A lot of the promos don't have enough games to be statistically significant. You really can't trust the rankings on heroes with less than 100 plays or so. Wraith herself was at the bottom when stats first came out, but that was before the statistics evened out.
Well if there aren't enough games to be statistically significant for RCW and AZE, our games should help remedy that. :)
It's pretty hard to get a bad draw with Wraith, IMO. We didn't get any Impromptu Inventions until Turn 10 and we did just fine. I suppose if you only draw Barrages and Smoke Bombs on turn 1... Pretty much everything she has is consistently useful (and even Smoke Bombs are - I'm just saying they're less useful). Yeah, if you have to play one-shots for the first turn or two with no equipment-powers on the table, we'll see her core power get used. But it doesn't happen very often. We used it on Turn 1 and pulled a Block agent, and that was it.
Game 9 (track 2) - Elemental AZ, Fixer, Expat, Rook City Wraith vs. Misinformation at Pike Industrial
Statistical Results: Hero win after 6 turns.
MVP - AZ sacrificing himself on Miss Information's (psychic damage to her attacker) ability to do enough damage for Expat to do the coup de grace.
Fun: 3/5
Danger: 2/5
Shining Moment: AZ using Fueled Freeze to dispose of three Clues on the turn after MI flipped.
Random location, hadn't play against MI yet. Her clues came out early on, and Threat came out on the first turn. Folks dropped enough in-play cards that we could get rid of it on the second turn. She flipped on Turn 3, we pretty much just kept hammering her. She had 2 -1 damage Clues out, but as noted, AZ took them out and after that it was just a matter of pounding on her. The Vat that reduces damage by 1 was the biggest inhibitor.
RC Wraith never used her power. She played an IR Eyepice on the first turn and used it to avoid a vat explosion. Discarded it to get rid of "Threat." After that she just used Razor Ordinance and MT Computer.
Expat did okay on guns. She used an Unload to finish off MI on Turn 6, firing a TAC shotgun, and an Incendiary/Pride for 7.
Everybody did their part, things went pretty smooth, prtty clear we were going to win.
Looks like you made a slight error. Infrared Eyepiece can be used on the villain deck. Since it was only a six round game though you couldn't of used it incorrectly that much and probably would of pulled a victory anyways, so that's good!
No I misreported it. She buried... some Distraction and set up a minor Clue for the next draw.
Game 7 – Bunker, Fanatic, Ex-Patriot and Absolute Zero vs. Gloomweaver in the Block
Statistical Results - Heroes win comfortably, with no incapacitations. Fanatic < 3 HP after the use of an Aegis.
MVP – I almost want to say distributed luck. The grenade launcher and assault riffle from Bunker and Ex-Pat seems to have done the most consistent damage, but AZ’s tanking kept the game going. Fanatic was able to have some key hits as well. The only deck that didn’t have a fun time was Gloomweaver’s, who never drew a relic. That said, Bunker gets the nod for drawing Ammo drop on the first turn and loving zombies almost as much as Gloomweaver, and for several turns of 6-point Omni-Cannon attacks.
Fun - 4/5
Danger - 3/5
Shining Moment – This was a very workman-like game. The shooters shot, the crazy winged lady did crazy wing lady stuff, and Absolute Zero froze and fired.
After some time away from these solo games, I finally got to play another bottom tier hero game today. The heavy shooter team of Fanatic, Absolute Zero, Ex-Pat and Bunker wound up controlling Gloomweaver. It should be said, and I think it did somewhere above, and Gloomweaver had a very tough time drawing cards that he really wanted. In the course of the game, no relics other than Fanatic’s were pulled.
So what did Gloomweaver get? Zombies, cultists and pins. The zombies’ boosting card turned into enough damage to kill all the zombies when Absolute Zero played Fueled Freeze with focused apertures. It didn’t seem fair, but there weren’t many available ongoings.
