Hero Guide: The Argent Adept

[JohnTonon]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nSpW7Uk52i5IvCQ56Vt3cbPe7wIk1ole1c08X_oVPY0/edit?usp=sharing

I made a Hero Guide for The Argent Adept.

I went pretty deep on the interactions and had alot of fun writing it.

I hope you enjoy this and I also welcome any critisism.

I have the guide both her and on Google Docs. THe pictures may or may not work on this Forum. It looks different when I am editing it.

John Tonon's Guide to the Argent Adept

Introduction to the author and to the series I am writing

    Hello, my name is John Tonon and I recently found Sentinels of the Multiverse and am in love with the game. My background with games comes mostly from grinding and failing to qualify for the Pro Tour in Magic the Gathering. I have a Youtube channel named JohnTonon, where I plan on uploading more Sentinels content, ranging from deck techs where I break down a hero's deck and the strategy that should be employed while playing it, to just recordings of my breakthroughs of Ultimate mode Villains
   

    I did a google search recently for strategy articles and videos for Sentinels of the Multiverse and found quality content essentially nonexistent. Thus, to sound pompous, I am writing a guide to all my favorite heroes explaining their respective decks, powers, variants, etc. and then I am going to write an article on the manner I believe is best to defeat each villain on their Ultimate difficulty. Also I am working on a Tier list for all the Heroes. The First Hero I am going to be discussing is the Argent Adept, who is my favorite hero to play. I would also assert that he is the most powerful and versatile hero in the game.

The Argent Adept is the most complicated hero to play in the game and essentially does nothing on his own. He is the maestro of almost every victory I have in Sentinels, and yet he has never dealt the finishing blow, and sacrifices the most out of all the heroes in the game. This is because The Argent Adept excels at putting ongoing and equipment cards into play that he doesn't need or care about, thus he has the most to destroy when a villain effect asks for the team to take a setback. He also has the lowest starting health out of any hero in the game, aside from The Sentinels, thus he is targeted by almost all of the cards and effects which target the hero with the lowest health.

Definitions of terms I am going to be using throughout the Article

Action Economy – A term I know from playing Dungeons and Dragons, which refers to the number of things a character can do on any given turn. It is usually referenced when discussing how to break it, meaning taking way more actions (doing more things) than the game is designed to be able to cope with.

Permanent – A term from Magic. Refers to a kind of card which, after being played, does not leave the game unless removed. I assume Sentinels does not just use this term because of some copyright nonsense that Wizards of the Coast has on the term. The language of the game would be a lot cleaner if the designers just used Permanent instead of the endless variations on “target” that it insists on using.

Full Ring – A term from poker which means that the maximum number of players is playing.

    Board – What you have in play during a game. Magic Term

    PWAA – Prime Wardens Argent Adept

    Pinging – Dealing one damage to a target. Term from Magic.

    Resolve – usually refers to when a interaction in a game creates a series of actions which leave some or all of the action floating around in the Aether. Magic term.

    Composition – Refers to a specific configuration of characters. From League of Legends.

Quick Overview

Just a section which quickly goes over the main ideas I will be explaining throughout the rest of the article.

Strengths of the Argent Adept

• Has access to the most reliable way for other players to activate powers outside their own turns, except for America's Finest Legacy (Inspiring Supertonic)

• Vastly improves the action economy of heroes which rely on playing cards (Inventive Preparation)

• Inventive Preparation greatly speeds up the setup time for heroes that need a lot of cards to be in play at the same time to get rolling (Chrono-Ranger, The Naturalist, Unity, Absolute Zero, Mr. Fixer, Nightmist, Expatriette, The Sentinels, Bunker)

• Circumvents Unity’s main problem. IE not being able to play Robots without equipment.

• Access to a free source of self-healing (Inspiring Supertonic + Musaragani's Harp)

• Has the ability to combo off and allow for other players to play 4+ cards outside their turns, activate a power, destroy an Ongoing/Environment card or heal, and buff the damage of or protect 2 characters or more. (Discussion of moving parts later)

• Lots of Deck Manipulation and consistency (Arcane Cadence, Instrumental Conjuration)

• Scales incredibly with more heroes in the party

• Has access to the ability to destroy an Ongoing or Environment card every turn (Serenade of Destruction)

• Can heal other Heroes and hero targets, such as Unity’s robots (Rhapsody of Valor)

• Consistently has both types of permanent cards in play, Ongoing and Equipment, which he does not need, thus lowering the burden of other Heroes who need their cards in play to function.

• Can recover quickly after having his board wiped (Instrumental Conjuration, Arcane Cadence)

• Once you have a Music card and the correct Instrument card in play, you begin taking 2 actions a turn minimum.

• Vernal Sonata functions as extra copies of critical cards in both your own and other heroes arsenals. Plus, a little healing never hurts.

• Most of the Argent Adept’s one shots have two effects at once, greatly increasing his versatility and power. (Arcane Cadence, Instrumental Conjuration, Silver Shadow)

• Allows for weird combinations of cards to be played that greatly increase the amount of damage a hero does (See sections on Mr. Fixer, Legacy, Ra, and The Naturalist)

• Has one of the best variants in the game. Prime Wardens Argent Adept allows for The Argent adept to start the game off doing two things a turn and helps him build him up to his critical mass of cards he needs to compose his masterpiece.

Difficulties of the Argent Adept

• Has the lowest starting hit point total of a single hero, thus making him a frequent target of villains. If the villain dogpiles all of their cards and effects on the lowest HP hero, the Argent Adept can become a liability who, unlike the Sentinels, cannot just revive himself.

• Has a lot of two and three card combos which do not overlap with other card combos. This means that it usually requires at least 2 turns to get The Argent Adept up and running at the beginning of the game.

• Additionally, If a villain card blows up all Equipment or all Ongoing cards (god forbid), The Argent Adept sometimes takes two rounds to recover or just never recovers because he either has an instrument in play that can't activate his music properly, or just doesn't work with the cards The Argent Adept has left in hand at all. For example, having Inventive Preparation and Serenade of Destruction in hand is great, unless your only instrument is Musaragani's Harp. Or you only have music in play and no instruments or vice versa.

• Has a very high percentage of bad cards in his deck, 13 or 32.5 percent. Having one out of three cards in the deck be not what you want or need is the main drawback to The Argent Adept.

• List of bad cards:

Polymorphic Flare (you just don't ever have time to play the card unless you are already set up, in which case you don't need the card in the first place)

Rhapsody of Vigor (unless playing with Unity or The Sentinels or a 5 player game. It's still not great even in a full ring game)

Counterpoint Bulwark (except in 3 player or 2 player games where the damage debuff essentially becomes invincibility)

Syncopated Onslaught (unless playing the base version/power of The Argent Adept)

Cedistic Dissonant (an actual do nothing after you find Inventive Preparation or Inspiring Supertonic)

Drake's Pipes (garbage)

Xu's Bell and Eyidisar's horn (strictly worse than other options unless you are doing a full combo or are in a very weird and specific situation)

• Very reliant upon having many permanents in play. The most powerful interaction in The Argent Adept’s arsenal requires 9+ permanents in play.

