Mainstay is a hard hitting street brawler with great defense and the ability to destroy his own cards for additional benefits. He tends to deal most of his damage in medium size hits (around 2 or 3 damage). He'll frequently be able to deal several hits over the course of the round. Mainstay's damage is almost exclusively melee.
Objective of this Guide:
This guide is meant to provided both a high level view of the character's capabilities and a moderately comprehensive look at the specific tactics you can use as a player to get the most out of this deck. The more general information is toward the beginning of the guide and the more specific interactions are toward the back.
Overview:
Best Damage: Drop the Hammer
Best Defense: Durasteel Studded Vest
Best Personal Support: Sweet Rhonda
Best Team Support: Leader of the Pack
Best Utility: Whiplash
Primary Damage Type: Melee
Secondary Damage Types: Projectile, Toxic
General Strategy:
Like most heroes, Mainstay likes to build up by filling his play area with his ongoing and equipment cards. However, while most heroes like to continue to build up throughout the game, Mainstay will want to eventually destroy most of his cards in play. One of the great features of Mainstays deck is that he has many ways of gaining multiple benefits from the same card destruction. His cards are useful both when destroyed and when in play; this allows Mainstay to benefit from each ongoing/equipment card he plays twice.
Mainstay has cards that reduce the damage he is dealt and a card that can redirect damage to himself. Used together these effects can make Mainstay a top tier tank. Additionally, Mainstay has ways of increasing his damage dealt, but these effects either only last one turn or have a cost to maintain. As such, to get the most out of Mainstay's damage it can pay to set up for individual turns where Mainstay deals as many instances of damage as possible.
Deck Composition:
Mainstay's deck contains 3 equipment cards, 2 with 3 copies each and 1 with 4 copies. He has 5 ongoing cards; 4 have 3 copies, 1 has 2 copies. The remaining 16 cards of the deck are all one-shots. Mainstay has 6 different one-shots with 2-3 copies each. All but one of Mainstay's ongoing and equipment cards are limited.
The Character Card:
Void Guard Mainstay has 28 HP. His base power is quite flexible in that it allows you to either deal 1 target 1 damage twice or deal two different targets 1 damage.
Full Deck Breakdown:
Equipment Cards
Durasteel-Studded Vest (limited): This card give Mainstay a point of damage reduction. This is incredibly useful to Mainstay since he has many cards that cause him to take extra instances of damage. Additionally, this card heals Mainstay for 2 HP when destroyed. This is nice to have - though the damage reduction is so useful generally you will only want to destroy this card if you have another copy to replace it or it's the final round of the game. Lastly, this card also grants you the power to draw 3 cards and discard 2 cards. Though dealing damage with Mainstay is always tempting, this power may actually be Mainstay's best. Mainstay has a lot of limited cards that make painless discards, while the extra draws help him find the cards he needs for a given situation and makes using the card play option on Sweet Rhonda easier.
Sweet Rhonda (limited): This card gives Mainstay 1 point of damage reduction against non-target environment cards. Additionally, at the end of your turn, this card lets you either draw an extra card or destroy one of your ongoing cards to gain a card play. This is one of the best ways Mainstay has to benefit twice from the same card's destruction. When this card is destroyed, you draw 3 cards. This on-destruction benefit is quite strong so Sweet Rhonda is often worth destroying, especially when you have another copy of Sweet Rhonda in your hand.
Void Belter (limited): This card's power allows Mainstay to deal 3 damage and gives him the option to destroy one of his own ongoing or equipment cards. This is Mainstay's strongest damage dealing power but destroying your cards this way doesn't offer a secondary benefit so it's only worth it in the right circumstances. When destroyed this card allows Mainstay to deal a target 2 melee and 2 toxic damage.
Ongoing Cards:
Leader of the Pack (limited): This card allows Mainstay to redirect any damage that would be dealt to hero targets by non-hero sources to himself. This is the most powerful personal redirection effect which lasts more than one round outside of Human Shield. Additionally, this card grants a play and a draw when destroyed. This is a very strong effect but there are only 2 copies of this card, so it's often not worth it to destroy this card without having a means of recovering it or the other copy in hand.
