The tapestry that we weave as a community is getting gnarly. Vs. System’s super heroic strings are flying all over the place and then coming back together in some very interesting patterns. An examination of our chaotic card-flipping fabric is in order.

I stopped by the local video game store yesterday because I heard they were selling all their remaining Playstation 1 games for seventy-five cents each. I found a forgotten treasure: X-Men Mutant Academy 2. This is the game with the hidden pool party. It uncovers the same swimwear that was featured on the X-Men Ultra trading cards in 1995. Twelve hours after returning home and dusting off the controller, I owned the top ten scores and had unlocked the bathing suits.

Storm in a string bikini going up against Juggernaut in purple trunks with a bright green bucket on his head equals pure inspiration. My thumb has fresh calluses from ten different campaigns of twelve victories in Survival Mode, and now I am ready to offer you a Vs. System challenge in response. The following are the characters you can pilot in the video game. I want you to make a deck featuring most of them:

Rogue

Storm

Psylocke

Jean Grey

Mystique

Magneto

Wolverine

Cyclops

Beast

Forge

Toad

Havok

Nightcrawler

Gambit

Sabretooth

Juggernaut

You can get creative with any combination of characters from the list, and you can use any other cards you wish. (There is a little beauty called Mutant Nation that might be good in such a deck.) If you aren’t familiar with all of their versions, you can start with the “Search” tab at the top of this page. Each of those individual characters is included on Vs. System cardboard, and most of them are included many times over. Type in a Mutant and get acquainted, then show us what a pool party deck would look like in our game. My email address is at the end of this article . . . which brings us to a recent submission along the same lines:

“I saw your opening day story on Metagame.com, and first, I want to say it was a great read. I decided to see if a decent baseball deck was possible and I stumbled upon a fountain of fun. It's basically a way to stop all plot twists after turn 4. It won’t do well in any kind of location-heavy tournament, but an all-blue environment would be ripe for the picking. It goes to the later turns, so I added Aquaman, King of the Seven Seas to get a Roll Call! advantage with the Now You See Mes. Aquaman would have made a great closing pitcher.”

–Javier Beasley, Waycross, Georgia

Rooting for the Home Team

Javier Beasley

Characters

4 Ray Palmer ◊ The Atom

2 Kid Devil

4 Bart Allen ◊ Kid Flash, Heir to the Mantle

2 Bette Kane ◊ Batwoman

4 Tim Drake ◊ Robin, Sidekick No More

1 Plastic Man

4 Wonder Woman, Avatar of Truth

1 Dinah Laurel Lance ◊ Black Canary, “Pretty Bird”

2 Oliver Queen ◊ Green Arrow, Hard-Traveling Hero

1 Huntress, Reluctant Queen

1 Batman, Avatar of Justice

1 Connor Kent ◊ Superman
1 Aquaman, King of the Seven Seas

Plot Twists

4 Roll Call!

3 New Era

3 Titans, Together!

4 Now You See Me

4 Enemy of My Enemy

Locations

4 Monitor Womb Station

2 Field of Honor

2 31st Century Metropolis

2 Slaughter Swamp

1 Soul World

Equipment

3 Titans Communicator

Javier hit that one well out of the park, and it is big fun to play Vs. System in such a different way. The fun is almost as large as one of the most unique characters available. No matter what time zone you are in, Kang is back in business and better than ever.

“Kang. Kang the Conqueror. Kang: a name to conjure with, the ultimate archenemy of the Avengers. He is the master of time and space. He is a villain who can come out of time, battle the Avengers to a standstill, escape back into the time stream, recuperate, go shopping, nap, do his taxes, watch TV, read War and Peace, attend law school, get married, have children, get divorced, take another nap, reorganize his forces, build nastier weapons, and then return to battle the Avengers again—five seconds after he left. That’s one powerful son of a gun.”

-Glenn Walker, www.ComicWidows.com

In the vast library of Vs. System cardboard, Kang has more versions than any other character. There are fourteen different temporal incarnations of the dastardly dial-spinner in our game. Superman, Spider-Man, Wolverine, and Batman are hot on his heels, but right now, Kang is the King of Copies.

When the treasure chest was opened at the Marvel Team-Up Sneak Preview tournaments, one card glistened brightest before my eyes. Damocles Base may be housed on a green card, but it tastes an awful lot like Mulletman to me.

How does Kang’s sword-shaped spaceship allow you to grab an extra chosen character card if you guess correctly? It’s done with holograms. The killer aircraft includes a projector unlike any other in history. It can create a realistic illusion of any legendary villain or hero you wish. The imaginary emissary can be any size you choose, and the fake character will be fully functional. Damocles Base is hot tech indeed.

