VS System

Infobox_Game | subject_name= VS System
image_link=
image_caption=
designer=Matt Hyra, Mike Hummel, Edward Fear, and Danny Mandel
publisher= Upper Deck Entertainment
players= 2¹
ages= 10+
setup_time= < 5 minutes
playing_time= < 30 minutes
complexity= Medium
strategy= High
random_chance= Some
skills= Card playing
Simple math
Deck optimization
Planning
Deception
footnotes= ¹ Some casual rules allow more players.
bggid=13293

VS System (pronounced "Versus System") is a set of rules designed by Upper Deck Entertainment for collectible card games (CCG's). In the system, players build and play a deck of VS System cards in an attempt to win a game against their opponent. It was first published in 2004 and is currently used for superhero games, though as a system rather than an individual game it could be applied to other genres in the future.

In casual speaking, the term "VS System" or simply "VS" can also refer to any of the games that are playable using the VS System set of rules. These games include "Web of Spider-Man", "Superman, Man of Steel", "Justice League of America", and "X-Men".

ystem features

Card art, characters, and game play concepts are inspired by their comic book appearances with the designers using what they describe as "Top Down" design, meaning they make every attempt to develop a character card mechanic in keeping with how the character is represented in comic books.cite web
last = Mandel
first = Danny
title = Design Vs. Development: Top-Down Design
work = [http://www.metagame.com Metagame.com]
date = 2004-05-07
url = http://metagame.com/vs.aspx?tabid=46&ArticleId=106
accessdate = 2006-08-22] Well known artists that have contributed card art include Alex Ross, John Van Fleet, Alex Garner, Jim Lee, Rachael Dodson, and Bill Sienkiewicz.

While the VS System shares many familiar features with CCG's like , a notable innovation of VS System is that players share a turn, but alternate holding initiative for the turn. Initiative allowing him or her to act first in the phases of play.

Games using the VS System

Currently the CCG system is based mainly on Marvel and DC Comics, with smaller sets called Essential Collections to feature characters from other comics publishers. UDE released a collection based on Hellboy to the general public March 2007. Expansion sets have since alternated release between Marvel based sets and DC Comics based sets with a new set approximately every 3 months, though in the past year, this has changed. The times between set releases were changed to six months, with the amount of content in each set increasing as well. Recently, the Marvel - DC switch has been changed as well. While UDE is in negotiation with DC about the possibility of renewing their license, they thought it best not to put the game on hold, and so moved directly from the release of Marvel Universe (June 2008) to the development of Marvel Evolution, with no new announced DC set to come. All sets are interchangeable and compatible with each other and share the same card back. This allows players to mix characters fighting against or with each other.

Game play

The VS System attempts to emulate epic Super Hero battles. Each player starts the game with 50 "endurance points". If a player has zero or less endurance at the start of the Recovery Phase, he or she is knocked out of the game. The [http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/op/vs_rules/vs_rules.aspx VS System Comprehensive rules] is an in depth explanation of every aspect of the game and is official canon for use in Organized Play judging. Upper Deck Entertainment also maintains a corp of "Demo Team" members who will meet with prospective players for a free interactive demonstration of gameplay. Anyone may request a demo at the following link: http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/op/demoteam/default.aspx

Types of cards

There are four types of cards in the VS System, "Character" (red border, black for "Hidden" characters), "Equipment" (grey), "Location" (green), and "Plot Twist" (blue). All four types of cards share common elements of card makeup.

Phases of gameplay

*Draw Phase: Each player simultaneously draws 2 cards from their deck.
*Build Phase: Starting with the player holding initiative, and going clockwise, each player goes through the following steps.
**"Resource Step": You may place one card face down into the resource row.
**"Recruit Step": Spend resource points to recruit characters and/or equipment. Resource points are determined at the beginning of the Recruit step by how many cards a player has in his or her resource row.
**"Formation Step": Rearrange your characters between your front and support rows.::After the player with initiative completes the Build Phase, his or her opponent(s) complete theirs in turn. Once each player finishes, the Combat Phase begins.
*Combat Phase: Starting with the player holding initiative, each player begins declaring attacks on their opponent's characters, or directly at each other if possible. The player with initiative attacks with all legal attackers, or until they wish to pass. Repeat this attack step for each player, going clockwise, from the player with initiative.
*Recovery Phase: At the start of the recovery phase, each player compares endurance totals, and determines whether or not the game is over. Then recover one stunned character, KO all remaining stunned characters, ready all unstunned characters (and locations), and pass initiative to the player on your left. All players perform these actions at the same time during the Recovery Phase. Once the Recovery Phase is complete, the next turn commences with the Draw Phase.

Variant rules

* Grand Melee: A regular game of VS System for any number of players. Last man standing wins.
* Team Alliance: A 2-on-2 game of VS System. Teammates sit across from each other. Plays just like grand melee, but teammates share an endurance total of 100 and cannot attack each other. Play until only one team is left.
* Two-Headed Mutant: A 2-on-2 game of VS System. Teammates sit next to each other across from their opponents. Each team begins the game with 100 endurance. This game variant can be played with any number of people on either team, as long as the teams are even numbered. 50 endurance is added onto the total endurance score for each person on a team. Therefore, a Three-Headed Mutant would see a game with 150 endurance.

