Tales from the Cardboard Jungle

DCU Preview: Sinestro's Might!

2008-07-09T02:52:00.000-07:00

http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn200/dcuproject/SinestrosMight.jpg

That's the link to get a peek at this interesting card.

Finished reading that? Read it again for good measure.

Pay Willpower.

What a clever use of the "Pay X" option introduced with Marvel Team up. Cards like this could make Willpower MUCH more interesting, and honestly, I always hoped we'd see that option explored. Now, through the dedication of a handful of serious Vs playing fans, we will get our first crack at new content featuring cards like this for our favorite Ring-slingers.

Pay Willpower. Man, I love the sound of that.

K.o. All stunned characters with cost X or less.

If you take a moment to look at the printed Willpower on the various Sinestro cards released through the UDE printed sets, Sinestro's Might offers up some mighty meaty power on the whole. K.O.ing all characters cost 1, 3, 5 and 6 seems pretty good. And all you have to do is pay a little Willpower.

Factor in some of the cards that bolster Willpower even temprarily, and Sinestro has the ability to off characters that cost more than himself.

The art selection for this card is pretty spiffy, featuring a great view of Ol' Big Dome himself, with his holier-than-thou forehead leading the charge.

Pay Willpower.

What will they think of next?

Heat exhaustion is not your friend

2008-07-08T03:20:00.001-07:00

Due to overheating earlier in the day I had to miss the tournament. Friends I hadn't seen in nearly a year were there and I missed out. Quite the suck, I must say.

So far, none of the posted winners have responded with contact information for me to send them their original artwork pieces.

I've been playing Vs on my DS a lot more lately, since it doesn't require an opponent, though I DO lose out on a lot of sets. But I love making decks and trying them out against the scenario matches where the computer starts with something special in play already. My favorite matches are the one where you start with the 7 drop Wolverine and the computer starts with Mr. Sinister. I loved the deck i built where I try to give Wolvie a Forcefield Belt and put counters on him each turn. eventually you'll play a small character to finishing move or use War Wagon on mr. Sinister, but watching the computer struggle for turns to break through Wolvie's wall of counters is worth trying that out at least once.

Another fun one is fighting against Master Mold. I was told once that you were supposed to get to start with 6 drop MAV Captain America in play, but that it was a glitch or mistake that left him out. X-men are my favorite team for busting that up.

Golden Age Bring Your Own Team event results and more

2008-07-07T03:34:00.000-07:00

The Golden Age BYoT event had a 6 person turn out. The top three spots were taken by Brotherhood TNB Reservists, Warbound and TNB Reservists.

We got a little variety going and the event seemed to have been enjoyed by everybody in attendance.

We are trying to schedule another for this coming weekend.

The Winner of last weeks original art, Madam Hydra, is G'daybloke, who needs to contact me with his contact information.

This weeks original artwork is my WarMachine image:

As usual, to enter the drawing you must simply respond to the thread featuring the image, in this case this thread. If your name is selected as the random drawing winner, you need to contact me asap with your mailing address and I'll get your spiffy new original art mailed out to you. Simple as that.

Tonight I'm attending my last tournament in California, at Games of Berkeley, and I think it is a Modern Age constructed event. I'll be running my Avengers again, though my Sniper Shot deck (not the same thing that Eugenius was running, mine really is Punisher centric with dirty tricks up my sleeves :) ) is tempting me.

Well, I'll post back how the tournament goes and what I ran and I'll remember to post a deck list this time :)

Later, taters

Bring your own Team tournament!

2008-07-04T05:48:00.000-07:00

I posted the event to Vsrealms last week, and learned 24 hours ago or so that the next marquee event is the same format! Sure, the official format is a little cleaner than my initial idea for the set up, but the concept looks like a lot of fun!

Vs continues to chug along like the little engine that could. The climb up the hill might be a little daunting, but that ride down is gonna be smooth sailing!

The decks to beat in my eyes are going to be Titans Doom and Avengers, though JLA shouldn't be written off too easily. Battle Training ruins Roy Harpers day pretty good I think, and Pathetic Attempt makes Titans have to run a little extra tech to get around it.

Reign of Terror will annoy many players, some for the first time in their Vs playing careers.

But the heavy hits from the Avengers will scare more than a few teams in to hiding. What will be the big winner this weekend? Check back Sunday for that update as well!

My trip to Vs. Worlds or How to go 3-4 at VS worlds

2008-07-01T03:41:00.000-07:00

The trip to worlds was exciting and I cannot wait until next year. New friends and internet friends mixed with old friends and a great summer time trip meant a good time was bound to be had. Even after all of the hoop jumping through that went on. Due to an error in scheduling somewhere onlg the way, I thought Worlds was the previous weekend than it actually was on. But after a little effort and the good word from a great friend, that crisis was averted better than anything DC Comics has had coming down the line lately. heh

So, with Worlds gettign under way, I brought my nearly undefeated Avengers deck that was only losing to Silver Age and Golden Age decks consistently. Well, a little paranoia goes a long way towards figuring out where the worst play mistake to make is hidden. I underestimated my opponent in round 1 and afterg ettign him to -10 he knocked me down to -19. yuck. That set the pace for my first 3 games. game 4 was against a member of the best Vs website on the internet, Vsrealms, where I faced one of the moderators himself, WalterKovacs. Well, Walt had a rough trip to get to worlds and in our game, his luck hadn't yet caught back up to him. This was a macth up I actually practiced and went over many times, and ended our game on turn 5 with me having taken no END loss the entire game.