One questionable call that I made is with Fanatic’s final dive. She used it to kill an Adept with 2 HP remaining. I decided that the timing was “Destroy a card, the zombie is brought into play, the projectile damage is done”, so the adept killed the zombie. Thematically, which is never the way to actually play the game, I figured Fanatic impaled the poor adept on a wrought iron fence or something. Mechanically, it hardly mattered since the next turn would have had Ex-Pat doing 3 targets 2 damage anyway.
The Block hardly mattered, with the inmates and the wardens mostly shooting each other. There were at least two instances where the environment deck hit Gloomweaver or some other villain target, which was nice. I never felt that foam grenades were Bunker’s priority.
With the updated statstics, I'll catch one of the villain decks that has now moved south. The next game will be against the Enead.
Game 8 – Mr. Fixer, Ex-Patriot and Absolute Zero vs. the Enead in Rook City
Statistical Results - Heroes win comfortably, with no incapacitations. Ex Pat at about 5 hit points.
MVP(s) – The non-couple from Rook City definitely were in their home element. Once Mr. Fixer had his Jack Handle/Praying Mantis combo up (Hit every villain for 2 points or less, the first time Mr. Fixer is hit a turn if 2 or less), he and the Ex-Patriot led the Egyptian Gods a merry chase. Mr. Stone Cold Ryan Frost did what he needed to do – mostly tanking, but was able to deliver the coup de grace.
Fun - 5/5
Danger - 3/5
Shining Moment – Each hero character had a fine moment this game, two of them early, one late. Mr. Fixer brought up my favorite combo almost immediately and Ex-Pat’s opening hand included Quick Draw and Pride. Even though the may not be the most efficient cards for her, I love the matched Dessert Eagles. Absolute Zero was able heal and discard cards, getting rid of some pesky environment cards.
My daughter is 3 and requires, shall we say, additional effort. For this reason, my Loser’s Game project got waylaid. The good news is I’ve been able to play 2 or 3 games a week with other people. This is an amazing amount of gaming for this period of my life.
I love playing against the Enead. While not the toughest opponents objectively, the way they seem capable of stringing attacks really makes them feel like a villain team. Luckily for the heroes, the Enead are too powerful to use their smartphones’ calendar function. If they could agree to show up at the same time, they’d be much harder to stop.
Based on the discussion above, it’s probably quite clear how this game went. The damage that was done to Mr. Fixer rapidly became a bane to the villains, as the Enead deck seems to do it’s damage in drips and drabs. I decided that the Environmental Storm card’s first point of damage, the lightning, was Mantis Handled to all opponents, and Mr. Fixer took the other two points. As the storm cards came near the end of the game, the fully equipped Absolute Zero, netted a point with each of the cards. (-1 for lightning, -1 for fire, deals himself 2 points of cold to heal 2, and 1 point of cold to heal). Ex-Pat, even though she had the Shotgun available to her, kept using weapons that did no more than 2 points, so that she could shoot Mr. Fixer.
Rook City brought a fair amount of hurt to the table this game, which surprises no one. Scum and Villainy appeared twice, and an Enead card wipe out one of the informants immediately. As the players took damage from this effect, the mental image touched “Final Dive”, but with pieces.
Per the stats as of today, Baron Blade seems to be my next opponent. While statistically he may be about a third of the way up the heap, I’m going to tempt fate and predict a win.
I'm sorry but I'm pretty sure that combo doesn't work that way. When damage is redirected the target is changed but not the source so when Fixer redirects with mantis he is not doing anyone damage (the original attacker is) and therefore does not trigger Jack Handle. Similarly this is why damage he redirects isn't buffed by tools, harmony, or any other bonuses that apply to him such as Galvanize.
Sefirit -- I'll have to check. If it's so, I'm going to be very sad. That said, I find it unlikely that you'd bring up the objection unelss you were fairly sure that it is correct. I believe that the game would have still been won, but probably not as nicely.
Potential special case: when playing against Plague Rat and infected, but with praying mantis in play, Mr Fixer is meant to deal himself 2 damage but redirects. What happens then if Jack Handle is in play?
