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Welcome to the first week of the Fan Card Crossover! This is your chance to show us in UDE’s Vs. design group how it’s done. Each week, you, the fans, will decide on an element of a card that will actually be released in a future DC Vs. set. But enough of this banter—let’s get to work!
When a set is first released, I know there are a great many players out there who go straight to the end of the card list to have a look at what cards have been specifically made for the old teams. We refer to these as “legacy” cards. There is nothing cooler than seeing your favorite deck get that perfect character at the right drop point, transforming it from a “casual deck” to a “well-tuned machine.” When I first started playing in Marvel Origins, my group of five friends divvied up the affiliations among ourselves so we could build decks as soon as possible. I got the Sentinels, and I straight away made a curve deck with all the characters from Senator Kelly on turn 1 to Master Mold topping it off at 6. Needless to say, I got bashed pretty continually by the other decks. But a single card—Sentinel Mark V—made all the casual Curve Sentinels decks into menaces. Such is the power of legacy.
When designers decide to make a legacy card, they ask themselves a few questions:
- How is this team currently perceived by the community?
- What themes for this team have been overlooked?
- What are the strengths and weaknesses of its character cards?
- What are the strengths and weaknesses of its non-character cards?
- Are there any iconic characters or storylines that need highlighting?
Not every theme of every affiliation seeks to be a competitive deck at the top level. In fact, some themes are aimed directly at casual, Sealed Pack, or “team-up” decks. But since TCG design and development are imprecise sciences, sometimes, we need to tweak certain strategies. Legacy cards are used to fine-tune an affiliation so it’s closer to our original intent. Also, since we know that not every deck and strategy will be viable in every metagame, we sometimes need to give teams some new tools to allow them to evolve to the next level.
Sometimes, we allow certain strategies to grow. Legacy cards allow us the space for design concepts and strategies to mature over time. There are only so many cards we can fit into a set, and since we want legacy cards to be interesting, we may occasionally hold over intriguing or pivotal effects. That way, we can give a strategy time to mature rather than having it all complete at the get-go.
As I said before, we at Vs. R&D are not infallible, and sometimes we use legacy cards to fill in drop points that came up a little short when the team was initially conceived. That being said, not every resource drop for every team is (or should be) equal. Some teams are defined by weaknesses in certain areas of the curve, and it’s that weakness that allows them to gain power and flexibility in other areas.
Now that I’ve let you know a little about the world of designing legacy cards, it’s time to vote! Before you decide, I’m letting you know that this card will be a character. Don’t worry if you wanted to make a non-character card—we plan to do more Fan Card Crossovers in the future.
Fan Card Crossover – Week 1
What affiliation?
- Gotham Knights
- Arkham Inmates
- League of Assassins
- Team Superman
- Revenge Squad
- New Gods
- Green Lantern
- Emerald Enemies
- Anti-Matter
- Manhunter
- JLA
- JLI
- Injustice Gang
- Secret Society
You’ll note the absence of Teen Titans and Darkseid’s Elite. That’s because these teams are getting total re-features in the near future. Poor old Fearsome Five doesn’t have enough characters to make an interesting competition, but don’t fret—their time might come.
To vote, email fancardcrossover@gmail.com with your name and UDE number (if you have one). Then, put whatever your choice is in the body of the email. It’s that simple! We’ll stop accepting votes at 12 P.M. PST on March 3. Make your vote count!