Fought good old Omnitron yesterday and it turns out the whole fabricate/exterminate thing makes him way easier so long as you have enough ongoing destruction cards.
1 Like
@X-metal That is kind of what I meant when I said earlier that Omnitron feels more like fighting a machine, and you can take advantage of its programming to defeat it. You can time your destruction of its ongoing cards to avoid whichever effect (fabricate or exterminate) you like least, or let the cards ride if the effect doesn’t bother you too much this turn.
@Chaosmancer I think you’re on to a funny downside of the way games are so much faster: you see much less of any given deck within the span of a game. I likewise feel that I’ve never got Tempest going; he seems to really want the Storm-blade and several weather effects out in play but I’ve never managed to get more than the blade and one weather card. I’ll keep trying, but sometimes I just wish these games were longer so I could try out more combinations with the heroes as I get into them!
2 Likes
I can agree to that, I’m also feeling a bit chicken about playing the harder villains until I get a better feel for some of the heroes, so I’ll likely end up playing a LOT of Blade and Akash til I get that good sense for them.
2 Likes
I just tried out Captain Cosmic’s First Appearance variant, and I loved it. I haven’t tried all the FA variants yet, but I suspect this is going to be a favorite!
So, did Dawn and WOW, this was so different than I expected.
Played Legacy, Tachyon and Tempest, in the Freedom Tower.
Legacy felt fairly similar. Some extra support cards and powers which were nice. Tachyon felt just crazy good, and Tempest was Monstrously good it felt like.
But, part of that was me trying to strategize and waiting to unleash on Dawn after she flipped back. So I had a lot of things I was specifically not playing and not using, because they would have wiped the board and just made life more difficult.
Best play of the game though? I had slightly miscalculated and spent an extra turn with invincible Dawn, but through a lucky draw Legacy had gotten Takedown. So, just as a precaution I played it while Tachyon had an empty deck and Tempest was just nastily set-up.
And yes, you guessed correctly. When Dawn flipped back, the card that I used Takedown to discard was Devastating Aurora. XD
That turn Tachyone unleashed a 30 pt Lightspeed barrage, and by the time the Environment turn came around, Dawn had taken 60 damage and had only 4 hp left… just in time for me to realize that “ally” includes the Tower Guards, meaning Legacy was boosting them +2… and Dawn is taken out by Security.
Immediate Edit before I cleared the game: Legacy boosts Ally characters. Not ally targets. So, he can only boost main heroes, not any other hero targets. Dawn survived with 2 hp 
And played Truth… I still win, but man, that was so close to be hilarious.
///////////////////
I’m feeling arrogant from beating Dawn so easily (Yes, I was playing in the Tower). So, doing Omnitron in Atlantis with…
Fanatic, Argent Adept, and Wraith, since they are the only one’s I haven’t tried yet.
BTW, things that I’ve figured out. I’ve been taking the deck dividers out of the box, and placing the hero hp spinners on those, then, as the hp changes, I rearrange those cards. This makes it very easy for solo play on seeing who is the most hp and least hp, because I just need to look for who is top and bottom on the chart. Then, since I was having troubles distinguishing +1 damage taken from +1 damage dealt, I started putting any modifiers to the hero’s taken damage (armor or breach? I don’t know a good term for anti-armor) next to those dividers instead of in the play area, since all the hp tracking is done over there.
It makes it much easier to parse, IMO.
Updating while I play
Omnitron is mean. Got hit hard round 1, thought Fanatic using End of Days would help… then Atlantis destroyed it before I could use it. This is bad.
Okay, few rounds of getting my teeth kicked in and things are looking like they will end in a victory. However, it all hinged on a specific thing that I might have gotten wrong. Atlantis’s Ritual Room. It says “after any hero does [various elemental damages] put 1 token on this card.” I have Fanatic, and I had Holy Nova. I think this card adds 1 token for each instance of radiant damage, and so I was able to get the 10 tokens I needed very quickly, which led to a bunch of card draw and extra powers, which I turned into a set-up that has let me claw my way from defeat.
But I’ve spent most of the game with 10 hp or less on all heroes (Argent is keeping them alive, along with some timely damage reductions and Fanatic’s self-healing with Righteousness) so I feel like if I was wrong on that card, this victory I feel I am going to get would be false.
Did win. Wraith kept being the best for Argent’s card plays because Fanatic didn’t have much of a hand. So I got multiple cards like leverage and grappling hook played per turn, and eventually had most of my deck in my hand, then Inventory Barrage. Then Leverage and get the items back… Yeah, burnt the robot down FAST once I got out from under his endless parade of devices.
