I love that I can play this in Alter-Ego, but HATE that I can ONLY play it in Alter-Ego. Breaking and Entering - while it can only be played if you're a SPY or THIEF - is an Action (Thwart) so it can be played in either form.

I understand the theme they're going for, but hate the implementation.

Extremely Niche. In order for this to be on par with Crisis Averted your character needs total stat-line of 9. This typically limits options to characters like Spider-Woman or Cable that can get 3-3-3 fairly consistently. At that point for 3-cost this card strips 9 threat from a target and exhausts you removing your ability to basic thwart for 3. So, subtracting the opportunity-cost of your basic thwart the overall value is 3-cost for 6 thwart. With Spider-Woman this could be better than Crisis Averted since she can technically reach a 4-4-4 statline, has access to several readies, has wild resource generators, and this could consistently turn Overwatch into a 0 for 9. If you are the sole thwarter in a multiplayer game running very specific heroes, this card could be a good include.

Groot is an interesting puzzle. Half of his kit wants to stack counters and the other half wants to spend them resulting in a bit of a dilemma. After some testing I think burning through the counters is the answer. You can spend several turns stacking for a big event just to have everything ruined by one bad encounter card.

The ideal scenario would be blocking for a partner, getting hit directly, and ultimately ending up around 2 HP (5 or less if you have endurance). This gives you an excuse to stay down for a couple turns to stack counters. When you flip up you’ll have 1 turn to play your events with your freshly stacked counters before repeating the process of spending them. Obviously this strategy really only works in 2-4 player and really needs to be paired with Justice to help enable your semi-frequent flipping.

This card is extremely niche and in most games there will generally be better options. That being said after 3 years playing I’ve finally found myself needing to play him. I think his best/only usage comes from a 4 player Alliance strategy. He’s expensive enough to feel satisfying as a Joining Forces target, there are enough minions for his retaliate to be useful, and he sticks around long enough for Stand Together.

Fantasy Flight missed the mark with this card. Their intention to make a multi-player scaling card was good, their execution was not. To properly scale multiplayer cards the format needs to be: (Flat value below curve plus 1 value per player). The end result of this format should be a clearly bad card at solo, close to even with other staples at 2, and then above average value at 3-4.

To fix this card it needs to read: 2-Cost: Alliance, Remove 2 threat, plus 1 additional threat per-player from a side scheme.

At Solo this would under-perform compared to what For Justice, Crisis Averted, and Multitasking can accomplish.

At 2 Players this would come up even with For Justice with the added restriction of side-scheme only targeting but the added utility of min/maxing player hands via alliance.

At 3-4 Players this would be a clear auto-include over/alongside For-Justice.