SuperRick is here! (With a question too)

Hi there!  Glad to be here!  Love the game, my favorite thing about it is the creativity and variety of the game mechanics.  I have the Enhanced Edition, Timelines, Scholar, and Ambuscade.

Quick question:  I want to get 2-3 decks that are in Infernal Relics and Rook City.  Not interested in the rest, and don't want to pay the $40 either.  I thought about buying the replacement decks of the specific ones I want in the store here, but they don't come with character cards.

Any suggestions??

Thanks!!

Buy the full set and call it good.

I'd suggest that you find a friend who likes the characters you don't and will split the cost, but I suspect you'll have to search quite a bit...most people who play the game tend to end up trying all the characters and liking at least most of them, it seems.

If the characters you like have promo versions (most do), you could buy replacement decks for them, then print the promos off BGG.  Be warned however that some of them do not have backs.

Unsurprisingly, my first and foremost suggestion would be to just get the RC/IR boxset. It is well worth it to support a game you really enjoy.

However, if that absolutely is out of the cards (so to speak), there are DIY options out there. You could Order the replacement decks and then print out the character/setup cards you need. The BBG forums and our very own Spiff's SotM Accessories are perfect sources to find the correct images to print-n-play. I have done this myself for most of the older promo cards I can't get my hands on.

What decks are you most interested/uninterested in?

I just want the Chairman, Mr. Fixer, and Ennead really.  Mostly just the two villains. 

I wonder if I could buy the replacement decks for these characters, and if under the Replacement Cards section (https://greaterthangames.com/store/replacement-card) specify the character cards for them. 

I'm thinking about going to my local game store tonight and getting Miss Information, Silver Gulch, and that Final Wasteland.  Maybe even Unity.  I'm out of control.

Out of curiosity (welcome to the forum, btw :)), why those decks? And why not any others? If you've not played the others, how can you be sure you won't like them? Have you played the game with someone else who owns everything? Maybe if you can tell us why you think you don't want the Adept, Plague Rat, the Realm of Discord and all those other decks, we can persuade you otherwise and then you can just buy everything and go "Hmm okay, these are actually pretty epic - I can't believe I once thought this would be a bad idea" ;).

I guess because I feel like I have a pretty full game right now and I just want *a little* bit more (and I don't want to spend $40 too!). 

Also, some of the characters I already have I'm kinda *meh* about, like Kwisnick (whatever her name is), Visionary, and Dreamer.  I just don't really like the themes of them. 

I really like the themes of Legacy, Wraith, Tachyon, Chrono-Ranger (super-awesome), Bunker and Tempest.  As far as the villians, I really like Baron Blade, Ambuscade, Voss, Omnitron, and Iron Legacy is so very cool.  As far as the others, if I could trade some out I would.  I'd love to Ala-Carte. 

Did I see somewhere that Vengence is going to be a stand-alone game?  If so manybe I can sell off some of the ones I don't want or something.

Vengence is not a stand-alone game. It is an expansion, albeit a large one with 5 hero decks, 2 environments, and one villain encounter (that has multiple setup options if you are playing with under 5 heros). Could someone just pick up Vengence and hit the ground running? Yes. But having at least the core set is strongly recomended by >G and us here at the forums. 

Just from your prefered list of decks, I will say that the V5 (villain encounter), Sentinels, Naturalist and KNYFE should be right up your ally. If you are not into controler characters like Visionary or high risk/reward characters like nightmist/ABZero, Parse and Setback (though comparing Parse to Visionary is not exactly fair) might not be your thing, though they are both really fantastic decks! You should really enjoy both environments since you are a Baron fan however. 

Hope that helps.

I wonder if I could buy the replacement decks for these characters, and if under the Replacement Cards section (https://greaterthangames.com/store/replacement-card) specify the character cards for them. 

You definitely can :)

Vengence looks awesome.

Some online retailers are selling the IR/RC boxset for as low as $26.  At that price, it'd probably be just as worth it to pick up the full set instead of going through the trouble to pick out separate decks.