• The Argent Adept sometimes wastes a lot of time and resources attempting to get himself off the ground, which means that The Argent Adept is only amplifying other heroes after they set themselves up, and consumes other heroes actions and resources to keep him alive. Or worse, he stops aiding his allies and essentially just sits there and does nothing to aid the team.

Explanation of Mechanics

    The Argent Adept is weird and confusing due to his Instruments using powers to allow him access to the Performance and Accompany texts of specific kinds of music. The music (Rhythm, Harmony and Melody) cards can activate their ability texts any number of times per turn, so long as you have the requisite access to the correct Performance or Accompany activation from an Instrument or your base power. This is different from every other permanent card in the game which has Power: Effect text because all other cards with ______: Rules Text can only be activated a maximum of once per turn. This is the most confusing part of play The Argent Adept, but once you get down how the Music + Instrument mechanics work, playing the deck becomes a lot of fun.

    It's important to think of your activations of Instruments as creating Performance and Accompany activations. After using the Instruments, I have found it helpful to think of those Performance and Accompany activations you have access to as being part of a pool of resources. Then you can spend the resources you have in your pool.

    Where this analogy breaks down is when you are spending your resources, you have to spend them in order from most recent Instrument activated to the first Instrument you activated. So, for example, If you are playing with PWAA and have a Xu's Bell, Telamon's Lyra, Musaragni's Harp, Inspiring Supertonic, Alacritous Subdominant, and Syncopated Onslaught. When you activate PWAA (assuming you play a card that doesn't matter like Rhapsody Of Vigor), you can activate the Accompany text of Alacritous Subdominant.

    Then you can activate Musaragni's Harp, activating Inspiring Supertonic's Performance text. You then do not resolve the Accompany text of a Harmony card you have floating in the Aether. Then, you activate Telamon's Lyra and activate Inspiring Supertonic's Performance Text again. You now have a Harmony Accompany and Rhythm Accompany activation text floating. Then let's assume you activate Syncopated Onslaught's Performance and Accompany texts. You then activate Syncopated Onslaught's Accompany text again and then gain 2 HP and finally destroy Alacritous Subdominant as the last step in the chain.

    I personally would play the app or the steam version in order to see how this works visually. Or go to my youtube channel, John Tonon, and watch one of my videos where I play Sentinels of the Multiverse.

 

The Cards

    The most important part of every hero’s arsenal is the cards which they have access to. This section is going to be an in depth examination and explanation of the quality of the production in the Argent Adept’s magnum opus. Note: the cards are going to be in no particular order, but will be separated by good and bad.

   

Good Cards

Arcane Cadence – This card is the true Sonata of nearly every one of the Argent Adept’s most spectacular performances. This card digs 5 cards deep into your deck for the cards you want, and gets rid of all the garbage you don’t. At the very least Arcane Cadence replaces itself with the second best card in the top five cards of your deck, while also putting the best card in your top five into play.

    That doesn’t even cover the times where you chain two or three Arcane Cadences together. It feels really good to essentially pick up the top thirteen cards of your deck and put the best card into play and have the next best three cards in your hand.

    Arcane Cadence becomes insane when you are playing Prime Wardens Argent Adept. The text on the card changes from what is actually written to “Look at the top five cards of your deck. Put the best 2 cards into play and draw the other two best cards.” And it even lets you stack your deck so that you play Silver Shadow, by selecting it to be the card that goes on the bottom, after putting any Rhythm or Harmony into play and then playing the best card in your hand.

Instrumental Conjuration – This card just makes sure you always have the correct Instrument for the combination of Music you have. Instrumental Conjuration provides the consistency that most heroes have access to and need, while also drawing you a card. Instrumental Conjuration also allows for The Argent Adept to get back a destroyed or discarded Instrument when he needs it. This card is a workhorse that is never spectacular, but almost always necessary in a game of Sentinels of the Multiverse.

Silver Shadow – Allows for absurd combo turns and very quick recoveries after a board wipe. The best Accompany text, and the only one worth using this card on in my opinion, is on Inventive Preparation. When Silver Shadow is used on another card beside Inventive Preparation, you are getting a very small benefit and then playing another card. For example, you draw a card and play a card or gain two HP and play a card. Personally, I would recommend not playing Silver Shadow until you have Inventive Preparation in play, unless it is absolutely necessary to stay alive or to enable another hero significantly.

When used on Inventive Preparation, Silver Shadow becomes at least a two for 1 in terms of the action economy, and at Silver Shadow’s best it becomes the first in a series of thunderous crashes which end with cannon fire. It is the sweetest accompaniment to every truly broken turn.

Vernal Sonata – Vernal Sonata is a card that on the face of it looks terrible. From my background in Magic the Gathering, cards that allow you to put cards on top of your deck from your graveyard at the cost of a card are exclusively hot flaming garbage. However, Sentinels is not MTG, and this card is amazing at keeping the villain down when you have them in a vulnerable position. Plus, Sentinels is not a game that is as concerned with card advantage as MTG.  The life gain is just gravy.

Winning at Sentinels is extremely concerned with heroes having access to key cards, and playing certain cards that shut down a villains strategy over and over. Take Down, Adhesive Foam Grenade, and Hypersonic Assault are the best examples of cards that shut down the game's ability to win. But Vernal Sonata is also amazing because it allows for heroes to use their best cards multiple times after drawing only a single copy. Team Communication, Unique Capabilities, Just Doing My Job, Displaced Armory, Sudden Contract, Blinding Speed, Fleet of Foot, Rampage, Bestial Shift, Primal Charge, Predator's Eye, Deployment Actuation, Bloody Knuckles, Grease Gun, Mistbound, Enlightenment, Technological Advancement, Between The Lines, Synaptic Analysis, Precognition, Prophetic Vision, Suggestion, etc. are all amazing cards to have a second use out of without having to actually draw a second copy.

Serenade of Destruction – I don't understand why this card is named after a Spanish dance when the Argent Adept's whole theme is music, so I call it and refer to the card as Serenade of Destruction.

To discuss the actual card, I don't actually activate this card very often. I mainly rely upon other heroes to handle Ongoing and Environment cards, with Tachyon's Blinding Speed and The Naturalist's Environmental Allies and Crafty Assault being the main replacement cards. However, when The Argent Adept just comes in from behind and one shots Anubis while Ra is shaking in his boots at the prospect of using 2-3 cards to kill him, it feels great.

Inventive Preparation – One of the top five cards in the game, hands down. If another character is limited by the number of cards they play in a turn, Inventive Preparation makes that character shine in a spectacular fashion. On a turn without Silver Shadow, this Rhythm can be expected to allow another player to play a card, while The Argent Adept does something else, which is great. When combined with Prime Wardens Argent Adept's base power, this card becomes the best in your entire deck.

When you have Inspiring Supertonic, Telamon's Lyra, and PWAA that is two extra cards played each round. And that is before adding in  the possibility of having another hero allow you to activate a power outside your turn (America Greatest Legacy, Between The Lines, etc) which makes you absolutely break the action economy, to the point that the game simply can't keep up or recover outside of a well timed Devastating Aurora or Technological Superiority or Sedative Flechettes.

