Wheres the Thunder?

Ever since the release of MAV I have loved the Thunderbolts team affiliation. I have done every team up under the sun.
From Thunderbolts Avengers to Thunderbolt Lantern. But there's something I never considered... Mono Thunderbolts. When they first came out I loved them but i realised they weren't much of a mono team they required some kind of 'back-up'. But with the realise of MUN I have been turned.

Radioactive Man, Bullseye and the Mountain... are just really cool cards. So I went about acquiring the cards and found my MAV folder and went about building the deck.

One drops:
Speedball <> Penance - Painmonger
Substitute... hmmmm I dunno whether I should play this version since the 3 drop rare is so cool. I think I will have to go for the 3 drop since he is big. Although the 1 drops ability is quite cool if you take the Mountains ability into account.

Green Goblin - Insanity Unleashed
Substitute as well =] He is a must with his ability. I will happily take an endurance to put a counter on radioactive man or a different character.

Speed Demon - Whizzer
A self reinforcing character that will gradually get bigger due to counters. I think I will definitely use this guy. Plus I love his Art Work.

Ogre - Weaponsmith
A +1/+1 counter on an attacker? yes please yum.. yum!

2 drops:
Beetle <> Mach
with 2 +1/+1 Counters Beetle can't be stunned whilst attacking. Mmmmm could come in use? yeah... I think so...

Erik Josten <> Atlas - Kosmos Convict
He dumps counters on himself and is just really cool... especially the Art. He's in.

Blizzard - Donny Gill.
Exhaust target character. This could especially work well within the deck. If my counters are falling behind and they have a massive character... They are getting exhausted..

Joystick - Fun and Games
I'm not sure whether to run Joystick... well at least this version. She is good.. as she has invulnerabilty once she has 2 counters and starts as a 2/3 so can get quite big. But the older version is really good with an Atlantean Trident. What do you guys think?

Bullseye - Lester
Substitute is always good. His Art Work is SEXY! and his ability is cool against those Weenie decks. I hate Weenie decks ;)

3 drops:
Radioactive Man - Containment Suit
The Board Control. I may try and find a way to stick him in the Hidden Area... But I think thats a bit of overkill. might have to find a way to stick him in the hidden area then hehe.....

Speedball <> Penance - Masochist
He's Big but without Thunderbolt Mountain he could be useless... especially if he gets beaten up.. I think I won't use him... Theres enough rares in this deck anyhow.

4 drops:
James Barnes <> Winter Soldier - Out in the Cold
This is my Secret Weapon in the deck. I am going to use him in conjunction with 4 drop Bullseye to essentially keep the end game locked down and keep the big characters out of my way. This way my big weenies will be okay.

Bullseye - Closer to God
Really simple... keep the big characters out of my way... gotta love Bullseye ;)

So thats the characters: Now for the Plot Twists and Locations:

Thunderbolt Mountain:
To activate the character abilities early

Collect Them All!
Search out is always good.

Justice, Like Lightning
+2 Att and and exhaust another character an opponent controls... always good for controlling the board.

Counterstrike
Defender gets a +1/+1 counter! always good for a counter heavy affiliation...

Speedball is Dead
Is Radioactive mans favourite Plot Twist

Ruthless Aggression
This card is so cool especially since i plan to control an oppenets board... however it could be insanely interesting with a deck it's just got me interested in building... Marvel Knight/Thunderbolt Control.

New Identity
Obvious...

Heroic Effort
Is also Obvious as well

So here is the final decklist after some tweaking:
Characters: 33
3x Green Goblin
3x Speed Demon
3x Ogre
3x Beetle <> Mach
3x Erik Josten <> Atlas
3x Blizzard
3x Joystick
3x Bullseye - Lester
3x Radioactive Man
3x James Barnes <> Winter Soldier
3x Bullseye - Closer to God

Plot Twists and Locations:
4x Thunderbolts Mountain
4x New Identity
4x Heroic Effort
4x Speedball Is Dead
4x Collect Them All!
3x Counterstrike
4x Force Field Belt.

So guys after my long ramble about how much I love Thunderbolts... what do you guys think? So far by turn 6 i have had 4 charcaters as 12/12's. What do you guys think?

Luton Golden Age Legend of Awsomeness!

