To begin with, the new keywords have different strengths and weaknesses in multiplayer than they do in one-on-one play. Cosmic, for example, is a much stronger ability in multiplayer than it would be in one-on-one. Your characters are more likely to survive each round in multiplayer, as not only are players more cautious with attacks in a multiplayer game (after all, it’s not usually a good idea to leave yourself open), but players are also more willing to be diplomatic and make (or break!) strategic promises. This is especially important in the early rounds as players jockey for position, typically avoiding one-on-one conflicts that leave defenses wide open and weaknesses exposed. Many multiplayer games last into late rounds because of this.

What this means is that Cosmic characters have a higher chance of surviving from round to round, thereby retaining Cosmic counters for longer periods of time. The downside to this, however, is that a character may also hit the board with a big target on its head because of a Cosmic ability. Mark Moonrider, for example, is a very dangerous character to leave on the board fully charged, as burn damage tends to be even more vicious in the multiplayer quagmire.

Invulnerability is also a powerful keyword in the world of multiplayer, as multiplayer often turns into survival of the fittest. This prompts players to team up to eliminate threats and take the time to eliminate players who are close to game loss. Invulnerability will help you to avoid the latter by saving you from stun damage, which in turn keeps you from falling too close to 0. However, it can backfire—if most of your characters are invulnerable, you might as well pop that target back onto your forehead. Your opponents will team up to take you down. Stun protection only helps if you have characters left to block attacks.

Keywords aside, Man of Steel has some vicious multiplayer cards. There are also some great factions around which to build multiplayer decks. Here are the ten cards I think have the most potential to dominate multiplayer games. These cards are in numerical order and not in order of strength or preference.

1) Connor Kent Superboy, Kon-El is the cream of the crop for Team Superman multiplayer decks. The ability to replace a resource is invaluable for removing threats in one-on-one and also for removing the dead weight in your resource row. To be able to do so in multiplayer is very advantageous because the more players in the game, the more potential threats there are. LexCorp can be an even bigger help for keeping your resources flowing—it has no restrictions (Connor Kent needs to stun a character to use his ability), and because it’s a location instead of a character, you can get more use from it. As well, LexCorp’s secondary ability to replace plot twists is a bonus that Connor Kent doesn’t have. The one major advantage Connor Kent has over LexCorp, however, is that he can also replace your opponent’s resources. With Dubbilex giving you an advanced look at potential resource threats and Reconnaissance to sneak a peek at your opponent’s resource row, it is possible to remove threats from your opponent’s resource row before they can even enter the playing field. Add Perry White into the mix, and you can take out two cards from a single player or spread the wealth by simultaneously dumping a threat from each of two players’ resource rows.

2) Lightray is a vicious card in any burn deck. It combines with Mark Moonrider well enough to make me consider adding New gods into the traditional burn mix (Brotherhood/New Gods with a touch of X-Men . . . imagine the possibilities!) Dealing 7 direct endurance loss is brutal, and its restriction is not an impossible one. You merely have to control another New Gods character—not necessary an unstunned or a ready one. Lightray is especially strong when you don’t have the initiative because after he deals the 7 endurance, he can still stun for more as a defender. Add extra players into the mix and Lightray becomes a potential beast, not only because multiplayer games tend to go into later rounds (where he can potentially remove an opponent each turn), but because the combo possibilities light up the sky.

First, add The Prophecy Fulfilled into the combo mix. The Prophecy Fulfilled automatically eliminates all opponents with an endurance total of 0 or less before the game checks endurance levels for a winner. A tie or potential loss can turn into a win if Lightray’s leading the way—that loss of 7 endurance could mean the difference between winning and losing. Now, add Press the Attack for flavor. If you can keep three other characters on the table and can somehow exhaust them, Press the Attack will mean a 14 endurance loss to a single player or a 7 endurance loss spread out between two players. New Genesis can help exhaust characters, as can Forever People. A team-up can do wonders, as well. If you’re playing Brotherhood/New Gods burn, for example, there are several exhaustion possibilities. Drop Orion, Dog of War on turn 8 to slow attacks against you, and to allow Lightray to continue inflicting burn. 

3) A week has passed since the Sneak Preview, and everyone’s still talking about The Source . . . for good reason! It’s the first big hit of the set, and it’s a good thing that this card is team-stamped. Multiplayer merely gives this card more targets to remove from the game, and while it’s true that some juicy targets like Teen Titans Go! aren’t likely to be played from the resource row, there are plenty of others that will. Fizzle, Have a Blast!, Signal Flare, team-up cards, Flame Trap, Mystical Paralysis, and Reconstruction Program are a few that come to mind.

If you can find a way to bring The Source back (by teaming up with Teen Titans and playing Garth, for example), you have a trump card every turn!

4) The Revenge Squad has a couple of strong multiplayer characters, but none are as powerful as Doomsday. If you have nightmares of Doomsday wiping out your entire team in one turn, try to imagine him wiping out everyone’s team in one turn! His lack of breakthrough might be perceived as a drawback, but he has above-average stats for an 8-drop and can clear out every character that is smaller than himself by attacking them one at a time. If you add a Flying Kick or two (to reach protected characters) and a From The Shadows (in case someone actually threatens to stun him), you can make a play for King of the Hill.

5) Board control can be important in one-on-one games, but rarely is it devastating if your opponent has an extra drop. It often takes nothing more than a single card to even things out, and character advantage can turn into character deficit in no time if you’re not careful.

