Murmurs from R&D: Of Vs. Worlds and Marvel Universes
We Are the Champions . . .
It’s only a matter of a few sleeps before one of the most exciting events on the Vs. calendar hits—Vs. Worlds! Though I was only able to play in two Pro Circuits before coming to work for Upper Deck, I have had a pretty storied history with attending big TCG tournaments and I can honestly say that nothing excites me quite like waking up in the morning before a big event. Looking at what will be going down in Columbus, even if I weren’t working for UDE, I’d be there with bells on so that I could attack with some super heroes. In addition to my august self, Vs. lead developer and all-round grumpy guy Dave Humpherys will be in attendance, so if anything is broken from Marvel Universe, you can bring your rotten tomatoes to sling at him.
The main event will be highlighted by two new formats that focus on the impact of Marvel Universe. Day 1 will feature the Modern Age format, which includes World’s Finest, Marvel Legends, DC Legends, and Marvel Universe. It also includes the MAA, MEX, DCX, and MUL (1-6) mini sets, as well as the Giant-Size VS: The Coming of Galactus set. With decks such as Batman/Superman Legend decks (“World’s Finest”) and Fantastic Four Legend decks (“First Family”) making their stamp on the Silver Age format, along with the ultra-powerful Injustice Gang concealed deck, it will be interesting to see which of the new teams will make their mark. Early pundits have predicted that Warbound is one of the big winners from MUN, though the plethora of Avengers and SHIELD strategies will almost ensure that they’ll make a lasting impact.
Players who end up with a better–than-even record in the Modern Age format will advance to Day 2, where they will duel it out in two Marvel Universe Booster Drafts. How will the players navigate a largely unknown Sealed Pack format? Those who are crafty enough to be successful will battle it out on Sunday to determine the first Vs. System World Champion! Apart from the glory, the World Champion will take away a bunch of prizes, including a state of the art 15 inch MacBook Pro (which retails for over $1500)! Second place gets a plethora of electronics, including a PS3 and a Wii, and one of the new snazzy iPod Touches.
What makes this event even more cool to win are two very special prizes. Firstly the winner of Worlds will get an exclusive one-of-a-kind Galactus Trophy! Meet Galactus, Devourer of (Vs.) Worlds!
Standing at an enormous two feet tall, this is a trophy for the ages. And to complete the winner’s immortalization, his (or her) visage will be put onto a card in the upcoming Marvel Evolution set! While joining Jason Hager in the “face on a card club” is cool, the winner will have something a little extra – their face will be the face of Super-Skrull! Here’s what the image would look like if I were World Champion…
Look out, is the TBSuper Skrull! Weird.
But the fun of the World Championships is not limited to just the main event. As part of a full schedule of side events that can be found here, I’ll be bringing a few decks to gunsling against all comers, who will have a chance to win some boosters or hard-to-get cards from the recent MAA, DCX, and MEX exclusive sets!
For those who fancy themselves Vs. trivia experts, on Friday night Billy Zonos and I will be quizmasters for the first World Championship of Vs. Trivia! You guys will need to form teams of three and be ready with your Vs. knowledge. You will be playing for exclusive cards, as well as a bunch of Marvel and DC Legends and Marvel Universe booster prizes.
Across the Universe
Now that Marvel Universe is out in your hot little hands, I thought it might be fun to give you a few cool little stories that arose during the design of some of the cards:
- Bill Foster ◊ Goliath, Secret Avenger – His power is meant to represent all the heroes ceasing to battle as a result of his death (from the pages of Civil War).
- Hercules, Secret Avenger – His power didn’t have the once-per-turn stamp . . . until we realized that it was an easy combo with Rogue, Power Absorption (and other characters of that ilk). I even got it to happen in Limited, where I was able to Switching Sides my opponent’s Hercules while I had mine out. Combolicious!
- Charging Star, Stars and Stripes, Final Justice, and Shield Slash are all moves of Captain America in the Marvel Vs. Capcom game.
