Powerful or interesting variant cards

[Thewizardlord]

Everyone knows that Tachyon Team leader (+1 card for everyone) and AGL (one hero +1HP, use power) is powerful. But what other variants are powerful or fun to play with?



Santa Guise : The ability to put cards face down and then use the power to flip everything over for one player doesn't seem as powerful as the default Guise. But I think it might be useful as insurance against villians that wipe the board. Still it seems to me it is rarely worth using until at least 3 cards are flipped over. and you need a 4th use of power to flip over for one player.

Xtreme Warden Tempest - 1 damage + lose end of turn effects seem powerful against villians with a lot of tough minions

SkyScraper Extremist - I've never really had a good sense of Skysraper but this verisons looks powerfiul. Play a link from hand or from trash to hand is nice. But it adds play the bottom card of your desk? That's 1 play + 1 draw/1 play. That's as good as the normal draw 2 cards?

Omnitron-U normal OmnitronX has a powerful ability that works on any deck but situational as you don'tknow what card will appear. Omnitorn-U's ensures if his cards are destroyed they go out with 2 fire damage. That's even moresituational but it is also paired with a either play a card, or move a equipment card from your trash to play that comes into play even without your cards being destoryed. That's pretty useful .

ANy more variants you like? Some of the variants look outright weak to me,

1.the RA that drawas 3 cards. Discard 2 cards.

2. The wraith that reveals the top card of environment and discard or play it. How is that usefu? Best case scenario you discard a environment card that will hurt you badly (but you still have no clue what's comining in the envrionment turn) or perhaps you play a card that is somewhat benefical for you or at least more damaging to your villians. huh?

3. Chrono ranger the abilty to make anoher target be affected by all bounty cards. But this is more to do with the fact I never found Chorono ranger that powerful anyway.

[powerhound_2000]

Publicado originalmente por Thewizardlord:

1.the RA that drawas 3 cards. Discard 2 cards.

Sometimes you might miss the base damage power but I find often I’ll get to the cards I want with this version. Which means I’ll switch to using Living Conflaguration or Blazing Tornado as my main power similar to playing normal Ra just much sooner due to the draw.

2. The wraith that reveals the top card of environment and discard or play it. How is that usefu? Best case scenario you discard a environment card that will hurt you badly (but you still have no clue what's comining in the envrionment turn) or perhaps you play a card that is somewhat benefical for you or at least more damaging to your villians. huh?

With Wraith I find the base power isn’t used for very long anyways. This version until F5 Wraith had the most health so that was a bonus. With this power Wraith can control the villain and environment decks. With Wraith I often play random and don’t seek out any particular version.

3. Chrono ranger the abilty to make anoher target be affected by all bounty cards. But this is more to do with the fact I never found Chorono ranger that powerful anyway.

Chrono Ranger is a potent damage dealer. He has a lot of plinks but he can boost those plinks himself against a target. With his variant it just lets you pileup Bounty cards on the main villain and apply those to another target. This means other heroes likely will have a damage boost on another target and when that target is destroyed Chrono Ranger can draw cards and possibly destroy another low health target.

[katewalker]

Extremist really changes how Sky-Scraper plays, and it's one of those variants like Hunted Naturalist, where it's hard to back to the original version because you feel so slow and hemmed-in with what you're able to do. She loses her great card draw and Link playing, but literally that does not matter because she'll be doing everything constantly once you get Proportionist out.

And Chrono-Ranger is insanely powerful, in the running for most powerful hero in the game. Ultimate Target and By Any Means on the villains means everyone's doing +1 damage to them, and he's doing +2. With Compounded Bow, that's 6 damage a minimum of twice a round, so long as the villain is dealing damage. And then you can increase that exponentially with Hunter and Hunted, so long as you avoid taking damage.

But I agree his variant isn't as powerful. It's definitely got a niche to fill -- really good at taking out things in heavy target games -- but I'd rather just stick with the base version.

[Thewizardlord]

With Wraith I find the base power isn’t used for very long anyways. This version until F5 Wraith had the most health so that was a bonus. With this power Wraith can control the villain and environment decks. With Wraith I often play random and don’t seek out any particular version.

I find the ability last stand pretty useful. It is melee damage so it doesn't combo with his equipment card that adds damage but still useful in a pinch. The ability to veto an enviornment card without knowing what is coming in its place is weaker than that methinks.

[Thewizardlord]

Publicado originalmente por takewalker145:

And Chrono-Ranger is insanely powerful, in the running for most powerful hero in the game. Ultimate Target and By Any Means on the villains means everyone's doing +1 damage to them, and he's doing +2. With Compounded Bow, that's 6 damage a minimum of twice a round, so long as the villain is dealing damage. And then you can increase that exponentially with Hunter and Hunted, so long as you avoid taking damage.

But I agree his variant isn't as powerful. It's definitely got a niche to fill -- really good at taking out things in heavy target games -- but I'd rather just stick with the base version.

My problem with Choro-Ranger is there are quite a few weak bounty cards.