Go go me and my inability to write.
sorry about the long wait for a new update guys! I mean ... Exams, life, you know the dealio but I'm back and hopefully some of you guys will be hitting me up from Steve Garrett's great little name drop. Thanks dude!

Me and Steve have always been mates since day one, since the game came out and he pushed it upon us all! and it's great to see him again, I've missed him being around our club!

Well the Golden Age Legend was really cool - we had a brilliant turnout of 18 people! and the games were very interesting to say the least!

Deck Ideas were amazing, With old and really new showing up!!! - The Insanity Legend Joker from Anthony aka Swampy to the Beta-Ray-Bill / Power Siphon uber combo deck from the up and coming Amy Chizlet who discusses her idea over at her blog. (The British Initiative) There was a ton of MUN trading happening pre-event due to a group before us that was using the venue taking forever to clear out.

Some pre-tournament games were happening and yet again I had the pleasure of talking to Felix Hughes about usual janky VS decks that he had been building just for the event. Old school Thunderbolts was what he was playing pre-event with another guy who's name escapes me. Gary I think...

I was upset that I didn't get to play the Captain America Deck i so desperately wanted to play but i just reverted to the Old-school Winner! Curve Sentinels. Deck list is in the previous post.

This is how it panned out...

Game 1:
Vs Jason and Darkseid Legend - lost roll - odds.
So I hit Bolivar Trask and searched for 2 Drop Mark III which had me comfortable till 4 with my Curve. I then saw a Darkseid character drop which allowed my opponent draw cards with a certain gem everyone is coming to love... one of the gems. i lowered him to a respectable 40 by turn 4 and had all the necessary means to cause the necessary beatdown on 6 except one major component (Bastion). All was working to plan. He hit 4 but had no way of making Darkseid non-unique for 5. Turn 6 hurt.... He played and flipped a Dark Throne Recruited the 6 drop played a couple Trapped in the Science-Cells and due to me missing Bastion i felt a world of pain.
0-1

Game 2:
Vs Ashan and Dual Wolverine And Jean Grey Legend. Roll won - Evens
I missed my 1-3 and took a horrible large beating. I hit my 4 drop and then missed Nimrod.. which meant i dropped a boosted 4 drop. Luckily my opponent only had 2 characters as well so I was hanging in with 9 endurance. With this I could beat back, Bastion came down and steamrolled with 3 Savage Beatdowns and my ditched hand into Longshot... 9 endurance to -21.. hmmmm Bastiony goodness!
1-1

Game 3:
Vs Bennett and Dr. Doom Legend Roll lost - Odds
I hit my curve miraculously and this threw Bennett off completely. He was still able to lock down the board via the Tibetan Monk and Bot abuse with the Press the Attacks. It was interesting to see an old school vs an old school. Bennett made a fatal error on 6. He forgot my 4 drops text and opted to attack one of them instead of steamrolling Bolivar Trask who had somehow managed to remain untouched on the board. I managed to pull Doom down with me and with nothing to now hit me with.. Bastion stood up looked around.. picked a monk tickled him a bit and then hit him for 32 in the ear. final score. 1 to -17 ... Hmmmm I'm pulling really close ones....
2-1

Game 4:
Vs Matt and Tim Drake Legend Roll lost - Odds
This game was not even funny. I managed to miss 1-5... little more to say i lost and was gutted.
2-2

Game 5:
Vs Steve and Common Enemy (Dr. Doom Legend) Roll lost - Odds
It was going fairly well and we pummeled each other on each others adjacent turns. Then yet again i miss Nimrod fail to re-drop a new 4 drop. I managed to survive the initial onslaught and was happy going into 6. I had a wadge of characters in hand. Played a resource in my row (one of the 4 reconstruction programs in hand) and then realised I had no Bastion. Re-dropped a boosted 4 drop and then took a beating from Human Torch.
3-2

So overall i went 3 for 2. I really enjoyed myself! I played in the draft so I could have a look at the cool cards etc. but could not make a deck remotely competitive (especially with the likes of Felix and martin about) so I will tell you i went 2 for 2 in that. I think I will avoid them from now on. the drafts and the players ;)

Thanks for reading what must of been an epically boring post. I write this as Big Brother is coming on, with the girlfriend next to me and 2 bricks of MUN on the otherside. But i will wait until tomorrow so we can open them together. It's something she likes to do. She likes to get involved.

