Messages

1

Discussion / Re: Marvel Snap - Cards, Analysis, etc.

« on: March 14, 2024, 03:50:53 PM »

Maybe we just have different definitions then. Your deck doesn't look like any Tribunal decks I've seen - it looks more like a Shuri mold but adding in Tribunal over Tasky so it goes wide versus tall. Not running Armor with Shuri? You're a much braver man than me. I've seen enough Negasonics that I'm always weary about making such a telegraphed play - let alone Shang. Do you like not see Shang at all?

1) I think with your deck, you're giving up the ability explode in power (we're talking like 50-100+) but adding in Shuri as an alt. No Onslaught and a bunch of big bodies - so yeah, no worries about Pigs or old Leech.
2) Your deck isn't a typical Tribunal deck that needs to cheat energy out. Not sure why you would discount this as an actual issue in Tribunal though. His power is pretty limited if you're not playing him out with force multipliers.
3) Again, are we playing in different pocket metas? I've definitely seen my share of Enchantresses. She's like a staple in Sera Miracle and yeah that deck isn't meta, but it's pretty frequent since it is easy to put together. Echo you can delay drop on Turn 5-6 if need be to basically kill the big stack. You don't have to slam her out on Turn 1.
4) I've seen Shuri decks cut out Cosmo after her nerf. It still comes in on occasion just not that often obviously since Tasky can't copy a card if you Cosmo the lane.
5) Traditional Tribunal definitely needs Magik. Try playing it without her. You just simply don't have time to play what you need. One Shuri deck that I came across in conquest had Shang/Abs Man as subs and which gave it a Turn 7 contingency play and was pretty amazing. I've since added that into my own deck. It lets you have a massive Turn 7 play on your own. But it's not really Tribunal.
6) Really? You never play against anything with Surfer? They carry Spiderman and Juggs pretty regularly considering Storm is also a staple in those. Stregon I'll give you. Just noting he is also bad for traditional Tribunal. Also if you're using Super Skrull, Rogue or Mystique, Magneto can totally spoil you as well and he's pretty common thanks to all the Thanos running around recently.
7) Traditional Tribunal doesn't really have time. The curve is extremely tight. Assuming no Magik, you're looking to play Wave on 3, Onslaught on 4, IM on 5 and Tribunal on 6. If you have Zabu and Ravonna, they help immensely by making the curve more flexible but playing them after 3 is pretty much a no-go. Also in general, I am not a fan of not playing anything in 3. Having your first card to be played on 4 makes for an extremely fragile win in my experience.
8) When are you playing Cage in traditional Tribunal? In Shuri...maybe. But I feel like you're better served playing Armor and Sauron over Cage personally. Certainly easier to fit on curve (Armor into Sauron into Shuri is obvious) where as Luke is more clunky (in your case, you just play Luke cause you're not running Sauron).

I rather try playing a deck to see how it works personally. I'm always a bit weary on stats. Between a combination of bots and bad players (yours incluced) and varying opponents on Collection Level and MLM Rank, that tends to skew the percentages.

2

Discussion / Re: Marvel Snap - Cards, Analysis, etc.

« on: March 13, 2024, 03:19:34 PM »

Well we haven't see any new patches to Jubilee and Magik yet, so I don't consider myself some kind of Doomsayer. Are we playing in completely different pocket metas? Tribunal in my experience is so incredibly fragile. The main issue with that deck is needing to play 17 Energy worth of cards and since you can't energy store, you have to cheat the cards out in some way. It dies to any of the following:

1) Anything that takes away Tribunal, Onslaught or Iron Man because your power just isn't competitive without one of these 3 (Spiderham, Moon Knight, etc.)
2) Anything that stops you from cheating cards out early. Even a disabled Ravonna can be bad because it means you can't play Iron Man on 4 or Iron Man/Mystique on 6
3) Ongoing hate tech - all of them are bad for you. This is also a case where Echo can be even played late because you almost always have to stack those core 3 cards together. Super Skrull let's you counter an opponent's Rogue and wins mirrors, but you just lose so badly to Enchantress. The deck can run Cosmo but that can cause you to lose in other ways if you need Jubilee or Iron Lad to pull cards from the bottom of the deck. PLus that's giving up a slot for added consistency with another energy cheating card.
4) On that note, Cosmo is also very mixed. As noted above, he stops Enchantress and Rogue but you still lose to Echo and you block your own Mystique, Jubilee and Iron Lad.
5) Location tech - Magik is almost a requirement. It is very bad for you if Limbo is disabled in some way
6) Any sort of Move/relocation tech - Since you need to stack the 3 big bois together. Juggernaut is bad. Spiderman is bad. Stregon is also bad.
7) A natural bad draw line really messes up your power output due to how fragile your curve is. Certain cards have to be played on certain windows or you just lose.
8) Related to the above, any sort of debuff is also bad because Iron Man doubles the loss and Onslaught quadruples it. So even a single -1 is bad for your overall power output.

You can't pack any protection of your own other than like Cosmo because the deck simply doesn't have the time to play a tech card other than on like Turn 3. But Turn 3 is also the best time to play out one of your cheats (Wave/Magik) since you're going to be busy every other turn trying to land the 3 big cards all together.

I'd be interested in hearing what version of the deck you are playing. Unless it's some sort of hybrid like Hela Tribunal, Tribunal has always been about going super tall. In this current meta with Discard and Destroy reigning, Tribunal does well because neither deck really packs any tech and the only tech they do pack is mostly Shang..which Tribunal normally is immune to since all their cards are under Shang's updated threshold.

3

Discussion / Re: Marvel Snap - Cards, Analysis, etc.

« on: March 11, 2024, 02:50:33 PM »

Yeah, Mill can be powerful because denying card draw is strong. The issue is that the cards that do mill in SNAP right now are all too slow. You have to be actually taking away enough cards from the deck so that your opponent starts losing draw for the analogy I posted above to not be true. Yondu and Cable on Wong is interesting, but probably falters in our current day game where Discard and Destroy are currently reigning. I mean, you'll get Tribunal players, but Tribunal is a bit of a meme anyway. That deck loses to like any form of disruption that it's honestly kind of amazing it exists.

4

Discussion / Re: Marvel Snap - Cards, Analysis, etc.

« on: March 06, 2024, 08:03:43 PM »

Another one following the same trend - Yondu



Cost: 1
Power: 2 (Par)
Ability: On Reveal – Destroy the top card of your opponent’s deck
Ideal Turn to Play: Turn 1. Yondu is a pretty weak card overall (more on the analysis). However, one of the real values he will always provide is scouting. For that reason, a Turn 1 Yondu is better than a Turn 6 Yondu.
Archetype: Destroy

Uses:
So we’ve recently looked at 2 cards that are powerful but often mis-conceptualized. Yondu is continuing that trend but he’s in the opposite direction. Yondu is probably the biggest noob trap in the game in that he looks really good on the surface but in practice, he’s pretty weak and only really works in one type of deck.

Why is Yondu weak? Well, let’s look at it like this. If instead of “Destroy”, we just reword Yondu’s ability to “Put the top card of an opponent’s deck to the bottom”, does your opinion of him change? It shouldn’t because fundamentally, he’s basically doing the same thing, but for a lot of players, they see “Destroy” and think they are getting rid of an opponent’s actual play. Like sure, there are times when Yondu hits a win condition of the opponent’s – like blowing up a Galactus or Hela – and it results in an instant Turn 1 retreat. But you could also hit something else – maybe a tech card that doesn’t work against you. If that’s the case, all you’ve done is help your opponent’s skip a bad draw.   

Once you understand that last bit, Yondu’s appeal quickly diminishes. He can easily help your opponent and you have no way of really knowing. In fact, I’m pretty sure you can mathematically prove that playing Yondu actually does nothing. As long as your opponent has cards in their deck, you don’t really deny them any deck draw. All he’s actually doing practically is showing both you and your opponent what he/she won’t be playing with this round.

This kind of leaves Yondu as a card with 3 fringe uses. The first is that because he counts as a Destroy, he helps out with Death’s cost reduction and Knull’s overall power. Both of these cards are common power plays for Destroy and Yondu being able to start the deck’s engine on Turn 1 has some merit, especially since he isn’t blow up your own cards. The second is that he works as an early scout. In continuing matches such as Conquest, this benefit is reduced. But on ladder, being able to take a peek at what your opponent might be playing (especially if they skip Turn 1) can give you a good idea of whether or not you are favored. And that in turn helps with more aggressive Snapping. Finally, Yondu works just as warm body in decks like Zoo or Flood where the goal is get a lot of bodies on the field, and then buffing them via Kazar/Blue Marvel and the ilk.

These aren’t particularly strong uses, but it is something – and keeps Yondu from complete irrelevancy. Like if you compare Yondu to Angel, both are kind of bad, but Yondu is notably less bad than Angel. You are at least doing something when Yondu hits the field – even if not much. Worth a deck slot though? Probably not unless you are early in your SNAP journey.

Common Combos:
Yondu -> whatever -> Knull: Yondu basically starts off the Destroy train. There are no Destroy enablers on Turn 1, so Yondu actually does provide a unique niche here. The destroyed power coming from your opponent’s deck helps and adds to your Knull’s power at end game.

Yondu -> Killmonger -> whatever -> Death: If you’re going the Death route, Yondu provides a 2 for 1 letting you blow up an opponent’s card, and then being blown up himself by Killmonger. However, if this is what you’re going for, Squirrel Girl provides an extra body for Killmonger so is still better value. Poor Yondu.


Rank/Tier: D tier. Practically speaking, Yondu isn’t doing much unless you are playing Destroy. And even in Destroy, he’s best thought of as an early scout rather than a serious play. He’s likely the first to be replaced.

Most Used Decks:
Generic Destroy
Cerebro 2

5

Discussion / Re: Marvel Snap - Cards, Analysis, etc.

« on: March 04, 2024, 04:16:36 PM »

On the trend of cards people tend to misplay or have the wrong conceptions about: Jubilee



Cost: 4
Power: 1 (5 Below Par)
Ability: On Reveal - Play the next card from your deck to this location.
Ideal Turn to Play: Varies. Jubilee's ability gives her a wide window depending on what you're trying to do. If you're looking to fish a card that just needs to be played, then the later play the better since it'll more guarantee you get the right pull. On the other hand, if you need a card *right now* and you don't have it, Jubilee can be played as a last ditch hail mary.
Archetype: Support

Uses:
There are no real draw engine cards in SNAP because decks are so small (only 12 cards). Sure, you have Adam Warlock but he's very finnicky to work with and his recent "upgrade" turns him into a Turn 5 play that *may* have a chance at an extra draw. In short, "Draw cards from deck" abilities are in short supply in SNAP since they become pretty busted pretty easily. Everyone knows how powerful stuff like Ancestral Recall (that was the draw 3 from Magic right?) and Pot of Greed (from Yugioh) are, so it makes sense why you don't see this ability much - if at all - in SNAP. Jubilee is kind of the exception to the rule. She doesn't provide you with an extra card, but she's about as close to it as you can get.

Jubilee's ability lets you pull the next card from your deck on to the field. What this means is that, in essence, Jubilee replaces herself as a draw in exchange for another card that you would have gotten. So, instead of seeing 9 cards in a game of SNAP, Jubs lets you see 10. When you are playing combo decks that need or want to have certain pieces, Jubilee becomes uniquely powerful in that she's another way to dig deeper down into the deck if your natural draw doesn't give you what you want. If you recall back to my post regarding old Chavez and consistency, Jubilee adds that to these decks and makes them way more playable. Even discounting that, if you build a deck with a lot of high costs, Jubilee's ability to summon them for 4 (possibly 3 energy) can be a complete steal. Summoning an Infinaut for 4 is pretty good versus the practical 11 you would need to play him otherwise. Yeah, you may just have created a Shang magnet, but the point is that you can play that big boi significantly earlier. Now an opponent either has to dedicate their Shang to that lane or abandon it completely, letting you reinforce the others.

SNAP does complicate some things because so many things are about timing. Since she summons a card on to the field, there are drawbacks specific to SNAP that make it such that she isn't an Auto-include into every deck. Most notable is the consideration of play space. You are only allowed 4 cards at any particular lane, and Jubilee with her 1 power occupies basically 2 spaces for the chance to see an extra card. In short, your deck best be built on having a "less is more" mentality because Jubs can quickly flood a location and restrict the number of plays you can make. Tech cards also become tricky to include because they are so timing specific. Playing Jubilee in hopes of reaching your Infinaut but pulling out a Shang or Rogue sucks. Not only do you lose the tech card, but you basically spent 4 energy to do nothing. You basically either have to play Jubilee with the tech card in hand (so it will never be summoned) or just eliminate them from the deck completely.

The key to making Jubilee work in your deck is to structure it such that any pull she makes should be a good one. I've already mentioned using a bunch of high-cost cards with her, but also combo decks that don't mind their pieces coming in at different turns also hugely appreciate Jubilee. The most notable of these is Tribunal. Tribunal is an extremely finnicky and fragile deck that basically requires you to play a 17 Energy play to reach its wincon. A standard game of SNAP only has 21 Energy, so this is actually *much* harder than it sounds. Jubilee gives those decks another life-line since she can pull one of the necessary cards for 2 Energy less OR pull the required combo card by being played on the last turn. For this reason, she's commonly paired with Iron Lad as a way to basically play the entire deck. What better way of ensuring your combo goes off but to be able to play every card you have?

At the end of the day, Jubilee's a great card because her function is so unique. She's not buffing cards or disrupting an opponent. In fact, in an ideal game, you probably actually *don't* want to see Jubilee because that means you'd have picked up another card you slotted into your deck - basically an important synergistic piece. But the ability to also cheat a card into play widens that and gives her new dimensions. Her play window is as wide as whatever you're trying to do. If you need to pull a Magik for whatever reason, Jubilee's window is then 3-5. On the other hand, if you're trying to pull Tribunal, her play window expands all the way to the end of the game because Tribunal just needs to be on the field. She's basically giving you a way to see more of your deck when you play her and there's a lot of merit to that.

Common Combos:
Jubilee -> Ironlad: Part of the two card combo I was referring to that let's you dig down into your deck. Jubilee let's you pull the next one, then Iron Lad scans then one after that. When combined with the below, let's you see your entire deck. But Jubilee/Lad is just a generally decent combo line if you know your deck has good targets and because your hand sucks at the moment.

Magik -> Jubilee: See above. Magik bringing the game to turn 7 means you get to see 10 instead of 9 cards. Combined with the above, now you get to see the entire hand. But even without, Jubs and Magik let's you see the 11th card, which is still pretty damn good.

Jubilee -> Mr. Negative: Other than a last ditch hail mary attempt to play Negative, Jubilee can be really good here because she can call forth an inverted card and let you draw an extra one as a result. There are some situations of course where this isn't favourable (such as pulling Negative Mystique), but also cases where it can be highly destructive. Notably, it's possible to pull an Inverted Jane Foster for 1 or 4 Energy instead of playing for 6, and then drawing everything else in the deck that is 0 cost.

Rank/Tier: A tier. Jubilee is about as close as you can get to a "Draw one card" ability. It should be pretty obvious why this is powerful.

Most Used Decks:
Negative
Tribunal
Hela Discard
Lockjaw Lotto

6

Discussion / Re: Marvel Snap - Cards, Analysis, etc.

« on: March 01, 2024, 03:57:06 PM »

Let's talk about the sassy queen herself. And no, I'm not referring to Emma Frost, but instead: Magik



Cost: 3
Power: 2 (2 Below Par)
Ability: On Reveal - Change the location of this lane to Limbo (Extends the current game from 6 turns to 7 turns). This card loses its effect if played after Turn 5.
Ideal Turn to Play: 3-5. Obviously a dead card on 6. Magik's best time to be played will really come down to the deck and what you're planning. In combo heavy decks that have steep energy requirements and tough curves, Magik wants to be played as early as possible. For decks that appreciate her but it's not a death sentence if she doesn't come on to the board late, then it is better for her to be played late so an opponent has a reduced amount of time to play a follow up real estate agent and pull the rug from under you.
Archetype: Real Estate Agent / Combo Support

Uses:
Magik is one of those cards that I feel a lot of people misuse. Players think "Add an additional Turn" and immediately think that let's them do all sort of crazy stuff or adding consistency...but completely forgetting the fact that this also applies to an opponent since SNAP requires 2 players. Having a potential for a Turn 7 game can be all kinds of wacky so it is often best to decide if your deck wants a Turn 7 to begin with BEFORE slotting Magik into your deck.

Let's get down to the basics. Magik doesn't "Add 1 turn to the game". Rather, she flips a lane's location to "Limbo" which reads, "There are now 7 turns this game". This wording is very important because it means if Limbo is changed to another location, the Turn 7 goes away. This proverbial "rug pull" is what keeps Magik from flying much higher in terms usability. She can be outright countered by real estate agents so the promise of a Turn 7 is only as strong as whatever safeguards you are using in place to keep it there. If she did the former of adding 1 turn for certain, she'll probably be a S rank or A rank card as once the turn is added, it would theoretically never go away. Although that does create some unending games if an opponent then plays Magik on Wong, so let's be thankful that the description is the latter.

Because Limbo can be flipped at any time, if your deck wants a Turn 7, you're best off running one of Magik's allies in the deck. The most common and easily accessible of these is Cosmo. For 3 Energy, you'll stop other On Reveals - which all Real Estate agents are and force an opponent to play a much higher cost if they are trying to catch you with your pants down. Luckily, Cosmo and Magik work in several decks together - most notably Shenaut - where Turn 7 is basically a wincon. So guarding Magik isn't terribly difficult, but you do need to pay an Energy cost to do it. The higher the cost you pay, the better the protection and sometimes this can be very worthwhile. If your plan on Turn 6 is basically to wait as in Shenaut decks, dropping Leech down on 5 makes perfect sense. Not only do you pretty much 100% guard Limbo, but you nuke your opponent's hand of all their abilities, which can be game ending on its own.

Determining whether Magik makes sense for the deck really comes down to how badly you need that extra turn. Like Wave, Armor and Cosmo, since her effect hits both players, you have to make sure your deck can play a potential Turn 7 better than an opponent. Some decks are rely on a Turn 7 to function. Shenaut has already been mentioned, but stuff such as Tribunal also pretty much rely on it. On the other hand, despite being 3 cost, Magik does less well in Surfer because Surfer decks tend to rely on options and teching to secure wins. Their point totals are often more middle of the road (high teens to low 20s) so adding a Turn 7 can be real problematic when your output is limited. Then there are decks where they don't need Turn 7 but having a turn 7 basically makes them explode. Generic Destroy and Mr. Negative both like having Magik but the lack of a Turn 7 doesn't kill them. They just scale up really well with an extra turn, so playing Magik against these decks is generally bad unless you have tech cards ready in the wings.

