VS System

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section has multiple issues. Please help improve the article or discuss these issues on the talk page. It resembles a fan site. Tagged since January 2008.

VS System

VS System's card back design
Designer	Matt Hyra, Mike Hummel, Edward Fear, and Danny Mandel
Publisher	Upper Deck Entertainment
Players	21
Age range	10+
Setup time	< 5 minutes
Playing time	< 30 minutes
Random chance	Some
Skills required	Card playing Simple math Deck optimization Planning Deception
1 Some casual rules allow more players.

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 used for superhero games. The game was discontinued by Upper Deck Entertainment in January 2009^[1].

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.

Contents 1 System features 2 Games using the VS System 3 Game play 3.1 Types of cards 3.2 Phases of gameplay 3.3 Variant rules 4 Card sets 4.1 Expansion sets 4.2 Starter deck sets 4.3 Essential Collection Sets 5 Awards 6 Organized Play 6.1 Notable players in UDE Organized Play 6.2 Banned List 7 Video Game 8 Notes 9 References 10 External links

[edit] System 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.^[2] Well known artists that have contributed card art include Alex Ross, John Van Fleet, Alex Garner, Jim Lee, Rachael Dodson, and Bill Sienkiewicz.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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 fewer endurance at the start of the Recovery Phase, he or she is knocked out of the game. The 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Card sets

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^[3]). In tournament 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.

[edit] Expansion sets

Set Number	Set Name	Date	Featured Teams	Teams Introduced	New Mechanics & Notable Features
1	Marvel Origins	April 2004	X-Men Brotherhood Doom Fantastic Four Sentinels	X-Men Brotherhood Doom Fantastic Four Sentinels Skrull Negative Zone
2	DC Origins	July 2004	Gotham Knights Arkham Inmates League of Assassins Teen Titans	Gotham Knights Arkham Inmates League of Assassins Teen Titans Fearsome Five Deathstroke	Boost Loyalty Transferable
3	Web of Spider-Man	September 2004	Spider-Friends Sinister Syndicate	Spider-Friends Sinister Syndicate	Evasion
4	Superman, Man of Steel	November 2004	Team Superman New Gods Revenge Squad Darkseid's Elite	Team Superman New Gods Revenge Squad Darkseid's Elite	Cosmic Invulnerability
5	Marvel Knights	February 2005	Marvel Knights Crime Lords Underworld X-Statix	Marvel Knights Crime Lords Underworld X-Statix	Concealed Double-Loyalty hidden area First Reprint: Marvel Team-Up
6	Green Lantern Corps	May 2005	Green Lantern Emerald Enemies Anti-Matter Manhunters	Green Lantern Emerald Enemies Anti-Matter Manhunters	Concealed-Optional Willpower non-character cards ("Construct")
7	The Avengers	August 2005	Avengers Masters of Evil Kang Council Thunderbolts Squadron Supreme	Avengers Masters of Evil Kang Council Thunderbolts Squadron Supreme	Leader Reservist non-character cards ("Team-Up")
8	Justice League of America	November 2005	Justice League of America Justice League International Injustice Gang Secret Society	Justice League of America Justice League International Injustice Gang Secret Society	Ally dual team affiliations[4]
9	X-Men	February 2006	X-Men Brotherhood Morlocks Hellfire Club	Morlocks Hellfire Club	Mutant Traits (Physical, Mental, and Energy)
10	Infinite Crisis	April 2006	JSA Shadowpact Villains United Checkmate	JSA Shadowpact Villains United Checkmate Secret Six Crisis	Vengeance Backup Loyalty-Reveal Identity concept expanded non-character cards ("Magic") "Champion" characters
11	Heralds of Galactus	September 2006	Heralds of Galactus Inhumans Kree Doom Skrull	Heralds of Galactus Inhumans Kree Infinity Watch	Press Terraform Cosmic-Surge
12	Legion of Super-Heroes	December 2006	Legionnaires Future Foes Teen Titans Darkseid's Elite	Legionnaires Future Foes	Substitute alternate use of Cosmic
13	Marvel Team Up	February 2007	Spider-Friends Sinister Syndicate Underworld Marvel Defenders Wild Pack	Marvel Defenders Wildpack	Dual Loyalty alternate use of Boost paying attack or defense
14	World's Finest	July 2007	Team Superman Gotham Knights Revenge Squad Arkham Inmates Outsiders Birds of Prey	Outsiders Birds of Prey	Insanity
15	Marvel Legends	August 2007	X-Men Brotherhood Marvel Knights Fantastic Four Doom Shi'Ar.	Shi'Ar	New Card Design Concealed and Concealed-Optional changed from keywords to symbols Team symbols added 'Legendary Character' concept Minor rule changes and clarifications Vast number of game mechanics temporarily abandoned to make the game easier for newer players
16	DC Comics Legends	December 2007	JLA Teen Titans Injustice Gang Secret Society League of Assassins Doom Patrol	Doom Patrol	Return of Reservist Return of Concealed-Optional Characters Return of Dual-Affiliations Secret Society and Villains United teams combined into one team
17	Marvel Universe	June 2008	Avengers Thunderbolts SHIELD Crimelords Warbound Negative Zone Alpha Flight Infinity Watch	SHIELD Warbound Alpha Flight Asgardians Atlantis Invaders Nextwave Phalanx United Front Nova Corps Weapon X	Return of Boost (including Boost on non-character cards) Return of Leader Return of Terraform Return of Substitute Return of Evasion Return of Cosmic Return of Invulnerability Rally 'keyverb' introduced
18	Marvel Evolution	November 2008	X-Factor Exiles X-Force Marauders Weapon X	X-Factor Exiles X-Force Marauders Starjammers Runaways Purifiers	Shift Energize Hunter

[edit] Starter deck sets

Starter Decks for VS. contain two playable 40 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.

[edit] 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.^[5]

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

[edit] Awards

This article is in a list format that may be better presented using prose. You can help by converting this article to prose, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (May 2008)

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

[edit] Organized Play

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

[edit] Notable players in UDE Organized Play

Several 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.^[6]

• William Hodack, 2004 Origins $10K Champion, June 26, 2004
• Brian Kibler 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, 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, Pro Circuit Amsterdam Champion, April 7, 2005
• Adam Bernstein, 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
• Kakarot Turker, $10K Sydney Champion, December 01, 2006, #1 in Oceania (constructed), 6 consecutive 10k top 8's
• Darryn Ying, $10K Melbourne Champion, October 20, 2006,
• Vidianto Wijaya, 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

[edit] 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.^[7]
• "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.^[8]
• "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.^[8]
• "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)^{[citation needed]} 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)^{[citation needed]} 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)^{[citation needed]} 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.

[edit] 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 up to the X-Men set.

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Current Rulebook, released with the Hellboy box set.
• VS System Comprehensive rules
• VSSystem Update: Marvel Evolution Article

[edit] External links

• Upper Deck Entertainment VS System Marvel Site
• Upper Deck Entertainment VS System DC Site
• Official Marvel TCG Online Site
• VsSystem.org "The post-UDE (un)official Vs. System (fan)site"
• Metagame.com "Fansite"
• VSRealms.com The Largest VS System Community
• VS TCGplayer Magazine
• VSParadise.com Australia and New Zealand VS Community Site
• Vs. System deck designs (Pojo.com)
• VS Skillze Asia's VS Community Site
• DocX's Search Engine A search engine for the entire catalogue of Vs cards.
• VS-ESP Spanish unnoficial VS community.
• Bizzaroworld.com Current card text of Bizarro World (a location whose text changes with the release of each set)