Blade’s abilities in Marvel Puzzle Quest revealed

Earlier in the day, I wrote that Blade would be coming to Marvel Puzzle Quest for Halloween.

Now we have more information on the game's newest character reward. Marvel.com posted an interview with D3Publisher Producer Joe Fletcher, and they discussed the Daywalker and his abilities.

Blade, who Fletcher views as bridging the gap between mystic origins and technological weapons, has Black, Purple and Green abilities. Here they are:

Nightstalker (Black) – emphasizes Blade's style of combat to put someone off balance. Deals moderate damage each time it's used, but also places a Countdown tile on the board, stealing AP from the enemy team's strongest color every turn. Costs 8 AP and Countdown tiles stack. Levels ramp up damage and AP steal.

Keep Your Enemies Closer (Purple) – stresses Blade's ability to continually assault his opponent. Creates an Attack tile on the board; more tiles are created as the ability levels. Each Attack tile deals damage each turn. When the tiles are placed, they get a bonus for each friendly Strike tile on the board.

The Thirst (Green) – Shows Blade's vampiric traits. It is a passive that creates Strike tiles on the board when there are more than a certain number of Red tiles on the board. These Strike tiles are more powerful than the tiles creates by Daken's Passive, but they're more difficult to get out there to start. Players will have to decide whether to use Thirst to have more powerful matches or use the Red AP to power other abilities.

Fletcher said that "Blade provides an interesting color combination for players that usually run a Red/Blue/Yellow or Red/Yellow/Green character as their main damage dealer. His Black ability also provides one of the rarest, and most sought after abilities in the game with AP stealing built in as part of it." He adds that Blade "is fully expected to take a place in a lot of teams that have made the 3* transition, and possibly even make a bit of disruption on the current metagame."

Blade should synergize well with Red/Blue/Yellow characters — Captain America, Thor Goddess of Thunder — and still be good with other characters like Hulk, Punisher and Thor Modern.

Marvel