Fanboys (and girls) of the world, rejoice! TBS has heard your pleas and added Wally West to the ranks of the Justice League of America—and he was worth the wait! Without further ado:

Over the past year or two, more than one member of R&D has sat me down to brainstorm the possibility of adding extra attack steps to the combat phase for the exclusive use of “speedster” characters. That obviously hasn't happened yet, and maybe never will, but Wally could represent one of the first journeys down that path. Why create a new step when there's a whole existing phase you can use?

When you absolutely, positively have to attack first, Wally's the man for you. He doesn't care whether your opponent has the initiative or not—he can take down an adversary before it’s even put in formation. He's that fast!

He can also attack at “regular speed,” of course. It's easy to forget that the option even exists given the insane nature of his backup power, but it's there.

Let's face it—that insane backup power is obviously what we're here to talk about today, so let's take a look at the many things it can do (and a few of the things it can't.)

First, the basics. The numbers we're interested in are those printed on Wally, but not necessarily those printed on the character he's targeting. Any modifiers altering that other character's stats have to be taken into account (such as The New Brotherhood, for an old-school example).

While this might feel like a restriction in some ways, it can definitely be used to your advantage. For example, the stats of that opposing character can be debuffed as well as buffed. A power like that of Lex Luthor, Champion of the Common Man could potentially allow Wally to swing way up the curve under optimal circumstances.

In addition, there are very few tricks that can surprise you, because Wally's special move takes place outside of the attack. That means no power-ups, no other effects that require an attacker or defender, and none that have a duration of “this attack”.

It's not impossible to modify stats in response to Wally's backup effect—X-Corp: Hong Kong and Forbidden Loyalties are two examples of such technology—but in general, the numbers on the board are usually the only ones you’ll have to worry about.

Moving on, Wally 101 is all about the off-initiative stun. If your opponent has the initiative on turn 5 and controls a character that you want stunned before it swings, chances are pretty good that Wally can make that happen. His 9 ATK is big enough to bring down most 5-drops or smaller, particularly given the aforementioned lack of defensive tricks that can be used against him.

But size isn't everything. Maybe there's an opposing character with a power that triggers at the start of the combat phase (or your opponent's attack step) that you might decide is a better strategic target for Wally's Mad Skillz^TM. And then there's the holy grail—a 5-drop with a triggered power, such as Magneto, Eric Lehnsherr.

Excuse me for a second. . . That was 2004 on the phone; they want their cards back. So to drag this article kicking and screaming back into the present day, how about Frankie Raye ◊ Nova, Harbinger of Death for a hot-off-the-presses example of a best-case scenario? Not only can Wally stun Frankie off (or on) initiative, but doing so also removes her cosmic counter and cripples her card-drawing—all before the combat phase even starts!

Before I leave the cards of yesteryear behind, though, it would be remiss of me not to mention two more platinum hits from the past to kick off Wally 202 (“The Ancient Art of Readying”), namely Press the Attack and Cosmic Radiation.

As soon as you throw some readying tricks into the mix, Wally goes from being a pinpoint laser cannon to one of those sentry machine guns from the Aliens Director’s Cut. He can blow away multiple weenies before they even know what hit them, secure in the knowledge that there aren't too many Nasty Surprises lying in wait for him.

Which brings us to the super-advanced technology of Wally 303—he retains his printed ATK and DEF while stunned! This means you can activate Wally targeting a character large enough to stun him back, then respond by readying him and letting the ready resolve, then activating him to stun another large character. Even though the first activated effect will stun Wally as it resolves, the second will still resolve successfully and both targets will fall.

Those are just my humble musings. Imagine what a decent deckbuilder will be able to do with this guy! I think it’s safe to say he’s designed for Constructed play, given his rarity and loyalty, so it’s up to you fine folks to discover the best deck in which to employ his unique and exciting talents.