Who Is Echo?
Echo, also known as Maya Lopez, is a deaf Native American and Latina superhero in Marvel Comics who first appeared in Daredevil #9 (1999). Raised by the Kingpin after he murdered her father, Maya was manipulated into believing Daredevil was responsible for the death. Trained in combat and the arts, she became a deadly operative and eventually confronted Daredevil, nearly killing him before discovering his true identity as Matt Murdock and realizing the Kingpin’s deception. In retaliation, she shot Kingpin, blinding him, and left New York to find herself. Echo possesses photographic reflexes, allowing her to perfectly mimic any physical action she observes—be it martial arts, acrobatics, or musical performance—making her a formidable fighter on par with characters like Taskmaster.
Character Card
Echo is a 3-threat character with 3 defenses across the board and 5 health on both sides of her card. In terms of base statline, she sits slightly below average. A long move makes her faster than your average character, and she is the standard size 2 of a regular person. As a side note, it has always seemed odd to me that a human in this game is size 2—and so is a car. You can fit four people in your average car. With some effort, I, a regular man in his 30s, can briefly lift up another regular man (don’t want to brag), but there’s no way I could lift a car… Anyway.
Her first attack is Studied Strike, a range 2, 4-dice physical attack. She gains one power when using this attack, and if she has already attacked the target this round, she can increase this to a 7-dice attack. This is a very similar attack to what we’ve seen on Ghost-Spider, although slightly worse than Ghost-Spider’s version, as Echo can only ever gain one power and does not have the potential for a move action off of it.
Her second attack, Bullseye, is a range 4, 4-dice physical attack that also gains Echo 1 power. The opponent cannot modify defense dice from this attack. This makes the attack particularly potent into Web Warriors, who rely on their defensive rerolls to keep them safe. Then again, at only 4 dice, it’s not likely to do much damage—even with the no-rerolls stipulation. At range 4 and with the guaranteed 1 power gained, it’s likely you’ll mostly use this ability to generate some power when Echo is out of position.
Her spender is I Know Your Moves Better Than You, a range 2, 6-dice physical attack for 3 power. Enemies do not count crit results as successes against this attack, nor do they add additional dice to their roll as a result of criticals. The combination of not counting crits and not adding dice means you’ll always know the ceiling of an opponent’s defense roll. If they have 3 physical defense vs the attack, they can at most only ever get 3 successes. This makes attacks with this effect both reliable and powerful. In addition, Echo can move medium after the attack, which makes the 3 power cost very efficient for both damage and movement.
Echo has one active superpower: Charge. This is a power we’ve seen many times before and lets her spend 2 power and an action to move and then make an attack action. As her base movement is long, this means Echo can reliably get into range to double attack. Her Studied Strike ability is designed with this in mind, encouraging her to get in and hit an opponent multiple times.
Echo has a grand total of three passive superpowers:
- Death Dancer lets her change a die to a hit for each crit in the opposing defense roll. This should help her damage output push through a little more, even if the opponent spikes on their defense. Similarly it lets her change a die to a shield per crit in an opposing attack roll. As this happens for each crit the opponent has rolled her small dice pool is deceptively effective.
- On the Prowl gives her Stealth if she is within range 1 of a terrain piece size 2 or more. With her base stats relatively low, this should help her avoid damage from long-range attackers.
- Wallcrawler lets her ignore the size of terrain she moves over, which is especially helpful with her long move.
Echo’s abilities make her a mobile assassin, charging around the battlefield to take out key targets. As the majority of her abilities are passive, she remains fairly self-sufficient and can gain the power to Charge relatively easily with a range 4 gainer attack. Without a builder she might struggle to get a lot of power but she has minimal to spend power on in any case.
She doesn’t have much health and will be vulnerable to being taken out by terrain throws or larger threats—but at only 3 threat, you can’t go wrong adding her to your teams. B+
Who Is Tigra?
Tigra is a feline-themed superhero who first appeared as The Cat in The Claws of the Cat #1 (November 1972) and later transformed into Tigra in Giant-Size Creatures #1 (July 1974).
Originally a lab assistant, she underwent an experimental enhancement that gave her superhuman abilities, including strength, agility, and heightened senses. After a near-fatal encounter with Hydra, she was mystically transformed by the Cat People—a secret race of humanoid feline beings—into Tigra, their legendary champion.
Looking all this up I thought there can’t possibly be an entire race of cat people in comics but here we are. As Tigra, she possesses retractable claws, fangs, empathy, and the ability to shift between human and feline forms using a magical amulet. Her journey has taken her through various superhero teams, including the Avengers and West Coast Avengers, where she grappled with the duality of her human and animal instincts.
Character Card
Tigra is a 4-threat character with 4/3/4 defenses and 6 health on both sides of her card. She has a long move, making her faster than the average 4-threat.
