Marvel Evolution

As expected (judging from the nuttiness of preview season), the developers really took this set up a notch.

The power creep is here, and I’m loving it.

Most people are fawning over Exiles cards, but I’m going to take a crack at the headlining team — X-Factor. What follows is a rather basic build, but I really feel like X-Factor is the second incarnation of X-Mental — namely curving out, exhausting opposing characters, and gaining endurance.

Mutant Town’s Finest
Modern Age: 60 cards

Characters: 30
4 Beast, Wild and Woolly
4 Rictor, Depowered
4 Iceman, Jack Frost
4 Sabretooth, Reformed Killer
4 Cyclops, Man of Action
2 Archangel, Death
2 Havok, Mutant X
2 Polaris, Back in the Fold
1 Jean Grey, Jean Grey-Summers
1 Cyclops, Mutant Messiah
1 Death, The Second Force of the Universe
1 The Beyonder, Inhuman

Plot Twists: 24
4 Mobilize
4 Concussive Force
4 Mutant Town Messiahs
4 Reset
3 Pathetic Attempt
3 Omnipotence
2 First Class

Locations: 2
2 Falls Edge

Equipment: 4
4 Med Kit

I may opt to try a more off-the-wall team-up version that utilizes double Random (3) and Siryn for pseudo-infi-burn, but for now I decided to stick with the “meat and potatoes” approach. No make-or-break combo pieces — just a solid curve with options abound. The game plan is really rather simplistic. You’re content to just sit around doing nothing, and you expect your opponent to comply.

There isn’t a specific mulligan condition, but you want to make sure you hit one of your 2-drops. They’re essential for soaking up early damage and contributing to your long-term game state (be it drawing cards or gaining endurance). You’re pretty indifferent between evens/odds, which is nice.

It’s entirely possible that you can maintain your full curve (from 2-drop on) well into turn 5. With Iceman and Sabretooth, you’re not giving your opponent a whole lot of attractive attack options. The prevalence of Energize and the existence of cards like Mutant Town Messiahs even allow your 3-drops to scale up the curve, ensuring subsequent freezing of their two highest drops, with their highest drop remaining frozen going into their next initiative.

For defense, it’s good old reinforcement and recovery. The original X-Mental played a slew of defensive pumps to stay ahead in the damage race and to brickwall, but we don’t have the luxury of Emma Frost in Modern Age (not to mention the lack of a solid pump that we’d want to re-use anyway). That’s okay, though — Iceman/Sabretooth, Cyclops (either through Concussive Force or his own effect), and Polaris all “pre-negate” attacks.

Now, if your opponent is only getting a few attacks in here and there, and not really putting a dent into your board, he’ll probably hold onto all his pumps. This is an obvious problem if we’re going to have visible 2 or 3-drops hanging around in the late game. That’s where Omnipotence, Pathetic Attempt, and Reset come in. Hey, this is a control deck, so why not? Reset has the added advantage of giving your Energize guys another chance to trigger off a subsequent attack.

There really isn’t an attractive 8-drop in Modern Age for this deck outside of Cyclops. And his effect isn’t going to do enough damage to allow you to win the game. But I figure, you’re almost certainly going to be ahead in the endurance race by this point (Med Kit / Rictor), so you might as well just stall to time.

Yes, I realize that’s a dick move. I’m open to suggestions on what the win condition should be.

Once I’m done with final exams and projects (boooo), I fully intend to crack some MEV of my own, so I’ll be able to give you some field analysis on the viability of this deck. At the very least, I plan to fire up Magic Workstation and install Flashback’s new MEV patch (rep him!).

Also, be sure to hit up docx’s search engine here. Donate!

Thanks for reading!

I voted for the first time in my life today.

I’ve gotta say, pushing that little green button with “VOTE” in faded white letters was a proud moment for me. Looking past all the pettiness and division this campaign season has brought on us, I realize that I’m lucky to live in the greatest country in the world.

Philly was bedlam last night! Can’t wait for the parade!

Secret Invasion has been an interesting ride thus far. The obligatory 2008 Marvel summer crossover has amassed dozens of tie-in issues and spin-off miniseries, and has brought in respectable sales. Critical response, however, has been mixed.

Brian Bendis has been steering the Avengers ship ever since 2004′s Avengers: Disassembled, and the seeds for this event have been sown as far back as Secret War. It wasn’t until Elektra, the leader of The Hand, was outed as a Skrull agent (way back in the now-famous New Avengers #31) that fans got wind of the far-reaching implications of this conspiracy story.

Therein lies both Secret Invasion’s greatest achievement, and its greatest flaw. The concept of an alien invasion has been done to death over the years, but Secret Invasion promised a fresh spin on the genre convention; most noticeably the fact that it was happening in a super hero comic book rather than a science fiction suspense novel. Bendis’ realistic dialogue is his definite strong point, and it was on full display in the nearly year-long buildup to this event. The Skrulls couldn’t be detected this time around for some unknown reason, and the paranoia and distrust that the Avengers felt was palpable — after all, if the Skrulls had the resources to infiltrate The Hand, what was stopping them from infiltrating Hydra? Or S.H.I.E.L.D.? Or the Avengers teams themselves?

While the New Avengers floundered, knowing their outlaw unregistered status rendered them helpless, Tony Stark of the Mighty Avengers couldn’t help but feel that the Skrulls’ presence was HIS fault.

Some great character work was done here. Spider-Woman defecting to the Mighty Avengers. Luke Cage and Jessica Jones breaking up over fears for their baby’s safety. The fans knew some bombshells were about to be dropped, and, as Marvel always promises, “nothing would ever be the same again.”

