Marvel Puzzle Quest: A Poorly-Written Character Guide By A Lousy Player: The Three-Stars, Part 5. (#8 in a series of Whatever.) · 9:40pm Jun 7th, 2017
So when we last left our heroes, they had all just died. But then they were brought back to life. And then they died again. But then their entire universe died. And came back as part of a mash-up with a million other universes. All of which proceeded to die. But that gave the company an excuse for a new set of #1 covers, so that was all right. Unless you happened to live in one of those other universes. In which case, about those preorders? No refunds.
So who did I promise to cover this time?
*glances at list*
...oh, this is gonna hurt...
Cyclops (Scott Summers) (Cover: Uncanny X-Men #27, 2013) Red, Yellow, Black
Health at L179: 9974
Powers:
Red (4 covers assigned) Optic Blasts Cost: 10 You'd think after all this time on the job added to that supposed savant talent for spacial geometry, he would have figured out how to aim. Scott opens his visor by a millimeter or so, doing 2901 damage to the front-rank opponent. However, he also destroys one completely random row of tiles. No color points are earned for this destruction, nor do you get additional damage for the destroyed tiles based on his chart. However, if the new board results in any matches or cascades, resolve them normally. (If maxed, 4414 damage.)
Yellow (4) Mutant Revolutionary Cost: 7 In terms of both energy and motivation, Scott's always been powered from within: bringing some of those aspects out can swing the tide. If sufficient white tiles exist, convert up to seven of them into red, resolving any resulting matches and cascades normally. (If maxed, one additional tile is converted.)
Black (5) Full Blast Cost: 13 We're going to crank this thing all the way open. Scott puts every bit of his internal reserves into a single effort, doing 5509 in damage to the front-rank enemy. If there are ten or more red tiles on the board at the time of the attack, increase total damage done to 8415 -- but Scott will then be sent reeling from sheer overexertion: stunned for one round. (If brought down in power, lessened damage and potential stunning may last for two turns.)
In Play: Oh, Scott. So much tragedy in his life. He lost his first love. Only not really. Who was replaced by a near-identical clone. Only not really. But then it turned out the original and clone existed at the same time! Only not really. And then he died! Only not really. But then he came back, went evil, led a revolution, and died again! Only not really, because his teenage self was pulled forward in time to take his place and not make all the same mistakes! And why didn't this destroy the timeline? Do we know? Not really...
It really says something about a character's life when the only way to reset the clock on "Slim Grim Summers" is to forcibly smash the smartwatch and pull out the 1963 Mickey Mouse wristband.
But this is Scott from just before the loss of that adult self, and that means he's about one thing: hurting people. A lot. Now, is he doing it while under his own control? Of course not. He's doing it because you're telling him to. (Much the way Charles told him to do things, then Jean, Emma, I think Sinister had a few turns...)
Well, at least he's going out the way he came in.
...oh, right: the play. Scott is a damage engine. And while he has some talent for that, he's good at very little else.
Oddly, the power you may get the most surprising benefits from is Revolutionary. Tile color conversion can do a lot to clear the board, especially when you know which tiles you're going to get. In this case, Scott turns white to red. Survey the board, pick your moment, and white which was adjacent to red is now a row of red which instantly matches and goes into your color pool. It's possible to create match-fives and Critical tiles with this in a tight spot. Additionally, if you're up against someone like Daken or Eric, both of whom create Strike tiles on red, you just might be able to clear out a few of their toys while charging up your own power supply. A quick burst from this ability can do a lot -- but again, the board has to be lined up just right and if there's a ton of white tiles around, you're not necessarily going to convert the ones you needed.
The Optics can be annoying. There's better damage potential-for-cost with red, and some people want to just use Scott as a backup red generator for those times when Tony's truly out of the question. Additionally, that one random row you destroy? Guess how often it's going to be a row which contains something vital to you. But when it comes to going Full Blast... that's a power which can win games. The problem is that it's very conditional: you need thirteen black to set it off, plus ten red tiles on the board to get the most from it. Triggering that Revolution can help to arrange the latter, but now you're bringing the true cost up to thirteen black, ten red on the board, plus seven yellow spent. How long can you afford to wait on your attack? And remember, if you do get the maximum from it, Scott’s going to go off and reflect on the endless tragedy which is his life for one turn, and the true miracle there is that he’s only going to do it for one turn. It’s an opening for retaliation, or at least a really depressing compilation video.
Still... if he's working, Scott does one thing very well: he hurts people. (Again, please see his entire comics history, and don't neglect what he's managed to emotionally accomplish with his own family.) His red is partially self-powering, as long as you have enough yellow and board-arrangement luck to keep it coming. Build up on black and he's one of the best finishing kicks available on the tier. (The best may conclude this blog entry.) But if you're coming up short on color points... then he can't defend. He can't heal. He can't do anything but sit in a corner, mope about how horrible his life is, and wait to die. Again.
Only not really.
*sigh* He can't even get that right...
As An Opponent: ...ow.
The Optics will kill you. The Blast will really kill you. But what's probably going to get you most of the time is that yellow power, because the RNG has a tendency to set it off when the white tiles are in beautiful proximity to the red and thanks to that mere seven of cost, it's a power which just keeps on coming. Yes, there are going to be times when Scott hurts his own team: if the computer has him teamed with someone who uses special effect tiles, he's just about guaranteed to take out his own protection every so often. But for the most part, he hurts you. It's the only thing he's good at, after all.
When going up against Scott, keep a close eye on two things: his color pool count in the vital hues, and the arrangement of the board. Consider setting pool drainers against him early and often: you really don't want him getting to that vital thirteen in black. But if everything's set up just right and he has his yellow, a cascade out of nowhere could do just about as much damage as his other powers could manage. A few surprise match-fives? Then everyone's dead, mostly because he also just got the red he needed to finish the job.
And that's about it. As an opponent, Scott isn't complicated. If you want complicated, please see the Summers Family Tree.
Enjoy your migraine!
(Just wait until they update it for the latest bit of temporal extraction.)
Best Friends: If you're going for speed on black, put Scott with Victor or Danny, either of whom can convert it into existence. (Danny's quicker and cheaper: neither one can aim.) In the event that you can team up above his tier, Tyrone might also provide, and that power is passive, free, and constant until the moment Tandy steps out of the darkness -- at which point, you get the game's only known source of free yellow and it's Revolutions For Days. Beyond that, you'll want to cover his weaknesses: the total lack of defense can be grating, he has no means of boosting his own damage, and his weak colors are in the categories where some of the better special effect powers lie. It's not a bad idea to have him with a healer or protector: he can take a lot of people down in one mega-shot, but you could say the same thing about what everyone else might to do him. And always remember: if you're using special tiles and don't have someone else on red, he will eventually take out the piece you needed. It's just a question of glancing blow vs. fatal wound.
Worst Enemies: Should the *** Ororo beat him to the yellow supply, she can partially cripple him by taking the white tiles he was about to convert and putting them into her team's color pool. The Full Blast is very vulnerable to supply thieves: Jennifer has a random shot at making his life miserable. But be very careful about using black creators and converters against him: he'll happily clean up your mess and then hit you in the face with it.