He doesn't redirect. From what I understand, instead of dealing himself the damage at all, he instead deals it out to all non-hero targets. there is nothing for him to redirect because no damage is dealt to him.
It sounds like you had the situation well in hand and so would have won anyway. I just wanted to mention this because redirectio was the cause of some confusion when it was first implemented.
Fixer can still redirect from allies in some cases, for example if Expat has out her Assault Rifle but only has two targets, she can make Fixer the third and he can redirect to one of the two already hit targets for a second hit. Likewise I've seen AZ use him to be able to get some extra healing by having Fixer redirect cold damage back at him.
These are fun to read =p. Are you playing Advanced Mode? How do you select your villains? Seems like the same ones a lot of the time. Hard to accureately judge the (un)strength of a hero vs only a handful of villains. I wanna see Matriarch! Chairman! (props for doing Ennead, more props for winning). Spite! Plauge Rat! Iron Legacy! Dreamer! Capitan!
Mea Cupa (Translation - "My coffee!" 
)
Sefirit - your reading is correct, and thank you. I'm the only one of my players from whom Mr. Fixer is a top 5 grab.
awp832 -
Thank you very much! I've been enjoying the process and hoping that my reports have been interesting to read. I'm playing the villains from the stastically worst villain to the stastically best, or until it gets too hard or I get bored or squirrel. I'm playin in normal mode, with at heroes taken from the bottom 5 of the stastical heap. Right now, that means my heroe choices are Absolute Zero, Mr. Fixer, Ex-Patriot, Bunker and Fanatic. Because the relatively few games they have, I'm not using alternate versions of characters like "Elemental Wraith", etc. Of the bunch, I've not fallen in love with Bunker.
The Villains are in reverse order are:
Iron Legacy
The Matriarch
Cosmic Omnitron
The Chairman
The Dreamer
Citizen Dawn
La Capitan
Omnitron
Plague Rat
Grand Warlord Voss
Spite
Apostate
Mad Bomber Blade
Baron Blade
The Ennead
Akash'Bhuta
Kismet
Gloomweaver
Ambuscade
Miss Information
There's some room for things to get confused, as the list changes monthly. This isn't scientific, but thematic.
oh I see now, it's not just the loser heroes, but the loser villains too. That's even funnier =p.
Wow, I can't believe the Ennead has been in the bottom 5 like ever. They're so hard! I guess advanced Ennead is a huge jump from regular Ennead, that's probably who I feel that way. I kinda like Bunker, but yeah, he has his difficulties =p.
The Ennead as #6, if I've done my count right. They were game 8, and I've lost twice against the previous opponents. It's all on the basic level, though. I've I was doing the advanced track, the order would be:
Iron Legacy
The Ennead
Plague Rat
The Chairman
Omnitron
Grand Warlord Voss
Miss Information
Cosmic Omnitron
The Matriarch
Citizen Dawn
The Dreamer
Baron Blade
La Capitan
Kismet
Akash'Bhuta
Gloomweaver
Mad Bomber Blade
Apostate
Spite
Ambuscade
Yup - much harder are the Egyptian Gods when advanced.
I guess I was doing it wrong then. So related to this- when a villain can play a card in the end phase if he plays an ongoing or a target with a end phase effect it doesn't go into effect until his next turn because it wasn't there at the start of the end phase? I see this game works differently than what I'm used to.
That comment was an offshoot of the discussion of deployment and Sub-Zero environment
I guess I was doing it wrong then. So related to this- when a villain can play a card in the end phase if he plays an ongoing or a target with a end phase effect it doesn't go into effect until his next turn because it wasn't there at the start of the end phase? I see this game works differently than what I'm used to.
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Quite the reverse. If it's played during the end-phase it is still the end phase. As you activate cards in order played, and it was played after the event that caused it to be played, it will activate when you get to it.
Even stranger, when you have AZ's ongoing out that makes things happen at Start of turn, if he dies in the middle of the villain turn, every villain card will go again at the end since their text has reverted.