There's a new playmat in town. I just reviewed the old playmat, and sadly my feedback didn't reach WizKids in time. It's still got the mostly redundant dice bag area and the too-small reserve pool area, but it now features an image of Charles Xavier and the original X-Men in the central play area, and has the classic X-Men blue-and-yellow color scheme.

It seems to roll up just as nicely as the previous iteration, and is very likely made of the same material
s, which I enjoyed a great deal in the original. I'm a little surprised to see a new playmat coming, when the old one only just came out, but I suppose if you really love the X-Men and don't care much for the Avengers (vs. X-Men) it makes plenty of sense!

There is also a glance at what looks to be the actual starter box, and that shows us a few of the dice for the heroes we can expect the pack to actually ship with: Juggernaut, Iceman, Angel, Quicksilver, Wolverine, aaaaand... some red dice and some blue dice. I honestly can't see too much of the rest of them. If I had to guess, I'd say Cyclops in the middle, Psylocke up top, and perhaps Namor as well on the right. This would lead me to believe that a lot of the cards on display will be found in the starter kit.

This is by no means official, this is pure, rampant, wild speculation, but based on the presence of Cyclops, Iceman, and Angel all on the table, I think a large set of the cards we see will be there.

So with 5 characters that seem to be 100% confirmed, and 3 more that could be confirmed if we got some better pictures later in the week, it looks like that will cover most of the characters that will come in the starter kit. If WizKids stays true to form, none of these characters will have a super rare, but, again, that's also by no means official.

What You're Actually Here For

But I know you guys are looking for new cards, not a few sneak peeks at some swag to be delivered later and some dice we've already seen before... on to the new stuff: the cards. Again, huge thanks to Ben Lang on Facebook and BGG for helping me (all of us, really) figure out what some of these cards say!

First up we have Angel: Superhero. "When fielded, Angel may pair up with a different Heroic character until the start of your next turn" and then a global of "Once per turn while Angel is paired up, you may pay [shield] to give Angel and his partner each +2D". 

We've already seen the 'Heroic' tag on a previously teased version of Marvel Girl, so it looks like it might be something that is part of a sub-grouping of the X-Men, perhaps focusing on the newer/younger variants of the oldest X-Men. It's speculation right now, but Angel and Marvel Girl (Jean Grey) are very classic. Look forward to 'pairing up' as a new mechanic that might make these weaker characters into something stronger.

Apocalypse: Archvillain. "While your opponent has no Villains in the field, prevent all damage to Apocalypse." Really interesting card to me. This might re-shift the field when it comes to Villains. I'm not sure he's going to be the guy who demands you have at least one Villain on your team, but it's certainly a cute newer mechanic.

He's got some nice, beefy stats as well, but sadly at 6 energy I'm not sure about getting him out in time to really seal the deal. There's been a perpetual problem of 6 and 7 cost characters that don't really close out the game, when that should probably be a focus for the more expensive cards.



Captain America: Follow Me continues the theme of the previous Caps, making him a character who is all about other people. This time, rather than focus on sidekicks, Cap facilitates fielding in a way similar to Nick Fury: Mr. Anger. "When fielded, the next character you field this turn can be fielded for free". Sadly Cap is not the cheapest guy to field, but he does really open up the door for making it cheaper to field some of those beefier characters. This has been a meta-problem that we at TRP have noted a few times before.

Cyclops: Optic Blast, I'm not sure what on Earth they were thinking with this card at this price. This is like someone took Hawkeye, and was like 'well, Hawkeye is good, what can we do to make him worse? We could increase his fielding cost, increase his purchase cost, and make him do no more damage. How awesome.'

I can't imagine anyone really liking this guy, I would never include him over If Looks Could Kill, and he just doesn't do nearly as much damage to be worth it. He also doesn't have sufficiently low defense to take advantage of combinations like fielding into a field with Doctor Doom: Reed Richards's Rival already in play. Just a really weird, awkward card, and surprisingly out of theme compared to Angel and Marvel Girl who both focus on the characters's more youthful costuming and theme. I expected him to be 'Heroic', whatever that means, and instead they are focused on his post-AvX personna.