However... ultimately, Scott's worst enemy is the same one it's always been. The one which destroyed his first life and, given enough time, will completely ruin his second chance.
@#$^ing writers.
Quicksilver (Pietro Maximoff) (Cover: Avengers #75) Black, Blue, Green
Health at L175: 9129
Powers:
Black (5): Idle Hands Cost: 9, but may drop as low as 5. With Bruce, you don't ever want to make him angry. With Pietro, the worst possible thing you could ever do is make him -- bored. Choose any two non-white basic tiles. (They can't have any status effects on them, nor can they be countdowns.) The positions of those tiles are now swapped. Should this result in matches and cascades, resolve them normally. Oh, and because you were standing still while he did it, he slapped you around a few times as he went by: the front-row opponent takes 1151 damage. Additionally, for every locked white tile on the board, this power costs one less black to activate, up to a maximum of four such tiles bringing it down to a cost of five black. Why? Because that's not boring. (If brought down by one level, only 443 damage.)
Blue (4): Supersonic Cost: 0, Passive, Reactive & Conditional Pietro's a firm believer in the idea that everything someone else does is wrong. And somehow, this has never kept him from getting in his own way. More than a few times. Per minute. The practical effect of this is that whenever anyone on either team makes a blue match, Pietro will lock one random white tile, as indicated by a blur around its edges. This tile can no longer be moved. (If matched or put into a situation which would normally destroy it, the lock is removed and the tile remains.) If the number of locked tiles is ever brought to five by a blue match, Pietro breaches Mach 1 and lets the backblast hit the game board: all locked tiles revert to normal, and everyone on the enemy team takes 1789 damage. (If maxed, 2584 when it all goes south.)
Green (4): Fists Of Fury Cost: 8, but may drop as low as 5. Pietro's strength really isn't that much beyond that of a normal human, and so it's pretty easy to take a punch from him -- unless, of course, he's hitting you three hundred times per minute. The front-row opponent takes 1807 damage, and Pietro locks one random white tile. The power costs one less green to set off for every locked white tile on the board, to a minimum cost of five. (If maxed, 2682 damage per fiststorm.)
In Play: Here are two words no one's ever been able to say about Pietro with a straight face: team player.
Look, there's a match-five waiting on the board! All you have to do is swap these two tiles -- wait. They're not moving. Why aren't they moving? They're not moving because Pietro is with you, someone made a blue match, and the tile he locked is exactly the one you needed to shift. But that's okay, because there's a secondary match which will get rid of the countdown which was going to destroy you in two turns! -- and that's blocked off by blurred white. Fine. What's the tertiary and final option? Removing your own Strike tile? Guess that's the way to go!
Powers which have automatic side effects can create problems. In Pietro's case, two of his powers do it, and the blue one is just about nothing but its side effect until the moment you get that fifth locked tile. MPQ is still a match-three game, and that means you're going to need matches. Pietro can very easily prevent matches from occurring. The tiles he locks are going to get in the way. Admittedly, they get in everyone's way: when it comes to causing problems with his showboating, Pietro's never really discriminated. But eventually, inevitably, he's going to block you off from something you need, because the man who can just about be everywhere at once still finds a means of standing absolutely still, directly in your path, while smirking in that special 'I meant to do that' way. So why use him?
Idle Hands.
Remember back in the * tier, when we were talking about Clint and his ability to convert any one normal tile into a Critical wild card? How it taught you to survey the board not just for what it was, but what it could be?
For a cost of nine black, Pietro takes the tile you need from over there and puts it here.
Now: explain why this might not be the best *** power in the game.
Well -- maybe because it only works on normal tiles. It can't relocate countdowns or anything else which is even a little unusual. But this power can potentially match them away. It can, with the right board configuration, conjure a Critical on demand. Maybe once or twice in your playing career, it'll create two Criticals with one swap. It can make a Critical tile fall into the next match-five arrangement. Idle Hands destroys. The direct damage? That's just about an incidental side effect. But the more of those annoying locked tiles you have around, the more often you can set Idle Hands off, the more damage it'll do, and the more it controls the board.
Idle Hands, when used by the computer, is random. It can annoy, and sometimes it'll make a match. But other than damage, it doesn't do much. Put that same power into the hands of a human player, and it destroys. You'll want to match blue just to make it cheaper. You'll want to use it again and again. It's actually somewhat addictive. You tell the board what configuration it should be in! You tell your opponents to fall down now! You -- and now you're thinking like Pietro. Stop it.
For the other two powers? Supersonic isn't easy to set off. Gaining a locked tile no matter who makes the match helps, but the reality is that the computer is going for its own Team-Up meter fill, along with destroying and matching as per usual -- and so you're going to be losing locks regularly, making it very hard to reach that vital fifth. In practice, it'll mostly get in the way while lowering power costs on the other two abilities: if you ever get any damage out of it, consider it a bonus. The Fists, however -- put a green supply together and every group of punches makes the next attack a little cheaper, along with giving you a little hope on actually setting Supersonic off this time. Multiple green attacks can sometimes be arranged, and they're just about always effective. A lot of people will want to max out their covers on green: I just find I have more luck with swaps than direct poundings. Tweak your Pietro to taste.
He's effective. He's deadly. He can do what you need. But he also gets in his own way. And somehow, when that happens, he'll never admit that it was his fault...
As An Opponent: If you're going up against Pietro, the computer will be controlling him -- and that means Idle Hands is mostly good for comedy. Random swaps can do something effective -- randomly. For the most part, it'll be occasional damage and the chance to laugh at an AI which isn't exactly optimized. Expect to have a lot more trouble with the Fists: if he puts a green supply together, you will be hurting and hurting and hurting, with a progressively shorter duration between poundings.
Supersonic, seen from the other side, is a pest. It adds an automatic cost to all of your own blue matches: you need the power supply, but you know you're getting a locked tile somewhere, plus he's that much closer to blowing through the entire battlefield. At best, it'll leave you alternating: reluctantly claim your blue, then try to clean up after the locked mess. However, there is one special situation to consider -- see below.
Best Friends: Pietro runs on blue, but he doesn't use it: since you'll be collecting a lot of the stuff if you're under the illusion that Supersonic can be viable, make sure to bring someone who burns blue as an active source. Those who destroy select bits of the board can help to clean up after his mess. Keep his weak colors in mind: Red/Yellow/Purple isn't a combination you'll readily find in one character on the *** tier -- but if you want to split it up, I find he works interestingly (as far as he can work with anyone) if you put him with Piotr and -- naturally -- his sister. Of course, that leaves you with a blue supply building up which has nowhere to go, but it also provides protection, a second group attack, and That One Big Punch -- if his locked tiles don't prevent them from getting to all of it.
Worst Enemies: The *** Ororo can claim all his locked white tiles in one shot, and arranging Victor's covers in the right order will completely destroy the blue supply. With a passive power and two which become gradually cheaper, pool drainers won't have a lot of luck with him. However, he can be hit, and hitting him hard will put him down: he doesn't exactly qualify for Fragile Speedster, but his Health isn't anything spectacular. And as long as he's on the other side, Idle Hands will rarely be anything more than a nuisance.
