u/infinight888

For me, it's Ready For A Fight. A very simple yet game changing card that gives Protection easy access to alter-ego in a way that feels very "Protection." Like this is something Protection should have had all along instead of 6 years into the game's life.

Another, also Protection, is Stun Gun. With Stun Gun, it's not that the design itself feels obvious, but that it completes this cycle of Tech Weapons that started back in Galaxy's Most Wanted. You have Hand Cannon, then Sonic Rifle, then just nothing for several years until finally they drop Stun Gun.

We recently saw the first "starting" card spoiled.

This is a new type of card that starts in your hand. You can only have one starting card per deck. Since this is an Armored Vest that starts in your hand, we can assume Heroic Intuition and Combat Training would come next. There will probably be a Leadership starting card too.

Year one, I don't think we see much of a difference in the game. This is mostly going to just benefit a select few decks built around the basic stats. Plenty of decks don't even run those stat buffers anymore though and won't run this either.

3 or 4 years down the road though, if the game is still going, we should have a healthy selection in each stat assuming we get at least 4 new starting cards per wave. And I assume we will. Getting a guaranteed card in your opening hand, ensuring consistency, is a powerful archetype-defining effect that I think FFG realizes will help sell hero decks.

So a few years down the line, it may not be a question whether or not your deck is using a starting card, but instead a question of which starting card you're using.

To me, this feels like a game changer even bigger than player side schemes. I have no idea today if starting cards will prove to be a good thing or a bad thing in the future. But it does feel like a big thing. Like when Magic: The Gathering added Planeswalkers and they warped the entire game.

I think in the future, Marvel Champions' history will be viewed by players through a pre-starting card and post-starting card lens. What remains to be seen is if starting cards will be viewed as a major step forward or as the game's biggest mistake. Or if they'll just be extremely divisive leading to endless debates about them.