So... who the hell is Maggott?

An excellent question!

Maggott was an X-Men supporting character who popped up during all that Operation: Zero Tolerance tomfoolery a few years back. He appeared in about a dozen various X-comics over his career; he started on the main team, and then the creative team got sick of him and demoted him to Generation X. Those creators hated him too, so they featured him in the required one issue before having him wander off on his own. But even that wasn't enough-- some editor really wanted to make sure he never popped up again, so when, years later, he found himself in charge of a storyline involving a government prison which was interring and exterminating mutants, he made sure Maggott was on the guest list. That story left the possibility that a piece of Maggott might have survived the prison, so the editorial team made sure to show that piece locked up forever in a supervillain's lab.

In summary: it took the best efforts of four Marvel creative and editorial teams to get rid of him, but they all knew deep down that it was a mission worth doing.

Wow, Spud. You, uh... you sure know how to talk him up.

This one was me, though. I had to do all the card art myself because apparently the industry's top artists aren't big fans of the character. Go figure.

I sure do. Seriously though, even though I'm pretty sure I'm alone in this, I've always liked Maggott. Sure, his costume is ridiculous, and sure, he never contributed anything meaningful to the story once his ominous intro sequences fizzled out. But hot damn, I've always loved his powers. It's such a neat concept, and one that was ripped off in part by later X-Men writers (Fantomex, anyone?) without anybody seeming to notice. Plus, his slugs are cute.

Also, I'm pretty sure Joe Madureira designed him, and I've had a huge man-crush on Joe Mad since I started drawing, though that's evaporated somewhat since he started raping the unconscious, broken body of the Ultimates series.

You're really drifting, man.

Sorry. Maybe I should jump into his origin. Can you give me a title?

(*** The Origin of Maggott! ***)

I'm gonna let Wikipedia do the heavy lifting on this one.

See? I told you they were cute.

"Maggott had been born a sickly child in Apartheid-era South Africa and was named Japheth. He was always very ill and he could not digest solid food. Feeling himself to be a burden on his family, he ran away from home with his younger brother. Having left home, hoping to die, he was found by Magneto who released the slugs from his body and revealed to Japheth his mutant power. This turned his skin blue for the first time, and he named the slugs Eany and Meany. Compassionate at heart, Japeth immediately rejected Magneto's philosophy and his offer to join him after he shortly thereafter witnessed the Master of Magnetism brutally massacre numerous white South African soldiers who were engaged in racist atrocities against black South African civilians( one of whom was Japeth's eldest brother who died in the violence ). Despite this, he later sought out Magneto when he got older, for help in easing the pain caused by his unique mutation. After the then-current roster of the team parted ways, the X-Man Beast suggested Maggott transfer to the junior team Generation X, but his tenure there lasted only one issue and afterwards he fell out of sight.

"Maggott reappeared as an inmate at "Neverland", a concentration camp run by the covert government program Weapon X. He was exterminated there. One of his slugs, which he gave away to two children at the camp after foreseeing his death (thanks to his psychometric powers) at the camp, was last seen in a container in Mr. Sinister's laboratory."

That was almost touching.

"Powers and Abilities: Digestive system replaced by a hollow cavity that houses a pair of semi-sentient slugs called Eany and Meany who bore their way out of his chest and then use powerful enzymes to chew and digest any solid object in their path, transmitting food energy back to their host to supercharge his physical strength and stamina while turning his skin blue, but the slugs must reenter through his chest and release their storage internally to feed his body properly."

And that was really gross.

So, yeah. Maggott was built up as either an enemy of the X-Men, or a new "dark, shadowy" member for the team. He had three or four issues of build-up where he was seen pursuing Magneto, who at the time was a member of the X-Men. (Remember that whole Joseph mess?) And then Psylocke kicked his ass, and then I missed an issue, and then he was a member of the X-Men and ate a matter bomb with one of his slugs. And then he was shipped off to the minors to die a slow, spiralling death in comic obscurity.

But enough about that. Who wants to see some cards?

Finally, jeez.

Shaddap and gimme another title.

(*** Maggott: The VS System Legend ***)

Most of the legends in MVL were "headliner" legends-- you built your whole deck around one or two of them, and they essentially represented your main game plan. They were mostly big beaters who could be counted on to seal the deal for you when supplemented with their legend support.

In DCL we started to see some different legend templates; in addition to the game-enders like Flash and Grodd, there were also a few "support legends"-- cards you don't necessarily build your whole deck around or count on to kill your opponent, but who instead support your other characters, and help THEM achieve victory. The main ones I'm thinking of here are Hal Jordan and Martian Manhunter. They draw cards, exhaust characters, and provide reinforcement and concealment for your board, giving you some breathing room to let others take the spotlight.

