Corvus Glaive is Thanos’ first in command and leader of the Black Order, as well as being the husband to teammate Proxima Midnight. As well as having a great name, he is a master tactician and combatant. How has this been translated into the game, and how much more black could his costume be? (Answer: none more black). Let’s see.
STAMINA – Corvy has a nice juicy 6 stamina. We have had a run of lower stamina characters lately, so it nice to get back up to a bigger number.
MOVEMENT – He moves medium which is average, but he will be slightly faster because he is on a 50mm base. Think Doc. Ock, and you’ll know how fast he can be!
SIZE – 2 as expected.
THREAT – Glaive is a 4 threat character so we should get to see him doing some decent work on the battlefield.
DEFENCES – Surprisingly for a 4 threat character Corvus’ defences are entirely average with 3 dice rolled for each defence type. Normally on a 4 threat character we would expect to see at least 4 dice for one defence type. Is this a sign of powerful things to come?
ATTACKS – Corvus has 3 attacks for you to use, the first of which is a physical Strike with a range of 2, strength of 5 and power cost of 0. After this attack is resolved Corvus gets to gain power equal to the damage dealt, and roll a wild and you will be able to trigger Pierce which will let you change one of your opponents criticals, wilds or blocks to a blank, a nice way of breaking through defences.
Attack number 2 is an energy attack called Atom Splitter, which is a nice reference to Corvus’ power glaive which can cut through any known substance in the Marvel universe. This attack has a range of 4, strength of 4 and power cost of 0, and once resolved will net Corvus 1 power regardless of whether or not it dealt damage. It may seem odd that a melee weapon can hit over range 4 but don’t worry, he can throw and recall his glaive much like Thor can with Mjölnir. Range 4 is no slouch and although this isn’t the most powerful attack ever with a strength of a mere 4, if you just need 1 power to trigger another ability then this could be the way to go.
Last of all we have a physical attack called Death Blow which has a range of 3, strength of 7 and power cost of 4. This attack states that after it resolves Corvus may advance medium, and roll a wild and you can trigger Flurry which let’s you make a free Strike attack. Good grief. This is similar to a reworded Charge (see Baron Zemo’s card) in that it combines an advance and attack into one action, but on a whole new level. This is a big attack, but then being able to move a character on a 50mm base medium for free regardless of whether damage was dealt or not is huge. Plus, you have the chance to get a bonus free Strike attack from Flurry – and we have seen how powerful that can be on characters like Okoye and Valkyrie. Sheesh! 3 actions for the price of 1!
SUPERPOWERS – Corvus’ first superpower is an active one called Glaive’s Edge which has a power cost of 3. This superpower states that during the next Strike or Death Blow attack made this turn he may add blanks in his attack roll to his successes. Ouch! That’s certainly one way of making sure that Corvus’ attacks are doing the damage required!
Superpower number 2 is reactive, has a power cost of 0 and is called Husband of Proxima Midnight. This superpower states that at the end of Corvus’ activation if he is within range 4 of an allied Proxima Midnight then, if she does not have an activation token, she may activate before your turn ends. Well this is one way to get the jump on your opponent! Proxima’s character card has been spoiled and I will be posting a character summary sometime soon, so let’s just say for now that she looks like a bit of a beast. Back to back activations can be terrible for your opponent, especially if you are focusing attacks on one character in order to try and take it down. Plus, this could also mean that your opponent activates last and you get priority next round.
Corvus’ third superpower is an innate one called Glaive of Immortality. This superpower states that when Corvus would suffer damage from enemy effects, reduce the amount suffered by 1 to a minimum of 1. We have seen this type of effect before on Iron Man, and we know how effective it is at prolonging his life over the course of a game, so to see it here, albeit with a differet name, is very nice indeed.
