Let's say you could form an All-Star team of the premiere characters at each cost. I bet we might agree at cost 5. At a cost of 4, we might have a debate on our hands. What about at a cost of 1? Which card really gets you excited? Well, if combat stats and benefiting from combat tricks is where you think "it's at," then you should be drooling over today's preview card.


Vulture: Adrian Toomes
Character, Sinister Syndicate, Recruit 1
2 ATK/1 DEF
Flight
As an additional cost to recruit Vulture, reveal another Sinister Syndicate character card from your hand.
Whenever Vulture causes breakthrough, you gain that much endurance.


Much like other characters that shine, Vulture, Adrian Toomes isn't exactly easy to splash into just any deck. In his case, this is due to a reveal requirement upon recruitment, as you've seen before on Wolverine, Logan. In a focused Sinister Syndicate deck, this is only a minor annoyance, though, and in return, you get some amazing stuff. Up to this point in time, you've only seen three characters at a cost of 1 with an ATK of 2. Not only do you get this nice ATK but unlike the others you also get flight in the deal, thanks to Vulture's electromagnetic flying harness. Oh, and then there's that little part about endurance gain.

What do you do with all of the endurance you are going to gain? Well, it just so happens that two of the characters in the Sinister Syndicate starter, Rhino and Lizard, have a power or limitation that will use up your endurance. There is also a location in the starter that can allow you to convert endurance into improved ATK.

And do you really need anything specific to do with the endurance gain? Almost any ATK-affecting combat modifier has twice the practical benefit when played on Vulture. If you are giving him a Flying Kick or Savage Beatdown, we're talking about some serious swings in endurance totals. It might be a good idea to pack some ways to keep his victims from being reinforced—Blind Sided, anyone? Besides combat tricks, any ATK-modifying equipment should be at its strongest on Vulture. Dual Sidearms is a good fit for small characters in general, and it's quite spectacular on Vulture.

You also need to think about the practical implications of a good endurance gainer. The endurance you gain from Vulture can buy you the time you need to get into the later turns of the game that you might not otherwise see. While he's a small character himself, he can indirectly open the gates to a number of the huge characters you've always wanted to see in play. Who knows, maybe Dark Phoenix and Vulture will start making appearances in decks together.

The big limitation for Vulture is that he's a 1-cost character. He is susceptible to any number of cards that hinder characters falling under a certain cost, including cards like: Gambit, Sentinel Mark I, Robot Sentry, and Flame Trap. The other problem is that you want to see him on the first turn of the game. In a 60-card Constructed deck, even if you have four copies of him in your deck, you will still only see him about 34 percent of the time for turn 1. If you mulligan every hand that does not include him, you could get this percentage up to about 52 percent. So, barring some other ways to search him out, Vulture isn't going to consistently make an appearance for you right out of the gates. The good news is that he isn't too bad a play on turns after the first.

Vulture will be a perfect fit into his team once the entire set is released, but even for the time being, he should make a great addition to any deck featuring the Sinister Syndicate.