Images courtesy of Fantasy Flight Games

The end of the “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” wave is already on the horizon. In June, Marvel Champions will release the final two heroes of the ninth wave: Falcon and Winter Soldier. While we have a less complete picture of the hero packs in comparison to my look at Black Panther and Silk, we’re spending this week looking at what we know of these heroes and the promising futures I hope for them. These are the events, upgrades, and supports each hero brings to the table that will impact every game you play with them.

Falcon

At a base level, Falcon is an interesting hero that will be making an impact on the game. While his passive ability to keep the top of the encounter deck revealed during the player phase doesn’t read as broken, I can see it being something that needs to be accounted for when designing scenarios. We now live in a world with four boost icon minions being in any game, via the Thunderbolts. And Falcon is ready to guard against them when they make their way into everyday encounter decks.

Where I see a lot of possibility is in the “Eagle-Eyed” ability, being able to toss away problem encounter cards if the boost icons or when revealed ability are going to negatively impact your future plans is going to be so important. This no doubt comes at a cost, encounter deck manipulation is a key part of playing Scarlet Witch and I’ve paid dearly with her in the past. Because of this constant recon being done by Sam every turn, players who excel at taking mental notes are going to benefit greatly.

Bird of Prey & Bird’s Eye View

Falcon’s attack and thwart events already read as being pretty strong during my initial reaction. But it wasn’t until I took a second look at Bird of Prey in combination with Falcon’s “Eagle-Eyed” ability that I realized just how potent the card truly is. Since we are able to choose if we want to discard the top part of the encounter deck to deal additional damage, this aerial event will effectively allow you to look at two cards off the top of the encounter deck in one play of an event. This means that, in a reverse of how we may sequence our plays with the character like Domino, our second event may be stronger than our first.

Dealing four damage at a cost of two is already decent. Add on the aforementioned Thunderbolt minions and we have an event that will be swinging wildly in potential damage. But whereas Bird of Prey is potentially on or above the curve for its cost, I think the upper limits of what Bird’s-Eye View is capable of doing makes it an extremely powerful thwart event. I am already primed to accept three threat removal on a two-cost event, but knowing that you’re guaranteed to remove five or six could wildly transform your turn. Possibly the reason you win, without you ever realizing.

Draw Their Fire

Next up we have an upgrade that absolutely floored me when I first read through it. Draw Their Fire is an upgrade that allows you to discard it at the beginning of the villain phase and have Falcon to defend without exhausting. This is already incredible, but when you take into account that it is a preparation, this also means that you have the ability to recall it with Practiced Plan and do it all over again in a future turn.

This is important because it gives Sam a lot of room to move around in his role at the table. He can keep the table safe for a turn, while playing in an Aggression deck that will still make sweeping attacks the following turn. Or max out his defensive role, tossing out Never Back Down, Riposte, and Not Today! to maintain the board and gain card advantage off cards like Change of Fortune or Unflappable.

Talon Line

When I first read Talon Line, I was admittedly lukewarm to it. I discounted its capability because it was something you would have to discard for its activation. But I failed to account for the “Eagle-Eyed” ability making your choice a known quantity. Talon Line isn’t meant to be flashy, it’s here to get tee you up for a home run.

The decision tree that comes from using this card means that you can ready up for a final push or stun each enemy engaged with you, buying extra turns. With all of this in mind, the fact that you need to discard this card to use it is probably the safest part about it. In retrospect, I was a fool for ever underestimating the ceiling on what this card is capable of.

Winter Soldier

The Winter Soldier really has me conflicted. Based on everything we’re seeing, we have an immensely fun minion slaying hero akin to Thor and Valkyrie. With that said I am concerned that I’m looking at the world through ruby quartz glasses when theorizing what Bucky is capable of. In Winter Soldier we have a well-rounded hero with solid stats, looking to fight minions and turn that into threat removal. This versatility means that we can graft on whatever strategy we want, as long as it’s keeping the goals in mind that the hero naturally signposts.

Cybernetic Arm

Left to his own devices, Bucky should be able to stand on his own. But so much of his kit is built around what the Cybernetic Arm is capable of doing for him. So much so in fact, that his alter ego is specifically designed to make sure that you have this upgrade in play whenever possible. And in the case of Cybernetic Arm, the juice is absolutely worth the squeeze.

This tech upgrade that provides a wild resource for attack events is going to feed into his economy very well. And it’s easy to forget that using this upgrade allows you to add an extra point of damage to any attack event. I was fine with the wild resource being restricted to a specific trait but now, I don’t know that I’ve wanted to be able to ready up an upgrade so much before.

For broken as this game has been at times, I think the Fantasy Flight Games has done a very good job of balancing most of its cards. That said, when the cost of an attack event doesn’t change but the damage output does, that makes for a very high ceiling of potential. The immediate place most players’ minds will go to is Aggression events, but the untapped potential of Justice or Protection events now being in Bucky’s tool box has me wanting to brew up more than a few decks. 

Metal Punch & Electrical Discharge

Fantasy Flight Games has only shown us attack events from Bucky’s kit, making for a hero that might just stray away from thwart events. Metal Punch is already an acceptable attack event, not everybody can have Swinging Web Kick. But the secret text here is that while you are gaining overkill, you are also utilizing the Cybernetic Arm to turn that seven damage into eight. A fantastic baseline.

On the lower end of Winter Soldier’s damage output, we have Electrical Discharge. While not as flashy, this is another card that gains the secret text of not only having additional damage from the Cybernetic Arm, but naturally stunning the enemy. It is always fun to have a big attack that takes out a enemy in one shot, being able to stun them buys you an extra turn that you might not have had to set up a Metal Punch with overkill.

Safe House #30

Lastly, let’s talk about a card that I have a lot of stock in, with the hope that it does not let me down. Safe House #30 is fascinating to think about, as it allows you to do minion summoning in a safer environment. A lot of thought has already been put into avoiding quickstrike minions. But I don’t know that I really thought about how important it is to pull a high attack minion to you in a form where that does not need to be a part of the equation.

It’s a tale as old as time, but sometimes on turns where you’ve moved from alter ego to hero, you summon in a minion that actually might pose a legitimate threat to you during the Villain Phase. Bucky gets to pull these minions into play and assess if alter ego or hero is going to be the best place to take them on. This flexibility may seem trivial, but allows for tempo to swing so much in Winter Soldier’s favor that he can trivialize some of the most threatening minions in scenarios. Not to mention, draw a card.

In Closing

As I begin to think about these heroes entering into the larger card pool of Marvel Champions heroes, my mind wanders to what they will bring to potential team up in the future. I see Falcon teaming up with Scarlet Witch.  Though my hope is that playing with any hero in a Justice deck that can manipulate the top of the encounter deck will not only help to make Falcon even more potent, but his ability will allow Justice decks to have even more nuanced control over the game.

With the Winter Soldier, I don’t have any particular heroes in mind for amplifying what he’s already doing. But I think that he is going to be a very strong team player. There is a lot of potential to allow attack events outside of Aggression to really shine. If we can see more cards in the form of Turn the Tide, I think there is the potential to have Bucky in a Justice deck that is going to handle threat so seamlessly that the rest of the table will be available to focus their attention on everything else.

I await the release of both of these heroes with baited breathe. And hopefully, you do too. As always, you can find me every week over on YouTube continuing my List Series, premiering New Player Guides, and playing games. Or check out more of my written content here on Card Gamer, like my piece on competitive balance. Or you can learn the basics of the game here. Thanks for reading.