Card sets

Being a collectible card game, VS. System cards are released in expansion sets. The game is also periodically enhanced by the release of starter deck sets. Set releases alternate between Marvel and DC Comics branded sets (With the exception of Marvel Evolution due to ongoing discussions with DC Comics to expand licensing. [ [http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/vs/en/news/article.aspx?aid=4142 Upper Deck Entertainment - VS System - Articles ] ] ). In Organized Play, Modern Age format draws a card pool from only the last two released sets of a particular brand (e.g. only the last two Marvel sets or only the last two DC Comics sets). Silver Age format draws a card pool from only the last eight released sets from both brands (e.g. the last four released sets from Marvel Comics and the last four released sets from DC Comics). Golden Age format draws from a card pool of all legally playable cards.

Expansion sets

tarter deck sets

Starter Decks for VS. contain two playable 26 card mini-decks. They pit two teams against each other, typically a "Hero" team versus a "Villain" team.

*Marvel X-Men vs. Brotherhood Starter Set TCG (April 2004) The first starter drew cards from the "Marvel Origins" expansion set. It included the teams X-Men and Brotherhood.
*Spider-Man vs. Doc Ock Starter Set TCG (June 2004) Drew cards from the "Web of Spider-Man" set and was released several months prior. Teams for this set were Spider Friends and Sinister Syndicate. This starter set was released to coincide with the release of the 2004 film "Spider-Man 2".
*Batman vs. Joker TCG (July 2004) Drew cards from the "DC Origins" set. Teams included were Gotham Knights and Arkham Inmates.
*DC Comics- Batman Starter Deck TCG (June 2005) Teams for this set were Gotham Knights and League of Assassins and was released to coincide with the 2005 Batman film. This starter set has had the greatest effect on the tournament scene due to generic plot twist Trial by Sword included in it.
*Marvel Fantastic Four Starter Deck TCG (June 2005) Teams for this set were Fantastic Four and Doom and was released to precede the release of the 2005 Fantastic Four film.
*Marvel X-Men Starter Set TCG (February 2006) Teams for this set were the X-Men and the Brotherhood, similar to the first starter set. The release of this set coincided with the release of the new X-Men set.

The last three sets included cards not previously released in an expansion set (with a few exceptions). The sets also included a quick-start insert explaining the rules in comic book format. The game mechanics on the cards from these sets were much simplified from what was seen on a typical expansion set card. While the rules are the same, these sets made it easier to introduce new players to the game.

In addition, UDE had originally planned to release a new Superman starter set to coincide with the new movie, but has since stated that it would not be released.

Essential Collection Sets

Recently announced by UDE, Essential Collections are special sets containing two pre-constructed 60 card decks, a comprehensive rule book, and a number of other extras. These sets are geared towards introducing characters from non-Marvel and DC universes and titles(such as the first release, Mike Mignola's Hellboy), as well as Marvel and DC material from outside their normal superhero universes, into the game. Like the starter decks, the Essential Collections are tournament-legal.cite web
last =
first =
title = Hellboy Comes to Vs. System!
work = [http://www.metagame.com Metagame.com]
date = 2006-05-09
url = http://www.metagame.com/vs.aspx?tabid=46&ArticleId=5528
accessdate = 2006-08-22]

*Hellboy (February 2007) Features the heroic B.P.R.D. and the villainous Thule Society

The Coming Of Galactus

Vs. recently released The Coming of Galactus, the first truly multi-player Vs. expansion. In it, one player plays a pre-constructed Galactus deck, while 3 or more players play 'The Alliance'. Each member of The Alliance plays their own deck, but they share a single endurance total of 100 and affiliation, and must defeat Galactus while defending Planets that come under attack, players have 3 turns to prepare before the planets come in. The planets decide who has initiative and the objective that must be completed in order to obtain the planet. Planets may also give a bonuses to players such as "Team attackers may not be stunned" etc. The Galactus deck may be modified by getting cards from th Coming of Galactus booster packs, thus making the deck stronger and harder to defeat. The Coming of Galactus set also has a 20-card Exclusive Card set featured within it, each box of which contains a 5-card pack. These cards offer powerful legacy content to teams that have not been featured recently, such as equipment, Synister Syndicate, X-Men, the Heralds of Galactus, the Crime Lords, and the Avengers.

*The Coming of Galactus (November 2007) Features Galactus and his Heralds.

Teams

There are many different teams in the VS card game and each of them have a number of somewhat unique themes to them.

*Anti-Matter The Anti-Matter team is a master of the hidden area, with cards that move characters back and forth between the hidden and visible areas and characters with Concealed-Optional who can use certain effects only while hidden. A few Anti-Matter characters decrease other character's DEF, and then stun them if their DEF is 0, while others (such as the Anti-Green Lanterns and Xallarap) have incredibly high ATK and DEF, but are KO'd at the start of your recovery step. The team also includes some character/resource KOing, direct damage, and Willpower effects.

*Arkham Inmates The Arkham Inmates have a theme of discard, as seen in cards such as Crack the Vault and the Riddler, and cards that remove characters such as Kidnapping and Charaxes. The Inmates also have a tendency to exhaust their opponent's characters, allowing them to attack the characters in a brutal fashion. After World's Finest, Arkham now has a theme of having a deck that contains no multiples of any card, referred to as Insanity.

