Won't Stay Down · MarvelCDB

This is a fair card, but it compares poorly to Make the Call, admittedly one of the best non-hero cards in the game. There are two theoretical advantages. One is that you can activate abilities of allies that only trigger when played from hand such as Beak and Shadowcat. Another is that this is a support which can sit in play until the perfect moment - something that is always an advantage of upgrades/supports compared to events with similar effects. Neither of these points would lead me to play copies of Won't Stay Down over Make the Call, but if I'm already playing 3 Make the Call, ally recursion is a strong enough effect to play a copy or two - finding Professor X or M at the perfect moment, for example. Sunspot is another interesting ally who is one of few payoffs for a -based deck and only gets his ability when played from hand. Won't Stay Down doesn't have an energy resource, which might be a deal-breaker for the strategy, but this deck would theoretically want to play Sunspot as many times as possible.

2/5/25

Stretch22 · 2635

I should mention Cyclops gets better options for allies that only trigger from hand since you aren't limited to Leadership and Basic. Sunfire, Magik, and Karma are all excellent examples — Stretch22 · 2635 2/6/25

Exactly, you are paying more for absolute control over what ally you pick and exactly when you want to play it. I'd say the card is fair indeed, although similar in function somewhat to Make the Call and even X-men Instruction. — MarTom · 31 11/12/25

The point is: With Magneto's precon deck, you can't trigger Squared Off using Make the Call. In a perfect hand, you start in Alter-Ego form, trigger Won't Stay Down to return an ally from your discard pile to your hand, flip to Hero form, trigger Squared Off, play that 3-cost ally by paying its cost from hand (activating its "played from hand" ability if it has one) and engaging a minion, attach Wrapped in Metal to that minion, and—if engaged with another minion—trigger Magnetic Missile; this potentially allows you to get rid of both minions in the same round while dealing 5 damage to an enemy and stunning it. — guichico · 1 10/7/26

Just to refine the sequence and clarify the exact resource math from my previous comment: The true advantage over Make the Call here is resource efficiency: In Alter-Ego, trigger Won't Stay Down to move a 3-cost ally from discard to hand. Flip to Hero form and trigger Squared Off (0-cost) to put that 3-cost ally from hand into play for free while engaging a minion. Attach Wrapped in Metal to that minion and resolve Magnetic Missile. With Make the Call, you have to pay the full printed cost of the ally from discard (3 resources). With this setup, Squared Off bypasses the ally's 3-resource cost completely, getting a 3-cost ally into play for free. — guichico · 1 10/7/26

Squared Off is a good call-out. Though considering the "extra" resource Won't Stay Down costs, Squared off only nets you 1 resource of value, and the minion you draw almost certainly takes more than one resource to defeat, leaving the whole exchange negative. If you're sticking to the precon, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, but I would need some extra benefits for engaging minions to build a deck around that — Stretch22 · 2635 10/8/26