Ultimately, Magik is another support option which are better in combo heavy decks versus those that do not. Adding an extra turn isn't always beneficial but players should be aware of her increased frequency. At the time when I first started playing, Magik was actually 5 cost, giving her only a 1 turn window. This made her much more limited in most cases since she had to compete with other 5 drops. But at 3? She's much more flexible and being able to extend the game by 1 also means extending draws by 1. For that alone, a lot of players end up saving a slot for her, when the decision should really be more about overall deck objectives and cohesion.

Common Combos:
Magik -> Cosmo: The first of the few combos that aims to guard your Limbo. Playing Cosmo prevents any other real estate agent from coming in and removing Limbo from under you. They can still do it, but it requires a lot more footwork or energy cost to do so.

Magik -> Legion: A more extreme version of the above. Playing Legion on your Magik turns all locations to Limbo. That stops the singular real estate agent from coming in to do damage. Like with Cosmo, an opponent can still theoretically get around it, but it isn't easy and much more complicated. Unlike Cosmo, Legion also relies on having priority. Cosmo being Ongoing means once you plop him down, you're good to go. With Legion, you need to ensure you are flipping first - otherwise an opponent can pre-empt you.

Magik -> Leech: The above two methods not satisfying enough for you at guaranteeing a Turn 7? Try Leech. Nuking your opponent's hand of their abilities will in 99% of cases, pretty much rip their ability to remove Limbo away from them. That 1% chance is obviously higher since you could theoretically top deck a real estate agent, but Leech is about as good as you can get.

Magik ->Storm/Rhino/SWitch: While this doesn't generate much power, it is definitely one of the few ways Magik can be used offensively. Fool your opponent into thinking a Turn 7 is coming, then pull the plug yourself. Best done with a bunch of high powered cards so you can get a lead going into Turn 6 when you snipe your own Limbo. For this reason, Surfer is great here as Magik, Rhino and Storm are all 3 costs.

Magik + Mr. Negative -> One of the major benefactors to Magik and the additional upside here is that Magik doesn't wreck Mr. Negative's curve. You could Turn 3 Magik into Turn 4 Mr. Negative or vice versa and both plays are still legit. Both get you an additional draw too, which as noted in Mr. Negative's write up, amps up how stupidly OP your endgame will be.

Rank/Tier: B tier. Magik certainly had a glow up from when she was first introduced. Adding an extra turn and 7 energy allows for more powerful combos and opens the doorway to new decks that otherwise wouldn't be possible. However, the ability to strip Limbo out from under you means you're sometimes playing a game of chicken more than a game of SNAP. She's not for every deck and decks and since the added turn also benefits the opponent, one has to be certain they will get more out of it then an opponent before putting her on to the field.

Most Used Decks:
Shenaut
Generic Destroy
Hela Discard
Tribunal

7

General Chat / Re: What games are you playing 2024? Battle strength determined by frilly outfits

« on: February 28, 2024, 03:36:32 PM »

Against the Storm –
I’m not normally into Rogue-likes. Against the Storm was advertised to me as a City Builder first and I like City Builders…especially when I can just chill and take it at my own pace. This game is interesting though in that it kind of combines multiple different genres of game into the end product. What you get is a sort of City Buidler Roguelike with a touch of RTS (not quite there, but close). And surprisingly, it’s real fun – even though I was just looking for something to chill with.

So the premise is simple. You’re basically building settlements in a storm riddled world. Your goal for every settlement is to reach the required Reputation score (usually 14) before the Queen runs of patience. You gain reputation by increasing your settlers’ resolve through fulfilling their needs such as preferred food, housing and services. You can never lose reputation but your settlers can get afraid and lose resolve from different events, during the harsh storm season and from hostility. The queen also gives you a set of orders, which when fulfilled gives you Reputation, lowers impatience and opens a new building you can build for that map from a pool of unlocked buildings.

You lose if a) all your settlers leave or die b) The queen runs out of patience. Since impatience can only go down when reputation is gained, you’re on a strict timer on every settlement. Essentially, the goal is to get in, maximize your settlers’ happiness as quickly as you can, then get out. There are lots of different ways to go about doing this The complexity is trying to find the quickest way out while managing an effective city layout for logistical and production reasons. You’re often juggling between multiple different resources and despite having about 30 hours in the game now, the supply chains are still tough for me to remember.

It is surprisingly real fun and even on these easier difficulties right now, I’m feeling the tension despite not being a serious danger. I think this is because ATS kind of turns the City Builder design on its head a little bit. For one, you never really know which set of Blueprints you will get. Some buildings are really powerful. Any farm for example is amazing because it will instantly solve food problems by giving you an ever renewable resource. However, you may never get these and if that is the case, you have to try to find ways to get food elsewhere. Second, the game forces you to expand because your starting resources are very limited. To meet your settlers’ demands, you are forced to open new forest glades which then generates new loot, resources and events. That’s the roguelike aspect of this game coming in.

You can still keep playing once a settlement reaches its max reputation, but you don’t get anything out of it. But hey, if you enjoy slow rolling to a win you can. On the other hand, getting a bunch of tools and then going a mass exploration, crate delivering adventure ala Eph can let you speed through a settlement since shipping crates back to the Queen improves Reputation by a notable margin.

I highly recommend this game if you can spare 30-40 dollars. It’s lots of fun and every settlement feels different. Will be moving to Veteran once I win through Pioneer a few more times.

8

General Chat / Re: What games are you playing 2024? Battle strength determined by frilly outfits

« on: February 07, 2024, 04:15:45 PM »

Wasteland 3 - I'm almost done. Just presumably the final battle, about 100 hours total.

So this is my second CRPG that I've played and we're batting 2 for 2 in terms of how much I like these games. WL3 is weaker than DoS2 though. There are some general polish issues and weak character writing which kind of sink it from being in the same tier as DoS2. On the whole however, it's good. Looks like earlier versions of the game had a lot more bugs and freezes which they patched out because my 7 year laptop was able to run this baby pretty smoothly.

In general, the overall strengths of this game come from the setting and decent enough gameplay to carry it through despite some unfortunate polish issues. The setting really does a lot of the work because not only are the environments cool to explore, but they mark a pretty important aspect regarding the characters, their motivations as well as the underlying plot of the game. It takes place post nuclear fallout where as the name of the game suggests, is a wasteland. To my understanding, this game also takes place after WL2 which had the organization your characters represent be in dire straits. In short, law and order are in short supply, violence is rampant and supplies are scarce. The game then asks you to make a lot of decisions with these factors in mind. For example, do you keep the crazy Ronald Reagan worshipping cult alive, knowing that if you gank them, you'll lose access to your only power source in the short term? Do you save those refugees knowing that doing so makes everyone else in the city's lives harder?

The game also likes to put a lot of excellent gameplay rewards BEHIND dubious moral decisions. For example, around 1/3 into the game, you'll encounter this slave trader who offers you a deal: Find one of her slaves and she will give you access to the bunker area in your base, which contains end game armors and weapons. The obvious decision is to tell her to take a hike. However, the power spike at that point in the game is so ridiculous that not only is it extremely tempting but telling her off doesn't even give you any consolation prize or punishment. You are basically strictly rewarded for making an awful choice. And as I noted, the game does this A LOT. Side with the Reagan worshippers and you lose access to the Robot Communities wares, which has one of the best vehicle parts in the game.

Where the game I think starts to lose steam is around the last 1/3 of the game. The game can be roughly summarized into 5 chunks: Setting up your base, Relations with the Bazaar, Denver, Aspen and Yuma County. Pretty much around Aspen, the game is either extremely difficult...or extremely cheesy. Enemies get a spike in HP and a lot of the fights late game are basically all rocket tag: whoever goes first wins. Lucky for you, you can pretty much enter all fights with initiative if you choose to attack first. However, this comes with a drawback where it is often better to shoot first and ask questions later - which ruins the immersion and makes dialogue options weaker. If you accidentally trigger a fight through talking, the game has an initiative stat that determines how many characters will be able to act immediately...but why bother with that if you can just shoot everything dead ASAP with no risk? Part of this rocket tag aspect comes from your weaponry but also because you get better skills and abilities. But if you've made a bad build or mistake, resetting your character sheet isn't free. And since this is post apocalyptic, money isn't exactly freely available. Sure, I had leftover cash at this point in the game but it's not like it grows on trees and you can just respec whenever you want. This is what I meant earlier by the game having some polish issues. Another one of these little problems has to do with crafting. Crafting Weapon and Armor parts is one of the strongest things you can do in the game. However, what the game doesn't tell you is that a lot of these parts and mod are limited and attaching one to a weapon is permanent. If you then sell the weapon or scrap it, you don't get your invested parts back. This means it is very incentivized to not use any of your good mods until you get those end-game weapons and encourages an unreasonable amount of hoarding. Sure, you might pick up on this in the whole "resources is scarce" theme. But really, you're telling me I can't detach a scope from my rifle? What?

It goes the other way too. If you've invested in the good stuff, all of a sudden, the combat becomes less strategic and more about "how much stuff can I blow up in one turn". Mainly because it is the most effective and efficient way to handle encounters, but also because tanking isn't very feasible late game. My dedicated tank healer has like 400 HP, 40% evade and like 50% elemental resistances across the board but he will still go down if like the 7 enemies all attack him. As a result, a lot of characters have kind of same-y roles - just different weapons so you're ammo stock doesn't go down like candy. For example, right now one of my companions, Kwon, is a mid-range attacker with an extremely busted SMG. On his turn he's often killing 3+ enemies due to a combination of his specs, weapon and abilities. My other companion, Lucia, is a shorter range pistoleer/shotgunner. This role is great at tackling close range threats with a little distance, but their role should be more support oriented from getting more access to unique Strike attacks and destroying enemy cover. Instead, I have found her to be more effective if I just make her a more efficient attacker. This is true of basically every role because defense is just not a thing that really works in this game. So yeah, the game actually loses strategic value the farther along you are into it.

Early on, you don't notice these issues because the strengths and weaknesses are more pronounced and enemies are still relatively balanced compared to your gear. But once you leave reach the halfway point, around a little ways into Denver, the game is very open in terms of letting you explore. So if you go into end-game areas, you can quickly loot them for the insane gear. The morally dubious choices with great rewards as I mentioned earlier also exist. The result is that you don't snowball but rather just end up dumping a bag of bricks all over the enemies at that point...or vice versa.

As for the plot, I'll go into it more when I have time (I want to see the ending first). But long story short, my current feelings are that I think Angela is written pretty poorly and despite the game having lots of moral conundrums it wants you to look at, the ultimate choice it wants you to make really falls flat to me. Maybe because I'm not an idealistic teen or my outlooks have changed since I've been married but the choice the game wants to give you is not really a choice. And while I agree with Cid's sentiments that tyranny isn't a thing that is ever okay, Angela's "solution" is so poorly thought out, it's borderline insulting. BUT maybe the ending changes things, so we'll see.

9

Discussion / Re: Marvel Snap - Cards, Analysis, etc.

« on: January 26, 2024, 03:41:47 PM »

So we're going to do something different today - let's look at one of the most prominent and popular decks in SNAP. It's not necessarily the most successful, but it is a deck that pops up pretty frequently due to its accessability. I've also mentioned it a few times plus we've gone over a lot of it's most essential component, so it will be easier to digest.

Without further ado, let's look at a typical Sera Miracle deck



General Gameplan
Sera Miracle is equivalent to a Blue MtG deck that is loaded with counter spells. It's primarily a reaction based deck that is focused on playing tech cards to shut down an opponent's game plan. The deck is flexible with numerous different subs (based on the flavor of the month, your own preference as well as the availability of what cards you have) so it tends to be a deck that most players can assemble the moment they get out of Pool 2 with a little investment. The major card you will be likely missing then is Sera but the deck is functional without her and you can grab Zabu as an alternative. This deck focuses on last minute turnarounds for the biggest cube gains possible. There are of course fringe cases where you will be playing on curve but those tend to be cases where if you don't stop your opponent right there, you're probably going to lose - Hi Wong.

The deck focuses on having low tempo for most of the game until around maybe Turn 5. The main reasons for this is to keep priority low because you have a lot of tech cards that only work if you go second. Thus, understanding and being able to control priority is key. Sunspot is a great addition here because he covers two of the decks main weakness: 1) it's low power output and b) the tendency to have a lot of float. You're not often running Armor though, so you have to be careful that you don't accidentally Killmonger your own Sunspot. There are ways around this of course - one of the new cards recently released specifically guards 1 and 6 cost cards from destruction. You can easily slot her in to guard your Sunspot in favor of another tech spot. The rest then comes down to Turn 6. By Turn 3 or 4, you need to have a good idea of what the opponent is doing because then you can properly weigh your chances of winning. If you still don't have the tech card in hand drawn, or the opponent isn't playing something you can tech against, you're probably in trouble.

Despite being the namesake of the deck, this deck does function without Sera. It's not as explosive though because despite being available for only 1 turn, that 1 turn lets you dump a huge combination of cards. Sera + Zabu is -2 on Cost for your 4 cost and those 2 costs become 1 Cost. So you can quite literally dump your hand on 6 when the pieces line up. Some variants of this deck also play Magik (this one does) to increase the chances of a Sera draw making for even crazier Turn 7 Turnarounds.

Outside of the deck being low power, it also suffers though from being largely prediction related. Some decks such as Kitty Shuri for example, can both afford to have a couple of tech cards but also can just do their standard solitaire game plan if your opponent isn't interfering and end up with a sizable point count at the end of the game. Not Sera Miracle though. So many of your cards are below par that if you aren't countering something, you're probably just going to lose on straight tempo loss. This deck has a very high learning curve for that reason. You need to be able to predict what the opponent is holding and then be able to play the appropriate counter. You also need to be able to math quickly because that will determine whether or not your paltry output is enough, which sometimes despite countering an opponent's plan, isn't.

Key Cards:
The most important cards on this list despite the name of the deck are probably your 4 Costs. Shang and Enchantress can hard counter really greedy play styles and Absorbing Man let's you double up on it. However, the fact that they are all 4s is a FeelsBadMan moment on Turn 6 because you can only play 1. That's why having Zabu OR Sera on field is important. Past that, the rest of the deck is very flexible. Zabu/Sera are obvious additions here to support your 4s going down by 1, but the rest is kind of up to you. This variant I run adds Maximus and Aero for power, but you can also go with something like Ms. Marvel and Gladiator. You can also run stuff like Cosmo, despite being contrary to the deck because Cosmo wants priority instead of not.

General Play Lines:

Turn 1: Play Echo/Sunspot in a desired lane. If you don't have the variant that covers your own Sunspot, be very careful because you might blow up your own Sunspot by accident.

Turn 2: Almost always Zabu if you have it. Your 2s are otherwise holds to tech against other cards. SWitch kills bad locations or extremely favourable one for an opponent. Shadow King's power reset is best done at the end of the game. Otherwise, you pass.

Turn 3: Turn 3 is interesting here because like Turn 2, you're probably not playing Killmonger on 3. Some exceptions exist - like blowing up an opponent's Sunspot before you play yours - but you're likely covering a Turn 1/2 play versus actually playing anything on Curve. Magik comes down on this turn if you are running her. You don't have anything to guard Limbo though, so be wary of an opponent cutting off your Limbo.

Turn 4: See above. Turn 3 in that you're most likely covering for a Turn 1-2 play. If you're running Ms. Marvel as an establisher, she'll probably come down here.

Turn 5: This is a critical turn for this deck because unlike decks that don't have Turn 5 as being as important, here, Sera Miracle relies on Turn 5 to set up a Turn 6 play. If you've already played Zabu and want to cover it, the Cosmo variants can place it down to stop an opponent from shutting it down. Otherwise, Sera can be played here as can Aero to redirect an opponent's play and set up a single tech card counter.

Turn 6: Play the tech cards you need to swing the game. Highly suggest you math out what your power totals are and see if it's adequate. If not, you Retreat. If Limbo is on field, then you should play Aero for the redirect or Sera for the end of the game (see Turn 5)

Turn 7: Repeat of Turn 6 more or less. Use Enchantress to stop Ongoing stacks, Shang to kill big bodies, Shadow King to get rid of pump cards, Killmonger for 1 cost hate, etc.

Sample Game to Come!

10

Discussion / Re: Marvel Snap - Cards, Analysis, etc.

« on: January 10, 2024, 03:51:04 PM »

Shadow King



Cost: 2
Power: 2 (1 Below Par)
Ability: On Reveal - Reset the Power of all cards in this lane to their base power
Ideal Turn to Play: 6. Playing Shadow King (SK) at any time other than 6 means an opponent may still have ways to buff the cards you're hitting. His 2 Cost makes him very flexible and easy to slot in - doubly so if you have any sort of cost reduction.
Archetype: Tech

Uses:
Of all the cards released since I started playing, I think Shadow King has probably seen the biggest upswing after patches. When he was released, he was borderline unusable. At 4 cost and 3 Power, no one was going to use him when Shang was in the same range and did even better by just outright removing cards off the board. Old Shadow King's issue can be summed up in two words: Bad Statline. He costed too much and didn't have enough power to warrant using him even as a tech piece. Since then, his cost has dropped from 4 to 3, then 3 to 2 and his power suitably adjusted until where he is today. At 2 Cost, SK now has a distinct niche from Shang and is in some ways, the better tech card to slot for specific combos and decks.

Resetting an opponent's card to their base power is obviously really powerful. A lot of the build-up type cards like Kitty, Wolverine, Deadpool, just get absolutely eaten by a well-placed end-of-the-game SK. And in the case of cards like Wolverine and Nimrod, SK serves as the premier tech to them because they are immune to Shang. At 2 cost, he's now versatile enough to be slotted into many, many decks and can dumpster a lot of anchors on this own. See an opponent's giant Deadpool? SK can work even better than Shang in this case because he's actually +1 on base versus Deadpool and costs 2 energy less. It also makes him easier to be used in combo plays. For example, playing SK into a lane with Brood to reset your opponent's power down, then dropping Surfer to give all your Broods +2 can result in a massive swing. Similarly, you can drop SK to neuter all power gains from a location like Muir Island, then play Luke Cage on SK to regain all the power lost from SK's reset.

Because he is best used as a surprise (like a few other tech cards), SK is almost reserved for a Turn 6 play despite being able to be played as early as 2. This means you have to manage priority for most of the game if you intend to use him for the greatest effect. In current SNAP play, needing to give up priority has an added drawback in the form of Alioth, who will just flat out eat your cards if you don't have priority, without them getting to reveal. This vulnerability exists for a lot of tech cards but it hurts stuff like SK more because he is so very much intended as a last turn play. At least even with a card like Shang for example, there are fringe cases where you might consider dropping him early. SK suffers more because he doesn't straight up delete a card. So in essence, you are playing a 2 power card against whatever your opponent is playing that turn versus a Shang for 3 and an opponent technically playing nothing if you destroyed something.

