When I first heard about Gallery Packs, I was really stoked. The Kingpin gets down with Extended Art. I have nearly every Extended Art card that UDE has ever made. In my closet, there is a binder that houses the vast collection of tournament prizes, Hobby League bonuses, and alternate art available for our chosen craft. Like most card flippers, I am a smooth mix of player and collector, and I value a great card for both its playability and collectibility. I have a running list of cards I would like to see in Extended Art form, and I revel in the opportunity to drop a bunch of my favorite cards into my EA binder. Gallery Packs are going to offer ample opportunities to scoop up these collectables. There was a great deal of anticipation in the Vs. community when UDE announced the Gallery Pack product. There would be packs of five Extended Art cards; one of those cards would be rare, and there would be an ultimate collectors’ prize in one out of eighty packs.
Gallery Packs offer hobbyists a chance to obtain EAs from the past and future and give us a chance to open super-rare chase cards. When I got the list of preview articles and cards from our editor-in-chief, Toby, I was excited to preview one of my favorite cards.
Time Travel
FLASHBACK: The year is 2005. The month is September. Staring through the windows at the mall reveals a somewhat disturbing trend. Light pink has bled over into the male dress-shirt market, offering trendy guys a shot at looking metro. The Gap is covered in lime green and a subtle shade of red blush. This is where we find our hero. There is a miniscule card player named Tim Batow walking into the Abercrombie & Fitch in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is excited today. This day sets itself apart from many other days: Tim’s favorite song by his favorite artist just peaked on the Billboard Top 40, and he is jamming out to Ashlee Simpson’s “Boyfriend” on his brand-new iPod Nano.
After completing a four-minute handstand on the railing in the mall, our spry dynamo strolls into his favorite hobby shop. He flops down a fistful of dollars and begins cracking a box of the newly released, highly anticipated set The Avengers. Sixteen packs into the box, customers in the store react to a high-pitched squeal of glee. They turn to find Tim hoisting a shiny rare copy of a card above his head like Link in the Legend of Zelda.
What an effect! Ongoing: Exhaust a Kang Council character you control >>> Replace Null Time Zone. This card maxed eBay sales at $30 a pop. Play sets were bringing a slick $120. The collector instinct inside of us all lusted for the glistening reflection of Kang depositing that silver letter into the Time Zone mailbox.
FAST-FORWARD: The year is 2005. The month is still September, a week or two later (ease up on the fast-forward). The Kingpin is strolling through the vendors at the annual Dragon Con in Atlanta, GA. It was the day before the $10K event and I was doing some last minute shopping in an attempt to finish off my Curve Sentinels decklist. Vendor after vendor reported the sad fact that there were no copies of Null Time Zone. I ended up buying an entire box of Avengers and grabbing two copies from my lucky packs. The next day, Bastion and I dropped into a tenth place finish with the aid of our new tech. Ryan O’Connor secured a spot in the Top 8 after packing four copies of the NTZ.
Time travel is sweet. Keep it going. A short bounce into the future, we notice that Josh Wiitanen and Doug Werre found a place for Null Time Zone in their Teen Titans decks. While both players landed a Top 8 finish, Josh secured one of his many $10K Championship trophies on the backs of those teens and their new-fangled Null Time Zone.
FAST-FORWARD: Pro Circuit LA denied a Top 8 spot for players packing Null Time Zone, but John Tatta’s tenth place Squadron Supreme deck found a way to best multiple Teen Titans decks and fended off the Reign of Terror on Day 1 to secure his 8-2 Constructed record.
FAST-FORWARD: The year is 2006. The place is Minneapolis. Null Time Zone represents one of the premier cards in three of the Top 8 decklists. Ben Rislove, Angel Luna, and Sal D’Agostino are all packing NTZ in their top-placing decks. It seems as if every Golden Age tournament has a place for Null Time Zone.
FAST-FORWARD: Nicolas Cuenca is sleeving up his Good Guys deck and drops in a single tech copy of NTZ in preparation for $10K competition in Boston. Three days later, he is flaunting a $2,500 payout and moving the picture of his grandma off his mantel to make way for his trophy.
Unknown to Tim Batow, the non-ongoing effect of Null Time Zone made the card a powerhouse that warranted inclusion in a plethora of champion decklists and secured its place in Vs. System history as one of the premier rare cards for both players and collectors. When I first read the words: “Choose a non-ongoing plot twist card name. Your opponents cannot play cards with that name this turn,” I knew that this card would make an impact. Over the last two years, the card has made showings at every Golden Age tournament. It offers players a chance to do something that few other cards can offer.
Denial
I wrote a recent article about the power of denying an opponent’s win condition. The effect offered by Null Time Zone denies an opponent cards that might be essential to his or her game plan. Against Teen Titans, Null Time Zone can take out Teen Titans Go! on key turns. Without the use of TTG, it may be very hard to pull off the Team Tactics and Roy Harper tricks that allow the Titans deck to destroy a player’s entire board.
If you selected an off-curve or short-curve deck, you may want this card for its protection. A player might drop Null Time Zone in response to the recruit declaration of Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius; on turn 4, 5, or 6, a low curve player may want to name Reign of Terror before Doom hits the field. In a sense, Null Time Zone denies the bounce effects in Doom-based decks while enabling the aggressive board presence of your own strategy.
The Nod
I have a binder of Extended Art cards. EAs are awesome. My favorites are those that reveal a new aspect of a card that was not apparent in the prior “regular version.” The Extended Art Savage Beatdown gave us the opportunity to understand who had made the Hulk so upset. The EA Varnae offered us a peek into the unknown and possibly unwelcome. The best Extended Art cards have been a combination of great art and playability. Null Time Zone offers players a chance for a great collectable, but it also gives us one of the more important chase rares in an Extended Art form. I have polled many players and heard requests for Extended Art versions of Enemy of My Enemy, Fizzle, and Cosmic Radiation. All of these cards offer playability and collectability, and play to our desire for great art and power. Null Time Zone was at the top of my list and will certainly be a popular Gallery Pack selection. Now, if only they made the Extended Art Kingpin, that hole in my heart would be filled with true joy.
Class dismissed.
Jeremy “Kingpin” Blair (7-drop, TAWC) is a card flipper and student of the game from the Southeastern part of the United States. If you have constructive comments or questions, feel free to contact him at Tampakingpin@yahoo.com.