Wow, were they right. Secret Invasion #1 lived up to the hype, and then some.

Both Avengers teams are trapped in the Savage Land as a spaceship carrying 70′s versions of themselves turns the situation into a blind melee. StarkTech is disabled. Iron Man’s systems are fried. The S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier crashes. Jarvis is a Skrull. Reed Richards discovers how the Skrulls remained hidden, but is shot in the head by Hank Pym (himself a Skrull). The Skrulls present themselves as an unstoppable force, and the $#@! hits the fan in nearly every way imaginable. Leinil Yu’s art is the best work of his career. This is going to be the best event ever, right?

Then issues 2, 3, 4, and 5 came out.

I admire the way Bendis jumped around to different locales at a breakneck pace. He was determined to show the wide-reaching effects of the Skrull’s invasion, and he succeeded. The problem, however, is that the fans had been waiting a year for some answers. The slow-burn nature of the buildup to Secret Invasion was great at building anticipation….but without any payoff, it becomes moot.

And that’s not to say nothing happens in issues two through five. A cadre of Super Skrulls attacks New York. Nick Fury and his Secret Warriors enter the fray. We discover that Spider-Woman is actually the Skrull Queen, Veranke. But the end result is that our heroes are wandering around aimlessly in the Savage Land, while our villains’ motivations and methods remain cloudy. This doesn’t work as a monthly serialized story. We need big answers EVERY ISSUE. Especially when more than half of Marvel’s monthly books are tying in. The only thing that gets resolved in the span of the first 5 issues is the Avengers realize that all the 70′s copies are in fact Skrull Sleeper Agents that believe themselves to be the real deal. Even Mockingbird, who was teased to have returned, was a fake.

Really? Come on. That’s a unique plot thread if you resolve it in in the span of ONE ISSUE, but 5? That’s too long.

So, the aforementioned flaw in the series is this: the buildup to the event was so good that if they payoff was anything short of monumental, the individual Secret Invasion issues would feel decompressed. That’s exactly what happened.

No issue exemplifies this better than Secret Invasion #7. Issue 6 ends with the combined might of the Avengers, the Thunderbolts, the Initiative, the Secret Warriors, and The Hood’s gang of criminals against the Skrull Armada. We know a fight is coming….and that’s what issue 7 is. An unadulterated, extended fight scene. An extremely well-done fight scene, but a fight scene nonetheless.

For a series that billed itself as a psychological thriller, isn’t this outcome a bit too stock? I mean, hell, fight scenes are the bread and butter of super hero comics, but we’re at the next to last issue here! It’s cool and all, but it doesn’t justify seven months at 3.99 an issue!

Where are the big reveals? Where are the big changes? What happened to all the characters who were replaced? Why didn’t the Skrulls kill Mr. Fantastic when they had the chance? We’re staring numerous motivation questions in the face here, but we get a big fight.

The Skrulls showed their hand in issues 1 through 3, and ever since Reed Richards escaped from the Skrull Prison Ship alive, the heroes have had an obvious advantage. It’s pretty obvious that the heroes are going to win. There may be some casualties, but when all is said and done, the Skrulls will likely be defeated.

Because of this, Secret Invasion #7 is incredibly hard to review. I can tell you right now that Secret Invasion will read much better as a trade paperback than as a monthly. These seven issues have literally transpired over the course of little more than a single DAY in Marvel time.

So, is this issue satisfying in and of itself? No.

Is it one of the most well-done and well-drawn battle scenes in recent memory? Undeniably. The sheer magnitude of the battle is staggering — I can’t believe Yu was able to clearly render all these characters and still get the book out on time. We get Nick Fury and Norman Osborn fighting side-by-side, Captain America / Thor / Iron Man reuniting, Wasp vs. Criti Nol (also known as “Skrull-o-Jacket”), Wolverine vs. Veranke (Spider-Woman), a BADASS Clint Barton moment, and even an appearance from The Watcher! Plus, an ending that is an awesome payoff for those who read Mighty Avengers closely! What more could you want?

Answers, Bendis. That’s what I want.

Bendis promises Secret Invasion #8 will be a “doozy,” and I don’t doubt it. After all, it wasn’t until the end of House of M that we were given Wanda’s “no more mutants” mandate. But, for me, my enjoyment of issue #7 is directly tied to how well #8 concludes the story. If it isn’t a satisfying lead-in to the upcoming Dark Reign, the series as a whole will remain ambitious and fun, but an underachiever.

B-

For better or worse, this week’s previews really got the community talking. Some even feel that the new Shift mechanic (as displayed by this week’s team, the Exiles) is TOO powerful.

I’m sure most of you have already read about Shift, but for posterity’s sake, here’s the official text:

* “Shift” means:
Pay 1 or more resource points >> Remove this card from the game shifted with that many shift counters. Use only if this card is in your hand.

* Cards have two additional powers while shifted:
Pay 1 resource point >> Put a shift counter on this card.
Remove X shift counters >> Put this card into play if you control X or more resources, where X is its cost. Use only during your recruit step (this checks uniqueness).

Yeah, it’s a little wordy, but it’s very intuitive. The idea works from both a top-down and bottom-up design approach. With Shift, not only do we have an elegant solution for the problem of what to do with those pesky unused resource points — we also have a mechanic that links thematically to the Exiles (dimension jumping).

As for the cards themselves…realize that I’m not usually one to cry foul when I see powerful previews. Most of the time, seeing a single card outside the context of the team it represents doesn’t tell you enough. There’s a good chance that Shift will be a powerful mechanic, a la Press, but not “broken” in and of itself.

But these cards are REALLY pushing the envelope.