*Avengers The Avengers thrive on the reservist and leader mechanics. Nearly all of their characters are either a reservist, a leader, or both. There is also a team-attack sub-theme present. Cards such as Quicksilver, Monica Rambeau <> Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers <>Warbird reward a player for team attacking. Reservist builds of the Avengers have seen the most tournament play, while leader builds and team attack builds have fallen by the wayside. Avengers were refeatured in Marvel Universe where they have a rally, reservist, and leader theme.

*Birds of Prey The Birds of Prey are distinct for having a substituting theme and moving around hidden and visible areas. They also contain a large amount of characters with the Gotham Knights dual affiliation. They have been used in decks seeking to make full use of the Substitute mechanic, and decks that wanted to attack with large characters from the hidden area. Notable character cards are Barbara Gordon <> Oracle, Hacker Elite; and Lady Blackhawk, Zinda Blake.

*B.P.R.D. The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense is a small bit about equipments, but they have a more dominant theme on having Hellboy himself as the only visible character you control. Hellboy, Anung Un Rama gets a +1/+1 counter when stunning a character under these conditions, and cards like Break Off the Horns allow him to attack again to get even stronger.

*Brotherhood From the inception of the Brotherhood team there were essentially two main themes. The first main theme was weenie rush which used characters with cost less than 4 in junction with The New Brotherhood, and was commonly referred to as TNB. The other was a more mid game ranged beatdown deck called Big Brotherhood which relied on the power-up mechanic and the synergy between Avalon Space Station and Lost City. A new facet of the Brotherhood was introduced in the X-Men set, through their Acolytes division, that of being reservists. Unlike the Avengers, the Brotherhood usage of reservists is more focused on replacing them for bonuses. Another division that debuted in MXM was the Freedom Force, which relied on causing 3 or more breakthrough while attacking a character to trigger effects. Recently, a new TNB Deck, dubbed TNNB, has become popular due to the little number of rares required. After Marvel Legends, they also received two 'legends', or character that one can build an entire deck around: Magneto and Juggernaut. Juggernaut is about replacing or destroying resources, while Magneto preys on the smallest characters in play.

*Checkmate Most Checkmate cards revolve around locations, as well the Back-Up mechanic. Another theme involves the 'ranks' of the characters, such as King and Knight. A player loses the game instantly if a King character they control is put into the KO'd pile from play, but most of the Kings have powerful effects and above-average stats. A sub-theme of the team involves characters with the identity 'OMAC robot'. They also have a small army theme.

*Crime Lords The Crime Lords - in essence all the street level organized crime in the Marvel Universe - focus on reinforcement and granting various bonuses when a character is reinforced. Because of this, Crime Lords is one of the few decks that actually does not want the initiative, and ideally does better off-initiative.

*Crisis Another small team, it first appeared on the plot twist 'Crisis on Infinite Earths', where it was given to all characters you control. The characters who have the affiliation normally do not have any connecting themes.

*Darkseid's Elite Darkseid's Elite focuses on punishing the opponent for having face-down resources. Cards like Darkseid Undenied and Devilance, Persuader both inflict extra damage onto an opponent for each face down resource they control. Post DLS, Darkseid was able to remove his unique-ness, allowing players to put multiple copies of him into play. The Elite have also gained the ability to put cards they control into their opponent's resource's row, Punishing their opponents for both having face down resources and flipping up cards in the resource row.

*Deathstroke Really only three versions of the eponymous Deathstroke the Terminator. The affiliation is also granted by the card Reign of Terra, which is in reference to both the treacherous titan and the popular plot twist Reign of Terror.

*Doom Doom is one of the few teams that has the ability to control the opponent's board when it is their initiative using cards like Mystical Paralysis, Reign of Terror, and Robot Destroyer. In addition, many effects on the team involved strengthening or protecting Doom's presence once he is on the board. Finally, Dr. Doom also has a theme of plot twist control whether it is in reusing yours or preventing your opponent from using theirs. Recently, with the Heralds of Galactus expansion, this team gained a theme of KO'ing its own characters to use powerful effects. Doom also has also had its army theme fleshed out in the Heralds of Galactus expansion.

*Doom Patrol The Doom Patrol is a mini-team, curving out turns 1-6. They focus on gaining and manipulating +1/+1 counters, and work well with the Beast Boy Legends deck. Notable cards include Dayton Manor, Misfits, and Beast Boy, Freak of Nature.

*Emerald Enemies The principal focus of this team is KOing their own resources for benefits such as character pumps, character KOing, and negation effects. They also have several characters with very large ATK and DEF values, who suffer penalties for each resource the player controls. Like the Green Lantern team, the Emerald Enemies use several effects that reference the Willpower of characters.

*Fantastic Four As a method of representing the intellectual genius of Reed Richards, the Fantastic Four specialize in using equipment. They are also known for the large size of their characters, with an over-sized 5-drop Thing with no drawbacks as the best representation. Another specialty of the Fantastic Four team is endurance burn with Human Torch, Hotshot and the equipment Advanced Hardware. Cosmic Radiation helps them burn more than once per turn. In their official refeature in Marvel Legends, their major legends are all of the original four.

*Fearsome Five As a small team, the Fearsome Five do not have a very strong theme to them. If anything, that Fearsome Five is a team that solely exists to strengthen existing strategies - especially control. Cards like Shimmer, Dr. Light, and Psimon have seen some amounts of play and are staple cards in a wide variety of control decks.

