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Editor: Webmaster. Thursday 4th November 2004.

Feature Article

Exclusive VS Paradise Superman Preview Card
Supercycle
The second of the VsParadise preview cards for Superman: Man of Steel appears slightly below this text, so sate yourselves:

Preview

This card is interesting for several reasons. Firstly, for the uninitiated, the Supercycle belongs to the Forever People, an eclectic mix of characters that are in exploration of Earth. The Supercycle is a highly sophisticated and sentient tricycle that has the ability to fly, teleport, and pas through walls. Other than the Supercycle belonging to the Forever People, there is only one other known ‘cycle, in the hands of teenage superheroes Young Justice. This may have been cause to make Supercycle unique, though the possibility of more Supercycles on New Genesis, and the position of the Forever people as only one faction in the wider affiliation, New Gods, could override such detail. The art and flavour text of Supercycle is cute in that it reveals the hippie bend of the Forever People, yet it also recognises the power of the Supercycle and its capacities as a living machine.

Again, if you do not yet know what Invulnerability means, Danny Mandel@Metagme.com, is there to help:

Invulnerability: Some characters have the keyword “Invulnerability” in their text box. Normally, when a character becomes stunned, its controller loses endurance equal to the character’s cost. When a character with invulnerability becomes stunned, its controller does not lose endurance equal to the character’s cost.

As an uncommon granting team-specific bonuses, this card is unlikely to see much play in Limited. This obviously depends on the shape of the format, but 1-cost equipment means giving up the maximum, and most often, optimal, recruitment on a turn. For the cost of an extra card, Equipment with a cost >0 is unlikely to be worth it, unless it provides substantial combat bonuses, or a game-breaking ability. Unless invulnerability is amazing in Limited, which seems unlikely given that its advantages appear quite subtle, Supercycle will be condemned to very heavy New Gods decks. This sort of card seems to be something you let go on your first round of picks hoping to pick it up very late, and even then will only be making the cut when other quality picks are lacking. Supercycle could definitely swing games between average cards, but would seem sub-optimal against the more powerful decks on the table.

Equipment often struggles to see play in Constructed. Equipment may provide certain bonuses, but those bonuses must be weighed against the extra card, the capacity of the character equipped to stay on the board (and in some cases ready). This is all before considering the disruptive nature of the class of equipment costed at >0. Many of you will have noticed the more than passing resemblance of Supercycle to Fantasticar. FF Equip and FF Burn are two of the very few archetypes to use equipment costed at >0 (Wes Victory’s 10K winning Teen Titans utilised Twin Firearms as a means of abusing to Roy Harper). This is almost exclusively due to the game text of Mr Stretch, Stretch. The generic plot twist Tech Upgrade can help out here, but Stretch is the man. The modifiers provided by Supercycle are unlikely to be significant enough to want to play lower drops than on the curve, if applied to the standard of cards we have available now. Even on the curve, the New Gods would require some way of playing the equipment free of charge, or some other incentive, to begin equipping its characters with Supercycles. Unfortunately I see a very limited future for Supercycle, and even there it may be unwanted.

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