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Michael Pittman
Michael Pittman
michael.pittman@guild.org.au
Serving up equal portions of foolish fun and serious strategy for anyone who burns to smack evil on the nose with the rolled up newspaper of justice. Topics will range from flights of fancy inspired by the four-coloured worlds of comicdom to new ideas that could turn your local metagame on its ear.
 
VS Limited – “Swimming in the Deep End” – Part 5 - August 21, 2005
In this fifth and final instalment of a series about “depth” – a concept that often gets talked about in relation to Vs limited and specifically drafting, I'll be taking a quick look at the minnow teams in DCR – Secret Six and Crisis, before wrapping it all up.
 
VS Limited – “Swimming in the Deep End” – Part 4 - August 20, 2005
This is the fourth instalment in a series about “depth” – a concept that often gets talked about in relation to Vs limited and specifically drafting. I define depth as “quantity plus quality” – a deep team should be able to support more than two drafters (in an eight-person draft) to a reasonable degree and be a powerhouse if under-drafted.
 
VS Limited – “Swimming in the Deep End” – Part 3 - August 14, 2005
In this series, I am writing about “depth” – a concept that often gets talked about in relation to Vs limited and drafting in particular. To be clear, I define depth as “quantity plus quality” – a deep team should be able to support more than two drafters (in an eight-person draft) to a reasonable degree and be a powerhouse if under-drafted.
 
VS Limited – “Swimming in the Deep End” – Part 2 - August 13, 2005
In Part 1, I wrote a bit about “depth” – a concept that often gets talked about in relation to Vs limited and drafting, in particular. I defined depth as “quantity plus quality”. A deep team should be able to support more than two drafters (in an eight-person draft) to a reasonable degree and if you get a good run on that team, you should be able to reasonably expect to have one of the strongest decks on the table. ....
 
VS Limited – “Swimming in the Deep End” – Part 1 - August 1, 2005
Before I get started, I have say that coming up with a headline for this article that wasn't easily turned into a Linda Lovelace joke was difficult, to say the least. If you don't know who Ms Lovelace is … whatever you do, don't ask your parents about her. Just smile, nod and pretend you understand.....
 
I'd rather be lucky than good - July 18, 2005
VS System, like any such card game, carries a degree of luck as one of the many facets of its play. Whether it be which cards you and your opponent rip off the top, a single card on the other side of the board that incidentally hoses your win condition, or – in terms of sealed – what cards you crack … luck runs through our game....
 
Dodgy Decks - "Qward Eye for the Checkmate Guy" - July 4, 2005
Instead of continuing to cringe about how newb-ish my constructed deck ideas are, I figure I will now embrace them. In previous articles I have subjected you to my “dodgy drafting”, but in this – likely highly irregular – column series (as long as I’m not targeted with rotten fruit and bricks for writing them) I’m going to introduce you to my “dodgy deck ideas”...
 
Crisis in the Capital – Dodgy Drafting - May 15, 2005
The keenest of the keen in the nation's capital converged on my garage recently for our first ever draft with the new Infinite Crisis set...
 
Anti-Matter Matters - January 23, 2005
From the very first moment I laid eyes on Anti-Green Lantern I was in lust. I was literally giddy over the perceived potential of these little beaters. ...
 
Learning to Love the Nuke - Drafting Squadron Supreme Part 2 - October 15, 2005
Last time I wrote about my recent experiences drafting the Avengers set and, in particular, my success with Squadron Supreme teamed with Avengers reservists. ...
 
Learning to Love the Nuke - Drafting Squadron Supreme - October 09, 2005
Sigh. Every time I start out writing an article about drafting I feel compelled to tell the world that I don't draft often enough...
 
Old Yeller - Drafting Emerald Enemies - July 16, 2005
I have only drafted Green Lantern a handful of times, but I thought I'd go ahead and share some of my early observations...
 
A New Era for Vs - June 27, 2005
The Silver Age of comics refers to the short period after 1956, when DC Comics "reinvented" their classic hero The Flash for a new audience.
 
The Future's So Bright... Part 2 - June 22, 2005
So last time I suggested five year's worth of Marvel Vs. expansions, including teams they might contain and a ton of goofy names for them all.
 
