Today’s preview is of none other than the Marvel Universe’s premiere bad guy, public enemy number one, sworn enemy to the Fantastic Fou—oh, all right, enough with the overblown intro, here’s the card.

I know what you’re thinking. That’s Dr. Doom? That little guy? I mean, c’mon, they just showed us Sabretooth on Monday, and he’s much bigger. Dr. Doom’s supposed to be way more powerful than Sabretooth! What gives?

Okay, okay. Slow down. Let’s talk about this. In order to understand Doom’s relative power level, you first have to understand a little bit about how the Marvel resource system works.

(Warning: Long aside about design coming)

A Very Resourceful Game

The Marvel game’s resource system is pretty simple. Once a turn, each player gets to take a card from his or her hand and add it face down to his or her resource row. Then each player gets to spend resource points equal to the number of resources he or she has on characters and equipment. So pretty much (with a few exceptions), you’ll have 1 point to spend on turn one, 2 points on turn two, and so on until the game ends with massively powerful characters bashing each other into oblivion.  

The problem is where to put a really mighty character like, let’s say, the mighty Thor. Goldilocks is clearly off the charts on the power scale—he’s a Norse god after all. But if we put him way up there, like around cost 8 or 9, by the time he made it into play, the meat of the game would already be over, and poor old Thor would be relegated to the role of finisher. Not that being a finisher is bad, it’s just that many players will want a chance to use their favorite thunder god earlier in the game.

One alternative to costing Thor high is, predictably, costing him low. The upside is that players get to use him early and often. The downside is that cheapening his cost means his game text and ATK and DEF won’t adequately reflect his awesome powers.

What to do, what to do . . . Well, if you can’t decide whether to have a super-powerful Thor that doesn’t show up till the endgame or to have a weaker Thor that shows up in the early or mid game, why not have both?

From the Cake and Eat it Too Department . . .

In the Marvel TCG, some characters (usually the more popular ones) will have two or more versions (the version line is right below the character’s name). Flavor-wise, a version might represent different time periods in a character’s career or different interpretations or manifestations of his or her powers. Mechanically, having different versions lets the designers make both an expensive-but-mighty Thor as well as a cheaper-and- not-quite-as-mighty-but-still-pretty-mighty Thor. (By the way, I realize I may have gotten Thor fans a little too excited, so I better tell you the sad news: Thor didn’t make it into the Origins set. Look for him when we do the Avengers.)

So how does all this apply to Dr. Doom? Let’s just say, the card you see above is only the smallest version of Doom in the Origins set, and that yes, when the biggest, baddest, most ridiculously over-powered, humungous, all around titanic, Lord of Latveria Dr. Doom hits the table, li’l Sabretooth won’t look so impressive anymore. But we’re not previewing that Dr. Doom. We’re looking at the less powerful, but still very, very cool Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius. And without further ado . . .

We Now Return You to Your Regularly Scheduled Preview

Whew. Where were we? This Dr. Doom costs 4 resource points to recruit, which means he’ll be hitting the table in that part of the game where things shift from early maneuvering with smaller characters to more dangerous combats with larger characters just waiting to take huge bites out of a player’s endurance total. His 7 ATK and 6 DEF are fine for a four-cost character, but not spectacular. However, he does have range (see the crosshairs icon above his ATK and DEF) which allows him to attack from the support row, often safely behind another character. 

Quick Definition: Normally a character can only attack if it’s in the front row, but a character with range can attack from the support row as well.

There are two real reasons to put Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius into your deck. Let’s see if you can guess. I’ll give you a hint. They both involve words printed on the card.

While you’re thinking about it, this is probably a good time to tell you about team themes. While Marvel TCG characters (and many non-characters, too) are created to reflect their comic book counterparts, their powers and attributes are also filtered through their respective team affiliations’ strengths and weaknesses. For example, the X-Men as a team are hard to KO and excellent combatants, while the Brotherhood are extremely aggressive and good at messing with locations. As for the Doom faction . . . traditionally, Doom has an answer to everything. Given enough time to prepare, there’s nothing the good doctor can’t handle. (And by good doctor, I mean bad doctor.) In game terms, Doom is the master of plot twists, bolstering his own supply while hurting opponents’. Which takes us to reason number 1 why Doom’s the man:

“When Dr. Doom comes into play, you may turn a face-up plot twist you control face down.”

Usually when you play a plot twist from your resource row, it remains face up in play, still counts as a resource, but no longer has any game function. Dr. Doom’s power triggers as soon as he comes into play and lets you turn one of your plot twists face down, effectively resetting it, which allows you to play it again (albeit with the slight drawback that now your opponents know you have it). Unfortunately, since we haven’t yet shown you very many plot twists, you’ll have to take my word for it that there are lots and lots of plot twists you’re going to want to get that second use out of.

Have you guessed the second reason why Dr. Doom’s the man? If your answer is, “While you control another non-stunned Doom character, your opponents may not play plot twists from their hands,” well, you’re wrong. Doom’s second power is neat, but not game breaking. Most of the time, your opponents aren’t going to want to play plot twists from their hands anyway. (If only there were a Dr. Doom that didn’t allow them to play plot twists from their resource rows . . .)

No, the second reason Dr. Doom is so good is right there at top of the card: the words, “Dr. Doom.” That’s right, the name Dr. Doom carries more weight than any other character’s in the Marvel TCG—I mean, he’s got a whole team named after him.

Magneto’s a monster in the game, but the Brotherhood isn’t called the Magneto team.

There are several cards in the Doom faction completely devoted to increasing Dr. Doom’s power. With the right cards, you can amp up his ATK or DEF, reinforce him, or even search more copies of him out of your deck. Also, there are several powerful cards that only work while you control Dr. Doom, and even one piece of equipment that can be equipped only to him. All in all, it’s Doom himself that makes the whole Doom team click. And while his ability to reuse a plot twist makes Dr. Doom, Diabolic Genius an exciting splash into any deck, the Fantastic Four’s arch-nemesis truly shines in a deck made just for him.

And speaking of the Fantastic Four, check back in with us on Monday to get a look at the Fantastic Four’s resident Hot Head.