Best of Times

This game is so hard to play without the digital version backing it up, sometimes.

So if I'm playing Chrono-Ranger: Best of Times, and my first turn goes something like "Use Sudden Contract to play By Any Means on Spite, use True Purpose, targeting Spite", does that mean that all damage dealt to Spite is increased by 2 until I use another power? Because that seems horrendously broken, and playing this way, I tore AoG Spite to pieces in three rounds. It feels distinctly wrong.

Nope, it doesn’t work like that. By Any Means was already affecting Spite so using True Purpose on him would have no effect.

Had you used True Purpose on an environment target, it would cause that target to be affected by By Any Means in addition to the affect it was already having on Spite.

It targets like crowbars, if that makes sense.

It adds another target into the effect, it can't target the same target a second time.

Okay. Definitely not a great power to have against one-target villains, then.

I figure Best of Times exists entirely for villains like The Dreamer and maybe Kaarga.  I still haven't managed to use him effectively at all, though.

I had a game once where someone used him on the Ennead to considerable success.

My usual strategy with him is to pile every legal bounty on the villain and then select targets as need-be.

My best game with best of times was against Kaargra I debuffed the nastiest gladiatiors with the power and sincei was the first hero i could use other powers with him on the villain turn and still put the debuff in time for other players turn.

Yeah, being able to split “Ultimate Target” and it’s power-whenever-that-target-deals-damage ability to TWO targets lets Chrono-Ranger do a lot more off-turn.

The Best of Times power can also really amplify “The Whole Gang” in a minion-heavy game.

My favorite to duplicate is kill on sight in the right context that's three more card draw per round if your team mates focus fire on the target (by any means being a good incentive).

And By Any Means turns into a repeatable Predators Eye.

As opposed to illegal bounties? I haven't made a fan deck or fan card to this date but this is tempting me…

I think there's at least one that can't go on the villain character card, but I could be wrong.

"No Executions" can't go on a villain character card.

Or, indeed, any other type of character card ;).

I was right!

How?  The first time one of them deals damage and Chrono uses a power in response, True Purpose immediately ends.  Unless you can't predict whether one of them will deal damage, but usually only the villain character card can be unpredictable like that, and not always even then.

Oh, dangit, you're right - I forgot how his power expired. Though I guess you could use the effect to re-target True Purpose and still deal damage.

Best of Times is great when you go for Kill on Sight and Jim's Hat, both of which you can search for. Draw 3 isn't a bad base power for Jim at all, and it just gets better as you collect more bounties. 

In testing it used to expire at the start of turn, such that with Ultimate Target you could spread the bounties around to lots of targets each round. That got crazy - you could sometimes draw your whole deck by turn 5-6 against villains with lots of minions then burn down the villain with powered up 4x Eye on the Prize each turn. 

Problem with that is, you then have to rely on your teammates to kill off the target and let you reap the benefit.  Chrono-Ranger is usually one of the team's primary damage-dealers, so this frequently forces a different character to take on his role, probably less efficiently.

Granted, it's a nice combo, and helps draw from your deck faster and get a nice setup, but in general, heroes become less effective when they become more setup-focused instead of going for the quick payoffs.  I wouldn't use up both search cards to get this working.  On the other hand, nothing keeps you from using your equipment powers instead, and if you're having trouble getting them, this could help.

A purpose of the variants typically is to shake up their playstyle.   Which this does quite well.  

CR does enough damage in one shots that even without teammates he can still do okay. He just needs to wait a round. And besides - once he gets a gun out you can play him identically to his regular version.

You give up early game damage, but you get more utility and more late game damage (since it is easier to get all his stuff out). I think it is a fair trade, and actually I'd pick Best of Times against more villains than Base (although I almost always play random heroes). I agree with Powerhound - he shakes up Chrono's playstyle, so I quite enjoy the promo. At least try the combo once!