Favorite combos

I know some have been thrown around forever, but what are your favorite combos that may not have occurred to everyone?

I just realized that PW Tempest would be a beast if Wraith gets all three mega computers into play. His primary power allows him to play up to three cards, and take 3 damage from the environment for each. With -3 damage from the environment, he could play his whole hand - better use Reclaim from the Deep to get all those aquatic correspondences back!

PW Tempest also works amazing with Immutus. The environment deals Immutus 9 damage, and he can play 3 cards for free.

Also the Visionary's Mass Levitation.  (Maybe. The text is "reduce damage dealt by environment cards by 3."  Tempest isn't being dealt damage by an environment card, he's being dealt damage by the environment himself.  Does that count?)

I would probably say that wouldn't work, no. Neither would Environmental Allies, unfortunately. Your best bet would be damage reduction, if you wanted a more permanant workaround.

What about Mega Computer? Is it "environment cards," or "the environment?"

There is no card that reduces damage dealt by "The Environment," only Environment cards, and PW Tempest's damage is dealt by the environment, not a card.

The best way to get it for free is Otherwordly, Elemental Subharmonic Inducer (set to Lightning), and a -1 taken from one of your allies (most likely Captain Cosmic or Argent Adept)

Even Ground Pound prevents cards from dealing damage and is no help.

You can't even redirect the damage to Haka through enduring intercession, because that requires a card dealing the damage.

Adept (bulwark), Cosmic (Bracer), Legacy (Interception), Scholar (Alchemical Redirection), Unity (Stealth Bot), Naturalist (Rhino+Indomitable Force), The Sentinels (Mainstay+Human Shield), Setback (Uncharmed Life+tokens), Sky-Scraper (Monolith), Wagner Mars Base (Meteor Storm), Enclave of the Endlings (Bloogo, Immutus)  Are the ones that can pull the damage away from you or make you immune to it.

Other than that you need universal reductions to damage like Defensive Displacement (the Block), or reductions in damage you take.

Assuming that you are correct, how would they have worded PW Tempest if they wanted him to interact with Mass Levitation and all the others?

Unless you can come up with a decent alternative wording, I'm inclined to say that they meant for these interactions to be possible, but there was no good way to word the card to make that completely clear (and that we need an offical ruling to know for certain one way or another).

The clarification came from Christopher, because we asked in playtesting about Mass Levitation (because that would be amazing) and he clarified that anything that prevented environment cards from dealing damage would not stop this because it isn't dealt by a card.

They could have used any wording but "The Environment" if they wanted a card to stop it, the whole idea is that it won't be affected by most easy methods.

From what I understand, nothing that mitigates environment card/target damage will work on PW Tempest's power. The damage is not coming from an environment target, nor from an environment card. Mass Levitation doesn't affect it, nor does Mega Computer, nor does Environmental Allies. There's only one situation where that damage is negated/reduced due to anti-environment effects: using Setback's Wrong Place and Time to redirect the damage to Iron Legacy (who is "immune to damage from the environment"). Heck, even the Chairman's backside isn't immune to this damage when Setback redirects it to him (he's only immune to damage from environment cards). Your best bet is to have Captain Cosmic give Energy Bracers to Tempest. Between Tempest's Otherworldly Resiliance, Elemental Subwave Inducer, and up to 3 Energy Bracers (choose 3 of those 5), you can get the damage down to 0.

My favorite combos:

1. America's Greatest Legacy's Lead From the Front + Setback's High Risk Behavior (preferably x2) = complete removal of High Risk Behavior's disadvantage allowing you to go to crazy heights of bonus damage. Throw in Setback's Looking Up and you can get a crazy amount of Unlucky Tokens super fast, and then when the damage gets too high, you use Wrong Time and Place to start turning that token gain into damage (spend the 3 tokens you gain from Looking Up's power to power Wrong Time and Place to redirect the start of turn self-damage from Looking Up). This works particularly well when playing with Grandpa Legacy since he can use his power to make Setback gain three more Unlucky tokens (and another +2 to villain targets!) on Legacy's turn. Besides, Galvanize just makes Setback hit himself harder, costing extra tokens to redirect the damage. With sufficiently lucky draws, this combo gains +5.3 damage to villain targets each turn as well as hitting at least twice (thrice if you forfeit +2 damage) for 3 base damage. So, 5+7 damage the first turn you have the combo, then 11+13 the second turn, then 15+17 the third turn, then 19+21... And that's just with powers from two heroes (once you get the 4-card combo, of course).

