Revelations 6:7; “When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, "Come!" 8 I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.”

Come on how could I resist when we are talking about the Four Horsemen? There have been 4 incarnations of the 4th horseman, Death, in the Marvel Universe; Angel, Gambit, Caliban and Wolverine. Angel led, the first incarnation of the Four Horseman created by Apocalypse. Those four horsemen were forced to fight each other for the position of leadership and Angel prevailed. Angel became Archangel, his destroyed wings were replaced with metallic wings that were used as razor-sharp projectiles, his skin turned blue and his lust for the death of those he considered inferior fueled the reborn Angel. Today, we get another Marvel Evolutions exclusive preview and no it is not Gambit, Death instead we have …



Archangel, Death
5-Cost
Character
X-Factor/Horsemen of Apocalypse
Concealed
Shift
While Archangel is shifted with five counters, at the start of the recovery phase, you may KO target stunned character.
Flight/Range
10/9
Illus: Patrick Zircher
MEV-002

There are many things I could tell you about Archangel, but I believe I have been ranting and raving on this blog a lot recently about Angel since he appeared in the new X-Force series as a member of the team, back in his glorious and most heinous self, Archangel. Check out the series here! For those lost, here is a quick summary. It is revealed by the Purifiers that Angel possesses a DNA agent called the Apocalypse Strain that has bonded to him, probably from his time as death. Because of this Apocalypse Strain and recent events in X-Force Angel is capable of changing back and forth from Warren to Archangel. When he changes into Archangel though his personality also changes into that of the murderous and violent Archangel we all once loved who served Apocalypse.



I like this card a lot for a number of reasons, most of which have to deal with the KO effect, which is pretty obvious, if you intend to play Shift. which I think many of us will you can generate a pretty powerful effect by using Archangel, notice he is not limited in cost to whom he can KO. That is a really powerful finishing move on the table. It is going to take sometime to get to, but it looks to be an ability well worth the wait. On top of that Archangel, Death has solid stats with Flight and Range that really make him a viable turn 5 play even if you don’t want to build him up to get those 5 Shift counters., but alas we have a little something more for you to feast your fancy on that will turn heads a great deal more…



The Black Rider
2-Cost
Plot Twist
Play the Black Rider only if you haven’t played another card named The Black Rider this game.
To play, exhaust a character you control with version Death.
KO up to two target stunned characters.
“… and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand.”
Illus: Salvador Larroca
MEV-237

This represents a very powerful effect for a character you opponents will definitely want to get rid of before he begins wreaking havoc on their board. Even though this represents a tech card in a deck because of its limitations to one per game, it is still a powerful effect. Death can literally sit and wait in the shadows for the war to be done and claim his spoils from the battlefield. Coupled with Archangel this truly represents a board clearing event on turns 5 and 6 making your opponents question their strategy a little more. I’m excited for Marvel Evolutions and that’s saying a lot!

One thing I would like to point out, Death never rode the Black Horse that was Famine, Death rode the Pale Horse. Pop culture has all of the Horseman riding like colored horses, but in truth it actually works out just a tad differently. I do however love the art as it shows a great diversity of the people who have served Apocalypse as Death. In the Black Rider plot twist it is Gambit as Death instead of Archangel. I do hope we get a Gambit, Death in the set, but I will not be passing up any Archangel’s down the line. Plus we never know what will come in the form of legacy content, I definitely did not expect to see the Horseman make an appearance in this set, especially after the release of Marvel Age of Apocalypse, I bet a lot of people are grabbing at the bith for those cards now! While we haven’t seen any cards that allow the sharing of Version quite like we did in DCR with Identity we may get a surprise down the road?

