Rules Focus

This week: March 26 - April 2, 2000

Welcome to the first ever Rules Focus. This week we will focus on the New England alternative rules about team construction; the biggest single change is the "cost capping" system which has already been gaining support in the Overpower community in recent months.

What's Different

3-grid characters' costs are equal to the sum of their grid values plus 4, even if more than one such character is played.
Many characters' costs are reduced by the "cost capping" rules
Some of the Marvel vs. Wildstorm hero cards now count as variants, and can be played with the other version of the same character.

The team construction rules are pretty simple to explain. You still get 76 points to build your team, and a character's cost is still based on the character's ability scores. The difference is, you can use a character's "cost cap" instead of their grid cost to determine how many points that character costs, if you want. To be more specific, here's how you determine how many points a character costs to play:

If the character has an inherent ability that sets their point cost to a specific value, that is their point cost. Example: Hydra costs 18 points to play, regardless of her cost cap or her grid cost.
If the character is to be played on the front line, that character's cost is the lesser of the character's cost cap or its grid cost. Example: IQ Banshee's (7-5-3-5) grid cost is 20, but his cost cap is 17, so he costs 17 points to play on the front line.
If the character is to be played starting in the reserve, that character's cost is the lesser of the character's cost cap plus two or its grid cost. Example: IQ Banshee's grid cost is 20, and his cost cap is 17, so he costs 19 points to play in reserve.

Determining a character's grid cost is simple. If the character has four abilities, the grid cost is the sum of the abilities. Otherwise, the grid cost is the sum of the abilities, plus 4. For example, IQ Jubilee (6-4-2-4) has a grid cost of 16, while the original 3-stat Jubilee (6-3-1) has a grid cost of 14.

Determining a character's cost cap is also simple. The cost cap is based only on the ability scores of 6 or higher the character has, plus a couple of other minor factors. To determine a character's cost cap, start with 14. Then,

Add 1 point for each 6.
Add 2 points for each 7.
Add 3 points for each 8.
Add 1 point if the character's highest ability value is 7.
Add 2 points if the character's highest ability value is 8.

For example, IQ Magneto's grid is 8-5-3-6. His cost cap value is

                            14         (base cost)
                           +1          (one 6)
                           +3          (one 8)
                           +2          (highest value is 8)
                           ------
                            20

Thus, Magneto's cost cap is 20 points, while his grid cost is 22 points.

Certain inherent abilities can also increase a character's cost cap.

Add 1 point if the character has an inherent ability with the word "KO" in it. For example, IQ Deadpool's (3-7-5-3) inherent ability is "May not be spectrum KO'd with Multipower power cards." Thus his cost cap is 14+2+1+1 = 18 points.
Add 1 point for each point of continuous venture bonus/penalty from the character's inherent ability. For example, Blue Beetle's (4-6-4-5) ability is "Team is +2 to venture each battle," so his cost cap is 14+1+2 = 17 points.
Add 1 point for each additional grid point provided by an inherent ability. For example, Captain Mar-vell's (6-6-6-4) inherent ability is "Energy power grid is 8 for defense." Thus his cost cap is 14+3+2 = 19 points.

There are three exceptions to these rules about cost-capping. They are:

Beyonder always costs 28 points.
Galactus always costs 24 points.
Onslaught always costs 23 points.

Your team must consist of four characters, three of which start on the front line and one of which starts in the reserve position. All teams must be played with a homebase, and the team you play must match the restrictions listed on the homebase. If the homebase is character-specific, all the characters you play must be listed on the homebase. Otherwise, they must abide by the point value restriction listed above AND whatever restrictions are listed there.

Certain characters have multiple versions. Some of these versions, called "clones," are basically variants of the same character, and only one can be played on your team. You can recognize these by the fact that they have the same main name as each other. The main name of a character is the part of that character's name that appears before the colon, or the whole name if there is no colon. For example, Wolverine: Age of Apocalypse and Wolverine both have Wolverine as their main name, so they count as clones of one another.

The other kind of different versions of characters are called "variants." These are different characters who can play the same special cards. Variants can be recognized by their inherent abilities which say things like "can play X specials." For example, Dark Beast is a variant of Beast, and Golden Age Wolverine is a variant of Wolverine. Variants count as different characters and can be played on the same team as one another. However, variants of a character listed on a location cannot be substitued for the character listed on the location. For instance, Beast cannot be played on an Age of Apocalypse home base, and Dark Beast cannot be played on a Danger Room home base.

Because the game makers were not clear on this distinction when certain cards were printed, we have the following rulings for clarification. Daemonite Voodoo, Golden Age Wolverine, and Future Backlash count as variants, while Batman Avenger, Batman Detective, Commisioner James Gordon, Catwoman Whiplash, Ra's al Ghul Swordmaster, and Twoface Crimeboss all count as clones.

    Q&A
    Q: Why did you guys make characters cost more in reserve if their grid cost is higher than their cost cap?
    A: That's pretty simple, really. We did that so that people wouldn't always be able to play one of the most popular reserve characters - Spider Woman, Flash, and Velocity - with a very expensive front line. Why? Simple - people already play Spider-Woman and Flash very often, and Velocity would show up pretty frequently if she could be played for 15 points in reserve. Of course, these characters are still not hard to play with from reserve, but their point cost with the extra two points is just not so low that they'd show up in every deck. Cost capping was designed to help the underplayed characters; this rule helped us by NOT helping some overplayed ones quite so much.

Q: Will any of these rules make one of my old decks illegal under your rules?
A: It's very unlikely. Under the old rules, Golden Age Wolverine, Daemonite Voodoo, and Future Backlash counted as clones and not variants. Thus, if you used one on a character-specific homebase, that deck would be illegal under the altered rules. However, none of us have ever seen any of these characters played, so we don't think that'll be much of a problem. Otherwise, if your deck didn't have a home base, it would be illegal, but if that was the case you could always just add Omniverse or Marvel Universe (or Marvel Manhatten for that matter) and your deck would be better.

Q: What characters got the biggest cost reduction thanks to the cost-capping rules?
A: Quite a number of characters ended up costing 4 points less. Not all that many cost 5 points less. The following are the ones that do. Team X, New Warriors, PS Mr. Sinister, IQ Apocalypse, OP Cable, PS Ghost Rider, MC Vision, Comm. Gordon & the G.C.P.D, and Deathlok. None of the characters cost 6 points less.

Q: Won't this make deck-building more confusing?
A: I thought so at first, but it actually makes it easier once you've gotten used to it a little. Why? Well, when I think of a character, I can usually remember off the top of my head what that character's top scores are. For instance, I can definitely remember that Superman has 2 7's: in Energy and Strength. Now, I know that anyone with 2 7's (and no other scores above 5) costs at most 19 points on the front line, I don't have to try to remember Superman's other scores. Another example: suppose I'm building a Beyonder deck and I've chosen Beyonder plus two other characters, and need to choose the last one, and have 16 points available. I find it's pretty easy to think of it as 16 points = two 6's, and then think of characters who have double 6's. And of course if you forget about cost-capping rules completely, any deck you are able to build legally will still be legal. Why? Because the cost of a character, even in reserve, is always less than or equal to its cost under the old rules.