If you know what stokes my personal fires, then you will not be surprised when I unveil the first deck I want to talk about today. This insanely risky list comes to us all the way from Athens, Greece. It is the creation of one of the most vibrant members of the Vs. System community, and it hums a tune that is very dear to my heart.

Multiple Eyes

Thanos “LiM” Koutoulas

Characters

4 Longshot, Rebel Freedom Fighter
20 Multiple Man ◊ Jamie Madrox
4 Cyclops, Slim
4 Cyclops, Scott Summers
4 Cyclops, Blue Leader
2 Dazzler, Rock Star

Plot Twists
4 Mobilize
4 Night Vision
4 Fastball Special

Locations
3 Birthing Chamber
4 Damocles Base

Equipments
2 The Blackbird
2 Blackbird Blue

Thanos Koutoulas explains his masterpiece:

“I have always loved the X-Men as a Vs. System team and, of course, as comic book figures. Lately, I took an old pet deck of mine off the shelf to see what new juice it had been given with all the recent expansion sets. It’s an X-Men weenie deck with Cyclops, Slim as the MVP and two Blackbirds to add to the fun factor. I remember that when Multiple Man ◊ Jamie Madrox first came out, I wanted to build a deck with him, but I never got around to it for some strange reason. So the other day, I came up with this deck, which I call Multiple Eyes. I just can’t turn my back on that ridiculous multiplying power Multiple Man offers.

“The game plan is pretty obvious. Always mulligan for Longshot. The other day, I played a guy online and the deck was working almost perfectly with both Blackbirds and Slim. It was a sight to behold as two humble Multiple Men got to swing directly with 14 ATK for the win.”

As intense as that set of abilities can be when they go off, I think we should get back to Kang. I love that deck like a twin brother from a different mother, but it is only legal for Golden Age and the Damocles Base is just extra frosting on the cake. City Championships are Silver Age, and they are being invaded by the evil time traveler as we speak.

When Kang is in control of his own ship, the Damocles Base digs one card deeper into the deck to find its preferred red nugget. Kang is blessed with fourteen different non-unique versions of himself as a reflection of his myriad mythological manifestations, meaning that this giant sword-in-the-sky will always know exactly who it will holographically project into your hand. It works well enough to cover the table in Kang.

That is Ken “Kariggi” Williams. He just barely missed the Top 8 at the City Championships of Torrance, California with a straight Kang deck. The hidden swarm he has in play in the picture tickles my fancy while the tournament itself soothes my soul. It was a community celebration the likes of which we are only beginning to see, and it was one for the ages.

Ken’s wife, Christine “American Maid” Williams, baked cookies for everyone. (Lemon bars, yum!) The tournament was held at Comic Cult, and Chris “im_all_noobish” Bramasco not only ran the show, but he also set a new standard when it comes to City Championship hospitality. He provided pizza for all the participants. He added super-sweet extra prize support like custom Vs. System hoodies and an Extended Art Avengers Assemble!. It was a beautiful thing.

Patrick Yapjoco took down the Torrance crown with a Waffles deck. (I told you these tangents would be gnarly; take a deep breath if you are getting dizzy.) The name popped up on VsRealms.com, coined by “exiledforcefreak” shortly after Marvel Team-Up was released. It seems that the initials of What Are Friends For? are the first part of everyone’s favorite breakfast food. The plot twist also has mad synergy with Qward and Kiman.

Patrick Yapjoco

Characters

10 Shadow Creatures

1 Qwardian Watchdog

4 Quagmire

4 Black Cat, Nine Lives

4 Punisher, Frank Castle

4 Kiman

2 Valentina Vostok ◊ Negative Woman

1 Terrax, Harbinger of Ruin

1 Madelyne Pryor, Goblyn Queen

1 Aquaman, King of the Seven Seas

1 Dormammu

1 The Void

Plot Twists

4 What Are Friends For?

4 Enemy of My Enemy

3 Level 12 Intelligence

Locations

4 Qward

4 Empire State University

3 Slaughter Swamp

2 Birthing Chamber

2 Negative Zone

I love me some Patrick Yapjoco almost as much as I love 1-drop Army characters. As he did with Curve Sentinels, the master has tuned the Waffles deck to perfection. It will be a force to be reckoned with for years to come.

Unfortunately, we have come to the end of our tapestry for today. For anyone who was tuning in to get the lowdown on the Miami madmen who got splattered with War Paint at our local City Championships, you will need to wait one more week. Hopefully, I will be able to stop staring at the patterns on the Vs. System rug by then.

Rian Fike is also known as stubarnes and he eagerly awaits your ideas for a Mutant pool party. Send them, along with any other loose ends, to rianfike@hattch.com.