On a meaner Kismet

Games Sentinels of the Multiverse
1

I am pretty happy, on the whole, with how Kismet turned out when we finished playtesting Shattered Timelines. But I think it's just natural to want to tinker with a thing you played a part in making as time goes by, and some ideas have been on my mind since the last time I fought against that smug luck-theif. I actually lost against her that time, but afterward I was thinking of how she might have beaten me even worse.

The main idea behind Kismet is that she manipulates her deck in ways normally reserved for players, arranging to get Lucky cards more frequently than she should be. In practice, though, there's only a few things that really do this, and her main threat is her gradual accumulation of Jinxes rather than the state of her deck. But now that the breadth of precedented mechanics in Sentinels is wider, I think I have an idea how to make both parts of her dangerous:

On her "Charmed Scoundrel" side

Replace the third paragraph (the one about checking for Lucky cards) with this (and move it to the top):

At the start of the villain turn, if the top card of the villain trash is not a Lucky card, shuffle it into a hero's deck. If a villain card is drawn from a hero deck, play it immediately. If a villain card would end up in a hero trash, put it in the villain trash.

On her "Deranged Miscreant" side

Replace the first sentence in the second paragraph (the one about healing her if there's a Lucky card in play) with this:

At the end of the villain turn, reveal the top card of the villain deck. If it is a Lucky card, put it into play and Kismet regains 1 HP. If not, discard it.

On the "Stolen Charm" side of The Talisman

Replace the power description with this:

POWER: Reveal the top 4 cards of any one deck. Discard 1 and put the others back on top in any order.

Now, letting her hold on to her Talisman too long carries the additional threat of letting her build up streaks of luck for herself by hiding her Jinxes in other people's decks, so her own, once shuffled, will be mostly Lucky stuff. When she loses it, she lets loose all that stored good fortune as she furiously works to get back what you stole. BUT! As long as the Talisman is in the heroes' posession, the players will have a means of purging their hero decks of bad luck, simultaneously diluting her good luck for the next time her trash is shuffled back to her deck.

I haven't tested this yet, but I'd be interested to hear your thoughts. I wanted to bring the "tug-of-war over fate" struggle more to the forefront in a way that made the Talisman more instrumental in turning the tides, although any hero with a good deck-manipulating move can also help here.

2

Cool theme, awesome to see the you come up with a twist to Kismet.

Isn't shuffling cards into Hero decks too slow, though? What I have used in my games to make her harder was to put Lady Luck into play in the Setup and make it indestructible.

3

I tried this out after I posted, and yeah, it was too slow. The villain cards did show up in heroes' decks sometimes, but 60-card decks take a while. Also, she never got around to shuffling her trash into her deck.

Lady Luck is one of my favorite cards, it's too bad she only has one copy of it (she actually doesn't have any cards that have more than two copies). I was also considering reversing the conditions for how it triggers, so when her deck is Luckier it's harder to get rid of stuff. But I thought I'd hold off on editing non-character cards if I could help it.

I might try just having the villain cards get shuffled among the top 10 cards of a hero deck, or use the environment instead (ooh, and then it would play itself faster with Inconceivable Obstruction). Not sure what to do about her deck not playing itself out fast enough. Giving her an extra card play on the front like she used to have might work, or I could just have her switch her trash and deck when she flips.

It did make the fight more interesting, though! So I'll prolly keep messing with this and see where it takes me.

 

4

I think shuffling her revealed Lucky cards into the Envrionment is a good idea, and it fits with the idea of her manipulating the entire situation with her luck. Suddenly, the Environment turn would become like a mini-villian turn.

5

I have thought about making similar changes, but haven't played here yet with a permanent indestructible Lady Luck. Could you tell me how this increases here difficulty?

6

Makes it much, much harder to get rid of any of her Ongoings.

7

Plus flipping her is not guaranteed. You really want to keep the Talisman a lot more and use it's power making the match more unique.

 

Edit: Oh, and I didn't change any of her cards, just added text to her setup section and 'Lady Luck is undistructible' to her gameplay section. Initially played it was only on her front side, but I think it's better on both.

8

Just a thought - Wouldn't her manipulation of luck be rather quick to help her? So what would be wrong with putting her cards on top of the hero decks, meaning they either a) forgo their draw or b) get past it quickly and just deal with it. Shinobi style from Temple of Zhu Long

 

We know from Ambuscade shuffling stuff into a deck rarely makes it come up again. Putting it on top is interesting

 


Alternatively, you could go with something like

 

If the top card of the trash is not a lucky card, add it face up to Kismet's 'Manipulation Deck', a second deck of villain cards off to the side.  The first time each turn Kismet would do damage to a hero increase that damge by (H)+1 or play the top card of the Manipulation Deck.

 

Would have to work on the wording there, probably, and also the draw back to not playing the card.  It counts as a deck so the Talisman can be used to mitigate it, and as the game goes on, her deck would filter into Lucky and Unlucky cards. 

 

Alternatively, you could do something like 'At the start of the game take 1 copy of every jinx and place it in a seperate deck to the side, called the Jinx Deck. The first time Kismet would do damage each turn, increase that damage by H+1 or play the top card of the Jinx Deck.

9

maybe add 'If there are no cards in her jinx deck, reduce damage dealt by kismet by 1' and maybe increase damage dealt by 1 on her deranged side?

10

This would be pretty easy to avoid with RC Wraith. Especially since you'd be able to tell right away which cards belong to the villain.

11

There are a couple ways to counter that… An easy one is that you could handle them like Ambuscade’s traps - shuffle the Lucky cards into the environment deck, and play them whenever they are on top.

That’s if it’s a problem at all - having one particular hero who nerfs the effect isn’t necessarily a problem as that hero won’t be in every game. Even if they are, they have to spend their turns looking at the environment instead of other stuff.

12

I see that as a positive! Rook City Wraith could use some love.

13

 

Yes true, but I was more asking it in the line of how more difficult it makes the fight in general. 

Is it still a fair fight? Too dificult? Just right?