Two weeks ago I previewed Abomination, an aggressive leader who hits as hard as possible, no matter what the cost. This week we’re going to slow it down a bit and sample a colder, more calculating form of evil.

Discard is one of Doom’s main themes in Marvel Superstars, and it’s right there in its purest form on this leader. As if your opponent wasn’t going to have a hard enough time keeping up with your powerful Villain actions, it’s going to be even rougher when he’s got to lose a card for every third one you play. Given enough time, a Doom deck can strip its opponent’s entire hand away, forcing them to rely on the luck of the draw turn after turn.

Of course, relying on the luck of the draw, to some extent, is part of a TCG. You build your deck and then hope you draw each of your cards at the exact right time. If there’s anybody evil enough and genius enough to find a way around this, it’s that evil genius Doom. Check out Power Grab:

There’s only one other card in Premier Edition that lets you manipulate what cards you have access to on this level, and it’s also a special action. I’d love to just spoil a whole ton of Villain actions for you right now so you can see all the wondrous goodies that this thing can go find, but let’s just say there’s a card for almost every situation. It’s also worth mentioning that this is a turn zero play, so you can react to whatever strategy your opponent is bringing ASAP. Power Grab gives Doom the potential to be both very consistent and very versatile. 

The Doom supporters are split into two camps.  Some of them are going to bolster Doom’s discard capabilities, and some of them are going to play beautifully with his action theme, like this one:

Doom: Metal Face has a whopping 10 health, making him a good supporter to leave back on intercept duty to buy you enough time to solidify your evil plans. When your opponent does finally take him down, having the option to choose any of the actions in your bin as the next card you draw is definitely a nice parting gift. If you have a Power Grab in the bin to get back, you’ll be able to go find whatever action you want.

So, that’s the duality of Doom: you can carefully set up your own turns with cards that optimize the action part of your deck, while maintaining pressure on your opponent in the form of discard effects. As with many of the leaders, you’ll find that it’s entirely up to you how much focus you put on each of these strategies. 

Thanks for reading, True Believers! Be sure to tune in for the next Leader Preview, the assassin, Elektra.