Spotlight On: Alternate Win Conditions

So today my blog got mentioned as part of the inaugural edition of Rallying Cry! (rock on for that, Mr. Fike) and also got linked to on the Comic Geek Speak boards for my podcasting article (rock on for that, Mr. Rios). One can only assume that such exposure would at least lead to a small bump in the number of people reading this blog, so of course I will be leaving for Boston

tomorrow and probably won’t be able to update this thing until Sunday. Never fear, ye fans of VS, crazy music and comics, I shall return triumphant and hopefully better than ever (which seems like a hollow phrase considering this thing’s only been around for two weeks). Now, on to the article.

Ever since the first VS System set ever made, this game has been a fan of Alternate Win Conditions. Xavier’s Dream set the stage for many different and various AWC’s over the years and sets. I thought I would take a closer look at some of the AWC’s that are available to us in the Silver and Modern Ages. So let’s take a look at the set on its way out of Silver, The X-men.

Ape, Metamorph: “Discard an Energy card à Target opponent with 0 or less endurance loses the game”

This is a pretty self explanatory effect that can be quite useful under the correct circumstances. Ape is a 7 drop from the Morlocks, but it should be noted that he has no loyalty or team-stamping to his effect, which means he could be splashed into pretty much any deck. There is the added restriction of needing a card featuring the Energy trait to make him go, but that shouldn’t be too hard to do. He’s a 16/14, which means that you’re better off playing him on initiative, as a character like this is going to have a pretty big bullseye on his forehead. Still, with the right cards, especially as late as turn seven, it shouldn’t be too tough to get your opponent below 0, and Ape allows you to immediately end things without any kind of shenanigans prior to the recovery phase. It’s also a good deal if you’re both in the negatives and you have less endurance than your opponent. It’s an effect that’s been seen in other places as well, and it’s hard to deny the power of ending the game prior to the recovery phase. Mysterium, Joseph Lightner is another Alternate Win from this set, but for reasons that will become clear later, he’s not exactly the nine drop AWC of choice.

Now, in the Infinite Crisis set, we have multiple iterations of the AWC. But let’s get to the big one.

Captain Marvel, Champion of Magic: “Pay 25 Endurance à You win the game

He is of course an 8 drop with loyalty to the Shadowpact that has some beautiful Alex Ross art on his card. It’s an enjoyable mechanic for the team, due to the Shadowpact having nearly every character and Magic Plot Twist effect involving paying endurance for effects. Plus, even more characters get extra effects from having less than 25 endurance (which of course means Captain Marvel’s effect couldn’t be used). Still, many Shadowpact based stall decks have surfaced, one of the more famous being the ultra counter based Shadow Knights (the Shadowpact/Gotham Knights deck that runs Bat Got Your Tongue? and The Conclave). If you can make it to 8 with enough endurance, you’ve got the added bonus of being able to use his effect the second he hits play. A very good card, and a very strong AWC

Now, the Crisis set has other AWC’s, but not in the way that one would expect. Being the set that established Checkmate, they also established the Alternate Loss Condition via the dreaded King Kill. Sure, the King effects are for the most part extremely powerful effects (Sorry Harry Stein, King in Check), and there are many ways to protect them, but the danger is still there. Now, let’s move on to the Heralds of Galactus set, for a character that’s not officially an Alternate Win Condition, but is pretty damned close.

Galactus, Devourer of Worlds: “When Galactus enters play, you may gain endurance equal to target opponent's endurance total. If you do, that player's endurance total becomes 0”

Sure, it’s not an Alternate Win. It doesn’t specifically state on the card that you’re winning or your opponent is losing because of the card, and Galactus decks still win the game on endurance. However, it is impossible to deny the power of Galactus. There is a reason why every Silver Age long term stall deck plays at least one copy of this nine drop monster. He’s affiliated, which means he’s searchable, and in nearly every case he’s a better choice than any other nine drops currently legal in Silver Age (or, arguably, Golden Age). Mysterium is good, but can be played around. Onslaught and Imperiex can do quite a lot, but are both unaffiliated and cannot guarantee victory to the extent of a Galactus. Agamemno is a joke. So is Superman. Kyle Rayner Ion is cute, but he’s not an auto win. Sure, Galactus isn’t an auto-win either, but he’s going to be gaining you a ton of endurance in addition to putting your opponent at 0, and on top of all that, he still gets to throw his weight around as a 25/25 during the combat phase. This is why Galactus has become the gold standard finisher of stall decks all around the world. To continue, let’s move on to the Legion of Superheroes set.

