Enter the ’70s guitar music, stretched and distorted by the rocking of the wah-wah pedal. Vinyl records gather dust in classic cardboard jackets next to old baseball cards and an artificially signed photo-reprint of Dr. J in full flight toward a glorious throwback slam dunk. I am nothing if not the epitome of “old school.”  I still rock my Converse kicks and throw down peanuts in my glass bottles of Coke. Come Friday nights in South Florida, I might be found resurrecting old disco tunes on my iPod while watching reruns of Good Times.

I am a fan of the classics. The original is always better than the remake. I like black and white films, old cotton t-shirts, and the way classic blues crackles over an old recording. I like Memorial Day better than Labor Day, and I thought high school history class was way better than most other subjects. I find comfort in the past and fear the future—old times are the best times. I remember when you could roll into a grocery store, peruse the metal racks for your favorite comic book titles, and walk away happy for a dime. Some people love new technology, and feel a rush as the world advances into the future. Not me. I crave a simpler time, when old ladies asked, “Where’s the beef?” and comic fans chanted, “Make mine Marvel.”  Overall, I am a nostalgiaholic.

When it comes to Vs. System, you may have guessed that my sensibilities are the same. My favorite set is still Marvel Origins, and all of my favorite decks are the first decks I ever built and played. In 2004, I was finishing up my graduate work at the University of South Florida. For years I had been the quintessential poor college student, scraping bye on student loan checks and the occasional influx of tax returns. I played several TCGs and miniatures games, but relied on tournament prizes and the famed in-store credit to build my collections.

I was weeks away from getting my first real paycheck from my new job, and I was interested in a new game coming out from Upper Deck Entertainment based around comics. Super hero cardboard had a special appeal; finally, there was a co-mingling of trading card games and a content area that I had always enjoyed. There were visions of the Hulk and Fantastic Four battling their ways through a thick tournament scene. I wanted to combat with Spider-Man, and stir up old rivalries with classic super villains like Dr. Doom. Soon enough, my dreams came wrapped in the cellophane-foil hybrids marked with a shiny “Vs.” I cracked a couple of packs with my fiance, and soon enough we were constructing decks with all of our favorite characters. I staged epic battles on my kitchen table and tried to master the mechanics of a new game.

After three years, I fondly look back and think about my initial deck builds. There was news of the broken Avalon Space Station / Lost City combo that brought about the terms and conditions for a bigger Brotherhood. Many of my friends piloted Dr. Doom in search of total control. My idea of a good time was to throw all of my comic favorites into a single deck to battle evil! I loved the Fantastic Four builds because they offered a chance to field all of the classic characters in the Marvel Universe. We had the core Four, and expanded the roster with all-time greats like the Hulk, Spider-Man, and Ghost Rider. In later sets, there was the silver icing added to the proverbial cake with the inclusion of the Silver Surfer. For added flavor, one could splash in some of the best plot twists ever to hit cardboard: Signal Flare; It’s Clobberin’ Time!; Savage Beatdown; and relative powerhouses like Acrobatic Dodge. The initial builds of the Fantastic Four lured me into the game, and the variety of builds in those first sets kept me in the game. I can recall trying out various builds with the Four in which I got to use all of the great locations and awesome equipment. I almost cried tears of joy after reviewing the decklists of the Origins $10K Challenge.

Russell Pippin

Origins $10K Challenge

Characters

4 She-Thing

3 Human Torch, Johnny Storm

4 Thing, Ben Grimm

3 She-Hulk, Jennifer Walters

4 Invisible Woman, Sue Storm

2 Wolverine, New Fantastic Four

4 Mr. Fantastic, Stretch

1 Ghost Rider, New Fantastic Four

2 Hulk, New Fantastic Four

2 Thing, The Ever-Lovin’ Blue-Eyed Thing

1 Invisible Woman, Sue Richards

Plot Twists

4 Savage Beatdown

4 It’s Clobberin’ Time!

4 Signal Flare

4 Acrobatic Dodge

3 Tech Upgrade

3 Overload

3 Ka-Boom!

Equipment

4 Fantasticar

1 Personal Force Field

Russell Pippin had found tournament success with a Fantastic Four build, and laid the foundation for many subsequent builds that used the Fantasticars and other equipment. The Fantastic Toys builds used giant characters and the special skills of Mr. Fantastic to recruit and move said equipment. In the same $10K event, Anthony Justice broke onto the Vs. scene with a combination featuring many of these great characters and a twisting splash of Doom. Common Enemy builds relied on the search and size of the Fantastic Four heroes while using an element of control found only behind a certain metal mask. The Common Enemy build found its place in Vs. history when Brian Kibler guided it to the first ever Pro Circuit Championship.

Anthony Justice

Origins $10K Challenge

Characters

4 Boris, Personal Servant of Dr. Doom

4 She-Thing

3 Darkoth, Major Desmund Pitt

4 She-Hulk, Jennifer Walters

1 Wolverine, New Fantastic Four

4 Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius

1 Robot Destroyer

3 Thing, Heavy Hitter

1 Hulk, New Fantastic Four

1 Dr. Doom, Victor Von Doom

1 Thing, The Ever-Lovin’ Blue-Eyed Thing

1 Sub-Mariner, Ally of Doom

1 Dr. Doom, Lord of Latveria

Plot Twists

3 Savage Beatdown

4 It’s Clobberin’ Time!

4 Common Enemy

4 Signal Flare

1 Faces of Doom

3 Mystical Paralysis

3 Overload

4 Acrobatic Dodge

1 Flame Trap

Locations

4 Doomstadt

When I think of Vs. System, I will always remember my first true love: the Fantastic Four. I played different variations of this classic Marvel team for the first year of my Vs. System foray. I piloted an improved build in my first two $10K events, and claimed my first PC points on the backs of the Thing and those flying cars. I loved the deck manipulation that let me search for character cards and equipment, and the pure size of the heroes. I’m a big guy, and I guess there is something that attracted me to the giant ATK of the Hulk, the beefy frame of The Ever-Lovin’ Blue-Eyed Thing, and the bonus that stacked with each subsequent addition of those flying cars.

Eventually, these types of Fantastic Four decks faded out to make way for more efficient decks, but they definitely left their mark on the game by playing a role in subsequent $10K- and PC-winning builds. I may be old school, but next to those dusty records and fake autographs of Dr. J there will always be a red Vs. System deck tin with an all-foil version of my first Vs. System deck: the Fantastic Four.

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. Currently, there is a small collection of all the classic Vs. System decks in the old school time capsule buried beneath the Kingpin’s Florida home. Stop by with a shovel sometime and you can play some old school battles between Pro Circuit events. If you have constructive comments or questions, feel free to contact him at Tampakingpin@yahoo.com.