Last of all is another innate superpower called Gem Bearer [Reality, Time]. Yes, Corvus can wield Infinity Gems. When it comes to the Time Gem, for the cost of 2 power the bearer can use an activate ability that allows them to perform an additional action this activation. Very nice indeed – imagine dumping 10 power to do 2 back to back Death Blow attacks which both chain into Strike attacks which both gain you enough power for a third Death Blow attack – it is the stuff of dreams (or nightmares for your opponent). Does it make Corvus worth 6 threat? We will have to see. At a lower threat of 1 we have the Reality Gem. This grants access to an innate superpower that states that when rolling dice as part of an attack, defence, dodge or interact roll, Corvus gets to treat 1 critical fail result as a critical hit. This is huge – we’ve all had those rolls on both attack and defence where there are a few too many skulls for our liking. And best of all this also includes dodge and even interact rolls. Corvus Glaive suddenly became a good candidate for searching for Kree power cores and spider infected!
INJURED SIDE – No change from what I can tell.
SUMMARY – Corvus Glaive makes for an interesting character indeed. His defences are lower than average for a 4 threat character, but he has a way of mitigating a little incoming damage, great attacks and good mobility, as well as a really interesting synergy with Proxima Midnight which I am really looking forard to trying out. Overall I really like to look of him, and that model is just going to be super fun to paint! His Death Blow attack is a monster, and becomes even more lethal if Corvus is wielding the Time Gem.
Corvus is a listed member of the Black Order (although not the leader – that honour belongs to Thanos), and as his card has now been revealed we can have a discussion about how Corvus plays into the affiliation ability. The Black Order leadership ability is two-fold. On Thanos’ healthy side whenever an enemy character is K.O’d you score 1 victory point, then on Thanos’ injured side an allied character may take up to 3 damage to allow them to reroll one attack die for each damage taken. Corvus Glaive is most certainly setup for attacking, with his basic attack dealing Pierce on a wild roll, and his bigger attack being able to Flurry; and with Glaive’s Edge further adding to the damage being dealt. His abilities play very nicely into the Black Order ability, especially when he is equipped with the Reality Gem which improves his damage consistency.
In an Avengers affiliation Glaive’s Edge would only cost 2, but that is the only real cost benefit for running Corvus in this affiliation. As Corvus’ Strike attack has Pierce and his Death Blow attack has the chance to wild roll into Flurry, the likelihood of Corvus doing damage each attack/activation is high, and as such Cabal is a great fit for him as it will gain him a lot of power which can fuel his attacks, which will (hopefully) deal damage, which will gain power and so on and so forth.
Running Corvus in a Wakandan affiliation would allow for improved consistency of damage which, spread over the course of a game, could prove to be very beneficial indeed. An Asgardian affiliation would be interesting too; getting conditions such as Shock, Slow, Stagger and Stun onto Corvus will really hold him back from unleashing his full potential, but being able to ditch a special condition off Corvus each round, or healing 1 damage to mitigate his lower defences could be a viable way of counteracting this somewhat.
Lastly we have the Guardians of the Galaxy affiliation. As with Wakanda, rerolls are always good. Giving Corvus the chance to reroll 2 dice up to 3 instances in a round could make for a very powerful turn indeed, easpecially if setting up for a round of back to back attacks.
When it comes to team tactics cards there are 3 Black Order cards to discuss, as well as a Corvus-specific one. Let’s start with the 3 Black Order cards by talking about Price of Failure. This card is active and allows you to choose an injured allied character. Other allied characters gain 3 power each and then the chosen character is K.O’d. This is an interesting card, and powerful. If you have a character who is super low on remaining stamina and it is looking like they are going to get taken out soon why not activate them, let them do their thing, then take them out with this card to give allied characters some motivation to perform a bit better. Thematically, this card is flavour heaven! Or, would you be willing to sacrifice a low threat character who has more or less fulfilled their function on the battlefield in order to power up your 3, 4, 5 threat characters? Something to consider. Bear in mind that the 3 power boost doesn’t just go on to affiliated character but allied characters, meaning every single character on your turn suddenly gets 3 power. That’s huge.
