I have to be honest, I have really high hopes for Cable.

First of all, he's a 2 across the board, which is nothing to sneeze at. He's also a 12 health hero, allowing him to slide in under the 14 health point demarcation that seems to demand a hand of 4.

But obviously, and most importantly, is his ability to include side schemes from any aspect. Which is accentuated by a setup ability allowing you to choose the exact side scheme (and its associated benefit from defeat) you want right out of the gate. And frankly, some of the victory conditions of the Player Side Schemes we have so far are extremely useful in the early game.

Mt brain melts at the late-game possibilities for Cable, as so many of his hero-specific cards get a +1 for every completed side scheme. Not to mention that he has a hero-specific side scheme (Technovirus Purge) that, once defeated, gives both his forms the Psionic trait as well as making him a 3-3-3. That's just insane.

Cable does a little bit of everything; with weapons for damage, superpowers for damage and thwarting, a really awesome forcefield that can one-shot all damage from a single event and the Temporal Leap upgrade that gives players a last-ditch attempt to salvage their game.

My biggest concern is that Cable will fall victim to Black Widow syndrome, where we get a handful of cards that are cool and then rely on the promise of future potential that never materializes. Natasha was done dirty with her hyperfocus on Preparation cards, of which there have been exactly two released since her hero pack. (Lie in Wait with Wasp and Anticipation with Valkyrie)

I love the idea of Player Side Schemes, that heroes are also making plans while the villain plots. I love that Cable takes such significant advantage of this, and that his potential increases with 3 or more players. (You can have two Player Side Schemes in play when there are 3 or more hero players). But this also means that -at least part of the time- Cable players are going to be off in their own world setting up their late-game swings.

This isn't a huge deal, as any hero with a big engine (Iron Man, Black Panther, SP//dr or any Voltron deck) is balancing being effective in the moment with being a force later. But Cable's longevity on the table will be predicated on how well FFG supports this new Player Side Scheme mechanic. We can chalk it up to a win that there are Player Side Scheme cards in several of the upcoming hero packs, so it looks like Cable will at least develop more than Widow ever did.

Overall, Cable's hero deck is formidable. I'm not in love with the fact that you have to spend resources to use his Plasma Rifle, particularly since it will be inefficient to useless in the early game. But then he has Professor who can really accelerate your goals if you can switch to alter-ego.

Finally, let us not forget that Cable brought us the Ally Duo of Fantomex and E.V.A.. Naturally, it's not cheap to get this ball rolling, but E.V.A. is a perpetual source of benefit so long as you keep Fantomex breathing.

And let us also not forget that Cable (though really the NeXt Evolution expansion) delivers unto us our first taste of Deadpool magic. An ally that literally cannot be eliminated, but that immortality comes at a steep cost. So precisely on point for Deadpool that I feel like someone was lovingly crafting the Cable hero outside of normal channels within FFG.

I really like Cable and his unique approach. Thematically he's perfect, since he's always got one eye (heh!) on his own schemes, he brings unique and unusual allies to the fight and he has a wide variety of tools capable of handling a range of villains.

Weirdly, he's weak on minion swarms. But he needs to have at least one flaw, right?