Terror Incognita: “To play, remove three cosmic counters from Legionnaires characters you control. Target player loses 5 endurance. Then, if that player has 0 or less endurance, he loses the game.”

You’ve basically got the Ape, Metamorph effect tied to a plot twist with an added burn effect. For those Legion decks that are designed to manipulate cosmic counters (which is, you know, every Legion deck on Earth), this can turn out to be an excellent finisher. With a card like We Are Legion (which is the namesake of this here blog), cosmic counters can always be replaced, which means the three counter cost isn’t as completely debilitating as it could be. With the way the Legion is built, they can do well with nearly any other team that uses cosmic counters, so team-ups with the Heralds of Galactus or Inhuman or DLS Teen Titans can allow for the quickest possible way to burn down your opponent and finish him off with Terror Incognita. As I mentioned with Ape, any time you can end the game on endurance prior to the recovery phase is a good time indeed. It should be noted that the Legion set also gave us Alan Scott, White King, which is yet another Checkmate king that can lead to an Alternate Loss Condition.

Now, both Marvel Team-Up and World’s Finest took a break from the Alternate Win Condition, with neither set featuring anything that could really be considered Alternate Win. Granted, the Team-Up set did create the stall deck du jour of Spider-Heralds, combining the Spider-Friends exhaust effects with the Heralds of Galactus to stall to the big man, but he’s already been covered, so let’s move on to the Hellboy Essential Collection, where the Alternate Win Condition returned.

Project Ragna Rok: “Ongoing: At the start of the recovery phase, you win the game if there are four or more doomsday counters on Project Ragna Rok. Exhaust a Thule Society character you control -> KO target stunned B.P.R.D. character. If you do, put a doomsday counter on Project Ragna Rok. Use only once per turn.”

I have very fond memories of this card. As I’ve stated many times, I’m still relatively new to this game, and the way my buddy Brian decided to teach me the rules and mechanics of VS System was to bring the Hellboy Essential set to my house and play a bunch of games against me using a preconstructed deck. The second game we played, which was the first VS System game I ever won, was won thanks to the Alternate Win of Project Ranga Rok. It’s a deck that can be made thanks to a B.P.R.D. and Thule Society team-up (or the use of Cavendish Hall to team-up in a solo Thule Society deck) that relies on KO’ing your own characters for Ragna Rok counters, but it’s not one of the best. Still, it’s a fun card that can lead to some really cool deck ideas. And now, on to Marvel Legends.

Xorn’s Takeover: “Ongoing: At the start of the recovery phase, if all characters are stunned or there are no characters in play, you may discard a [Brotherhood Icon] character card. If you do, put a despair counter on Xorn's Takeover. Then, if there are three despair counters on Xorn's Takeover, you win the game.”

This is, put simply, Bizarro Xavier’s Dream. It works in the exact opposite way. Whereas Xavier’s Dream required no stunned characters in play, Xorn requires the opposite to get his mojo going. Now, Xavier’s Dream very rarely saw play, and nearly every time it did, it was usually some kind of crazy ass janky combo deck that was designed for casual silliness. And that card had a hell of a lot easier condition to fulfill than Xorn’s Takeover. It’s going to be damn near impossible to pull this thing off even in a casual vein, and the idea of making a Xorn’s Takeover deck viable in any kind of constructed environment is a virtual impossibility. Sure, if someone pulls it off, it could go down as the greatest rogue deck in history, but it doesn’t seem likely. With DC Legends, however, we’ve gotten the best AWC card since Galactus, and one that has already seen a deck built around him.

