Disclaimer: I love Iron Man and I really like War Machine, not to mention all their awesome suits and armor, therefore my review here is purely my own opinion and based on the competitive level of the game.
Also, there might be some words that you might not understand from this article, these are terms we used in the game,
Beefy - Strong stats
Ramp - Effects that allows you to roll more dice
Ping - Dealing damage to a character
Pump - Additional stats to a character
Spill damage - Damage from overcrush
Swarm - Having way more characters in the field than your opponent and attacking with all of them. Not to be confused with the Swarm Keyword. New Keyword
Basic Action Cards
Armor wars action is suitable for dealing with characters with suit up, specifically characters from this set. So if you want to use it in a competitive environment, use other basic action cards, you might not find any characters with suit up in a competitive play.
This is an alternate art card to the Cone of Cold basic action in Dungeons and Dragon set.
Tired of having your opponent just sitting down there and pinging you with action dice or global abilities, why not force your opponent to attack every single turn. This action is continuous, so it stays in the field until someone removes it, so it can be annoying if you don't attack on your turn and lose 2 life. You can combo this with aggressive characters so you will be glad to attack every turn and not making this action a hindrance.
Well, if you a re worried about your opponent's field of characters, this would be your solution. You deal direct damage to your opponent from this action simply because he/she has characters in the field, even if they don't, you get to deal at least 1 damage, and that is crucial.
Alternate art card from Avengers vs X-Men set.
Alternate art card from Age of Ultron Set
Iron Will allows your characters to go aggressive and at the same time harder to get knocked out, if you intend to play a team of shield characters, this action would be beneficial for you since you probably won't lose 2 life for using this action.
Fist characters are usually more aggressive, so this basic action card is great for your fist team because you won't need to knock it out at the end of the turn. Even if you aren't using it on fist characters, knocking them out might not necessarily be a bad thing. A 2 cost overcrush action is a good deal.
To put it very simple, this basic action card is used to support level 1 mask character, for only 2 cost, you can make a character unblockable. That's so worth it.
I don't recall seeing a basic action card that gives a character fast, so this would be the first, but only limited to bolt characters, either way, you can use it to pump a character's attack, so bot a bad deal.
Character Cards
We have our first character in this set. It has been ages since we have any new shield agents. Howard Stark is simply a low cost sidekick that you can consider using in your sidekick combo. His level 3 additional ability allows him to be immune of global abilities, he can't be ping, but you can't pump him with global as well.
At one additional cost, you get an ability that could help you win the game. That additional 2 damage might come in handy. However, you have to activate his ability at the start of your turn, so your opponent can choose which character to target or block. But apart from that, he's decent.
Instead of giving the character additional damage, you simply level it up and give it iron will. Iron will can prevent your characters from getting knocked out unless your opponent first deals damage to it. I can't really see how a one turn iron will is going to benefit a character, because you can't use Howard's ability to react, you have to use it before anything happens, so if your opponent wants to knock out a character, Howard cannot do anything about it.
Hulkbuster Iron Man is really beefy, but his ability is not very powerful. A simple sidekick or 2 cost character can block him, and a low cost character with high defense can neutralize his attack. So nothing justifies his high cost.
Fielding Hulkbuster Iron Man is great, but at 6 cost with no other abilities, it sure is costly.
A beefy character like this should never have fielding abilities, you are going to have trouble making it exit the field. That being said, the ability is good, higher cost character can sometimes be a hindrance and very hard to deal with, so knocking them out can ease you in the game for a while, and that additional health gain is a bonus. If you really need someone to bust a big guy, look no further.
A level 2 Iron Manor is very powerful, so the substitution can be a great improvement. The most important part of the card is the global, which is important to Stark Industries character. Spin a character down and you get to reduce of one their fielding cost. So if you are planning to use a Stark Industries team, remember this card.
If that Stark Industries supporting global doesn't appeal to you, how about this one? If you have a lot of active Stark Industries characters in the field, your Iron Manor will get really powerful.
If you like the previous 2 cards, why not have both of them on one card at only 1 cost higher, it's a great deal.
Iron Spider's stats are great, his ability is decent, that 1 additional defense might come in handy. And having 2 affiliation is good too.
I don't remember a spider man or iron spider that has stats lower than Iron Spider's level 2. Regardless, it's not that powerful if he doesn't have any other abilities.
If you are playing Stark Industries or Spider Friends team, you can use Iron Spider to knock out any beefy characters of your choice. Not bad for a Spidey.
Jarvis is a wild card here, he is able to knock out a beefy character, if you manage to keep fielding characters. Even without other character's help, he is able to deal at least 1 damage when he is fielded. His global is similar to Iron Manor's global ability, but if you wish to use the global twice per turn, you can include Jarvis in your team.
For 4 cost, you really need to keep fielding Jarvis to reduce a character's fielding cost every turn to make up the cost for purchasing Jarvis. If you can do it frequently, it'll benefit you in the long run, that additional pump can come in handy as well.
Jarvis is really costly here for his stats, but if you wish to use him as a life gainer, you can do so. Healing is a very powerful ability, you might just heal yourself from 1 to 20 life after fielding a bunch of characters over time.
If you wish to use a low cost Stark Industries character, look no further.
Sometimes whenever you don't get to roll a character face, it will affect your game, rescue however makes you wish that you roll on her energy face, because that will make your opponent lose life. Plus, you still can use her energy for more purpose. Great ability.
Rescue is a good way to field all your Stark Industries character, but you must first be able to draw them for her ability. It requires a few skills to set up and some luck, but if you are able to pull it off, you can set up your Stark Industries character really fast.
Space Armor Iron Man has great stats but without any other ability, it is a little weak compared to other versions of Iron Man and other Armors.
For an additional cost, you get Space Armor Iron Man with an ability on it's burst sides. The ability is not that bad, it allows you to gain life each time he is blocked or he blocks, the more blockers that engaged to him, the more life you gain. It's a decent ability, but unfortunately his highest level doesn't have that ability.
Space Armor Iron Man is best if you field him at level 1, he gets overcrush for free this turn, you could go aggressive with him by attacking and even if he is knocked out, you can return him to the field at a higher level to keep him as a blocker, so it's a great trade off. I know what you are thinking, his attack value is not very high and his defenses makes him almost invulnerable, but with a little stats flipped global from Ant Man or Kal L, you can solve that issue.
For a 3 cost character and a decent stats as well as Fast, this is one of the best War Machine ever produced in the game. He got the Stark Industries affiliation as well, so that's another plus point.
Having fast can allow you to control your opponent's aggression. And War Machine's ability makes your opponent life even harder. If War Machine knocks out a character in combat, which isn't really a hard thing to do, your opponent takes 2 damage, just like that, plus his level 1 has an increased attack value so that's another plus point.
This version of War Machine gives an option for suiting up and also his burst side is a relatively good deal. But the other 2 versions are stronger.
Conclusion
It's great to have a starter set that doesn't have any expansion foil packs. The starter is generally decent so if you don't have a starter, it is good to use this as your starting point. If you do possess one, you can add the cards and action to your collection or team.
Although the starter only provide you with 2 dice of each character but you only need 2, seriously I don't think you'll even buy 3 of each character in a game, but if you really want to have 4 dice, feel free to buy 2 of this starter set, it's not that expensive to begin with.
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