I went on to lose my 2nd game after that one securing my place outside of day 2. Strangely, my opponent for round 7 never showed, and since he apparently had 3 wins, had he won our game he would have advanced.

While I did go on to win a draft with a solid Hulk draft, the rest of the weekend wasn't so great for me for tournament play. But even as bad as the weekend was for me personally, it was worse for many of us around the world with the loss of Michael Turner, one of the hottest artists n the comics industry today. Mike's work had finally graced the faces of a handful of Vs cards and my pal Neil over at Darkseid's Revenge had planned to contact him about some more signatures, but as fate was having it, Michael was actually in the hospital at the time we were having that very conversation. Michael Turner will be missed.

While we are on the topic of art, though, I'd like to announce the first winner of a piece of original art from my 10 piece submission series. Opticon, congratulations for being the random winner of this first image! Contact me and get me your mailing address so this puppy can make it's way to your door!

And as promised, the next piece on the chopping block is:
A random winner will be selected for this piece on Sunday night, July 6th!

See ya'll soon!

Long overdue: First Original Art Giveaway!

2008-06-25T02:57:00.000-07:00

With Worlds closing in quickly and my move becoming a little more stressful, I've been scrambling around trying to handle other business and failed to get this under way. For that, I apologize.

The first piece being given away is the Sinestro Corps image .Admittedly, I'm a little disappointed in the Superman's face, but it is what it is at this point :)

To recap, I am giving away the 10 original art submissions I am using to submit my art to Upperdeck Entertainment in hopes of nabbing some art jobs with them for future Vs needs.

10 original images means 10 weeks of giveaways. Nobody can win 2 weeks in a row. On Monday night, after I return from Worlds, i'll list the next image as well as the winner of the Sinestro Corps art.

To enter, just post a comment to this blog entry! A random winner will be selected and notified of their winning, at which time you should send me your mailing address for me to send you the original art.

Monday night I'll be showing off my custom counters for Vs and other CCGs/TCGs so be sure to check them out if you miss worlds and don't get to see them there for their world debut!

Ah Sa Llama Lake Um

Breaking the Bad Habit that is Stall Decks

2008-06-12T03:51:00.000-07:00

Ok, this has been irritating me more and more for a while, the crappy decks that remove your opponent from the game, and many of which aren't even cleverly excuted. Spiderman is great to see getting some game time. Too bad it's just to abuse his broken effects and not to actually play the game.
So my answer for that BS?
Starfire. Yes, Starfire. Sure, she can't do it alone, but that's the beauty of this stunt. Your opponent can't respond to any of it very well at all. So follow along with me and let's see how hard this is to do:
We want to play Starfire on turn 7. Period. She is our recruit. We also want/need Amazon to give you an extra resource on 7, so against a stall deck, you'll get to keep her around most of the time I think. We finish this trick off by using Netherworld Gift to bring back a Magneto on turn 7, chained to the start of the recovery phase triggers. So, you put the resource k.o. on first, then Starfire's stun effect. Starfire resolves, stunning the opposing field. Then, chained to the resource k.o. you Netherworld Gift Magneto in to play then recover him. This effectively locks the game out for your opponent who planned to irritate you with stall BS.
What do you have to do to make all of this happen?
We need Underworld teamed up with Brotherhood. We need Titans Teamed up with Underworld in case Starfire stuns and we need to recover her. Or X-men. Blink for instance would help out a little bit perhaps.
We need Amazon for her resource grabbing effect, which includes Thunderbolts into the mix.
Is this too involved? How can this all be done?

As an incentive, the best designed way yo do this gets 10 free unused UDE points cards. 1000 UDE point store points. I'll make my decision for best answer by Monday next week. I'll post in Monday's blog and if you are that winning deck designer just send me your address and I'll mail out your point cards.

Cracked some packs today...

2008-06-10T04:44:00.000-07:00

..well cracked open a lot of packs today. 3.5 boxes worth. First pack was a Black Panther 5 drop, followed by one of my best friends handing me the black Panther he opened in HIS first pack, too. 1 pack in and I already had 2 Black Panthers! I initially bought 2 boxes and 7 packs. The first 7 packs contained Captain America 6 drop, Cap's Shield, Avengers Reassembled and some more neat stuff. After the first 2 boxes had whet my whistle, I went back for another box and 5 more packs. then a pack of sleeves and 3 more packs settled my craving since I can't go broke buying cards any more. My overall haul was impressive and left me able to trade pretty well and pretty quickly with my buds to be able to build an inferior version of the Avengers deck that I'll be running a form of at worlds.

This is officially my favorite set of VS ever released to date! Asgard is GROSS in this deck! Losing the Argument and Avengers Reassembled make Rallying a piece of cake most of the time.

I won't buy more boxes before worlds, though I will play in some drafts and such when possible. Saturday in Stockton ought to be fun, I just can't go over board with my spending.

As for Monday Night's tournament, I went a disappointing 2 wins and 2 loses, losing to a bad decision on turn 5 that led to a worse position on turn 6. Yeah, nothing good at all. Oh well, Saturday ought to be better :)

Sunday night truths

2008-06-09T02:59:00.000-07:00

I'll start off by talking about how excited I am about tonight's event. It is a tournament using no rare frequency cards in any player's deck. Rares are frequently higher powered, or at least very specifically powered cards. Usually. On occassions, however, they are open and fair game instead of finely tuned. Tonight there won't be any in any player's deck, so it'll be interesting to see what others come up with.

