I laughed out loud when you put Valkyrie on screen 😂 Shoutouts to gnarlantlers who also compares Kurt to Captain America, i think that’s a really interesting comparison. i had a similar experience to your power ranking for him but i ranked him a little higher. You make a good point that if you use Rapid Teleportation to play Bamf! he effectively has 1 less resource but i personally felt like his economy was decent because of the resources that Bamf! saved defending during the villain phase and i enjoyed the interesting decision-making to not grab Bamf! some turns because the extra resource was needed. Also being able to grab a Bamf! when in AE and starting every game with 7 cards in hand size is very nice. Definitely agree with your overall sentiments though and another amazing analysis as usual!
Haha! He's not Valkyrie, but I feel a hint of the struggle. Just a hint. I could see myself changing his ranking in the future. I forgot to say it in the video but he really feels like a hero that could have some dynamic interaction with new cards, especially anything defensive. Definitely has room to grow.
The original recordings were like 1 hour 20 mins haha. I went as ruthless as I could. The Jubilee review was 51 mins. Cable was 54. It can always be worse...
I'm always interested in seeing your takes on content for the game. If you had posted this a week ago. I would have agreed with you on just about every point you made. That said, after playing him some more this week, my impressions of him have sharply increased. One thing I changed when playing him is that I just put a copy of Bamf! On the Villain and just keep it there and use it for emergencies or if i have a way to get another copy on them without having to use his hero ability to get one back. Playing this way allows his events to be played pretty easily and make him feel more consistent (this changes a lot for multi villain scenarios however). That does mean I'm just basic defending with him and not really caring about his atk or thw stats, allies and events can make up the difference. Overall, he's my favorite now for the wave.
This describes me very well, too. I love leaving a break-glass Bamf on the villain. Port and Punch then is always basically at least 3 damage on a minion and 3 damage on the villain, and you’re probably playing it free with tail and X-Gene. When I’ll normally use the Bamf on the villain is 1. If truly necessary but also 2. If I’ve just decked out and expect it’d be a good use of a single resource next turn if I just defend with Bamf now.
I'm glad people are enjoying him more! While sometimes I might leave Bamf on, it hasn't been my go-to strategy. I can certainly explore it more but playing it and then not effectively getting the ready, leaving it, feels like it's going to do the opposite of help my problem of him feeling very low impact/can struggle with board management. (And to clarify he's fine, just as said in the video feels like I'm working harder to do less than average!)
@VillainTheory It's funny you compared him to Valkyrie. I find him to be the antithesis of what she's trying to do. For her, it's a trap to put death glow on the villain. For NC, his main strategy for getting the most out of his events is putting Bamf! on the villain. You use the first Bamf! you get turn 1 to put it on the villain and just need to get a second copy in your discard pile. After that, you're golden. When you deck out, you need to flip to get Bamf! back on the villain or get one in the discard pile. I find that I only ever put Bamf on minions if they aren't getting defeated this turn or if I can do a combo with Port' and Punch. I should also note that I've been mostly playing him in true solo in Aggression or Justice.
The comparison to Valkyrie isn't 1 to 1, more so that they both have some awkwardness with their key upgrade to attach to enemies. A similar kind of energy to it all. (But Nightcrawler is obviously much better with many less issues!)
Agree this is the correct way of playing him. So his events like Port and Punch are very impactful, nowhere near iceman. I usually have 2 to 3 BAMF out when i play that event. Lastly I think Protection is his weakest aspect, he is better Aggression, Justice, and to me my xmen, since to me my xmen is broken lols Easily the best of the whole xmen wave, or one of the best in the whole game.
You mirrored my thoughts on Kurt perfectly! I was soooo excited for NC, he’s one of my all time favorites. His BAMF mechanic just feels so clunky. He needs a way to get BAMF other than his identity and ally, maybe an event or upgrade that lets him search for it. I also feel like his identity ability needs to be 0 cost. He relies so heavily on BAMF, it’s a shame that it can be so difficult and inconvenient to get it
I’ve only played a few games but he definitely felt very defense specialized like you said. Thanks for the thorough review! I really agree with your final thoughts on overall ranking of new heroes’ power levels not outclassing older heroes.
Very detailed review! Haven't played still. Hoping to have free time before Xmas, anyway his playstyle feels unique and interesting... Waiting to test it. Thanks for the video.
I personally don't like him in protection or leadership, but allies are my least favourite card type. For multiplayer, I mainly play him in justice, control the threat and help tank some damage. In solo or multiplayer if the other players don't really need tanking, I play him in aggression with Toe to Toe. I don't really have the same issue with Toe to Toe that you mentioned just because Toe to Toe is so cheap that it's easy to get the Bamf back and re-attach it to the villain. Nightcrawler's damage output is just so low that I feel he needs aggression's damage (or ally damage) to get by in solo. In multiplayer, he has a bit more freedom to kind of do whatever.
