Every Hero's Worst Card
Every hero's worst card is a video series started by Boomguy and Villain Theory. This has really helped my deck building, thinking about how to play their cards, and finding uses for "bad" cards. One of the stings of this is that hero cards are supposed to be more powerful than aspect cards. If it's truly a terrible card, so bad that it never gets played, that usually leads me to a home rule, because I want the decks to be fun, and I don't want a new player to have a bad experience. You can find the home rules elsewhere in my blog.
Spider Tracer. 2 Effective Resources (ER) for 3 thwart isn't terrible, but the condition that you need to kill a minion sometimes makes this unplayable. Some people don't like Webbed Up, because it works against his hero power, but we only play multiplayer, so it's a usually a huge play at the table. Bad enough for a home rule? Nah, this card gets played plenty.
It's a tie between Gamma Slam & Legal Practice. These two cards never got played once before we did the home rule for She Hulk. She Hulk used to be the most hated hero, and now she's easily one of the big favorites. These were the two obvious cards to change, and now they work together so both get played and enjoyed a lot more. Some people argue for Ground Stomp, but that actually gets played sometimes. Usually it's not worth playing, but it hits the whole table (much better in multiplayer). Great for breaking toughs and helping with overkill.
Rocket Boots (specifically Rocket Boot #2). They're not terrible, and usually one gets played to increase his hand size + add aerial when needed. Aerial is sometimes useful for Iron Man, but there are few big Iron Man aerial decks out there, because the aerial cards are mostly awesome. We run into trouble with the second boot which is redundant. I thought it needed a little spice, so we added a home rule for if you have the pair, you get just a little extra versatility.
Crisis Interdiction. 3ER for two thwart + maybe two more if you paid 3ER for Cosmic Flight, and there happens to be a second scheme on the board. Very conditionally, this is a marginal card, often it's a terrible card. Is it really that bad? Nah. It gets played when times are desperate. Some would say Cosmic Flight is actually the worst card, but her helmet gives +2 DEF if she's aerial, so I feel like that shores up her normally weak defense. In leadership, defending can be useful to get the most out of your allies.
Ancestral Knowledge. This is actually a great card, but you gotta pick one to be the worst. I only picked it because you have to flip to alter ego to get the benefit, and that does not go well with protection. I almost always use this to get Vibranium, a double resource, and maybe Wakanda Forever back into his deck. So many resources, so many big turns. Of course this goes so well with The Golden City. Shuffle in three double resource cards, then draw two? Totally worth it.
Okay, time to get a little spicy. There's a good case to be made for Agent 13, because she works against all those lovely Avenger's Leadership cards: Avengers Assemble, Avenger's Tower, Quinjet, Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Mighty Avengers, Call for Aid... Amazing cards which require Agent 13 to have the Honorary Avenger card, and you probably need three of these to make her work. Three extra cards, clogging up Captain America's deck? Or just play her for 4 THW and then block. Or just don't play her. She's a real monkey-wrench in Cap's deck. I've thought about swapping Cap into Protection just because of this one card. Some would say Cap's helm is his worst card, and that's fair, as I've never seen it get played --but we've also never taken Cap against Ronan, so maybe it has a little more value in hard scenarios. For that reason, I'm going to give Cap's helm a little more credit.
Alright, this might be my spiciest take. It's a tie between Big Hands and Sneak By. These just have a dead, non-heroic feel as they are literally worse than aspect cards. 3ER for 4 damage sucks, and 3ER for 3 thwart sucks. That's six hero cards which SUCK! The common apology for these is that they're less powerful because of a balancing "tax" due to Embiggen and Shrink. That just makes me want to dump them out of her deck and replace them with aspect cards. I home ruled these, because I think they need a little something to make them feel more heroic. This is crazy, right? Ms Marvel is probably on the OP side of hero decks. Who needs a home rule? I decided to tempt the player by having these cards work with her event recursion --mostly because Wiggle Room was getting spammed and abused.
