Rogue Champions- Nova Review

Sam Alexander (Alter-Ego)

• Civilian.
• Recover: 3. Health: 10. Hand Size: 6
• Alter-Ego Action: Spend 1 resource of any type → search your deck and discard pile for Supernova Helmet. Add it to your hand (put it into play instead if you paid for this ability using a Wildcard resource).
• Comments:
  • You will want to have a wildcard resource in your opening hand.
  • Unlike some of the other heroes who have the ability to summon certain kit cards with an alter-ego ability, Sam can do it anytime he’s down. That makes his helmet an excellent thing to discard if you are forced to discard an upgrade.

Hero Deck

Ally

• Ms. Marvel
  • Cost: 3. Resource: 1 Physical.
  • Champion. Inhuman.
  • Attack: 1*. Thwart: 1*. Health: 3
  • Hero Response: After you play an event, exhaust Ms. Marvel and deal 1 damage to her → return that event to your hand.
  • Comments:
    • Ms. Marvel feels very similar to her Hero version, getting extra uses out of event cards.
    • There is no restriction on what type of event or what phase you play it in. This makes her very flexible to let you get multiple uses out of a particular card.
    • Unleash Nova Force might seem like a prime candidate to get back to allow you to use it multiple turns in a row but not necessarily the best. Any of his other events could, instead, be immediately played again to effectively double their effect.
    • Note that you can not use Ms. Marvel to retrieve “Go for Champions!” because once you’ve played it, she can’t take damage and therefore can’t return the card to your hand.

Upgrade

• Supernova Helmet (1)
  • Cost: 1. Resource: 1 Mental.
  • Armor.
  • Nova gains the AERIAL trait.
  • Hero Resource: Exhaust Supernova Helmet → generate a Wildcard resource
  • Comments:
    • This an essential piece of his kit. Both his Alter-Ego and Hero abilities are tied to it.
    • With his ability, Nova can generally generate two wildcard resources a turn using his helmet.

Supports

• Jessie Alexander (1)
  • Cost: 2. Resource: 1 Wildcard.
  • Persona.
  • Alter-Ego Action: Exhaust Jesse Alexander → shuffle 1 copy of Connection to the Worldmind from your discard pile into your deck. Draw 1 card.
  • Comments:
    • You probably are not flipping down to AE just to trigger Jessie Alexander but it’s a very nice ability when you do go down.
    • A card draw ability is always nice and getting to shuffle your resource cards back into your deck helps you get multiple uses out of them.

Events

• Lightspeed Flight (3)
  • Cost: 2. Resource: 1 Mental.
  • Superpower. Thwart.
  • Double the number of Wildcard resources generated while paying for this card
  • Hero Action (thwart): Remove 3 threat from a scheme.
  • Comments:
    • If you have a wildcard resource available, this card is a great value of 3 for 1.
    • If you don’t have a wildcard, it’s not a particularly great value.
• Forcefield Projection (2)
  • Cost: 1. Resource: 1 Physical.
  • Hero Interrupt: When a friendly character would take any amount of damage from an attack, prevent 3 of that damage. If you paid for this card using a Wildcard resource, deal 3 damage to an enemy.
  • Comments:
    • For one resource you can prevent three damage AND deal three damage. That is incredible value.
    • It can be used to help ANY friendly character which makes Nova an excellent friend to have for any other Hero on your team.
    • It is not a Defense card so it will not trigger any Defense upgrades if you are playing Protection.
• Pot Shot (3)
  • Cost: 2. Resource: 1 Energy.
  • Superpower. Attack.
  • Double the number of Wildcard resources generated while paying for this card.
  • Hero Action (attack): Deal 4 damage to an enemy.
  • Comments:
    • This is the same basic idea as Lightspeed but for attack.
    • Four damage for one resource is incredible. That is enough to destroy a good number of minions.
• Unleash Novaforce (2)
  • Cost: 1. Resource: 1 Energy.
  • Max 1 per round.
  • Hero Action: Until the end of the round, each time Nova defeats an enemy or removes the last threat from a scheme, ready Nova and draw 1 card.
  • Comment:
    • This is the card the game wants you to build around playing.
    • With Ms. Marvel and your helmet in play, Nova can use the helmet to play one of his events plus use a basic attack or thwart to clear an event/kill a minion, then recover the card he played, ready himself, ready his helmet, and repeat. Then you’ll have two new cards available to play.
    • Trying to get an amazing round out of Unleash Novaforce can be a trap though. If you devote too much effort to getting that perfect round, clearing multiple things, you might go crazy. With his low basic stats, unless you’re playing a minion heavy deck (like Ultron), having multiple things you are capable of clearing in one round can be hard to come by.
    • Note, it does last for the whole round. If you’re playing Protection, if Nova can kill an attacking minion with some upgrades/events, it will still trigger Unleash and let him ready himself.