Iceman: Too Cool for Words is just... cool. (Ha!). "Once per turn, you may pay [bolt] to double Iceman's attack" and then a global of "Pay [bolt] to spin any number of your Sidekick dice to their [bolt] side. (If active, move them to your reserve pool)."

This guy has some really fantastic potential, and that global is making me very excited as well. The wording on the card also makes it explicit that you can take Sidekicks who were in your field and turn them into energy. There's a FAQTalk in here somewhere about whether or not you can (e.g.) block with a set of Sidekicks and then pay a bolt to turn them into energy and bring them back into your field and then mess around with a slew of bolt energy, but suffice to say this really ups the availability of bolt energy if you want to focus that way.

One of my personal favorite X-Men, Kitty Pryde: Shadow Cat has a place in my heart and my unblockable deck, this girl is great on this front. "Kitty Pryde cannot be blocked on the turn she is fielded" with an added global of "Pay [mask]. Target character cannot attack this turn unless its owner pays 1 life".

Sadly, like other cards, she has the root of her own downfall right on the card, but she also becomes a very interesting mover and shaker in the meta because she can keep characters from attacking at all. Bye bye Tsarina! If you are able to block a character like McRook or Tsarina from ever attacking, their nasty effects can't come into play. It does mean that whenever you field her you might find yourself in a position where you have to pay a life to deal 2-3 damage, but this is an interesting strategy question to have to deal with.


Namor: Atlantian is an odd sort of card with an ability that's going to muck up game timing questions even more than they already are. "When Namor blocks you may cancel one active action effect. Move that action die to the owner's used pile if necessary". Do some actions (like Power Bolt) have an 'active' time? Is this going to introduce more of a concept of actions that remain active for multiple turns rather than the 'one and dones' of the AvX set---

I'm sorry, I have to... look, I know it's rude, but are we going to talk about the fact that Namor is AN AVENGER?! I just can't even deal with this. He has been branded as "THE FIRST MUTANT". He constantly tries to get it on with Sue Storm and Emma Frost. Atlantis has spent time being pretty heavily aligned with the Fantastic Four. He was part of the Phoenix Five... you know... the MUTANTS the Phoenix Force chose to-- GAAAAH!



Ok, moving on. Psylocke: Ninjitsu has weenie characters running scared. "When fielded, choose one opposing sidekick or character with a purchase cost of 2 or less. If it is a level one, knock it out. Otherwise spin it down one level." She compliments other spin down characters, like Tsarina, but she could also be brutal against characters like Beast: Mutate 666 because this could allow you to get rid of his most annoying side. She's also pretty cheap at 3 purchase cost. She's a really interesting early game control option; on the other hand, I'm not seeing anything that costs 2 to purchase yet so... her utility might be limited.




Red Hulk: Thunderbolt Ross is taking over Bruce Banner's die and giving it a splash of a different sort of gamma radiation. He has a theme that wouldn't have been out of place on one of the Hulk cards from the AvX set: "* If Red Hulk is damaged in an attack phase but not knocked out, spin him up one level at the end of the turn."

That reliance on a burst might seem like a negative at first, but it actually doesn't affect him at all, only his level three face is without a burst. This card does not allow for gaming via the Human Torch fielding trick.

He's a pretty neat character, but I'm not sure I see myself using this card: too much cost for not quite enough, especially since newer cards like X-23 are bringing much cheaper attack. Semi-surprisingly Red Hulk is not branded as an Avenger or a Villain, but we need more unaffiliated guys as well so I'm alright with this.


Like a few of these cards, Sabertooth: Something to Prove really has me glad to see some new mechanics. I have bemoaned the lack of 'spin up' for quite some time, and the fur ball has answered my cries. "At the beginning of your turn, spin each of your Sabertooth dice up one level." That sound you heard was the sound of people who use Tsarina strategies crying a little bit on the inside.