*Future Foes The amalgamation of several of the Legionnaries' villains, the Foes have a theme of 'discard or die', where as the opposing player discards a card or suffers expanding effects (such as Chain Lightning). They also contain the Fatal Five, characters who have oversized stats for the cost but recover characters when they become stunned, and the Fatal Five have a theme of breakthrough or removing reinforcement.

*Gotham Knights The Gotham Knights specialize in card-drawing/search, equipment and plot twist negation. Their card drawing/search and plot twist negation however, are their more popular and iconic abilities. Fizzle, which can negate any non-ongoing plot twist at the simple price of discarding is a huge staple of any Gotham Knights oriented deck. However, the true star of the Gotham Knights is not the imposing Batman, but rather the lowly butler Alfred, who can be activated and returned to its owner's hand to search for any plot twist or equipment card in your deck.

*Green Lantern The Green Lanterns are all about Willpower. No team has as many cards that have Willpower or cards that reference Willpower. As a "good" team, they have access to a variety of "good guy" effects such as life gain, card draw, and recovery. The Green Lanterns also have effects referencing Construct cards.

*Heralds of Galactus The Heralds of Galactus focus on a stall in order to pave the way for the arrival of Galactus. To that extent they have a variety of cards that can exhaust an opponent's characters such as I Must Obey! or Airwalker. However, the Heralds of Galactus have a much stronger life gain theme.

*Heroes of Earth A team affiliation only given to characters the player controls with the Battleworld location card.

*Hellfire Club In a twist on one of the X-Statix strategies, the HC receives bonuses for having only one visible character in play. This character acts as the "king", drawing fire while receiving help from the hidden characters.

*Horsemen of Apocalypse A team introduced in the Age of Apocalypse mini set as exclusive tournament prizes.

*Infinity Watch The Infinity Watch does not have a theme, having only six characters. Each character in the Infinity Watch has very different effects, and are designed to be powerful enough to warrant teaming up with other affiliations.

*Inhumans This team offers many benefits from having as many face-up resources as possible. Cards like It's Slobbering Time and The Great Refuge all become much better if you have "a perfect row". The Inhumans also have a strong cosmic-surge theme - which reflects the normal inhumans transformation via the Terrigen Mists. Finally, to represent their seclusion, a great deal of the Inhumans are also concealed.

*Injustice Gang This team features two specialties. One is focused on forcing the opponent to draw a lot of cards and then penalizing him or her for having a lot of cards. This particular strategy seems to be a riff on the cliché of a supervillain telling the hero every aspect of their plan before it comes to fruition. The idea is they have all the pieces of the puzzle, but cannot necessarily fit them together. The team also features a number of army characters and several cards to facilitate an army-based team attacking strategy. They will be getting re-featured in DC Legends.

*JLA The JLA take advantage of the Ally mechanics. They have some of the strongest ally triggers in the game, and are also the most adept team in the game at powering up their characters. There is also a slight dual affiliation theme, as many of the best complimentary cards for them reside in the JLI or the JSA. In addition, the JLA has the highest concentration of dual affiliated characters. Finally, the JLA also have a considerable amount of willpower characters and effects. They will be getting re-featured in DC Legends.

*JLI The JLI have some Ally effects to compliment the JLA and JSA. However, the main focus for the JLI team is having 4 or less resources in play. Unlike The New Brotherhood which is focused on pure aggression, the "JLI 4" style of a play possess much more defensive and utility cards such as Kooey Kooey Kooey. The JLI are often played hand in hand with the JLA due to both teams having similar themes.

*JSA The JSA has a number of themes spread across its cards, the most prevalent being focused on having your characters attack characters with a greater cost. Other themes include character's identities (gaining bonuses for having characters with the same identity, giving characters new identities, etc.), exhausted characters, characters with the version 'Earth-2', and Ally. They also have a small power-up theme which aligns them up with the JLA.

*Kang Council A unique team in that almost all of its characters are merely different versions of the titular one, flavorfully representing Kang at different times in history. They all have text indicating that, unlike most characters, Kang is not unique, allowing multiple versions of him to be in play at the same time. This non-unique clause has made them very strong in tandem with any sort of power effect engine, though they are generally considered to be a control deck due to their strong search and exhaustion effects.

*League of Assassins As a representation of Ra's al Ghul's global influence throughout the world, the League as an unprecedented access to locations. From the beginning, they also had a sub-theme of having many characters with loyalty, although this was slowly rescinded as this became a huge burden in the gameplay - having large numbers of loyalty characters made losing early drops crucial and made team-up decks much harder. The League of Assassins also have a very strong KOing theme, though this comes in two distinct flavors: Combat Oriented - cards like Ra's al Ghul, Eternal Nemesis, and Bane, Ubu - or direct KO'ing - Merlyn, Deadly Archer and Lady Shiva. They will be getting re-featured in DC Legends, with Ra's al Ghul as a 'legend', or a character one can build an entire deck around.

*Legionnaires The Legionnaires are - for the most part - all cosmic characters. Unlike most cosmic characters, Legionnaires are able to use each other's cosmic counters to generate effects. The Legionnaires also have a minor team attack theme. Generally considered too weak to stand on their own, they are an admirable support team for any deck that wishes to use cosmic counters.

