Yeah, the Titans are strong and they should be - both from a marketing standpoint and comics tradition. Because of the show on Cartoon Network, the Titans appeal to the young crowd and they appeal to us old timers because of their lengthy comic history. The Titans turned out to be what the X-Men were intended to be, a swarm that could take out any comparable characters early and stop the opponent's large characters from overwhelming them. And when discussing X-Men, you do have to include their stall builds. They exist and have been proven to win games so they can't be denied just becase you may prefer a more aggressive build.

First off, I will agree that Spiderman's set was lackluster. It had some coolness (evasion is a really neat mechanic IMO) but lack of tutoring and team theme made one of the Teams, Sinister Syndicate, unwieldy. It will need some time for that deck to get on its feet.

Spiderfriends, on the other hand, had a showing at the PC Anaheim and got quite a few people to day two, and maybe even on to the Top 8, i can't remember. They have the power to contend, between Richochet, Nice Try, and The Amazing Spiderman.

Also, I don't understand why Togit is not an Xmen deck. Oh, you mean its not an X men smashing face deck? Well thats correct, but otherwise, its got Cerebro searchign up wolverine who plays bodyguard detail for Rogue and the Professor, as well as Sunfire, and Emma Frost. Then Jean Shows you why she's called the Pheonix and the game is over. ITs X men, just control X men.

As for the people, all games have rude people. But as for VS, i have found this community to be much nicer and courteous than the MAgic players.

Finally, you cite that Superman, Spiderfriends, and the Gotham Knights have been hosed. Have you played with Team Superman? Until you play them, no reason to knock them. My arguments about the spiderfriends are above. And gotham knights have the only straight counter, the best search character, a great search card, and excellent drops all the way up the chain.

Then you cite that the Siister Syndicate is a popular team getting hosed and so are the Arkham Inmates. And yet you claim that the Fantastic Four are not a popular team at all and that they are wannabes. I hate to break it to you, but before there was such a thing as a superhero team, there was the first, the Fantastic Four. They have long been a popular title from Marvel, and rank up there with the X men for most popular Marvel characters ever.

So i am sorry that a team you do not know of and do not like leads you to believe the rest of the world does not know them or like them, but its true. The Fantastic Four are popular. I would wager they are much more popular than the SS or the AI. You just have to realize that the game is trying to reach fans of all these teams, and as long as team up cards are around, no fact will be totally useless.

an x-men beatdown deck went 7-3 day one of the pro tour in so-cal, it was the same build made by teamworx member warmachine, an early build of the deck got him to i believe 13th place at dragoncon, and this was before, web of spider-man, so no bamfs or anything like. he has also won some PCQ's with the deck.

i have had great success with the build, went into the semi's of my last recent PCQ, and my deck was missing some beatdowns, and other key cards.

the x-men have great potential, and can even handle titans and common enemy rather well.

1) Do you play regularly in a hobby league or some other "unofficial" gaming group?

I play at 2 LGS with friends for fun.

2) Are the numbers you play with growing? shrinking? maintaining their level. Why?

Growing. I helped revitalize interest at one store after nobody had played there in months. They just needed a kick start.

3) Do you believe that the bloom is off the rose? That is, is Vs still as exciting as it was when you first got into it?

People keep experimenting with new ideas, so that keeps things fun. I think it helps that none of us go to official tournaments...

4) What's the best thing about Vs?

Solid gameplay with established characters. Great licensed product that can pull players in easily. Strong support from UDE... so far...

5) What's the worst thing about Vs?

Pro Tour status with cash prizes attract players only in it for the money. Cutthroat gameplay becomes the norm. Creativity replaced by "Tier 1" only decks. eBay...

Ever expanding list of Team Affiliations means people with established decks may not have as much reason to buy from later sets. People waiting for stuff from later sets may not have had a reason to start playing yet (I've got a friend who is still waiting for the Avengers). I don't want to see what happened to the Warhammer 40K CCG happen to Vs.

6) Do you see yourself playing Vs in 2 years?

I certainly hope so. It has been fun so far.

I would not be making these arguments if it were not for my own experience. I have a Team Superman deck currently, just recently purchasing all of the cards I need. But as others have said on this board and elsewhere, its a weaker version of Curve Sentinels. There is nothing it does that CS doesn't do better. But oh yes, I have played TS. A lot.

And for Gotham Knights, I hate to break it to you, but no mono-GK build has won squat. No 10Ks, no top 8s at the PCs. The one character who should absolutely not have to rely on others, Batman, is only viable through teaming up (B&B).

And again, yes, I had a mono GK deck. I dismantled it once I realized it wasn't viable by itself. If I am so wrong, please prove me incorrect by winning a major tournament with mono - GK, and I will eat my words.

I also have AI and SS builds and have seen other people in addition to myself spend months and months trying to make these teams viable. It starts to hurt your spirits after a while, before you give up and move on to TT or something.

Of course, Mark Slack says this all better on "that other website."

And any deck that loses if it doesnt draw Puppet Master is not an X-Men deck.

In my opinion the best decks are ones that have more than one viable build, as they have a large amount of powerful cards that are useful in more than one situation.

Brotherhood - TNB, Medium, BBH
Titans - B&B, Curve, Arsenal
Sentinals - Vomit and Curve
Fantistic 4 - Beats, Toys, CE

And so on. If the X-Men's holes are so big they have to be patched up with Mimic, Puppet Master, etc., I think that's unacceptable.

Sorry to break it to you. But David Fielder piloted a mono-Gotham deck into the top 8 of PC SoCal.

You are right. I completely missed it.

Another Alfred/Cosmic Radiation deck did well at Melburn (1st place).

Here's to more victories for the Gotham Knights!

1) Not really. I hang out at the local shop and play guys, but it's mostly with my group of friends (a whole 4-5 of them).

2) In march it started and maintained at 4 or 5, but now it's grown to about 6-7 (friends and newer players).

3) Yes I think that it is as exciting when it first came out. It's innovative and new with each set that comes out. Hopefully it won't get wacky like Magic and it's complications or too simple like Pokemon (which I doubt will ever happen).

4) How balanced the game is, how unexpectant the game can change during play, all the cool tricks that can happen, watching Doomsday trample all over the opponent, and more.

5) Being on the receiving end of awesome moves, the many rares out there, having no money to buy the cards, etc.

6) Hells yeah!

Doom has used puppet master from the very beggining, does that makes him not a doom deck? If over 80-90% of the cards are x-men team stamped, then i think it is safe to say that the deck is an x-men deck.

I'm curious, what does the abbreviation TOGIT stand for? I know what the deck does, I just have no idea what the letters mean

No idea.

Puppet master and Mimic are synergetic with the basic idea of the deck, nothing wrong with that.

Thats like claiming any deck that abuses longshot isnt a Sentinel deck, or what have you.

TOGIT stands for, the only game in town.

it is a comic shop where that teams plays.

Acronyms... feh...

They seem to be designed to simply drive new people away. How many of us are in such a hurry that we can't express the common courtesy of spelling a few things out? I'm not going to pretend to know what all of the different abbreviated deck styles are...

I guess it just isn't that important to me at this time...

oh, ya just aren't getting to play enough is all, james!

get a few more games in and you'll be able to read all of the pirate nicknames and codes matrix style! ')