Darkseid, Dark God: “At the start of the recovery phase, if no other player controls a non-stunned character, you win the game.”

This 8 drop Secret Society character is an 18/20, which is pretty big for the current stats of 8 drops, and has a fantastic effect. The first thing that I’m sure a lot of people thought of while looking over the spoiler for DC Legends was seeing the blatant synergy between Darkseid and his 9 cost Plot Twist Endgame, that allows him to KO all characters on the board except him to set up the Alternate Win. But there are other ways to pull it off. A card like Koriand’r <> Starfire, X’Hal’s Fury that stuns your opponent’s entire board at the start of the recovery phase would be another way to trigger Darkseid, and with something like Born of Blood, you can just about guarantee she’d be face up at the end of turn 8. At the same time, with the various ways to accelerate resources, which includes Dark Kryptonian <> Dark Superboy, Mockery that’s in team, it isn’t difficult to turn on Endgame as early as turn 7 (thanks to a Samantha Parrington that could allow Kryptonian to swing twice on six and jump two resources). A modern age Secret Society deck that jumped the curve with Silver Surfer, Last Zenn-Lavian to Endgame on 8 made it to the top eight at Mega Weekend So-Cal. It’s a strong effect, and not tough to pull off, which puts Darkseid near the top of the VS System Alternate Win Conditions.

I think people love the Alternate Win Conditions because they’re a good way to shake things up. Combat decks can become staid after a while, and having the option to make a crazy deck around Project Ragna Rok or Darkseid, Dark God not only allows for challenges during the deck building stage, but challenges while playing the game as well. I hope that VS R&D will continue to create cards like this in the future, as they always lead to interesting discussion at the very least.

Deck Theory: Ultimate Control

After a new set comes out, I usually make a lot of decks involving characters or teams that interest me. I went on a crazy deck constructing tear the first week I got my hands on Marvel Legends. With DC Legends now among us, I’ve picked out a couple cards I really enjoyed and started to build decks. I built the Darkseid, Dark God/Endgame deck for Build a Legend (which ended up morphing into my Substibuse deck, so I’ll have to revisit that at some point). I built the IG/Birds of Prey deck around Earth 3. I built a JLA draw deck around Recharge!. The other card I’ve been trying to figure out the best deck for since the set came out is Lex Luthor, Megalomaniac. I fooled around with some builds of IG hand burn, but that deck pretty much gets completely neutered by Pathetic Attempt, which can still be played from the row or played to negate Lex’s effect. But I couldn’t deny how powerful completely shutting off Plot Twists from the hand for a turn every turn. Of course, with Lex there is no restriction on playing things from the row, which is his greatest weakness. But we have a Silver Age character that loves to lock down an opponent’s resource row: everyone’s favorite blue skinned alien with a giant hammer, Ronan the Accuser, Starforce. Ronan’s got a cosmic counter that needs protecting, and who loves to protect people with cosmic counters by shipping them into the hidden area? Why, Franklin Richards, Creator of Counter Earth! And who loves to make sure that Franklin Richards is in your hand by turn two? Could it be Lockjaw, Inhuman’s Best Friend? Yes, it could. So we now have the skeleton of where we’re going here.

With off team cards that early in the curve, we’re going to have to be packing four Enemies too. Playing a strong Inhumans curve past this will allow us to use both Attilan and The Great Refuge as additional search. So who should be the five drop? I’m aiming for the oft neglected but very good Alaris, The Outgoing One. He’s a walking around Coast City that also has the option of swapping places with another Inhumans character by paying some endurance. You can keep both Ronan and Lex protected this way. Alaris stands in front of Lex so he can’t be attacked. He can then switch places with Franklin if someone gets some hidden hate into play. Plus, thanks to Attilan, we can always stack Mr. Sinister on the top of the deck, which means he can be played as a one off. On six, we can use Medusa to shut down a dangerous drop and make sure it can’t ready or use its payment powers. Plus, if you’re really worried about payment powers, Attilan and Enemy allow you to throw out a Batman, Cape and Cowl. On seven, since we’re looking at a stall deck that’s trying to win in the standard stall deck fashion, we’ll be playing Silver Surfer, Last Zenn-Lavian, who will proceed to pave the way for Galactus, Devourer of Worlds. So here’s a quick sketch of the character suite so far:

4x Lockjaw, Inhuman’s Best Friend

4x Franklin Richards, Creator of Counter Earth

4x Lex Luthor, Megalomaniac

4x Ronan the Accuser, Starforce

4x Alaris, The Outgoing One

1x Mr. Sinister, Visionary Geneticist

3x Medusa, Queen of the Inhumans

1x Batman, Cape and Cowl

3x Silver Surfer, Last Zenn-Lavian

2x Galactus, Devourer of Worlds

We’ve already mentioned Attilan, Great Refuge and Enemy of My Enemy as non-character cards. So what else do we want? Extended Family will allow for the restoration of Ronan or Medusa’s cosmic counter, as well as allowing for reinforcement in a deck that runs multiple teams. For a heavy control based deck, Omnipotence and Pathetic Attempt seem like a must. As I mentioned before, Pathetic Attempt is not Lex Luthor’s friend. It’s something that’s tough to counter. So here’s what I was thinking. On turn four, when Pathetic Attempt is online, if you’ve got the initiative, you can stop them from getting Lex by chaining to the draw phase with his effect and playing Ronan. However, from then on, they’re free to play it from hand as a response to Lex. They can’t do this, however, if Lex is equipped with a Time Gem. Most of the Plot Twists I plan on playing in the deck are reactionary, which means I won’t have to worry too much about it countering my own Twists. This also means that I won’t have to worry about calling Pathetic Attempt with Omnipotence so it doesn’t turn my own PA’s off. To finish off the rest of the deck, one Reality Gem’s always a good idea, as is A Proud Zinco Product. The other cards I’m considering, which is mainly a way to fight against combat based decks is Poker Night. It’s a good way to assure reinforcement if I don’t have my Team-Ups online. This is a very early deck, but here’s what I’ve got.

Characters (30):

4x Lockjaw, Inhuman’s Best Friend

4x Franklin Richards, Creator of Counter Earth

4x Lex Luthor, Megalomaniac

4x Ronan the Accuser, Starforce

4x Alaris, The Outgoing One

1x Mr. Sinister, Visionary Geneticist

3x Medusa, Queen of the Inhumans

1x Batman, Cape and Cowl

3x Silver Surfer, Last Zenn-Lavian

2x Galactus, Devourer of Worlds

Locations (7):

4x Attilan

3x The Great Refuge

Plot Twists (19):

4x Pathetic Attempt

4x Enemy of My Enemy

3x Extended Family, Team-Up

3x Omnipotence

3x Poker Night

2x A Proud Zinco Product

Equipment (4):

3x Time Gem, Infinity Gem

1x Reality Gem, Infinity Gem

And there we have it. Some crazy assed piece of Mental VS that probably doesn’t even work half the time. Sure was fun to build, though.

Further thoughts on Alan Scott in Practice

My original plan for today's playtesting was to bring the Future Faust deck and see how that runs in practice. However, with that Alan Scott card showing up and me falling in love with it, I decided to proxy him up in the Fantastic Four of Earth 2 deck, with a couple of provisos.

1. I didn't have nearly enough 2 drop Luke Cages. I thought I had three. Turns out, I have one, which led to me running four Mr. Fantastic, and one each of Luke Cage and Namorita as my two drops.

2. I didn't realize this until after playing the last game, but I apparently forgot to put Black Adam in the deck. Silly me and my lack of seven drops.

I played the deck solely against another new build, a Doom/Gorilla Grodd deck that I helped Brian build. He won all four games, with the last win due to a play error on my part, which I'll get to later. Here are some general thoughts.

