All the most powerful words have three letters. “Fun” is the one that hums.

If we want to have as much fun as possible with Vs. System, we can start by examining the word itself. It seems that “fun” started in Middle English with the identification of a fool. The noun describes a state of amusement. Fun is most often defined as a playful activity that brings joy to those engaged in it.

When we say that Vs. System is a fun game, we are employing a much more modern usage. The word has only been used as an adjective for fifty years. When we attempt to optimize our enjoyment of these cardboard characters, we are participating in fresh history and blazing new paths for human fun.

The Fun Factor in Vs. System is directly related to the people who play. No matter what words or pictures are printed on the cards, some people will Have a Blast! by collecting and cataloging at them. If we take the biggest step and examine the professional gamers who choose to amuse themselves here, we have a much greater threshold for merriment. These people want to play a game that tests their skill at the highest level; it’s how they have fun.

Billy Postlethwait is one of those gamers. The week before he won the Charlotte $10K, Billy defeated me in a local PCQ. As we talked afterward, he told me that he is qualified many times over in other high-level trading card games yet focuses primarily on Vs. System because it is a better game, and he has more fun playing it. For him, the delightful diversion has resulted in over $15,000 in prize money, as well. That has got to be fun, no matter how we define it.

We have been meditating as a community on the forums lately about the casual fun factor and how it can be maintained and fertilized. We stumbled upon a new format. It is causing me endless amusement, so I will share it with you and start a contest in its honor. I hereby announce the “Random Constructed” format. It is a strictly casual, completely unofficial configuration. You and your friends can tweak it any way you want, as long as you have fun with it.

It seems that each team affiliation could form a basic starter deck. Any team-stamped effects that are not directly combat related could be left out, and no rares would be necessary. Generic pumps and simple abilities could be included to fill out the sixty cards.

If there is a choice at each drop, a Random Constructed deck could use an equal number of each character. If there is an odd number of cards at the drop, give the extra copy to the common first. If there is more than one common, choose the one with the highest ATK.

When a field of balanced Random Constructed decks is created in your local community, you can run a tournament in which the players do not know which Constructed deck they will play. Draw numbers out of a hat. That sounds like fun.

For me, the ultimate prize for such a party would be for the winner to keep the deck that beat all the rest. But that would deplete your collection pretty fast. A joke trophy can also be really fun. Make it something wacky. It can be passed around each week if you have a new winner. Maybe a big gold medal or a cape or something.

Two of the best message board poets in the business decided to help flesh out the Random Deck format, and I could not have written it better. I will now hand you off for some fun with Adam “Flashback81” Kirkby and Ryan “WalterKovacs” Alarie for an in-depth analysis of our new amusing way to play Vs. System. I will be back after they are done to give you a personal challenge.

Random Constructed Fun

By Adam J. Kirkby

My playgroup is small. We can always be counted on one hand. But what we lack in number, we make up for in dedication. So far, I’ve accumulated a collection of over 8,000 cards . . . with no signs of stopping.

Every Saturday for a couple of hours, at least two of us meet to play a few games, discuss strategies, and fix each other’s decks. We continuously demo the game to people walking by or to other kids who are playing different games. I always have twelve different decks on hand, ranging from classic Teen Titans and Wild Vomit to new archetypes like No Hand Squadron and Injustice Infestation. The other regular player always plays Green Lantern, changing it week to week, throwing in JLA and Emerald Enemies to find a better deck.

It sometimes gets bland, always knowing what your opponent is playing, and we’ve never had enough people for a tournament. I don’t mind. Once a week I can sit down, have fun doing something I enjoy, and leave the rest of the world outside the store. I love this game.

I also love the idea of the Random Constructed format. If we were to make a blueprint, it could look like this:

Six 1-drops
Six 2-drops
Five 3-drops
Five 4-drops
Five 5-drops
Four 6-drops
One 7-drop

Twenty-eight other cards: locations, equipment, and plot twists

I would prefer sixty cards as opposed to starter deck size; it gives the feel of a proper game. Also, it gives more room for play variation on each turn and for possibly having to miss or under-drop. For the rares, I think one character, one location, and one plot twist would be fun. The higher cost points on the curve could be adjusted; more 7-drops and an 8-drop could be amusing.

One guy who I play against is using Checkmate / Hellfire, and he never misses his Shinobi Shaw, Donald Pierce, or Sebastian Shaw (with Rook Control . . . painful). I would like it if his deck were a bit more luck based instead of searching for everything. Locations with Ahmed Samsarra, characters with Join the Club!, plots twists with Power and Wealth? It’s insane, especially for newer players and fun formats.

That’s why I like this Random Constructed format. Include only one character searcher, like Cerebro or Rise to Power, to smooth out the curve if you’re lucky enough to get it. It can help you win, but it’s not guaranteed.