Valkyrie was my first thought as well. Paying for Bamf feels just like paying for Death Glow and it just slows everything down so much. I’m seeing some people on here say they just put Bamf out and leave it and that works better. For me that’s just saying it works better to not do the thing the hero wants to do and I never like that as a solution. I’ll try it though 🤷♂️. As it stands now he’s joined Jubilee in my don’t really want to ever play again pile and it’s just so surprising and a shame. What a weird wave
I am basically agreed with the Bamf assessment. If I leave Bamf out without triggering it, certainly it's easier for 'Port And Punch to do more damage. If I draw a minion from the encounter deck, if I have 'Port And Punch in hand, if I have found a second Bamf at that point through the deck cycle. But if I had used Bamf, while now losing out on 3 'Port And Punch damage, I'd be ready and able to thwart for 2 with my hero. Or, with my cutlasses out, attack for 2 with my hero. It's almost no loss in exchange for consistently benefiting from Bamf's higher-than-average value. Exhausting to defend and leaving Bamf up does work a little better if an encounter card would exhaust you, but there's usually only one of those and only on Expert (which is what I play on almost 100% of the time, but I still don't think it's worth doing just for that). And while you'll have more targets for 'Port And Punch in multiplayer, the majority of my Nightcrawler games were at 2-player and I played a few 3+ games as well. And I still found it difficult to line-up hitting more targets with any kind of consistency. At the end of the day, I like both Nightcrawler and Jubilee more than you do - but I am a little underwhelmed. I am going to give Nightcrawler the Iceman treatment and put him aside for a while and then return to him with fresh eyes. Of course, as someone who doesn't love defensive decks, a defensive hero was perhaps always going to be a tough ask for me.
Protection may be fun for others, but is it highly useful in an NC deck? Is it may be even bland? I feel maybe players who were underwhelmed with NC immediately sleeved up and went green. By no means am I discrediting a player’s preference and I love protection, but it’s third or fourth best with this hero. Justice and leadership can hook you hard on nightcrawler. Imo
Wondering how you are playing him. I feel like sometimes not triggering the Bamf, makes it easy to get multiple on the board and deal very good damage with Port and Punch. While also not my favourite design this wave, I do like him a lot in a strong wave overall.
Leaving Bamf on the villain is something I have done a little but I could certainly experiment with it more. I'm not sure it's going to do much for my main critique of often having non-impactful hands of cards though if I am paying to put Bamf out, not triggering it, and then not benefiting unless I happen to get minions in the villain phase.
This wave, save for the big box heroes, has really been a let down for me. Jubilee was never interesting from the beginning (both character wise and mechanics), disappointed with how clunky iceman is and I was hoping that Night could have been the hero that would have made protection an aspect that i enjoy plus giving me a bunch of options in other aspects... well, was i mistaking... Only protection that i like remains yours multiple man - storm deck, and maybe draxx.. Let's get finger crossed for Magneto... Also because I ain't too keen (lorewise) on what is coming next.. Luckly, I can alway relay on ma boy Venom :D
@@VillainTheory yeah, the cards he comes with are actually not bad . But as for you, protection really isn't my jam, contending the title of "worst aspect" with justice. But I must say that creative decks like Storm / Multiple Man are the ones that give the green aspect a few notches above Justice. I'll try though. Tnx!
This is nearly identical to my experience. He's my favorite x-men character, but he feels so boring. They could have done so much more dynamic play with BAMF (multiple BAMFs, not only discard, no card cost, etc.). Just a disappointment for me. Jubilee and Ice-man were not hits for me either, but I still enjoyed their play pattern a bit better. Edit: He's my biggest disappointment of the wave. Sorry for the negativity, but it's just my feeling.
Totally fair opinion, I don't even see it as negativity exactly. It's your honest feedback and not every hero is for every player! Maybe he'll grow on you over time and, if not, I guess it's on to the next hero!
Dude!! I just added this to my watchlist. Are you going to read my comic stack for me??? It’s to the ceiling. Jokes aside: Thank you Side Note: I have love for NC in justice because I had such fun and comfort in solo play
![Kodak Black - Catch Fire [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/A4ch-olIuZo/mqdefault.jpg)
I laughed out loud when you put Valkyrie on screen 😂
Shoutouts to gnarlantlers who also compares Kurt to Captain America, i think that’s a really interesting comparison. i had a similar experience to your power ranking for him but i ranked him a little higher. You make a good point that if you use Rapid Teleportation to play Bamf! he effectively has 1 less resource but i personally felt like his economy was decent because of the resources that Bamf! saved defending during the villain phase and i enjoyed the interesting decision-making to not grab Bamf! some turns because the extra resource was needed. Also being able to grab a Bamf! when in AE and starting every game with 7 cards in hand size is very nice. Definitely agree with your overall sentiments though and another amazing analysis as usual!
