Tag Archives: Liliana Vess

Major and Minor- SpartanNerd Commentary and review of Mythic Legions Magic Effects

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Pictured: MASTERVERSE Revelation Orko, armed with Animal Warriors of the Kingdom magic staff, displaying Heroic and Evil Magic blast effects.

Maybe you didn’t know, but in addition to being a SpartanNerd and Reverend, he is also a chorus teacher…Yep. With a MMED in Music Education with an emphasis on sight reading music.

Now that I got that qualification (perhaps dis-qualification) out of the way, here is something they teach you at Music Teacher school. You shouldn’t tell the kids that Major sounds happy and Minor sounds sad. They can be either one. A great many country songs with sad subjects are in a Major key, and plenty of party-down rock and pop songs are in a Minor key. So…where is this going in regards to reviewing toys?

Did you catch what I might be talking about from looking at the above four images? The Four Horsemen are presenting the primarily blue and green magic effects as good, and the red and purple as evil. I have learned that the image on the back of the heroic effects depicts Aracagorr, who is a good-guy boss, and the one on the back of the evil effects depicts Poxxus, a bad-guy boss. Why are they pigeon-holing these effects? Outside of Star Wars, this kind of color-coding doesn’t happen much. I mean, it does. It seems like GI Joe might have green-blue blasts and Cobra has red-pink blasts. But some things turn this thinking on its head. The Joker looks cheery and happy, and someone who never saw him before might not think he was evil, but Batman might be construed as evil with the black cape and dark armor. Magic the Gathering flips this script also, Liliana is part of The Gatewatch and is a black-aligned character…White-aligned Heliod showed himself to be a Villain. Final Fantasy X and X-2 also have black mages on the good side. Elden Ring…is anyone good and evil?

How about this? Elemental magic. Lightning is orange or yellow. Ice is clear or white or blue. Life magic tends to show green. Fire orange, red, black. My point is that magic effects is one of the areas of the toy collecting and photography hobby where the fans can be more creative. Right off the bat I disagree with the philosophy the Four Horsemen are giving us for magic and blast effects. And I intend to prove that in the review below.

What do we get in the boxes?

Both are identical, but with different color schemes. You can see them in the packaging clearly, but here is one unpacked.

I’ll go from left to right. A long stringy swirl. 2 large discs, 2 medium discs, and 2 small discs. 2 swirling mists. (I believe the one on the left to be warped…even better then). A long lightning effect and a short lightning effect. A long magic snake effect. And a short skull effect.

Photos of the Mythic Legions Magic Effects in action

I am not going to show that many Mythic Legions toys in this review. So brace yourself. I don’t actually have that many, but I have wanted magic and blast effects for a long time for my action figures. These are the perfect size of six-inch scale. So prepare to see Masters of the Universe Classics, MASTERVERSE, Marvel Legends, and maybe some other things, as well as Mythic Legions.

Pictured: Marvel Legends comic book Thanos with Infinity Gauntlet hand. Mythic Legions Evil and Heroic magic effects skulls.

The little skulls are my favorite. The different colors highlight that Thanos is holding two different souls. Not necessarily good and evil. Because I am talking about mixing it up, why couldn’t one be Green Lantern and the other The Flash!

Pictured: Marvel Legends comic book Thor with Mythic Legions Heroic and Evil lightning effects. What we really need is that lightning in yellow, orange, or white.

Marvel Legends comic book Thor is my worst action figure. The lightning effects really add something to a character like this!

Pictured: MASTERVERSE Revelation Evil Lyn and Teela, both with their hair-down head scupts, and MASTERVERSE Revelation Sorceress. Teela is also armed with the MOTUC Great Unrest Staff of Ka. Also pictured are a variety of Mythic Legions Heroic and Evil Magic effects, and the two halves of the Power Sword from MASTERVERSE Revelation King Greyskull.

That “Pictured” caption took forever to type. Anyway, here I depict a scene where the Sorceress tells Teela and Evil Lyn about the two halves of the Power Sword. The magic effects add a lot to the scene.