Week 2: Exiles
Notable: Shift / Blink Legend / Mimic Legend

Spotlight: Blink, Earth-295 * Dimension Jumper
An undeniably powerful board control effect on a 5-drop with a standard body. There’s one word that comes to mind when you look at these Exiles cards: versatile. Whether it’s efficiency in dropping characters or controlling the board, the Exiles offer you plenty of options, and Blink is no exception. On your initiative, she’s the key component of a brutal board wiping — just simply make a safe attack (preferably one that doesn’t involve Blink) and then discard a card to her trigger effect, and that character is essentially KO’d. Repeat ad nauseum. In most cases, your opponent simply won’t be able to spare that extra resource point to put a key character back into play on a subsequent turn (especially since we’re talking turn 6 here…a common final turn). She also doubles as a source of psuedo-recovery for your characters off-initiative. I can only imagine how frequently she’d be splashed if Enemy of My Enemy were still around. A very potent card.

Spotlight: Warp Shards
Really? All I have to do is control Blink and I basically get to “remove target character from the game?” Sure, the shifted character is coming back next turn…but does it really matter? You simply go nuts on your initiative if you’re packing 4 copies of this thing — messing up reinforcement, getting rid of pesky effects, preventing stuns on your end, etc. PLUS, you can target your own stunned character and use it as a free pseudo-recovery effect. All this for just controlling Blink? Warp Shards is really pushing it…it does everything at no cost to you. Judging by the two Blinks (above), you know Exiles is going to be playing her anyway. Not to mention: The Captain.

Spotlight: Mimic, Earth-12 * Infected
Why does Mimic get so many 6-drops? Anyway, they all involve stealing powers in some way, and this guy takes it a step further. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before, but I LOVE 13/12 6-drops with flight and range. There’s something reassuring about them. The fact that he changes team references to Exiles is a nice touch — if an opposing character has a payment power that requires a team-stamped discard (say, Batman, Cape and Cowl), you’re not totally out of luck. Now, he’s not amazing, for the simple fact that he’s entirely dependent on what your opponent does. If you run Mimic, you’re conceding a specific endgame and just hoping that a large, “tech-y” character can come in and seal the deal.

Spotlight: Shadowcat <> Cat, Earth-Unknown
I don’t quite understand why this card runs into uniqueness problems with the Earth-616 Shadowcat that we all know and love….isn’t she supposed to be from a different dimension? Regardless, you can’t read her effect without immediately drawing comparisons to Dr. Light, Master of Holograms (high praise indeed). There are some key differences: 1. Shadowcat doesn’t provide you with any hard card advantage. While Dr. Light used and abused characters in your KO’d pile, the characters that you put into play with Cat essentially come from your hand (since you removed them from the game shifted from your hand in the first place). 2. Since you have to remove a shift counter, you have to have paid at least 1 resource point. So you’re not actually getting a free character. 3. She doesn’t have flight or range. I say these things not because I’m making a case for Shadowcat being bad; I’m simply saying she’s far from broken. Shadowcat DOES allow you to pop out 3-cost characters, however. You can’t deny that she makes some very nice plays possible:

• On turn 1, pay 1 resource point to remove Blink (3) from the game shifted. On turn 2, pay 1 resource point to remove Proteus from the game shifted, and another resource point to remove Miguel O’Hara from the game shifted. On turn 3, pay 3 resource points to recruit Shadowcat. Use her payment power to shift Blink into play. Blink’s effect triggers, putting a 2nd shift counter on both Proteus and Miguel O’Hara. Remove 2 shift counters from Proteus to put him into play. Use his payment power to put a third shift counter on Miguel O’Hara. Remove 3 shift counters to put Miguel into play.
  Net result: you may have taken some damage on turns 1 and 2, but you’ve turned 6 available resource points into three 3-drops and a 2-drop, a net gain of 5 resource points.
• On turn 1, pay 1 resource point to remove Shadowcat from the game shifted. On turn 2, recruit Proteus. Use his payment power to put a 2nd shift counter on Shadowcat. On turn 3, use Proteus’ payment power once more to put a third shift counter onto Shadowcat. Remove 3 shift counters to put Shadowcat into play. Pay 1 resource point to remove Blink (3) from the game shifted. Pay 2 resource points to remove Illyana Rasputin from the game shifted. Use Shadowcat’s payment power to put Blink into play. Blink’s effect triggers, putting a 3rd shift counter on Illyana Rasputin. If you have a Warp Shards in your hand, you can use it as a recovery effect this turn to ensure that you have all 3 of these characters going into turn 4. On turn 4, activate Proteus to put a 4th shift counter on Illyana Rasputin. Remove 4 shift counters to put Illyana into play. Pay 1 resource point to remove another copy of Blink (3) from the game shifted. Pay 3 resource points to remove Mimic (4) from the game shifted. Activate Cat to put Blink into play (KO’ing the original). Blink’s effect puts a 4th shift counter onto Mimic. Remove 4 shift counters to put Mimic into play.
  Net result: With 10 available resource points, you have two 4-drops, two 3-drops, and a 2-drop on turn 4, a net gain of 6 resource points.

These scenarios are just scratching the surface.

