06.30.08
We Have a New Champ!
And no, I’m not talking about Manny Pacquiao, hehehe.
Congratulations to Brian Eugenio for being the 1st ever VS World Champion! ^_^
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Check out the coverage here:
http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/vs/en/events/event.aspx?eid=32
Captain America was in the winning deck, so all is well for me, hehehe. ^_^
06.29.08
VS World Champs: Top 8 Decks
This post is all about VS! ^_^
The VS World Championship is finally taking place in the US, and day 2 has concluded yielding the top 8 decks that will be battling it out later/tomorrow for the glory of being the 1st ever VS World Champion. Here’s the breakdown:
Matthew Ross
Characters:
4 Dagger, Secret Avenger
4 Iron Fist, Secret Avenger
4 Captain America, The Patriot, Secret Avenger
3 Dr. Strange, Secret Avenger
3 Hawkeye, Ronin, Secret Avenger
3 Echo, Ronin, Secret Avenger
3 Punisher, Secret Avenger
4 Human Torch, Secret Avenger
2 Storm, Secret Avenger
2 Black Panther, Secret Avenger
2 Spider-Man, Secret Avenger
1 Wolverine, Secret Avenger
2 Luke Cage, Secret Avenger
Plot Twists:
3 Above the Law
3 Blinding Rage
4 Losing the Argument
4 Savage Beatdown
3 Skreeeeeee!
4 The Big Three
2 Avengers Reassembled
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Comments: Secret Avengers! I love the fact that the Avengers are back, but what’s sweeter is that it’s the Secret Avengers kicking ass. Anti-Registration FTW! As for the deck strategy itself, I think it’s a simple beatdown deck with heavy rallying to keep the characters flowing. Above the Law and Losing the Argument really work well with each other. What I love about this list is that it doesn’t even pack Mobilize! And with just 2 Avengers Reassembled, it merely relies on card filtering/rallying for the consistency issues. I love this deck! ^_^
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Todd Carlson
Characters:
4 Iron Fist, Secret Avenger
3 Dagger, Secret Avenger
4 Captain America, The Patriot, Secret Avenger
4 Hawkeye, Ronin, Secret Avenger
2 Echo, Ronin, Secret Avenger
4 Punisher, Secret Avenger
2 Jessica Drew, Spider-Woman, Secret Avenger
1 Cable, Secret Avenger
4 Human Torch, Secret Avenger
2 Storm, Secret Avenger
3 Spider-Man, Secret Avenger
2 Wolvering, Secret Avenger
3 Luke Cage, Secret Avenger
1 Hercules, Secret Avenger
Plot Twists:
4 Savage Beatdown
4 Skreeeeeee!
4 Avengers Reassembled
3 Above the Law
3 The Big Three
3 Finishing Move
_
Comments: Another Secret Avengers deck, hehehe. This is a bit different than the 1st one, as it packs Finishing Move for the board control option. A full set of Avengers Reassembled provides for a little more consistency in getting the drops that you want, and a full set of SKREEEEEE! for the Hidden IG and MKKO matchups. I like this deck, but I prefer the balls-to-the-walls approach of the 1st one, hehehe.
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Brian Eugenio
Characters:
4 Captain America, The Patriot, Secret Avenger
4 Punisher, Suicide Run
4 Professor Emil Hamilton, Ruin, Power Suit
4 The Captain, Can’t Remember His Real Name
1 Captain Atom, Quantum Energy
1 Scarecrow, Chirotophobic
1 Air-Walker, Herald
1 Black Manta, Underwater Marauder
1 Human Torch, Fiery Friend
1 Spider-Man, Outlaw
1 Punisher, Angel of Death
1 Ghost Rider, Danny Ketch
Plot Twists:
4 Carrying the Torch
4 Sniper Shot
3 Have A Blast!
4 Mobilize
4 Wild Ride
3 Pathetic Attempt
3 Superhuman Registration Act, Team-Up
3 Omnipotence
2 Neighborhood Watch, Team-Up
1 Stars and Stripes
1 My name is Peter Parker…
Equipment:
4 Captain America’s Shield
_
Comments: The 1st stall deck of the list! The major features are the 4 Sniper Shots and 4 Captain America’s Shield, with a full set of Carrying the Torch to ensure that anyone on the board can become Punisher and/or Cap. Ruin is there to fetch the on-goings, including the SRA team-up for a blanket Pro-Registration affiliation, and Neighborhood Watch for Marvel Knights membership. From there, you can Wild Ride and Mobilize for the 1-ofs in the later curve. It’s clear that the focal point is to keep exhausting guys and then KOing dudes via Sniping to reach the late turns, but I’m not sure how it would fare against a board-filling deck that swarms the field. I still love the deck because it features the legend of Captain America, but so far it’s the most expensive deck in the list. ^_^
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Mike Jiles
Characters:
4 The Riddler, Riddle Me This
1 Chemo, Toxic Waste
1 Dr. Polaris, Polar Opposite
4 Dr. Sivana, Mad Scientist
2 charaxes, Moth Monster
4 Poison Ivy, Intoxication
1 Sinestro, Yellow Lantern
4 Gorilla Grodd, Grodd Awful
3 Black Manta, Underwater Marauder
2 Deathstroke, Killing Machine
1 Mr. Freeze, Cold Blooded
1 Doomsday, Engine of Destruction
Plot Twists:
3 Going Ape
2 Pathetic Attempt
3 Mobilize
4 Savage Beatdown
4 Straight to the Grave
4 Agility
3 Unnatural Selection
1 Master Plan
Locations:
2 Gorilla City
3 Birthing Chamber
3 Remote Facility
_
Comments: This is the new standard for a Secret Society list, a curve combat deck that relies on the KO’d pile to fuel its tricks. I like its defensive and board control features like Going Ape, Unnatural Selection, and the DCX-exclusive card Agility. Poison Ivy is the engine that makes it tick, since she helps flood the board with 1-drops to fuel Birthing Chamber and the tricks that KO’s characters for their costs. Gorills Grodd is the next important guy, and even has minor legend publicity here. At turn 5, Black Manta brings it all together, and I think its the turn where the deck reaches its crossroad in terms of controlling the tempo of the game. A solid deck overall.
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William Baldwin
Characters:
4 Iron Fist, Secret Avenger
3 Dagger, Secret Avenger
4 Hawkeye, Secret Avenger
4 Captain America, The Patriot, Secret Avenger
2 Echo, Ronin, Secret Avenger
4 Punisher, Secret Avenger
2 Jessica Drew, Spider-Woman, Secret Avenger
1 Cable, Secret Avenger
4 Human Torch, Secret Avenger
2 Storm, Secret Avenger
3 Spider-Man, Secret Avenger
2 Wolverine, Secret Avenger
3 Luke Cage, Secret Avenger
1 Hercules, Secret Avenger
Plot Twists:
4 Savage Beatdown
4 Avengers Reassembled
4 Skreeeeeee!
3 Above the Law
3 Finishing Move
3 The Big Three
_
Comments: More Secret Avengers goodness! It’s an exact mirror of the 2nd deck listed above, so I’m guessing the pilots of these decks are teammates, hehehe.
===
Michael Robinson
Characters:
4 Green Goblin, Insanity Unleashed
1 Black Cat, Thrill Seeker
4 Bullseye, Lester
4 Radioactive Mand, Containment Suit
1 Sharon Carter, Agent 13, Agent of S.h.I.E.L.D.
4 The Captain, Can’t Remember his Real Name
4 Ultron, Ultron Prime
1 Holocaust, Nemesis
1 Martion Manhunter, Founding Member
1 Koriand’r, Starfire, X’Hal’s Fury
1 Darkseid, Dark God
1 The Beyonder, Inhuman
1 Death, The Second Force of the Universe
Plot Twists:
3 Mystical Paralysis
4 Heroic Effect
4 Strategic Thinking
4 Mobilize
2 Call in a Favor
3 Pathetic Attempt
4 Underground Movement, Team-Up
3 Savage Beatdown
1 Superhuman Registration Act, Team-Up
1 Only Human
Locations:
4 Thunderbolts Mountain
_
Comments: Whoa! 2 10-drops in the list! Although they are technically Plot Twists, hehehe. Behold the Radioactive Man/Ultron Prime combo! Well, it’s not really a combo, but it’s all about the +1/+1 counters. Heroic Effort and the MEX-exclusive Strategic Thinking are there to provide the counters, which Radioactive Man eats up to control the opponent’s Plot Twist threshold, which kinda feels like Dr. Doom. And speaking of the good (or evil) doctor, we have Mystical Paralysis in the list without its master! The Captain takes care of this, thanks to his ability to gain names. Ultron Prime is the focal point of the combat strategy, and from there the deck hopes to stall to a Starfire or Darkseid victory. It’s a rather risky list, from what I can see, as it needs the blanket team-ups to gain access to Mobilize, but a set of Thunderbolts Mountain is there to help alleviate that concern. This is an ingenius deck, and could suprise some of the other decks here, if Radioactive Man stays on the board for long.
