Here we are again! It's preview week, the most exciting time for our beloved Metagame.com readers. Developing Legion of Super Heroes was a lot of fun. As you start playing with the set you will see plenty of different play patterns. My favorite part of the development process for Legion was figuring out all the different ways you can go about winning a game of Vs. System that hadn't already been tried. Why am I boring you with this development stuff when I am supposed to preview a card? Well, I don’t know anything about Cosmic King or anything about his team; TBS is usually my wikipedia of comic knowledge. The reason I am going on about nothing is because the Future Foes team has two of the unique play patterns this set will introduce. My job today is to show you how cool the Future Foes discard theme is.

Let me start off by saying thank you to TBS, since this will be my first preview that has nothing to do with searching a deck. Join the Club, Ahmed Samsarra, and The Great Refuge were the cards I previewed in the past.

I know you’re probably asking yourself what's going on: A 3-drop character that only gives you 5 ATK and 4 DEF? What does this guy do for my team? He isn't splashy enough to be splashed with Enemy of My Enemy, but when you put him in a deck full of discard he becomes better than Black Panther, T’challa. The interesting part of most Future Foes cards is that the discard is optional. Your opponent can choose to discard a card or to give you some sort of bonus, instead. Trust me when I say that your opponent isn’t going to be able to afford to deny you the +2 ATK / +2 DEF bonus because of your deck’s density of discard effects; the power of those effects will only make Cosmic King get bigger more often. 

My favorite part about this character is the “bluff” element that he adds to a game of Vs. System. There are plenty of times that I made a bad-looking attack and hoped that my opponent would discard to the Cosmic King so I could then get +4 ATK on a different attack with a Chain Lightning. Astute opponents like Patrick Sullivan or Dave Humphreys would never fall for my buffoonery, but you can imagine all the mind tricks you can play on a less astute opponent like TBS.

I usually argue in R&D that Black Panther is excellent because he has concealed and is able to attack with such a big body that he can pick off little characters while doing tons of breakthrough, propelling you ahead in the endurance race. I feel that if he were visible, Black Panther would just get attacked by a 2- or 3-drop (one that might not need a combat modifier to stun him) and his high ATK value would become meaningless. Others believe that Black Panther would be even more over the top if he were visible, since you can blunt attacks on turn 3 with Panther's large size or take down the opposing 4-drop with your 3-drop on turn 4 off initiative. Well, here we have Cosmic King—the new Black Panther, T'challa—with concealed—optional, and we are willing to give you the honor of solving our long-term discussion.

In conclusion, the Future Foes are very good at discarding. Don’t worry out there; they're not as degenerate as Justice League of Arkham. You'll never miss a resource drop because of any of our Future Foes cards, you'll always have the choice to discard or not, and most of the discard effects occur during the combat step.

Until next week, when you will see what else the Future Foes have in store for you,

Antonino De Rosa

Tomorrow's Preview: