In the realm of search effects in Vs. System, there are some that are better than others. While most search for characters or locations, and even fewer search for plot twists, only an elite few have the ability to search for any card. Some of these cards, like Thunderbolt and Four Freedoms Plaza, haven’t quite made it to the big time, but others such as Kooey Kooey Kooey and Attilan have shown up in multiple top decklists. Today’s preview is very likely to join the latter.
The beauty of the Hellboy Essential Collection is that you get two ready-to-play 60-card decks, so all the cards have two different yet interesting contexts. The first, using the Hellboy Essential Collection cards with the current and future Vs. System expansions, is familiar to most of you out there. But Matt Hyra went a step further with this collection and ensured that the two decks are fun and interesting when you play them against each other.
The Thule Society doesn’t have a Hellboy in their midst, but many of their effects benefit from or require Hellboy to be effective. This means that when you are playing the decks against each other, if you are the Thule Society player you can more or less guarantee that you’ll be able to fire this plot twist off multiple times. Your opponent also has no idea what card you are getting, since you don’t have to reveal it until you want to. Believe me, the Thule Society has something coming . . . but you’ll have to wait until later this week when Andrew Yip will reveal what those evil occultists have planned for Hellboy.
Another interesting aspect of the Hellboy Essential Collection is that the two decks are meant to be effective and synergistic when you play them together. While we don’t recommend playing a 120-card deck, with a few choice cuts and a few nasty additions you’ll be able to make a demonically effective B.P.R.D. / Thule Society crossover deck. The B.P.R.D. has multiple versions of Hellboy—and if you missed the fine print, Something is Coming doesn’t care who played Hellboy—meaning that in a crossover deck you can control when you’ll be able to play this plot twist. In fact, lead designer Matt Hyra included a few choice characters and plot twists that are actually more effective in the hybrid deck. You can finally answer the pressing question posed in the comics—what if Hellboy had ended up with the Nazis during World War II?
Something is Coming is a unique item in the search card world, possessing merely a play restriction (Hellboy has to have come into play this turn) rather than an additional cost such as exhausting a character or discarding a card. As a result, as soon as Hellboy enters play you’ll be able to play as many copies of Something is Coming as you have in your hand and resource row. In some cases, this may be enough to get you the perfect combination of cards to defeat your opponent.
Something is Coming is exactly what you want to make of it, and to me that’s the best type of card in Vs. System. With the options limited only by the card pool and a player’s access to Hellboy, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some players packing four of these at the next big event.
Tomorrow's Preview:
