In February, for my son's 7th birthday, he insisted that I come back to VA to take him to see Spider-man 3 on 'MAY FOURTH!!! DON'T FORGET!!' (as he put it).

But Curtis, what does this have to do with VS?

Good question.

I lost my job last week, to being laid off. I'm currently looking for work in the Bay Area again. But without my job, I questioned if I could afford to go back to VA just to take my son to a movie. It would seem more than precarious to pay hundreds of dollars for a movie ticket. But, wouldn't it be for something much more valuable than a movie ticket? It would still be tough to juggle. So I called him and told him I might not be able to do it on opening night. Him being so bright for a 7 year old understood that I would do it as soon as I could, and showed not even a hint of disappointment.

Early Monday morning, my grand father passed away. We knew he was ill, and the Doctor last week said if he passed before the end of the week, he wouldn't be surprised. So this was not entirely a surprise to get that call yesterday morning.

So now, with the funeral being Saturday the 5th, I need to be in VA anyway.

Curtis, when does the VS part come in to play?

Well, you see, Christian ( my son) , has wanted me to teach him VS for a while now, but his reading was a little slower than needed for VS I felt, and I told him if he proved that he could read I'd teach him how to use the cards I'd given him. So, he told me the other day, ' I can read better now. I can read the big words mostly by myself.'

His love for Spider-man means I'll have to build him a Spider-man deck. It will be a mostly commons/uncommons deck, with assorted foils just because as a kid they are even more exciting than rares. He asked me if I can make him a deck with 'Peter, Mary, "Ant" May, and Harry. Before he goes bad.' I tried to explain that they don't make cards of Harry before he went bad. The first thing out of his mouth after that?

'Well that's just dumb.'

I was taken aback for a moment. Here is this little guy excited about learning to play, and one of his favorite people is missing from the game when he is so excited about it. His next question?

"Can I have a bad guy deck too then?"

Today I'm building him a Spider-friends deck. He alread has the FF starter and Batman starter. But he 'needs' a Spider-friends deck, since Spider-man is his "mostest favorite EVER!"

Thursday night, after dinner, I'll be taking Christian and teaching him what the game words mean. I'll teach him how to play, and I'll try to get him a cool deck box set up for his Spider-friends deck.

I'll post back when I get back and tell you all how it went.

Great post.

Condolences on the losses but I look forward to hearing about how this all went.

I'm sorry about your losses. Let me know what build you come up with for him, as spiderman is my daughters favoritist as well and I haven't really helped her update it with the new cards, it was hard to help her play a deck that lost nearly every game. Hopefully the new spiderman cards will help it improve!

Spiderman rules. I believe your son has good taste sir. *tips hat*

Sorry for your troubles, I'll be praying for you. Awesome to hear about your son. Mine's 10 months old so I can't wait until he's old enough to read and play.

haha thats just so cute

VS's Age Progression:
8-10: basic stuff, spiderman, superman, batman, etc. Recognizable names
10-12: Getting into splinter cards such as Checkmate, skrulls, etc, exploring other comic book types/characters.
13-40:Powergirl, Rouge
40+:Aunt May

Maybe its just me but Power Girl and Rouge just don't do a thing for me!;)

Awsome thread man. I love to these stories of new Young gamers. I think thats one misconception with this game is that. People and UDE thinks that kids can't or shouldn't learn how to play VS. I for one have taught 3 kids under 13 how to play. It takes time thats for sure. In all, The more you play the more you learn so just keep at it people. Remember Keep Spreading The VS LOVE.:cool: :cool: :cool:

My condolences, Curtis. I'm really glad you'll get to take your kid to see Spider-Man though. Sometimes things are just meant to be.

-Mike

Have a good time dude, and make sure to take him to the comic store on Saturday for Free Comic Book Day. Sorry about the bad stuff, but I think it helps to look forward to the good things, like SM3 and teaching him how to play Vs!

If it's any consolation I thought it was the best movie of the three

I would disagree.

Rouge can help out any girl who wants to look pretty. A bit of blush can help make any face look more cheery :laugh:

Is it fate that i was listening to "HOME" by that Daughtry guy when i read this post? Mad props to you and your little one and my condolences as well. Play on.....

Well, I'm back home now, and after a long week with the family, I have good stuff to share.

So, while I'll avoid getting in to the details of the sad side of things, I'll make it clear that those familial obligations hut my time to teach Christian how to play. But, we spent a lot of time together, with his mom even volunteering to stop standing in the way of him and I spending future time together.

When I told him I had 60 more things for him, he was totally stumped at what else I could give him ( I got him the light-up eyes Nightcrawler from the X-men line, as well as Venom, Sandman, Lizard, the Spider-mobile with Spider-man and a few other figures). When he saw the deck his eyes beamed! Since we were in the car at the time, I had to explain that time just wouldn't allow me to teach him all of the game this trip. His response?

"What can you teach me right now, then?"

So, Suanne (driving at the time) and I started to describe the game's basic components. I use as much Yu Gi Oh as I can to relate the numbers and what they mean. I use the core concepts of how the characters fight in cartoons and movies, and how some times characters are just better prepared than others so a character that costs more to play is better prepared to fight than a character that costs less to play.

I explained how you get to draw 2 cards every turn, and how his decks can be changed later to use any of the VVS cards he wants to play with.

In July, I'll be back in VA again, though not for the FF premiere. Christian wants me to take him to see that too. So of course I will. He will finally get to play for real then. His excitement is constantly growing, and we talked comics and super heroes for hours while I was back east.

Hopefully in the summer, while he is with me for a month we'll make it out to hobby league, and he can get some games in out here as well.

See ya'll soon :)