Was wondering what everyone's strategy with Guise is? my friend played him last night and was a little frustrated because all he felt like he was doing was drawing cards and doing one damage. Was trying to figure out some good strategies to make him work.
I see Guise as a finisher type character like AZ. There is a build up from card draw and then you explode for a round or two. As long as he isn't having to constantly discard he can setup himself up for those explosive turns. Super Ultra Kawaii!! and Selling Out are the main cards to get him those burst turns. Like AZ as well his combos he sets up his own combos but certainly appreciates help from other characters.
If he is first in turn order he can get full use of his a majority of his ongoings without worrying about villain or environment destruction affects. One of the better combos I feel he has that he can setup is between Guise the Barbarian, Blatant Reference, and Best Card Ever!
Guise does small things while he builds up, often relying on other player's Equipment and Base Powers.
Then he goes off for a flurry of activity and then starts to rebuild.
I think the words "strategy" and "Guise" shouldn't be used in the same context. 
tl;dr i liek Guise.
The way I play him, Guise is very team-oriented. Knowing the other hero decks actually helps alot, I feel, when deciding to play him or not (You should pick him anyway). Guise generally wants to go last in turn order to let other heroes play things he may want to copy. Some heroes don't offer much at all to Guise in terms of useful equipment or ongoings, like Unity or Captain Cosmic, or they may have a useless base power, like Naturalist. On this note, I haven't seen a ruling yet on whether Guise is actually allowed to have an Unlucky Pool to even use Setback's base power... oh well. In addition, Guise can function like a second Argent Adept if you copy his power or use one of his instruments, as you don't need to copy AA's songs with Uhh, Yeah to use their effects. You can be Legacy too, with Uh, Yeah and I Can Do That Too. to give +4 damage to your team (Galvanize and Inspiring Presence) for a turn. Well, 2 from you and 2 from Legacy. May as well let him think he's helping.
Guise's ongoings are all slightly situational, but all very powerful. If set up with Barbarian or other +1s, Sellout and Super Ultra Kawaii!! allow for a crazy number of damaging plays. SUK (hehe) is reaaally good at letting you play approximately a billion extra cards, especially if you have only 3 heroes in your game. But that means there are less options for you to copy, so be aware.
Otherwise, hold onto a heavy damage card like Blatant Referance until You have +1's from somewhere, such as Guise the Barbarian or Legacy. Or, if he isn't helping, just do it yourself, because You Can Do That Too! Selling Out has some really interesting mechanics behind it, because it happens at the end of the envirmonment turn. So, for example, if Obsidian Field is out, or you know it's going to come out, and you have the cards for it, you can play Selling Out on your turn and do some damage at the end of the environment, then, play Retcon as your last one-shot to stop the Villian from getting Obsidian bonus, and draw(or play) a card!
Ummm... Gritty Reboot pairs well with Legacy's Lead from the Front to absorb alot of damage and draw cards. I'm not a huge fan of Gimmicky Character. Probably becasue CC didn't turn over a construct that I needed to survive the Villian turn.
Also, you're Guise. If your hand is crap, yell at your cards. Read the italicized text. Make your turn a show.
Powerhound pretty well described how Guise gets played in my group. Accumulate cards, then bust out Super Ultra Kawaii to drop a bunch of ongoings and Selling Out to set up a Best Card Ever/Say Cheese/Look What I Found chain. While waiting to set up, he bides his time with Guise’s base power, and Gimmicky Character if he starts getting low on health.
A few other things about Guise:
- Guise really needs friends. (Take that any way you want…) He does best in 4- and 5-hero games, since it gives him more room to work with on Super Ultra Kawaii.
- Anyone who can feed Guise a steady stream of cards helps a lot. (Granted, this is true of most heroes.)
- Some heroes are better than others at providing Guise good ongoings or equipment to copy. Legacy is particularly good here.
Guise’s biggest weakness is that he really needs time to set up. If you’re dealing with a villain that can clear the board easily like Apostate or Citizen Dawn, you’re going to want someone who can protect him from the villain deck, such as Parse or Wraith. It’s also an issue when fighting villains where you need to bring a lot of damage in a hurry, like Mad Bomber Blade.
We’ve also had a couple games where he shows up late to the party - by the time he’s got his big combo set up, the other heroes have already taken care of everything.
In another thread it was said Guise could have his own Unlucky Pool.
He's been used in two recent PBF games and seemed effective in both, if you want to look at them for possible ideas. Out-of-turn activity is a strength of his. I would actually disagree entirely with the statement that he needs time to set up or has issues with villains that clear hero setup, because his deck is one-shots and limited ongoings that go away at the start of his next turn anyway. His abilities and choices are only really relevant for a round at a time, and then something new becomes available. Because he can either play two or draw two cards on his turn, he can either recover quickly or unload pretty easily. He's got a lot of flexibility inherently, and will have capabilities that vary depending on his teammates.
The only reason I would worry about ongoing destruction is when he is last in turn order as some of his Ongoing won't get to be used to their full effect.
I'm certainly keeping this thread in mind as eventually I'll write up my strategy guide for Guise in the format Flamethrower did. Though if someone beats me to it I won't be upset I'll just add my two cents.
My impression is that to get maximum effectiveness out of Guise he should either go first or last in the turn order. If he goes last then he gets maximum use out of Selling Out, but if he goes first he does a good job of reducing the pain of villain ongoing destruction.
And Dark Watch Fixer should go right before him in the turn order, for the same reason.
I've only played two or three games with Guise, and the only chameleon power I've used is "I can do that too." I just haven't been in teams with him where it's advantageous to copy people's ongoings or equipment. The last team up was with Tachyon and Visionary which meant Guise could use their abilities to play extra cards and draw extra cards which is already something he can do.
A really good combo for him is Guise the Barbarian, Blatant Reference, and an out-of-turn Lemme See That to steal the micro-targeting computer. 5 damage per turn, for one discard? YES PLEASE.
Or copy Legacy with I’m That Guy, assuming he has Inspiring Presence and Surge of Strength out… Or both, if you can. Wraith/Legacy/Argent Adept is an AMAZING team.
Throw in Team Leader Tachyon for good measure, and The Scholar for the hell of it, and you’ve got a SOLID team right there.
Parse also has a lot of good ongoings for Guise to copy. A few Critical Multipliers can work just as well as Guise the Barbarian for Blatant Reference, Snap Decision can set up a triple play on the next turn, and Updated Intel and Exploit Vulnerablility stack nicely. And Exploit Vulnerability isn't limited - if Parse has two, and Guise has two, then that's +4 damage. +4 damage to everything that comes into play next turn should make dealing with anything that comes out next turn pretty easy.
Also, any card that destroys itself to function, like Buffer Overflow, are great; you were going to lose the card anyway, and buffer overflow is amazing, so why not get a free use out of it?
For Guise Shenanigans Legacy/Mr. Fixer/PW Fanatic/Guise. Unmatched.
Guise with Beefcake or a borrowed Jack Handle and PW Fanatic's base power is a lot of fun. Copying Legacy's Inspiring and Surge is also great.
+2 from Legacy buffs.
+2 from Barbarian
+2 from copying Legacy buffs
Steal Jackhandle.
Copy PW Fanatic's base power:
9 radiant damage to all non-hero targets, your top card into play and a power use. I rocked that combo multiple times in one round, it was a lot of fun.
That's the best I've come across so far.
Esp. when Skyscraper throws compulsion canister on Guise while he is still rocking that setup.