New Blood Part 1: Fantastic Four

I met my friend Will when I picked up WoW and started playing at the local hobby league around January-February of 2007. The guy is quite the card player and one of the best metagame callers I've personally seen. When I was playing a few casual VS games with Bryan on Sunday (wherein I managed to win two games with Skrulls despite not playing Franklin Richards either game and not playing Captain America the first game), Will showed some interest in learning how to play VS. He's watched us play a lot, and always found the game intriguing, but monetary concerns have kept him from jumping in full tilt. So we sat down and went over the basics of combat and the phases of the game and such. Next week we're going to sit down and play some games.

Now, out of the decks that I usually have on my person, only one of them (Injustice Gang hidden beats) is probably easily grasped by a new player. The others (JSA/FF Alan Scott abuse, Skrulls, JLA stall, Substibuse, and World's Finest) would probably be a bit too esoteric for someone who's just starting out. I've got the starters, and I've got the Hellboy Essential (which is what was used to teach me the game), but I've always found them a little lacking in terms of either easing someone into game mechanics (Hellboy) or being legitimately fun to play (the starters). But we have a trick up our sleeve. And that trick is Marvel Legends. As we all know, Marvel Legends is not the most complicated set, and it's the perfect jumping on point for new players. Very few cards are super complicated, keywords are pretty much nonexistent, and even though the cards are simplistic in nature, they're still very powerful. And what team is the best example of this? Why, the Fantastic Four, of course. So I decided to make my own damned starter deck. 60 cards, mono team Fantastic Four. It's got a very good cross section of the basic points of the game. Concealed characters, activated abilities, equipment, locations, search, combat pumps, and so on. Plus, for being (mostly) short on rares, it's a pretty strong little deck in its own right. It's not exactly as abusive as Miguel's deck, but it's still a lot of fun to just shuffle up and play. And without further ado, here we go.

Characters:
4x Invisible Woman, Walking on Air
1x Uatu the Watcher, He Who Watches
3x Human Torch, Matchstick
3x Mr. Fantastic, Stringbean
4x Invisible Woman, First Lady of the Fantastic Four
2x Thing, Idol O' Millions
4x Mr. Fantastic, Critical Thinker
2x Luke Cage, Paid in Full
2x Franklin Richards, Child of the Cosmos
2x Ghost Rider, Rider on the Storm
2x She-Hulk, Single Green Lawyer
1x Human Torch, Flame On!
1x Hulk, The Fantastic Hulk
1x Thing, The Ever-Lovin' Blue-Eyed Thing
Plot Twists:
4x Mobilize/Signal Flare (take your pick, really)
4x Finishing Move
4x Devastating Blow
4x Torch and Thing
3x It's Clobberin' Time!
2x Stretch Out
Equipment:
4x Unstable Molecular Suit
Locations:
3x Research Facility

I'm probably going to whip one of these up for each team from Marvel Legends (except, you know, the Shi'ar) and post them on the blog this week if I get a chance.

And as for the Ultimate Cosmic Deck, I'm still working on it. The Wild Pig sale and the short box full of comics I got out of it have put a bit of a dent into my free time.