Automatic (or semi-automatic) spin up will make it far easier to keep up with the spin down effects that were more prevalent in the AvX set. He's also pretty cheap, although his stats are nothing to write home about he is still available for purchase on turn one which is my idea of a good place to start.





We've also finally grown a few more Villains who have some interesting targeting abilities. Similar to Magneto, Sentinel: Mutant Hunter has its eye on the X-Men. "When Sentinel attacks you can force one X-Men character to block it (if able)."

I really wish this allowed you to force multiple X-Men to block for the price, as with such a beefy attack stat I'd like to see it go to use, rather than be wasted on only one character. We are completely without multi-target assassination cards, and Sentinel would thematically have fit very well. There's also the matter that on the meta level there is very little encouragement to multi-block, so being able to force it is pretty cool... but that's not the card this is. As it stands he's sort of 'meh' for me.

If you thought Tsarina players were crying over Sabertooth, I think Vision: Density Control is even more annoying! The synthezoid gets to block and spin himself up! "When Vision blocks, you may spin him up one level." and if for whatever reason you don't actually want to spin him up, you can! This guy is set up to be a blocking champ, he's ready to take almost any punishment and come back for the next round even stronger.

Vision has some great stats, and he's very defensively oriented at a nice low price of 4 purchase cost. I've always liked Vision as a character, and I'm really glad to see he has an interesting ability to go with it.

He finds himself as an Avenger; I had thought this was pretty likely, but it was still in question until just now.


X-23: Scent of Murder: "X-23 cannot block." Well I don't care if she can't block! With stats like that and a purchase cost like that, I don't want her defending anyway. Just like Vision she has really beefy stats for her purchase cost, but unlike Vision she's very attack oriented. I'm liking this a lot, and being able to potentially threaten with 7 attack on turn three is really great.

In case you were curious what TRP's own Evan (a self-admitted Laura fan) thought of this card, he made some very happy noises about the fact that WizKids has been so kind as to make one of his favorite characters really awesome!

I think there may be some better options around, but I would never be sad to put this card on a team.


Last, but not least, we finally have 150% confirmation that we will be getting new Basic Actions. Possession is not just 9/10ths of the law, it's a new basic action. "At the start of your attack step, take control of an opposing character with a level lower than that of your characters. Attack with it. ** Instead take control of an opposing character with an equal or lower level."

This card already needs errata, sadly, but I'm pretty sure what this means is... well I'm actually not 100% sure, but 'Control' has thus far been used as a thing that one character does to another character, but in this case it's a basic action that's initiating the control.

My best guess is that you are to pick one of your dice, and Possession assigns that character as the controller, and then it is that die that is compared to the die you wish to control. Thus, if I have a level 2 Kitty Pryde, I may use her to control a level 1 character of my opponent, and so forth. The wording on this card is incredibly unclear though.

My first thought is that this would be good for clearing out something like Beast: Mutate 666 or Loki: Gem Keeper who is sitting in the back of the field making your life miserable, but I'd have to see it in a game before I was really ready to commit to that.

What's Left

Finally, unless my eyes deceive me we are looking at 126 total cards, sooo... 10 Basic Actions and 24 character cards in the Starter Kit, another 8 cards to fill out the uncommon variants of the core kit cards means 8 characters in the starter kit, and an additional 28 characters (or action cards) means 36 characters/actions total meaaaan...

We've definitely seen all of the dice we're going to see, there are no more characters left to be reveal, and there is no Sue Storm.

You can imagine, for a moment, that I made a sad face while writing this article.

*Sad Face*

I'm not sure where on Earth they are going to get more Fantastic Four for this expansion, and I can only imagine that the affiliations are going to continue to become more lopsided. We'll continue to bring you all of the news that's fit to print as SDCC continues and we roll towards GenCon and release day, which, unsurprisingly, seems to have officially been bumped back to October.

Have a great time, just like me, not being at SDCC... and if you are at SDCC, send us better pictures of that starter box!