In Depth: Haka

This guide is an in depth, card by card look at the hero deck of Haka. If you're new to the deck or you still haven't fully grasped all of his mechanics, this isn't a bad place to start.

Introduction and Classifications

At a first glance, Haka appears to be about dealing damage. His equipment and non-haka one shots lean into damage dealing but there's a whole level of utility just beneath the surface waiting to be uncovered.

The Clarification here is that I say "Haka" to refer to the hero, while "haka" refers to the "haka of..." cards (and Eternal Haka power)

Also, I say "Num: X" in the card descriptions, X is the amount of that card in the deck.

Oh, and shoutout to jagarciao for the hero icons I'm using, they can be found here: http://spiffworld.com/sotm/non-spiff.cfm along with some other cool print and use resources

Most Important Cards

haka of Battle

One-Shot
Draw 2 cards, then discard 1 or more cards.
Increase the next damage dealt by Haka by 1 for each card discarded this way.
Num: 3

This is one of those game ending cards. A lot of my games with Haka ends up finishing with a quick calculation Hi Parse involving haka of Battle, my hand size, the number of cards under Savage Mana (top of More Cards section), and the villain character card HP count. You can, if you're determined enough, stack haka of Battle to any amount of damage buffs, if you keep drawing.

haka of Restoration

One-Shot
Draw 2 cards, then discard 1 or more cards.
Haka regains HP equal to the number of cards discarded this way.
Num:3

Probably the quickest way to recover a lot of HP in the game (pre Oblivaeon and Dr. Medico Void Guard if they manage to outdo it) this is really where Prime Wardens Haka shines as you can use it to restore other targets' HP instead of your own, so Scholar or The Dreamer or Heroic Infinitor or Mobile Defense Platform's Propulsion Systems can be healed real easy. You can also use it to recover after tanking with Enduring Intercession.

haka of Shielding

One-Shot
Draw 2 cards, then discard 1 or more cards.
Reduce the next damage dealt to Haka by 2 for each card discarded this way.
Num: 3

haka of Shielding sees little use (I think) as it's hard to predict the future. You'd want to play it to lessen a large blow from something in particular like Mad Bomber Baron Blade's flipside (with the death ray) which'll deal a large x value of damage to the hero target on the highest HP, and for the purpose of demonstration lets say x is 8, so you discard 4 cards for haka of shielding, and then the environment tries to hit you for 1 damage. Your massive damage reduction is dropped just before the big hit you were trying to soak. The only time I can recommend using it for damage prevention specifically is when something deals a lot of damage to a single target at the start of the environment turn and you have enduring intercession in play (or are super confident in being the target without it, and/or with Visionary help), because otherwise something can go wrong. Otherwise, use it to draw 2 and discard 1 when you need different options and would otherwise do nothing.

Dominion

Ongoing
Whenever an environment card is destroyed, you may draw a card.
Num: 3

Dominion is up here because cards in hand is very important to Haka, mostly for his hakas. The big thing of note is that they stack, so if you get all 3 out, that's 3 draws per environment card, most of which are either targets or they destroy themselves or each other. More on it's value in the synergy section.

More Cards

Savage Mana

Ongoing, Limited
Whenever Haka destroys a target, you may put that card beneath this card
Power: Destroy all cards beneath this card, Haka deals 1 target x Toxic damage where x = the number of cards destroyed this way times 2.
Num: 2

This card turns things that get in the way into things that fuel damage later, but more importantly it removes them from the appropriate deck/trash, which can cause synergies to fail. I'll outline all the best synergies to mess with in the synergies section, but an example is Ambuscade's Cloaking Device, as he can't play it using Vanish when it's not in his deck or trash. There's a lot more of these and they are fun, I suggest looking for them. On top of that, cards remember where they're from, even when other other cards. So while a card under Savage Mana won't have keywords like construct (and thus won't trigger things that happen when constructs are destroyed) they will remember that they are environment cards, so Dominion will draw off of it.

Punish the Weak

Ongoing, Limited
Whenever Haka would damage the non-hero target with the lowest HP, increase that damage by 1.
Whenever Haka would damage any other target, reduce that damage by 1.
Power: Destroy this card.
Num: 3

So first thing this does is it increases the amount of HP a target can have before you put it under Savage Mana, so if you constantly go after what's on the lowest to put it under Savage Mana, there's no reason not to play this. On top of that "any other target" includes all Hero targets, reducing self and team damage, which happens often enough with Rampage.