Mucho Love:
Chris

I'm now a Hardcore Bullseye Fan! lookout for the next post! - My new mono Thunderbolt build! OLDSCHOOL FOOOOOL!

Build a Legend... and MUN

Maaaaaaaan! with the release of the power set that is MUN I am getting more and more upset! If that set could just get released alittle earlier then the Build a Legend tourny I will be playing in will be so much more interesting!

I wanna make a Capt America Legend! GOD DAMN IT!

Alas there is nothing I can do about that and I am sad.
So what has the mcphantastic been up too? well for one revising for exams (A levels!) and then making decks!

So i was looking at the cards I have from back in the day and I got to work.
The first deck I made was a JLA/JLI deck.
The second was loner X-statix.
The third was a Curve Sentinel deck!

So when I was constructing these deck yesterday while I was bored of COD4 I started to think.... god damn I don't have anything remotely legal for silver age or Modern. So after toothing over my article on The negative Zone I think that I may just have to do that particular deck taking out the Annihlus and Blastaar from Web for the new 7 drop Blastaar and maybe 8 drop Annilhilus depending on whether I want to drop The Void.

I dunno, something I'll have to consider once the set has come out I suppose. Oooooo but Warbound as well.

So after that little ramble I set my sights at the Build a Legend Tournament that is quickly approaching us.
The Curve Sentinel Deck will work particularly well I hope. Exchanging the curve of characters to add 8 army characters to anyone of my drops. I suppose I will add them to the Sentinel Mark V as it doesn't really matter which one is the legend. As long as it's an army character.

So with that in mind Bastion is a must! Nimrod is always in the deck! ALWAYS! because he has to be the best 5 drop ever.... (BOLD STATEMENT) well not the best but he is god in conjunction with the deck!

7 drop.... hmmm Tri-sentinel? nah!
I always go for good old Magneto and his Genosha's! got to lave the Master of Magnetism.

With all the talk of offense I'm not really sure to put any defensive cards.. I mean i realise i will take a horrible beating turns one to three but turn 4 on odds my characters will have reinforcement! so meh! Bolivar trask will bring me my 2 drop so at the worst I will miss my 3.

I'm sorry for not posting yesterday! i was busy catching up on lost sleep.
Thanks for Reading.
McPhee

The Negative Zone!

The Negative zone characters have always been a force that no one would ever play. Or if they did it would be out of comedic value only. They were always a sort of laughing stock of the VS system... at least where i play, nearly considered as bad as New Gods.

but with the new release of MUN they are going to receive an entire curve and I for one couldn't be happier. So with that in mind i have been scouring there previews and looking at past cards to establish if a good deck could be constructed or if failing that an interesting one.

So what are we looking at here? Well it seems that every character card is dependent on the negative zone location cards so they are indeed very much a necessity. Annihilus and Blastaar are definatly the main characters in this set so lets look at them first:
Annihilus drops on 5, 7, 8

8 drop Annihilus ability allows us to KO X amount of opponents resources, where X is the amount of Negative Zones in play. This could be quite interesting however I am leaning towards the 7 drop Annihilus.

7 drop Annihilus allows us to stun a target front row character as long as we control negative zone. Which is just horrible, this coupled with 6 drop Blastaar which stuns a support row character, well i think we have found our 6 and 7 drops.

When looking for the lower drops we don't really have much choice in the way of variants. So with this is mind i have gone for Army characters. The obvious choice is Alpha Primitives so we can get the negative zones into play. This is important as the Negative zones are key to the deck actually being playable. 2 drop i would also fill with Alpha Primitives.

3 drop i think i will go for Thanos. Also for his ability to bring a character or location into the resource row. Which could be essential against resource Control decks. Also as a 5/4 he's quite big.

4 drop Syphonn. His ability, although cosmic is really good. allowing me to gain endurance i am going to sorely need because i assume i will take a horrible beating in the first couple of turns.

5 drop Annihilus. His ability coupled with one of the negative zone locations could be lethal. moving characters to the hidden area and the stunning them! wicked!

