How Scholar’s deck plays is not fully obvious until multiple plays even for someone who has played the game for a bit. He isn’t a two just because it’s possible to get by with a suboptimal game as that can be accomplished with any hero of any given complexity.
Yeah, Wraith would be a 2 or even a 3 by that logic. She has multiple strategies depending on whether she’s focusing on offence (Targeting Computer, Razor Ordnance, Throwing Knives), defense (Stun Dart, Smoke Bombs), deck control (Infrared Eyepiece), or a hybrid strategy. She’s easy to be effective with but very difficult to optimize, especially with Impromptu Invention which requires you to know her deck well. Similarly, Legacy has a to balance or choose between offense, defense, and support, and his ceiling complexity is very high with Next Evolution shenanagans (and even higher with Greatest or F5 Legacy, who have to know the other heroes at the table and have good communication).
I can’t agree with this at all. AZ can’t get by at all with a poor grasp of how he works–he does basically nothing or he suicides. AA can barely get anything done and his turns take forever with someone who doesn’t know him well. Nightmist blows herself up to no good effect. Setback just gets murdered while randomly doing not a whole lot. The only way they’ll win played badly is if the rest of the team carries them. An incompetent Scholar can still be a huge asset.
I’ve been part of games where the person playing the Scholar, that includes me, where he was carried through the game or got themselves killed quickly because they thought what’s the worse that could happen with Alchemical Redirection while having Flesh to Iron in play.
I'm not what you'd call a new player by any stretch, and I still do things like that. <.<; I've lost many a Naturalist to bad timing...
For those of you talking about La Comodora, here's what I've learned after a few plays:
- Concordant Helm is paramount. Get it out as soon as you can, keep it out even if it means sacrificing others' setup, unless you have another one in hand. Always take your draw phase first so you can get two cards.
- Shipshape is probably her next most important card, followed by Maria Helena's Plan. Shipshape is especially good when you're still looking for Concordant Helm, it will help you keep one or two portals open with minimal extra draw.
- The coolest thing I've found to do with Shipshape's secondary text (returning a card in play to the top of your deck, then playing it) is retrieving a Paradoja Figurehead from someone else's play area when you've already got one in yours. You can't move them to separate play areas, but you can play both together, and that will get you the amazing +2 damage boost you need to have an explosive turn with lots of your stuff out.
- When playing the base version, a great strategy (after you've got Concordant Helm, anyway) is using your innate power on yourself to put that Harness Anomaly you just played under the top card of your deck, where you'll draw it next turn and be able to play it again. Cycling that card will make up for the fact that you're not using your power on anyone else.
Other than that, I mostly don't try to plan too much. I've rarely felt like I needed to have any particular equipment in play beyond maybe the Figureheads. I mean, Weigh Anchor will give you anywhere from 0-6 Equipment all at once, and you'll likely not be able to sustain all of it, so I kind of take that as a cue to not sweat strategy too much beyond setting up with the cards I mentioned above. Cannon Portal is always nice, Brig Teleporter is good in certain situations; I rarely bother with Future-Tech Deck Gun because I'm too busy cycling Harnessed Anomaly. And of course, I'd hardly call myself a Comodora expert yet; I think she's got more interactions and combos left to find. :)
Having gone through that with Scholar it does make me hesitant at times playing Thorathian Monolith or Indomitable Force
To be fair, often if someone gets incapped by a bad turn of tanking, it's because there was so much damage being thrown around that it would have just led to everyone else being half-dead instead (especially if the amount of damage is large enough to get through the DR that tanking abilities often grant), so it's not that bad a gaffe.
Yeah, Monolith doesn't feel anywhere near as good to use as Indominable. It's easy to see why though, with all the DR and self-healing that Naturalist can stack on himself. He can recover from a bad play much easier than Sky.
I just do my best to always be in rhino mode before using Indominable, maybe even have 'Resiliant Hide' and 'Blend into the pack' out if it's possible.
Thanks for the thoughts, everyone! I still think Luminary feels more Complexity 2 to me, but I see why the other choices were made.
It can be pretty nasty with just a five-person team. For example, Omnitron on advanced can hit the party for 7 damage per person with sedative flechettes. That is a heavy hit, but survivable, but if someone with DR 2 tanks everything in a five-player game, that’s 25 damage to that person’s face.
I also remember a game when something caused the Scholar to top-deck an Alchemical Redirection when I didn’t want it, and I had Unity in play with four golems. That was a bad turn for the Scholar’s survival.
I think Scholar is a solid 3. I've played him probably 50 times, and I'd say he is actually better using a delayed Keep Moving + Liquid + Energy strategy (sometimes you still want Iron in the early rounds) than an Iron strategy in 2/3 of games, and most people just use Iron the whole game. Learning to set up LEE or even LLEE / LEEE gives you a whole new view on the character.
Just to revisit this having played Luminary a bunch of times in digital, I think he is actually pretty easy to get. Maybe that’s coloured by my view as an experienced Sentinels player and I’d find him more confusing if he were given to me as a first character, but to be honest while you have a lot going on, you can kind of just throw stuff out and see what happens a lot of the time. His base power plays bots or sets you up for a doomsday later, most of his oneshots are pretty flexible, etc.
The only caveat I have for that I guess is the difference between physical and digital - you would have to remember what each device does and when it does it in the Physical game, whereas all that leg work is done for you digitally.
He was definitely the easiest ObliVeon hero to ‘get’ I think though, including Void Guard, Stuntman and Benchmark.
Yeah, just chipping in that Luminary is pretty straightforward (and FUN).
The only complaint: am I the only one who's underwhelmed with the Explosive Reconstructor? I mean, 2 damage to everything doesn't really feel "doomsday" to me. It's just a fire-type Grevious Hailstorm with a buildup cost of getting 15 cards in the trash, and then destroying the device.
Is there something I'm missing, and this is way better than Grevious Hailstorm?
Isn't that the one that lets you put all your devices in the trash back into play? Or am I thinking of a different card?
Doesn't it put every device in your trash into play? I mean, that's a whole lot of drones and turrets for your End of Turn...
You get back all the devices out of your trash. That little army can be quite helpful if you are in a longer game or as a setup with All According To Plan and Dangerous Vision.
What's great about the Reconstructor, as I just learned, is once you get all those devices back, not only do you have massive end of turn energy, but your Sabre Battle Drones can immediately start refilling your trash by destroying the less useful ones. Bonus if you have All According to Plan!
Add a little Villain damage, and that trash would fill right back up!
Somehow, I am incapable of remembering that second part for longer than it takes to read the card.
So, yeah, that's going to be useful for getting Heroic Luminary
Well, it puts all your devices from your trash into play too
It's useful when using Heroic Luminary as well. Use Bared Blade to put them all in play, then use your base power for a whole mess of damage. With All According to Plan and Battle Drones, it can be about the same damage as the Orbital Laser, plus you get to keep all the devices afterwards!
It's the best Doomsday Device, because it sets you up the strongest to fire off a Doomsday Device again when they die and re-enter the trash. Bring on the device destruction!