This card also allows for cards which have negative end of turn effects (such as Take Down and Solar Flare) to become a lot better. Inventive Preparation also allows for cards which immediately end the heroes turn when they play it (Scholar's Know When To Hold Fast, Mr. Fixer's Grease Gun, or Nightmist's Mist-Fuelded Recovery come to mind) to be even better than they already were.

Alacritous Subdominant – Allows for the Argent Adept to set up his combo turns earlier when using the base power/variant (and actually may be the best card in the deck when playing the base version of The Argent Adept). If he has Telamon's Lyra or Musatagni's Harp it does the same thing while also allowing the Argent Adept to support his allies or further take turns off until he can combo simultaneously. It also allows for The Argent Adept to take his absurd combo turns where he activates every Instrument in his deck.

Inspiring Supertonic – If you have an instrument which activates the Perform text of Harmony cards, Inspiring Supertonic allows you to take powerful normal turns. Alacritous Subdominant is the best card for comboing, Inspiring Supertonic allows for every turn before the turn you combo, and during the combo, be greater than it normally could be. With Inventive Preparation and Telamon's Lyra, this card is bananas. With Musaragni's Harp, you just get a free 2 HP every turn.

Akpunku’s Drum – Allows for The Argent Adept to use Serenade of Destruction and then still activate the Accompany text of Inventive Preparation. That is all it is good for and that is more than enough.

Musaragni’s Harp – Allows for absurd combo turns when combined with Alacritous Subdominant, and also allows The Argent Adept to heal for free each turn with Inspiring Supertonic.

Telamon’s Lyra – Great with  Alacritous Subdominant + Inventive Preparation because it allows for the Argent Adept to play an extra card and one of his allies to play a card. Also great with or  Inspiring Supertonic + Inventive Preparation because The Argent Adept can activate his base power while an extra card is played by his allies. The best Instrument and probably the one you should search for first with Instrument Conjuration, unless you are playing against La Captain and are worried about it getting eaten by her Advanced ability.

Bad Cards

Xu’s Bell – Only good when you are comboing off and want to start off the combo with buffing the damage output of other heroes who benefit from the combo. Or when you absolutely need to activate Inventive Preparation and can't get another equipment.

Eydisar’s Horn – This card technically allows you to further combo with Alacritous Subdominant because it activates the Accompany Text of Harmony cards. The problem is that gaining 1 HP or dealing a small amount of damage or even destroying a card is not that exciting when full comboing. And when not comboing it is just not exciting to gain 2 HP or Rummage a few cards and destroy an Environment or Ongoing card.

Drake’s Pipes – Garbage. The Melodies are the Music cards with the least powerful effects. Unless you absolutely need to destroy two cards with Serenade of Destruction and actually have both in play or are just putting an equipment in play to insulate other Heroes better cards, don't play Drake's Pipes.

Cedistic Dissonant – This card is so bad it is actually confounding as to why it is even in the deck. It's only use is to dig for other cards by activating it's accompany text when you are using the PWAA variant. The Perform text is so bad on this card that it is actually confusing as to why it is there at all. The few times I tried activating this card's Perform text, I lost because I had wasted a turn playing this card and then wasted another turn blowing up the Instrument I played to activate it. In the games where you are desperately digging to the very bottom of your deck for other actually useful cards, this card is actually activated and not just sacrificed to Villain effects. Usually is strictly worse than Counterpoint Bulwark, due to the Accompany texts being so similar.

Syncopated Onslaught – Good when you have every other piece of the combo in play or are playing the base version of The Argent Adept, because it functions as a mini Inspiring Presence. Otherwise, it is chaff that you sacrifice to Villain cards or Environment effects.

Counterpoint Bulwark – Bad unless you are playing as the base version of The Argent Adept and are also playing a 3 player game. It is marginally better than Syncopated Onslaught if you have Telamon's Lyra in play and also Inspiring Supertonic, because drawing a card is typically better than dealing a single point of damage.

Scherzo of Frost and Flame – Garbage. Pinging things is not what The Argent Adept should ever be doing. Actually just a blank card that can be sacrificed to Villain effects. Especially considering the fact that a significant number of Villains have Damage -1 effects in their Advanced or Challenge texts.

Rhapsody of Vigor – Only Worth activating if you are playing with The Sentinels (where Rhapsody of Vigor at least becomes fine.) or Unity. Can also be fine if you are playing with 3+ heroes with a damage minus 1 effect (such as Legacy, Haka, Mr. Fixer, Bunker, The Naturalist etc.).

To explain why the card gets better when playing with heroes that have a damage minus one card, the math for the card doubles effectively with damage reduction, because each HP gained by the hero which reduces damage is worth more. It doesn't get much better on Ultimate mode because the Damage dealt by villains is usually much higher than 2.

Reasonably when playing on Ultimate Difficulty, or really any difficulty, this card is a lamb waiting to be slaughtered by a Villains (Destroy H Ongoing cards) effect.

Polyphoric Flare – Paying life is not a good idea for The Argent Adept to do because of his aptitude for getting his ass beat by Villains. Polymorphic Flare does not interact favorably with America's Finest Legacy or other damage boosting effects. It also relies upon you having an Instrument in play that you cannot activate with an Inspiring Supertonic chain while also having the Music to utilize the activation well. I haven't actually played the card in the past 30+ games of Sentinels I have played until after I have the super combo set up plus no cards remaining in my deck. And I do not miss it at all.

I think the main issue with Polymoric Flare is that trading a card in hand is not worth activating a single power (even if that power does 2 things) because your best Instrument can already be activated for free due to the game's basic rules. And the life loss does not need to be on the card. It is also the worst card to hit off the bottom when playing as PWAA in the opening turns.

 

Basic Combos

Musaragni's Harp + Inspiring Supertonic + whatever. You get 2 free HP on top of whatever else you do. The Argent Adept often needs to do this every turn in order to avoid being killed. If you have Cedistic Dissonant in play and are not being ground and pounded by the villain, using the Harmony Accompany text on Cedistic Dissonant is fine.

Telamon's Lyra + Inspiring Supertonic + Inventive Preparation + PWAA. You allow two cards to be played outside another hero's turn. Relevant because they can use those cards to effectively double up on their best powers (if they have cards which activate them), or can circumnavigate negative end of turn effects (such as Ra's Solar Flare dealing 4 damage minimum to himself.) This is your best smaller combo that you should prioritize setting up first almost every game.

Telamon's Lyra + Alacritous Subdominant + Inventive Preparation (or another Rhythm). Allows The Argent Adept, regardless of his base power, to play additional cards (either to speed up his own setup or to sacrifice to villain effects) while also aiding his allies.

Telamon's Lyra + Inspiring Subdominant + Inventive Preparation (or another Rhythm). Similar to the combo above except it allows for other character to double up on their powers or allows you to use your base power.

Telamon's Lyra + Inspiring Subdominant + Inventive Preparation + Counterpoint Bulwark + (Apunku's Drum or Xu's Bell or PWAA's base power). Allows the Argent Adept to put a key card on top of an ally's deck by playing Vernal Sonata for his card for turn and then have them immediately draw that card and play it. Mostly used on Take Down and Hypersonic Assault or Grease Gun due to those cards insane raw power.

Apunku's Drum + Serenade of Destruction + Inventive Preparation. You get to destroy an annoying thing while your allies do a thing. It's great but not as exciting as the other combos, in my opinion.