SK's other weakness is in the form of cards that override his power resetting effect - namely Luke Cage and in some cases, Valkyrie. Valkyrie is less of an issue as the two counter each other depending on which one goes first. But Luke just wrecks SK completely. Luckily, current SNAP has nerfed Cage to the point where he only effects one lane now (just like SK) and since Cage is usually better played pre-emptive versus reaction like SK, your SK can usually dodge him. 2 power is also low enough that SK often can't win lanes on his own and will need some support. Take Black Panther for example. If Black Panther grows to be 16 Power or whatever, you can counter him with either Shang OR SK. However, while Shang can win by himself as he removes BP from the field, Shadow King does not. He needs at least another 3 power card in the lane to take it. This power (or lack thereof) is a real issue for Shadow King...especially now that he can now longer be buffed by Surfer. You have to be actively winning a lane before SK goes down because his 2 power is very paltry leaves much to be desired.

Common Combos:

Luke Cage -> Shadow King: Nukes your opponent's power gains but lets you keep yours. Only a 4 energy play so there is a lot of room for additional follow-ups.

Invisible Woman -> Shadow King: A delayed SK guaranteed to go last more or less, eschewing the importance of priority. Useful if you're planning to drop some other large base cards into the lane as a surprise.

Shadow King + Absorbing Man: Dupes your SK effect. The cool thing about this is that now he is 2 cost, you no longer need Sera or Zabu to enable this play. Similarily, you can do...

Shang Chi + Shadow King: Pretty much forces an opponent to weave a thread through the needle because their cards can't be above the Shang threshold, but also can't be buff cards or they will just get ruined. Obviously play Shang first. You can even do this on 2 different lanes.

Cerebro -> Shadow King: One interest aspect of Shadow King is that, while Luke will raise power back up, there are no cards in SNAP OTHER than SK who will drop a card back down to their normal power. Sure Hazmat exists, but she's a universal -1 effect. What I'm referring to is if your card gets buffed accidentally, there isn't a real way to reset them. Normally not an issue...except when it is because you are playing Cerebro. Here, a Shadow King into a Cerebro can cause a field wide change in power that can let you steal games unexpectedly.

Rank/Tier: B tier. SK is good. Real good. He's finally carved out a different niche from Shang (his primary competition) and his lower cost makes him a lot easier to use. Unfortunately, the existence of new cards like Alioth means there is definite power creep and SK is unfortunately one of the more impacted victims, preventing him from being a true A rank.

Most Used Decks:
Control
Zoo
Surfer
Cerebro 2

11

Discussion / Re: The RPGDL Card Game - Blame Djinn for this one

« on: December 22, 2023, 04:57:43 AM »

So BOSSES. Yes, you can and should add villains to make things more DLesque. The question is, how do you translate them? The basic answer - you scale them like you would a dueller in the DL and see if makes sense. You probably have to be more creative because sometimes bosses are just very one dimensional and stuck in their ways, but you can make it work. What I want to show is that this theory card game has a lot of design space. I don't promise it to be balanced, but you can probably do a good translation and then roll it back to see if things are too broken or what not.

For this, I'm going to look at everyone's favourite set of bosses - WA4 BOSSES. Yep Max Agility for all of them right? Well, again, scale it to what makes sense. Like yeah, I'd probably give the true speedsters like Hugo and Belial an 8, but Jeremy's only 178% or something on forms 2 and 3. Should he get an 8? Probably not. So scale that down with other bosses in his game. That said, some concepts:

JEREMY NON -
Everyone's favorite OHKO punching bag. Jeremy's an interesting case cause making him really powerful but also really frail at the same time makes sense.

Power Grid (Assuming 8 is the max):
HP: 10 (Assuming 20 is average)
Physical: 6
Magical: 2
Agility: 6

Passive abilities - Inertia Canceller: Whenever Jeremy performs a physical attack, you may play more than one of the same copy, up to a maximum of 3. If you choose not to utilize this ability when it is possible, you may draw a card.

10 HP means anyone with an attack rating of any sort that is an 8 will pretty much 2HKO him...just like in game! And in some cases, you can probably OHKO him if you catch him at an inopportune moment. Flip side, Jeremy gets a turn, he will do a lot of damage - probably killing someone, especially the frail in one go. Just like in game!

Ability Cards
Vulcan Missile - +1 Physical damage. Target any character on any row.
Wild Savate - +1 Agility damage. If this attack is successful, subsequent attacks made by Jeremy on the same turn cannot be reduced.
Energy Net - Play this into an opponent's targeted lane. At the end of Jeremy's next turn, characters standing in this lane become Disabled (cannot attack or defend)
Full Auto - +4 Physical damage. Cannot be played multiple times in one turn.
Loose Cannon - Sustained Effect - During Inertia Canceller, one card played is equal to 2 attacks of the same kind. Jeremy must always target the weakest enemy if possible.
Insubordination - Jeremy cannot be moved until the start of his next turn.

Equipment Cards
None - I am not aware of Jeremy having notable weapons.

So yeah Jeremy is a complete glass cannon. His Sustained effect is important since it reduces the number of cards you need to play to reach maximum number of attacks. But it has an added drawback where you lose the ability to target. This feels very in-tune to his character where he just does whatever. I also gave him a card called "Insubordination" which I think is themetically fitting but also has strategic value so Jeremy can't be pulled out from behind a teammate for example and then killed quickly.

Another fun example of this basically being a blank slate (so I encourage you dear reader to drop your ideas) - GAWN

GAWN BRAWDIA
Power Grid (Assuming 8 is the max):
HP: 24 (Assuming 20 is average)
Physical: 6
Magical: 4
Agility: 4

Passive abilities - Trump Card - If all of Gawn's allies are KO'd, you may search your deck for Fragrach and Answerer and put it into your hand. Shuffle your deck afterwards.

Gawn looks kinda average! What gives? Well, read on to see how I'm going to change him. I made his stats a bit more average because he needs to be able to stay alive for as long as possible, so I worry about giving him lopsided stats. Also, he may actually be sorta broke in this iteration. But hey.

Ability Cards
Cowardice - If an attack targets Gawn, you may play this to redirect the attack to another character in the same row.
Irresponsible - When you play this card, exile a card of your choice, placing it face down behind Gawn. Return the cards to your hand when Gawn equips Fragrach and Answerer
A Journey with no Destination - You may take your discard pile and reshuffle it into your deck
Mooch - Play this any time an ally receives a healing effect. Gawn recovers HP equal to the original target
Bullet Barrage - Can only be played when Fragrach and Answerer are equipped. Inflict damage to all enemies equal to their current HP/2
Perfect Shot - Can only be played when Fragrach and Answerer are equipped. +5 damage. This attack cannot be mitigated or nullified.
"And with this single, final shot...!" - Your next attack does not remove any counters off Fragrach and Answerer. If only one counter remains, this card becomes an instant KO.

Equipment Cards
Unique Weapon: Fragrach & Answerer - Increase all of Gawn's attribute to 8. Damage can no longer be inflicted on Gawn. Instead, put counters on this card equal to Gawn's Current HP/2. Whenever an attack or effect would target Gawn, it is cancelled and one counter is removed from this card. Whenever Gawn makes an attack, two counters are removed from this card. When there are no longer any counters on this card, Gawn is defeated.

Gawn's a pretty unique boss so his translation is pretty unique too. He's basically the last minute hero/savior/Dark Phoenix-esque character where if you let him power up, he will probably tear you a new one if he hasn't already sustained some damage. You defeat him the exact same way as you do in-game, so you just need to outlast him. However, his attacks scale greatly and his attack cards put on a ton of pressure, so this might not be as easy as it looks!

HUGO HEWITT
Power Grid (Assuming 8 is the max):
HP: 12 (Assuming 20 is average)
Physical: 5
Magical: 5
Agility: 8

Passive abilities - System Chronos - If there is an empty row adjacent to Hugo when he is targeted by an attack, Move Hugo into that row. Target attack is nullifed unless it is capable of targeting all allies.

High stats! Badass ability like in-game! The catch? Bad HP and Low number of Ability cards. Hugo also doesn't do much else other than wack things I'm afraid. Luckily, he's pretty good at it.

Ability Cards
Magic Bow Gandiva - +3 Magic Attack. When played, Hugo can target any row.
Double Strike - Gan & Diva - Agility Attack. When you play this card, you may choose to discard another card. If you do so, this attack cannot be nullified
"Hmph...Amateurs" - You may play this whenever System Chronos triggers. If you do, Hugo's next attack does +2 damage
Perpetual Motion - Sustained Effect. Attacks that Immobilize do not effect Hugo. Whenever Hugo takes damage, discard this card from play.

Equipment Cards
None - Hugo's weapon is not memorable (I had to look it up)

Pretty straightforward translation. Hugo is a pain to take down and has a lot of damage. You might be wondering how to kill him. Well, System Chronos here doesn't trigger if another ally is in the same row. So while he can't be moved, using Movement and Positioning attacks can force him into a bad position where he is forced to take damage. And while his Sustained isn't in play, you can Immobilize him (unlike in-game) and make him a sitting duck. Gotta be quick about it though or he'll do lots of damage quick.


ENIL AIDEM
Power Grid (Assuming 8 is the max):
HP: 15 (Assuming 20 is average)
Physical: 2
Magical: 5
Agility: 4

Passive abilities - Materialize Fear - At the start Enil's turn, choose an enemy target. If your opponent has cards belonging to that character, take one randomly from them, then place it face down in your front row. Treat this card as a Copy of that character.

Oh hey, an opportunity to make Enil not suck. I'll take it and run with it. Let's see what we can do.

Ability Cards
Deception - If a Copy is currently on the field, damage done to Enil is instead done to the Copy instead.
Trepidation - Copied characters cannot draw any cards until the start of Enil's next turn.
Your deepest fears - Magic Attack +1. Generate a Copy of the targeted character, even if your opponent has none of his/her cards
When one fights monsters... - Sustained Effect - Whenever an opponent damages a Copy, the corresponding character takes damage equal 1/2 of what was inflicted. If no Copies are on the field, discard this effect.
To the Abyss - Both players discard their hand, then draw 4 cards.
Doppelganger - For the current turn, you may play cards from your opponent's Discard pool as if they were in your hand.

Equipment Cards
None - lol what weapon

So Enil sucks on stats - this is pretty much true to in-game. However, with our thought experiment, I obviously gave her something significantly stronger since playing an Enil equivalent 1 for 1 would be pretty awful. Here, she's kept her signature ability as Passive, but I gave her some synergy between the Copied characters as well as her lore. She's supposed to be a bad ass Brionac Officer like the others, so hopefully, this reflects it somewhat.


BALGAINE ALES
Power Grid (Assuming 8 is the max):
HP: 20 (Assuming 20 is average)
Physical: 8
Magical: 1
Agility: 3

Passive abilities - Baron of Gore - Ignore all Magical effects that target Balgaine.

CHAINSAW ROCKETMAN at least has an easy passive ability to translate. I'll take what I can get.

Ability Cards
Nidhogg: Straight - +5 Physical Damage. You must have 3 Cards in hand to play this card. Attacks all enemies in the closest row
Nidhogg: Full Crescent - +3 Physical Damage. You must have 5 cards in hand to play this card. Attacks all enemies.
Breakthrough - Physical Attack. Destroy a non-unique piece of equipment, currently equipped on target.
Mayhem - Discard all Sustained Effects currently in play.
"That's right. Bring it on!" - Sustained Effect. Both players draw an extra card at the start of every turn. For every Balgaine card drawn, increase his next attack by 1.

Equipment Cards
Anti-Tank Chainsaw Nidhogg - When you play an attack card, you may choose to delay its effect until Balgaine's next turn. If you do, deal double damage.

Balgaine has a ton of physical damage, but without his Chainsaw, it just deals 2HKO damage. Survivable. Once he has his Chainsaw though, look out. Delay the attack until the next turn and if you can't find a way to stop it, he will wreck face. Pretty close to in-game outside of being able to kite him, but hey. Also giving him weapon and situation breaking since he likes fair fights. His own sustain basically encourages both sides to kill each other faster, but also lets Balgaine play his special ability attacks more easily.


TONY (MAN)
Power Grid (Assuming 8 is the max):
HP: 16 (Assuming 20 is average)
Physical: 4
Magical: 2
Agility: 6

Passive abilities - Demoted - Whenever Tony takes damage, discard all Equipment cards currently equipped back into your deck.

Yes, let's take the joke boss and see if we can him less of a joke. Why am I giving him a negative passive? Well, it expands other cards we can make. Also it is suitably fitting and fits with what I want to do with our resident warmonger.

Ability Cards
Combat Knife - If one Gear Part is equipped, then Physical Attack +1. Pushes target back 1 row if able.
Reinforced Shield - If one Gear Part is equipped, then Nullify the next attack against Tony or his allies
Micro Missiles: If two Gear Parts are equipped, then Physical Attack +1. Attacks all enemies.
Rocket Launcher: If two Gear Parts are equipped. Physical Attack +3. Attacks an enemy from any row.
Anti-Magic Sphere: Sustained Effect. This card has no effect until Three Gear Parts are Equipped. Magic attacks cannot be used until Tony is defeated.
"Looks like you need some corporal punishment!" - Search your deck for Land Gear Parts. Draw up to 3 cards, based on how many Tony Cards are in your hand. 
"Why can't I beat a bunch of kids?!" - When you play this card, place it face down under Tony. When Tony is defeated, draw 2 cards for every copy of this card played.

Equipment Cards
Unique Equipment: Land Gear Parts - No base effect. Equipping more cards unlocks bonus effects on Tony's Cards

Yeah, I don't think Tony is powerful, but he is thematic. Load up this Gear with more stuff like if he is promoted, then he gets more stuff! When you hit him, he gets demoted and loses stuff. His cards without his parts basically are vanilla cards so they are pretty weak, but they at least do interesting stuff once you have something equipped.

12

Discussion / Re: The RPGDL Card Game - Blame Djinn for this one

« on: December 21, 2023, 05:48:50 AM »

So Djinn was asking if we could do a character concept and try to fully flesh out a working character. I've had some ideas which then leads to another point I wanted to make which is Themes. In a lot of card games, expansions and new cards in the same set would often play on a certain idea and stretch that across it's releases. The best example of this is Magic - where the color wheel has been in place for the longest time and new cards released might have a new mechanic or new ideas but they would always try to tie back to a color's particular strength. Should something like this be in our theoretical DL game? I think you could get away with it based on Series by series outlook. This leads into fleshing out characters and a leading example for me, which is Wild ARMS.

As all of you know, Wild ARMS often operates with a Force meter mechanic, which lets you build it and then use it for more options / diverse / powerful abilities. I think we can do something similar with our first set of concept characters. I'm going to use Virginia, Jet, Gallows and Clive as a 1st release.

VIRGINIA -
Virginia is often cited as Game best PC in her game due to a combo of her stat spread, unique achievements and utility. Let's try to emulate that a bit:

Power Grid (Assuming 8 is the max):
HP: 16 (Assuming 20 is average)
Physical: 2
Magical: 4
Agility: 7

Passive abilities - None

I think this set up is pretty self explanatory. Emulates a lot of Virginia's strengths in game. Her MAG score is actually a fair bit lower than Gallows so we're sticking with a 4. Her HP is also a bit lower as she has the lowest HP in her game. So that's our starting set up. What other cards should we add to Virginia to reflect her as unit?

Ability Cards
Mystic - Discard a Card from the Hand. The next Item Card you play on Virginia's Turn effects all targets in a row.
Quick Draw - Add +1 Agility damage to your next attack card. You may play this card at any time.
Green Thumb - The next Item Card you play returns to your hand after play.
Gatling Burst - +2 Physical. For Every additional card you Discard from your hand, do an additional +2 damage.
Evasive - You may play this card at any time if Virginia would take physical damage. Flip a coin. On Heads, ignore the damage and effects against Virginia and draw a card. 
Sense of Justice - If your opponent's hand size is currently larger than your own, search your deck for another Virginia card and add it to your hand.
Drifter Legend - Sustained effect. When a character on your side KOs an opponent's character, draw 2 cards

Equipment Cards
Unique Weapon: Bantorain / Rapier EZ 92 - When Virginia makes a physical attack, you may discard a card to repeat the attack. If you do, add a counter to this card. You may remove the counters if Virginia skips her turn. At 6 Counters - Disable this card.

These cards I think play to Virginia's flavor, which lets her operate as a battery, gathering more cards and then discarding them for bonus effects. This is very symmetrical to how WA3 FP works where as FP is consumed, your character becomes weaker. Likewise, as you discard and lose cards, you lose card advantage, so best make your card plays count. Her last card with "sustained" would stay on the board until it is overwritten, cancelled or otherwise disrupted. I think it adds flavor here in that as the WA3 chars take out more people, their fame rises and they get rewards in the form of card draws. +2 seems reasonable but could be very unbalanced just because card advantage is a thing.

So following from that, let's look at my proposed concept for one of her teammates. In this case, let's go with Clive since he's a little easier to think about.

CLIVE -

Power Grid (Assuming 8 is the max):
HP: 22 (Assuming 20 is average)
Physical: 7
Magical: 4
Agility: 1

Passive abilities - None

Yep. Like Virginia, I think this reflects Clive's stats pretty well to in-game. You could mirror his speed to Virginia's physical prowess but man, have you played WA3 recently and seen how bad Clive's speed is?

Ability Cards
Lock On - Discard a Card from your hand. The next Physical attack card played by Clive cannot be reduced or nullified.
Take Aim - Mark a target character. At the end of his/her next turn, Clive performs a free attack action equal to his Physical strength +2
Ammo Clip - The next Physical Attack Card you play returns to your hand after play.
Finest Arts - Cannot be used in conjunction with a Weapon. Cannot target farther than one row. Deals 2 physical damage + 2 additional damage for each card discarded. When 5 cards are discarded, the last hit does 20 damage.
Grappling Hook - Move Clive to any Row OR Moves an opponent to the front row. 
Experienced Veteran - Play this card in response to an opponent's face down card. Destroy it instead.
Logical Analysis - Look at the top 3 cards of your deck. You may re-order as you please. 

Equipment Cards
Unique Weapon: Gungnir HAG35 - Clive can attack any row. When you make a physical attack, add a counter to this card. You may remove the counters if Clive skips his turn. At 2 Counters - Disable this card.