Dead or alive nets you 1 HP per turn and when target dies you draw a card. If you do it on the villian you just get straight up 1 HP until you win or lose. Put it on a minion, you get it until it dies and you get a card. Nice I guess but I don't see the problem it is meant to solve. There are other ways to get +1HP per turn for more than one person per round.

Kill on sight - draw 3 cards when target leaves play. So effectively you take one play + killing the minion, to get back 3 cards with a net gain of 2 cards. Er... there are easier ways to draw 2 cards...

No execution - If target would be destoyed put it at bottom of deck, How the heck is this used? I suppose if the villian has some tricks involving the trash like Dawn it might be useful but beyond that? Usually in the trash is no worse than at bottom of deck.

Whole gang, basically you need to kill a minion for it to activate for you to kill a 4HP or less minion.

[powerhound_2000]

Publicado originalmente por TheWizardlord:

I find the ability last stand pretty useful. It is melee damage so it doesn't combo with his equipment card that adds damage but still useful in a pinch. The ability to veto an enviornment card without knowing what is coming in its place is weaker than that methinks.

Being able to veto a potentially bad environment card is great especially in Rook City or Megalopolis. In some environments you could even get out a card like Phosperent Chamber and have benefit from it for a round before the villain. In a game against Akash’Bhuta this could be used to help her quicker if needed. From my viewpoint this is the second most useful base power for Wraith after F5 Wraith where I might actually use once I’m fully setup.

[powerhound_2000]

Publicado originalmente por Thewizardlord:

My problem with Choro-Ranger is there are quite a few weak bounty cards.

Dead or alive nets you 1 HP per turn and when target dies you draw a card. If you do it on the villian you just get straight up 1 HP until you win or lose. Put it on a minion, you get it until it dies and you get a card. Nice I guess but I don't see the problem it is meant to solve. There are other ways to get +1HP per turn for more than one person per round.

Sure there are other ways to get health but you don’t have access to them every game. This isn’t the first Bounty you put out but it can be useful for the health gain. The card draw is just a bonus if you play on something that will eventually get destroyed.

Kill on sight - draw 3 cards when target leaves play. So effectively you take one play + killing the minion, to get back 3 cards with a net gain of 2 cards. Er... there are easier ways to draw 2 cards...

Typically you are playing any Bounty by playing Sudden Contract which also gives you damage to deal as well. This Bounty is then played again with Ranger’s Mark which also allows you to deal damage. So you are either playing it from deck or trash and then have damage to deal.

No execution - If target would be destoyed put it at bottom of deck, How the heck is this used? I suppose if the villian has some tricks involving the trash like Dawn it might be useful but beyond that? Usually in the trash is no worse than at bottom of deck.

This is the most situational but it can be useful. You mentioned Dawn already so this can prevent her from flipping and if played on Citizen Hammer it can prevent him from coming back should Anvil appear. Along with other targets which have a chance of returning from the trash. In general it would be used on a target that you don’t want destruction text to activate on like a Sonic Mine, Explosive Weagons, or Relic Spirit.

Whole gang, basically you need to kill a minion for it to activate for you to kill a 4HP or less minion.

Which being able to destroy a target like that can be great. Take out two targets for one or to deal with a target that has DR. It won’t be used every game but it can useful

Overall, if you find yourself with a Bounty card which has no use for you in a particular game it can always be discard fodder for Just Doin My Job

[Psitticine]

No Executions is also great against either version of La Capitan. Both the ship and the monkey are best not in her trash. It also helps to keep the Matriarch's cohorts from bringing each other back, from Apostate's cards from pulling relics back, etc. It's not useful in every game but it is extremely nice when it is relevant.

[Feral Yoda]

As far as other variants...
Dark Visionary is far superior in my mind than vanilla.
Same with Hunted Naturalist.
I prefer Fuge Parse vs regular.
DW Nightmist is preference for me as well.
And i play Rogue Agent KNYFE far more than regular as well.
And Santa Guise is fun too.

It depends on what i'm doing and where i'm playing (and as wierd as it sounds i usually play different variants when i play the physical version vs the digitial).
I'm far more likely to play Super Scientific Tachyon, F6 AZ, or Newest Legacy in physical games for instance.

[abyssalfury]

Santa Guise: My main issue with him is that there's a decent amount of heroes who have at least one card you really DON'T want to play randomly. Captain Cosmic, The Scholar, Fanatic, Wraith, Omnitron.....Which puts a real limit on who he can team up with, unless you just don't use the second ability on that character (but then why bother playing him?)

Tempest: Pretty much all of Tempest's variants are kind of situationally useful, but probably not the kind of thing you want to use all the time. Which I think is fine, as his card powers are so damn good you'll usually find one to play early anyway.

Omnitron-U, I really like in teams that have internal equipment destruction. He's obviously BFFs with base Unity, but he gets along pretty well with DW Mr. Fixer as well.

