Good morning, Colombus! Today's the first day of Origins and things are kind of crazy here. Origins is always a busy convention and, while things haven't ramped up today, if the crowds are any indication this weekend the convention will be packed wall to wall with gamers. Also this weekend a lucky few folks will be able to get their hands on some DC Origins boosters in the booster events UDE is running this weekend. If you're lucky in your draft you'll be able to pull some good 6, 7 and 8 drops. However, you might want to keep an eye out for one 7 drop in particular. . . and that 7 drop is the focus of this preview.

If Ra's al Ghul represents the League of Assassins' focuse on Location control, Lady Shiva represents the League's focus on making sure your opponents characters don't get in your way.


Lady Shiva: Master Assassin
League of Assassins
Cost: 7
ATK 13/DEF 13
Recruit Lady Shiva only if you control Ra's al Ghul.
Activate -> KO target character. Use this power only during your attack step.
"As usual, the hope of a challenge has been replaced by a slaughter."


Lady Shiva is the premiere martial artist in the DC Universe. Pulling an Inigo Montoya, she dedicated her life to mastering many forms of martial arts to be able to take revenge on the man who murdered her sister. During her career, she worked as a mercenary with the League of Assassins. During this time she's had several run-ins with Batman. Ok, that's enough back story, let's look at the card!

For a 7 drop, she doesn't have very good stats (in fact, she has worse stats than any other 7 drop from Marvel Origins). But this doesn't matter. She won't be going up against 7 drops since she can simply activate to KO them (and she can KO them when she first comes into play). Once you drop the Master Assassin, you can get rid of any big guns your opponent drops on the field regardless of how big they are.

Using Shiva's pretty straight forward. Drop her and use her to drop your opponent's guys. While she can work well with her teammates (especially with Bane helping her clear the field) she works even better with some off-team characters. Rogue: Power Absorption is an obvious choice letting you KO two characters a turn. Another good choice is to Marvel Team-Up Shiva with the Fantastic Four (by turn 7, you should have a few Cosmic Radiations in your hand to turn Lady Shiva into a one-woman cleaning crew). Finally, if you can exhaust guys on your side of the field, you can use Press the Attack to play Shiva whack-a-mole again and again.

Now, while having Shiva KO character after character is a huge thing, you'll have to use her in conjunction with someone who can do breakthrough endurance loss to your opponent (beacuse it's not as if you have an instant win like Xavier's Dream or. . . well, you'll have to wait a while for that). So, you'll need to have a good supporting crew for Lady Shiva. There are quite a few Assassins that can help out so you'll have plenty to choose from. So, while Shiva's a headliner, she's also works best with a team.

Well, that's it for now. Hopefully after Origins is over, there will have been enough boxes of DC opened that we can provide a significant portion of the set as a spoiler. If you're in Columbus this weekend, come on by and say "Hi!" I've been able to see some VSRealms folks already and hopefully I'll get to see a lot more this weekend. . . and if you pull a Lady Shiva, I got some good foils for trade ;-)

goodness...at least she isn't a 6 drop....

WOW! It's the Avatar of Woe of the VS system universe! My friends have been saying they hope that Marvel doesn't turn into magic ( i.e. that the cards are just getting better and better) and this is somewhat evidence... HOWEVER 1. i think it's too early to speculate that and 2. Magic doesn't have team attacks now does it..so it's always possible for those weenies to bring down the big guns!

Banding :) lol the card is ok but stats are lil weak for 7 drop. And only being able 2 use it during your attack may be a problem but... Still very solid

Hm... I think a LoA/ X-Men deck looks very promising... (Rogue 4/6 drop with Shiva, tons o' control, makes your opponent move slowly, Ra's causes problems, attack with NCrawler/ Cyke without stunning, using XSFGY to use Shiva an extra time every turn... it gets nasty).

I can't wait for Hydra to get on, so I can find out what he thinks of Shiva compared to her Atlantian Marvel counterpart.

well, like the company's been saying. Low atk/def values, but better powers.

holy *@&#

I actually had to read this card twice before Shiva's ability actually sank in. oO

Is this control or what?

Now, I think a couple people missed the fact that her ability can only be used on YOUR attack step which hinders the ability only slightly. This pretty much says: "LoA wants ini on odd turns very badly"

@ Bizarro #98 - Is it better than Namor? Hrm... Its hard to say. Namor is easier to play because you drop him after the fact and then TPC. For Lady Shiva, you drop her first which gives your opponent some options. they can either draw out her ability with a 7 drop of their own or they can drop some weenies and force her to attack. This card is very good control, but it goes a long way to prove that LoA will be a heavy control deck. The fact that they dont have a 7th turn win condidtion yet makes me a bit worried because there is nothing to indicated that LoA has the stall power of Doom. I guess were just going to have to wait and see.

That's a great point, Hydra. Shiva is probably the League's only 7 drop, and if you don't have the initiative on odd turns, not only is her ability useless but her low stats make her a liability.

Perhaps the team will have a character who Boosts to 7 with a more defensive ability.

Im thinking more along the lines of location support. LoA is likely to abuse Locations much like Doom abuses Plot Twists. We were speculating on the possible abilities of the Lazurus pit which will be a definite inclusion in the LoA's location aresenal. Here is a little snippet:

The Assassins are all about locations and the regenerative power of the Lazurus Pits. Remember that little rule about having to KO stunned characters during the recovery phase? Such things hold little consequence to those who have mastered the powers of immortality.

This is pulled off the UDE R & D site. This could mean several things. a) it could mean that Lazurus pit prevents characters from being stunned (like chile named valeria) or b) it could mean that you may recover multiple characters per turn.

Im sure there must be a way to suppoort Shiva. There just has to :)

With a ability like that you might as well have called her Lady Shiva, Big Bullseye Painted on My Chest(icles). Great abiulity especially if you can get her running once or twice in a row, but as stated before, she's a priority one target on the board.
To drop her on the board, you have to control Ra's and from the 4 drop we have seen, he is another target on the field.
But i'm going to say I am still drooling over this card :cheeky:

I dunno, LoA is looking like a faction that wont be easily teamed-up. Every copy of Ra's Al Ghul has Loyalty which will make them difficult to play. then on top of that, Lady Shiva has, in effect, Loyalty to Ra's. So in order do get Ra's out you need another LoA character in play already and then in order to play Lady Shiva you need to have Ra's in play. very difficult indeed. Guess Ra's Doesnt play well with others. :devious:

but maybe he will play well with DOOM.

Well.....I wouldn't be too sure...... It depend's on Ra's 1-3 drops....then we will know for sure if he does not like other's lol.....If the Leauge's small drops are more flexible...then I wouldn't be surprised if you see ton's of hybrid decks running around...Hmmm, I just thought of somthing.....Wild Assasin's anyone:p!


-Simon

To the above post: I do not know about that one.....with LoA's curve running side by side with Doom...they may kill each other before they work together lol....but as I mentioned before...if the Low drop Assasin's aren't as rigid as the Ra's....then somthing might happen lol...