2. (This one I found out from playing the video game version - I never thought to do it before!) Absolute Zero + Visionary's Twist the Aether = hilarity.

A lot of AZ's cards make him hit himself for a bunch of fire damage, allowing you to then deal that much cold damage to a foe. If you need healing, you can hit yourself with the cold blast, healing you more than you were hurt, but barely more than that. Twist the Aether changes this wonderfully.

Suddenly, instead of doing 10 fire damage to yourself which you turn into 12 healing causing you to gain 2 HP, you deal 13 cold damage to yourself which gives you 13 HP. Frost-bound Drain: Deal 1 target 4-5 cold damage and heal yourself for 4-6 HP. Hoarfire can become: deal 1 target 4 cold damage, regain 5 HP, regain 4 more HP, lose 1 HP and deal 1 target 3 cold damage (deal 7 damage, heal 8). Or, you can do it as, deal 1 target 4 cold damage, deal yourself 2 fire damage, deal that same target 4 cold damage, regain 4 HP, regain 4 HP (deal 8 damage, heal 6 HP). When you're really hurt, you use Thermal Shockwave to deal 2 targets 3 cold damage each and yourself 2 fire damage, which turns into 4 cold vs one of those targets you already hit. Then, you regain 12 HP, for a net gain of 10 HP and net damage of 10.

Then, use one of the one-shots at the same time as Thermal Shockwave, since it's a power. In that case, you'd heal for closer to 18, poissibly 25 if the cold damage that heals you counts as damage for the purposes of Thermal shockwave. It's absurd and hilarious and a lot of fun!

3. I haven't tried this one yet, but Super Scientific Tachyon + Parse's Updated Intel + Argent Adept's Arcane Cadence. You can sub in Nightmist's Astral Premonition for either Parse or AA, or just use Parse's Gauge if you want it to be a two-hero combo. Basically, don't leave Super Scentific Tachyon's experimentation to luck, leave it to SCIENCE! With the ability to play or discard the bottom two cards of any deck, it's kinda awesome.

4.  Very specific, but... Legacy's Heroic Interception (or Ra's imbued flesh combo but that's slower) + Visionary's Brain Burn when fighting The Chairman. Hit him asap with Brain Burn while protected from the self-harm and suddenly, there are no thugs for the underbosses to play. This is preferably done on the first turn. I guess 10 damage isn't all that much, so a first turn Brain Burn is totally awesome even without the damage immunity, but with the damage immunity it becomes just totally ridiculous.

5. Omnitron-X's Singularity + Skyscraper's link cards. The downside to Skyscraper is that her link cards, while really easy to get out, are a bit harder to get into her trash. Having them in her trash isn't a big deal because she can get them back super fast with her Tiny base power. Omnitron-X's Singularity is powered by any number of equipment cards, with no requirement that they be Omni's. This seems like a great combo I have not yet tried. They really seem like a powerful combo, since Omni can really benefit from Sky's micro-assembler.

That first combo with Legs and Setback is insane...I know what I need to try out in my next game now

Don't forget that you can hit AZ with fire, redirect to cold to AZ (but turn it into fire) to build up Coolant Blast and get strong boosts from any +damage cards out there.  Works great in a pinch if you need to hit a target hard and don't have another way to do a ton of damage fast.

Setback. 'nuff said.

Alright, official verdict it is.

As for combos…

Did we ever fix the Friendly Fire + Jack Handle combo?  Fixer deals damage to a target, Setback takes some damage, but Jack Handle turns the damage that would dealt to Setback into damage dealt to non-hero targets, which Setback can then use to take more damage…  There was some discussion about fixing this because 2 card infinite combos make the game boring, but I can't remember if it actually happened.

Also, I don't think anyone's mentioned Bee Bot + End of Days yet.  Use End of Days to destroy all unfriendly cards, then hit Bee Bot to kill End of Days before it destroys any hero cards.