- Cape-Killers Unit, Army . Agent of SHIELD- This was a 3/2 until the very last day of development, when a deck made by Patrick Sullivan was deemed too good to let go into the environment. The deck is still extremely potent, but we really didn’t want to stifle the cool Legend decks in the environment.
Hank Pym ◊ Yellowjacket, Initiative Instructor – This is one of two cards that reference version in MUN (The other is Agents of H.A.T.E.). Initially there were a lot more (as you might have guessed from all the similar versioning), but with so many affiliations in the set, we thought that some players would have too much trouble keeping track of it all. We eventually kept the dual versioning (something we haven’t done too much until now) because there was a lot of flavor in the different factions that arose during Civil War.
Iron Man, Mighty Avenger – This began life as a common, but I think Pat Sullivan had too much of it during the initial Sealed Pack games we played. He was then moved to uncommon, and eventually rare.
Stark Armory – This was initially an equipment search card that allowed Iron Man to be “upgraded” multiple times, but it seemed that many people were tired of the Fate Artifacts (and Dr. Fate’s Tower), so we made the super-growing Legend card. A lot of Iron Man’s equipment theme is still there, but I’m sure you’ll agree that Stark Armory has some potential for abuse.
Security Clearance – Initially, this was a Nick Fury Legend card. The art piece used was actually for the Marvel Team-Up set, but it got bumped.
Hydra Recruit – This card gets the award for the longest time from submission to printing. We actually had this art ready for the Marvel Origins set, but we never had a good place for it until now!
Cosmic Cube – I’ve heard that some people are disappointed that this is a Red Skull Legend card. I do understand that other people have Cosmic Cubes in their possession, but who says we can’t make another one in the future?
Hail HYDRA! – In true HYDRA brainwashing fashion, this card originally “blanked out” other affiliations when it gave the Crime Lords affiliation. Even though giving the HYDRA version didn’t do that much after we removed a lot of the version referencing (HYDRA was the team that actually had the most version referencing early in the design), we thought it was too cool to lose the thematic element of having everyone on your side say, “Hail HYDRA!”
The Illuminati – One of the original design options had each character get better with the requisite gem (but not reference them specifically). Ultimately, it was too weird to have them work with Marvel Team-Up cards specifically, so that idea was dropped in favor of the current “Super-Legend” iteration.
NextWave – I understand there is a little controversy about the inclusion of these guys in Marvel Universe (as well as their implementation), but I think they’re important for making sure that we remember that Vs. System is fun, amiright? Aaron Stack was changed the most from his original inception, with one version having the text, “You can’t pick up Aaron Stack with flesh.” This meant that players would have to either wear gloves or use portions of their shirts to move him around the playing field. As this power was the most problematic of his team’s (most of the other teammates’ powers could easily be resolved between reasonable people), Humpherys, the “Enemy of Fun,” shot this version of Machine Man down.
Fin Fang Foom – I made a little mistake in my preview article about the dragon with pants. I said you could chain plot twists to an FFF entering play. Except this isn’t possible, as the resource KO’ing is part of the alternate cost, and therefore the resources aren’t even there when he actually enters play!
I Got ’Em All! – This card’s art is actually from a comic that referenced Vs. System! We used one of the voice bubbles for the flavor text but updated the DEF values for this set.
There was a long debate about whether Grudge Match should have the additional text: “Negate target Grudge Match.” It would lead to cool Grudge Match battles, each negating the other!
Yes, Rogue Squadron has a Star Wars reference. The good Star Wars, not the bad ones.
That’s all from me today, but I hope to meet some of you in Ohio. Please come up and introduce yourself. If you have any questions, please ask them and I’ll answer to the best of my ability. For those who can’t make it to Columbus, we’ll have coverage from Billy Zonos and Miguel Rodriguez (CarlosTheDwarf on Vs. Realms).
Cheers and good games,
TBS