Infernal Relics is probably my favorite expansion overall; both heroes are incredible (and have room for complexity as you get better at the game) and all of the villains are very unique and thematic.

I say just get the full set; I understand the predicament of not wanting too much on your plate, but you'll be thankful once you play the game a hundred times and still have multiple combinations of villains/environments/heroes to choose from and always keep things fresh.

I have absolutely no idea what this could be a reference to.

I think he means Kismet.

Yes, her, that's the one.

Ha, that was funny.

I think I'm going to satify my craving for more decks by getting some of these mini-expansions, and holding out for Vengence.  It looks pretty good to me.

Thanks for confirming that for me!

Buy everything. Everything is awesome! ;)

I agree with Silverleaf ;). Go and buy All Of The Things, and then you will have a whole load of decks to play with, several million (I think?) possible game combinations, and all those extra heroes to learn how to play. You seem to like the shooty-shooty people, so maybe Expatriette would be someone you'd find interesting. I don't entirely judge the characters by their theme though - I tend to like the Infernal Relics guys because Fantasy is my thing and this is the nearest Sentinels has to that genre (plus the Adept has come out on top as my favourite character anyway), but I like to play everyone in different situations and get to know their decks. I think the hero I've played least is Fanatic. I think this is probably because of the mass of "hurt yourself" cards that she is, based on the fact that I've been using Nightmist more since I got hold of her promo card ;).

I would advise at least trying every deck before deciding you don't like it ;). Do you know anyone in your area who plays the game? Maybe you live near a forum member and don't realise it ;). Then you could play with someone who owns everything (I think most of us on the forum own as much as humanly possible - basically, everything that's been released unless they were too late for certain promo cards) and see for yourself what those other decks are like :).

Please also consider that even if you don't personally like the decks, you might find yourself in a position of being able to carry the game around with you to places and offer others the chance to try it, and thus will be able to provide those characters for the benefit of players with playstyles different from yours.  Part of what has made SOTM's community thrive is the ease with which anyone can be an ambassador for it.

I get not wanting to spend too much money, but then you talk about running out and buying mini-expansions.  If you have budget concerns, I recommend that you be patient and a bit choosy, and not make suboptimal purchasing choices...such as ordering replacement decks and paying a substantial shipping charge on them with each wave of buying, when you could just save up some money and then order the whole box set and mini-expansions and everything, and only pay the same amount of shipping once (or not at all, if you buy through a brick-and-mortar store).

Agreed. I don't care for Bunker much, but my friend absolutely LOVES him so I'm glad I own him. 

This is another good point; just because you don't personally care for that character/theme doesn't mean your friends will agree.  In fact, that could be the difference between getting someone into the game or not; being able to offer them something that suits their interests.

For instance, I have a friend who plays a lot of Arkham Horror, so for his second game I told him to take Nightmist (no way I was letting him play her on his first game) and we did a match against Gloomweaver in the Realm of Discord.  I explained that the hero and villain were both designed by Richard Launius who was the designer of Arkham Horror and he was enthralled.  He had a blast finding all the references hidden within the cards and flavor text and I like to think because Sentinels gave him the freedom to choose that experience, he became as big of a fan as he is.

So I guess, good arguments overall:

• You spend less money on shipping while getting more value if you get the full sets vs picking and choosing

• Don't knock it til you try it; you don't know how interested you are in a hero/villain/environment until you actually play it

• What you don't like, your friends might like; giving them more options helps get more people into the game

I'll have to beg your guys' forgiveness, but in the face of undeniable and inarguable logic I did my own thing . (I'm sure no one else has ever done that)

I bought:

1. Miss Information

2. Final Wasteland

3. Silver Gulch

4. Mr. Fixer

5. The Chairman

6. Unity

I'm actually very exited about these choices.  I found myself stuck between a rock and a hard place because I REALLY LIKE the mini-expansions, but I know they're over-priced relative to the IR and RC.  Like I said before, I spend the money on IR and RC and I get a ton more cards of characters and locations I'm not nearly as interested in, or spend less money on what I did and get a lot less cards - but ones that I really like. 

But anyways, with my set now I'm over 1,000 cards (SOTM EE, ST, Scholar, Ambuscade, Miss Information, Unity, Final Wasteland, Silver Gulch, Mr. Fixer, and The Chairman).  1,000 cards!  That's a lot!  And I've only played the game three times! 

But on to something else.  I'm having trouble getting my friends to play this game with me.  I got Dominion, Cosmic Encounter, and SOTM for Christmas.  They're all hooked on Dominion and won't try the other two games.  I guess I'm just going to have to put my foot down.  "We are GOING to play this game!"

Just make sure you also ered the character cards with the non-mini-expansion decks.

Yes, I ordered the character cards too, thanks.

Tell them Dominion got stolen. ;)

Or failing that, bribe them. If they play one game of SotM with you, you'll play a couple of games of Dominion. If they really hate SotM then they don't have to play again, but they should at least give it a try.

You're on your own with Cosmic Encounter. I hate that game and wouldn't wish it on anyone...

Excellent advice, Sivlerleaf.

Thanks for being so friendly everyone since I joined.

Oh and welcome, by the way! Have you just played solo then?

Ha, there really is no truly effective argument against "But I don't wanna"

Enjoy the game!

I played with my wife and little girl, but then they played Dominion and got hooked on it.  I like Dominion - but all the time?  Really?  It's a work in progress.  My wife didn't like SOTM, but my little girl did.  I think she'll particularly like playing Unity.

I have lots of gaming friends and I'm hoping to try it with them.

Along those lines, Baron Blade seems a little dull (and easy) to me.  I wonder who would be a good villian for a bunch of new guys to play that's more challenging?  Who'd you recommend out of what I have? 

I'd recommend Voss, personally. He's tough, and he has some nasty stuff, but he's not in the habit of limiting hero choices by forcing discards or destruction.

And as has been said before, welcome to the forums! :D

Thanks!

Voss sounds awesome, I'm excited just thinking about it. 

Where should we fight?  A mean alien in the wild, wild west? 

Cowboys fighting aliens? That would make a great comic. I think it might not work as a movie, though

Welcome to the boards! I always picture alien invasions happening in the city. After that, Aliens and dinosaurs.

It feels like it has been quite a while since someone made a topic just to say hello and introduce themselves to the forums.

Welcome, new friend!

Thanks!

Voss is probably a good choice, but personally, one of my most epic games ever was against Citizen Dawn, who I feel does the "horde of minions" concept MUCh better than Voss - the minions are all different sizes, so they're harder to wipe out with one area-effect attack, and unlike with Voss, it's possible to ignore the minions and focus fire on the boss, which turns the game into a gripping race to try and knock Dawn down before the other Citizens overwhelm you.

His namesake, Geoff Voss, is also a really nice guy.  I had the pleasure of playing a few games with him over at KantCon last year.

Sadly I cannot recommend The Chairman or Miss Information for a starting game.  The Chairman is one of the most difficult villains in the game and is very swingy depending upon which Underbosses he pulls in what order, and your work can be completely undermined by a Prison Break.  Miss Information requires an incredible amount of patience to even deal damage to her in a three person game, let alone a five person game.  Had you gotten Infernal Relics I would be recommending Akash'Bhuta, Apostate, Ennead, or even Gloomweaver.  So, I guess I'm saying that you should totally buy IR/RC when you get the chance!

Of what you have, Voss is a great choice.  Citizen Dawn also can be great in a five player game.  Be prepared for a hard battle, however.  She has a board wipe that hurts something fierce.

Final Wasteland and Silver Gulch are fine locals to fight in.  Insula Primalis is Dawn's hometurf, so that might be fun if you want to be thematic, and Voss is quite an intense fight in The Wagner Mars Base if you want to keep the "Space" feel.  Final Wasteland does some fun stuff with minions, so that might be a treat if you want some shenanigans to be had with the villain.  Ruins of Atlantis are very aggressive, so be prepared for a harsh world if you fight there.  I use to recommend Megalopolis all the time, but it has an immense amount of denial cards, so I'd actually avoid that for a first game with your friends.