But there's one weird situation to watch out for: Pietro Vs. Pietro. Because they brought him out. You countered with him. And now? Every blue match produces two locked tiles.
I've been in this fight. It makes Supersonics appear very quickly. But it's just about a coin toss on who's going to set them off. Think very carefully before you try that one, because a blue-heavy board will end the game -- for someone.
But at least it's not boring!
Daken (Akihiro) (Cover: Dark Wolverine #75) Purple, Black, Blue
Health at L167: 6840
Powers:
Purple (4) Pheromone Rage Cost: 0, Passive & Reactive It's sort of like Joyous, only with a lot more active reveling in any chaos created. Whenever anyone on either side makes a green match, convert one random basic red into an allied Strike tile with a strength of 63. (If there are no available basic reds to convert, nothing happens.) This power will not overwrite a red tile which has been turned into another Strike, Attack, Protect, or Countdown -- but will destroy any red Trap it happens to randomly encounter. (If maxed, create two Strike tiles, but their strength is 46 -- each.)
Black (5) Healing And Heat Cost: 0, Passive & Automatic/Conditional When your body has regenerative abilities, you'd think the side effects from drug withdrawal wouldn't be this much of a problem... If wounded, Daken automatically recovers 7% of his original total Health per turn, and this counts as true healing. However, in any turn where there are six or less blue tiles on the board, his body starts to turn on itself as the need kicks in, and he loses 3% of that original Health total instead. This will reverse as soon as the board supply crosses the blue line again. (If lowered, slower healing and more blue needed to avoid being auto-damaged.)
Blue (4) Chemical Reaction Cost: 5 There are things Daken possesses. A mohawk. Tattoos. Claws. There are also things Daken does not possess. Self-control. Morals. Good judgment. This power does three things, in the following order. First, the front-rank opponent takes 732 in damage. Next, two random basic blue tiles turn green. (If this creates matches and cascades, resolve them normally.) And lastly, if enough allied Strike tiles are present, convert up to four of them back into basic tiles, with that front-rank target taking 421 damage for each tile changed.
In Play: Yes, he's lazy. But we never really talked about him at the ** tier because I didn't have him on my roster at that time, so this is going to be his official review. (Apparently by popular, or at least PresentPerfect, demand.) And officially? He's annoying. He's very annoying, and that annoyance has earned him the nickname of Spring@$$. Because that's what he does. He jumps up, springs the attack, and then sits back to watch the fun -- right before the cravings kick in.
Take a close look at his power list again. We have two passives, and they're both trouble for the other side. The purple power creates strike tiles no matter who's matching on green: they aren't very strong, but they can build up quickly. The blue? It's a benefit -- most of the time. With a sixty-four tile board and only seven blue needed to avoid bad things, you'll usually be over the healing line, and the typical blue shortage resolves itself within a few random drops. You'll rarely see Daken wind up Heating himself into oblivion without some very special circumstances, extremely bad luck, or Daken going overboard.
Because the Reaction? It's one of the cheapest attacks in the game. With a mere five in blue to set it off, you're generally going to have it ready to go within a few turns. The damage isn't great, but converting Strike tiles back to normal boosts it, and --
-- hold it.
Using Daken is about trying out something he personally doesn't have: self control. Every Reaction converts two blue tiles to green. This may create matches and reload the Strike count. It also depletes the local blue count on the board. What does Daken need in order to avoid losing Health every turn? A decent blue count on the board.
Blue is one of his strong colors. You need to match it in order to power the Reaction. But every time you match it, you get that much closer to going under the line and having Heat kick in. Every time you use the Reaction, up to four Strike tiles vanish. They won't necessarily be the ones he created. Did an ally put something much stronger on the board? Well, now that's gone. But don't worry, because a little more blue will drop in shortly! Unless, you know, it doesn't.
You'll seldom get into real trouble with Daken unless you put yourself there. But the temptation exists. Blue is cheap. Blue is plentiful. Your opponent can't help but match green, and maybe you took some for yourself: so many Strike tiles... So let's slash! Slash! Slash -- gee, all the blue is gone. How did that happen? And why is his Health going down? Well, three percent per turn isn't so bad -- wait. His Health wasn't all that high to begin with. Say, did the opposing Tony just get the Unibeam online?
Good night, not-so-sweet prince.
Daken is a balancing act. You want people to be matching green: you'll certainly want at least one person on your side who uses it. The Strike tiles don't do much individually, but start seeing them in bulk and the pain will surely come. However, in order to make that direct attack, you'll be getting rid of those tiles. Most of the time, it's a fair trade. But every so often, it'll tip him over the edge, and then you get to watch that Health drop. Because his Health is, in fact, very low for his level, he relies on that healing to keep him in the fight. The side effects of too little blue usually won't drop him -- but they can easily bring him into a place where he can be dropped. Daken can often recover more in health per turn than you can take off him with standard matches, right up until you get that One Big Hit together. The Heat effect makes it into One Slightly Smaller Hit.
He swipes. He springs. And then he gets Blasted But Good.
If you don't know what he did to deserve it, he does.
As An Opponent: The following is a summary of every fight you will ever have against Daken, ever:
Natasha: *match-3 for 400 points of damage*
Daken: *smirks, then trueheals 420*
Natasha: "I hate you."
Daken: *Chemical Reaction*
Natasha: "I really hate you."
Daken is an enemy character and will frequently be encountered on the other side of the board, with levels reaching all the way into the low 300s. He will be encountered a little too frequently. The computer loves him, and very little of that has to do with pheromones. The AI uses him because he’s annoying.
Let’s look at his regeneration again. My Daken, at his current level with blue tiles over the threshold number, will trueheal about 476 points of damage every turn. Put him on the other side of the board and you’ll learn a simple fact: without Strike and/or Attack tiles in play plus some very high level characters at work, it’s hard to inflict 477 points on him with a standard match-3. In order to put Daken down via standard board damage, you have to hit him with people so far above his tier that his last words may be a fashion comment about the shoes of the Celestial who’s about to step on him. So unless you get lucky with match-4s and 5s plus criticals, you have to use powers to put him down. Which means you need to save up some color points. And while you’re doing so? Chemical Reactions, over and over again, because five points in blue doesn’t take very long to save up at all. Oh, and there’s enemy Strike tiles all over the board. Plus you had to watch his attack animation seven. billion. times.
It’s annoying.
You can put Daken down in one mega-shot: after all, it’s hard to heal back from Downed, at least until the next round starts. His Health-per-level is low enough to put the grand total well under some character’s single-power-use damage output: Scott can destroy him with a single Full Blast, and he’s not the only one who could accomplish that feat. It’ll give you plenty of ideas for who you can use against him. But unless you can completely hog all the blue and send him into the Heat basement, he’ll be getting his power ready a lot faster than you can charge up yours. Daken will hurt you seven times a week, by appointment. He’s the Friends reruns of MPQ, and he doesn’t seem quite so funny any more either. But he is repetitive! And as Adam Sandler might tell you, repetitive can substitute for funny!