Haha! He's not Valkyrie, but I feel a hint of the struggle. Just a hint.
I could see myself changing his ranking in the future. I forgot to say it in the video but he really feels like a hero that could have some dynamic interaction with new cards, especially anything defensive. Definitely has room to grow.
Man the fact that this is edited and still 47 minutes is wild. 😂
Gonna need a whole week to watch this
The original recordings were like 1 hour 20 mins haha. I went as ruthless as I could.
The Jubilee review was 51 mins. Cable was 54. It can always be worse...
I love the length! I make a night out of it haha
I'm always interested in seeing your takes on content for the game. If you had posted this a week ago. I would have agreed with you on just about every point you made. That said, after playing him some more this week, my impressions of him have sharply increased. One thing I changed when playing him is that I just put a copy of Bamf! On the Villain and just keep it there and use it for emergencies or if i have a way to get another copy on them without having to use his hero ability to get one back. Playing this way allows his events to be played pretty easily and make him feel more consistent (this changes a lot for multi villain scenarios however). That does mean I'm just basic defending with him and not really caring about his atk or thw stats, allies and events can make up the difference. Overall, he's my favorite now for the wave.
This describes me very well, too. I love leaving a break-glass Bamf on the villain. Port and Punch then is always basically at least 3 damage on a minion and 3 damage on the villain, and you’re probably playing it free with tail and X-Gene. When I’ll normally use the Bamf on the villain is 1. If truly necessary but also 2. If I’ve just decked out and expect it’d be a good use of a single resource next turn if I just defend with Bamf now.
I'm glad people are enjoying him more!
While sometimes I might leave Bamf on, it hasn't been my go-to strategy. I can certainly explore it more but playing it and then not effectively getting the ready, leaving it, feels like it's going to do the opposite of help my problem of him feeling very low impact/can struggle with board management. (And to clarify he's fine, just as said in the video feels like I'm working harder to do less than average!)
@VillainTheory It's funny you compared him to Valkyrie. I find him to be the antithesis of what she's trying to do. For her, it's a trap to put death glow on the villain. For NC, his main strategy for getting the most out of his events is putting Bamf! on the villain. You use the first Bamf! you get turn 1 to put it on the villain and just need to get a second copy in your discard pile. After that, you're golden. When you deck out, you need to flip to get Bamf! back on the villain or get one in the discard pile.
I find that I only ever put Bamf on minions if they aren't getting defeated this turn or if I can do a combo with Port' and Punch. I should also note that I've been mostly playing him in true solo in Aggression or Justice.
The comparison to Valkyrie isn't 1 to 1, more so that they both have some awkwardness with their key upgrade to attach to enemies. A similar kind of energy to it all.
(But Nightcrawler is obviously much better with many less issues!)
Agree this is the correct way of playing him. So his events like Port and Punch are very impactful, nowhere near iceman. I usually have 2 to 3 BAMF out when i play that event.
Lastly I think Protection is his weakest aspect, he is better Aggression, Justice, and to me my xmen, since to me my xmen is broken lols
Easily the best of the whole xmen wave, or one of the best in the whole game.
You mirrored my thoughts on Kurt perfectly! I was soooo excited for NC, he’s one of my all time favorites. His BAMF mechanic just feels so clunky. He needs a way to get BAMF other than his identity and ally, maybe an event or upgrade that lets him search for it. I also feel like his identity ability needs to be 0 cost. He relies so heavily on BAMF, it’s a shame that it can be so difficult and inconvenient to get it
Just picked him up yesterday!
Favourite X-man, so super excited :)
Hope you enjoy him!
I’ve only played a few games but he definitely felt very defense specialized like you said.
Thanks for the thorough review! I really agree with your final thoughts on overall ranking of new heroes’ power levels not outclassing older heroes.
Thanks for watching! Curious to see how he goes for you in some more games!
@@VillainTheorythanks! It was a good first impression, just have to find a deck build that I really enjoy. Voltron sounded like a good option!
I’m currently playing Prot Nightcrawler and Aggro Iceman, so far enjoying the experience. I think Nightcrawler is a great prot hero in multiplayer 👍
That's great! Glad you're enjoying him!
Very detailed review! Haven't played still. Hoping to have free time before Xmas, anyway his playstyle feels unique and interesting... Waiting to test it. Thanks for the video.
Hope you enjoy him when you find the time!
@@VillainTheory thanks. Sadly, some life circumstances have the absolute priority.
@@OresteGamba Wishing you the best with everything
@@VillainTheory thank you so much.