Clive takes on his role as a sniper, physical expert and opts for OHKO damage. Since he has a rifle, let's give him something the game didn't and install some range. Doing so makes Clive quite a threat since he can now attack squishies in the back. To compensate, I gave the weapon only 1 charges (just like in-game!) and it is incompatible with one his cards. Just like Virginia, Clive appreciates having extra cards that you can burn so he can get added effects of his abilities. Unlike Virginia, he has issues generating draws, so its up to his capable leader of getting more fuel for him. Gallows will work similarly.

13

Discussion / Re: The RPGDL Card Game - Blame Djinn for this one

« on: December 20, 2023, 08:11:24 PM »

Fundamentally, a dead card by itself isn't a problem. In fact, in lots of card games, certain cards are only good in specific situations or you have the accompanying combo piece to play the win con out. You probably want that as a risk. If every card were usable, I think you'd run into the issue where there is no uniqueness. I think if you're trying to create something where individual characters can shine through, it is probably the most eloquent way of doing it. Just, you don't want every card to be unique - which is where the deck building comes in. How many commons vs. unique you should have and what unique *should* you carry. As with most things, to achieve good balance, you need to have things in moderation.

That being said, I actually wouldn't be opposed to things like the Caladbolg being semi unique like that because upon further reflection, weapon uniqueness should probably be reserved specifically for characters that don't have much else. I'm mainly looking at random Fire Emblem units which you might want to adopt into this format. For example, how are you going to make Eliwood unique? It's not like FE7 had skills or Tier 3 super skills like in RD. Eliwood is just pretty boring fundamentally even in terms of stat build. BUT, if you give him two custom weapon cards for example that only he can use? Now we're cooking with gas. You could also just slap a Passive on him that lets him use any sword card, which would give you that effect where another PC can use a character's signature item.

14

Discussion / The RPGDL Card Game - Blame Djinn for this one

« on: December 20, 2023, 07:02:44 AM »

We had a topic a week or so ago where Djinn was musing about a board game or table top game in the shape of the DL. The discussion got pretty interesting, some neat ideas were mentioned, so now I'm just musing more on the idea and thought, "why not make a topic about it". So here it is (one of the mods can put this somewhere else if it is more fitting). What this topic aims to do is:

- Flesh out more of the idea of what a proverbial DL Board / Tabletop / Card Game might look like
- Balancing issues, pitfalls, things to watch for
- Game Mechanics and Rules

I'll basic kind of continue where I left off. I think this idea is probably best done as a Card game, maybe similar or taking its shell from Overpower. Some of you might remember this game - but to make a long story short to get everyone to pace - form a team of heroes, each with their own stats and abilities. Then the goal is to complete a certain number of missions OR to knock out your opponent's team. This has some obvious DL undertones to it. I think we can make do without the mission aspect and just focus on the KOing the other person's team - but if someone else has a good idea on how to incorporate these, I'm game.

The DL form of this which I proposed was to use a similar basis. Basically, take any character and give them stats in Physical, Magical and Agility scores along with a HP value. Hero / Villain cards can then have a passive ability which can create further synergy or reflect more about the character in question if their unique traits can't be easily reflected. Cards are divided into these categories:

Character Cards -
These are kind of each PC or Boss' vital stats and are always taken out of a deck and placed into the play area, representing one of the characters you are using for your team. As noted, this card shows the PC's stats, along with any notable passive ability belonging to the character.  Using our example in chat, let's use Tidus for a shell. He might have Physical/Magical/Agility scores of 5/2/7, which feels pretty reflective of his in-game stats. We then give him a HP value...maybe something like 18 (assuming 20 HP is the average). One of the concerns I had was reflecting Turn speed is very hard or complex I think for most people, but one of Tidus' noticeable strengths is his ability to Double Turn. So I think an adequate substitute might be to give him a Passive ability like: Spry Striker - Whenever Tidus plays an attack card, you may play a 2nd attack card of lesser value. That way, it reflects Tidus' ability to strike quickly. If someone has a good way to map CTB like system into a card game (or table top game) form without over complicating, this is your time to shine.

Ability Cards -
So these Cards would reflect a character's ability or skill set. The DL uniqueness bit essentially. Again using Tidus, these Cards might be something "Haste", "Slow","Quick Hit", "Spiral Cut", "Blitz Ace", etc. You can modify each ability as you see fit to do damage, play extra cards, disrupt an opponent etc. The key here is that because these cards are specific to Tidus, you need Tidus alive in order to play them. So if he gets knocked out, then all of his ability cards become dead cards. This way you can give Abilities powerful flavor tools and keeping it somewhat in check. That was the basic idea in Overpower anyway. I think it makes sense on a deck building perspective and probably a game play one too. One of other cool thing is that in a Card game format, you can also design cards around a character's traits, personality or story beats. So for Tidus, you could also create a card called "Enthusiasm" or "I hate you, Dad" and make them have differing effects (although the latter is probably harder)

Equipment Cards -
Djinn mentioned he liked PCs having weapons/armors reflective of their in-game stuff. So here, I think you could create cards similar to Ability Cards in that they can only be used by a character, but also make this a separate class of cards. The way they would function is that it would be similar to enchanting a creature in magic. Since enchant creatures have a natural weakness, you'd probably need to make these pretty strong to compensate. For Tidus, an example might be a card called something like, "Caladbolg - Tidus Unique Weapon. When this weapon is equipped, Tidus can no longer be dealt physical damage. Damage dealt by Tidus decreases by 1 for every 4 damage". That would be pretty reflective of the 2 unique properties of the weapon in-game. Magic mentioned giving cards certain factions or tags, so that people with the same tags can all use something similarly classed. So for this, you would Class Tidus maybe with the tags, "Fighter", "Sword", "Speedster". Caladbolg would then certainly be classed as "Sword". My main train of thought was to make these unique to the character because I think weapons if they are unique enough to be part of a character's DL default, probably does something that another character's doesn't. Not always, but we want to make people feel different.

Common Cards -
To prevent a series of dead draws, I think it is important to include something like a Common Card pool that anyone would use. Basic Physical and Magic attacks for example, should be able to be utilized by any character. In Overpower, the way this worked was each character's grid reflected the maximum amount of power they could use of a particular attack type. I think for our little thought experiment, this makes sense too. So in our sample, Tidus could use physical cards up to 5 power. These would just be generic cards (don't need unique names here) so any other character with 5 or higher physical stat could also use it. You can then also add Items to this notion, although just like in-games, I think Items need to be carefully designed and balanced in this case.

Healing and Revival -
This is tricky. I think healing and revival are probably not great ideas on paper because they prolong a game and can make KOing an opponent's character a chore. However, flip side, these are basic common things in RPGs. I think the way around these is to make it such that there needs to be some sort of drawback or cost so they a) can't be spammed and b) puts you at a momentum disadvantage when using it. One example I had of this is for a character like Elie. One of Elie's strengths in her game is her S-Craft Aura Rain, which can be deployed at anytime and full restore the entire team. As strange as it might be, I think if you really wanted, you could implement something similar. Maybe make it something like, "Aura Rain - Play this at anytime, including during your opponent's turn. Discard 3 cards from your hand. Then revive all characters on your team and restore their HP to full. Elie loses her next turn". This would be pretty reflective of the ability in-game, requiring a significant CP cost and having noticeable recovery lag. I dunno if "full revive" makes it fun to play against though. CERTAINLY, in RPGs, enemies reviving each other is a huge pain in the rear.

Formations and Positioning -
Difficult to implement, but I think worth it to add a strategic element to the game. I imagine the board space being like Front/Mid/Back for each player and you can put characters into each lane. You have to take out characters in the front before being able to attack those in the back - which is pretty rudimentary. How do you give those in the Front and Mid an advantage? I haven't thought of that yet. But certainly, there should be something so you aren't just putting 1 in the Front and 3 in the back to concentrate damage on one person.

Status Conditions -
I know Djinn was excited to add a bunch of status just like characters can in the DL. However, I'm more reserved and realistic. I think having status that rips turns away from people is pretty hard to balance around. Turn economy is real, and having something like Arnaud's Sleep be 50% on multiple targets (which it can be in-game) would be really devastating in this format. So instead, I think you need work arounds. Having multiple characters does mitigate some of the "lose turn" effects, but I'm not sure it does enough to outright justify them without some additional drawback. Certain status such as Poison and Blind though are easy enough to implement.

15

Discussion / Re: Marvel Snap - Cards, Analysis, etc.

« on: December 18, 2023, 06:13:54 PM »

Going to talk about a card, which I hope will lead up into something new for this topic, which is deck and game discussions. So with that said, let's look at a Series 3 big enabler card: Sera



Cost: 5
Power: 4 (5 Below Par)
Ability: Ongoing - All your cards cost -1 Energy to play
Ideal Turn to Play: 5. Sera is hard locked more or less into a 1 turn play window. Playing Sera too early risks her getting hit by an early tech card. Playing her on 6, obviously does nothing. You want to be late enough into the game that when Sera comes down, your opponent doesn't have much room to maneuver to disable you since a 5-4 stat line is obviously paltry.
Archetype: Enabler / Sera Miracle

Uses:
As has been said many times in this topic, modifying play windows is huge. Because of this, any card that alters the cost of other cards will always have some merit even if they are a little tricky to use. Sera fits the very definition of that. She is a flat -1 Energy Cost to all further cards plays once she comes down. The catch is that Sera basically only has a 1 turn window, so if she misses her window on 5, she basically becomes a dead card. That and the fact that her stat line is paltry means if her ability isn't doing anything, there is zero reason to play. Still, you may have only 1 turn, but that 1 turn can let you cause some real havoc.

While Sera can work well with many other cards, she's often best played alongside other late game turners - namely other tech cards - to do the greatest damage. This makes sense because many powerful tech options are 4 cost cards on base. Playing Sera now makes them 3 cost, allowing you to double up and play 2 of them if needed. When paired with Zabu, that 4 cost now becomes 2 cost and you can play up to 3. 3 tech gives you a lot of options to blow up your opponent's board. By Turn 5, you can often see what shell the opponent is running which means a more experienced player can guess what you may have on hand. If you start playing a lot of 3 costs, I know I need to save my Shadow King because you are likely playing Surfer as your last card. If you are playing Shuri, I know that last turn is probably a combo of Taskmaster + 1 large one drop - Hood Demon, Titania or a Sauron'd Maw. As such I will play Shadow King AND Shang to catch Tasky. This type of tech counter strategy has lead to Sera having her own archetype - the Sera Miracle - which focuses on Turn 6 turnarounds for this exact reason.

Of course, that doesn't mean Sera doesn't have other homes. 3 cost cards also often carry a lot of good tech, so she naturally finds a bond with Surfer for similar reasons. On the flip side, if you just need to cheat out a lot of big cards like a Tribunal deck, then Sera might also make sense. In this case, you'll often partner her with Magik to increase the number of turns where her impact can be felt AND as a way to extend Sera's play window. Where Sera makes less sense are often in very straightforward or "On Curve" type decks that don't need to dump a ton of energy plays at any time. Stuff like Zero Shuri/Kitty Shuri/Generic Destroy or even Shenaut often have game plans where their ideal curve doesn't require them to use up more energy then they have (in Shenaut's case, they actually want float) so a Turn 5 Sera actually doesn't do anything.

Even though she can provide a pretty big benefit, Sera has some rather large drawbacks as well. I've already mentioned the stat line, but there are other limitations here too. For example, Sera cannot reduce a card's cost below 1. So deck types that have a lot of 1 costs such as Thanos or Zoo have zero reason to play Sera usually. Related to her stat line, because she often finds homes in other heavy combo decks or tech heavy decks, most of the other cards, including Sera herself often have bad power. This doesn't seem like much of an issue on the surface. But when an opponent drops cards where you can't hit them with any sort of tech, this is a real serious issue. Cards that flutter around the 7-9 mark and cost more than 2 usually present problems for Sera because those types of decks just tend to outpower you. The cost reduction can also be a negative depending on certain location such as Crimson Cosmos, which can then just lock you from play.

Funnily enough, even though you can ramp out Sera early to get more of her benefit, I'd actually recommend against doing it. It obviously varies from a case by case situation, but placing an early Sera screams for your opponent to disable you. A lot of players might not be experts, but even the greenest of players know giving you more energy to work with is a bad idea. As such, this type of play carries a lot of risk and it often isn't worth it. Unless you're playing a deck that needs to ramp out multiple pieces, a single turn can often be enough to turn the tides around.

Sera is a card that is easy to misjudge. I think most players value her much higher than I do. To me, Sera should be a card where if she comes down, she aids you in whatever goal you are accomplishing. So her best homes are like with Surfer where you don't NEED Sera, but she's obviously very nice since she gives an extra card play. If your game plan 100% depends on getting Sera to the board, your deck is going to be shaky at best since between the various disruption effects, bad locations and draws, the chances where you can enact such a plan are not common enough.

Common Combos:
Sera's energy reduction, even though it gives you only 1 real turn to play with, can't be underestimated. Reducing Costs by 1 is huge, letting you play two 4 cost energy costs for example and it stacks with Zabu, sometimes letting you just dump cards. That said, even though you technically get more of a discount playing her early, a lot of the combos save her for 5 so the big swings on 6 can come out.

Sera -> Shang Chi + Absorbing Man: Sera works best with most tech cards as they border on the 4 cost, preventing them from being able to use multiple ones on the last turn. To get around that, you can either play Zabu or Sera. Sera has the added benefit of also reducing cost on tech cards of other costs, which then lets you mix and match for the scenario needed. Double Shang being one of those combos that's just very nasty if your opponent doesn't account for it.

Zabu -> Whatever -> Sera -> Valkyrie + Absorbing Man: This is an example of what I mentioned above. In this case, both Zabu and Sera have to be played because Valk costs 5. But with this set up, you can double Valk on 6, which is pretty devastating.

Magik -> Wave -> Onslaught-> Sera -> Iron Man + Living Tribunal: Sera can also enable long complex chains, in this case, in conjunction with Wave and Magik. You're goal is to stack Onslaught, Iron Man and Living Tribunal in the same lane. This costs a ton of energy and isn't normally playable...which is why you need to cheat cards out with Wave, then use Sera's discount to play the combo. Done correctly, this slaps 29+ Power across all 3 lanes. You do of course need to play everything on curve, so it is fragile but certainly possible.

Zabu -> Wong -> Mystique -> Sera -> Whatever: Yeeeah, here's another on curve requirement, but done played in this way, you go into Turn 6 basically able to dump a massive On Reveal combo. Your opponent could be baiting you into a sense of victory, but if they don't have Cosmo at the ready and priority, this is basically GG.

Sera -> Surfer + Brood + Any other 3 Cost: Yep. 3 Cost is the magic number as mentioned several times. In a Surfer deck, Sera's often added as the sole high cost piece because she enables you to then play 3 cards on Turn 6. This is often Surfer + an establisher and maybe one tech card to steal the game. Brood in this case, is often the go to.

Rank/Tier: C tier. Sera is a similar case to Professor X in that while they both only have a 1 turn window, when they are played, their impact is rather large. The difference is that unlike Charles, Sera doesn't end matches. She does let you do some powerful combos, but you still have to plan your turns and Turn 6 turnarounds can leave you quite vulnerable to disruption.

Most Used Decks:
Sera Miracle (Control)
Ongoing Tribunal
Surfer
Wong Combos

16

Discussion / Re: Marvel Snap - Cards, Analysis, etc.

« on: December 14, 2023, 04:19:48 PM »

Let's talk about VSM's favourite card - Valkyrie



Cost: 5
Power: 3 (6 Below Par)
Ability: On Reveal - Set the power of all Cards in this lane to 3.
Ideal Turn to Play: About 95% of the time, Valk is best played on 6 for the biggest surprise factor. However, there are times when you want to play her on 5 - especially if you can dupe her effect with Absorbing Man
Archetype: Tech / Support

Uses:
Most tech cards in this game flutter around the 3-4 cost range. Not cheap enough to be freely available, but not so expensive they become the only Card play available on a given turn. Of the cards in the game, only a handful of 5 Cost cards serve as tech cards. Valkyrie is one of them. She's a high cost, low powered card which is obviously bad in terms of stat line. If you're going to pay 5 Energy for a tech effect, it better win you the game or you're going to be in deep trouble. Luckily, Valkyrie does exactly that. She's a lane stealer thanks to her extremely powerful ability but she does require some set up to be used properly.

Valkyrie's effect makes it such that any cards in her lane are set to exactly 3 power. It doesn't matter if you played Shuri then doubled a Red Skull to 28. If someone plays Valk in the same lane, they will effectively turn your 28 power down to 3 - effectively killing your Turn 4 and 5 in one fell swoop. This already sounds pretty good, but then you can just play cards after Valk reveals to win the lane back, right? Well, yes. But that's why most Valkyrie users will look to flood your lanes first. Valk's effect is symmetrical so she hits cards on your end too. So you'd think just flooding the lane results in a tie. However, here's where a neat priority order in terms of power determination comes into play. Valk resets power to 3, but Ongoing effects are not considered to be part of the card's stat. They are an "Ability Power" effect essentially so Valk doesn't turn them off. So in the above example with Red Skull, if we both flooded lanes and I hit you with Valk, that lane would just be mine because of Red Skull's Ongoing ability, which gives all of my cards an extra +2 power.

Knowing these rules, you can set up Valk yourself with an Ongoing effect. You don't need to play the Ongoing effect in the same lane. Just as long as you have one active, about 95% of the time, it will result in you breaking lane priority. And that's the key. If you have something that can break parity, Valk will win the lane she is on once she is played. You do have to be careful though because if you play with priority, you'll miss any unrevealed targets. Order is therefore also important. Playing Valk then Demon keeps your Demon at 6 Power. Playing Demon then Valk turns your Demon to 3 Power and possibly losing you the game.

Most of the time, you're going to want to play Valk late and without priority. Partially, that's due to the surprise factor, but more importantly, you need proper set up to ensure your hitting everything since you otherwise risk unrevealed cards winning that lane. However, there are situations where you will want to hit a target earlier with Valk. A great example of this is with Shuri. Shuri is highly telegraphed in that for her effect to kick in, the card being powered up MUST be played in her lane. So against Nimrod destroy variants, you want to either have priority going into Turn 6 or pre-empt them on 5 with Valk. Doing so means you overwrite their power doubling and drop Nimrod back down to 3 Power. Nimrod is Shang Proof so this is one of the few ways which you can kneecap the Nimrod Destroy player before he starts splitting copies because once he does, you are likely going to lose. Having him dupe 3 Power cards is obviously not ideal! You can even do a dual Valkyrie play where you drop Valk on 5, then use Absorbing Man to dupe the effect. This is extremely powerful because opponents already don't tend to expect Valkyrie let alone two Valkyries. Indeed, most Shuri players would rather play Armor to stop a NTW or Shang versus Luke Cage to stop a possible Valk.