Also, welcome to the forums!

Citizen Dawn has enough "I just kicked your butt" combos that you can really drive off new players if their first experience is just getting their rear handed to them.

Our first game vs. Dawn we got the Truth/Winter/Anvil start and That One Card in the third round.  We forfeited when it was played, we still hadn't killed Truth.

I love Voss because it never feels like you are out of the fight, and it always is rough at some point.

I would suggest Insula Primalis or Silver Gulch.  Silver Gulch is nice and tame, it does a lot of stuff that normally doesn't feel like it matters, which is nice when learning a new Villain.  Dinosaurs will make you pay attention to what they are going to eat, and they deal lots of damage.

Swap Gultch for the Block imo. Play against Voss. Profit.

I still say that everyone's first game should be against Blade. Winning that first one gives people a little positive boost, and although he's easy he can do a few tricky things. Gives people the chance to understand the mechanics and start to see synergies and combos without getting whacked round the head with that horrible "we're so going to die in a minute and I don't know what we can do about it" feeling.

I do make sure to explain that Blade is the training wheels option and that this first one's a learning game and that we can move onto the harder villains once the earth is safe from moonfall (for now at least) and you know what all the buttons on your power suit do. 

I taught a few friends and their daughter (whose cards were sort of group played) last week.  First game was Baron Blade in Insula Primalis as a sort of training game.  Second was Voss in The Final Wasteland.  And since we were playing in New Jersey I got looks when a New Jersey Devil appeared and ate one of Voss' minions.

Well, I think Baron Blade is a little boring. I mean, he's not bad and all - but he lacks that "Oh crap I'm scared what is going to happen next!" type-feeling.  I think Voss would be perfect.  Does he have a lot of minions?  Minions are just plain fun.

Aliens in the Wild West, aliens and dinosaurs, or aliens and monsters?  I think I'll let my buddies pick that one.

Sure he's not the most exciting, but he's perfect for a training game. Don't make the mistake of hitting brand new players with hard villains right away, unless you want the risk of putting them off the game before they even understand it. 

Those tend to be my methods too, but I can't help but remember a friend who had his three starting games against Citizen Dawn.  Two crushing defeats.  One brilliant victory.

I have no idea how he had the patience to trudge through those first two games, but he was so fond of the game he bought the Enhanced Edition about a week later.  It was pretty awesome.

Who knows?  Some gamers really enjoy a good stomping in their first games.  I'm not one of them, granted, but I play with a few!

I totally get that!  If I get my butt kicked I know I can get better and there will always be a challenge.  If it's too easy to begin with then that's no fun for me.

Had the Munchkin not been such a spitfire the last few days, my intro game for people would have been having folks choose heroes from the Freedom Five + Unity (almost all of whom are straightforward and easy to grok, with AZ and Unity being the exception) against Amubuscade, in Insula Primalis.

One reason I love Voss for first games is he throws those minions at you and makes you deal with them.  When we lose to Voss it always fels like you were just a few cards from turning it atound, and you never really steamroll him.

You also get to set up your heroes, so it is nice for getting a feel of what they are possible of doing.

The Block is another good starter, like Gulch it will often just fight amongst itself, but sometimes you suddenly realize you are about to get crushed

Blade seem too easy? Try these house rules:

Reduce the number of cards in his trash needed for his plan to work. 15 is a lot! Try 12. or 10.

Start w/ more than one of his mobile defense platforms in play.

Take out all of the Blade Battalions and make a side deck. Put a Blade Battalion in play at the start of Blade's turn.

Give blade more hit points. 40/30 seem too easy? How about 50/50?

If you're not worried about yourself, but just want others to enjoy their first game, stack the deck. Put in some Hasten Dooms and Consider the Price of Victory towards the top.

If Blade is too easy, Advanced Blade makes for a very nice balanced encounter! 

