OblivAeon Heroes Preview!

Today we got another OblivAeon Kickstarter update, and this one not only gave us the as-of-now percentages on how far along all the bits and pieces are:

• OblivAeon Heroes: 95% complete
• OblivAeon Villain Scenario: 85% complete
• OblivAeon Environments: 95% complete
• Benchmark Mini-Expansion: 100% complete
• Stuntman Mini-Expansion: 100% complete
• Void Guard Mini-Expansion: 99% complete

but it also gave us a glimpse at some cards from each core OblivAeon Hero deck!

And since a thread was made for the Void Guard, I figure we could use one for this new reveal as well!

If Luminary's focus is gonna be dumping cards into his trash to use his death beam, he is gonna be way fun to play. :D (And then you think about Termi-Nation Bunker's "put a deck in its trash" incap power and, well...)

One of the cards (don't have it in front of me, can't remember whose) features flavor text from what sounds like a relative of Haka's? I don't think we've seen that name before!

I didn't think I could be more excited about Akash'Thriya, but I am now! :D Also La Comodora.

And finding out how the Harpy's control tokens work... Sounds like she's going to have some major potential for collateral damage. :B

I hope there's a post about the rest of the new heroes, because I really want to find out how Idealist and Benchmark work...

I am most curious about the percentages and their breakdown. For example, if void guard is 99% done, what is really left to finish it? Just cosmetic or something else?How many of these percentages for everything have to do with art and other cosmetic stuff and how much of it actually has to do with play testing? 

Off of what Christopher said...Maybe he's finishing up some flavor text for a few of the cards so they're finalized?

I would say the 1% is wording issues, checking for typos and editing stuff, that's usually the last step of publishing projects.

The issues referenced on some of the flavor text really mess with me as far as order of things in the Multiverse.  So most of Deadline's card that reference Freedom Five issues are from 752-756 but the card for Cosmic Immolation references Freedom Five 714 showing him against Kaargra.   So did he show up as Lifeline in the Arena, then start his devastation of the world, and then after being defeated returned to being Lifeline?

Who said that was Lifeline in 714? We know Dead/Lifeline is an Endling so Kaargra could have visited the refuge before Deadline came to earth. Wouldn't introducing a minor character who later comes back as a future threat to Earth be in the vein of comic books/Christopher's story telling method?

Kaargra is specifically referencing him in the preview art and it shows him in his Lifeline outfit. 

I'm pretty sure it's on record that the images and flavor text aren't always from the same comic.

I can't give a source, but if someone can snag Christopher's attention I'm sure we can confirm that or not.

Still it is a reference to Deadline/Lifeline much earlier than the main Deadline event.  Also, the issue which Kaargra first appears is Freedom Five 708 and that storyline seems to go on for a few issues in it and the flavor text references 714 which would fall in line with it. 

Nothing in the preview art suggests that "Line" is using the name Lifeline in 714.

Well you have Lifeline quoted in Dark Watch #18 on the other card taking on Skinwalker.   That's pretty early in that series and I can't see that series ending that early before OblivAeon comes. 

Would be cool if there are several doomsday devices to choose from, each involving A different strategy to set-up. Then we will need to pick one and stick with it.

My guess is an alt-universe Haka.

That was my first thought, or maybe a long-time descendent. Then last night, I realized, what if Haka got married?  What would happen to my Hak-Scraper shipfics? D:

Haka could've been married - numerous times, for all we know. He's just so long-lived that any previous spouses already died ages ago. The downside to being immortal (or whatever Haka is).

I'm really eager to see more on Benchmark and Stuntman, to see what makes them unique.

I'd hazard a guess that he'd have some kind of 'trap' style cards in his deck(since this is still Ambuscade we're talking about, and old habits die hard) or something that lets him use powers out of turn if his base power is any indication of his mechanics.

I'm not sure what Benchmark's deal will be. Totally new person, no ideas or past info for me to go off of...

Wild guesses, because speculation is fun:

Stuntman will have 'Snare' cards which gets played into the villain deck. Although at first glance he looks like a shooty hero dealing projectile damage not unlike Expatriette.

Benchmark may be like Bunker + Absolute Zero. Lots of equipment cards?

Before this preview, Luminary was the new deck I was most excited about. After this preview, I think Harpy is the new hero I’m most excited to try out.

