Obviously we're really waiting for GenCon, as that's where we here at The Reserve Pool think we're going to start seeing some really meaty sneak peeks. But all is not lost, Crit to Hit gave us some really great pictures of the side of the booster box from SDCC. This at least gave us a few little bits to hold us over until we get to look at a few more cards.As previously revealed, the booster box is going to hold a full 90 cards, rather than the 60 from the first set. I'm still a bit skeptical, as my first experience with the AvX booster box was trying to figure out how to get the packs out of the box. We'll see!
Our last bit of news an analysis from SDCC is going to be to look at the cards from the side of the box and see what we can figure out! It won't be much, but if you're like me you want to know every little detail... and if you're not like me, you can enjoy the show of watching me get this stuff figured out. I imagine it can be pretty fun to get all of this information without squinting over a bunch of blurry screen shots for hours... which I did.
Character Cost Improvement
So, first of we have Iceman: Robert Louis Drake. Based on his numbering he's going to be in the starter set, and also based on that information we now have 2 of the 4 Iceman cards at least partially revealed. This Bobby is also 5 cost, and we don't have the foggiest clue what sorts of abilities he might have.I'm very curious to see if his other two forms have a 4, 5, or 6 cost. These stats are pretty good, but I'm not sure they're even close to something you'd want to have in a 6 cost die. He's got some decent staying power with those defensive stats, and at least with Too Cool for Words we've got an idea that he's a good backline blocker to keep around and use his ability.
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Pyro: Uncontrollable has also got me more than a little curious. I couldn't get a clean enough picture to replace the question mark, but we now know his first face is a 0/3/1, making him a very interesting 5 cost with a TFC of only 2 - a status currently only held by Storm: Wind Rider. The low TFC combined with decent stats makes him potentially very awesome, or very terrible. Abilities make or break the 5 cost characters, and given the stats it is possible we will have a 4 cost variant.
Based on a zoom, it looks like Pyro allows you to do things with 'dice in your...' and then something about 'the rest of your turn'. I'm wondering if he might be another dice cycler? Or something that leaves effects that perhaps benefit your other characters or fielding them.
Based on a zoom, it looks like Pyro allows you to do things with 'dice in your...' and then something about 'the rest of your turn'. I'm wondering if he might be another dice cycler? Or something that leaves effects that perhaps benefit your other characters or fielding them.
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In the form of even more good news, we have Mystique: Alias You that actually gives us a four cost Mystique instead of the much higher cost variants we had in AvX.
She does have a very (very!) weak stat line, and most of her buffs and benefits in the AvX set came from duplicating characters, but that very weak stat line really allows for her to have a variety of purchase costs depending on her abilities.
We really don't have much clue what her ability is, but it seems like she has a trigger, and then something about 'using characters' or such. Maybe a controller type in this iteration? She seems pretty cheap if that's the case. We'll have to wait and see.
Some Familiar Bad Habits
It's not all fun and games, though. Magneto: Hellfire Club and Sentinel: Archvillain both clock in at 7 cost. Both of them also have a TFC of 6, making them both the most expensive card price and the most expensive fielding price. We knew this was coming just based on the way the set had previously been shaping up.That can't help but make me cry a little inside from the high cost, high field cost Villains, especially in the wake of the introduction of a 4 cost Mystique and the 5 cost Pyro.
Based on zoom, Magneto has a 'while active' skill. Because of the prevalence of assassination cards (especially Storm, but also Punisher: McRook) I don't have too much good feeling towards the 'while active' set of cards. I'm an 'on fielding' and 'on attack' and 'on block' sort of girl, those are slightly harder to trigger, but at the same time they are also much more reliable than having to purchase a high cost character, field a high cost character, and then keep that high cost character on the field and away from danger while you reap the benefits of his or her active skill. That's a lot of things to keep all going your way in a game that can change on a dice roll.
