Envisioner, if you could whip up a variant for Gloomy along those lines, I would be very interested... I kind of agree with you that killing Gloomy when he/she/it isn't even on this plane of existence is pretty silly, and with Gloomy being a demi-god of chaos and death and aaaaall that trouble to bring him/her/it into the world, that it should be pretty much one turn kill after a flip :O
What about simply adding "At the start of the game, reveal cards until one Relic and Ophidia the Deceiver are revealed. Put those two cards into play"?
That way, Gloomweaver has a force to be reckoned with already out to start the game, and it's more likely for him to hit the 3-Relic Ante.
I have to try this out, but I had this idea. Add the following line to Gloomy's card:
At the start-of-the-villain-turn put the X non-Zombie targets with the lowest hp from the villain trash into play. X = the number of relics in the villain trash.
Wouldn't that just pull zombies?
I would like to see Grave Beckons (is that the right name? the zombie ongoing is what I am going for) become indestructable or something. THAT would be real scary…
Yay, which is why I changed it. Even putting the Zombies hp ranged out of standard AoE damage range would make it significanlty harder.
EDIT: I was changing it as you posted. I was hoping nobody would see…
The idea is that Gloomy is trying to get them back. Also, each destroyed relic would automatically add an extra card play to his turn, and taking out the cultist from the trash would give vast following a greater chance of bringing back a relic.
Ah! That would certainly give Gloomweaver more teeth. It also would actually make going for the alternative win condition a choice instead of a foregone conclusion. (Why would you ever waste time and damage on Gloomweaver when you can focus it elsewhere and still win?)
I think that's part of the problem.
Going after Relics vs Gloomy
75 hp vs 90 hp
Destroys cards with effects vs doesn't remove any effects
While the cards can come back, there seems to be more pros with taking out the relics. Furthermore, advance mode encourages this strategy by making Gloomy harder to hit. Maybe advanced mode should have said that relics (and maybe zombies) are immmune to melee and projectile damage instead.
Strength of the Grave is the zombie buff. I think "The Grave Beckons" is that one in the Ennead's deck which insta-kills targets with fewer than 3hp.
I was actually thinking along the lines of a *major-ish* change of its card. I think we've derailed this enough though, so I'll try to go and make a new topic? :)
I do a Gloomy variant with a second character in play
First side is a voodoo priest that throws voodoo pins at the heroes from the trash, or plays the top card if no pins are in the trash. He also causes a hero with a pin attached to do -1 damage.
The Priest has 10 health, when he hits 0 health he flips to zombie lord side.
Zombie Lord side he reveals the trash and puts either strength of the grave or a zombie into play. Strength of the grave is indestructible on that side.
Each side is nasty, and it adds to the game the strategy of when to flip the priest.
I think a far more relevant issue than either of those is Gloomy's "always exists to be beaten on" vs. the relics's "only available if you happen to draw them". In two of my three games against him, he was well below 25 HP by the time the third relic showed up. In one case, Wraith was even devoted wholeheartedly to fishing out his relics with Infrared Eyepiece (first she had to draw IREP, so she was playing a lot of Trust Funds and before that skipping her turn to draw 2), and she still didn't manage to find the third one before Gloomy was in pieces all over the floor.
Actually, I don't think that matters at all.
SotM is all about dividing your resources. You need to kill the villain to win, but they stop you by throwing out distractions. You need to destroy Omnitron, but you will need to divert your resources and deal with the Electro Pulse Explosive. There are many different ways that the villain "distracts" you. For example, adding on DR, making you lose cards, hurting you etc. This is often done with different minions, Ongoings, etc. I am not going to go into all of the ways now, but for simplicity, when you attack the villain directly, you are trying to win the game, while attacking anything else is preventing you from losing the game. Often this is done by giving you more rounds to hurt the villain. If you know you can kill the villain before you lose, then there is no reason to deal with the distractions.
This is one of the reasons why Tempest is very powerful. With Squall and Gene-Bound Shackles, he can use his Play and Power phase to deal with distractions, while still hitting the villain. Tempest doesn't really need to divide his resources.
This is also one of the reason why Baron Blade is so easy. His additional lose condition forces you to attack him directly and avoid the distractions. Essentially, by hitting him you are fulfilling both "win the game" and "don't lose the game." This prioritizes your resources, and you often you can kill him before you lose.
