Her "very successful cousin" is Tachyon. The 17 year-old girl's parents compared her to her cousin who has a doctorate, revolutionized the fields of energy use, medicine, etc., and is a super hero. Who is more than twice her age, by the way. The real villain is The Matriarch's parents comparing a little girl to a superhero scientist, in my opinion.
EDIT: And then I was super late to the game. My bad! Made a customer a latte and before I know it I'm slowpoking it up with Nemesis explanation!
Legacy: Paul Parsons
Tachyon: Meredith Stinson
AZ: Ryan Frost
Bunker: Tyler Vance
Wraith: Maia something or other
Haka: …Haka?
Ra: Blake Washington
Tempest: er…
Visionary: Vanessa Long
Expatriot: Errr…
Fixer: 'Slim'
And I haven't the slightest clue about the rest.
I believe Tach/Matriarch's relationship was somewhere on a previous post, because I know there has been a post about why they are nemesis. The most entertaining things can be pulled from flavor text, like Adept found the first instrument while in the presence of an untransformed Ra.
I saw the update and my first thought was that The Assistant was going to be awesome. Imagine if Pepper Potts or Moneypenny could do if they decided that they hated Iron Man/James Bond, especially if she kept it secret. So cool. I'm super excited for this villain.
Haka is Aata (I cannot remember the rest), Fixer is H.R. (Henry Robert, I believe) "Slim" Walker, Wraith is Maia Montgomery, Tempest is M'kk Dall'ton (Mack Dalton on Earth), Expat is Amanda Cohen. Ra is Blake Washington, Jr. Fanatic was given a name at a convent (I cannot remember it, currently), Nightmist is Faye Diamond, and Argent Adept is Anthony Drake. I cannot remember Unity's name...
I think those are right, but I didn't double check before posting.
My guess, based on that the reward picture of the Assistant has no HP listed, is that her mechanic is going to revolve around being a modifier/enhancer for existing villains. So you play her along with a regular villain, and she kicks the difficulty up a notch by sabotaging equipment, misplacing requisitions, and generally making it harder to get things done. Maybe once she flips she reveals herself, and you can go after her?
Or she has no HP on tha side because she's not a target when she's stealthily plotting from within. It's only when her diaboloical plans for prevenge are revealed that the heroes realise she's a threat and can target her and she gets hit points.
Or the hit ponts were left off for some reason and the real version will have some.
In the beginning, The Chairman on his initial side actually was not a target, and thus could not be the target for damage until flipped. However, that was changed after a couple revisions he became a target on his initial side, and he was made immune to all damage.
I'd honestly prefer it if The Assistant was her own villain. I think that would make her a lot more interesting. If she is an additional obstactle in the fight, I don't see her being used as often, honestly.
I can take a solid guess and say that The Assistant has to be awesome. After all, she made second place in the villain creation contest. She has to have something that makes her worthy of that place. Also, I think she's just going to be a normal villain and not an add-on, because I feel like it would be unlikely for someone to make a contest entry thinking "I'm going to submit something that isn't a villain and would throw in a completely new mechanic to this game." It's more likely that The Assistant is just going to be a cleverly done villain deck.
I didn't exactly run and tell my friends about her in joy--really, I just ran and told them so we could all ponder this villain. It's a complete curveball. So really I'm just excited because this is one of the bigger mysteries about the game (currently).
Just to lay something down: as a playtester, I can assure you, La Capitan is quite awesome.
My guess is that the picture has no HP listed for the same reason that none of the initial promo pictures during the Infernal Relics Kickstarter had HP listed.
I went back and looked, and you are absolutely correct. I checked the Rook city kickstarter as well, and what you said holds up, with one VERY important caveat.
The base artwork for all promos, new heroes, and new villains doesn't have HP or anything else listed. it is just the artwork. However, in every instance I could find (links to follow) where it was more than just the base artwork- HP was listed.