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When it comes to conversion of the masses I choose subterfuge. Yes, Darkseid Revenge is a comic review spot, but it’s a clever way to get into the minds of the people and make them want to play our beloved game of Versus. I have converted a co-worker and her husband to comic-loving fiends, next up is to be as cunning as possible and make them want to be these characters they love and play the cardboard that reflects. Heck, my co-worker is dreaming of being on monitor duty in the Watchtower with Red Tornado, Black Lightning and Vixen. Enough about all that and onto what you all want; The Marvel Evolutions Preview: Gambit, Traitor.

Gambit is a mutant with the ability to charge matter with kinetic energy, how powerful he really is not known. We have seen an alternate reality version of himself known as the “New Sun”, which was responsible for exploding and destroying his own world in an alternate reality. Mr. Sinister is responsible for helping Gambit “control” his abilities and harness its power. Gambit has a very strained history with the X-Men and even the Marauders, never really appearing to be a team player unless it has been beneficial to him. Once he was a Horseman of Apocalypse, Death in order to save the X-Men. Gambit is responsible for leading the team of Marauders to kill the Morlocks, a memory he is not fond of.



Gambit, Traitor
6-Cost Character
Team Affiliation: Marauders/X-Men
Visible
Discard a random card -> Stun target character if it has the same cost as that card. Use only once per turn.
13/12
Range
“This isn’t what it looks like.”
Illus: Marc Silvestri

It is fitting that the versions of Gambit we have seen thus far in the Marvel Evolutions Previews have been dual-affiliated given Gambit’s loyalty to himself overall. There have only been 3 versions of Gambit in the Versus TCG and each version has limited Gambit’s direct stun effects to characters with cost 3 or less. These versions of Gambit are a far cry from the past 3 incarnations; but remember Gambit’s strength has been in the “cards” he charges with energy, they could very well be in the cards you play as well.



Gambit has very decent stats when you think that he is only a peak human, at 13/12 he definitely has the mustard to take on his fair share of opposing 6-cost characters and not bat an eye. His ability is where he will shine through in the game for the person clever enough to work a deck around him. As TBS explained, “Gambit is the king of direct stuns and thievery…” that should get your appetite wet for the shenanigans that may ensue.



Gambit’s ability is going to take some “clever” players or card manipulations to work out the kinks because of the fact that you are discarding a card at random. That means any card in your hand can be thrown into the KO’d pile, which could be a negative for you?!?! Remember you only get to “Stun target character if it has the same cost” as the card discarded. So discarding your 7-cost character on turn 6 could look very bad. The benefit is if you are successful you get to stun an opposing character and Gambit is still free to attack since it is not an exhaustion effect. Its two birds with one stone trick if it fires off. The gamble of it may dissuade some player from using the ability, but not me; I’ll tool my game play so this can be a trump card.

I’ll let you ponder this card and how it will work in your favor as a member of Marauders affiliation, Gambit is a master of the direct stun and thievery as TBS pointed out and as a swamp rat Gambit definitely appears to be a diamond in the rough.

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I am happy because I am almost caught up on all my comic reviews up to this week. I should be all set by next Wednesday. Right now though we are going to take time out from Comic Book land to enter our World of Versus System and take a look at the next expansion that is going to be released for the TCG. You won’t find advertisements for this TCG too many places and it is really become a dedicated community game with hints and glimmers of glory here and there, but if you are a comic book aficionado or ever played a Trading Card Game I guarantee once you play this TCG you will want more.

I have mentioned before I will not review cards that have been previewed by other websites or blogs as I think it really cheapens the whole deal, it is almost like stealing an idea from someone and running with it as your own. Blogging can be pretty competitive, but we have to remember we are a community and divided we fall. So what I will do is Blog roll all the websites and blogs that have previewed cards so you can go and check them out. All these bloggers are great at what they do on their blogs and you should check out ways in which they want to break the cards in this game, abusing and creating new bruising decks.

