Is Havok the zaniest card Second Dinner has ever released? He certainly has a unique ability. But is he more of a meme or is he actually powerful? Let's take a look at the character, key synergies, and some potential builds for Havok.
Alex Summers, Havok, is Scott Summers’ (Cyclops) long-lost brother and Lorna Dane’s (Polaris) on-again, off-again love interest. While his big brother is often the leader of the X-Men, Havok and Polaris have always had an on-again, off-again relationship with the X-Men, floating in and out, sometimes at odds with the team.
Havok absorbs ambient cosmic energy and converts it into massive amounts of energy that he blasts out in distinct concentric circles that turn the air into superheated plasma.
Havok famously has difficulty controlling his incredibly strong potential. Second Dinner did a great job of matching the chaotic and uncontrollable nature of Havok's power with his card’s ability. He absorbs your extra energy but at a cost.
We have received confirmation on how Havok's ability works. He essentially freezes your max energy at the spot when you play him. If you play him on turn 4, for example, he'll take the energy that would have put you at 5, leaving you with 4 again. The same thing will happen on the following turn. Given this, it seems that he's not really meant to be played early, rather he's a later turn play. We have also received confirmation that he will gain power on turn 6 (or 7). In other words, if you play Havok on turn 6, he'll end the game as a 2/4.
Synergy
Obviously Havok has synergy with Negative and Ravonna.
“Viper the Havok” may sound like a sweet death metal band name, but it's actually been the phrase the community has been repeating ever since Havok was revealed in the datamines. I think there is a chance that this becomes a legitimate strategy, but we're going to explore Havok as a positive as well.
I think the various energy manipulation cards in the game have a lot of potential with Havok. I think it will take a lot of experimentation to figure out who works best with him.
ScoSco's Day One Havok Decks
Havok Negative Reveal
Havok Panther Negative
Let's start with the deck Havok seems most clearly designed for. Here are two different takes on Mr. Negative decks. One leans into On Reveals, the other into Jane pulling 0-cost cards out of our deck.
Havok Ravonna
Before Blob came and sat on the meta, decks like this were doing quite well. With some luck you can play two Havoks on turn 6 alongside other powerful cards. You can also play Havok earlier and still have enough energy to slam points later.
Havok Bounce
Bounce can be built low enough to the ground that we can get by with just 4 or 5 energy on turn 6. If you get Werewolf down early you can get by with less energy later. This deck also lets you Viper the Havok, but it's not a primary game plan.
Thor 000
Havok Monkey
Playing out a ton of cards alongside Hit Monkey while our energy is restricted is easier than it seems when we have enough 0-cost cards. Jane provides us with a plan B in games where we don't want to play Havok on 5.
Havok Prison
We had to include at least one list devoted to Vipering the Havok.
Short Ramp
Electro on 3 and Havok on 4 leaves you with 5 energy for turns 5 and 6. Alternatively, you can play Havok and Psylocke on 4.
Havok Wave
Havok would have had insane synergy with the old Wave. He still has a bit with new Wave. Play wave and Havok together on turn 5 to be able to play a Blob or Doom together with a 1-drop like Titania or Rocket Raccoon.
Variants
Conclusion
The selling point for Havok is as a puzzle. He is like a deck building quest. It will be a challenge to find the exact balance of what turn to play him for maximum benefit and minimum drawback. Can we build a deck that takes advantage of him enough to be worth his downside? If getting to play essentially a one week deck building mini-game sounds fun and worth 3000 tokens then you should definitely buy him. Otherwise wait at least until the end of the week to see how everyone's experimentation pans out. I think he's unlikely to be an essential card in your collection and he is very weak against the strongest current tech card, Shadow King. It's usually advisable to grab Series 4 cards with tokens rather than Spotlights, but if you are missing Legion or, especially, Nico, you might want to consider opening for them.
