War Machine, a.k.a. James “Rhodey” Rhodes, is one of the most iconic characters that hadn't been added to the game yet and has a powerful ability to match. Once we got confirmation that War Machine would work in the range of ways we wanted him to, he instantly became the most anticipated card of the season. He's possibly the most hyped new card since High Evolutionary. With so much hype, can he possibly live up to expectations? One thing is certain: War Machine will fuel a turn 6 war and a war of words on Twitter and Discord after his release. Let the Armor Wars begin!
What are War Machine’s limits? How far does “nothing can stop you” extend?
First, no War Machine won't let you play a card if you don't have enough energy or if a location already has four cards in it. Think of War Machine this way: for a single turn, he gives all cards in your hand the ability Jeff the Baby Land Shark has. Like Jeff, you can play into closed-off locations or locations locked by an opposing card. Moreover, your cards that usually come with a restriction have those restrictions lifted. We'll look at examples of each of these situations below.
Key Synergies
Cards that normally carry a restriction are great partners for War Machine. The strongest of these are Ebony Maw, Infinaut, and Cull Obsidian. Expect War Machine to be paired with Infinaut and Ebony Maw a lot from day one.
Other cards with restrictions could see some experimentation as well. Playing Sentry in the right lane is pretty niche but not without merit. Crossbones probably needs a buff to be of much use when Cull Obsidian is already in the game, but there might be some interesting concepts with Giganto.
Barriers to overcome
There are many restrictions in the game that War Machine can overcome. War Machine can be used to counter these in opponents' decks, but they'll also be powerful alongside War Machine since he can render them one-sided restrictions that impact your opponent only.
Because of how their costs line up, Professor X doesn't work well with War Machine, but War Machine is a good anti-X card. Rather than trying to ramp out a Professor X, try Storm or Goose alongside War Machine to create asymmetrical locks. Legion isn't technically a lock card, but because he can proliferate closed locations, he might have some utility as a follow-up or alternative plan in War Machine builds.
The number of locations that War Machine helps you access is massive, lending credence to the notion of War Machine as a piece of defensive tech.
Build-around or tech card?
Whether or not decks entirely built around offensive synergies with War Machine are good, it will be very interesting to see if War Machine also has a role as a passive tech card. 4-6 may seem like a reasonable stat line on first glance, but a card with that cost and power generally needs to have a strong impact to make a 12-card list. Still, certain decks that can struggle with particular restrictive locations may find some value in War Machine as a tech card. In particular, Silver Surfer, Bounce, and Zoo lists should at least give Rhodey a go-to gauge his impact.
ScoSco's Day One War Machine build-around decks
War Machine Combo
I expect most people to start with War Machine here. You can abuse War Machine with the dream play line of War Machine on Hope Summers on turn 5 into Ebony Maw and Infinaut on turn 6.
Red Machine
This list provides a variety of ways to use Ebony Maw’s cheap 7 power with Zero, Sauron, or War Machine, which can get him out without drawback.
Green Machine
War Machine might be key to making this deck less reliant on Magik and more nimble.
War Lock
Goose and Storm are going to be the best partners for War Machine. If Alioth doesn't get changed in an upcoming patch or OTA, this list will be very strong once the initial War Machine play rate settles into a normal range. You can include other priority rewards in this list, like Echo, Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Quake, and Juggernaut.
War Legion
There are multiple ways to build a lockdown list around War Machine. Storm > War Machine > Legion on Flooded seems like a fun play line, but there are other ways to win. You can use the synergy between Goose and She-Hulk to sneak power into unexpected spots. You can also consider adding Havok to this list since he's strong behind Storm and Goose.
War Zoo
Zoo has traditionally struggled with location variance, and this list aggressively tries to solve that issue.
World War
Can I interest you in a turn 5 Galactus onto Sanctum Sanctorum? It's filthy. You can sub Hobgoblin in for Daredevil, but I think he'll facilitate some sweet turn 5 clogs or world destruction plays.
Zabu Upside
Zabu allows us to play Cull Obsidian and Crossbones at a cheaper price. Both beefy boys alongside Shang Chi make for a strong final turn.
Jean Machine
Finding the new Guardians unreliable because your opponent can avoid them too easily? This list will make them a lot harder to dodge. You should be able to stay one step ahead of your opponent all game.
Variant Gallery
Finally, a card is releasing with several planned variants! After a series of pretty deep-cut characters, it's nice to get back to a major MCU character again, even if he's one of the last.
Conclusion
Whether you expect him to be the game-changing, strongest card of the season some have predicted, a lockdown hero, or a meta-dependent anti-location tech, it's pretty clear War Machine is worth picking up. His ceiling is very high while having a high floor. A War Machine purchase is likely to age well. He will feel different after the first week when everyone is playing War Machine decks, and he should be more abusable as he becomes a bit more unexpected. Second Dinner has slowed the release of restrictive locations (War Machine would have ruled in the Milano/Plunder Castle era). Still, there are already plenty of restrictions you can get around with War Machine. Silk is one of my personally most played cards, and Silver Samurai has more utility now than it was upon his initial release. You can feel good about popping some spotlight keys this week if you're missing either.
