One of our group suggested that the best three hero team, all around, is Haka, Ra, and Tempest. The rest of us weren't sure, so we decided- whenever there were only three of us around, we would go through the villains on advanced with just those three. We've three-heroed advanced villains before, but have noticed, H numbers or no, that it is a lot harder (similarly, when we've got five people, we almost always play advanced). We figured it would be fun to let the board know how it works.
First up, advanced Baron Blade (in Megalopolis, natch). There were some scary moments when it looked like his beam might go off- nobody involved has much in the way of trash manipulation. But in the end, firepower prevailed, and we won with no heroes under 10 hp.
If you want, you could try subing out Haka and put in Redemer Fanatic. You get a little more wiggle room with ongoing/enviro destruction (Ra and Haka have none), plus access to Wrathful Retribution to clear a win in a pinch. The three of them make a for a pretty sick team that rains down judgment of fire and ice upon their foes! Fanatic would add some needed versatility to that group, but probably at the cost of some long term consistancy.
Personally, if I were going to an all-purpose three hero team, especially for advanced villains, it'd be Legacy, Wraith, and Tachyon. But I'm definitely interested in seeing how this goes!
Yeah, your suggestions might very well be right... we haven't been playing that long (though we've been playing a lot in the last few months) and have yet to acquire the mini-expansions (soon, though). Skunkbone (one of the PW collective members) suggested the lineup and we went with it. We have nothing but respect for Legacy and Wraith, believe me. We just figured with small numbers, you need big firepower fast. But we could be wrong! We will see.
Honestly, playing with Team Leader Tachyon, and to a certain extent Dark Visionary, almost feels like cheating, so I habitually don't include them in "awesome team lineups".
Fifth is a bit trickier, as I don't think there are any other heroes who so obviously benefit from having extra cards, but I'll go with Unity. She is monstrously powerful when she gets going and having those extra cards increases the chances of her getting going. The contender for fifth, in my mind, is Omnitron-X. Also a powerhouse when it gets going. I only take Haka over either Unity or Omnitron-X because both Unity and Omnitron-X are much more vulnerable to having all of their golems/components wiped.
Chronoranger's a solid choice for filling out the "abusing TLTachyon" team: that hat means he runs out of cards faster than not most of the time and he really appreciates the extra draws.
What about Tempest? Vicious Cyclone is such a great card. Paired with Tempest's natural drawing ability and the added in effect of Team Tachyon, he'll have tons of cards to spare.
The really fun thing is Team Leader Tachyon and Argent Adept: Team Leader Tachyon means everybody is rolling in cards, and Argent Adept can hand out extra plays like candy on halloween. Team up with Your Favorite Hero for fun and profit.
Finally did the next one of these! We've either been busy or been playing with more than three people. But our threesome settled Omnitron's hash pretty easily. We forgot how wasy it was after all the difficulties with Cosmic Omnitron. But Gene-bound Tempest dealt out plenty of damage to the big guy while Haka Punish the Weak/Taiahaed all and sundry.
Next up: Citizen Dawn (we decided to go according to the set release order rather than difficulty).
We did Citizen Dawn and Warlord Voss a few nights ago. Dawn wasn't too hard- just don't let her flip. Tempest got got by a nasty Citizen Blood/Citizen Tears combo late in the game, but we pulled it off in the end.
Voss was a whole other story. We'd clear the board only to run into more Forced Deployments. Tempest was killed by Voss damage, Ra flame-barriered a whole row of mooks only to be taken down, and it was down to Haka at 2 hp, with Voss at something like DR 4 or 5 and 10 hp. Luckily, Haka had a Taiaha, a Haka of Battle, and a big hand, and that was all she wrote.
Team Leader Tachyon and Dark Visionary area always my first two choices for a team built for winning on Advanced mode. After that, it's kind of situational depending on the villain (Haka for Matriarch, Chrono Ranger or Ra for Plague Rat) though if I had to pick a third to go against a random villain and environment, I'd probably go with Omnitron-X, with Price of Freedom Wraith being close behind him.
So the boys went up against advanced Plague Rat and it did not go well. Our lack of ongoing removal meant we Afflicted Frenzied ourselves to death, despite Haka hitting the rat with a 25-point haka of battle strike.
So, we decided to go with arenson9's advice: form an "A" team of Team Leader Tachyon, the Scholar, and NightMist. It worked, but in an odd way. Tachy and Scholar went down to infections early, but their death powers worked in such a way as to let NightMist get set up. She planar banished infections away and slowly but surely ground the rat down with redirected damage, oblivions, and heedless lashes.
Our new procedure: try the villains with Haka/Tempest/Ra (the "B" team). If that doesn't work, go to A team. If that doesn't work, design a team.