There’s been much clamoring for Upper Deck to create new League of Assassins characters all along the point curve. While there aren’t enough new cards in Superman, Man of Steel to cover all of the bases, it’s easy to argue that the League benefits more from the new set than any other team.
Bronze Tiger, Benjamin Turner kicks it into a new gear when his buddies get roughed up. While he starts at just 2 ATK/2 DEF, if you hide him behind another character, he generally can grow to at least 4 ATK/4 DEF before anyone can lay a hand on him. Who better to hide him behind than the best bodyguard around, Ubu, Ra’s al Ghul’s Bodyguard? Bronze Tiger is virtually guaranteed to see his bonus when protected by Ubu, Ra’s Al Ghul’s Bodyguard, since flight or whatever other bag of tricks your opponent has will not help him or her get to Bronze Tiger first. There really aren’t too many decks that can reliably bust thru someone of Ubu’s size and still have enough muscle left to take out a riled up Bronze Tiger. If they do manage to do so, they’re very likely to lose a couple of characters or blow a plot twist or two in the process. After giving him a try, I think you’ll find that Bronze Tiger, Malaq, and Ubu, Ra’s Al Ghul’s Bodyguard are one of the best 1-2-3 openings in the game.
It’s too bad that Bronze Tiger doesn’t have range, since often you’ll want to have him crouching in the back. In those cases, it would be very exciting if he could swing. For this reason, you should give extra consideration to cards like Mega-Blast or Dual Sidearms if you play him.
So far, I’ve only really talked about his strengths in a defensive posture, but he can also be very exciting on the attack. Now, you’re probably wondering how that could be. You’re thinking to yourself, “C’mon, Humpherys, you can’t fool me. How many stunned characters am I going to have during my own attack step?” Well, I’ll explore some off-team answers to this question in a moment, but first let me tell you that Bronze Tiger is one of two cards in the set that foster the theme of benefiting from your own stunned characters. The other card will provide a little defensive help that the team was lacking. With these two cards at your disposal, you might be playing four Lazarus Pits in decks very soon. Don’t forget that Lazarus Pit is not unique, so each turn you can carry over at least one stunned character to the following turn for each Pit you control. Then, as combat commences, you are likely to have at least one of your own characters stunned. Much like with Sauron or Man-Bat, Bronze Tiger will usually want to enter the fray last in each attack step to capitalize on any teammate who becomes stunned.
The possibilities for Bronze Tiger are immense when you start looking outside of the team. Maybe you can team him up with a team whose characters are constantly getting stunned, like the Sentinels. Or maybe you can team him up with the Spider-Friends and have a bunch of your characters use evasion to increase his bonus. There might also be some strong possibilities with the Darkseid’s Elite, who like to have stunned characters linger around. For example, if Bronze Tiger is still hanging out when the 6-drop Darkseid, Uxas enters the scene, Darkseid’s cosmic power will see to it that all the stunned guys hang around.
If you are skeptical because you’ve had a hard time teaming up the League in the past, take a look at Metropolis in the Superman, Man of Steel set. In case you haven’t seen it, Metropolis is a non-unique location that acts like Marvel Team-up. So, why does that help? Well, besides the League’s ability to search for locations with cards like Talia, the League might also have a new way of getting their hands on a Metropolis more easily than you might imagine. Also, now you won’t need a silly looking blue card cluttering up your resource row to bring another team to your aid.
For those of you that are saying, “But I didn’t want a 2-cost character,” I will say that there is at least one other League character in this set at an important point cost for the team who will have you trying to cram as many locations into your deck as possible. Good luck at your local Sneak Preview weekend tournaments!
Comments welcome at DHumpherys@metagame.com.
