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A Quick Look at the All-New Aspect Cards
Until now the real strength and strategy behind the Location card was in using it as a Battlesite. However, OverPower's latest release, X-Men OverPower, brings the Aspect card to the game and will no doubt make people start to think twice about how best to use those Locations!
Using a Location as a Home Base has been risky strategy because of how they limit the characters you may use. It was much easier to build a deck using one of the "Any-Team" Home Bases (such as "Marvel Universe") and select characters based on t heir Power Grids and Specials than it was to use a specific Location as a Home Base and limit yourself to a predetermined list of characters. By granting specific Home Bases abilities beyond those possessed by the characters, Aspect cards make more than a few Location cards exciting and competitive options!
What follows are just a few examples:
X-Mansion - In hard core tournament rings, the Inherent Ability of this Home Base had been laughed at. Lets face it, since many people don't feel that DoubleShots are even worth using, being able to combine Strength Power cards with any DoubleShot card isn't the most useful benefit. Not any more! X-Mansion's Aspect, "Mutant Schooling", gives an X-Mansion team the ability to draw a card from the top of the Draw Pile immediately after playing any DoubleShot card! Replacing DoubleShot cards played with fresh cards from the Draw Pile can really open your hand up to new possibilities, not to mention the Spectrum KO danger that a steady stream of DoubleShot attacks pose!
Wundagore Mountain - The main difficulty in putting this team together is that the Power Grids of the six characters do not line up well with each other. To compensate for this, Wundagore Mountain's "Knights of Wundagore" Aspect card give this team a level 7 Any-Power card that not only may be used to attack or defend, but also doesn't duplicate with any other level 7 Power cards you may have! What's even better is that this card isn't limit to one-per-deck!
Department H - As if having a Homebase with three characters with 8's in their Power Grid (all in the same skill) wasn't enough, once they get their Aspect into play, all of their Power card hits are +1 to Venture! Even though the Aspect card is one-per-deck, the fact that Wolverine is getting a useful Special called "Tracking Senses" in the X-Men MegaPower promotional subset makes it possible to be able to draw and play that Aspect card immediately from your Draw Pile! Once the Aspect is in play, your Power cards can start adding to Venture more and more.
So dig out those Location cards, slap an Aspect or two into your deck and enjoy!
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The Secret Strategy of Venture
You're in the third battle of an important game. You look at your hand and feel ok with what you have. You think to yourself that you'll Venture one, maybe two if your opponent seems to be looking particularly behind. Then your opponent Ventures two for the win! "For the win", you think, "But it's only the third Battle!" That's when you remember that your opponent won the last two Battles on bets of three and two respectively. How did he get so far ahead?!
Sound familiar? An aggressive Venture strategy can not only win the game quickly, but it can keep the opponent on the defensive during the climb to victory as well. Too often, players Venture only one or two Mission Cards because they either aren't confident with their Hand or they don't want to give their opponent a free card. An aggressive Venture strategy means having confidence in your playing skills, and not being afraid of giving up a card when you need to.
Being a confident player isn't something that can be easily taught in a newsletter or article. Confidence is simply gained through playing experience. Without a lot of playing experience, the best thing to do is pretend! In card playing terminology that would be called having a "Poker Face. It is important that your opponent does not sense any uncertainty coming from you. Good OverPower players smell weakness like sharks smell blood! When all is said and done, it doesn't matter what your Legion Rating is, or what your tournament win/loss record is going into a game - it all comes down to one one one.
The other major stumbling block in playing with an aggressive Venture strategy is a reluctance to give your opponent cards. Unless there are extenuating circumstances (like playing against a Draw deck), if your opponent ends up with less cards than you because of discarding or poor Placing there is no reason you should fear giving your opponent a card or two. Just remember to try and keep an overall card advantage.
As the game goes on, there are a lot more factors that can influence your Venture. You know what your opponent discards and you can see what he has Placed. That's useful information! Make sure that you compare the number of points of damage that you can dish out to your opponent with how many points you know that your opponent can dish back to you. Always try to estimate how many points of damage he might have tucked away in his hand as well. As you gain playing experience you'll discover a way to estimate what works best for you. Starting out, try a "5-Point Average". That is, assume that each card in your opponent's Hand that you don't know can do 5 points of damage to your team. Not a guaranteed system, but then again, none of them are.
Once you know what the "Point Spread" is between you and your opponent, you'll be able to figure out what your Venture should be. If it matches up pretty even, then Venture light. But if you've got a lot more points don't be afraid to Venture heavy. Remember, each card he draws will potentially add to his Venture Total though!
