HULK SMASH PUNY WORK WEEK! In an unexpected development, Upper Deck has published the second official preview for the World War Hulk expansion of its massively popular Marvel Legendary deckbuilding game, due out June 27. If the first preview was the appetizer, this is the main course!
We now know the keyword Smash means “discard a card to get Attack points equal to this number.” So if a card says “Smash 3,” you can discard a card from your hand to get +3 Attack.
Sounds awesome, but remember this is essentially a “two-for-one” scenario. Two cards doing the job of one card, with a slightly bigger oomph than usual. Fine if you’ve got a Wound or a Recruit card that won’t do any good, but what if your hand is full of Smash? Gladiator Hulk has a solution for that.
But you can’t recruit “Hulk is King”! The only way to get it is to trigger the Transform effect on “Seize the Throne” (and if you’ve discarded those two cards, you have to — it’s not optional). As many players suspected, the Transform cards are kept out of the game until they are needed, at which point the old card is junked and the new, better one goes into your hand (except otherwise noted, as here). When Jennifer Walters becomes She-Hulk, she’s ready to go.
Maybe the most interesting thing about Transform is that it’s not always triggered the same way. A complaint about Legendary I’ve recently developed is that whatever the tweaks and twists on mechanics, you’re always doing basically the same thing — trying to produce enough Attack to repeatedly defeat the Mastermind. That hasn’t changed in World War Hulk, but now you might have a different, secondary goal. If you’re She-Hulk, getting a bunch of Recruit isn’t such a bad thing. That’s fun, and it gives players different things to work on.
Don’t forget that Masterminds can Transform, too, even into Hulks!
Because of course the Hulk needs to fight helicopters. When a Mastermind Transforms, simply flip it over to the other side. Also note that if all solicitation materials can be believed, we now know all the Masterminds in World War Hulk: Ross/Red Hulk, King Hulk, Red King, Sentry, Illuminati and M.O.D.O.K. And they all Transform, just like each Hero has a Transform card! Will we see a spidery-legged M.O.D.O.K. Superior?!
Click the link for more card images (A-Bomb Hero confirmed!), and keep speculating on what else might be in Marvel Legendary: World War Hulk. With Rick Jones/A-Bomb revealed, could we also get Betty Ross/Red She-Hulk? What does a Transformed Hulkbuster Iron Man do???
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