Rampage

One-Shot
Haka deals each non-hero target 5 Melee damage and each hero target 2 Melee damage.
Num: 3

This is some massive area damage with the drawback of friendly fire Hi Setback you can use it with Punish the Weak to destroy many things if done right, by making the order important. Additionally with Punish the Weak out it triggers all of Captain Cosmics constructs for 1 HP each, more on that in his guide though.

Mere

Equipment, Limited
Power: Haka deals 1 target 2 Melee damage.
Draw a card.
Num: 3

For regular Haka this is a clear upgrade on your base power, and in the early game, those draws are important, and help get to Dominion for the later game. With other variants it might see diminished use, but ask yourself which is better in those cases ("does XPW need to tank right now?", "What do I play with PW?", "Are all these Eternal draws worth it with no damage?")

Taiaha

Equipment, Limited
Power: Haka deals up to 2 targets 3 Melee damage each.
Num: 3

This is also a clearly better power than regular Haka and a lot of the time it's the go to power for Haka to destroy targets with for Savage Mana or even just to do some damage (6 is not a low number in this game). All in all if you just want to use your power for damage, this is where you go.

Elbow Smash

One-Shot
Haka deals 1 target 3 Melee damage
Num: 3

Simple enough, I mostly use this to set something up for putting under Savage Mana if nothing is low enough, or to grab something if multiple things are low, or destroy a nuisance like Mobile Defense Platform or Citizen Truth. Weirdly, I'd discard it for haka of Battle, because 3 damage now is not as good as +1 more in a second and I plan on playing other cards for the next while anyway.

Ground Pound

Ongoing
When this card enters play, discard 2 cards or destroy this card.
Non-hero cards cannot deal damage.
At the start of your turn, destroy this card.
Num: 2

Groun Pound gives everyone room to breathe, and can be used in conjunction with Tempest's Reclaim from the Deep to keep playing them so long as you can sustain the card discards (Dominion is your friend (also with enough Dominion, you've all the cards in your hand and keep redrawing Ground Pound)), though I find this boring, so Ground Pound is for emergencies like Electro-Pulse Explosive or Devious Disruption (if you can predict the future). Take note of the word cards where it could say targets, somethings that work similarly don't effect non-target cards.

Enduring Intercession

Ongoing
Redirect any damage that would be dealt to a hero target by an environment card to Haka.
Power: Destroy this card.
Num: 3

A lot of people look at this and turn away in disgust, but there's value to be had here. If you know the environment (or look through it in the digital game) and can see it does little more than 1 damage in any instance (like Mobile Defense Platform) then you can use it with Tā Moko, and if you've Captain Cosmic on the team, 3 Energy Bracers will break most environments (4 Damage reduction!) and with Shielding Winds out, unless the environment tries to do 7 or more damage, you'll take nothing. Environments that can do this are: Insula Primalis (T-Rex + 2 Obsidian Fields or all 3 Velociraptor packs and 1 Obsidian field or Pterodactyl Thief and enough equipment), Wagner Mars' Oxegen Leak (Number of cards in environment trash), Pike Industrial (Chemical Explosion + 4 Vats), Rook City (Irriducible damage), Realm of Discords' Portal Fiend (Cards in trash), The Block (either F.I.L.T.E.R. Officer with 2 Lock Downs and Warden Hoffe or just Time Crazed Prisoner (Trash)), Madamme Mittermeier's causes people to hit themselves more than it hits people, Omnitron IV's Techno Pursuer if there are enough drones in play. That's 8 out of 22 environments able to get through or around that setup and some of those take crazy setup or are easy enough to avoid anyway. That said, this is a lot of work for environmental immunity when a villain is on the attack.

Tā Moko

Ongoing, Limited
Reduce damage dealt to Haka by 1
Num: 3

Damage reduction is great for long games, just get it out early. Get Dominion out earlier though, thaose card draws are of extreme import long term.

Vitality Surge

One-Shot
Haka regains 2 HP.
Draw a card.
Num: 3

Vitality Surge is the go to "I have nothing I particularly want to do right now" card. When all your cards are limited and in play, VS has your back. When none of the Haka's apply right now, VS is there for you. Vitality Surge sits at the end of the chain of thought, and is played when all else is unnecessary or unwanted, and for that I'm grateful. It's the card draw that I'm talking about really, the HP is a small bonus, and discard it to haka of Restoration for more healing now, just know that there's almost always something better to discard (when you have a choice).

Variants

Regular Haka: Crush (34 HP)

2 damage to a single target is pretty standard as far as base powers go, this Haka has the 4th highest max HP out of all Hero character cards (I'm pretty sure, anyway). This Haka is probably best used for getting familiar with the deck.

