Fanatic also has End of Days, the most powerful board wipe in a hero deck, Aiges of Resurrection which lets her be far less nervous at low HP than most other heroes, Holy Nova which hits everything on top of a full party heal (alteritively this becomes a nuclear strike on one target in particular in her xtreme varient), she's one of few heroes that can give someone else an extra power on the other hero's turn rather than her own thanks to Embolden, Chastise lets you keep a priority target alive without them hitting you (say you want Citizen Hammer out of Dawn's trash but you also want to not get constantly hit by him)...
Really the selling point about Fanatic is that she has a ton of tricks in her deck that are either rare or entirely unique to her. It just that these things don't all chain together in harmony like a lot of other heroes so her deck takes a bit to figure out.
Fanatic is also amazing when you give her damage boosts, because she hits twice. Galvanized, fire imbued, ether twisted Fanatic sitting in a triple obsidian field does 14 damage a power use.
Want to have fun with Fanatic? Boost her (as Carnilius notes) and fight Apostate to get the Nemesis bonus, too. Final Dive the Periapt of Woe! Use Consecrated Ground to stop Apocalypse! Chastise a Demon! It's just so much fun to see Fanatic wrecking Apostate.
The thematic thing I get, and I like her her weird, rare effects. And I agree End of Days is amazingly powerful and is sometimes the best solution to enemy spam, but like the various Wrath of God MtG cards you really gotta build around it to make sure it hurts your enemy far more than you (I like teams that take setup and accerating that setup, she can bring it all crashing down real fast).
The damage boost thing is definitely there, but given that it takes a fairly serious commitment of resources to push her damage that far I feel like there are other heroes who can routinely and sustainably put up many more instances of damage on the board if you're really building around that - Naturalist, Benchmark, and La Comodora spring to mind quickly. On that front, I feel roughly as awkward playing La Comodora as I do with Fanatic, but with Fanatic I feel like her tools fit together awkwardly (similar to what Missingno mentioned above) and I'm unlikely to get past it while La Comodora feels like there's incredible depth there and I just need to grasp how all the pieces fit together better to unlock her awesome.
All the Fanatics love a damage boost aside from PW. Redeemer Fanatic loves the extra damage on her divine focus. As for extreme? Get her in a vengence game with Holy Nova in hand and watch her just erase a baddie without DR of your choice. Or possibly with DR!
Here's the thing: I'm not going to try to convince you that Fanatic's deck is a better choice than any other in order to increase your odds of winning, just that it can be fun to play.
Oh, sure - I'm not trying to find that out, either, as I'm fairly convinced the best teams in sheer performance are all based around maximizing chances of hitting Guise's infinite (and with Completionist Guise out, if you can deal with his onerous unlocks, it's basically a shoe-in except for niche cases like Ultimate Chokepoint). But I'm haven't generally found it fun to play yet, either (although I haven't delved deeply into the Termination Unity team I propose above yet, either - a random environment and villain threw me against Spite in Pike, which wasn't much fun, but that's just a bad MU for mass damage dealers).
What I am trying to find is a niche or concept that she can push farther than anyone. If you were basing a team around what makes her unique, what she does better than anyone else, what would it be? So far, because I'm kinda stuck on her PW Variant and I need to protect against it on an accidental flip, I'm looking at executing lopsided Ends of Days. That is a bonkers card that Fanatic has that no one else can match, and it's useful in a lot of MUs. I hear people talking up Xtreme Fanatic in target-rich environments, that seems plausibly good - you might be able to punch out The Operative or Fright Train T2 or T3 with the right buffs, that's no joke.
It's also okay if Fanatic just isn't a swiss army knife character. Plenty of characters exist in comics who are specialized to fight against a particular enemy group or type of enemy and don't do as well in other MUs (don't send the Punisher to fight Daken), it's not a problem if she's one of them. I do tend to build teams around swiss army knives, though, because that's how I prevent myself from building to exploit a particular villain's weakness (e.g. only packing Visionary when I need to nerf trash-based enemies with Brain Burn).
Another thing Fanatic is good with, specifically in the Prime Wardens team without her Xtreme varient, is triggering Cosmic's Dynamic Syphons and Vitality Conduit. She has two cards that hit up to 3 targets for one radiant damage which is just perfect for when you want to get another Adept turn, and with Tempest on board he can heal up everything with some cleansing downpours.