Shard-Strength (limited): This effect grants Mainstay a 1 point damage boost and a 1 point reduction to the first damage he is dealt each turn. However, this card has a cost of 2 self-damage per round and uses up Mainstay's 1 point reduction for his own turn. When destroyed, this card grants you a power use. Note that the damage boost from this card will remain in effect when resolving the power caused by this card's on destruction effect.
Mano A Mano (limited): This card is played next to a non-hero target and is destroyed when that target is destroyed. This card allows Mainstay to trade 2 damage blows with that target at both the start and end of your turn each round. Mainstay hits first, and can avoid getting hit back if he destroys that target. When this card is destroyed Mainstay regains 2 HP.
Headlock (limited): This card is played next to a non-hero target. It makes damage dealt to and by that target irreducible and redirects damage dealt by that target to Mainstay. When this card is destroyed, Mainstay deals 1 target 3 projectile damage, if Mainstay selects the target next to Headlock that damage will still be irreducible. Since Mainstay doesn't particularly want to take a large quantity of irreducible damage, it can be effective to destroy this card the round you play it or play it on a target you can destroy before it has opportunity to deal damage.
Preemptive Payback: You may destroy this card whenever Mainstay would be dealt damage. When destroyed, this card allows Mainstay to deal 1 target 3 damage. This is generally most effectively used either by dealing damage to a target to destroy it before it can negatively impact the heroes or by leaving it in play until a card requires destroying one or more ongoing cards. This works great with Sweet Rhonda or with villain cards that destroy a fixed number of hero ongoing cards. This is the only non-limited ongoing or equipment card in Mainstay's deck and it is the only card in Mainstay's deck that only offers a benefit when destroyed.
One-shots:
Bad to the Bone: This card provides Mainstay with a 1 point damage boost for the current turn. It then allows him to deal 1 target 2 damage. With just this card and Mainstay's base power that's a 7 damage turn, which is on par with Ra playing Fire Blast and using his base power. However, this card really shines when used as the first card play to kick off a big damage turn, during which Mainstay destroys many of his own cards to trigger as many instances of damage as possible.
Drop the Hammer: First, this card allows Mainstay to destroy any number of his equipment cards which can be useful for powering up this card's attack. Then it deals between 1 and 11 irreducible damage based on the number of equipment cards in your trash plus 1 and allows you to either draw or play a card. This is a seriously powerful card if saved until late in the game. It's maximum potential damage is about half that of Tachyon's Lightspeed Barrage but the option play a card a card means Mainstay can use this card (including multiple copies) without giving up the opportunity to play another card.
Kick the Tires: This card can be used to destroy a villain ongoing card or another player's ongoing or equipment card and to grant yourself a card draw. Alternatively, it can be used to destroy one of your own ongoing or equipment cards to gain both a card draw and a card play. Used the first way this card's effect is on par an effect like The Wraith's Grappling Hook. Used to destroy one of your own cards, this card replaces itself in your hand and grants you a play. That means using this card this way is generally worthwhile when the on destruction effect of one of your cards is more useful than the benefit the card provides by remaining in play. A particularly interesting use of this effect is to replace a limited card with another copy of itself, which allows you to take advantage of both the in play and on destruction effects of that card.
Lonesome Highway: This card causes Mainstay to deal 1 target 2 damage. If Mainstay has the lowest HP of any hero, he then deals an additional 4 irreducible damage to any target. When Mainstay does not have the lowest HP, this card is fairly weak. However, getting Mainstay to have the lowest HP often requires very little work since Mainstay has many cards that cause non-hero sources to target him for damage. When this condition is met, the damage dealt by this card is higher than a card like Ra's Fire Blast.
School of Hard Knocks: With Durasteel-Studded Vest in play, this card allows Mainstay to deal 3 damage to each non-hero target without taking damage himself. Otherwise, before Mainstay deals any damage each non-hero target damages Mainstay for 1 damage. Using this card without enough defense to block the damage to Mainstay is often not cost effective.
