Cards you never play

Games Sentinels of the Multiverse
1

I think everyone knows what I'm talking about: those cards that just sit in your hand until you get an excuse to discard them. The ones that never seem to have a use, or, if they do, it's so situational as to make them useless.

Given the lively discussion about Sub-Zero Atmosphere recently on some board or other, I'm hoping this thread will spur similar discussion and change people's minds about the usefulness of cards. After all, for me, Scrap Metal recently went from "Bot-Hack fodder" to "card I can't wait to play" because I figured out what it was for.

I'll start things off with my list of "cards I need to be convinced have use":

Coolant Blast: I've never figured out a way to make it work reliably. It's so situational, Thermal Shockwave just seems the all-around superior choice.

Gatling Gun: Sometimes it's nice to have some extra damage, but given the card-per-round cost, I really wish this was 3 damage instead of 2. Turret Bot does this better! I only ever use this as Omni-Cannon ammo.

Enduring Intercession: I have literally never been able to figure out a reason to use this card. I don't think I've ever even tried. What's the point of it?

Astral Premonition: It's a worse version of Dark Visionary's power. Which, while a good power, is generally not something I want to give up precious, precious Amulet fodder for. (Then again, it's worth mentioning that I don't like playing Nightmist because I've never figured out more than one strategy for her.)

Self-Sabotage: Is there ever a time this is better than Singularity as a finishing move?

Vicious Cyclone: Great for Sacrifice Tempest to sacrifice, but runs far too afoul of DR for my tastes.

Mass Levitation: It's got its uses, but I always feel like Visionary is better off doing anything else, even just using Foresight.

Smoke Bombs: This one isn't quite as "I never use it" as "I've had a bad time with it before". In theory, it's a good idea, but I remember one game that was thoroughly ruined because Smoke Bombs was just making my team die faster. I can't recall why, unfortunately.

2

Rhapsody of Vigor: Even though it's nice to have an AoE heal, the other two melody cards feel like they have a bettr effect. I hardly play this, especially considering that the melody cards get played last in general anyway

Divine Sacrifice: As nice as the irreducible damage is, it's kind of hard to get past the secondary effect. It just backfires way too easily.

Overdo It: As useful as a second play is, KNYFE usually doesn't get too many extra cards anyway, so it seems to have a very limited use. Not to mention it takes up your play for that round.

Superhuman Durability: It just feels way too situational. You usually only take that much damage consistantly from environment cards, and there's already a way Legacy can work around that

Tire Iron: I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who thinks that tire iron is inferior to all the other tools. The only situation I play it is if I don't have another tool in my hand.

3

Dang it I wrote a long response in the other thread that's lost now apparently....

4

Hmm, why can't I quote in response to this first message?

You're sure you don't mean it the other way? Self-Sabotage deals twice as much damage per card destroyed. On the other hand, Singularity isn't restricted to your own cards. They both seem good to me.

I usually prefer other tools, but it's not bad against Voss if Mr. Fixer has a damage boost one way or another. It's certainly way better than Wrathful Gaze in Ra's deck. In both cases, it's really handy to have these auto-destruct effects against Apostate.

5

I can't either so I'm manually quoting 

>

Vicious Cyclone: Great for Sacrifice Tempest to sacrifice, but runs far too afoul of DR for my tastes

If you have any damage buffs or even just Gene Bound Shackles this is great.

6

Excavation is the first card I think of when this type of topic comes up.  I mean, I can see the case it's useful, but I have literally never played it, having never found it a better play than something else in Ra's hand.  

I think I've only played Prayer of Desperation once in all of my Fanatic games (a lot of games) because I find, like Recharge Mode, it's such a huge cost for not a lot of extra card benefit (somewhat proven by the vastly superior version of it in Know When to Hold Fast)

7

Lemme See That... with Guise is one I don't use often as the benefits from a single equipment normally isn't enough to justify taking it from a player for a round.    It's awesome to use with Mr Fixer and the Argent Adept occasionally but not quite as much with others. 

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Gatling Gun- To be fair, it is 3 damage when you're in Turrent Mode. But it delays Bunker's setup by another card, so it's hit or miss for me. 

Astral Premoniton- Any discussions involving "cards I don't like to play" are basically the reason NightMist is my favorite hero. Her gameplay means you get so much use out of cards without ever having to play them. The 4 Astral Premoniotion and Mists of Time are fantastic to discard to heal up, so it never feels like NightMist is ever drawing any bad cards.   

