Muscular Character Spotlight
Welcome to the sixth article highlighting the various characters in Set 4 of the My Hero Academia Collectible Card Game: League of Villains!
This week, we’re covering the aptly named brutish villain from the League’s Vanguard Action Squad, Muscular (I)!
Muscular focuses on late game scaling as he ramps up his attacks to deal devastating damage! True to his anime counterpart, Muscular just keeps ramping up to get more and more, well, muscular.
Muscular is a 5-hander with a very tanky 36 health. He may have less cards to work with than most of his fellow villains, but he makes up for it in survivability and two killer effects. His access to Earth, Fire, and Life gives Muscular some strong synergies to work with outside of his own signature cards.
Muscular’s first ability is a powerful static ability that ramps up throughout the game. When an attack deals damage, he gets a Muscle counter.
His Enhance gives meaning to those Muscle counters, boosting non-Throw attacks by 1 damage for each Muscle counter! This means that giving and taking punishment will just make Muscular stronger!
Muscular’s late game scaling is apparent on its own, but on top of that he has significant pay-offs for if he gets enough Muscle counters, such as repeatedly attacking with Determined Victory Smash! To help make sure that Muscular survives long enough to make use of his scaling, healing cards like Excited For Blood and Armored Muscles are pivotal.
Muscular’s Response helps to make up for the natural disadvantage of being a 5-hander. After taking damage from an unblocked attack, you can build 1 card from your card pool face down! This creates extra foundations and removes a card from the card pool, lowering progressive difficulty!
Muscular’s extra “vanilla” foundations are also great sacrifice outlets for cards like Full-On Attack Mode! which can help burn down opponents and keep Muscular healthy.
Nightmare Physique is one of Muscular’s most nightmarish attacks! In exchange for a counter, its first Enhance can give it +2 speed, giving players a modular choice between stronger and faster attacks.
The attack also limits your rival’s options thanks to its second Enhance, which can unflip 1 foundation or flip a rival foundation if it’s completely blocked. However, if it isn’t completely blocked, Muscular ramps up his Muscle counters! This “doomed if you do, doomed if you don’t” type of card is perfect for Muscular’s villainous repertoire of attacks.
Double Overhead Hammer Fist is a killer attack with a shockingly low 0 speed! It comes with 3 Enhance effects that each make it more terrifying.
The first Enhance makes your rival flip 1 foundation as an additional cost to block the attack, while the second Enhance discards 1 momentum to give it speed equal to its damage minus 5! With enough Muscle counters, Double Overhead Hammer Fist can reach dizzying speeds.
The card’s final effect is a Muscular Enhance that gives a Muscle counter when blocked, ramping up Muscular even further to finish off your opponents with devastating force!
Featuring all of your favorite Villains for the first time – My Hero Academia: League of Villains lets players join the League of Villains and show those Heroes what they are capable of!
Set 4 is available now at your Local Game Store! Find one here: https://play.mhacardgame.com/store-finder