Luminary seems like he’ll play similar to Tachyon with the top strategy being do a few things while finding a way to fill up your trash to do something awesome. There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just not my favorite play style.

I feel like Akash'Thriya deck will be most interesting againist villians that affect the environment deck like Akash'bhuta and Deadline. I feel like Akash'Thriya could easily go nuts with Akash'bhuta helping her get her seeds out. Againist Deadline, I could see her cause the game to go longer, but cause her to become less powerful as the game goes on due to her seeds being removed from the game.

Lifeline and La Comadora seem like they'll be cool too.

La Comadora looks like she not only has some deck manipulation but possibly a few of what I like to call 'burner cards': cards that require you to feed them cards or they burn themselves out(example: gattling gun).

From the little peek of Lifeline's cards, he's going to be good friends with anyone who can heal him. Lots of self damaging but never-the-less powerful cards. You gotta love a hero that can destroy multiple ongoings in a single play.

A lot of people did not get that memo with Absolute Zero.  

Ronway did.

Ronway is not most people.

He's probably got some self-healing in his deck, too. Most of the heroes that depend on damaging themselves tend to have at least a power or a couple cards that can bring them back up, like Fanatic, Nightmist, AZ and Setback.

Ooh, maybe he's got some kind of life-drain power? Do X damage, heal by the same amount, sorta thing.

Ronway is all people.

Ronway is the Truth. Ronway is the Light.

The Cult of Gloom told me so.

Great Google Moogly. 

I like how Arcane Explosion is basically Oblivion, but using Harpy's control mechanic instead of Nightmist's spell mechanic.  We can guess where she learned that move.

As near as I can tell, that's actually the latest issue of Dark Watch we have flavor text for.  According to the wiki, Dark Watch #4 is part of the OblivAeon arc.  So the series named "Dark Watch" is a pretty recent creation in the publication history.

True, but he's attacking Kaarga in that picture, so it probably does match.   It's possible he went back to the outfit he was wearing in the arena when he decided to become Lifeline.

And OblivAeon, for that matter.  I hope that when he destroys an environment, she gets her cards back.

yes I feel like this is going to  have to have an official ruling at some point. Time to summon Christopher on this.

And OblivAeon, for that matter.  I hope that when he destroys an environment, she gets her cards back.

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Same for Spite. I'd be sad if I couldn't use that sick of a power to balance out the sickness facing Spite gives me.

Spite just destroys environment cards in play he doesn't remove them like Deadline.  

But would they go to the Environment trash or Akash Thriya's trash?

Once they're in play, they aren't environment cards, and Spite can't destroy them.

All hail GloomWeaver! Our ruler and savior!

Tempy hails Gloomy quite a bit in my games.

I once thought my life had value.  Which led to disappointment and frustation.

Once I embraced Gloom I found I no longer cared that I got fired for sleeping on the job or my girlfriend left because I wouldn't put pants on.  I mean who can care about mortal like when an eternity of despair is waiting for you?

Thanks to Ronway I found my calling in life, now I wear robes that allow me to shun pants and not be ridiculed in public, well at least not without hurling curses and zombies at the petty mortals who dare to mock us.  Instead of spending my hours studying for tests and looking for work I spend them reading ancient tomes and practicing curses to turn people's hair blue. (even their beard, it's awesome)

Try Gloom.  Because pants are terrible.

According to your profile pic you would seem to be wearing pants.  

I do not think this is true at all.

Couple of things. Christopher recently mentioned in the PT forum that the DW book is very slow moving and its releases are not exactly monthly that they could possibly be longer. Harpy doesn't come into the Dark Watch until DW#7 as we saw in the ARG, and she was part of the group a fair amount of time before the Oblivaeon event. In fact, I'm fairly confident she was in the DW during the Progeny event, which was almost a year before Oblivaeon (if we go by Freedom Five Annuals being yearly on the dot).

Also since we are talking about Dark Watch books, we can see DW#2 cover from the Hero CHallenge document. Judging by the cover alone, it's possibly centered around Gloomweaver (pure assumption based on the skull at the bottom) and is also called an Annual.

