As mentioned in the subject line, are there any strategy guides for the teams? I would love to see a Freedom Four/Five/Six guide, or Prime Wardens, or Dark Watch.
What also would be cool is seeing a non-Canon team guide. For example, I like using the all-female team of Visionary, Young Legacy, Wraith, SS Tachyon and Fanatic.
I haven't gotten to play the Prime Wardens as a group yet but I know at least a few people have raved about them with their strategy. Freedom Six would be hard to do only because you can't play them together. However, the Freedom Six team seems to more focused on eliminating Iron Legacy and don't seem to have any specific cohesion to them. Dark Watch I've played indivual members of but not together. Their base powers seem focused on planning things out to most effective
The first game I had with the PW, I had a really neat system set up where Haka would start of turn discard a card to play rampage with Augmented Ally and his Prime Wardens power, which would trigger Dynamic Syphons on AA and Tempest, Firing off a cleansing downpour and giving AA a power phase, which usually gave Fanatic something to do. And then Haka would take his actual turn. I did this two or three times over the course of the game (Advanced Challenge Akash in Final Wasteland, it was the first game I set up when I got Wrath)
AA with Cosmic can use accompany Rhythms to use Syncopated's ability to do the Syphon on him one sonic damage, which basically means he can play all instruments every time the Syphon takes damage, and there's enough healing between Rhapsody and Downpour to keep the constructs humming.
They're a combo machine.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure the Prime Wardens team strategy guide would be: “Use all the powers. All the time.”
They are a seriously crazy team for off-turn power usage.
The Wardens do have one major weakness in that they possess no villain or environment deck control outside of Tempest's Into the Stratosphere. They make up for that in raw power.
Freedom Five has the best villain and environment control with Infrared Eyepiece, Adhesive Foam grenade, and Take down.
Dark Watch has Nightmist (astral prem, Mistbound) and sometimes can get lucky with Setback (Fumbling Fool, fittingly) I sometimes make Visionary an honorary member of the Watch. mostly to give them five members and because she has a similar-ish narrative arc to Fixer. That's going to be necessary to have the team on team scraps in Tactics.
Rook City Wraith is an honorary member of Dark Watch to me.
I can see the argument there, but that puts her on two teams, so I can't have a Dark Watch/freedom five showdown next year when Broken City hits, and I've got my priorities.
My opinions:
Freedom IV = This is a stall team. Not a good percentage of early setups are going to work for an early damage machine, as Legacy, Bunker, and Tachyon aren't good early damage.
So you rock your #1 strength, damage prevention. Get your Smoke Bombs, Heavy Plating or Fortitude out to lengthen the match, use Hypersonic, Throat Jab, Stun Bolts, Interception, Lead from the Front. . . you get the picture. Take Down and Infra-red added in make the Freedom IV a heavy denial team, which most matches gives them time to get their damage built up.
Freedom V adds AZ shenanigans, Sub-Zero Atmosphere adds to the denial, while AZ's damage with Legacy help really fills out the damage the team wants.
Prime Wardens: This team is a Juggernaut of diverse talents. More offensive than the Freedom V, they hit hard and fast, and a lot. Protecting Adept and his cards is a huge priority, and without a lot of Ongoing/Equipment fodder that can be hard. If Adept gets rolling this team is almost unstoppable. If the Villain is crushing your cards but not Construct HP Captain can fill the gap. But Mostly Haka, Tempest and Fanatic just beat the tar out of things.
Dark Watch: The most specialized of the teams. Nightmist is the key to this team, because she can fill the gaps in whatever the team is struggling with. The only time this team really struggles for me is when the Nightmist player wants to play in a way that doesn't fit the cards the rest of the team has to work with. Sometimes it is best to tank, sometimes control the field, sometimes you need to lead the damage.
I agree with RC Wraith as the honorary 5th for the Dark Watch, hopefully we get a Pinion deck, because the Watch deserves 5.
I haven't tried them out yet, but now theres team Termination. I'm very curious how they'll play off of one another
Who's team Termination?
So far, Absolute Zero, Bunker, and Unity.
They don't seem to have a particular synergy between their powers, but Unity and Bunker both seem to be quicker to change up their in-play options in these versions.
What I'm most curious about is seeing if Chokepoint will be able to steal and use hero equipment / mechanical bots. It seems like it'd fit with her bio, and that would make Termi-Nation Unity and Bunker's powers significantly stronger against that nemesis of theirs. Even if Chokepoint couldn't directly use the actual cards she steals, but if stealing them benefited her in some other way (e.g. damage reduction/prevention) then Unity and Bunker being able to destroy them with ease would be very helpful.
You also forgot to mention freedom six: This team is made for a game that will be over fast, be it in the hero or the villain favor. With all the extra draws, ongoing destruction, and many heros that start with an innate power that immediatly throw some damage around (or in Unity's case, get out bots right away), this team is made to immediatley hit the ground running
And for Ongoing destruction – every member of the team is capable of it except Bunker, normally, and Bunker's Freedom Six adds it.
Makes sense. The Freedom Six is basically the "Kill Iron Legacy" team. The two things you need against him are "ongoing destruction" and "rapid startup", so. . .
Yeah I've been trying to figure out DW, because of the three canon teams (Freedom(s) X, Prime Wardens) they are the most puzzling to me. This helps out a little bit. And reading the Nightmist Hero's Guide, it seems like she is the linchpin of the team. Since I'm primarily playing the video game version right now, I typically add Wraith or Visionary to give me a four hero team.