8 drop. This would have to be The Void for even more Board control!

Characters
Alpha Primitives x10
Thanos x 4
Syphonn x 4
Annihilus x 4 (5 drop)
Blastaar x 4
Annihiuls x 4 (7 drop)
The Void x 4

38 characters

This leaves us with 22 to play with.
The obvious PT/Loc to put in are of course the Negative zone locations.

Negative zone, Alpha Prison x 4
Negative zone, Shadow Dimension x 4
Negative Zone, Gateway x 4
Mobilize x 4
Swarm of Annihulus x 4
Savage Beatdown x 4

Man I am definatly looking forward to MUN!
Board control has always been a faourite of mine! and dear ow dear man ow man do NZ do it well.

Thanks for reading
McPhee

The Pro Circuit?

So whats all this talk about the Pro circuit? Well for you guys who have been following my posts you will know that I would like to experience the sanctioned Tournaments. The hobby leagues are worth looking forward to but I'd love to take a dig at the 'real time'.

My posts on creativity were a kind of hint as I will be looking at the individual values I feel I will need in order to take a serious placing spot in any kind of tournament. I feel i can be quite childish at times.

The creativity 'factor' is quite important. No-one wants to play a net deck. People will definatly see originality as a strong value, rather than the un-original win mongering losers who net deck (Opinion).

With that in mind i have been searching for ideas taking inspiration from various sources. Alas I have nothing yet but I am sure there will be something buzzing in my head by the end of the day.

Another factor I feel is very important is to be graceful in defeat. None of this 'give me your deck #I want to read the cards you played' stuff. Or going back through the game in your head calculating everything that happened to see if he cheated. To see if you maybe still had a chance. People at tournaments that cheat can go sit in the corner for all i care. All i care about is that i played to the best of my ability and that they enjoyed playing against me. I am not what some people may call 'hardcore'.

Anyway, UDE has begun to release preview upon preview of MUN and my god most of these cards look really really nice. I really hope it's released before the build a legend tournament my club is hosting on the 21st (post a comment for more info!). That way i can build a Warbound deck! Which is the team i am leaning towards for this new set.

So maybe i do know what deck i would make for the Modern age sets... the funny thing is that this post wasn't meant to do that. Strange what the brain will do when your in a mood for typing. The great thing is I've finished college so know i can focus alot more time on VS. So If you guys think I am just going to fall off the side of the world never to write about VS again. You are mistaken.

I am going to attend as many sanctioned Tournaments as possible. and soon you will see my name popping up around! As either the worst player or a placer! Either way I will be happy =]

Chris McPhee

The Blogopshere Quiz!

So someone has finally completed the quiz and i could not be happier. This really does reflect to the creativity I was talking about in a previous post!
The people of the VS network really do work and play together and I feel great about being part of a community that understands my unnatural needs to play with cards with superheroes.

So let me talk about my girlfriend, Katie. Katie has been a large inspiration in my life, the past couple of years she has backed me in anything i have ever wanted to do. She's shown an interest in all my hobbies. However, she is not the most creative person. But does this mean she can't construct a deck?

You'd think, "nah, she's a nooby, she won't be able to play the game, let alone create a deck". But surprise she has made a curve deck that works really well. The creativity the VS system seems to push upon its unsuspecting players is profound and i feel we as a unbound community we some of the most creative people in the world. The $10k decks, the humble hobby league decks. Anything that is created by a player will always be creative regardless of its 'winnability'

So what do you people consider creative? The net decks? Originality? I consider it all Creative.

but is this all that a TCG player should be? Lets face it, not all of us are gracious in defeat. There is also being nice, nobody likes an annoying angry player. This was primarily what made me avoid the larger Tournaments but theres an experience i have been lacking. And i really want to see the real tournaments that i haven't attended.

So like a quite mouse, scared of the outside world. I have decided to scurry out in search of that cheese that has so eluded me for a time. So bring on the creative blocks, the struggles and disappointment. Because eventually, i will reach the higher places much like the winners of those large tournaments.

Chris McPhee

Green Lantern Thursday

Much like others in the blogging world i have picked up the shotput of information and am now attempting to hurl myself into the proceedings of the more accomplished blogs. However, i hear you all cry 'how are you going to do that?'

