My dad was a Marvel fan back in the day (he was a charter member of the Merry Marvel Marching Society) when he was growing up and Nick Fury was one of his favorites - though back then he was Sgt. Fury and went around with his Howling Commandos. And of course, my grandma threw out some of the coolest stuff that Dad had back then... ah, well... but regardless, my first memories of Nick Fury came from his recollections of the exploits of the Howling Commandos. I share this as a way of saying - Happy Father's Day, Dad!
Before we go on, our next poll is once again ready to go. You can find that here. If you haven't signed up for Board Game Geek yet, do so here. And, of course, join our guild - then you'll be able to participate in the polls. Each time, I'll remove the one who got the least votes and replace those who won.
The Die
Unsurprisingly enough, Fury offers us shield energy and has stats that are defensively skewed. He features zero bursts and a TFC of just two.
The die is quite straightforward; defense goes up a point for each level and the offensive tops out at two. Fury is going to take a little punishment, but when it comes to the offense, he's going to let his team handle things. Where he really shines, then, is with his abilities - but we'll get to that.
The Fury dice are in pretty good shape; the SHIELD logo on the character faces is a nice touch and looks surprisingly good considering some of the other issues that the dice have had at times in this set.
The Card
Nick Fury is unaffiliated, but everything that he does is about making your Avengers more effective - this fits thematically, as Nick is one who brings people together but remains in many ways his own man.
None of the cards are particularly expensive, with a purchase cost of either two or four. All of the abilities are straightforward as well, perhaps the least complex character that we've reviewed to this point. As always, we'll cover them in order of common to rare:
- "Mr. Anger" - Cost 2 - While active, Avengers are fielded for free.
- "WWII Veteran" - Cost 2 - While active, Avengers get +1/+1
- "Patch" - Cost 4 - While active, your unblocked Avengers deal damage to your opponent twice
"Mr. Anger" is pretty self-explanatory, and I think his benefits are as well. I've enjoyed using him in Hulk/Johnny Storm decks - getting those Hulks out for free is a boon. It's a tempo card in that it saves you some energy to spend on other things rather than generating energy like a Beast.
"WWII Veteran" doesn't require a lot of explanation - one thing to keep in mind here is that Hawkeye's damage when fielded would also be positively impacted based on this +1/+1. This is based on the FAQ which describes the opposite scenario with the same character (Hawkeye). That +1/+1 across several Avengers will add up, no question.
"Patch" lets some interesting things happen. Can you imagine if Wolverine: Canucklehead was an Avenger and you had this out? As it stands, this could finish things off if you manage to clear your opponents board.
My Favorite
I tend to favor cards that help with tempo, and in this case that means Mr. Anger. If you're planning on getting out a bigger Avenger like Hulk, this could be very valuable, leaving you precious energy after fielding Hulk for use with globals or other abilities or actions.
But the thing is that I really like all of these. I think that WWII Vet probably is my least favorite, but I can think of occasions when I would want each of these - provided, of course, I'm using Avengers. I think that this is largely a question of taste and personal style, especially when deciding between Anger and Patch.
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