I'd also say to play Blade in the black abyss of defeat that is the Rook City environment, but I'm not sure you have that one.

Advanced Blade in Rook City is pretty brutal. Always a fun one.

Advanced Blade in Atlantis can also suck since both the Font and Pillars give him extra card plays.

This is my feeling on it; BB is the one I always break out to newcomers because I feel he offers the most well rounded, basic, introduction to the game both thematically and mechanically.  He shows off the game's comic book theme probably the best out of the base villains (an evil genius, using ridiculously advanced inventions to destroy the planet for basically no reason?  Sounds like a comic book villain!) and does plenty to get players into what the villains can offer.  He has an alternate win scenario, his flipside is different enough to show off how villains change throughout the game, and he has plenty of surprises in his deck that can bring new players to thier knees.

Great!  Now I can't make up my mind! 

What I like about Voss is that he has a ton of minions.  However, when I looked through his deck (I haven't played him yet so maybe I missed it) it seems like that's ALL he's got.  Like there's little to no actual slugging it out with Voss himself.  I mean, he looks really tough and all, like a Darkseid, but no melee action?  What?  A guy this bad should be throwing some punches! 

I love the theme of Blade, and he seems to have more variety than Voss in that he has minions, devices, and even shields.  And the idea that he flips and gets a whole new set of hit points is great.  But I've already played him twice and would like to try someone else.  Maybe. 

I'm also contemplating going with Ambuscade.  He has devices, a cool theme, a cool flip, gets in the thick of it with some melee, doesn't look too hard or too easy, and would fit great in Insula Primis.  What do you guys think of him?    

SuperRick, take a look at Voss's flip side.  He's all about punching the heroes!  Voss is one of my favorite villains to fight overall.

Even though it makes for a more difficult fight than Blade (usually), I find that I like starting newbies against Omnitron.  He has a lot of targets and a really varied deck that makes you think outside the box as to how to take him down.  

Oh, whoops.

Ooooh trust me. when you play Voss, you will really end up throwing some punches. Generally, you want to get rid of all the minions to get rid of his armor (-2 per minion is pretty painful, even if it is just one minion at that time) and on his flip side, he punches two people, not just one. So there.

Try Mad Bomber Blade! Always an exciting game. Alternately, advanced Blade. Hate that guy.

Voss attacks you on the second side, but mostly he hangs back behind his minions and sacrifices them, then brings in more to sacrifice them as well.

You get a good feel of having to slog through his troops to get to him.

Ambuscade sometimes works really well, when he's getting his cards that play more cards a bunch, but mostly he throws his initial cards at you and once you clear it he's a cake walk.  He feels to me like the least competetive villain.  Even house ruling him to be more difficult hasn't brought him up to where I really fear him.

Voss's front side, thematically, is him as a general of an army leading from the back and sending his invasion army at you.

When you clear out his minions, he feels compelled to come get the job done himself and starts fighting you face to face.

Minions are his thing, thats basically what he does you are right. But after you run into your first late game Forced Deployment with no way to counter it, you'll understand why there are so many of them. 

If you are looking for a fun, minion-centric time, I'd defintely go with Voss.  He's  a perennial favorite among my friends.  One of my favorite things about him is that he doesn't tend to destroy your stuff (he has one ship that can destroy stuff, but thats it), so its very rewarding for setup intensive characters.  Its also rewarding for controllers, tanks, and damage dealers!

A few things to note when fighting him, for maximum enjoyment:

1. Don't pick Atlantis as an environment when fighting him for the first time.  Its a GREAT environment...but it has a lot of potential to give him cards out of turn, and that can complicate things quite easily.  Insula Primalis heightens the tension with damage boosting potential, and is a great way to ratchet up the tension (if thats what you are looking for).  If you want Atlantis, be really careful about anticipating Krakens and be on your toes for the Pillar of Hercules at the WRONG time.

2. There are likely to be some painful turns when all seems lost!  He's got some nasty tricks with his ships and forced deployment, and once he gets a swarm it can look pretty bleak.  For me, this is where team synergy and cleverness really started to shine, and you got the most out of control characters, damage reducers, massive AoE, sacrifice plays, and clever ways to tank.  You can absolutely pull a victory off, even when he's got an army!

