Thinking Outside the Box

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...

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...

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 wee...

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 p...