This is what I tried to do with Maggott. He was never a headliner for the X-Men, but for a couple issues he provided valuable support for the team, usually by having his sentient colon eat things.

Dude.

Fine, fine. Let's look at some cards.

Maggott's lowest card is at the 3-drop. Most of the "headliner" legends get drops at 4 and 7, the important swing turns, and I wanted to leave room for you to still play one of those when including Maggott. His ability is always a useful one-- board removal. As he demonstrated repeatedly in his few appearances, Maggott has no qualms about siccing his digestive tract on anything animal, vegetable, or mineral-- and yes, that includes people.

A couple things to notice here. First of all, his stats are awful. 4/2 would have been terrible for a 3-drop even back in MOR; this again reinforces his status as a support card and not a main beater. As you'll see in a moment, he's not necessarily stuck with those stats; but it's still something to keep in mind when fielding him, as a naked Maggott can be stunned by 1-drops.

Embarassing.

But wait... what's that other half of his cost? KO a... Slug? Did Spud invent a new card type or something?

Well, no.

Not quite.



And THAT is why I pushed to have the rules extended to allow duplicate card types for this contest. :)

I chose to represent Maggott's slugs, Eeny and Meany, with a pair of equipment cards. First of all, equipping the two slugs to Maggott goes a long way toward correcting his terrible stats (on both versions). However, both versions (man, I'm being so mean by talking about his other version before showing it.) require you to fling slugs at your opponents to use their main effects, so you need to make some tough decisions about whether it's more useful to have a large beater with support abilities, or live with a smaller character in exchange for thinning your opponent's board.

As an avid card designer, my jaw just about hit the floor when I saw Silver Surfer's Board from the MEX set. Exhausting equipment is such a simple concept that fits quite neatly into the existing rules, but it opens up a lot of really interesting mechanics. Sure, it's no different than "Free --> Once per turn" in practice, but screw you. I like it anyway. ;)

The actual abilities I gave the slugs to use while equipped represent the two main things we've seen Maggott do with his slugs. Meany eats through anything; cars, advanced body armor, characters' DEF values, what have you. With Meany in play, Maggot's pumped 6/4 body becomes a rather mighty 8/4 (in effect), letting him take down 4-drops and even some 5-drops unassisted. Eeny is the lesser-used, but often quite more significant power-- she simply eats anything. In X-Men #70, the various X-doctors remove a "breeder bomb" from Cyclops' chest. According to Beast, it's going to explode into a few thousand tons of matter in the span of a few seconds, and they need to get rid of it. Maggott, in one of his few helpful moments, cheerfully sends Eeny over to eat the bomb. It explodes; Eeny wobbles for a moment, then burps. She reflects this in-game by "eating" incoming threats to your board. Probably most importantly, she helps prevent equipment KO effects from stripping the Slugs off prematurely, but she is of course still quite useful for killing KO effects and "target opponent" combat debuffs.

One small thing I did with the slugs was to give a nod to how Maggott ultimately gave away one of his slugs before his death. Eeny (the more powerful of the two cards) only attaches to Maggott himself, but Meany can wander over to any character on your board, as long as Maggott's presence has been felt at some point during the game.



Metabolize is an unexciting, yet essential, part of the Maggott card set. Like Dr. Fate's Tower before it, Metabolize gives you some help in enabling your equipment so that you don't need to jam your deck full of slugs just to hit them reliably. Instead, you can run one of each, and then use Metabolize to pick them up when the time is right. Unless your opponent has replaced them into your row or removed them from the game, you'll usually find them somewhere accessible and get them into play.

Maggot's 3-drop will likely run out of ammo by turn 5 or so, so you'll probably be okay to upgrade to his bigger version at that point. Maggot, Inner Void needs to use up (and therefore, have) both of his companions to fire his effect, but if successful it could completely gut an opposing deck, especially one that depends on flooding the board with cheap equipment. Like his smaller counterpart, Inner Void presents you with the choice between a large beater (16/12 in this case) and "cover firer" for your board, or a one-shot kick in the junk if that's more helpful.

Maggott, on his own, isn't going to win you games. Like Manhunter and Hal before him, he can engage in combat quite handily if called on, but feels much more at home supporting you from the rear, negating harmful effects and getting major threats off the board. He packs a lot of power if everything goes your way, but be careful; all your opponent has to do is attack him first, and he's significantly neutered.

And that's about all I've got for you today. Thanks for reading. :)

...zzzzzZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZ

Oh, shut up. It wasn't that long.

Says you. I had other things to do today, yaknow.

I don't like you anymore.

All of the art I did for this is on my site if you want to see any of it bigger.