Ha. Ha. Ha.
Best Friends: Daken needs green matches in order to keep his Strike tiles coming, but he’s personally weak in the color. It’s a good idea to pair him with someone who runs on the stuff, allowing you to collect a little extra benefit from it. Looking in this direction may bring you to Kamala, who covers two of his weak colors, has an active to go with his purple passive and, for a special bonus, temp-heals the entire team every time that Reaction goes off. (Get the two of them running in sync and it’s power animations for hours.) He also works fairly well with Johnny, as long as you’re careful about not letting the Inferno cut into the blue supply and make sure the Fireballs don’t remove your own Strike tiles: Reaction first, then follow it up with the flames.
Keep his Health in mind: because he can be put down with a mega-punch and his defense is limited to self-healing, he benefits from finding a bodyguard to lurk behind. Piotr’s a frequent choice here, but he can also pair up well with Sam: not only does the Bird Strike keep everyone alive that much longer, but now you’re potentially improving Shield and Strike tiles with every yellow match.
In general, because he’s got two passives and the single active power is cheap, he can charm his way into any number of teams. It’s a little benefit which comes from being himself. And as an extra bonus, he brings his own expertly-honed backstabs for the moment he finally betrays you too.
Worst Enemies: We’ve talked about the mega-punch, and that should probably be your standard tactic for dealing with him: the secondary is extended stuns added to a lot of fast punches. But it’s also fun to put him up against Victor and create the insult-to-injury win. It’s not easy -- you need to get a lot of blue for yourself, plus purple, and since both characters run on the same color groups, they’ll be racing for all of it -- but it’s more than a little amusing. Technopathic Strike converts all blue to black, leaving Daken gasping for breath while he scrambles to match anything -- and while that’s happening, the Diabolical Plot goes off. G’night, Daken. Never question the aptitude of the superior villain.
But no matter what you do to him, it’s going to take time. Time during which you’ll get to watch his single animation play.
Over. And over. And over.
...@#$%, he’s annoying...
Colossus (Piotr Rasputin) (Cover: Bloodline #4) Yellow, Red, Black
Health at L181: 11655
Powers:
Yellow (3) Immovable Object Cost: 8 And now there’s several hundred pounds of organic steel standing between you and whatever you wanted to hit. Got any plans on what to do about it? Piotr chooses one basic yellow tile and converts it into a three-turn countdown. While this tile is active, no matter who makes the match, Piotr moves to the front rank at the end of the turn and suffers all enemy counterattacks. However, steel dents, but it’s hard to shatter: he also automatically cuts all damage done to him by 45%. Team attacks will still get past him, but he’ll resist his portion of that damage normally. (If maxed, five-turn countdown and 50% damage resistance.)
Red (5) Colossal Punch Cost: 11 Ever been hit so hard that your teammates felt it? Piotr takes one huge swing and does -- 1619 in damage to the front-rank opponent. Right. That’s it. 1619 for eleven in red, at level 181. Unless he happens to be in the front rank at the time (which means he must have been the lead character at the end of the previous turn): in that case, it’s 4319 to the front rank enemy opponent and a bonus 1080 to everyone in the back. (If brought down by even one level, lose more than half of the team damage.)
Black (5) Fastball Special Cost: 13 You knew that was coming. Drawing on several decades of dubious tactical experience, Piotr picks up one teammate and flings them at the enemy. That character is then airborne for one turn: they can’t act in any way, but they’re also completely immune to damage or stun effects. On the second turn after using the power, that teammate hits whatever they were thrown at. Your ally takes 180 points of damage, while the front-rank opponent takes 1798 -- and then the craziness kicks in. Because if your thrown ally has any active powers, upon impact, they will automatically activate one of them -- at no color point cost. That’s right: you just got one power use for free. (Well, free plus thirteen in black.) Which power will your teammate set off? Um... it’s random. Completely random. They’re kind of disoriented because a very large Russian just grabbed them in a sensitive area before treating them as a human baseball: they may not be thinking straight. But still -- free power! (If lowered, airborne duration increases. Characters can’t be thrown if they’re stunned or only have passive abilities. For what might be obvious reasons, Piotr can’t throw himself.)
In Play: Every tier needs a bodyguard, and Piotr stands ready to intervene for the ***. Also to occasionally make them wonder if this whole justice thing is really worth being thrown at people.
Piotr’s primary job might be seen as a simple one: he’s supposed to get in the way. We’ve talked a lot about how you want to keep your weaker characters semi-protected at the back. Well, that’s what Piotr does: as long as that yellow power is charged and active, no matter who makes your match, he’s out front and everyone else is in the back. Got someone fragile who’s going to get clobbered as soon as they shakily venture out to fetch their strong color? Nope! Here comes the punch you knew was waiting on their emergence, and there’s Piotr standing in its way! Shake off half of it and get ready to counter with the color points you finally grabbed!
As such, many players may want to build him around maxing out Immovable Object: five turns for eight yellow can look a lot better than three. But there’s still a problem there: the power runs on a countdown tile. Yes, you get to pick your spot, and sticking it somewhere hard to reach will help you get some more benefit from the ability -- but it’s still vulnerable to being matched, destroyed, or any of the other horrible things which can happen to your special tiles. And even when you can keep him out front, the power revolves around him getting hurt. Yes, he’s taking half the damage anyone else would -- but at the same time, he’s taking damage, and he’s the only one doing so. Even with Immovable running at full strength and duration, Piotr can be dropped. It just takes a while -- and sometimes, that time requirement equals the running of his countdown. As a bodyguard, he can be effective -- but he’s not ideal. (If you want something a little closer to ideal, you’ll have to wait until we reach the ****s. Jessica is waiting.)
The Punch? It’s a mixed bag. There are more cost-effective uses for red, and if you have just about anyone else on the team who uses it at this power level, they might be better off burning those points instead. Still -- if he’s out front, he can put a hurting on anyone, and that bonus team damage isn’t a bad thing. But when you get to the Special...
The Special may drive you nuts.
First, it has a defensive component: if you know a huge attack is coming in, sending someone airborne will leave you with one guaranteed character standing. (There’s a special rule for Piotr: if he throws a character and then goes down, the power will still finish its routine normally. If he was your only other ally or both of your teammates are taken out, the tossed character hits immediately.) And second, the random power set off will be an active one. That power will work normally: it won’t cost anything in color points, but side effects (like Tony’s Unibeam cutting into the color pool) will occur as usual. If the power requires a tile to be chosen, then you get to choose it. But as for the power itself? Completely random. The only way to guarantee which one will go off is to throw a character who has one active ability.
So let’s say you toss *** Natasha. What you want is the mega-damage from the Sniper Rifle, because that’s normally nineteen green to set off. But you could get the Pistol. Maybe you’ll land on her other power. Throw Tony and you could wind up with one free Unibeam -- or Recharge. You have no control. You could get the power which saves your life or the one which doesn’t quite make your opponent lose one turn to their inevitable laughing fit. All you can do is Throw And Pray.