I am playing a Batman cetric deck using the Gotham Knights team. The event is what they call Silver Age, which means that the cards to choose from are restricted even more than just by rarity, but also by how old the set is that the cards were released in. My deck is focused around removing my opponent's characters from play every turn. No easy task, but I've devised a few neat tricks to help that strategy along. Check back tomorrow to find out how I do tonight.

Tonight I don't have quite so many truths to share.

Making the right decision is nowhere near as entertaining as making the wrong one. But at least the right decision makes you feel good at the end of the day.

Marvel Universe is heartbeats away from being my favorite set of VS ever released in the 4 years it's been around. A 5 drop Black Panther makes my gaming year!

Moving cross country will likely be good for me, as I'll get to open a new store or buy out an existing store. Either way, I'll be self sufficient once again and my son will reap the rewards some day.

My girlfriend doesn't "feel" loved enough, so I'm saying it here, in my blog that yes, I do love her very much!

That's all for now. I'm salivating over my first 2 boxes of MUN to come in!

And the news in in: Black Panther in MUN!!

2008-06-07T06:32:00.001-07:00

So here's my take on what a few people have called lackluster: Just like the first Panther, his printed stats are either just below average to right at average. But played to his strengths, he is sufficiently above average to make him quite playable indeed.

As a 5 cost, dual affiliated to Avengers and Fantastic Four, Black Panther is only an 8/8 concealed character. He does allow you to replace 2 reservists when he enters play and distribute two +1/+1 counters amongst any characters you control as you see fit. Well that that's even better than the old Avengers 3 drop, since this can make your 4 drop as big as a 5 drop and leave Panther like a larger 4 drop. Not that you'd WANT to do that, but it IS an option.

I'm a much bigger fan of things like New and Improved, and if I k.o. my Marvel Knights concealed 1 drop Panther, I can recruit the 5 drop and give him the counters making him a 12/12 for 5. THAT is pretty awesome in my book.

And with his Storm to back him up at alternating drops, this takes me back to the Ultimate Alliance inspired Double Date team. LEap-frogging your drops and continuing to make the next drop +2+2 bigger than it's supposed to be seems REALLY good to me.

As a Reservist himself, Panther can protect himself from a multitude of effects by essentially hiding safely in your resource row until you need him.

While I'd love him to be Visible instead, I'd still rate him as a 9 out of 10. The only thing missing from him for my personal wants is to see him with an equipment theme sooner or later in a higher cost character.

Drawings for random winners of Original Art work!

2008-06-07T05:27:00.001-07:00

By the end of next week, the weekend of the 13th, I will have finished the last of the images I'm submitting to UDE for artwork. To thank those that follow my blog even semi-regularly, I will be giving away each of the original pieces of artwork for each of my 10 submissions. One piece per week. The same member cannot win two weeks in a row.
How do you enter?

Sunday the 15th I'll list the first image. Simply reply to the blog post featuring the art you wish to win. The following Saturday I will post the previous weeks random winner along with the next piece of original art! After that, you can contact me with your mailing address and I'll ship the artwork to you! It really is that simple.

Have fun opening those MUN packs!

Mastering the Basics

2008-06-01T03:58:00.000-07:00

This is the Random Punks deck I'll be playing most likely on June 9th in one of my last VS tournaments on the West Coast.

It is a very basic deck, but strong willed and solid through much testing.

2x Elongated man stretchable sleuth
1x Dinah Laurel Lance <> Black Canary new wings
1x Aztek champion of Quetzalcoatl
2x Kendra Saunders <> Hawkgirl thanagarian heroine
1x Red Tornado elemental android
2x Plastic Man plastic fantastic
1x Zatanna sucoh sucop!
4x Katar Hol <> Hawkman death from above
1x Firestorm Ronnie Raymond
4x Aquaman founding member
3x Batman justice's shadow
1x Wally West <> The Flash keystone cop
3x Martian Manhunter founding member
1x Aquaman Lord of Atlantis
2x Wonder Woman founding member

2x Hall of Justice
2x Birthing Chamber
3x Finishing move
4x Combat Reflexes
4x Magnificent Seven
2x Battle Training
2x Defend Yourself
4x Nasty Surprise
4x Death Trap
4x Home Surgery

Originally the deck was going to use Shape Change and Batcomputer to manipulate the Shape Change outcome, but that was too complicated and too contingent on hitting Batman on 5 and hitting the computer and enough Shape Changes to make it all worth it Instead now, I'm using Batman and Martian Manhunter on 5 and 6 and Home Surgery to hold off the opposing army until Wonder Woman can come out to play.

Thoughts and ideas are always welcome!

Mondaynight Madness

2008-05-27T01:16:00.000-07:00

Kill'em with kindness.

That isn't a death threat. It is a concept that teaches that if you would normally wish to do harm, then instead, take the high road and attack the other person with kindness with vigor to match their own.

Not everbody is up to that task. Getting mad doesn't do much for you. It does release bad chemicals in to your body that make it almost impossible to focus and think clearly.

So instead of getting mad, get happy. Find the place that allows you to compliment your foe instead of insulting them. Hug them instead of hitting them. Find that warm place that will allow you to love instead of hate. From LOVE all things are possible.

Sunday Night Truths

2008-05-25T23:25:00.001-07:00

This is my first installment of the Sunday Night Truths series. This will be an ongoing series of posts relating to assorted Truths learned throughout the week.

1) American Idol on the Wii is a LOT of fun. I bought it for my family and I and my step-daughter-to-be and her friends that were over fell in love with it in moments after it was started. Great family fun if people can stay good natured with each other.

