Besides being the lead designer for all the sets you’ve seen thus far, Mike Hummel is a man who stands up for the player who draws multiple copies of character cards and would otherwise be stuck with dead cards in his or her hand. If you read my article on locations, you might remember how these sympathies have figured into the game design. I suspect power-ups were also largely a result of this plight. You see, we wanted people to be able to play with several copies of their favorite characters, but we also wanted characters with a given name to be unique, so we tried to find a solution for players to make use of duplicate copies of cards in their hands.

In its infancy, from the Marvel Origins rulebook, version 1.03:

“When you Power-Up a character, that character receives either a +3 to their Attack rating OR Defense rating OR Counterattack until the end of the current Attack Step.”

You might say the game has changed a little since then. Don’t let the language confuse you. All characters now effectively have “counterattack;” while defending, they compare their ATK to the attacker’s DEF. And now, rather than +3 ATK or +3 DEF, you get +1 ATK and +1 DEF. Before settling upon a final version of the power-up ability, the exact reward you got for powering-up a character was the subject of much spirited debate.

As the first months of Vs. System in the outside world progressed, it was clear we had created a powerhouse in Brotherhood, which was fueled at times with Lost City. The power level of Lost City, especially when combined with Avalon Space Station, had exceeded our expectations, even in a deck that couldn’t specifically search for those cards. There were already cards available, or in press, that would help tackle Lost City-based (Big Brotherhood) decks, but we wanted to give players the option to tackle decks focusing more specifically around not just Lost City, but also other powering-up strategies. Since players would be able to play with more and more copies of characters with a given name as additional sets were released (for example, current and future versions of Spider-Man), we wanted to make sure there were ways to counterbalance such strategies. The initial design of the card introduced in the Web of Spider-Man set looked like this.

Unmasked

Threshold 1.

Ongoing: If a character would become powered-up, it is not powered-up instead.

The amusing part was that our own rules actually prevented this wording from stopping Lost City’s power-up effect. Since Unmasked as written above is a replacement modifier, and Lost City is also a replacement modifier, the player with Lost City could actually choose which replacement modifier to apply. Usually he or she would choose the one that ended up with his or her character getting bigger. But that’s just a rules aside that I don’t really want to delve into here.

Since we had just introduced themes for powering-up characters in DC Origins (such as the power-up abilities of the Teen Titans), we were hesitant to make a generic card (one that could be used by any team) that could devastate an entire strategy. We decided to reserve an effect like this for a specific team at some point in the future. If it was printed as it was written, there was some concern that it might show up in every deck. We also wanted the card to be more interactive. The final version can lead to very interesting gameplay.

First, I’ll acknowledge that this is more powerful in some ways than its predecessor. After all, the previous version could be destroyed with Have A Blast! and then gameplay would proceed as normal. In contrast, this card makes sure that power-ing up characters is definitely shut down for the rest of the turn. Sure, a player can then play Have A Blast! on Unmasked before it gets turned face-down on the following turn, but preventing any power-ups on one crucial turn can be the key against certain decks.

Aside from issues relating to its interaction with Have A Blast! and Foiled, the final version of Unmasked is much less powerful. The earlier version created a continuous ongoing modifier, so your opponent would not have been able to respond with additional power-ups when you played Unmasked. In contrast, the reworded card effect goes on the chain, so your opponent can respond if he or she has a character that is attacking or defending. He or she powers-up his or her character, you play Unmasked, and he or she powers-up that character again before Unmasked resolves. Not only that, it isn’t just your opponent who cannot power-up his or her characters—neither can you! It will also cost you 2 endurance to reuse the effect of Unmasked over a number of turns. These drawbacks should make Unmasked harder to play in just any deck. For example, while the earlier version would be easy to play in a Lost City deck, and mirror matches might have been determined by who drew their copy first, this current version might still be good in the mirror but much more challenging to utilize effectively.

Just to clarify the effect of this card, if a player discards a character or plays another effect to power-up his or her character, you can respond with Unmasked. The power-up will not happen, and cannot be replaced by other modifiers like Lost City. After Unmasked has resolved, character cards can be still be discarded and other effects (such as Tamaran) can be played to power-up characters, but when those effects resolve the character will not become powered-up.

Using Unmasked can be a very tricky proposition. Most of your interesting choices will come from the fact that players can respond to it and that it can also effectively negate a power-up.

If you think your opponent is only likely to be able to power-up his or her characters once, then you are often better saving Unmasked as a surprise. If your characters would be wrecked by even a single power-up and you believe your opponent is likely to have two ways to power-up his or her characters, then you won’t want to give your opponent the chance to power-up at all. And how do you do that?

Only attackers and defenders can be powered-up, so be sure to play Unmasked before your opponent’s character gains that characteristic. However, there is no need to give away your strategy too soon. Go ahead and let your opponent propose his or her attack. You can then play Unmasked. It will resolve before the attack proceeds and before your opponent’s character(s) have exhausted and gained the attacker characteristic. Maybe your opponent was counting on powering-up his or her character in the attack, and now you will send his or her character to its impending doom. With luck, you might even see such a play coming, and play your Unmasked when you otherwise might not have played it. This is the safe route for you. If you would rather wait for him or her to pitch a character card and make him or her waste that card, you can wait to play Unmasked until after the attack has begun. If he or she responds with another power-up, don’t go blaming me. Ultimately, you will have to make the call based on the matchup you are playing whether your opponent is likely to have a second power-up with Tamaran, another character in hand directly, or another character in hand indirectly by using a card like Avalon Space Station.

As for one other timing tip, if your opponent powers-up his or her character in an attack, you should be afraid that he or she might play Unmasked. From this day forward, you should power-up your characters in response to your opponent powering-up his or her characters, so your power-up will resolve first and your opponent won’t have a window to respond to your power-up with Unmasked without negating his or her own power-up.

Finally, you’ll have to decide whether or not to “reset” your Unmasked each turn for the cost of two endurance. Most of the time it seems like you will want to reset your Unmasked, but in close games you will have to use some judgment.

If I haven’t thoroughly confused you, and you have comments on this article, please email me at DHumpherys@metagame.com. Otherwise, please email Danny Mandel, since it’s surely his fault.