Spotlight: Panoptichron
Panoptichron is going to be an essential piece of the Exiles puzzle; you can feel it. The two above scenarios seem very complex, but in all honesty, I was just going out of my way to use all the characters we’ve seen previewed. I think, in practice, these moves will be commonplace. I didn’t put Panoptichron into the picture earlier for simplicity’s sake. Well, now throw it into the mix and think about what you get:

• On turn 1, pay 1 resource point to remove Mimic from the game shifted. On turn 2, pay 1 resource point to remove Proteus from the game shifted, and pay another resource point to remove Blink from the game shifted. On turn 3, let’s say you have Panoptichron rowed by now. Pay 2 resource points to remove Shadowcat from the game shifted. Pay 1 resource point to put a 2nd shift counter on Proteus. Remove 2 counters to put Proteus into play. Activate Proteus to put a third shift counter on Shadowcat. Remove 3 counters to put Shadowcat into play. Use her payment power to put Blink into play. Blink puts a 2nd shift counter on Mimic. Now flip Panoptichron, activate it, and remove Proteus from the game shifted to put 2 more shift counters on Mimic. On turn 4, remove 4 shift counters to put Mimic into play. Pay 1 resource point to remove Illyana Rasputin from the game shifted. Activate Panoptichron to remove Blink from the game shifted, and put 3 shift counters on Illyana Rasputin. Pay 1 resource point to remove Miguel O’Hara from the game shifted. Pay 1 resource point to put a shift counter on Proteus. Pay 1 resource point to put a shift counter on Blink. Remove 4 shift counters to put Illyana Rasputin into play. Activate Shadowcat to put Blink into play. Blink triggers, and puts a 2nd shift counter on both Proteus and Miguel. Remove 2 shift counters to put Proteus into play. Use his effect to put a 3rd shift counter on Miguel. Remove 3 shift counters to put Miguel into play.
  Net result: With 10 resource points available, you have two 4-drops, three 3-drops, and a 2-drop, a net gain of 9 resource points.

Phew! That’s a lot of grinding, but you have to respect what these cards are capable of. Yes, I realize I had enough Shift characters in my hand to fill out all the resource points in each of these examples, but that’s the only way to illustrate the way the mechanic works. And who’s to say that you can’t make your Exiles deck heavy with 1-4 drops? These plays are certainly within the realm of possibility.

I hope everyone’s been as excited by these Exiles previews as I have. They’re certainly a team to be reckoned with. See you next week with another preview wrapup, but before that, I’ll be here with a comic review and my inaugural Awful Omega Red deck!

Thanks for reading!

I’m going to do a roundup of each week’s previews here in The Red Room, so that you can find them all in one place. Of course, if you haven’t already, be sure to check out my blogroll on the sidebar. There you can find links to all the great blogs that gave you first looks at these new cards.

Week 1: X-Factor
Notable: Energize / Cyclops Legend support / Multiple Man Legend support

Spotlight: Concussive Force
This card is just begging to be abused. We all know how powerful Mystical Paralysis is, and that’s a simple one-for-one. The ability to suppress attacks off-initiative is key in any control-oriented deck, and never before has a card eschewed the need for combat so effortlessly. Yes, your opponent gets to choose which characters are exhausted, but the most common game states consist of no more than 3 characters on either side. So, in most situations, you’re only allowing your opponent one attack of any importance, which significantly cripples their chances at putting a dent in your board. Oh, and it’s just downright nasty with The Captain. [Insert obligatory statement about Pathetic Attempt negating it here.]

Spotlight: Multiplicity
Note that it exhausts a character whose cost is less than the combined cost of the MMs you exhausted this way (not the number of MM, as you’re first inclined to believe). Multiplicity is cute, but your first instinct is that the thing is going to be binder decoration and nothing more. It’s just too narrow. We’ve seen this sort of thing before, as far back as Entangle. It’s dependent on you drawing a flood of 1-cost Jamies, and having them survive for turns on end (since this card’s net benefit is negligible before turn 4 at the earliest). Wait….what’s that? There’s going to be a 2-cost Multiple Man in MEV? And it’s ARMY? Wow. This card just got 10x better. Even if you hit absolutely nothing on turns 1 through 3, you can still exhaust their 3-drop on turn 4 if you fill out your resource points that recruit step with Multiple Men. I expect this card to see legitimate table time.

Spotlight: Iceman, Jack Frost
I’m not going to mince words here: Iceman is NUTS. I’m still in disbelief as to how good he is. He doesn’t do anything to stop attacks on the turn you play him, but assuming you have even initiative, he can prevent a key swingback from their 3 on turn 4, which is crucial. But then….you read him a second time. And you realize that as long as he activates on the same character each turn, he can prevent him from EVER readying again. Now throw Energize into the mix — he SCALES up their curve. Each time it’s their initiative, at worst, you’re getting 2 activations out of him. Which means you can continue to lock down their previous drop, and freeze their newly-recruited guy on top of it. Recover Iceman at the end of the turn, and repeat the process on your initiative, locking down their next-highest character, then Energizing off the swingback (if necessary) and freezing their big guy. Rinse and repeat. He may very well be TOO good.

Spotlight: First Class
I’m honestly not very impressed with First Class. Most of the people on VsRealms are fawning over it, so I’m probably in the minority here, but hear me out. Historically, recovery cards that exhaust another character as the cost are sub-par. Why?

Analytical Vs.: Because it’s not very glamorous to forgo an attack on your own initiative to recover a guy, considering that that lost attack will often times result in a swingback. So you put the recovery card into your deck with the intention of using it on your opponent’s initiative. Problem is, now the card becomes dependent on your opponent making subpar attacks, and/or not having flight. The ideal scenario is that you have a guy in the front that gets stunned, then you exhaust a protected character to recover the front row guy, making your opponent have to go through him twice, and saving you a KO at the recovery phase. But what if your opponent’s characters have flight? It’s now impossible to use the recovery as a way to dictate where your opponent attacks. Meaning, if your opponent swings upcurve and then downcurve, you haven’t really gotten any additional board presence by recovery. You’ve just increased the liklihood that you won’t have to KO your next-to-highest drop. Well, given how they attacked, your opponent probably isn’t doing it either, so what advantage has the card really given you? There are ALWAYS better tricks available.

