Nothing quite makes my day like letting your characters just sit there and make damage happen. This strategy is vulnerable to assassinations, but at the same time once you get these sorts of combinations set up, you're going to rake in the damage while you still get to keep the pressure on your other characters.

Professor X - all of his forms are the king of 'sit around and make damage happen'. He sets himself up, and each of his forms blocks your opponent from doing something unless they pay two health. In his common, 'Principal' form, he keeps your opponent from rerolling dice during the reroll step; his uncommon form, 'Powerful Telepath', prevents your opponent from using actions or global abilities; and his rare form, 'Charles Francis Xavier', prevents the fielding of characters by your opponent. As I said before, your opponent can prevent these effects by paying 2 life per turn, but you only have so much life to give before you put yourself into dangerous territory.

The second character who lets you do damage passively is Colossus: Piotr Rasputin. While he's active, at the end of your turn, all characters you have fielded who are level 2 or higher deal two damage to your opponent. If your opponent doesn't have a really strong assassination option this is absolutely brutal. You can just sit back and laugh while your opponent struggles to KO your guys. There is currently only one card (Focus Power) that you can use to spin up your characters, but pairing it up with Piotr can be even more violent. (Magneto: Holocaust Survivor can as well, but only for Villains and at the cost of 2 energy; he also comes with the double-edged sword of the Villain reroll ability)

Last, but certainly not least, we have Doctor Strange: Master of the Mystic Arts; while Doctor Strange his active, you deal 2 damage to your opponent when you use an action. This isn't super great on its own, because it is reliant on those action dice, and we here at The Reserve Pool cast aspersions on action dice in general, but there is a place for it. I've written another article about the characters who take advantage of Basic Actions, and Doctor Strange can fit in with that party.

I'm not a huge fan of any of these guys for the purposes of doing damage, actually. Professor X: Charles Francis Xavier is a pretty neat denial tactic, Colossus: Piotr Rasputin can be a nice capstone to a weenie deck, and Doctor Strange: Master of the Mystic Arts does pretty well in an Action focused deck, but they are not, in general, my preference. Direct Damage is Direct Damage, though, so you might find it's the right choice for you.

These guys are also the most susceptible to assassination, especially Storm, unlike characters who you are pushing through on an attack more frequently.

Personally, my favorite damage blocker is Beast: Genetics Expert. We're going to be talking about him a little more in depth in a future podcast, but I have a great deal of affection for this variation on Beast. Honestly, his only downside, in my opinion, is that he's not Beast: 666. When Beast is KOed you gain 1 health, and if he's on his lowest burst side you also do 2 damage to your opponent. This is awesome! The fact that there are some options to keep the damage pressure on your opponent even while he or she is the one on the offensive really changes the way your opponent thinks about attacking you. It turns your opponent's attack phase into a second, auxiliary 'attack' step for you.

Another prime character for doing damage while he blocks (or attacks) is Nova: The Human Rocket. When Nova takes damage during the attack step, he deals 2 damage to your opponent. I love this guy, and honestly his only failing is that he's not Nova: Quasar! Are you noticing a theme? These churn characters, like Nova: Quasar and Beast: 666 also have a really strong variation that let's them do some awesome direct damage. I think this might have been an intentional game design aspect to make picking these characters a little harder, but it does have the side effect that I am almost always using a Beast and/or a Nova on my team, it's just a matter of deciding which one.

I'm not a huge fan of him, but Venom: Mac Gargan is another good option for defensive damage. If he blocks and KOs a non-fist character, you gain a life and he deals 2 damage to your opponent. I do find him a little expensive, at 5 fist, but he's not a bad option. I'm not a huge fan of keeping around characters who only serve as blockers, and unlike Nova, Venom can't also do this effect while he's attacking.

Of the three, I generally lean towards Nova when it comes to pick someone to actually put in a deck, he costs 5, he does damage both blocking and defending, and he's generally a really beefy card for his stats (max of 7/7 is really nice!) Beast is just never going to be as good as his cousin, 666, so I really only bring him in very specific circumstances. You don't have to bring any of these guys, but I definitely lean towards Nova if you want to take one.

The problem with Beast and Venom is that you get very little control over them. Beast only deals his damage when he is on his burst face, rather than all 3 sides; this is great if he's facing Tsarina or another spin down choice, but really bad if he is not. Venom himself is also susceptible to roll down from his own global, and is unlikely to stay high level with beefy stats even if he starts that way. The two of them are cool, but definitely suffer from a problem with the level of passivity expected to make use of them.

