Welcome back to SGP.
AMG graced us very unexpectedly with two new stat cards (and a TTC) today. I didn’t think we’d see anything more before Ministravaganza personally but you sure as Hel won’t hear me complain about that.
6 threat Thor is not a leader but he makes up for that with a hefty 17 total stamina (9/8), with 4/4/4 defences and an Immunity to Shock. Interestingly he isn’t immune to Stun like classic Thor is. What he lacks in defensive tech aside from raw health he makes up for in damage potential. Even reactive as a response to being attacked he can throw out 7 dice (at range 3!) where each crit and wild will deal a damage to the offender. While he can only throw characters on his spender (as opposed to Prince of Asgard who has a trigger on his builder and a superpower) he can throw size 4 terrain a massive L and also himself M and with a 50mm base that is basically a better, because much more versatile, charge that also has high damage potential especially with this Thor being size 3.
Having an energy builder makes playing Brothers in Arms with this Thor Odinsson also much more interesting than with Prince of Asgard who only had the attack type on his spender. It’s more a question of Bill being able to keep up with him.
Overall 6 threat Thor appears to be worthy (hah) of his high price tag without immediately screaming too good to me. He’s gonna be a force to be reckoned with for sure though.
He’s most likely gonna be affiliated in Asgard (which is already confirmed) and Avengers just like Prince of Asgard.
In Avengers his favourite leadership is probably Steve 1s as he has two very good active and a very good reactive superpower that is turned online immediately by Steve.
How does he shake up against the not so common 6 threat competition?
With his push being a double trigger and no guaranteed displacement from superpowers he isn’t going to be able to rearrange the board in a way Hulk or Pre-nerf CGR could. His 9/8 health are probably overall more tanky than “just” 20 health like the Hulks have as it is better protected against spikes. Speaking of, in Asgard he also has access to Odin’s Blessing making him even more tanky. He’ll be very unlikely to ever completely leave the board in Asgard.
I think he sits above She-Hulk, Hulkbuster (who I still think is undervalued), CGR and Magento outside his own leadership in terms of overall usability. In terms of damage output and durability he even trumps Hulk but Hulk has much more control.
I don’t think we’ll see him everywhere but I think he will be very good when he hits the table. He also definitely has me very excited to go back to Asgard as my main faction for a while after his release.
Hero of Midgard also brings this TTC with him:
This card is pretty good I’d say. It is a bit rough to spend 3 power in his activation when the card doesn’t benefit himself but extra dice on the already quite potent Asgardians is cool and handing out Shock like candy is awesome on top of it. Move aside Crimson Dynamo, Enchantress is the one and only true queen of the E.
But which Asgard leadership could Hero of Midgard be played under as Prince of Asgard shares the same alter-ego?
Loki to the rescue! He brings a good builder, a potential board rearranging spender, a way to move an allied model and a very cool innate that combines well with a reactive superpower in adding the Skulls the opponent rolled to his successes and then also dealing them an additional damage for their misery. (He can also use the reactive superpower when attacked himself of course).
So his kit is already very very good but what about the leadership?
It is (almost) Black Panthers leadership for a third affiliation. But this time using it will feed Prince of Lies a power back basically having the model using the leadership pay Loki for the reroll. Loki can’t use his own leadership importantly. As we know that Black Panther and iTony are the highest win percentage leaders of their respective affiliations, both way over 50 % we can only assume this leadership will be very very good too. Granted Asgardians always have ways to spend all their power in their activations but having a bit of dice fixing at hand is always very welcome. Prince of Lies will make it pretty hard for Thor, Prince of Asgard to stay in the main leader role for Asgard I think. But PoA does like Loki’s leadership quite a bit of you prefer him over Hero of Midgard.
How does Prince of Lies compare to God of Mischief? They are very different characters. Loki 2 is quite tanky and has more obvious impact on the board whereas Loki 1s presence is felt much more by your opponent than yourself often times.
The Panel to Play also mentions two TTCs for Loki and tells us what they do, but don’t actually show them off. I’ll hold off on talking about them until we actually see the cards.
Overall I’m very happy with these two and am very excited to go back to Asgard after the boxes release. It’s gonna be interesting what Jane Foster, who I believe will also have a leadership (but maybe one for A-Force?) and Sif bring to the table. It’s definitely now more interesting to build Asgard rosters as you have much more to decide: do you being Prince of Asgard, Hero of Midgard or even both? Do you default to playing Prince of Lies leadership? If yes, do you switch to Prince of Asgard in Stagger/ Incinerate heavy matchups?
Gonna be interesting to figure these things out.
Enjoy your mead and cheers from Germany 🍻