Consider for a minute a version of First Class with its standard/Boost costs reversed. Now THERE’S a card I want to play. In a deck that curves up with a steady X-Men / X-Factor dual affiliation theme, it’s copies 5-8 of Children of the Atom, and its Boost cost is viable on either initiative.

First Class is certainly not a bad card. I’m just not wowed by it.

That’s it for Week 1! Thanks for reading!

X-Men: Original Sin #1 is a one-shot that kicks off a 5 issue crossover between X-Men: Legacy and Wolverine Origins entitled (you guessed it) Original Sin. The plot of the story was a collaborative effort between writers Daniel Way and Mike Carey, although it seems to me there’s a lot more editorially-driven business here than Marvel would like to admit.

“What’s that you say? X-Men Legacy isn’t selling as well as “Adjective-less” X-Men was? And you say Wolverine Origins has been consistently losing numbers because it’s so decompressed? Well, hell, let’s stick the two together, slap a cool name onto it and see where it goes!” Now, I follow both of the involved titles anyway, so I’m certainly entering this crossover with an open mind….but the whole thing screams of a desperate attempt to regain readers to me.

In the pages of Wolverine Origins, Wolverine discovers that he has a son. Yes, it turns out that when Sabretooth murdered his pregnant wife Itsu way back when, he was actually under orders from the mysterious figure named Romulus to take control of Logan’s soon-to-be-born son by any means necessary — even if that meant tearing the child from his dying mother’s womb.

The boy was taken to Japan and left on the doorstep of a young couple that was unable to conceive. Romulus watched from the shadows as the ugly, awkward, obstinate child grew older. His peers teased him over his stature, granting him the nickname “Daken” (which is Japanese for “mongrel”). Daken’s rage grew over the years, and he eventually lashed out by murdering a village boy who was bullying him.

Daken’s mother held suspicions that he was responsible for the murder, and became increasingly frightened and withdrawn. As his mutation started to develop (enhanced senses….what else), he became more and more aware of his mother’s loathing. It is heavily implied that Romulus sowed these seeds of hatred in Daken somehow.

Years later, his parents were able to conceive a child. Daken resented his brother for making him feel unworthy. His inferiority complex is a central focus of his character.

Daken confronts his mother, calling her weak and foolish for cherishing a helpless child over a “warrior” like himself. That night, his mother is horrified to discover that her child is missing. As she runs outside to the clearing in the pouring rain, she realizes she is too late — Daken has killed her baby.

She lunges at him in a fury, and in this instant, Daken’s second mutation manifests itself: bone claws. He inadvertantly impales his mother. Unable to go on after witnessing this tragedy, Daken’s father renounces Daken as his son and kills himself. Daken, now dejected and alone, has nowhere else to turn but the dark embrace of Romulus…

Jumping forward to current continuity, Daken is a remorseless killer under the direct command of Romulus. He loathes Wolverine. Of course, Wolverine can’t beat him. You get the idea.

Recently, however, Wolverine was able to subdue Daken with the help of the Winter Soldier (James Barnes) in the form of a carbonadium bullet to the brain. He then discovers that Daken can’t remember who he is.

Meanwhile, in the pages of X-Men: Legacy, Charles Xavier has his brain reconstituted by the telepathic mutant Exodus after Bishop shoots him in the head. He goes on a journey to “find himself”; to try and understand who he is and why he did things in the past that can be seen as, for lack of a better word, dickish. Wolverine wants to find Chuck to see if he can help “re-program” Daken. And thus, we have the impetus for this crossover.

I’ve been rambling a bit about the backstory, so let’s get into the meat of THIS issue.

Part 1 is handled by Daniel Way, and Part 2 is handled by Mike Carey. The idea here is that Logan and the Professor were involved with some secret that took place prior to the establishment of the “all new, all different” X-Men team in Giant-Sized X-Men #1. For those of you keeping score at home, this marks the SECOND time in the past 2 years that this seminal story has been retconned. Back in 2006′s X-Men: Deadly Genesis we found out that Professor X inadvertently led a group of young X-Men to their deaths (including Cyclops’ brother, Gabriel), and then followed that up by erasing Cyclops’ memory…what could possibly be next? Did the poor guy kill a whole freshman class of mutants?

Wolverine arrives in San Francisco directly following the events of X-Men: Legacy #215, in which Scott and Emma discover that the Professor is, in fact, alive. In a scene that can best be described as baffling, Logan (upon getting a whiff of Charles’ scent on Scott) punches Cyclops in the face, and then knocks Emma to the ground, accusing them of playing god and keeping the Professor’s status a secret. The problem here is that….Scott and Emma literally just got back from their meeting with the Professor. They didn’t know he was alive either. This was supposed to make Logan look like a badass, but instead, it just makes him look ridiculous.

But hey, at least it’s got Mike Deodato art.

We get the 80′s cliche of the random Asian guy that owes Wolverine a favor, so Daken shacks up with him while Wolverine looks for Chuck (since Emma clearly can’t be trusted….?). Daken then runs into a villain that makes even himself feel cool — Miss Sinister. Now, I trust Carey. He’s written some great stuff. But his Miss Sinister character has yet to show me one redeeming quality.

Anyway, she’s working for Sebastian Shaw, and calls in the Hellfire Club to drop napalm on Daken’s apartment building (a little excessive, don’t you think?). Daken is the only one who lives; they’re clearly trying to reawaken the berserker rage within him.

