One of my favorite VS System characters of all time is Franklin Richards, Creator of Counter Earth. As a huge fan of the Marvel cosmic comic universe, characters with that little cosmic keyword would always catch my eye. It’s a great keyword, which allows for the ability to mix powerful effects with the gambit of losing said effects thanks to an errant attack or power up. The Heralds set granted us the boon that is Cosmic-Surge, allowing for the continued replacement of lost cosmic counters, with the added proviso of having to be face up at the start of combat. Once again, it’s a well balanced system. And then Mr. Richards comes along. He changes things. The ability to move any cosmic character back and forth from the hidden area at will without any kind of team stamping is supremely powerful. Some of those visible cosmic characters with strong abilities that are supposed to be kept in check by having a high chance of losing that counter in combat can be made even more powerful thanks to being shipped to the hidden area by Franklin. So I decided that it would be fun to throw out my personal opinion of the top ten characters that love Franklin Richards. I’ve stuck to the Silver Age here, just to let you folks know.
10. Connor Kent <> Superman, Titans Tomorrow West – So what we’ve got here is someone that’s going to very much enjoy being in a stall build. Granted, most decks dealing in the Franklin Richards trade tend to have a strong hidden area presence, but if you’re trying to do more tricky things where you have a low drop you want to move hidden and mostly play visible characters, Connor Kent can come down off initiative and save you a healthy amount of endurance off initiative, which might be enough to survive to a turn eight or have that extra 11 or so endurance be the difference when you swing back on your attack step.
9. Frankie Raye <> Nova, Soul Searcher – An extra card at the start of the combat phase every turn? Awesome. If not for the fact that there’s a much better cosmic Heralds three drop, she’d be higher on the list. Card draw is never a bad thing. Continuous card draw is also never a bad thing. She’s got synergy with other characters as well, so moving her hidden for some protection is a solid strategy.
8. Triton, Aquatic Ambassador – He is, of course, a cosmic counter based Garth, Tempest. Granted, tricks can be used to allow him to be active a turn early, but the standard way to get him his counter is going to put him active on five just like Garth. I’d rank him higher if not for the fact that I usually use my Inhumans decks for location based effects, which limits the reusability of my KO’d pile. But you can’t deny it’s powerful, nor can you deny that’s it’s a good idea to get him out of the way.
7. Moondragon, Protector of the Mind Gem – Oh, Moondragon. You draw me so so many cards. And you’re very good friends with 3 drop Frankie Raye. And you’re very good friends with Elemental Converters. It’s not difficult to set up the situation of drawing at least one card every phase (in the Heralds team-up, for example, you can trigger off the draw phase, a Mind Gem during build, Frankie Raye at start of combat and Elemental Converters during recovery), meaning that you would be netting at least 9 cards a turn. Which is crazy. And so much easier to pull off when she’s hidden.
6. Human Torch, The Invisible Man – The funny thing about this is that his non cosmic ability is a hell of a lot more important to me than the one tied to a counter. Moving him hidden and making sure all your visible characters are constantly reinforced at all times seems pretty damned good to me. Perhaps you can have him and Connor Kent in the hidden area off initiative on seven, which means you can completely foil some attacks and take nothing. Sure, the endurance gain from his cosmic effect can be a big deal, but that reinforcement thing is wicked.
5. XS, Jenni Ognats – She’s Quicksilver, for all intents and purposes. She’s got Surge, so you can fuel her power with her own counter every turn after three. Sure, you have to keep her up, but Franklin’s going to at least make sure that she gets to attack every time. And with a character like Wildfire (who was definitely an honorable mention for this list), you’ve got ways to keep counters going. I mean, the Quicksilver decks ran Luna, and Quicksilver in the hidden area always wreaked havoc. She’s not as good as Quicksilver for various reasons, but she’s still good.
4. Air-Walker, Gabriel Lan – Puppet Master in the hidden area? Yes, please.
3. Brainiac 2.5, Future Intelligence – He’s basically the Revenge Squad version of Merlyn. Both characters have cosmic counters, which means you can pull them both hidden with Franklin, but as I said, I’m aiming for Silver Age here. Direct KO’s are a very good thing. Revenge Squad is built for ongoings, which means that you should be able to KO their six drop regardless of initiative thanks to moving him hidden. And you’ll be KO’ing a character every turn.
2. Ronan the Accuser, Starforce – Nobody locks down a resource row like the big, bad Kree with his giant hammer. I mean, reservist decks won’t care about Ronan too much, but most other decks are not going to be thrilled about losing use of their resource row. The Ronan lock helped push two Skrull decks into the Silver top eight at Mega Weekend So-Cal, mostly due to it shutting down the Bizarro World deck. But other decks can be really hurt by Ronan’s existence. Hell, a Darkseid’s Elite team-up and the new DCX Thank Granny Goodness card can really mess with their plans. It’s one of the better soft locks in the game as far as restricting your opponent’s options.
1a. Captain America, Skrull Imposter – This guy’s ability is ludicrously powerful. Once this guy’s on the field, it’s very possible that one Team-Up is all you need to make your entire board not stun while attacking. That’s insane. Powerful. Crazy. Then you move him hidden and all kinds of madness takes over. It’s very likely (especially in the standard Skrull build) that everyone’s going to be hidden, and when you get the chance to attack on three and one way their board, you’ve just created a MASSIVE board advantage that’s going to last the rest of the game. This guy can break games wide open all by himself, and Franklin just helps make sure that’ll happen.
1b. Lockjaw, Inhuman’s Best Friend – Because if you’re playing Franklin on two, you’re playing four Lockjaws. You just are.
No comments:
Post a Comment