Don’t slow down now! The next card is just a stone’s throw away from us! The Thing First steps is arriving soon and bringing more than the recommended dosage of clobbering.
Every team needs their own big guy, and The Thing is definitely that. With a statline of 5-Cost and 6-Power, he might seem underwhelming at first, but his End of Turn effect is where the real strength lies. At the end of every turn, The Thing gains +2 Power. That alone can quickly make him a serious threat.
But there's more. If you manage to fill his location, you're rewarded with a one-time effect: once per game, destroy an opponent’s card with less Power than The Thing: First Steps. He isn’t as universal as Fantastic Pedro but he has quite a reach of potential. You’ll want to play him at turn 5 because if you do, he basically becomes a 5/10 that destroys a card and is immune to Shang Chi. Don’t take him for granite!
Stone in the Road
There is a card that quite reminds me of our new Thing.
Spider-Man 2099, a card that also costs 5 Energy, has a pretty hefty Power and also destroys a card after completing a certain condition. The issue is that he was never considered a great card. My fear is that it doesn't bode well for our new rock fella. Hopefully The Thing’s more lenient destruction condition and synergies allow him to be a higher tier card than our futuristic Spider-Man. Hopefully it won’t reach rock bottom.
Scientific Synergies
There’s no way around it. This season’s cards have all been designed to work greatly together so don’t be surprised to see all the family together cruising through town in their brand new Fantasticar. I suspect that his best ally will be Fantastic Pedro.
You know what these new cards love? End of turns, duh! So how about granting the game one extra end of turn with our favorite mutant sorceress, Magik.
Another path to get more power on The Thing is to simply play him earlier than usual. There are a couple of Extra energy cards available to us but my favorite for this situation would be Luna Snow. If you play her on turn 3, you can immediately follow up with The thing on turn 4, this giving him three ends of turns for him to grow, you could even play him on the same location as Luna to just miss one last card to trigger his effect, although there would be quite a high chance of him breaking the ice. Stone-Cold!
If you’re looking to use The Thing’s power to snipe bigger and bigger cards, you could run some buffers to make him reach new heights. Galacta and Gwenpool would be my first tryouts for this kind of experiment.
Last thing that I need to mention is that some decks might have a hard time filling up his location without being wasteful with their cards. So perhaps we should bring in some Token cards to help fill up, specially if you’re running both Human Torch and The Thing First steps. Ultron is my favorite but I wonder how good a deck featuring them together would be. Ironically, Doctor Doom, both versions could be great.
Dualgloves's Day One The Thing First Steps Decks
Three Hulks and an 8-Ball
No Pedro? No problem! This is my attempt at making a free-ish to play deck for those that don’t have a vast collection. Make a ton of energy with your cards to take advantage of Sunspot and She-Hulks effects. If you only have 6 turns. You can Activate Jannifer Kale on turn 4, skip turn 5, play both She-Hulk and Infinaut on the last turn.
I must Be Seeing Double! 4 Things?!
A deck that is quite similar to the one above but features a ton of extra power from High Evo. No infinaut this time, our big guy here is the classic Hulk and his cousin. We got both versions of the Thing to vex and annoy your opponent to no end between their destruction and power reduction. Don’t be afraid to waste energy if Sunspot or even Cyclops is on the field..
Gotta Say, It's Fantastic
I have to be honest with you. I won’t be playing with this since I’m not interested in buying the Super Premium Pass. However, if you are inclined. This shell might be a perfect place to use the entire family together, the issue is that you’re going to wait a bit for Invisible Woman First Steps to arrive. This deck runs every coherent end of turn card and has a lot of opportunities for you to fill up on those pesky locations to trigger Human Torch and The Thing’s effect at the end of the game.
Fantastic 5s
We have so many ways to cheat out a 5 earlier than usual that is no joke. Cheat energy out, drop an impactful 5-Drop and use spells to clear the way to victory. Imagine having a lane full of the Things. Or perhaps shoving a crucial enemy into The Thing’s location with Winds of Watoomb only to be clobbered up with the opponent’s hopes and dreams.
Variants
So yeah, it's the thing again, what did you expect? At least he found a shirt that fit him this time around. Choose your favorite and you can’t go wrong.
Final Thoughts
So–here’s the thing. I don’t think he works greatly without his team and I also don’t believe that he is a must-have member of the team. He is strong and has potential to pop off by destroying something vital from your opponent but I’m not so keen on that. I wouldn’t recommend spending precious resources for this card especially if you’re missing the other members of the team like Fantasticar and Pedro Fantastic. My suggestion is to hold out on him and see how much of an impact he makes on the meta.