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Dan Clark
4 Blizzard, Frosty Friend
3 Black Cat, Thrillseeker
1 Chemo, Toxic Waste
2 Dr. Polaris, Polar Opposite
2 Black Widow, Femme Fatale
2 Dr. Strange, Secret Avenger
1 Bullseye, Lester
3 Dr. Sivana, Mad Scientist
4 Poison Ivy, Intoxicating
2 Deadshot, Floyd Lawton
1 Jean Grey, Teen Telepath
1 Imperiex, The Beginning and the End
1 Jean Grey, Phoenix Force
1 Iron Man, Protector of the Reality Gem
1 Professor X, World’s Most Powerful Telepath
1 Rogue, Power Absorption
1 Thunderbolts Mountain
4 Birthing Chamber
1 Remote Facility
2 Straight to the Grave
2 Collect Them All!
4 The Wrong Stuff
4 Neighborhood Watch
2 Omnipotence
4 Forced Conscription
3 Wild Ride
1 Messiah Complex
1 Med Kit
1 Ultimate Nullifier
_
Comments: It looks like a random pile at first glance, but it’s a potent combination of Secret Society and Thunderbolts! It starts as an off-curve tactic, and the likely ideal situation is for Poison Ivy to bring out as many Blizzards into the field as possible (bypassing unique-ness) for the uber-exhaust technique. Deadshot is there, as per usual, to handle the annoying 3-drops or less. From there, it hopes to stall out the game for the big guns to come out, like Imperiex and the Phoenix Force. That’s a huge gap in terms of the turns it’d take to control the tempo of the game with weenies, but there are enough tricks in the list to do just that. This is a potent deck against curve strategies, but I’m not sure how it would fare against other swarm or off-curve tactics.
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Kurt Hindman II
4 Black Widow, Femme Fatale
4 Black Panther, Silent Stalker
4 Punisher, Suicide Run
4 Daredevil, Fearless Survivor
4 Blade, Independent Contractor
2 Ghost Rider, The Devil’s Rider
4 Wolverine, Covert Predator
1 Captain America, Loyal Patriot
1 Punisher, Captain America
1 Ghost Rider, Spirit of Vengeance
3 Stryker’s Island
4 Quick Kill
4 Wild Ride
4 Finishing Move
4 Devastating Blow
4 Blinding Rage
4 Savage Beatdown
1 Trouble with Dinosaurs
4 Mobilize
_
Comments: Marvel Knights! It’s the last in the list but certainly not the least. It screams speed, power, and board control, thanks to the combination of the hidden area and the full sets of Quick Kill and Finishing Move. There is nothing fancy about this deck, just the sheer brute force MK has been known for since its initial incarnation. You gotta love lists wherein you can easily classify its non-character tricks into 3 piles: search, pumps, and KO. I love this deck. ^_^
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My prediction as which deck will take it all? Secret Avengers! ^_^
I’m cheating a bit here, since there are 3 Secret Avengers in the list, hehehe. As long as Captain America is in the winning deck, I don’t really care which one grabs the ultimate prize. Here’s hoping to an exciting top 8 showdown! ^_^
Squad 2 Regionals
The 2nd Regionals concluded with me ending up with a losing record, but it was still a fun event with every participant giving his best shot. Most of my losses were due to not having the initiative, but some were also due to bad matchups. In any case, congratulations are in order to cruboy for winning his 2nd straight Regionals! And congratulations also to Red Viper for snagging the Squad 2 Captain title, due to the rule that a previous Taicho can’t have another Taicho title during the year, hehehe. ^_^
06.28.08
Bleach at Bizu
Last tuesday, we held the 1st ever Makati HL for Bleach at Bizu Patisserie in Greenbelt 2. Now that’s a fancy place to play card games in, but the Bizu guy Red Viper came through for us and graciously hosted the event, so everyone who came had fun and enjoyed the really good food that was served. It was especially a great night for “Davs”, who won the tourney with his impressive Spirits deck. Congratulations Davs! hehehe =P
In other Bleach news, I played my Renji Soul Reapers deck last night at XP, as I hadn’t played it in a while and wanted a fun deck. Sadly it didn’t win a lot of games, partly because of bad matchups and partly because I couldn’t get out Renji’s Bankai early on in the games that I lost. Hihio Zabimaru is so critical to the deck’s success, with everyone packing Balances and Passing Overs all over the place. But the deck performed as well as it could, so I can’t be too hard on my guy Abarai (yeah, I’m a rhyming monster, hehehe).
