For those who may not be familiar, Brian Hacker is a legend within the gaming industry. Aside from his accomplishments as a player, Hacker wrote a handful of articles that were universally acclaimed back in the day. Now, he contributes to the game we all love as a member of R&D. Due to this reputation, I spent the better part of a month pestering him to do a Web of Spider-Man preview.
For this, I apologize deeply. I have shamed my ancestors.
Take the following article with a grain of salt, and please note that Brian Hacker is only about 87% as psychotic as he seems to be.
- Toby Wachter
Green furyoku never came so easily! Oh wait, we ain’t on Shaman King yet.
Alright, take a look. I did. For a while, too. We all know about Hawk and Dove, and they got some run at Gen Con. They got off the pine, right? So what about Mysterio? And his other brother, Mysterio? Well, to be honest, I wasn’t sure. This cat costs 4 to boost, and unlike Hawk and Dove, you don’t have the whole, “turn 1 Dove, turn 2 Hawk,” thing. That play is always strapping, especially if my man Roy Harper makes his presence felt on turn 3. But this isn’t an article about them—it’s an article about Quentin Beck, so what about him? Hmm?
So I had to talk to my ace, Spider-Man himself. Or at least as close as we’ll ever get in the flesh, Mr. Tobey Maguire. I took the drive up to the Commerce, and luckily Dave Williams was sitting with around $7K just a few seats down, so I got a chance to sneak up real close. After the normal bad beat stories, I snuck the question in there. “Spidey, seriously, what do you think? Two 4 ATK/2 DEF’s on the fourth turn. With evasion! What do you think about that?”
“Hmm?”
“No jokes, Mysterio, Quentin Beck! You know who I’m talkin’ ’bout! You’re shaking, aren’t you?! Finishing Move! Two guys for the price of one! Evasion! And we’re not even talking about what happens with a Shriek, Webbed Menace!” (Quick disclaimer—Shriek works real well with Mysterio, but I’m only allowed to spoil one card, not two.)
“Who is this guy?” Peter Parker retorted. At this point, Spidey had one of his bodyguard lackeys come in and remove me from the top shelf. OK, so he’s playing it cool, as if he couldn’t care less about Mysterio. I’m doubting it. And to boot, he gave me no material for this article. So I had to go back to the drawing board.
I made a deck. Not just any deck. A Cali Special™, for those of you old enough to remember the brand. Let’s take a look.
4 Dawn Granger ◊ Dove
4 Hank Hall ◊ Hawk
4 Mysterio
4 Vulture
4 Hammerhead (Oh, wait—you don’t know what he does.)
4 Shriek (Gah! You don’t know what he does, either.)
OK, never mind! You got to figure it out for yourself. I will leave you with a quote from the friendly neighborhood one himself, “With great power comes great responsibility.” So when you go shuffling for another Mysterio, or another Hawk/Dove, or whatever, remember not to leave a little something special on the top or take so much time shuffling that you leave no time for the next turn or game.
That’s just not sporting.
Brian Hacker
Brian_Hacker@upperdeck.com