The Scene: The Matriarch takes on the team of Nightmist, Argent Adept, Mr. Fixer, Fanatic, and Unity at Wagner Mars Base (forever referred to by my group as Biiiiiiirds Iiiiiiin Spaaaaace!).
Now, this has the potential to be messy, since nearly everyone but Nightmist is reliant on having ongoings and/or equipment out. Early on, this was problematic, and our slow-build team was chugging along. But between Fanatic handling huge chunks of damage while dealing out her own, Unity single-handedly managing a Darken the Skies with a nicely-buffed Stealth Bot, Nightmist pulling out a timely Mist-Bound Whatchacallit (can't think of the exact name :-P), AA's perfect buffing, and Mr. Fixer's Grease Gun and killer damage, we managed to take out that spoiled brat with not a single hero sweating HP.
We were proud. It was no perfect victory, but good enough. Now if I could just convince this group to start tackling Advanced villains. Bunch of chickens.
Do you think there is generally advantage with a certain number of heroes (3, 4, 5) versus Matriarch? Is five usually easier than three, for instance, or vice versa?
Yeah, she is definitely easier with fewer heroes, in my experience. It's never a huge load of damage from one source. It's always little pinging damage in large quantities.
Not saying any of you are wrong, but I think there's a difference between perception and actual impact.
For example, if there are 3 heroes, and HC destroys 3 ongoings, stastically it's the exact same impact as having 5 heroes losing 5 ongoings - on average, each hero is going to lose one. Now, it certainly feels much worse, as 5 ongoings is a lot of cards to lose in one shot, and sometimes one hero can't lose his and/or has none so another has to lose multiple - and with 5 heroes that multiple may result in 3 or 4 for one hero. So the perception is huge, but in reality the impact is the same.
HP are a lot harder to calculate, but with 5 heroes there are far more HP to lose in total. One-shot sources of damage are hitting against a far larger pool… Unfortunately, I don't have the cards in front of me or the time to do the math - as much as I'd like to. But it does seem like something that could be calculated on averages.
I haven't played against her a lot, but I haven't really seen a difference based on the number of heroes.
What I have seen is how much impact strategy has on dealing with her. She's tough, but making the wrong decisions about what to deal with and what to leave will make a much greater difference in her case than some other villains.
Maybe we need some Villain Guides to help folks understand how to defeat the various villains…
I think you're spot on, Rabit. Five heroes would also be far more capable of killing her quickly once she leaves herself open, while three might have to whittle her down over time she doesn't give you.
Working on it. But if you want Matriarch strategy, awp has a great guide on here somewhere.
I've always found Matriarch easier with 3, simply because of her retribution mechanic. If you kill a bird, somebody takes 1 damage. In a 5 player game, if you kill a bird, somebody takes 3 damage. The first is completely negated by any sort of DR, stun bolt, or what have you, and if there is none of that it simly wittles down the heroes. The second? That's a solid chunk of health gone. And if you have to kill 5-6 birds in a turn? Or more? The difference between losing 5 Health and leaving 15 Health (or losing 0 Health or losing 10 Health) is pretty significant. I know there's more heroes and they have higher output damage... But I've never beaten her with 5 heroes. Her temper tantrums are too intense.
But it does seem like something that could be calculated on averages.