Sky-scraper strategies

Games Sentinels of the Multiverse
1

I really enjoy playing Sky-scraper; I think she has a lot of interesting moves in her deck - yesterday I did two Colossal Left Hooks in a row followed by a Tectonic Chokeslam - and it can be fun to simply embrace her indiscriminate-ness sometimes. But as we've been playing, we've been tracking our wins and losses, and so far: Sky-scraper is the least reliable hero. We've got her record standing at just slightly more losses than wins, while the other heroes are solidly in the black.

I think it comes back to the fact that her deck is set up in such a way that if she can't play cards, she's hosed. Especially if she's Tiny, which is the natural early-phase strategy for her, because the Tiny power has her play cards. You might shrink in order to deploy a lot of Links, but then you're one Leaking Room or Traffic Pileup away from total impotence. Being Normal isn't much better.

The Naturalist and Mister Fixer have similar overall strategies, where they change their rules of engagement to fit the situation. But the Naturalist is far more flexible, since his power has him search and put a form into play. And Mister Fixer is more reliable, since his power always deals damage, and you go in knowing that that's what he does. On the one hand, I really like the thematic implications of Sky-scraper's deck - that she thinks of actions first, and the size change just comes as a consequence. And nothing beats doing a few Linking Incursions, then chaining a Colossal Left Hook with an Explosive Reveal. Aggression Modulators are fantastic, and I'd rather have a Thorathian Monolith on my side than not. But in the end, it just doesn't pay off.

I'm wondering what all your experience has been with her. 

2

I haven't her played enough to really say, but the Sentinels Statistics Project puts her in the upper quartile of heroes.

 

Yes, being unable to play cards hamstrings her quite a bit, especially if she's not Huge.  But blocking card play is one of the least common abilities for environments and villains to have.  By my count, only Ruins of Atlantis and Megaopolis block card play for Environments, and only Progeny, Infinitor, and the Dreamer prevent card plays.  And of those, only Infinitor's Crushing Cage and Megaopolis' Hostage Situation are likely to stick around for more than a turn.

 

How do you choose which Villains/Environments to play against?

3

My problem with Sky-scraper so far (and I have not played her very much) is she seems to have 2 decks. On one hand, big damage and mitigation, on the other links and sneaky planning. I haven't been able to bridge that gap and make her work as a whole (this has been compounded by horrific draws, links with no valid targets to play them on and ect.)

4

Yeah I've only gotten to play her a few times.   I like the idea and setup of her but I can't really seem to find a good strategy.   It often seems like I get a few good cards of each size but can't really justify all the switching as the power use isn't what I need or want currently.   

5

When I play Sky-Scraper, I like to play any link cards I have in hand over the first few turns, that way I can make use of Surveillance to build my hand. If Compulsion Cannister is in play, I like to switch to Tiny and continue to cycle that card. I save my Huge cards for when I really need to wail on something hard or want to hit multiple targets. If I don't have any Links in my opening hand, then I just wing it!

6

I really enjoy playing Sky-Scraper, and haven't had many issues with her (other than an occasional poor draw, but even that is quickly resolved with a round or two in Normal). I generally just wing it, as I find my course of action depends greatly on the situation and the cards. I think that's one of her strengths: She can shine in many different situations. 

7

Links are awesome, just throw them out.  Against anyone that doesn't wipe cards universally (Dawn+Omnitron) they are expendable destructions that most of the time you'd rather have destroyed since you recover them easier that way.

Her all target damage is wicked, and Monolith is awesome.

Save your evacuation for tough spots, and rest and recover to get your monolith or whatever card back.

Explosive Reveal is amazing.  Use it.  It's just great damage, even if you only blow up one link.

 

8

Yeah, I…must not understand something about the statistics project, because I seem to disagree with it a fair amount. For instance, we are 50/50 against Dawn and our general conclusion is that Atlantis is one of the most hero-friendly environments. But I suppose we have a ways yet to go before we're out of small samples, and I read somewhere that the statistics project is weighted to address one-on-one hero/villain matchups rather than game win/loss, or something like that, which is how we count. So far, with Sky-scraper in the team, we've won something like 4 out of 9 games.

Usually, random.org. Then we choose our own heroes.

The other night we rolled Dawn and Atlantis, so we decided to go for the Catfight achievement with Parse, Sky-scraper, Expatriette, and KNYFE. We did well until Dawn flipped, at which point the citizens got two copies of Channel the Eclipse and one Return with the Dawn, and then the villain deck played one-shots for a couple rounds, keeping us from getting up to three citizens in play. Meanwhile, the battle forayed into two Leaking Rooms in a row, stalling everyone but Expariette - who was fully loaded out with guns, but couldn't shoot anything because we wanted Dawn to flip. Once Dawn got her army back, she steamrolled us. So, we immediately reset and played again. That time went much better, but ended with a  Hallway Collapse: heroes   incapacitated and  6 HP remaining on Dawn.

