So, on G+ tonight I tried the new promos (sans Cosmic). In general I really liked them. I only got to use Tempest and Haka, but I saw the other 2 played and got to think about how I would have played them.
Haka gets set up really fast this way. We were fighting Voss admittably, but I had every ongoing and equipment card out except Punish the weak, and that was purposeful. He's fun and he combos well with the Tempest. Ultimately, it didn't feel all that different from regular Haka.
I also played Tempest, and while Tempest himself was a beast, several times this power was a lot less useful than his normal one or any of the ones in his deck. Except when I needed to kill something or at the very beginning of the game to set up a bit, I never used this power. His deck doesn't have enough draw to support that power. I used it a couple times to play an extra one shot, and once to get a piece of equipment out, but other than that I just didn't have cards that justified the damage or the cards I would take away from vicious cyclone. I like this power but to me it seems a bit too open. You almost need localized hurricane to use it effectively, and I think that late game as a set up would be great, but early game it seems more useless.
Adept's power I don't think got used properly so I want to see it again, but in general it's mostly a different way to play him, neither better or worse.
Fanatic's power is great. She gets a lot more one shots out, which boosts her damage a lot, it combos well with sacrosanct martyr, wrathful retribution and zealous offense really well. It also makes her a bit into a support, which is interesting. The randomness is the only draw back, but it's small. The biggest fear is a poor timed end of days, but the likelyhood of that is low.
In general, I like them and want to play with them some more
I like the idea that Fanatic becomes a bit of a wild card, that fits her. Overall that power is just wicked. Esp. with the other powers in the Prime Wardens.
I Tempest's is nice, being able to get shackles and hurricane/the other start of turn damage card out in one turn is awesome. I think it will be a situational power, much like Sacrifice.
Adept's I am excited about trying, the bottom of the deck card should make him interesting, giving you extra cards but at random, will be fun.
Haka, I think he must be insanely good. extra card play with his draw engine? The team-fiendly aspect is neat, and with sheilding it's a targetted DW Setback with a draw 2 discard 1 instead of losing a token. That is crazy.
Captain's is probably the most functional promo yet, it is designed to capitalize on the matches where Captain would normally struggle the most.
She does, it's cool. And for the most part, since she has a lot of one shots and different limiteds, every use was helpful. The mission control play of end of days was scarier than any of hers
The one issue I have with Argent is that his promo power is just about flat out better than vocalize.
Think about it. Most of his best abilities come from the accompany's of cards. Plus an extra free card play? That's nuts when chained with his normal 1 instrument/2 song setup.
I don't feel like it adds a new way to look at the deck. It's more the difference between tachyons Innate and Reaserch Grant to me. I'd really like to hear what I'm not seeing though. I have to be missing something.
I played a game with the Argent promo tonight. Arcane Cadence into Conduct with Alacritous Subdominant in play was a beast over and over. Got a lot of cards out pretty quickly and the chaining started up a lot faster.
There are three of the Argent's songs that have no accompany text, and multiple others where the perform requires you to have a specific instrument.
With vocalize, you could always rely on being able to do something- not necessarily one of the big chains, but you could always make use of part of each power, since all of them have a perform. With the new one, you have to be more reliant on the instruments.
I had little issue with Prime Tempest and card draw. Aquatic Correspondence is a beast with his innate, and you can Reclaim from the Deep it. On the turns you need more cards (Through Localized Hurricane or Aquatic Correspondence) you will likely already have access to other cards that either buff his damage, deal damage, or provide DR so your turn isn’t all hand recovery.
I’m not saying he has the best draw, but he can still reliably reuse his draw cards enough to maintain his innate most of the time. It just takes a bit of work.
I played Fanatic's promo on G+ last night and it played great. She couldn't find a power in her deck, so she gave out free ones to both the sentinels and the Naturalist, with whom she combos greatly. Getting free plays worked great, and when my teammates said they didn't want a End of Day's, I was able to discard them for 2 divine focuses that were played from the power. She feels much more like a support with this power, which I guess I like better.
