Have they officially ruled on the Herbie card yet and others with similiar abilities...

Cost: 1 H.E.R.B.I.E., Robot Nanny
Team: Fantastic Four
Flight
Ranged
ATK: 2
DEF: 1
[Activate] -> Transfer target equipment you control to a [Fantastic Four Icon] character you control.

Remove H.E.R.B.I.E. from the game -> Your next equipment costs 1 less to recruit this turn.


Cost: 2 Namorita, Atlantean Warrior Princess
Team: Fantastic Four
Flight
ATK: 1
DEF: 4
Remove Namorita from the game -> Return target card from your KO'd pile to your hand.

I was interested in knowing if these cards are from your hand, since they don't specifically say so. If the Herbie is only from play, then his second ability is horrible. It would be very hard keeping him around for that effect. Same deal with Namorita. Is there an official FAQ on these yet?

Traditionally, unless the card states other wise, you cannot play it from hand.

I am fairly certain they are both just horrible.



Edit: Looking through the comprehensive rules I don't see anything that confirms or denies what I say. Please take the post with a grain of salt.


If for no other reason then 'Namorta' becomes an auto include four of in any deck that plays PTs, if you can discard her from hand to use that ability, I will continue to assume to cannot discard either card from hand.

Unless it specifically says otherwise on the card, a payment power can only be used on a card in play.

Neither of those can be used from the hand.

As to how useful they are I would say VERY!

Bolded numbers are mine, indicating the two ways a card can have powers when it isn't in play. Either it tells you so, like Detective Chimp or Scarlet Spider, or it can only work from somewhere else, like discard costs, which are inherently hand-limited.

Herbie and Namorita can only be used in play, and that definitely doesn't make them terrible. Herbie has one activated ability that's useful for multi-equip decks, and is also one of the only ways to "bank" recruit points from one turn to the next. Namorita costs one point less than Floronic Man, and removes from game rather than KOing---he saw play, she can, too.

And as an extra point, if these powers weren't limited by zone, of course you could also use them from the KO'd pile; that's rarely part of the initial question, but it fits just as well.

herbie - play him on 1 - even stunned he comes back, easy to add defense pumps, or as an under later the ff have ways of hiding him (which he should have been anyway - hes a NANNY for goodness sakes) and to get him out of the way the 1 cost in your hand is a zero cost weapon? how is that bad when you get to remove someone that would suffer lots of breakthru from 4 on?

Mainly you must hit him on 1 for him to have any positive resource gain with his ability. Any other time you are underdropping him because you missed curve.

So like most 1 drops then?

Damn if only there was something I could do with excess Fan Four characters in my hand that are no longer worth playing...whats this you say? Mobilize or Signal Flare???

hehehehehe good point sparrow, he could be used to go get someone bigger, hmm, , seems that would be a job for a nanny after all - when you are no longer enough to stop a threat, go get someone bigger

Yep just like the majority of unplayed one drops.

Edit: The cards not good, you could argue how situationally it's great, and I agree, if the moon alligns and someone doesn't realize what Herbie does, and doesn't have flight or you get to turn four and get to hide him with the new Invisible Woman card that moves guys he in fact is servicable. However if you want to tell me you see power compariable to the original idea of the post which is 'Remove him from your hand, the next equp costs 1 less' from the context of my original assessment than we have nothing left to discuss. You have your belief's I'll have mine.

Defensive much?

Your argument was that Herbie isn't useful as you pretty much have to play him turn 1 or not at all. My counter was that this is true for most 1 drops (any that dont have alternate recruit costs).

It is true that a lot of 1 drops arent worth playing in conventional curve decks. However, some are, and many are worth playing in off curve decks.

2/1 stats, flight, range and 2 situationally very useful payment powers are about all I could personally ask for from a 1 drop. I think if you are looking for more you are a little greedy :p

In a curve deck I wouldnt mind playing Herbie on 1 and then Fantasticar 2.0 or a Future Technology on my 2 drop. A 3/5 Mr Fantastic on turn 2 followed by a 5/5 hidden Invisible Woman on 3 sounds good to me!

In an off curve deck Herbie will love to throw the Future Technology around.

He isnt ridiculously powerful as he would have been if he worked as the original poster was hoping but that doesnt mean he isnt good.

No are you? You jumped in here to defend Herbie.

Honestly my argument is for that ability to be a 'bank' of points he would need to be played on turn one. He's an incredibly situational card with a lot of dependant clauses. Certainly you can play Herbie tranfer an Equipment, remove Herbie, and play another piece of equipment. He's incredibly situationally useful.
Dude part of your arguement is you can discard him to Mobilize or Signal Flare :) I don't think you have a whole lot of room to talk.

If you read the context of the post I was responding directly to the guys assertion that "If the Herbie is only from play, then his second ability is horrible". I agree with him that ability is pretty horrible with that restriction. The best case scenario is limited due to the first ability requiring activation keeping him from burning, transfering equip, removing himself from game and recruiting another equip. He's much better in golden where Cosmic Radiation is legal, however every card becomes much easier to justify in Golden decks.
Thanks for agreeing with me.

I am in fact greedy! I have 30-34 slots for characters in the average deck. I want them all to be the nuts. This guy has his uses I have him in two decklists, but he ain't the nuts.
I would much rather have him in an X-men/FF silver build getting put into play for free thanks to Changeling, and getting a free Blackbird Blue or car. .


Now who's being defensive? Seriously he would have been decently powerful with the ability to play him from hand, now he fills a very specific role in a very specific brand of decks.

:D

(10 Chars)

When removing all context from a posts hilarity ensues hurray!

In response to:

Take up the term used with the first guy. Detect the sarcasm.

In response to:

Yea he's not at all talking about a curve deck not in the least.

With explinations of valid uses. Nice try though.

You missed this one!

Hmm you argue he isnt very good because he is situational (as is every other card in VS) but then you offer your own very situational scenario where he is good. Also you suggest he is 'free' in your scenario, but you are actually trading another 1 cost character for him. How does this make him better? Surely you have to go off curve to play changeling unless you play him on turn 1?