Hey guys, so I was wondering what are your impressions on Thor (for those of you who managed to get your hands on the hero pack)?

Personally, I wasn't very excited about him, never been a big fan of Thor...that was before I played him! I really like the way he taunt minions and get around his low hand size limitation. Asgard + hall of heroes + avengers mansion + "have at thee" ability, that's such an incredible combo.

my brother had been playing Black Panther. He brought my Nephew and we went three handed with Iron Man, Captain America and Thor v Ultron (their first time playing v Ultron and I did not tell them what to expect). He built an aggression deck just before the game.

Early on Captain America was a madman knocking off threat with abandon, using Squirrel Girl to cleanse the board of minions...but when Iron Man put on his suit and Thor got his support in place...holy smoke did Cap feel like an afterthought. Thor can pump out insane amounts of damage (including needing to hold back on the last turn to "only" do I think it was 24 or so) in a hurry! he was a ton of fun and I am a bit jealous my brother gets to play him. Thematic, fun and cool.

Thor is not great in solo, especially solo aggression.

But so long as he has a partner to handle thwarting, he is really strong. He has a strong signature kit and once he has God of Thunders and Asgard down, he can lay the dps down hard.

Best with Aggression but he does also have some synergies with Protection and Leadership. Justice isnt amazing but it at least has good energy cards, it is probably the best solo spec.

On 3/8/2020 at 11:15 AM, Leotrekkie said:

Hey guys, so I was wondering what are your impressions on Thor (for those of you who managed to get your hands on the hero pack)?

Personally, I wasn't very excited about him, never been a big fan of Thor...that was before I played him! I really like the way he taunt minions and get around his low hand size limitation. Asgard + hall of heroes + avengers mansion + "have at thee" ability, that's such an incredible combo.

I’ve only done one go on him against Risky Business w/Goblin Gimmicks; he blew through that pretty easily. I’ll probably give him a few more playthroughs after finishing up my She-Hulk run.

Feels like whether Thor+Aggression can be effective solo depends entirely on having minions in the encounter deck, and those minions not being too challenging (to drive card draw). And you've really got to rush the villain down while making sure there aren't too many minions in play.

Certainly looks to be stronger alongside allies. Curious about using other aspects with him.

Unfortunately I’m one of those who didn’t get it, I preordered from Cool Stuff and this is what they said when I emailed them:

we have no word from on the status of the Thor packs. We have been reaching out to our rep with Fantasy Flight but they are not replying to our calls and emails.

16 hours ago, Mburnaugh64 said:

Unfortunately I’m one of those who didn’t get it, I preordered from Cool Stuff and this is what they said when I emailed them:

we have no word from on the status of the Thor packs. We have been reaching out to our rep with Fantasy Flight but they are not replying to our calls and emails.

Yeah, just had that from my LGS too. The poor supply of these expansions really sucks. Totally ruined my experience of this otherwise excellent game.

Did my first playthrough with Thor. Took Thor and Leadership Captain against Klaw. w/ Masters of Evil.

Thor was an all-star in this game. I got Jarnbjorn, Avengers Mansion, and his helmet early. At one time there was Tiger Shark, and two minions (3HP + 2HP) on Thor. Mean Swing takes out Tiger Shark, use Jarnbjorn for 2dmg on 2hp minion, trigger Battle Fury to ready Thor and strike down the 3HP minion. 3 minions down, hall of heroes full.

He kept the table clean for Captain to just concentrate on getting allies on the table, controlling the scheme, and just doing captn things. Klaw II had 17hp remaining, and Captain had Falcon,WonderBoy, and Hawkeye on the table, and Thor had a Mean Swing + Lady Sif in Hand. Think I did like 23dmg that round.

Really impressed with Thor. The masters of evil minions can be a real pain in the *** if you cant deal with them quickly since they get tough cards, or stun you, etc everytime they attack. Thor was just destroying them and I was never threatened by them.

Best way to describe Thor: PUNY GOD.

Easily the worst/weakest hero released to date.

-his lower hand size In both hero and alter ego form than other heroes makes him difficult in solo. Asgard can help but it will likely cost you a turn. You really feel his low hand size while playing him. It’s a huge handicap.