*Kree This team seems to focus on playing as many characters in one turn as possible to power up characters or play expensive plot twists for lower cost. This is done by the Press mechanic which allows cards to be played for cheaper. In addition, the Kree also have a sub theme of returning their own characters to their hand where, presumably, they will be replayed the following turn cheaper due to press.

*Manhunters The Manhunters are a team of Army characters (DC's Army team, as opposed to Marvel's Army team, the Sentinels). They focus on 3 drop Swarming [via Manhunter Guardsman/Soldier] and play with clever tactics and advanced plans. The Manhunters also possess another sub-theme of placing cards from an opponent's deck into their KO'd pile.

*Marvel Defenders The Defenders are about using the Back Up mechanic to affect the main character the player uses, generally finishing on turn 7 with Hulk, Strongest One There Is, a large character that can attack multiple times each turn for massive amounts of damage. Samantha Parrington, Chooser of the Slain, readies a chosen character after it attaks.

*Marvel Knights The Marvel Knights have many different themes, although none are particularly pronounced. First, they have a multi-team theme. Cards like Midnight Sons, Luke Cage, Power Man, and Iron Fist, Living Weapon all help facilitate or support players using multiple teams. Secondly, the Marvel Knights have a huge number of concealed characters. The Marvel Knights have also a large number of effects traditionally reserved for "bad guy" teams, such as KO effects and direct endurance loss. In Marvel Legends, their legends are Ghost Rider and the Punisher. Ghost Rider is focused around the amount of stunned characters in play. Either becoming stronger from them or directly damaging enemies for "vengeance".

*Masters of Evil The Masters of Evil seem to focus on using resource points for effects rather than recruiting characters or equipment. This theme is further developed by the presence of cards that generate resource points that cannot be used to recruit characters or equipment. In addition to the resource point theme, the Master of Evil have a strong "off-curve" theme; they like to play as many small characters as possible. This theme is supported by cards such as Beetle, Yellowjacket, Hard Sound Construct, and The Wrecking Crew.

*Morlocks The Morlocks have two distinct themes. First, they have numerous characters with extremely high attack values and relatively low defense values for their costs but who also cannot be reinforced. Second, they have many characters with evasion and many team-stamped plot twists and locations to support the mechanic.

*Negative Zone The Negative Zone initially consisted of two members: Annihilus and Blastaar. Both have powerful abilities, but confer a serious penalty if the Negative Zone location is not in play. Following the Heralds of Galactus expansion, the affiliation has gained a few more cards - including a new Negative Zone - but still lacks enough characters and support cards to make them a playable stand-alone team.

*New Gods The New Gods team focuses on plot twist control as evident in the ubiquitous "The Source", which can strip all copies of a plot twist from an opponent's deck. It also focuses on cosmic counters and is one of the few teams that can replenish lost cosmic counters.

*Nextwave The Nextwave team is a small team which is considered to be a joke team. The team has characters with funny effects such as Tabitha Smith who can steal your opponent's counter (the actual physical counter) and Elsa Bloodstone who allows you to insult your opponent and burn him for endurance loss if successful. One character on the team, The Captain, made an impact in the 2008 VS World Championship due to his ability to acquire other characters names and thus use their legend content.

*Outsiders The Outsiders have the best implementation of team attacking since the original Teen Titans, and focus on one big team attack a turn, utilizing effects that count the number of attackers. The Outsiders also have a subtheme of attacking opponents upcurve and removing characters from the game when stunned.

*Rann A team affiliation only featured on one character (Adam Strange) and given to characters with the Rann location card.

*Revenge Squad Much like how the League of Assassins focuses on locations, the Revenge Squad focuses on ongoing plot twists. Unfortunately, while the Revenge Squad does have a few powerful cards - Hostage Situation, Atomic Skull, Lex Luthor, President Luthor, Brainiac 2.5, Future Intelligence, Lex Luthor, Power Armor, and Eradicator - the quality of the rest of their cards are beyond dismal. They are generally considered to be the worst team in VS, though UDE has been making noticeable attempts to improve their quality through legacy content. Post DWF, the Revenge Squad is now a powerful team with admirable ongoing plot twists.

*Secret Six A mini-team similar to the Fearsome Five. They use recovery effects, alternate recruitment costs and endurance gain to stall until they have six characters with the printed Secret Six affiliation in play as early as possible to be able to win the game by the effect of the card "Secret Six Victorious".

*Secret Society SS is the King of the KO'd pile. Some cards have a cost of putting back cards from your KO'd pile into your deck, while other grant bonuses for having 10 or more cards in the KO pile. They also have character stealing abilities, +1 ATK/+1 DEF counter manipulation, and several characters with the leader ability. They will be re-featured in DC Legends.

*Sentinels Historically, the Sentinels have been played in two different fashions: Curve Sentinel and Vomit. The first one relies on using the curve fixing ability of the Sentinel Mark V and Bastion in order to push through the game. The latter relies on using Longshot to fill up one's hand with a huge number of army characters and playing them out turn after turn.

*Shadowpact The Shadowpact's main theme involves sacrificing your endurance for a number of effects including card drawing and recruiting characters without paying resource points. To balance this rapid loss of life, they also feature a few cards that allow you to gain endurance, or have effects that can only be used if you are under a certain number of endurance. This team features the only card with which you can pay 25 endurance to win the game, Captain Marvel, Champion of Magic. Willpower is also prominent in this team. They are also heavily involved with 'Magic' plot twists - plot twists that cost endurance to play.