Hammer Throw. This is essentially 6 ER for 8 damage (plus overkill), because you have to pay 4ER for the event, then 2EF to get the hammer back in play. Mjolnir gives Thor +1 ATK and aerial, so it's worth playing, because it's cheaper than Combat Training. I mean if you're making a final push, sure. Throw the hammer! Otherwise it is terribly inefficient. It sometimes gets played anyway, if a big minion hits the table. Big damage is hard to ignore. I've thought about home ruling this card, because there's three of them in his deck, and only one ever gets played. A home rule idea might be like "if you pay for this with all energy resources, put Mjolnir back into play." Early game it would be super hard to do, but later it would be easier.
I'm going to agree with everyone: Dance of Death. 4ER for 6 damage. Not terrible. It's more efficient than Thor's Hammer Throw, and it does get played. It's very versatile, in that it can hit three targets. It could knock out a 5hp minion, then break a tough. It's definitely more valuable in multiplayer with more minions on the table. End game, of course this gets played. Mid game, it's situational, but I'd say we rarely play it. I'm fine with it. Black Widow isn't a "heavy hitter," she's more of a tactical "death by a thousand cuts" kind of hero. This fits her deck and her theme.
I'm in agreement again: Magical Enhancements. 2ER for +1 to all stats. Not efficient, but obviously this gets better with heroes like Quicksilver, or Ironheart. Pretty much any protection hero with readies would like this card. I've played this card, others have played it. It's not terribly unpopular. It can get you just enough damage to take out that minion, or just enough thwart to finish off that scheme. Those situations seem to happen often enough. Extra defense is always welcome. Plus I'm not the only one in my gaming group who likes playing a support hero. Throwing boosts around the table is fun.
The joke with Hulk is that his worst card is Hulk. I'm tempted to make an even spicier pick: Limitless Strength. I'm not really going to pick it, but let me explain. Hulk has a 4-card hand size. He draws a 3-cost card, two 2-cost cards, and Limitless Strength. At this point, Limitless Strength is worth one resource. You pay for the 3-cost card, and now you have two 2-cost cards left, but you can't play them, and those cards get discarded. So it's almost exactly the same as a one-resource card (which you'd rather have, because it's nice to have options). Granted, it could help you with a triple strength requirement if your other cards didn't all have strength resources. It just shows how broken Hulk is that a triple resource card could be useless. But I'm really going with Unstoppable Force. Kinda for the same reason. Let's do this again. You draw three 2-cost cards and Unstoppable Force. You play it with two strength resources, and then if you don't draw a 1 or 0 cost card, the card draw was worthless, as both cards will be discarded. Hulk is so frustrating and clunky, we printed the Retcon card for Hulk and modified his hero power. Home rules to the rescue. Now Hulk is popular, and less frustrating. Players especially love when Hulk gets confused. B-)
I'm going to agree with everyone again: Self Propelled Glide. This is a good card. Readies are very good for Jessica, but because this is not a discardable upgrade, and more importantly, it's not an aspect card, it works against her kit. It's 2ER for a ready (and aerial which is useless for her), but that means you can usually only play one more card. So it's usually 2ER for 2 THW, or 2 ATK. Not very efficient, but it's versatile, which is her style. Late game, this becomes better if she can play two aspect cards before she plays this. Terrible? Nah, it gets played.
I'm going against the grain. I'm going to say Explosive Arrow. This is a good card, especially in multiplayer. I like all of Hawkeye's cards. We did add the Retcon card which lets you search for his Quiver as well as his Bow. That completely changes his fun-factor to "bow-tastic." So many arrows, why explosive? It's just the one that gets played the least. It's usually good for 6 damage, maybe 9, but often just 3, and there are better options. The Quiver helps this immensely as he can just store it there and wait for a minion situation.
I'm going to say Hive Mind. It starts out at 3ER for 2 thwart, and grows to 5 thwart. There's only one in his deck, and it really depends on getting the ants out to help. That means it's more help late game, but late game threat isn't usually the problem. Ant Man likes to play allies to deal with threat. I don't think anyone has ever played this card, but it could make sense in a scheme-heavy scenario. Terrible? Mostly, but it works with his kit. It's not completely broken.
Red Room Training and the Bio-Synthetic Wings are great candidates, because their cost is too high for what they give you. I think I'm going with Giant Help. This is the one card which really doesn't make sense with her kit. For 3ER, you can remove 3 threat from one scheme in Tiny form or 4 threat from anywhere in Giant form. Tiny form is just always worse? This where they really broke her kit, and why we ended up doing home rules to try to balance her forms. Especially for thwarting, Tiny form should be super awesome --she sneaks in unnoticed and thwarts the villain's plans. This should be opposite. She should remove more from one scheme in Tiny form, or less from multiple schemes in Giant form. Notice that Wasp Sting gets this right.
