The Vision character card was spoiled some time ago, but I got distracted by Asgardians and new terrain construction, sorry! Now though, let us see what the green floaty one can do in the game and see if he really is enough to knock Captain Marvel off her pedestal, as some in the community believe.
STAMINA – With 6 stamina, Vision is nice and robust.
MOVEMENT – Medium movement is nice enough.
SIZE – Victor is humanoid and so is size 2, just like his human counterparts.
THREAT – At 4 threat, Vision should have a decent impact on the state of the battlefield.
DEFENCES – Surprisingly Vision only rolls 2 dice for physical and energy defences, but more on this when we discuss his superpowers. With 4 defence dice against mystic attacks, Vision is a good character to consider if you are seeing M.O.D.O.K or Loki across the table.
ATTACKS – Vision’s first attack is called Solar Energy Beam and, unsurprisingly with a name like that, is an energy attack. It has a range of B4, strength of 5 and power cost of zero. Once resolved Vision gets to gain 1 power. A wild roll will let you trigger Sap Power, which lets you remove power from the target character(s) for each wild in the attack roll, and Vision gains that much power. Having a free beam attack is not something to turn ones nose up at. The potential for multiple character hits (each of which will roll their own defence dice) is a big tick in the “should I field Vision” column. Even if you can hit only 1 character with this attack, potentially triggering Sap Power is a nice way of spoiling your opponents plays and ramping up your own power supplies. If you see Vision across the table then think twice before huddling up your characters!
The next attack is a physical one called Synthezoid Avenger which has a range of 3, strength of 7 and power cost of 4. This attack also has a nice way of getting through enemy defences by not allowing criticals in the target characters defence rolls to count as successes and not allowing the target character to add dice to their defence pool for criticals rolled! This is absolutely crippling, and certainly makes one think twice before being within range 3 of a powered-up Vision. This is a mega attack with the potential to take down even big defence characters given the right rolls. You don’t even need to rolla wild for this ability to trigger, amazing.
But what supowerpowers does Vision possess?
SUPERPOWERS – First up is the active superpower Calculated Trajectory which costs 2 power. This allows Vision to throw medium a size 3 terrain feature or enemy character within range 2. Throws are always nice to see on a character card, especially when they include enemy characters as well as terrain features. A nice ability to have access to.
Next is another active superpower, and this one is called Synthesis and has a power cost of 0. This does take an action to use but states simply that this character gains 2 power. That’s it. Swap an action for 2 power. This means you can pay for Calculated Trajectory every turn (or multiple times if running the Avengers affiliation). It also means you are halfway to paying for Synthezoid Avenger which is worrying if playing against Vision! Having this ability is nice, as you can plan your turn around consistently gaining 2 additional power if required.
Next is a reactive superpower called Rapid Phase, which has a power cost of 2. This superpower states that it can be used when Vision is targeted by an attack, and allows him to remove his current phasing type and choose a new phasing type. Eh?! All will be explained when we discuss Vision’s next superpower…
…which is an innate superpower called Phasing. This superpower states that during the power phase Vision chooses a phasing type, of which we have 2 to choose from. Enchanced Density states that Vision can roll 3 additional dice when defencing against physical attacks and cannot be pushed until the start of the next power phase, and Phased states that Vision rolls 3 additional dice when defending against energy attacks and does not suffer collision damage until the start of the next power phase. So, on top of 4 mystic defence, Vision also has access to either 5 physical or 5 energy defence dice depending on which state he is in. Plus, should you see a big attack incoming and Vision is in the wrong state of phasing, you can change his state by paying 2 power for Rapid Phase. Being un-pushable and having 5 defence dice due to Enhanced Density is going to be great when you really want/need to hold an objective and don’t want Vision to be going anywhere. All I can say is that this all seems pretty darn amazing!
Vision has another innate ability which states that he has flight (always nice), as well as immunity to bleed and poison (also nice).
INJURED SIDE – No change here other than in the card art Vision looks like he is doing some kind of supermodel pose.
SUMMARY – I mean, what can be said? Power stealing, defence penetration, throwing, power gain and adaptable defences – there is a lot to like on this card! How does he compare to Captain Marvel? Well, I will leave it to you to decide, although to me Vision has the advantage with adaptable defences and a beam attack, but Marvel has the advantage with attacks using binary form; but ultimately for me it will come down to who I fancy playing come game-time. We can debate back and forth all day as to whether one attack is better than another, but personally I would rather just play whichever character I fancy fielding and have an enjoyable game without worrying about whether I could have done 2 more damage on turn 3 and swung the game in my favour. But I have no tactical prowess and am no great lover of dice maths, instead appreciating games for theme and mechanics, so perhaps you disagree with my view which is fine enough.
Vision is going to be great for secure objectives, he can just sit there defending with 5 dice and being un-pushable.
I really do like what I am reading on Vision’s card, and am really looking forward to playing (and painting) him. Running him in an Avengers list would be good, as it means you would have access to his superpowers at a cheaper rate (athough they are pretty cheap already, and he can always spend an action to get 2 extra power). Cabal would be amazing as Vision’s Solar Energy Beam attack would allow him to gain 1 extra power for each attack that hits, on top of the power gained for the damage dealt. Wakanda I think is fine enough, but he is pretty defence-focused anyway so the odds of attacks getting through to him are a bit lower I imagine, and Synthezoid Avenger strips critials out of enemy defences anyway. This is one to try and see how it plays I guess. Asgardian could be good, allowing Vision to remove a special condtion or damage once per round – healing is always a welcome sight.
As for team tactics cards, as a flying character Vision is a viable option for flight-related cards such as Drop Off. Also, as a listed Avenger, Vision has access to all the juicy Avengers cards such as Second Wind and Avengers Assemble.
If running an allied M.O.D.O.K then A.I.M Lackeys could be good, allowing M.O.D.O.K to pay 3 power to let Vision take an extra move action, potentially getting him to where he needs to be. Or, if running an allied Hulk then Gamma Leap can get him to an objective pretty much straight away, which he can then camp and defend.
Battle Lust could be good, allowing Vision to pay 2 power at the end of a move action to add 2 dice to his attack pool and push the target character away short. This would be good for ensuring that Synthezoid Avenger gets through, and keeps that nasty enemy away from Vision and his objective.
So, what do you make of Vision? Is he going to make it into your 10? Does he whup Captain Marvel? Comment below!