2) Few CCGs are capable of staying around for long because the people that excel at gaming can't help but look for and find "broken" (that is to say game effects that go so far outside of the rules that the game-state is left "broken") combinations and cause other players not to have fun, so they leave the game and seek something else to play. You can count the successful games on both hands, but would need a room full of friends to count the failures.

3) It is far greater to quit a game than to lose a friend. The game won't stay with you for the rest of your life, but if you are lucky, that friend will.

4) Build memories whenever and wherever you can. "The road less travelled" is worth the trip, even if only for the stories you'll get to tell for years to come. Besides, your kids'll appreciate you more for it later.

5) Don't proport to know who a person is just because you THINK you know WHAT they are. Some of the best things are found in the strangest places.

6) The next time you want to yell at somebody stop yourself and imagine hugging them instead of raising your voice. You'll smile and that will almost always break the tension in the mood. If that doesn't work, then imagine the most horrible thing you can summon in your imagination happening to a person. Then substitute that person out and a Smurf IN. If THAT doesn't make you smile, you need the time out, not the other person.

7) Otis Spunkmeyer cookies are FAR too delicious NOT to treat yourself to a couple every month.

8) Love everything you do. The practice of making something your own and loving it for whatever it is will make you a better person and you will grow for it.

9) Live beneath your means. That's from a list I saw in Reader's Digest years ago. The concept is so simple it escapes many people. It is best exemplified in another of those gems, "Only use a credit card for convenience, never for credit." By staying beneath what you can afford, you will find that you are actually saving money over time. Your grandkids will thank you for that.

10) Last on tonight's list we have this gem: Hold on to your family, not your things. People are far more important than things.

It'd be a better day with Black Panther news...

2008-05-20T01:52:00.001-07:00

... But so far, as of today, I have none.

However, I did find out that I AM going to be splitting a case with a pal, so while I don't get a whole case to myself, I DO get to build all of my fantasy decks in to reality.

Yeah boy!!

SHIELD, here I come!

Losing to Superman... on turn 9!!?

2008-05-13T02:27:00.000-07:00

I played Underworld /Defenders for our Modern Age bring your own set tournament Monday night.

I defeated a Spider-friends/ Syndicate team-up in the first round, but my opponent had never played in a tournament before and was reluctant to discard to his Spider-man's effect, since he had a handful of good cards. My hot play of this game was chaining to Shuma Gorath's trigger by using Red Guardian, then stunning her with Hawkeye so she would recover and ready and could be used again.

Game 2 I defeated a solid Arkham build, but only just barely. END gaining team-ups saved the day this time. Hulk with help from Valkyrie and Quasar spelled almost certain doom, even with me randomly selecting my opponent's only 7 drop in his hand for his Killer Croc!

Game 3 I played against something that I don't remember right this minute. :( I won the game, but don't recall the match at all.

Game 4 I lost to Superman on turn 9. That's right, gang! Superman laid the smack down on my Defenders/Underworld concoction. After a series of bak anc forths for the entire game, I made a HORRIBLE play on turn 7 and played Hulk and my opponent had his 7 drop Superman in hand already, locking my double Backed-up Hulk from even stepping across the table. Bummer. This was followed by his locking down Noble Kale on turn 8 and attacking me, and then locking Kale and playing a 9 drop Superman on 9. Had I attacked his protected 3 drop on 8 with Hellstorm, and then his exposed 5 drop With my Gigantic Hulk, I'd have faired a little better, but in the ned, it didn't matter, since he had 2 of the Superman END gaining plot twists, gaining himself 16 END between them. OUCH.

Game 5 I lost to an Insanity deck that I would later confirm was misusing Beside Myself a little bit. Sure, I'd still have missed my drops that sealed my fate, but perhaps he wouldn't have drawn an extra 12 cards that game, either :)

I'll post the deck list later if any body wants to see it :)

The first 2 sample images for my submissions to UDE

2008-05-11T22:09:00.000-07:00

Well, as per the initial couple of art suggestions, there they are. There is a little more inking to be done, and a little photoshop magic to be done, but this is basically what to expect to see.

Let me know what you guys and gals think. Harsh criticism is expected, though keep it clean enough for kids to read ;)

Late to the party, but better late than never...

2008-05-08T19:35:00.000-07:00

It is no secret amongst my circle of friends that I have a fixation with the Marvel Team-Up ongoing plot twist We Had a Team Up.

But while studying it again tonight it occurred to me that I had possibly been reading it wrong for months. Like most people, most likely.

Tonight I realized that, based on the wording, you don't need to already control the character whose name you choose.

"But what are the implications and uses for such?" Glad you asked. The benefits of being able to give a character and character cards you don't yet control team affiliations means the ability to get around loyalty as well as DUAL LOYALTY! That's right folks, We Had a Team-up allows it's player to offer the chosen character the ability to meet it's loyalty requirements with out actually controlling any of the chosen characters printed affiliations! This simple factor allows many of the dual loyalty characters released in Marvel Team-up to be "splashed" in to decks they might not normally be able to fit in to!

Hellstorm just got a whole lot better!

Incompatible Hardware...?

2008-05-07T20:31:00.000-07:00

While attempting to scan and load the images I started working on for submissions to UDE for VS (thread that takes suggestions for submissions to be found here) I learned that my new computer isn't compatible with the old scanner. So now I have to either take a photograph and post that in order to offer a snake peek at what's in the works, or I have to figure out how to get the scanner to work with the laptop instead.

I've debuted the imagery to a couple of members of Vsrealms.com and they were both enthusiastic about the pics.

Hopefully the finished products will delight most viewers :)

Updates to follow!

