The Scholar, strengths and weaknesses.

Other Games SotM Game Engine
1

I am editing this because I don't think I was very clear in my approach.

Strengths:  Tanky, self heal, some burst, versatile, some very strong support.

Weaknesses:  Not a reliable damage dealer in himself, not a strong support (no damage buff or reliable group heal), requires hand management.

The core of the Scholar is versatile tanking, he can sit off by himself and tank highest health damage all day with no help, while catering his game to fit the enemy and the team.  That highest health tanking is his strongest addition to the team, and the easiest to maintain.  If damage is reducable Flesh to Iron is godly, if damage is not reducable boost your heal and tank it that way.

Along with that Tanking, which is his major strength in a group, he can support and do some good damage.

Support:  Don't Dismiss Anything and Proverbs and Axioms are great cards.  Really great cards.  In a game with plenty of card destruction I sat on cycling DDA quite a bit, of course we had an Omnitron X, so it worked beautifully.  He was playing Advancement a lot, let alone his power to get other's cards out.  The problem is numbers, with two of each you can't rely on your support game ever getting going, awesome when it does, but that isn't the majority of games.  Getting your team their cards back while keeping a DDA in your hand at all times can thwart even the most determined card destroyer.

Damage:  Supporting Mortal Form to Energy doesn't give enough damage to be worth the cards most games, I prefer to save it for a Keep Moving/Get out of the way combo (which can be sick with boosted damage and lots of targets), but even a turn of P&A and Better Living is worth throwing Keep Moving to reflect some damage.

How to tank:  Pick your poison, like I said above if the damage is reducible Iron is amazing, get one out and never let go.  If there isn't card destruction to worry about put two (three if it is called for) out and tank like a boss.  Don't worry about liquid, you can heal from one shots.  If irreducible damage in causing trouble, get your heals boosted and drop Iron.  With two liquids out you can heal tank all day.

Make sure you manage your hand, keep your card numbers sufficient, your one-shots are strong, you don't want to be ditching them just to keep elements up that aren't crucial.  Keep one up normally, two if you have Bring What you Need and don't need to heal.  Three is a temporary thing, don't crush your hand.

Alchemical redirection is awesome, but you can't liExpect the worst is awesome to give you a chance to recover if you get beat down, or help you tank a nasty shot of damage.

Great combo's:

Omnitron-X:  DDA chaining with an Omnitron is awesome, and you can keep him from ever getting highest health burst, while he can heal you nicely.  Just make sure you have some strong damage to play with.  Scholar doesn't have many cards you waste with X's power, but an untimely loss of an Alchemical Redirection is very sad.

Tempest:  Reclaim+DDA can be ridiculous fun, and ridiculously powerful.  Everyone stashing a good card on Tempest's turn then setting it loose on the Scholar's turn, insane.  With two of each this combo is repeatable every turn.  Cards like AA's Silver Shadow, CR's Bounty moving cards, Ex-Pats Unload(!!), MF's Overdrive, X's Tech Advancement, Tach's Fleet of Foot, Unity's Hasty Augmentation/Inspired Repair(not to mention golems) and Wraith's Throat Jab are just ridiculous to play every round, and there are tons of other one-shots that are still awesome.  They work together outside of this combo too, but this combo takes the cake, if you get the cards.

Wraith+Unity:  The Stealth bot Smoke Grenade Tank combo works great with the Scholar, better than Legacy if the damage is reducible and not one type.  Some work to get going, and grenades can be destroyed, but when it is going your whole team is mostly invincible.

TL Tach:  Is there anyone she doesn't work well with?  Who doesn't like a win button, ridiculous card funnelling leads to very powerful Scholar.

 

How to make the Scholar shine:  

Awareness is the key.  Fit your game to what the villain, environment, and other hero decks are doing, and pick your times to focus on tanking and building cards, your time to help your team mates and your times to explode the enemy.   The Scholar (as argued below in comments) can be an extremely high damage output Hero, but he can't do it alone.  He can burst with Get Out and do some sick damage, esp with damage boosted (make sure you can heal the full amount), he can keep that damage going with a Tempest, AA, Omnitron-X, etc.  If you build your team to focus on the Scholar, you don't need to worry about other things, but the Scholar doesn't need a team built around him to be awesome.

