Dial it up a notch. Today it’s time to go one louder.

Sixteen minutes ago, I checked my email inbox and found my preview card. Any thoughts of a big flashy intro with plots, subplots, themes, puns, romantic interest, a car chase, and a bit with a dog were out of the window.

If you are going to go large, Armageddon is the way to do it. Heralds of Galactus is all about big characters and big effects, but few are bigger than Armageddon. This is the end of everything. The full stop.

The great thing about Armageddon is its simplicity. Back when the game first started, it took a little bit of time for people to fully appreciate just how powerful Savage Beatdown was. There are a lot of combat pumps out there, so just how important can it be to be the biggest?

There are a couple of big things that worked in favor of Savage Beatdown in the beginning, and these are equally true of its bigger brother. Combat pumps will normally be used for one of two things. The first is that they allow small characters to attack “up the curve” into larger ones, securing the difficult stuns and allowing your larger characters to smash through smaller ones in relative safety.

The second? Well, sometimes increasing your character’s ATK enough will just plain kill your opponent. Full stop.

If we assume that characters get bigger by between +2 ATK / +2 DEF and +3 ATK / +3 DEF each turn, then Armageddon lets you attack solidly up the curve with a character that costs 2 less with relative confidence. Confidence wins games. So does swinging for lots.

Savage Beatdown’s other key point of difference was that in a fair fight, it was just a little unfair. When the best defensive measure around in most decks was Acrobatic Dodge, Savage Beatdown forced two answers to just the one question. As much as some things have changed, plenty remains the same. With a full +6 ATK, it might just not matter that your opponent has a defensive plan.

There is only one potential downside to Armageddon. It does have a threshold cost of 6. Until turn 6, it will never do anything.

Boo hoo.

There is a lot to be said for saving plot twists up for later turns. Everything tends to get bigger and swingier as the game goes on, and the potential for curve-breaking attacks is definitely one of those things that increases greatly as the game goes on. What could be interpreted as a lack of flexibility will, for many less-disciplined players, actually just be the games rules forcing them to hold back some tricks for the final fight when everything is decided. Speaking of getting bigger and swingier, Armageddon is but one card indicating a trend toward later turns in Heralds of Galactus. Where else would you expect to find such heavy hitters as Galactus, Thanos, and the like but at the end of the curve? In order to get those characters and/or to fight against them, only the biggest of combat plot twists will suffice.

Facing down Armageddon is more or less as tough for opponents as it sounds. There aren’t many plot twists that extend the “reach” of an aggressive deck to win back an endurance deficit or consolidate a lead as much as this one. Every deck can play at ending the world, and aside from the steep threshold cost, there is nothing else to pay for those that choose to do so.

Earth’s Mightiest Heroes remains the biggest “uncomplicated” combat pump in the game. What has me a little tingly, though, is the potential to have four cards in hand and attack for an additional 24 breakthrough without the need to do anything clever.

At Pro Circuit New York, I was talking with Brian Kibler about how cool the (then new) Fantastic Four starter deck was. Kibler’s first comment was, “Have you seen Thing, Strongman? Derf.” Sometimes being huge is plenty enough of a superpower. Now it’s something that everyone can try! The idea of the tricksy heroes also being able to smash face in a fight is one that has me a little excited.

If your deck is only going to run one combat pump, make it count. Run Armageddon.

Have fun and be lucky,

Tim “Super Size Me” Willoughby