Welcome to a deep dive look and review into Rogue, one of the newest Heroes in Marvel Champions. Rogue is a complex and interesting character that offers a unique playing experience, though she requires some patience and strategy to master.
Starting with her Alter Ego side, Anna Marie doesn't offer much in terms of benefits or special abilities. She has only three recovery and a setup ability to get touched. Outside of the X-Men supports or needing to heal there is not a lot of reason to be here.
However, when you flip the card over to her Hero side, Rogue's abilities really start to shine.
On her Hero side, she boasts an impressive 2/2/2 stat line, making her a very well rounded solo character. She also has a unique ability called Skin Contact, which allows her to attach Touched to a character and gain their traits until the end of the phase. Touched is an upgrade we'll discuss in a moment, but let's first focus on the traits.
Skin Contact opens up a huge variety of deck-building options, allowing players to dive into some of the tribes that we've already seen in Marvel Champions. For example, you can have Touched on Avengers, and play all the Avenger cards (like Quincarrier etc), or play all the Champions, the Web Warriors, and so on. The possibilities are vast, which can make playing Rogue a little overwhelming, but also exciting.
Touched is an upgrade that opens up a whole new level of strategy for Rogue. Whenever you attach Touched to the villain, you get Retaliate. If you attach it to an ally, you get Aerial. On Minion, you get Overkill, and on a hero, you get Stalwart. (While this review is focused on Solo Play - Stalwart is fantastic to have in a multiplayer game.)
The ability to take on the traits of your allies, combined with the benefits of Overkill, Aerial or Retaliate, makes Rogue an incredibly versatile and exciting character to play. The deck-building options and the addition of Touch makes Rogue even more complex, but also a lot of fun to experiment with.
The flexibility of Rogue's cards is tied to the Touched mechanic and opens up a lot of options for her kit. Going Rogue and Southern Cross have different effects based on what condition she has, making them versatile in various situations. For instance, if you need to stun the villain and you have Southern Cross, you can attach Touched on the villain. Or you can attach Touched to an ally and deal extra damage.
Energy Transfer is probably my favorite card in her kit, as it allows you to move Touched to a character that is not Rogue and deal two damage, heal two from her identity, and ready her, while also gaining the traits of the new character. The cost benefit of this card is excellent! For 3 Effective Resources you are getting a lot of bang for your buck and also provides the flexibility of having touched on two different characters in a given round. Touched can start on an ally, use Super Power Adaptation to fish for an event, then get moved to the villain to set up a powerful Southern Cross or basic attack with a boosted attack modifier if you have Rogue's Jacket on the Table
Rogue's kit is very flexible and can be tailored to fit different playstyles and strategies. Her kit has a lot of cards that interact with her "Touch" mechanic and is very versatile and can be adapted to fit a wide range of playstyles. Her Touch mechanic allows her to copy traits and fill different roles depending on the situation, while her other cards provide utility and damage.
Deft Focus is a basic card that works really well in Rogue's kit has eight valid targets for it. It's an excellent card for her, and you won't catch a Rogue player running a deck without it.
Additionally, because Rogue can get the traits from whoever touch is attached to, it makes all of those trait-locked gray guards super good. For example, if you want to play a Quincarrier, you can throw a touch on an Avenger, or if you want to Go For Champions, you can throw it on Snowguard or whoever you have sitting out there with that champion trait. This means that all those epic gray cards are open to her, and it really just depends on how the deck is built and piloted.
Justice - Justice is placed fourth on the tier list for Rogue due to her already having a significant amount of thwarting abilities in her kit. Although Justice does add to this aspect, there is not much synergy between the two cards beyond that. Justice is best utilized in a confused build or when there is no immediate threat on the main scheme.
Aggression - Aggression is ranked third by some due to difficulties in making it work well with Rogue's kit. However, there is potential for a build with Aggression that could benefit from her Overkill abilities.
Protection - Protection is ranked second due to its unique ability to generate multiple kickers of her event cards. Dauntless is currently the only way to give Rogue multiple trains in solo play outside a few specific matchups. The aspect's readies can exploit Rogue's Jacket with cards like What Doesn't Kill Me and Ever Vigilant, offering a great deal of flexibility.
Leadership - Leadership is the best aspect for Rogue due to its ability to quickly bring trait lock cards into play. Cards like Make the Call and Call for Aid help players get the right allies on the table to play their trait lock cards effectively.
After playing with Rogue extensively, I've concluded that she is a solid B tier hero. She's one of the more versatile characters in the game, and with a good deck build she can be very powerful. In order to truly make her shine, it takes both a well-crafted deck and skillful play.
I've taken Rogue up against some tough opponents, including Magneto, Rhino, and Klaw, as well as the entire Rise of Red Skull campaign. While she can be incredibly powerful when her mechanics are utilized properly, I found it difficult to maximize her potential. Rogue requires time to set up and build up her strengths, which can be easily foiled by villains who attack hard and fast.
Overall, Rogue is a fun and versatile hero to play, but she does require some finesse. She's not quite as straightforward as some of the other heroes, but the potential payoff is worth the effort. I'm excited to see how players will continue to evolve Rogue's gameplay as the game expands with new traits and abilities.