Welcome back to another article from the Side Scheme. I’m Tommy of Titan and today I will be joined by the driving force behind the Side Scheme, BananaCrapshoot. Yesterday we got some really exciting news and previews for the first ever Campaign Expansion for Marvel Champions and boy did they spoil a bunch. For this article we will just be looking at the Hero cards spoiled. Let’s get right to it.
Clint Barton/Hawkeye:
Tommy: Clint has the standard expected hand size, as well as his hero form of Hawkeye, of 6 and 5. The 9 HP is low but thematically makes sense. Clint has the ability to grab his bow from the deck or discard pile for the cost of a resource. Hawkeye has 1 THW, 2 ATK, and 1 DEF, as well as the ability to exhaust himself to ready his bow. Its hard to gauge how good that ability is right now with so little information of what’s in his signature 15. Now, I know we’ve seen quite a few characters that have significant items that they can start with, or are just actually built around, but I think it feels right to have this character in particular built around this weapon.
BananaCrapshoot: Like Tommy said, the hand size is expected and I agree the HP is low, but he is just a normal human so I guess it fits. This is the first time we have had a cost associated with a character searching for their signature item, I'm curious why you have to pay 1 to search it out. Clint's ability to ready his bow seems legit as from the arrows we will see here shortly, you have to exhaust his bow to fire them rope rockets off. His stat line is largely unimpressive but makes sense since he is an archer wearing a short sleeve t-shirt to fight the bad guys. I'm excited to see what else comes in his kit.
Hawkeye’s Bow:
Tommy: The 0 cost is good since you have to pay to search for it. The additional ATK point is solid on the off turn that you don’t have an arrow to fire off. We also get the new keyword of “Ranged” which is a super sweet one that allows you to ignore retaliate while using an “Arrow” attack.
BananaCrapshoot: Ok, this is why you pay 1 to search for this thing, it costs 0 to play. 0 resources for +1 ATK, which makes his base ATK a 3 with the bow, thats as strong as Thor with Mjolnir.... And his arrow attacks then gets to ignore retaliate. I mean I know Hawkeye is good with a bow, but is he as dangerous as Thor and Mjolnir? It's not a huge deal just seems odd to me.
Hawkeye’s Quiver:
Tommy: This is where things start to get really exciting for me. A 1 cost upgrade that allows you to dig through the top 5 cards of your deck for an “Arrow” event and attach it to this card. Oh and you can play cards attached here. This is great for so many reasons. First off, you get to dig for one of what’s probably some of the best cards in your deck. Second it is better than a card in your hand in a lot of ways since you can leave it there and not have it count against your hand size. Third is that you don’t have to shuffle your deck after searching the top 5 cards. It’s stated in the RRG that after you search an entire deck you are required to shuffle it. This may seem minimal but this knowledge of what’s coming in your deck can actually have huge implications for how you play out your turn. This is quite possibly the strongest card previewed, in my opinion.
BananaCrapshoot: Wow, I like this card a lot. Scrying the top 5 for the arrow cards you want, and you can play them from the quiver. This is huge because it effectively increases your hand size because the arrow isnt taking up one of the cards in your hand. In addition it thins the deck so you can to cycle your good cards faster. This card is a huge enabler and I'm all for it.
Sonic Arrow:
Tommy: It’s a 2 cost Hero Action, Arrow, Attack (alliteration that evening Stan Lee would be proud of) that does 3 damage and confuses an enemy unless they are already confused. If they are, well then this attack does 5 damage. I should mention that it does require you to exhaust the bow (which is probably going to be consistent throughout his Arrow events). Anyway you slice it this is great value and a great start to the Arrow package I hope Hawkeye brings.
BananaCrapshoot: Alright this is the first rope rocket we are looking at, Tommy already hit the specifics here so I'll be brief. It's a solid 2 cost dmg event. It has a cool effect and great flavor text.
Explosive Arrow:
Tommy: Another Arrow event, and again it requires you to exhaust your bow. This is a 1 cost that does 3 damage to the Villain and 3 to each minion engaged with the target player. Wow. Another card that is amazing value and extremely powerful. 3 is a great number to be splashed and it only costs 1!
BananaCrapshoot: This card is straight value, It's like an energy dagger on steroids, but its anoter rope rocket. This thing is ridiculous for 1 resource. Worth noting this arrow isnt an (attack) so this gets around guard.
Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman:
Tommy: 6 and 5 as hand sizes again but this time we have 11 HP which is a solid number. Jessica Drew completely breaks deck building though with her ability “Double Agent” allowing you to include 2 Aspects in your deck but they have to have equal representation. There are so many amazing combos to be explored here and I could probably write an entire article on just that but instead I’ll just rattle off a few. I would love to run Aggression and Leadership just to have the Hulk and Get Ready in the same deck. I also love the idea of Med Team in any deck with allies you want to keep alive so I’d love to see a Leadership Protection combo too. Lastly, who doesn’t want the best of both worlds with Justice and Aggression. Ok I’m done, for now. Spider-Woman has a stat line of all 1’s but makes up for that with her ability to pump all her stats by one each time she plays a card from a different aspect that turn. Oh and it’s been stated that her signature set comes with 2 cards from each aspect unique to her. Find a consistent way to ready her and she could be a force.
BananaCrapshoot: I don't know how to form the words for the emotions I'm feeling over this character. I am placing an eternal dibs on Spider-Woman. This card is ridiculous. I'll start with my feelings on her Alter Ego side. First off her action allows you to look at the top card of any deck, this includes the encounter deck, it provides so much flexibility and knowledge its hard to quanity that value, but its good. Then there's double agent, you had to imagine this 1 aspect per deck thing would be broken by a hero at some point and here she is! This takes deck building to a whole new and exciting level, the requirement isnt that hard to pull off, and I'm really excited to see what crazy shenanigans people pull off. Now the hero side isnt anything crazy statline wise but that ability is bonkers, +1 across the board until the end of the round for each different aspect card you play, and we know her 15 includes all four aspects that she can play. Deck building and playing this character has me super excited.
Pheromones:
Tommy: This is the example of a card that is both an aspect card as well as a signature card. It should be noted that it is exclusive to Spider-Woman and cannot be included in any deck outside of hers. It’s a 2 cost that stuns and confuses. This is great value but specific for solo play this card is amazing.
BananaCrapshoot: Tommy nailed it here, not much left for me to say, good value for 2, busted in solo. If you like to cheese out your wins in solo play this card is for you.
Hawkeye (Kate Bishop):
Tommy: This is the first card we are looking at that isn’t a hero specific card. This ally is costed great at 2 and is at worst a blocker. At 1 THW and 2 ATK her stats are good for a 2 cost. Her ability is ok in the sense that it will allow her to stay on the table but I don’t find myself discarding many cards with multiple resources often. Still, this could be a valuable minion clearing tool or just nice ping damage.
BananaCrapshoot: I like this ally a lot, I'm always a fan of the 2 cost allies, as all the ones we have provide incredible value. Her action is great for getting around guard as the action isnt an (attack). The action for most people will cap at 2 except for Captain Marvel and Hulk, but if you have the extra genius or something in your hand you can get the 2 dmg off and not wory about consequential damage.
Team Training:
Tommy: It’s no secret that I think allies are amazing value. Adding 1 to the health pool of every single one is an exciting idea to me. I’m not sure how impactful this card will actually be though. More often than not 1 health will not keep an ally alive from a block. It will allow you to get at least one more round of using their stats if you don’t need to use them as a blocker. For me, I’m undecided and think I need to put this card on the table.
BananaCrapshoot: I agree with my fellow Schemer here. It looks like a good card that can provide good value for you but I have to play it and see if its worth the slot in my 40 or not.
Press the Advantage:
Tommy: The only aggression card in the entire preview and it’s a good one. Anytime you have an event that’s a 1 cost and has the attack or thwart typing, it’s a card that needs a closer look. Cheap attacks can be used to shake a stun on your hero or ping off a tough status. All that said, 1 cost for 2 damage and a conditional card draw is a really solid value.
BananaCrapshoot:1 resource for 2 dmg is right on curve for the aspect cards, and anytime you can get that card draw its straight value homie. Card draw is king in this game so any cards that grow my effective resources to play I'm down to play.
Well, that does it for our first preview installment for the Rise of Red Skull! In general I’m very excited for both of these new heroes and I think that from what we’ve seen there is some serious potential. Thanks for taking the time to check out our thoughts, and we hope you are as excited as we are here at the Side Scheme! Be sure to keep an eye out next week for Part 2 of this article where we review the villain cards. 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.