What to do with S.H.I.E.L.D. while waiting to see a Black Panther preview

2008-04-29T00:39:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago apal and I were discussing how effective the 7 drop Thor is going to be. He thinks he's pretty much trash.

This would be a VERY boring post if I didn't disagree.

His number one point was "how could you possibly keep the kind of cards needed in hand long enough for him to REALLY be effective. And that made me think harder on the matter.

Consider this:

Avengers/ SHIELD team up deck.

Turn 1, Squirrel Girl and a Shield army/agent
Turn 2, Captain America, chaining the Avengers new search card and chaining to that a 2 cost team up, bot from resource row. The team up resolves, then the search, searching for Nick Fury 3 drop, then Captain America rallies for a character, revealing Nick Fury, giving Cap, SG and the Army agent each a +1/+1 counter giving you a 2/3, a 1/2 and a 4/3 concealed. With Cap's Shield running around, you've got a very annoying character to hang on to here!
Turn 3 you get Nick, and if you are lucky, 2 more agents, or maybe an army 2 drop that hasn't been revealed yet? You can now flip the Helicarrier, returning the 3 one drops to your hand. This leaves you with a 6/3, a 4/5 and a 6/4.
Turn 4, you play Iron Man, and give him the Extremis Upgrade. Nick brings back 2 of the Agents, both 2/1s. Your opponent needs at least 2 attacks to stun Iron Man now, since you aren't likely to reinforce with Iron Man no matter how much damage you are going to take (moderately, any way) and if they go for IM first, you kust prevent the stun. Withi his 9/7 stats, he stuns back most every 4 drop. This also protects you from Punisher decks.
Turn 5, we hit our first mystery play.I haven't seen a 5 drop that we would toss in too this slot yet, but I'm sure there is a good one.
Turn 6 we want Captain America replacing the old one. Maybe New and Improved would be good for the deck as well, but we'll have to see about that one, right? Either way, Cap has the stats, the affiliation and the most impressive Shield to hold your opponent off with.
Turn 7 we get to Thor. Once more, SG shouldn't have had to die yet, thanks to IM. And she ought to have a little bit of UMPH behind her with those blessed counters IM has been giving her since turn 4 if we're lucky. Either way, SG should have been able to bounce your "In Danger" army guys back to your hand for 6 turns. That means that your opponent is likely in for a burn of at least 4 or more. That also means a chance to draw a few more cards, which could be more army guys or could be more combat pumps, the possiblities are entertaining.

This is the backbone of the deck I will be building once I decide on how many boxes I'll be getting of this set.

Well, I hope some of it was new to you and I hope all of it was fun to think about.

See you in a few.

VS from the front desk

2008-04-25T02:20:00.000-07:00

For the last couple of nights my closest friends have come down to my job to get to hang out with me and play some cards for a little while. Our games are usually pretty balanced and back and forth volleys of attacks and counter-attacks determine the final winner.

Last night, I played my Furious deck after I sold off some of my "extras" like Black Widow and such. The deck did HORRIBLE. I didn't get my field lock in place even once! I gave my Marvel Defenders/ Underworld deck a dusting off and it did it's job laying smacks down for a few games. I played my other friend who is an aspiring jank-meister, and I have to say, while his deck is up to some evil combo stunts, when it goes off it is a force to be reckoned with. Fortunately for me, out of our 6 games, even with my mediocre draws I still won most of the games. He did get me once with a perfect draw for him and the worst draw for me (I only had Defenders on the table as of turn 6 and had never drew a team up all game).

My surprising deck of the night was my League of Assassins Silver Age. It is Silver Age because I REALLY wanted to play with Ra's other daughter in the deck. Out of another 5 or so games, I discarded her twice and never got her in play once. I DID lose one of those games, but the rest, against Spider Doom Stall, I did VERY well, losing no games to that match up at all.

Tonight, my pal played his combo deck again, and I played my Jean Grey Legend deck. Jean trampled him pretty seriously. He didn't fair so well against my Punisher deck either, and I had a HORRIBLE draw there, too. I never got a 4 drop Punisher in play, though I DID get to power up a Clayface 5 drop and then was able to play another Clayface on turn 6, since I missed anything else of value I could have played. My pal even flipped an Omnipotence against me and called Taking Aim (he meant Sniper Shot, but since I didn't have it I didn't bother to correct him about it either.)

This weekend we are building Mini-decks and will try out a few games like that and see what we think over all and I'll post our findings back here for your entertainment.

Let's go see what today's preview card is and see ya'll later :)

OH! And keep praying to the Panther God that I get to preview a Black Panther card!

MUN Previews abound!

2008-04-22T04:39:00.000-07:00

Well, so far we've really seen a 3 way split for the MUN previews. We've seen Cap and some of his support, we've seen Hulk and some of his support, and we've seen a lot of the Registration Support, including an extremely impressive Iron Man. But what about the rest of the 2 dimensional men and women that strive to keep the world safe, but want to wear masks to keep their own loved ones safe while they do it? Where are they hiding out?

With another 5 weeks of previews roughly, we can rest assured we'll see some more of them soon.

I dreamt last night that I had opened my first 2 boxes and had gotten no Black Panthers at all, then my friend opened his first pack and pulled a rare 5 drop Black Panther that was concealed optional and couldn't be stunned while attacking and hidden and had reinforcement while defending and visible. And the dirty bastard wouldn't trade it to me :)

Here's hoping we get some good Panther-y news soon... hint hint...