Her first attack is Feline Slash, a range 3, 5-dice physical attack that gives her power based on the damage dealt. On a wild, it Pierces one of the opponent’s defenses, and on a hit and wild, she gives them the Hex special condition. The range 3 on this attack makes it quite interesting, as attacks like this are usually only range 2. The Hex trigger will happen just under 30% of the time, so you can’t rely on it—but it’s a nice addition.
Her spender is Sorry, No Autographs, a range 3, 7-dice physical attack for 3 power. After the attack, Tigra can place herself within range 3, and on a wild, it gives the Stagger condition. Stagger is probably the strongest special condition in the game, and a wild on 7 dice should happen around 65% of the time. For 3 power, the ability to move, damage an opponent, and potentially stagger them is promising.
Her first superpower is Ambush Predator. This is very similar to Pounce, which we see on other characters—throwing Tigra medium, and she suffers no collision damage in return. The additional element for Ambush Predator is that she counts as a size 3 character if she begins on a terrain feature larger than herself. These powers are always very useful. You can use them as a pseudo-charge effect, granting free movement without costing an action. It gives you access to collision damage even when most characters would need other characters or terrain nearby to throw. The only issue is that without wallcrawler she might struggle to start on larger terrain features unless she spends an action climbing which in most cases won’t be worth it.
Mess with the Cat and You Get the Claws is a reactive superpower for 2 power that is played after an attack targeting this character is resolved. If they are within range 3 she rolls 4 dice and does damage to the opponent for each crit and wild rolled. On average this will do 1 or 2 damage so often won’t be worth it however if an opponent only has 1 or 2 health left they may think a second time before attacking.
Empathetic Aura is a passive superpower that lets other allied characters reroll a defence dice when within range 2 of her. As it is worded “other allied characters” unfortunately she cannot reroll her own defence dice with this.
Her first passive ability is On the Prowl. This is the same superpower that Echo has above, giving her the Stealth superpower when she is within range 1 of a terrain feature size 2 or more. There is some nice synergy here, as she wants to start her turn on a size 3 or more terrain feature so that she can Ambush Predator for extra damage.
Her final passive ability is Superior Agility, which prevents opponents from modifying attack dice into her. Against some opponents this won’t matter, but it can be extremely effective against characters like Logan or Cable, who rely on dice rerolls to push damage through.
In the crowded world of 4-threat characters, Tigra might struggle to stand out. She has a similar suite to Gamora without hitting quite as hard. Her rerolls are a little rough when some characters like Baron Zemo have rerolls that affect both attack, defence and themselves. C+
Who Is Ronin?
First appearing in New Avengers #27 (2007), Ronin is the mysterious ninja persona adopted by Clint Barton, better known as Hawkeye, in Marvel Comics. After a period of personal and professional turmoil—including his death and resurrection following the events of Avengers: Disassembled and House of M – Clint took on the Ronin identity to operate covertly and anonymously. Clint used the guise to distance himself from his past and to infiltrate dangerous environments without drawing attention. As Ronin, he abandoned his signature bow and arrows in favor of martial arts, stealth tactics, and proficiency with bladed weapons, particularly a katana.
Character Card
For base stats, Ronin is a 4-threat character with 4/3/3 defenses. He has 6 health on both sides, which stat-wise puts him in the middle—if not slightly below the average 4-threat—though his passive abilities help him overcome his mediocre statline.
Shadow Strike is a range 2, 5-dice physical attack that gives him power based on the damage dealt. On a wild, it can Pierce an opponent’s defenses and give them the Bleed condition. This attack is identical to a couple of others in the game—most notably Wolverine’s Adamantium Slash. Having both Pierce and Bleed on a wild means you’ll often be searching for it. On a 5-dice attack without any rerolls, you have roughly a 50% chance to hit this trigger.
The Hawk’s Blades is a range 4, 4-dice physical attack that gains Ronin 1 power. It gives the target Bleed on a wild, and on a hit allows Ronin to advance short toward them. The ability to give out-of-activation movement is very helpful, especially when his Shadow Strike is only range 2. There’s just under a 75% chance to hit the Pursuit trigger—and just like with Blade, if you really need to move into position, relying on that 75% might not be the gamble you want to take.
The Cutting Wind is a beam 3, 6-dice physical attack for 4 power. This attack also has Pierce on a wild and lets Ronin place within range 1 of the final target. Once again, this attack is very similar to a Wolverine attack—this time Logan’s Tornado Claw. The guaranteed place from the attack is more useful than relying on a hit with The Hawk’s Blades, but at 4 power, it isn’t an attack you’ll always be using.
