Sentinels Of The Multiverse

[Maryring]

Sentinels of the multiverse is the World's Greatest Cooperative, Comic-Book Based, Fixed-Deck Card Game, available both as a regular card game, and as an online card game on Steam. And I was wondering if there are any other Sentinels card game players around here, and if so, that perhaps we ought have a thread discussing the best thing within it's most narrow definition. A place where we can talk about who the best hero is, who your favourite hero is, why there might be no overlap between the former two questions, how broken Team Leader Tachyon is, and how Spite really doesn't work well at all as a villain.

[awa]

I too do not find spite fun to play against

I have very little to say other than that, but i am looking forward to this oblivion thing

[The Hellbug]

I've been playing it on Steam a good bit recently. I can fairly certainly say that my favorite heroes are The Scholar and Ra--The Scholar because he's a versatile supportive tanky guy that can also do some damage with the right combination of other heroes (I like how his role changes depending on the rest of the team) and Ra because, though he may lack versatility, raw damage is frequently required for threat destruction and as your ultimate win condition and because you'd be pressed to find someone that does it as reliably as he.

[awa]

i also primarily play on steam

As a single character shes not fun but as part of a group i really like night mist

One character that kinda bugs me is visionary if she draws that damage type change card she often just makes the game almost impossible to lose particularly when combined with Ra (not to mention the way steam does the power really slows it down.)

[Knaight]

I play it in board game format, and while I make a point of playing a lot of different heroes I started with Absolute Zero for a reason and he's still my favorite.

[The Hellbug]

I play it in board game format, and while I make a point of playing a lot of different heroes I started with Absolute Zero for a reason and he's still my favorite.

I love the idea of Absolute Zero, and when I first played the game he was on my side (I played it not-digital first) and I really liked the combo-y stuff he could do, but he's just so inconsistent. Unlike other 'needs combo pieces in play' characters, he doesn't have a good way to get them down besides dropping one a turn--plenty of time to get disrupted by many villains. That said, when he goes off, he's hilarious.

[tyckspoon]

I love the idea of Absolute Zero, and when I first played the game he was on my side (I played it not-digital first) and I really liked the combo-y stuff he could do, but he's just so inconsistent. Unlike other 'needs combo pieces in play' characters, he doesn't have a good way to get them down besides dropping one a turn--plenty of time to get disrupted by many villains. That said, when he goes off, he's hilarious.

My biggest gripe with Absolute Zero is even when you do get him all set up it turns out what he's *best* at is blowing himself up. I'm not sure his ability to throw 20-some points of damage onto the board in a turn is quite worth it when it requires suffering 15 as self-damage. The second biggest is that his go-fish cards for his stuff aren't very efficient I find it especially odd when you compare to Wraith, who wants a similar amount of cards in play to work with, and whose Impromptu Invention is one of the best search cards in the game..

My preferred heroes are mode-changers like The Naturalist and SkyScraper, "when X happens, do y" effects like Scholar's 'deal damage when you gain HP' and the ludicrously complicated turns you get with Argent Adept and a full selection of songs and instruments. I like being over-complicated

[Sholos]

Argent Adept + Guise + Captain Cosmic for lots of sillyness. Currently I'm waiting impatiently for everything with Oblivaeon to happen, most looking forward to Harpy and La Comadore, I think. I really like playing Sentinels and Omni-X, simple as they are.

[tyckspoon]

Argent Adept + Guise + Captain Cosmic for lots of sillyness. Currently I'm waiting impatiently for everything with Oblivaeon to happen, most looking forward to Harpy and La Comadore, I think. I really like playing Sentinels and Omni-X, simple as they are.

Never really clicked with Cosmic; his stuff gets blown up too easily for my tastes to be a good support helper, and it doesn't help that pretty much all of his own damage output involves self-destructing his constructs. Every time he comes up in a game I'm left trying to figure out what he's supposed to be good at.

[shadow_archmagi]

Mr. Fixer is such an absolute delight if he's paired correctly. Crowbar scales in strange, exciting ways.

[The Hellbug]

Mr. Fixer is such an absolute delight if he's paired correctly. Crowbar scales in strange, exciting ways.

Oh, he can be kind of silly when things get going just right, but the rest of the time? I feel like he's the character that just ends up with no really helpful cards to play all game most often.

[Tentreto]

I always have a soft spot for Setback, and some of the goofiness he can do. Aside from that all the Tachyon varients are pretty good.

I absolutely hate fighting Infinitor though. I've only ever beaten him once through sheer force of damage prevention cards.