Let me try to build an X-Men Random Constructed deck. I won’t be dipping into the Mutant trait yet for these “teacher” decks. That way, if a player likes X-Men, it’s an incentive for him or her to get the new set and learn the new stuff directly.

How does this lineup fit you? Fun enough?

1-drops:
2 Dazzler, Alison Blaire
2 Shadowcat, Kitty Pryde
2 Beast, Quick Thinker

2-drops:
2 Archangel, Warren Worthington III
2 Cyclops, Slim
2 Nightcrawler, Kurt Wagner

3-drops:
2 Banshee
2 Wolverine, Logan
1 Psylocke, Betsy Braddock

4-drops:
1 Jean Grey, Marvel Girl
2 Storm
1 Iceman, Ice Armor
1 Gambit, Remy Lebeau

5-drops:
3 Professor X, Charles Xavier
2 Cyclops

6-drops:
2 Rogue, Powerhouse
2 Colossus

7-drop:
1 Professor X

Plot Twists:
2 Fastball Special
1 Children of the Atom
3 Acrobatic Dodge
2 Finishing Move
3 Flying Kick
2 Mega-Blast
2 Medical Attention
3 Nasty Surprise
2 Surprise Attack
2 One-Two Punch

Locations:

1 Cerebro
2 Danger Room
2 X-Corporation
1 Base of Operations

This setup has pretty much all the basic aspects of the game, including formation, hand control, ATK/DEF pumps, and recovery.

Have fun!

Random Constructed Analysis

By Ryan “WalterKovacs” Alarie

While having a basic curve and ATK pumps would be nice from a teaching perspective, there should at least be some room for team-specific tricks. X-Men should have a few recovery tricks. Brotherhood gets a little bit of burn. A Secret Society deck could have a couple of cards that give them counters. Those kinds of things are fun because they show off the flavor of the team, if only just a little.

At the very least, the concept of recovery/KO could be included, as it adds a second level to the strategy—don’t just attack for the most damage or to keep the most characters on my side unstunned. Such effects would introduce board control through other means.

And to make it even more flavorful, the villain teams can get the KO effects and the hero teams get the recovery tricks.

While card searching decks can be a little annoying, the other side of the coin is that it’s not very fun to lose a game via the virtue of missing a drop.

Secret Origins and/or Weapon of Choice (with the decks built appropriately) would be the perfect searchers for a Random Constructed deck. One lets you “catch up” with your opponent off initiative if he or she hits a drop that you didn’t, and the other gets out a drop, even if it’s not your optimal one.

The cyclers and the limited searchers would be fine in this format, as well. They are a way to smooth the curve without turning the decks into toolboxes.

Of course, if the decks are built appropriately, they could be designed so that the searchers are only there for smoothing the curve, not for getting what you want at every drop.

Let me try X-Men on for size.

At the 1-drop slot could be Dazzler, Alison Blaire and Shadowcat, Kitty Pryde each giving their own “trick.” One is a simple DEF pump, but the other is a formation-based effect—something useful for people to learn about.

At the 2-drop slot you need Nightcrawler, Kurt Wagner. He has a basic solid ability that will be relevant during the game. Archangel, Warren Worthington III again teaches about formation and its relevance to the game.

At the 3-drop slot you have Banshee as another formation-based character and Wolverine, Logan for combat.

The 4-drop slot can give you John Proudstar ◊ Thunderbird as a way to show the importance of the recovery theme. The other 4-drop can be Polaris, Lorna Dane as yet another formation teacher.

At the 5-drop slot, your options are limited to some extent, especially if you are not using Mutants. Archangel, Angel of Death gives you someone that works with Polaris, and the starter deck Colossus, Steadfast Protector gives you a big character with a reinforcement ability.

The 6-drop Storm, Wind Control from the starter deck gives everyone flight. The only other option is Rogue, Powerhouse. Storm fits in with the overall focus of “formation matters,” so she gets the nod. We could include both.

The 7-drop slot is a bit limited with a no-rare, no-Mutant trait rule. We can go with one each of Professor X, Friend of the Mutants and Juggernaut, The Unstoppable. One makes formation important to the player, and the other makes it important to his or her opponent. I’d go with Juggernaut over the Prof, but at the same time, leaving him off the team seems like blasphemy.

Hey everybody, it’s Rian again. And it’s time to announce our contest! Send your entries to the email address at the end of this article. You may complete any of these challenges, or you may try all three:

1. Build a Random Constructed deck of your own, using a team affiliation other than X-Men.
2. Write your opinion and analysis of the Random Constructed format.
3. Type up a report about the most fun you ever had playing Vs. System.
   
   

Rian Fike is also known as stubarnes and he is delighted to entertain. Send Random Constructed stuff to rianfike@hattch.com. He will be having mad fun in the meantime.