I wasn't sold on SP//dr. A hero I didn't know about when there are lots of other that fans have been asking for? 3 cards hand size (remembering how 4 cards heroes have all been received)? 2 separate cards for the same hero?

And yet I've been proven wrong. The designers have had a great idea with the "interfaces" that utimately turn SP//dr into a functionnal and unique hero, very resourceful when you've put all of your interfaces in play. Feels great!

Like neothechosen, to me SP//dr looked like a hero I wasn't going to play. I am not fond of spending play time overcoming a basic deficit like card draw, so all sub-5 hand heroes I see as 'challenges' that I am rarely in the mood to deal with. Add to that the fact that in hero she is a 3 Hand (smallest in the game so far) and in alter-ego she is a 4 Hand (smallest alter-ego).

Peni Parker can exhaust her spider suit to draw two additional cards, which prevents you from taking a basic action that turn unless you have the Host Spider upgrade in play. I would much rather have her with a 5 hand size and draw an additional card in alter-ego, but there is a deliberateness to the design that can’t be ignored. Reducing the hand size to 4 and offering two extra cards for exhausting the suit presents the player with a choice that I don’t really see as a choice. Rarely will you turn down the opportunity to draw 2 cards. They intentionally hampered her basic actions in exchange for a normal hand size. It suggests that her basic actions are so strong that they had to ‘tie one hand behind her back’ and I have to be honest…I don’t entirely see it.

Certainly, with all upgrades out she can attack for 4 and thwart for 4 in a single turn. And if she has All Systems Go! in hand, she can take one more action for 4 and then pay for a 3-cost card. That’s pretty good, but that’s nothing compared to a fully upgraded Iron Man, Iron Heart or really any other ramping hero.

My point is simply that I think they added a layer of difficulty to SP//dr that implies it is keeping her power in check, but none of it really feels necessary. I look forward to being proven wrong.

The main strategy with SP//dr is to get her interface cards into play. Each one can be exhausted either for its inherent effect (a bonus to one of her basic actions and a ‘ready’) or it can be used as a resource to pay for other cards. She has an incredible silver bullet card that can be used to hunt down her interface cards, but remains useful once they are in play by giving you the option to ready all interface cards instead of searching for one. This is truly thoughtful game design, ensuring that a card is useful no matter what point in the game you play it.

Her Ejection Protocol is interesting in that it is a failsafe which dumps you in alter-ego with a tough status and 6HP. Someone smarter than me would have to explain the timing, but since it says it is an action, I imagine there would be limitations on triggering it during the villain phase, particularly in response to damage being received. My vanilla interpretation is that you would have to trigger it on your turn as a last resort after executing all your attack/thwart events. Then do a reset and take a turn to recover.

I admit I am curious to see what the community makes of SP//dr. She provides several new options for heroes with 14 or more native hit points (from which she benefits) and some new tech-related combos. But her core hero set still conceals its breakthrough combo from me.