Recovering from a major hurricane is simple compared to covering all the excitement swirling around the world of Vs. System these days. I’ve got quite a few things to talk about before I can breathe easy again. Let’s catch up.

The Justice League of America Sneak Preview tournament that I attended in Orlando was grand. I only had a few short hours to study the FAQ during the week, but my friends on the forums at VsRealms.com helped me flesh out the risky side of the set. There were three themes I hoped to explore with my Sealed Pack deck: the wonderful new 1-cost Army character tricks, the terrifying power of Scarecrow, Fearmonger, and the crazy combination potential of John Stewart, Emerald Architect supporting Ultra-Humanite. My five packs contained the cards to make all three wishes come true.

Mantis; Queen of Fables; Felix Faust; Zazzala ◊ Queen Bee; Circe; Tattooed Man, Living Ink; Dr. Light, Light Shaper; and Starro the Conqueror would all have been welcome additions to my 30-card Sealed Pack deck. Unfortunately, none of those weenie-loving characters appeared in my five packs. I had pulled three 1-cost Army characters: Creeping Doom, Infernal Minions, and Insectoid Troopers. I was therefore thrilled to see Shadow Thief creep out of my fourth pack. Justice League of America is indeed a very squirrelly set with oceans of love for the tiniest targets of Longshot. Me likey.

To support such a Sealed swarm strategy, I decided to look for a team-attacking beatdown focus. I had Maxwell Lord and Justice League Task Force, along with enough JLI characters to fill my curve. I had a solid base, with Joseph Jones ◊ General Glory and Captain Atom both screaming, “Play me!”

I almost drooled in public when I read the text of Tasmanian Devil. With ten pure combat plot twists and a beatstick like that for turns 5 and 6, my deck was going to be fast. I did not pull any of the red-hot new burn tricks, but I could bring the early pain. My card pool had a fair share of slick defensive options that could have drawn games into the later turns, but I don’t usually play that way; my Sealed Pack success comes from staying simple and remaining on the offensive. Combat ATK power and the ability to finish a stun are the first priority. Maintaining board advantage assures important non-initiative leverage in a format where the more intricate tricks cannot be set up easily.

The one ability that I was most yearning to play belonged to Scarecrow, Fearmonger. Not only was I lucky enough to pull a copy of the Sentinel-hating madman from my packs, but I was also able to support him with cards like Infernal Minions, Counterterrorism, and two copies of Membership Drive. Remember, the Fearmonger can frighten his side of the table, too. When he starts scare-swelling on turn 5, the game can run screaming in your direction rather quickly.

Mike “MadTitanFan” Jiles turned me on to the coolest Sealed Pack combo in the set, and my five packs delivered. John Stewart, Emerald Architect starts laughing loudly if he is in play with Ultra-Humanite on his side. If you have a Team-Up, an Nth Metal, and two copies of Magnificent Seven, the laughs never stop. Yes, loyal risky readers, my Ultra-Humanite had the potential to steal Mageddon on a team-attack! You want something even freakier to groove on? If I attack your Ultra-Humanite with mine and we both power-up twice with our John Stewart, Emerald Architects in play, we can switch cards. This is great stuff! Congratulations to R&D for creating such potential craziness.

In real life, none of my four matches went past the sixth turn. I won three of those and was rewarded with more packs and a wacky orange shirt! Here is my deck:

Creeping Doom

Infernal Minions

Insectoid Troopers

Professor Ivo

Maxwell Lord

Plastic Man

Joseph Jones ◊ General Glory

Shadow Thief

John Stewart, Emerald Architect

Despero

Poison Ivy, Kiss of Death

Tasmanian Devil

John Henry Irons ◊ Steel, Steel-Drivin’ Man

Scarecrow, Fearmonger

Martian Manhunter, J’onn J’onzz

Metamorpho

Hal Jordan, Hard-Traveling Hero

Captain Atom

Ultra-Humanite

Aquaman, King of the Seven Seas

2 Membership Drive

Counterterrorism

Air Strike

Rallying Cry!

Trial by Fire

Justice League Task Force

Nth Metal

In the first round, I got to face off against one of the Pro Circuit’s most glamorous players. Alex Jebailey is a world record holder in the sport of Dance Dance Revolution and the owner of his namesake website. Alex missed his early drops, while I was able to recruit a curve of Infernal Minions, Maxwell Lord, Plastic Man, John Stewart, Tasmanian Devil, and Metamorpho. Ultra-Humanite was in my hand and ready to mop up, but my 5- and 6-drops swung for 30 ATK between them on turn 6. Good game.

I experienced a reversal of fortunes in my next match. Justin Futch, fresh off his strong ninth place finish at $10K Orlando, dropped IQ on turn 2 and never looked back. I missed my recruits on turns 2 and 4. Before I knew it, the score was 40 to 20. I forget how it ended, but it wasn’t pretty.

The third round was the charm. Tran Troi was my amused victim, and it went like this on my side of the table:

Turn 1: Infernal Minions

Turn 2: Maxwell Lord fetching Justice League Task Force

Turn 3: Joseph Jones ◊ General Glory

Turn 4: Shadow Thief getting Insectoid Troopers, followed by Creeping Doom

Turn 5: Two copies of Membership Drive, Scarecrow, Fearmonger

Turn 6: Captain Atom

Captain Atom’s leader ability made it possible for me to clear the board of opposing characters so that Scarecrow, Fearmonger could attack directly for a big win, and he had four counters pumping him up. That is really scary.

