The Herald of Embers
Frankie Raye is such a legacy character that it would be surprising to know about her. She first appeared as a lab assistant with a sunny disposition and a real talent for science. However, under the surface you would find generational trauma and fiery powers to burst into flames and—wait, she is just another Human Torch?
Her powers were the result of an accident that doused her with the chemicals that were used to create the original Human Torch (not Johnny Storm, it's a long story). For years, she kept her powers hidden, mostly afraid of never being invited to a barbecue without having to be the grill.
When she finally embraced the hero's life, she didn’t settle to be a street-level hero, no. She became the Herald of none other than the big G himself, all to save Earth from his hunger. She took the name Nova (not Richard Rider), and the soul crushing responsibility of condemning planets and its inhabitants to their doom at the hands of Galactus. Much more soulcrushing than the regular 9 to 5 I’d say.
From Deadpool to both versions of Johnny Storm, we should know by now how powerful doubling up power can get. Nova is bringing a new way to do that, all you need to do is drop a 6-Costed card (sold separately) anytime during the game and she’ll go further, faster and even stronger. Take note that contrary to the cards I mentioned, Frankie only gets her double up once. As the holder of only 3 power, she might seem a bit too small to double up, right? Since you’ll probably have a long time for that 6-Costed card to reach the board, we can efficiently use that time to buff her up as many times as possible. What we need are some–
Buffers
There are many ways to get Nova even more powerful before her doubling up, let me list the ones I believe would be best suited for that.
Depending on your choice of buffers, Frankie could go onto quite a different set of lists so keep in mind that a deck with Namora will be vastly different than one featuring Kahhori. But no matter which version you decide to take Frankie, you’ll musn’t forget that you’ll also need to drop a–
6-Costed Card
There’s no way around it. Unless you manually play a 6-Costed card from your hand onto the board, Frankie will be as useful as Shocker. You might consider going full lore by playing Galactus First Steps together with her for a heavy hitter at the end of the game. To be fair, any powerful 6-Drop such as Red Hulk or even Magneto could fit the bill. So don’t feel like an obligation to have The Big Space Man.
If you’re following this direction, you might want to consider Wave or Luna Snow to play your big drops without having to spend a whole turn on them. Maybe an Electro Too? All of these cards could follow up a turn 2 Frankie.
My personal favorite direction would be playing a 6-Costed card that discounts itself. Take your pick from She-Hulk, Mockingbird, and Sasquatch. It’s a shame that Skaar was nerfed to a 7-Costed card or we could’ve recruited him.
If you’re eyeing She-Hulk, don’t forget her usual teammates like the High Evo gang and Sunspot.
If Mockingbird and Sasquatch have your attention, be glad to know that you could quite easily play them both together thanks to Mysterio. Quentin is so good that after being played, he discounts both Mockingbird and Sasquatch by three points when played.
One last card that I’ll list is Valentina, she might seem like a weird inclusion but she can reliably give us a 6-Costed card with a hefty discount of 2 energy. You don’t get to choose which 6-Costed card you’ll get but more often than not it's going to be a great card. The mystery box could be anything, it could even be a Galactus First Steps!
Flame Off
Just a warning: when playing with Frankie, you’ll need to be careful with any power reduction. For every single power she loses, it's doubled thanks to how her effect works. If your opponent is playing a power reduction deck of any type, you might want to consider keeping Frankie in hand as if she drops into the negative, she’ll be quite detrimental to your chances of winning when you drop your 6-costed card. Consider retreating if you see any of these guys in action:
Dualgloves's Day One Frankie Raye Decks
Power Buff Girls
High Nova
The Mora
Get the Bird
Termina
Variants
Frankie is arriving with a ton of options. Pick your favorite from this plentiful list of women on fire on space! I’m going with Winking Studios.
Final Thoughts
Hey Glad to have you back here again! You might be wondering if you should grab the card, right? I’m excited to try a lot of weird stuff with Frankie but I don’t think she’ll be a must have card unless they release a Marvel Boy or something similar for 2-Drops. So in the meantime she might be a perfectly decent card. I would check the temperature a day or two after her release to know if she fizzled out or if she is pure fire.
Giveaway!
Good News, Everyone! I got a Pax Bundle code to give away! Hit the comments here with your Discord Username and your favorite obscure Marvel character and why you like them so much. I’ll pick a winner from the list and contact them through Discord. Make sure that you’re part of our Discord Community! You’ll have until next Friday the 15th. I’ll also do another giveaway on my Location Lowdown coming up this Wednesday so keep an eye out!