Today's System Lords preview card is a somewhat pricey, but very flexible new adversary: Before you even get to the game text, Khalek offers some exciting strategic possibilities. He's a great addition to a villain victory deck, thanks to his 4 power cost (which translates to 4 points in your villain score pile) and his status as the only adversary with a rating in all four skills. If your opponent is skipping a skill during his mission attempts -- any skill -- Khalek is there to take advantage of it. Assign him to the uncontested mission for a large, easy score. And if you decide it's worth the power, you can toss on a Dominion obstacle for even more rewards!

If scoring isn't your plan, no problem -- Khalek's game text still has something to offer. Every time you assign him, you'll snatch a card from your opponent's hand, potentially using it to grow Khalek's skills. After a few successful grabs of a hero card, Khalek becomes an adversary worth 3 or more who can be assigned to any mission. It's a great "last line of defense" for any situation.

Whether you're boosting Khalek's stats or not, you're still taking a card away each time he's assigned. That's one less option available to your opponent, which helps whether that card is hero or villain. And so long as Khalek stays alive, that card has really suffered a "fate worse than death." No form of discard pile retrieval is going to recover it.

As I said, Khalek is rather expensive, particularly for what start out as fairly low numbers. But you may find him well worth it.