Cable Arrow

It's a shame this is Hawkeye's only thwart card. It's also a shame that you can't play it if you've already used Hawkeye's Bow in the same turn. These are especially bad qualities to have in true solo. Being able to ignore a crisis icon doesn't make up for the opportunity cost you have to spend in order to play this card. If either of those two qualities were less bad (or if this card were better) then I would probably not mind Hawkeye so much.

Hostile Takeover

I don't understand this scheme. Why does it do something when completed, when it could be each turn and force you to deal with norman osborn instead of ignoring him ? Doesn't that fix this scenario ?

Guidicelli · 1
Run Them to Ground

This is a fantastic card, and it scales even better the more difficult the scenario. Starting from a solo perspective, for the cost of ~3 ER to play and clear this, you cancel threat from step 1 of the villain phase (~0.5 ER), a villain activation (~2 ER), and minion activations (value varies). You delay the reveal of encounter cards for a turn even though you are still dealt one (difficult to quantify), and sometimes you get random stuff like avoiding a draw from the side scheme deck against Red Skull. The raw value from cancelling steps 1 and 2 is close to breaking even, and waiting an extra turn to reveal encounter cards helps you better prepare for them or clear other threats that could combo with them. That adds up to an extremely powerful combination of effects. The skipping of an activation also provides a rare opportunity to cancel a steady/stalwart villain activation from the likes of Thanos, Venom Goblin, Magneto, and Ronan - some of the hardest villains. Of course, you also get the usual side scheme combos like Skilled Investigator and Stealth Training.

There is certainly a cost to not being able to damage the villain during your extra turn as this can lead you to wasting resources if you draw a few attacks. That's why it's best to clear Run Them To Ground on an early turn, when you still have upgrades and supports to get out, or when the board is getting out of control, since you would be focusing on clearing that anyways. Especially in higher difficulties, you might not turn your attention to the villain until long into the game, lengthening the useful window.

In multiplayer, there are diminishing returns if the table has not coordinated decks to take advantage of Run Them to Ground. The scaling of the raw value is fair. For every 4 threat added initially (~2 ER), an extra 1 thwart and one villain activation get cancelled (~2.5 ER), but it is also more likely to inconvenience other players. Aggression players may significantly waste the extra turn with damage-heavy hands. Protection decks miss a villain phase where they might usually play much of their hand.

For any of my fellow Heroic enjoyers, this is one of the best cards in the game. When you skip a villain phase that would deal you two encounter cards and replace that with getting dealt one instead, you have effectively canceled an entire encounter card in addition to the benefits I have already mentioned. I have been playing the heck out of this card, and it has not disappointed.

Stretch22 · 2669
Assess the Situation

I have not played much of this card, but now it is an excellent piece for the decks built around Move in Shadow, Death by a Thousand Cuts, and No Time to Bleed. It's paying a card to draw a card, so the extra trigger on these upgrades is essentially free. It does the same for any Iron Fist deck. Not game-breaking or anything, but worth pointing out.

Stretch22 · 2669
Skilled Investigator

If you were to ask me what the best aspect was, I would say Leadership.

If you were to ask me what the second best aspect was, I would say Protection.

And yet, if you were to ask me what the best aspect CARD was, I would say Skilled Investigator.

There's no other card in the game that I feel is so much of an auto-include. You should run into side schemes in just about every game. Even without doing anything special, this card will pay for itself. Because of that, it doesn't take the place of anything you would rather play. You aren't sacrificing anything by dropping it down. Normally, the more cards you have, the less consistent your deck is. But if you have a 40-card deck, a copy of Skilled Investigator can only make your deck more efficient and you'd be better off making it a 41-card deck just for this.

This is true if you're doing nothing to play side schemes, but even more true if you have player side schemes in your deck. And since you're playing Justice, you probably should have player side schemes. A lot of player side schemes are good enough to play without Skilled Investigator. Most heroes will have key upgrades that will want Superpower Training. There are tons of incredible support cards you'll want to be able to cheat into play with Build Support. And now we have Run Them to Ground which straight-up skips a whole villain turn.

This was a great card before player side schemes were added to the game, but it's only gotten better since.

I really see little reason not to have a copy of this per player in every Justice deck you play.