We are counting down the days until the previews are done and the reviews from the Superman, Man of Steel Sneak Peek weekend start rolling in. Just one more Danny Mandel preview before the actual cards are available for play at your local organizer’s tournament site. In the meantime, you’ll have to get by with two more appetizers before the main course commences. Here is today’s little tidbit:
Last week, I was off by only five years in citing the first comic appearance of Mongul. He actually appeared in a number of DC Presents between 1980 and 1982 before being revitalized by Alan Moore. Mongul was actually a Jim Starlin rehash of Thanos, back when comics’ cosmic creator switched over from The House of Ideas to the Distinguished Competition in the early eighties.
Rather than rely on my increasingly crowded memory, I actually looked online to discover that Desaad first appeared in the pages of The Forever People #2 in 1971. This comic was written and drawn by Jack Kirby as part of his epic Fourth World Saga. Desaad is the official twisted puppy of Apokolips, and Darkseid’s official torturer.
Just a quick Jack Kirby aside . . .
I don’t think there’s any other creator in comics who has supplied as many affiliations for the Marvel end of the Vs. System. X-Men, Fantastic Four, Doom, Brotherhood, and even Sentinels and Skrulls all owe their visual style to the most revered creator in all of comics. When he and Stan Lee made Marvel relevant in the early sixties, they did so by creating new property upon new property, from the Fantastic Four to the X-Men and everything in between. Each project they launched was a new creation.
The DC end of VS. System has featured little in the way of Jack Kirby’s insane energy, mostly because DC’s properties all have a pedigree that goes back to the Golden age of comics. When Kirby moved from Marvel to DC in the early seventies, he moved to the existing Superman property, which could hardly contain his creativity, and The New Gods, The Forever People, and the villainous Darkseid and his minions of Apokolips.
Darkseid’s Elite will be the first affiliation on the DC side of the street to feature the offspring of Kirby’s imagination, but I am sure it will not be the last. Personally, I’m waiting for the OMAC and Kamandi expansions for the Vs. System.
End Jack Kirby aside.
It’s not too hard to see that Desaad has plenty of applications in Sealed Pack play, and I expect him to be a big factor in that format. There are no restrictions for playing him, such as revealing another Darkseid’s Elite character or loyalty (which would be completely out of flavor for Desaad). Just like in the comics, he is as likely to end up working for Darkseid’s enemies as he is for Darkseid in your Sealed Pack.
Desaad is a perfectly serviceable 2-drop with acceptable stats if you need to fill out your curve. When you consider how potent his ability is, however, his stats become almost gaudy. You might try playing him at 0 ATK/2 DEF based on how much he accelerates the pace of your game.
If you can get board advantage and protect Desaad for a couple of turns, he will almost double the amount of endurance loss you can inflict on an opponent. He’s basically going to do as much damage as the number of turns that have passed, so the longer you can protect him, the better he gets. If the game gets to a point where you’re essentially just banging your big guys into each other every turn, you’ll come out way ahead in that race if you can sneak in some of Desaad’s fiendish ministrations.
He should be especially nasty in decks where you can ready him for multiple uses each turn. I enjoy Sealed Pack formats where you play with cards from multiple expansions and get a free team-up that you can announce before you start. Imagine for a moment slipping him into a deck that teams up the Teen Titans and Darkseid’s Elite. You could Teen Titans Go! and do double damage on two or more stunned characters.
The key to exploiting Desaad will be how you position him to force your opponent’s hand. Your opponent will have to think twice about running his or her big character into your big character when he or she has the initiative, because you’ll be able to Desaad the face for extra damage. You can use Desaad to draw fire—many times, the opponent will try to deal with Desaad to duck the extra damage. Just by having him on the board, you can make your opponent play a different game than the one he or she was planning on playing.
While he may be small in stature, Desaad should have a big impact on your games. Hopefully, you are planning on experiencing this first-hand this weekend. There are Sneak Preview tournaments being held all over North America, and it will be the first time players can get their hands on the newest set for the Vs. System.
Players playing Sealed Deck will get five boosters of Man of Steel with which to build a deck and compete. Winners will get more Man of Steel boosters and other great prizes. Everyone who plays will get a foil promo card, and everyone who shows up at my events at Neutral Ground can play against my sealed deck with his or her Sealed Deck to win additional prizes.
Next week, I will give you a first-hand look at the new Sealed Pack format. I’ll discuss some of the undefeated decks from my tournament and give you an early scouting report on the best Sealed Pack cards in the new set.
