The X-Statix will have you playing games in a way you never have before. There’s more than one way to build an X-Statix deck, but you can assemble one that’s designed to have exactly one character in play from the beginning to end of the game. Let me emphasize that I’m not talking about playing Imperiex after a Jean Grey, Phoenix Force or a Gamma Bomb. You will not only be able to keep out exactly one character each and every turn, but you will also find that those are the conditions under which many X-Statix builds perform best. When someone comes over and sees your lone character staring down an opposing three or four characters, it will no longer be safe for that observer to assume that you’re losing. I can’t spoil extra cards, so you’ll have to take my word for it, but there are new cards that reward you very well for having only one character in play. So, the next question is, “How do you achieve having exactly one character in play?” Surely, you will want to play a new and bigger character each turn. But what about the character(s) you already have out?

That’s where today’s preview card really shines. X-Statix HQ is a centerpiece of the loner strategy in Constructed decks. If you’re lucky enough to open it in Sealed Pack, strongly consider running it. I’ll admit that at face value, gaining endurance equal to the cost of a character in exchange for KO’ing one of your non-stunned characters doesn’t seem too exciting, even with the ability to filter a card. Only in the context of other X-Statix cards will you truly come to appreciate this one.

Let’s assume you’ve drawn X-Statix HQ early in the game and your plan is to play one large character, on curve, each turn. On turns that you have the initiative, have the character you played the previous turn pick on anyone it can find that won’t cause it to stun. After that attack, KO the character with X-Statix HQ. Maybe your remaining character will now have access to a power that it couldn’t have otherwise used. Or maybe it’ll simply have better stats, now that it’s on your side of the field alone. Hopefully, it’ll have no trouble taking care of your opponent’s largest character. The most common net result of this strategy is that you’ll both lose a character (instead of just your opponent), but in exchange, you’ll do more breakthrough than normal, and you’ll engineer a larger swing in endurance totals off the X-Statix HQ. The fact that you’ll have lost an additional character isn’t an issue for this team.

On turns when you don’t have the initiative, you might be able to put your character from the previous turn in the way of oncoming attackers. However, since X-Statix HQ only works on non-stunned characters, you’ll often just want to use the HQ to get the old character off the board, thus challenging your opponent to deal with your newly played character (who will likely have loner benefits).

If you don’t draw your X-Statix HQ, don’t worry! There are plenty of other ways to bounce your X-Statix characters back to hand or send them to the KO’d pile. You’ll find some nice benefits associated with cards that generate those effects, too.

X-Statix also has an effective swarm strategy. If an opponent manages to stun a bunch of your swarm characters all at once, you can use X-Statix HQ to help make a smoother transition (over the course of a turn or two) to the loner game plan described above.

The Biggest Set Since Marvel Origins

That’s right! There are 220 new cards in the Marvel Knights set! All sets since Marvel Origins have contained only 165 cards. While all previous Vs. System sets consisted of roughly equal numbers of commons, uncommons, and rares, the Marvel Knights set has a whopping 110 commons to go along with its 55 uncommons and 55 rares. We hope this will make you happy in a number of ways.

First, the collector should be psyched because it won’t be any harder to collect a full set of Marvel Knights than it was to collect the other 165-card sets, as there are the same number of uncommons and rares. Additionally, rather than getting stuck with your umpteenth copy of a given common card you don’t need, like Dr. Tzin-Tzin, you’ll see a more reasonable spread of cards.

Many common cards are very playable in Constructed decks. The extra commons in the set provide many tools and options for new teams, helping to bring them immediately up to speed.

In my mind, the most exciting aspect of these additional cards is, by far, their impact on Sealed Pack and Booster Draft play. The designers of this set took considerable care to make these formats exciting, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Marvel Knights ends up being our most popular Sealed Pack set. With a common pool twice the normal size, you’ll find a lot more variety, both in the decks that you can build and in the various scenarios that come up during game play.

Comments are welcome at DHumpherys@metagame.com.