 

The Big Finale

The most important combo piece for the big thunderous finale to The Argent Adept's symphony is Alacritous Subdominant. The Accompany text for this Harmony card reads “You may use a power now. If you do, destroy this card.” What is wonky about this card, because nowhere in the rules does it explicitly say this interaction as far as I know, when you use the Accompany text of Alacritous Subdominant, it allows you to activate a power BEFORE you destroy the card. This is jarring for a magic player. But, this rules interaction is great because it allows for you as a player to break the game.

Let's assume you are living the dream and are playing PWAA, have Inspiring Supertonic, Inventive Preparation, Alacritous Subdominant, Syncopated Onslaught, Serenade of Destruction Akpunku's Drum, Musaragni's Harp, Xu's Bell, Eydisar's Horn, and Telamon's Lyra in play. You have already played both Silver Shadows and have allowed two cards to be played using Inventive Preparation, and are now resolving a Polymorphius Rush (the only time the card is worthwhile.) and you are going to hit another MassPolymorphius Rush when you flip the bottom card of your deck. This means you have access to activating all your powers this turn. This is important because when you don't play 2 Poly4ic rushes during the combo, you have to use more of your Performance or Accompany texts on getting access to more powers, thus allowing you to do less actual stuff during the combo.

Polyporic Rush activates Xu's Bell, which buffs the damage of the 2 heroes who will be the beneficiaries of your combo and allows you to activate another power using Alacritous Subdominant.

You then activate Eydisar's Horn, which destroys a thing  and allows you to activate another power using Alacritous Subdominant. (This step is entirely optional)

You then activate Musaragni's Harp, which either allows a player to activate a power or play a card and then allows you to activate a power using Alacritous Subdominant.

You use PWAA's power and play a Polymorphic Gush, and have an Accompany text floating,

You then use Telamon's Lyra to allow another player to either play a card or activate a power and then another player can play a card.

You use your floating accompany text to allow another player to play a card. Alacritous Subdominant is destroyed.

You use your power for your turn to activate Apunku's Bell allow another card to be played and you destroy another Ongoing or Environment card.

In total, this turn allows for your two damage dealers to deal a lot more damage because of the damage buff and their additional 4-6 cards played and 0-2 powers activated.

If you are playing with The Naturalist, or some other hero who can allow The Argent Adept to draw 3-5 cards, he can do this combo over and over again if he has no other cards in his deck to draw. The Argent Adept can also do this himself if his deck is empty and he has Cedistic Dissonant or Counterpoint Bulwark in play, but then his combo is less sweet.

 

Discussion of Variants

Argent Adept – The base version of the Argent Adept. This variant increases the value of Serenade of Destruction, Alacritous Subdominant, Syncopated Onslaught, and Counterpoint Bulwark. Is completely fine, but outshined by all of his other variants due to how easily his power is replicated by simply playing an Instrumental Conjuration.

Prime Wardens Argent Adept – The best Variant. Being able to immediately activate the accompany text of Inventive Preparation when played no matter what other cards you have access to is the main reason why this Variant is the best out of all of them. Not only do you have 5 shots minimum to actually play Inventive Preparation on the first turn, because you play a card and activate an accompany text and have 4 cards in hand, BUT YOU GET TO ACTIVATE AN ACCOMPANY TEXT OF ANYTHING AND PLAY ANOTHER CARD.

You draw a card and play a card or ping a thing and draw a card or gain 2 Hp and play a card or Discard 2 draw 3 and play a card. All very good.

Naturally Harmony and Rhythm cards go up significantly in value while Melodies become much worse, due to the fact that Melodies lack an accompany text.

This card also gets extra value out of Arcane Cadence because it allows you to play the best two cards in your top five when you play Arcane Cadence.

When playing as this variant it is very easy to fufill the board wipe requirements of Villain cards while keeping all your relevant cards in play.

Argent Adept: The Dark Conductor – Is the second best variant of the Argent Adept. Playing additional cards is important for you and other heroes to set up. There isn't a lot to say, due to this cards very obvious power.

Xtreme Prime Wardens Argent Adept – This power is not very good. The effect can be very easily replicated by Inventive Preparation. The damage is relevant because Legacy is so important when playing on Ultimate difficulty you often do not have spare life to spend on getting punched in the face for 2 – 4 by an ally.

This is the most fun variant to play because it is fun to try to build compositions of heroes around the ability. I really enjoyed almost killing Fanatic and Nightmist with him.

 

Awesome Interactions with other Heroes

    The best heroes to pair with the Argent Adept are Heroes who gain a lot of power from playing extra cards. Usually this means having powerful One Shots. This section is not an explanation of all the cool stuff you can do with The Argent Adept when paired with a given hero. This section only covers the best interactions.

Mr. Fixer – The Argent Adept is core to almost all of the compositions I create which feature Mr. Fixer. Inventive Preparation allows for Mr. Fixer to deal an obscene amount of damage to Villains. He is the carry character that I always bring to bear against The Chairman because he can kill both The Chairman and The Operative in one shot.

Assuming Mr. Fixer has Harmony, Dual Crowbars, and Grease Monkey Fist in play, he can play a bloody knuckles for his turn and then beat the villains down for eight damage each (For this example we'll assume we are getting +2 damage from Legacy due to his base power and Inspiring Presence).

Following that, we'll assume The Argent Adept is full comboing for  at least 4 additional cards played. You play another Bloody Knuckles, and then Overdrive twice. You are dealing 40 damage to each villain. They are just dead.

Additionally, playing Grease Gun, one of the best utility/delay cards, not on MR Fixer's turn is great because it allows him to beat some ass on his own turn by being able to Strike and play other cards.

The Naturalist -  Bestial Shift when combined with The Argent Adept's ability to allow other players to play cards is absolutely amazing. Especially when combined with The Hunted Naturalist's ability to activate all his cards form buffs, You can take absolutely crazy broken turns.

Bestial Shift, assuming you are a Gazelle, allows you to gain 3HP and use a power. This activates The Hunted Naturalist's base power which plays another card. This other card is usually A fully powered Primal Charge (Draw 4, deal 2, deal 3) or a Crocodiled Hunter's Eye (increase damage dealt to a target by one, draw 2, deal one damage.) And then if you are a crocodile, you deal 3 damage and activate another power. If that power is Natural Form's Power, you add draw 2 more cards, gain 2 more hp and deal 1 to two target to the chain of goodness.

I nearly always pair The Hunted Naturalist and The Argent Adept together because The Hunted Naturalist is one of the Heroes who have the tools to do everything well.

Chrono-Ranger – Chrono-Ranger has the highest single target DPS out of any character in the game. Hunter and Hunted + Eyes On The Prize + all six Bounties is an absurd burst of damage. What is also great about Chrono-Ranger is that he sets up his combo by himself, with cards like Displaced Armory, Sudden Contract and Just Doing My Job, and does so fairly efficiently with Jim's Hat giving him 2 cards on each of his turns. Chrono-Ranger's only issue is that he needs to play a lot of cards and draw practically his entire deck before he can just slaughter any villain.

