I *Still* Love VS System

While I was away on my trip I didn't have a chance to play any card games. That's over two weeks without shuffling up a deck of my favorite comic book heroes and villains. As much as I loved being on vacation, two-plus weeks seems like an eternity in terms of non-gaming time. As an aside, I did get to play some board games with a friend in Osaka at their VERY cool gaming club. Imagine an entire apartment full of board games, card games, comics and DVDs at your fingertips. But back to my story.

Our hobby league hasn't held a VS System tournament in the time I've been back, but thanks to some of the regular players I have been able to play some games. Sunday afternoon William and I played out three matches. First up was his Wolverine legend against my Beast Boy / Doom Patrol legend deck. I was able to survive until turn 6, but only barely...as his Muramasa Blade-equipped Wolverine's made it impossible for me to keep my characters on the table.

Second match saw a reverse matchup: my Wolverine legend deck against his Jean Grey. This game was my turn to punish with the blades. William also had pretty poor draw and wasn't able to discard almost any Jeans to beef up his 5-drop. It might have played out differently if he had.

Our final match was Underworld vs. JSA (guest-starring Lobo!). Well at least my deck is supposed to star Lobo on turn 6. I never saw him, or ANY copies of T-Spheres. Couple that to the fact that Will was able to constantly recur a copy of Meatmarket from his KO pile for power-ups, and burn me with his Skreet (five times if I recall)...I had to concede defeat.

Tuesday night was another good evening for cardboard superheroing. Scott stopped by and we fought to an even 2-2 tie. My memory seems to be failing me at the moment and I can only clearly recall the final game; in which Scott pummelled my Green Lanterns with his leader-heavy Avengers. We each also had victory with our army Doom decks (Scott's is cooler than mine. Super Skrull is nice!), and my Squadron Supreme won out over...something.

After playing so many games I'm really looking forward to building some new decks, tweaking a few of my existing ones, and drafting Marvel Legends on Friday! I also placed a fairly large online order for more boxes for the Hobby League to use (World's Finest, Universe, Evolution etc). I can't wait for that stuff to arrive.
VS System truly is the world's finest game!

Legendary Battles

Sounds like the name for a historical fighting game of some kind doesn't it? Well, in a sense I suppose it is. This coming Friday the VS System Hobby League will be running our first ever Marvel Legends Draft event. I've been looking forward to it for a while, and I'm hoping that we'll have a good turn out, even though it's Halloween weekend!

As for me, I don't have a lot of experience with draft but I really enjoy playing VS this way. You often end up using cards and team-ups that you would never consider otherwise, or find a neat little combo that you may have overlooked while deck building from the full pool of cards. And then, there are those cards that are really only playable in draft or sealed play.

The other cool thing that I like about running draft events is the rare-draft that we do after the main tournament. In my opinion, holding a rare draft from the packs opened removes the risk of players drafting a rare card that they won't use, simply because they need or want it for their collection. Every player will have a chance to pick from the pool of all the rares opened for the event, which makes things fair and fun. If you come in near the top of the standings in the tourney, you have a better chance at getting the top rares pulled from the box!

Marvel Legends is a great set, and we've never had the chance to draft from it...so I'm sure everyone will have a good time. Make sure to arrive before 6:30 to ensure that you have a spot in the game!

Prepare for Invasion

Over the past two months I've been keeping a watchful eye on the preview announcements for Fantasy Flight Games' newest Living Card Game: Warhammer Invasion. Not being a player of the miniature game, I initially had very little interest in this card game. My love of fantasy in general, enjoyment of the Call of Cthulhu game, and appreciation for the Living Card Game model got me looking at things more closely. As time progressed and I saw more cards, my interest grew.

A few weeks back FFG posted up a 'how to play' tutorial on their website. The new tutorial goes through the game from setup to an in-depth play example, and is probably the second-best play tutorial for any game out there on the internet. (My first choice would still be for the CoC tutorial, which is a little cooler.) Having watched through the video and looking closely at all of the preview cards, my interest was truly piqued.

Then comes the news that the core set will be releasing a full three weeks early! Wow, that's impressive news indeed. So the internet starts buzzing with various reviews, several of which I read (partly in hopes that they're bad so I can save myself the money). To my surprise however, I have yet to see a review of the game that is anything BUT extremely positive. So that my friends, results in an online order of the core set, and my avid anticipation of its pending arrival.

It's doubtful I'll start a league for yet another game, but I can wait to give this one some time on my gaming table. Call in the reinforcements and sound the call for Invasion!

Enter the Dreamlands

Hey everyone,

I'm back from my cross-Pacific adventure and it's good to be home. I trust everyone was able to get some good gaming in over the weeks I was away. Thanks go to Will and Roy for running Cthulhu and VS events in my stead. I really appreciate it, and I'm sure the players do too, thanks guys!

The next event coming up is round 6 of our Call of Cthulhu Adventure League. This event sees a turning point I think, as players will be able to add a third and final pack to their deck for play in the league. Trades have been slim across the board, so the pack choices have been critical to making the decks stronger throughout play.
After the sixth round concludes we'll take stock of the standings and organize a final tournament to crown the winner for the first phase of play. First place will take home a deck of Cthulhu playing cards as well as a faction pin. Second place will also obtain a faction pin. Following the final tournament we'll begin the second phase of the adventure league, so keep your eyes open for more details on that in the coming weeks.

To get you thinking about new deck ideas I thought I'd remind everyone that the next set of Asylum Packs has started: The Dreamlands. The forces of Day and Night come out to play in the second pack, entitled In Memory of Day.

Take a look here for a sample of some of the upcoming cards.