Moira MacTaggert

An Avengers Mansion for X-Men heroes that only triggers half your turns but is half the cost (ok 60%). And that half of turns is only if you are flipping between hero and alter ego every turn. Some heroes like Cyclops and Colossus are happy to do that, but others that don't get much benefit from alter ego form might trigger Moira even less. Moira is definitely on the slower side, but card draw is always powerful, and Moira is cheap enough that you can probably play something else the same turn you play her to not fall too far behind.

Where Moira clearly shines is multiplayer, as even in 2-player you can get her to trigger every turn if both players are opposite forms. In a 3 or 4 player game, she should be almost guaranteed to trigger every turn, making her way better than Avengers Mansion. Between cards like Moira, The X-Jet, Danger Room, and X-Mansion, multiplayer X-Men teams are far stronger than the sum of their parts.

Stretch22 · 252
Touched

The signature card in Rogue's deck, how you use it each turn will determine some additional riders for the rest of her kit.

Most turns it will probably be on the villain, setting up retaliated, stronger attacks (if Rogue's Jacket is in play) and debilitating effects from Southern Cross or Goin' Rogue.

This also makes her Cyclops's best friend, as a free upgrade that you can drop on enemies every round, teeing them up for an optic blast.

Karma

This is such a powerful ability for a non-identity card! Stealing a minion is like killing the minion and deploying an ally copy, but unlike Phoenix's Mind Control, Karma sticks around to grant you an additional block (the downside is an extra consequential damage for each use of Karma's minion). You don't need to steal that big a minion to get your 5 resources worth...even something with 3 health and 2 ATK gives fine value...but stealing a Sentinel Mark VIII or Tyrannosaurus Rex will swing the entire game in your favor. Karma is a situational card, but I am happy playing situationally powerful cards in Champions since the floor of any card is to be a resource for another card. Should see a lot of play in high-performing decks!

Stretch22 · 252
Not Today!

The only other protection card I could find that removes threat from any scheme and not just the main scheme is True Grit, which might remove the same amount of threat on average but doesn't give any defensive advantage. That makes this a noteworthy card for Protection solo play, which struggles with threat removal, especially on side schemes. Not Today! is comparable to several other protection staples: Never Back Down, Desperate Defense, and Jump Flip. Each has their own advantages and depends on your hero and what scenario you're facing, but Not Today! has its own niche against side schemes. I'm not thrilled about relying on this as your threat removal, because you'll often want to remove side schemes on your own turn instead of waiting for the villain phase (if it has an acceleration icon, for example). A play pattern you can do that's good against a crisis side scheme, for example, is to thwart it down to 2 on your turn, then finish it off with Not Today! in the villain phase before the extra encounter card gets dealt.

I'm still not a big advocate of solo Protection decks built around defending a lot, but if that's your jam, you'll probably want this card!

Stretch22 · 252
Warrior Skill

Best with attacks that deal their damage to multiple targets: Dive Bomb is the prime example, but other good cases like Melee and Ricochet Beam exist.

Note that this increases damage of one attack. Things that are explicitly multiple attacks, such as Dance of Death or Slice and Dice do not synergize well with this.

Fry · 159