Written by By lebeau
For the past couple of days, the DFC previews have focused on the Gotham Knights re-feature. Most of the new GK content was inspired by the Batman RIP storyline. So naturally, the set includes the villains from that story, the Black Glove.
The Black Glove was a secret organization not unlike Marvel’s Hellfire Club. They were rich. They were powerful. And they had an off fashion sense. The leader of the club, Dr. Simon Hurt, may or may not have been the devil himself. (What do you expect from Grant Morrison?)
Like any good secret organization, the Black Glove has minions. Armies of them. That’s where our first preview card comes in:
In the comics, Le Bossu didn’t see a lot of action. Instead, he stayed hidden in the shadows while his Gargoyle henchmen did his dirty work. Like his comic book counterpart, this version of Le Bossu will want to hide in the shadows while his henchmen go in swinging. However, when they are all done, Le Bossu can get in on the fun as well.
(Wouldn’t it be great if some Black Glove Army characters had some kind of synergy with Le Bossu? Like maybe a power that triggers upon becoming stunned? Yeah, that would sure be awesome.)
The Black Glove have a couple of themes running through them. One, they have a lot of concealed characters. Two, they like to rally. I mean, these guys rally a lot! And three… we’ll get to three. Let’s stick with two for a minute.
A free rally per turn is pretty good in and of itself. Yeah, he can only rally while you have a Black Glove attacker. But given all the hidden, it shouldn’t be too hard to have at least one Black Glove attacker per turn.
Rallying for the card type of your choice? Better still. If you had a way to know what was on top of your deck, you could always be successful. And if you are successful, you don’t just get the card. You get to force your opponent to discard a card as well. It’s not unreasonable to assume Swagman will net you a 4 card advantage over your opponent in any game. More if he sticks around longer.
Okay, time for the third theme. The Black Glove liked to gamble. They rigged the game in their favor, but they gambled nonetheless. And the stakes were high. Life and death stuff. So when they rally, the Black Glove likes to place some bets.
See what I mean about life and death? If your opponent loses the game, he dies.
But like I said before, the Black Glove stack the deck in their favor. Even if your opponent wins, he loses. Getting burned for X points of endurance only feels like a win when the alternative is losing your character completely. (And sometimes, you’d probably rather lose the character.)
The Black Glove rally a lot themselves. But they also let their opponents get in on the action. There’s no telling what the outcome will be. Will you get that card you really needed or will you bury it? Burn for 7 or KO a character?
The only thing that’s certain is that the stakes are high and the game has probably been rigged in the Black Glove’s favor. Place your bets!
One other thing on House of Hurt:
Army characters tend to have low cost, and a deck with Army swarming would tend to want more characters in hand. A reuasable Rally for a character at minimal risk/cost by targetting a stunned army character shouldn’t be too bad.
Sorry for the double post, but I just remembered the new Time Trapper, who can be useful in making House of Hurt a reliable KO or burn.
Well, only if the opponent is already discarding things. Black Glove doesn’t force discards, so it’s down to whether the opponent’s own deck has much of it to power search and other effects.
I like Swagman a lot. He is a 2 card advantage character that triggers himself, yeah I like him a lot.
House of Hurt I’m not really sure. I mean it targets opponents as well. KO or burn? He loses either way, and if you can view the top card with something like Night Vision, OUCH!! It makes good rare cards like: SRA, and Mightiest Heroes and common ones like Asgard lose their luster. If it worked only on its controller I’d be fine with it, but on any player I’m not so sure.
I’ll take Swagman and love him dearly though.
Loving this Black Hand stuff. Really neat.
If you’re hungry for more Black Glove goodness, check out Ike’s preview here:
http://z11.invisionfree.com/CanberraVS/index.php?showtopic=1553
House of Hurt rallies them a card. It’s not like it just burns or KO’s. It also benefits them. So I find it really balanced. I love those win/lose cards!