Resource

• Connection to the Worldmind (2)
  • Resource: 1 Wildcard.
  • Connection to the Worldmind does not count toward your hand size.
  • Comment:
    • This is a new concept, having cards not count against your hand size limit.
    • This allows you to hold onto it in order to spend the wildcard resource specifically for one of Nova’s Events that benefit from the wildcard.
    • Alternatively, they are useful against a villain with a lot of annoying Attachments that require resources to discard.

Nemesis Set

• Obligation: Weight of the World
  • Boost Icons: 2
  • Give to the Sam Alexander player.
  • While this card is in play, Supernova Helmet cannot ready.
  • Alter-Ego Action: Exhaust Sam Alexander > remove this obligation from the game.
  • Comments:
    • This is part of the new wave of Obligations that don’t allow your hero to flip down as part of it.
    • This effect can be crippling at the wrong time but generally isn’t too bad.
    • If you weren’t gearing up for an amazing Unleash Novaforce turn, you can flip down in your own time in order to discard this.
• Nemesis: Warbringer
  • Brute. Chitauri.
  • Attack: 3. Scheme: 1. Health: 4.
  • Boost Icons: 3
  • Forced Interrupt: When Warbringer attacks you, he gets +1 ATK for that attack for each card with a printed Wildcard resource in your hand. That attack gains overkill.
  • Comment:
    • Against Nova, whose been holding onto both Connection to the Worldmind, this can be a rough attack.
    • Against most other players, wildcard resources aren’t common so not likely to do much bonus damage.
• Side Scheme: Bring the War!
  • Threat 2
  • Boost Icons: 2
  • Hazard Icon
  • When Revealed: Each player discards 1 card they control with a printed Wildcard resource. For each card discarded this way, place 1 threat here.
  • Comments:
    • Oddly, given Nova’s kit, this card would have no affect on any of them, as none of the supports or upgrades have a printed wildcard resource.
    • This could be very annoying depending on what aspect cards you end up taking. Symbiote Suit, for example, has a wildcard resource. As it cost 4, it would be very annoying to have to discard.
    • Most other heroes signature Ally has a wildcard resource. That culd make Nova annoying to pair with if it’s an ally you want to keep in play.
• War Delivery (2)
  • Treachery
  • Boost Icons: 1*
    • Boost: Place 1 threat on the main scheme for each card with a printed Wildcard resource in your hand.
  • When Revealed: You may spend a Wildcard resource. If you do not, the villain and Warbringer each attack you (even if you are in alter-ego form).
  • Comments:
    • This is a terrible card to draw. Not one, but two attacks against an Alter-Ego is not going to end well. They probably don’t have much health and can not defend.
    • Wildcard resources are hard to come by, and often, ones generated by upgrades, are Hero Resources, so you couldn’t use them in Alter-Ego.
    • I guess this is to balance out Nova some but this just feels cruel.
• The War’s Been Brought (1)
  • Treachery.
  • Boost Icons: 1.
  • Surge.
  • When Revealed: Discard X cards from the top of the encounter deck, where X is equal to the total number of printed Wildcard resources on cards in your hand, cards under your control, and cards in your discard pile.
  • Comments:
    • If you have a wildcard resource, and its not in your deck undrawn, it counts for this card.
    • This speeds the villain’s run through the encounter deck, which depending on the villain could be very nasty, but probably isn’t a major factor. Most characters aren’t going to have too many cards that qualify.