The second Black Order card is called Blood to Spare (which is just a great name for a card) and is reactive. This card states that when a Black Order character would be dazed by an enemy effect it may spend 3 power to play this card. The character immediately performs an attack before gaining the dazed token. If the attack results in the character removing damage then it is not dazed. This is a very interesting card as it allows a character to do one last swing before going down, with the potential to not even go down if the character can remove damage. The more interesting thing is that neither Proxima Midnight, Corvus Glaive, and the recently reveled Ebony Maw or Black Dwarf have attacks that allow self-healing, which means that this card must be talking about the leader of the Black Order, Thanos. It may be that Thanos can heal himself whilst attacking, or it may be that the Black Order leadership ability allows characters to heal after performing attacks and/or doing damage, we will just have to wait for those Thanos spoilers I guess. But still, for now, an extra attack before a character goes down could do some well needed damage.
The third Black Order card which we need to talk about is called Mothership and requires you to be sat down in a safe place prior to reading, lest you get over excited and fall on your noggin. This is an active card that stated that 2 Black Order characters may spend 2 power each to play it. Place one of the 2 characters not holding an obective token within range 1 of the other character. OH. MY. GOODNESS. This is an amazing card! Corvus likes to be near to his wife, Proxima Midnight, so that they can trigger their husband/wife superpower to allow consecutive turns. If they end up spread across the board claiming objectives or chasing K.O’s we have Mothership to get them back into position. No matter where your characters are on the board, you can move any 1 Black Order character to within range 1 of another. All of a sudden range 5 seems super restrictive! This is going to be especially good for if the fight moves away from Corvus Glaive, you can just slam this card down and get him back into the fray. It seems like it will also be great for playing defensively, moving a character up and doing some attacks, then pulling them back to a safer position. Utterly superb and a cornerstone of the Black Order affiliation methinks.
Lastly for affiliation/character-specific cards we have Execute. This card plays nicely into the Corvus/Proxima synergy that we have seen on their character cards and states that when Corvus Glaive targets an enemy character with an attack that is within range 1 of an allied Proxima Midnight, or vice-versa, both characters may spend 2 power each. If they do so then the enemy character rolls no defence die during this attack. Execute indeed! Get your Corvus and Proxima into position and get them to take down a big enemy. Goodbye all those sweet defence dice boosting abilities that characters have, Corvus and Proxima are here to do some damage! This card could be used to great effect to get rid of a particularly pesky enemy character who is spoiling your game plan, or to deny objective points. I like it and am looking forward to trying it out in upcoming games.
As for other team tactics cards, A.I.M Lackeys could be good if you are running an allied M.O.D.O.K, as it would allow an additional move action during Corvus’ next activation, meaning that Corvus can get into position then fire off double attacks, and hopefully chain these into further attacks with his wild abilities.
Battle Lust is also another option. After Corvus performs a move action he could spend 2 power to add 2 dice to his next attack, and then if damage is dealt push the target character away short. Nice!
I think Corvus is a viable target for Doomed Prophecy. He would, of course, lose his 3 physical defence for the rest of the game, so running Captain America or Okoye for protection would be wise, but this card adds 3 dice to his physical attacks for the rest of the round. If Corvus were to then do his Death Blow attack he would get to roll 10 dice (yum), which should hopefully get you a wild which would allow a Strike attack with 8 dice. Then, if you can afford it, action number 2 could be the same again. That’s a lot of dice and, hopefully, a lot of damage! Use the Time Gem to do another big attack and you are quids in!
I think Field Dressing is an interesting card with Corvus. If he were to be dazed before getting to activate then he could be resurrected, a Proxima Midnight could activate and then his activation could follow immediately behind (or vice versa).
On the topic of adding more dice to Corvus’ attacks, One-Two Punch is a nifty and cheap way of adding 2 dice to one of Corvus’ attacks. And given that Corvus’ attacks are so great, Seeing Red could also be good to allow him an out of turn attack which could hopefully do some damage or chain into another attack with a wild roll.
So, what do you make of Corvus Glaive? Will he make your roster? Comment below!