Character Profile
- Best Attack: Cedistic Dissonant
- Best Team Support: Alacritous Subdominant
- Best Personal Support: Inspiring Supertonic
- Honorable Mention: Silver Shadow
- Damage Types: Fire, Cold, and Sonic
- Nemesis: Akash’Bhuta
- Worst Card: Rhapsody of Vigor
The Argent Adept is the ultimate support character in Sentinels of the Multiverse. His varied musical effects are capable of giving heroes just about any boon in the game, and he can build up an arsenal of flexible powers capable of solving any problem. With time, he can chain his instruments and songs to create a whole host of effects that can be used every turn. To effectively play the Argent Adept, you must have an open mind, and you must be willing to be a team player. Once you embrace the style, there’s no end to the wonder this musician creates.
A Word of Clarification
Part of the strength of the Argent Adept lies in the fact that Perform and Accompany abilities are not powers. While you can still only use any given power once a turn, you can use the abilities on any given song several times a turn, if you can manage it. This is essential for understanding his full potential.
Attack
Generally speaking, if you are actively dealing hit point damage with the Argent Adept, something has gone horribly wrong. It’s fine if that’s all you have, or if you’re with other low-damage heroes. On the whole, however, it is far more optimal if you allow others to increase their capacity for damage by using the effects listed in the next section. If you are reduced to belting out damage, Scherzo of Frost and Flame and the Accompany of Syncopated Onslaught are your tools. As long as there’s no armor, these are decent, and you probably get them for free.
The Perform of Cedistic Dissonant is different. By trading an instrument, you can remove almost any impediment in the game. You can zap targets that are immune to damage. You can kill relics or spaceships without batting an eye. You can even remove environments or ongoing cards, if you’re too desperate to wait for Sarabande of Destruction. This is utility of the highest order, but it usually works out the same as a huge attack. If you have an instrument you’re not otherwise using, this is a great way to solve problems. If you are making good use of all your instruments, this is a desperation tactic, but one that works.
TEAM Attack!
Inspiring Supertonic’s Perform means the Argent Adept has effective use of any power. This alone gives a glimpse into his utility. Let somebody damage something? Let somebody get set up? Use more of your instruments? This last one, while not the most powerful thing you can do with the card, is interesting. You can use the Harp and the Lyra for extra Accompany uses. For instance, with Musaragni’s Harp in play, you can use the Perform, use a different Instrument (or Vocalize), and then gain 2 hit points from the Accompany. This little trick isn’t always the best use of your time, but keep it in mind.
Despite the strength of that card, Alacritous Subdominant’s Perform gets my vote for the best effect in the game. Letting people play extra cards hastens the setup for heroes that require it, amplifies the effectiveness of the heroes that don’t, and can also help Argent Adept with his own (non-trivial) setup. Be careful when playing against villains that can punish you for playing lots of cards, as with Citizen Dawn’s Devastating Aurora. Inventive Preparation’s Accompany does the same thing, except that you can’t use it on yourself. These two cards with Telemon’s Lyra represent one of the strongest combinations you can pull off.
Syncopated Onslaught’s Perform provides a straightforward boost to two targets. While obviously not as broad an ability as Legacy’s Galvanize, this does have a couple of advantages. You can selectively exclude heroes who might prefer not to have it, like Nightmist. Also, this card is not limited to hero targets. Keep that in mind if you’re relying on an environment target for some damage.
Team Defense
The Argent Adept has an array of defensive effects as well. Rhapsody of Vigor can heal every hero, but the card has more utility than that. It can heal other hero targets, like Unity’s Golems or Visionary’s Decoy Projection. It can also heal helpful environment targets, or even villain targets you want to keep around. (Relic Spirits, anyone?) I typically prefer to use more offensive effects, but this is nice if you get it for free.
Counterpoint Bulwark’s Perform shows real defensive power. This can be crucial to keeping heroes alive long enough to deliver fatal blows. This can potentially come in handy several times a round, saving far more net life than Rhapsody of Vigor. As with Rhapsody of Vigor, he can use this to protect any other target. The highest and lowest hit point heroes are an obvious choice, but protecting a villain’s nemesis or combining with other damage reduction is also strong.
Inspiring Supertonic’s Accompany can turn the Argent Adept into a makeshift tank – he can attach the ability to gain 2 hit points to his power phase, sometimes multiple times, thus increasing the damage the party can take.
Utility
The rest of his songs fall under the utility umbrella. Of course, using extra plays and powers with the above cards can do this as well. Drawing cards is a common function of utility. Cedistic Dissonant’s Accompany helps get you deeper in cards, while Counterpoint Bulwark’s allows you to assist others.
