
Wakanda Forever!
Announcing the Black Panther Hero Pack for Marvel Champions: The Card Game
“You’ve faced the muscle of Wakanda…now face its claws!” – Black Panther
As a princess of Wakanda, Shuri aided her brother and king, T’Challa, through her genius intellect and talent for invention. When T’Challa was severely injured, Shuri took up the mantle of the Black Panther and became the protector of her homeland in his stead.
Fantasy Flight Games is thrilled to announce the Black Panther Hero Pack for Marvel Champions: The Card Game!
As fierce a fighter as her brother, Shuri darts into battle as Black Panther with this expansion pack, which introduces her as a new playable hero alongside her fifteen signature cards. With a pre-built Justice deck, you’ll be able to thwart the villains’ schemes using Shuri’s genius intellect and awesome gadgets from the moment you open the box. This pack also includes a bonus modular encounter set featuring Joystick of the Thunderbolts!
Aja-Adanna
Though they share a hero name and similar powers, Shuri plays a bit differently than the Black Panther from the game’s core set.
For starters, Shuri (Black Panther, 1B) can exhaust herself to search her deck for a Black Panther or Tech upgrade and immediately play it at a discount. Since she’s a super-genius and a talented inventor, it only makes sense that she’d be able to assemble the tools in her kit quickly. She has four Black Panther upgrades in total, and as you may expect, they are essential to her whole playstyle. As Black Panther (Black Panther, 1A), she can trigger the “Special” ability on any one of those upgrades every time she uses a basic power, giving her lots of flexibility with every action she takes!
The “Special” abilities on Shuri’s Black Panther upgrades each provide a small, “normal” benefit as well as a larger benefit that you can gain from discarding it. For example, the Kimoyo Beads (Black Panther, 10) can normally remove a threat from a scheme, but if you choose to discard them, you can confuse an enemy as well. Likewise, the Spider Bites (Black Panther, 12) can deal a bit of damage to a whole group of enemies normally, and if you choose to discard them, they will stun each of those enemies as well.
Even if you don’t want to discard the Black Panther upgrades, their smaller effects really add up over time, especially with how frequently Shuri can trigger them. Her signature events Clawed Strike (Black Panther, 3) and On the Prowl (Black Panther, 4) both let you trigger an upgrade while attacking or thwarting respectively, while her brother T’Challa (Black Panther, 2) can trigger them with his basic powers just like Shuri can. If you do decide to discard a Black Panther upgrade, Shuri can draw on her status as Aja-Adanna (Black Panther, 9) to shuffle that card back into her deck, and, like her brother, she can always draw on Vibranium (Black Panther, 6) to help her get those upgrades back into play!
As if her signature kit wasn’t enough, Black Panther also comes with a pre-built Justice deck to help her dismantle the enemy’s plans. Use Shuri’s Inventor ability to hunt for some Invisibility Gear (Black Panther, 19) to lower a minion’s guard, then catch that minion red-handed in a Sting Operation (Black Panther, 21) to remove them from play without triggering any “When Defeated” abilities. Need somewhere to put that minion so it doesn’t come back? Look no further than The Raft (Black Panther, 18), which not only keeps that minion out of the encounter deck, but also lets you remove some threat from a scheme. Just be careful not to lock too many minions up in the Raft, or else one of them might manage to break out!
As for her teammates, Black Panther leads several Wakanda allies into the fray. Manifold (Black Panther, 14) can let you search your deck for a useful player side scheme, such as Going Undercover (Black Panther, 16), and add it to your hand. Meanwhile the fierce warrior Okoye (Black Panther, 24) leads a squad of Dora Milaje (Black Panther, 30) into battle, each of them able to trigger special abilities off the others. When all else fails, Shuri can always team up with her brother through Heart of the Panther (Black Panther, 25) for a burst of Black Panther power!
Extreme Risk
As we mentioned earlier, the Black Panther Hero Pack also comes with a modular encounter set featuring Joystick!
As a member of the Thunderbolts, Joystick (Black Panther, 39) is a hard-hitting Elite minion whose whole “schtick” is about risk and reward. Right out of the gate, every time Joystick activates, you’re faced with a choice: either give her an additional boost card (which, since she has villainous, means she’d get two cards) in exchange for a card draw, or give her a tough status card. That card draw can be tempting, but only if you have the means to counter her boosted attack or scheme. This dynamic continues throughout the rest of her encounter set; her signature side scheme, Playing for Keeps (Black Panther, 41), increases everyone’s hand size while also granting every enemy an extra boost card per activation (regardless if that enemy has villainous or not), while her treachery Extreme Risk (Black Panther, 42) has a boost effect that once again lets you choose your fate. Just make sure you’re always asking yourself: is that extra card really worth the risk?
As an Elite, Thunderbolt minion, Joystick’s encounter set can be used as part of the Thunderbolts scenario in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. That said, it is still a modular encounter set, which means you can add it to any scenario for some extra challenge. Are you feeling lucky?
On the Prowl
With her impressive array of Black Panther upgrades and her versatile kit, Black Panther is a fierce hero and a fantastic addition to any team. Look forward to taking on the agents of A.I.M. with Black Panther when the Black Panther Hero Pack arrives in April!
You can pre-order your own copy of the Black Panther Hero Pack (MC51en) at your local retailer or online through our webstore today!
Written by Peter Schumacher