Dynamic Syphon + Cleansing Downpour:  Whenever the Syphon takes damage, everybody heals 2 (including the Syphon).  

Hippocratic Oath + Proverbs and Axioms:  3 Healing to two different hero targets?  Why thank you!  (Also, the Sentinels + Proverbs and Axioms is just kind of crazy in general, because you could potentially get 4 power uses out of it.  And I don't think you need to use the power of the Sentinel who took damage)

Jack Handle doesn't ever target Setback with damage. As soon as it even tries, it turns into "all non-hero targets". It can't be effected by Friendly Fire at all

Twist the Ether is also Wicked on Fanatic.

The easiest is Fanatic with Embolden and Absolution.

2+2+4 at the cost of 1 damage each round.

My 2 favorite combos:

1.  Twist the Ether + Wrest the Mind on Cryo Bot.

Hit Cryo for 1 damage, then redirect the last hit of his attack to Cryo Bot, which will trigger his attack again, interrupting WtM's Damage to it.  Repeat till it is at 1hp then let WtM destroy it.

Works awesomely with +1 to Cryo Bot's damage, since you can hit every non-hero target save 1 6 times for 3 damage (increasing 2 to 3 for all but the redirected shot to Cryo, which you reduce to 1).

Best I've pulled off with it was with Legacy giving it +2 and an epic turn by Adept gave Cryo -1 taken, with WtM and TtE getting played.

Ennead hit Cryo for 2-1 damage, and Cryo hit them all for 24 damage, leaving an environment target unharmed.

2.  Skyscraper+Mr. Fixer.

Micro Assembler lets fixer hunt for Jack Handle, Jackhandle turns Compulsion Canister into an incredible weapon, all non-hero targets hit for 2 irreducible twice, esp. with Riveting crane on Fixer.  Micro also let's you use your power to put Grease Gun in play.  Then Salvage Yard let's Skyscraper recover all her links, Monolith protects Fixer in Bloody Knuckles, the two of them are just insane together.

If you have Jackhandle on Fixer you can even put Cortex Hyperstimulator on him, -1 to your first instance of damage in exchange for dealing everything lightning damage.

Was that an official verdict?  Because I found the thread, which doesn't seem to come to any definite conclusion.

Also, Micro-Assembler + Turret Mode.  You weren't completely set up yet?  Go into Turrent Mode anyways, and finish your setup using the Micro-Assembler's power.  You don't even need the equiptment to be in your hand!

So, does the stacked damage from WtM still resolve after Cryo-bot dies? As in, when doing this combo, does Visionary take 30+ damage at the end, or does the destruction of Cryo-bot trigger the destruction of WtM before any damage hits Visionary? I think at least one instance of the 3 damage from WtM would hit Visionary, since it has already been target-locked on her (the instance that came with the one that took out Cryo Bot), but the rest would fizzle without WtM being in play.

Ok so then Dual Crowbars is fair game? (not infinite but can give a pretty awesome amount of damage especially if silver lining is in play)

That would lead to an infinite loop; it CAN be affected by Friendly Fire. It won't build up tokens, but it will cause him to swing an infinite number of times.

I basically wrote this version of Friendly Fire, (not that it matters, I just like bringing it up. I'm proud that something I did is in the game!) and the way I would fix it is to just have Setback be the source of the damage. When Fixer hits someone, Setback hits himself for 2. I mean, it's his fault he's getting hit anyway, since he's basically walking into the attack, so it fits thematically, more or less. Plus it fixes the Jack Handle shenanigans.

I'm pretty sure, yes. Anytime you see a situation that ends in an infinite loop, chances are you are playing it wrong. 

With Jack Handle in play, Fixer doesn't have the option to deal Setback the damage because he can't

No.  Once a card leaves play, it stops dealing damage, and WtM leaves play before it gets a chance to hit Visionary.  Visionary would not take damage.

Dual Crowbars+Friendly Fire+Twist the Ether for each 1 damage you deal setback apply 3 on target of your choice rince repeat until setback is a bloody mess of tokens add Silver lining for longer durability 

I thought the resolution to Friendly Fire+Jack Handle was that the damage to setback is not seperate from the damage of Jack Handle, it just adds Setback as a target.

