You are correct, sir. I just went and double-checked to make sure. I will update my guide accordingly!
Yeah I argued a lot about the whole "damage delt" vs "damage taken" thing. But what Ronway said is pretty much a good rule of thumb. If no HP was lost then no damage is delt.
There are some weird exceptions to that rule however. Cards that use the terminology "would be delt" don't quite follow that. For example, Nightmist with her Amulet and Mistform in play. Even though she is immune to damage, she can still redirect damage that "would have been delt" to her.
It has irked me quite a bit as I was an old MTG player as well.
A lot can be resolved by treating immunity as the last step to check. That is, at the moment when you physically reach your fingers to remove the hp counters, if that target is immune, do not remove any counters.
I find Rocket Punch to be amazing with someone boosting Omnitron's damage. With plus one, you can deal 3 and 2 or 5 to one target. I only use bioengineering beam if we really need it. Otherwise rocket punch does more damage.
I see what you're saying, Donner, and it makes sense on some levels--extra damage is good, right?
But, in that same scenario, Bio-Engineering Beam deals 3 damage and takes out an Environment card regardless of hit points, or if it's even a target. That 17 HP Portal Fiend? Toast. The Rampaging Triceratops? Gone. Scum and Villainy? Irrelevant. HP aren't relevant once BEB is out, and I'll take that over 2 points of damage every time.
There's a lot of enviroments that are neutral or even net benefitial for the heroes or when the cost to get rid of them is much lower some other route, discarding a card, each player mills 3, etc.
Or maybe the T-Rex is trying to eat an annoyed looking Legacy.
I agree that Beam is very helpful in a lot of situations, but rocket punch can actually do a fair bit of damage with the right allies.
wiki'd!
Sorry, but me and my group are still going to translate it "Atempting to do damage". That's how we read it off the cards, and it's been said multiple times that SotM is wonderful to many in it's "simplicity and elegance". Taking it as the "official ruling" says would take much of the fun out of using that card.
It may seem like cheating to some, but to others it's just following what the cards say.
Also, I've never seen any real use for Defensive blast. Yes it beeing buffed makes it awesome, but the same could be said for any attack.
I think it's because it's Omni-10's most powerful attack if he just gets a buff or two. Plus you can use it as many times as you have spare Plating cards, so if someone lets Omni-10 use a power out of turn, that's a lot of damage even if he's only got buffs from, say, Galvanise and Inspiring Presence. I suppose it depends who else is in the group.
I tend to focus on getting out a Plating and my Components first, so the other in-play cards don't tend to get out until later in the game, unless we really need an Environment card destroyed right now, no-one else can do it, and I do actually happen to have a Bio-Engineering Beam in my hand when it gets to my turn. Generally, though I seem to find that non-Component/Plating equipment cards don't show up until later in the game. Not that that's a bad thing - it means I can spam Resets and Technological Advancements and generally get all my stuff out :D.
I put Defensive Blast as OX's best offensive power for the level to which it interacts with buffs and the fact that it hits all non-hero targets.
Let's do some comparison: Let's toss Defensive Blast against Haka's Taiaha, Expatriette's Submachine Gun, and Bunker's Grenade Launcher. For the sake of argument, let's say that there are 5 valid targets, and no damage reduction in play.
Submachine Gun is the easiest to figure. 1 damage to all targets becomes 2 with a single buff, 3 with a second buff. It hits all targets, so total damage is potentially incredibly high, depending on valid targets. Expatriette's overall damage becomes 5/10/15.
Taiaha deals 2 targets 3 damage each: less targets, but more focused damage. Haka's overall damage becomes 6/8/10.
Bunker's Grenade Launcher deals 2 targets 2 damage, and a third target 1. Overall damage of 5/8/11.
Defensive Blast hits all targets with literally 4 times the force of Expatriette's SMG, hitting all targets for (effectively) 4 damage. Buffs affect this multiplicatively because of the sheer number of instances. His result starts off at 20 net damage! Buffs only exacerbate this, increasing his overall damage to 20/40/60!
