Scooby, Shaggy, and the gang are uniquely associated with one thing: MYSTERY. 

The young detectives of Mystery Inc. live for adventure, embarking on zany capers, unravelling enigmas, unmasking villains, and foiling their schemes. These themes are coming to HeroClix in the form of Mystery Cards, a never-before-seen mechanic which will allow your characters to solve mysteries to unlock special bonuses. These bonuses are cumulative as you advance the plot of each Mystery Card, allowing your team’s strategy to build to a crescendo! 

What’s it all mean? 

Mystery Cards are a part of your Sideline and begin the game in play, allowing you to immediately begin collecting Clue tokens and cracking those cases! Let’s take a look at Which Witch is Which? as an example: 

This card has two keywords: Detective and Mystery Inc. That means that characters with either of those keywords will be able to make progress towards solving the mystery and unlocking the many benefits of this Mystery Card. 

CLUE EFFECT: Scooby Gang: motivates you to use Perplex against opposing characters instead of on your own, bringing your characters into the fray. As Velma confounds the villain, your team builds advantage! 

Suspect (3) means that once you have 3 Clue Tokens, you’ll unlock this ability. Rerolling your opponent’s Shape Change offers, it’s like you’re getting ready to unmask and defeat the villain. 

Case Closed (9) is the most epic ability you’ll be able to unlock with this mystery card! When you knock back opposing characters, you’ll be able to deal them some extra damage. When Fred bumps into your enemies, it’ll be a severe bonk! 

What made the team interested in this? 

We knew that giving something special to the members of Mystery Inc. was important. In addition, solving mysteries is a key story beat for a ton of DC Comics. Even the relationship between Scooby-Doo and Batman goes back 50 years! In 1972’s Scooby-Do Meets Batman, they teamed up to defeat both the Penguin and the Joker. Therefore, we wanted to create a mechanic that would benefit not only the members of Mystery Inc. but all characters with the Detective keyword—past and present! 

Beyond the theme, one of the recognizable elements of HeroClix is that most characters and forces have diminishing impact on your opponent as the game progresses. Mystery Cards invert that expectation in a fun way. As the baddies are trying to KO Batman and other members of the Bat-Family, they’ll be able to keep them at bay until they can use the Clue tokens they picked up along the way to foil ANY villain’s scheme. Mystery Cards are an exciting way to differentiate the thoughtful nature of a character like Batman from the clumsy nature of a character like Solomon Grundy. Many of the DC Comics detectives that appear in this set feature a brand new take on these classic characters, focused on their intellectual acumen and ability to support and protect a team of Detectives as they work to crack the case. 

Mystery Cards are also compatible with all of the HeroClix detectives you already own or collect in the future! This was important to us because we didn’t want to introduce a shared trait or common theme in this set that would leave out characters that didn’t fit into this set. 

Finally, solving mysteries is cool! We suspect that players who enjoy detectives and mysteries will enjoy getting to solve the strategy puzzle Mystery Cards introduce in a way that’s distinct from the straightforward combat fare that HeroClix typically offers. What new strategies and team compositions will these cards unlock? What Detectives from your collection will you dust off and put on the table? We’re excited to see what players come up with! 

How many are there going to be? 

We’re not ready to say just yet, but we did want to share another Mystery Card preview with our fans. This card focuses on the adventures of former police officer and current Green Lantern Sojourner “Jo” Mullein as she works to solve a murder amid the tumult of the City Enduring.  

This card unlocks all members of the Green Lantern Corps, allowing them to team up with any detective to solve the case and reap the in-game benefits of this Mystery Card. 

Thanks for reading and get ready to crack the case with Batman Team-Up!