Hey guys, brand new to the game. Played the demo at PAX East, loved it, got the game and the expansion and all the cool promo toys. So I busted it out for a 4 player game with some friends and we drew Omnitron (Note: Probably not the best guy for the first learning game as he has some crazy mechanics) and I know this sounds like the most basic of questions and I did try to search but I can’t figure out the start phase vs “read the text” phase.
So each phase for the villain says “Start” follow any instructions on any cards in play
Play: reveal the top card of the villain deck and play it following any instructions on the card. Here is where I know it sounds silly but maybe Omnitron only has a majority of Start: cards but do you pull a card and then play it only if there is text not in the Start side or for this particular phase only you play start phase as well. We kept flip flopping in how we played it because a card would come out, do nothing, and then the heroes would do whatever was necessary for it to go away that turn, so he never really did anything to us, so we thought maybe for the flip you still do it but it just got wierd
Hope that makes sense so to sum up:
During the Play phase of the villain and environment turn, do you follow any instructions on the card regardless of what comes before it or if the only text on it is a Start: or End: then the card effectively does nothing during the play phase?
Basically, at the beginning of the turn, you do anything that says at the start of the villain turn. In Omnitron’s case, you flip his cards (but only once). Then you simply play a card. After that, you do anything that says at the end of the villain turn. In Omnitron’s case, that is either play another card, or reveal from the trash, depending on which side he is on.
If a card from the Environment or Villain deck is played during the play step of the turn, it takes effect during the current turn unless it is a start of turn effect, then it will take effect the next turn, as it was not in play at the start of the Environment/Villain turn.
Example:
Start of Environment turn: Do all Start of turn effects on Environment cards in play.
Play an Environment card from the top of the Environment deck.
End of Environment turn: Do all End of turn effects on Environment cards in play.
Also all effects should happen in the order in which they were played (at least that’s how we play it).
So for example, we played in Megalopolis. The card says:
At the start of the environment turn, this card deals the 2 targets with the highest HP 5 melee damage each.
So we assumed that mean during the play phase, this card does nothing but goes on the table, but we were easily able to deal with it every time so then we thought, well it does say “Play: reveal the card and follow the text” so then we though maybe that means during the play phase even though it says it to do it again.
Basically, you do read and follow all text when the card comes into play. However, “At the start of the environment turn, this card deals the 2 targets with the highest HP 5 melee damage each,” actually sets up a trigger. The inner effect is then only caused by the start of environment event. You still follow all directions on the card, it’s just the directions set up a trigger rather than have any actual effect. Also, Omnitron and Megalopolis are of the easiest setups, thus explaining why you seem to have lack of a challenge.
The text states that it happens at the start of the Environment turn. It is was just played so it is still the play Environment card part of the Environment turn. It would apply at the next Start of the Environment turn. If the Environment card said that the effect would happen at the End of the Environment turn then it would take effect before you could deal with it.
Thanks guys for the clarifications and letting us know the difficulty of that particular combo. At PAX we played vs the rat man in the land time forgot dinosaur island and got creamed so I thought I was doing something wrong Can’t wait to keep playing! Already a kickstart backer of the next expansion too!
Try playing against Voss on Mars and then let us know how hard it seems. For extra bonus difficulty, use the following equipment-heavy heroes: Wraith, Bunker, and Absolute Zero/
Can’t wait to keep playing! Already a kickstart backer of the next expansion too!