Several of these characters produce their damage dealing when they attack. There are some benefits to this, of course; you are on the offensive, and this game definitely favors an aggressive play style. However, if you use a character like Wolverine, you want to attack with him alone sometimes. If you have to attack with these other characters, you can't get his best benefits, and that's pretty sub-optimal. The cool thing about most of these is that normally when you attack, and you deal damage to your opponent, your character goes to your used pile; with attackers who deal damage simply by attacking, you manage to recycle their damage much more quickly.

With Punisher: McRook, when he attacks, he can pick a character to KO, and your opponent can prevent this by paying 2 life; Punisher: Vigilante can search your bag for another Punisher die to put in your prep area, which your opponent can prevent for 3 life; lastly, Punisher: Big Nothing, when he attacks deals 2 damage to each opposing character unless your opponent pays 4 life. Big Nothing is huge, and I do think he's really amazing (although not quite on the order of Hulk: Green Goliath who does something similar). Our favorite here at The Reserve Pool is still McRook, though, for a quick, easy assassination or a free 2 damage. This isn't a guarantee - none of these are, really - but they do create opportunities where your opponent is going to want to think about paying damage. I think Punisher is always a good assassin, and really his only downside is that he's not a sure-fire assassin because of the option to pay 2 life. Always remember, though, your opponent can only take 2 damage 10 times before he or she loses the game, so after you get in a hit or two, they can't afford to keep taking that damage.

Angel: Avenging Angel is a card I'm a big fan of; it's a pity it costs 3 shield, because I like it a lot more than Angel: Soaring in some respects. If Angel is blocked, and not knocked out, he deals 2 damage to your opponent. Angel cannot be 'chump blocked' is the net result of this, he must be blocked and KOed or not blocked at all (free damage!). He's nice and cheap, so he's a potential early buy, and he's also cheap to field, so you might find your opponent with only a Beast or a sidekick out and not actually able to KO Angel, which would really make him dangerous in the early game. He loses a lot of value in the mid-game, I think, when your opponent gets more medium to high cost/defense blockers, but he's an interesting potential rush character if you don't have Black Widow: Tsarina.

Speaking of Widow, she's also a great potential source of Direct Damage. She does 2 damage when she attacks, however your opponent can spin down a character to prevent this. It's sort of a mixed bag, because you are spinning your opponent's characters down, but some very awesome characters (Hulk, Beast) get stronger and more dangerous as you roll them down. Widow is also very reliant on continually attacking, she will die often, and you will get no choice over how your opponent blocks her. That means you are looking at a possibility of giving them some churn, or doing something horrible like sending their Wind Rider or other 'on field' ability character to the prep area. Always remember that you are giving your opponent churn and more dice with her. Tsarina also has some negatives if you bring her without much of a backup plan. She's a great card for a reason, though, and a major favorite of mine.

Last, but not least, we have Storm: Wind Rider.  I love this card. When I started out, I wasn't nearly as warm on her, but after a few opportunities to use her in a game she's probably my favorite Storm. When she's fielded, she allows you to reroll two of your opponent's characters, send them to the used pile if they roll energy, and deal two damage per character knocked out (always target Sidekicks if you don't have a better target, you get the best chance of 4 damage). In a game with only 20 life and very little opportunity to regain it, 2 damage is huge; we're not talking about Magic: The Gathering where life gain opportunities are everywhere. Wind Rider is also a fantastic assassination character, and I love her for it.

I'm going to throw Power Bolt in here, even though it's a basic action and doesn't fit all the way, but it is an aggressive action that you can use to deal 2 damage directly to your opponent. You may find it's a really good include with Strange: Master of the Mystic Arts, or Angel: Soaring as I discussed in an earlier deck post, and does need to at least rate a mention.

Putting it all Together

Who do you bring? Honestly you could make a whole deck with none of these characters and it would still be a great deck. Personally, my highlights are Tsarina, Wind Rider, McRook, and The Human Rocket. The rest of them are... not bad. What all of these have in common is aggression. You pick when they come out, you pick when they attack, and you produce these resulting damage (or assassination or spin). The problem with these cards (minus Wind Rider) is that your opponent also has a way to avoid taking damage. You must press them where it hurts until they fall.

The problem with a defensive strategy is it relies on your opponent attacking, but with so many options, they might not let you take the best route, they might not allow you to have your characters take damage. I recently played a game against Evan where I had to stay back to keep my defenses up, and I absolutely killed his churn. He had a very difficult time getting through his die bag, and it served to keep me alive far longer than I would have after a few early bad rolls.

We don't have a lot of Direct Damage in this set, likely because of the problems with healing and gaining life, but that also means that getting it where you can can be crucial.