Almost as if Jack Handle said "Deal that damage to all non-hero targets and that one guy that doesn't know to get out of the way.

I think either way, as long as you don't play it as an infinite loop you are ok

Wow - that one would work great for Chrono Ranger with Hunter and Hunted in play as well!

Yes, that's how the infinite combo works all right. I hit a non-Hero target, Friendly Fire triggers, I try to hit Setback, fail and hit a non-Hero target, Friendly Fire triggers, etc.

As written, it would appear that Friendly Fire doesn't modify anything, it creates a whole separate instance of damage, which in turn can be modified by Jack Handle or similar cards.

Go with Skippies solution. Thats clean and simple (though obviously skirts the rules a tad. The intent here is to avoid the obviously wrong solution of playing it as an infinite combo)

I like PW Fanatic and Sacrosanct Martyr. Use her base power, play her top card (bonus if it's something she can plink herself for some Radiant damage with), then use Sacrosanct Martyr to deal a target at least three Radiant damage. 

Mister Fixer with Riveting Crane and The Wraith with Mega Computers. What's that? Heroes take 1-3 less damage from the Environment cards but the villain that gets beat on by Fixer still takes full? Heck yeah!

Mister Fixer with Driving Mantis and Haka with Punish the Weak. Redirecting Taiaha and Rampage damage to the lowest non-hero target? Sounds awesome!

Legacy with Take Down and Bunker with Adhesive Foam Grenade. 2 full rounds where the Villain and Environment can't play any cards is just awesome!

Unity with Stealth Bot and Argent Adept with Counterpoint Bulwark. DR 2 for Stealth Bot, try and hit me now!

Sky-Scraper with Compulsion Canister and Iron Legacy with Galvanized. Yes... Punch yourself for all that damage...

While using Lead from the Front to protect Chrono Ranger is great and all, the advantage of having Setback in there is that there is no upper limit on the bonus to damage dealt/taken by Setback, it goes up every time Setback uses a power, and Greatest Legacy can make him use a power out of turn with his innate power. Also, the only real downside to Setback's combo is that he will hit himself for 3 every turn, but Legacy can even help with that via Heroic Interception (also, he's healing for 1 HP every turn from Greatest Legacy's innate power).

Also Setback is not as vulnerable to environment damage as Chrono in two ways. It is not boosted and he can redirect it back if need be

Also, if a villain or environment card makes Chrono Ranger hit himself... well, let's just say it's bad and leave it at that. The special thing about Setback's boost is that only damage to and by villain targets is affected, not all damage. Legacy's Lead From the Front only allows you to redirect damage done by villain targets, but that's fine because that's all you need to protect Setback from. He takes normal damage from non-villain sources, and +1000004 from villains once you get the combo going.

By the by, the other great part of the combo (and this is also true for protecting Chrono Ranger) is that both Lead From the Front and High Risk Behavior are Ongoings, so when a villain or environment destroys hero ongoings, you can almost always choose to blow up High Risk Behavior before Lead From the Front, stopping Setback's human shield from suddenly vanishing mid-villain-turn. Well, unless Legacy is incapacitated... I mean, he is taking double damage from villain AoEs. But, when Legacy's HP starts getting low, you can cancel the combo by dropping Silver Lining, then using Uncharmed Life to redirect damage targetting Legacy to hit Setback instead until it kills him (it won't take much), clearing his Unlucky Pool and thus all his bonus damage taken.

Oh, and on top of the already mentioned combos, throw in Setback's Cause and Effect while he has 24+ tokens (3 rounds worth) and Legacy has Heroic Interception out. 24 tokens with 2x High Risk Behavior out = 40 damage from Cause and Effect, and Heroic Interception protects him from the backlash.

Legacy is amazing at protecting fools from hurting themselves. Setback is a fool who constantly hurts himself. Great combo! :D Other people can protect Setback, but Greatest Legacy is special in that he 1) can let Setback use a power out of turn every turn, and 2) has a redirection card that lasts more than one turn (no one else has this (except Setback)). I guess Mainstay's Human Shield works too, but that has a high upkeep. Stealth Bot technically works too, but won't survive Setback being Setback for every long with only 5 HP...

