Life is a long series of preferences: we make evaluations, choose our favorites, and shape ourselves. We surround ourselves with stuff. Some of our stuff is good, and some of it is great.
When it comes to filling your life with Vs. System, there is a new source of excellence to draw from. It may be the best single warehouse I have ever seen. It is maintained by Patrick Yapjoco, and it is truly majestic.
To those who have followed the history of our beloved game, Patrick needs no introduction. His has left many an indelible mark on our community. He is the father of timeless Tier One decks. His sportsmanship and attitude are exemplary. He is a true hero.
Now, he is sharing the wealth by collecting a vast repository of wisdom and wonder on his website. Whatever your personal style of play, you will find a variety of well-written articles to help you enjoy Vs. System even more than ever before. One of the most exciting elements is the “Godhand Challenge.”
Month of June challenge: How fast can you deck your opponent?
The goal is simple: How fast can you make your opponent run out of cards in his or her deck? Which turn and phase can help you achieve this goal? The goal is met when your opponent must draw a card, but cannot. You must map out what cards you have drawn and played turn by turn. Remember, this is your godhand!
Notes:
Your opponent cannot play any cards.
The goal is met the first time your opponent cannot draw a card.
Any effect you play that tells your opponent that he or she "may” do something, and your opponent declines to do so.
Note the turn and phase you achieve the goal. This will determine the winner.
Beside Myself is banned for this contest.
Silver Age legal cards only, with no MUN or MUL cards allowed. The official ban/errata list applies.
Make sure you keep track of the cards you draw and play.
Prizes:
First-place gets 3 packs of MUN and some EAs
Second-place gets 1 pack of MUN, 2 packs of an older set, and some EAs
In the event of a tie, the most creative entry wins, with Team EW serving as the judges.
Enter as many times as you want.
Deadline is Thursday, June 26, 2008, at 11:00 pm Pacific Standard Time.
Good luck!
The Godhand Challenge breathes new life into the game. Vs. System has inspired deep creativity in its fans since its inception, and this is a new way to stretch your brain with your favorite cardboard obsession. Whether you consider yourself a kitchen table maniac or a tournament hall titan, the mental gymnastics found in those contests will buff you up like nothing else can.
Speaking of the spectrum of gamer attitudes, Michael Bean has embarked on a mission. He is attempting to capture the casual/competitive continuum in words. You can find it right there on Patrick’s Majestic website, and it is truly great stuff:
I am a gamer at heart, and I will be going into more detail regarding my background in the next part of this article. Though I will be attempting to define objectively what both “casual” and “competitive” constitute in relation to Vs. System, I will invariably be drawing upon personal experiences and intuitions in support of my arguments. However, I won’t stop there. I will also look at the nature of gaming in general, in addition to how the Vs. System was designed and has been developed and maintained over the years. Join me next week as I begin to create a general definition of the terms “casual” and “competitive” and explore how they might be used in the current environment.
Of course, since we are talking about the greatness that is Patrick Yapjoco, we simply must talk tech. His skills are legendary, and he is serving them up piping hot. The deck theory articles he is writing will stand forever as an encyclopedic tour through the mind of a champion. I especially like this one:
Empire St. University: Deck Theory 101
Off-Curve Rush/Swarm Strategy
by Patrick Yapjoco
One of the toughest decks to build correctly, and to work efficiently, is the off-curve Rush deck, or Swarm deck. Many decks that are fast and aggressive are either curve decks or short-curve decks. This usually entails using all the resource points on 1 character each turn.
At first glance, it seems like it would be easy to play an off-curve deck. You just recruit a lot of little guys, right? Looks can be deceiving. Most off-curve decks have a variety of characters at each drop, so knowing how to maximize your recruits and choices is a key. Also, being able to sustain pressure on your opponent throughout the game is important. One does not want to “run out of gas” by the time the kill turn arrives.
The off-curve deck is an exercise in going “against the norm.” You are thinking about the game in a different light. Whereas, we are taught to maximize our resource points by spending it on 1 character, the off-curve deck allows for flexibility, creativity, and versatility. You know that any character you play can basically be recruited on any turn, but knowing when to recruit certain characters is the key.
The great stuff does not end there. Our community has a whole mess of fan-based factories of Vs. System goodness. As we head toward New York Mega-Weekend and the World Championship at Origins, there are some serious discussions taking place. One card stands above all others in the current metagame. Insight can be found in Omnicresence:
The original intent of Pathetic Attempt was to swat away annoying effects that sought to wreak havoc on the Galactus raid deck. The card was rightfully representative of the vast power that Galactus possesses. The resource acceleration available to Galactus makes it possible to play this card as early as the first turn, even though opponents rarely have something nasty up their sleeves at that stage of the game.
In the context of the Galactus raid experience, it makes perfect sense. When Pathetic Attempt is ported over from that unique play environment and into the mainstream game, however, an entirely different set of conditions governs our assessment of this card. Suddenly, every team affiliation has a set of cards that can nullify some horrific targeted effect to which they would normally fall flat.
Flat-out fun is all around us. Personally, I love lists. The Thursday Thirteen game is based on this preference, and it was joined in a wonderful way this week by RanmaSolo. Here is the introduction, followed by a really great choice:
So, my first Thursday Thirteen started with 45 cards. I guess 32 won’t be making the cut, unless I stretch the rules—which I think I’m going to do. Today, I’m sharing my very favorite 1-drops in the game. Some of them just go together, or are so similar, so I have to give them a single entry. These aren’t the BEST one-drops or the most used one-drops or anything like that. These are just straight up my favorites.
