There's not too much to say, we already knew who the 6 characters were (Colossus, Cyclops, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Thor, and Wolverine) and I talked a bit about them in my previous post on the topic, but to recap quickly we've again confirmed that Spider-Man's variant is an Avenger, while Wolverine's is now unaffiliated, although it's covered here, Colossus and Cyclops have a 'Phoenix Force' affiliation. Here at The Reserve Pool we agree that we'll probably see a Phoenix Force affiliated Namor, Emma, and Magik when the next set of OP for Uncanny X-Men rolls around in 5-6 months.

The first thing that really jumps out at me is that these cards are expensive, Evan's talked about purchase cost distribution before, and how heavily skewed upwards it is, but we're introduced to the concept of an eight cost basic character, holy cow. I don't know what these guys do, but my thought is they're just too costly for me to want to integrate them into my team. Thor's card is interesting, but I'm not sure he's going to make me want to include him. We don't know what these cards do, beyond Thor, so I'll withhold final judgement until I actually see them.

We've seen Rally! and Teamwork before, so I'm not going to cover them again, but we do have four new actions to talk about, and how they might be awesome. We'll start off with the Month 3 (Deflection) and Month 4 (Teleport) participation prizes. See their full text on the picture below. All I can say to Deflection is 'yaaawn', we already have Taking Cover, which does almost the same thing (is arguably more useful because it works for all characters); the Global Ability is alright, but not unique to this card; and I've got to admit, I'll take Invulnerability over this any day, Invulnerability only costs 2, and it does roughly the same thing which is 'keep your characters from getting KO'd on the attack'. Since you can't use actions on your opponent's turn, I just don't see a huge benefit to buffing your attacking characters' defense. It also a will set your opponent up with his or her own defensive buff if you pick a type that they have fielded as well. All around, not a good card, in my opinion.

Teleport, Teleport on the other hand? Gimmie gimmie. It's definitely a situational card (like so many others), but getting to trade my Beast out for a Strange or a Loki or a Professor X? My Black Widow for a Hulk? My Gobby for a Cyclops? This is fantastic for getting your high purchase cost dice onto the table, and for getting dice off the table that your opponent isn't allowing you to send to the used pile (Gobby, Storm). The double-barreled utility of this card really has me excited, and this is the first time I've looked at a Basic Action and said 'heck yeah I want this in my deck!', and it's for its die, not for its global.

Takedown - 3 cost: Deal 2 damage to a non-shield character. If it's a Villain deal 4 damage instead. Global: Pay 1 mask: Target character is [sic] gains the Villain affiliation until the end of the turn Collateral Damage - 4 cost: Deal one damage to your opponent for each opposing character you knock out this turn

Next we have Month 5 (Collateral Damage) and Month 6 (Takedown) both of these make me so happy as well. They are good, they are cool, and honestly Takedown is vicious. Taking a look at them in more detail. Collateral Damage sends damage to your opponent for each character you KO. This is fantastic when coupled with Force Beam, or a Green Goliath Hulk who can clear the field with a clap of his hands. Maybe attack with two Punisher: McRooks and they have to either take 2 damage to keep the characters from getting KOd or they have to take 1 damage when you KO it. Thankfully this doesn't seem to work with Storm: Goddess of the Plains because you 'send dice that do not result in characters' to prep, but they are not officially KOd. THAT would make your opponent cry if you did that, given you have about a 50/50 chance of each character being sent to prep that turn. Still, this seems to couple really well with cards like Cyclops: If Looks Could Kill, Deadpool: Chiyonosake, or Hulk: Green Goliath who all have a high probability of knocking out several characters in the turn they attack.

Takedown is a bit similar, but it's much more targeted as a quick-hit assassination card. You pay a mask to turn a character into a villain, and you use Takedown to do 4 damage to them, excellent. It's global also couples disgustingly well with Mjolnir: Fist of the Righteous that deals 6 damage to each villain. Yes, Mjolnir is expensive (6 bolt), but this global turns it into a one shot on almost any character in the game by declaring them a villain. With multiple masks rolled a turn you could a huge chunk of your opponent's team into villains. Heck, I want to play this deck now, double it up with Collateral Damage and make your opponent cry. As another note, if you bring Takedown and Magneto (Holocaust Survivor or Sonderkommando) you can pay 2 mask to reroll any one of your opponent's dice, not just a villain, but remember, since it's a global combo, your opponent can do it, too!

Of these, I think Takedown is the new meta definer. I want one.

The Grand Prize