I missed three drop Invisible Woman during the first two games, which made the Force Field Projections and Invisibilities dead cards. I have two fixes for this. The first involves playing more of the character at one and five as alternate drops. I'd still rather have Jakeem or Thing on those turns, but Invisible Woman is quite important to everything running smoothly. The second fix is to swap Heroes of Two Worlds for Enemy of My Enemy. I don't particularly want to do this, due to my having the requisite HoTW and only one Enemy. If Heroes hit on turn three, everything would be fine. It's still a great search for later in the game, but Enemy's probably the way to go here.

Luke Cage HAS to hit the field on turn 2. With the ability to play four of him, he is an automatic mulligan condition. The deck really needs the card draw he generates, in order to truly make sure you can draw into the Team-Ups, as well as extra pumps and combat tricks. This is necessary.

I either need to run more Team-Ups or Teamwork. I wasn't getting teamed up every game, which needs to happen.

I should probably throw a Fantastic Four seven drop in there as well.

As far as the play error I made is concerned, I mixed up which card goes where when you activate Jakeem. I was convinced during turn seven that if I played Jakeem and activated him to search out Jay Garrick, Jay would be the one going on top of my deck instead of my hand. Had I searched out Jay and played him, I would have had enough to put myself over the top. I won't be making that mistake again.

Overall, I'm still proud of the deck. It needs some tweaking, and it's a testament to how strong the Grodd/Doom deck is in that matchup. I got my revenge, though, as I brought out my IG concealed beats deck and caved the monkey's head in when I got frustrated. Expect to see write-ups on the new version of the FF/JSA deck, as well as the Grodd/Doom deck in the next couple days. I've got a pretty hectic March up ahead of me, with concerts, car inspections, cat sitting, a vacation to Boston and the Wild Pig 29 hour comic sale at the end of the month. It's a lot on my plate, so I wouldn't necessarily expect to see posts every day, but I'll do my best to keep this thing as regularly updated as my sanity allows.

Alan Scott is my New Best Friend

Some time recently (I believe it was yesterday), the new promo cards for Hobby League went up on the VSsystem.com site. We'd known the names and versions of these cards for quite some time, but we had no idea what they do. Now that the cat's out of the bag, Jared Stevens <> Fate has been getting a lot of attention due to his built in ability of paying resource points to KO unique equipments (like, oh I don't know, the fate set and Infinity Gems), as well as the added bonus of reducing the cost of Magic plot twists by one. He's a very good card, but I think Mr. Scott here outshines him. There are so many ways you can abuse ready effects. We all know this. Quicksilver, Berserker Rage, Samantha Parrington, Fate Has Spoken, the new six drop Flash, various Rock of Eternity decks, they're all good. Well, we can add Alan Scott to that list. There's no real reason to not use his effect any turn past four when you're on initiative to just add to the beats. Why wouldn't you want to swing your six across the curve for the mutual stun and then bring him right back to go barreling down the curve? Of course, the character has to be stunned, so that would play in to any attacking choices, but keep in mind that he has other uses, especially if you can find a way to move him to the hidden area with cards like Rook Control with a team up, The Outside World with a team up or Dr. Mid-Nite in some kind of under drop curve of JSA.

There are so many things he can do here. It's not limited to any phase of the game. It's not like Lilandra where it's only during combat, it's not anything like that. Your opponent breaks up your reinforcement on his initiative and is swinging down the curve on your little guy with a bunch of pumps? Activate Alan to recover and ready the guy next to him and exhaust him to reinforce. Want to take out two guys in the hidden area? Pop an Uni-Power on someone and make sure he gets stunned that first swing (yes, folks, Blinding Rage is your friend) so he can come right back to some other important hidden area character. You want to use Human Torch, Flame On! twice in a turn as a game ender? Why not? Seems like a pretty good trade to take 12 when your opponent burns for 26. There are so many facets to make this guy super crazy good, that I knew the second I saw him I would have to make a deck around him. And I will.

Hell, that Torch idea is sounding better and better the more I think about it.....