The Argent Adept just further speeds up the process by allowing Chrono-Ranger to churn through his entire deck by playing more Just Doing My Job's, with Vernal Sonata, and giving Chrono Ranger the extra card play he needs the turn he goes off to kill any villain from 200 to 0. I will go over the combo in my Chrono-Ranger Article or deck tech video.

The Sentinels – The Sentinels are great at doing everything, except stopping The Idealist from dying over and over. Inventive Preparation gives The Sentinels the extra card they need to revive her when she gets dogpiled on (it always happens). When the Idealist is alive, you can use the extra card on something that deals damage. Then Sentinel Tactics adds an extra power activation to the extra card which further increases the value you are getting.

Absolute Zero – Absolute Zero is a character who needs to find and play 4 cards (Focused Apertures, Null-Point Calibration Unit, Thermal Shockwave, and Isothermic Transducer, preferably with a CyroChamber also in play) in order to be fully operational. That is hard to do. The Argent Adept allows Absolute Zero to play extra cards, which allows him to either set up faster or play his utility cards like Sub-Zero atmosphere or Fueled Freeze. The Argent Adept's abilities also allow for Absolute Zero to actually activate Coolant Blast when it can deal damage on his turn instead of being a do nothing by having Absolute Zero activate Thermal Shockwave after his turn and deal himself a bunch of fire damage.

Nightmist – Nightmist takes forever to set up and then takes forever to actually win the game once she has everything she needs. In total, Nightmist needs 4 cards in play and then she functionally cannot die, or even really not be at maximum HP by the end of her turn. The Argent Adept gets her the extra cards she needs and that shaves a huge amount of time off of her setup countdown.

Before I got Chrono-Ranger and The Naturalist and The Sentinels, I thought she was the best hero in the game. Now I am lukewarm on her, mostly because she takes way too long to actually get anything done. She is still great against certain villains where her specialties are needed to win.

Unity – Unity suffers from having to jump through as many hoops as she does to get robots into play. The Argent Adept just fully unlocks Unity's potential as soon as he has Inventive Preparation in play. There is a reason Unity has to jump through as many hoops as she does. That reason is 30+ damage a turn if she has the right robots in play. My friend was having a blast.

Parse – Between the Lines allows for The Argent Adept to combo multiple times a round. For reference, assuming The Argent Adept has Telamon's Lyra, Inventive Preparation, and Inspiring Supertonic + PWAA's base power, your actions per round as a team go from 5 cards played to 11. That is insane. If you ever full combo in a round...It's awesome.

Ra – Ra is almost entirely limited by the number of cards he can play each round. Shooting stuff with fire is sometimes all you need, and Ra is ready and willing to light the world on fire if you let him.

Also, Solar Flare gets exponentially better when it doesn't need to deal 10 damage to Ra in order to do anything.

    The ten damage assumes 4 from Solar Flare, +1 from The Staff of Ra, +1 from Imbued Fire, +2 from Solar Flare itself, + 2 from Legacy.

I was originally going to have a section on Team Compositions that The Argent Adept shines in, but it was actually all of them. So instead I was going to just write an article about Hero Team Compositions.

Hopefully I am not committing to too many things, but I had fun thinking about the Argent Adept for the last two days.

[Ameena]

Wow, that's a long post. Okay, let's see what feedback I can offer as I go through it - the Adept is my favourite character too, so doubtless we'll have our own opinions on how his cards work ;). It's already ringing alarm bells that at a glance you're stating that some cards are "useless"...

I'll go through in order and make comments as I do...

~ So, first off, on the use of terminology from other games (particularly Magic the Gathering). I would say don't. This game is not those games. This is not Magic, this is Sentinels of the Multiverse. Trying to bring in terms from other games will just confuse those of us who have no idea what you're talking about. No cards are "permanent", for example. I presume by this you mean cards that stay in play, like ongoing and equipment cards? Just say that, then. They can still be destroyed so they are by no means permanent. Also, I'm not sure what your issue is with the use of the term "target". A target is just "anything with hp", with descriptors (such as "Hero", "Villain", etc) to clarify what kind of target they are.

~ Under "Strengths of the Argent Adept", your first point mentions his ability to grant power uses to other heroes but then compares this to Finest Legacy - this should read Greatest Legacy (Finest is the original version, with Galvanise) :).

~ Under "Difficulties" it says it's a problem that he starts with the lowest hp total outside of the Sentinels. That's no longer accurate now that Void Guard Writhe is around (he starts with 19!) but presumably you weren't aware of that when you wrote this so it's just a minor point. It's worth mentioning, surely, that he has excellent healing capabilities to get around this - I think you can get a maximum of 8hp a turn if things go right (assuming no external modifiers to healing like you get on some Environment cards). Plus you have a card that grants soak so can use that on yourself if you need to.

~ A high percentage of "bad cards". Umm...? Which cards are defined as "bad" is dependent purely on the specific layout of the game. Sure, certainly some cards are always useful, like Arcane Cadence or Inspiring Supertonic, but just because you don't use, say, Cedistic Dissonance very often doesn't mean it's bad, just less consistently useful than other cards. There's a reason the art for that card shows one of Voss's ships being nuked, after all ;). But let me go through all these "bad cards" and offer my own input...

Polyphoric Flare - Okay, yes, I will admit this is always the first one to go into the trash when I'm playing Cadences. I can see its use if you're well set up and have a few hp to spare, however, since you'd still have your Power phase after it's done resolving so could trigger any instruments you missed on the first pass and do Even More Things! But yeah, this is the card I personally find the least use for, because there's always something else in my hand I'd rather play.

Counterpoint Bulwark - How is giving people extra draw a bad thing? There's a reason Team Leader Tachyon (aka TLT) is considered one of the strongest versions of any hero in the game ;). Also, stick some soak on Stealth Bot or an Energy Bracer. Or on Legacy when he already has Lead from the Front and Fortitude out. Or anyone who already has a bit of soak and is otherwise redirecting all damage to themselves. Laugh as you have a damage-free round for everyone :D.

Syncopated Onslaught - As with the above, how is giving someone a damage buff a bad thing? Okay, maybe it is if they're not gonna be dealing any damage on their next turn, but still...any hero that deals lots of plinks of damage (or even if they just have one of those one-and-one damage powers, like Fanatic) gets to benefit so much more from a damage buff than a hero who just smashes one thing for one larger total of damage - the heavy hitter only gets to benefit from a total of +1 damage (to that one punch), but the person who's using about five little plinks of one point (looking at you over there, Jim) will get +1 to each of those plinks, for a total of +5 damage. That's not to be sniffed at! And the Accompany text, while not usually something I use, can still be handy on occasion if there's something that everyone else couldn't quite kill and it really really needs to die.

Cedistic Dissonant - This is just one of those highly situational cards. The Accompany tends not to be that useful unless you've been unlucky enough with your draw so far that you haven't got any decent Songs or your set-up one-shots (Cadence and Conjuration), but the Perform can be used to insta-kill something that was otherwise going to screw you up really badly and which no-one else was able to handle - Apocalypse, Flagship, Dreadnaught, Truth, Anvil, EPE, pretty much anything of Iron Legacy's...really, there are plenty of pretty nasty cards you could potentially sacrifice an intrument to get rid of. And if you do find yourself with a need to do that, instruments aren't that hard to get back - you can usually go through your deck at a decent enough speed thanks to the various means you have of drawing/revealing and you only need to do that until you get your hands on an Instrumental Conjuration and I believe there are four of those - that's ten percent of your deck :D

Drakes Pipes - What.