Pictured: MASTERVERSE Revelation King Grayskull with Mythic Legions Heroic and Evil magic effects.

The back of King Grayskull’s box depicts an image that looks something like this. (I suppose I need to post a review of King Grayskull and the Sorceress soon.)

Pictured: Four Horsemen Studios Demistros, Mythic Legions Skeleton Legion Builder, who is armed with MASTERVERSE New Eternia “Viking” Skeletor’s scimitar and MASTERVERSE Revelation Teela’s shield.

Here they are with some actual Mythic Legions figures. Demistros is bringing this skeleton warrior back to life. The swirling mist adds something. It is given life by the green soul skull escaping from the red portal. If I had used the red skull, would that story be as clear? Nope.

Pictured: MASTERVERSE Comic-Con exclusive Scareglow with diorama box, MASTERVERSE Revelation Teela, armed with The Great Unrest Weapons pack armor and staff of Ka. Cosmic Legions Silver Figure Stand, Mythic Legions green snake effect and green skull effect. An aquarium plant hides the stand.

I didn’t realize that the snake effect was actually a snake until I took this picture. While I am at it, notice that I have Scareglow mounted on the Cosmic Legions Action Figure Stand. So I am going to take a break for a quick review of that as a bonus under the ratings section below.

Pictured: MASTERVERSE Revelation Evil Lyn and Teela. Evil Lyn has Mythic Legions swirling mist effect. Teela has the red snake effect.

It seems to me that the red snake effect is perfect for the Staff of Ka. Which brings up another point. The Four Horsemen sculpted the Masters of the Universe Classics, and there were a bunch of snake staves sculpted for that line especially for the Snake Men faction. Dare I assert that this magic effect calls back to that?

SpartanNerd Rating of Mythic Legions Heroic Magic Effects and Mythic Legions Evil Magic Effects

Before this review, I actually already used some of the effects in my pictures in reviews on this site. This is a new and very useful item. It adds so much to really so many toys. I only scratched the surface! We need more things like this. The Mythic Legions Magic Effects plays nice in any sandbox. You could definitely use that lightning in Star Wars. You could put those smoke effects behind a Hot Wheels car or something. Disney Barbie dolls. Maleficent. Pokémon. Zelda action figures. I don’t own any of these, but oh the potential! Multiple scales, too. And apply them to the vintage toys like you always wanted.

My hangup is the assertion that the red effects are evil and the blue effects are good. That’s like saying you could only use Metallic crayons for transformers. You can only put ketchup on french fries. You can only add rubber ducks to Jeeps, not Ford trucks (I saw one today with ducks on the dash). I am surprised that this assertion came from such a well-rounded studio.

The sculpts are nice. The product does seem a little bit brittle. I am careful, but some kid out there probably wouldn’t be. But these were made for adult collectors, so…

I bought both sets and am scoring them the same. 5/5. They add very much to all of my collection, and I know they will to yours too!

BONUS: Cosmic Legions Silver Figure Stand.

After such a glowing review…time for a not-so-glowing one, lest you assert I am some kind of loyalist…(Everyone who reads this stuff knows I am honest to a fault perhaps.).

The stand stinks!

The stand came in this polybag with a yellow sticker- (see the photo near the top of the page.)

When you assemble it, well…it seems like the vertical end of the stand should be flush with the platform, doesn’t it. And in fact I have seen pictures of other peoples stand where it is. But mine would not click in. And I used a good screwdriver and a good wife to try and tighten it up. No matter what pressure I put, no matter how tight I made the screws, this “daylight” wouldn’t go away. I was afraid I was going to break it if I kept trying to force it.

If only that was the only problem.

When I was posing my figures outdoors reviewing the Animal Warriors of the Kingdom Red Weapons Loot box, I made a picture of Man-At-Arms using the bow and arrow. (See the review with the picture here.)

I put Duncan in the stand, but realized a problem.

