When it was decided that SHIELD was making its introduction into the Vs. System Universe, we knew that it was likely that its “partner-in-crime” (quite literally) HYDRA would be included. Initially we had HYDRA as its own affiliation, but as we soon realized, we didn’t want to add yet another new “big affiliation” to the set (We had already included SHIELD and Warbound at this point). Billy Zonos came up with the idea to tie them into Crime Lords – traditionally they have been intertwined thematically with the street level criminals, so it wasn’t too much of a stretch to connect them with an international crime organization.
When we last left the Crime Lords in Marvel Knights, they were considered a little underwhelming. Their strategy of being good while reinforced meant that they we only stellar on half the turns of a game, and even then, their characters and plot twists just came up a little short. Since we were cognizant of the poorly perceived power-level of the original Crime Lords, we knew that the scope of their re-feature would need to reach a higher plateau. What this basically means is that we needed to make more awesome cards! J This time, not only are the Crime Lords good at reinforcement, their scope has been increased to encompass the entire gamut of defensive actions, from attack redirection to defensive stuns.
We’ve already seen one version of Captain America’s WWII sidekick gone bad… here is one that shows him working for the dirty Commies!
Much like his other version, this version of Bucky is just waiting to take the right shot. Tying in with the tried a true Crime Lords mechanic of reinforcement, Bucky is able to stun any attacker, as long as you can set up reinforcement. This is a feat that can easily be accomplished with another character or a plot twist like Burn Rubber or Duty Calls. Winter Soldier also has the side effect of going to the top of your deck, at which point you can draw him again (to shoot someone else) or you can rally him off the top of your deck.
The next card I’m about to preview is a little twist on a familiar card type:
While your equipment occasionally ends up on your opponent’s characters (via Misappropriation or Jester) you rarely want it there. Marvel Universe turns this idea on its head with Death Warrant. Before we get into the cool things that can be done with this, here are a few rules tidbits that will be expanded on in the FAQ:
- Equipment is controlled by the owner of the character it’s attached to. So when you play Death Warrant on an opponent’s character, they now officially control it.
- The equipment does not recheck legality once its played, so it stays on even though it says to equip it to an opposing character.
- You still own the equipment, so if it gets KO’d, it goes to your KO’d pile.
Death Warrant is a powerful reusable Finishing Move effect that, while it needs to be used proactively during the recruit step, gives you a chance to clear an opponent’s board. All your opponent’s characters will be in jeopardy – it’s all a matter of time. What’s even more exciting is that there is going to be two other “tagging” equipment in Marvel Universe – “Power Dampeners” and “Electron Scrambler”. It’s time to start guessing what they might do!
Well, that’s enough from me this week – but as always there are more previews coming!
- Miguel Rodriguez (http://malone.blogs.com/vs/) in going to feature one of Iron Man’s oldest nemeses – and I think he’s going to be in the Iron Man movie sequel!
- The Read/Rant comic book blog (http://readrant.wordpress.com/) will highlight the “leader” and “legend” of the Marvel Universe incarnation of the Crime Lords.
- Vs Realms (http://www.vsrealms.com/) shows us that the only way to beat a Helicarrier is to bring an even bigger flying carrier to the table.
- The guys at the Fallout Shelter (http://www.vsrealms.com/) give you a legend stamped plot twist for the aforementioned Legend – one that has you looking elsewhere for someone to stun.
Come back here next week – where you’ll need to keep a positive outlook to survive!
Good games and enjoy the previews,
TBS