She’s an amazing tank, with one of the best abilities to self heal. Most other self healers use up a power/card to do so, whereas she tacks on self healing to several cards that do other things as well. I generally think of her as my front and center damage dealer who doesn’t mind getting hurt – on par with Ra or Haka, but with a bit more utility options.
Especially if you are using Requital Captain Cosmic. If Fanatic uses divine sacrifice to trigger Syphons and Conduits, she can tank their damage for Cosmic when he uses Requital.
If you're using requittal, you're better off getting a bracer on him and a dose of counterpoint bullwark on him for the turns you want to use his power and you risk getting smacked by his own power. Granted I don't like RCC due to the risk of pulling the "blow up all your constructs" card being played by his base power.
I'm experimenting with a new team concept, based on giving Scholar of the Infinite an out-of-turn play of 'Know When To Turn Loose', followed by as many uses of his Channel base power as he can manage before his next turn comes around, and relying on various means of mitigating or preventing the self-damage from his power uses. Getting desirable combos set up is the biggest obstacle at this point, but I'm trying different heroes to see what works most reliably.
Update: I played SotI, XPW AA, Old Man Legacy, S&D Benchmark, and Requital CC against Chokepoint. It took about three rounds of Scholar pumping up his hand size to get 20+ cards in hand; by that time I had Expect The Worst and Heroic Interception available to prevent him blowing himself up with Channel. I chose the latter option to let Scholar benefit from being targeted by Argent's power. Basically, in round 4 the team helped Scholar nuke Chokepoint from over 60HP to 0, with at least two more possible uses of Channel in reserve for the round.
I like it! I very frequently finish out the last 80ish HP of a villain with Loose + Channel, but I rarely play it out of turn to spam Channel back to back. Probably more efficient than my approach, I often just get into "play lots of cards for their own sake" mode and forget to, yah know, win ASAP.
Question: What does "I had Expect The Worst and Heroic Interception available to prevent him blowing himself up with Channel. I chose the latter option to let Scholar benefit from being targeted by Argent's power" mean? I think you're pinging AGL with Rebel Yell and passing the Gung Ho activation to Scholar, just wanted to make it explicit. (And speaking of explicit... jeesh, foil art Xtreme AA, that's quite a codpiece you've got there...) (...) (...) (waits for obligatory "Instrumental Conjuration" joke)
Also, I was really happy about this combo earlier in the year and spammed it everywhere so you may have seen it already, but: Dr Medico synergizes beautifully with Benchmark since Upgraded Memory Unit + Experimental Medicine + Second Opinion + Universal Donor lets him serve as a Dynamic Siphon equivalent for Benchmark, and Benchmark can then turn around with Ally Matrix and give the power activation anywhere (including back to Medico for a Healing Pulse) while loading up his Infernos (which are a strong alternative wincon to Loose/Channel if you buff him with a few Sycopated Onslaughts + Inspiring Presence + HUD). I don't know whether there is something specific you like about CC in your team, but you might experiment Malpractice Medico instead (as Malpractice gives another buffer against overhealing, adds significant acceleration to the team with Lifeforce of Will and Positive Prognosis, and potentially allows for a crazy amount of Channels with Regeneration + full power setup letting everyone use a power at the end of every turn).
E: joke changes, Benchmark Inferno pod references, faster win acknowledgement.
Expect The Worst and Heroic Interception are necessary to prevent the self-damage component of Channel cutting a very nice damage train regrettably short. I tried using Expect The Worst on Scholar's turn, but then Rebel Yell couldn't affect him - and AA, as I am learning to my chagrin in a fight against ultimate Chairman, is my only means of getting that out of turn Turn Loose.
I will have to investigate Malpractice Medico further; CC is on the team for Siphon primarily, though he has several other helpful buffs.
I am noticing:
On the plus side: 1. once the Channel train is rolling, not much slows it down; 2. Everyone else can focus on henchmen, tanking, or what have you, confident that the big guy is gonna get clobbered soon.
In
On the not-so-plus side: 1. the team is severely lacking in global damage, making swarms of henchmen a bit of a problem; 2. CC's buffs are too easily removed by certain villain attacks; 3: lack of deck control/ongoing destruction.