*The Shi'ar A team with only 3 cards to its name, and has two minor themes. Army in the form of Shi'ar Soldiers, and a readying theme, shown on Gladiator and Lilandra, allowing multiple attacks, not dissimilar to Samantha Parrington.

*Sinister Syndicate As an "evil" team, the Sinister Syndicate are also trademarked with randomness, but to a lesser degree than the Arkham Inmates. They have access to a wide variety of KO effects - Inside Job, and Green Goblin, Norman Osborn are a few examples- as well as access to a large amount of Beatdown tactics, and many of which do not require targets, thus negating some annoyingness caused by the Spider-Friends. Also present is a swarm strategy, with many low drop characters who can be brought into play via Jackal or Fisk Towers, and then be exploited by cards like Kingpin, Crime Boss. After Marvel Team Up, the Syndicate now relies on KOing their own resources for effects, similar to the Emerald Enemies. By using a card like Nitro, Robert Hunter, you can KO all of your resources to prevent your opponent(s)' characters from recovering. Other cards pentalize you for having a too many resources, like Alien Symbiote.

*Skrull At the onset of the game, the Skrulls had only two characters and a seeming theme of army swarm - one of the two characters was an army character, Skrull Soldier, and the Super Skrull, who allows them to attack again. However, with the Heralds of Galactus Expansion, they have a theme of gaining as many team affiliations as possible. Tying in with that some cards - Interstellar Offense - rewards Skrulls for having more team affiliations then an opponent or the same team affiliations.

*Speed Force Currently only three characters, Bart Allen, Wally West and XS are members of this team. A Speed Force set is predicted for the near future.

*Spider-Friends The Spider-Friends specialize in the Evasion mechanic. A number in their team are subtly designed to become more useful when one has evaded, while more give benefits to characters with Evasion - Ricochet, along with Dusk, Cassie St. Commons. The Spider-Friends also have a theme of negation/untargetability. This can be seen in cards like Fun and Games, Spider-Tracer, Nice Try, Ricochet, and Spider-Man, Peter Parker. After Marvel Team Up, the Spider-Friends use the mechanic of paying their own ATK value for effects. Daredevil, New Kingpin can easily exhaust up to six visible characters at once by paying all of his ATK power.

*Squadron Supreme One of the Squadron Supreme's strategies is the "empty hand" tactic, where characters receive bonuses if the player has no cards in hand. There is another theme for the team: alternative breakthrough. The team has effects that trigger if a character you control would cause breakthrough. It also has a lot of reservist but unlike Avengers doesn't make use of reservist resources.

*Team Superman Team Superman emphasizes protection - when one characters is in front of another character, thus "protecting it", and granting bonuses to characters who are protecting and being protected. Team Superman also has another theme of invulnerability - which represents the resilience of the Superman family - as no other team has as many characters or as many ways to gain it as Team Superman. Other themes include Cosmic -with many characters possessing the ability and other cards supplying Cosmic counters- and making Superman himself non-unique with the likes of Superman, Red, Cadmus Labs, and Look-Alike Squad. With World's Finest, there is also a popular Batman/Superman deck that revolves around controlling Batman and/or Superman.

*Teen Titans The Teen Titans had two main themes: Power-ups and team attacking. The arguably most powerful team in the game has access to more than just that though. They also have access to: Direct damage, unstunability, recursion, off-initiative stun, and card search. The Titans have a couple of the most powerful characters in the game including Garth <> Tempest and Roy Harper <> Arsenal. Post DLS, the Titans have gained a theme of cosmic and substituting characters, but have gained comparatively less support for their initial identity when compared to other teams. In DC Legends, the Titans gained a new Reservist theme and characters which rely on face-down resources. There also was a re-emphasis on their team attacking theme with cards such as Tim Drake <> Leader of the Pack (and Tim Drake Legend support cards) and the return of Teen Titans Go!

*Thanagar A team affiliation only given to characters with the Thanagar location card.

*Thule Society Army characters and controlling Hellboy to facilitate the alternate win condition "Project Ragna Rok."

*Thunderbolts Representing the duplicity of the team - bad guys pretending to be good guys - the Thunderbolts are the masters of advantages. They give opponents advantages in exchange for greater ones on their part. They also have several readying effects and characters that benefit from being readied.

*Underworld The Underworld - the supernatural evils of the Marvel Universe - is focused on the KO pile. The team has a variety of cards that fill the KO'd pile which, in turn, allows for the facilitation of cards that key off of cards being in the KO'd pile. The Underworld also has many concealed characters. MTU continued the theme of KO'd pile manipulation and concealed characters but added a 3rd theme as well: having stunned character in play. Similar to the KO pile theme, the team has a variety of cards that prevent characters from being KO'd or recovered which, in turn, allows for the facilitation of cards that key off of stunned characters being in play.

*Villains United The main themes of Villains United are the Vengeance mechanic (which triggers when the characters are stunned) and returning characters to your hand for effects. The team also has a few effects that use discarding character cards for stat boosts, KO'ing and burn effects, and cards that bring characters into play outside normal recruiting.

*Villains of Earth A team affiliation only given to characters the opponent controls with the Battleworld location card.