3. Welcome to the Forum!

Okay, I think I'm going to go with Voss on the moon.  Keep the theme solid. 

Maybe as a second game I'll go with Advanced Ambuscade on Insula Primis.  Great theme there.

Oh, and FYI, the core set villains have specific environments associated with them for thematic/story purposes. Let's see if I can remember these correctly:

• Voss's forces attacking in Megalopolis
• Citizen Dawn's forces live on Insula Primalis
• Baron Blade hides in the Ruins of Atlantis while destroying civilization
• Omnitron has gone to Mars to build his army of drones to wipe out humanity

I think you have Voss and Omnitron flipped.

Voss appears on the Villainous weaponry(?) card in the mars base and Omnitron's assault drones are the ones on impending casualty. Though honestly, megalopolis has a lot of villains appearing in it, so it might be hard to pin down that way.

Voss doesn't appear in Megaopolis? Maybe I have a different deck than you…

I always thought it was Baron Blade who was on Mars.  It wouldn't make a lot of sense to destroy the Earth if he was still on it, would it?

Is it possible he never truely intended to destroy the entire Earth? He is too wrapped up in his quest for power and control to loose it all by destroying everything. He is evil, not stupid. Possibly just a test for something else?

Okay, checked and I had it correct per conversations with the <G folks. For example, Omnitron was Mars because he can live on Mars - doesn't need to breath or anything.

Blade isn't destroying the whole Earth, just most of it.  Then he and his forces can come up and take over the whole world pretty easily.

He isn't really stepping up from the level of power he had before, he's just removing everyone else from the leaderboard.

Also Super Rick, one of the best things about Sentinels is that after you've played every hero and villain and environment enough times you can still create cool scenario rules that change the game in cool ways.

Here are two of my favorites:

Advanced Omnitron takes over the Block (guards gain the device keyword, and devices gain the guard keyword)

Ambuscade attacks Megalopolis with Dinosaurs (take dinosaurs from Insula Primalis and mix them into Megalopolis, have a way to count to ten, at the start of the Environment turn each dinosaur gets to eat a civilian, if 10 get eaten before you beat Ambuscade you lose)

Deck mixing!  I love it. 

How about 8 heroes fighting 2 villians?  Now we're getting out there!

I've done 6v2, every third hero was a villain, both played at (H)=3.  It can get rough, depending on if you let them work together (IE share "villain" reduction and boosting between them) or make them fight seperate.  

There was also that neat thread where folks pitted the villains' decks against each other.  Some interesting results there.

An easy match can be boring, although Blade seldom has this problem.  Avoid Spite like the plague for first games though.  Also avoid Iron Legacy for similar but largely opposite reasons.  The Chairman or the Matriarch might appeal to some players, though, as long as you make it clear going in that the heroes are probably going to lose.  Blade gains a lot from being played Advanced, but doing so is questionable because it means players have more to keep track of in their first game.  Generally I think it's better to play normal first.

You must not have looked at his flip side.  Once you exterminate the minions, Voss comes down and gets his hands dirty himself.  And if you want to see him dealing melee damage, set the fight in Megalopolis; Cramped Quarters Combat even has him in the art.

Maybe. I'm also contemplating going with Ambuscade.  He has devices, a cool theme, a cool flip, gets in the thick of it with some melee, doesn't look too hard or too easy, and would fit great in Insula Primis.  What do you guys think of him?

Ambuscade is kind of a putz, and I don't consider him a good starter hero despite his easiness.  His Trap mechanic is weird, his Vanishing can be immensely frustrating, and the ease with which he goes down if he doesn't Vanish means that the game is fairly likely to make a weak impression.

Yeah, I agree with you on Ambuscade.  I LOVE his theme, but he wasn't too scary.

One problem with Ambuscade is if he's on his flip side and he plays his cloaking device, (mostly due to an out of turn effect) he flips back to front side and if you just leave it out there he never flips back. His trap plays always seem like dead turns too.