(Imagine what’s going through the mind of the person being thrown. Other than questions about sexual harassment. Seriously, have you seen that grip?)
There will be times when the Special saves your life, because free power. And there will be times when you look at the thirteen black which just came out of your pool and consider it a hard trade for one Flame Jet. Use it with someone who has a truly expensive active power, one which you just can’t get the color points for. And then cross your fingers.
It doesn’t actually help, but it’s something to do.
As An Opponent: He’s actually less of a problem that you might think. He’s capable of doing some damage, and going to full sleep on him while you prioritize against everyone else might be the last thing your team ever does -- but on the whole, he’s one of those characters who’s a lot more capable in player hands than he is when the AI is running him. If he’s on a team with cheaper red and black users, then unless there’s a huge cascade on the enemy side, you may never see the Fastball or the Punch. And Immovable Object? It still gets in the way -- but there’s no guarantee of the computer picking a good spot for the countdown tile. You may even get a little comedy out of it, because if Piotr is on the team, then yellow is a strong color -- and so where a human player would avoid that tile until the countdown expired, the computer will happily match its own protection away.
Which doesn’t mean he won’t hurt you. If things break just right, the countdown will be isolated in a corner, the cascade will hit, and the Punch will hit right after. But for the most part? He just requires monitoring and careful control. As an opponent, Piotr is all about keeping an eye on his color pool and seeing just who he’s with, then acting accordingly by cutting off his support base and destroying everyone he’s ever been known to associate with, possibly including killing his entire family just to teach him a lesson, then blaming it all on America.
...what? He’s Russian. Under current leadership, that’s a typical Wednesday.
Best Friends: You’ve seen his name brought up a lot before we got to his actual entry, which may clue people into the general idea: his best friends are just about everyone. If you’re in his tier or below and need a little extra protection, then he stands ready to shield you within the protection of a steel bear hug. Piotr will sacrifice himself for anyone, especially since his story medium means any such final gift will probably be returned at the counter within twenty issues. But if you’re looking for someone who can use his weak colors, then Green/Blue/Purple will bring you directly to Wanda: he covers for her while she gets the Crush together, she does her fourteen-purple blast, and then he starts hitting the survivors until they drop. Loki, Daken -- anyone with low Health who shouldn’t see too much front-rank sunlight will look to Piotr for help.
(Oddly, he doesn’t do all that well with James -- from any tier: the unboosted ** doesn’t really work in higher-level teams, the *** has too many side effects attached to those active powers, ****’s best power is on black, and the ***** has Piotr’s exact strong color set.)
He can be teamed with other red users: as said, his power isn’t the most effective there. And if you’re looking to get off that one ultra-expensive power at a cost of thirteen black -- well, maybe it’ll work. But it’s the Red Queen’s strategy: it’s worked in the past, and it’ll work in the future, but it’s never going to work today...
Worst Enemies: The Special can be its own worst enemy, especially if it sets off an attack which has side effects for his own team. But for the most part, you’re looking to drain him, stun him, and do horrible things to his countdown tile. There is, however, one thing to keep in kind with Piotr: if you have a power which delays an enemy countdown? Then you’re helping him. Use a ** Natasha against his team and that bodyguard duty just got extended by four turns.
But until he drops, you can bash him, blast him, attack him with everything you’ve got -- and for the most part, he’ll just shrug.
It’s better than being at home.
Squirrel Girl (Doreen Green) (Cover: Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #3, variant) Yellow, Purple, Green
Health at L187: 9741
Powers:
Yellow (5) The Bigger They Are Cost: 9 A lot of people have tried to take Doreen down. A lot of people. And somehow, something always seems to get in the way... Four random yellow basic tiles are converted into allied Protect tiles with a strength of 91 each, and all subtraction from incoming damage is cumulative. However, if Doreen uses this power when the front-rank enemy has 80% or more of their original health, the tiles are more powerful: 200 each instead. Use of this ability automatically ends your turn: you don’t get to make a match. (Lowering this power in rank cuts into tile strength and means only three will be created.)
Purple (5) Nuts From Above Cost: 9 The more you have going for you, the more she has going for her. Doreen gets her tail right in your face, doing 2534 to the front-rank opponent -- if that opponent is working with a completely normal board. For each enemy Protect, Attack, or Strike tile present at the time this power is used, Doreen does 564 additional points of damage, to a limit of eight such tiles: in that case, boost damage is 5512, total damage becomes 8046, and there’s a squirrel tail in your face. (If lowered, base and boost damage drop. Enemy Protect tiles still subtract from the total damage done as usual, but may boost more than they removed.)
Green (3) Furry Friends Cost: 11 Ever been assaulted by an army of squirrels? No? Victor has. It’s surprisingly effective. Turns three random green tiles into three-turn countdowns. Every turn after the first, each remaining active tile destroys one random basic tile, doing damage as per Doreen’s chart: resolve any resulting matches or cascades normally. Each countdown tile which manages to go off does 967 damage to the front-rank opponent. (If maxed, four countdowns, 1660 damage when they naturally expire.)
In Play: Let’s get this out of the way immediately: she can be beaten. In fact, it happens a lot. Reaching this game gave her a bad case of the can-lose, and it spreads out to your entire team. But if you’re careful...
Doreen’s game incarnation is a lot like her comics one: she brings offense, defense, and a sometimes-distressing amount of TOTALLY RANDOM FALLOUT. The last starts to kick in on her very first power. Four Shield tiles and, if you use it early in the game and bring someone strong to the front enemy rank before it goes off? Eight hundred points of total protection. This is incredible. This is just about all you can ask for in a *** defensive power. And this -- ends the turn. As soon as you use that power? That’s it. No match, no other power use. Your opponent gets to respond immediately. Admittedly, they’re doing so while you have that much protection on the board, but still... if they’ve got *** Carol with them, you’re about to get a reminder. Which is the weakness of this power: not just Carol, but that Shield tiles can be converted or destroyed by a few people on the tier, and you just granted them one free shot at doing exactly that.
The weakness of Nuts From Above is that in order to get the most out of it, someone has to be hitting you hard. That maximum damage may look like a miracle. On closer inspection, it’ll look like something which requires eight enemy tiles in place. Are there eight Strike tiles around? Daken has a lot to fear from Doreen -- but how much damage did everyone on your team take while that max-out situation was coming about? As a basic attack, the damage isn’t bad and the cost is fair, but living long enough to make it into a game-changer probably means things have been going against you for a while.
Furry Friends? Fluttershy would understand this one perfectly: an army of squirrels could do a lot of damage -- but they’re not a very intelligent army. That random tile destruction can produce matches and cascades which win the game for you. It can also set up situations which take out your own toys. It arranges match-5s for the enemy turn. Sometimes the squirrels destroy themselves. Sometimes they make it a lot easier to destroy you. Will the tiles last long enough to do the real damage? In my experience, unless the board and random placement are seriously against you, one of them will probably make it. But until that happens, there will be chaos -- and not all of it will work in your favor.
