He’s among my favorites, especially the Kvothe alternate, and unless the villain does ridiculous damage early, I never really lose with him, but when I use him, I rarely set off any of the combos I see others talk about. How do I set these up more consistently? What instruments, ongoings and one shots make it happen? And yes, I’ve read the guide.
Well, generally speaking, the first thing I always play is going to be one of his Songs. From there, I try to get a second, matching song (another Melody if my first one was a Melody, or another Rhythm if my first card was a Rhythm). If I can't get a matching song, I shoot for whatever the most useful Song is in my hand. Once I have two Songs down, I try to mill my deck till I either find the Instrument I need or I find an Instrumental Conjuration.
Argent Adept's uber-chain of powers tends to run best through Inspiring Supertonic (a Harmony), the Perform text of which allows for an additional power use. If you have multiple Instruments that allow you to use Inspiring Supertonic's Perform text, you can set off numerous other effects with ease.
In terms of one-shots to make this happen? Arcane Cadence is one of those cards (like Impromptu Invention or Eyes on the Prize) that is an auto-play. As long as I have at least one Song out with an Accompany text, the same goes for Silver Shadow.
The Adept is my favourite hero :). Here's how I tend to play him…
Early on in a game I will always play Arcane Cadence if I have one (and chain it into another if I get one…today in a game I managed to chain all four :D), as this is the best way to get through your deck.
It's good to get a song out on your first turn, just so you can actually do something in your Power phase.
My "uber combo" is the Harp, the Lyra, and Inspiring Supertonic - one instrument chains into Supertonic, which chains into the second instrument, which chains into Supertonic again, which chains into a third instrument (or my innate power if I don't have one out), which activates whatever it can if I have anything out that's useful at the time, then it goes back along the chain to finish off the second halves of all the instruments and nets myself at least 2hp in the process since I always use the Harp's second part to heal myself with Supertonic.
Just in case you're not aware, Performs and Accompanies aren't powers, so you can activate the same song multiple times in a turn if you have the means to do so (see the Supertonic combo above).
I tend to use Silver Shadow later in the game, when I've got some stuff out and don't need to use Arcane Cadence so urgently.
If you have to destroy an instrument (either via Cedistic Dissonant or via a villain or environment effect breaking it), it's not actually that much if a problem since instrumental Conjuration can search your deck and your trash, so you can get your gear out no matter where it's ended up. Annoying if you find yourself combo-less for a while but at least you have the means to recover.
The Adept is good with anyone because of the way he can let people do more stuff, but some heroes in particular work really well with him - Unity can't play bots in her Play phase, so really appreciates the Adept letting her do so when it's his turn. I also had a really good game with Captain Cosmic once where he put one of his construct thingys on me which let me use a power every time it took damage (and then other heroes kept deliberately plinking it for single points, only for me to heal it back up again via Rhapsody of Vigour at the end of the resultant power chain :D). Anything which lets the Adept use a power out of turn is good, especially once he's set up.
It does tend to take the Adept at least a few turns to get going, so he tends to be a bit less useful in shorter games, but even with a couple of songs and an instrument he can he super-useful, just by buffing someone's damage or letting them play a card or something :).
I believe you mean Inventive Preperation.
Inventive Preparation only lets someone else play a card, not you.
Yes Ronway, you’re right.
Ameena: Correct. I never said otherwise… In fact, I specified that later on.
An awesome, quick combo to pull off is Lyra, Alacritous Subdominant, and Inspiring Supertonic edit: Inventive Preparation. You can have it out by the second round with the right card draw, and it allows 2 extra card plays per turn.
Then put out the harp and Inspiring Supertonic, which is its own chain in and of itself. So your power looks like harp to regain 2 HP, then the Lyra to play a card (the bell, setting up for the next part) and let someone else play a card.
Next turn, play counterpoint bulwark or syncopated onslaught, then do harp (supertonic/supertonic), Lyra (supertonic/preparation) and finally bell (bulwark or onslaught/preparation) for 2 healing, 2 extra card plays (on other players, which is still awesome) and either a selective buff or DR, which is also great. Add Silver Shadow in there to use Preparation extra, and it only gets better.
Depending on what needs done, you can swap out the bell for the drum, and either go full healing mode or ongoing and environment destruction mode, but you should always try to use preparation if possible, and the harp and Lyra before the third power are just too useful to pass up. Polyphoric Flare helps get a fourth power out of the deal, but it’s rarely necessary.
You can use the horn if you really need to heal (or draw cards, or chain an extra power, but that comes with a cost), or the pipes if you need to heal AND do ongoing destruction, or double up on them (if you do, you need both copies of the melody in play), but the bell and drum are so useful that I usually try to aim for harp-lyra-bell/drum if at all possible.
Also, the harp is actually a lyre, and the lyra is actually a lute.
And yes, Arcane Cadence is awesome
Always use it if you don’t have what you want.
Oh yeah…sorry, I misread it as you just giving yourself two extra card plays.
Okay sheez, against advanced Voss, I got an extra draw, play, 2 powers, 2Healing and enviornment destruction… that’s settled then.
Is Argent Adept a General now? This thread subject got me all hopeful.