*X-Men The X-Men are one of the few teams that are able to recover characters without using the recovery phase. The extremely well-known Children of the Atom, which recovers any character you control at the price of a discard is the poster child of this idea. The X-Men are also extremely notable for various effects that protect them from being stunned during combat such as Bamf! and Archangel. With Marvel Legends, the X-Men have also gained new themes: swarming small-cost, high-powered characters, such as Shadowcat, Phase Shifter; and two Legend decks, Jean Grey and Wolverine, in which a deck can be built around either of those two iconic characters and cards that trigger off controlling them.

*X-Statix As one of the lesser known teams in the game, the X-Statix specialize in 'lone wolf' play. They are capable of winning games with only one character in play, often KO'ing their own characters for bonuses. Ironically, the X-Statix also have another theme of having as many characters as possible.

*Warbound The Warbound team specifically focuses around The Hulk. With character cards such as: Miek, Hiroim, Brood, Korg, Caiera, and Elloe Kaifi, which allow the player to remove them from the game upon becoming stunned to give extra bonuses to Hulk. Other character cards also have further bonuses regarding Hulk. For example, Mastermind Excello, upon his activation, allows the player to draw 2 cards, at the minor cost of discarding a card named "Hulk". Also, Rick Jones activates to rally for a card with "Hulk" in its name of game text. The team has a main theme of beatdown, with cards such as "Hulk Smash" which gives target attacking Hulk +8 attack. It also has a minor theme of control, using such locations as Sakaar and The Great Arena, to stun and exhaust opposing characters.

*Wild Pack A team for hire, the Wild Pack affiliation likes to be teamed up. They have a theme of board control through "KO effects".

Awards

* 2004: Nominated for Origins Awards "Best Collectible Card Game or Expansion."
* 2004: Origins Awards "Gamers’ Choice Award"
* 2005: InQuest Gamer "Game of the Year"

Organized Play

Upper Deck Enterntainment planned the year-round professional $1,000,000 organized play circuit prior to the release of the game.

Notable players in UDE Organized Play

Several [http://www.metagame.com/vs.aspx?tabid=53 notable players] have already emerged. The following is a listing of players who have won more than one 10K event or have won a Pro Circuit event.cite web
last =
first =
title = Metagame.com Events List
work = [http://www.metagame.com Metagame.com]
date =
url = http://www.metagame.com/vs.aspx?tabid=53
accessdate = 2006-08-22]

* William Hodack, 2004 Origins $10K Champion, June 26, 2004
* Brian Kibler [http://www.metagame.com/vs.aspx?tabid=62&EventId=7 First-ever Pro Circuit Champion] , Gen Con Indy, August 22, 2004
* Robert Leander, $10K Wizard World Texas Champion, November 6, 2004, $10K New Jersey Champion, January 15, 2005. First Vs. System player to win multiple $10K events.
* Ryan Jones, [http://www.metagame.com/vs.aspx?tabid=62&EventId=16 Pro Circuit Los Angeles] Champion, December 3, 2004
* Dean Sohlne, $10K London Champion, March 21, 2005, $10K Amsterdam Champion, April 9, 2005.
* Michael Jacob, $10K Chicago Champion, April 2, 2005, $10K Toronto Champion, August 27, 2005, $10K Orlando Champion, October 15, 2005
* Ian Vincent, Pro Circuit San Francisco Champion
* Anthony Calabrese, Pro Circuit Indianapolis 2006 Champion
* Adam Horvath, [http://www.metagame.com/vs.aspx?tabid=62&EventId=50 Pro Circuit Amsterdam] Champion, April 7, 2005
* Adam Bernstein, [http://www.metagame.com/vs.aspx?tabid=62&EventId=64 Pro Circuit New York] Champion, May 26, 2005
* Adam Prosak, $10K San Diego Champion, July 15, 2005, $10K Atlanta Champion, September 4, 2005 Pro Circuit Los Angelos November 17, 2006
* Vidianto Wijaya, [http://www.metagame.com/vs.aspx?tabid=62&EventId=120 Pro Circuit Atlanta] Champion, March 24, 2006. As of August 13, 2006, has a record five Pro Circuit top 8 finishes, has won over $100,000.
* Kyle Dembinski , Pro Circuit Sydney 2007 winner, noted in news article for playing trading card game(s).
* Brian Eugenio , 1st VS. Worlds Champion 2008
* Robert Rietze , Gencon 2008 1st Place
* Niles Rowland , Multiple Top 8s, Chipotle Burrito Eating Champion(3 in one sitting)

Banned List

As with most TCGs, the ever increasing card pool leads to more and more combinations and possibilities. While this is generally considered to be a good thing, sometimes these combinations bring a degeneracy that is unhealthy for tournament play and the long term health of the game. When this occurs, organized play intervenes and the offending cards are usually banned.

The following is a list of cards currently banned.

