We've got the new mechanic of Rally with Captain America, The Patriot*Secret Avenger. Rallying is a very powerful effect in theory, with the chance of both drawing a card and getting an effect at the same time, or cycling a card off the top (which can of course be good or bad). This guy was made for off curve decks, especially those that swarm the board with characters. Depending on what else we get in the set, I wouldn't be surprised to see this guy at the end of a couple press chains in a Kree Avengers team-up in Silver. Sure, Kree may not be the best team for this considering their penchant for bouncing their own characters back to their hands, but if you drop Cap at the end of your press chain on the kill turn and throw out a Lunatic Legion, your opponent's probably going to be pretty upset with your entire board getting +3/+1 this turn. His secondary power isn't going to be as useful in a curve deck, but if the rally goes off it doesn't really matter. With no one drop, you'd still be getting a 4/3 two drop that cantrips and keeps your hand healthy. Plus, we've got the version "Secret Avengers," which is a definite portent about the importance of version in the Avengers team, so look for cards like Ravaged and Furious Assault to make a comeback in these decks.
It's basically Mightiest Heroes for the Avengers. Similar effect in that it stacks any Avenger on top of your deck, and has the alternate discard effect to get the card to a place you can use it. Mightiest Heroes put a power-up (or discard for Truth, Justice, and Peace) in your hand, and Avengers Reassembled puts a Reservist into your row. It is a nice effect to be able to flip this from your row and have it replace itself into a reservist so you can still search and not mess up your theme. Very strong. Hell, even if you're playing this in a non reservist Avengers curve or swarm deck, it's still as functional as Mightiest Heroes, 2 drop Surfer, Attilan, Kindred Spirits or any other cards that stack your deck. Very strong, and the mechanic of adding alternate cost boosts to Plot Twists is a good move that opens up R&D even more.
We've technically seen this guy before, in that he's the Captain America card we voted on during the voting sessions to prepare for Marvel Universe. That doesn't change how strong he is. You can wreak havoc on an attack step with this guy, especially if he's got his Shield equipped to him. I like that it's an attack redirection that does not cost an exhaust like most of the other ones, with the added bonus of the second part of the text that allows for some invulnerability to be passed around. Plus, he's an 8/7. That's always nice. I do think that some sort of Avengers/Team Superman deck that basically makes it impossible for your opponent to actually choose who he is attacking could be pretty strong. Just having Captain America adjacent to Wonder Woman is going to cause all kinds of trouble, and he's a lot better than Vartox. Good stuff.
It only took a couple minutes for Tchalla to come up with a way to stack the 11 drop unaffiliated Surfer from the Coming of Galactus set to burn your opponent for 11 on turn four (It involves We Had a Team-Up and 2 Drop Surfer, for those that don't know). Plus, you've got tons of synergy with 2 drop Captain America's rally mechanic, which you know will be on other characters in other forms. It's reusable burn. And it can burn for quite a lot under the right circumstances. And he's another Secret Avenger. Good stuff.
I love this card. It's a very strong Defense pump with no visible drawbacks. Plus it's got the added bonus of negating everything else on the chain that's targeting him. Which sounds great, but that's really what makes this card balanced. There are very few cards that are going to be played by your opponent during an attack that target your character. Most of them (your SKREEEE!'s, your Going Apes, your Atomizes, etc.) can be played at any time, and are likely to be done before combat is legal, especially with a card like this out now. Sure, it might negate a What Are Friends For?, but that's not exactly the most popular card on earth. So basically, the secondary power of this card is more likely to negate your own stuff. This card cannot be played in multiples, as first one to resolve will cancel out any others still on the chain. You can't play it with any other ATK or DEF pumps unless you have a strong understanding of the chain. This means that you can play out this card first and chain a Savage Beatdown to it for a pretty crazy +5/+4 on the attack, but that allows your opponent to play any effects that target you without worry, as another Charging Star would negate the first one and the Beatdown if you want to stop your opponent. This card is really good.
And now we get to the reason why I couldn't wait until tomorrow to write this up. This card is ABSOLUTELY CRAZY. It's a global team-up that hits every card you own and artificially increases your hand size by one. That's all well and good right there. You have to play with the top card of your deck revealed, which is technically a drawback (The Secret Society loves to know what they can get their hands on to mill off the top of your deck). But to be honest, the rest of the text could be blank after that first sentence for all I care. This card gives unaffiliated characters team affiliations. While they're in your deck. And automatically lets you Mobilize for them. Mr. Sinister is an extremely powerful card. Holocaust is a ludicrously powerful card. Now, you can not only play them and search for them, but you can also play Big Leagues and Against All Odds without losing your other team affiliations by playing Crisis on Infinite Earths, so you can still run all your team stamped stuff from other teams. Plus, all those character searches that stack characters on top of your deck (Kindred Spirits, Mightiest Heroes, Avengers Reassembled, 2 drop Surfer, Attilan, Lady Blackhawk, Sintaris) can now be played on the turn you want to use them, and you can still recruit from the top of your deck. This card is insanely powerful and should be a big time money rare.
I'll pop in with a quick post tomorrow about tomorrow's card. This set already looks insane. And I can't wait to see next week's Hulk/Warbound previews.
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