Serval Industries is my pick. It's a good alter ego card. Shuffling Pietro's cards back into his deck is extremely good, but it does require him to flip. In protection, we almost never use this card. Double Time would be a candidate at 3ER for 4 thw/atk, but Deft Focus is a must-have in his deck, and that makes all those lovely superpower cards cheaper. It's really the key to unlocking Pietro's power.
I'm going with Quicksilver. He's 5ER for a quick 4 damage and maybe 2 more and a block. It's not a terrible play as getting an ally out always gives you space, but it's so expensive. She almost always has a better play. Wanda's economy is very strong, so wasting a whole turn on an ally is usually not ideal. It could set up her team-up card, Order and Chaos. With our team-up home rules, that becomes more valid, otherwise it's a wild gamble that probably will not pay off.
Entangling Vines is a great card which gets used, but it's the one card which works least with his kit, so that's my pick for the worst card... I would say Vine Spikes, because thwart is generally worth more than attack, but that card works with Root Stomp to help him take out a tougher minion and get more counters. More counters sets up Groot to just own the game. And the counters are versatile, some people don't store them up, they just use the counters for perfect defense and to power a few cards. Again, Deft Focus really opens up his kit. It's a must-have.
It gets played a good amount, but I'm going to say Rocket Launcher. It gets better in bigger player counts, but in general, this is his least economic weapon. It looks expensive, but it's 4ER for probably 8 damage, maybe more. That's not bad, and he can Repurpose it (protection), or use his Tinkering ability to get more cards. It works with his Battery Pack. It's a great card. I was tempted to pick I've Got a Plan, but readying Rocket is so awesome. He can thwart again, or hit something for overkill and get another card. So many options at that point.
I'm going to agree with the crowd, Nova Prime is the worst card in Peter's kit. 6ER for 6 damage and a block is just not worth it. Obviously, Peter's power could reduce this to 3ER, and then he might get some use out of the encounter card. In general, his other cards are better for this sort of play. It seems to make sense in Peter's kit, and it does get played, but not as often. Of course, in Leadership, he can use the Comms Implant and the Laser Blaster to really ramp up the power. Healing a buffed Nova Prime would be well worth it. I also added Teamwork and Mass Attack to keep these allies in the mix for longer.
Set the Pace is almost the same as Emergency. 1ER for 1Thw. Of course it works with Gamora's kit, but it's actually not as good as Emergency because it triggers on hero phase. Gamora gets to us be power once per phase. In my deck, her extra hybrid card are all protection cards to trigger on villain phase. When a hero car is worse than a comparable aspect card, it's a let down. If I were to home rule this, I'd add something --maybe it would ignore crisis icons or something. That would definitely not be OP.
Too Stubborn to Die is a great card for Drax, but it never seems to get played. There is always something better. All his cards are great. His kit really rides on rails. I think he just needs some healing and some readies. This is a super-easy deck to build. We don't really play him like a Protection deck. He's more of an off-beat Aggression deck.
Spicy take: I'm going to say Run and Gun. It's really 4ER for 6 damage. This can be boosted to 8 with a side holster and the Hand Cannon (aggression). On the other hand it's 4ER for 6 Thw as well, so that's not bad. The key here is how versatile his guns are. Run and Gun is one of the reasons why Venom can be good in Pool with the Laser Swords.
I'm going with Photon Speed. This is a decent card which gets played. 3ER for 4 Thw (plus a form switch) is useful for Spectrum and the ability to get to 3 Thw is amazing. She was my first 3 Thw hero. She's so versatile, and she has so many resources, even her inefficient cards get played.
Quantum Magic never works. This is a total no-brainer. It ALWAYS shows up in the opening hand. Apart from the house rule where we just made it an upgrade, we've never played it once. Completely useless, frustrating card. The house rule was another no-brainer. Making it an upgrade solves everything. Play it now, and use it later. Feel free to use summoning spell with the greater confidence that you can retrieve vital cards from the discard pile.