The business end of the stand has this metal claw. Now there were these little rubber bits that covered the metal “points” of this claw. As I was posing the figure, they came off! Luckily no damage was done, and miraculously I kept them from being lost in the grass. But they didn’t make it this review, did they? Now if I use the stand, I have to consider that it might scratch the paint or damage the figure. (You can see these rubber pieces in the Scareglow picture).

My advice, SKIP THIS ONE!

Rating of the Cosmic Legions Silver Figure Stand: 1/5. This thing is awful. I know it is for the science fiction version of Mythic Legions, and I don’t even mind the silver metallic stand. That is fine for whatever. But the assembly went wrong. The rubber things came off and have since been lost while using the stand for its intended function. I worry about damaging figures if I use it. There are better stands out there for your money.

One might argue that it is because I used MASTERVERSE figures instead of Four Horsemen figures. To that I assure you that there isn’t enough difference in the thickness of their waists. I also assert that a figure stand should be versatile. Any action figure within reason should work. Thanos wouldn’t be within reason, so I didn’t try that one. Man-At-Arms should have been fine.

San Diego Comic Con Exclusive Scareglow

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Follow this link to see video of the SpartanNerd talking about this package. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vypm_1GfnJPw5OGGSxXQHT4gJBCdpj6a/view?usp=sharing

I was in Columbia South Carolina (GO GAMECOCKS) and decided to shop for some toys at the local collector store, LT Toys and Stuff. This is a nice place with a good selection of things that interest me. (It was my first time of going there). A good selection of MASTERVERSE figures. On the top shelf I saw the box for Scareglow, but didn’t know what it was, so when I asked for help and the worker opened the box, I was pretty much immediately sold.

Now, before anyone says anything about me paying this price, I know that this figure has been “reprinted” at a lower price point. But do you get the box with that? NOPE. You see, this box is very under appreciated. Think about it, Hub City Geeks…this is the only toy representation of Subternia we will probably ever have. Let that sink in… Do you think they are making a setpiece for Subternia? Some kind of castle? Nope. This cardboard cave is it. Likely all we will ever have. So I am going to take full advantage of this admittedly limited item until it is totally worn out.

Speaking of worn out, I bought this used. Sealed and new is going for $120 ish. The sleeve thing on the front is the only piece that really shows any wear.

After opening it up, I decided I didn’t want the blister so I just tossed that. Here is what you get in the box. Scareglow, who has a cloth cape with a wire in it for posability and features a rubber collar, two alternate hands (one fist and the other opened,) a scythe, and a power sword that features two separable parts.

You can see that this sword is ridiculously oversized. My big question is “why?” I know this story…who doesn’t if you are a MOTU fan? Yes, the sword is separated and must be united…blah blah blah. Why. Is. It. So. Stupidly. Big?

I mean, in the Revelation show, Evil Lyn and Orko (and others) go and ask for the dark half of the Power Sword from Scareglow. You can see that even Scareglow holding the purple half himself looks better than that massive one that looks like some kind of Burger King toy.

These two pieces have a peg to help them stick together, and they go into the hilt by snapping in. You can cross-color it, with yellow on the purple side and purple on the yellow side. These don’t appear to glow, sadly.

OK. So what else besides the sword.

The scythe looks pretty good, and the end of it does glow. So what about the glowing? I am photographing this with a blue light filter, to help make the glowing “pop.” The head glows, apparently molded in glowing plastic. The rest of the glowing is paint. BUT…this isn’t the classic Scareglow look is it? Check the image below for a little comparison.

MEGA Scareglow IS using the correct glowing effect. (The black and white filter helps highlight what I am saying.). Most of his body…maybe all of it is molded in glowing plastic, and then there are black shadows painted on. The MASTERVERSE figure mostly reverses this effect. So there are more dark pieces than glowing pieces. The only reason I can figure for the change is to try and match with the animation. Revelation is the first time we saw Scareglow in cartoon form, so maybe they just tried to make it faithful to that version. I wonder if there might be a New Eternia Scareglow eventually, and maybe even one that can get the spider legs like we saw in the recent Revolution show.

