The Dragon is from the Alien 3 movie for those who have seen it or would like to get more of a backstory on this character. With me not wanting to spoil the movie for you, I'll let you go look that up on your own if you wish.

This 5 cost Xenomorph brings a world of headaches onto your opponent turn after turn. With the cards spoiled so far from The Alien Battles set, we have seen the highly aggressive nature of the alien faction to which this card is no exception. My fear with the Alien faction was that with the cards spoiled, many have 1 defense and 1 health. The faction needs something that that sticks on the board and remains as a constant threat otherwise it would likely "run out of gas" later in the game. This card remedies that issue by being the attacker that keeps on attacking.

Now let's look at comparable characters stat wise. Other notable 5 drops that quickly come to mind to compare to The Dragon are Punisher and Miss America. Punisher feels like quite a different card because of Lethal, Ranged, and 1 Health. The Punisher's stats alone (7/3) for a 5 cost character usually results in a stun and The Dragon will likely be no different. What is interesting to think about is how Punisher is known for KOing characters with more than one health similar to The Dragon when Punisher is attacking due to lethal. Don't worry about The Dragon in this circumstance, because the two will likely never meet in combat. The Dragon will likely always be attacking and will usually get stunned back so it won't be able to be attacked by Punisher.

Miss America on the other hand has flying which while similar to attacking as leap, except Miss Americas true potential really comes out as a flying road block that can instantly recover with the keyword "Tough" which The Dragon cannot do. Miss America can't heal her wounds though which is a huge benefit for board presence that The Dragon represents. The Dragon can keep attacking and make your opponent wonder if you have a Space location in hand to heal its wounds or if it is going to attack 3 times and be done. The ability to heal your wounds makes his card a frightening threat.

Things to be Cautious About

There are a few things to be cautious with when playing this card. The first one is that if you are against a discard deck, be cautious about saving a space resource in your hand to amplify as they may be able to discard it before you can use it.

When I first saw amplify and what it did, I immediately thought of Rocket SC and how synergistic it would be getting a Space location back from your KO pile. This also can sort of counter the effects of discard trying to prevent you from triggering Amplify. There have been decks that use Star-Lord SC for his ability to make your other supporting characters count as a Guardians of the Galaxy supporting character and also as an added benefit can use the Knowhere Location. The thing to be cautious about here is to remember the Knowhere location doesn't count as any type, so it won't work as a space.

In the same thought wave of cautionary tales for mixing with Guardians of the Galaxy faction, we have the Leap keyword and Vigilante Justice. The leap ability to attack a back row character is still a melee attack and you should keep that in mind. That makes Vigilante Justice seem pretty sweet at first glance, however, I don't think you want to play Vigilante Justice on The Dragon as you kind of want it to get stunned to be unattackable on your oppoenents turn for their characters with Lethal.

Last but not least, another thing to be cautious about is Thanos SC can give a surprise wound and negate your plans to heal a wound from The Dragon, especailly if saving until you have two wounds for the amplify effect.

Wrapping up

I want to thank Upper Deck again for publishing such a great game and giving me the honor of having an exclusive preview. Let me know what you think in the comments below on this website, on the PauperTim facebook page, the shared post in the VS 2PCG Collective group, or by tweeting at me on twitter.