Whiplash: This card allows Mainstay to deal 1 target 2 damage. If Mainstay destroys a target this way he can deal an additional 3 projectile damage, otherwise you destroy an environment card. Since not destroying a target is fairly easy, this card is generally most useful as environment destruction that also deals damage.
Tactics and Combos:
1. The power on Durasteel-Studded Vest can be used in the same manner as Tachyon's Research Grant. Instead of discarding bursts to fuel Lightspeed Barrage, Mainstay can discard equipment cards to power-up Drop The Hammer.
2. A particularly effective combination is to use Sweet Rhonda's end of turn effect to destroy an ongoing in order to play Kick the Tires. The effect of Kick the Tires can destroy Sweet Rhonda to draw a total of 4 cards. With the card play from Kick the Tires play another copy of Sweet Rhonda. Sweet Rhonda will then immediately trigger it's end of turn effect allowing you to either draw a fifth card or destroy an ongoing to play another card.
3. Destroying Leader of the Pack with Kick the Tire's is a great way to set-up Mainstay for a big turn. The net result of this move is you can draw 2 cards and play 2 cards.
4. Durasteel-Studded Vest, Leader of the Pack, Shard-Strength and Sweet Rhonda make for a great defensive set-up. The primary limitation of this set-up is that it only offers 1 point of damage reduction against most target based attacks each round. However, this protection can last indefinitely and Mainstay has twice the HP of his The Sentinel's counterpart. Using this reduction to eliminate 1 damage hits to hero targets and to dramatically reduce the impact of 2 and 3 damage hits leaves the other heroes in a very good place to deal with the bigger hits that come through. Additionally against non-target environment card based attacks Sweet Rhonda offers an additional point of damage reduction. This makes Mainstay a phenomenal source of defense in environments like Insula Primalis and Wagner Mars base.
5.Durasteel-Studded Vest and Shard-Strength make Mano A Mano a much more appealing play. Each round, Mano A Mano on it's own typically trades 4 of Mainstay's HP for 4 damage to the chosen target. However, with these cards in play, Mano A Mano instead trades 2 of Mainstay's HP for 6 damage to the chosen target.
Variant:
Mainstay Road Warrior has 29 HP. His power allows him to retaliate against each target that deals him damage. This can work well since Mainstay has many ways to get targets to deal him extra damage.
Weaknesses:
Mainstay does not set-up particularly quickly and he gets a lot stronger if he has time to set up. Almost all of Mainstay's damage is melee which makes him very weak against melee immune targets. A few cards in Mainstay's deck such as School of Hard Knocks and Headlock can be very bad for him if played at the wrong time by an effect like Slamara's.
Match-ups:
-Shu's melee immunity can make fighting the Ennead difficult for Mainstay without allies who can hit Shu.
-Headlock is particularly useful against Grand Warlord Voss as it allows the heroes to leave a few Minions in play and focus on Voss without dealing with his flip side.
-Headlock is also particularly effective for dealing with The Dreamer's Dark Hero, Citizen Dawn's Citizen Anvil, and The Matriarch's Huginn.
-Preemptive Payback can protect the heroes from The Dreamer's Macabre Spectre, and The Chairman's Hired Gun.
Team-ups:
-Ra and Visionary not only can provide Mainstay with a useful damage boost, but can also give him a way to hit melee immune targets.
-Argent Adept can provide Mainstay with damage reduction, damage boosts, extra plays and extra power uses, all of which Mainstay greatly appreciates.
-Captain Cosmic makes a great ally for Mainstay. Both Wounding Buffer and Energy Bracer work great on Mainstay. Mainstay's base power is great for triggering Dynamic Siphon.
-Doctor Medico can heal Mainstay which allows Mainstay to redirect more damage that would target Doctor Medico. This helps to keep both heroes active.
-Guise can copy all of Mainstay's ongoing cards with Uh... Yeah I'm That Guy. This allows Guise to trigger all the on destruction effects on Mainstay's ongoing cards which can be really powerful.