Question: Tempest in the Refuge

Games Sentinels of the Multiverse
1

A question came up during gameplay. The character bios imply a few interesting (and fairly minor) card interactions, but the cards don't directly say whether these should work, and Googling the forums isn't turning up answers.

The Maerinyan Refuge has cards which heal and protect Maerinyans. Is Tempest a Maerinyan?

Grand Warlord Voss has a card which reduces damage to Thorathians. Is Sky-Scraper a Thorathian?

Luminary has cards which heal devices (including those not his own), increase damage of devices, and respond to damage dealt to devices. Omnitron-IV has cards which damage non-devices. Is Omnitron-X/U a device?

2

A particular card counts as something only if the key word appears in their text box.  So Voss is a Thoratian, but Sky-Scraper isn’t.

3

The answer is no to all of the above as none of those characters have that keyword on their character card.  

4

Yeah, that's what I thought. We were just hoping the game rules matched the narrative, since it's been so very good about that so far.

5

If you did want to play them that way, since it does make some narrative sense, I don't think any of those changes would be particularly game breaking, so you're free to house rule it.

6

Who knows the definative eddition coud possibly give them extra key words

7

It wouldn't make sense in some cases. For example, if Skyscraper had the "Thorathian" keyword, she'd suddenly be protected by Lieutenant Tamar...

8

Another case is that giving Omnitron X/U the device keyword means you’d have to incap them before winning against Omnitron.  

9

Unless Omnitron’s character card was also updated in definative edition to say non-hero devices. My thought is that these changes would be possible but really careful attention would need to be paid to all the interactions. I’m 50-50 on whether or not it would be worth it.

10

Guess it's time for an analytical archive dive, then.

(deep breath)

Tempest in the Refuge would mostly benefit from Plavu'col Capitol. Both Tempest and the environment can easily deal lightning damage, so Tempest would end up healing at least 4 per round for as long as the Capitol is out. This would make Tempest very hard to kill. On the other hand, people playing Tempest in the Maerinyan Refuge aren't looking for a challenging game anyway.

In addition to Sky-Scraper, Abject Refugees and Freedom Fighters in the Dok'Thorath Capitol deck also don't have the Thorathian keyword, despite the card art depicting Thorathians. Perhaps that tag actually means "Thorathian Member of Grand Warlord Voss's Legion of Doom, Oppression, and General Unpleasantness", which is quite understandably shortened on the card.

Omnitron-X is most interesting, partly because there are more interactions with the device keyword, partly because it examines what happens when third party content uses keywords in unexpected ways (whether on normal cards or on character cards) - but mostly because Luminary runs on device cards, so any odd behavior arising from Omnitron-X would apply to Luminary. Searching around, there are significant interactions with Omnitron I (more when advanced), Omnitron IV, Baron Blade: Evolved Madman (advanced), and Baron Blade: Evolved Madman's Omni-Blade. There are also relatively minor interactions with Omnitron II (advanced), Ambuscade's Charged Attacks, and of course Luminary's stuff. Mechanically, none of those are any more bizarre or game-breaking than Luminary's use of that keyword in the same conditions. In the spirit of entertainment, Omnitron I would need editing, as no one wants to turn against Omnitron-X or Luminary when the game is effectively over.

(Side note: A Villains-style game with Omnitron I (advanced) + Omnitron-X (device) + Baron Blade: Evolved Madman (advanced) + Luminary + Omnitron IV is a doomed combo, yet it's amazing the way everything relies on each other.)

Otherwise, Omni-Unity from Oblivaeon could be a mechanical golem or a device or both, and Citizen Storm could be both a citizen and a Maerinyan. Normal villains Citizens Hammer and Anvil could have the citizen key, but that would be purely for flavor since there's nothing that would interact with it in normal play.

(Side note: Today I have learned that America's Cleverest Legacy's base power has no restrictions on the card it destroys, other than matching a keyword from a deck. He can destroy villain character cards. Of course, you can get the same results with any character at any time by putting the cards back in the box and watching a movie instead.)

11

Just checking: Omnitron can’t (according to the standard rules) be used in a team villain game, can it?

12

No Omnitron nor Cosmic Omnitron aren’t designed for team villain games.   

13

When people pooled resources to do a print run of those they addressed it by specifying “non-character” cards. Since it was a non-canonical Easter Egg and not something intended for actual play, they’d let that aspect of it slip.