Looking for Input - Scholar - Alternate Ways to Play?

Scholar is one of my favorite support characters to play -- because of his numerous opportunities for card draw, I find that he usually gets out his most useful cards much more quickly than Legacy.   My usual way to play him is to try to get a Flesh to Iron (preferably two) in play as quickly as possible, then use Bring What You Need to keep him flush with cards and to pull up his great team cards (Don't Dismiss Anything and Proverbs and Axioms).   With two FtIs in play, Scholar usually remains the highest HP hero, and soaks up all of that damage; plus, Alchemical Redirection becomes a nigh-impenetrable forcefield.  (I love combining him with trash-search heroes like AA or Tempest who can keep him in Alchemical Redirections/DDAs/P&As indefinitely.)  Damage-wise, he occasionally helps out with a Grace Under Fire, or, if I have one of those awful games of attrition, where every other hero is incapped, he can sometimes pull out a game all by himself by drawing cards ad infinitum, then unleashing h*ll with a 20+ card Know When To Cut Loose.  But primarily, I use him as an immovable object.  

With this in mind, I was reading a post regarding one of the Weekly One-Shots the other day, and someone mentioned that he had been prevented from playing Scholar in *his* preferred way -- to get out Mortal Form to Energy(s).  Anyone care to elaborate on different ways they like to use Scholar?  MFtE just doesn't seem efficient to me for two big reasons:  

(1) It seems like it would be much harder to get the card draw necessary to keep the MFtEs in play.  When I tank/FtI, I can keep the necessary discard cards coming via Bring What You Need, or even by just skipping a turn and drawing two if necessary.  You can't do that with MFtE, because (in ordinary circumstances) you need to use your base power to heal in order to activate the MFtE damage, and if you use BWYN or skip, then you miss the chance to use your base power.  Only drawing one card a turn won't get you enough discards to sustain MFtE, and if you play a Know When to Hold Fast, that's yet another turn you *can't* use your power to do damage.    

(2) Even if you can manage to keep enough cards in hand to sustain all 2-3 MFtEs, that still seems like a lot of time/effort spent to achieve 2-3 damage to one target (without buffs), and a measly 1 HP healing to Scholar.  To make MFtE really workable/awesome, it seems like you need *another* support character (like Legacy) who can buff Scholar's damage.  Again, that's a lot of effort directed at getting a character who can do 2-3+ damage to a single foe.  If you want that, just put Ra on the team, who can do it from Round 1, or CR, who with a little bit of massaging becomes a damage-dealing fiend, rather than having to find/draw/sustain multiple MtFEs *and* have a separate support character helping, at the expense of Scholar's awesome tanking ability.

Thoughts?  For those of you who don't rely on FtI, what other strategies do you use to make Scholar effective?

Unless I have damage buff my usual game is playing Mortal Form to Energy and Liquid to Energy with Bring What You Need out so I can keep up quit discards to forms.  With his card plays Scholar is normally near top health, become a damage sponge, and gives him decent damage output.   If I have a large hand I'll get a second Mortal Form to Energy for more damage.

Before I get into this, let me first say that my preferred Scholar build is EEL (Two Mortal Forms to Energy, 1 Solid to Liquid), but I rarely bother to get the complete build up.

The EEL build depends on using Bring What You Need, and rarely actually uses Scholar's base power.  It instead depends on healing from his plays (Proverbs and Axioms, Transmutive Recovery, Expect the Worst, and Get Out of the Way).  Get Out of the Way in particular can deal massive amounts of damage against high target fields, but even Transmutive Recovery becomes 6 damage when 2 Energy forms and 1 Liquid form is out.  And all the healing means that Scholar still functions as a tank, although less effectively than a double Iron form does.  And indeed, damage boosting and out of turn healing from allies or the environment benefit an EEL Scholar much more than they would an Iron Scholar.  But even without it, you can still dish a great deal of damage.

I think you're seriously underestimating his maximum power outlet. Yes, it's a lot of work maintaining MftE. You also need Solid to Liquid to make it worthwhile, and you need a lot of card draw to maintain it; fortunately that's not too hard to maintain. If you do it right, you often need to get your teammates to damage you so that you have enough health to heal.

But you can also bust out one of his finishing moves. One nice one is to play a couple Keep Movings to up your forms beyond what you can sustain (getting all three copies of Mortal Form to Energy); then play "Get Out of the Way!"

EDIT: Ninja'd.

When I play him with MFtEs, I generally don't maintain two or more at once -- I'll keep one up and, if there's no other buffs, a Solid to Liquid, then use his normal play cards to heal and draw until I get either Truth Seeker or Bring What You Need.

I use Bring What You Need to push his other MFtEs to the bottom of the deck and out of my hand while I stockpile Keep Movings -- and then let loose with a string of those to bring MFtEs out, followed by some Get Out Of The Way to let rip.

For best results, I like to have other healers out, like Tempest, Argent Adept or Omnitron-X to get as much out of that round as I can before I let most of the Forms drop.

Just maintaining one form for most of the time frees up a lot of your playing -- you can feel free to use other cards instead of needing to spend all your time drawing.

I pretty much agree with everyone else.

Getting out 2 energies and a liquid is monstrous, then play transmutive recovery, heal 3, deal 6 (3 to two targets", draw two before power. "Bring what you need" is always solid for keeping your hand filled, with an added benefit of placing a card on the bottom. I used to think that was a cost, but if I've got multiple "Get out of the Ways" I can keep my forms in the deck where they are much easier to get to, rather than having them in my hand for discard fodder.

Combining scholar with 2 mortal forms with anyone who can give any extra healing is equally insane, as the scholar will just be constantly pinging away for 1-2 damage.

https://greaterthangames.com/forum/topic/advanced-alchemy-a-guide-to-the-scholar-engine-4306

We have guides written for this very subject! Check out my 2013 guide where I popularized the Liquid Energy Engine style of play.