-lower stats than other heroes (only 5 base)

-average recovery

-horrible thwart again makes him a mediocre solo hero

-a couple of uses of defender of the nine realms can easily exhaust the encounter deck in some scenarios and cost you an acceleration token which Thor will struggle to deal with

-he has some really bad cards in his required set like “for Asgard” which are mostly duds

-Loki can be nearly unstoppable in some scenarios and cost you many Wasted actions.

-family feud can easily come out with double digit threat...which in solo is probably game over for Thor

I don’t see many upsides of playing him. Maybe he’s okay with another hero helping him and even then ONLY in minion heavy scenarios. Much better to use captain America or iron man who are both many times better than him.

Very bad hero on his own. Haven’t tried him with others, but on his own he is very weak. But it’s counter thematic that Thor needs help from others to even beat someone like rhino.

Technically by the comics he should be one of the most powerful heroes but instead is probably the worst so far. Captain America, for instance, is many times more powerful than the god of thunder.

We just played him in a Cap-Lead/Thor-Aggro team-up against standard Klaw and whooped his butt. Steve eats schemes alive and Thor beats the ever living bananas out of Klaw (and just about anyone else dumb enough to face him, especially when Hammer Throw is in hand). His Hammer Throw is amazeballs. Standard attack for 3, exhaust Jarnbjorn if you have it out to Mean Swing for 3 more (or just use Jarnbjorn for +2 if all you have is a might card to power it), then chuck Mjolnir at him for 8 more. That's 13-14 damage right to the villain's face. Tasty.

He's "meh" about thwarting though he gets better at it if there are some minions to clobber, he's pretty good at clearing multiple minions while also hitting the villain with Lightning Strike, and he's got some useful allies. Only real hitch with him is his allies are mostly spendy. I almost always discarded them for power because I had so much more I could accomplish with beating people's faces than I could using up resources to bring out friends. Granted, being able to get both God of Thunder out at the same time helps a good bit with that.

So far, he plays much like you'd expect Thor to play. He brings the pain with his hammer, and can take a fair bit of abuse in return (especially if he has his helmet on). Meaning you can reliably tank multiple minions until you can bring that Lighting Strike down on their heads (+2 energy right out of the gate if you have both God of Thunders out) and maybe get yourself a one turn Hall of Heroes pumped if you time it right; thank you extra three cards, thank you extra damage on the villain too.

Yeah, Thor is a pretty lovely beatstick. But he is that, a beatstick. Bring some friends to foil those evil schemes, and let Thor do what he does best, hit people in the face with a really big hammer.

4 hours ago, zeromage said:

Best way to describe Thor: PUNY GOD.

Easily the worst/weakest hero released to date.

-his lower hand size In both hero and alter ego form than other heroes makes him difficult in solo. Asgard can help but it will likely cost you a turn. You really feel his low hand size while playing him. It’s a huge handicap.

-lower stats than other heroes (only 5 base)

-average recovery

-horrible thwart again makes him a mediocre solo hero

-a couple of uses of defender of the nine realms can easily exhaust the encounter deck in some scenarios and cost you an acceleration token which Thor will struggle to deal with

-he has some really bad cards in his required set like “for Asgard” which are mostly duds

-Loki can be nearly unstoppable in some scenarios and cost you many Wasted actions.

-family feud can easily come out with double digit threat...which in solo is probably game over for Thor

I don’t see many upsides of playing him. Maybe he’s okay with another hero helping him and even then ONLY in minion heavy scenarios. Much better to use captain America or iron man who are both many times better than him.

Very bad hero on his own. Haven’t tried him with others, but on his own he is very weak. But it’s counter thematic that Thor needs help from others to even beat someone like rhino.

Technically by the comics he should be one of the most powerful heroes but instead is probably the worst so far. Captain America, for instance, is many times more powerful than the god of thunder.

If you are making that judgement based on using him solo, and only solo, you are making an incorrect assessment. The efficacy of heroes in this game isn't predicated on their solo capacity alone.

I consider, " Easily the worst/weakest hero released to date," an ignorant statement.