Which means that in total, Doreen’s really a lot like her comics incarnation. You can see where she’s potent. It’s easy to recognize how she could potentially take some very powerful people down, or at least set things up to the point where others could finish the job. But at the same time, she’s going to get in over her head a lot. She almost has to let things get worse so she can make them better. And a team with her on it may wind up thankful for that party member -- while simultaneously thinking We just recruited a college student whose most outstanding ability centers around getting her own tail stuffed into her pants.
It’s an art form.
As An Opponent: You may be catching on to the fact that Doreen’s actually fairly situational: you want to bring her out when you see the possibility for a lot of enemy special tiles being deployed against you and very little chance of having your own destroyed. This is also the key to fighting her: if you’re planning on using a whole lot of Strikes and other playthings, then see Doreen lurking on the other side of the board? You either put together another team or you go after her first, because if those allied tiles are out there when she goes Nuts, you’re going to feel it. And it’s very easy for her to go Nuts. Nine purple isn’t that hard to put together -- and for that matter, neither is nine in yellow, so get ready for a few free turns, most of which you’ll spend in frustrated regard of all those shields which just showed up.
Furry Friends, especially when maxed out, will hurt you: as soon as you see the squirrels swarming across the board (yes, there’s an animation for that), you’d better have a plan of attack for getting rid of them. And if Victor infamously couldn’t pull that off, asking you to manage it may be a little much -- but as noted above, that random placement and equally random tile destruction means there’s going to be times when the duration of the attack does more harm to her side than yours. Every countdown which goes off is guaranteed damage -- but until then, they could hurt either side.
When she’s an opponent, Doreen does the same thing she does on your team: frustrates, confounds, infuriates, and sometimes proves to be incredibly effective -- but she doesn’t always win.
Thank goodness. This game is hard enough.
Best Friends: Doreen requires some experimentation. (Fortunately, she’s in her college years.) Putting her with someone who runs on the Red/Blue/Black combo might lead you into Betsy --but the squirrels may not be good for those Attack and Strike tiles. Pairing her with James may have him put a ton of enemy Strike tiles out there just before she drops from the trees and uses them all to her advantage. But in her case? I don’t have a perfect trio which has her as an integral component: I just don’t use her enough for that. Play around. Try out some different groups. See how she works out for you. Just remember: the squirrels get everywhere...
Worst Enemies: Carol’s *** incarnation is especially bad for her, removing all Protect tiles with the attack which the squirrels probably helped to charge up. Doreen’s Health isn’t outstanding and she has no means of natural recovery, plus her colors are an exact match for Kamala’s and that means the most common *** version of the team tempheal won’t be next to her very often. (In terms of her being a worst enemy for someone else, she’s the *** Ororo’s biggest nightmare: one Hailstorm will boost Doreen’s damage to the point of a one-hit kill.) And of course, there are a million Twitter users standing by to judge her on her looks at all times.
Not that Doreen cares. But if you thought squirrels were annoying...
So I guess that’s it for this grouping. I know I promised six, but -- it’s been a hard week. I haven’t been sleeping all that well. Five’s enough. All things considered, I’m just going to go get a drink, consider who should be in the next entry, and we’ll pick it up some other time.
Later.
[/hr]
...not so fast!
Deadpool!
It’s Me! Deadpool!
Seriously! Let’s Do This! -- wait. Is there a format?
Seems so.
Thanks a lot, Yellow Box. Fine... I guess we’ll just have to do this the stupid way...
Deadpool (Wade Wilson, Coolest Man Alive!) (Cover: Uncanny Avengers #1, Call Me Maybe Variant. By the way, they so totally don’t call. And when they do? Tony likes to reverse the charges. Because he can. Anyway, pick up ten issues for your kids. Or because the market will appreciate some day. More than anyone appreciates me.) Red, Pink Oh Who Are You Kidding? It’s Pink! Fine... Purple, Black
Health at L195: 10149 (Hey, it could be higher, but I’ve gotta see my sweetie once in a while. Thanos thinks he can Court Death? I’m still the one sleeping with her! And a lot of other people. I’m pansexual. That means I think Pan is really sexy. Mmm... goat legs...)
Powers (only three? The stupid android got five! How does he rate? His series got cancelled!):
Red (5) A Little Off The Top Cost: 6 You know what saves a lot of time in a fight? Being completely aware of your medium and using it to your advantage. I always know exactly where I am. Like right now, I know I’m in a blog post which only like a hundred people are going to read. They’re not paying me enough for this. Or paying me anything. What part of ‘Merc’ does everyone keep missing? The New Universe part? Was that too obscure? It wasn’t? NERDS!
Anyway, when I’m in good old MPQ (where I have my very own event, which repeats about eight times a year whether people are sick of it or not), I know I’m in a match-3 game. So why should I spend time punching the bad guys when I can just take a direct slice at their Health Bar? This does 3520 in damage -- or 65% of their current Health. The bad news is that it’s whatever number is lower. So if you’ve got 40,000 in Health because you’re some five-star big-shot and oh my Stan get me out of here!, I’m gonna do the 3520. And if you’re down to 100? I’ll take off sixty-five of it. It’s not a bad attack and it’s sure cheap enough, but it doesn’t have any real finishing power.
People say that a lot about you.
Shut up.
In bed.
...where’s White Box?
Have you ever seen white text in a blog post?
...open the stupid parentheses. (Take this at Level 4 and it’ll be 2437 or 45%. Still whichever’s lower. No one loves me. At least not as much as they love Wolverine.)
Pink -- aw, come on! Purple (5) Whales! Whales! Whales! Cost: 14 Okay, this one’s a little complicated. But it’s also really easy. You’re smart readers: you’ll get the hang of it in no time.
So what’s this power? I drop a whale on the entire enemy team. Where did I get the whale? Don’t ask. Why do I have a whale? Because I know I’m in a match-3 game, I wanted a team attack, and I really wanted to drop a whale on someone. At the five-cover level, it’s a sperm whale! And when you drop one of those, it does 4339 damage to every bad guy who’s on screen at the time. Cool, right? For everyone except the guys in the City Whale Disposal unit, but even they’ve been looking for work.
That was the really easy part. Here comes the complicated stuff. Don’t worry: there’s a great payoff at the end.
I make my own rules. And I say that I like being on your roster, but I’d really rather be out in the field! I want to be used! Also abused and occasionally tied up by candlelight, but nothing too kinky. So once a day, if you put me in a fight and we win, I’ll give you some Deadpool Points. A couple of thousand. I’m encouraging you to save up. Because when you hit 28,000 and use this power, I’ll give you a special option. We can drop the sperm whale -- or, if you spend those points through hitting the Big “PUSH ME!” Button, I’ll drop every whale I’ve got. You know what that does?
It wins the game.
...okay, it doesn’t always win the game. Some wiki people tested it out. If we’re in the Balance Of Power event and everyone’s cranked up to Level 550, it’ll just do its fixed amount of damage. Like ninety-nine thousand or so. But in just about any other situation, dropping 99k worth of whales on the other guys?