How does the head look on other figures? Skeletor is fine. This head, with the paint job…it reminds me of something from the Eternia War comics…or the DC Comic series that led into it. I am not sure which. But it seems that Skeletor had some kind of skull that he used to communicate with the Horde or something, and eventually he gets mad and kicks it away. I will have to go back through those books and investigate that story. But the skull does remind me of that.

If you put it on a generic Mythic Legion skeleton, it looks ok, but not much neck. The Mythic Legion peg system doesn’t work well with the ball and socket MASTERVERSE joint. I tried to remedy this with the wrist bracer from another figure, and then with the forearm joint. They just don’t work. But he does look creepy with it just sitting on the collar like that.

If you want him to be more generic, I highly suggest it. Just remove the cape and put some kind of helmet on him. Now Liliana of the Veil is his boss.

My rating of the San Diego Comic Con Scareglow is 4/5. Here is my reasoning. That sword just stinks. I mean, the glow effect could be different. But is it wrong? I believe there will be another more classic looking release eventually. And as a glowing paint job on a figure, this is just fine. His articulation is fine, and that cape has a wire in it, making that more posable. The packaging is its own toy and carries over any other flaws I can find.

I mean, with glowing filters added on, you can make other figures really pop. Here is the 200x Zodak figure with MOTUC Faceless One’s Havoc Staff…they look like they should look in Subternia. (Please, Mattel, give us this version of Zodac again. He was the best!)

So do you agree with my rating of 4/5? Let me know in the comments!

SpartanNerd…Dual Deck Anthology Vacation matchups.

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The only Magic cards I took with me on my recent vacation was pre-constructed decks.  I took the entire Duel Deck Anthology box, and stuffed it with loads of Commander, other duel decks, and the solitaire decks.  The box was great for transporting my cards!  (I removed the tray for the first time, and discovered a Serial Number!

I held two memorable Duel Deck matches with the SpartanKid, before our interest shifted to testing the French Dark Ascension deck I purchased.

Following is a record of what happened during those two matches!

Elves Vs. Liliana

The match was generally unfair at first.  I was piloting Liliana, of course, and knew what I was up against.  I kept a hand full of removal!  I knew it would be important to keep as many elves from sticking to the board as possible.  At around turn six, the SpartanKid wasn’t having any fun.  He began saying,”This isn’t fair!”  Deathgreeter ensured that I kept gaining life as creatures died.  Lucky for him, I was out of removal.  But I had Enslave ready because I knew eventually the SpartanKid would try for Allosaurus Rider, one of the Elf deck’s most insane cards, controlled by one of Liliana’s most broken cards!

True to form, he played that Allosaurus Rider, and then I hit it with Enslave.  .

It was Lys Alana, Huntmaster that landed next, and I had no response.  The game became very grindy, eventually getting lots of traction for the elf deck.  That Allosaurus Rider went down to the Voice of the Woods token.

Down but not out, I cast Rise from the Grave, getting the Allosaurus Rider back, and even better than ever late in the game, with ten lands on the field!

But all of this effort was not removal.  Imperious Perfect and Ambush Commander hit the battlefield, and the game was pretty much over.  In fact, Liliana Vess was the final thing I cast.  Too little, too late.  It was GG.  Elves took the victory!  I was two turns away from Mutilate, which would have totally shifted the game back in Liliana’s favor.

Later, we would play Divine vs. Liliana.

It all seemed grim.  The Angels were truly beating down Liliana’s deck.  (Recently, when I read the fiction put on the Mothership Site, Liliana would remark that Angels were “goody two-shoes.”)

Then I drew Liliana, and used her to tutor up Mutilate in the face of Twilight Shepherd and Akroma.  But Twilight Shepherd has that pesky persist ability, and also brings things back to the battlefield from the graveyard that died on the same turn.

And that was pretty much it.  The Divine Deck truly is a casual masterpiece of destruction!  Really, almost none of the decks can stand against them except for Jace and Chandra…Jace who controls and cancels and bounces angels, and chandra who burns everything except Akroma, (but it doesn’t matter, because it takes so long to cast Akroma.  However, the life gain of the Divine deck can be frustrating against burn.)