My final opponent was Paul Speizman. He missed his 4-drop, and my Tasmanian Devil finished him off after Captain Atom again helped to clear the field. We had time afterward to reminisce about those funky DC/Marvel hybrid amalgam characters like Dr. Strangefate. Then I caught glimpse of something shiny in the match beside us.

The coolest cats in Florida are the crew from Daytona. They had brought along a fascinating and fabulous female named Arley Wells. Her combination of top-notch play skill and haunting blue eyes had carried her to the top tables, and she was locked in a turn 8 thriller with Brad Harrington. The final play saw Brad flip an All Too Easy on his last attack while Arley had twelve cards in hand thanks to Criminal Mastermind. It was thrilling to watch.

I see by the bulge in my email inbox that it has been awhile since I caught up on risky strategies from our readers. It seems that poultry is a hot new trend in Vs. System. David Maynor has been busy working on a pollo deck on VsRealms.com, and there is a “Supreme Chicken” concoction that did very well in the UK $10K. Cluck cluck. Dave started calling his deck fowl because it is a stalling strategy that shuns combat violence. Here it is, followed by some of his thought processes:

5-Spice Chicken

David “i3ullseye” Maynor

4 Dagger, Child of Light
1 Mikado and Mosha
4 Puppet Master
4 Shimmer
4 Cardiac
2 Cloak, Child of Darkness
4 Rogue, Power Absorption
2 Firestar
3 Mr. Freeze
2 Mimic
2 Dr. Light, Arthur Light
4 Spider-Man, The Amazing Spider-Man
1 Dr. Strange
1 Psimon
1 Ghost Rider, Danny Ketch
 
3 The Underworld Star
4 Clone Saga
4 Midnight Sons
4 Wild Ride
4 Sticky Situation

3 Avalon Space Station

Even with all the recent changes, I am still stuck on the name “5-Spice Chicken.” The character count is up to thirty-nine, but the characters themselves fuel so many things. The feel is now a more straight ahead Spider-Friends/Marvel Knights/Fearsome Five fusion. The only cards that feel like real splashes are Mr. Freeze and Mimic. What wonderful splashes they are.

Side note . . . VH-1 ran their “Reuniting the Band” show the other day and reunited Berlin. Oh My God! How does Terri still look like that? And still sing with that passion? She is easily one of the most alluring front women in the history of music.

So, I have added my own babe to the deck, and that’s Shimmer. We ran it against Curve Sentinels, and it did well as always. But a few other folks locally wanted to play with the deck, so we looked at making a few changes to it. I do think they tightened it up a bit, but we seem to be at an impasse on a few play choices.

I always want Mr. Freeze on turn 6. My backup is Mimic, but I don't even consider Dr. Light, Arthur Light to be a 6-drop for this deck; he is a 9-drop with his boost.

Dan wants his Dr. Light early. The direct stun is his kind of play, and earlier is better for him. He seems to consider the defensive stall strategy to be an all or nothing proposition. Mr. Freeze with Sticky Situation is just too much fun for me to stall completely.

I like having Doctor Strange in the deck, and I see him as a potential win condition. The deck lacks a true killer win before turn 9, and Dan prefers that the deck have a very reliable turn 7 or 8 option to end a game. I think this deck already has that in the form of raw attacks. After you exhaust or stun your opponent out, you swing in for some damage. I think this deck steals initiative as well as Curve Sentinels does, but in a different way.

Thanks Dave. That was delicious.

Jacquay Williams created a sweet Halloween Party deck full of cool toys, but then Wolverine crashed it. I guess Robert “Bizarro #98” McSantos is right—the scruffy mutant really is everywhere. I still love this deck and I still love the format. Wolverine got an exemption to the balanced gender rule due to ubiquity, and the alternate art on She-Hulk, Green Jeans from the Fantastic Four starter deck was ruled to be acceptable as a casual fourth version.

“Just Can’t Get Rid of Him!”

Jacquay Williams

Halloween Party format

November 6, 2005

1 Invisible Woman, The Invisible Girl

2 Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards

2 Wolverine, Logan

1 She-Hulk, Jennifer Walters

1 Thing, Ben Grimm

1 Invisible Woman, Protector

4 Invisible Woman, Sue Storm

1 Wolverine, New Fantastic Four

4 Mr. Fantastic, Stretch

1 She-Hulk, Green Jeans (original art)

1 She-Hulk, Green Jeans (starter art)

1 She-Hulk, Gamma Bombsell

1 Wolverine, James Howlett

1 Thing, Heavy Hitter

1 Thing, Strongman

1 Wolverine, Berserker

1 Mr. Fantastic, Leader

1 Mr. Fantastic, Scientific Genius

1 Thing, The Ever-Lovin’ Blue Eyed Thing

1 Invisible Woman, Sue Richards

4 Antarctic Research Base

4 Unstable Molecules

4 Salvage

4 Fantasticar

4 Pier 4

4 Framistat

4 Heroes United

4 Signal Flare

So, my funky friends, that clears away the Risk Versus Reward backlog. As soon as I drop a Pro Circuit Los Angeles prediction on you, I will be free to fly again. Alas, I cannot attend the Golden Age shindig on the other coast, but I will be there in spirit. My spirit says that the next PC Champion will hail from the state of Nevada, but I cannot see a face. Good luck to all. We will be cheering loudly from the online sidelines.

Rian Fike is also known as stubarnes and he is ready to start a new collection of emails! You can help by sending your talking points to rianfike@hattch.com.