That is the stuff.
Overkill is the best kind of killing.
(Lower this? Why would you do that? But fine, I’ve got smaller whales, and they’re starting to smell. Less damage it is.)
Black (3) Life Of The Party Cost: 0, Passive & Reactive Blood is red. Red gets attention. When other people get hit, they bleed red and get attention. That attention should be mine! So when one of my teammates gets hit for 927 points of damage or more -- individual hit, not a team attack -- I’ll jump in front and take the blow for them! That also activates my handy-dandy healing factor, placing a one-turn black countdown tile somewhere on the board. If that goes off, I’ll trueheal 701 of what I took in the name of keeping the spotlight on me! Oh, and helping my buds. That’s important too. Kind of. (Max this out? Then I’ll trueheal 1303, which means I could get back more than the attack took off, up to my normal maximum. Still not great against something like a Unibeam, but every bit helps!)
In Play: First off, you should totally play with me at least once a day. I like that. Play with me in that special way that I like. It’s only uncomfortable for one of us. And you want those Deadpool Points, don’t you? Of course you do. Who doesn’t?
Okay, tactical stuff. (I practice tactics! Dying repeatedly is a tactic, isn’t it? Ever read Riverworld?) My red power is... well, it kind of needs some help. It’s a good way to carve off a chunk early in the match and it sure is cheap, but that max-out factor keeps it from being a game changer. The good news is that my limit can be overcome by boosting me with Strike tiles. The bad news is that I don’t make Strike tiles. The worst news is that Betsy still hasn’t forgiven me for that Beauty And The Beast number.
The black? If we’re going to be honest with each other, which is something I think I can do with you even though we’ve known each other for less than fifty paragraphs, it gets me killed. I mean it gets me killed a lot, which is really good for giving me snuggly-time with my bone snookums, but the other two guys on my team might not appreciate it so much. But I can’t help it. I see a sword, I just jump in front of it. I’m writing a dissertation on what being killed by every known weapon ever feels like. This is research.
My black power makes me into a bodyguard. The all-Canadian kind, not like that Russian pretender! (He rigs elections. Did you know he rigs elections? Many people are saying he rigs elections, and the fact that all twelve of them are in my head doesn’t keep that from being many people.) But it also makes me die really fast sometimes, because I don’t get to choose whether I jump to the front or not. Now for me, that’s not so bad. For you, losing the match because I went out early... well, take me out into the field a little more. We can learn to work together. We can work it out.
But the purple? That’s what keeps people coming back to me. Not only is it a great team attack, but if you’ve got the Deadpool Points, I’ve got the win. Sure, it’s expensive and you may have some problems getting me charged in a hurry, but I just want you to remember those loving words which you’re about to whisper in your opponent’s ear: “Release The Whales.” Oooh... sends a shiver down your spine, doesn’t it? Imagine what it does to the other guys. What’s left of their spines. Which usually isn’t a lot because some naughty boy just dropped a lot of whales on them.
So. many. whales.
As An Opponent: You know, some people have been known, and I’m not saying who, Charley, to call me annoying. Really annoying. I don’t understand why they would say that about me when I’m just trying to have a perfectly polite conversation with them in their shower. But hey, I’m an adult. I can admit to my flaws. And at least in this game, I am kind of annoying. In fact, I’m so annoying that it’s probably going to kill you.
When I’m playing for the other side -- look, I’m a merc: I’ll play for anyone who gives me five minutes of screen time -- my job is to frustrate you. For starters, you’ve almost got to take me out first. Unless you’ve brought stunners or your plan is to just whittle everyone to death (see page 197 of my dissertation), every time you try to land a big hit on one of my buds, whoopsie! There I am! And yeah, it hurts -- but the thing is, your plan was to hit someone else and now you just hit me. I’ve got one of those powers people forget about until it leaps right in front of them. Maybe I should be Spring@$$. I’ve got a great @$$, especially in red tights. Which get attention. You see how all this works? And yet Piotr never throws me. I think he’s got Issues.
My red’s still mostly annoying, especially to me. But my purple... um... okay, just between you and me? The AI is kind of stupid. So when it runs me, there is no Big “PUSH ME!” Button, even if you’re in a PvP event where the other guy’s been saving up for a while.
Don’t mind him. He thinks ‘game balance’ means carrying a Playstation on his nose.
The point is that I could win the game in one shot and when the computer’s running me, I don’t! That means I look less effective than I really am! Now how is that fair?
If you want fair, don’t play match-3 games with random tile drops.
YOU THREW MONTANA TO THE COMMIES!
Best Friends: It’s kind of an open secret around here that for those PvP events when you really need to take out someone big, I’m the last resort. Of course, that means you need to get to fourteen purple in a hurry, because my Health really isn’t designed to stand up against a *****-pounding when every single attack goes over my jump-in threshold. So what a lot of people like to do is team me with Wanda, because her Incantation will speed up the purple supply and if I’m still standing with my Deadpool Points when we hit fourteen, we win. Wanda and I get along great together. In the game. I mean, I thought I had a chance with her. She slept with an android, for Christ’s sake, and I don’t mean the phone! (Although I hear his daughter’s got WiFi.) Plus every so often she turns reality inside-out, and I like a little danger in a relationship. Also, it was kind of fun being that Zenpool guy. So I went up to her after the round and -- well, turns out there’s a probability that my genitals can spontaneously appear in a pudding cup. And it’s one in one. Go figure.
I kind of like hanging around with Kamala. Sure, we fight over the purple sometimes, but when you get hurt as much as me, you need all the healing you can get! Hank’s a pretty good guy: we may not have anything in common color-wise (and I don’t just mean the fur), but he’ll heal me and give me some Strike tiles to boost my red attack. But overall, I like hanging out with a lot of people. Every day. Ten, twelve, eighty issues a month with me on the cover. When you’re the guy whose R-rated movie pulled in money by the fistful, is that really so much to ask for?
Worst Enemies: Stunners. Hate ‘em. I can’t do anything when I’m stunned except look stunning. It keeps me from taking hits, it keeps me from doing anything, and that means people pay attention to someone else. To the boring characters. How much fun is that? And pool drainers? Oh, that’s fun. I worked all day to cook up fourteen purple and then Jennifer comes along and eats the whole thing. My compliments to the gamma-powered meal hog. Keep her away from me. She may look sexy, but I know where she’s been. And I also know who retconned it, and I will make them pay.
So that’s it! That’s all I’m not being paid for! So come back next time, when the usual hack should return just in time to cover -- oooh, I get to pick! Coolness! So that’ll be Deadpool, Deadpool, and Deadpool! Also Deadpool and his best buds, Deadpool and Deadpool Junior.
But after that gets edited for no apparent reason, you’ll probably wind up being stuck with:
Steve
Raven
Eric
Peter (the porcupine one. Not the webs. Love me some webs)
Bullseye (who’s too boring to have a real name)
and Captain Uptight himself, Max!
See you all if we do the **** roster! If I get money. I’m not doing this again without money. Or being seriously drunk. Hey, do you think I could get one of those Patreon things?