Sidetracked for a bit

2008-04-17T04:22:00.000-07:00

http://www.spylounge.net/

I just found out about a new grassroots action figure line that looks like a lot of cool stuff. check'em out if you get the time. Hit spylounge.com and take a peek if action figure collecting is your forte.

I'm still waiting on word of the Black Panther cards from the set, and as this is Hulk week, I don't expect to see him this week. Here's hoping next week will bring the King to these very pages :)

The Hulk cards are looking great, and should help bolster VS Marvel Universe sales greatly. I'm looking to see if one of my pals wants to split a case, since I'll be moving in a few months and don't know that i can afford to throw so much money in to buying a case for myself.

Either way, I'll trade for any and all Black Panther Vs cards anybody has that they want to trade. Donations are also accepted.

Thanks, and see you at the Roundtable Review later this week!

So long and thanks for all the fish

2008-04-15T05:30:00.000-07:00

The new ability called Rally is creating quite the buzz in many VS playing circles. The opportunities to use this ability are wide ranging. The effects it can generate are, as of this moment, unlimited in scope and that has imaginations running wild!

Back for the DC Legends events, I designed an Aquaman Legend deck that did only one thing and it did it well: Stalemate opposing attacks. Poseidonis and the 4 drop Aquaman were so hated for a few weeks that opponents seeing me hit Aquaman would groan knowing that it would be turn 8 before another attack phase could even possibly go in their favor.

Now though, we have an ability that triggers based on the top card of the deck, and Poseidonis can not only get me back a card from my K.O. pile, but it can also help me to secure the correct card type for my next Rally effect in a given turn.

JLAvengers is off to a good start.

Mix in a little more Avengers flavor in the form of Captain America's newest 6 drop and his shield and your opponent's attack step might as well read "Do Nothing, maybe exhaust some of your own guys and then pass".

While I'm anxiously awaiting some more Avengers related previews, I know other people wanna see their fan favorites get some love too.

I'm undecided if I want to know what Black Panther does before I open that first pack, or if I want to have a deck ready to just drop him in to when he arrives. As I'm assuming he'll be Avengers affiliated, I'm wondering if he'll continue his Reservist them from before or if he will use something more representative of his abilities showcased in Civil War..?

Will his abilities further this "Wall of Water" deck? Or will I need to build something else totally new to fit him in to?

How to start a fire with just a little Torch

2008-04-08T02:15:00.000-07:00

Take a peek at this Silver Age design:

4x Shadowcat
2x Wild Child
4x Silver Surfer 2 drop
2x Captain America 2 drop
4x Black Panther 3 drop MK
2x Captain America 3 drop mhg
4x Human Torch secret avenger
3x Daredevil MEX
1x Captain America MLV
1x Captain America 6 drop MUN
3x Silver Surfer 6 drop MTU
1x Captain America 7 drop mtu
1x Silver Surfer 7 drop MEX
1x Silver Surfer 8 drop MLV
1x Galactus 9 drop
1x Silver Surfer 11 drop

4x We had a team up
4x Kindred Spirits
4x Mobilize
4x To me my xmen
4x Neighborhood Watch

2x Surfer's Board
1x Ultimate Nullifier mex
1x Captain America's shield
1x Ego Gem

3x elemental converters
2x new baxter building

There's bound to be a bunch of points along the way that can be finely tuned, but this is what I'm thinking after just seeing Human Torch's premiere.

A Death in the Family

2008-03-30T09:13:00.000-07:00

Today's news isn't happy news, as last night we lost my almost father-in-law.

Nothing VS related to post for a few days, folks. I hope you all have good days today and get in a couple of extra games for me!

Peace

Sneaky

2008-03-27T04:20:00.000-07:00

So last night, while working I thought up a clever deck idea. It is piggy backed from my other ideas and my fixation with the Black Panther. Personally, i really like the 3 drop from MXM, but all versions really make me happy.

This deck idea is based around my Ultimate Alliance deck idea. The intention is to use the Martial Artists team from Ultimate Alliance and build a 4 man team. That's right, just 4 personas in the entire deck.

I LOVE New and improved and with my current thoughts, I think it could be a lot of fun for a Silver Age deck.

Martial Artists:

4x Black Panther MVL
4x Daredevil MMK
4x Black Panther MXM
2x Captain America MHG
4x Daredevil MVL
1x Captain America MVL
2x Moon Knight MMK
1x Daredevil MEX
4x Daredevil MTU
4x Captain America MTU

2x Ultimate Nullifier
1x Steel Girder

4x Flying Kick
3x Combat Reflexes
4x Neighborhood Watch
2x Savage Beatdown
4x New and Improved
3x Bring the Pain
2x Pathetic Attempt
4x Wild Ride

1x Stark's Tower

The idea for this deck is to get in to combat and beat the eyes out of some sucka. The optimal turn 1 is a Black Panther, and turn 2 should be a Daredevil. Turn 3 should see a New and Improved and k.o. the Panther to play a 3 drop Panther and get 2 counters and either the UN or the SG. turn 4 would most like to see a Daredevil k.o. to play a 4 drop Hornhead, though playing a Captain America on 4 isn't the end of the world. DD would be a 9/9 so he is the optimal. Turn 5 we'd like to see Moon knight just to get him on the table, but Captain is a stronger play overall. Whichever one did get played between the two could get played on 6 with an equipment if you got one, or you could lose Hornhead and make a 12/15 6 drop DD. turn 7 brings us a Captain which is why turn 6 SHOULD be a Cap if hea wasn't your 5 drop.

Most mid game drops have alternate drop options available.

The deck mostly just looks like a simple attack and defense game..well more like attack and attack game, but you get the idea.