Now let's take a look at Gloomweaver. As soon as a relic hits the table, were is your priory? Let's look at what happens if you attack the relic:
1) All the relics have a nasty effect, and removing that effect can help you not lose. This alone won't prioritize the target, but it just acts like any other cards.
2) Destroying the relic prevents Gloomweaver from flipping. Since his flip side is harder than his setup, by destroying the relic, you are giving yourself even more chances not to lose.
3) Gloomweaver's flip side heals him. So, there is very little to prioritize Gloomweaver over the relic. If you focus on him, and the third relic hits the board, you just undid everything you were trying to do.
4) In addition to all of those things that will help you not lose, you have an explicit win condition.
5) The explicit win condition has a total hp less than Gloomweaver himself.
There are many reasons to take out the relic first that it should be your main priority, and there are very little reason to divide out your resources. Now, there is a way for them to come back, so in addition to taking them out, you also need to kill cultists so that the relic is buried in the trash. This puts hitting Gloomweaver himself at a very low priority (and his advance mode can take that away completely).
The only time it is worth to hit Gloomweaver himself is when there are no higher priority targets. If there are no higher priority targets, then by all means hit him. Now, it is true that you might now get all of the relics and win that way, but it doesn't change the fact that this is the best strategy against him in most situations, and the relics are the first thing going down.
In order to "fix" Gloomweaver, I think it is worth finding out why he is so easy.
Thanks, Pydro! That was a very insightful analysis of Gloomweaver an Baron Blade!
I've tried dealing with that issue by making Gloomy and the Relics indestructible and forcing him to flip, but that really ruins the feel of trying to stop him from coming into the world, and makes the first side either a hunt for relics (why would the heroes be hunting for the relics?) or a really slow grind to set up for a flip->win.
Patience.
What are those? 
Interesting. Perhaps the RCIR box contains functional changes to a few cards, and Gloomweaver is one of them? Slightly defeats the purpose of a "reprint", but not unprecedented with the EE. Alternatively, perhaps a yet-to-be-announced promo villain accompanying the release? (Alas, the other one who needs this treatment is Ambuscade and he probably wouldn't be included in the same release.)
Back on the original topic, the forum crew including myself just finished walking all over Akash'Bhuta in the Final Wasteland, a combination that you expect to be heinous…but we brought Bunker and his Adhesive Foam grenades, along with a combo of Visionary's Mental Divergence and Legacy's Take Down which could have canceled every second villain turn (including bonus environment plays). I'd definitely say that fits with the theme of this thread. In general, I've found that five-hero games with Visionary and/or Legacy in them are disproportionately easy.
Dr. Medico MD to go insane (much along the lines of Iron Legacy) and have "patience" like Spite's victims, confirmed!
Yeah yeah, not spelled the same
Ambuscade does not need an overhaul. His normal mode is a bit of a cakewalk, but his advanced mode makes for a very well put together encounter and is a pretty fantastic fight
I still find him fairly easy…his flipside's advanced text doesn't matter at all unless you're doing heavy reduction, which I find seldom proves effective except with Scholar, Lead from the Front Legacy, or occasionally a hibernating Bunker. Turning off Haka's Ta Moko is not that huge a deal, even for his nemesis, since he has HP to burn and Haka can just not play the Ta Moko and discard it to a Haka of Battle (I never use Haka of Shielding for more than 1 card anyway, there's just not much point since it applies to only a single instance). Meanwhile, the reduced damage to devices is a nuisance, but the devices aren't powerful enough to really be worth worrying about, except for the singleton rocket launcher. And he still has multiple turns in an average game when he does nothing except flip up a Trap card which has no immediate effect.
Besides which, some of the suggested fixes for Ambuscade not only make him more dangerous, but just plain more interesting, and I think he could use help in that regard. I really like Spiff's suggestion of having one incapped hero be a game over with him, although I don't think that's quite enough of a change all by itself - but I think Spiff's fix throws in too many other things, as I don't like too sweeping an overhaul either. I have my own homebrew version, but it doesn't yet live up to my own standards…I want something elegant but functional, and haven't managed to fulfill both of those demands yet.