Almost eleven months ago, I previewed an exciting new character search effect. That preview was for Enemy of My Enemy. Whether you love or hate what it has done for our game, there is no denying that it has had a profound impact on deckbuilding and gameplay.

The primary design objective of Enemy of My Enemy was to facilitate decks comprised of two or more team affiliations. It was also worded in such a way that it was excellent for getting the right character for the right job regardless of his or her affiliation. Enemy of My Enemy has become a powerful tool in these types of decks.

For every player enjoying all the doors in deckbuilding opened up by Enemy of My Enemy, there is some number of other players who foremost enjoy building mono-team decks. Whether it is because they are a huge fan of a particular team, prefer to stick more strictly to the realistic storylines, or don’t like seeing characters splashed too much, many of these players don’t enjoy playing with or against the deck types that Enemy of My Enemy improves. These players are looking for a card that speaks to them. If you are one of these players, today’s preview card should have you very excited.

This is undoubtedly one of the most powerful character search effects we have printed to date. It is also your first hint at our slightly increased focus on what it means to be on a team.

It is probably unnecessary for me to speak about the virtues of searching your deck for a character, so I’ll just focus on the ways in which this card is distinct from past effects.

First off, Mobilize makes you play it honest. Each and every character you have in play must share an affiliation with the character card you are getting. This means it will find a home only in mono-team decks or decks that are reliably teaming-up their characters. As a consequence of this, it also requires that you have at least one character in play. This means that it will not help you reliably play your 3-drop character unless you are also sure to include a number of smaller characters to set the stage.

One of the biggest payoffs for these limitations is that Mobilize has one of the easiest costs of cards of its kind: you need merely discard a card, not a character card. While the least valuable cards in your hand are often character cards, sometimes having to discard one is a huge gamble. There are certainly times when playing a card like Signal Flare that you will be forced to discard your only copy of a character you would like to play later in the game. For example, I’ve always found it frustrating to discard the only 5-drop character in my hand to get my 3-drop character, and then hope I draw another 5-drop character in my next four cards.

These distinctions will certainly have you taking a new look at the number of characters in your deck as well as where they fall on the curve.

Start dusting off your old favorite mono-team decks and get them ready for some action.