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Vs. System
Megaman
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Pojo's VS System Card of the Day
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The Substructure
Heralds of Galactus
Exclusive Preview
Card #MHG-127
Date Reviewed: 08.17.06
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst. 3 ... average.
5 is the highest rating. |
Judge
Jason
Bunch |
Hello, and
welcome to Pojo's exclusive preview for The
Substructure, from the upcoming Heralds of
Galactus set. This location has a couple of very
interesting abilities, and allows for a lot more
flexibility in games.
The first thing you'll notice is the new
keyword:
Terraform. Terraform's ability is this: "Reveal
this card >>> You may return a face-down
resource you control to its owner's hand. If you
do, put this card face down into your resource
row. Use this power only during your recruit
step and only if this card is in your hand".
Revealing the card is a cost to put the effect
on the chain, but you don't return any face-down
resources to hand until the effect resolves,
giving your opponent the chance to respond. Paul
Ross will have an article on Metagame on Friday
that will fully explain the rules behind this
new keyword.
All too often, non-reservist character cards
seem to wind up in the resource row. Maybe you
had a bad draw and had to play a character as a
resource, or maybe you had to replace a KO'd
resource, and the top card of your deck just
happened to be your 6 drop. With Terraform,
that's no longer a problem. Not only do you get
your character back in hand, but you're
replacing it with a potentially useful location
at the same time. It only works on face-down
resources though, so there's no recycling of
spent plot twists.
I'd be surprised if there wasn't a card in the
set (or later down the line) that gave Terraform
to your other locations, which makes teams like
Checkmate, Teen Titans, and League of Assassins
very happy.
Now on the The Substructure itself. The
Substructure allows you to replace any face-down
resource you control. In addition, if the card
you replaced was an Inhumans character card, you
can put it in your hand, then discard a card.
From the Inhumans cards I've seen previewed on
other sites, they thrive on having face-up
resources in play. Since characters in the row
are never going to be able to stay in play
face-up, The Substructure allows you to
manipulate your resource row every turn, turning
dead cards into potential locations or plot
twists that could be flipped in order to enable
other effects. You'll also be going through your
deck faster, as every Substructure activation
gets you another card. Even if you don't play a
single Inhumans character, the potential for
this card is pretty high. However, if you're
playing Inhumans then you can safely set a
higher cost character as a resource, knowing
that you have a way to get it back in hand when
you want to recruit it.
The Substructure is really going to shine in
Sealed pack events, such as the ones at Heralds
of Galactus preview events (August 26th and
27th). During Sealed pack play, you almost
always wind up having to play a character as a
resource. With The Substructure, you can get rid
of it and have a decent chance of replacing it
with a better option. As a common, you'll have a
good shot at pulling one out of your packs, and
you'll especially want to play it if you wind up
with a lot of effects that key off of face-up
resources. It'd also be a great card to draft if
an Inhumans/face-up resources archtype emerges
from this set.
When a new set comes out, the flashy new rares
are the ones that get all of the attenion, but
it's the workhorse commons that can make or
break a deck, especially in the Limited formats.
The Substructure has the potential to be one of
these commons, so keep your eyes out for it
whenever you're cracking packs next weekend.
Also keep your eyes out for another sneak
preview from Heralds of Galactus, coming next
week only on Pojo.com!
Judge
Staff Group Photo (including Jason Bunch ;-) |
Nakaiya21 |
Finally after
2 ˝ years of CODs I finally get to review my
first preview card. Of course it is a common,
but that just means you guys will be seeing more
of this card at the sneak peak. So while other
reviewers get to review the prime cards you
won’t be seeing at the sneak peak (unless your
luck is better than mine – which it probably
is), I get to review one card that you
definitely will want to know something about.
Not bad – if I do say so myself.
This card is all about the Inhuman team
affiliation. Well, I guess you could use it for
other decks…but why would you want to. (Usually
at this point in time a normal reviewer would
give everyone a detailed background on the
Inhumans and how they crossover to the VS
system, but I am just not that kind of
reviewer.)
Ok, so let’s break this down…
First of all this location fits in with what
seems to be the main theme of the Inhuman team
affiliation – FACE-UP RESOURCES. With cards like
Attilan and The Great Refuge already making
rounds, everyone is on the lookout for ways to
make Inhumans the team to beat. This card allows
you to replace a face down resource you control
and if it is an Inhuman character then you can
fish it out of your KO pile and put it in your
hand. Not only do you now have a way of insuring
face-up resources in your resource row, but now
you can get help in your recruiting. Combining
this location with other Inhuman locations can
essentially allow you to setup your resource
row. Wow – now that is power!
Second this card has the mechanic Terraform.
Terraform is essentially the reservist form for
non-character cards. The mechanic states:
“Reveal this card >>> You may return a face-down
resource you control to its owner’s hand. If you
do, put this card face down into your resource
row. Use this power only during your recruit
step and only if this card is in your hand.”
This mechanic is very powerful in the fact that
now your can get virtually anything back out of
your resource row, so long as it is a face-down
resource. This is especially useful for those of
you that like equipment based decks. In fact,
with Terraform around, I suspect that equipment
will start coming into the picture. Perhaps this
was UDE’s plan all along (sneaky, sneaky UDE).
Now onto playability….Will we actually see this
card being played?
Well the answer to this is probably not. Sure at
the sneak peak there is bound to be someone that
will have some Inhumans and will decide “What
the heck. Let’s give it a try…I have the room
anyway.”, but in tournament play I doubt this
card will see the light of day. Since the
powerful Inhuman locations already have the
Terraform mechanic, having this card will
probably be just a waste of space. After all it
isn’t a search card and most players already
build their decks so that they avoid putting
unusable cards in their resource row. Of course
it is still early yet and no one really knows
everything that is in this set so I guess we
will have to see… |
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