Against a villain like the Matriarch, keeping an Iron out is a big deal, it eats most of her damage by itself.  Making sure you have enough health lost to throw down 3 Keep going (1 liquid, 2 energy) and Get out will make her pay for throwing all those birds out at once.  MAnaging your health, cards, and forms can get tricky, and the better you get at it the better you'll do as scholar.

The Scholar is not going to be a strong tank against decks that don't focus the highest HP hero, or a good damage dealer against ones that eat ongoing cards for breakfast.  He's incredibly versatile and incredibly strong, there isn't a situation where he is going to be a weak link on your team.

As a Support he's nowhere near the team management of AA and Visionary, but he's a tank too.  He's a great choice to fill out a team that has a damage dealer/support character like Tempest or Omnitron-X, and a poor team mate for a team with a support and tank and no healing already, or a team that really needs a team managment support.

As a first time Scholar player, try going against someone like Grand Warlord Voss or the Matriarch, you can really shine in those fights.

2

Have you missed a trick? The Scholar's forms aren't limited so having 2 or 3 forms out is pretty much a standard in my group, 2 Mortals and 1 Liquid means his base power is dishing out 2x2 damage in addition to his 2 healing, and playing "Get out of the way!" with that out=massive single target damage!

3

4 damage and 2 healing at a cost of three cards per turn, that seems a bit steep for the output.

I find that Scholar can't maintain that many forms without either sacrificing his playable cards or having other players feed him cards, either way it doesn't seem to be a good trade.  Scholar can easily tank while maintaining a solid hand so he can react to different circumstances.  The output doesn't warrant the investment for the kind of damage you are suggesting.

4

I usually don't use Better Living, massively preferring Bring What You Need, but I do play Mortal Form to Energy as often as possible, and think it's usually the best of his forms. The big problem with Flesh to Iron is that it makes your hit points too high to use all the healing that's at your disposal.

5

I use Energy a lot too, I just don't pay to keep it out unless I have something good, and like you I prefer BWYN.  Finding the right balance of when to keep what cards is a key to the Scholar, as high health really ruins his best combos, but losing highest health status keeps you from tanking.

A big part of the appeal of the Scholar is his versatility, each game requires different strategy.

6

In my group, there are three people who play The Scholar the most, and each play him differently. One plays him mostly as tank, so the scholar may spend many turns simply drawing and discarding cards, while another plays him incredibly active, buffing and damaging for the most part. The third is somewhere in between, and often ends up with his deck in his hand.

7

Idk dude. When I play the Scholar he is a damage powerhouse. With Bring What You Need, you can easily support 2-3 Energy forms and 1 Liquid. Keep bringing what you need every turn and use your healing/drawing one shots to just dominate. He does not need outside help to sustain 3-4 forms. 

Early game ill throw our Iron form, then I try to hoard keep movings, then use 2-3 at once to instantly switch from tank to damage. Better Living should only be used when you have no other option. Once you switch to your liquid energy setup, the card that draws 2 and heals 2 becomes your bread and butter play, sprinkling other cards in as needed. Once you have Bring What You Need, you will start to mill through the deck very quickly. 

The problem I have with Scholar is that he doesn't take enough damage. I find myself hitting myself with an energy form from time to time just so I have room to heal (since you must regain HP to do damage with energy form). 

Scholar is a great tank. Sure. But he can do so much more. He is a crazy good deck.

8

I usually use the Flesh to Iron Build because it's effective and easy to set up and maintain, but the Mortal Form and Solid to Liquid can be quite handy if you get yourself a big enough hand, especially if Tempest is healing and letting the Scholar do damage outside of his turn.

9

 

I find that I tend to prefer Flesh to Iron over Liquid/Energy, as it allows me to focus more on supporting my allies.  Scholar's two primary damaging cards can really help take out priority targets, while Don't Dismiss Anything and Proverbs/Axioms are plays that every player loves.  Plus, Flesh to Iron and Alchemical Redirection can easily neutralize tons of damage, especially when you're facing multiple sources of global damage such as from Voss, Citizen Dawn, The Chairman, or The Matriarch.

