I was looking at the different decks and looking for things that are in other games and compare and contrast
no coin flip mechanic (maybe mister black and yellow nemisis of Kismet?) no dice mechanic (see above) Nothing that alters seating arrangement (the order in what heroes go)
What are some of the others people have noticed?
Edit : added to the list Counterspell: counter a card as its drawn Redirection ( also known as take the red shirt) : redirect destruction of this card to another card Revive: Flip a hero back over after incap' The Multi-hero: a hero who has multiple base cards used in a game see Ben10 or Beast boy
I will just keep adding to this list as they come up
There's no retreat mechanic (ie no play/power/draw phase but you're withdrawn from the game until the start of your next round) - I've actually toyed with home-ruling this one, though there are a lot of ways to do it, both logically and mechanically. For instance, if you retreat, it makes sense to be able to draw a card, as if you're recuperating or hiding to buy time, though if it were a one-shot, it couldn't affect anyone other than you (not saying you'd have to attack yourself, but if it's "everyone draw a card," only you draw the card). The idea struck me in mulling ideas over the Multiverse Hunger Games, though I think it would get pretty difficult to implement (for instance, what if every hero chose to retreat for the first turn... some villains [Iron Legacy] you really don't want to give that extra turn of setup, but others might be worth the risk if everybody has a bad initial draw).
That thought did cross my mind, though it bugs me when I'm in a game and one hero is getting pounded (maybe lots of attacks on lowest HP and most cards in play or something) while the others are in good shape, and there's no Smoke Bombs or Lead from the Front or whatever available. It's like all the other heroes are like, "Man, that sucks," and then shrug and keep attacking. It just seems like a strategic withdrawal (to either try to get the right card or get an extra self-heal in or something) would make sense. Maybe call it Strategic Withdrawal instead of Retreat :-p
Like I said, it'd be crazy to try to balance (maybe only one hero can withdraw at a time, they have to be under 10 HP, and they can't withdraw two turns in a row?), and I'm not sure I'd even want it added, but the question at hand is not "What mechanics do I think should be added to the game?" but "What mechanics are missing?".
I feel like a cancellation mechanic is definitely missing from the game. You can stop the other decks from playing a card, you can move cards around, but there's nothing that can stop the card once it's drawn.
It would have to be a big deal, probably a one-shot that there's only a copy or two of in the deck and maybe it's removed from the game once you use it, but no one can tell me they didn't wish there was something they could do when Devastating Aurora is staring you in the face.
I’ve always wanted some effect which could prevent destruction of cards (not really a global destruction prevention, more like “If a card would be destroyed, destroy this card instead,” or even a “The first time a card would be destroyed each round, prevent that card from being destroyed”). I know Kismet has this, but that is the opposite that I’m looking for. I know Chrono Ranger had this effect, but I haven’t played him since release and I’m unsure if he still has this ability.
Chrono has lost that ability, as it was just too powerful, as it allowed Fanatic to play End of Days and instead of destroyed hero stuff you could choose his hat and it will prevent the rest of the destruction, then you could use ongoing destruction to destroy End of Days so it would not activate again. It would be nice of course, but it would be way too easy to take advantage of.
I wouldn't say any of those mechanics are "missing". In the games that I've played where there was a dice mechanic I usually preferred that there not be one. Same with coin flips.
The only game that I know of that changes seating is The Great Dalmuti/Dilbert.
I see your point although this makes more sense for some heros than others (the antiheros perhaps). It might be something like only one hero can withdraw at a time. So one person can hide out and recover while the others keep the villian busy since as Jagarciao said it wouldn't be very heroic to let the villian go completely unchecked.
Obviously I have no idea how the wording was or the specifics of how the card worked, but it seems odd that they couldn't have set it up so that end of days would destroy everything but the one thing that was indestructible. That way it would wipe all the other hero'ss cards and all but one of CRs. I'm very curious what the mechanics were now.
The wording on it was "When this card is destroyed prevent all other card destruction this turn" since the heroes choose the order of destruction they could destroy the whole lot of villain stuff then the Hat, which would mean nothing else could be destroyed that round. Pretty neat huh? Though Jim's Hat is still a powerful card and probably the ultimate card in his deck as it now lets you play more than one card per turn, so it's not like it is weaker by any means.
I'm always in favor of home rules, of course, but withdrawing might be an issue if all but one hero is incapacitated and that hero withdraws. Might work better with a rule that a hero can only withdraw if there are (some number, like H-1) other heros that are not withdrawn or incapacitated…
As to dice, coins, etc., I honestly don’t think >G will go there. It’s just not in the flavor of the game. We have a template for handling things like that in a more appropriate fashion, with NightMist’s spell numbers. There could be some other, imaginative ways to handle this kind of need - and I wouldn’t be surprised to see >G come up with something really entertaining for Twitchy (nickname of Kismet’s nemesis), if it even fits the hero.
I don't call it a mulligan. I just say, "Shoot, I think these are the last 4 cards I had last game, so I must not have shuffled." My cohorts get suspicious when I do it 3 times in a row
If you don't like the starting hand you got, you can reshuffle and draw a new one. Normally there's a limit to how many times you can do this. Most other card games have it, like Magic and Lord of the Rings LCG.