In the previous article from this series I took a look at efficiency and pulled out some loose efficiency benchmarks for a variety of effects. However, efficiency is merely one tool with which we evaluate cards. In that article, I pointed out a number of cards that reflected these benchmarks, but many came with some pretty massive caveats. Taking a look at these caveats or conditions is the next step in evaluating cards. It will be another tool we add to our evaluation toolbox.
Many of the abilities we see in aspect and Basic cards hit the efficiency benchmarks, but they are locked behind conditionals such as needing two side schemes or needing to remove the last threat on a scheme. Evaluating these conditionals will inform us on if they are a good fit for our deck. However, you will first need to know the goal of your deck. I’ll cover that more fully in a separate article, but your deck’s focus or goal is the primary driver behind what cards you’ll add to your deck. And to be clear, I don’t mean “My deck’s goal is to help me win the game.” How do you want it to help you win the game? Are you going to be the threat manager in a multiplayer game? Is your deck helping you win by covering your weaknesses or building your strengths? Once you know what you want your deck to do, you will have something to measure these conditionals against. With that said, let’s take a look at the common conditionals that we find in card abilities. If you want to skip to a particular section, just click the link below.
Common Conditionals
Resource Reliant
Do you have the right resource types to pay for Requirement and kicker abilities? These conditionals are going to depend on having the right resources available at the right time. Let’s start with Requirement’s definition:
A card with the requirement keyword cannot be played unless each resource of the specified type is spent while paying for that card’s cost.
This is pretty straight forward. You are completely locked out of playing it without the right resources. You either need a plan to meet the Requirement or a plan to skirt around it. Cards like Make the Call, Build Support, and Call for Backup all help you bypass Requirement by using “put into play” abilities which ignore play restrictions like Requirement and trait-locks. Keep in mind that anything that plays the card while ignoring the resource cost cannot be used here. For example, you cannot use Team-Building Exercise to play Spider-Man: Peter Parker, because you haven’t paid all the Requirement resources.
For conditionals with kickers (boosted effects), you can play the card regardless of what resources you spend, but the extra benefits require you spend some specific resource for them to activate. Most conditionals only need one specific resource type, making it easier to ensure you have it when you need it. Non-Leadership aspects each have a favored trait and a resource type that is commonly the trigger for kickers. Each also has a resource generator that generates the aspect’s favored resource for their favored trait. Check out the chart below for more information.
Aspect | Favored Trait | Favored Resource | Resource Generator |
Aggression | Attack | Physical | Martial Prowess |
Justice | Thwart | Mental | Sense of Justice |
Protection | Defense | Energy | Nerves of Steel |
Regardless of which aspect you are in, there are always the Basic Enhanced resource upgrades available (Awareness, Physique, Reflexes) that offer a specific resource type. If you think you’ll need more than one kicker or more than one resource type for kickers, it is worth looking at more flexible resource sources with wild resources. You can run the ‘Power Of’ resource cards to boost the likelihood of having wilds available to hit kickers and requirements. For example, I tend to run Power of Protection alongside What Doesn’t Kill Me. It neatly pays for the event and covers the Requirement resource. There are also flexible (but more expensive) resource generators like Quincarrier or X-Jet.
We’re going to do a quick aside here, because a comparison between Quincarrier and the Enhanced resource upgrades is fantastic for highlighting how efficiency is just a tool of evaluation. Let’s set aside the type of resource generated for a moment. Now, step away from the pitchforks and torches until you’ve finished reading. Ready? Quincarrier has the same or worse efficiency than an Enhanced resource upgrade up until its fifth use. The Enhanced card takes 3 resources (2 cost, plus the card itself) and gives back 3 resources. This means it pays itself back on the third use. Quincarrier takes 4 resources (3 cost, plus the card itself), and gives back infinite resources (over infinite turns). Quincarrier seems *way* more efficient. However, it hasn’t even paid itself back until the fourth use. Additionally it has a higher hit on your tempo due to the higher cost. This means that if your game is lasting anywhere around 4 turns (pretty fast, to be sure), you overpaid for resources. If your game is lasting anywhere around 8 turns (surprisingly common), but you often pass over or don’t see your Quincarrier during the first couple of turns, you may have been better off with the Enhanced resource upgrades, despite them having worse efficiency overall. The scenario’s pressure, the quickness of the game, and the cost curve or tempo of your deck can overshadow pure efficiency. Now to shine Quincarrier back up a bit, cards like Build Support change the math somewhat. In addition, the Enhanced resource upgrades limit you to one specific resource type. That may be fine or it may not. Only your deck will know. Okay, back to our regular programming!