Tonight will be the 2nd Bleach Regionals, a fight for the honor of being the Squad 2 Captain. That’s Soi Fon’s honor at stake, baby! The competition has improved over the months though, so it will an uphill battle to claim my fame as a Taicho. Wish me luck! ^_^
06.22.08
Chopsuey 2.0
Last weekend, I let my Student deck rest for a while, since it still needed some tweaks. Instead, I decided to bust out one of my “think tank” creations, which I’ve had a decklist written for but never really bothered to put together until last week. I knew it had potential, but I was quite surprised and pleased that it went undefeated in the 2 HLs that I played. It’s a deck with no unifying theme or trait, but instead relies on efficient resource management. Hence, I call it Chopsuey 2.0, after my original chopsuey deck that had everyone wondering what the hell it was supposed to do, hehehe.
One of my favorite characters for this deck is also its Guardian:
I never realized how useful that ability is until I tried it out. It’s resource efficiency at its finest. Makes me wonder how good the upcoming Dual Energy cards are in the Bounto set (coming this July! ack!). Of course, Sosuke becomes better with his trusty and trusting lieutenant:
Momo cry! Momo smash! Of course, it’s not often that I had both Sosuke and Momo out together, but on the games that I was able to, Momo just made the matches end faster than they had any right to.
I have another deck in the “think tank”, but I’m not sure if I’ll have the time to cobble it together for the weekend. It has the potential to be better than both chopsuey decks that I’ve built in terms of consistency, but I think its problem will be a reduction in controlling tempo by speed. I’ll have to build it and find out for myself first, hehehe.
06.21.08
Oh MUN, Where Art Thou?
If you’ve noticed that I haven’t written much about VS recently, that’s because I haven’t been playing the game for the past few weeks. Why? There are a couple of reasons. Primarily it’s about my new work, but not entirely because of the nature of the job. See, the main VS Hobby League occurs during Friday nights, and I’ve been a loyal player for who knows how long already. But since I’m new to the company I work for, I have to acquiant myself with my new teammates and batchmates, and part of that process is going out during Friday nights to relax and unwind. Not that I am forced to join in these gimiks, ‘coz I’m actually trying not to be anti-social this time around, hehehe.
The number 2 reason is, honestly, because of the existing player base. There are people I enjoy playing against, and then there are those who almost everyone agrees that aren’t really fun to play or hang out with. The latter usually use the same crutch engines for their decks (*cough* Checkmate *cough*) and pass them off as “new” decks since they involve a different secondary team to team-up with. These people also whine a lot when they actually lose, hehehe. We’ll label these players as The Pros. They think themselves as pros in this game ‘coz they can netdeck the latest toys from the actual pros on VSRealms.
Now I personally don’t mind playing against powerful decks, as long as they bring something fresh to the table. But it’s the new or recurring players that I am worried about, or those regulars who can’t afford to buy some of the power staples of the game. They either lose a lot to the The Pros and stop attending the HLs, or lose a lot to The Pros and stop having fun while still hanging on to the game. The community tries hard to change formats regularly so that players are forced to use new decks once in a while, but the moment the tourneys revert back to the familiar Ages, the meta simply goes back to being boring.
So if we combine reason 1 with reason 2, we get a graymalkin who hasn’t been attending some of the last few HLs, hehehe. Why should I attend an uninteresting tournament when I can have fun socializing with new friends (particularly girls, but that’s not for this blog, hehehe) ? Of course, I don’t mean to stop playing VS on Friday nights altogether, as it is still fun smashing with superheroes. But now I don’t have to be guilty when I miss an HL or two.
There is also a 3rd reason, and something that I think is in common with most everyone who plays locally. It’s the lack of new products! We’ve had shortages of MVL and DCL, and now it looks like MUN will even be worse. It was sold out within a week of release in the US (a week!), so our hobby store owner’s distributors are having problems getting the cases we pre-ordered and paid for a few weeks ago. We’re not even sure at this point if there are still enough products that will reach our shores.