[Maryring]

At least AZ's search card will bring him what he needs. Expatriette though, she's got it rough since she really needs her guns. And if her search card reveals... say, two Flak jackets? That's gonna be a pain. I still enjoy playing with her though.

But my absolute favourite... tough choice. I love AA because bards rock. But while he is really strong, his rounds take so long. I remember a round while using him, Greatest Legacy and Scholar all together. Greatest Legacy gave AA a power use, which he used to give Scholar a card play, which he used to play his "heal or power use" card. It was the turn that never ended.

If I had to pick a single favourite it... probably has to be Tempest. Best White Mage in the game.

Also, Captain Cosmic is utterly useless against enemies who regularly use attacks that hit all hero targets, and really strong against enemies who tend to only hit a single target. Hitting the weakest hero target generally means one of his constructs, meaning he can be a very strong support tank. And with Unflagging Animation, you'll keep getting those constructs back into play. He also works well with strong healers like Tempest or AA.

[awa]

i like the captain cosmic variant where he plays three cards of his deck but hurts you if you have more than 4 constructs on the field.

[Knaight]

My biggest gripe with Absolute Zero is even when you do get him all set up it turns out what he's *best* at is blowing himself up. I'm not sure his ability to throw 20-some points of damage onto the board in a turn is quite worth it when it requires suffering 15 as self-damage. The second biggest is that his go-fish cards for his stuff aren't very efficient I find it especially odd when you compare to Wraith, who wants a similar amount of cards in play to work with, and whose Impromptu Invention is one of the best search cards in the game.

A lot of the time he blows himself up and then proceeds to heal the damage right back, and that's before getting into hilarious scenarios involving fire damage or cold damage environment and enemy cards.

[The Hellbug]

The difference between, say, Expatriette and Absolute Zero is that she only really needs one gun to at least be somewhat helpful. Absolute Zero tends to just durdle until he has two or three of his combo pieces out and there are plenty of times when threat-solution in the opening few turns is critical. Add to that the fact that he doesn't have a bonkers card like impromptu invention in the Wraith deck to make sure he can get what he needs/actually get it on the table quickly, and it's easy for him to feel fairly anemic. He is a one man combo machine once he gets going (and other people supporting him can help a lot), but it's just relatively hard to get there.

[Geno9999]

The difference between, say, Expatriette and Absolute Zero is that she only really needs one gun to at least be somewhat helpful. Absolute Zero tends to just durdle until he has two or three of his combo pieces out and there are plenty of times when threat-solution in the opening few turns is critical. Add to that the fact that he doesn't have a bonkers card like impromptu invention in the Wraith deck to make sure he can get what he needs/actually get it on the table quickly, and it's easy for him to feel fairly anemic. He is a one man combo machine once he gets going (and other people supporting him can help a lot), but it's just relatively hard to get there.

Yeah, AZ is a character who will literally snowball if left to setup, constantly tanking Highest-Health hitting targets by simply being the highest health target and then healing it back up, and meanwhile has both Impales on the villain character.

That being said, you're right in that AZ needs his combo pieces right out the gate and that doesn't always happen... Which is why my favorite variant for him is the Freedom Five variant.

[Sholos]

Also Visionary paired with AZ and getting Twist the Ether on him is hilarious.

How about villains? I'm a big fan of Akash'Bhuta; she seems to have a nice balance of difficulty. Neither facerolly or absolutely frustrating (looking at you Chairman or Iron Legacy). La Capitan is another decent blend, though she can occasionally steamroll.

[The Hellbug]

I actually like Iron Legacy. He may shut down some heroes really hard, but his hyper-fast blitz sort of game is a nice change of pace after fighting against some of the more grindy villains (Apostate can be fun, but boy is he one of the guys that can topdeck a card that sets you back to square 1).

There are a few varieties of villains, actually, and some of the more interesting ones can kind of be grouped by expansion. For example, Chairman, Spite, and The Matriarch (from the Rook City expansion) are all exceptionally consistent villains (Spite of course being the king of this since you always know exactly how it's going to end up going down against him). This can be a challenge because it makes them very binary. Since they do the same thing basically every game, it really comes down to hero variability on whether or not you can handle them. Similarly, the Time Paradox expansion really tried to shake things up with 'villains you can't beat by just beating them down'. While this can be a welcome change of pace, though, certain early heroes (looking at you, Ra) are just not designed with this kind of objective in mind which can make them feel weak.

