Johnny epitomizes one of the major themes in the Anti-Matter team—taking full advantage of both the visible and hidden areas. Many of their characters have the following keyword:

Concealed – Optional (You may have this character come into play in the hidden area.)

Remember when the concealed keyword first came out and you said, “Why would I want to put this character in my hidden area? My opponent will just smash me in the face.” Well, as witnessed at PC: Amsterdam, many of the Top 8 decks used nearly all concealed character cards to great success. In fact, the top two decks at the end of Day 1 were Marvel Knights/Underworld builds that relied very heavily on hidden characters. In the end, it required some malicious “hate” against an empty visible board in the guise of Hammerhead and his lightning-fast cronies to push these concealed decks out of the spotlight.

But what if you had the choice of which area to put your character into when that character came into play? Well, that is exactly what Concealed – Optional lets you do! Let’s say you’re playing against a hyper-aggressive deck, like The New Brotherhood or Honor Among Thieves, that would cause nightmares for a typical concealed deck. Thanks to Concealed – Optional, you can now choose to have most or all of your characters guard you in your visible area, protecting your precious endurance total via reinforcement and high DEFs.

If you’re playing against a more controlling deck, you can instead make tactical and strategic decisions every turn that determine whether your character would do more for you in the hidden or the visible area. On any given turn, you might realize that putting a character in your visible area instead of your hidden area will mean that you’ll have multiple characters stunned, which could force you to KO one of your own characters without preserving much of your endurance total. If the ramifications of keeping your character either hidden or visible are not so obvious on a given turn, you may have to assess the effectiveness of your character in each area over a number of turns.

The bottom line is that Concealed – Optional characters give you a lot of versatility to adapt to the challenges your opponents throw at you. So, what’s not to like about a Concealed – Optional character? Isn’t it just the best of both worlds? Well, you need to realize that this keyword comes at a price, like any other power or keyword, because it has to be taken into account when balancing the card. On a side note, Concealed – Optional cards can be made use of by cards like Orb, which reference concealed character cards.

Differential Powers in Each Area

As if it weren’t enough of a challenge for you to make up your mind about where to put your character(s) each turn, several characters with Concealed – Optional behave differently in the hidden area than they do in the visible area.

Let’s take Johnny Quick, for example. While he is hidden, he gets +2 ATK. But while he is visible, he has a payment power that allows him to ready himself. Which is the better of these two options? Well, that will likely vary from game to game.

Given that Johnny doesn’t have the most exciting DEF you’ve ever seen, you are more than likely going to want him to come into play in the hidden area when you don’t have the initiative. In this way, he’ll have his chance to swing back if needed.

If you have the initiative, this issue is a little trickier. In most instances, I’d guess that you’d want him to be visible. After all, characters that have the possibility of attacking twice in a turn are nothing to laugh at.

Exploiting a Second Attack

While it is nice that Johnny is a versatile character, let’s face it . . . if you’re including him in deck, you’re probably trying to exploit a character who can attack twice a turn, rather than relishing a simple 10 ATK/6 DEF hidden character. And how best to take advantage of a character who can attack twice in a turn? Well, highest on the list are ways to give him ATK modifiers that last the entire turn rather than for just one attack. Thus, cards like Flying Kick and Mega-Blast are ideal support cards for him.

One thing to keep in mind is Johnny’s modest DEF. It won’t do you much good to pack a bunch of long-lasting ATK modifiers or to play him “honest” if he’s taken down in your fist attack. You may need to consider cards that make him hard or impossible to stun while attacking. From the Shadows comes to mind, and there is a card called Thunderous Onslaught that you will soon come to know and love. Then there are cards, such as Sucker Punch, that work well with hidden characters. “Bah! But if he’s hidden, then he can’t ready and attack again,” you say. Well, let me spoil one more thing. The Anti-Matter team specializes in transitioning between the hidden and visible areas. They have been know to scoff at Dr. Strange’s late game entry to lead teammates and foes alike into and out of the hidden area. Let’s just say that you won’t need to rely on Psychoville to move Johnny to your visible area to get in that second attack.

Just remember that your characters don’t have to be quick like Johnny to zip back and forth between your hidden and visible areas. This makes for plenty of surprises for your opponent and plenty of ways to adapt during each game from turn to turn. This holds especially true given the number of differential powers that I have alluded to.

Comments are welcome at DHumpherys@metagame.com.

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