Today’s Week in Review will be somewhat different. You see, I usually write about happenings in the Vs. System community—big tournaments, news items, and recent updates to Metagame. This week, though, the community is focused almost entirely on Infinite Crisis. So, I thought I would give you guys a little background and a few more hints about what you can expect from the new set. Your first chance to get your hands on actual cards will be at the Infinite Crisis Sneak Preview events, which will be held around the world this coming weekend.
First of all, you might be asking yourself, “What is Infinite Crisis?” Very simply, it’s the sequel to DC’s legendary “Crisis on Infinite Earths” storyline, which completely shook up the DC Universe. “Infinite Crisis” does much of the same in a seven-part series. One of the more intriguing facts about this particular expansion is that the source comics are current. Previous sets used characters and storylines that were highlighted years or decades ago. But the events in Infinite Crisis are happening right now—in fact, the seventh and final issue of the limited comic book series won’t even be released for another few weeks. Now, since the comics are so new, chances are pretty good that you won’t be entirely familiar with many of the characters and scenarios presented in the expansion. There are a lot of places on the web where you can go to learn about recent events. Among them are the official site and this extremely thorough fan synopsis. You could also do what I’ve done and head to your local comic shop to purchase the very reasonably priced series. In fact, you should probably do that right now. Go for it. I’ll wait.
Alright, are you completely up to date on all of the changes to the DC Universe? Good. It’s time to fill you in on how characters in Crisis have been represented in the new Vs. System set. The first thing you should know is that there are five major teams: Justice Society of America (JSA), Shadowpact, Villains United, Checkmate, and Secret Six. There is also quite a bit of legacy content for teams such as the Gotham Knights, Arkham Inmates, and Secret Society. You’re probably familiar with the mechanics of those particular teams, though, so I’m just going to fill you in on the new ones.
The first new team in the set is the JSA. Like the other two Jxx teams, this one is comprised of good guys. A number of very recognizable heroes make reappearances in this team. Among them is Superman; his card was previewed on Monday by Ben Seck. In a way, Superman is the poster boy for the team, as he touches on many of the JSA’s themes. The JSA shares more than just two letters with the JLA; you’ll find a few new characters with ally powers on the team. As Ben mentions, engaging in combat up the curve and having exhausted characters are also critical mechanics that appear on several JSA cards. You should also note that this particular Superman is from Earth 2, a feature common to many of his JSA compatriots. I’m telling you now, this new Superman might look really good, but he’s not—he’s insane. He has synergy with pretty much every other JSA card. One last thing about the JSA: they’re the first team with cards that feature significant references to a character’s identity. What’s identity, you ask? Check the rulebook or wait for this week’s preview.
The next major team isn’t really new. Yes, folks, there is already a single Shadowpact character in existence. Ignoring Dr. Fate, though, the only Shadowpact-stamped card you’ve likely seen is this one, previewed by Justin Gary on Tuesday. Conjuration is typical of the Shadowpact team for a number of reasons. First, Shadowpact has a lot to do with big endurance effects. The team has access to cards that only really work if you are at a precariously low endurance total, and cards (like Conjuration) that take a big chunk off of your endurance in exchange for some remarkably powerful effects. Another feature of the team is its use of magic, which appears in Vs. System on the version line of Shadowpact-stamped plot twists. Similarly to how Constructs were handled, there are a lot of cards that interact with Magic plot twists. Beyond that, Shadowpact has more than a few cards that work in a very non-traditional way and more than a few effects that mimic popular plot twists from previous sets. I look forward to seeing people’s reactions to this set at the Sneak Preview.
The third new team in Infinite Crisis is Checkmate. As you might expect, the characters in the team are treated much like pieces on a chessboard. It’s difficult to describe more than that without giving too much away, but you might want to take a look at Antonino De Rosa’s preview. He highlights one of the team’s Kings. Each of them is extremely powerful . . . but you lose the game if they get KO’d. This particular King also works well with another of Checkmate’s themes: locations. There are a number of powerful locations in the set, and Checkmate makes good use of them. The team also has a good number of concealed characters and introduces a new keyword that epitomizes thinking ahead (more on this from my preview article, coming this week). Finally, the Checkmate organization created the powerful OMAC robots, which appear in the set as a new line of Army characters.
The fourth major team is Villains United. Patrick Sullivan previewed a representative card on Wednesday. Mr. Freeze highlights the Villains’ primary theme, which is vengeance. The vast majority of the team has the vengeance keyword. Another theme of Villains United involves returning characters to your hand for powerful effects. The team is simple but brutal. Characters stun in combat as a matter of course, but when Villains United characters stun, the effect generated may hurt your opponent more than the stun hurts you.
The final new team in Infinite Crisis is a smaller one. There are only a handful of Secret Six characters in the set; Rian Fike previewed one of them here. Now, you might be thinking to yourself, “That’s quite an odd effect.” In fact, the members of the Secret Six all have some very odd abilities. And there’s this ongoing plot twist . . . It’s really quite impressive. Let’s just say that I expect deckbuilders of all types to start working on a Secret Six deck the moment the set is released, and leave it at that.
Besides the new teams, there will also be quite a lot of legacy content. Paul Ross and Ben Kalman previewed two such cards this weekend, and they’re nice ones. The other legacy cards are of a similar power level, and players will be gratified to see a few team weaknesses shored up quite nicely. And that about covers it. If you want to know more about the new Infinite Crisis expansion, there are only two things you can do. The first is to check back on Metagame each day for our continuing previews, and the second is to make the trip to your local Sneak Preview tournament this weekend. If you don’t know where your Sneak Preview is, you can find a schedule here. Good luck and have fun at the preview!
The regular Week in Review will return next week. As always, please send any questions, comments, anecdotes, or anything else to anand@metagame.com.
