The Crime Lords is a well-organized crew whose members have each other covered. When you attack one of them, you might end up fighting someone else. Combat misdirection is a Crime Lords specialty. As you’ll see when the whole Marvel Knights set is spoiled, there are some Crime Lords cards that give you more influence over your opponent’s attacks than he or she will have. You’ve all seen Superman, Clark Kent step in front of an incoming attacker. Now it’s time for Mr. Fear to do the opposite—he’ll always be the last man on your team standing if you want him to be.
Yes, he’s a mere 8 ATK and 8 DEF for a 5-drop, and you’ve seen both Jigsaw and Elektra, Agent of the Hand, so I’ve got my work cut out for me selling this guy to you as exciting. Simply put, Mr. Fear allows you to take options away from your opponent. Let’s say that your opponent wants to attack up the curve into Mr. Fear with a 4-drop. Just say no! Or, why not let your opponent try, since he or she would probably have to blow a trick to get through Mr. Fear, at which point you could use Mr. Fear’s power to let some lowly 1-cost character step in the way. Bear in mind that even though you’ve switched defenders, it’s still the same attack, so any modifiers affecting the incoming attacker will still apply. Still, if you’ve planned things carefully, you might be able to reinforce that 1-cost character and lose only a single additional point of endurance.
Speaking of reinforcement, the Crime Lords get each other’s backs like no other team. They’re a bunch of made men, after all. Not only is this team excellent at reinforcing, but also you’d better watch out once that happens. Tag Team fits nicely into the Crime Lord’s mix of new team-specific tools. Conversely, cards like Blind Sided and Azrael will be their bane.
If your opponent has one or more characters with flight, you can put Mr. Fear behind your character that’s hardest to deal with. This means that Mr. Fear will be all set to personally reinforce that character in front of him, since they cannot effectively fly over and hit Mr. Fear to break up your formation. This can prove particularly challenging on turn 6 when you augment your 6-cost character with cards available to reinforced defenders (like Tag Team) or with characters we’ve already previewed (like Kingpin, Wilson Fisk). All of these options become that much more exciting with a character that’s a huge nuisance to get through. There is at least one 6-drop on the Crime Lords team that fits the bill, but I don’t want to ruin the surprise. You might also be able to come up with other methods, such as a DEF-boosting equipment, to ensure that Mr. Fear is behind someone too large for your opponent to take down.
Of course, your opponent will realize they cannot get to Mr. Fear, so he or she might just try to pick off the other characters on the board first. In the event that your opponent doesn’t have any fliers, you can really make life miserable for him or her. Take, for example, a character like Kingpin, Wilson Fisk. If you opponent has no characters with flight and you hide Kingpin behind Mr. Fear, your opponent will have to attack each and every character you have, knowing that those characters will receive a +2 DEF bonus if they are reinforced. In other words, if your opponent can’t fly over, Mr. Fear can protect not only himself, but also a friend of his choice.
What if all of your other characters (besides Mr. Fear) are hidden? While your opponent cannot attack those hidden characters (barring other effects), there is nothing that says you cannot turn those hidden characters into defenders. Since an attack’s legality is only checked once, it’s okay to change a normally unattackable character into the defender. You can make a hidden character a defender against a character that can’t attack hidden characters in much the same way that Mr. Fear’s power allows you to make a protected character a defender against an attacker without flight. So, if Mr. Fear is your only visible character, you can choose each of and every one your defenders for the cost of 1 endurance per attack. While it might not seem like the hidden area would work well with a team that thrives on reinforcing, you have at least one option to do so with the Crime Lords. You can orchestrate scenarios where you get to determine each and every attack your opponent makes in a turn!
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