When it comes to what resource types you’ll have available for kickers, you’ll want to keep your hero kit in mind. Captain America has resource generators that generate physical resources, so they will be more helpful in Aggression than in Justice. Venom has a built-in Wild generator, so he can easily hit kickers. Another important card to highlight is Honed Technique. It gives every Aggression attack event a kicker, but muddies the water by requiring a mental resource to get the boost. This can become restrictive when looking at cards like No Quarter which already have a different resource requirement. The biggest thing here is that you will want to make sure you have a source or answer to the resource restrictions.
Target Reliant
Will you have access to an appropriate target? This covers a variety of different targets, but most commonly minions, side schemes, and allies are the targets we’ll need.
Multitarget
For multitarget conditionals, you will need more than one target to get full value of the effect. First and foremost this is impacted by player count. At high player counts, it is far more likely for minions and side schemes to come out naturally. However, in low player counts that is far less reliable, purely because you’ll be seeing fewer encounter cards. If you want to use an ability that requires a specific target at low player counts, you will want to bring along some summoning effects to ensure your target is available. One Way or Another will ensure you get side schemes, while Looking for Trouble will grab minions. Regarding allies, more players generally means more allies. More than likely, in a multiplayer game you will have more targets for abilities targeting friendly characters like allies.
A few examples of multi-target conditionals would be Multi-tasking requiring two schemes, Melee needing two enemies, and United We Stand needing two or three allies to get full value from them. As player count goes up, the likelihood of having a side scheme, minion, or ally available to target will also go up.
Attach to X
As with the multitarget discussion above, you will have to look at how likely you are to naturally have your target. Side Schemes are easier than ever, as player side schemes count for upgrades like Followed and Chance Encounter. Allies are another thing that are more in the players’ control. In multiplayer you are more likely to have a target for ally upgrades, while in solo you will be solely responsible for providing allies. Remember that in solo or two player games, you may want summoning effects to ensure you have the target available when you need one. This trend follows the same as above. As player count goes up, the likelihood of having a side scheme, minion, or ally available to target will also go up.
Some examples of Attach to X cards would be Overwatch for side schemes, Pinned Down for minions, and Sidearm for allies.
Defeat X
Defeat X (or similarly “remove the last threat”) is a conditional that has to look a bit further than just availability. If you are required to defeat the side scheme or minion, you’ll want to address how easy that will be. Side schemes at high player counts have high amounts of threat, meaning you are far less likely to trigger “remove the last threat” abilities on cards like Clear the Area. However, three to four starting threat is pretty common in solo play. You can have a character you control thwart, then easily hit Clear the Area’s trigger in solo. Additionally, if you’re keeping the main scheme at 0 threat, you will commonly only have a couple threat on it in solo play, making Clear the Area really easy to trigger. For threat and side schemes, as player count goes up, the likelihood of clearing or defeating schemes goes down.
Minions on the other hand don’t scale at all (with notable exceptions). This means that you’re more likely to have a target you can defeat in multiplayer. As player count goes up, the likelihood of defeating an enemy also goes up. Now we’ll add a big caveat to that. This is scenario and modular set dependent. As the minion size goes up, your likelihood of defeating them goes down. If you have conditionals like Hard Knocks, you’ll be far more likely to get the kicker in a scenario that features a lot of small minions.
As an aside (I know, asides are becoming a problem), scenarios are varied enough now that if you’re building a deck to use across many scenarios, it’s worth creating a side board for the deck. This is a small collection of cards that you can easily swap into your deck. Side boards can help you adjust for things like beefy minions.
Exhaust X
Many abilities require that you exhaust your hero, ally, weapon, or whatever else. You’ll want to ensure you have targets available to you. This one is a little tricky, because it can be impacted by encounter cards and enemy abilities very easily. For example, if you require a basic activation to trigger an ability, Exhaustion can cause your identity to be exhausted before the phase even begins. Knowing the kinds of exhaust effects on encounter cards as well as having access to readying effects can help make these abilities more reliable. These are also generally part of the costs, rather than the ability. This means that you can only use cards you control to pay those costs. There is no substantial difference across player count for your likelihood of having targets to exhaust available. The standout from this are Alliance cards that allow other players to help pay the costs. I've included a couple examples below.
Others
There are still some more specific interactions that are looking for targets that don’t fit into the categories above. For example, Float Like a Butterfly and Press the Advantage are looking for enemies that have status effects on them. A lot of those can come from your own deck, but in multiplayer you can also rely on other players to produce the status effects. The chances for a target are higher as player count increases. Lie in Wait and Anticipation are specifically looking to trigger off a minion engaging you. While this doesn’t specifically change based on player count, Aggression and a few heroes have access to minion summoning. The usefulness of these abilities will be informed by your hero and aspect choice almost exclusively.
Form Reliant
This is a replacement gif. I was going to insert a Dragon Ball Z "This isn't even my final form!" gif, but I just learned no one actually says that in the series. Now you know, too.