Bell and Horn - Depends which Songs you have out. Okay so they're not part of what I call the "power combo" (Harp/Lyra/Supertonic) but if all you've got is Rhythms and Melodies then obviously play the instruments that can activate them!

~ Okay, what's next...I don't have any particular comments to make about the "Explanation of Mechanics" section since it seems pretty much right. It did take me a couple of goes to realise "Oh wait, it doesn't say they're Powers so there's no limit on how many times I can use them" when I started playing the Adept but he is one of the more complex decks thanks to all his musical wonderfulness so I'll let him off ;). So, moving on to the card analysis...

Arcane Cadence - Pretty much agree. Love this card. Super good early-game to help you get set up faster. And yes, chaining them is ridiculous, so you don't want to start with more than one in your hand - you want to reveal the others as a result of playing them :D. It's probably better once you know the deck well enough to know which cards you're going to immedaitely want out of the ones you've revealed, just so as not to keep your fellow player(s) (if any) waiting while you go through half your deck :D.

Instrumental Conjuration - Again, no major comments to make. Agree on this - super-useful to dig out an instrument, plus it gives you a card draw so it can be good to play anyway if you've got nothing better to do.

Silver Shadow - I would disagree that there are only specific uses for it. Inventive Preparation is only good if someone actually has a card they want to play. I tend to prefer using Silver Shadow in the later game when I'm set up enough to have Accompanies to use, as opposed to the early game when I prefer to play Arcane Cadence. And you're not always going to want to play a card off this - plenty of times I've drawn one instead. As with pretty much anything the Adept does, it's dependent on the specifics of the situation.

Vernal Sonata - Not sure why there is the comparison to Magic once again - this is not Magic, so any such thing is irrelevant. But that aside, yes, I agree this can be a handy card, though I don't tend to play it that often unless people are desparate for healing. Can be handy if you can combo it with then letting someone draw and then play a card, though, since it means someone gets to basically play a card from their trash.

Sarabande of Destruction - Sarabande. Not Serenade. I didn't know what a sarabande was till you said it here, but umm...last time I checked, dances tend to involve music, so what's the problem? Anyway...I'm guessing you haven't yet played enough games to see why this card is so amazing. Backlash Field? Let's blow that up. Volcanic Eruption? Nope. Self-Destruct Sequence? Ha, never mind. Getting both copies of this out alongside the Pipes tends to mean that everyone else can just ignore the Environment - insta-destroying two cards a turn is pretty huge, and bear in mind you're not just limited to Environment cards. Think of all the really horrible Villain ongoing cards that you can deal with. Hey there, Iron Legacy...oh, and Voss. Adept going first versus Voss. Forced Deployment? Boom. Okay, fellow heroes - get smashing :D.

Inventive Preparation - Yes, it's nice, but calling a card "the best card in the game" is something that shouldn't necessarily be done without due consideration. Anyway, everyone knows that title already goes to Impromptu Invention ;). Bear in mind that believe it or not, there are times when giving out a card play isn't actually that good - maybe no-one has any cards they want to play, or maybe they do but it's just the one and they want to save it for their own turn so they have something to play then. Or the card they would play will go away at the start of their next turn so they won't get to benefit from it if they play it on yours. Yes, giving out free card plays can be huge, but some heroes may appreciate a draw or a heal more, depending on who they are and which card(s) they've already got out. What I'm saying is, yes this card is nice, but spamming card plays for everyone isn't always the optimal strategy.

Alacritous Subdominant - I can see the use of using its Accompany to do MOAR THINGS!, but I tend to try not to blow up my own stuff if I can help it so I don't actually use this card that often - even the Perform text tends to get ignored once I get Supertonic out. Speaking of which...

Inspiring Supertonic - Ahh, one third of what I call the "power combo", alongside the Harp and the Lyra, though you need a third instrument and another Song or two (one of which should preferably be a Rhythm) in order to get full benefit - Harp activates Supertonic, which activates the Lyra, which activates Supertonic again, which activates your third instrument, which activates some other stuff, then you come back to the Lyra and activate a Rhythm, and finally back to the Harp and get +2hp back (unless you have another Harmony out and want to do that instead, of course ;)). There has been more than one game when I've been battered down to single-figure hp and ended up back on full health by the end, largely thanks to this card :D. I'm actually a little surprised that this particular combo hasn't been mentioned. Perhaps you missed it? It does seem like you focus on different cards to me, so that could easily be the case ;).

Akpunku's Drum - Again the obsession with Inventive Preparation. Also, there are two other Melody cards besides Sarabande, and both can be useful. I think you're putting too much weight on some cards to the detriment of others. The Adept, perhaps more than any other character because he's so good at it, is all about playing cards specific to the situation and using them based on the current situation, which is likely to change throughout the game. Saying "this card is always good/bad" is not, I don't think, a great mindset to have...

Musaragni's Harp - Again, no mention of the "power combo", but another mention of Alactritous Subdominant. I only really use this thing to activate both parts of Supertonic, unless I don't have that out yet in which case I'll usually have Subdominant out...but since I don't like breaking my own stuff I'll just use something else if I can't do Harp -> Supertonic ;).

Telamon's Lyra - Hmm, well, to avoid sounding like a broken record, I won't repeat myself again. But basically what I said the the Harp minus the stuff about breaking my stuff ;).

Xu's Bell - Not keen on descriptions that start with "Only good when...", since it implies further narrow-sightedness regarding the uses of the thing being discussed. The Bell is good for activating both parts of any Rhythm, which surely isn't a bad thing? I mean, you could use Inventive Preparation's Perform to let everyone look at their top card, then Bulwark's Accompany to let one of those people draw whatever super-cool card they just looked at so it's ready to be played when their next turn comes around. Just as an example.

Eydisar's Horn - Who cards whether something is "exciting"? Is it useful? Does it bring you closer to winning? If yes, do it.

Drake's Pipes - Oh no, of course being able to insta-nuke any Villain Ongoing or Environment card is "garbage". Oh yeah, giving the Scholar a bunch of heals when he has a couple of Liquid and Energy forms out isn't useless at all, right? Do not underestimate the power of any effect in this game - however useless one hero may find it, there will be another for which it is game-changingly brilliant (plays on Unity, heals on Liquid-Energy Scholar, power uses on Greatest Legacy/Stuntman/TLT, draws on Scholar, soak on Stealth Bot/Energy Bracer, etc). Chaining the Pipes as the third instrument in the "power combo" can get fairly ridiculous if you have either or both copies of Sarabande and/or Rhapsody out...

Cedistic Dissonant - Okay, this is another one I rarely use (again, due to the "waaah I don't like to break my stuff" thing ;)), but surely you can see how being able to instantly destroy any non-character card in the entire game is useful? As mentioned in the "bad cards" section earlier, there are plenty of really horrible cards that would otherwise take too long (or be too punishing) to get rid of. No other hero in the game can do this. And the cost of a single instrument isn't that bad, when you think about it - it's easy enough to give yourself the extra draw, if you need it, to get through your deck to find an Instrumental Conjuration to put it back again. Or use Vernal Sonata or something.

