Definitive Edition Playthrough

I am surprised this thread hasn’t been started already but I am curious to hear what everyone thought of the Definitive Edition playthrough that Christopher did on 3/19. I want to go back and rewatch it since I was trying to keep my seven-month old son happy while watching the live feed. I do want to share a couple of my initial takeaways. Spoilers ahead if you are avoiding reading details about changes to specific cards.

I know they mentioned many characters setting up faster and that is very evident with the Utility Belt giving Wraith an additional power right away so that playing it doesn’t feel so much like building to the next turn. I liked the change to shuffle Tachyon’s trash after a Light Speed Barrage, even though back-to-back plays of that card have gotten me out of jam once or twice. Tachyon’s propensity to do one damage with many of her cards got a nice upgrade of being irreducible when the HUD Goggles are in play. I am also glad they kept Fleet of Foot unchanged as that is one of my favorite cards. Baron Blade still has the same feel but seems a bit more threatening with additional card plays added in. I’m sure i"ll have more (especially on Haka since I always seemed to get distracted on his turns and he is one of my favorite characters) after a second viewing. What changes (or lack of change) jumped out to everyone else?

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I came out of that playthrough much more excited for the Definitive Edition than I had been. I was worried that the rules changes would be superficial (don’t get me wrong, cleaning up their terms is nice, but by itself, as Chris even said, it wasn’t really a change) but they actually did improve basically everything I saw that was different.

I really like the way that some cards which used to be One-Shots are now Ongoing cards that trigger in your next Start phase instead - and Baron Blade did the same thing! For heroes it opens up design space, and for villains it lets the cards be more threatening and yet feel fairer.

Also: Reactions! I love this!

I was surprised exactly how many cards changed! It seems like the decks were completely overhauled, which is really nice. The labels for the phases make it a lot easier to tell what you’re doing on your turn.

I noticed deck control seems to have been toned down a bit for Wraith’s infrared eyepiece. I like that, deck control was a bit too good before.

It feels like all the heroes get a bit stronger, so I hope all the villains are turned up to match. Even our good friend the Baron seems stronger, though not so much that he was a major challenge outside of the advanced/challenge modes.

Reactions might be TOO good? Getting them every turn, unlimited seems a bit much. Like in this case, since BB does 1 damage to all heroes, every turn, Combat Prowess is both reliable damage reduction AND a free card play every turn.