Vicious Cyclone- Combine with Gene-Bound Shackles and Legacy. 

 

Two of my least favorite cards are Gimmicky Character and Say Cheese. Both feel nearly useless in most situations, and unlike Retcon, they only give an additional play, not the additional draw that I'm usually looking for. I tend to discard these for Blatant Reference.

Can't remember the name of the card, I think Updated Intel..? from Parse's deck. She usually has other cards I would rather play.  

9

Polyphoric Flare is always trash fodder for me -- AA has low enough HP without smacking himself, and most of the time I'd rather get another instrument or song out.

I don't think I've ever had Recharge mode enter play on purpose. For it to have any real value, you'd need it in play for two turns (one to play, then one to collect 3 cards), and I'd rather simply play a card, then use Bunker's power (or Auxilliary Power Source) if I'm desperate for cards. Upgrade Mode, too, for similar reasons -- unless it's out for multiple rounds, all it means is you can't use your power phase. While Bunker might be slow to set up, it's frankly worse to do nothing but set-up.

Punish The Weak I almost never use -- basically it only sees play if I'm up against a minion heavy deck and those minions are around 4 or lower HP -- that way, Haka can get two kills in with it. Otherwise, the de-buff happens more often than the buff.

For Legacy, Superhuman Durability shines better when you have him fully set up, including both his buff ongoings. That way, Heroic Interception turns from a regretable but acceptable 3-HP self hit down to a negligible 1-hp self hit. But yeah, unless I'm in a 5-H game, it's usually not worth it.

Nightmist's Elder Ring usually goes straight to the trash. She can usually reliably do 3 or 4 damage with each turn anyway, so unless the situation's desperate, I don't usually need to give her a damage boost. As for Astral Premonition, it's true that other characters do that better, but if none of those other characters are around, it's handy to have all the same. The beauty of Nightmist's deck is that she's a true jack of all trades -- not only does she have just about everything in her deck (deck control, deck freezing, damage, ongoing destruction), but she just draws so damn many cards that she's guaranteed to see all of them in her hand at some point or another, even moreso than Tachyon.

That said, Mist-Fueled Recovery and Mists of Time I almost never use, mostly because I prioritize Master of Magic and Starshield Necklace so she rarely needs to do a big heal all at once.

For Omni-X, I almost never use Singularity or Self Sabotage. I tend to focus on steady damage, and by the time it's ready for a finishing move, I've usually got Omni-X attacking four times before his play phase anyway, so except for one time it was thematically appropriate (nuking everything he had to destroy Omnitron), I don't even bother with it as a finisher.

For Ra, Drawn to the Flame gets the back seat. Global damage is great, but I'd much rather just get rid of those ongoings, so by the time it gets to Ra's turn, there's none left for him to burn.

For Tachyon, Accelerated Assault is just a weak version of Hypersonic Assault, so it gets tossed away. At least it's a Burst. Lightning Reflexes usually doesn't see use, either, since I tend to have the goggles and Pushing the Limits out anyway.

Tempest's Elemental Subwave Inducer almost never gets into play. I tend to, in general, prioritize cards that take effect now, so something you have to wait a round to get any effect out of fall by the wayside. I think the most I've played it was when I used Unity on his team, so she could get a free bot.

For the Wraith, Combat Stance and Inventory Barrage don't see much use for me. Her equipment is too good to throw away, and Combat Stance suffers from being Melee damage. If I can get Twist the Ether on her, though...

10

Self-Sabotage is amazing when fighting Omnitron, though, because you can use it to blow up his components, and then deal him damage.  It's one of the easiest ways to deal with Cosmic Omnitron's initial setup, especially on advanced.

 

Accerated Assault and Sucker Punch aren't particularly good, but they see lots of play because Tachyon is so often playing everything she can, and has literally no better options.

 

I occasionally play Mass Levitation, but I almost never use it.  Visionary's other powers are almost always better.

 

Nobody's mentioned Suture Self yet?  I pretty much only play it if Wraith has zero other useful play options.

 

I rarely play Turret Bot, although I wouldn't say never.

11

The one time I used it where it was the best play was against La Capitan in Time Cataclysm with Te Moko in play and Shopping Trip popped up. Chrono Ranger played a ton of cards and the Environment cleared what was below Helena while we dealt with some of the Crew.

I guess it would also be a good play in the new Carnival Environment, of course with Te Moko in play.

