"Prepare to suffer the sting of Ghost Rider's power! Prepare to know the true meaning of hell!" - Johnathon Blaze (Daredevil Vol 1 #138)

The Spirit of Vengeance has come to the VS2PCG bringing Hell on Wheels. How much pain will his Penance inflict on you?

Leveling

Level up (3) "When Innocent Blood is Spilled": When another character on your side gets KO'd on an enemy players turn, Ghost Rider gains an XP.

Leveling Ghost Rider up is dependent on your opponent. Your opponent controls how fast you level which is hardly ever a good thing. If your opponent can stun Ghost Rider first, then they will be able to keep him from being able to level up at all. This makes him a difficult Main Character to play with.

You need to have a good way to protect him and play defensive in the early game, yet in the late game make up that early game by having a strong late game. It is a very difficult thing to do both in one deck.

Super Powers

Level 1 Power: Spirit of Vengeance - Main : Stun an enemy character that attacked since the end of your last turn.

This ability is flavorful and strong though at the cost of being very expensive. It is a great ability to use on your opponent's Main Character. A great thing to use against any counter stacking character.

Costing two resources seems pretty fair for the ability. With having a second ability still to cover still that uses a different color, this deck can be very resource intensive if you plan to use all of his abilities.

Level 2 Power: "Hell on Wheels" - Main : If Ghost Rider is ready, drive him to an enemy row. He may make any number of melee attacks, one at a time, against characters in that row. When Ghost Rider gets stunned, or you're done attacking, drive him back to one of your rows exhausted.

This ability has a lot to take in all at once. Let's look at it step by step. Ghost Rider has to be ready. You choose an enemy row and "drive" him there. Generally you do this by pointing at the row or moving Ghost Rider Main Character right next to it. So far so good.

He may make any number of melee attacks, one at a time, against characters in that row. That is very strong. Theoretically, you can take out an entire row of characters for just a assuming he doesn't get stunned back during any of the attacks.

Another great thing about the "any number of attacks" is that defensive plot twists that are enough to stop you from stunning the opponent's character but doesn't stun you, allows you to attack again. This way you can get through cards like "Think Again" or a defensive ability like Magneto's "Magnetic Force Field".

When Ghost Rider gets stunned, or you're done attacking, drive him back to one of your rows exhausted. Simple enough there. If he is stunned however, he will go back to one of your rows stunned which the ability really doesn't clarify. This ability can be devastating on your opponent but if your opponent has a really big character out or a lot of multi health characters, this ability declines in value a little bit. You can still always get to a character you want to attack though which is still amazing on it's own.

Deck Construction

First and foremost, you want to figure out a way you can help guarantee your opponent will have to KO your supporting characters before Ghost Rider Main Character. One way is to have them have flying or reach. Another way is for them to be a big target that your opponent can't just sit be and let you have out. Ideally you want both and to have only one health. This isn't as easy to achieve as it may seem at first glance.

After that you usually want to figure out what abilities you are aiming to use. Usually players will want to use Hell on Wheels as it is very strong. Spirit of Vengeance is great as well but costly. If you are planning on using Spirit of Vengeance and Hell on Wheels that is 3 different locations and likely a wild. That is 16 locations already if you are running 4 of each and you'll likely want to save all of those for Ghost Rider if able. You will have to choose your supporting characters and their super powers very carefully.

Then you have to have a suitable end game as well with the characters specifically devoted to helping Ghost Rider level and a likely high location count. .

Brother Dillon works very well with Ghost Rider due to the fact that if you are able to get Ghost Rider's stats high enough, he likely can't be stunned back since the effect lasts the entire turn. You will still have to be careful about Even the Odds though. Using Ghost Rider to power himself up and then giving Ghost Rider +8/+8 on top of the +1/+1 counter seems good. There are other ways to get large characters into the KO pile like Dramatic Entrance, Moon Knight and Emma Frost.

Another thing that can help Ghost Rider be large enough is equipment, specifically Power Loader. Giving him +5/+5 is great if he doesn't get stunned. Plot twists can also help. Squeezing all of this into one deck can be very hard to do and can make the deck very draw dependent.

Overall Ghost Rider's abilities are amazing but he can be hard to level. He is definitely an interesting and flavorful character if nothing else. Do you dare to ride? If you dare, will you burst into flames or ride off into the sunset victorious?