Hey all,
Courtesy of our friends at FFG we have been provided with a spoiler card to show for this weeks release of Agent Venom. Yes, I know cards have squeaked by Nick Fury’s SHIELD task force but we still wanted to provide a typical source of fun as we do with all our spoilers from FFG.
Thanks to FFG for this opportunity – I’m glad it’s a tradition we get to continue. If you haven’t yet checked out the Venom hero pack talk to your FLGS or check out the Asmodee webstore!
Without further ado let’s get to our spoiler – the only new Justice ally – Jack Flag!
Beyond having some wicked cross-dimensional lizard blastin’ art this card is something new and excited for Justice players all around. We’ve been waiting for #Justice4Justice and has Venom’s pack brought that to us? This beefy ally costs 4 resources with only 3 health but an ability that means you’ll get more than just three triggers. With Jack Flag you’ll be able to thwart with him and place an ammo counter. Then, later remove an ammo counter and exhaust him to deal 5 (typo edit: 2) damage. This means without any assistance you can get around 5 uses our of Jack: whether it be -> Thwart-Thwart-Pew-Pew-Block, or Thwart-Pew-Thwart-Pew-Block, or even finish out with a final Thwart. For 4 resources Jack can remove 4 threat, deal 4 damage and soak an attack. There’s a couple other things we wanted to highlight and we couldn’t think of a better more guardians centric way than a – meme off
We’ve taken some of our favorite meme format’s and gave them a Jack Flag makeover. First, let’s take a look at the inner workings of typical Justice ally development. This is an ally card – so it’s gonna need to be legit to compete with the likes of Jessica Jones, Daredevil, and other mainstay Justice allies? It needs to be able to thwart big and take a chump at the end like all good allies do… Wait? Jack is an offensive powerhouse too? That’s odd for a Justice ally… or is it? Lots of allies in the yellow aspect have damage abilities: Daredevil, Quake, and Wiccan to name a few. Jack seems to have the highest output of those options but also take the longest to get his damage out.
Alright, so we are going to veer away from typical Justice design but keep things still feeling good with a nice 2 THW. What else does Jack bring to the table? Remember when a few people said that maybe the Guardians wave when completed will help against GMW?
Maybe in a weird way it has. Jack has the ability to be a useful ally for many turns even against on of the most ally-hated scenarios Collector 1. You can invest in Jack and reap benefits for 4 rounds before using him to chump or having him take up a dead ally slot. That’s a long term investment sure to be helpful. I do worry a bit that an ally that takes 5 turns to get full value needs to be played really early or the game may be won/lost before you reap your reward.
Next, let’s not forget that Jack can go beyond just his base stats. While, Justice doesn’t have any ally healing or tough all aspects have access to First Aid which can be used to heal Jack for 2. Those 2 points of healing can turn into 4 thwart and 4 damage (again it’ll take 4 turns to deal this all out). That’s huge. Let that sink in. 1 resource investment, for a For Justice and a pumped up Haymaker. Wicked. You’ll be asking players all over the field to please use their First Aid and Med Team on Jack.
If you are willing to pay for it – Jack can be a perpetual source of damage. He’s almost like a red ally that got painted yellow to fill out Venom’s pack.
So, we may be thinking that Jack is one of the many tools instilled in the Venom hero pack to bring Justice back to it’s coreset glory. Wait, hold my spacebeer (spacebar? Who is typing this?). Jack is the only justice ally in this pack. Meaning even after the 3+0.5 hero packs we’ve recieved of Justice we only have 8 allies to choose from when deckbuilding. Leadership now has 18 (as expected), Protection has 13 (counting all 3 Multiple Men), Basic has 13, and Aggression has 12! We have seen in the Nebula preview that we are getting at least 2 new allies with her hero kit. So maybe someday we’ll have enough friends to bring along – but for now – just like in real life. Justice allies and players don’t have enough friends.
Regardless of Justice being behind the rest of the pool Jack Flag is a unique and exciting new style of ally for Justice. Combined with Quake you can now see an array of allies in Justice you may want to keep on the board. Here is what Attercop! had to say about Jack:
Jack has had it rough in the comics. He’s been dead, then not dead, dead again, then not dead and he’s currently… Dead? Secret Empire did a number on him. Thankfully, that didn’t reflect in this ally. Jack’s a little pricey, but seems like a lot of fun, and lets you decide when you need a decent attacker and an eventual chump block in the same turn with only 1 HP left. Hopefully he gets a chance to be alive, then dead, and alive more times than the opposite when we get a chance to field him.
Regardless of what your space-mom, or adopted Mary Poppins like father may say – you definitely need some Jack Flag to spice up your Justice deck-building. Until the next spoiler season be sure to check out the Venom hero pack at your favorite retailer!