I get the "don't kill yourself with Channel" thing. Just wasn't sure what the differentiation you were making between Heroic Interception and Expect the Worst was re: their interaction with Rebel Yell.
So you have SotI, XPW AA, Old Man Legacy, S&D Benchmark, and Requital CC. You play Rebel Yell on AA's turn and do what? Hit SotI with it, and he Turns Loose and then uses some other power besides Channel? Or your cards-in-hand number is low enough that Scholar can play Channel once without killing himself but needs Heroic Intervention to survive doing it again?
You could also flip the order around, btw: take FF Legacy, have him go after Scholar and play Loose, then have other heroes feed him power activations. It's generally easier to find heroes that can provide other characters powers than card plays IME - partial list off the top of my head includes Unity, Parse, Akash, CC, Dr Medico (and several other heroes, once Second Opinion is in play), Benchmark, PM Fanatic.
You could also probably put together a Guise version of this that uses Blatant Reference, I Can Do That Too, and Total Beefcake to power up Channel and then make someone else eat the self-damage due to his overwhelming sexyiness. Pretty gimicky, but then, Guise is a Gimmicky Character!
The difference between the two cards was just when I had the opportunity to play them; Expect The Worst was making Scholar immune to AA's Yell, so I let him take the damage the first time, and played Heroic Interception before the second round of Channel.
That worked fine in preliminary testing with Chokepoint, but it's not going so well against the Chairman, so I'll have to look into some of the other suggestions you made.
While running through unlocks so I can pick up Completionist Guise, I tried out the following “Golden Age Freedom Five,” which proved to be quite successful: Grandpa Legacy, GI Bunker, Science Tachyon, Rook City Wraith, F6 Absolute Zero. Getting a second Experiment out each round (especially on the Freedom Five, who can be pretty safe) does wonders for setup, Panzerbuster can weaken a tough target so that the Wraith can wipe it out, or, if she has nothing better to do, she can scope out the environment. And F6 Absolute Zero shines in a team that’s more setup-dependent to start getting stuff done.
After playing around quite a bit I think the team I discussed in the OP is probably better off dropping Dr Medico for La Comodora. He's amazing, and when fully setup is essentially a win (when everyone uses a power every turn) but for recursion La Comodora is stronger, Time's Lessons is available T1 without any setup and later synergizes very well with Timeless Treasures (to draw intervening card out of way) into Sweetspot (hitting a Time's Lessoned Vernal Sonata or Reclaim first, just hit Scholar last, as Proverbs or Don't Dismiss will ruin the rest of your Sweetspot setup). Maria Helena's Plot also gives you a good second target (along with Tempest) for Syncopated Onslaughts. She also just builds a lot more pilot tolerance, as the excellent tanking of Legacy and heals from Vernal, Rain, and Motivational can easily lead to your characters being at full HP, i.e. can't benefit from Second Opinion any more - while the Malpractice power helps prevent this, sometimes it also prevents a lot more healing than you intended at time of initiation and so can be a real mixed blessing.
I have been playing a bit more with the core of Dark AA, F5 Legacy, and Malpractice Medico outside of recursion teams. This was mostly to see whether some teams like F5's play a card option more than AGL's use a power (pretty nice for AA's setup speed, as he can Inspiring Supertonic Legacy and then Legacy can give AA back a card play, while usually he need Alacritious in play to get this effect). Very nice with either Naturalist + Void Akash (excellent environmental control and lockdown, huge damage, Naturalist loves being given card plays to hit max power Bestial Shifts) or Supply and Demand Benchmark + Termi-nation Unity (for the Dynamic Siphonesque combo of Medico -> Benchmark - Unity reconfiguring Stealth Bot back into play, and the joy of shovelling golems into play really fast and going to town with Raptors).
So, I swapped out CC for Cosmic Inventor Writhe, and just finished off an Ultimate Chairman battle with the sweetest Turn Loose/Channel/Lies of the Shadows combo!
I'm also loving Writhe's Umbral Siphon - many of the toughest villains in the game are challenging partly because they are constantly healing themselves - the Siphon is one of the few hero abilities that can solve this problem.