Of course, there will always be exceptions to the rules. For example, there are Special cards that manipulate Venture so that the number of points left around doesn't matter as much as playing a few critical cards. Or, Special cards that allow for a mid-battle drawing. Still, these deck designs spring from a solid knowledge of good Venture strategy. Once you learn the system, you can learn how to make it work to your advantage!
Good Luck and Venture Well!
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Hate This? Try This!
Over the past few months, there has been an epidemic of "Negates" finding their way into practically every deck. Back in the early days of OverPower, the only time you had to worry about negates was if your opponent was using Beast or Scarlet Witch, and, to a VERY small degree, Longshot. Now, it seems like every deck is packing at least one character with the capacity to negate Specials, plus one or two negates tucked away in their Battlesite! What can you do to help fight the frustration factor? Here are a few tips that you can try out...
- Don't rely on Specials. The easiest way to avoid having your Special Cards negated is not to play any! It is entirely possible to build a solid offense out of Power Cards, Teamwork Cards, DoubleShot Cards, and Aspect Cards. Granted there are some Specials that you want to put in no matter what, but by not playing any offensive Specials, you don't provide your opponent with a target. Defensive Specials are still A-OK since your opponent can't react to your reaction with a negate. Therefore, any negates your opponent is holding become dead cards!
- Use Specials that cannot be negated. There are two flavors of these right now; the level 5 attack that cannot be defended with a Special card, and the infamous JW level 3 attack that allows a Power Card follow-up. Neither of these Specials can be defended with a Special card. Not only are these negate-proof, they are also avoid-proof, often breaking through some pretty solid defenses that rely heavily on Special cards.
- Use Specials that MUST be negated. The Flip side to the above tactic is to throw Specials that your opponent must use his precious negates on; such as, the level 2 and 3 attacks that can only be defended by a Special Card, or even the dual skill level 0 attacks from X-Men OverPower. They might not count much towards Venture, but if you can burn out your opponents negate (or even an avoid) then you have left them vulnerable for something bigger! At the very least you'll leave his characters with a couple of colors toward being Spectrum KO'd.
- Be Proactive! There are a few methods of doing this:
- KO the character! While this is definitely the most direct way to rid yourself of your opponents negates, it's also often the most difficult.
- Get rid of the card! If the negate is Placed, a "Discard one Placed card" Special will do wonders. And if they negate that? Well, at least they played the negate!
- Remove the ability to play! In this respect, a "Target character may not play any Specials for remainder of battle" Special is severely undervalued. Not only can it shut down a character's ability to play a negate, it also stop them from playing any Activators, as well as any other things involving Specials! In the right situation, this is a game winner!
- Negate Yourself! As they say, fight fire with fire. Although you can always negate the negate as they play it, if you can set yourself up to play Specials defensively so they have to negate on their turn, you can knock them out of the sky. Plus it gives you some added defense against other Specials as well.
But most important is that you don't get discouraged.
Remember that every action has a reaction -- especially in OverPower!
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Get Free OverPower Stuff!
Limited Edition Image OverPower Promo Card
Here's your chance to get your very own "Finite Power" Special card, featuring Todd McFarlane Productions greatest creation (That would be Spawn for people that've been living in a cave for the past few years!). What's more, this card is absolutely free. No hitch, no catch, no fine print. The card reads like this:
"Play on Target Character as an attack. For remainder of battle, Character may not attack unless Opponent also discards 2 cards per attack. Cards may be Placed or in Hand."
Sound interesting? Here's what you do to get yours. Just fill out the coupon below and mail it off to the OverPower Legion. As soon as we get your coupon, we'll drop the card in the mail and send it back to you. It is imperative that you include your correct mailing address on the coupon or you won't get your card! And there cards are in limited supply, so this offer is only good while supplies last.
This card will not be reprinted!
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Next Issue
Preparing for the 1999 Regionals & Nationals!
The Inner Circle!
(End of '98 Standings)
- Myles Head - Cincinnati, Ohio
- Aaron Lypczynski - Buffalo, New York
- Mike Thomas - Depew, New York
- Phil Keffer - Kemp Hill, Pennsylvania
- Morgan Ellis - Bellingham, Washington
- Marc Couture - West Allis, Wisconsin
- Matt Fell - Merced, California
- Michael J. Owens - Louisville, Kentucky
- Phil Miller - Ashville, Ohio
- Eric Counts - Chicago, Illinois
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