Cookie League Report: Darkhawk!

We had a smaller turnout than normal this week, and it made for a quiet, laid back night. The format was Silver Legends, and the decks everyone brought were pretty surprising. Two were Spider-Man, one was Galactus, one Beast Boy and one Lex Luthor (piloted by me. Posted below.)

The Lex Luthor legend is a lot of fun. Whereas Andrew likes to play good guys, I’m usually drawn to control decks (and by extension, bad guys.) My original plan was to make it a dual Joker/Lex Legend, but I figured that this would probably work out better. Plus, I love Revenge Squad, so it was fun to play a deck built around one of my favorite villains

Last night I also learned the power of Darkhawk. Ludin was running him in Spider-Stall, which at the time confused me. The character has vanilla stats, and a generic power to remove flight from certain characters. Isn’t there someone better to run? However, once again I was proven wrong. On multiple occasions he was able to lock down an opponent’s attack step, stalling the game further and further!

Damn, Darkhawk doesn’t mess around.

HL Update: 5/28

This week at our local Fullerton Hobby League we’ll be running a Silver Age Bring Your Own Legend tournament, followed by some fun with the Coming of Galactus raid deck. Since we’re lacking in prize support this month, this will free us up to do some new things.

Also, if Billy remembers, we’ll be trying out the brand spankin’ new Marvel Ultimate Battles card game! I had a chance to try it out on Friday night, and I was taken back by how simple and fun it was. That’s not to say MUB is lacking in depth, far from it, but there aren’t a thousand different variables to confuse newer players.

Be there and be square! Also, Andrew is on baked goods duty this week. Everybody wins!

The Prophecy Fulfilled: Part 4

After many tough decisions my New Gods deck was finally ready for play.. or so I thought. Hours before the tournament began a couple of us from The Realm gathered for some playtesting, and I quickly discovered the multiple weaknesses in my deck. Combat was a disaster; although I could remove attackers from attacks I was totally unable to do much else.

In the end I took enormous amounts of damage, and in three matches the game ended on turn 6 (or sooner!) Something had to change, and I had very little time to do so. My back-up plan was a JLA power-up build, but with Nth Metals banned from the format that could also prove to be difficult. I settled upon a third New Gods deck, this time focusing on a shorter curve and heavily statted characters such as Big Bear and Valkyra.

The New Gods Fight On: Part 3

Yesterday we explored the characters available to us in our totally awesome New Gods deck, and today I’m ready to put it together!

After a brief (but meaningless) flirtation with the Forever People I have come to realize that the New Gods’ true power is stall. I’m not saying that it’s an amazing power, but clearly we’re trying to make the best of a bad situation.

As I mentioned yesterday, having multiple Mister Miracles on board should ruin my opponent’s attack step. This will give me the power to stall to later rounds, with Orion set as our final goal. Unfortunately getting to turn 8 may take longer than I anticipated: In some light playtesting Takion’s power has proven far too unreliable, so I will be switching him out with the much more aggressive Big Barda.

From a thematic standpoint I couldn’t be happier to have two Mister Miracles and Barda fighting together, but having an extra round of combat creates new challenges. Even with two super escape artists on their side, can the New Gods hold out long enough to achieve victory? 

Rise of the New Gods: Part 2

Yesterday I explored the idea of a Mono-New Gods deck, but was very skeptical about it’s potency. Today I am even more skeptical… But all hope is not lost, for we may be able to justify playing a New Gods deck.

Aside from Cosmic, the New Gods have several smaller themes at their disposal: Plot twist control, removing attackers from attacks, recovery and the Forever People/Infinity Man gimmick. Sadly, due to the lack of attention the New Gods have received over the years, none of these themes were ever fully explored. What we end up with is a potpourri of random effects coupled with poor (or worse) stats.

The power of The Source intrigues me. How can such a powerful card remain untouched by the competitive scene? We must make this deck work!

This Week’s Question: Part 1

Are the New Gods beyond salvation?

I mean, I don’t think I have ever seen a playable deck that features the team exclusively. There are clever stall builds out there using Highfather, and the infamous Blue Abuse deck, but are the New Gods capable of greatness using only their own tricks?