So I admit that we set ourselves up for the possibility of the Leaking Room, it hit us hard, and I hadn't thought through how common "you cannot play cards" would be across all environments. You're right, it's not too frequent.

I'm definitely not going to stop playing Sky-scraper…we'll get her winning again soon enough! Possibly, the fact that we choose heroes based on villains and environments is artificially weighting our results. For example, we have Ra standing with a really spotty record, despite the fact that we know he's good. In fact, that's why he often loses: somebody picks him when we know we want some heavy hits, so he tends to play more against the tougher villains than the easier ones. Perhaps something similar is happening to Sky-scraper.

The other thing is that maybe I spend too much time with her Huge. My fiancee likes to play her more Tiny, and I think she gets more of the wins.

 

9

Going huge in bursts is awesome, but just sitting in it is non-ideal.

Tiny is a great size because you can protect allies, destroy cards, prevent damage, it is awesome.  With three card plays and recovery of 2 from the trash every turn you can affect the game a lot.

The real skill of Skyscraper is when to move between sizes, and destroying your links so you can maximize your power.

10

I think the Ruins of Atlantis is pretty brutal. I lose there a lot.

Stupid Ruins...

11

This is the best truth about Sky-Scraper and something a lot of people miss due to how cards that attach to other cards often work.

None of her Links get destroyed with the target they're attached too, they all just drop back into her play area making them ideal destruction fodder for villains who blow up H equipment ect. as well as making her ability to recover Links in her Tiny form essential to keep them from becoming dead cards.

Ultimately though the trick with Sky-Scraper is knowing when to change sizes, as a general rule of thumb the order of how long I stay in a size is as follows.

  1. Tiny - Long Link combos can win you the match, remember you can use her tiny power just to pull 2 Links from the trash after an equipment wipe if you have no Links in hand.
  2. Huge - Big damage, emergency tank, huge single target damage followed by jumping back down to Tiny, yes please.
  3. Normal - Draw 3 per turn is useful to recover after multiple card plays, other than that and blowing up Links though there's no real reason to be in Normal size at all.
12

The stats project isn't weighted in any way.  It is simply a compiliation of all the submitted games.  Considering one-on-one doesn't exist in the game I'm not sure what you are refering to, but there is a break down win percentage for each hero against each villain.  How ever the major number that people look at issimply the percentage of games won, ie of all games reported invovling Sky-scraper, 81% of them have been victories.  Personaly I have never lost a game while playing her, but I also haven't done many advanced mode games with her either.

Of course everyone will have some difference in their own experiences, so the rest of this post in only my personal anecdotal results.  For me I line up pretty close on the hero order, I'm just a little surprised that Wraith and Argent don't have a higher win %.  For villains I'm a little surprised by a couple, but not that surprised.  If I were to just break them up into hard and easy they all seem on the right half of the results. For environments I would expect Tomb to be harder and Freedom Tower to be easier but again otherwise I can't really say I'm too surprised by anything.

 

 

13

Oh man, Tomb kicks my butt... and Freedom is where I go if I want an easy win (for some reason the Chairman loves attacking Freedom Tower).

14

Hey...if Guise plays I Can Do That, Too! to use Sky-scraper's Tiny power, he can pull a Link card from play into his hand. Isn't that the only way one player can grab another's card? That'd be interesting.

And if Guise does that, when he plays the Link, is it his card or Sky-scraper's?

15

There's another way that's not very hard

For Guise to grab one other's card

If Prime Warden CC

is copied by thee

then a construct will slip away from his guard.

16

That sure sounds like a way to cause it;

promos are not in my box yet.

But your limerick wins...

uh, several grins...

--Dangit, I'm an engineer, not a poet!

17

A poet's not a hard thing to be

Look, for example, at me!

I'm an engineer to

And watch what I do

You just need to practice, you see?

18

I ham it up for humorous effect,
Wordsmithing skill: I do not neglect!
But as for speed,
I cannot compete!
That’s a credit you may collect.

19

I must admit I still don't understand,
Just why you have begun to speak in rhyme,
Is it a dark plot, something underhand?
Or just a silly way to pass the time?
You may have noticed how us mortals stare,
And often play into your little game.
Now other forumites have rhymed their share,
And I'm afraid that I must do the same.
Was this your scheme, your mission all along?
I must confess I do not see its goal.
But with such things it often is the way,
To not see danger 'fore you're swallowed whole.
I must entreat you spill your secrets, sir:
Be you a god, or noble man, or cur?

20

I simply decided one day
To speak only in limericks this way
there’s no real reason why
I just wanted to try
we’ll see how long in pattern I’ll stay