Syncopated Onslaught - As mentioned previously, giving a damage buff to anyone who deals multiple hits of damage is super-powerful. Basically the power level of a damage buff is multiplied by how many times it gets taken advantage of before it wears off. Use it on Legacy? Okay, that's maybe a +2 in total (or a +3 on his daughter). Use it on Jim? Maybe a +5 or more (can't remember how many copies of Eye on the Prize he has). Even the Accompany part of this Song can be useful if there's something on low enough health (or something needing to lose a couple of hp so it's lower than someone else who would otherwise be very shortly eaten by a dinosaur or something), more so if you've just used the Perform to buff yourself. Dealing damage on the Adept is a rare thing but he can potentially be ridiculous (more on this under Scherzo, when we get there - I'm guessing you'll have declared this one as another "terrible" card...), and even when he isn't, I do remember one game dealing no damge until the very end, when I used one plink (possibly had buffed myself) with this Song and finished off the Villain with it :D.

Counterpoint Bulwark - Bad why? If you think that giving people extra draw is bad, TLT would like a word with you. If you think giving people soak is bad...I mean, you can give it to two people. It depends who they are, but if they're someone who's already got soak and is redirecting all damage to themselves, this can basically give the team a free round where no-one has to worry about being hit. This can also help with the earlier-mentioned issue of the Adept having a low starting hp total - if a lot of things are around that hit the lowest, then surely making them hit him for less damage is good, right? Tank it up! And often you'll be in a team where one or two heroes have soak already, so you can give it to those who don't. Especially useful against, say, Lilian, with all her plinky birds. Also, self-harming heroes. Nightmist, for example.

Scherzo of Frost and Flame - Dictating what a hero "should" be doing is unwise, I feel. What you "should" be doing is whatever you can to win the game. The uses of this card follow much the same explanation as to what I've said under Syncopated Onslaught, plus this is exactly one of those one-and-one damage powers that can benefit more from a buff. And what if, say, you've got Legacy around and he's got Inspiring Presence and used Galvanise? Well, suddenly Scherzo is a 4+4 damage and those hits can be against the same target or two different ones. I mean, if Ab'Zero's around and has both his Modules out, you don't even necessarily need any buffs on yourself for this card to become more useful ;). Do not underestimate the damage potential of the Adept - he doesn't use it very often but he can be a beast if he gets a few buffs. Also, that 4+4 I mentioned? Okay, now imagine that when you have both copies of this card out alongside the Pipes. That's sixteen damage. And if you're also in Insula Primalis and all three Obsidian Fields are out? Okay, it's now 7+7. Twice. That's 28 damage. And you can do that on every turn with a single power use, at no extra cost (unlike, say, Haka's Savage Mana which is one a one-off that puts all the targets back where they came from). So let's add in Captain Cosmic who's played a Dynamic Siphon or two on the Adept, which everyone else then deliberately plinks every time they get a chance. Now that's ridiculous >:).

Rhapsody of Vigour - Since the only hp that matters is your last one, surely it's best to have as many as possible to lengthen the amount of time it may potentially take to get to that last hp, right? Note also that you aren't restricted to just healing Hero targets - you could use it on, I dunno, Doctor Tremata as well. Or the vampire hunter. Or something. Also, indiscriminate damage dealers (such as Char) when there's a gazelle running around with Environmental Allies in play, to keep them around longer to keep mashing the bad guys while you get to ignore it ;). Anyway, more healing is never a bad thing. It can be the difference between another hero dying on the next Villain turn or surviving till their next turn to be able to do some really cool thing that ends up winning you the game. Also, the Scholar will love you - if he has even one Energy form out then that's free damage (assuming he wasn't already at max hp when you healed him, of course ;)) without your needing to use one of your own damage effects to do so. Oh, and the Scholar's one less hp closer to death, so that's nice :D. If he has multiple Energy and any Liquid forms out then we encounter the "multiplied several instances of damage" thing again. Yes, this is situational and requires the Scholar to be around with at least one specific card out, but it's a situational kind of game. The Adept's strength is that he can adapt to pretty much any of those situations and none require much more effort than any other - it's just a matter of which cards you put out, since your ability to put them out remains the same.

Polyphoric Flare - Think I've said most of what I wanted to say about this card in the earlier section. I don't think I've ever played it but I can see it being useful in moments of desparation when you won't have enough powers in yout Power phase to be able to deal with some really bad thing. But with the Adept's healing capabilities, a few points of damage isn't even necessarily that high a cost, since you can easily get them back plus extra with just one Song and a couple of instruments.

~ Phew! And that finishes the card analysis feedback. Now, onto the "Discussion of Variants" bit...

Base version - I'm a bit confused as to why you say his power can be replicated by playing Instrumental Conjuration? That card doesn't let you activate a Perform text. Unless you mean that the instrument you conjure can activate a Song. But if you have more Songs than instruments, you might find you can't activate them all without the extra Perform use of your base power, which isn't specific to the type of Song it can activate, unlike the instruments.

Prime Wardens - Again, the hyper-focus on Inventive Preparation and the insistence that something is "the best". Sorry, that's not how this game works. Some things may be better in a certain situation but in my experience nothing is necessarily better all the time. Sometimes, your favourite hero/card just doesn't work out and you end up getting flattened in a couple of turns.

Dark Conductor - Umm...I'm guessing is the alternate name for the Kvothe promo, since you didn't mention him at all? Again, saying he is "second best" runs the same issue as saying something is "best".

Xtreme - The issue with the power being closely replicated by Inventive Preparation is that you need to have Inventive Preparation in play (and an instrument with which to activate it, unless playing the Prime Wardens version) in order to use it. Also, this power lets someone play a card and use a power. That seems objectively better than Inventive Preparation, especially since you need no other cards in play in order to use it and can do so from turn one, which coincidentally tends to be the time when people have the most hp remaining in roder to pay the cost ;).

~ Okay, and I think we're done. I sort of skimmed through the "party composition" bit but it just seems so ridiculously focused on card plays. There are other things you can do. The reason I like the Adept so much, the reason he's so complicated, is he can do pretty much everything. Whatever the situation, he usually has something for it. Let's see, what can he do - He can give people plays, powers, or draws. He can allow trash retrieval. He can deal damage and buff damage. He can provide soak. He can provide healing. He can insta-kill cards that would otherwise potentially be a major problem. He can insta-kill anything that isn't a character card (or indestructible). He can even tank (I've done it). He is supremely versatile and that's why I like him :D.

I think that's about it for my feedback. Um. Sorry if any if it sounds a bit, erm, irritated at times, or whatever. I think what you need to do is play in games where someone else plays as the Adept, and see what he can do. Also, it sounds like you set up your games by specifically choosing the hero composition. I used to do that, but eventually just started randomising everything (villains and environments too) so I wouldn't end up just playing my favourites all the time. If you do this, it should hopefully stick you in some situations where you have to improvise, where you can't just fall back on whatever plan you usually have, and that's when you might find out some new, cool stuff you can do. I've given some examples of cool interactions I've had, but there are plenty more out there. I hope I've given some kind of useful feedback/constructive criticism. Maybe we can talk some more about the Adept if there's anything more you want to know. Note that I tend to end up playing the base version more often than not (although it doesn't matter after a couple of turns since I just tend to use instruments and ignore the base power, whatever version I'm playing), and also don't bother playing Advanced or any of the other horrible difficulties, just "Normal Mode", so anything I say doesn't relate to the harder modes since I'm not familiar with them.

