What is happening Champions! BananaCrapshoot here to bring you an article on an upcoming Hero pack we have coming. I am going to look through and talk about cards out of this pack, if I be worthy. It's the one and only God of Hammers, no that's not right, sorry. I meant the Lord of Thunder, jeez that's wrong too, *ahem*. What I meant was, the God of Thunder! That's right, The Mighty Thor blesses us with his mighty presence next month (March) and I am here to talk about it. Without further filler material lets dive in.
Stating off with the Alter-Ego, Odinson, We see he has a base hand size of 5 and Hit Points of 14 and the trait Asgard. This puts him in She-Hulk range with hand size and health, although She-Hulk has 15 base. He has 4 Recovery which is pretty average. What makes this side so good is his ability. Worthy is an Action that allows you to search your deck and discard pile for Mjolnir, his awesome thunder hammer, and add it to your hand. It's also super thematic. What's worth noting is that since its an Action you can use Mjolnir to pay for another card, then brining Mjolnir back to your hand essentially makes that first card -1 since you are getting one of the cards back to your hand. On his Hero side we see he has 1 THW 2 ATK and 2 DEF, hand size of 4 and now gains the Avenger trait. His base ATK feels slightly low given his small hand size and HP total, when compared to She-Hulk who has 3 base ATK. His ability again is what sets him apart. Have at thee is a Response that allows you to draw 2 cards after you engage a minons, once per phase. This means on the hero or villain phase he can get the 2 cards to draw. This potentially makes up for the small hand size issue he has. One thing of note is that this will depend on the villain scenario highly. Green Goblin, Ultron and Klaw is where he will shine base on the info we have from that card there. I also really dig the art on the Hero side
Thor gotta have Mjolnir right? For sure, and that's why he can search it out and call it back to him whenever his Alter-Ego wants to. This card is Restricted, which isnt a huge deal. It gives Thor +1 ATK and he gains the Aerial trait. This makes his base ATK 3 which definetly makes Thor more appealing since you will have Mjolnir equipped whenver you want. Worth noting Mjolnir has the Asgard trait which could be relevant.
Another upgrade in Thor's kit is his iconic winged helmet. It has the Asgard and Armor traits and gives you +5 hit points, this makes his HP total 19 which can make him the highest HP totaled character in the game. Since you want Thor in the middle of the action overrun by minions having 19 HP is very relevant.
Thor's signature ally is Lady Sif she costs 4 to play and has 2 THW and 2 ATK each with 1 consequential damage and 3 health. Those all seem standard, what makes her awesome is her Response where she ready's Thor or Odinson when she comes into play. That means Thor can swing away for 6 in a round, or in a pinch recover for 8. Very good ally and she will defintely see some play.
Thor has a bad 1 THW value and its made up for it with this card potentially, When you play this you discard from the encounter deck until you discard a minion, that minions is then engaged with you, you do that to remove 3 threat from a scheme. This also allows you to draw 2 cards with Have at thee if its the first minion engaged with you that phase. I dont think this card is terrible, its nice he has a way of removing threat while also advancing his game plan.
For Asgard is a cool card, it allows you to search your deck or discard pile for a card with the Asgard trait and add it to your hand. This allows you to get the helmet, Asgard support, or a few other cards in your hand and on the table as fast as possible. Only downside is its Alter-Ego action.
This card is super thematic, its basically Swinging Web Kick with overkill, Mjolnir returns to your hand but thats ok. The overkill is going to be relevant since you want Thor swinging away at minions all game. Very thematic card to Thor and no surprise its in his kit.
Asgard is a great card as it gives you +1 Hand size making it 6/5 respectively which is right in line with everyone else. This is probably my first target with For Asgard, the sooner this thing hits the table the better.
What can I say, God of Thunder is really good, 2 cost upgrade that allows you generate an energy resource every round. Very very good. It's Thor's version of Super Soldier Serum and everyone knows how good that one is. No different here.
By Odin's Beard this card is wild. For 1 resource as a Hero Action you get to Spend X energy resources to deal X damage to the villain AND each minion engaged with you, and it ignores tough if you have Aerial which you get from Mjolnir. This card has huge damage potential since its an AoE attack and you have acces to God of Thunder give energy to you without dumping a card. I'm really excited for this card and of course the design is great as its super thematic. Thats it for the cards we know about in his kit. I'm not gonna look at the obligation card, instead im gonna dive into some of the Aggression cards we know he's coming with.
Starting the aggression cards with Hall of Heroes, so this thing is very gross. after you defeat a minon you place a "glory" counter on it, then as an Alter-Ego Action you can exhaust this support and remove 3 counters from it to draw 3 cards, Card draw is king and Thor should rack up glory counters since he's designed to mop up minions.