Defensive Blast requires significant set-up and a discard of a very specific card, which isn't always to easy to get. But the results are utterly shattering for villain targets. It's hands down his best power.
I had wondered whether it hit all non-villain targets or just a single target, but couldn't remember off the top of my head…otherwise I'd most certainly have added that in as a reason why this power is so amazingly destructive :D. It's like Ra playing Scorched Earth when he has all his damage buffs out and there are a load of environment cards in play…actually, with his buffs, even if no environment cards are in play that'd still be six damage (assuming no other buffs but his own) to all non-hero targets…and Drawn to the Flame could do the same thing in his power phase right after that :D.
My first game as OX was against La Capitan, tore her minions to pieces with Legacy in the party (+2 damage)
Hold on. I thought that Defensive Blast discarded your Plating card in play, leaving you defenseless until you got a new one out? It really just costs one of the countless spare platings you have sitting uselessly in your hand? That's totally insane.
Yup. Whenever you see the term "discard", it is always ment from your hand. You do not "discard" cards that are in play. It would have said "destroy" if it was ment to scrap the one in play.
Now that you mention this does seem like the way you expect it to work.
I now sort of see how cards like Slip Through Time would make more sense. (Destroy current plating by tossing it, then place a new one with Slip Through Time or use innate power and hope for one)
Too bad its discard and not destroy.
And now this works with the Omnitron IV environment as well!
I would add that OX loves Time Cataclysm. Fixed Point means his Components can't be destroyed and he can throw out multiple plating cards at once. Multiple platings comes with several huge benefits. You can get either 2DR against every damage type or even 4DR against some types. But more importantly is what this means for Defensive Blast.
DB is already terrifying with one Plating out and a couple buffs. With Fixed Point, OX can hit 11 times -- with the right team, we're talking total devastation. And because it's every damage type, nothing escapes.
Not to the same degree though; as Warlock pointed out, a single +1 damage translates into 4 damage to all non-hero targets. No other card in the game can match that kind of efficiency.
Of course, this also makes it suck when damage is being reduced, but hey that's when you play the other cards.
Also, with no buffs either way, it still deals 4 damage to all non-hero targets. The only people who can match that on their own are Haka (Rampage, comes with the downside of hitting all heroes as well), Nightmist (Oblivion, highly variable, hits all heroes), Unity (Powered Shockwave, takes a fair amount of setup) and Ra (Scorched Earth and Drawn to the Flame, both of which require a favourable board state); of those, only Drawn to the Flame can be used more than once.
Situational? A little. It's still one of the best powers in the game.
Situational? A little. It's still one of the best powers in the game.
Not even that "situational." Think of all of the damage buff heroes out there:
Legacy: Up to a +2 damage buff
Visionary: With Twist the Ether, Omnitron-X can do 6-8 (depending on the plating) damage of *any type* to all targets. Even better, he (it?) can tailor the amount of damage, because TtE increases or decrease each individual "hit" by one, so you could (ex:) do 6 points to one bad guy (by increasing each "hit" of damage by one), and then hit the next bad guy for zero (by decreasing each "hit" by one.) Great if you need to reduce a bad guy's hit points by a specific amount, but not kill him--take out all of Dawn's Citizens or Voss' minions except one, or hit all of the Dreamer's nightmares, but leave her unscathed.
Ra: Imbued Flame +1
Chrono-Ranger: Put the +1 damage bounty (By Any Means) on the main bad guy.
Unity: Hasty Augmentaton: +2 damage buff
Argent Adept: Syncopated Onslaught
Various Heroes' Incapacitated Powers.
Not to mention, the various environment effects that increase all damage by 1 (Obsidian Field, Close Quarters Combat, etc.)
Long story short, there are plenty of opportunities for Omnitron-X to turn a 3-4 damage to all targets (which is great in/of itself) into a 6-8 damage to all targets, which is just sick.