Also, while we’re on the subject, I thought I would post one of my favorite Cal Arts student films ever, ‘The Whoopass Girls.’ It became the basis for Cartoon Network’s insanely popular ‘Powerpuff Girls,’ and despite the limited animation it’s really cool to see what Craig McCracken was thinking when he originally envisioned the series.

If you’d like to see more the school now has a YouTube Channel up to showcase all of their students work. Before we would only get to see some of these things if their creators went on to do something famous (which is actually the case with a lot of them.) Enjoy!

Also, I have to thank and TBS and Mr. Zonos for letting me preview not one, but three amazing cards. It would have been nice to preview Runaways, but honestly I think Mystique and Nightcrawler are a little more my style. Marauders is definitely going to get some play from me, right after I can throw together some decent Runaways and Starjammers decks.

• I LOVE STARJAMMERS! Even with only a handful of cards they are totally playable, and with the right team-up they will be very annoying.
• We got a Beak card. We got a Fantomex and Stepford Cuckoos card. Life is good.
• Having an uncommon tutor and all, I think Marauders are going to be the most played team in the set. There is a very potent deck to be made, even without all of the triple legend stuff.
• Arkham Discard is really, really okay with 6-drop Gambit.
• And I don’t know why people are complaining about the Gambit legend. Some of his cards are absurdly powerful, and you can always play 2-drop MVL Gambit over the MEV 2-drop.
• I have read the Shift rules a million times and I still don’t quite get it. I’m glad I have so many copies of Empire’s End and Clandestine Operations.
• Really simple (and effective!) utility cards like 2-drop Beast get me more excited than you’ll ever know. I may have to throw together an X-Babies deck for Random Punks.
• 4-drop Cyclops will also likely show up in Nu X-Babies.
• Vertigo is really, really powerful. Combat is basically dead in this game now.
• The Cable legend looks like a lot of fun. I wish I weren’t poor.
• The fact that I can’t build an OG X-Factor curve (Iceman, Jean, Cyke, Beast, Angel) without teaming up with X-Men really kind of bothers me.

And that’s mostly it! I  can’t wait to start playing with the new cards (I think a lot of pre-releases in the area are probably next week due to the holidays) but I’m already brainstorming on some clever uses for these cards. Excellent stuff.

Pretty much since his creation Nightcrawler has been one of the most popular X-Men ever. A lot of that is owed to the distinctive look given to him by Dave Cockrum. But much moreso than other X-Men who look cool and generally lack in substance (I’m looking at you Psylocke) Nightcrawler has a rich history and a lot of interesting character bits to draw from.

Chief among those is his devout faith, and his generally pacifist nature. This, and the nature of his teleportation powers, have made him an invaluable supporting player within the group for years. How many times has Nightcrawler teleported someone out of harm’s way over the years? Answer: A lot.

Now we finally have not one, but two cards to show our furry blue friend doing what he does best!

I really, really like this card. Moving back and forth between the hidden area has always been really valuable. More importantly he’s a member of my beloved Starjammers team; this will ensure that valuable characters (like Corsair) make it late into the game, allowing for some more awesome piracy. Plus Energize is the most awesome keyword of them all. Should Kurt become a defender he’ll be able to bring multiple characters into the concealed area, if only briefly.

And with some of the newfangled X-Stall cards out there (Cyclops, Iceman, Polaris) this seems like an awesome pairing. Speaking of stall, here’s something that might come in handy…

Hey remember when this card was blank? I do! Well now you know. The (limited) Nightcrawler legend is all about throwing off your opponents’ attacks, and I can’t think of a better card to make use of it than this one. The price may be a little steep (losing a defender) but locking down an opponent’s attacker(s) is even more valuable. Especially with all of this Energize nonsense, preventing your opponent’s characters from reading for the entire turn is incredibly cool.

My first instincts tell me that In Ze Munich Circus will have a home in X-Babies, where returning a character to hand is much less steep, and will cut back on dangerous breakthrough. However, I think this card could have a home in any number of decks. This just might fit in a Mystique legend deck; I mean, the lady was made to steal identities… who is better to steal from than her own offspring?

Just a thought. I’m sure your own deck ideas are going to be much more clever…