“Verzeihung! Mind if I cut in?”

Shunned for his demonic appearance, Kurt Wagner’s mutant heritage and gentle heart earned him a family in the X-Men. Now he uses his teleportation power and adventurous spirit to thwart injustice as the incredible Nightcrawler!

This highly-anticipated hero bamfs his way into battle with this expansion pack, which introduces Nightcrawler as a new playable hero alongside his fifteen signature cards. With a pre-built Protection deck ready to play from the get-go, you’ll be able to teleport yourself and your allies to safety from the moment you open the box. With his signature Bamf! upgrade allowing him to perform incredible feats, Nightcrawler is a blast to play and a great asset to any team.

This hero pack also includes a bonus modular encounter set featuring the aptly-named Crazy Gang!

Bamf!

As a mutant and a member of the X-Men, Kurt Wagner (Nightcrawler, 1B) is known for many things. However, his most iconic feature is his power of teleportation, which serves as a key element of his playstyle as a hero.

In his alter-ego form, Kurt can search his deck for a copy of his Bamf! (Nightcrawler, 6) upgrade and add it to his hand. In its most basic form, this upgrade can allow Nightcrawler (Nightcrawler, 1A) to defend against an enemy attack without exhausting. This is already pretty handy, especially when combined with Nightcrawler’s Rapid Teleportation ability, which allows him to retrieve a copy of Bamf! from his discard pile to use again. However, Nightcrawler’s true power lies within his events, which let you utilize the Bamf! upgrades for powerful kicker effects.

For example, you can discard a Bamf! from your hand to Scout Ahead (Nightcrawler, 9), allowing you to thwart two schemes at once. Alternatively, you could discard one to ‘Port Away (Nightcrawler, 10), allowing you to rapidly change forms and ready Nightcrawler for further action. If you’ve already attached a copy of Bamf! to an enemy, you can utilize Tally Ho! (Nightcrawler, 11) to defend, deal a bit of damage, and regain that Bamf! all in one go. If you get Bamf! attached to multiple enemies, you can wallop all of them with a ‘Port and Punch (Nightcrawler, 7), and when you’re ready to deal the finishing blow, Teleport Drop (Nightcrawler, 8) them from the skyline and call it a day!

With his ability to teleport in and out of dangerous situations at will, it’s clear that Nightcrawler is great at avoiding damage from enemy attacks, and his pre-built Protection deck takes that playstyle a step further! Attach Under Control (Nightcrawler, 15) to a minion and use Nightcrawler’s naturally high DEF to prevent all damage from that attack, then swing back with a counterattack of your own (remember: if that minion also had Bamf! attached, then you can defend against its attack without exhausting). If you manage to defeat that minion with the damage from Under Control, then you can utilize this Change of Fortune (Nightcrawler, 14) to get some extra cards in hand. Even if you don’t defeat that minion, preventing all the damage does let you remove a threat from Astonishing X-Men (Nightcrawler, 20), potentially allowing you to stun and confuse every enemy in play.

As for your allies, since you won’t be taking much damage from enemy attacks, you probably won’t mind if Rogue (Nightcrawler, 12) drains your hit points for a boost to her THW and ATK. Alternatively, you could let Gambit (Nightcrawler, 21) power up his stats with a card he “borrows” from the encounter deck, then have Rogue take some of that power for her own while you protect them both with Nightcrawler’s unyielding defense!

Off With His Head!

As we mentioned earlier, the Nightcrawler Hero Pack also comes with a brand-new modular encounter set. This set features the…eccentric members of The Crazy Gang (Nightcrawler, 33). Led by the Queen of Hearts (Nightcrawler, 34), this gang’s whole schtick revolves around nasty When Revealed abilities, in hopes that their signature side scheme will allow them to “re-deal” themselves as encounter cards so they can trigger those abilities again and again. For example, the terrifying Executioner (Nightcrawler, 36) attacks the friendly character with the fewest remaining hit points, and if he defeats an ally, that ally is removed from the game! If you ever let him scheme against you, then the Crazy Gang side scheme will allow him to re-deal himself as another encounter card and keep swinging his axe at your allies.

As with all other modular encounter sets, the Crazy Gang set can be added to any scenario for some wacky hijinks. Be careful not to lose your head when dealing with these crazy criminals!

Tally Ho!

With his ability to bamf around the battlefield and protect his friends from harm, Nightcrawler is a terrific hero who easily finds a home on any team. Look forward to battling the forces of Apocalypse with Nightcrawler at your side when the Nightcrawler Hero Pack launches in September!