THE PINECONE GUIDE TO SETBACK
This guide uses Flamethrower49's Basic Outline, which is ironic considering what Flamethrowers do to Pinecones. These guides are a community effort and if you can provide any suggestions or constructive criticism, I will modify them accordingly.
- Best Attack: Karmic Retribution
- Best Team Support: Wrong Time and Place
- Best Personal Support: Silver Lining
- Primary Damage Type: Melee
- Secondary Damage Type: Psychic
- Worst Card: Uncharmed Life
- Nemesis: Kismet
The Unlucky Pool:
In spite of it's name, it's usually in Setback's best interest to keep his unlucky pool well stocked. There are only several exceptions to this. The biggest is Looking Up—a great card, as it is Setback's best reliable way to deal damage and to add unlucky tokens; a great amount of each in fact (3 base damage is a very good power, second only to Expatriette's Tactical Shotgun, and no other power Setback has adds to his pool). If you ever have 10 or more tokens in your pool, Setback starts hitting himself for 3 Psychic damage each turn with Looking Up. Usually you can manipulate your pool to avoid this, but it does put a cap on how much unluck you can safely store up.
The other four cases under which you might (theoretically) want fewer tokens in your unlucky pool rather than more are as follows: the opportunity to heal yourself with Plucky Break, less feedback damage from Cause and Effect, less damage done to yourself with High Risk Behavior (although you shouldn't play HRB unless you intend to be doing a lot of extra damage anyway, but you might have Risked it into play by accident), and the ability to heal yourself with Karmic Retribution (which you should never, EVER do willingly).
In all other cases, keep your pool stocked as much as possible. You want to (at least) be able to Karmic Retribution at any time, even if you don't currently have one on hand. Do be careful with having more than 9 tokens though, even if you don't have Looking Up in play yet, because you never know when you might need it or Risk it into play.
Taking Damage Like A Boss:
Setback takes damage. Damage from enemies, damage from allies, damage from himself. However, this isn't always the worst thing for him (and he does have base 31 HP), and he has ways to mitigate the disadvantage it poses. The first is, of course, Silver Lining. The best example of why to keep your unlucky pool stocked, this card is Setback's Aegis of Resurrection. It requires a bit more preparation, as you want it to go off when you can get upwards of 7 health, but if you know how to use it you can prolong Setback's life for a long time. Surprising Fortune can give you pretty sustainable healing and drawing (you can also help an ally who needs more cards); the downside is that it eats through your unlucky pool. Cash Out is a nice one-shot; it can heal you AND your allies while simultaneously giving you a lot of cards. One good combo with Cash Out is to use it when you already have Looking Up in play, so you can immediately replace the lost unlucky tokens. As mentioned above, Plucky Break can heal you, but it is difficult to have exactly two unlucky tokens at any given time (Friendly Fire can be a way to do this after a Karmic Retribution or a Silver Lining, but it only nets you 1 HP). Uncharmed Life can heal you 3, but doing so requires both your play and power phases, so it usually should not be used solely for this purpose. Finally, Wrong Time and Place is your best way to handle incoming damage. With a built-up unlucky pool, you can theoretically save yourself and your allies a lot of damage, at the expense of the villain. You do risk taking some damage (although not that much, as it only applies the first time each turn), but that is damage that won't be going to your allies, and you can shuffle it back into the deck if it becomes a problem. The only real drawback is that you only have a single copy, so count yourself lucky if you draw it. Many of Setback's combos rely on this one card, so try to Cash Out your way to it as quickly as possible.
As for the cards that hurt Setback, they usually have worthwhile effects to supplement them. Cause and Effect is a great card; not only does it get rid of an ongoing/environment card, but it has the potential to deal even more damage that Karmic Retribution (the drawback being that Setback takes just as much damage as he puts out. Note however that this card does not deplete your unlucky pool, so this can lead to some powerful combos: you can deal a ton of damage, the use Wrong Time and Place to redirect all the feedback damage you would have taken, thereby doubling the attack, or (less optimally, but still effectively) deal a ton of damage, become incapacitated, then regain health equal to the attack from Silver Lining. Just be careful; the first strategy does not work if you have any positive damage modifiers.
Speaking of damage modifiers, you have High Risk Behavior. Like Mr. Fixer’s Bloody Knuckles, this is a hard card to use effectively, but it can be crazy powerful under the right circumstances. Having it in play turns Karmic Retribution into a devastating 9 power attack. Also, it can be used in conjunction with Looking Up; Looking Up adds 3 unlucky tokens before dealing damage, so it gives itself an automatic +1 modifier. The additional automatic token each turn can be useful too. Just be careful keeping it out for too long, as Setback runs through his health very quickly if he’s not careful (and he never is).
Uncharmed Life is a meh card. If it just redirects damage to you, it would be okay, but it also eats through your unlucky pool. At least it gives you some health back once you decide you've had enough of other people's damage.
Turn of Events is a great card; you will lose a lot of tokens, but only two damage in exchange for everyone else getting to use a power will usually hurt you a lot less than it hurts the villain.
Friendly Fire is a good way to get unlucky tokens passively, and if used in conjunction with Wrong Time and Place it essentially allows you to add a free +2 damage to your allies' first attack each turn. If you don't have Wrong Time and Place in though, only use this when you need tokens desperately.
Attack:
Setback's final self-damaging card is also an attack card: Reckless Rush. I don't really like this card—the two damage to yourself in exchange for only two to your opponent is not useful in most cases—but it does provide you with your only one-shot that both does damage and adds to your unlucky pool, so that's something. If you have Wrong Time and Place in play, you can redirect the two damage you would otherwise take (and then replace the lost unlucky tokens immediately), turning this into a 4 attack card, which is, ehh, okay.The other two damaging one-shots are Karmic Retribution (by far Setback's best attack), and Exceeded Expectations (Setback's only AoE card, and not a half-bad one). Looking Up rounds out Setback's attack arsenal, and it does so fantastically, as discussed above.
The Clumsy:
Ahh, clumsy Setback. Fumbling Fool is actually a very good card. The [H] Tokens are always nice, and the card has potential for synergy with allies (i.e. Parse/Visionary putting a damaging villain card on top of the villain deck, or using it right after Tempest's Into the Stratosphere, or helping Tachyon get her bursts into the discard pile, ect.). “Whoops! Sorry!” can be annoying coming in off of a Risk (which seems to happen far more than it statistically should 
), but used late game when someone has redundant or superfluous ongoings or equipments, it can be used to hurt the villain more than it hurts your team. Also the bonus 3 unlucky tokens are a nice plus.
Weaknesses:
Setback's biggest weakness is his reliance on Melee damage. Cause and Effect is his only reliable way to deal Psychic damage to someone other than himself, but it also damages him. There is an interesting combo that you can use to get around this: give yourself more than 9 tokens with Looking Up, let yourself take the Psychic damage, and redirect the damage with Wrong Time and Place. Then use Looking Up in your power phase to replenish your pool and deal an additional 3 damage (although this will be melee). This is a good combo regardless of whether your opponent has some defense against Melee, as it allows Setback to reliably put out 6 damage each turn.
Teamups:
Setback appreciates anyone who can help him Risk the right cards into play, or get to his Wrong Time and Place faster. Visionary and Parse are great for this. In both cases, they benefit too from Setback's ability to absorb damage.
Visionary's Twist the Ether is amazing for Setback, as it can boost his damage against enemies while simultaneously reducing his damage to himself. It can also help him overcome his reliance on Melee, if that becomes a problem.