her hero card. Bottom row we have Super Skrull (50/30/30 - Super Skrull gets +10 Power and +10 Mind for each card in your hand), Silver Surfer (70/70/70 - When you flip Silver Surfer, wound one of your heroes), and the Spider-Man only "Acrobatic Arachnid" - "Choose an opponent. That opponent's allies can't attack this round." It's like "Gift Wrapped!"

More MUN for Me

I did it.

I broke down.

I pre-ordered another case.

Yesterday I'm lecturing people on spending too much for 4x Superman/Batman Robots, then here I am, buying two cases of MUN! Did I mention I have a baby who needs to go to college in 18 years? In fairness, its not all for me. At least 1/2 of one case is already spoken for. My crew wanted a shot at a few of those Superhuman Registration Acts before Worlds.

So this leaves me with a case and a half. I wonder how deep into the "half" I'll have to dig to complete my 4x playset. My dream is to pull at least 8x the money card. Of course, I've had that dream with every set and only twice has it really worked out in my favor: 7 x Enemy of my Enemy (1 case), and 8 x Call in a Favor (3 CoG cases). Of course, it's much more likely that the opposite will happen, like my 9 Need for Speeds vs. my THREE Mobilize in my Legion case. Grr...

I'm not actually that worried about spending the extra money. I'm pretty sure I'm going to offset the extra 1/2 case with the extra rares I'll get out of it. Especially with "Worlds Fever" hitting around the same time as this set lands. Speaking of which - do you think THIS guy is going to get abused?

Yeah...me too.

The Coming of The Baldman

Yes, that title DOES sound a little dirty. But I assure you, all you'll get in this post is a great tourney idea (and an opportunity to win cool prizes if you live in the Bay Area).

My buddy Sean is hosting a tourney this weekend in Sacramento. You remember Sean, right? He's The Baldman - the guy who makes all those groovy custom playmats. Well, he's put together his own tourney and it's a tad different than the normal tourneys in this area - its a Silver Age Coming of Galactus tourney. The deal is, you pull together a team of 3 and face one of The Baldman's custom Galactus decks. Oh - and not only are the Galactus decks customized, Sean has ADDED NEW PLANETS AS WELL!

Name: JANUUS
Initiative:
Roll a die
Even – Alliance
Odd – Galactus

Game Text:
All Alliance characters can team attack
and reinforce as if they had all affiliations.
(This includes Unaffiliated Characters)

Objective:
If the Alliance has the initiative, the
Alliance must cause breakthrough.
If Galactus has the initiative, the
Alliance must take breakthrough.

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Name: UMBRA
Initiative: Alliance

Game Text:
At the start of the combat phase, move all
Alliance characters to the hidden area.
At the start of the Recovery phase, move all
non-concealed characters to the visible area.

Objective:
At the start of the Recovery phase,
all Galactus characters must be stunned

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Name: HOFF
Initiative: Galactus

Game Text:
Characters that are exhausted at the end of the
Combat phase can’t ready this turn.

Objective:
At the start of the Recovery phase,
all Galactus characters must be exhausted

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Name: GEMINI
Initiative: Alliance

Game Text:
Team attackers have invulnerability this turn.

Objectives:
1. The Alliance must stun all Galactus characters
AND
2. The Alliance must control at least one ready
character when the recovery phase begins

If both conditions are not met:
neither side wins this planet and shuffle
GEMINI back into the planets deck.

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Name: HALA
Initiative: Alliance

Game Text:
Alliance characters recruited this turn get
+1/+1 at the start of the combat phase this
turn for each other Alliance character recruited
this turn.

Objective:
At the start of the combat phase, identify the
highest cost character that Galactus controls:
That character must become stunned during
the combat phase.

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Name: HIVE WORLD
Initiative: Alliance

Game Text:
At the start of the Combat phase, the Alliance
may put a 2/2 token character into play for
each Alliance character recruited this turn.

Token characters:
1. have range
2. have all affiliations that the Alliance players have in play
3. have no cost (no stun damage, and no effects that target cost)
4. must come into play in the visible area, and under the control of the player whose character recruitment brought them into play.
5. KO at the start of the Recovery phase.

Objective:
At the start of the Recovery phase, all Galactus
characters must be stunned.

ROCK. ON!

Prizes include HoG playmats, both the UDE version and Sean's customized version. NorCal players (or players who like to travel) who want in can find all the details here. I wish I could go, but I've got a poker tourney/bachelor party that day. (Vs. always beats poker unless there is an outside chance of strippers.)

My MUN Prediction

I'm going to predict that MUN is going to sell very well. What is this prediction based on?

1. The previews have been outstanding. Heck, Based on "Superhuman Registration Act" alone, I'd say the set will sell well. But with the sweet Captain Americas and Hulks in the mix...well, lets just say A LOT of people I know love playing the Avengers, and even more have been looking to abuse the big green guy for some time now.

2. I have never received more "Carlos, I've decided to buy a case of the next set. Where should I get it?" emails. Ever. Which I think is great. The more they presell, the better. By the way, my answer to where to preorder a case/boxes is always, "From Joey's store, from Erick's store, or from your local store." (Pay no mind that while I always buy a few boxes from my local store, I get my case here. Do as I say, not as I do. You'll fell better for it.)

So here's the deal - if you HAVEN'T secured your boxes/case yet, I would waste no time doing so. I'm sure you will be able to pick up a box here or there from your local store, but you'll be paying more for them than if you pre-order from your local store. And you may not find as many boxes as you'll eventually want. Do yourself a favor and get the price break. Pre-order now.

(Do I sound like a late-night infomercial or what? Sorry if I sound like a sales-tool, I just want to make sure everyone is aware that it's time to get serious about ordering so we don't have to listen to any bitching later. Oh - and I also want to ensure we have a set after this one.)