8 hours ago, Deathseed said:

If you are making that judgement based on using him solo, and only solo, you are making an incorrect assessment. The efficacy of heroes in this game isn't predicated on their solo capacity alone.

I consider, " Easily the worst/weakest hero released to date," an ignorant statement.

Actually it’s pretty ignorant not realize that MANY people only play one handed solo. It shows you have no idea that many people play that way thus are ignorant of a significant portion of the community’s mode of play.

Not only that but since all heroes to date work with another hero helping them in their weak areas the best way to judge if a hero is “good” Is how they fare on their own. Any hero is good with captain America helping them for example.

just browse podcasts, YouTube, and Facebook groups and you’ll see a wide ranging consensus that Thor is A mediocre to terrible hero.

Technically playing two handed solo is cheating since it violates the table talk rules. It's kind of like easy mode.

2 hours ago, zeromage said:

Actually it’s pretty ignorant not realize that MANY people only play one handed solo. It shows you have no idea that many people play that way thus are ignorant of a significant portion of the community’s mode of play.

Not only that but since all heroes to date work with another hero helping them in their weak areas the best way to judge if a hero is “good” Is how they fare on their own. Any hero is good with captain America helping them for example.

just browse podcasts, YouTube, and Facebook groups and you’ll see a wide ranging consensus that Thor is A mediocre to terrible hero.

I didn’t sense any ignorance of that matter in Deathseed’s posts. He’s just pointing out that “This character doesn’t play the game how I want him to” is a pretty crap take.

3 hours ago, zeromage said:

Actually it’s pretty ignorant not realize that MANY people only play one handed solo.

I got the game just before social distancing and have only been able to play solo after two multiplayer games. I don’t have Cap or Ms. marvel but they are coming in the mail this week. I was able to grab Thor from a LGS day of release.

I love playing with Thor. He’s a unique challenge in solo mode and I like the puzzle-y nature of those games. At first it seemed like he just couldn’t cut it solo, but once I stopped trying to make him play how I wanted and did what Thor might do in a situation (spend his hammer as a resource and summon it back later for instance), his deck started making more sense and wins were easier to come by, though still a challenge.

13 hours ago, Deathseed said:

If you are making that judgement based on using him solo, and only solo, you are making an incorrect assessment. The efficacy of heroes in this game isn't predicated on their solo capacity alone.

I consider, " Easily the worst/weakest hero released to date," an ignorant statement.

I actually agree with Zero. Yes, you can make Thor work against any villain. But I find him very janky, and I believe everything he does you can find another hero who fares better in the same aspect, even aggression and even in multiplayer.

Why I think he's janky: You play Defender of the Nine Realms and remove three threat and draw two. But you basically end up just using the cards you just drew to deal with the enemy you just put out. And it can whiff in low minion count villain decks, or if you are near the end of the deck. And, yes you are removing threat, but in doing so you are increasing the pace at which you will receive an acceleration token. All this with a hand size that requires a three cost one-of to get up to baseline. That's just a one example, I feel almost everything Thor does is circuitous and has one drawback or another. It feels great in the moment, but I'm not sure its always really helping you win. Even if it is, most of the other heroes just do it more straightforwardly and more efficiently. And, as Zero noted, he has an obligation suite that really emphasizes his clumsiness. Honestly, I feel like they tried TOO hard to nail the theme with Thor, and he ended up being too cute by half.

I find him to be the weakest hero to date both solo and multiplayer. He's personally my biggest hero disappointment in the game so far. This are just my opinions, though, and I'm glad other people are enjoying him.

I generally only play one handed solo and I agree with Deathseed. Thor is awesome. He's tricky solo, but so is Iron Man. For both, if you can't get their kit out, neither of them is going to do well. Cap also struggles if you can't get him set up. And has been said before, you can't expect to slow-roll Thor. He's a monster damage dealer, so it's important to play him that way. And it's not like Rhino is uniquely difficult for Thor. I seem to remember when the game first came out that a big complaint with him was that he can easily threat-out in one turn, no matter which hero you use.

