I usually don't mind using suboptimal cards, but this card is just so weirdly awful that I can't bear to use it, I just prefer to imagine it does not exist.

This card is a vastly inferior version of enhanced spider sense. So in order for this card to be decent, enhanced spider sense would have to be an awesome card. But I have played with that card a lot and while it is certainly useful, it isn't really “awesome”. The problem is that very often you do not draw a treachery card, and even if you do, a lot of treachery cards aren't that impressive and are not worth the cost of cancelling (mainly because the cost of playing enhanced spider sense can easily prevent you from playing something a lot more important). So how often would you want to play a card that, in essence, doesn't even cancel the treachery, it just changes it to a different treachery. It is occasionally great for preventing something like Shadow of the Past, but that just isn't great enough to be worth using a card with such a terrible disadvantage.

The idea with this card seems to be that sometimes a protection character can become so well protected from damage that you really don't even care if you get attacked, or possibly you even have the cards to benefit from it. So in that case you might find the disadvantage of getting attacked to be trivial, and if it is trivial the card might be worth using. However, I think that once you get into a situation where enemy attacks are of no threat to you, there's a good chance it is because you have reached a position where you are solidly winning the game. And you don't really need to put cards in your deck that mostly only help you when you are already winning the game.

ONE YEAR LATER - HONOR THE BLACK PANTHER!

So it's been about a year since my first game of Marvel Champions and, while I was playing this week end, I thought about how much the game has evolved over the year. One thing comes to mind: how Black Panther, that I initially considered awkward and who was sometimes tagged as under-powered by some, ultimately became a very reliable hero for me. When I began comparing what each hero brought to the table, I realized he's actually average most everywhere, but very adaptable and steady. Imagine you're going through your deck and playing every hero card possible without too much problem. You attack or thwart one turn out of two, recover the second turn. Depending on how you play Black Panther, here's what you might get:

ATTACK: you're playing attack only. So you deal about 3x 2DMG (basic), 6 times Wakanda Forever! (the 6th because you had Ancestral Knowledge played) which can be 6 DMG if you have all upgrades in play, retaliate 3 times, and have Shuri attack for 3. You've dealt 48 DMG only counting hero abilities and cards, which only Iron Man or She-Hulk can beat (in the base box).

THWART: you're only thwarting. you THW 3 times, have Shuri THW 3 times, use Tactical Genius to the fullest 6 times. THW value 21, beat by Iron Man and She-Hulk.

DEFENSE/Survival: you can defend for 2, but also heal 2 each time you use Vibranium Suit. No utilities, however, like STUN or CONFUSE. Not Spider-Man class, but decent.

RESOURCES: here's what most people consider to be Black Panther's strenght: 3 Wakanda Forever!. Now, if you consider that a lot of heroes have some way to get more resources (Web-Shooter, Super-Soldier Serum, Pepper Potts... etc), Black Panther isn't alone in the "resourceful" department. However, his are free and , meaning he gets an economical boost right off the bat (althought lesser than Captain Marvel) and is actually the best for cards that require certains resources (Tackle, for instance. The Golden City, finally, is incredible and should always be a priority.

SOOOO... where does that lead us? Knowing what you NEED as Black Panther will actually allow you to adjust thanks to FORESIGHT. If Spider-Man is the defense champion, Iron Man the "ramp", Captain Marvel the draw power and She-Hulk the THW and Fist, Black Panther certainly is the jack-of-all-trades.

Also, his upgrades and Wakanda Forever! actually scale through the game, making him more and more efficient. Panther Claws, for instance: the first 4 DMG you get out of it cost you 3 resources (1,33 dmg/resource). At your second, 8 dmg for 4 resources (2 dmg/resource). But at your 6th Wakanda Forever!, you have dealt 24 DMG for 8 resources (3 dmg/resources). It seems to follow an almost logarithmic curve and gets better every time.

All in all, Black Panther benefits from longer games (a real boon for expert players), a certain foresight on your part and a strong economy. The first year also gave us lots of way to exploit his uniqueness (Mean Swing, the infamous Rapid Response- Shuri combo, etc.).

Long live the Panther!

The proper use of this card can be unintuitive. Even though one of its abilities is to prevent three points of damage, when you receive three points of damage you do not spend this card unless you have to spend it to survive. You want to keep this card in play in order to use the Aerial ability; your goal, ideally, is to never spend the card. That might seem like it means that the ability to prevent damage then becomes useless, but that isn't the case. It basically means the card serves the same general purpose as gaining +3 hit points. Note that the only purpose of gaining +3 hit points is to prevent you from being killed, if you don't take so much damage that you would have been killed had you not had the extra hit points, those extra hit points technically never got used. However, it is so important for your character to survive that extra hit points are still valuable. Similarly, having a Cosmic Flight which just sits around waiting to prevent a hit from killing you is valuable and worthwhile.

Usually, the only thing that Aerial does for you is to turn your worthless Crisis Interdiction cards into useful cards. This isn't a huge benefit, but you do have three of them, and they are your only thwarting cards. It also gives a boost to your helmet, but this won't matter unless you are playing a special deck based around playing the helmet and defending, in which case it is pretty obvious you are playing Cosmic Flight as part of your combo.

Although the protection ability is useful, I generally think it isn't that amazing for the cost, especially since Captain Marvel isn't a hero who is especially short on hit points. And the ability to go Aerial also isn't that amazing. But together they make the card well worth playing. I wouldn't say it was a top priority must-play card, but I always make an extra effort to play the card because, not only is it effective, it is much more fun being able to use Crisis Interdiction at a critical point instead of having it be a dead card in your deck, and it is comforting having the protection from being killed if you make a miscalculation and take more damage than you can handle.

Once you have one copy in play, the second copy can be played and spent any time you like, exactly like a copy of Defensive Stance. I usually don't bother, though, unless I have spare resources, since between her high recovery, self-healing ability, and already having one copy in play, doing this usually seems like overkill.

Solid card that can synergize with a lot of hero decks like Thor and Asgard trait or Avenger Leadership decks. It's a cheaper Helicarrier but more limited with the trait restriction. It can still be used in multiplayer with a call for action from another player. Also, you're not limited to a "Max 1 per player" restriction and can play up to three if you want. This doesn't stack with multiple copies to pay for the same single card.

3 resources for a single tough card is way too expensive, but if you're at the 2nd (or 3rd) villain stage you probably want a 3-resource event to actually make progress, rather than stave off one round of attacks. I find that I usually want to just damage the villain's face down to zero once the heros have set up their tableau.