This might be a weird comparison, but I tend to play The Scholar much as I'd play a Warlord from 4e Dungeons and Dragons.  I take hits and deal damage in a pinch, but I mostly focus on making my allies better.  A warlord doesn't hit foes with his sword; a warlord hits foes with his barbarian. :D  

10

So, I'm a big fan of engines that go off the chain very quickly, so I play The Scholar like he was Absolute Zero. He's also one of the best characters (besides the Rook City Friends), who you want to occasionally draw two for a turn. You really have to know when to dorp a Keep Moving, because that is the pivot of the deck; once he does that, you need to be sure you have enough cards in your engine to keep going, otherwise he'll crash, and there's the tempo lost. I'm more of a fan of Mortal Form to Energy, hardly ever toughing Flesh to Iron, but that's because I like my tanks like I like my Vietanamise food: with a kick. He works really well with Greatest Legacy, too, and even better the Argent Adept, as the two of them can heal him, thus increasing your DPR and survivablilty in one go. This may not work as well for you, but The Scholar is my favorite character right now, so I may have a bias towards him....

 

(Also, Platnium, I love the Warlord comparison. When I played 4e, that's the class I played, but mine had brain damage.) 

11

The damage mitigation you have in a liquid energy mode is just as good as having out a flesh to iron really. All the healing you do provides enough, add on that you are doing quite a bit of damage with multiple energy forms out. Iv played Scholar a lot. He is just way more efficient  having a 2:1 energy to liquid ratio. Usually I'll go 3 energy forms before I pick up a second liquid, but maybe not if the villain was sporting DR I needed to crack. 

I honestly find that playing him primarily in an iron setup  really limits you. With that being said, if you don't draw bring what you need, iron setups will be your only choice. 

Also bring what you need does more than just draw cards. It allows you to throw back energy and liquid forms you might have drawn back into the deck (where you need them for a big instant midgame switch using multiple keep movings) 

12

My number one comment on Scholar is that one of his beggest strengths is that you will go through the majority of your deck, if not your entire deck in almost evey game.  This means you always see the cards you want.  Of course you might discarding them not thinking you will need them but hey you can always play Don't Dismiss Anything right!  Basically I don't think hand management is a drawback since part of that includes cycling your deck like crazy.

 

As far as damage and play, I'm with foote on this one, I've never had trouble keeping out 3 forms.  4 can sometimes push it and sometimes be easy depending.  Using Take What You Need to keep cards up is the key.  So think about having two Mortal Form to Energies out as well as a Solid to Liquid (just because that was mentioned earlier).

Now play a Get Out of the Way against 5 targets.  Besides the damage of that card you get to do 2x6 damage in addition.

Play a Transmutive Recovery, that is worth 2x3 damage and you draw extra cards to help keep your hand up.

Proverbs and Axioms can be worth the same damage, plus all the help to the team.

Throughout all of this he is healing quite a bit as well.

 

Now IF you are lucky enought to have Legacy, or AA, or Helper, or Tempest on the team with a heal you become amazing and worth building around as a group, with multiple of them out there he can be crazy OP.  I once had a group with Scholar, Greatest Lecgacy, and AA and we killed the boss in around 4 turns almost exclusively through Scholars forms.  We had a nice combo of GL healing Scholar (damage) and giving him a power which was used to heal (damage).  Then AA healed everyone (damage) then gave GL a power with which he healed Scholar (damage) and gave him a power to heal (damage) or get more cards.  Not to mention Scholars own turns.  Drawing 5 cards and ending your turn feels pretty effective in a setup like that.  At some point I think we had Motiational Charge with a legacy ring as well... it just got silly.

13

I have had games where cards stay out long enough to keep forms and BWYN out for a while, had some fun with tempest and Scholar and Fanatic in a game earlier, and that was awesome.

Most matches I play involve a lot of catds being discarded or destroyed by villains and environment decks.  An Iron build is very sustainable and works without other players healing or giving you cards, and it is valuable to your team.  If you get a good number of cards out and no one destroys them Scholar is very powerful, but so are most heros.  Relying on one-shots for healing and damage while you use your power to keep your forms up can work, but that isn't sustainable very long.

If your team supports your damage, like the above poster with GL and AA, or with Omnitron-X or Tempest, and they assist you you can do a lot of damage without worrying about anything but keeping those cards out.  If you are facing a reduced damage taken boss without good buffing, or are fighting a battle with lots of card destruction you are better off keeping Iron out to tank the damage, using cards to help allies get back on their feet, and using 2-3 Keep moving and Get out of the way with your damage boosted to do some sick damage.

I'll go through short stretches where I can keep them out and focus on healing because of the cards I have, but in my games so far Scholar has more team sucess focusing on supporting than trying to be the damage.

Of course that all changes when your team mates are doing the healing, then you can just sit there and let them bounce heals off you, as long as the cards hold out.

*Edited original Post to try to clarify and expound my Scholar strategy.