Nova Hot Takes

I'm almost done with the end of the year character stats post and then AMG hands me the rules to my favourite upcoming character. Richard Rider is awesome in the comics and I am  committed to playing him regardless of what his stat card would look like. So what did we get? 

Nova seems very cool on first look. He's got very high damage potential and a tonne of displacement on his attacks. He isn't the most survivable 5 threat but his Reroll Aura for himself and allies helps with that. As does immunity to Incinerate. Faster than Light is also a cool new Hit and Run like ability giving him action economy. 

A play pattern we've seen with Dracula (who has a larger base so it might not be as easy with Nova) is to Wolf an L move and attack someone with 7 dice on the midline. That play usually banks on Dracs making the power back it cost him to do it. Nova on the other hand will gain 2 power and increases the Range 2 Gainer to 8 dice with a Wild throw. Add in a Winging It token and people will learn quickly to fear Richard in round 1. 

While he is quite mobile and that spender looks rather insane I don't think holding him back a bit and blasting people with his Range 4 gainer is a terrible idea either. A typical turn after his first will probably be Blast (or hit if in range) and then use Nova Force. Building enough power in round 1 means you'll get to use the spender sometimes, too. I'm just pretty excited to try him out honestly. I usually don't play a model until I have the physical model fully painted in my collection but Nova could be the exception here. The problem is that every new release at the moment demands attention. I'm not crying over all my favourite factions getting new toys of course I just want more time to play this game 😅

Nova also comes with two TTCs: 

This card is awesome. Nova might struggle to pay for it sometimes but either clearing a secure or slowing every extract carrier globally is very good.  I think especially the latter part will come in super handy in Guardians especially. The biggest downside of the card and why I don't think it is stapled to Nova is that is has to be played in his activation making it very important especially for Stop, in the Name of the Law! That Nova activates early which with his potential displacement usually isn't going to be something you'll want to do. I think it's absolutely in your 10 if you bring Nova but not in every 5. 

The second card is a team up card with Gamora: 

Seeing as the card is free and both superpowers are really good it is basically an auto include if you plan on using both Nova and Gamora in a log of games. Once again most likely in Guardians where I will definitely try it. 

Overall I'm overjoyed by what I got for my man Richard Rider here. I don't think he's going to break the game or be a particularly ubiquitous splash but he looks like a very good in affiliation 5 for the Guardians. 

That's it for today. 

Cheers from Germany 🍻

 

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