Just what is the Look-Alike Squad? The combined wisdom of Google informs me that they’re a group of Kryptonians from the bottle city of Kandor, each of whom is a dead ringer for one of Superman’s friends on Earth. However, today’s card seems to be more about duplicates of the Man of Steel himself.

This is only the third so-called “clone” card printed yet (after Superman, Red and Cadmus Labs) and is a welcome addition, given that both existing clone cards are fragile in their own way. A 3-cost character doesn’t have the longest life expectancy in a curve deck, and Cadmus Labs is an obvious target for Ka-Boom! Of course, it’s just as easy for your opponent to KO Look-Alike Squad with Foiled, but the presence of a third card type makes your clone engine just that little bit more reliable.

However, this added reliability comes at a cost, because the new card has quite a chink in its armor. Whereas its two predecessors create a “clone” modifier that lasts until the end of the turn, Look-Alike Squad’s modifier only lasts while it’s face-up in play. If Look-Alike Squad is your only clone card and a wily opponent KO’s it while your Superman recruit effect is on the chain, then as that recruit effect resolves, the uniqueness rule will put all characters named Superman you control into your KO’d pile. (Unless, of course, you nonchalantly flip Cadmus Labs or another Look-Alike Squad before the recruit effect resolves.)

But even with the slight drawback, my hunch is that this card will send all of the closet Team Superman deckbuilders of the world back to their respective drawing boards with a resounding “Woot!” Cadmus Labs was and still is a serviceable part of the clone strategy, but its secondary power (Replace Cadmus Labs >>> Target character named Superman gets +1 ATK and +1 DEF this attack) was never anything to write home about. The secondary power of Look-Alike Squad, on the other hand, is entirely more noteworthy . . .

The Vermin Maneuver

Anybody who has played a Draft match against an opponent with multiple Vermins knows what a big headache just two of those little guys can be. The “Vermin Maneuver” is like an auto-recovery whenever a Vermin you control becomes stunned. So, imagine a card that gives a similar power to most if not all of the characters in your deck!

Sure, you don’t get to search every time you recruit a Superman (that’s what Man of Tomorrow is for, anyway) and you may only swap in a lower-cost character card from your hand, but the big news is that the lower-cost character comes into play ready.

Another useful comparison is to Dual Nature. Here, the timing of Look-Alike Squad is a little more restrictive (it triggers whenever your character becomes stunned rather than being playable later in the turn), but the bonus is that you swap the character into your front row rather than into your support row.

In combination, these two improvements are even greater than the sum of their parts. It’s one thing to earn an exhausted or support row character by performing the Vermin Maneuver (for example, it’s always been frustrating that so few of the League of Assassins characters you can swap into your support row with Dual Nature have range), but being rewarded with a ready, front row Superman can be very exciting.

And perhaps no Superman is more exciting in this regard than the one we’ve already mentioned—Superman, Red. Imagine it’s the fifth turn and your opponent is using his initiative to attack and stun both characters you control. First he goes after Superman, Blue, and then Superman, Clark Kent. Since Clark is destined for the KO’d pile anyway, why not swap your stunned Clark for a Superman, Red from hand who will come into play in your front row, ready, and wearing his cosmic counter? You get 8 more ATK on the board that’s usable immediately on your counterattack at virtually no cost.

But that’s merely one of the defensive possibilities. Look-Alike Squad also triggers whenever your attackers become stunned. So, with the right hand, it’s possible to run Superman, Kal-El into your opponent’s 6-drop; swap for Superman, Blue; run the new guy into your opponent’s 5-drop; swap for Superman, Clark Kent; run the even newer guy into your opponent’s 4-drop; and so on. On your initiative, you could theoretically wipe out your opponent’s entire board using just one of your original characters, leaving the rest of your guys to attack straight to the face.

One final observation is that a stunned Superman normally stops protecting the character behind him, but Look-Alike Squad lets you swap in a new Superman to continue the protection. Controlling protected characters is never a bad thing, but in combination with certain cards (like the New Hotness that is Superman, Avatar of Peace, for example) it gets even better.

Building the Perfect Clone

I’m no deckbuilding genius, but this one almost seems to build itself. Start with Look-Alike Squad, Cadmus Labs, and a whole bunch of Supermen. The recent arrival of the aforementioned Avatar of Peace means that there’s now a worthy Superman at every point on the curve between 3 and 8, except possibly at the much-maligned 5-slot (and Look-Alike Squad even does its best to improve Superman, Blue because it will often swap in a character wearing a cosmic counter). Throw in Man of Tomorrow, some pumps, maybe Cover Fire, and possibly another legacy card from the JLA expansion that I can’t say too much about just yet . . .

Is it going to catapult Team Superman to the top tier of the metagame? Who knows? And after Orlando, who even knows what that tier looks like anymore? But by combining clone functionality with a potentially strong and synergistic power, this card is certainly moving in a direction that the deck wants to go in.

Obligatory Rules Bit

I’ve answered a number of Cerebro questions on the subject of uniqueness since the Kang Council arrived in the last expansion. The executive summary goes something like this:

A character’s uniqueness is only relevant while resolving that character’s recruit effect. If it’s unique, all characters you control with the same name are put into your KO’d pile as part of resolving that effect. Once a character is in play, it never matters whether or not that character is unique.

One last thing. Like both Cadmus Labs and Superman, Red, Look-Alike Squad’s clone modifier affects all characters named Superman, including the ones your opponents recruit. If these decks do ever take over the metagame, that will definitely be something to watch out for!