#11: What can you say about a 4/4 one-drop? Uh, "Awesome!” That’s what. Sure, Anti-Green Lanterns die at the end of your turn, but only if they aren’t stunned. Blinding Rage and Chomin became standard procedure on turn 2, followed by the similarly gigantic Xallarap. Then when Felix Faust spammed 3 of them out, you got a swarm of nastiness very befitting of their art.
It always feels great to accomplish something that you never thought possible. It happened recently on Planet Kalee, with a team affiliation that has been waiting a while:
There’s a twist to this article, and the decklist you’ll see below. A twist I never anticipated while in the building process. It is a twist that most likely can be attributed to sheer luck, but it is quite the twist nonetheless. I didn’t believe until it happened not once, not twice, but three times in a row: The New Gods can win.
After you have twisted out of the grip of the New Gods, try sidling over to the Seventh Soldier of Apathy for some good news about a great name in comic-book myth: Shiloh Norman is in the house:
If we want to make the best use of him, we obviously need to team up. There are a lot of teams we could use, of course. The first thing I thought when I saw him, though, was stall. I mean, he’s a great stall card. He’s a 3-drop who stays around forever and absorbs one attack every turn. So, the first team I thought of for this stall deck was, of course, Marvel Knights.
I know a good blogger would probably be saying this having planned ahead. This is untrue with me. I want to use Shiloh Norman, and the Marvel Knights seemed like an interesting choice. As I work on a few other decks for the blog, I’ll also be working on this one. I’ll also be widening the variety of things I talk about on my blog, as I have come to realize in the last two months that I need to expand my repertoire for the coming months if I want to have any hope at all of providing you with interesting, regular content.
One of the greatest characteristics of the personalities that cluster to form the Vs. System community is a love of puzzles. Getting lost with gdaybloke and captainspud is always confusing, but this past week the mystery went nuclear. See if this mission floats your boat, then dive in and figure it out for yourself. It covers three different blogs and looks to be more fun than a barrel of monkeys:
One blog, if you can decipher its clues correctly, will provide a URL.
The next, if you can decipher its clues correctly, will provide the means to solve the puzzle at said URL.
The third, if you can decipher its clues correctly, will provide the means by which to submit your response.
My response to Joe Clarke’s latest work at Poppy the Cat was simple: “Great stuff!” Check it out, it’s called “4: The Cost of Clearance”:
So, looking through some cards, I noticed that 4 is the cost of auto KOing/bouncing characters.
Hush, Silent and Deadly
Divinity, Vampiric General
Punisher, Guns Blazing
Morg, Corrupt Destroyer
Silver Sable, World’s Deadliest Mercenary
Joe found a pattern, and you will need to find your way to his blog for the rest of the story. In the meantime, I found a guest author on The Kamiza. Say “gday” to this:
I rarely come up with my own combos, and even then, they’re usually only two-card jobs, and never that complex.
As such, I just wanted to tip my hat to the deckbuilders out there who somehow manage to take those hornets buzzing in their heads and turn them into amazing four- and five-card combos that turn the game on its head, shaking the foundations of Vs and generating a veritable community-wide renaissance of creativity.
Here’s to you, lads.
No, Chris Miller, here’s to you. Thanks for the great entertainment, wherever you show up next! You are quickly becoming a legend in your own time. We may end up telling your tale to our grandchildren. It will almost be like the mutant legends we enjoy when we are measuring the circle of Pi’s blog and getting all the background material we can handle:
Now, on to the story. The psychics of the Breakworld, a planet, had discovered that an X-Men was going to destroy their world. Ord of the Breakworld went to Earth to kill the X-Men so that his world wouldn’t be killed. He was eventually defeated. Kitty Pryde saved the world.
Not the X-Men. Not the combined forces of a whole bunch of powerful superheroes.
Kitty Pryde. By herself.
This is a great community, full of great people united by the love of great stories and their amazing incarnation into a fantastic trading card game. We form bonds of friendship and common interests. We like the same things, and we love to share them with each other. Unfortunately, as we come to the end of this article, we must say goodbye to one of our most beloved mythological comrades. The Brave and the Blog hosted a touching tribute to the recently deceased Martian Manhunter. May it remind us of the great stuff you enjoy every day, so we can appreciate it as much as possible. Be well, my friends. I will see you soon.
There are people in our lives whom we take for granted. They are the ones who care for us when we are sick or water our plants while we’re on vacation. Their services often go unrewarded, and we fail to realize how much they meant to us until it’s too late.
Today, we are gathered to honor the memory of such a man, one whose quiet strength and dignity have been a positive influence in our lives for years. I speak, of course, of J’onn J’onnz, the Manhunter from Mars.
My favorite memories of you are simple ones: Your love of Oreo cookies, your kinship with Aquaman, and your affection for all of humanity. On Earth you were constantly abused by writers and editors, but perhaps now, finally, you can find peace among the stars.
Rian Fike is also known as stubarnes, and he always has a great time surveying the creativity of this community. If you know where to find some even greater stuff, send a link to: rianfike@hattch.com