Risk Vs. Reward: Brave New World
We have turned a new page. We have updated the calendar. The future of Vs. System is about to explode. The Mega-Weekends are coming, and they are reviving every set ever printed. We will be wallowing in Modern, Silver, and Golden Age cards. The alternate formats are coming back to life.
The announcement was made during the winter solstice, but it was summertime in our deck boxes and binders. Clicking through the Archive News on VsSystem.com, you will find hundreds of recipes for triumph, terror, and tomfoolery. A thousand more strategies beckon once again from Metagame.com. The cornucopia of Vs. System history is about to overflow into the tournament hall. Thanks to the Mega-Weekends, every deck ever published will now have a date with Organized Play.
February in Los Angeles. April in Chicago. June in New York. All of our favorite cardboard characters are eligible, and there will be three different sets of spotlights. Each Mega-Weekend will include a variety of deckbuilding formats. Who will be crowned the first king of Random Punks? Which devious deck designer will Build a Legend better than anyone else in the world? Who has the biggest Alter Ego? When you Bring Your Own Set, are you the best? How amazing would the first awarded uncut sheet of Vs. System cards look on your living room wall?
Yes, I said uncut sheet. A mega-prize indeed. Let’s get the New Year started by dreaming about destroying the competition. Let’s think about Destroyer, Herald.
I have narrowed the entries in the Destroyer Barn Door Challenge to four finalists. Each of them could easily be made legal for multiple formats in the upcoming Mega-Weekends. Whether you are brave enough to risk something like that on center stage in a feature match or not, I have a job for you today. I need you to help me decide which of these is our winner. I also need you to name them, and you will receive credit in a future article if your moniker is chosen. Send your vote and any ideas on what these decks should be called to rianfike@hattch.com, or drop me a message on www.vsrealms.com. I will announce the Barn Door Destroyer Champion in two weeks. I could write three pages of raving lunacy describing these masterpieces, but I will save that for another day. Each deck is followed by a short description from its creator. Without further ado, the four finalists:
Robert Smallwood
Characters
4 Boliver Trask
2 Sentinel Mark I
4 Speed Queen
4 Barbara Gordon ◊ Oracle, Hacker Elite
2 Sentinel Mark II
10 Sentinel Mark V
2 Daredevil, New Kingpin
1 Spider-Man, Stark’s Protg
2 Destroyer, Herald
Plot Twists
4 Enemy of My Enemy
3 Reconstruction Program
3 Search and Destroy
3 Poker Night
3 Epic Battle
2 Chilly Reception
2 Combat Protocols
Locations
3 South American Sentinel Base
2 Soul World
Equipment
4 Ego Gem
This list is extremely entertaining and janky. To me, this deck is both playable and fun. It goes well against curve or stall decks.
The basic idea is to fill your hand with Sentinels and stall. This deck very much wants the even initiatives, and the optimal early play is Barbara in the hidden area, followed by Speed Queen with an Ego Gem (allowing you to draw three extra cards). The Search and Destroy is for rush. Your board will look like it is losing until turn 6, when you want to Daredevil the opposing board. Then, Spidey locks down your opponent’s turn 7 play. On turn 8, you drop Destroyer and all the purple robots come alive. With a few copies of Epic Battles and/or Combat Protocols, it’s game over.
Alapai Michels
Characters
4 The Dwarf
4 Ebenezer Laughton ◊ Scarecrow
4 Umar
4 Morlun
2 Modred the Mystic
9 Manhunter Giant
4 Dweller in Darkness
2 Dormammu
1 Destroyer, Herald
Plot Twists
4 In Limbo
4 Ritual Sacrifice
4 Dark Designs
4 Dimensional Rift
Locations
3 Slaughter Swamp
3 Soul World
4 The Dark Dimension
I decided to try to stall using Underworld, which has some nice endurance gain and “keep your board around” effects. There should be enough ways to get enough Manhunter Giants out on turn 8 using Destroyer, since there are a lot of ways to get cards from the KO’d pile into your hand and a fair amount of effects to get them into the KO’d pile. Then, on turn 8, you drain your opponent’s deck into oblivion!