I'm going to have to go with Wide Stance. This is a great card. I'm only picking this card, because I have to pick one, and sometimes discarding an encounter card doesn't really help all that much. Peeking at the upcoming boost symbols is more important. I play all her techniques --why not? They're all fun to play. Nebula's great. NO bad cards in her kit. Very consistent, very fun, very popular.
Unfortunately I have to go with Annabelle Riggs, only because she requires Alter Ego. Val is so often on the front foot, she never wants to flip. Some people pick the spear, but once you get it, if there's a minion on the table, and you have an attack event in your hand --go ahead and defend, it's almost a guaranteed ready.
I'm going to say Density Control. It's basically a fixed version of Adam Warlock's Quantum Magic. It's an upgrade, so you can play it now and use it later. You could play it from your opening hand. I don't often us it, because it's so easy to keep playing Vivian, and if I'm not doing that, his other cards are fantastic. I do like that it can get you some cards in the late game when you want to make a final push. Some heroes don't have that.
Ms Marvel has the recursion ability for Nova, so she can be very helpful, especially with the defense cards. Off-defending for two other players can sometimes really come in handy and let whoever's in protection flip down. She's not bad, and you could just leave her on the table to recur cards. Otherwise, her stats are 1/1 (like the hero), so she can ping a tough from an enemy, but then she probably would block. There really aren't any bad cards in his deck.
Sector Scan is my vote for the worst card. Again, there aren't really any bad cards in her deck. I've played it, but given the choice, I usually pass on it in favor of her other cards. However, I like playing support decks, so peeking at the encounter deck is really cool for me to help with defense, and knowing what to do on the villain turn. I like this card, and almost certainly, I've played it more than anyone else in our group.
Another spicy take: I'm going to say Armor Up. I swapped Colossus into Justice almost immediately. As such, I want him to take advantage of his confuses and stuns. Obviously, this card works with his precon deck (Protection), but this is definitely a solo-Protection deck. Bleh! In Justice, he sometimes uses Armor Up, but in general it's helpful to stay flipped down to conserve Tough cards for his events.
Kitty's Room is my vote for worst card. This is a good card, but obviously, in multiplayer protection, it's not very useful. Kitty rarely needs to flip down. She's one of my best protection decks. She comes with tons of readies, so she plays on both phases almost every round. She defends and fills in the gaps. Acute Control and Intangible Interference can sometimes sit on the sidelines depending on the villain scenario, but they are super fun when they come into play.
I'm afraid I have to pick Field Commander. It only works for minions, and minions are usually dealt with in multiplayer (unless Tigra is on the team). I may have to play that pairing. Scott could be another hero, like Hulk, where the hero card is mentioned jokingly as the worst card. This is because his Optic Blast has two requirements (resource + upgrade on the target). This makes it less playable and less efficient. It looks like 1 ER for 3 damage, but really, it's 2-3 ER for 3 damage. When paired with Full Blast, it becomes 4-5 ER + exhaust for 11 damage, but there's only one in his deck. If you get the Visor up, then it's 1-2 ER for 3 damage, and Full Blast is 3-4 ER + exhaust for 11 damage (3 is genuinely more efficient, and 4 is on par).
Mental Paralysis is a no-brainer. Lots of complaints in the forums about that card --never gets played ever. I'm still fiddling with various incarnations of the home rule we made for that card. I think I want it to blank an attachment, but it will cost her a Phoenix Force counter every round. She could theoretically blank the Infinity Gauntlet for a few rounds which would be thematic and cool and would cause her to change into the Phoenix early. Alternatively, maybe she could clear Stalwart until she turns into Phoenix. That seems less OP.
Like other heroes with an expensive "rise again" ability (Captain America, Phoenix, etc...), I Got Better seems to never get played. It's basically 5 ER for 5 healing + some damage soak from however much extra damage knocked him out (0-3). It's super thematic and cool, but it's not a great investment. Ideally, he would get down to one health, then get knocked out with a big shot, then heal to 5, then heal 2 more at the start of his turn.
Ororo does not have any bad cards. I'm picking Torrential Rain for her worst card. It seems that Hurricane is often not the weather support in play, so this card is mostly 3 ER for 3 Thw, but it can be 3 ER for 5 Thw, which is strong. She has 3 of these in her deck, so it might cause her to shift to Hurricane more often when another weather support would better help the team. This creates some conflict in her weather deck in multiplayer. Solo, this is an amazing card.
