The first big, cool combo I discovered on my own was...

4 drop Rogue
6 drop Mimic
7 drop Lightray

21 loss without declaring an attack.

And to think, now we have little ole' Liz. ;)

Mine is Lobster Johnson, plain and simple.

Big characters. And I mean BIG characters.

My first Vs. System love was Imperiex. The biggest character the game had ever seen, with the best ability printed on a character in the game's history...a 10 drop that could be played as a 9, that KOd all other characters at the start of your attack step. Every. Turn.

My first deck was a simple X-Men deck that I made on my own - it was basically an X-Men curve deck lacking any rares (I couldn't afford the singles, and packs were $7 a piece at the time - back around DGL's release) besides 3 - Professor X, World's Most Powerful Telepath, Jean Grey, Phoenix Force, and Imperiex, The Beginning and the End. Puppet Master (my other Vs. love) was my primary 2-drop, despite having no way to abuse him; I ran Nightcrawler as my other 2, Banshee as my main 3, the Jean Grey 4-drop as my only 4, the MOR Cyclops 5-drop, and Colossus on 6. My curve had almost no synergy - I didn't quite understand it all too well - but I was proud to have made it myself.

The Jean Grey-to-Imperiex combo worked only once out of my numerous games before I rebuilt the deck into a true X-Stall (after dumping nearly $100 more into the game), and I hardly won before that point...but those were some of the best Vs. moments I've ever had. Stalling until turn 14 against a Lost City Wolverine abuse deck (until I was hit for 74) was one of my favorite highlights.

I always loved dreaming about dropping Imperiex against my friend's Superman Clone deck, or my cousin's Spider-Friends deck, or his buddy's Mutant Nation Lost City deck. I loved the idea of stalling out the game with Jean Grey's (still) amazing ability, filtering through my entire deck for the lone copy of Imperiex that I owned. And when I wasn't playing, I was imagining what some of my other favorite characters were going to be like in the future - I dreamed of a Superman 10 drop with a game-breaking ability, another Darkseid, and a Galactus 11 drop that won you the game when he came into play (of course, the 9 drop takes care of that 2 turns earlier, but it was fun to dream).

Imperiex and his high-drop brethren are probably the reason I love playing stall so much - keeping your enemy at bay through numerous tricks and then dropping the big guys that make everything pay off. Every set that comes out brings me new 7 - 10 drops to look at...new enhancements or win conditions for X-Statix, GLOCK, X-Stall, Heralds stall, and all the other stall decks I have.

The big guys make the game for me. They make my day.

I'm with you. 100%

It lets you play a little bit of everything and your deck changes every time you play. It tests me purely on my own playskill (most of the time) and makes me a better player.

Limited is great... I'm always keen for draft/sealed/whatever-format-I-get-to-open-packs-in, but I'm rarely moneyed enough to be able to play.

Luckily, I'm a good player so dudes sponsor me! Win!

What is everybody's favourite limited set? Mine would have to be MHG... that set was nice and dynamic.

DCR. I dunno why. I like the one sealed pool I had with 2 advanced warning and JSA support. Completly demoralizing when you play a +def pump out of nowhere on your opponent.

(edit: I figured out why just as I posted. The team 10k was DCR Sealed. It was a lot of fun.)

Dr. Doom. Always been my big thrill in VS, always will be. Reign of Terror (On 3!), Mystical -> Doom-4 -> Re-Mystical, Doomstadt (big swings and big D), Devil's Due (only my favorite card) and his Personal Servent, Boris to bring it to him... He is the original single character Decktype. Before Spider-Man and Superman got clones, Doom was winning _all_by_himself_ WITHOUT cheating uniqueness. Then you gave him Crisis? YES! He's got the ultimate bag of tricks and some of the strongest ways to get them. Lust For Power, Doom's Throne Room, Boris... Doom-3 himself. Plus how can you not love Power Cosmic'ing after they pass a build phase with a bunch of back row characters and you have Subby front and center? The only thing better is Doom-8: Infi-Press!

-Mike

(That one really made my morning. A freak after my own heart.)

Lately I have been grooving on Plague of Frogs. Especially since the ones in my box were printed with extra heavy black ink. It looks like the little critters are blotting out the sun. Good times.

I will get around to everyone with the rep wand as soon as I am released for the day. Carry on.

Future Foes.

Whether you win or lose, the game is always fun when you force your opponent into situations where they have to decide in which hole they're screwed.

The mechanics of that team is one big middle finger to anyone who says Legion sucked (and fails to prepare for them). I know it won't win every game, but God, is it a beautiful thing to witness when it hits. I just never thought that UDE could top the Injustice Gang in terms of sheer devious brilliance.

As much as I love Shadowpact, my two absolute favorite things in Vs: getting the most roundabout effects possible (+24 DEF in a silver-age legal Shadowpact/JLA deck?!), and, most especially CRIME LORDS!

I love Crime Lords because, no matter who you take them against, you are always playing it to the absolute bone. Your game is entirely dependent on what your opponent does. I mean, any deck that runs King Takes Knight and fully intends to use it is a winner in my heart...and seeing who you can team yourself up with to actually make them work is always fun.

For me, and this is an honor to say as my 100th post, all I can think about is how to put new cards in old favorites.

Substitute Titans in an old school titans build. Captain America in Avengers. Blackheart in Hellfire Club. Dark Beast in Morlocks. Ego Gem in the Gauntlet deck. Old Spidey + New Spidey. Old Syndicate + New Syndicate. I can go on and on.

That is not all fortunately, as I also fell in love with ALL the Dual Loyalty five drops from MTU. I love the way they interact with their teams and want to someday make a deck that supports each of them. While some stand out, like Deadpool or Moon Knight, others, such as Dr. Doom, have me spending hours thinking of an optimal build for Modern/Silver with a Doom Underworld teamup.

I just love an opponent who underestimates your deck, just because it isn't a common sight. Then you pump Doom to absurd numbers on turn 5 FTW.

Gotta love VS.

Dr. Fate from DJL, giving evasion and invulnerability to my characters? Oh yeah, evade evade evade.

Ooh, that's a good one. The painting is keen indeed.

(This darn rep system will only let me hit up twelve people in one day. May you all give me a list so long that it takes a month to catch up. Amen.)

My son wanted me to post his favorite move from his Brotherhood deck, he always feels the game is going his way when he attacks with 4 drop Rogue, and then Crushing Blows the freshly exhausted character.

You meant the 3-drop, and tell him this... Andrew Yip, the designer of MTU and MHG, played that combo on the Pro Circuit before they hired him.

Good call.