My favorites are the combos that combine hero cards with a card out of the villain or environment deck.

Electro-Pulse Explosive does crazy amounts of damage to Omnitron if you hit it with Wrest the Mind. Even better if you can manage to get Visionary into her cocoon so that the feedback damage is negated.

Flesh of the Sun God paired with Active Volcano is just about a free pass to victory against villains who aren't able to remove them from play.

Don't have card names in from of me, but Guise verses Cosmic Omnitron got extremely fun.

One of the first components was the damage for every card draw, and Guise's first cardplay was gritty reboot, followed by Super Ultra Kawaii. 15 card draws and 15 damage later, he launched into a massive string of out of turn card plays.

Here's a  new one for me:
Ambuscade opens up with two sonic mines. Visionary starts with Wrest the Mind.

Wrest the Mind one sonic mine. Destroy it with another hero. Target Visionary first so she can't deal damage. Redirect the next hit to destroy the second mine, which can't deal damage. Redirect all the rest of the mine hits for no damage to Visionary. Net: two mines destroyed, two damage to the heroes. Only three damage to one of Ambuscade's hand-cannons because it was advanced mode, but it still made me smile to clear out those two with minimal harm.
 

Also, as it turns out, the environment would have blown up both in my face if I hadn't done it, so 18 (2 x 5 x 2, but I took 2 of it anyhow) damage avoided.

Guise + PW Fanatic.

It is so very broken, even more so than Guise + Fixer.  Just amazing. 

1.  Total Beefcake + I can do that too->Resolute = Money for nothing!  Redirect that 3 damage, then put your top card into play, then use a power for Tough Choices.  It's my favorite out of turn play on a big Guise throwdown round, just don't be X-treeeeeeeeme!!! when you do it, but by all means be mighty and fearsome like the fabled Alpaca.

2.  Uh Yeah, I'm that (lady). . . + End of Days = Guise Bot!  Guise's turn needs to be before Fanatic's.  Copy Fanatic, then have Fanatic play End of Days.  Start of Env. turn Guise's text will activate first, since it was in play first, destroy every card you want to destroy, then destroy Fanatic's End of Days, at which point the text of End of days leaves Guise's card and the destruction stops. (he's actually a Hornet)

3.  Uh Yeah, I'm that (lady). . . + Divine Focus = Moar Damages!  Pretty self explanatory there.  Barbarian makes it even better, made Progeny rage quit with this combo.  Also if you have Guise before Fanatic and Total Beefcake in play after Uh, Yeah, then you can opt to take that 4 damage and redirect it.

4.  Uh Yeah, I'm that (lady). . . + Total Beefcake + Sacrosanct Martyr = RPG Trope!  Who doesn't like a power that deals the lowest HP non-hero target 5 radiant damage?  Although I have a feeling Helena isn't going to like the guy in the chainmail bikini passing himself off as her, maybe if he was also a Barbarian she'd be okay with it.

I know Guise has lots of combos, but these are just sick.  Resolute may be the best base power to copy in the game, because Guise loves his cards, all of them.  Actually hit Best card Ever with this once, it was a great end of turn.

Bonus:  Since I mentioned Fixer, my favorite Guise+Fixer moment:  Fixer-Setback-Guise-Scraper is the order.

Fixer has Jackhandle, Crane, and Harmony in play and Grease Gun in hand.  Plays grease gun.  Guise plays Lemme see that with Tough Choices, borrows Grease Gun.  Sky-Scraper plays Compulsion Canister on Fixer for the awesomeness.

Next Turn Fixer takes his normal turn, then Setback plays Whoops, Sorry!, and destroys Lemme See that, sending Grease gun back to Fixer, for another round of no damage dealt by non-hero targets.  It was glorious.

We just played a game against Infinitor with a team including Parse, Chrono-Ranger, and Ra.

We used Ranger's "No Executions" bounty and Parse's "Updated Intel" to keep Infinitor playing the Recalescent Hellion every other round for several rounds. Each time, Ra invoked the "Flesh of the Sun God" power - several times, by Flame Spike.

That stalled the villain momentum completely.