There's been some strategy talk about new Gloomweaver, I've not seen anything yet about Spite; Agent of Gloom. Let's keep the discussion to [advanced mode] tactics because non-advanced sort of nullifies everything that I'm about to say.
So... ouch. It seems really hard to outpace his drugs with victim cards. Incredibly unlikely. So you're not turning his drugs face down again. So you've got 3 turns exactly before he has all of his drugs out, and since he takes the first turn, you've only got two turns to do anything. There's nothing you can really do to slow his drug progression.
his flipside seems almost *strictly* worse than his regular side, and given how hard it is to outpace his drug drawing, I'm tempted to just let the victims fend for themselves. The other approach I can see is that if you have a one-turn damage null card like Grease Gun or Ground Pound, you could play that on the turn that he's going to flip, and then evacuate the Safe House during the next hero phase, gaining some extra card plays. Otherwise you're looking at about 12 damage to each hero from Mind Phyre and Demon's Kiss, plus his regular attack, plus another 6 per hero if he pulls a victim to slay, or 7 per hero if he pulls Lab Raid. So on his flip turn, he can easily belt out 18 damage per hero.
On the plus side he doesn't heal nearly as much as his regular form, and he has 1 less damage reduction. Barring cheap tricks like Twisting the Ether +FotSG, any general ideas on how to deal with this guy?
Normal spite plays a villain card every turn, which is important with his deck. Without that, he's far less threatening; several turns may pass with him doing nothing but putting Victims into play. Also he no longer lifetaps, so unless you let him destroy victims to heal, his 80 HP should suffer rapid attrition as all the heroes focus fire on him.
I've now played 3-4 games against him and just pulled out the first win. Team was Ra, TL-Tach, Tempest, Redeemer Fanatic. So, yeah, we pulled out some of the big guns.
TL-tach got kind of sad draws, no goggles, no Pushing the Limits. She did get one Hypersonic that probably bought the team that one critical turn we needed to finish off the win. Ra, sadly, mostly played the Staff and picked it back up each turn, he got one or two fire blasts laid down, and gave a passive boost with Imbued Fire midway through the game. I was playing Fanatic, I was looking for Divine Focus but I didn't find it. I slam him for 26 with a Wrathful Retribution though. Aegis and Divine Sacrifice put the final turn in a lock, but wasn't ultimately necessary.
Tempest was Mr. MVP for sure. He just got himself into super beast mode, maybe at the expense of our other characters but we agreed that Tempest's draws were solid and other heroes plays were not as valuable. Otherworldly Resilience got him off to a good start, then Shielding Winds was played to reduce Spite's main attack from 5 damage to 3. After that it was Electrical Storm, Vicious Cyclone, and Gene-Bound Shackles to lay on the hurt without needing to use a power and get wrecked by Compound-XI. Two turns of that combo, and Lightning Slash was enough to weaken Spite enough that Ra could finish the villian with Fire Blast.
Yeah, I played Agent of Gloom Spite for the first time last night and I was not impressed. He felt like the same old Spite. The promos for Baron Blade and Omnitron play differently than their original forms. Once you had all the drugs out Spite just did his normal attack routine.
The main difference I found was that you don't want to rescue victims. With the new Spite I see no reason to rescue victims in a 5 player game. The old version you had to rescue victims because he healed so much that direct attacks didn't work. With the new one the damage will actually stick if hit him on his side A. There's no reason to flip him to side B since he will deal a massive amount of damage when he does. If you can stop that then the extra plays could be helpful. Outside that you just ignore the victims unless an outside force is allowing extra villain plays.
I think that the problems with the old Spite being boring were not fixed with the new one.
I like him better than regular Spite, especially for 3 player games (where there is a better, if unlikely, chance at flipping him).
Advanced is difficult, but still doable. I've found that it really, really helps to make a plan based on the first 1-2 rounds. If you start with a good samaritan, or have the ability to scout his deck, you have a better chance at flipping him (especially for 5 player games, where getting H victims in the safehouse without a forced entry can be difficult). If you don't, then its likely that you'll be fighting him entirely on the AoG side. If you get a few victims in a row, then theres a chance you'll be flipping him.
I really enjoy the broken vessel side. the damage is nasty, but it rewards defensive cards and tactics (shielding winds, etc), and retribution cards (combat stance/flame barrier). And I really like putting victims back into the mix in exchange for extra card plays, as it keeps the action going instead of being static. Especially if you have the ability to put a victim into danger (for a card), then pull them back out again for the next hero to use.
The extra card play not only helps setup-intensive heroes cope with the put-your-stuff-away drug, but it also helps heroes get past his first-time damage reduction (use one card to remove it, the next to do damage), which really helps when you are trying to use cards/powers that rely on dealing damage to do an additional effect (like hypersonic assault).