I'm super excited for Jarnbjorn to be in this deck, this card is also Restricted but the Response is what's up here. After your hero attacks and enemy, spend a physical resource to deal 2 damage to an enemy. I like this in Thor but I LOVE it with Captain America Aggression. You dont have to exhaust to use it, and with Cap's ability and Super Solder Serum and a Combat Training thats 10 dmg a round with Cap + Jarnbjorn.
This upgrade is very interersting, After your hero defeats a minons deal 1 damge to yourself and discard Batle Fury to ready your hero. I wish this just exhausted to ready to your Hero instead of discarding it but that would probably be too overpowered, but they dont seem to have a problem with overpowered cards (See any Doctor Strange Card) so i dont know. Readying Thor will be good, or any aggression hero for that matter. Will see play.
This card is a good way to engage Thor with even more minions, in a multiplayer game. In solo play this card is not very good, other than a one damage out of hand. Solo play I don't think you take this card in your deck.
This card is a great aggression card for the aspect. Given we now have access to Jarnbjorn this card can be online all the time. I am again intrigued by a Captain America Agression deck where i have Jarnbjorn and combat training. Attack with Cap twice trigger Jargnborn twice and now use Mean swing once dealing 13 dmg off both Cap's attacks. this card is very very good, oh and it costs 0. also best flavor text in the game so far.
Valkyrie is solid, worth noting she's both Asgard and Avenger both can be relevant. her 2 ATK for 3 health and 3 cost is solid and her response straight up deals 2 to a minion, potentially 3, very solid ally and will most certainly go in any aggression deck I build post Thor release.
Hercules is a behemoth he costs 6! He has 4 health and 3 ATK. You can reduce the cost by 1 to play him for each minion engaged with you. Overall i like Hercules a lot and he has huge upside. If you dont chump block with him you are getting 12 dmg for 6 which is right on curve, so any reductions to his cost just increase the efficency he has rapidly. I like Hercules as a character in the comics so I'm thrilled to see him in the game.
The three out of aspect cards Thor comes with are Second Wind (protection) Under Surveillance (Justice ) and Teamwork (leadership). Second wind is a solid healing card thats slightly under curve but is still good in a pinch. Healing always good. Under Surveillance I really like, it allows you to increase the threat threshold by 4 this can be huge in solo play as the villain turns can be extremly swingy, and in wrecking crew this gives you more breathing room. Teamwork is a bonkers card that allows you to get the ATK or THW of an ally without getting the consequential damage on them.
The basic cards in the pack are Heimdall, Invulnerability, and Enhanced Physique. Enhanced Physique is our missing generic physical resource generating card. Invulnerability seems bad to me, its 3 cost for a tough status card, when Doctor Strange has an invocation that costs less that can give up to 3 tough status cards. Heimdall I'm not sure if I'm overly thrilled by. he costs 5. His 4 health is good. his THW is 2 and his ATK is 3 but takes 2 consequential damge from it. His response is what you are paying for. Having that encounter de3ck knowledge is super valuable and cant be measured. I'm still unsure how Ifeel about him.
Last cards I want to look are the nemesis cards, starting with Loki, the God of Mischeif himself, and Thor's Nemesis. He both ATK and SCH for 2 which is right on par with other things we have seen , and he has 4 health. What makes Loki a pain is his Interrupt, when he would be defeated theres a good potential he just heals right back up. Huge thorn in Thor's side, but very thematic, keep hitting illusions and not really Loki.
The other 3 nemsis cards are Trickster, Frost Giant, and the Side Scheme Family Feud. Starting with the scheme that adds an accelration icon, When Revealed you place an additonal threat to the scheme for each Asgard card in play, and Thor can have a lot of them, any card he has that sticks on the table is an Asgard card. Frost Giants enter with Toughness and they have 3 ATK and 4 Health, these minions are no joke and you want to clear them as soon as possible. Oh and if they show up as a boost card you are probably going to be stunned. Lastly we have Trickster, This card puts additional threat on the main scheme for each card type discarded this way. Most of the time this will be 1 or 2. Overall Loki is a very annoying nemesis we are going to be dealing with as Thor players.
Overall I'm really excited for Thor and I think he will be a lot of fun and potentially very potent. He will defeintely shine in minion heavy scenario's but I think he can get it done in the other ones too. his ability to fix and add to his hand size is a big thing that will set him apart from She-Hulk who is most comprable in stat line on Identiy Card. He was well designed based on the card's we have seen and has a lot of tools to help him in his kit.
Thanks for sticking around and reading through this. The Side Scheme is grateful for all the support we have gotten so far and appreciate everyone that reads an article, listens to a podcast, or watches a gameplay video on youtube. And if you do all three of those things you win a prize. For Tommy of Titan, I'm BananaCrapshoot, Stay scheming Champions.
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