Will you be in the correct form? You’ll want a good gauge of your hero and deck goals for form reliant abilities. Many cards have alter-ego abilities, and if you won’t be going to alter-ego often, you’ll want to avoid most of them. If you will be spending a decent amount of time in alter-ego (meaning somewhere between every turn to multiple turns in a game), you can really lean into more alter-ego focused or non-form specific cards. When doing this, you’ll also want to look at scaling back some event cards with hero abilities. Case in point, defense events aren’t particularly useful in alter-ego, so you’ll want to avoid including many if you’re spending much time there. You’ll also want to ensure your deck has ways to use resources in alter-ego, especially if you have a lot of card draw available. Allies, upgrades, and supports are great to help reduce resource waste. It also doesn't hurt to have some resource sinks (places to spend unused resources) like Machine Man, Lockjaw, or Assess the Situation.
Alongside which form you are in, there are many conditionals that rely on you changing forms. Cards like Surprise Attack and Ready to Rumble can only trigger when changing into hero form. For most heroes, this is equivalent to what is stated above. If you're not visiting home often, leave the form changing cards in the box. However, there are a number of heroes with multiple hero forms, and they will have greater access to form changing. Ant-Man, Wasp, Angel, Vision, and Shadowcat will all have more opportunities to trigger abilities requiring a form change.
Attack / Defend / Thwart Reliant
There are a number of abilities that require you attack, defend, or thwart before you trigger them. You’re going to want to look at what your build is focusing on before adding these cards. Thor Aggression in a 4 player game will have a multitude of attack opportunities. This is perfect for “after you attack” conditionals. Conversely, in solo, Captain America Aggression will likely split his actions between attacking and thwarting. His “after you attack” triggering opportunities will be much more limited.
Defense tends to have the biggest limiting factor, as many times you will go all-or-nothing on defending. If your deck’s goal isn’t to defend, you’ll want to skip the “when you defend” cards. Expanding on this, the more specific “after you defend and take no damage” conditionals are much harder to hit if you aren’t building specifically to handle it. Whether or not defending is something you want to build into can be informed by your hero choice. Many of the 3 DEF heroes are good fits for the “take no damage” archetype.
The big takeaway here is that how focused or generalist your deck is will be informing your attack/defend/thwart reliant choices. The more focused your deck is, the easier it will be to trigger attack/defend/thwart reliant abilities.
Take-Damage Reliant
Can you take extra damage? Some abilities require you take damage to trigger them (from enemy attacks, the ability itself, or other outside sources) or cause you damage once triggered. Considerations for these cards will be your overall health, access to healing, and Tough access. You can lock yourself out of using an ability if you have Tough, but are required to take damage. On the flip side, you can waste an entire Tough on one damage from triggering an ability. For example, you will take one damage as part of “Think Fast”, so you would lose your Tough in order to Confuse the villain. However, with Weapon X, you simply couldn’t trigger the ability at all if you have a Tough, because taking one damage is part of the cost. Keep in mind that some of these abilities will be triggering off taking damage from an attack. This is at direct odds with things like keeping the villain stunned or blocking with allies.
Trait Reliant
Do you have the correct trait or access to it? Many cards are going to be play-restricted by what traits you have. This has a lot of overlap with form reliant conditions, as many times your traits are different between your alter-ego and hero forms. For example, in alter-ego, Guardians don’t have the Guardian trait. In order to play a Guardian trait-locked ally like Groot, they have to either be in hero form or acquire the Guardian trait in alter-ego through Honorary Guardian.
The Mutant trait is tied to alter-ego, and it has a number of abilities and triggers available on various cards. You’ll want to ensure that you have a plan for flipping down if you want access to these Mutant-locked traits.
The alternative to the above is the same as bypassing Requirement. If you have a way to “cheat” the card in through a “put into play” ability, you can avoid the reliance on a given trait. Just keep in mind that this often reduces the reliability and consistency of the play, as you must first have access to the “cheat” card.
Conclusion
The above covers most of the conditionals you’ll run into across the deck-building pool. While efficiency is going to be a tool that you use to evaluate a card (particularly in vacuum), these conditional evaluations are going to be far more impactful on your actual deck-building decisions. Your hero, aspect, archetype, and player count will all be informing which conditionals you’ll be likely to meet.
Hopefully this is helpful for players that are new to deck-building. Learning to process and evaluate these conditionals is a foundational part of getting quick and effective at deck-building. I want to end this by noting that these evaluations aren’t just for power gamers and min-maxers. If you love building toward whatever combos you find fun, these considerations can both help smooth the path toward hitting you combos and help you make informed decisions regarding the likelihood of your combos. Don’t let a low likelihood keep you from a combo. Instead, use these considerations to help improve that likelihood by including cards that cover weaknesses or smooth hiccups.
Thanks
Thanks again to the discord hivemind. In particular, thank you to Gondo, josseroo, and SCOE for giving some feedback on my early breakdowns of the topic. As always, thanks to Unicorn and the Cerebro project for providing card images.