“My name is Daniel Rand. I am the Iron Fist and I know kung fu.” – Danny Rand

Following in his father’s footsteps, Danny Rand inherited the Rand Corporation and sought out the mystical city of K’un-Lun in the Himalayas. After training for a decade within the pocket dimension, he absorbed the mystical energies of Shou-Lao the Undying. Now a master of kung fu and a channeler of the energy that flows through all living things, chi, Danny has become the living weapon of K’un-Lun: the Iron Fist.

Fantasy Flight Games is excited to announce the Iron Fist Hero Pack for Marvel Champions: The Card Game!

An expert martial artist and core member of the Defenders, Iron Fist dives into the scene with this expansion pack, which introduces him as a new playable hero alongside his fifteen signature cards. Paired with a pre-built Protection deck to help him keep his friends safe, you’ll be able to wield Iron Fist’s kung fu prowess from the moment you open the box. With his ability to channel chi and multiple signature techniques that let him switch fighting styles on the fly, Iron Fist is a potent, combo-heavy hero who packs a big punch.

Martial Arts Master

A hero like Iron Fist is bound to have several tools in his kit, and first and foremost of those tools are his martial arts.

To represent his wide breadth of mystical techniques, Iron Fist has five different Technique upgrades in his signature kit. As Danny Rand (Iron Fist, 1B), he can search for one of these upgrades once per turn and put it into play. When he dons the mantle of Iron Fist (Iron Fist, 1A), he can power that technique with his chi. We mean that literally, since Iron Fist gains a chi counter every time you play a card, and all five of his Technique cards spend those counters in some way. For example, you can spend 1 chi counter on Channel the Iron Fist (Iron Fist, 8) to boost the power of your attacks, use any number of chi counters to thwart the same amount of threat with Feel the Flow (Iron Fist, 10), or spend 2 counters to generate two wild resources with Redirect Chi (Iron Fist, 12).

There are two key things to remember when it comes to Iron Fist’s Technique cards. First, all five of them have the “temporary” keyword, which means they will discard themselves at the end of the round. This means that, typically, you’ll only be able to make use of the techniques on the same turn that you play them, but you can get around this by flipping down to Danny Rand, who removes the temporary keyword for as long as he remains in alter-ego form. You can also “carry over” a technique to the next round with the Book of the Iron Fist (Iron Fist, 7), immediately replaying the card from your discard pile. The second thing to remember is that none of the Technique cards need to be exhausted to use their abilities, which means so long as you have enough chi counters to spend, you can keep using them over and over!

Of course, managing your chi counters is a key element to Iron Fist’s playstyle. As we mentioned before, you gain a chi counter for every card you play, which means 0-cost cards like Deep Breathing (Iron Fist, 2) and the Technique upgrades themselves are especially valuable for building counters quickly. Even 1-cost cards like Fists of Fury (Iron Fist, 4) and Lei Kung (Iron Fist, 6) can be an efficient source of chi counters, in addition to their own useful abilities. Since you can only carry up to 4 chi counters past the end of the player phase, cards like The Way of Things (Iron Fist, 5) and Dragon Punch (Iron Fist, 3) can give you an alternate way to spend them outside of your Technique cards. If you’d rather hoard those chi counters for an explosive next turn, you could always flip down to alter-ego—after all, the Forced Response that discards your chi counters at the end of the phase only applies to Iron Fist’s hero form!

Although Iron Fist’s signature kit already has several tools to help him get the best use out of his Technique cards, he certainly won’t say no to assistance from his pre-built Protection deck. Helpful Bystander (Iron Fist, 13) can increase your hand size, allowing you to play more cards—and generate more chi counters—each turn, though they will need your protection. No Time to Bleed (Iron Fist, 19) can double up on the benefits Iron Fist receives for playing lots of cards in a turn, allowing him to heal up the damage he takes from attacks he triggers with cards like Demoralize (Iron Fist, 16). If you manage to “exactly defend” against an enemy attack—meaning your DEF exactly equals the final, modified ATK of the attacker—then you can punch back with Redirection Mastery (Iron Fist, 18), which stacks wonderfully with retaliate. Speaking of retaliate, if you don’t need the DEF boost from Tonfa (Iron Fist, 20) to reach that “exact defense” threshold (which you can decide after the boost card is revealed), you can always use it to retaliate instead. If you need to stack as much DEF as possible, then Iron Fist’s good friend Luke Cage (Iron Fist, 22) is here to help you out. Luke also gives Danny access to the potent team-up card Power Man and Iron Fist (Iron Fist, 24), which, as a 0-cost event card, is an efficient source of chi!

Warrior of K’un-Lun

With potent ability to channel his chi and access to a wide array of mystical techniques, Iron Fist is a powerful hero and the perfect closer to the game’s Defenders wave. Look forward to taking on Kingpin and his criminal empire as Iron Fist when the Iron Fist Hero Pack releases alongside the Elektra Hero Pack this November!

You can preorder your own copy of the Iron Fist Hero Pack (MC64en) at your local retailer or online through our webstore today!

Written by Peter Schumacher