My goal is as follows:

EdgeWorld is hosting a ‘Bring Your Own Team’ event this Friday, a format which requires that your entire deck to be Mono-Team. There are no generic cards allowed, no jank, and no splashing. This means that a lot of otherwise-unplayable cards might end up in the spotlight for once.

I WANT TO BUILD THE NEW GODS!

More to follow…

HL: Let Them Eat Cake

Last night’s Hobby League was great fun, not only because we got a ‘new’ player, but also because I had the firesight to bring delicious baked goods. Also, be sure to send Omar over at Tier 2 Tutor some birthday wishes for today.

It seems like everyone I know has their birthday within the same month-long period. Oh well.

Myself on the left, Omar on the right.

The format of our Hobby League was Bring Your Own Set Un-Silver, meaning any set rotated out of Silver Age was fair game. I had expected a lot of people to bring Teen Titans, but in reality nobody did. Perhaps our group didn’t want to come in with a ‘lazy’ choice, since everyone brought something different.

1x Avengers Reservist – 2/2
1x Marvel Knights/Crime Lords (Me!) – 2/2
1x Green Lantern Curve – 0/4
1x Good Guys – 2/2
1x Fantastic Four Burn – 3/1
1x Billy’s Jank Deck Not Legal in the Format – 3/1

Even though it was a relatively small turnout I think that everyone had a great time. I don’t know if anyone has any birthdays coming up in our group, but we need to find some mroe excuses to bring cakes to the Hobby League.

Next week’s format is kind of confusing, but it was inspired by Billy’s jank-tastic pile of jank. Everyone will be building mono-team decks from no more than any two sets. All character cards MUST share a team affiliation, and it is highly recommended that the plot twists do as well!

We don’t really have a name for it, but I guess we’ll call it the ‘Super Flavor Format.’ Yum.

Thursday Thirteen: Go Team!

Gay marriage is legalized in my state today, so as a sign of solidarity I present you 13 of the greatest Gay and Lesbian characters in the VS. System. This list only includes characters who are explicitly ‘out,’ although there are many more out there whose sexual orientation may be open to speculation… I’m looking at you Electro!

  

Crime, Crime, Crime!

Sunday was my birthday, and I was fortunate to receive the Captain America Omnibus as one of my gifts. Although I read most of the issues as they were being published, it has been a great experience going through Ed Brubaker’s Cap run one more time, noticing some of the details I had failed to before. For anyone who has not yet read the series it is definitely worth picking up!

As a result, I’m terribly excited about the prospect of seeing one of my favorite VS. teams (Crime Lords) paired with one of my favorite villains (The Red Skull.) Today’s preview is a first glimpse at what promises to be an amazing Legend, one that will have the power to stop Captain America once and for all!

Will all of the Red Skull cards mirror the Cap cards in this way? I wonder what other surprises the criminal masterminds at UDE have in store for us…

Five Villains You Will Never See in ‘Iron Man 2’

I finally saw ‘Iron Man’ and I was blown away by how good it was. Given that I have almost no affection towards the character, the filmmakers did an amazing job of making me care about Tony Stark and company. One of my favorite things about the film was the main villain of the piece, and how he never once crossed the line towards campiness.

Iron Man is a more grounded character than most, and one would expect the same from his villains. Unfortunately this is not the case, since the majority of his enemies are mad scientists or throwbacks to the Cold War. I only pray that ‘Iron Man 2’ will go with the logical choice of a antagonist, rather than dabble in what is probably the most embarassing Rogue’s Gallery ever.

Here are five of the rejects you’ll never see on the big screen.

5) The Unicorn!

Former KGB agent Milos Masaryk has been doing battle with Iron Man for over 40 years as the villainous Unicorn. His name is fitting, though, since Masaryk wears a projector on his forehead capable of firing deadly blasts of energy!

Perhaps due to the basic nature of his powers The Unicorn has become somewhat of a joke within superhero circles. However, despite this fact, he is one of the most prominent Iron Man foes, having battled the Avengers, the Fantastic Four and even the X-Men numerous times.

Odds of seeing The Unicorn in ‘Iron Man 2’: 100 to 1