#1 Canadian Export signing off!
JAMES SUCKS!
Darn it Deadpool, when people talk about trying to get whales in their F2P game, that is so very, very much not what they meant.
/looks at my Quicksilver covers, 4 green, 1 black, no blue
Must be nice to actually enjoy using him as a character. And don't even start me on the absurdity that is trying to find my last red 2-star Steve Rogers cover to finally champion him. I keep getting his blue and yellow colors and I just sit here watching them rot in my rewards queue.
These were pretty good primers on the characters, and I enjoyed the Deadpool section a lot.
:D
Reading these journals is like visiting an old friend and sitting around, sipping booze and talking. :3
These blogs are still at least fifty times more fun than actually playing the game.
4563630
Which means you don’t have any bulk means for getting rid of all the locked tiles which the Fists produced. *wince* Honestly, at that stage in his career, just hit people a lot while you play around with Idle Hands a bit and see what it can do for you. Just be aware that when you start locking an eighth of your board, it’s going to cause problems.
It’s hard to enjoy using Pietro. He will win games with a strategic tile position switch -- but at the same time, he’s almost more trouble than he’s worth. In that sense, he’s very much like his comics incarnation: for every benefit he brings you, there’s one compensating migraine.
I don’t have a solution for your Steve problem, mostly because you can’t put the Favorites heart on a **. (Short form: the game recently gave people the chance to draw random extra covers on their most wanted characters.) Just PvP in the lightning rounds while the computer opponents are still out and something should come eventually.
4563662
But nowhere near as much fun as Releasing The Whales.
I doubt I’m the only player who thinks of it as the @#$% You Button. There are times in PvP when there’s a bunch of Championed ****-teams standing between you and that elusive goal, you can’t get past any of them because you have neither the levels nor the money, there’s no way out of it -- and then you manage to keep Wade conscious just long enough to hit fourteen in purple.
It’s worth turning the speakers up first. There’s a special whale drop soundtrack, and it is the sweet sound of Game Over.
(You’re allowed to save up more than the 28k in Deadpool Points it takes to power the thing, and it usually takes about ten days to put one together. I try to have one on standby as much as I can.)
WHALES FOR EVERYONE
4563747
It sucks even more because I know the power is out there but every Deadpool Daily opportunity I've seen has just improved upon what I already had rather than actually open up that third power. And plus, did you play that one a few days back that had a group of Mindless Ones as the wave of six? It was such a slap in the face. Those enemies take so long to kill and can basically destroy my whole team in the time it takes to even wear the first one down.
4563776
Dead pool dailys are easy as anything.
Wanda 3/5/5
Falcon 4/4/5
Strange 3/4/4 (He’s not at full power yet, not that it matters)
I’ve won every time with this matchup, once the infinite bird strikes start coming out, it's close to 2,000 damage every few turns, countdowns disappear under a rain of hex bolts and redwings, and I have fire and healing to defend myself should someone try to get past my wall of protect tiles. None of the 6 man wave even come close to getting my team to half health. It's amazing how short the wave actually is with this setup.
4563999
Damn, I don't have a match up that can consistently knock out the wave like that. Closest I have is putting my 5-star Starlord (1 yellow), L114 2-star Daken (5/3/5), and L110 2-star Wolverine (5/4/4) together. Starlord soaks up most of the damage unless there's a lot of red to match.
Sometimes I'll use Bullsye, Human Torch, and Thor, too.
Edit: Y'all I just got that red Steve Rogers cover.
Estee blog magic?
4563776
This should help a little, at least when it comes to anticipating your future gains.
The Deadpool Daily calendar.
So there’s no blue Pietro cover available over the next month, but you’ll be able to eventually see when one comes around.
I’m still running into issues with the Mindless Ones. Having a fully-covered Stephen helps me get through them, but all it takes is for a few of their countdowns to go off and it’s havoc all over the board. When they’re at low strength, he chews them up: boost them a hundred levels or so and find out there is no power named Pray. And Mindless + Symbiotes = Death, which is probably why the designers used that theme for the Guardians events.
But on the whole, the Daily should get easier once you can bring Stephen in. There’s usually a few mooks in the wave mix, and their countdowns trigger his offense. Beyond that, I bring in the best damage-soakers I’ve got and hold on.
(Prior to Stephen, the Daily wave team was Norrin/***Tony/**Ororo: get blue fast through Norrin fetching it or Tony Recharging it up, then Wind Storm until everyone’s down. So I know all about using a one-cover ***** as a pain sponge. But times have changed. Now Norrin has two covers.)
4563999
That’s an interesting setup -- and you’re also one of the very few people I’ve seen running Wanda at five covers on the Hex Bolt. I’d be worried about taking that team into PvP (stunners, countdown delays, tile stealers, and a Big Punch), but for the wave, it sounds like it does the job.
4564518
Wow that's awesome! Thank you for the calendar. I just got my first blue cover for Stephen today too. Things are looking up.
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I kept Wanda without the purple cover because until about a week ago, I didn't have the purple cover. For the longest time, my go to team was Wanda 0/4/5! and whoever was boosted that week that used purple. It just happened to be Falcon that got 5 purple covers fastest. Right now, the trade off is around 500 extra points of damage and a stun for no countdown destruction (hex bolt), no protect tiles, and 5 extra purple to cast. For the price of 2 reality crushes I can have 3 bird strikes.
3/5/5 all the way, especially if the unfriendly descriptor on hex bolt includes traps and invisibility, which I am almost certain it does.
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I find myself using 3* Doctor Strange against the mindless ones a lot, Flames of the Faltine shreds them something unmerciful and its healing makes up for the pings you'll get if one of them is the kind that starts with an attack tile.
(holy god how did I JUST NOW discover this blog series? Clearly I'm not paying enough attention. Nice to see another fan of the game. or if not 'fan,' at least....regular player?)
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My favorite (and funniest) use of Stephen is actually to put him against a Maggia Don.
"Hey, you stupid hippie! I'm gonna use my connections to create three countdown tiles this turn! Whatcha gonna do 'bout that?"
*flames*
*flames*
*flames*
"...ask a stupid question..."
But with the Mindless Ones... while Stephen's presence helps, the fact remains that the enemy tile-boosting countdowns are mercilessly fast. If they're high-level enough to take some hits and I can't get to all those purple time bombs of death before they go off, I still get into situations where I'm looking at automatic four-digit incomings every single turn. The Strange Sights event is coming up in a few days and while I welcome the extra recruit tokens, I'm dreading seeing the one-eyed hordes with levels in the 300s.
But before that... William. I have the Hero Points set aside to buy him a roster slot. Now all I have to do is finish high enough in the very next event to gain that first cover.
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Have you ever tried the so-called "Winfinite" combo of Grey Suit Widow, Professor X and Scarlet Witch? That also kills mindless ones real good. And just about anything else. I dunno what your roster looks like though, or if you just find that setup too boringly easy to enjoy. It's an absolute monster setup in alliance boss events though. Really lets you punch WAY above your weight class when you get into the last couple of rounds.