Welcome to the first Metagame.com preview for Infinite Crisis! Let’s kick things off with a vengeance:

Behold Deathstroke the Terminator in all his glory. It’s often hard to decide what card to show first from a new set. While it’s important to pick something cool and splashy, we also want to highlight something that represents a major new mechanic or theme. In addition, the card’s effect has to be dramatic and simple enough that people get excited at first glance. For Infinite Crisis, the decision was not difficult.

This guy is just a monster. I have to admit that I have a certain fondness for the text “KO target character.” Not target stunned character, not target character with cost blah or less—just target character. It has a nice ring to it, don’t you think? Deathstroke strikes hard and fast, and he goes straight for the jugular. 

When You Absolutely, Positively Have to Kill Every Superhero . . .

Deathstroke is a cold-blooded, cunning mercenary who can lay waste to a room full of superheroes. That’s why it always bothered me that the only Deathstroke in our game wasn’t tournament viable. Infinite Crisis gives us not one, but two playable Deathstroke versions, the splashiest of which is the Ultimate Assassin. Deathstroke is a team unto himself, but he’s also for hire. Dr. Light commissioned him as a bodyguard when he needed protection from the Justice League. The evildoers of Villains United rallied around the cause of avenging Dr. Light, who had been mind-wiped by the JLA years before. Deathstroke’s power highlights the team’s signature mechanic, vengeance, which are abilities that trigger whenever the vengeance character becomes stunned. Villains United is notorious for their nasty effects that punish anyone who dares to stun them.

Deathstroke is the Champion for the Villains United affiliation. Each of the four major teams in Infinite Crisis has a 7-drop Champion who offers a huge effect at the cost of not allowing you to play plot twists for the turn. The Champion powers are very potent, and they present players with an interesting decision point when weighing the value of their plot twists vs. the value of the Champion. Trust me, when Deathstroke hits the board, you won’t be missing the blue.

. . . Accept No Substitutions.

Deathstroke can do two important things for you, but first, you have to make a decision: do you want to win on turn 7 or 8? On your initiative, sending Deathstroke in to trade with a 7-drop and using his power to KO a 6-drop leaves the rest of your team free to wreak havoc on your opponent’s endurance total. On the other hand, you can use big D to KO your opponent’s 7-drop to put you in a dominant position on turn 8.

Deathstroke is a powerhouse even when you don’t have the initiative. With Deathstroke protecting a 6-drop, it will be very difficult for your opponent to stun both characters, letting you effectively take control of the initiative. Even if you can’t protect your 6-drop, Deathstroke ensures that the turn can’t go too badly for you.

In addition to Champion powers and vengeance, there are a lot of other exciting elements to Infinite Crisis. This expansion is the first storyline-based set for the Vs. System. As opposed to focusing on a single character or team, this set highlights characters and events from the Infinite Crisis story arch along with plot points from previous Crisis storylines. This is a big step forward for Vs., since the introduction of storyline sets gives us a lot of room to grow in the future. The Infinite Crisis story arch spans the entire DC Universe and is the culmination of twenty years of plot points since the first Crisis on Infinite Earths. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the story, be sure to check out our splash page here.

Infinite Crisis was my first chance to lead design a full expansion set, and I couldn’t have done it without the help of our incredible Vs. R&D and product support team. Before I leave you, I want to thank Mike Hummel, Dave Humpherys, Andrew Yip, Matt Hyra, Patrick Sullivan, Antonino DeRosa, David Marks, and all of the other hardworking people who help bring this game to life.

I hope that you’re as excited as I am about the upcoming release of Infinite Crisis. Feel free to email me with any questions or feedback at Justin_Gary@upperdeck.com. Be sure to check back here at Metagame.com for more sneak previews and updates about the set, all leading up to the Sneak Preview weekend on April 29 and 30.