Remember check out your local hobby shops to inquire more about this TCG and if you are interested shoot me a couple of questions if you want to learn how to play.

www.Malone.blogs.com


VSGuantlet.wordpress.com


www.The-Kamiza.com


www.VSUnleashed.blogspot.com


Checkmate Arcade on www.VSRealms.com


www.Ranmavs.blogspot.com


The Ring has Chosen Podcast on www.VSRealms.com


Majestic's Vs. System Strategy Page


www.Comicvswhatever.blogspot.com


www.Losthemisphere.wordpress.com


www.Evolutionspeak.wordpress.com


www.Onyxweaponvs.blogspot.com


www.TCGplayer.com


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You don't know him? them? Say it isnt so! Granted that Jamie Madrox, Multiple Man has not been a shining beacon of the X-Men Universe he has definitely been a cult classic, fan favorite within and his role in the Messiah complex storylien got beefed up significantly when he and Layla Miller jumped into the future and Jamie whent off searching Multiple alternate timelines using his cloning ability. I seriously think some Japanese manga creator was watching an episode of X-Men or reading an X-Men comic or something of the sort when they were doing Naruto. Naruto's favorite ninjutsu is called Kage No Buushin Jutsu or something of that nature and like Multiple man he splits into a bunch of distinct personalities. How many personality splitting decks do you expect to see rear there head with cards like these? read more about it over on STU's blog, http://fullbodytransplant.wordpress.com/

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Marvel Evolutions Previews are here! Well they have been here for a little over a week and a half now and I am just getting the news thanks to it starting right in the middle of the exercise I am participating in here at work. Guess what? Darkseid Revenge was announced as one of the many blogs around the Versus Community that will get to preview a card, Praise the Gods of cardboard prints. I received an email from The Ben Seck on my VSRealms account, which has been creeping its way into the dominant position as the community of choice for all things Versus System. I am just happy they have adopted MagicWorkstation as the program of choice to play Versus digitally on, anyways lets look at some of the previews thus far.



I am excited by this set for a number of reasons. The main reason is marketing. For those of you who do not know Marvel Evolutions the title did not start as cardboard printouts of the Marvel X-Men, in fact it started out as the X-Men television show. You can actually log onto Marvel.Com and get some of the full episodes for viewing there. Now, this is important to me for a number of reasons, but mainly just because it is a brilliant idea, you market the name and sell to the market that is in love with that name. In this case it happens to be a cartoon show probably viewed by the future players of Versus. What UDE needs to ensure on there part now is that they market within Marvel’s comics or work out some deal where this TCG is linked on their website for people to see. Marvel has a scrolling board across its front page for all things Marvel Related someone should be made aware that preview season has begun. Someone from UDE should be on those Message boards over there posting for the readers of the comics to see who probably are not aware a TCG for the brand exist. That’s a wink to all of us bloggers and opiners who want to see the success of Versus.



GO TO MARVEL.COM AND GET ON THOSE MESSAGE BOARDS and SPREAD THE WORD!!!



One of the things I love about doing this blog is that im not solely focusing on the cardboard for Versus TCG, in fact I am here on the whole doing a lot of comic reviews and trying to give the Versus Community the knowledge of what they are playing with and hopefully inspiring some of you to read about these characters who have never read about them. It helps because I get readers who are not part of the Versus Community reading and getting a taste, but I’ll admit my downsides and that is I don’t focus on the cardboard enough, btu I have asked T’Challa to help me out with this and he has agreed to start writing some Versus related content on a regular basis here on Darkseid Revenge.



Now, none of these cards are cards that I have been selected to preview and I hate to review other peoples material where they have said all that is needed to be said about a card, its kind of like stealing the thunder in my opinion. All I will do is point out where you can get the info on these cards and who reviewed them so you can check them out. Most of the previews thus far have been posted on Facebook or on Vsrealms. CaptainSpud has kept a running log of all of the cards reviewed thus far. The biggie is the news that Cyclops and Gambit will be featured as Legendary Characters in this set based on the current X-Men series Messiah Complex. And yes, this last card is a teaser, what the text is no one knows, but there will probably be text!



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