I made a similar deck months back, but now I've gotten a few more ideas for playing it to the max. See ya soon!

Mains and Toys

2008-03-25T01:26:00.000-07:00

If you never played Star Wars CCG by Decipher, you only THINK you know what a hard card game is. This game was so complex that you couldn't possibly be an average person, pick up the starter deck and learn to play the game on your own. Impossible and anybody that says otherwise is a fibber!

What does that have to do with VS? Well, I'm glad you asked!

In Star Wars, a popular deck building strategy eventually came to revolve around the Main Characters (called Mains) and their personal weaponry (called Toys). The deck was really good for the game, especially during a time when card efficiency frequently gave players little reason to play with the main characters in favor of just Jedi and big ships. Mains and Toys, as the decks were called, allowed players to use the very characters that they got in to the game for in the first place.

That brings us to todays deck:

Mains and Toys

Using the Spider-friends and Marvel Knights the goal was to build a deck that would allow a player to "tool box" if you will the most popular characters from the comic books in a cometitive quality deck. Dual Affiliated characters offered up the chance to meet the requirements for Loyalty for either team, should it be needed while also making it possible to use either teams dedicated search cards to find the desired characters.

This is the deck list:

1x Zabu constant companion
1x Speedball Robert Baldwin
1x Frank Drake nightstalker
1x Black Widow femme fatale
1x Aunt May golden oldie
1x Night Thrasher dwayne taylor
1x Punisher suicide run
2x Blade nightstalker
3x Black Panther kind of wakanda
1x Kazar lord kevin plunder
1x Cloak shadowmaster
1x Wolverine covert predator
1x Elektra Masterless assassin
1x Spider-man the sensational spider-man
1x Spider-man parasitic host
1x Daredevil kitchen cleanser
2x Captain America loyal patriot
1x Venom lethal protector
1x Daredevil new kingpin
2x Wolverine canucklehead
1x Hulk savage hulk
2x Spider-man stark's protege
1x Dr. Strange master of the mystic arts
1x Ghost Rider danny ketch

3x Empire State University
1x Soul World
1x Stark's Tower team up

1x Ego Gem unique infinity gem
2x Ultimate Nullifier one-way trip

2x Armageddon
4x Big Leagues
2x Encircle
1x Flying Kick
4x Indebted
2x Nasty Surprise
3x Neighborhood Watch team up
2x Pathetic Attempt
4x Wild Ride

The deck's main goal is simply field position while using the popular well known characters of the Marvel Universe.

The single copy of Flying Kick in the deck is there just for good luck :)

Hulk is a one of, as he should only be used in a desperate situation or if using him will win you the game, in which case, he should be easily searched for on turn 6 if you need to. The 2 Encircles are there to help clear a path for Hulk in a desperate situation, though most of the games you'll play should make it a playable game for the same basic reason: clearing a direct path to your opponent's dome.

The deck plays very smoothly and is a lot of fun to see so many big names in play in a single game, free from the Ahmed Samsarra crutches and the other decks that only seek to abuse the most powerful cards in the game.

I'll be running this deck again this week when my padawans come out to play. See ya'll soon!

The best laid plans of mice and men

2008-03-17T15:08:00.001-07:00

So my plan to attend Hobby League tonight has been usurped by my having had errands to run this morning, thus keeping me from sleeping, thus keeping me from being able to attend Hobby League unless I want to sleep at work. A bad idea, to be sure.

So my deck won't get it's take off tonight as planned :(

Bummer.

Closing Time...

2008-03-17T02:51:00.000-07:00

It's Monday morning, and getting closer to quitting time for the shift. Tonight is our Silver Age tournament, and I'm having confidence issues with my deck. I'm strongly favoring a combat theme with Finishing Move and Nasty Surprise and maybe even the Infinity Gauntlet as a nice trick. Using Reed Richards makes it a little easier to pull off. Panther and Cannibal tech help make Eureka turn this in to something much more plausible. I'm wondering how to best keep the opposing field clear and to minimize Damage as best I can. Sue and Reed set up a good walling system. Storm brings stats and Panther brings tricks.

Maybe I'll toss in some stall elements..or at least Anti-stall anyway... I'll post later to tell the tales of triumph and woe. Good morning, friends!

Just another Manic ..Sunday?

2008-03-16T05:20:00.000-07:00

So I've not gotten to do nearly enough with VS this week. My 'Padawans' (the younglings that I've taught to play VS since it's debut) want to come out and play either this weekend or this coming weekend, but my work schedule has me tied up instead. So I'm trying to convince them to come out the last weekend of the month instead. As younglings, still, they don't have unlimited access to cards, so I'm pretty much their supplier. That said, they don't go to tournaments ever, and just play for fun amongst themselves most of the time, so almost all of their decks are Golden Age. One of them was the first one to build a Puppet Master based deck. At least the first one we knew of, since he made it within a day or two of the game coming out. Most memorable to me because of my attacking my Bishop MOR in to his Puppet Master MOR and Puppet MAster stunning back Bishop, but not getting stunned, due to Avalon Space Station and an extra Puppet in hand. Ouch.

So I always enjoy playing games with my padawans. Our last meet up, my number one student took it to me like nobody's business, beating me with an end record of something like 12 to 3 or 4.

So I'm going to break out my Infinity Gauntlet deck on him this next time, and i'm going to fine tune my Nick Fury based "Furious" deck and we'll have another few rounds of fun.

Monday is the tournament at Games of Berkeley, Silver Age..yuck..but I'm playing Double Date, so I'll have fun I'm sure. I'll post more about how it went on Tuesday.

