You asked for it, and soon you’ll have it. Marvel Knights is bringing us a character search card that anyone can use.

Now, any team can pretend that they’re the Fantastic Four . . . sort of. Weapon of Choice offers every team a bit of the curve smoothing that, until now, only a select few have enjoyed.

There are several things you should be aware of, however, before tossing Weapon into your next deck.

1. Don’t expect to go find a power-up during an attack.

It’s just a bit too obvious when one of the characters you choose is the same as your current attacker. If you think you’re going to need a power-up, grab a copy during the build phase. If you get the card, you’ll be power-up ready. If not, choose some less risky attacks.

2. Don’t expect to get the best character for the turn.

Your opponent knows what hoses him or her, so you’re going to end up with the card against which your opponent has the best chance. Dragon Man and Gog will never see your hand via Weapon when you’re facing a deck they do well against.

3. Don’t expect to use it four times during the game without suffering.

Discarding two cards to gain one is not something you can afford to do and still keep lots of tricks up your sleeve for later turns.

4. Don’t expect to resolve this plot twist too many times against the Gotham Knights.

One big drawback is that the discard is part of the cost. If your opponent hits it with a Fizzle, you’ll be crying, as those cards and the Weapon will be lost.

5. Don’t plan to use it very effectively in Army decks.

Army decks tend to use six or seven copies of a single character at each drop, so they can’t make much use of this card. Are you really going to play this card just to let your opponent hand you Master Mold while you shuffle up Bastion?

What does all this really mean? It means you could search your way out of a bad draw, smooth out your curve, run out of cards in your hand, and still possibly not get anything (or anything usable) to show for it. If you haven’t been scared off yet, there are some great benefits available to the wise Weapon player.

Go ahead and use six different 4-drops in your deck. If half of them are offensively minded and the other half have great activated powers, you’ll be all set to search out two characters who don’t offer your opponent any slack. Make your opponent choose between a rock and a hard place. Many decks use just two different characters at most drops—one offensive and one defensive. If you Weapon those two into your hand, be prepared for your opponent to laugh when you give him or her the option of Robot Seeker or Volcana. I mean, c’mon! One is only good while attacking, and the other is basically only useful while defending. Hmm, okay . . . I guess your opponent is really laughing for a different reason.

Another great benefit is that you can cut down on the number of characters at certain drops where you’d prefer not to overstock. If you want a decent chance of drawing a 2-drop by turn 2, you naturally need to put six or more of them into your deck and accept the possibility of a mulligan. Weapon of Choice gives you more chances to make each drop. So, if you don’t want to overstock on 2-drops, you could play with two 2-drops and four copies of Weapon. You’d then have six chances to “draw” a 2-drop by turn 2.

Questions or comments may be sent to mhyra@metagame.com.