12

 Excavation and Wrathful gaze

flawless execution

Incendiary rounds (only if I don't have hollow)

vitality conduit (Usually just use as fodder)

superhuman durability (weaker shielding winds)

elemental subwave inducer (I do use this for PW and F6 tempest but otherwise its mostly useless to me)

Haka of shielding (I use restoration over it every time unless I know I will take x amount of damage) I do use punish the weak on minion high villains and single target villains because being the only non-hero means you get a +1 damage and it makes you hurt your allys less when rampaging

uncharmed life (no idea how this could be made useful)

Bounty board (slower version of ranger's mark?)

undetectable relinking (I could see how this would be usefull in some cases but I think i have only played it once or twice ever)

foresight and brain burn (I do like brain burn against certain villains like chairman and baron blade but otherwise its mostly just made suggestion useless while hurting myself)

robot reclamation ( I mostly only use if I have no bots in hand or deck)

human shield (Even with his signature out I rarely want to redirect damage to a target that already has such low hp)

singularity (I always use defensive blast over this for aoe damage)

gimmicky character and X-TREEEEEEEEEEEME!!! ( Both are edge case plays for me)

If anyone knows any clever ways to use these cards that I hadn't thought of please let me know.

13

For Human Shield Normal Mainstay can get up DR 2 with Durasteel Chains and his power.   With that he can protect his other Sentinels members at worst and absorb some other low hits too.   

Personally I like Haka of Restoration and Haka of Shielding to cycle through cards.  

14

Gimmicky Character is mainly useful with Selling Out because you can discard a One Shot to play 3 One-Shots and use one of those One Shots to play an Ongoing. And of course if you know that e.g. Prison Break is on top of the Villain deck, it's good to be able to discard it. Say Cheese is a damaging One Shot that lets you play more damaging One Shots - great for big combo turns.

I tend to use Divine Sacrifice on cards like the Gene Bound Guards that don't deal damage, or when it would kill the target, but on the odd occasion I do use it to redirect damage.

It's rare that I use Enduring Intercession, but on the odd occasion it's very handy. It makes cards like Hunter and Hunted a bit safer.

Recharge Mode is good for when you really need damage reduction, or if you know some Ongoings are going to get blown up.

Mass Levitation is sometimes the safe play. If you want to prevent the Environment from blowing up Citizen Spring, for instance, or if the Explosives Cart is going to kill everyone.

I don't know how Coolant Blast and Undetectable Relinking were mentioned. They're great.

15

It's funny, many of these cards were really useful in a recent PBF game in Vengeance format on the BGG forums. In particular, Guise played Gimmicky Character and Say Cheese (although neither was as good as Best Card Ever, of course), and Drawn to the Flame was absolutely amazing, especially once Ra got his staff out.

Thread link for anyone interested: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1541627/sotm-pbf-66-few-villains-more-completed

16

I still don't see how to use Punish The Weak effectively.  I see how it could be useful for Rampage, but most of the time I would sooner take the extra 1 HP hit to each hero than spend the extra card play to set up and extra power use to get rid of it afterwards.

17

The best use of Punish the Weak with Rampage is if there are a whole bunch of villain targets that you can set up, so you kill the weakest one, then hit the next one (who is now lowest HP), and so forth. Often you can clear Voss' board that way, for instance. The reduced damage against heroes is a minor side-benefit.

18

But 5 damage should be enough to clear any of them anyhow, even with a damage reduction of two out, you still wouldn't need a +1 damage.

19

Also, if you're playing against someone where it's generally beneficial to deal damage to the lowest HP target rather than leaving some around (for example Akash'bhuta, the Ennead, or La Capitan) or a villain without additional targets (like Plague Rat or Iron Legacy), then Punish the Weak can function like a normal damage booster like Surge of Strenght (with the added benefit that any damage to heroes is reduced, which is especially nice against Plague Rat)

20

Also Punish the Weak has synergy with Savage Mana: since you want to kill stuff you'll be hitting the lowest HP usually.

Funny thing about Haka of Shielding, in one of the guides it's compared favorably to Haka of Restoration (2HP prevention vs 1 HP Heal) and Vitality Surge (bigger card cycle)

Uncharmed Life has been useful for getting Setback hit when the damage has a rider, like "Heroes dealt damage this way can't deal damage until next turn". I know I used it in Realm of Discord more than once.

Now that I see it listed the one I have never used is Flawless Execution.