His first superpower is Grappling Hook. For 2 power, Ronin can place himself within range 3. This is the same superpower Clint Barton has as Hawkeye, and it’s just as effective here. As it places him, he can ignore intervening terrain—making this an effective way to vault over large terrain pieces without the need to climb. This power can effectively be used as an equivalent of Charge, as he can move without using a move action. It’s likely that Ronin will be an Avenger, and under the original Steve Rogers, being able to move around the board for potentially 1 power is extremely strong.
His second superpower is Specter of Death. For 2 power when he targets an opponent he can change dice to hits per wild or crit in the roll. This is the same as the War power from the Servants of Apocalypse, and if you’ve ever been on the receiving end of this effect, you’ll know how strong it can be. This superpower is not limited to once per turn, and it’s very possible that a Shadow Strike will refund him the power spent to use Specter of Death, enabling him to use it on the follow-up attack. It could also be used to almost guarantee the hit for The Hawk’s Blades, though there aren’t many situations where you’d want to do that over just using his Grappling Hook.
Finally, Ronin has two passive abilities, both of which are defensive. Martial Artist lets him count blanks from physical and energy attacks within range 2, and Stealth means he can’t be targeted from outside range 3. This combination makes a solid defensive kit. Though it does have a notable weakness from between range 2 and 3 where he is vulnerable. His one weakness is Mystic attacks, where he lacks the blank-counting he has on the other two attack types.
Overall, Ronin looks like he’ll be a versatile, mobile brawler. He has numerous similarities to Wolverine, sacrificing some of Wolverine’s resilience for added mobility. His notable weaknesses are that he can only output physical damage—which means he won’t be effective into certain targets—and he has no inherent defense against mystic attackers. Outside of these weaknesses, he should make a great addition to a number of rosters. B+
Team Tactics Cards
The first card that comes in this box is Extreme Measures. This is an unaffiliated card that Ronin can play at the start of his activation for 3 power. For the remainder of the round, his Shadow Strike attack gains Flurry on a wild, and his Hawk’s Blades attack gains Rapid Fire on a hit. With this card in play, one wild on Shadow Strike would Pierce an enemy’s defense, give them the Bleed condition, and enable an additional Shadow Strike via Flurry. As you’re getting all those effects on one trigger, it could be interesting under Captain America, First Avenger, whose Earth’s Mightiest Heroes leadership would make it far more likely to hit that trigger. It would require an initial cost of 4 power, which is hefty—but with the additional attack, you could make that power back. The Flurry doesn’t specify that it has to be a different target, and the potential to do four Shadow Strikes in an activation is quite strong. As it builds power, you could stack this with his Specter of Death superpower to make the dice even more potent. Under other leaderships, you’d really want multiple sources of rerolls to make this relevant. The additional ability to give Hawk’s Blades Rapid Fire is unlikely to be what you want to use this card for.
Totem of the Tiger God is a 2-cost unaffiliated card that enables Tigra to change her attacks to Mystic for the round. In addition, if she makes a Feline Slash attack, she can place herself within range 2. The ability to change attack type to Mystic can bypass some key defensive abilities such as the Spider-Senses of Web Warriors or Martial Artist. Whether or not this is worth one of your five tactics card slots is debatable, and I would argue that the effect is not strong enough. C
The Night Life is an unaffiliated card played by Moon Knight and Tigra for 1 power each. At the start of Moon Knight’s activation—before rolling for his multiple personalities—the card is played, and you can then place Tigra within range 2 of her current position. As a reminder, the personality options that Moon Knight has available are: an additional movement, an additional power, adding 2 dice to his next attack roll, or nothing. If the card didn’t cost them a power each, it would be a good way to safely pick up an extract on the first round with two characters. As they both have to pay power, they end up not being able to reliably use this until later rounds—where the potential effects are not nearly as strong. There will be niche scenarios where this might be excellent, such as under Baron Helmut Zemo’s Army of Evil leadership. However, even there, only one character can get the power refunded for using the card. C
Parts of a Hole is the final card in this box. The title of the card is a reference to the first storyline that Echo appears in, where she and Daredevil fall in love. Both Daredevil and Echo pay 1 power in the power phase. For the rest of the round, Echo can count blanks in her defense rolls against physical and energy attacks, and Daredevil can gain Stealth if he is within range 1 of a size 3 or more terrain feature. It is likely that Echo will be a Defender, where Daredevil is one of the leadership options (though at the time of writing, that information is not available). Under Daredevil’s leadership, it’s likely that you’ll take both characters—giving the card more opportunities to be used. Giving Echo the ability to count blanks could give her some much-needed survivability when she’s in the thick of the fight. Giving Daredevil Stealth might not seem as potent, as he’s usually in the middle of a brawl anyway—however, he often gets attacked from range to avoid his Man Without Fear retaliatory attack. When this is live, the opponent is forced to interact with him from within range 3, where he might count blanks on defense and can hit them back.
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