I'll tell you all how, much like others all over the vs system network I am going to focus all my energy every Thursday to bring you new, and interesting ways of building a Green Lantern deck which will catch your opponents off guard.

GLC have always been my favourite team affilation. Mainly because i had been reading the comics much before the set came out.

Anyway, onto the GLC as a team. My favourite characters are funnily enough Kyle Rayner and Hal Jordan. Both Characters go up the curve on odds and evens and could work in a legend deck. Hal Jordan on 5 may work in X-statiqs loner something that Steve Garrett may want to consider. In his articles about the amazing team.

I have always worked with weenies. I don't really like curve that much. Theres something quite hilarious about dropping multiple characters and stunning an eight drop with some two drops.
So much that in fact people have used decks like this to win tournaments.

I made a deck much like the tournament winning GLEE deck a long time ago. I managed to find the cards and make it all up again.
The Emerald Enemies were the first deck i made from the set. The madness of Appa Ali Apsa just could not be missed out. However, it just wasn't payable enough. The games became boring and I dismantled the deck.

There was just something calling to me that this deck could be interesting to say the least. Here is what I have come up with:

Characters:
2 x Arisia
4 x Doctor Light, Master of Holograms
4 x G'nort
1 x Guy Gardner, strong arm of the corps
1 x Hector Hammond
4 x Kyle Rayner, Last Green Lantern
1 x Major Disaster
3 x Olapet
1 x Remoni-Notra
1 x Rot Lop Fan
3 x Salakk
2 x The Shark
2 x Tomar Tu

Locations
4 x Birthing Chambers
4 x Willworld

Plot Twists
4 x Helping Hand
2 x Men of Steel
3 x No Man Escapes the Manhunters
4 x Shock Troops
4 x The Ring has Chosen
4 x Trial by Sword

Equipment
2 x Light Armour

The deck is just beats. Thats all it does, and it does it really well.
The overall composition of the Emerald Enemies is like a sort of poor attempt at board control. Coupled with the winnies of the Lanterns and our old friend Dr. Light (why ban him? WHY!) we could bring characters from the KO's pile into play! brilliant.

The deck was constructed to make sure that the god damn hidden zone didn't mess it up as well with Rop Lop Fan and No Man Escapes the Manhunters taking pride of place within the deck list.

The deck won many tournaments world wide taking the 2005 $10k in Indianapolis.

People have always spoken, well within my club, about how poor the lanterns are on Curve, or how there beatdown is mediocre at best. This is primarily because they are unable of creating anything else apart from that.

Lanterns will always will have a special place in my heart. So tune in next week for Lantern - X-statiqs Loner.

Chris McPhee

The Blogosphere Quiz and Creativity

Our friends over at the-kamiza and lost hemisphere have created a cross blog quiz that has really stumped me. This has got me thinking about the relative creativity that all the VS players around the world have.

Those decks which have won 10k's, the players who create massive 7 card combo decks. These people have immense creativity and I, for one, hope that they carry on doing their amazing work.
But where does that put myself? I have only recently started thinking seriously about playing VS in the circuit. I have one 'original deck' to my name. Does this make me a lesser player?

I am sure, of course, that my escapades into VS will be well documented on here and you can tell for yourself. But one thing is for certain. All of us contain a degree of creativity, be it a molecule or a bustling brains worth.

Looking at it in a VS perspective, we can see those people who run around the internet looking for decks published by VS players worldwide to win hobby leagues are creative, otherwise they wouldn't of had the creativity to check the Internet. Or maybe consider the casual VS player who doesn't have all the cards he requires nor the money to purchase them, he may consult websites to see what decks he can make with the resources he has. This is creative.

Creativity is something people love to hate. I for one will always love it. Especially in VS when someone hits me with a laughing rat turn 5 death. Or when a wild sentinel hits one of my characters for 30. Stuff like this will always make our game that little bit more interesting.

So for all those people who feel their not creative. Sit, ponder, allow yourself to evaluate the cards you want so much to include. I am sure you can come up with something interesting. Much the same as those 10k winners did.

Thanks for reading.
Chris McPhee

Building a Legend.

It was announced a couple weeks back on my clubs community website which can be found here (www.fantasywargames.com) that we would be hosting a build a legend tournament good old golden age style.