Archvillains Hints
Sentinel also has a familiar stat line, in keeping with his cost, but I'm again worried that this character isn't going to get a lot of use if he's not fantastic. I was already a little skeptical of Sentinel: Mutant Hunter as not being as amazing as it might want to be at a purchase costs of 6, and that puts even more pressure on Sentinel Archvillain to be pretty amazing.
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I'm actually starting to get an inkling, though, now that I've zoomed in, I'm pretty sure that the first line of text is 'While your opponent has no Villains in the field' which is the exact same starting text as Apocalpyse: Archvillain as well. I think I might have accidentally found a theme! Archvillains have special abilities if your opponent doesn't have any Villains on the table. Only time will tell if that's enough to drag more Villains to the table. I'm pretty excited to have potentially cracked the code for these Archvillains though!
Not All Heroes Are Created Heroic
We previously had a very blurry sneak peek at Marvel Girl: Superhero, and she also has some very familiar text from the Angel: Superhero card. 'Heroic: When [...] up with a diff[erent...] part of your [...].' So, sounds like all Heroic cards can pair up with each other, and they have special abilities only if they are paired up. I was a little skeptical, to be honest. It's hard enough to reliably get one character out, much less two. I've tried to use War Machine to good effect in the AvX set but he's not had the luck I would have wanted him to because it's hard to keep these guys out there.
Well, I'm a little less worried now (or perhaps more) because not all of the heroic era characters have the Heroic tag. We were introducted to Marvel Girl: Telepath as well, and she doesn't seem to be Heroic at all!
'When fielded, you may pay [bolt][...] character down[...] Marvel Girl up[...]' Woo doggy did I get excited when I saw that! It looks like Marvel Girl: Telepath (the rare) is going to be a card that allows you to spin characters up and down when she's fielded. It costs a bolt, but we're looking at a far heavier focus on globals and then cards like Iceman: Too Cool for Words that have an ability where you (and only you) can pay an energy cost to use extra effects.
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Not a ton of new information, but it does give us some more insight into the Archvillain and Superhero mechanics that are incoming. We have nailed down the TFC of two more characters we weren't sure of, and we know that not all characters who could be 'Heroic' are Heroic. This means we might see a Heroic Cyclops in the days or months to come. Sadly the lack of a new version of Beast means that the original 5 X-Men will not ride together for this set.
Happy rolling, and keep your fingers crossed for some great news out of GenCon in a few weeks!
Great analysis. I hope WK's figures out if they want to speed the game up or slow it down with these high cost characters but low time of completion for games. I wonder if they're telling us we aren't utilizing our energy as efficiently as possible in order to get those high cost character out in a reasonable amount of time.
ReplyDeleteThanks! And I think it's just a problem of there being too many really good options at 2-3 cost. I've played with Beast, Nova, and other dice aides and yet I've never found a use for a 7 cost character. Just my experience, though.
Delete"Sadly the lack of a new version of Beast means that the original 5 X-Men will not ride together for this set."
ReplyDeleteI know! So sad. Would have been cool to get the original non-blue version of Beast, too.
As for card costs, like I said before, I think we're unlikely to get a lot of 2 and 3 cards beyond what we got in AvX. The existence of the Psylocke that specifically targets a cost of character though, leads me to believe there may be other cards that target cost ranges in similar ways. Maybe giving discounts? Maybe making opponents cards more expensive? Should be cool to see what comes of it!
To be honest, since I've started random rarity-adjusted drafting, the high cost cards haven't been a problem to bring out since there really aren't a whole lot of instances where you face the killer ultra-optimized combos. So I don't even look on it as an issue anymore.
Well, since I doubt the price adjustment errata will make it out into the wild, there will continue to be these problems in the 'core' game when people go out for play. There are a huge number of characters with very low attack values, and I don't want all of them to be 3+. Psylocke is also useless if there aren't at least a smattering of 2 cost cards.
DeleteAntman, Psylocke, Kitty, and Toad are definitely on my list of things that could have a 2 cost variant or two.