May the Power Protect You: Marvin Shih (Hyperforce Red)

This post, and all others after this, use THIS post for its terms and theory. If you haven't read it please do that first.

I'm still absolutely floored that I've gotten this far. Had you told me a year ago that I would be writing about a Power Rangers board game, which I've had some (small small!!) hand in shaping, I would have laughed at you. Hell, if you would have told me I would have been writing these posts I would have really been in conniptions. But, here we are. Time passes and we change, sometimes in totally unexpected ways. If only I could travel back and tell myself how this all worked out.

Oh hey, Hyperforce! Time travel!

Shut up.

It was clever.

YES IT BLOODY WAS.

Anyway.

Marv is the archetypical soft Frontman, with bits of Grenade thrown in.  YES THAT WAS CLEVER TOO. If you're going to play Marv make sure you surround yourself with folks who can take advantage of the openings he leaves with his energy generation. Marv provides versatility that most frontmen cannot, which leaves your group open to double up on roles if they so wish, or to just make a crazy and unusual configuration What?? characters. Marv can cover the gaps left by these team configurations better than any frontman so far.

Marv's character ability is one of the most flexible in the game. The ability to get a card or energy, depending upon the situation, is really useful, not to mention unique. Before you make up your mind about your character ability we should probably discuss two of the other cards in Marv's deck: Double Slash and Iapetus Blaster. Iapetus Blaster lets you burn an energy to add a dice to it, while Double Slash let's you discard a card to perform a second attack with two dice, targeting a different enemy card. If you chose the extra enemy, I'd play Iapetus Blaster with the extra energy. If you went for the extra card? Double Slash. Yeah yeah yeah, I know, it looks underwhelming, but it's not too often that the game outright gives you a second attack to buff and muck with on a one-energy card, so don't look that gift horse in the mouth too closely. The point is that these three abilities are very closely linked. Treat them that way.

Find Weakness is the premier frontman soft ability. Free energy and two guaranteed damage, at the cost of taking an attack is amazing; guaranteed damage is one the most powerful benefits in the game. Make sure you got people who can take advantage of that defensive flip! And, even if you don't, there's a number of boss cards I can think of that I'd rather eat than have to take another one, so this card works for those situations as well. Take the hit and then make sure that the card you're actually worried about dies a fiery death.

Yes, I am advocating that people purposefully open themselves up to hits. Get used to it. I'll be saying it a lot more.

Of all the Power Weapons Iapetus Claw is probably my favorite. Six dice, spread three ways? Yes please! Yeah, you're not replicating the attack like Dragon Dagger and so it takes some more resources, but so what? Only Saba is more flexible than the Claws. There's something to be said for being able to spread your attacks out like that. Or you can nova on one dude. Up to you. That last attack is probably best for that one card, that one card, that has 1 HP left and that you really need to kill off, rather than continuing the nova.

Lion Zord is a phenomenally simple card. Unlike the rest of Marv, you don't really need to use your brain to his use zord. I mean, c'mon, it's better than a reroll! Most of us when we roll poorly don't really care about getting any 2-hit rolls, you just want hits!  So this is actually better than a reroll, at least in my opinion, because you can rely on this to work. Reliable is better than flash, at least in this blogger's opinion.

Marv's all about options. He sweeps pretty well and he buffs. Like anything post-core you need to set up with your fellow players pretty closely, because Marv leaves a number of openings in exchange for good energy generation and high payoffs. Make sure that everyone is built to take advantage of those openings and you'll find that Marv will change how you play the game in a really unexpected way. Ask questions! Marv is not about barking orders. He is about keeping your finger on the pulse of the team and patching gaps when they arise. He's more of a technician than the other frontmen in the game. And for some of us? That's really going to scratch that itch they have.

Now go away. I have more coffee to go guzzle down.