I personally don't like him in protection or leadership, but allies are my least favourite card type. For multiplayer, I mainly play him in justice, control the threat and help tank some damage. In solo or multiplayer if the other players don't really need tanking, I play him in aggression with Toe to Toe. I don't really have the same issue with Toe to Toe that you mentioned just because Toe to Toe is so cheap that it's easy to get the Bamf back and re-attach it to the villain. Nightcrawler's damage output is just so low that I feel he needs aggression's damage (or ally damage) to get by in solo. In multiplayer, he has a bit more freedom to kind of do whatever.
Valkyrie was my first thought as well. Paying for Bamf feels just like paying for Death Glow and it just slows everything down so much. I’m seeing some people on here say they just put Bamf out and leave it and that works better. For me that’s just saying it works better to not do the thing the hero wants to do and I never like that as a solution. I’ll try it though 🤷♂️. As it stands now he’s joined Jubilee in my don’t really want to ever play again pile and it’s just so surprising and a shame. What a weird wave
I am basically agreed with the Bamf assessment. If I leave Bamf out without triggering it, certainly it's easier for 'Port And Punch to do more damage. If I draw a minion from the encounter deck, if I have 'Port And Punch in hand, if I have found a second Bamf at that point through the deck cycle.
But if I had used Bamf, while now losing out on 3 'Port And Punch damage, I'd be ready and able to thwart for 2 with my hero. Or, with my cutlasses out, attack for 2 with my hero. It's almost no loss in exchange for consistently benefiting from Bamf's higher-than-average value.
Exhausting to defend and leaving Bamf up does work a little better if an encounter card would exhaust you, but there's usually only one of those and only on Expert (which is what I play on almost 100% of the time, but I still don't think it's worth doing just for that).
And while you'll have more targets for 'Port And Punch in multiplayer, the majority of my Nightcrawler games were at 2-player and I played a few 3+ games as well. And I still found it difficult to line-up hitting more targets with any kind of consistency.
At the end of the day, I like both Nightcrawler and Jubilee more than you do - but I am a little underwhelmed. I am going to give Nightcrawler the Iceman treatment and put him aside for a while and then return to him with fresh eyes. Of course, as someone who doesn't love defensive decks, a defensive hero was perhaps always going to be a tough ask for me.
Protection may be fun for others, but is it highly useful in an NC deck? Is it may be even bland?
I feel maybe players who were underwhelmed with NC immediately sleeved up and went green.
By no means am I discrediting a player’s preference and I love protection, but it’s third or fourth best with this hero. Justice and leadership can hook you hard on nightcrawler. Imo
Wondering how you are playing him. I feel like sometimes not triggering the Bamf, makes it easy to get multiple on the board and deal very good damage with Port and Punch. While also not my favourite design this wave, I do like him a lot in a strong wave overall.
Leaving Bamf on the villain is something I have done a little but I could certainly experiment with it more. I'm not sure it's going to do much for my main critique of often having non-impactful hands of cards though if I am paying to put Bamf out, not triggering it, and then not benefiting unless I happen to get minions in the villain phase.
I'm still looking forward to giving him a go. It's just a shame he doesn't appear to live up to the standards of the previous X-Men.
It's just my opinion here at the end of the day, a lot of people seem to really enjoy him! And I hope you do too!
This wave, save for the big box heroes, has really been a let down for me. Jubilee was never interesting from the beginning (both character wise and mechanics), disappointed with how clunky iceman is and I was hoping that Night could have been the hero that would have made protection an aspect that i enjoy plus giving me a bunch of options in other aspects... well, was i mistaking... Only protection that i like remains yours multiple man - storm deck, and maybe draxx..
Let's get finger crossed for Magneto... Also because I ain't too keen (lorewise) on what is coming next..
Luckly, I can alway relay on ma boy Venom :D
I do love the Protection cards Nightcrawler came with at least! Highly recommend Rocket with Come Get Me Bub and think you might enjoy it too? 🤞
@@VillainTheory yeah, the cards he comes with are actually not bad . But as for you, protection really isn't my jam, contending the title of "worst aspect" with justice. But I must say that creative decks like Storm / Multiple Man are the ones that give the green aspect a few notches above Justice. I'll try though. Tnx!
This is nearly identical to my experience. He's my favorite x-men character, but he feels so boring. They could have done so much more dynamic play with BAMF (multiple BAMFs, not only discard, no card cost, etc.). Just a disappointment for me.
Jubilee and Ice-man were not hits for me either, but I still enjoyed their play pattern a bit better.
Edit: He's my biggest disappointment of the wave. Sorry for the negativity, but it's just my feeling.
Totally fair opinion, I don't even see it as negativity exactly. It's your honest feedback and not every hero is for every player!
Maybe he'll grow on you over time and, if not, I guess it's on to the next hero!
Dude!! I just added this to my watchlist. Are you going to read my comic stack for me??? It’s to the ceiling.
Jokes aside: Thank you
Side Note: I have love for NC in justice because I had such fun and comfort in solo play
I actually quite liked him in Justice too! As you will probably end up hearing!