With all that said, it should be obvious then what Valk's weaknesses are. She will lose to most Ongoing effects because they can break symmetry. She will also lose if another card sneaks into play after her effect because 12 power in a lane is obviously not very high. Her cost means she's very inflexible and you need to preplan where she is going to be played and her overall impact because likely in the turn you play her, you can't do much else. Luke Cage voids Valkyrie setting power to 3 if it represents a drop, so he completely dumpsters you as does Shadow King who will reset power values if he is played after you. Priority control is important as is making sure there are no Ongoing effects in the lane you want to drop her in. As such, Echo and Rogue are some of Valk's best friends. Enchantress works too, but has higher base power and being 4 cost makes her harder to use than the other two. Ghost can be useful too if you have issues dealing with priority to ensure you reveal last.

Valkyrie's effect is devastating but she has to be for essentially being a 5-cost tech card.

Common Combos:
Valk has some really mean combos - like outright lane winners - if you have the right draw. But then like Professor X, if you're paying 5 cost for a tech card like effect, it better be. The good news is that Valkyrie delivers on that promise as long as you are aware of her flaws.

Valkyrie -> Demon / Titania / Antman: Let's start with the obvious. If a Lane already has 2 cards played, Valk + Antman gives you a point total of 16. If an opponent has played 4 other cards here as well with no Ongoing effect, Antman will win it for you after Valk goes off.

Cerebro -> Valkyrie: In C3, Valk is devastating. She serves as a way to both kneecap an opponent's lane while simultaneously bringing up all of your own on the last turn.

Doc Oct -> Valkyrie: Doc Oct pulls out 4 cards into a lane. As long as there isn't an Ongoing effect, Valk will cut them all down to 3 power - so 12 to that lane - which then makes it easy pickings to outright win it.

Hood -> Sentry -> Valkyrie + Demon: A simple set up. Sentry creates a Void that is -10. Play Hood in the same lane, then on 5, 3 wash the entire lane with Valk. Demon from Hood then wins you the lane.

YellowJacket -> Wasp -> Antman -> Valkyrie: A very powerful but 4 card combo which can be dumped on the last turn. Both Wasp and YJ or 0 Cost and Antman is 1. So Valk's 5 + Antman's 1 means this combo is valid for non-limbo games. Dump all 4 into a lane an opponent is investing and steal it.

Invisible Woman -> Valkyrie: A delayed Valk, like Shang and Killmonger, can be a magnificent way to lane steal. You just have to be wary of what cards you have in there that win parity after Valk goes off.

Rank/Tier: B tier. Valk probably borders on the bottom of A, but to be conservative, I'm placing her in B. She's basically a 5 cost tech card that will basically steal lanes for you as long as you have the adequate set up. That does mean she isn't as flexible as some of the other cards, but her effect is so good that in the decks she works in, she's an effective finisher.

Most Used Decks:
Control
Junk
Negative
Cerebro 3

17

Discussion / Re: Marvel Snap - Cards, Analysis, etc.

« on: December 13, 2023, 03:25:11 PM »

Rogue



Cost: 3
Power: 2 (2 Below Par)
Ability: On Reveal - Steal an Ongoing Ability from an opponent in this lane. Rogue gains this power.
Ideal Turn to Play: Varies, but typically late game - usually 4-6. Rogue is very rarely, if ever, played on 3. She is the first card we are looking at that counters Ongoing abilities (there are 3 in total)
Archetype: Tech / Ongoing

Uses:
I have real mixed feelings on Rogue. She's a card which I really want to like, but more often in practice, if you're looking for Ongoing Hate, there are two other tech cards that do similar jobs as she does. And more often than not, Enchantress is probably a bit better than Rogue. Don't get me wrong though - Rogue is fun. How can she not be when you're basically doing a Uno Reverse against an opponent with his own card abilities? The issue is that Rogue is only useful in some specific circumstances. However, when she is good, she is *really* good.

Let's look at her main advantages compared to her compatriots. The first thing of note and the main that separates them is the cost. Super Skrull and Enchantress are both 4 cost cards. Rogue costs only 3. This has obvious applications. Rogue is more flexible for your curve and can easily fit alongside another card late into the game. She can fly under Goose which has merit, even if she is only a 50/50. After all, 50% is better than 0% which what Enchantress bats against it. It also gives her innate synergy with Silver Surfer, which IMO, is one of the best cards in the game. In terms of Power, 2 power is obviously not great, but Super Skrull costs 1 more and has the same power, so relatively speaking, Rogue is winning that trade there too. So altogether, she's just a more efficient tech card than the other two.

But of course, if you are paying for less, there are definitive trade-offs. The first here is that Skrull and Enchantress can match the 3 cost if the deck runs Zabu. And just as Rogue has synergy with Surfer, all 4 costs have synergy with the tiger. With Zabu's cost reduction, now Enchantress and Skrull can go through Goose as well, although the added set up makes them a bit more clunky. Second, Rogue only shuts down one Ongoing effect. While this can effectively be game winning, like if you steal your opponent's Knull or Iron Man, it might not be enough depending on what they are doing. Further, because you can only steal one ability, anytime there is more than one Ongoing ability in the same lane, Rogue becomes a gamble and immediately drops to 50/50. That's obviously not great. Because she cannot self-target, and is dependent on what your opponent plays, Rogue also is harder to combo into. Enchantress can hit your own Lizard, Red Skull, Mary, etc. and effectively let you play those cards with no downside, something Rogue (and Super Skrull) cannot.

At the end of the day, which of the Ongoing tech cards you use depends on the deck and what you are trying to do. Rogue is best in decks that want to run an Ongoing tech card that doesn't care too much about being able to combo into other cards. For this reason, she tends to be weaker because Enchantress can be used to set up a powerful series of card plays without relying on what the opponent does. If an opponent plays no Ongoing cards, or the only Ongoing card they are playing is Lizard, Rogue is effectively a dead card. However, if you're just looking to shut down one troublesome Ongoing ability like Wong or Knull, Rogue is a god-sent. Being 1 less Energy cost is a big deal at being able to deploy Rogue because it means she can come onto the board faster and you still might have room to play another meaningful card to impact your board.

Common Combos:
Like other cards where they are dependent on what an opponent plays, Combo plays off of Rogue is hard. One important consideration is that once Rogue copies an ability, she gains that ability for the rest of the game. Meaning if you can then dupe Rogue, she will have the same Ongoing text as the first ability she stole. This has some obvious applications if you are able to steal something of high value.

Rogue -> Mystique: Mystique copies an Ongoing effect of a card that YOU own. If you Rogue and steal an ability, Mystique then gives you a copy of that stolen ability. This is really good if you steal something like Iron Man, where the stolen ability can function well on it's own without a lot of other support.

Rogue -> Onslaught: See above. Onslaught doubles the effects of Ongoing cards. So Rogue + Onslaught doubles up on an Ongoing ability you stole.

Quinjet -> Nico Minoru -> Rogue: A 3 card combo that lets you dupe a Rogue with a stolen ability and then replay it at -1 Cost. Quinjet/Nico is a combo you might see in a Loki Collector Bounce shell, so there's a case where this 3 card combo is a real thing.

Rank/Tier: C tier. I think Rogue and Super Skrull are probably comparable and both are slightly weaker than Enchantress. The main issue here is that both cards are reliant on an opponent playing meaningful Ongoing cards. Rogue has no effect if that is not the case. Granted, the ability to steal an opponent's ability is always fun and can flip the board state entirely if she steals something meaningful.

Most Used Decks:
Surfer
Negative
Spectrum Destroyer
Ongoing Tribunal

18

Discussion / Re: Marvel Snap - Cards, Analysis, etc.

« on: December 12, 2023, 03:57:40 PM »

Wow, big disagree on Colossus. He's one of the best two drops in the game in my opinion. Just being able to play him on Death's Domain or the two or three other instant kill locations is an easy turn 6 win condition. Also has some newish synergy due to nerfed Luke Cage. One of the few cards you can play along with Hazmat or Typhoid Mary. Probably going to see a rise in High Evolutionary decks with Cage getting wrecked so that's another counter to them. Yes, he's only three power, but he's three power that can only be stopped with Rogue or Enchantress.

Let's respectfully disagree then. Which other 2 cost cards do you see him being that much better then? Especially ones which you commonly see? Like he's definitely better than Mantis, Mordo, Star Lord and probably Okoye. But I have a hard time seeing him being better than Psylocke or even Quake - neither of which I see being better than a C tier card. Quake, if played with the right location sets wins things on her own for 2 power. Psylocke can combo into really powerful plays or Ramp into necessary engine cards like Mr. Negative or Sandman. Colossus' ability is good defensively but the problem is that it doesn't disrupt or slow an opponent down and he's difficult to interact with, meaning he's often just going to be a 2-3. New Luke Cage still dumpsters HE Cyke but I'd argue it's probably killed off both Hazmat and Mary because now they are basically never worth their value without significant set up (in Mary's case, I can't even see how she is ever a 4-10 again if you play ANY other card other than Luke or Colossus). That doesn't help Colossus at all but just hurts those two other cards playability. I also already noted how he's basically very sturdy. He's basically almost always 3 power because his ability by itself isn't worth taking away. But because of that, you can use him as anchor in some decks such as C3.

Side note - My rankings are also obviously personal opinions so don't get too worked up about them. Anecdotally, I rarely ever see Colossus in the game currently and you never see him in Netdecks nowadays or from creators either, which I think reinforces my position. He's probably more realistically a Punisher scenario. Fundamentally not terrible but definitely powercrept.

19

Discussion / Re: Marvel Snap - Cards, Analysis, etc.

« on: December 08, 2023, 03:58:25 PM »

I got your D-tier Rescue right here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bU2PWs9qIZSTQw-T27x4KL7JKpn2ABib/view?usp=drive_link

Nice one. Let me know when you get Rocks as your mascot.

I haven't updated this topic for awhile, so let's go over something quick and dirty. I've been recently asked if I wanted to contribute to a "Card of the Day" style analysis on the reddit board, so I will probably be cross posting at some point! Maybe. The game has gone over 4 or 5 patches since the last time I posted and a lot of stuff has changed - maybe when I get unlazy, I will review the analysis for a few of the cards I've already visited. This mainly applies to Wave, Aero, Chavez (which has undergone big changes) but also to minor adjustments such as Black Cat and Shang (minor OTA adjustments mostly).

Anyway, back to business: Colossus



Cost: 2
Power: 3 (Par)
Ability: Ongoing - This card cannot be debuffed, destroyed or moved once it is played.
Ideal Turn to Play: 2-6. Colossus has a wide play window overall. That's his main selling point arguably in that he's old reliable. Unfortunately, it does mean he's pretty boring otherwise
Archetype: Anchor / Ongoing - Predictably

Uses:
As far as cards in SNAP go, Colossus is probably the most boring. Yeah, I'm aware abilitless cards like Wasp and Misty Knight exist, but those have an alternative form with High Evo (HE), which then makes them more powerful and interesting. Colossus really just sits there. Quite literally too because once he's on the board, you can't really interact with him. He's immune to being destroyed, being debuffed by power down effects and can't be shoved around at all. If it wasn't for locations being a thing in SNAP, Colossus would basically be interchangeable with Shocker most of the time. They are both 2 cost 3 power cards that don't do much - just that Colossus' ability means he has good defenses against most things that want to interact with him.

Where Colossus really shines is with locations that have detrimental effects. Take Negative Zone for example. This is a location that applies a -3 Debuff to any card played in its lane. Well, Colossus' ability means he doesn't care about that, so he sits there at his regular 3 power value. Your opponent now has to play a 6 power card to counteract him...more if you buff Colossus in some other way. The above mentioned Rickety Bridge is another. Simply play Colossus onto the Bridge and if your opponent doesn't have a play to answer, you basically steal it for free since he can't be destroyed without first taking away his ability.

His ability means he's an excellent defensive card against most disruption effects, often creating 50/50s or worse for an opponent if the disruption most interact with the board. A common example is with Polaris. Polaris interacts with 1-2 cost cards, which Colossus is. However, Colossus' ability means he nullifies Polaris' ability to move him. If you have a high value 2 cost card like Invisible Woman or Zabu, Colossus can make those disruptive plays chancey because now there is a chance to hit Colossus instead. While he doesn't 100% nullify them, it is nice that he at least has par value for a card and doesn't require a separate tech card to offer this defensive bonus. Like you would expect, Colossus is just solid. This in turn also means that cards that have merge effects like Hulk Buster, are good with him too since like Wolverine, Colossus is hard to destroy.

Flip side though, because there's not much you can do to interact with Colossus, it also means that there is a ceiling to how useful he is. He won't win you games in a way like a Turn 6 Shang Chi might. He also doesn't set up combos like Wong or present a threat like Kingpin. So in short, Colossus is often just...there, sitting cozily at his 3 power. There are ways of course to leverage this such as with Cerebro, Spectrum or Destroyer. But overall, Colossus is about as straightforward as you can get. His ability often isn't good enough to just take away with Rogue or Enchantress but at the same time, his 3 power doesn't mean nothing either since you can use him as anchor in other ways.

Common Combos:
Because of his ability, Colossus isn't very interactive, which limits the ways a card can combo or play off him. Still, you can try some of these:

Colossus -> Destroyer: Pretty straightforward if you want to play Destroyer without risk of actually vaporizing your board. The nice thing here is that Colossus can sit in any lane instead of a lane that has been hit by Armor or Professor X. Logan is actually better since he gets that +2 buff but Logan also isn't synergistic with Colossus since he actually wants to be destroyed, versus Colossus who cannot

Colossus -> Man Thing: Man Thing is a recent release but he's pretty powerful, applying a -2 Power to all 1-3 cost cards in the lane. This hits your cards too so your options are to either not put 1-3 costs there, use Luke OR something like Colossus which ignores Man-Thing's ability.

Colossus -> Hulk Buster: Yep. Colossus works with any other power-up card because he has innate immunity to Shadow King. This just means that enchant creature type cards like Hulk Buster have less risk when used on him. Downside - he also doesn't do much else with it unfortunately.

Rank/Tier: D tier. There are actual rocks in the game, but Colossus is probably more of one by definition. You can't really interact with him once he comes down, but that's the beauty of the card. Unfortunately, that also kneecaps him in how he can be interacted with, which in turn means he has a very low ceiling potential.

Most Used Decks:
Spectrum Destroyer
Cerebro 3

20

Unranked Games / Re: Marvel Midnight Sun - aka Tide' 3rd Attempt at doing a Marvel Game Stat Topic

« on: October 25, 2023, 04:44:12 PM »

This post reserved for the 4 DLC characters - Deadpool, Venom, Storm and THE MORB.

21

Unranked Games / Re: Marvel Midnight Sun - aka Tide' 3rd Attempt at doing a Marvel Game Stat Topic

« on: October 25, 2023, 04:43:50 PM »

Hunter

The main character of this game and an OC. So Hunter functions a bit differently from the other characters since s/he has main character properties. The most significant part of Hunter is that he has an alignment rating which influences his gameplay style. Light side Hunter is more defensive and supporting in nature, while Dark Side Hunter is more offensive and aggressive. Hunter's alignment is influenced by your in-game dialogue choices as well as what cards you play. The more cards of one type you use, the more your alignment will lean towards that side. Being specifically "Light side" Hunter or "Dark side" Hunter also gifts Hunter with a different set of passive. And of course, because he is the main, Hunter gets the most influence from secondary stat bonuses as all choices flow through him. This includes using the training yard for sparring or fulfilling small quests requested by different party members.

In general, if you are just randomly picking choices, Hunter is going to be balanced in alignment and thus wouldn't have a particular alignment in general. In practice however, you're more likely to move towards one side of the needle or the other since players will either min-max, want to roleplay or just pick something that fits their personality more so it is unlikely you will thread the center perfectly. So in general, we're going to cover all of Hunter's options. Once Hunter earns certain passives, he can un-equip them and equip a new one. However, because alignment takes a fair while to change, you're usually unable to change from Light to Dark in the same game without significant investment. You have to reverse all the previous alignment then move towards the opposite direction. My suggestion is therefore to take Hunter similar to the way you may take a Persona character - s/he has a preferred skillset and could opt for changes but I'll probably lock him/her into that set up for the rest of the season s/he is in. Onward -

HP: 659
Offense: 125

Passives: Hunter can equip a different suit (armor) and collar (accessory). As noted above, these can change once unlocked. Hunter can equip one of each but cannot equip an armor ability in his accessory slot and vice versa.

Armor
Vengeance - Enemies who attack Hunter have a 25% chance to become Marked. Unlocked during the course of the story
Symbiote Shell - Whenever Hunter plays one of his/her cards, 10% chance to inflict Symbiotic Bind on a random opponent. Unlocked during the course of the story.
Shadowstalker - Once per mission, redrawing a Heroic Hunter card gives Hunter the Concealed status. Unlocked at the penultimate mission.
Salem's Savior - Whenever Hunter KO's a Lilin (a type of monster), 50% chance to draw another card. Unlocked through exploration of the Abbey (Hub area)
Master of the Hunt - All Collar abilities trigger 1 card play earlier. Hunter becomes status immune. Available in the Post-game
Heightened Senses - Charlie (Hunter's Dog) gains 1 Resist at the start of each turn. Both Hunter and Charlie's cards have an increased chance to inflict critical damage. Unlocked during the course of the story
Fully Charged - Hunter gains either 1 Resist at the start of each turn OR he generates +1 Heroism at the start of each turn. Unlocked through Research.
Defender of the Light - Hunter's Light Side cards have an increased rate to inflict critical damage. Unlocked by being 150/200 on Light alignment (heavy investment)
Dark Champion - Hunter's Dark Side cards have an increased rate to inflict critical damage. Unlocked by being 150/200 on Dark alignment (heavy investment)
Ancestor's Guidance - Ignore the Exhaust effect on Hunter's Cards

Hunter's preferred set up is bolded. Fully Charge gives the best balance of defensive + offensive mix because Hunter consumes Heroism pretty heavily. Resist is Resist and being able to stack that passively can give enemies a whole lot of trouble if they cannot double act or double turn reliably. Otherwise, Shadowstalker is good for buying an extra turn if needed since Conceal is also fantastic as a defensive option. Master of the Hunt would be his go-to if it wasn't post game only. But those of you that allow everything, well, it is here for completeness.

Accessory - All Accessories generate a card that is Free to play
Balanced Collar - Allows Hunter to draw 2 of his/her cards after 3 Balanced Card Plays. Complete Magik's B-day event ingame.
Ivory Collar - The next Hunter card played does get discarded. Triggers after 3 Light Cards. Unlocked by 20/200 on Light alignment (minimal investment)
Obsidian Collar - The next Hunter card played deals double damage. Triggers after 3 Dark Cards. Unlocked by 20/200 on Dark alignment (minimal investment)
Paragon - The next Light card does not consume a card play. Triggers after 5 Light Cards. Unlocked by 60/200 on Light alignment (moderate investment)
Renegade - The next Dark card does not consume a card play. Triggers after 5 Dark Cards. Unlocked by 60/200 on Dark alignment (moderate investment)
Unity - Gain Fast for 1 Turn. Play 1 Light, 1 Dark and 1 Balanced Card in any order. Complete Team Meeting event in-game.

Hunter's preferred set up is bolded. In general double damage play on Dark cards is great because Dark alignment already has heavy damage cards, so being able to further enhance them is fantastic. Otherwise, Balanced Collar is very good as well since it allows Hunter to replenish the cards in his/her hand even if he runs out of redraws. Less useful in the DL since you are limited to 3 actions anyway.

Attack Cards:
Charge - +1 Heroism. Forceful Knockback. 25% chance to apply Stun.
Holy Flame - +1 Heroism. Choose one: Either Heal for [200% Offense] or inflicts [100% Offense] damage. When this card is redrawn, +1 Heroism.
Holy Spark - +1 Heroism. Choose one: Either Cure an ally's status condition or inflicts [50% Offense] damage. Quick Effect if attacking.
Last Sight - +1 Heroism. On KO, gain Conceal for 1 Turn.
Merciless - +1 Heroism. If target is stunned or bound, this card deals an additional [400% Offense] damage.
Morning Star - +1 Heroism. Gives all copies of other Morning Star cards [+50% Offense] damage to a max of [300% Offense].
Quick Slash - +1 Heroism. Quick Effect. Has Knockback.
Slash - +1 Heroism. Forceful Knockback
Wild Strike - +1 Heroism. Inflicts Vulnerable on Hunter for 1 Turn.

Skill Cards
Call to Arms - Doubles All Heroism gained for the remainder of this turn. Free Play
Dark Blessing - +2 Heroism. Upgrades all Cards in hand to their improved form. DL useless as cards already taken in upgraded form.
Dark Healing - +2 Heroism. Restores all HP and status condition to an ally. Hunter takes damage equal to 15% of his Max HP
Deadly Ground - +2 Heroism. Hunter creates 2 Light and 2 Dark Explosives onto the field. These explosives behave the same way as Environmental damage and can be triggered through Knockback effects or Heroism usage. The Dark Explosive applies Vulnerable when an opponent is directly knocked into it for 2 turns. The Light Explosive inflicts Stun for 2 turns.
Fortify - +2 Heroism. Hunter gains Counter for 2 Turns and gains Block equal to 40% of his Max HP.
Heal - +2 Heroism. Restores HP equal to [300% Offense]. If this overheals, draw 2 cards.
Holy Gift - +2 Heroism. The next card played is not discarded.
Inspire - Changes a random Heroic Card in hand to use 0 Heroism. Free Play.
Mindbender - +2 Heroism. Target enemy attacks their nearest ally twice. Exhaust on use.
Wrath - Gives all Hunter cards in hand a guaranteed Crit. For the next 2 Turns, all Hunter cards drawn will also have guaranteed Crit. Free Play.

Heroic Cards
Bands of Fire - 1 Heroism Cost. Knockback in any direction. Draw a card if this attack results in a KO.
All Out - 1 Heroism Cost. When played, Discard all Hunter cards in hand, then draw 2 new Hunter Cards.
Fury - 2 Heroism Cost. Applies 1 Vulnerable and 2 Marked on target. Final.
Guarding Strike - 1 Heroism Cost. As long as this is in hand, Hunter regenerates Block equal to 15% of his Max HP at the start of every round.
Holy Burst - 2 Heroism Cost. Medium AoE. Restores [300% Offense] HP to all allies in the targeting area.
Mind Breaker - 4 Heroism Cost. Applies 3 Berserk to target.
Patience - 6 Heroism Cost. For every turn this card is held in hand, reduce its Heroism Cost by 1.
Whip - Forceful Knockback in any direction. Discard a card on use.

Ultimate
Annihilation - X Heroism Cost. Dark alignment. Wide AoE. Consumes all Heroism to deal [75% Offense] damage for each point of Heroism consumed. Exhaust on use.
Bladestorm - 4 Heroism Cost. Neutral alignment. Wide AoE. Forceful Knockback on all targets in selected area. For every KO, draw a card.
Summon Charlie - 4 Heroism Cost. Light alignment. Summons Charlie to the battlefield and adds his deck into the master deck for 3 turns. Immediately draw 2 of Charlie's cards. Exhaust on Play.

A note about Charlie - Charlie works similar to Magik's Reinforcement in that it summons another PC onto the field. However, due to the nature of Midnight Suns, this isn't always a good thing. Because his cards are added to your master deck, it reduces the draw consistency of your existing deck, so strategies can become unreliable if this is played. Since the 3 Card Play limit is reinforced regardless of how many PCs there are, adding an extra PC basically just means there is an extra target or meat shield. Charlies has his own cards, but they are not very good:

Bite - +1 Heroism. An Attack Card. On KO, draws another card.
Howl - +2 Heroism. A Skill Card. Adds 2 Marked to all enemies around Charlie
Maul - 1 Heroism Cost. A Heroic Card. Applies Vulnerable for 1 Turn to a target. Can be redrawn to add [50% Offense] damage.


Ideal Deck -
Wild Strike x1
Call to Arms x1
Inspire x 1
Heal x2
All Out x1
Mind Breaker x1

Comments:
Hunter has lots of options but his/her strategy in the DL is a little less impressive on paper without numbers because he lacks the cheese of Captain Marvel, Strange or Ghost Rider. What's there is still solid but probably not higher than a High Heavy before averages. The real powerhouse in the deck is Mind Breaker. Berserk forces an opponent to only use physicals and to attack whatever is closest. And it works on EVERYTHING in game - even bosses. In the DL, this forces an opponent to come out swinging against Hunter. But with his Armor's passive, he basically has a 50% chance to nullify it. And on the chance that he does take damage, he has lots of Healing, turning him into a reliable Draw engine that Confuse locks an opponent down. Meanwhile, he can play a combination of Call to Arms and Inspire to continue feeding into the Confuse Loop, then utilize All Out and Wild Strike to build up his Collar's bonus for big damage.

More powerful combos exist with the use of Deadly Ground, Quick Strike and Merciless. These three cards let Hunter combo into a Stun, then use Merciless to deal massive damage. The issue is that this strategy is a little less reliable as it relies on more cards and also requires an opponent to be Knockback vulnerable. So Hunter's likely going to change up his deck as needed but whether those dimensions give him additional DL rank, that's hard to say for now.

22

Unranked Games / Re: Trails to Reverie - Bad Stat Topic Ideas: The Game

« on: October 24, 2023, 03:00:40 PM »

Looks like there is a way to easily pump-up levels and MQ levels in post-game that I completely missed. Oops! So Post-game probably is easily 250/15 for those, along with all trials completed.

Equips - End game is easily Level 2 Armors instead of Level 1+3s, Weapons are all non-Zemurian ore. Final - Level 4 Armors + Zemurian Weapons at least at level 1. It's pretty easy to grind out the max weapon for a group of 8 PCs, but doing it for 51? No way.

Accessories - Pretty easy story here since nothing is unique other than Toval and Nadia's cast reduction accessories it seems. I would probably allow the base Pendulums available so the cast has strong blockers in general. If you allow 2 status blockers of this type, the cast can block 6 status types at once which is pretty good. Getting higher grade stuff would be restricted to their U-Mats income, which I feel is quite fair to prevent PCs from stacking stuff like Deep Ochers (eventually packs one time Auto-Life) or Evergreens (gives the cast Universal Magic Evade).

Orbments - Don't matter as much even when not maxed but they will be for the sake of fairness in the topic for obvious reasons. If you really want to penalize people for whatever reasons, those that have 1 Orbment line are typically at a bigger disadvantage as they need increasingly large amounts of Sepith for their upgrades. This makes characters like Emma, Alfin, Tio all a little worse while characters like Tita, Agate and Llyod are unscathed and might even benefit.
 
Quartz - So by default, using the same methodology as the CS2 topic and keeping it restricted to schools as dictated by a PC's locked nodes. Available quartz are all base level quartz inside that school + any quartz they can afford via U-Mat investments. The most powerful quartz eat up lots of U-Mats but you gain them fairly quick. As noted above, I think we're coming to a soft agreed limit of 500.

23

Unranked Games / Re: Trails to Reverie - Bad Stat Topic Ideas: The Game

« on: October 20, 2023, 06:33:12 PM »

So just to reiterate then, the damage formula is ((Atk * 5 * mult) - (Def * 2.5)) / 2

Speed is then Delay value / Speed = CT until next turn

Replace Atk with ATS and Def for ADF for Arts. Do Magical techs target Def or ADF? 

I know Brave Orders are a multiplier to the ending damage value, so it often vaults damage really high. Where do MQ modifiers fit? And are those multiplicative?

Looks like Post Game levels are somewhere around 190-200. 200 is probably a nice number since it lets PCs like SWIN finally get their last few upgrades. Endgame looks to be around 150. MQ Levels are 10 at end game and looks like 13 for Post? Might include notes for a fully upgraded MQ.

Does 500 U Mats make sense for each PC?

24

Unranked Games / Re: Marvel Midnight Sun - aka Tide' 3rd Attempt at doing a Marvel Game Stat Topic

« on: October 18, 2023, 05:04:03 PM »

Blade
"Your Mother"


HP: 643
Offense: 121

Passive: Cold Blooded - All cards played by Blade have a 25% chance to inflict Bleed if they do damage.

Attack Cards:
Quick Strike: 60 Damage, +1 Heroism, Quick Effect. If target has Bleed, deals 120 more damage.
Strike: 60 Damage, +1 Heroism, Chain Effect 3.
Relentless: 121 Damage, +1 Heroism. If target has Bleed, deals 181 more damage.
Reaper: 60 Damage, +1 Heroism. Converts remaining Bleed duration stacks to direct damage immediately. On KO, gain Strengthen for 1 Action.

Skill Cards
Make 'Em Bleed: +2 Heroism. Draws 2 Blade Cards. The next 3 Blade Cards played all apply 2 Bleed stacks
The Hunger: Free Play. All enemies currently with Bleed become Marked for 2 Actions. Blade recovers 121 HP for every Bleeding enemy.

Heroic Cards
Daywalker: 60 Damage, 3 Heroism Cost, Chain Effect 4. For each enemy KO'd, draw a card
Savage: 303 Damage, 2 Heroism Cost. If Target has Block, this attack deals an additional 242 damage
Stake: 272 Damage, 2 Heorism Cost. Lifesteal

Ultimate
Glaive - 242 Damage, 4 Heroism Cost. Applies 2 Bleed stacks. If a target was already Bleeding, deals an additional 242 damage

Ideal Deck -
Strike x2
Reaper x2
Make 'Em Bleed x1
Savage x1
Stake x2

Comments:
While Blade is pretty awful in-game, his DL translation is actually not terrible. The worst part about Blade in-game is that he's inefficient, requiring multiple card plays to set up his convoluted Bleed damage plays when you can just smash things in the face with Hunter or Iron Man. DL wise, he doesn't have that issue since he's a) alone and b) often facing a lone enemy. This means that he's not going to get ganged up on while setting up and he has less competition to deal with for card plays. His strategy is pretty much pidgeonholed because it is so focused on Bleed as a whole. Basically - play Make 'Em Bleed, then Strike and start piling on Bleed stacks. Once he reaches certain thresholds or KO levels, hit them with Reaper. He has Savage for additional damage and Stake to keep himself healthy as he's stacking up Bleed, so on paper, he's a decent enough fighter. The problem of course, is that just like in-game, because he is so focused on Bleed, anything that blocks it or heals from it gimps him super hard. Probably a Low Heavy of some sort as a result. While Bleed only triggers once a turn, the stacks can get pretty ridiculous, so Reaper can unleash a ton of damage at once when set up - letting him heal bust if an opponent can't recover from it in some way.


Captain America
"I guess you're not used to someone who fights back"


HP: 723
Offense: 113

Passive: All Day - Begin missions with 56 Block. At the start of every round, Cap regenerates 22 Block.

Attack Cards:
Quick Punch: 56 Damage, +1 Heroism. Inflicts Taunt, Quick Effect. When played, Draw a Card.
Punch: 113 Damage, +1 Heroism. Inflicts Taunt and has Knockback
Shield Bash: 56 Damage, +1 Heroism. Consumes 33% Block currently on hand and inflicts it as additional damage
Brooklyn Handshake: 113 Damage, +1 Heroism. Knockback. If target was previously damaged this turn, becomes Forceful Knockback. On KO, Draw 2 Cards.

Skill Cards
Dig In: +2 Heroism. Forces all enemies currently targeting an ally to target Cap instead. Gain 361 Block when played. Cannot be played if there are no allies.
Tactician: +2 Heroism. Gain 216 Block. All other allies also receive Block equal to 15% of Cap's Max HP (108 Block). Draw 2 Cards.
The Best Defense: +2 Heroism. Cap gains Block equal to the damage he deals for the next 2 turns. Draws 2 Captain America Cards

Heroic Cards
SPANG!: 169 Damage, 1 Heroism Cost. If target is attacking Cap, then this card deals an additional 113 Damage. On KO, Draws 2 Cards.
Shield Bounce: 141 Damage 2 Heroism Cost. Applies Taunt to all enemies in targeting area. Inflicts Weak for 1 Turn.
 
Ultimate
Shield Charge: X Line Target Damage where X is equal to Current Block value. 4 Heroism Cost. Draw a card for each target. Exhaust when played.

Ideal Deck -
Punch x1
Shield Bash x2
Tactician x2
The Best Defense x1
SPANG! x2

Comments:
True to his in-game form, Captain America is pretty underwhelming. He focuses a lot on Block but his passive is pretty much a write off because it regenerates Block way too slowly. It needed to be based on his Max HP like his cards instead of Offense, which is usually a fraction of the HP value, to really matter. As is, his game plan is to stack on as much Block as he can and try to win via  war of attrition. It's too bad there's no fundamental difference here between Block and HP and worse yet, status effects in-game can get around Block. This makes Cap pretty vulnerable to stuff like POIZN in other games because it just doesn't care about this Block mechanic. His overall damage is kind of lacking as a result of his in-game designated role. Still, The Best Defense is good as it is effectively parasitic healing. Play that, and stuff like Shield Bash is a self renewing source of Bounce regen instead of consumption, but sadly that's about all he has. Probably some form of Middle.


Captain Marvel
"Higher, further, faster, baby"


HP: 658
Offense: 108

Passives: Didn't Feel a Thing - When scoring a KO, Captain Marvel has a 20% chance to receive 1 Counter. DL Useless.
Go Binary - When 3 Captain Marvel cards are played, Add Go Binary to your hand (more on this below)

Attack Cards:
Quick Jab: 54 Damage, +1 Heroism. Inflicts Taunt, Quick Effect. In Binary mode, also has Knockback.
Knee Strike: 81 Damage, +1 Heroism. Inflicts Taunt. Gain Block equal to damage dealt.
Cosmic Ray: 54 Damage, +1 Heroism. If target is attacking Captain Marvel, this deals 81 additional damage. Gain 1 Counter on KO.

Skill Cards
One Step Ahead: +2 Heroism. Draws 4 additional Captain Marvel cards.
Bring it on: +2 Heroism. Taunts all enemies in an area and gain 1 Counter. In Binary mode, adds 2 Resist (so stops 2 attacks)
Regroup: +2 Heroism. Gains Block equal to 25% of Max HP (164)

Heroic Cards
Go Binary: Free. Captain Marvel becomes Binary, and gains 329 Block. While in Binary, Captain Marvel has +100% Offense. Binary mode is canceled if Captain Marvel's Block goes to 0. Note that this card cannot be added to deck normally and can only be received when 3 Captain Marvel cards are played.
Fist of Radiance: 162 Damage, 2 Heroism Cost. Has Knockback. On KO, Draw a Captain Marvel card
Photon Beam: 135 Damage, 3 Heroism Cost. Taunts all enemies who are targeted.
Rain of Blows: Y Damage. X Heroism Cost. Where X is equal to amount of Heroism currently on hand, and Y is equal to current Heroism x 64 Damage. Consumes all remaining Block when played.

Ultimate
Supernova: 108 Damage, Very Wide AoE. 2 Heroism Cost.

Ideal Deck -

Cosmic Ray x2
Bring it on x2
One Step Ahead x1
Regroup x1
Fist of Radiance x1
Supernova x1

Comments:
On the other hand, Captain Marvel gains immensely in the DL translation. The big problem in game is that Binary mode consumed 3 actions, so unless you got free plays, it was often ineffective to set up Binary mode. In the DL, this isn't an issue at all because you can dedicate all 3 Card plays to Captain Marvel, letting you get her to go Binary on Turn 1. And uh...once she does hit Binary mode, you are in big trouble. The thing with Resist as a status is that it can stack. Meaning if Captain Marvel plays Bring it on twice, she effectively gains 4 Resist, meaning you need to hit her *4 times* to even start damaging her. The only ways around this are status effects (like Poison) but if you don't have those, you need to either Quinta-act or Quinta-turn to inflict damage ever again. To make matters worse, she can do this every turn and any stacks you don't eliminate stacks on to her *next turn*. Did I mention that she's hitting you with 100% more offense on her attacks while you're trying to break through this? Yeah. Binary mode is only canceled if Captain Marvel runs out of Block so I gave her Regroup if she really needs to regenerate it but honestly, the 4 Resist Stacks a round is probably enough to wall most opponents. The main way out other than status is to go first and have high 2HKO damage so you can break through her Block gained on Binary to immediately cancel it while still damaging her. Low Godlike.

Doctor Strange
"I find that...uncomprehensible"


HP: 633
Offense: 118

Passives: The Greater Good - At the start of every round, Dr. Strange has a 50% chance to generate 2 Heroism

Attack Cards:
Winds of Watoomb: +1 Heroism. Quick Effect and Knockback. If Heroism is at 3 or above, becomes Forceful Knockback
Bolts of Balthakk: 118 Damage, +1 Heroism. When Heroism is at 4 or higher, this gains 88 additional damage. At 6 Heroism or more, gains another 88 additional damage. 294 Damage at max heroism (before other boosts)

Skill Cards
Agamotto's Gaze: +2 Heroism. Draws the last 2 Attack Cards. Gain 1 additional Card play the next turn. When played, add 59 damage to all attacks currently held in hand. This damage boost lasts until the attack is played or discarded.
Astral Meditation: +2 Heroism. Restore the last 2 Items used. Gain +2 Redraws when played. Exhaust after play.
Blessings of Vishanti: +2 Heroism. Give all cards currently in hand additional 59 until the end of the mission.
Vapors of Valtorr: +2 Heroism. Target receives Concealed status. Restores 236 HP.


Heroic Cards
Axe of Angarruumus: 177 Damage, 2 Heroism cost minimal Consumes additional Heroism equal to damage bonus available. Inflicts 2 Weaken. When Heroism is at 4 or higher, this gains 177 additional damage. At 6 Heroism or more, gain another 177 additional damage. 531 Damage at max heroism (before other boosts)
Crimson Bands of Cyttorak: 2 Heroism Cost. Applies Bind and Vulnerable for 1 Turn.
Shield of Seraphim: 3 Heroism Cost. Consumes additional Heroism equal to enhancement bonus if applicable. Applies 1 Resist and restores status conditions to all allies. At 6 Heroism or more, Applies 2 Resist instead.
 

Ultimate
Seven Suns of Cinnibus: 118 Damage Wide AoE. 3 Heroism Cost. Consumes additional Heroism equal to damage bonus available. When Heroism is at 4 or higher, this gains 118 additional damage. At 6 Heroism or more, gain another 118 additional damage. At 8 Heroism, gain another 118 additional damage. 472 Damage at max heroism (before other boosts) Exhaust on use.

Ideal Deck -
Bolts of Balthakk x1
Agamotto's Gaze x1
Blessings of Vishanti x1
Vapors of Valtorr x2
Crimson Bands of Cyttorak x1
Shield of Seraphim x2

Comments:
Absolutely brutal. Doctor Strange is one of the few characters that has a bunch of options available, but not enough deck slots to fit in everything he wants. He's already great in-game and his DL translation is possibly even better because the Sorcerer Supreme brings with him a bunch of cheese tools that make it very difficult for enemies to hurt him. Let's start off with the Bands of Cyttorak. Applying Bind is pretty great since it works on everything in the game. To get around this, boss enemies in Midnight Suns all have double act and there's often support, so this doesn't create a complete lock down. In the DL though, opponents often don't have those privileges so if you don't have something analogous and block it, it's pretty much instant GG. BUT WAIT, cause his skillset gets even better. Vapors of Valtorr basically turns him into PC Hugo while healing him. Sure, Strange doesn't Hugo's brutal speed, but he's definitely more durable. On top of his ST damage immunity created by Conceal (and that's assuming you allow targeting - if you don't, Strange gets EVEN stronger), Shield of Seraphim adds Resist. Strange's is more inefficient because it requires Heroism, but he's a Heroism generator more or less, so in practice on his own, this is likely going to be +2 Resist each time. This means even if you DO get around him being PC Hugo, you now have to break his Resist stacks, so if you don't have double / triple acting, you are still screwed. Then finally, Damage. Strange only has 1 Attack card, but it is really all he needs because of Vishanti and Agamotto. In the DL, Strange basically shields himself with his plethora of options, then just slowly pumps up his damage to infinity before blasting you in the face for OHKO damage. He's open to status like the other members of this cast, but his tricks are so strong, he's pretty much a Godlike shoehorn, no question.


Ghost Rider



HP: 707
Offense: 128

Passives: Souls Collector - Whenever Ghost Rider KO's an enemy, he gains 1 Soul. For every 4 Souls collected, increases Ghost Rider's Max HP by 15% (813 MHP), up to a max of 30% (919 MHP).

Attack Cards:
Lash: +1 Heroism. Quick effect. Has Forceful Knockback in any direction. Ghost Rider takes 128 damage
Retribution: 192 Damage, +1 Heroism. Knockback. Discard a card from hand and fill up the Soul Meter by 2 points.

Skill Cards
Hellmouth: +2 Heroism. Creates a Drop (Pitfall) that has an increased chance of Instant killing enemies. Lasts 2 Turns. Ghost Rider gains Strengthened for 1 Turn. Note that Bosses cannot be insta-killed through pitfalls.
Straight to Hell: +2 Heroism. Ghost Rider turns into a Drop until the start of next turn and heals himself for 33% of Max HP. Once played, Ghost Rider cannot be targeted until the next round. Final.
Immolate : +2 Heroism. When Ghost Rider KO's an enemy after this card is played, they explode, doing 96 AoE damage to targets around them. Effect lasts 2 Turns.

Heroic Cards
Drain Soul: 64 Damage, 1 Heroism Cost. Chain Effect 2. Lifesteal. For every copy of this card, increase its Chain and Heroism Cost by 1. Note that a Drain Soul cannot be added to the deck normally. It can only be received when Ghost Rider fills the Souls Meter after 4 KOs.
Judgment: X AoE Damage around a target. 1 Heroism Cost. X is equal to 2 x 25% of Ghost Rider's Max HP
Hell's Fury: 256 Damage, 1 Heroism Cost. When in hand, this card gains 64 damage each time Ghost Rider is damaged or when he uses an ability.
Hell Ride: 448 Damage, 3 Heroism Cost. Line Fire. Discard your hand after play.

Ultimate
Penance Stare: X damage. 4 Heroism Cost. X is equal to 4x 50% of Ghost Rider's Max HP. Ghost Rider takes damage equal to 50% of his Max HP. Exhaust after play.

Ideal Deck -
Lash x2
Retribution x1
Straight to Hell x2
Judgment x2
Hell's Fury x1

Comments:
Ghost Rider introduces us two concepts previously not mentioned. One is the Assist. Essentially, once you get a certain upgrade in the game, you can then knock enemies into your allies, which instead of damaging yourself now damages them. In addition to doing damage this way, the assisting character also draws a card from their own deck. In the case of Ghost Rider, he can actually self assist because his Knockback can go in any direction. This is very important for him because unlike the other 4 PCs so far, Ghost Rider lacks a way to draw cards. This means that unlike them, his strategy would be less consistent since he can only see 7/8 cards on Turn 1 at best and only 5 of them. However, because he can Self Assist, that gives him a way to get extra draws of his own. This is worthwhile for his strategy, even if it damages him.

The second concept is this idea of a Drop. These are large pitfalls which you can walk over, but if an attack has knockback, you can use that and push them to the great beyond. The caveat to that is that the ID rate is modified based on the target's Current HP. The lower the current HP, the higher the chances of an instant kill. This is largely useless on bosses and PCs in this game cannot suffer insta-kills through pitfalls. I have therefore, largely chosen to ignore it as a part of his core deck because it more or less translates to super chancey ID that doesn't work on 90% of the DL cast (maybe on SRPG generics like the mighty FFT THEIF).

Anyway, where were we? Right, strats. So uh...Ghost Rider has a pretty funny way of basically laming his opponent out, similar to Strange. In some ways, his is more powerful because there is no actual way to interact with it. The game doesn't have any Dispel type abilities, so it is impossible to test if there is a way to actually cancel this from the enemy side. YMMV. Basically, take 2 Actions, then turn into a pitfall with Straight to Hell, end turn. Opponent can no longer damage or target Ghost Rider on their turn and thus has to wait. Ghost Rider gets his turn again, repeat this process until enemy is dead. You can see why now the Self Assist here is really important. If he didn't have that, Ghost Rider would have no way to ensure he sees the other 3 cards in his deck, meaning there's a chance he cannot get this strategy started. There are other weaknesses of course. You can beat this by either going first and doing very high 2HKO damage (like 75%+) so that he can't use Lash. That way, it introduces a chance of failure as he can't Self Assist until he heals himself. Another method or work around is that to use timed damage that goes off after a certain period of time so it doesn't have to be your turn when the damage goes off. Stuff like Xorn's Death Knell or heck, even Mewtwo's FUTURE SIGHT are work arounds that can hit Ghost Rider on his turn. And of course, like most everyone else in Midnight Suns, status that incapacitates on Turn 1 stops him cold. His abilities all self damage but this hiding trick also heals him, so really, in the grand scheme of things, they don't matter when you are playing solo and only have one deck to manage. A Low Godlike of some sort of I imagine.


Hulk

HULK SMASH!


HP: 772
Offense: 133

Passives: Rage - For every point of Rage, up to a maximum of 5, Hulk's damage increases by [X]%. Rage increases whenever Hulk takes damage or from card abilities. Rage decreases by 1 whenever Hulk uses an attack or heroic ability.

Attack Cards:
Smash: 66 Damage, +1 Heroism, +1 Rage. Stun target. If the target has full HP, this attack deals 133 additional damage. Does not consume any Rage.
Gamma Kick: +1 Heroism. Add Taunt and Weak to target for 1 Turn. Has Forceful Knockback.
Crush: 133 Damage, +1 Heroism. If the target is Stunned, deal an additional 199 Damage. Does not consume Rage on KO.

Skill Cards
Always Angry: +2 Heroism. Consumes all Rage and heals Hulk equal to his current Rage x 33% Max HP. Overhealing increases Hulk's Max HP up to the new value HP Value. Maximum Rage limit increases by 1. Exhaust after use.
Challenging Roar: +2 Heroism. Taunt a target and gain 1 Counter. For each enemy targeting Hulk, gain 1 Rage.

Heroic Cards
Mighty Blow: 232 Damage, 3 Heroism Cost. If target is Stunned, deal an additional 266 Damage. Has Forceful Knockback
Rampage: 99 Damage, 3 Heroism Cost. Chain Effect 3. Taunts all targets hit by this attack. On Full Combo, restore 1 Heroism.
Seismic Slam: 332 Damage, Wide AoE. 4 Heroism Cost. Taunt all enemies in Area of effect.
Thunderclap: 43 Damage, 4 Heroism Cost. Stun all targets in a line. Has Knockback.

Ultimate
Worldbreaker: 199 Damage, Very wide AoE. 6 Heroism Cost. Has Forceful Knockback. For every enemy KO'd by this attack, Hulk gains 1 Rage. Exhaust on use.

Ideal Deck -
Smash x2
Challenging Roar x1
Mighty Blow x2
Always Angry x2
Worldbreaker x1

Comments:
Hulk the strongest there is in the DL? Not quite. Every character covered thus far other than Cap has had some trick that you can tell which division they are likely in even before the damage numbers pop up. Hulk is the first PC that defies this and follows more conventional DL stat topics in that he greatly depends on what the numbers are. Largely because his Rage mechanic modifies the damage he deals, but also because on the whole, he just doesn't have a lot of tricks compared to Captain Marvel, Dr. Strange or Ghost Rider. In the DL, Hulk's primary thing is Stun. Once an enemy is Stunned, they'll lose their next action, so if you don't block Stun, Hulk likely just wins. If you do block it, then you're likely fighting a slugfest except Hulk can full heal twice, and each time he does, he might be healing for more HP than previously. A problem for Hulk though is that not only are his Heroics really expensive, he just doesn't have a lot of cards that generate Heroism. As a result, his deck has to use weaker cards otherwise he runs an actual risk of not being able to take any actions. And of course, if you block Stun, Hulk doesn't have much more of a plan. In a serious upper limit fight, Hulk's unlikely to impress because his Rage simply doesn't go up fast enough since it is dependent on enemies attacking him. A fast 2HKO or 3HKOer isn't going to give him much of a chance to utilize it. Low Heavy most likely.


Iron Man

Fail Smydra!


HP: 666
Offense: 114

Passives: I'll Handle This - For every 2 Iron Man Cards played, gain +1 Redraws this round. Can only trigger once per Round.

Attack Cards:
Quick Blast: 57 Damage, +1 Heroism. Quick Effect. Redraw to add Knockback. Draw an Iron Man Card when played.
Blast: 114 Damage, +1 Heroism. Knockback. Redraw to add Forceful Knockback.


Skill Cards
Heads Up: +2 Heroism, +2 Redraws. Add 228 Block to a target.
Leave it to Me: +2 Heroism, +2 Redraws. Draw 2 Iron Man cards. Adds 2 Fast
Mark Target: +2 Heroism. Inflicts Marked and Vulnerable to a target for 2 Turns. Redraw to make the Mark effect AoE
New Plan: Doubles your current Heroism. Draw a Heroic Card

Heroic Cards
Surgical Strike: 142 Damage, 2 Heroism Cost. Chain Effect X, where X is equal to the number of Iron Man cards in hand.
Air Superiority: 114 Damage, 4 Heroism Cost. Redraw to add 57 damage. Max 114 additional damage or 228 damage.
Precision: 2 Heroism Cost. The next Iron Man Card played is not discarded. Free Play. Redraw to reduce Heroism cost by 1

Ultimate
Hellfire Beam: 114 Damage, Line Fire. 3 Heroism Cost. Redraw to increase the damage by 57. Gain a Redraw for each KO.

Ideal Deck -
Quick Blast x1
Mark Target x1
Leave it to Me x2
Precision x1
Surgical Strike x2
Hellfire Beam x1

Comments:
When it comes to simplicity, you don't get much better than Iron Man. Hulk may claim he is the strongest there is, but I'm fairly certain that award actually belongs to Iron Man in Midnight Suns. His play line is simple: Mark Target, Leave it to Me, then play Surgical Strike. Then the next turn he plays Precision, followed by double Surgical Strike. Since the only cards you have in your hand are Iron Man cards, Surgical Strike has a ridiculous amount of hits and deals a stupid amount of damage. It's a 1.25x damage per hit, so with Vulnerable increasing that to 1.875, you are getting hit by a cumulative multiplier of x26.25. He can mix it up too. Like say an opponent is immune to status, Iron Man can simply do Leave it to Me, then 2x Surgical Strike for x13.75 damage instead. Either way, it comes out to a lot of damage. Oh yeah, I haven't even gotten to his Redraws, which unlike other characters, he can spend it to power up his attacks. In this case, he can keep feeding them to Hellfire Beam if he doesn't need them - giving him a massive pumpable attack that can eventually OHKO if need be. He very likely is a godlike just due to raw on paper mults, but to err on the side of caution, let's go with High Heavy for now.

Magik

Is Portal


HP: 653
Offense: 116

Passives: Relay - When an enemy is knocked into a Portal, 25% chance to generate a Limbo Portal card for free

Attack Cards:
Quick Soulslash: +1 Heroism. +1 Move Action after use. Has Knockback and Quick Effect.
Soulblast: +1 Heroism. Has Forceful Knockback. On KO, gain Counter for 1 turn
Trapdoor: 174 Damage, +1 Heroism. Moves target enemy to new location.
Kick: 174 Damage, +1 Heroism. Knockback.


Skill Cards
Limbo Portal: +0 Heroism. +1 Move Action after use.  Creates a Portal. Free play.
Limbo's Grasp: +2 Heroism. Creates a Portal. Magik gains 174 additional damage the next time she knocks an enemy into a Portal for the rest of the level.

Heroic Cards
Gather: 116 Damage, 2 Heroism Cost. Wide AoE. Pulls all enemies affects into the center of targeted area.
Banish: 3 Heroism Cost. Turns an enemy or ally into a Drop until the next turn
Reinforcement: 4 Heroism Cost. Summons a Hero currently resting in the Abbey for the next 2 Turns. Draw 2 of their cards. Exhaust after use.

Ultimate
Darkchylde: 4 Heroism Cost. Taunts all enemies. Magik gain Counter and Invulnerability for 1 Turn. Exhaust after use

Ideal Deck -
Kick x2
Banish x2
Limbo Portal x1
Limbo's Grasp x2
Darkchylde x1

Comments:
Magik has a very simple game plan that is not too different than that of Ghost Rider. Stack Limbo's Grasp and play Darkchylde. The effect of Limbo's Grasp is cumulative and doesn't go away until the level is over, so in the DL, this means like Dr. Strange, she can stack her offense to near infinity until a 2HKO or OHKO. After the first turn, she can buy time with Banish. I'm unsure if it can self-target but assuming it cannot for not - this still gives her a near unresistable status effect while continues to snowball her power. Eventually, she then just hits you with DA BOOT for the kill. The main differences here from Ghost Rider is that again, Banish may not be able to self target, in which case, her game weakens a bit since she'll lack the ability to become untargetable like him. However, in return, Magik's strategy is more reliable because it doesn't rely on a possible chancey missed draw or discarding. Easily a High Heavy


Nico Minoru

Konnichiwa Friendo!


HP: 582
Offense: 131

Passives: And Another One - Whenever a Nico card is played, 33% chance for an additional Draw

Attack Cards:
Curse: 65 Damage, +1 Heroism. Applies a randomly chosen status effect for 2 turns: Either Stun, Marked, Vulnerable or Weaken
Blood for Blood: 196 Damage, +1 Heroism. On KO, restores 262 HP to Nico or a random ally
Witchfire: 262 Damage, +1 Heroism. On KO, this attack will bounce towards other targets randomly for an additional 2 times.


Skill Cards
Blood Magic +2 Heroism. Applies a random chosen buff for 2 turns: Life Steal, Counter, Fast or Strengthen. Draws 1 card of the target
Double Up: +2 Heroism. Create a copy of each card in hand up to your handsize limit. If the number of starting cards in hand is greater than 5, cards being copied will be randomly selected.
Empower: +2 Heroism. Draw a Heroic Card. Then reduce the Heroism cost of all Heroic card in hand to 0.
Restore: +2 Heroism. Restores all HP. If target is below 50% HP, reshuffle it to the deck. Otherwise, Exhaust on Play.

Heroic Cards
Swarm: 1 Heroism Cost. Damage deals fluctuates between 131, 262, 327 or 393. Damage is determined when card is drawn.
Witchstorm: 98 Damage, 2 Heroism Cost. Randomly distributes 4 hits of the listed damage across the targeted area. If there is only one target, this focus fires.

Ultimate
Crack the Sky: 225 Damage, X Heroism Cost. Deals stated damage X numbers of times in the targeted area where X is equal to Heroism paid. For every KO, regain 1 Heroism. Exhaust after use

Ideal Deck -
Curse x1
Blood Magic x1
Double Up x1
Empower x1
Restore x2
Witchstorm x2

Comments:
Possibly the weirdest DL translation of the cast because while everyone is using different cards, no one has the greater differences than Nico thus far. This is a deck that you wouldn't use in-game but it is pretty much built for DL type duels. Nico basically wants to draw the ideal hand of cards, then play Empower into Double Up so she gets a bunch of high damage cards for 0 Heroism cost. Then she proceeds to nuke you to kingdom come with her hand now full of good cards. In game, you'd never do this because more often you'll have a bunch of other people's cards in hand. However, since the DL contrains it such that the character in question will only have their cards, this allows Nico to play with a hand like this. In the optimal scenario, she has both Witchstorms in hand, then play Empower into a 0 Cost Double Up, giving her 4 copies of 0 Heroism cost Witchstorms. Since this move hits 4 times, it will basically bust cheese strats like Captain Marvel's 4x Resist or Craft Guard in the Trails series. Also, you need to chip around her because Nico has Restore. The downfall of this card is that you have to be below 50% HP or it gets removed from the deck. But in the DL, against someone who cannot chip, Nico basically just pulls VP2 Alicia strats and heals forever. This combination of things makes her pretty damn strong! The primary weakness other than the chipping as mentioned is that Nico requries set up. She can't burst huge damage on Turn 1 and unlike Ghost Rider, Strange or Magik, doesn't have a trick to make her invincible during that time. Still, that does leverage nicely into Restore, since if you just go for a 2HKO option, she can easily Heal it and then do other stuff afterwards. A Heavy of some sort. Might be High Heavy but that will be dependent on averages.


