There's something special about Carlos. There's that rush of adrenaline as you look at your hand. You gotta kick out as much of it as you can, assuming you drew many cards at all. And as you start your play you'll realize that there's a lot of control here: you don't have to get to Hot Blooded right away, but can sit in the back, preparing for your burst of power. Yeah, that means you're not all that good solo, but provided you get the support you need you can come in, wreck the crap out of a few cards in a single blow, and be back in time for dinner.
Hot Blooded isn't something to use all the time. Never was the rule "Draw one card at a time" so relevant; only draw what you need to get through the fight. If you draw Rising Moon draw your max hand size, because you can place the rest of it back if you want to. And that's the key: if you have Rising Moon there is absolutely no reason not to max that hand out. At all.
Meteor Smash is a freebie draw when you're drawing up your hand.. If you get this card immediately draw another two: one to pay for its kicker, and the other one because duh. I know there's an option to gain an energy or add a die. If you're within your reroll trigger go for the extra die. At least, that's what my rule of thumb is. Every shot from Carlos needs to be a kill shot, if not a serious rocker.
Covering Strike is, once again, a freebie. You can draw an additional card if you draw this one, without hurting your chances of getting to Hot Blooded. And let's not be joking around: unless you have a good reason to let someone else put a card atop their deck that ability should be used on you, so that way you can get back to Hot Blooded.
Moon Fang Piercer is where things get a bit tricky. It's a hard hit, but it needs to be the absolute last or second to last card you play to be worth it. And that means that, whenever you draw this card, you should seriously consider not drawing anymore. Like, check and make sure that everyone else thinks they can carry that particular battle beyond the one card you'll be smoking, but unless there's a clear and present need to draw more cards? You probably shouldn't.
If you draw Lunar Lance you'll need a bare minimum of three cards in your hand, possibly more, depending upon how people are feeling with their hands. If you haven't figure it out yet, I check how others are doing before I make decisions about my hand when playing with Carlos. Heck, I wouldn't even draw until I know what everyone else has. And that pays off the best when you get Lunar Lance. Combine this card with his Astro Blaster and Carlos can hit anything he likes, with a reroll to boot.
Mega V2 is good for cycling useless cards out of your hand and getting your deck stacked back up. It's also good for whenever you need to get your deck stacked up against a hit. Not to mention being able to throw out a bunch of cards when you need to, for a clinch hit.
Carlos is my favorite of the In Space Rangers. Properly played he's a bruiser with a Russian Roulette heart. He's challenging to play, sure, but we left simple with the core box. And I can't say I'm terribly disappointed that's the case.
In the interest of clarity, I helped playtest prototypes for this character. A sincerest thanks to Jonathan Ying and Renegade Studios!
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