So we know a ton about the gameplay thanks to this update. (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gtgames/sentinels-of-the-multiverse-oblivaeon/posts/1496315) what we don't know is still a lot.
We know the components and the amount of villain decks (3) but we don't know exactly when the three decks will play. We do know the battle zone set up, and the turn order between the battle zones, but we don't really know when the three decks will play right?
what are your Predicitions / thoughts about the Oblivean style play?
I think the mission deck will work independently and similar to the title deck, where new missions will come out as the game goes on, but not necessarily based on start or end of turn.
I bet that OblivAeon acts either right before or right after the Scion deck. I don't think they will stagger them, because unlike Team battle style fights, heroes will only face 1 at a time, and if you staggered them heroes would only need to face 2 villain turns every 3 rounds, because you could dodge a turn by moving intelligently.
I think a decent bit of the mission deck/scion deck purpose will be for the heroes to take out the shield that OblivAeon has, and when you do that he becomes fightable, before that you probably have to avoid him like the plague.
Due to the way the moving back and forth works I expect the missions to give you powers that are big toward taking out shields, since you can move to OblivAeon's side by skipping your play phase, use a power, then skip your draw phase to move back.
That would let you break down the shield while not having to face OblivAeon's nasty attacks that he has with his shield up. (I assume that is how the shield works)
Alternately the Shield could stick around and mission rewards could give you ability to ignore/absorb the shield effects, so that heroes have to keep getting mission rewards to whittle down OblivAeon.
There will probably be some downside to having no heroes in OblivAeon's battle zone. Maybe he'll get stronger the more environment cards are allowed to go out, maybe he'll be like Deadline and start removing them from the game or something. I can't help but think there'll be some reason to have someone in his zone, otherwise you might as well just start everyone in the other zone and only unlock OblivAeon's after you have the shield down.
OblivAeon doesn't have a battle zone from what was shown. OblivAeon's deck is in the middle that Independant of any Battle Zone. The Aeon and Scion decks are in the two battle zones.
So we’ve got three notable areas that we’re not used to from regular Sentinels of the Multiverse gameplay: the first and second Battle Zone, and the Deck Area. The Deck Area only exists to keep you from having to move piles of cards around. When OblivAeon or a Scion moves from one Battle Zone to another, you don’t have to also more their decks and trash piles - those stay in the Deck Area.
I think an obvious way to make the Mission Deck work would be like a combination of the Title Deck and a legacy deck from other games.
You’d shuffle the deck and place it on the table, such that the top card says “Flip this card when ____” - which would be the “mission.” Then the other side has the mission reward.
I have a feeling that an encounter with Oblivaeon could imply more than the maximum 5 heroes. I'm thinking something along the lines of: "each player picks 2 heroes. 1 of them is put into play. When this first hero is incapacitated, the second hero takes its place immediately."
I think it would convey the "epic" feeling appropriately, considering even regular villains are teaming up against this final threat. It would also allow to recover from the attacks from Oblivaeon himself, wich are presumably going to hurt a lot...
I’ve been thinking this as well. OblivAeon’s win condition may require incapacitating (H) times 2 or even (H) times 3 Heroes. Having as few as 3 Heroes take on OblivAeon alone seems like less then the multiverse spanning cross-over event we know this battle to be.
The way I'm looking at it is, OblivAeon is attacking all of reality, you're just playing as one of several sets of heroes fighting him, each taking on a different part of his shield.
Legacy and the Freedom Five might be fighting him in Megalopolis, where they can take out Shield A, while the Dark Watch fights him in Rook City, taking out Shield B and the Prime Wardens find the key to Shield C in Atlantis.
Kinda like the finale of JLU, where the battle's taking place over the whole world, with a handful of heroes fighting in each location.
Which would explain why it's possible to defeat him without seeing the helper Scion (if it is indeed possible to win without seeing it). The Scion is helping, and is part of the victory - but with a different group of heroes. Your group is just setting up for that victory.
I thing to be noted is in the quoted text from the Kickstarter we have this "When OblivAeon or a Scion moves from one Battle Zone to another"
So there is reason to believe certain cards in the deck will have effects like "OblivAeon does X. Move OblivAeon to the opposite zone" meaning you may run from him, but he may come for you just as quickly. And I imagine Scions and Aeon men will deploy in both zones.