Keep Up the Pressure

Such a fun card! I've only played this in a Storm Aggression deck so far and it's been phenomenal. There are lots of ways to remove threat after dealing damage. Being able to recur a big attack event that you just played and run it back with extra damage can make for some huge turns. 10/10 would play again.

Nick Fury, Sr.

Nick Fury Sr is a notch below the OG but still very strong.

  • 3 threat vs 2 threat: Nick Sr is better
  • Draw 2 vs Draw 3: OG Nick has the advantage. This is how he is used 95% of the time, so drawing 1 fewer card does lower Nick Sr.'s ceiling
  • Give S.H.I.E.L.D. tough vs 4 damage: Two very different effects, useful at different points in the game, call it a draw

If you are building an optimized deck, original Nick will still get first priority, but there's no reason you can't play both. They play well with ally ready effects like Command Team due to their 2nd hit point usually going to waste. They have lots of front-loaded value, avoiding the low tempo issue some other allies have. They help you draw through your deck fast to get to your best cards. Sr is a staple-level card that might not enable any splashy new archetypes but will provide power and consistency to a wide number of decks.

Stretch22 · 860
Grant Ward

For the cost of 1 ER, Grant ranges from 2 thwart or 2 attack and 2 damage to yourself to some combo of 6 total thwart and attack. That ceiling is insane for such a low cost, and I think it is enough to compensate for the fail case where you lose him right away. There are some fun ways to build around Grant using Command Team or Get Ready to speed through his available uses or Noble Sacrifice / "You Got This!" to get him out of play. It's a bit risky to build a strategy around a card that may end up removing itself from the game, but there are plenty of allies that work in an ally-readying strategy like Slingshot or the Nicks to provide some redundancy. Unique design and one I am excited to try!

Stretch22 · 860
Soaring Acrobatics

High Thwart stat flyers should really consider this card with Brains over Brawn. Spectrum can easily get to 5, and beyond if using a deep kit of tricks, and being able to thwart for 5 and pop a two cost attack in JUSTICE for five damage is nothing to scoff at.

The big thing for this card in general is to combo benefits to that single basic power activation, as having "ready" spam doesn't help this card. You want to load up as many secondary effects on that single use that you can. So this is another strong tool for Aerial capable heroes that already were looking to take advantage of high number single activations.

As a secondary, it can also work on allies, and don't forget that card "Sky Cycle" that can give lots of different Avenger allies aerial. This could find it's way into some interesting combos as we know we'll be getting some more Avenger allies shortly.

Earth Dragon · 1554
Powers that last "for this use" expire before Brains Over Brawn can be used. Soaring Acrobatics will not increase the damage dealt by Brains Over Brawn. — Leethus · 90
The Power of Flight

For those deck-builders out there, this card requires some comprehensive scouring of what cards actually have. While all the Aspect cards looking for Aerial are Aerial traited, so are cards like Swinging Web Kick in Spider-man's kit.

While it is also easy to just say "Why not just use the Aspect Power of and Strength, Energy, and Genius", it's also good to consider the Energy icon this has. There may be instances where that one energy is more flexible in your deck then a pair of strength icons. Captain Marvel comes to mind as someone who has access to the Aerial trait but is looking for energy icons, so may prefer this card over Strength in a deck. The Wasp ally, who is Aerial, wants Energy resources. This can also pay for Aerial heroes of any type, where as aspect Power ofs would only cover either the Basic or your Specialty.

So why it does have it's limitations, it's not "strictly worse" then any of the other options. Even Energy IS NOT strictly better, as the myriad of treachery cards and minions looking for energy symbols in your hand will only find one here instead of two. You will likely still want Energy in most decks, but it is something to consider if Power of Flight is covering the majority of your shuffled cards, or your set is lacking Energy cards (as this is a problem for plenty of players who like to keep a deep cache of decks together).

At any rate, it is a solid Resource card that got added to our arsenal that had you thinking about what else is in your deck due to the fixed energy icon.

Earth Dragon · 1554