We’re now in Part 2, and Logan just happens to run into Charles at a cafe. Alright, whatever, I’ll buy it. He explains his predicament, and his need for Charles to “rearrange the furniture” in Daken’s mind, but Chuck is reluctant to help him. Wolverine is basically asking him to go back to his old ways — molding and manipulating minds for the “greater good.” The dynamic in this scene is very well done, with capable art by Scot Eaton that meshes well with the tone set by Deodato in Part 1. I like that Logan doesn’t get sanctimonious, because he knows that he’s done some stuff in his life that he’d rather forget, too. I also like that he doesn’t treat Xavier like the other X-Men do — he seems to treat Xavier like they’re actually equals.

The issue ends with Logan revealing to the Professor that when he got his memories back after House of M, he remembered something very troubling. As it turns out, when Wolverine first met with Charles at Department H and was recruited for the X-Men, it wasn’t a random act of benevolence — Wolverine was sent to kill Xavier. Could this be the “original sin?”

Overall, this issue works well as the set-up for a crossover, but it has its share of flaws. Daniel Way and Mike Carey do a great job of making Part 1 and Part 2 blend together seamlessly in terms of tone…but Wolverine punching Cyke just seems so out of place that it’s jarring. Additionally, I have to knock this issue down a couple points because it retails for $3.99. When you see a 2-parter for $3.99, you expect a double-sized story. What you get, instead, is a normal-sized issue broken into two parts, with an X-Men Classic reprint of the first meeting of the Giant-Sized team in the back. Come on Marvel, really now? That’s beyond lame.

The art is very nice, and the story has promise, but I can’t recommend this issue in and of itself.

C+

In all seriousness, if you haven’t already…

• Check out OrangeSodaMan’s blog, Vs. Unleashed! for a chilling Iceman preview. With control cards like him cropping up, I may need to reassess my position on RocketGurl’s argument.
• Then be sure to hit up the blog with the uninspired name for good ol’ Guido Carosella. The big guy has been M.I.A. in the Vs. System until now, but he’ll definitely be making his presence known as the apparent finisher in “MultipleMan.dek.”
• Finally, ask yourself the question: why did you visit my blog before VsRealms? Come on, now.

Til next time.

Maybe updating 4 times a week was too lofty of a goal. I burned myself out fairly quickly; I had visions of grandeur — the Red Room filling the void that metagame.com and vssystem.com left in our hearts — but with a job and college classes, that just isn’t going to happen.

But….I owe it to the Vs. System to keep blogging about it. It’s that good. Let’s go over the changes at the new Red Room:

• My knowledge of the metagame isn’t up to snuff, so weekly deck fix articles are out.
• Articles about limited play wouldn’t be very helpful to anyone right now, so they’re out.
• There won’t be a predetermined schedule for updates (a la Lost Hemisphere, etc.)

Instead, I’m planning on updating my blog in a way that ebbs and flows with the goings-on around VsRealms. I check in on the site every day or so….so why not write for my blog at the same time?

For example:

• Marvel Evolution previews are just starting to heat up, and I’ll be here with commentary.
• We’re at an apparent crossroads with regard to the future of Vs. System. Announcements on future sets (if any) and DC’s inclusion in our beloved game are forthcoming, and I’ll be here with my thoughts.
• Any time any thread on VsRealms piques my interest, I may check in here with my take.

Before you say it: NO, I’m not updating my blog in the hopes of landing a MEV preview article. I mean, hey, I’d love one, but there are far more deserving bloggers than me out there. Really, it was Kamiza’s call to arms concerning new bloggers that made me feel inclined to get back in the swing of things.

Changing gears…

CONTROL VS. COMBAT

RocketGurl just made a thread detailing his dissatisfaction with the current balance between beatdown and control here. I share his sentiments in a number of ways.

Let me preface by saying I love control cards.

The first deck that I saw any competitive success with was Gamma Doom, so you can understand my lack of concern about the damage cards like Pathetic Attempt cause in the long run……I mean, I was Reign’ing guys with reckless abandon before most of you started playing. If Vs. System were simply about who had the largest characters and the most pumps, the outcome would be nothing more than a coin flip. As long as you get your preferred initiative, and you can solve the “math problem” correctly, you’re going to win. Cards that prevent your opponent from doing what they want are a necessary counterbalance. My Radioactive Man deck exemplifies this.

But where do you draw the line? Didn’t we all get into Vs. System because we wanted to smash our favorite heroes and villains into the opposition?

I first said it in RocketGurl’s thread, and I’ll say it again here: you can’t deny that Vs. (especially Golden Age and Modern Age) heavily favors control right now. If I’m not Gift Wrapping or Paralyzing your guys on your own initiative, chances are my Omnipotence allows me to shut down your crucial plot twists and payment powers.

The sad truth is that Vs. R&D currently consists of Ben Seck and Billy Zonos…..and that’s it. And hey, they’re great guys. I’ve loved every set since World’s Finest. But they’re Only Human. In order to ensure the longevity of our game, these newer sets had to sell, and that meant powerful cards for all archetypes. So we saw the aforementioned crippling control cards, and powerful pumps like a reprinted Savage Beatdown, alongside Hulk Smash and Trouble With Dinosaurs.

Problem is….powerful control trumps powerful pump.

What does this mean? Is our metagame too unbalanced? It is impossible to land an attack anymore? Hardly.

Look back to Worlds. Brian Eugenio won with an ingenious control deck, true. But I attribute that more to his personal skill than any perceived dominance of control over beatdown. If I recall, the top 8 was littered with Avengers Reservist Rally decks that looked to do nothing more than smash face. In Modern Age, decks that have meaningful combat phase interactions are still viable.

