Editor: Professor X. Wednesday 4th August 2004.
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Editor: Professor X. Wednesday 4th August 2004.
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 Similarities and Differences Hello and welcome to the very first, and hopefully not last, Scott Game column. My name is Scott Smith and I’m based out of Sydney (Australia). For those of you who don’t know me, I’ve been playing Magic; the Gathering now for about four years (when Invasion came out for those in the know) and most recently have picked up the awesome game we’re all here to read about VS. It’s an awesome new game in which comic book Super Heroes and Super Villains bash the living crap out of each other and by the use of your skills as a gamer achieve victory for the forces of good (or evil). So far there are 2 different sets out (and a starter of another expansion but I’ll get into that later) called Marvel Origins and DC Origins but many more are promised in the coming months and years.
VS was a game built by some of the top Magic players and as such there are many parallels to the game that will help new players to quickly pick it. Here are some of the similarities held by both games. (NB when I refer to Magic I am in fact referring to Magic: the Gathering another TCG created by Wizards of the Coast) Similarities First of all Life VS Endurance. In both games the object is to get these totals down to 0 or below. In Magic it starts at 20 but in VS it starts at 50. Creatures VS Characters. The Magic game is set in a world of Goblins, Dragons and Beasts and so we call these things Creatures. As VS is set in the Comic Book Multi-verse (kinda ominous huh?) we refer to these people as characters. I only mention this simple fact because in future when I refer to characters and creatures you’ll know what I’m babbling on about In the future I’ll refer to all as characters) Instants VS Plot Twists. Both are played at any time and are anything from stopping a spell from happening, to destroying something to making characters larger or smaller. Non-Creature Artifacts VS Locations. They both sit on the table and have an ongoing effect and can have an activated ability (ie tap this to create an effect) Global Enchantments VS On-going Plot Twists. These also sit on the table for an on-going effect but the difference between these and Locations/NC Artifacts is that they have no activated ability. Local Enchantments VS Equipment. These cards go onto characters to give an on-going increase to either power/toughness or both. Magic has its own equipment cards but these are artefacts which can stay on a the table, even after the character is has left the table to be ‘re-equipped’ to another character. The equipment in VS is more like a local enchantment, because if the character is stunned the equipment has no effect and if the character is KO’d the equipment leaves with it. Both games have power/toughness. This is the size of characters. In both games this is located in the bottom right hand (ED: Left hand in VS) corner of the card. Trample VS Spill-over. Both are the excess offence of attacking characters to the defending character. So if my 4/4 attacks your 3/3 in either game, you’ll take 1 Spill-over/trample damage (Ed: Breakthrough even...). Cast VS Recruit. Simple really, this is just terminology. You’re a wizard in Magic so you ‘Cast’ spells whereas you ‘Recruit’ these super beings to fight for you in VS. Land VS Resources. In both games you can only play one of these per turn and they represent what you can cast this turn. Stack VS Chain. Both games have an order to which spells will resolve. Whenever an effect happens it goes onto the chain/stack. Players can respond to each of these effects if they so choose with instants/plot twists or their own effects. They both use a first-in last-out policy. This means that the first effect to go onto the stack/chain will be the last one to resolve. So in VS if I play an Acrobatic Dodge, then my opponent plays Not So Fast, and I then play Fizzle, the chain will end with my Fizzle countering (Ed: Negating?)his Not So Fast first so that my Acrobatic Dodge can then resolve. The same goes in Magic. PTQ VS PCQ. A PTQ is a Pro Tour Qualifier, and a PCQ is a Pro Circuit Qualifier. Not much to it really (Except there is infinitely more money in VS then there is in Magic).
The biggest one I can think of at the moment is the in VS the attacking character choses which character he is going to fight whereas in Magic the defender choses who will defend. In VS the defender has no say in the matter whether the character will “defend” or not but in Magic the defender doesn’t HAVE to defend. In VS you can team attack a character which means that 2 or more characters to bring their power/toughness together (called a ‘team attack’) to take down a larger character on the board (I believe this is called banding in Magic, but this ability hasn’t been used in years). In Magic the defender can block with as many creatures as they want (called a ‘gang block’) to take down a larger character. Rows. In VS there are two rows, the front row and the support row, which is very important to the attack phase. Magic has no such worry about how you place your characters on the table. There are plenty more differences from Magic to VS. Both are extremely fun games to play, and both require thought that goes into the creation of decks (as most TCGs are want to do). If you come from a background of Magic, you should be able to pick up VS in a relatively short period of time. My friend Ray picked up the game the week before a PCQ and that weekend he was winning a share of $500 US. The starter decks are fun and easy to play, and if you go to your local gaming store I’m sure they will help you to pick up the game. If you come into the Sydney Games Centre (check out www.sydneygamescentre.com for details) the friendly staff there will help you to pick up the game. If I’m in there and not busy I’ll be happy to teach a few of you the basics and such.
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