Sarabande of Destruction is king among utility, easily getting rid of the impediments that don’t have hit points. The best thing about this card is that it offers power-based Environment destruction – invaluable in Atlantis and Megalopolis to solve Leaking Rooms and Hostage Situations quickly.
Inventive Preparation’s Perform is great for any effect that depends on the top of your deck, and a decent effect to get everybody closer to cards they want. It is often overshadowed by the other rhythm Performs, but some cards make it worthwhile.
Finally, Vernal Sonata simply grants a couple of nice effects while allowing your teammates to plan their turns better. I’m fond of playing this, then using Counterpoint Bulwark’s Accompany, to allow a player to use the card they just got back right away.
Tactics
Your early game looks like this. Lead off with one of your songs, so you can start performing. Ideally, you follow with another song, giving you options, and then you go get an instrument that allows you to use them together.
Arcane Cadence and Instrumental Conjuration, your deck manipulation suite, are fantastic. Instrumental Conjuration gets you the right tool, while Arcane Cadence fills in the blanks. People make a big deal of Arcane Cadence to play Arcane Cadence, and that’s nice, but I find it more time-consuming than earth-shattering. You really only have to do that if you must have something particular right now, or if all of the other cards are useless.
By midgame, hopefully you’ve lined up a 3-4 songs next to a couple of instruments. This is when you employ Polyphoric Flare and Alacritous Subdominant’s Accompany to use all the powers you have accumulated. The Argent Adept’s strength is based on abusing extra powers. He really earns his 3 rating when you’re trying to keep straight what you can do. Another clarification: The Accompany of Alacritous Subdominant sticks around until after the power is used. If, as a part of using that power, you get a chance to use another Harmony Accompany, then Alacritous Subdominant will still be there. Play around with his options outside of a game so as to better familiarize yourself with his options in game. Can you figure out how to activate all of his instruments and Vocalize in one turn?
Silver Shadow deserves a special mention. Once you have an Accompany handy, Silver Shadow is simply a free activation, lending basic support while you keep playing out your songs and instruments. If you flip a Silver Shadow while playing Arcane Cadence, consider yourself lucky. Use that free Accompany, then you can play the card you just put into your hand!
Instruments
The instruments are mostly straightforward, so I’ll use this space to talk about which ones I tend to use. I enjoy Xu’s Bell, since it offers simple 2-card combos with Rhythms, and allows for flexibility in Harmony Accompanies. Telamon’s Lyra and Musaragni’s Harp are very strong, and they both do Harmony Perform – great with Inspiring Supertonic.
I’m not as keen on the instruments that use Melodies. I don’t find their abilities as consistently useful as those on the Harmonies and Rhythms, and the Melodies have less flexibility. Each of these instruments requires three cards in play to be good, which is sometimes difficult to achieve. To really make it worth your time, one of those cards usually has to be Sarabande of Destruction. If melodies are among the cards you have around, however, it is nice Conjure at least one of the Melody instruments to have it handy.
Weaknesses
Without his songs and instruments, Argent Adept doesn’t get much done. As such, he takes some time to set up, and suffers if he loses a bunch of stuff. Alacritous Subdominant can mitigate this to some degree, accelerating his deployment and recovery.
He also suffers from having the fewest base hit points in the game, making him an immediate target for the more unsavory types of villains and environments. He has excellent defensive measures as described above, but they do require preparation.
Finally, he has very few attack methods. Without allies to execute his commands and use his enhancements, he will have a difficult time bringing the game to a conclusion.
Teamups
This is what the Argent Adept is all about. All heroes are better in a team with this guy. Here follows a list of some of the best things I’ve seen, but really, as long as Argent Adept is noticeably improving the team’s performance, all is well.
Counterpoint Bulwark combines very well with any sort of damage redirection, like Legacy’s Lead from the Front, Wraith’s Smoke Bombs, or Unity’s Stealth Bot.
Inspiring Supertonic is great to use after Legacy’s turn, to use Galvanize again. This is noticeably better than Syncopated Onslaught in a big group, or with Unity. Syncopated Onslaught, on the other hand, is better when some people don’t want the boost, most often Nightmist.
Scherzo of Frost and Flame is generally unimpressive compared to what else this guy can do, but if it becomes boosted, it’s much better. It’s very compelling when aimed at Absolute Zero.
Alacritous Subdominant is great for everyone for any number of reasons, but it’s perhaps most great for Unity. It allows her bots to come into play without having to jump through any hoops. Unity also appreciates Rhapsody of Vigor the most, as it can bolster her bots.
Inventive Preparation is good with Nightmist in particular, allowing her to influence the effects of her spells. Vernal Sonata can be used in the same way, or it can be used with effects that let everybody draw a card, like Legacy’s Bolster Allies, or Team Leader Tachyon. This is also great if followed up by The Scholar’s Don't Dismiss Anything or Omnitron-X's Timeshift.