But let’s take a step back. Even if Modern Age was control or bust, would that really matter? Marquee Formats change so frequently that none of the metagame minds ever have enough time to develop THE definitive deck. When there are prizes on the line, each tournament brings a fresh outlook. The real concern then is your weekly hobby league fare. You may be surrounded by cutthroat players that play nothing less than the most devastating Doom / Spider-Friends / kitchen sink concoctions. I HIGHLY doubt that’s the case, but let’s assume it is. They paint themselves into a corner.

The problem with easily splashable control cards is, well……you can meta the meta. You don’t want your opponent to call Omnipotence on your key plot twist? Flip your own Omnipotence, calling Omnipotence. And so on and so forth.

THIS is the “problem” that I think RocketGurl is bringing up. It’s not so much that combat is “nonviable” — it’s that, in order to win by battle with any regularity, you have to make a lot of concessions in DECKBUILDING. You have to fight a two-front war: beat your opponent down, all while pre-emptively denying your opponent the means to stop you. That can get rather monotonous. By the time you’ve included copies of Omnipotence, Pathetic Attempt, Have a Blast!, Death of the Dream, and [insert equipment hate here], your “combat deck” looks just as heinous as any “control deck.”

Here’s the tl;dr version…

The bad news is that Ludin is right. The current balance between control and combat isn’t ideal. I’m speaking in a broad sense here….let’s say Silver Age and Modern Age.

The good news is that this is more of a deckbuilding constraint than anything else. Upper Deck can remedy this as early as MEV.

A couple small guys that can activate to pop ongoings…..a guy that says “plot twists that target [this character] cannot be negated”…..a guy that readies if your opponent plays a plot twist during your attack step…..more “cannot be targeted while attacking” clauses…..and how about a character that can’t be exhausted, except by attacking? It’s simple. They just have to make combat more attractive.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this in the comments. Anyway, thanks for reading, comrades; it’s good to be back!

Sorry I’m a couple days late with this one, but here it is: my own spin on abusing Radioactive Man in Modern Age after seeing him in action at Worlds. Think of this as “Breaking Ground: Radioactive Man,” where 4 copies of Radioactive Man is the centerpiece of the deck and everything else is tailored around him (man, I miss those articles). Certainly this won’t be of bigspooky-esque quality, but here goes.

Touching back on the two decks I highlighted earlier, they’re quite different. Michael Robinson used Radioactive Man as a key component of his deck, so much so that he continually scurried ol’ Containment Suit to the hidden area with Underground Movement just to ensure his effect was active. Yet, Ultron was REALLY the centerpiece of his deck. Topher went for a less bombastic approach. His was a simple Avengers deck at its core; SHIELD dual-affiliation allowed the inclusion of Radioactive Man without any hassle.

Knowing that I’m going to include 4 copies of Radioactive Man as my 3-drop, the initial question I have to ask myself is: Avengers, Thunderbolts, SHIELD, or none of the above? What team is going to form the basis of the character lineup? Well, let’s consider the available tutors.

Radioactive Man having the SHIELD affiliation will probably be nice for reinforcement, but Security Clearance isn’t going to help us curve out, so I’m going to shy away from SHIELD. Likewise for Thunderbolts: I don’t see a real need for Thunderbolts Mountain, so Collect ‘Em All won’t get the job done.

Underground Movement and Superhuman Registration Act do a great job of affiliating everyone in the deck all while supporting Mobilize. Michael Robinson even used the triggered effect of Underground Movement nicely, so it has a two-fold usefulness. Shipping Radioactive Man off to the hidden area doesn’t jive well with Iron Man, Mighty Avenger, though, as I’m sure you’re well aware. I’m of the opinion that Iron Man is the way to go here.

We have no way to search out a Team-Up unless we throw in some off-the-wall GK/Doom stuff, so I’m a little concerned that packing 4 copies of UM/SRA and 4 copies of Mobilize won’t ensure hitting our drops as much as we’d like. And this deck is going to have a pretty defined curve from turn 3 onward — simply adding additional characters is only going to dilute its effectiveness. I’m an “8 tutor” kind of guy anyway, so I’m going to explore another, less-popular option.

Secret Avengers.

We get the same “characters you own gain [affiliation]” goodness, all while allowing us to throw in 4 copies of Avengers Reassembled.

Now, we are making some concessions in going with Secret Avengers over either one of the rare Team-Ups. Secret Avengers requires an Avengers exhaust, and Radioactive Man doesn’t have the Avengers affiliation. Michael and Topher played a bunch of little Thunderbolts guys, so that they could Mobilize for the Containment Suit on turn 3 if need-be. If we want to enable Secret Avengers as soon as possible, however, that means we’re going to have to play Avengers guys on 1 and 2. The downside, of course, is that if you don’t draw into Secret Avengers, that Mobilize you’re holding won’t be able to fetch your marquee 3-drop, and that’s just weak. Besides, Green Goblin (Insanity Unleashed) is too good here. We need to stick with the ‘Bolts.

The way I see it, our primary 4-cost character (Iron Man) is Avengers affiliated anyway, so even if we don’t get the Team-Up online before turn 4, we can still Avengers Reassembled for Tony…and if we pick our 1′s and 2′s right, we’ll be able to Mobilize for him as well (thank you SHIELD dual-affiliation!). Then he can exhaust for the cost in a pinch.

It’s not worth trying to pander to Secret Avengers at the cost of Radioactive Man consistency; he IS the focus here, after all. So, after initial considerations we’re looking a skeleton like this:

4 Green Goblin, Insanity Unleashed
<Other Thunderbolts / SHIELD 1 and 2 cost characters>
4 Radioactive Man, Containment Suit
4 Iron Man, Mighty Avenger

4 Mobilize
4 Avengers Reassembled
4 Secret Avengers, Team-Up

So far, so good.