Beard Ra and BoT Ranger are both pretty similar in that they trade out a damage power for a utility power. Since both of these guys have a fair amount of damage dealing powers, I find it's often not much of a disadvantage to lose the base damage power because you'll probably replace it in a turn or two anyway. BoT in particular is interesting; his ability is often completely useless, but against some villains it's very solid (and this is something you know before hand, so you choose the best variant for the villain). Playing Bounties on the villain and copying them on to minions can be very useful, particulary the draw three cards - if you manage to pop this off once or twice early, it can go a long way to setting him up for the rest of the game. I really underestimated Ranger before unlocking BoT, but it's given me a new appreciation of both versions.

Yeah, Rook City Wraith is kind of bad in most cases, because most environments have relatively equal levels of 'cards you don't want to see'. Her main use I think is when there's a *specific* card you REALLY don't want to see, or I guess if there's one you really want out. But that requires a fairly in depth level of knowledge about your team and it's specific interactions with the enviroment, one that I imagine most people probably can't be bothered with. (Though, RC Wraith become super best friends with Akash'Thriya when she's released?)

And I've got to give a shout out for DW Mr. Fixer. I know a lot of people don't like him, but I feel like he should have been the original. The way he interacts with his deck, it just feels right. He transforms from a weak feeling utility character into a high cost, high damage badass, and I find it so much more interesting. Though he's definately the kind of variant who wants a bit of synergy with the resy of his team, where as normal Fixer is probably easier to just throw on to a team.

[MetaKnightPwnr]

I would like to give a small shoutout to Xtreme Captain Cosmic. If you get a good handful of constructs out and have Legacy, Ra and Insula Primalis give you a net of +6 damage per instance of damage you can melt a lot of faces.

[theunbalancedone]

This may not be a very popular opinion, but Prime Wardens Tempest is one of my favorite heroes in the game, at least if teamed with someone that can help him get more card draw or otherwise help protect him from damage from the environment deck. Once you get otherworldly resilience and his elemental subwave inducer(SP?) out, he can use his power to play 3 cards for only 3 damage. Considering the power of some of his cards, that's a huge advantage.

I also really prefer Captain Cosmic's Requittal variant over his others. Sure it's dangerous and risky, but it usually doesn't take long to get one or two energy bracers out, and even if you get unlucky and keep destroying his constructs with construct cataclysm, you're still doing good damage and it probably won't take too long to build back up again. And then once you have a bunch of constructs out, you can just not use his inherent power while you benefit from the swarm of constructs.

[yamidamian]

I’ve been a big fan of TNAZ. AZ’s ability to tank scales with his self damage, due to his modules. Therefore, Violent Shivers can make AZ have an absurd ability to outheal all damage and inflict a hefty amount of pain in return.

[Sword Man Jake]

Publicado originalmente por Thewizardlord:

Santa Guise : The ability to put cards face down and then use the power to flip everything over for one player doesn't seem as powerful as the default Guise. But I think it might be useful as insurance against villians that wipe the board. Still it seems to me it is rarely worth using until at least 3 cards are flipped over. and you need a 4th use of power to flip over for one player.

Default Guise may be individually stronger, but building a team around Santa Guise is pretty fun. Grandpa Legacy, Prime Wardens Fanatic, Argent Adept, and whoever you want to deal damage. Just put 4 cards on the board every round, then flip a dozen cards in the fourth round for everyone.

[DMAN222]

Another fact to note when talking about Chrono's bounties is that he directly benefits from having them out with cards like The Masadah (which deals irreducible based on number of constructs), Danny Boy (more bounties = more targets) and when you get into finishing time playing Hunter and Hunted (which increases damage dealt by and dealt to based on the number of bounties out). Chrono Ranger can deal absurdly huge amounts of damage with 5 bounties (being conservative) and Hunter and Hunted out. You get a +5 on any hit, then with By Any Means and Ultimate Target you get another +2 (most likely) so you are at +7 per hit. Using the Compound Bow is 16 damage alone, throw in 2 Eye On The Prize and that's 16 more, add Terrible Tech Strike and you get 17 more. That's 49 damage!

Suffice to say I like Chrono Ranger. I also see a lack of mentions for Prime Wardens Adept and XTREME Argent Adept. PW variant let's the Adept set up way faster with the trade off of not being able to use Perform texts as easily (accompany's are very useful for your team though, so not too bad) and XTREME turns 2 damage into a play and power for anyone (not yourself) or you get a 2 damage power, it helps show off that Adept can indeed deal damage and you otherwise need three cards out for Adept to hand out a power and a play.

[Natediggadoggity]

On the subject of rook city wraith' s power, her power is actually very valuable in.... Rook City!
Seriously, that place is one of the few you really want to discard the bad cards and actively hunt for the good ones, like Dr. Tremata and Tony Taurus.

Two other cards also become useful with Wraiths power there: Toxic Sludge and Falling Statuary. The sludge becomes a great way to destroy a bunch of bad environment cards at once, plus it gets destroyed at the beginning of the turn and dodges the damage to everyone. And the Falling Statuary becomes useful for targeting low hp villain targets.