Oh Boy
Well, better late than never, huh?
While coming out after the release makes this more of a card review than a card preview, it turns out the latest card hitting the block is at the unfortunate center of the controversial firestorm surrounding High Voltage: Overdrive and Second Dinner’s response to it. Most people reading this probably still don’t have the card, making this article as hypothetical as it would have been anyway!
Look, it’s a total $@#!show. What better punk to be sitting in the middle of it all?
Wolverine and The X-Men (2011) #2, writer Jason Aaron, artist Chris Bachalo
Quintavius ‘Quentin’ Quirinius Quire himself, or Kid Omega, as he’s known, is a grade-A little $#@! with some serious firepower behind him: an Omega level mutant with incredibly powerful telepathic and telekinetic abilities surpassed only by his infinite ability to piss off everyone around him. He got his start in Grant Morrison’s New X-Men as an edgy, snot-nosed teenager who quickly becomes a danger to his classmates, invoking drug-fueled violence, starting a riot, and even getting one of the Stepford Cuckoos killed.
From there, he’s progressed (very) slowly on the journey from villain to hero, making his way from X-era to X-era (with a quick pitstop at the West Coast Avengers), growing in marginal gains while maintaining that hate-to-love, love-to-hate personality everyone so thoroughly despises.
But in a way, the situation he’s landed in with SNAP might be the biggest flavor match Second Dinner could have come up with: undeniable power at the center of an insufferable hate-magnet, ready to lay waste to SNAP to the disdain of a begrudging audience.
X-Force (2019) #2, writer Benjamin Percy, line art Joshua Cassara, colors Dean White
But What’s He Do?
Befitting his particularly destructive brand of psychic power, Kid Omega is Destroy support, letting you destroy a card to power him up on command via his Activate ability. However, like any self-respecting mutant telekinetic, there’s some precision and nuance possible thanks to the Activate tag, letting you sequence his ability alongside your other Destroy cards. Where cards like Venom, Carnage, and Deathlok kill at their locations indiscriminately, Quentin is able to single out the exact card you want to destroy.
This means you can kill his X-Force buddies like Deadpool and Wolverine or mutant archnemesis Nimrod more easily than ever. He plays well with all the classic Destroy pieces, and even helps bring fellow Omega-level Mutant Elixir to some playability thanks to how much more precise Quentin is.
The downside of Activate, of course, is that you can’t use it the turn you play it—meaning Quentin is a dead draw on Turn 6, and even playing him Turn 5 may be too late for his power to make an impact. It also makes Kid Omega pretty telegraphed, on paper—although due to the way his ability works at any location, even Armor may have trouble stopping him. Oh well; there’s always Red Guardian.
But that’s enough theory about a card that’s (theoretically) already in the hands of the public. Put your torches and pitchforks down for a moment to find out: what’s it like using the latest filthy pay-to-win card in Marvel SNAP?
New X-Men (2001) #135, writer Grant Morrison, line art Frank Quitely, colors Tim Townsend
Decks to try with Kid Omega
KID OMEGA TELEKINETIC TECHNICAL KNOCKOUT
Or, KOTKTKO. OK? OK.
Look, coming out after the fact gives a Card Review the benefit of hindsight—Kid Omega’s quite powerful, and he’s supercharged the previously middle-of-the-pack Nimrod deck with some serious juice. The deck that’s come to the front has been this one: utilizing both Nimrod and company as well as the Black Panther package for big stats and using Kid Omega as the glue to hold both sides together. Having to play either Nimrod or Panther naked on 5 has always been a weak point of the deck, and Quentin being able to immediately activate and destroy them on the same turn is a massive improvement—and that’s saying nothing about his own power gain from blowing up a Shuri’d card, or his synergy with Elixir. It’s winning by points, and winning by a lot of them.
Of course, this isn’t anything I’ve come up with; it’s the main Kid Omega list going around. I am, however, proud of the name.
Season’s Beatings (2018) #1, writer Jason Latour, artist Veronica Fish
X-Force, Baby
Quentin’s stint in the Krakoan CIA seems to have bled over into SNAP—he can function as a powerful utility piece to help streamline Deadpool lines, adding to the consistency of a deck that urgently needs it. While this isn’t necessarily the enormous boost that the previous deck gets from Quentin, I think the sidegrade has merit. Trading some of the variance on Nico for a consistent destroy outlet that you can ‘save’ for when you draw a late Deadpool or Hulkbuster seems solid, and being able to become his own threat helps diversify Destroy’s ordinarily straightforward gameplan.
Note: Kid Omega’s effect does not function quite like Venom! He won’t ‘snapshot’ Ongoing effects, meaning he won’t gain any power from a destroyed Knull, however big he is. Stick to blowing up those losers from Weapon X.
X-Force (2019) #9, writer Benjamin Percy, line art Joshua Cassara, colors Dean White
Omega-Level Pain In The Butt
The third theorycrafted list on my mind (hey, I don’t have him either!) is a variation on the Arishem hate-list from 34 Card Monte’s reign terror—the one that utilized the Phoenix Force/Firehair package to retrigger a powerful On Reveal like Cassandra Nova’s again and again and again. With the extra natural synergy with Elixir, Kid Omega feels like a shoo-in to help bolster the consistency of the deck’s Destroy lines. Moreover, I suspect this package may work with other potent On-Reveals should decks like 34 Card Monte fall completely out of favor; I’m hoping to experiment more with this On-Reveal/Destroy package that’s still quite early in its stage of development.
Mighty Thor (2015) #19, writer Jason Aaron, artist Russel Dauterman
Some Kind Of Fashion Statement
Kid Omega is launching with one variant datamined in the tank, but that already puts him above most of the LTE reward cards at the time of their launch; hopefully we get more, but for now you can anticipate Paul Mafayon’s take on Quentin’s loud pink look.
Until next patch, we’ll see how closely Second Dinner adheres to their commitment to variants for reward cards like Kid Omega.
X-Force (2019) #17, writer Benjamin Percy, line art Joshua Cassara, colors Guru-eFX
So…
The elephant in the room, of course, is that all of this is related to much larger conversations about where Second Dinner is right now—right now, Kid Omega can’t really be talked about without all of those discussions taking up much more space. It’s a shame—Kid Omega has a cool effect for a fun character, and a great design that adds to the Destroy design space in a powerful way. But it’s safe to say that however good he is, my judgment is that he isn’t worth the bizarre asking price in High Voltage: Overdrive. You can just wait the month and look forward to enjoying him after like any other regular SNAP card—even if he’s leaving a permanent legacy as unforgettable and contentious as Quentin himself. But let me know down below your own thoughts: is he worth the controversy?
Wolverine and The X-Men (2011) #3, writer Jason Aaron, artist Chris Bachalo