I'm also looking at upcoming cards and seeing some stuff that is going to make Aggression a better option solo, which will make Thor absolutely insane.

Where is that supposed consensus on Thor?! People need to be mindful that this game is playable solo because of its co-op nature but not much else. In the early live streams one of the designers had been pretty clear on the fact that they always think about team play first. Of course they are not intending to break solo play anytime soon with their design decisions, but still, solo play does not drive them either and they will not try to specifically accommodate it.

It therefore follows that to judge Thor as being the worst/weakest hero on the basis of one-handed solo play is judging the game specifically for what you want it to be (dixit @SpiderMana ) and not why it's being sold in the first place.

This is one reason I've switched to 2-handed play. Pairing a hero weak on something with another hero that picks up that very mantle is the spirit of the game.

Agree to disagree. To be clear, I am judging Thor after playing him true solo, multiplayer, and single player two-handed. There's just very little he does well that other heroes can't do just as well (or better) and with less risk of it backfiring. And I think declaring that your way of playing is "in the spirit of the game" and other ways aren't is a little dismissive given the devs have also stated true solo is also valid way of playing (even if its not the primary focus). Again, I do play multiplayer and/or two-handed, and I think the responses that "Thor is only weak in solo, he's great in multiplayer" belie the fact that his weakness are just as apparent in higher player counts. Its just that multiplayer provides a higher margin for error and less overall swingy-ness than true solo. He does things some things well, but virtually any hero can take the relevant aggression cards and do them just as well or better. And in the others aspects, he's just trying to shore up weaknesses and he's clearly outclassed by other heroes using the same aspect.

Thor may be weaker in solo, but people have still had success, especially with Justice.

But a flat out blanket statement of weakest hero is just plain wrong and ignorant. He is a strong hero with a strong signature king and is very strong in multiplayer. And in scenarios like Mutagen and Ultron, he is S tier, seriously. He is not well rounded, and his lack of thwart capacity makes him weaker in solo mode, because that format has an increased emphasis on scheming/thwarting.

High Attack low thwart heroes should have a place in the game and it isnt their fault solo is balanced poorly for those type of heroes.

When you can lightning strike 5+ minions away it feels pretty fun and powerful to play as Thor. As others have stated potentially his signature set and stat lines don't allow for the strongest case of solo play in all aspects within the current card pool. That may change in the future but you can certainly make a very enjoyable and strong deck that contributes to the board in a 2+ game and this game is a lot more engaging IMO when you start to play with 2 or more players working together against a villain whose encounter deck more consistently showcases what the scenario has to offer.

On 4/14/2020 at 8:21 AM, zeromage said:

Actually it’s pretty ignorant not realize that MANY people only play one handed solo.

I'm in no way ignorant of that. I am cognizant of the idea that not all heroes in this game are designed to excel in that role, or that they may face unique challenges in that regard. As I am cognizant that judging them purely by that standard is in incomplete analysis. Your assumption that Thor sucks, based on one narrow subset of how the game plays, is irrational and flawed.

Furthermore, there may be circumstances in which Thor excels as a singular hero. I've certainly not seen enough analysis from you to discount the notion.

Also, many people are not you, and I'm addressing your assumptions.

On 4/14/2020 at 8:21 AM, zeromage said:

Not only that but since all heroes to date work with another hero helping them in their weak areas the best way to judge if a hero is “good” Is how they fare on their own. Any hero is good with captain America helping them for example.

That excludes the notion that a character's may excel as a team character, and not as a solo character, by design, which again constitutes an incomplete analysis.

On 4/14/2020 at 8:21 AM, zeromage said:

just browse podcasts, YouTube, and Facebook groups and you’ll see a wide ranging consensus that Thor is A mediocre to terrible hero.

Argumentum ad populum does not constitute a rational argument. Multiple people can be wrong.

https://alteregosmarvelchampions.podbean.com/e/phase-1-lighting-leader-101/

We did a deep dive discussion on Thor leadership for solo/MP play here. decklist is in the description for those that are curious. In Justice and Leadership he really is a lot of fun for solo play (given social distancing at the moment) but he also as I stated earlier is very enjoyable as a hero in a team during multiplayer.