Monica brings a 3/4/4 6/6 defensive profile on a small base Long Move with flight and the Immunites to Bleed, Incinerate and Poison to the table, in a 4 threat package. That stat block is already on the higher end for a 4 and she also adds a "Reverse Pierce" innate superpower that can change an opposing success into a blank for each wild in her defense roll and giving her a power for every die changed that way. It's even better than Supreme Stranges version because Spectrums works against every attack type.
Offensively Monica had three different attacks, two being Gainers and one Spender. Gamma Strike is a Range 2, 6 dice physical attack with a wild Stun, after damage is resolved. It's fine. You certainly aren't mad to have a free 6 dice attack on her kit but I think you'll use this attack the least in any given game. But she does have a reactive superpower we'll come to which makes the attack a lot more interesting.
Her second Gainer is a Ranger 4 energy Beam. While it has only 4 dice, she can reroll all with it and it's going to be mostly used to generate multiple guaranteed power.
And lastly we have her Spender which the card lists at 0 cost, which is obviously a mistake and is now been confirmed to be 4 instead. That is rather pricey but you also get a lot out of it. Range 3, 8 dice that can be chosen to be physical or energy is already a good start and Spectrum also gets a guaranteed "Bump" (placing herself in range 1) out of it and on a wild she has an optional, before damage is dealt, size 4, Medium away throw. The throw trigger is nothing short of amazing as it combines all the best versions of the rule (aside from being away and not omnidirectional but no reason to be greedy here). This is definitely a spender worth using whenever you can afford it.
And now for the aforementioned reactive superpower: Energy Boost is nothing short of incredible. She can boost her own or an allies within Range 4 by two dice for the low cost of 2 power, which she makes quite easily. It makes her Gamma Strike potential hit with 8 dice or the spender with 10 (but that gets expensive). And the possibilities with adding attack dice to other characters are pretty much endless.
This is what makes Spectrum and extremely interesting splash character for basically very team.
And finally she is also a leader herself and her leadership is once again: incredible. We'll talk more about it as soon as we have the affiliation list which we are all eagerly awaiting.
Overall Spectrum is an A tier character for me. Just like Blue Marvel she lacks a bit of Action economy but makes up for it with good stats, good attacks, good innates and a fantastic reactive superpower.
Strange Adventures is a good card if you ever play Monica and Elsa in the same squad. I'm pretty sure they won't share any affiliations but that remains to be seen. But one power each for an M advance and a free attack is good value.
The Ultimates strength is completely up in the air until we know the affiliation list for the Mighty Avengers and can determine how many affiliated characters will usually on the board for it. We'll get back to it once we have the list.
On top of her already incredible leadership Spectrum gets a card she can play for free in the power phase that kind of gives her old Doctor Stranges leadership in Phase Manipulation. Not relevant all the time but can come in clutch if your enemy team has some clear weaknesses.
And finally we have Going All Out which looks expensive at first sight but may very well end up stapled to Monica. The range 2 place brings you in perfect position to Beam with crits turned off completely for your opponent while you can reroll all. And if you've made enough power off the Beam you can now Spender super scarily. Seems very good to me.
Overall Spectrum and Blue Marvel is a pack that probably haven't had too many players exited for the characters themselves but these cards both look incredible and as does the Mighty Avengers leadership. It's a pack that will sell incredibly well I'd say.
That's it for today.
Cheers from Germany 🍻
Comments
Post a Comment