It’s hard for me to believe we’ve just released our twelfth set of Vs System. Time is flying by. It seems like just the other day I was previewing Children of the Atom. Now, there are thousands of cards, and by my count, 51 teams that you’ve had a chance to explore! As we finish our third year, I thought I’d take a look back at some of the highlights of this past year.
The X-Men set was the first expansion of the year. It was brought to you by our most veteran lead designer, Mike Hummel, who also brought us such fan favorites as Marvel Origins, DC Origins, and Avengers. This set included one of the most influential cards Vs. System has seen in the form of Enemy of my Enemy. It was the first set to re-feature teams that had been in a previous set: both the X-Men and the Brotherhood were given new twists. Unlike most sets which had primarily focused on team affiliations as a core concept, this set also explored mutant traits of mental, energy, and physical as a different type of “team” for players to build decks around. Each of these traits had their own unique flavor and feel. Of these traits, mental was the most successful on the tournament scene, taking two slots in the Top 8 of Pro Circuit Atlanta.
Atlanta was also notable as the event where Vidi Wijaya finally earned top honors in his third Pro Circuit Top 8 appearance. He won the event with a Squadron Supreme deck featuring many other aggressive characters from other teams. The Top 8 also included a more straightforward Squadron Supreme deck, several Faces of Evil decks, and a Hellfire Club deck.The rest of the year’s expansions were each headed up by first-time lead designers. They each infused the game with all of the ideas they had eagerly been awaiting to incorporate into the game. Justin Gary led the design of the Infinite Crisis set, which was recently named Best Expansion of 2006 by InQuest Gamer. This set was special in that it was released on the heels of the storyline it portrayed. Infinite Crisis was the first set to give game play function to the identity of characters. It also introduced a new variant on an old keyword with loyalty-reveal, as well as the tag keywords: backup and vengeance. It was the first set to extend concealed-optional beyond characters and put it on equipment as well. The trio of Fate Artifacts with this text had a huge impact on the tournament scene, as has Mr. Mxyzptlk, Troublesome Trickster and the new king of locations Ahmed Samsarra. The Villains United and Checkmate teams made a splash as the key teams in Ian Vincent’s winning deck in our first ever Silver Age Pro Circuit bayside in San Francisco.
While there was one other Villains/Checkmate deck in the Top 8 at San Francisco, the story of the event was the four Justice League of Arkham decks that made the Top 8. They took many players by surprise by quickly stripping their opponents’ hands of any cards. The Pro Circuit in San Francisco saw Vidi return to finals match as one of two pilots taking a deck with an assortment of aggressive characters to Sunday.Before the release of the next expansion, we had yet another Pro Circuit at Gen Con Indy. This time the format was DC Modern Age. Anthony Calabrese took home the title, defeating Vidi Wijaya in his third consecutive finals appearance. The three fate artifacts (Helm of Nabu, Cloak of Nabu, and Amulet of Nabu) were very popular amongst the top decks. Calabrese’s deck featured a team that hadn’t made much of an impact until then, making full use of Secret Society. The remainder of the Top 8 decks were quite diverse, featuring another Secret Society deck, a JLA/JLI “Good Guys” deck, three Villains/Checkmate decks, and two quite different Shadowpact decks.
Heralds of Galactus design was led by Andrew Yip. The namesake of this set received special attention as no character had since Dr. Doom in the Marvel Origins set. Everything in the Heralds of Galactus team sets the stage for Galactus himself to win the game in grand fashion. This set shed an all-new light on what could be done with the cosmic keyword and introduced its own variation with cosmic-surge. Meanwhile, the Kree team brought us press, which has to be one of the most ambitious and explosive mechanics we’ve tried to incorporate into our game. As if that weren’t enough, this set also brought us terraform, which allowed players to smooth out rough draws and gave them much greater control over their resource row. At long last, cards that would potentially be forever trapped in your resource row could be freed up by these new locations.
The Heralds of Galactus set ushered in the final Pro Circuit of the year at Los Angeles. Adam Prosak walked away with the $40,000, utilizing an innovative Devil’s Due deck. He defeated Ryan Jones, the winner of our 2nd Pro Circuit, in the finals in a battle of Dr. Dooms. Ryan was using a Crisis on Infinite Earths deck. These two decks rose above the rest of the Top 8, which included several varieties of controlling decks that sealed off the game with various cappers (including both Galactus, The Maker and Galactus, Devourer of Worlds).
Finally, we have the recently released Legion of Super Heroes set, led by “The” Ben Seck. The set’s substitute mechanic allows you an extra window to get your favorite characters into play. It also allows you to mix it up by swapping in characters who are good for a given situation and getting others out of the way after they are no longer useful. In addition to opening up many other play patterns, substitute also rewards characters with powers that trigger upon entering play. This set further explores several new cosmic-based strategies and re-explores Darkseid’s resource row disruption theme. Meanwhile, the Future Foes offer two very unique play patterns to our game. This set also features Mobilize which is certain to be a player favorite in helping them build their mono-team decks.
While this is supposed to be an article about the past year, I must remind you of a few exciting things in the very near future.
For one, there is the release of the Hellboy Essential Collection coming in late January 2007. This is a landmark in showcasing characters outside the DC and Marvel universes. The art and packaging is quite impressive and the card faces have been modified to meet the flavor of Mike Mignola’s best-selling comic.
Shortly thereafter, we can all look forward to Konami’s release of the Marvel Trading Card Game in February, showing off Vs. System on the Nintendo DS™, PSP™, and PC.
Also in February comes the Marvel-Team Up Set, which will be the first of several sets full of your favorite characters.