Scarlet Witch



HP: 624
Offense: 122

Passives: Wrong Place, Wrong Time - If an opponent is standing near SWitch at the start of their turn, 25% chance to receive a random debuff.

Attack Cards:
Hex Bolt: 61 Damage, +1 Heroism. Chain Effect +2. Give each copy of this card in your hand +1 Chain Effect
Hex Field: 122 Damage, +1 Heroism. AoE.
Quick Toss: 61 Damage, +1. Quick Effect. Knockback in any direction.

Skill Cards
Hex Mark: +2 Heroism. Applies Mark for 3 Turns to all targets in the selected area.
Unleashed: +2 Heroism. Increases AoE effects played by Scarlet Witch by 33%
Chaos Field: +2 Heroism. For the next 2 turns, allies (including Scarlet Witch) near Scarlet Witch gain +1 Resist and recover 103 HP at the end of their turn.

Heroic Cards
Hex Charge: 3 Heroism Cost. Target enemy explodes at the start of their next turn for 122 damage. AoE effect. If this attack kills them, then the explosion deals 244 damage instead.
Detonate: 2 Heroism Cost. Targets an explosive and makes it go off with 100% more power and twice the explosion radius. Scarlet Witch and her allies are unaffected by damage caused by this card. On Redraw, +1 Heroism. 
Chaos Reigns: 3 Heroism Cost. Enemies in selected target area will attack each other. 50% chance for them to attack twice.

Ultimate
No more: 5 Heroism Cost. Deals damage to all surrounding enemies near Scarlet Witch equal to her Max HP. For every KO, draw another card. KOs Scarlet Witch on use. Exhaust on use.

Ideal Deck -
Hex Bolt x2
Quick Toss x2
Chaos Field x2
Hex Charge x1
Chaos Reigns x1

Comments:
I need to do some more testing with Chaos Reigns because it may be Wanda's saving grace in the DL. In general though, pretty underwhelming since Scarlet Witch's big selling point in game are massive AoE effects whereas in the DL that niche is pretty much worthless. She still does have some tricks because Chaos Field exists and that has Resist on it. But past that, not much to write home about. Chaos Reigns could be golden if it causes Confusion or some sort of status change that takes away an enemy's turn though since that then gives her a way to Confuse lock while Resist stacking. Hex Charge is also supposedly a Pseudo Stun but I'll need to play around with it some more to determine its actual effectiveness. Still as long as she has one tool that can occupy an enemy turn, Wanda is likely in a good place. I suspect she's a Heavy due to Resist stacking but obviously up for change depending on results of tests.


Spiderman



HP: 627
Offense: 119

Passives: Bringing down the House - The first environmental attack made by Spidey consumes no heroism. 15% chance to refund Heroism spent on Environmental attacks.

Attack Cards:
Chain Strike: 119 Damage, +1 Heroism. Allows Spiderman to Chain to another target if the selected target will be KO'd. Maximum up to 4 bounces.
Quick Kick: +1 Heroism. Quick Effect. Knockback. Deals 119 Damage if target was previously damaged this turn.
Special Delivery: +1. Forceful Knockback towards Spiderman. On a KO, gain +1 Move action

Skill Cards
Spider Sense: +2 Heroism. Spiderman gains 1 Fast and 1 Resist. Draw 2 Spiderman Cards
Opportunist: +2 Heroism. Increases the damage of Environmental attacks by 59 for 2 turns. Also makes the next 2 Environmental attacks cost 0 Heroism. +2 Move Actions on play.
Webslinger: +2 Heroism. Spiderman gains 1 Strengthened. Free play.

Heroic Cards
Up Here!: 238 Damage, 2 Heroism Cost. AoE. Enemies around the main target take 59 damage. Applies Weak for 2 Turns on effected enemies.
Web Throw: 3 Heroism Cost. Forceful Knockback. Enemies near the primary target take 119 damage.
THWIP!: 2 Heroism Cost. Binds target. Target takes 50% more damage from Environmental attacks.

Ultimate
Infernal Spider: 3 Heroism Cost. Draw a Spiderman Card. The next 3 Spiderman Card plays are Free. Exhaust on Play.

Ideal Deck -
Special Delivery x1
Webslinger x1
Spider Sense x2
THWIP! x2
Up here! x1
Infernal Spider x1

Comments:
Every level in the game as some objects which you can interact with. These objects tend to do damage, which the game calls Environmental. Environmental damage does not consume a card play, but rather, costs Heroism to use. They tend to be AoE nature and can often hit multiple targets at once. The downside is that because they don't cost Card plays, their damage also doesn't scale well. They do fixed damage and while it increases over the course of the game, enemy durability tends to eclipse it pretty much towards the end game. To give some figures, most objects at end game deal somewhere around 120 damage to 250 damage. If you average it out, it will be 185 damage per action. There's a limit to the number of objects you can interact with as you eventually run out of objects you can use but levels tend to be finished before that happens. Make of this what you will. Most levels have anywhere between 8 to 10 environmental items and their effectiveness varies. 

That entire blurb is necessary because Spidey's skillset largely revolves them. From his passive to his various cards, they all deal with environmental objects. So while all PCs can use these, Spiderman tends to use these the best. As for DL translation? Well, if you factor in like 3-4 objects that Spiderman can interact with dealing around 185 damage each, it gives Spiderman a way to burst out damage pretty quick. Since he can use Opportunist along with his passive to quickly bust out 3 hits while consuming only 1 card play. That makes him better when it comes to damage.

But suppose, you don't allow that. Assume all DL arenas are flat ground with nothing to interact with. Spiderman...is still somehow pretty competent in the DL. The reason? If you guessed stacking Resists, you would be right. Even better THWIP! means he can do similar things like Dr. Strange, so Spiderman can bind you, then stack infinite Resists while slowly whittling you down. Knockback attacks doesn't work if an opponent is bound, but it largely doesn't matter because if you can hit by Bind, you're likely dead anyway. Infernal Spider further gives him a way to burst damage since 3 Free Card plays is huge. Likely a High Heavy because the combo of Bind PLUS Resists is a good combo. If you add environmental damage to that, he likely becomes a borderliner since it gives him free burst damage to boot.


Wolverine



HP: 675
Offense: 125

Passives: Healing Factor - Whenever a Card is redrawn, Wolverine restores 125 HP.

Attack Cards:
Quick Swipe: 62 Damage, +1 Heroism. Quick Effect. Taunts target.
Chain Swipes: 41 Damage, +1 Heroism. Chain Effect 3. Taunts targets hit. On Full Combo, Applies Weak for 1 turn.
Power Slash: 62 Damage, +1 Heroism. Knockback. Applies Vulnerable for 1 Turn
Lethal Pounce: 93 Damage, +1. Chain Effect 2. On Full Combo, Wolverine gains Strengthen for 1 turn.

Skill Cards
Stink of Fear: +2 Heroism. AoE. Taunts all targets in selected area and applies Weak for 1 turn. Wolverine gains Counter for 1 Turn
Berserker: +2 Heroism. Draw 3 Wolverine cards. Wolverine gains Lifesteal for 1 turn.
Rapid Healing: +2 Heroism. Restores 75% Max HP to Wolverine and Cures him of all status. Can be played even if Wolverine is currently incapacitated.

Heroic Cards
Rapid Regeneration: 2 Heroism Cost. The first time Wolverine is KO'd, add this card to your hand. Wolverine revives with 50% Max HP. Exhaust on use. This card cannot be added to the deck in any other means.
Piercing Strike: 125 Damage, 2 Heroism Cost. If target has Block, this deals 187 additional damage.
Eviscerate: 62 Damage, 2 Heroism Cost. Chain Effect 4. Taunts targets hit. For each target KO'd by this attack, Wolverine gains Counter for 1 turn.


Ultimate
Midnight Special: X Heroism Cost. Attacks random targets X number of times where X is equal to Heroism paid. Each subsequent attack made deals an additional 31 damage. +1 Heroism for each KO. Exhaust after use

Ideal Deck -
Chain Swipes x1
Power Slash x1
Lethal Pounce x1
Berserker x1
Rapid Healing x 2
Piercing Slash x1
Midnight Special x1

Comments:
He's the best at what he does and what he does is slug it out with the best of them. Wolverine has a very synergistic kit that translates well to the DL. Hit the opponent with Chain Swipes to drop their damage, Lethal Pounce to increase his, then use the third for anything else that makes sense on that turn. Subsequent turns are pretty brutal. Rapid Healing means along with passive, Wolverine is pretty much healing to near full HP every turn. AND unlike the other Suns, its built in status healing and non-conditional requirement means it can be played at any time as long as he still has a card play. This means that status that would normally shut people down don't do so on Wolverine. He's also the only character in the game with a built-in Auto Life function. So you have to kill him twice to put him down for good. Meanwhile, because Wolverine doesn't need a lot of Heroism to function, he can safely store it and put it into his Heroism dump attack and opt for a OHKO late into a fight. His primary weakness is that he can't burst damage well so against fast OHKOers, he's going to have some issues. High Heavy/Low Godlike borderline.

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Unranked Games / Trails to Reverie - Bad Stat Topic Ideas: The Game

« on: October 18, 2023, 04:05:51 PM »

Yep, you knew this was coming. I'm at the end of the game now, more or less. Just what appears to be one final battle. So I can start gathering details soon enough AND because I still have my CS2 Excel, plop those in there and start getting actual numbers down on paper. It goes without saying but SPOILER ALERT for the rest of the topic.

Random - If you are reading this, do you have the damage formula on hand? That'll help my work significantly. I do have access to what I think are the Delay values for each action thanks to the GFAQs character analysis topic. Okay, on with the show.

Unlike CS4, Reverie is actually relatively straightforward. There are no bonding events, no super unique Rean accessories, no mecha summoning...just characters, their skills and abilities. And on some level this makes sense as it is mostly a combat focused game compared to the others in the Erebonian arc. However, this doesn't mean it doesn't have its own issues:

Ranking Characters:
Good news - Characters can be easily separated into two groups and there largely is no issue regarding Guests, Pseudo PCs or what not. Once a PC joins up, they basically join up for good. Even if they are not available in the main story at the time, you can access them at the Reverie Corridor. The best way to think of the Reverie Corridor (RC for short) is that it is like P3's Tartarus. It's basically a giant, randomly generated dungeon that is separated into what the game calls stratums. Stratums open up over time as the game progresses until the end of the game, at which point the entire dungeon fully unlocks.

Exploration of the RC is completely up to the player. You can do it as the floors open up (what the game expects), not touch it at all or grind like you are OK and stat max every PC if you want before the 3rd Chapter. Because the RC is pretty much a free-for-all, you can use any and all PCs you've acquired so far. HOWEVER, there are some PCs which are RC only. They unlock as you progress up the Stratums and unfortunately, their unlocks are not fixed. Rather the way it works is that each Chapter adds a set of available RC only characters to a pool. Then, from Floors 1-3, you can unlock 1 of the available characters up to that time. Floor 4 lets you recruit two addtiional characters, and at post-game, you can get whichever other characters you are missing. The characters for each pool is as follows:

Available Starting Chapter 2 - Alfin, Angelica, Roselia
Available Starting Chapter 3 - Toval, George, Victor
Available Starting Chapter 4 - Aurelia, Olivert, Vita
Post-game only - McBurndonalds

In case it wasn't clear, here's an example. You reach the 1st Stratum, you can unlock one of Alfin, Angelica or Roselia. Say you unlock Angelica. This means that on the 2nd Stratum in Chapter 3, your available characters are Alfin, Roselia, Toval, George and Victor. There is no preference or order in which RC characters unlock. I will however make a special note regarding Aurelia because she has a unique distinction where she serves both as a guest in Chapter 3 but unlocks only in the RC via gacha. Since she joins up with the same quartz set up as in Chapter 3, she's also one of the few characters where she's immediately usable out of the box. It is easy to treat her as just a regular PC like the others for this reason.

Long story short, unlike CS4, I think there is a very easy to go about ranking in Reverie. The available 40 characters in the main game + Aurelia are obviously all rankable and averaged against each other into the main topic. For the additional 9 RC only PCs, they will be added on at the end of the topic and averaged against the entire cast. This seems to be the fairest way to get around the gacha nature of their unlock but still take into account their possible availability. The only character who I think shouldn't be ranked is McBurn as he is 100% a post-game unlock only. All other characters can show up any time before the end of the game and be part of your roster so it seems a bit silly not to include them at all.

Starting Values: Craft Points (CP)
Also a much more simplified version in Reverie due to the access of the Celestial Tree. In the RC, there is a tree which when examined will restore the entire party's HP/EP pools. As you progress through the RC, you can get upgrades to it, which allows it to restore CP, Brave Points (BP), Assault Gauge (AG) and the frequency at which it can full restore you. At the max upgrade level, there is no downtime and you can full restore yourself after every fight if you wish. Now for the duration of the main game, you are unlikely to unlock the full upgrade until during the final act but before the last dungeon in the game as there are some better upgrades you can unlock first (the Max BP capacity being the key one).

This means that for most of the game, there is some concern regarding CP maintenance. And let's be honest - even after unlocking it to the max level, there is still CP maintenance because it doesn't make sense for you to go back to the Celestial Tree after every fight. However, what it does mean is that for major confrontations, you are always going to walk in with full resources because the RC is pretty much accessible at any point in the game. So on the surface, it looks like 200 CP would be completely reasonable.

This interpretation does have one major weakness - it hugely incentivizes PCs to hoard their CP and not use any crafts because then it drops the multiplier on the S-Craft by 50%. S-Crafts, like in any other Trails game, can be deployed at any time once you reach 100 CP. So these things are great for burst damage and pretty much staple as part of the damage average. Unfortunately, the hoarding it creates basically kills off a lot of PC uniqueness because while part of a character's identity comes from their craft (skill) set, nobody wants to end up losing that much damage. As such, I'm not a huge fan of a 200 CP interp. Rather, I think a more reasonable approach is 150 CP as a starting value. It matches what I consider stable CP maintenance values for most of the game while also keeping that 200 CP max within reach. You'll recall in in CS2, it made more sense for PCs to start at 100 (or 115 for Dhyer), so this CP inflation is also inline with the CP inflation that happens during CS3, CS4 and now Reverie.


Starting Value: BP
You already saw this in CS4's topic, but just as a recap: BP is used to fuel Brave Orders; powerful field wide effects that hit all allies. You can use them even if you are alone and they are unique to each PC. However, you can only Brave Orders so long as you have the BP to pay for it. Unlike in CS4, the max BP is 8 but to get there, you have to unlock the additional capacity slowly through the RC. Otherwise, the maximum BP pool is 5. Note that some Brave Orders cost more than 5, and as such are pretty much inaccessable if you hold them to some no RC interp. For BP maintenance, it is a similar story as CP maintenance here. Harder at the start of the game, but very easy towards the end once you fully powerup the Celestial Tree. So no issues of keeping BP at 5 or 6.

On the other hand, the question of whether or not PCs can gain more BP still remains. As noted in the CS4 topic, BP can be gained primarily from staggering and triggering a link attack. This is obviously impossible if you are fighting solo and there ARE solo fights in-game where your BP is limited to how much you had going into the fight (excluding item use). Allowing phantom PCs as noted previously does replicate more of what happens in-game, so I'm okay with keeping this line of interp open. The issue here is that it weakens the strength of +BP crafts in game. Things such as Renne's Zodiac Code are pretty great in-game because other than just self buffing, it also restore this very valuable resource that is otherwise unrecoverable unless you have another PC around (and even then, it's a bit random depending on staggers). So, YMMV. You do reward the good physical attackers in-game if you allow Phantom PCs because they are more likely to trigger a stagger, so the dial goes both ways.

PC Skillsets: Trial Doors
Pretty easy work around here too. Only Alisa has a call bigger Laggy button, so it should be easy to see how this works. However, the main thing to consider here is that some PCs will not have access to their full potential without completing a Trial. The complication is that not all trials are available at end game and require you to do the post-game RC exploration. In this case, it's probably easier to ignore these for the main cast. I will make note of which characters are affected since once again, YMMV.

PC Skillsets: Sub-quartz
See the CS4 Planning Topic. But long story short - every PC can equip a Secondary Master Quartz which then shares its primary passive to the user and half of its stats. Since all PCs will typically gravitate towards the most broken MQs, this creates a situation which removes uniqueness and generates all kinds of offensive translation such as everyone with free Auto-life. Even if you apply elemental rules, this wouldn't really work because it just forces PCs to then gravitate towards the most broken MQ in their own element. Ergo, Secondary Master Quartz are banned / disallowed for the purposes of the topic.

PC Skillsets: Quartz schools
Reverie still utilizes the same ARCUS system for every PC, so everything in the CS2 and CS4 topic still applies. The complicating factor here is U-Materials. Essentially, Reverie goes the CS4 route and dials up the U-Material frequency to overdrive. You get a *lot* of these things but the consequence to that is everything worth equipping basically consumes U-Materials. So two schools of thought here as in CS4: One is to ignore these all together and just use the base quartz available. This is easier to stat topic but at the cost of possibly weakening uniqueness because each element has some cool stuff that is only available via U-Material exchanges. Yet at the same time, not everyone will want the same quartz. For example, Rage is Fire element but despite the regular version giving 10% Evade, it is clearly physical oriented so while it might make sense for Sara to equip this, it makes less sense for a pure Mage like Emma to use it. Therefore, the second way of thinking about it is to provide a "pool" of U-Materials and every PC can then spend this pool on their desired set up. As long as it is within budget, they can go wild. This is very similar to NEB's proposed way of looking at some recent FE games where Gold is a limiting factor on what is available to a PC. The major downside to this are the Bells. Bells are unique quartz that halve the recovery delay on a spell. Since Arts is very likely going to be once again the main source of big damage for characters, cutting down 1/2 of the recovery delay can become pretty huge. I'll be open to hearing opinions from others regarding what they think about this. You could also just do a ban on Bells but keep everything else available.