Ms. Marvel is a character that I know nothing about lore-wise as she hasn’t yet appeared in the MCU and wasn’t in the X-Men cartoon from the 90s (where the majority of my Marvel knowledge comes from if I’m honest). Here’s a link to the intro from that show, just in case you want to get a tune stuck in your head for the rest of the day. You can thank me later!
Hand Size 6 is average, 10 Hit Points is below average, and 5 Recover is the highest in the game. With such a high Recover, she probably won’t need to include Down Time, but the below average Hit Points means that Endurance is going to be a good choice.
Having to potentially discard a lot of cards using her Teen Spirit ability might seem harsh, but it’s generally going to be worth it to get one of her hero cards. One of her support cards, Aamir Khan, will ensure that you definitely get a card from this effect as well. I like this ability because as you’ll see, all of her hero cards are worth drawing!
Her stats are terrible and you’ll only likely be using her basic actions in desperation or when you have nothing better to do. However, her Morphogenetics ability more than makes up for her stats.
Whenever you play an event that is either an Attack, Thwart, or Defense event you can exhaust Ms. Marvel to return that event to hand. Using her own cards as examples, you could get back Big Hands, Sneak By, or Wiggle Room straight away, meaning that you could play them again.
What this means is that you can have some big turns by doubling down on the same event (even more so if you have either Embiggen! or Shrink in play), or to make sure that you have access to the same event for the next round.
This ability is one that will inform your deckbuilding choices, as you’ll want to make sure that you add at least a few events to add to the ones in her hero cards.
Three resources for a 2/2 with 3 Hit Points is pretty good. His interrupt ability is interesting if somewhat expensive for what it does, but you could use it to save yourself some incoming damage.
For example, if you used Red Dagger to block the Villain’s attack and are subsequently defeated, you could use the interrupt to deal two damage to a minion that hasn’t yet attacked (hopefully defeating it). I don’t think that you are likely to use his ability every time, but at least you have the option for some instant damage.
There are three copies of this in her hero cards. It’s basically a better Haymaker (which you might be playing anyway). Not much else to say about it other than you’ll be playing it a lot!
There are three copies of this in her hero cards and you’ll be happy about that! Basically a For Justice! without the additional effect, but usable in any aspect. It’ll definitely help out Ms. Marvel in aspects that struggle with threat (Aggression and Protection).
There are two copies of this in her hero cards, but I wish there were three! This is a great card that really helps mitigate Ms. Marvel’s low Hit Points.
Due to it being a defence event it can be returned to hand with her Morphogenetics ability. This can be a literal lifesaver in Villain phases where you are getting attacked a lot. This is a great event and will be one of the few cards that you’ll want to keep in hand as you finish the Hero phase.
This is one of three Alter Ego support cards that Ms. Marvel has and allows you to return a card from your discard pile to the bottom of your deck and draw a card. As I see it, there are two main ways to use this.
The first is to return a Ms. Marvel card to your deck just before you use her Teen Spirit ability in order to make sure that you actually get a card out of it. The second is to use it after Kamala Khan has used her Teen Spirit ability to return a useful non-Ms. Marvel card back into your deck. Either way, Aamir Khan is going to draw you a card which for a one-cost support is great.
The Alter Ego action of Bruno allows you to store cards from hand under this support. It then has another action ability (which can be used in either form) to add up to three of those stored cards to hand. What all this means is that you can build up for bigger turns later.
When I first saw this card I thought that it was going to be amazing and easily the best of her three persona support cards, but now I actually think it’s the worst. Sometimes you will have a card or two that you finish the turn with (particularly if you are using Teen Spirit every chance you get), but it’s generally better to plan your turns so that you are using all of your cards.
I don’t think that this is a bad card by any means, but I do think that it’s not a priority one (like Aamir Khan definitely is!).
What can you say about this card? It’s basically an Alter Ego-only, cheaper, more selfish version of Helicarrier. If you have it in hand you’ll almost certainly want to play it rather than discard it for a resource. Good card.
Is this one of the best repeatable resource generators in the game? Yeah probably! It’s cheaper than The Eye of Agamotto which is also a great card and probably makes up for the fact that Ms. Marvel can’t use Quincarrier (she’s not an Avenger, unless you use Honorary Avenger of course…). Play this, don’t discard it!
Extra damage will help you win the game quicker no matter where it is applied. When used with events like Relentless Assault or Melee it really shines, as the former will result in more Overkill damage (assuming you paid with a physical resource, and why wouldn’t you?) and the latter in five damage to two targets.
This is one of her key cards and you’ll want to get it into play as soon as possible!
As a primarily solo player, dealing with threat is generally the biggest issue. This upgrade will boost the threat removed by two on thwart events that Ms. Marvel uses. In her own kit she has Sneak By, but events like Chase Them Down could also benefit from it.
This is another one of her key cards and just like Embiggen! it’s one that you’ll want to get into play as soon as possible.
SUMMARY
- Rubbish Hero stats means that you won’t often be using her basic attack, thwart, or defence, and instead probably be using her Morphogenetics ability.
- Definitely going to want to play a decent amount of attack, thwart, and defence events to get the most out of her Morphogenetics and value-boosting upgrades.
- Has good Alter Ego abilities and cards, meaning that you will likely be flipping between forms more than the average character.
I think that Ms. Marvel is a very interesting character with a different playstyle to most due to her focus on events. From my games with her previously she has been a lot of fun to play! Anyway, that’s all for now. Check back on Sunday to see how I did with her in each of her aspects.
Cheers,
Tim
Tabletop Timesinks 