Marvel Decade Variant Covers Are Bringing It Back.

That is our darling Rogue, doing the Vogue, as homage to Madonna. The glorious variant cover for X-Men Legacy #225 is part of Marvel Comics’ celebration of their 70th Anniversary. They are doing the decades.

Check. That. Out.  Yes, it’s true. Longshot dancing the Thriller in honor of the Eighties. Mulletman + Michael Jackson = Classic. Marvel Zombies #3. Turn it up as loud as it goes and get real scared.

Yep, you guessed it. John Travolta is a giant hairy monkey. Gorilla Night Fever. Agents of Atlas #7 takes the Seventies THERE. That is all.

Monday Masterpiece Memories: Mulletman and Trask.

   

That was the card that made me famous, but it took a long time to warm up to the bad blonde hairstyle. First I flew the purple with a man named Trask.

   

Original Vs. System Art: Mojoverse.

   

That card has seen play at the highest level on the Pro Circuit (in Curve Sentinels) and in some seriously sloppy Hobby League action (Ponies!). Now we get to gaze on its original art glory.

Mulletman showcase for the win.

Going Rogue.

That amazing upgrade to the girl with the ultimate empathy powers was drawn by jollyjack, and it leads me to a major collision of mythological loyalty.

Squirrel Girl, Longshot, or Rogue?

When it comes to the best first turn play in the history of Vs. System, that is my dilemma. I love them all with all my heart. Mulletman and Bushy Tail both feed my taste for one-drop army candy swarms, but I have always had a huge soft spot for Rogue alongside mad respect for the advice of the Pro Circuit Champions of the game.

Enter David Leader.

The man they call “Disney” is as good as it gets when it comes to real strategy theory. Our new Rogue card actually caused him to gush. Her ability to create massive resource acceleration is taking off the gloves and teasing me with my favorite white-striped Southern Sweetie as an alternative to my usual weenie-fest on Turn one. It all revolves around the new mechanic called Shift, and David Leader explains how good it can be:

Turn 1: Shift counter on Shadowcat.
Turn 2: Proteus, add Shift counter to Shadowcat.
Turn 3: Shift out Blink and any other 3 drop (2 resource points), exhaust Proteus to add a counter to the other 3-drop (hopefully Iron Man), pay 1 to bring in Shadowcat, exhaust to bring in Blink, put down your 3 drop. If it was Iron Man, stun your hunted and drop a 2-drop.

As for drafting Shift, it’s like Boost; even if I’m not playing those teams, I want some of it in my deck, because it helps solve one of draft’s biggest potential issues: failing to use all of your resource points typically results in a loss.

And I do agree that Rogue is the best Turn 1 play ever.

So there you have it. The godhand of Shift domination, a reason to draft toward it, and the thing that is driving me more mad than ever.

Squirrel Girl, Longshot, or Rogue?

Longshot loves Arsenic. He loves her a lot.

How blonde are you? That’s the flavor text of the Runaways’ one-drop Vs. System character, and she rocks Longshot’s world. The Mulletman is blonde as it gets.

Gertrude Yorkes also give a wink and a nod to any weenie-loving Ratcatcher fan who was looking to ride The Leapfrog into an evasion-burn black hole of cardboard glory.

In other words, Stu happy. Stu VERY happy.

This is gonna work. More than I ever imagined it could.

Leave me a comment, or just stay tuned. My drawing board just lit up like a nuclear powered disco ball. The party is ON.

The Mulletman returns, and the third time really is the charm.

That’s the last original art Mulletman. I found it on the deviantart page of the dearly departed genius who penned it.

Throwing preview protocol for a twisted hanging curve, it comes with the spoiled new Longshot card that was revealed on Realms. Make sure you are sitting down if you haven’t seen this yet. It looks to be real.

Longshot, Earth-Mojoverse
Cost: 1
Atk: 2 Def: 1
Range: Yes Flight: No
Team: Exiles * X-Men

Shift

When Longshot enters play, name a card, then rally for a card with that name three times.

Third time’s the charm!

