Over the next few articles I am going to take a look at all of the plot twists released to date and describe why they are useful (or not) and some plays and situations in which they are optimal. The first article will be the generic plot twists from Marvel Battles. There has been 1 generic per team affiliation so far, so as new sets are released the total number will only get larger.

Generic plot twists can be played with any combination of characters on your side, so they are always more versatile than team plot twists. Thus on average they are slightly less powerful than their team plot twist comparisons. Every deck needs at least some generics, though, and so knowing which ones compliment which decks will help when building and playing.

There are two base set generic plot twists for attackers and two for defenders, and let's start with the attacker plot twists. Note that these are only playable on attackers, so they are limited to when you are attacking (unless you want to pump your opponent's characters!)

Offensive Generic Plot Twists

Open fire is as basic as a plot twist comes: An attacker gets +2/+0 for a combat. This will almost always allow a character to stun another up the curve (3 drop stunning a 4 drop) and when used for that purpose, can be an effective card. It is virtually a staple in aggressive decks, as sometimes you just need a way to get a few more attack points to seal the deal. Note that when used on Daredevil, this plot twist becomes twice as effective thanks to his striking with double his attack. Also, a nifty play with recently spoiled Mystique MC would be to team attack with Mystique and a supporting character with decent attack (let's say 4), open fire the SC, then copy him, giving Mystique +5 experience and attack.

This has been the most underplayed plot twist in the base set, and for good reason: you often don't care that much about your defense when you're on offense. The pump is pretty strong, but if you are using this card in place of an attack pump, and the opponent pumps their defense as well, then you used a card in an attack that didn't work, which is bad. Also, even in the best case scenario of turning a mutual stun into only stunning their guy, next turn they are likely to recruit a support character that's the strongest on the board and then stun you on their attack anyway.

There are some niche uses for the card, however. One suggestion was to use in on your opponent's attacks to prevent them from stunning their own characters, such as Thanos MC often will do. The next turn, you could stun Thanos first, then KO the SC, preventing his XP. This would be hard to pull off, and still requires you to play a card that is not very useful in other scenarios. And you still have to use a card to stop attacks from weak characters, which isn't really the way to win against the top deck.

Defensive Generic Plot Twists

One of the strongest attack pumps in the game, this card easily can help a support character go 2 or 3 spots up the curve and stun back a much beefier character. This card is especially potent when used on characters with ferocious, allowing them to strike first with a ton of power and stun even late game threats.

Savage surprise can also do a ton of work for you, even when it isn't in your hand. If the opponent is protecting a few characters with one large flier in their front row, they might be reluctant to make any attacks with their flier out of fear that you will savage surprise, and thus leave their back row exposed. So either you have it, and you can mess up their formation and lead to a board-wiping turn on offense for yourself, or even if you don't, you might be able to dissuade them from making certain attacks. Savage surprise is likely going to see lots of play for a long time because of its raw power and ability to foil formations.

Starting in the base set, VS2PCG set the trend of defensive cards being slightly stronger than offensive cards. Instead of +2 like open fire, find cover is a flat +3. 3 defense is strong, and the opponent will need multiple cards or something like a wolverine pump or even the odds to match it. This card was a staple in defensive minded decks, although it has been supplanted by a superior card from defenders. Still, some decks will play both, and find cover will still see plenty of play for that reason.