As the son of Magneto, you’d expect Quicksilver to have a thoroughbred ability. Well, he’s got one! “Discard a Brotherhood character card from your hand >>> Ready Quicksilver. Use this power only once per turn.” In the Vs. System, a ready character (one who is in the full upright position) is a deadly character.

Ready characters have all sorts of options available to them, including using their activated powers and exhausting to pay an additional cost on a plot twist (see the March 3 article on Finishing Move). Quicksilver doesn’t have an activated power. He has a standard payment power (it doesn’t require him to exhaust himself to use it). But probably the most exciting thing Quicksilver can do is attack twice per turn. Getting in a second attack isn’t a guarantee, however.

With an 8 ATK and 8 DEF for 5 resource points, he isn’t going to win an award for the beefiest 5-drop around, but he makes up for it with speed. The trick is keeping him from being stunned during his first attack of the turn. He’ll probably need to attack a smallish character for his first attack and hope that your opponent doesn’t have any combat tricks up his or her sleeve. Next, do you have a Brotherhood character in your hand to discard? By turn 5, you should have a pretty good idea of what your 6-drop and even your 7-drop plays will be, assuming the game goes that long. So, you should be able to identify a character that isn’t going to make the cut for the final turns of the game.

One of the great things about Quicksilver is that you don’t have to use his ability immediately after he’s made his first attack. Take your time, make some secondary attacks, and then ready him at the moment when he’s needed most. In the Vs. System, the attack phase is the time when ready characters may attack, but you don’t have to declare all your attacks at once. It takes a great deal of strategic thinking to plan your attack step. Once your attacks begin, the game situation may change, and it’ll take some careful tactical thinking to react to an unexpected move by your opponent. This is where Quicksilver really shines.

You won’t always have another Brotherhood character in your hand that you are willing to discard to ready Quicksilver, but having the option to do so is a great feeling. You don’t have to be quite as careful when he makes his second attack during the turn, as he won’t be able to make a third. All that running around and fighting can get tiring, so he may only use his power once per turn.

So far I’ve only been talking about how great Quicksilver is on the attack. However, he can be equally great while on defense, reinforcing fellow Brotherhood teammates. A character must exhaust to reinforce a teammate. By simply discarding a Brotherhood character card, Quicksilver, if positioned properly in your support row, has a chance to reinforce two characters. It works well to put a character in front of him to protect him, and then put a character to his immediate right and left. That way, he’ll be able to reinforce everyone but himself, but either of the other support row characters could reinforce him.

Here’s some good advice: Leave Quicksilver exhausted after you’ve completed your first reinforcement. Don’t bother to ready him unless you definitely need him. You might need him to reinforce a teammate, but you might not, and there’s no reason to pay the discard cost unless you need him. Heck, if he had a ranged attack, you could ready him in the support row after using him to reinforce another character, and then attack with him during your attack step. Now, how to get him a ranged attack? Hmm . . . You did see the article on March 4, right?