(I posted a review of matches between Liliana and the Angels once before, and had different things to say…)

The Duel Deck Anthology has proven to be one of the greatest gifts for a Magic player.  It was reasonably priced.  Resaonably rare.  Reasonably cool.  And nicely archival.  I hope the Wizards release more of these Anthologys in the future.  I am a dedicated purchaser at this point!

SpartanNerd…Cool Idea- Photograph Toys with a Black Light!

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Just some fun I had today…something really substantial forthcoming, however, oh Hub City Geeks!

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Skeletor is just about my favorite subject to photograph.  With a black light, his face looks extra gruesome.

I thought it would be cool to put the Havoc Staff that came with the Faceless One in the black light.  It isn’t that apparent in the pic below, but the pink translucent details on the “powered up” part of the staff changed bone white!

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Here is Modulock wearing the alternate Beast Man armor.  The unusual and unexpected thing is the plastic on the torso and visible in his joints at the knees and elbows glow a different color in the black light!  I noticed this with Draego Man too.  (Not pictured)

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I’ve never thought that the vintage Mantenna was a very menacing looking figure.  (This is my original toy from the 1980’s.)  Placing a blacklight on him changes this.  The red details become that salmon-isn color, which contrasts to the blue parts of his body that disappear in the blacklight somewhat.  His eyeball paint is about gone, but because of this it makes that weird thing that is his mouth seem extra creepy!

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The cool thing about Grimlock isis weapons.  They look translucent amber in person.  In the blacklight, though they pp like the science fiction things they should pop like.

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Last but not least, LILIANA!  The cool thing about this pic is as I was editing it with iPhoto, I was playing with the sharpness controls.  Lilliana almost disappeared when the control was at 0.  As you moved the slider, she would slowly appear or disappear!  Just like magic!  Because her substantially exposed skin is “flesh-tone”, and her clothes are all purple, this caused the disappearing effect.  I wish I had a modded Liliana card with this picture on it!

SpartanNerd…For the Love of Liliana! (help!)

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I have put together a home-brew black discard deck built around Liliana Vess…and I have been playing it…competitively I might add, at the Tangled Web* for the past three weeks.

It has done reasonably well…averaging a win half of the time and splitting that other half with losses and draws.  The problem is, I want to make it a star.  I’m just not sure how?  Here is my decklist.

Lands

  • 22 Swamps

Creatures

  • 4 Black Cat
  • 3 Master of the Feast
  • 1 Erebos, God of the Dead
  • 2 Gray Merchant
  • 1 Abhorrent Overlord

Spells

  • 4 Thoughtsieze
  • 4 Despise
  • 3 Hero’s Downfall
  • 2 Sign in Blood
  • 4 Dark Deal
  • 2 Murderous Cut

Enchantments

  • 1 Whip of Erebos
  • 4 Waste Not

Planeswalkers

3 Liliana Vess

Sideboard**

  • 2 Dark Betrayal
  • 1 Hero’s Downfall
  • 4 Bile Blight
  • 1 Pharika’s Cure
  • 1 Nighthowler
  • 4 Staff of the Death Magus
  • 1 Master of the Feast
  • 1 Liliana Vess

How I’ve been playing the deck…

In my opening hand, I am looking for two lands (of coarse), 1 removal spell…probably Hero’s Downfall, Black Cat, Waste Not, and either Despise or Thoughtsieze.  I generally mulligan if I don’t have some kind of disruption…for instance, Master of the Feast might be good in an opening hand against some Jeskai chump decks.  But our meta-game has shifted away from that it seems.  And the Master is generally removed before he can get two attack phases.

I ideally want to get Waste Not online, and really stick it to my opponent.  Lately there has been ZERO enchantment removal in the meta-game.  And Waste Not seems innocuous, until three Zombie Tokens are staring at you.  The deck plays great against most aggro decks, and Master of the Feast makes sure that they have a card in their hand for you to discard and get value from your Waste Not in the mid-game…(The ideal mid-game has an opponent top-decking.)