Overall, though, some of my favorite villains are the Ennead (digital-only, it's a pain in the butt to resolve all those effects at the table) because your progress against them is really obvious and the kind of threat they are changes throughout the game and La Capitan just because she tends to be one of the less 'solved' decks that still has a fairly consistent early game to put the hurt on you from the word 'go', As far as villains I hate? Well, the Chairman is a weird case because they nailed his flavor in his mechanics, fighting waves of mooks while not feeling like you're making any progress on the objective and slowly sliding towards defeat, but for this same reason he can be very frustrating. I might just say Gloomweaver. I know he's supposed to be easy, but it just never feels like he does anything at all.

[Geno9999]

I might just say Gloomweaver. I know he's supposed to be easy, but it just never feels like he does anything at all.

Personally, Skinwalker Gloomweaver is a much more fun and challenging variant to go up against. Bigger target, no relic in trash victory, and Gloomy actually attacks outside of his pins and relics. I'm pretty sure it's also the most played version of Gloomweaver of the skype group I play with.

I actually like going up against the Team Villains as well, though Villains of the Multiverse is MUCH better balanced than Vengeance.

[Leon]

Was gifted it (and all the DLC) and have been enjoying playing it both solo and with the people who gave me the game. I have yet to play the tabletop version as the person i gave it to has been very busy since then. Like a number of the Heroes and have been trying to at least get a idea of how they all play on a basic level but Tachyon and Tempest are my main goto's. I have been trying a lot to unlock the assorted variants of the heroes i like the best or that have easy unlocks.

I really want to like Unity but its so hard when her powers are locked behind bots that are a sometimes very hard to get out in play... Parse is growing on my interest as well. Early on i had gravited to Bunker but i play a lot less of him now since ive found that what he does Tempest can do just aswell and is a very potent healing option.

[shadow_archmagi]

Was gifted it (and all the DLC) and have been enjoying playing it both solo and with the people who gave me the game. I have yet to play the tabletop version as the person i gave it to has been very busy since then. Like a number of the Heroes and have been trying to at least get a idea of how they all play on a basic level but Tachyon and Tempest are my main goto's. I have been trying a lot to unlock the assorted variants of the heroes i like the best or that have easy unlocks.

I really want to like Unity but its so hard when her powers are locked behind bots that are a sometimes very hard to get out in play... Parse is growing on my interest as well. Early on i had gravited to Bunker but i play a lot less of him now since ive found that what he does Tempest can do just aswell and is a very potent healing option.

Unity is definitely a character that's very sensitive to team comp. She pairs very well with Argent Adept, or other heroes that give extra play/draw so that she can get her bots out reliably.

[Geno9999]

Early on i had gravited to Bunker but i play a lot less of him now since ive found that what he does Tempest can do just aswell and is a very potent healing option.

Bunker is a bit... subpar in general. He has his moments, such as unloading a loaded Omni-Cannon, and still having cards for days with Ammo Drop, but I find that his mode cards limit him a bit too much. I can understand Turret Mode locking out card plays, and maybe his draw phase, but it makes his base power useless unless you're using his much better variants (which is to say all of them.) But Upgrade Mode and Recharge Mode seem like they have interesting ideas and trade offs, but they're worse off than similar cards such as Tachyon's Hud Goggles, Visionary's Cocoon and Nightmist's Mistform, Legacy's Ring and Wraith's Utility belt.

Again, Bunker does have his moments, I just tend to find them in his variants, GI Bunker and F5 Bunker being my favorites.

[Leon]

Yes, if i use him these days its with GI as the ability to punch thru DR has been a great help in a couple of situations where im trying to something specific for a unlock and the Villan has been able to get several layers out.

The times ive shined with Unity have been rare but when a Bee Bot saves everyone its worth the effort.

[The Hellbug]

I've found Bunker's moment is 'against the Matriarch in general'. Damage reduction for the small hits, a big damage single attack, card draw off bird kill when you do want to clear them, and Matriarch's poor handling of equipment in general make him a stellar pick in against that villain in particular (in fact, Wraith's smoke cloud+Bunker with heavy plating can basically guarantee a win against vanilla Matriarch on their own). For me, his biggest problem is that the mode cards generally aren't worth the turn you spend playing them with all their drawbacks--well, that and that he can only reliably fetch his gear when it's already discarded.

[Maryring]

I personally enjoy the Chairman despite being ridiculously hard. Because it makes every match close, so you never feel like you're just doing rote gameplay. Thaaaat said. Jailbreak has too high a delta of randomness. Get the card early on and it does nothing. Get it towards the end of the deck and you're thoroughly gimped. So a house rule I have for the card is simply that it moves the bosses back into the deck, rather than directly into play. Which means that you don't randomly get a "you just plain lose" thrown in your face after a hard-fought victory.