In multiplayer, however, board control is a very fickle issue. The more characters you have, the safer your endurance tends to be . . . but if you start to have too many characters, you become a threat. When that happens, other players will conspire to knock you down a peg or two. That is why Satanus is such a strong multiplayer character. Not only does he give you board advantage, he does it by taking that same advantage away from another player. Sure, his stats are on the low side for a 6-drop, but a simple team-up or boost is all that’s necessary. Sacrificing Satanus by stunning him is a small price to pay for the theft of a healthy 6-drop from your opponent’s front lines. The stun damage your opponent takes in addition to the character theft merely adds insult to injury.

6) I think that Bernadeth is overrated in one-on-one play. You have to keep her unstunned during the combat phase, as she can only use her power for one phase and she has to pay for it when she uses it. This means that she has to pay for her power during the recovery phase to do anything against most decks.

In multiplayer, however, she can be a monster. For one, she doesn’t target an opponent, so every opponent that recovers a character will take damage from her ability. As well, it’s a lot easier to protect her from combat in multiplayer because players are much more cautious when planning attacks. However, her ability will very likely paint a massive target on her head. This is the perfect time to dust off those Medical Attentions from Marvel Origins—since Bernadeth is likely to draw fire, other characters you have may get overlooked. All you have to do is keep one character ready so you can exhaust it to recover Bernadeth at the beginning of the recovery phase. Then, pay for her power and laugh like an evil dictator! She’s also a good splash in a multiplayer X-Men deck where, with a team-up or two, the entire Darkseid’s Elite half of your team can benefit from the dozens of yummy X-Men recovery cards.

7) Any multiplayer deck can benefit from teaming with Darkseid’s Elite, if for no other reason than the double-dose of KO chaos from Superman, False Son and Darkseid, Lord of Apokolips. That will gain you a heaping plateful of board advantage and leave all of your opponents wailing like little (silver) banshees!

Let’s take a peek at Superman, False Son.

It’s important to note that he has no loyalty. You can splash him into any deck and make your opponents cringe. Why would your opponents cringe? Because Superman KO’s any opponents’ stunned front row defender, and he doesn’t have to be the one that stunned it!! This doesn’t make much of a difference in one-on-one (since you only have one opponent), but it’s amazing in multiplayer. Picture him in a game of Emperor, where you’re facing off three-on-three and each of you have him in play as your 7-drop . . . the opposing team will be in for it big time! Even in a free-for-all, everyone else is in serious danger once he hits the board unless he’s taken out quickly. Final priority can be a serious advantage because all the other players will have finished formations by the time he is recruited, and this means there will likely be some juicy targets open for destruction. Add in a little diplomacy, and you might be able to eliminate multiple opponents in one shot.

Board advantage will mean nothing as turn 8 comes around and Darkseid, Lord of Apokolips hits play. Granted, everyone will try to take him out, because if they don’t, you’ve all but won the game. A one-character advantage going into Turn 9 (assuming you have another 8-drop or a 9-drop) will spell the end of the game for most other players if your endurance is high enough. You can also pull off a mini-coup like this with Last Son of Krypton. He’s a great multiplayer card if you’ve missed a drop or two, especially if any of your opponents are playing swarm. You don’t gain any specific board advantage, but it can level things out or even tip them in your favor.

8) One of my favorite new plot twists is Anti-Life Equation. As with some of the other cards in this set, while it can be dangerous in one-on-one, it’s really not that strong of a card. In multiplayer, however, it can be amazing! It’s best to flip it when you don’t have any characters left to stun, as that’s the situation in which you have the least to lose. Even then, since it affects every player, someone is going to be sucking on the pain pipe. Since everyone has to choose a different number, the more players there are in the game, the higher that number will get . . . and the more endurance someone will lose to try to save his or her character(s). You just call “1,” sit back, and watch the carnage! If you have no unstunned characters, you’ll simply gain a heap of endurance while your fellow players tear hairs out deciding whether to take the endurance loss or dump a character.

The important thing to remember about Anti-Life Equation is that it’s an ongoing plot twist, so unless you can somehow replace it (via LexCorp, for example), it may come back to haunt you in later turns.

9) Omega Beams, like Bernadeth, is another overrated card for one-on-one play. Since you have to exhaust a character to use it, you’re foregoing a potential attack to play it. As well, it’s not often that you have a major advantage over your opponent in terms of stunned characters, and if you do, you’re likely to win the game anyway. Still, it can be handy to wipe the board clean. This is especially true in multiplayer, where you’re more likely to have a free character to exhaust. Also, depending on your position in the phase, you might be able to use this card to wipe out scads of pesky stunned characters scattered throughout your opponents’ ranks. As well, since the characters are removed from the game, you don’t have to worry about recursion haunting you in later rounds.

One particularly advantageous way to use this card is to team up with Team Superman for Super Speed, with New Gods for Fastbak, or with any team that will give you a character or card that allows you to ready.

10) A card that screams out “Gamma Bomb” at the top of its lungs, Imperiex is a sure winner in multiplayer. While the debate rages on over whether or not a 10-drop (or even a 9-drop) is useful in single player, most multiplayer games stretch out into double-digit rounds. Imperiex makes Doom decks with a turn 8 Gamma Bomb extraordinarily nasty. While your opponent may have Onslaught up his or her sleeve, Onslaught is a puppy compared to Imperiex, and his stun ability will leave Imperiex unscathed. All you need is a turn 8 Doom (any one will do) and Latveria, and the Gamma Bomb will clear the board, sweep the playing field, and roll out the red carpet for an Imperiex festival.

Just cross your fingers and hope that none of your opponents have another Gamma Bomb for Turn 9!

That concludes this week’s look at the top 10 Superman, Man of Steel picks for multiplayer. If you enjoyed this article, grab some cards and some friends and try them for yourself.