Usually the hero upgrades are considered essential, and I would give the Thieves Guild more consideration if I were playing Remy in Justice, but currently, it's his worst card. With 3 Def and a ready if he takes no damage, it's often a free action to defend. This often saves him from flipping to alter ego for quite a while, making his Thief Extraordinaire power also a rare play. It would be interesting to build a Justice deck for him where he flips every round. Might feel a little like She Hulk, but for right now, I love having some good multi-target aggression cards to charge.
No bad cards here, but I have to pick one, so I'm going to pick Bulletproof Belle. It's and amazing Protection card, and I play Anna Marie in protection, but it depends on where you put Touched. My experience is Touched is a 60/40 card: 60% on a Hero, 40% on the villain. I've never put it on an ally, because she always pairs with an aerial hero. If she gets all three requirements, her cards are just too good to pass up. Bulletproof Belle is the only card which might not get played.
I'm going with Temporal Leap. Usually, the main scheme has a lot of attention on thwarting it in multiplayer. It's a good card, but it reminds me of those "back from the brink" cards which heroes like Captain America and Wolverine have. They're good, but they're a little expensive, and you almost always have a better play. Still, this is the only "save the day" card for the main scheme, so it's rather unique, and it feeds into Cable's powers, so it's like a better version of Captain America's Helmet.
Lucky and Good is my pick for worst card. It's a very good card, but it's eclipsed by Black Widow's cards which not only cancel, but reverse a boost. No need to get a new one. This one costs the same, but might not have any effect --or it could cause a worse effect. There are a few bad boosts out there, but I think Lucky Break is the more valuable, as it can stop Shadows of the Past from coming into play.
I'm going with Weapons Training for worst card. Not a bad card, but retaliate is less a concern as she flips quite often. The weapons ready just gets her two resources back, of the 3 she spent to play this card. It's like banking resources for a later round. I love playing hero upgrades, but this one seems the least necessary. Her other two skill cards are far more useful.
I think we have to pick Metamorphosis as the worst card. It just costs too much. I love the way it works. You could play a cheap aerial event as Angel, draw a card, then play Metamorphosis, then play an expensive event as Archangel for 2 less + add damage equal to the cost of the card. That's super powerful. Of course, you only need that if you started in alter ego... Warren is rarely in alter ego, so this card is often superfluous.
This one is super tough. All her cards are amazing, and they all work with her kit. I hate saying it, but I think her worst card is Adamantium Lacing. This is an amazing card for her, especially as she likes to take damage, so the retaliate is more helpful than on other players. Extra hit points is awesome, as she absorbs damage. This is maybe the best "worst card" of all the heroes we've looked at this far.
I'm picking It Ain't Over for Deadpool's worst card. Obviously, this works with his powers to give extra space on the main scheme as he adds acceleration tokens. This is a great card, but often, I find others are taking card of the main scheme.
Command Authority doesn't sound like it could be the worst card because of its powerful name. But. It's 3ER for 3 thwart, and if you pay for it with a resource card, you can draw a card which basically makes it 2ER for 3 thwart. With the odd restrictions, I'd expect more. There are better aspect cards which have odd restrictions. If this card is going to eat a resource card (which he might use elsewhere), then it should be worth it. Of course, drawing a card adds versatility, and he might draw another resource card. Note that Bishop has no other thwart events, so this often gets played anyway.
No bad cards here. Magik is one of the most popular hero decks --currently she's somewhat of an ally boosting deck. This is a tough one, but I'm going with the Soulsword. It feels like basic attacks are on the backburner for most of the game, in favor of thwarting and defending. Piercing can be useful depending on the scenario. This is a very good card, but all her cards are good, and one has to be the "worst."
This is another tough choice. I'm going to pick Chill Out. It's 3ER for 3 thwart + a Frostbite. Many people would pick Ice Wall, but both of these drop Frostbite card, and even though it's expensive, Ice Wall is more efficient... Obviously, Frostbite can help defend but that also adds to the efficiency of Ice Wall, and it blocks for the team. That can really free up some good plays. Since we only play multiplayer, I usually offer to play this when it comes up, and everyone readily agrees so they can play some more aggressive cards or some nice upgrades.
This is another moment where we joke that Jubilee is her own worst card. She ALWAYS exhausts. She may as well not even have stats. We house-ruled this to get her a few odd ways to ready. I might just give her resource tokens for completing Shopping Spree. Anyway, I'm picking Wolverine for her worst card because he's so expensive and he has the double consequential damage on his attack. Her house rule actually works with Wolverine to make him more playable. I have to say that Shopping Spree is a close second. Even playing her with Adam Warlock, she didn't seem to help that much.
Kurt's Chapel is a great card, but because he is one of the best protection decks in my box, he never flips down. That's good for the team, but it means that this card is almost completely useless. I'd love to see this get played in Justice, but his alter ego power is far less useful. I can't figure a way to lean into it.
No bad cards here. Again I'm picking his thwart event, Electromagnetic Blast. 3ER for 3 thwart, but it can combo if you remove the last threat, then you can discard an attachment from the villain. This is pretty convoluted, but I've done it several times with Eric. This is one of my favorite cards when it lines up, it just lines up less often than his other cards.
Safe House #221 is going to be his worst card. He likes to stay in hero form. Obviously, you can reset his suit form in alter ego, which he sometimes needs to do, but that means that this card is rarely used.
The Hard Call is my pick. Sure, it could line up to do 24 damage if there were three tough minions out, but the cost is high. It's 10ER to do 6 to each enemy + lose your ongoing benefit from the support. You basically need three or more tough minions to make this worth the expense. I probably wouldn't play it unless there were four tough minions. Much better in higher player counts.
Queen Ramonda is going to be my pick here. Shuri's cards all make sense. She does want to flip down in the early game to grab all her upgrades for free --that's such a great hero design. But then she stays up pretty well thanks to her healing. You could maybe try by discarding an upgrade for the bonus right before you shuffle, then get it back by flipping to alter ego after the shuffle. Seems like it's not worth it. I've never used the discard ability of her upgrades.
Ugh. Silk. Another solo protection deck. I'm swapping her to Justice where she can shine. I'm picking Get the Scoop. It works with her kit, but sometimes it'll just sit on the table for four rounds before she gets to it. Granted, J. Jonah Jameson can help with this, but she has other ways to get cards. It's not a terrible card, but I often pass it up, because there's no immediate need for it, and other priorities are greater.
Aerial Recon. I have actually used this card to free up another hero who was low on health. Most of the time, you don't want to take an extra encounter card. I like the premise ==> Falcon takes the encounter card, in place of another hero. It's a cool team card, but it costs 2ER just to take someone else's consequences. Not a great return.
Safe House #30. It's an alter ego power. This is supposed to work with Man on the Wall. It's not terrible, but Bucky's alter ego power is really just for the opening hand. It's not typically something you're looking to play. Collecting minions while flipped down will usually add a lot of threat to the main scheme. Usually best avoided. Tigra handles this much better.
Let's pick Altman Residence. It activates on alter ego. I have Teddy in Protection, so he doesn't want to flip very often, though Impersonation can help him in that department. Again, he looked very "meh," until I played him. He's versatile and fantastic.
Uhmmm... Yeah. Can I pick no worst card? They're all great cards. Greer is an excellent hero design --possibly better than Valkyrie because she accesses her alter ego without a problem. Let's just say Tooth and Claw because you don't always have a minion in front of you. Seriously, she can run out of minions pretty fast. Often you can play this for free, so it's absolutely amazing.
Teddy's worst card is What Are You? It's another save your life card. It's not bad at all, as it costs only 3ER for a bunch of stuff. It also works with his Energy Siphon resource, as he takes damage to generate resources. The only reason for this pick is because usually he finds a way to heal with Ionic Physiology.
Conclusion:
Alter Ego cards present many problems for hero kits. Depending on the hero + aspect, it might be useless. That's partly why I played Venom in Justice for so long, to give him easier access to healing without causing havoc with the main scheme...
Save your hero from death cards are also a common choice to skip in regular play. They can be fun if you're playing fast and taking hits, but most players are more careful.
A few allies are too expensive, and some of the earlier ones work against the hero's kit.
Finally, less efficient cards (particularly thwart cards) are often easy to skip in favor of every other card in your hand.
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