Other villains I enjoy are Citizen Dawn, Ambuscade and Akash. Citizen Dawn has some interesting choice between beating up her citizens and preventing her invulnerability mode. Ambuscade is easy and straightforward, making him great for trying out new team compositions, and Akash feels like a really fun marathon.

On the other hand, I really don't like playing against Wager Master, as the game against him is so incredibly random, Warfang, because again the game feels random and arbitrary. And Spite, because Spite's mechanic plain doesn't work and I'm better off just ignoring victims entirely.

[The Hellbug]

Yeah, I get what they were going for on Spite, with a guy who suddenly becomes super powerful or whatever and just beats you down, but it just doesn't quite work. If his threat level were more on par with Iron Legacy once he flips (as in, you're dead in a couple turns) and you were incentivized a little more to save the victims, he'd work a bit better.

[tyckspoon]

The times ive shined with Unity have been rare but when a Bee Bot saves everyone its worth the effort.

Unity works best as a damage engine - multiple Raptor Bots and Shield Platforms put out an impressive damage-per-turn - but she really needs either strong defensive partners with damage redirects/damage nullification or a villain/environment combo that doesn't do a lot of AoE spread to pull it off; the DPS 'bots are too fragile otherwise. More effects that keyed on destruction of robot (like Explosive Parts or the Bee Bot's normal operation) would make that feel better, I think. The play fantasy of being the commander of a ravening swarm of adorable robotic dinosaurs is wonderful, tho.

I personally enjoy the Chairman despite being ridiculously hard. Because it makes every match close, so you never feel like you're just doing rote gameplay. Thaaaat said. Jailbreak has too high a delta of randomness. Get the card early on and it does nothing. Get it towards the end of the deck and you're thoroughly gimped. So a house rule I have for the card is simply that it moves the bosses back into the deck, rather than directly into play. Which means that you don't randomly get a "you just plain lose" thrown in your face after a hard-fought victory.

On the other hand, I really don't like playing against Wager Master, as the game against him is so incredibly random, Warfang, because again the game feels random and arbitrary. And Spite, because Spite's mechanic plain doesn't work and I'm better off just ignoring victims entirely.

Chairman is allllll about figuring out how you're going to handle Jailbreak, IME. Feed all the bosses and minions to Haka's Savage Mana so it just doesn't matter (this is also my favorite way of dealing with things like Matriarch's bird swarm and Voss's minions - just Rampage the whole thing into Haka), use deck management effects to continually shove it to the bottom or pre-emptively discard it, force it to play off-turn so you have a cycle of hero turns to try to manage the effects before the villains go off again.. 'course, if you don't have any of those and it catches you by surprise, you're probably going to have a rough go of it, but that's how randomized games with any character/play variety sometimes work. (Or, houserule based, make it a one-turn ongoing the way Voss's minion resummoning works. Gives you a turns' notice on it incoming and allows a chance to bounce it off the board or pre-emptively pop it on hero phase to try and act against it before the villain turns.)

Every single game I've played against Wager Master has ended with the odd-numbers based wager (last one went all of 2 turns. Scout or freeze the envirionment to ensure no un-planned-for damage, play a 'you can't deal damage this turn' on Wager Master, tap the one uncompliant hero for 1 point, incredibly anticlimactic victory.) That one probably needs modification or removal - it's too easy to game the condition. He could use a re-design, I think - I'd look at something like setting up a side-deck of wagers that alter the win/loss conditions of the game, and in set up you'd deal a small number of those. Then his in-play deck would contain things that can mess with other game rules, but you would be certain of what you need to do to win/prevent happening to avoid losing.

[Sholos]

Unity is a character I really enjoy, when she works. Getting Swift Bot out early along with Stealth Bot is key, and Flash Forge and Brain Storm are your friends for doing so. Also pairing her with any hero capable of giving off-turn plays is amazing since that means she can play bots directly from hand without any gimmicks. Oh, and Omnitron-X pairs well with her.

Wager Master I rarely play against, but every time I do it's a weird game. Lost against him at the beginning of the very first turn once. That was fun.

[Selpharia]

I think altering Prison Break is a bit much; a Difficulty 4 villain means you start the game in a bad spot, and it will only get worse unless you counter the specific mechanic. If I’m playing with a team that can’t counter Prison Break, one option I like to try is just letting Informants bring out both copies with the extra plays they grant.This achieves a similar thing to making it like Forced Deployment, but of course, it’s risky.