The Future's So Bright... Part 1 - May 20, 2005
About six months ago some people were talking about how much they wanted Upper Deck to do an Avengers and Justice League of America set.
 
A Heroic Draft - May 11, 2005
The Canberra Vs drafting scene is a bit behind (cough-understatement-cough) that of Sydney...
 
Getting Your Chocolate in My Peanut Butter Activate --> Getting Things Happening Locally - March 09, 2005
Man, when it comes to writing Vs Paradise articles I'm about as rusty as a waterlogged Sentinel Mark I.
 
Getting Your Chocolate in My Peanut Butter - January 16, 2005
For the Australian audience and any other readers who may not be familiar with Reece's Peanut Butter Cup...
 
M.O.D.O.K - Mental (as in crazy) Organism Designed Only for Kalculating - December 12, 2004
I hope you've got some panadol handy (or at least some hard liquor) because the following is likely to give some of you headaches.
 
New Frontiers, Teams of Man of Steel - Part Two - December 07, 2004
Last time I showed what a brash fool I was and submitted two deck lists, one for Team Superman and one for Revenge Squad, based solely on the full spoiler which I'd only obtained a day before.
 
New Frontiers, Teams of Man of Steel - Part One - December 06, 2004
This time I'm going to jump the gun in the worst way. I got my hot little hands on the full text spoiler of the Man of Steel set only yesterday and already I want to present you all some initial ideas for four new constructed decks.
 
Take Your Beating Like A Man - November 21, 2004
I suppose you have to first understand where I'm coming from as a Vs player.
 
Tweaking Sinister Beatdown Part Deux - November 02, 2004
In my previous two instalments I proposed an initial decklist for a new aggressive Sinister Syndicate (SS) deck and then went through the processes involved in tuning it and refining the card selections.
 
Tweaking the Sinister Beatdown - October 25, 2004
So I'm back and I'm still playing around with my new Sinister Syndicate deck.
 
The New Black - September 27, 2004
If pink is the new black in Milan and Everyone Loves Raymond is the new Seinfeld in terms of prime time viewing, then what can we say about Vs?
 
It's All About Diplomacy! or My First Vs. Multiplayer - September 07, 2004
You probably want to be like Switzerland. I mean, you can be Germany if you want, but you better be able to back up your bravado.
 
Well Then.. I'll Blast You in the Face with My Ray-Thingy!!! or Breaking Down Vs Turn... - August 28, 2004
WWhat if the real world worked like Vs? Your wife/girlfriend puts a force-five hissy-fit on the chain because you forgot an important anniversary and then passes priority to you.
 
Wearing Your Undies on the Outside!!! or The Flavour of Vs - August 13, 2004
Being a comic book fan with too many X-Men comics and not enough Batman books, I figured the release of Vs and its first set, Marvel Origins, needed to pass a few tests before I just jumped into it.
 
Your Fate is Sealed!!! or Yet Another Sealed Deck Card Pool Part 2 - August 06, 2004
So, hopefully you have already checked out the first part of this sealed deck exercise, thought about it and posted some comments on the boards.
 
Your Fate is Sealed!!! or Yet Another Sealed Deck Card Pool Part 1 - August 03, 2004
"Practice, practice, practice!!!" I imagine that if I didn't have pudgy, little fingers and I had ever in my life undertaken piano lessons, those three words would be key to my education.
 
Hulk SMASH!!!... or Breaking the Power Curve - July 21, 2004
When it comes to Vs, muscle means power.
 
How I got the Draft!!! or My First Marvel Draft - July 06, 2004
Opening trading card game boosters can be a real rollercoaster ride.
 
Taking Over the Asylum!!! or First Impressions of the Arkham Inmates Team. - July 03, 2005
I originally planned to bring you a completely different kind of column this week, but I woke up this morning with a burning need to write about my initial impressions of some of the cards in the DC Origins starter set.
 
Quick, to the Fantasticar!!! or Getting Started with Marvel - June 29, 2004
Get in, sit down, hold on and shut up. That's pretty much how I'd expect a ride in the Batmobile to play out.
 
Why you really want to play Marvel, even if you haven't realised it yet - June 15, 2004
Ehem, well my name is Michael and I do have a confession to make - I'm a comics geek.
 
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