Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ marketing cycle is underway with a concrete release date of October 7. Every playable character has been announced with the exemption of a character who is being kept secret until players finish Marvel’s Midnight Suns, and showcases for each of them are being presented to fans in the weeks preceding its release.
Earlier this month, Marvel’s Midnight Suns released its first deep-dive on Captain America. This five-minute character showcase did not fully depict Steve Rogers’ character, nor did it oversee every tactic he has in the card-battler, but it gave enough of a thorough introduction to Captain America to excite fans, detailing several unique abilities he affords to players on their three-character team. Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ newest character showcase offers the same kind of insights into Tony Stark’s Iron Man.
Iron Man’s Egocentrism Is Crucial in Marvel’s Midnight Suns
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The card-battler gameplay for Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ Iron Man revolves entirely around redraws. Redraws allow players to withdraw one card from their hand and substitute it with another random card from their deck, with players only having two available per turn.
Interestingly, Iron Man can weaponize this mechanic. Instead of discarding his character’s unique cards upon a redraw, many of his cards will be buffed as a way of emphasizing Iron Man’s “habit of making himself the center of attention.” It is unclear whether all of his cards behave this way or if some are discarded upon redraw, but the cards shown in this latest Marvel’s Midnight Suns showcase all have redraw buffs portrayed in detail.
Iron Man’s cards have the potential to quickly saturate the player’s hand since redrawing does not discard them. However, having myriad Iron Man cards is a benefit because the character is able to provide “area damage, direct damage, support, defense,” and have each of these abilities buffed in the meantime. According to YouTuber Christopher Odd, who partnered with 2K Games for this showcase series, fans should find other Marvel's Midnight Suns characters to supplement Iron Man, but it appears he could be overwhelmingly powerful if players are meticulous in how they choose which cards to redraw each turn.
Iron Man’s Heroics Benefit from Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ Redraw Mechanic
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That is where Iron Man’s heroics come in. Iron Man seems to perform at his best in Marvel’s Midnight Suns when redraws are used on his cards exclusively, meaning other characters may be neglected or left to a support role. Players failing to redraw Iron Man cards can suffer from a low-quality Iron Man build because Iron Man’s heroic cards are supplemented by the redraw mechanic almost exclusively.
For example, Iron Man’s Surgical Strike heroic allows players to chain as many attacks together as they have Iron Man cards in their hand, with the showcase demonstrating Iron Man’s quick aerial repulsor strikes on four enemies due to having four Iron Man cards at the time. Therefore, Iron Man is potentially weaker without redraws to supplement his own cards and heroics.
One of Iron Man’s skill cards, Leave It to Me, seems essential in making him a powerhouse on the battlefield. Leave It to Me gifts players two extra redraws, draws two Iron Man cards, and will “generate extra heroism,” basically supplementing his character completely in one fell swoop depending on the cards that occupy the player’s hand. But even Blast, one of Iron Man’s regular attacks, is buffed with redraw and adds the Forceful effect to its ordinary Knockback effect. "I’ll Handle This" grants an extra redraw if two Iron Man cards are played in a turn, and is a passive ability seemingly learned after befriending Tony in Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ Abbey.
Iron Man is a One-Man Army in Marvel’s Midnight Suns
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Iron Man is completely reliant on redraws, and his character is rewarded greatly for having a hand saturated with cards. Players can achieve a lot per turn with only Iron Man, and amassing cards for optimal damage seems overpowered if players can use passive abilities and skills to stack redraws. Typically, having a full hand with only one character’s cards could be a detriment, but Iron Man can make effective use of all cards in a single turn. Iron Man’s Air Superiority heroic, for example, damages every enemy. That damage is increased by 20 points if players redraw that card, up to two times, creating a devastating effect with Iron Man’s missile barrage.
Because the redraw mechanic can be used to buff Iron Man’s attacks and heroics, having a full hand of Iron Man cards can be a boon to players who have drawn Hellfire Beam. This unique Marvel’s Midnight Suns take on Iron Man’s unibeam damages enemies in a straight line, and can be redrawn as many times as players have an available redraw for 25 extra damage each, stacking the unibeam’s damage immensely if players have reserved extra redraws.
So while redraws can be used to amplify one or more Iron Man cards saturating the player’s hand, Hellfire Beam is more than worth the expenditure of all redraws as long as players have an optimal straight line of attack. Further, Odd says cards can unlock additional abilities in the late-game. Hellfire Beam’s second tier offers an additional redraw for any KO’d enemy, while a third tier gains a 25 percent chance to apply Marked on an enemy. The Marked effect refunds the player’s card play on successful KO. Based on all this information, Iron Man is looking like a foundational addition to any player’s team in Marvel’s Midnight Suns.
Marvel’s Midnight Suns releases October 7 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