This has definatly got my cogs working and i have come up with a few ideas for decks and a few surprises in store for my opponents.

First off I should let you know that I actually haven't brought any of the new sets since X-men because i unfortunately haven't been able to get hold of any. Which sucks, but what can you do? This is true of most of the guys at the club as well and is why most of our tournaments are Golden age. This hopefully won't last as hopefully we will see more of us heading to sanctioned tournaments in the future with the great Kamiza!

Well back to those cogs.
It would seem that with all the goings on of the moment (I'm currently studying and am mid-way through my finals (A-Levels) I am still managing to concoct deck idea's which although are ridiculous to pull off could win me games in flamboyant style much to the dismay of my opponent and thats why I love the game. Sometimes it can be so unpredictable.

My first deck is based on a deck one of my friends had made but with some minor tweaks to see the enemy cry. Here it is:

Characters
4 Ratcatcher, Ottis Flannegan
4 Zazzala ~ Queen Bee, Mistress of the Hive
4 IQ, Ira Quimby
4 Zazzala <> Queen Bee, Royal Genetrix
20 Insectoid Soldiers

Plot Twists and Locations
4 Total Anarchy
4 Last Laugh
4 ESU Science Lab
4 Criminal Mastermind
4 Infestation
4 Royal Egg Matrix
2 Secret Files
4 Surprise Attack

Ok this deck is going to be a turn 5 win deck hopefully.
Im going to mulligan hard for Ratcatcher since he is my win condition in this deck.

Were looking at getting at least 10 characters including Ratcatcher and 3 drop Zazz in play.
Turn 5 i will attack and take down as many characters as possible. then when i can't i will suicide them into a large character causing them all to be stunned bar Zazzalla and Ratcatcher.

I will then flip 4 last laughs and as many surprise attacks as possible (if i haven't played them already) thats 32 damage from the Last laugh.

40 with the characters being stunned due to Ratcatchers ability.

Then im going to flip Total Anarchy which will KO all my characters triggering Zazz's ability which will mean you burn for another 2 for each character. thats another 16

56 so far.

On top of all the burn the opponent has accumulated from IQ. till turn 5 that would be 8 if i haven't got a criminal mastermind in play

thats 64.

I made that deck at about 3 in the morning and my god it just seems so fun to play. I've played it 3 times and it has won all 3 games so I at least have something to fall back upon if i need to.

The second of the decks my simple mind concocted was that of a deck that just was so so so overplayed in tourny's that anyone who uttered it's name was thwarted much like an ant under the proverbial green thumbed gardner. Curve Sentinels.

I must admit this has probably been played before but this is my version that i have come up with. It is purely coincidental if it is the same as anyone elses.

Sentinels:
Characters
Boliver Trask x4
Sentinel Mark III x1
Sentinel Mark II x5
Sentinel Mark V x12
Nimrod x4
Bastion x4
Magneto x4

Plot Twists
Wave of Sentinels x4
Micro Sentinels x4
Reconstruction Program x4
Savage Beatdown x4
Cover Fire x4
Avalon Space Station x2

Locations
Genosha x4

Just pure beats with this deck using Magneto for Avalon and Genosha. Should be interesting to say the least.

These are the two decks i am thinking about running but i am torn between them.
If anyone has any advice that would be really appreciated.
This is Chris McPhee signing off until tomorrow.

Hi, and welcome to the first post on what i hope will be a blog i will be posting on everyday while i concoct stupid, interesting and amazing ideas with regards to VS system!

The man who has influenced this dramatically has got to be Mr Steve Garrett. A guy who has really influenced the way i play VS since day one and will always be my first port of call when i need advice for the decks i create. You can find his Blog over on www.the-kamiza.com

Well here in Luton the VS system died down after the closing of our local gaming shop. But it is beginning to spring back into life with the last tournament which was recorded by Felix hughes. The National number 1# who attended our quaint club.

I must say i really do the love the buzz I get from playing VS with my mates. The game is just really funny to play when your playing with good mates. The laughes we get with Melter... and Soloman Grundy.

I can't wait to entice you all into the game of VS and i really hope i manage to gain a following much like Kamiza has.

Thanks for reading this post.

Chris McPhee