Josh Tate
Characters
1 Galactus, Devourer of Worlds
1 Destroyer, Herald
3 Galactus, The Maker
1 Adam Warlock, Protector of the Soul Gem
1 The Fallen One, The Forgotten
1 Terrax, Harbinger of Ruin
1 Thunderbolt
7 Annihilation Protocol ◊ OMAC Robot
1 Red Shift, Rift Walker
4 S.T.R.I.P.E.
4 Air-Walker, Gabriel Lan
4 Jack Knight ◊ Starman
1 Silver Surfer, Skyrider of the Spaceways
Plot Twists
4 I Must Obey
4 Creation of a Herald
4 Allied Against the Dark
3 Advance Warning
3 Kindred Spirits
Locations
4 The Rock of Eternity
3 Worldeater Apparatus
1 Soul World
1 Slaughter Swamp
1 Elemental Converters
1 New Baxter Building
Equipment
3 Ego Gem
The goal of the deck is to stall with Air-Walker and I Must Obey. The preferred curve is Jack Knight, Air-Walker, S.T.R.I.P.E., and Thunderbolt. Air-Walker is amazing with The Rock of Eternity, since he can exhaust two characters. When Destroyer hits the board, the Annihilation Protocol is engaged.
Ollie Frith
Characters
5 Alpha Primitives
5 Hounds of Ahab
4 Doom Bot Corps
2 Dr. Doom, Richards’s Rival
6 Ultron
1 Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius
1 Kree Public Accusers
2 Robot Destroyer
3 Punisher Squadron
1 Cassandra Nova
1 Destroyer, Herald
Plot Twists
4 Crisis on Infinite Earths
4 Teamwork
3 Mystical Paralysis
4 Mobilize
4 Enemy of My Enemy
3 Only Human
4 Waking the Ancestors
3 A Proud Zinco Product
My original build was an OMAC Robot abuse build that attempted to get Destroyer into play on turn 7. It would’ve worked if I could have found the other half of a personal puzzle. (The first half was We Had a Team-Up naming Destroyer and Checkmate; see if you can guess what the other half was.)
But instead, I present to you . . . Crisis on Infinite Army Characters! The premise is simple. The build is control-ish until turn 8, when Destroyer floods the board. Either Dr. Doom or Doom Bot Corps will let you play the only stamped effects in the deck other than the Alpha Primitives—Waking the Ancestors tech against Quicksilver. It’s just a race to 8 with everyone teamed-up thanks to Crisis. The only downside is that it makes your Army characters unique, but if necessary, the 3-drop Doom can blow it up for you; and Destroyer puts the Army characters straight into play on turn 8, so it shouldn’t be much of a problem. Crisis also means that the search suite can fetch Destroyer, or any beauty you want.
Specific tech:
- Waking the Ancestors / Only Human / APZP vs. Quicksilver
- APZP / Mystical Paralysis vs. Punisher, Guns Blazing
- The new Scarecrow doesn’t hurt the deck as much as it does other Army decks, so that’s all well and good
- Kree Public Accusers is a mini-Omnipotence if there’s something you’re particularly worried about; otherwise Robot Destroyer keys off either Dr. Doom or Doom Bot Corps
- Ultron is an excellent character, it but also acts as an impromptu pump if necessary
- Under-dropping on turn 6 should usually consist of a Punisher Squadron and the 5-drop you didn’t play on turn 5, but nothing’s set in stone with such a malleable curve
One Army-spewing strategist will be set in stone as the victor, and his deck will finally have a name. That is more than I can say for my own list today. Feast your eyes on a swollen buffet of cardboard seafood, whatever it should be called:
A Pony with No Name
Characters
18 Sea Creatures
4 Ape X
4 Aquaman, Arthur Curry
1 Hawkeye, Leader by Example
1 Scarecrow, Professor Jonathan Crane
1 Scarlet Witch, Wanda Maximoff
Plot Twists
4 Enemy of My Enemy
4 Membership Drive
4 Strategic Thinking
4 Thanagarian Invasion
Locations
3 Mojoverse
3 Damocles Base
3 Birthing Chamber
Equipment
4 Nth Metal
2 Ego Gem
Yes, I am obsessed with Sea Creatures. No, I have not figured out how to make them viable in Modern or Silver Age formats. That’s where the Mega-Weekends come in and make me grin. That seahorse deck would be legal for Build a Legend events! The plan is simple. The engine recruits four water ponies on turn 4 consistently. It sprinkles three tech choices for the 5-drops, and it gilds the undersea urchins with loads of counters. It also has a full stable of alternative builds, designed by friends from all over the world, waiting back on the farm. All of those are Legend legal, too.
It takes a brave soul to triumph on the big stage of the feature match area with a wacky way to win that no one has ever seen before. Thanks to the upcoming Mega-Weekends, there will be more than one format in which to try out your secret scripts. There’s a new world of Organized Play waiting for us to explore together; may the glory be yours in 2008.
Rian Fike is also known as stubarnes, and he plans to boldly go where no man in his right mind would go. He will be documenting the year on his blog, and you can reach him directly at rianfike@hattch.com.