MEV-142

I am having a difficult time with this. I am on the verge of tears. It is just. So. Beautiful.

While I am trying to compose myself, please help me out in the comments. How does Shift make the ability even better, because I cannot think of a better card ability for every single deck I have ever built.

The third time really is the charm.

I blog, therefore I am.

(Longshot, Rebel Freedom Fighter from: http://abraibarnabas.deviantart.com/)

Andrew Sullivan has been one of the most entertaining writers in the world during the whirlwind 21 months of this most spectacular presidential election.  Today he goes all meta on us.  I just eat this stuff up.  Don’t you?

For centuries, writers have experimented with forms that evoke the imperfection of thought, the inconstancy of human affairs, and the chastening passage of time. But as blogging evolves as a literary form, it is generating a new and quintessentially postmodern idiom that’s enabling writers to express themselves in ways that have never been seen or understood before. Its truths are provisional, and its ethos collective and messy. Yet the interaction it enables between writer and reader is unprecedented, visceral, and sometimes brutal. And make no mistake: it heralds a golden era for journalism.

Call it journalism, call it art, call it whatever you want.  I call it freedom.  Creative anarchy.  Blissfully boisterous community, unfettered.

This blog has served as a (relatively) permanent mirror for the inside of my chaotic skull for the past 14 months.  I really appreciate the ability to track my own behavior with such clarity, and I enjoy sharing my personal foibles with the wider world.

Over at Daily Kos, I have built up a similar stash of observational droppings, mostly centered on Barack Obama’s magnificent campaign for the White House.  The feedback there has been phenomenal, and no one can deny the thrill of knowing that people are actually reading your stuff.  Recommended list aside, my favorite moment was the day my diary got rescued.

A rescued diary is a cherished piece of writing in the eyes of some incredibly respected readers.  The fact that mine was a meta rant about this revolution in self-publishing that we wallow wildly together in this morning?  Full circle gravy.  Existence has never been more expansive.  I blog, therefore I am.

Mulletman Owns All.

Okay, I need you to confirm this.  My eyes must be deceiving me.  Check that banner on top.   Magneto is facing off against… Longshot?  For real?  We.  Have.  Arrived.

Mulletman for the win.

The full body transplant experience.

(photoshoppery of real plastic body armor by Rian Fike.)

The full body transplant experience grows from the urge to become the object of your desire, to merge completely into one glowing entity, to be totally in love. Not love like hearts and possessions, but love like fire.

Nina and I met under a full moon on Miami Beach at midnight, and we recognized each other from twelve previous lifetimes together. (I wrote a short story about the other lifetimes, but I forgot where I put it.) We were each accomplished Chaos Magicians, and we were both filled with the most insanely intense desire for each other.

We knew this was the one, so we waited. We waited one entire year before our first kiss. Magick often involves sacrifice, and the power we were building was focused on one of its most exalted rituals. We were going to switch bodies.

I am not one to switch and tell, but I can share some of the side effects. We began to release the exact same pheromones. We could talk without words. Sometimes our faces disappeared when we looked into each other’s eyes.

We have never sought a scientific explanation for the experience, but one day I was pixeling around with Photoshop for the next wave, I hooked up with Nick Herbert and his Quantum Tantra trip. Nick is the real deal. His experiments with the accelerators at Stanford have combined with the confirmed existence of the quantum dimensions of other realities, enough to hear an echo of the full body transplant experience in deep physics. Yes, it is very possible that the human mind is a form of consciousness that can “switch bodies” with any other physical structure, including inanimate objects. If the thing you are joining with is on the other side of the Universe, all your transportation problems are solved.

This quantum effect creates very very dangerous possibilities, but it also solves all problems associated with ethics, and Nick Herbert calls it the Golden Rule 2.0. When he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in response, he actually used some of my illustrations in his presentation. You can click over to his site for more information…

Here’s your link, merge at your own risk:

http://members.cruzio.com/~quanta/goldenrule4.html

I know it is possible to switch bodies with someone or something else, I’ve done it.  I can’t give you detailed instructions, but the first step is the courage to give yourself permission.