Now, you still may be wondering why I deemed Secret Avengers the appropriate Team-Up. I mean, if I’m trying to enable my 5-cost and above characters to be searched out via Avengers Reassembled, why not just play characters with the printed Avengers affiliation? Here’s where the deck gets a little out there:

Holocaust, Age of Apocalypse.

Bear with me, here.

Holocaust enters play as a 9/9 with flight and range. Perfectly respectable. Your Iron Man and Radioactive Man should be about the size of the drop above them anyway, so Holocaust’s ATK/DEF aren’t dealbreakers.

Whenever Holocaust becomes stunned, you have the option of removing every +1/+1 counter from every character in play. Never mind that it might mess over your opponent in random cases — you’re going to have a veritable slew of counters on your guys. Then you burn your opponent for 1 endurance times the number of counters you removed. Holocaust has the potential to be a HUGE game-ender, and if you can Avengers-affiliate him by turn 5, you can grab him from the deck with any of your 8 search plot twists. I can see him hitting your opponent up for 8-10 endurance burn or more with the right draw, and considering that (a) your characters are inflicting above-average damage since they all have counters on them and (b) Radioactive Man is locking up your opponent’s defensive tricks, you can see that extra 8-10 endurance can put your opponent too deep into the hole.

We have to accept the fact that there will be games that we won’t draw a Team-Up, however, so for those rare occasions, 1 copy of Wonder Man should suffice. He’s a simple Avengers / SHIELD body, so you can use either of your searchers to nab him sans Team-Up.

So, how are we going to get counters onto our characters? Let’s toss in a full complement of Heroic Effort. Simple, straightforward counter generation that can also be used as a combat trick. Sure, it’s a lackluster card in and of itself, but here it’s adding damage and bricking attacks all while pumping up Radioactive Man (and setting up for Holocaust). Kinda sucks that I Am Doom costs 4, so due to space issues I’m going to shy away from it. Finally, I’m going to keep with Topher and add 4 copies of Speedball Is Dead. Speedball Is Dead on Radioactive Man works really nicely with Iron Man, ensuring a free recovery and THREE +1/+1 counters during recovery.

Speaking of Iron Man, we need to beef up his defenses. All those counters on Radioactive Man won’t do us any good if Iron Man isn’t around to keep recovering him. I’m adding in 4 copies of Extremis Upgrade and 4 copies of Stark Armory. Extremis Upgrade makes Iron Man a bear to stun, making it likely that an opponent will have to either send 2 primary attackers into Iron Man and leave Radioactive Man sitting there, or make a sub-optimal attack into Radioactive Man knowing that he’ll recover. It’s lose-lose on their part. And what better way to make swinging into Iron Man unattractive than Stark Armory? The thing does everything you want it to — adds counters continuously and buffs up Iron Man.

Back to characters — 4 Green Goblin is necessary, and I’m also going to go with 2 Blizzard, 4 Beetle, and 4 Bullseye. Taskmaster is a consideration, but honestly, I think the card is pretty terrible in this specific build. Finally, 2 copies of Ares and 1 copy of The Beyonder will round out our high drops.

We’re currently sitting at 57 cards. Let’s cap off the list with 2 copies of Omnipotence and a singleton of Superhuman Registration Act. Omnipotence is just an all-around good card, and if you want to go for the Holocaust kill you may want to call Pathetic Attempt with it. Superhuman Registration Act lets us see more cards (with its “top view” effect), acts as our 5th Mobilize allowance, and gives us the option of searching for The Beyonder if we need to recover Radioactive Man.

Here’s the final list:

Radioactive Man Abuse
Omega Red, Modern Age, 7/11/08

4 Green Goblin, Insanity Unleashed
2 Blizzard, Frosty Friend
4 Beetle <> Mach, Discharged
4 Bullseye, Lester
4 Radioactive Man, Containment Suit
4 Iron Man, Mighty Avenger
3 Holocaust, Age of Apocalypse
1 Wonder Man, Mighty Avenger
2 Ares, Mighty Avenger
1 The Beyonder, Inhuman

4 Mobilize
4 Avengers Reassembled
4 Secret Avengers, Team-Up
4 Heroic Effort
4 Speedball Is Dead
2 Omnipotence
1 Superhuman Registration Act, Team-Up

4 Stark Armory

4 Extremis Upgrade

What this deck lacks in pumps it makes up for with huge bodies, board presence, and disruption. Play your cards right, and your opponent won’t be able to do what he or she wants to do — they’re going to miss a drop or be unable to swing up the curve at SOME point while you have Radioactive Man online. That’s what allows you to curve out at your own pace, making sure to maintain both your 3 and 4 drop going into turn 5. In rare situations you may be able to Holocaust kill on 5, but nine times out of ten you’re looking for a turn 6 kill. Ares and Holocaust provide you with harsh burn on or off-initiative, so this deck isn’t as roll-dependent as some, although you clearly desire evens.

The beauty of a deck like this is that virtually every card takes you one step closer to your win condition, but you’re not sacrificing large characters or drop consistency to do so — in fact, setting up for your win and keeping a steady board are one in the same thing. Omnipotence gives you a degree of control beyond Radioactive Man, because let’s face it — you’re going to be attacking with him, so your opponent will have opportunities to play their plot twists. The key here is making them play their plot twists when YOU say it’s okay. If you’re lucky enough to draw one of your copies of Omnipotence, great — lock down one of your opponent’s potential outs.

I’ve had a lot of fun making this deck and I hope you’ve enjoyed my insights. Let me know what you think in the comments. Thanks for reading!