For instance, Ra's Horus promo was initially teased here (base artwork, bottom of page): http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gtgames/sentinels-of-the-multiverse-infernal-relics-and-en/posts?page=8
Here is Ra's full card (artwork + formatting and text): http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gtgames/sentinels-of-the-multiverse-infernal-relics-and-en/posts?page=6
compare Dark visionary as base artwork to Dark Visionary with formatting: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gtgames/sentinels-of-the-multiverse-shattered-timelines/posts?page=2
What I see with the Assistant is that the card has a subtitle, text, even the nemesis circle. It is NOT base artwork. It is in every respect, a fully functional card, just one without HP. To me, this suggests that the Assistant has no HP to list.
Ambuscade has a mechanic where he cannot take damage, but even on the side of the card that renders him immune to damage, he has HP.
While I could be wrong, and certainly have been in the past, I do not believe that the Assistant has HP- at all. that then suggests to me that there is an alternative way of beating her (some sort of plot the heroes must resolve), or she is someone who is to be played in conjunction with a standard villain.
Obviously, time will tell. And I'm quite happy to say that I'm wrong (and crazy) if I'm off-base.
This.
Mind you, I do have faith that she'll be awesome, but it's faith rather than a reaction to what I've seen of The Assistant so far.
Considering that her reason for hating the heroes is the fact that they failed to save her (or to be more precise, will fail to save her) by choosing to save those other five people, perhaps it's entirely about some cards that are in her deck which require the heroes to save her and the five strangers in order to win. In that case, not having her as a target would make sense.
I cannot even begin to imagine that the second place submission in the villain contest would just be a rider. That, to me, is ridiculous. And, being runner up in said contest, The Assistant must have solid mechanics that thus make her deserve the spot here, and I am ecstatic to be able to play with her in the future, since I had assumed every submission other than La Capitan would be nothing more than a topic on this very forum.
If she is indeed not a target, then that would require a very tight deck and I would be very interested in watching her plans play out...hmm...now I almost hope that she isn't a target, just to see what would happen! I mean, I still find it hard to believe that Legacy would joyfully punch the face off of his 'Finest Assistant.'
Curious, why change from no HP to with HP but immuned to dmg?
The lack of status as a Target, I would imagine. I wasn't involved in RC Playtesting, but by giving him HP he can soak up damage from Environment effects and such. Makes him quite the pill.
Probably to keep him as a target for things like highest HP and such so that things like that go to waste. The Assistant could be different, she may keep the no HP on her front side, as they don't know she's the villain yet, whereas they are already going after The Chairman, they just have to go through his lackeys first.
I will hold off on total judgement untill I see what her deck is like but I have to admit when I first saw this my inital reaction was " What the heck is this?". I can see a few ways this can work, perhaps her deck is filled with minor villains that the heroes go out to fight while she sabotages behind the scenes until she flips and is revealed, or more likely some other mechanic I've not considered.
I agree. I take it on faith that she will be awesome for all the reasons stated in previous posts (>Games hasn't done me wrong yet, she IS the runner-up in a list of pretty cool villains, etc.)… but IMO she is definitely more of a treat for the fans than a real draw for new players.
If you just scroll through the cards that have been revealed so far you have 7 awesome-looking heroes and one "interesting" villain, I will wait to see what (hopefully awesome) villain is revealed tomorrow before I start a new promo-blitz campaign to my non-gamer friends.
Huh, my reaction was a lot more positive than that of many people here. It's funny, original and intriguing and works very well as a promo villain. I don't understand why people are so underwhelmed. Is it just because superhero PA's usually function on the background that it seems boring? Because the idea of someone so close yet so invisible turning against the heroes in secret actually seems pretty scary to me, and would make a great story arc in many comic series.
And as others have said, I doubt you get to second place by just a `huh, the assistant, that's clever'. There's a solid, original mechanic underneath this, and if you think about it, the lack of obvious super powers and the like only guarantees this. As a villain, she has to pose a threat, after all.
Has anyone else noticed a ghostly streak from the bottom left of the card (It seems to be coming from the keyboard) to the top right? Do we think that's something or is it just me scrutinizing too much?
Also, I think her Nemesis is Curly Bracket, The Pugnacious Punctuation of Progress. He'll cross your teeths and chop your eyes! Oxford comma? More like rocks your genre! He strikes with carpal tunnel and bad marks from your English teacher.