This is a huge concern not only for me, but also for the community. Obviously, the game cannot evolve without new cards, especially if said cards are some of the most powerful and flavorful cardboards the game has ever seen. I mean, I haven’t read every card from MUN yet, but I’ve been impressed with what I’ve seen so far. I want to get my hands on the Avengers! And Captain America’s legendness, hehehe. Without MUN stocks, we’ll be stuck with our same old cards and same old meta.
I’ll try to end this rant or whatever with something positive though… Bleach rocks! ^_^
OK, I’m kidding, hehehe! No, really, Bleach rocks, but VS is still better. So here’s hoping that our distributors won’t fail us and deliver MUN to our doorsteps within the next few weeks. ^_^
06.15.08
Squad 2 Trial Mission – Part 1
I’ve managed to playtest my latest Bleach creation, the Squad 2 deck, for the past week. The good news is that it has played better than my expectations, as it has managed to put up good fights against other Squad decks. The bad news is that it hasn’t won a lot of its matches, hehehe.
How does the deck compete? Being primarily a stall deck, it drags out the game by discouraging the opposing party from making early attacks. But in order to do so, you need the lynchpin of the deck out in the field as early as possible. And that card is:
Once her power is online (which is your next turn after you recruit her), Soi Fon – Squad 2 Captain stops the biggest character on the other side from attacking, since it would be pointless to do so unless the player has a trick up his sleeve. She’s the best card in the entire deck, but unfortunately her ability also limits the way you can construct your deck. Your field has to have an all Squad 2 line-up for her to do her thing, so we can’t have other Soul Reapers as guest stars. This might not be much of a problem if the squad had many characters, but alas, we only have her, her lieutenant Marechiyo, one version of Yoruichi that belongs to Squad 2, and two versions of Stealth Force Members, which are the non-unique ninjas of the team.
That’s only 5 characters to build a deck around with! We have other versions of Soi Fon to tinker with, but they only serve certain roles in certain situations, unlike the Squad 2 Captain which you always want out in the field. Besides the Squad 2 Lieutenant, Marechiyo is practically useless in his other versions. Even after adding the good and generic Repentance Cell Guards (which is being played in every Squad deck), we are still left with a very restricted line-up.
Well, that’s all I can talk about right now. Part 2 will deal with whatever I can think of to say then, hehehe. ^_^
06.08.08
Struggling Students
The new schoolyear is almost upon us, and it’s a coincidence that my Ichigo Students deck debuted last weekend at the Bleach HLs. Basically, it uses Ichigo as the guardian, and plays out most of the efficiently costed students, most notably the new Students featured in the Bankai set.
Kanisawa and Shuhei both add to the theme for which the Students are most famous for: burn. They also have decent-to-good stats for their cost, so they immediately made the cut. There were other new Student cards from Bankai, but I feel that these two really help the early to midgame of the deck, where it has struggled in the past against the faster decklists.
Unfortunately, the results have been less then ideal. I went 2-1 (2 wins, 1 loss) last Friday for 3rd place, then went 2-2 last Saturday for 5th place, even with some tweaking to the decklist. Admittedly, I made some mistakes in those 2 matches that I lost, once for not defending with every boost I had, and the other for defending when I didn’t really have to. They were simply two sides of the same coin.
But I don’t feel that bad about the Students’ performance, as I still feel that they have what it takes to hang with the top decks, even without complete sets of the staples. I just need to reduce the mistakes I make especially during the last few turns, and of course, I’ll need better luck like everyone else, hehehe.
It may be time to try out something new again this weekend. We’ll see. ^_^
06.07.08
Heralds of Doom
We had a Silver Age HL for VS last night, and since I didn’t have the time nor the desire to create an entirely new deck, I played one of my trusty oddball creations, hehehe. It’s a Doom/Heralds team-up whose entire point is to play the following combo:
Kindred Spirits
0-cost Plot Twist
Search your deck for up to two Heralds of Galactus character cards, reveal them, shuffle your deck, and put those cards on the top of your deck.
Shape Change
1-cost Plot Twist
Put the top card of your deck into your KO’d pile. Target defender you control gets -X ATK and +X DEF this attack, where X is the cost of the card put into your KO’d pile this way.
Can you see the cheapness? Search for a high drop HoG character (say, 8-cost Tyrant), put it on top of your deck, then play Shape Change to brickwall an attack. Hahaha! ^_^
Sadly, I never pulled off this trick last night. Not once, hehehe. So I ended up with a 1-2 record. Still, it was fun piloting the deck again, as it wasn’t the usual combat curve deck that I am usually associated with. Plus, it was another excuse to play Doom. =P