See ya'll in the funny papers!

One, two, skip a few...

2008-03-14T11:03:00.000-07:00

This week has flown by and I've hardly had the time to delve as deep in to my cardboard jungle as I'd have liked. With a tournament Monday night before I go to work, I've had no time to play test at all, which is a little disheartening.

But that doesn't mean I haven't had it on my mind!

Today, Suanne is going to hook me up with a new deck box cover, based on my own original artwork instead of using other people's art. It will begin my new method of storing my decks, using the awesome UDEck boxes with all original art custom covers!

So Monday night at Hobby League I'll be sporting my "Double Date" deck box in a Double Date themed box. I'm excited!

I've also recently come across new card sleeves from Ultra-Pro that are similar in overall style to the favored Japanese style sleeves, but these UP sleeves are amazing! they have a very stylized kind of texture to their backings while maintaining their matte coat appearance! I'm very approving!

I'll be sleeving my newest Black Panther deck in these sleeves for Monday night.

I've got some more odds and ends to tie up this morning before I go back to work tonight, so I'll post more later, for you night owls and others that come late to the party :)

Tuesday, Tuesday..so good to me?

2008-03-11T00:45:00.000-07:00

Tuesday nights are the predesignated date nights for my girlfriend and I, kind of as a way to make sure that we are not letting the stresses of everyday life drive a wedge between us. For Christmas I gave my favorite doll collector a coupon good for "One Free Doll up to $150.00". She found her doll of choice and I sold off a bunch of cards to buy her the doll she covets so.

So how do those facts mesh together and then have anything to do with VS?

Well, since I'm spending so much on her present already, I've got to keep the belt tighter this week for date night. And waht better way to do just that than by playing some VS together? We'll spend time together, we'll get to play some cards and we won't spend a lot of extra money, since we already spent the money to get the cards in the first place.

In actuality we likely won't even play, but instead we'll tinker on some decks together and just be close for a few hours, sharing each other's company.

Nothing like VS to bring people closer together :)

Monday Monday.. So good to me..?

2008-03-10T01:30:00.000-07:00

Well, my new work schedule has me working on Mondays again, but not being off on Friday and Saturday as I once was. It's almost as if they don't want me to attend any VS related events. The upside is that I COULD still make it to Hobby League. The down side is that I'd have to leave a little early in order to make it to work on time. This also means that I'll not get to finish the tournament next Monday if I dare to brave the trip knowing I'll be working that night, too.

I've pulled out most of my cards and I'm starting to look for better ideas for how the deck should run. I'm inclined to want some Nasy Surprises and some What are Friends For since I'm going to be relying almost exclusively on Combat for my win condition.

Time to do some more work and we'll see how things go from there...

Ultimate Alliance: Double Date VS deck

2008-03-09T15:26:00.000-07:00

For months I've been enthralled with this silly notion of a deck built around the Ultimate Alliance video game's team bonuses. My favorites are Marvel Royalty and Double Date, mostly because both allow Black Panther and Storm to be used together. In the next 2 weeks I have a Silver Age tournament to attend and I want to play something powerful but still themed and fun, and this is going to be my goal. Since I'll only be using 4 characters in play at a time, I'm going to rely on New and Improved to help keep my characters strong as well as some Equipment to help me get the most out of my resource points. Pier 4 will come in handy as well I suspect. Mandroid Armor and Ultimate Nullifier will also be involved. Those aside, the deck will be focused very heavily on combat. Mr. Fantastic and Sue are my only Fantastic 4 characters, while Panther is only Marvel Knights but Storm is on Morlocks and X-men. So teaming up will be important as well as a small variety of search cards. Enemy of my Enemy and Wild Ride and likely even Call in a Favor though Call might help my opponent too much for me to use it a lot. To Me My X-men will serve me very well I think and Fastball Special might be my saving grace on turns 6 and 7, since my only playable 7 drop is Sue.

My current thinking for the deck list looks like this so far:

Double Date:

4x Black Panther
2x Invisible Woman

4x Mr. Fantastic

2x Black Panther
4x Invisible Woman

4x Mr. Fantastic
2x Storm

4x Invisible Woman

3x Storm
1x Mr. Fantastic

1x Invisible Woman

3x New and Improved
2x Wild Ride
3x Neighborhood watch
3x Flying Kick
2x Enemy of my Enemy
3x Crackshot
2x Call in a Favor
4x Forcefield Projection
2x Fastball Special
2x To me my X-men

1x Ultimate Nullifier
1x Mandroid Armor
1x Fantasticar 2.0
1x Future Technology

61 cards. I'm going to look for a way to trim off that one last card. I'm building this tonight and testing it Monday at hobby league. I'll post Monday night and let ya'll know how it does.

Tales from the Cardboard Jungle

2008-03-09T13:34:00.000-07:00

It is no accident that you found me.

My name is Curtis, and if you don't know me personally, I'd like to take a brief moment and welcome you to my neck of the woods.

I'm a proud father of one little boy thus far and look forward to adding another to me family some day. I'm an ex-martial artist, one time self defense instructor, aspiring comic book artist, comic book fan, action figure enthusiast and Collectible/Customizable Card Game player (also called CCGs).

My blogs will frequently address an array of these topics, since they frequently intertwine.

My CCG of choice is VS System, a cleverly designed and executed game built around super hero combat and interaction. When you visit my blog you can look forward to finding tournament reports, thoughts on deck designs and other assorted experiences related to VS System.

Welcome to "Tales from the Cardboard Jungle!"