The Inhumans are a mysterious, powerful race living in the hidden city of Attilan, on Earth’s moon. Strongest of all the Inhumans are the Royal Family led by King Blackagar Boltagon.      

Long misunderstood the Inhumans have been treated like a failed experiment and rejected as dangerous monsters.  For them, the danger lies everywhere! Not only on the cosmic battlefields of space but it also lurks within the very palace walls. While space fleets battle for the destiny of empires, Black Bolt’s brother Maximus schemes a betrayal to seize the throne. Heavy is the head that wears the crown. Are you up for the challenge?

What better way to begin our preview for this thrilling new expansion, Legendary®: Realm of Kings than a royal audience with the King and Queen. So without further ado, it is my great pleasure to introduce to you the mighty King Black Bolt.

As you can see Black Bolt has our first new keyword, Throne’s Favor.

Throne’s Favor

The power of the Inhuman Kingdom and the Kree and Shi’ar interstellar empires are truly vast. Influence over these empires shifts frequently in a battle for supremacy. This is represented by a new game concept called the “Throne’s Favor.”

• Some Heroes say “You gain the Throne’s Favor.” When this happens, take a nearby object to represent the Throne’s Favor. There is only ever one in the game. If another player or Mastermind already has the Throne’s Favor, and you gain it, then you take it from them.
• If an ability tells you to gain the Throne’s Favor, you must take it. You cannot leave it where it is.
• Some Heroes say things like “You may spend the Throne’s Favor to draw two cards.” This means if you have the Throne’s Favor, you may give it up to use the listed ability. You set aside the Throne’s Favor object, and no one has the Throne’s Favor until someone gains it again.
• You can only spend the Throne’s Favor at the moment the card you’re playing tells you to do so. You can’t wait and spend it later in the turn.
• Masterminds and Villains in this set have abilities that can cause the Mastermind to gain the Throne’s Favor and/or benefit from having it. When the Mastermind gains the Throne’s Favor, they take it away from any player that may already have it.
• The Throne’s Favor is not a card. It never goes into decks or discard piles. Instead, when it comes up, just use whatever cool object is easily at hand.

And now the magnificent Queen, Medusa! Not only does Medusa have Throne’s Favor but she is also armed with our next new keyword, When Recruited.

“When Recruited” Abilities

The Inhumans’ powerful decision to go to war is shown with new special abilities they use “When Recruited.”

• Some Heroes say things like: “When Recruited: You get +3.” Use this “When Recruited” ability immediately when you recruit this Hero.
• You pay the Hero’s normal recruit cost, move it from the HQ into your discard pile, and refill that HQ space with a card from the Hero Deck. When all that is done, then you must use the “When Recruited” ability.
• When you play that card from your hand in later turns, don’t use the “When Recruited” ability again. Instead, use the card’s normal abilities, , and . A horizontal line separates the “When Recruited” ability from the card’s normal abilities.
• If a special ability tells you to “gain” a Hero or “put” a Hero somewhere, then you don’t use that Hero’s “When Recruited” ability, since you didn’t pay and you didn’t recruit that Hero. This is true even if the special ability tells you to “gain” the Hero from the HQ.
• However, you do use the “When Recruited” ability if a special ability lets you “recruit a Hero for free” or recruit it at a reduced cost or from some unusual place, since then you are still recruiting the Hero.
• You may wish to keep some Heroes in the HQ until you especially need their “When Recruited” ability.

Another trusted member of the royal family is the wise and mysterious Karnak, master of martial arts, and able to detect the slightest weakness in his opponent.

“Choose a Villain Group”

Some Karnak cards say things like “Choose a Villain Group. You get +1 for each Villain in your Victory Pile from that Group.” For example, you can choose the Villain Group “Inhuman Rebellion.”

• You can also count a Henchman Villain Group like “Doombot Legion.” However, you can’t choose the generic word “Henchmen” and count Villains from multiple Henchmen Groups at once.
• You can’t count cards that have no Villain Group, like Tactics, Bystanders, Master Strikes, Scheme Twists, or Heroes that were turned into Villains.
• Traps and Locations from other sets aren’t Villains, so they don’t count, even if that Trap turned into a Villain.

How about the powerful Gorgon and every Inhuman’s best friend, the ever faithful Lockjaw!

Teleport

Lockjaw helps Gorgon with the “Teleport” keyword that originally appeared in Legendary®: Dark City in 2013.

• “Teleport” means “Instead of playing this card, you may set it aside. At the end of this turn, add it to your new hand as an extra card.”
• Some abilities teleport other cards from your hand, setting them aside in the same way.

Where would we be without some worthy adversaries? How about Black Bolt’s very own brother, Maximus the Mad? Leading the Inhuman Rebellion loyal only to him, he seeks the crown for himself. It is said that power corrupts. This is certainly true for Maximus. His lust for power consumes him and leads to the betrayal of his own family!

Abomination

Some Inhuman Villains have become horrific, unpredictable, and even monstrous. Accordingly, they use the “Abomination” keyword that debuted in Legendary®: Captain America 75th Anniversary in 2016.

• Abomination means “This Villain gets + equal to the printed of the Hero in the HQ space under this Villain’s city space.“
• An Abomination Villain’s can go up and down as the Villain moves through the city.
• You can recruit a Hero under an Abomination to try to reduce its …but you might also increase it!
• There are also a few new twists on the Abomination keyword. The Hero Gorgon has abilities like “Streets Abomination.” It gives equal to the printed of the card in the HQ space under the Streets.
• The highly-evolved Mastermind Maximus uses “Highest Abomination”. This gives equal to the highest printed of any single card in the HQ. So if the five Heroes in the HQ have printed of 2, 4, 3+, 0+, and no printed , then Highest Abomination would give 4.
• “Double Abomination” doubles the bonus.

New Schemes

Finally, let’s take a look at a couple of challenging new schemes.

In the epic Marvel comics storyline “War of Kings,” the Inhumans emerge from their self-imposed exile to go to war. To win you must dominate the battlefront. In order to win it will require a great strategy and careful planning. Will you be able to supply your generals with what they need to emerge victoriously? After all, war is not for the faint of heart!

There is to be a royal wedding! A union that will bring peace to the galaxy, but I guess not everyone loves weddings. There are sinister forces at work to ruin this joining of two strong houses. Will you be able to foil this dark plot? Will there be chaos and bloodshed or a happy ever after? Their fate lies in your hands!

We hope you have enjoyed this quick look at Legendary®: Realm of Kings and that you are excited as we are about the long-overdue arrival of the Inhumans as they take their place alongside the ever expanding list of fantastic Legendary heroes!

Legendary®: Realm of Kings releases in stores October 28th 2020.