2 Likes
Well, I did ask this question for the Definitive Edition episode of the podcast, and they didn’t answer it. Maybe it was cut for “time will tell” reasons…
2 Likes
That does sort of seem like the thing that’s building to something later on, i.e. it was just whatever and then a writer some years down the line was like, “Hey, remember that thing? Let’s do something with that.”
1 Like
I’m curious why it looks like the “UFOs” from the first Writer’s Room.
1 Like
Played against Akash and followed lore by having Argent, looking more handsome than ever, get absolutely thrashed. The rest of us also got thrashed because we had bad luck with cards and the fudging primeval limbs are so punishing.
1 Like
So I looked through Tachyon’s deck for kicks and… is Lightspeed Barrage really based on how many cards are in your trash period instead of the no-longer-existent Burst Cards? In a deck mostly made of one-shots? That’s gonna make things much easier, hopefully.
1 Like
Yep! But then you shuffle your trash into your deck. So you use it more often, but it’s not as crazy powerful.
3 Likes
Just tried my first game against a villain other than Blade today - also used Akash. Thought, “Oh, difficulty 4 can’t be that much worse than 1!” It was.
I was AZ, second player had played Enhanced Edition before and went with Captain Cosmic, third was new and picked Haka. We got pummeled. Right off the bat, two limbs that deal damage and destroy Ongoing & Items. More kept coming that dealt a set 2 damage (not scaled with 
) to either lowest HP or everything, so Constructs couldn’t stay out. I didn’t get my Isothermic Transducer for several rounds, and never saw Null-point Calibration Unit (if that’s still the name) so I couldn’t heal at all.
All that to say that I agree with the sentiment of others asking where are the difficulty 2 and 3 villains to slowly ramp up for new players? Baron Blade is only fun for so long, but it looks like Rook City Renegades is jumping right in with more difficulty 4’s as the floor.
1 Like
If you look back over the EE Rook City it had some of the harder villains in it as the first expansion. There’s also still plenty of time by the end to have villains rated as easier. Overall, the difficulty is just a guide and everyone’s experience may vary depending upon what your heroes draw and what the villain pulls. Additionally, you’ll have more heroes to mix and match in that might fit your playstyle better. Basically, I’d say don’t let the difficulty stop you from playing villains in the core box and eventual Rook City Renegades as they’re all good challenges.
3 Likes
I would recommend trying her again, but definitely with different heroes (besides Haka). The difficulty scale is a very rough outline (which I’ve personally found to be mostly accurate), and although any grouping can theoretically win you a fight, the makeup of your team adds to the overall difficulty of the fight.
Requiring multiple rounds to get a key Item in play is also very rare for AZ in DE, so that seems like a very bad start for him. At the very least, you’d think you’d get one of his Ongoings, which could have been very helpful (and helps speed up setup).
2 Likes
Did another Akash fight. Beat her this time because we actually got good card draws and I learned how to use Tempest.
Build up to Shielding Winds and spam it whenever you can?
Yep, basically. The first time was on purpose, the second time was a complete accident.
2 Likes
I once had a game against Cosmic Omnitron where I had Shielding Winds out every turn beginning on turn 2… Maerynian Aquaculturalist and Alien Weather Patterns can draw out your deck real quickly (and I got quite lucky).
(And Cosmic Omnitron can neuter himself quite successfully if he starts with the Ongoings that destroy his other Ongoings)
I probably had poor shuffles, because AZ started with two pairs of one-shots: Destroy Ongoing, and deal himself 3 fire + 1 cold to all enemies. Was definitely wondering when I would see some items.
Likewise with Akash, the first two limbs were a new one, I think. Target area with most cards and deal 2 to everything there, plus destroy Ongoing & Item. You can imagine we struggled to get any kind of setup as more limbs kept coming out.
My biggest problem so far is just finding people to play with. I’ve tried a game or two myself, Citizen Dawn for one, but got a few rounds in when I realized I’d just been totally ignoring Truth and scrapped it all from there. Seems to be too many parts for one to keep track of by themselves.
It’s definitely not for everyone. I’ve been playing SOTM for quite a while, and so I’ve become quite familiar with most cards, so I’ve actually gotten to the point that I enjoy playing solo (3 heroes) more, because otherwise I feel like I’m controlling the game too much (if someone asks me what to play, it’s essentially the same as me just playing alone but with more steps). And I still miss effects sometimes, but sometimes I just accept that and move on. Other times, I backtrack if possible and try to remember not to miss that again.