Welcome back Champions! It is I,Tommy of Titan, back again with an article focused on the Nemesis sets in the game we know and love. This mechanic in my opinion, truly is one of the defining features of this game. I would even put it up there, just behind the flipping between forms for your identity, as far as top mechanics in game go. This extraordinarily thematic design allows our heroes to bring a ghost from their past along with them, all the while trying to thwart the evil plan of whatever villain you have chosen to play against.
This mechanic often isn’t given much thought when deciding what heroes to play though. Up until recently, Shadows of the Past hasn’t even been a card that gets pulled from the deck frequently. Now, with the introduction of heroic mode, I believe that the heroes need to buy more time to win the game. That means more and more chances for SotP to hit. Not to mention the fact that you will be revealing more cards to appease the heroic modifier. I would argue that there’s a very high likelihood that you will reveal SotP in most of your heroic games at least once.
While the card can be canceled, I love that it can really flip a game up on its head. Not so much that you lose whenever it is drawn, but it definitely complicates things. Players should definitely keep in mind what nemesis sets could potentially come into the game, as well as trying to keep track of where SotP is. A very valid strategy might be to squeeze a cancel in your hand, or on the board for when that nasty little bugger pops up.
With releases resuming here in the US, we have 3 new heroes coming up over the summer that all appear to have some great potential. That said all 3 of them seem to include pretty nasty nemesis sets. I actually really enjoy the balancing that goes into having a more potent nemesis set with a strong hero.
For Widow it’s Task Master. This is about as scary as a minion can get. He can be massive on the table as well as coming out of the deck. This is the kind of minion I think I’d leave on the table to try and stun, block with an ally, or use a tough status on every turn. That certainly would take a considerable amount of work though. I think dealing with this guy gets easier with more players since you will have more opportunities to setup the previously mentioned strategies. The reason I’d leave him on the table is because, for most decks, handling a minion on the table is safer than the possibility that he comes up as a boost for 10, or sometime crazy. It’s not like other heroes don’t use upgrades either.
While Barron Mordo certainly isn’t as scary as Task Master, he still is a formidable minion in his own right. The real catch to this nemesis set though is the side scheme. While it certainly can be cleared quickly, it can really mess with the Doctor Strange player’s turn. If it can’t be cleared quickly it’s actually potentially devastating for that player. The Invocation cards are for the most part extremely powerful. Additionally, this is the kind of card that might be harder to deal with when you have more players.
Lastly, we have the Hulk. His set is certainly potent as well but what sticks out to me here is the massive amount of boost icons that this character could add to the encounter deck. They almost all appear to have 3 boost icons. In addition to that his Obligation has 3 boost icons, and can’t be removed from the game. The fact that this character can add that level of variance to the game is actually really thematic when you think about it, even if it is in an indirect way.
Well that about does it. Those are the Nemesis cards we have to look forward to, or fear over the summer. As always, if you are interested in more content please stay tuned here for more articles, as well as checking out The Side Scheme on FB, YouTube, Twitch, Patreon, and wherever you listen to Podcasts. I’m Tommy of Titan ominously drifting into the shadows.