The Eternal Haka: haka of Knowledge (33 HP)

Messing around with this Haka is a lot of fun. If you're headed into a game with Haka and you want to play a specific card really fast, this is the one to go with. You get to draw a lot of cards real fast, so wait to play hakas, unless there's some sort of emergency.

Prime Wardens Haka: Guardian (35 HP)

This Haka makes for great teamwork, and the ability to play hakas for other targets means you can use haka of shielding on heroes who damage themselves like Setback and Nightmist, or heroes that take increased damage like Tempest, Setback, or Chrono-Ranger, giving haka of shielding a needed usage boost. You can also use hakas on non-hero targets like the MDP Propulsion systems or Dreamer, mentioned above under Most Important Cards. Lastly, with all the Dominion draws forfeiting your power for a generic play is useful for getting those cards out (or to Rampage twice in one turn).

Xtreme Prime Wardens Haka: Die Hard (32 HP)

This Haka works really well with some damage reduction and could potentially work with healing buffs (which are very few, like Void Guard Dr. Medico and Atlantis' Phosphorescent Chamber) but where it really shines is with heroes that increase damage dealt to them like Setback and Chrono-Ranger. You can also set up a weird thing to redirect more damage to Haka by using a character that has rediection potential like Legacy or Sentinels (Mainstay, but the rest come too)

Synergies

Hero Interactions
Haka's deck plays very well by itself, generating enough cards to make decisions varied, the only thing it needs is extra plays, but even then it's not that pushed, because it only needs 4 or 5 cards in play most of the time. If you can get some consistent Environment destruction going (Argent Adept's Sarabande of Destruction, Extremist Skyscraper's Huge Power, Omnitron's Bio-Engineering Beam, Parse's Segmentation Fault) for non-target cards that don't destroy themselves, then you'll go faster, but again, not entirely necessary.

I've already discussed it, but XPW Haka is great with heroes like Setback or Chrono-Ranger (with large "increase damage dealt to [hero] by x" effects), but also Captain Cosmics Unflagging Animation (The 1 Irreducible doesn't need to be taken by him to keep it), Tempest (with Localized Hurricane), F6 Unity (Golem-Spawn), Nightmist (self damage like having HP is going out of style), Mr. Fixer (Bloody Knuckles)

Then there are some really specific things like PW Haka and Fixer's Dual Crowbars (get the haka of Battle bonus twice) or Scholar with Mortal Form to Energy (healing from Restoration also deals damage). There are likely others, but not commonly seen.

Villain Interactions
This is where Savage Mana shines, anything that functions with targets in trash fails when they're under it. Examples: Chiquito from Vengeance Capitan, La Paradoja Magnifica from regular Capitan, Voss' Minions and Forced Deployment, Citizen Dawn's Citizens (though watch out for Devestating Aurora), Apostate's Relics, Chairman (you can put him under, but I was thinking more about the Thugs), Matriarch (Darken the Sky and Cohorts fizzle) and Gloomweaver (can't Vast Folowing Relics when they under SM, and can destroy them all at once for the win)

Other notable things are Spite's unfriendliness with environments giving card draws, The Ennead and Omnitron can destroy all environment cards too, just not frequently.

Environment Interactions
There's not many extreme synergies to be had in the environment decks, but there are a few things to look at. First is in The Temple of Zhu Long, where if you put The True Form under Savage Mana, a lot of the deck breaks down a little, as Master of the Temple no longer searches up The True Form and does no damage, and Resurrection Ritual all but removes villain targets from the game when they're destroyed by anything, not just Haka. Additionally, Realm of Discord gets prety funky when you're putting villain ongoings under Savage Mana because of Imbued Vitality.

With Dominion, Environments that use One-Shot-esque "do a thing and destroy this card", particularly those that play extra cards, are great, and those include Judgement of Anubis, Prison Riot (The Block), M.D.P Turbolift and Temporal Event (Silver Gulch). Other cards that play more environment cards can be good too, just make sure you don't get overwhelmed.

Summary and Conclusion

Haka makes for a great hero on his own, great for beginning players and veterans alike, and never disrupts the flow of other heroes so he's a good choice if you're looking to fill a gap. Deciding on which variant to bring can be a bit difficult, because each generally does much the same thing in the end, so it's mostly a matter of preference (unless you want to use Xtreme to play around things like High Risk Behaviour, of course).

[Grey Kihano]

I didn't had a chance to use XPW Haka. I really like your idea of using them with Setback and CR.