*"Overload" was banned because of its synergy with various ATK pumps. Used in tandem, players were able to stun their opponent's board at minimal cost. UDE later released a fixed - playable but unremarkable - version of the card called System Failure, released in MAV.cite web
last = Humpherys
first = Dave
authorlink = Dave Humpherys
title = Unexpected Developments: Time For a Change or Two
work = [http://www.metagame.com Metagame.com]
date = 2004-06-14
url = http://www.metagame.com/vs.aspx?tabid=46&ArticleId=2624
accessdate = 2006-09-08]
*"Justice League of Arkham" was banned following Pro Circuit: San Francisco. By using various ways to search out the card and recursion mechanism, a player could routinely make their opponent discard their entire hand before they even engaged in their fourth turn.cite web
last = Humpherys
first = Dave
authorlink = Dave Humpherys
title = Unexpected Developments: The Second Round of Bannings
work = [http://www.metagame.com Metagame.com]
date = 2006-06-12
url = http://www.metagame.com/vs.aspx?tabid=46&ArticleId=6026
accessdate = 2006-09-08]
*"Antarctic Research Base" is the first card that was pre-emptively banned. This is due to its incidental synergy with the Fate Artifacts. The synergy between the artifacts the Antarctic Research Base allowed a player to draw his or her entire deck as early as the fourth turn and kill the opponent. UDE later released a fixed card called New Baxter Building, which was released in MTU.
*"Gone But Not Forgotten" when used in tandem with various payment powers that required life payments as opposed to discards or resource points, allowed one to engineer a variety of infinite or near-infinite combos wherein a player could create any number of arbitrarily large characters, or gain large quantities of life. An example of this would be 2 Moloids, Decoy Program, Devil's Due, and Mr. Fantastic~stretch.
* "Valeria Von Doom, Heir to Latveria" (Effective November 16, 2006)Fact|date=February 2007 when used in tandem with A Day Unlike Any Other, Valeria von Doom allowed a given player to cycle through huge amounts of their deck while filling up their KO'd pile. The offending deck in this situation Cycled cards until it had everything it needed to win using Rigged Elections, usually as early as turn 3.
* "Talia, LexCorp CEO" (Effective November 16, 2006)Fact|date=February 2007 was used in ways similar to Valeria von Doom. In tandem with Punisher's Armory, Talia would allow a player to cycle through huge amounts of their deck. While slightly weaker then Valeria von Doom, if left unchecked Talia would have a detrimental effect on game play and was thus banned.
* "Go Down Fighting" (Effective November 16, 2006)Fact|date=February 2007 when used with Tommy - a Morlocks character that could stun herself and was free if you had another stunned character - and a method to grant characters in your resources row the reservist ability, it was possible to recruit Tommy an infinite number of times, which was lethal when combined with cards like Surrounded or Rigged Elections.
* "Fiddler, Isaac Bowin" (Effective November 16, 2006) when used in tandem with another copy of himself, allowed you to continually re-recruit each other a high number of times per turn. Previously, this interaction was abused with Gone But Not Forgotten, and later with cards including Nega Bomb, Surrounded, and Rigged Elections.
* "Detective Chimp, Bobo T. Chimpanzee" (Effective November 16, 2006)is an incredible cog in any multi-team deck. He was most commonly used in combination decks in order to abuse global team-stamped effects - most notably Attend or Die! or Rigged Elections.
* "Dr. Light, Master of Holograms" (Effective January 19, 2007) allowed a player to recur a character with cost two or less from the KO pile. In tandem with increasingly more powerful low drops - such as Poison Ivy and Frankie Raye, Dr. Light was able to do too much for a relatively small investment.
*"Frankie Raye <> Nova, Optimistic Youth" (Effective February 9, 2007) allowed players to draw an unfair amount of cards by playing her multiple times. Particularly deadly when used with a character like Admiral Galen-Kor.
*"Nenora, Skrull Usurper" (Effective February 9, 2007) allowed a player to gain the Kree affiliation with little cost to them. This card caused some of the same problems as Detective Chimp.

Unlike most CCGs which have banned lists unique to various formats, UDE has chosen to have one universal all-encompassing banned list.

Video Game

A video game based on the VS System was released on February 27, 2007 for the PC, PSP and Nintendo DS. It is being developed by Vicious Cycle Software and published by Konami. The game has been named as the "Marvel Trading Card game" and only includes cards from "Marvel Origins" and Marvel-based expansions.

Notes

References

* [http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/marvel/en/downloads/marvel_rulebook.pdf Marvel TCG Rulebook]
* [http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/op/vs_rules/vs_rules.aspx VS System Comprehensive rules]
* [http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/vs/en/news/article.aspx?aid=4142 VSSystem Update: Marvel Evolution Article]

External links

* [http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/marvel/en/ Upper Deck Entertainment VS System Marvel Site]
* [http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/dc/en/ Upper Deck Entertainment VS System DC Site]
* [http://marveltcgonline.com/web/home Official Marvel TCG Online Site]
* [http://www.metagame.com/vs Metagame.com] "Fansite"
* [http://www.vsrealms.com VSRealms.com] The Largest VS System Community
* [http://vs.tcgplayer.com VS TCGplayer Magazine]
* [http://www.vsparadise.com/ VSParadise.com] Australia and New Zealand VS Community Site
* [http://www.pojo.biz/board/forumdisplay.php?f=75 Vs. System deck designs (Pojo.com)]
* [http://vs.skillze.com/ VS Skillze] Asia's VS Community Site
* [http://www.io.com/~docx/vs/search.php DocX's Search Engine] A search engine for the entire catalogue of Vs cards.
* [http://vs.lacloaca.com/phpBB2/index.php VS-ESP] Spanish unnoficial VS community.
* [http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/dc/en/bizarroworld/ Bizzaroworld.com] Current card text of Bizarro World (a location whose text changes with the release of each set)