Also worth noting that DW#18 is actually the issue Be The Gate from the ARG as well! So the fact that Lifeline and Skinnwalker are in such a huge issue is extremely strange! Does that but Skinnwalker event smack dab in the middle of all the Oblivaeon stuff? @Christopher, is this a potential oversight on issue numbers or is that flavor text from Lifeline actually from DW#18?

The characters you mention also either do very little damage or take a while to setup to do damage.

Knyfe is another character who damages herself. She has 0 ability to self heal. She does a ton of damage quickly though. It’s possible Lifeline is similar.

As a note, the Progeny event happened a good long while before the OblivAeon event.

That’s true. There was at least one expansion in between them.

No mention of DW#18. Well I assume that means it's not a typo or oversight. That leaves a TON of questions about the timing of Skinwalker. Good thing we have a Gloomweaver episode of letters page coming next!

Based on the ARG it happened partly in FFA 29 which puts it only about a year before OblivAeon assuming that FFA issues happened every year.  

Check Parse's deck, and you'll see Harpy being grabbed by Progeny on Reveal the Flaws, so yes, she helped take him on.

Did anyone else notice on life lines card that their is void guard mainstay

I had not seen that on Cosmic Immolation until now.   Apparently she has defeated him for the time being.  

I LOVE these forums. When I wasn't a playtester it was fun guessing what they did, now it's just so cool seeing what people think. It's all phenomenally interesting!

I want to hear more speculation! Let our imaginations run wild!

That is a tragic picture showing what happens to polite society when people are forced to wear pants.

Are we talking UK pants, North American pants, or dog pants?

Looking at the flavor text it might be lifeline may have a friend ship or some kind of relationship with mainstay since it seem his angered state is cause by mainstays defeat. I dont know how accurate it is but seems plausible to me.

I really enjoyed reading Luminary’s flavor text aloud in maniacal Baron Blade voice.

Agree that Akash is going to be really interesting to play. She’s going to have a slow build, but end up really powerful. She’ll get so much more powerful with Rook City Wraith or another deck manipulator around, too.

I’m looking forward to seeing more La Comodora cards!

Stuntman will do a lot of stuff outside of his turn. 

I have, admittedly, not been a very active playtester, so I don't know all of the new decks, but I am most excited about Harpy.

I wouldn't put it past Baron Blade to be more than resembling a "mere speedster" -Probably Baron Blade, Freedom Five something or another. My guess is that, like someone else said, he'll have multiple Doomsday devices he'll pull out, but to be most effective, we'll have to choose 1.

I would guess he has a couple unique Doomsday devices that have similar mechanics, and other, smaller less-doomy devices that have more regular uses.

I'm interested to see how Luminary gets on in, say, Omnitron IV, which has cards that affect devices - prior to this, no hero deck had any, did they? Just villains like Blade, Omitron, and Ambuscade...

I know we haven't seen much for this deck yet, but I wanted to say this before I forgot. I only really noticed this last night, but Rambo Stuntman's power is pretty much both Expat and her Dark Watch promo's powers in one. Could it be this version of Stuntman is even more skiled with firearms than Expat is?

Nah, just flashier.

Ah. Well, that makes plenty of sense. He IS a movie-star!

I also like how he has one of those hover-cigars. (I love those in comics! :D )

Adam and I are big fans of both hover cigars and little floaty rocks!

Oh, like the rocks that float while ou power up or like floating platforms over a death-pit?

Both! But specifically tiny floating rocks that hover around, somehow denoting great power or energy.

Considering the majority of Tempest's art references, this comes as little surprise

I’m most excited about Harpy’s potential to be the missing piece in the Dark Watch lineup.

Dark Watch needs extra card plays and ongoings for DW Fixer to destroy, and just a little bit more card draw, as Nightmist’s card draw can be hard to get, and Setbacks’ s card draw is hard to get set- up with enough token generation to take advantage of surprising fortune.

Luckily, we’ve already seen that her DW variant already has extra plays, and at least one of her cards is a sacrificial ongoing. So I’m pretty excited.

Great point. I’d forgotten The Harpy was part of Dark Watch. I may be even more excited now. Unlike the Freedom Five and Prime Wardens, both teams I love, it rarely feels like I’ve completely dominated the Villain when I play Dark Watch. This may be why I enjoy playing Dark Watch so much. They are the baby bear of the Sentinels universe, just right.