Anyway, um, enjoy? :)

[JohnTonon]

Thanks for sending me reasonable feedback. I hope this interaction goes over better than the garbage ones I had on Reddit.
I am never going to bring up how Sentinels could easily have cleaner language. This point is not appropriate to make in a strategy article.

If a card is not good in a sufficient number of situations it becomes a bad card. I don't understand why people in this community are so reticent to just saying certain cards are better than other cards.

Counterpoint Bulwark is a bad card not because what it does is bad (because what it does is fine) it just isn't worth doing when fighting Ultimate Villains.

I respectfully disagree with a lot of what you say about The Argent Adept. However some of what you say is either valid or potentially valid so I will think on it and maybe change my perception.
If you want to play online with me ever, let me know.

[Ameena]

Well, I'm not on Reddit, but your post was being discussed on the Discord last night so I read it from there when someone posted a link. And then when I logged on this morning I saw someone had posted another link to where you'd deleted your post (they kept copies) and reposted it somewhere else, I think? I didn't check that one out, though, so could be wrong.

Anyway, let's see...

Language - Still not sure what you mean by this. If there is some aspect of the terminology that confuses you, perhaps you could specify what it is so someone can help you? I thought all the terms were explained pretty well in the rulebooks and are universally used across all cards (as in, the meanings don't change, not that every word is on every card, because that would be silly :D).

"Bad cards" - I would say there are no truly "bad cards" in the game. Whether or not it is bad depends on the situation. Fighting Miss Information on her front side when she has none of her targets in play and you're in the Freedom Tower? Anything that gets played on a non-hero target is "bad" (looking at you, Jim). Fighting the Dreamer? Any AE damage ability is "bad", and is worse the more damage it deals. Fighting Apostate and he's got the Tome out? Suddenly anything that lets you draw a card becomes "bad". You see what I mean? Yes, some cards are more useful than others (for example, I don't think I've ever played Enduring Intercession), but it depends on the situation. It depends on which decks are in play, and which cards those decks have out, and the status of those cards (ie if it's a target, how many hp does it have left, does it have soak/damage buffs, etc). It depends what other options are available to you at the time. It depends which other heroes are around to take advantage/help you take advantage of whatever cards you have, as you do the same for them. Just because a card doesn't get played often or is only useful in a few outlying situations doesn't make it "bad". That's a very...definitive term to be using in a game where a lot of what makes hero decks "good/bad" is down to opinion. I've never really got the hang of Fanatic or Setback, for example, but I'm not going to say they're "bad" heroes. They just don't really suit my playstyle. There are people who don't like the Adept, who find him too complicated. That's fine - it means they won't be picking him if we play a game, which means I can :D.

Counterpoint Bulwark - I've never fought anyone on Ultimate Mode (as mentioned somewhere back in my rather lengthy previous post, I just stick to "Normal Mode"), but presumably the tendency is for everything to hit harder/play more cards (which probably involves them or their various other targets hitting more often). Which means soak is even more useful, surely? Reducing any damage when you're being pounded into the ground is surely never a bad thing? Not so useful against, say, Plague Rat (or anyone else who deals a lot of Irreducible damage), but still, it can help. It's sort of like pre-emptive healing, in a way - rather than someone losing a hp and getting it back later, you're preventing them from losing it in the first place when they otherwise would. And as for Bulwark's Accompany text...you're maintaining that giving someone extra draw is a bad thing? It's only "bad" when you're being punished for doing so (eg if Apostate has his Tome out). Otherwise, giving other heroes more opportunity to dig through their decks, especially if they're not that good at it to begin with (eg Legacy), can only be helpful to them - you might give them a card that turns out to be perfect for the current situation, which they can then play on their next turn rather than waiting another whole round to be able to use it. And sometimes you just get Blinding Blasted to hell and everyone just needs something in their hands :P.

I recall you saying you were quite new to the game - I maintain that playing more often, more games, with more deck variety, is a good idea. It'll giv you more of an insight into the variety of options, and if you also play with different people then you'll be able to see how they play the characters. No-one's method of playing is "wrong" in this game. That's not how it works. I would say maybe "sub-optimal" would be a more appropriate term. There are multiple ways to play each hero, and the promos assist that by changing the hero's base power in order to focus on a different aspect of the way their deck works. This doesn't make any promo "better" than any other - it just means it changes things up a bit, and chances are you'll find some promos just don't work so well with your playstyle, especially if they change things a lot.

Oh, btw, something I forgot to mention in my previous post - I seem to recall you mentioning at some point that you couldn't find any other guides on the Adept - there is a forum user here called...Flamethrower, I think? He wrote a bunch of guides for most of the decks a while back and I'd be very surprised if he didn't do one on the Adept, given how long Infernal Relics has been around now (it was the second expansion, after Rook City). I don't think I've read it since at the time I was newer to the game and didn't want to be "told" how to play a character. I'd rather figure that stuff out by myself. But now I've been playing for years and have however many hundreds and hundreds of games under my belt, I feel like it's okay for me to offer input on stuff like this, since now I can be fairly confident that I know what I'm talking about :). Still not going to try and tell people how to play characters, though, or say that some cards are outright better or worse than others. If anything, I'll say whether or not they're useful, and try to give examples. But the wonderful thing about this game is that there are so many possibilities, so many options...I mean, you could play against the same villain, in the same environment, with the same heroes playing in the same order several times in a row, and still have a different game every time :D. That probably explains why so many of us have played it so often and for so long. Plus, of course, the fact it's co-op. I love co-op :D.

[Kratos13]

https://greaterthangames.com/forum/topic/flamethrower49s-strategy

[MindWanderer]

There are links to strategy guides in the Multiverse section of the video game, too.

[Trajector]

Lots of the situational-ness of cards comes down to whether a hero can play their HAND, or play their DECK. It is probably more optimal (for a very individual-hero-centric definition of the word “optimal”) for any given hero to play their deck. However, no hero is in the game alone! There are the villain and environment to think about, and often the “optimal” thing for the TEAM depends on the board state.

[Basketkeep]

I very much disagree with the terms “best” and “bad”. No characters are bad, or have bad cards. Some cards may be situational, but they are in the character’s deck for a reason. It’s important to learn how a character works, especially complicated ones like Argent Adept. You have too really get a feel for each deck, and learn a strategy for each character (or in some cases multiple strategies). Also, Drake’s Pipes are garbage, seriously? Melody cards are very useful, and I usally play them early in the game if I can.

Example, I use to hate Nightmist, but when I learned how to properly use her, she becomes extremely powerful. I learned I needed to use a different strategy then most characters, and how each cards is useful for her.

Also I agree with Ameena, please don’t use terms from other games. I got very tired of you comparing MTG and Sentinels, two entirely different games.

I want to finish by applauding you for putting the time into making this. Thank you.