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Vs. System Tourney Reports

X-Men sneak preview
by Jason Bunch
February 11, 2006

Last weekend, like many of you, I made the trek to my local game shop and joined other VS players in taking a look at the newest VS System expansion, The X-Men.
Sealed play at a sneak preview is often a combination of skill and luck, as what you pull in your packs is just as important as how you're able to quickly absorb the cards and put together a workable strategy...all in about 25 minutes. Although I didn't do as well as I hoped, I had a good time, and hopefully my experience can be a help to you, the reader. Enjoy!

What I opened (and didn’t play):

Hellfire Club Initiate, Army
Hellfire Club Mercenary, Army
Kleinstock Brothers, Acolyte
Tommy, Runaway
Crimson Commando, Freedom Force
Viper, White Warrior Princess
Annalee, Mother Hen
Bevatron, Hellion
Harry Leland, Black Bishop
Tarot, Hellion
Erg, Electric Eye
Madelyne Pryor, Black Rook
Spoor, Acolyte
Firestar, Hellion
Trevor Fitzroy, White Rook
Blow Hard, Windbag
Callisto, Morlock Queen
Emma Frost, White Queen
Brave New World, Team-Up
Kidney Punch
X-Treme Manuever
Go Down Fighting
Hellhound
Kill the Flatscans
Immovable
Magnetic Force
Army of One
Lying in Wait
Cardinal Law
X-Corp: Paris, X-Corp
X-Corp: Hong Kong, X-Corp
Harry's Hideaway
Massachusetts Academy
Wundagore Citadel
The Hill
Blackbird Blue
Acolyte Body Armor


What I Played:

Archangel, Angel
Destiny, Freedom Force
Leech, Inhibitor
Tar Baby, Adhesive Ally
Beast, Feline Geneticist
2X Silver Sabre, Freedom Force
Sage, Xavier's Secret Weapon
Beef, Hellion
Storm, Leader of the Morlocks
Witch Woman, Linda Littletrees
Wolverine, Patch
Cyclops, Leader
Henrietta Hunter, X-Celebrity
Masque, Flesh Shaper
Polaris, Acolyte
Callisto, Morlock Queen
Piper, Rat Charmer
Storm, Gold Leader
Krakoa, Island Monster
Mikhail Rasputin, Morlock Messiah
X-Men United, Team-Up
Homo Superior
Kill or be Killed
Drain Essence
Feel the Burn
Leadership Challenge
The Forsaken, Team-Up
Bum's Rush
Image Inducer
X-Corp: Amsterdam, X-Corp
Sewer System
Subterranean Sanctuary



After I open my packs, I like to sort by teams, then look for team-ups to get a sense of what I should try to go for as far as deck synergy goes. I had a lot of Hellfire Club characters, but only 2 Hellfire Club-stamped plot twists. If I had more Mental characters, I would have splashed Trevor Fitzroy though, he’s a decent 5 drop with a killer effect.
Morlocks looked good, with some good cards at just about every drop, and an absolute bomb at 8. 8 drops don't usually belong in a Sealed deck, but Mikhail Rasputin is good on both initiatives, plus he's got huge stats. Also, with people playing the 20/12 Hemingway as a 7 drop, I was going to need some beef.
A Morlocks team-up helped me lean towards them, as did
Sewer System. Sewer System is amazing, letting you
take a swing at a small character in the hidden area, or letting you reuse some of the useful Morlocks effects that involve them moving from the hidden to the visible areas. I would have liked to have had Brotherhood as my second team; plot twists like Lying in Wait, Kill the Flatscans, and Hellhound would have definitely helped out. Unfortunately, I didn't have a Brotherhood character bigger than 5 in my pool, and my other team-up card was for X-Men, so I decided to force X-Men and take my chances. I don't regret going with X-Men, 6 drop Storm is amazing, and Cyclops is good for some extra damage too. I really fell in love with Sage and her ability to make plot twists and locations cost 2 more for my opponents. It really shuts them down on the early game, although I only was able to get her out in one game. One copy of Archangel was to get my access to X-Corp: Amsterdam, which in addition to being a reusable defensive pump, could also grab me either of my two teamups. Brave New World is a nice teamup too, but I only had room for two, and I didn't have enough Trait-specific plot twists to justify running it. Witch Woman and Henrietta Hunter were there for their slightly above average defense, and Krakoa is amazing on 7, especially since he was able to fetch Sewer System for me. Add on an Image Inducer, and I have a 19/16 who can swing into my opponent's back row or hidden area to do the most damage possible. Drain Essence is amazing in Sealed, as it provides a great KO effect combined with a little bit of lifegain, and there are a lot of good common Energy characters that you can put in to power the effect. I only went 2-2 in the first tournament I played, my first loss was a close game, and I miscalculated on a Drain Essence (thinking it gave life back equal to the cost of the character stunned by its effect, not the cost of the character I exhausted). My second loss was mainly due to me missing my 5 drop and my opponent’s well-timed Lying in Wait.

That’s the challenging part of Sealed play, having to predict on the fly what will work well when you haven’t seen every card in the set. Still, it was a fun and well-run event, and everybody there seemed impressed by how well the new set played. It should be interesting to see what kind of decks we see coming out of Marvel Modern in a month or so. Thanks to JJK Cards in Richardson and Dequan Watson of JDS Events for putting on a great Sneak Preview. Next week I’ll write about the second Sealed event I played that day, where I finally got to check out some of the tricks that Hellfire Club has to offer.

P.S. The Dark Phoenix playmats are super sweet, and if anyone has an extra that they want to send my way...heh heh heh…