Fantasy Flight missed the mark with this card. Their intention to make a multi-player scaling card was good, their execution was not. To properly scale multiplayer cards the format needs to be: (Flat value below curve plus 1 value per player). The end result of this format should be a clearly bad card at solo, close to even with other staples at 2, and then above average value at 3-4.

To fix this card it needs to read: 2-Cost: Alliance, Remove 2 threat, plus 1 additional threat per-player from a side scheme.

At Solo this would under-perform compared to what For Justice, Crisis Averted, and Multitasking can accomplish.

At 2 Players this would come up even with For Justice with the added restriction of side-scheme only targeting but the added utility of min/maxing player hands via alliance.

At 3-4 Players this would be a clear auto-include over/alongside For-Justice.

Too slow for Solo but great at 2-4 players.

A great card that allows for threat removal even when confused or flipped down to alter-ego. There are some niche situations where you may use the minion nuking effect, but generally it just functions as consistent threat removal. Due to the high cost you’ll want to use this with Hero’s that are resource rich and enjoy flipping to alter-ego. SpiderMan (Peter), Captain Marvel, Spider-Woman (Justice/Pool), and Captain America come to mind.

Core set card without review about 5 years from launching the game? It can't be...

Luke Cage is a 4-cost Protection blocker with the tough and 5 health. Only 9 other aspect cards got 5+ health. In minimum he can block twice and attack for 2. So it's like 1ER for 2 attack (standard rate) and 2ER per block which is like got 2 ally for cost 1. Not bad.

In solo this card is a little slow, but if you got a lucky 3 blocks it's very solid. In multiplayer when there is a chance for more minions, he is still a solid option.

I rate him B (for strategy with blocking) and his value goes down with the more hitting villains.

A great example of a Solo-Only/scenario dependent card. In multiplayer you should never be so desperate for thwarting that you'd risk decking the villain and giving them an Acceleration Token. This card may have a place vs. The Badoon where there are 12 minion targets while playing a specialized minion slaying deck. Other than that niche situation, this is a never include card.

In True-Solo tempo is often better than building a board and this card may struggle to justify its own cost. As player count increases though this card's value spikes massively. Every extra player is another encounter card per turn and thus higher minion odds. More minions = consistent excess damage targets, not to mention rush playstyles stop working. In these instances having a build out option that enables more healing, threat removal, and overkill damage is fantastic. At Solo I'd grade this card D due to short games and incredibly rare opportunities to utilize excess damage. At 2 I'd grade this at B, coinflip consistency unless intentionally playing minion heavy scenarios. At 3 it shoots up to A+ and at 4 S+, generally playable in every scenario and typically one of the best things you can play turn 1. If you had to choose between playing this and dropping an 8 damage Lunging Strike turn 1 this will always be worth more, with the opposite being true in Solo.