A couple of cool things that happened over the past few weeks…Liliana ultimate-ed in three matches last week!  This week I was able to produce 20 Zombie tokens on turn five!  (two copies of Waste Not, into a Dark Deal).  Someone Aetherspout-ed Master of the Feast, and said “will he go to the top or the bottom of your deck.”  I chose option C, which was Dark Betrayal, sending him to the graveyard! And the first week I played this deck, someone tried to cancel my Murderous Cut, only to have me cast another copy on top of the stack!

The problem is a new deck has emerged…a near mirror that uses Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver instead of Liliana.  This deck has two big advantages…Dig Through Time, and the planeswalker herself.  I have played against “Esper” variations that also used Elspeth, Sun’s Champion but this past week it was “Sultai” that was taking the stage, featuring Kiora, the Crashing Wave and  Pearl Lake Ancient.  These decks basically are designed to hold off any strategy with Cancel type spells, get a lot of card advantage out of Dig Through Time and scry lands, and hope to eventually drop that bomb…casting the cards exiled with Ashiok, just good old Aertherling style beatdown with the uncountable and hard to kill Pearl Lake Ancient, or ultimate-ing either Elspeth or Kiora, which is generally Good Game.

The past two weekends I have bumped into these decks, and either lost or came to a draw with them.  Lilliana isn’t good against burn decks, and generally I have to side in removal for the small creatures like Goblin Rabblemaster for game two.  I don’t mind losing to those decks…they do what they do, well. What bothers me is what I am playing is pitting black based long form Magic the Gathering against other players who want to go long, but the losing and tie-ing should be able to be overcome.  My “Early Game” and “Mid Game” are good…the “Long Game” is what is in question.

I have made minor adjustments to get the deck where it is now…I added a second Gray Merchant to play this week.  And that was a good choice.  Someone might wonder why not a full four copies, but it stops being a discard deck and wants to become a full on devotion deck.  I specifically switched Brain Maggot out with Black Cat because the Brain Maggot is just a bad Oblivion Ring.  It is really better in devotion decks.  The Black Cat is deterrent.  Unless the person has a hand that they don’t mind getting randomly wrecked and activating Waste Not triggers.

I have found that four copies of Dark Deal are just unnecessary.  This is the first thing I am changing…bumping that down to two copies.  I am also considering dumping Master of the Feast.  He is great for getting cards in the opponents hand.  But he is usually removed after (or during) the attack phase in late mid-game.  I heard a seasoned player, correctly say…”You don’t want control players to have extra cards in their hands.”  He’s right.  That is why the enemy deck is running Dig Through Time and Jace’s Ingenuity.

I am considering switching the Master of the Feast out for Sign in Blood, and using that only to target my opponents when they don’t have cards.  (I am guilty of hitting myself with Sign in Blood.)  This would mean main-decking that other copy of Liliana Vess…or would it?  Another whip or another Erebos?  Erebos is good for that corner card advantage, generally a non-threat to the opponent but I love it when he activates.  I have never ran more than two whips.  Actually, I don’t ever want two of either in my hand, ever.  And that’s why.  Also, this past week for the first time, I really wished I had a Bile Blight to tutor up with Liliana main-deck.  So that will be added.

Hub City Geeks, HELP!  Send me your advice on how I might improve this deck. I’m not sure if I’m playing this Friday night or not…I have a class on Saturday.  Next time I get to play standard, I want Liliana to be at the top!

*Be on the lookout for brand new SpartanNerd Business cards!  If you played me, then you got one!

**(That sideboard is really to protect against Burn and some of the beatdown trick decks that have emerged.  Sometimes I have to side in over ten cards, depending on my opponent.  I am siding in Staff of the Death Magus, which makes it harder for them to be effective.  Usually I am taking out one copy of Waste Not, and this past week a couple of Dark Deals.  Also I prefer not to Thoughtsieze against that fast burn or Red Deck Wins.  Also, I usually switch out Murderous Cut for Dark Betrayal if I am playing another black deck.)