So I decided to make an oversized card using my templates with a few additional rules. One to fix him and the other to make him a bit stronger. The second addition I took from The Matriarch's new printing on how she handles fowl cards. So if Ambuscade gets lucky he could end up playing multiple traps in one turn.

Front side:

At the start of the villain turn, if the personal cloaking device is in play, flip Ambuscade's villain character card.

Both sides:

Whenever a trap card is played from the villain deck, play the top card of the villain deck.

I had a decent game with ambuscade a while back, and it got me thinking. Thematically, he should just start off more set-up. His set-up play in the game included his cloaking device and his rocket launcher, starting out with him invisible felt really good to me since it spoke strongly to him having ambushed us. I think maybe a variant (including Koga's suggestion for reworking the cloaking device) of making his cloaking device guarenteed in set-up and pre-arming one or both of his traps would do a lot to make him feel like he was just lying in wait for you to enter his web. Don't know how it would actually work out though since I haven't tried it and I haven't played him much overall.

Haka eating the Cloaking Device with Savage Mana is always funny, too - it makes Vanish an utterly useless card and Ambuscade can't destroy your stuff, so as long as Haka doesn't spew the cloak back up into his face, he can never use it again :D. Alternatively, the Final Wasteland ;).

That's certainly a weird glitch, but it should virtually never happen.  He can't stay on his flipside unless the PCD is in play at the start of his turn, so the only way this could ever happen would be if you somehow caused the PCD to leave play and come back into play before the next turn.  Into the Stratosphere + Timeshift, perhaps.  It's enough of a niche case that I wouldn't worry about it.

Vanish searches the deck and trash, so if an effect made the villain play a card it might be a Vanish which would bring back his cloaking device.

Ambuscade really benefits from DR, hence why his Advanced mode is really a nicely balanced fight. The reason why his traps feel like dead cards usually is because he simply goes down too fast and the traps dont have a chance to be played. His the extra DR + shield is a nasty combo that will take a few turns to fix. He has a little bit of deck acceleration, but just slightly under what I think would make traps a more consistent threat. 

Virtually every time I play him, I intend to apply his Advanced text and then forget.  Somehow this never happens with Voss or Akashbhuta.  I think seeing that pitifully tiny 50 HP makes me want to go for the throat.

The most fun I ever have with Ambuscade is when he chains multiple Run and Guns, Quick Stim-Patches, Snatch & Grabs, and the like.  I think this playstyle is far more fun and unique, and the Traps and Devices are a distraction from it, making him play more like too many other villains.  If he gets a lot of these cards instead, he feels more like a hunter, who knows he's a bit squishy but is too smart to make himself a target, so he keeps dancing around, staying on his toes and keeping the heroes on theirs...a very feisty, high-energy fight.  A pity it doesn't usually work out that way.  Most of his Devices are a joke, and the Traps just aren't worth how long you have to wait for them.

One thing about Ambuscade when fighting with Haka, if Haka eats all his devices with Savage Mana, he has a much better chance to combo like crazy. Samer thing in Final Wasteland if Unforgiving Wasteland is out.

He's such a cool theme I'd love it if he played better.  Maybe thin his deck a little?

If I was actually going to mess with his deck make-up, I'd take out one trap and one mobile drone gun thing, add in another copy of Run'nGun and another copy of his shield. Easy to do with ordering replacement cards. Play him on advanced only (way too easy otherwise). Its a great balance. 

Custom Hand-Cannon is usually worse than the mobile turret I've found (except against Haka).  Yes, sometimes the Hand-Cannon can hit the lowest-HP hero, but in practice the "most cards in play" thing is more likely than "highest HP" to give the players free choice of what gets hit in the early game.

Sometimes. Certainly not a super majority of the time though. 

Turn 1, Hand-Cannon always lets the heroes pick (granted, they'll most likely pick highest-HP anyway), while Turret only gives as many choices as there are tied heroes.  (Note to self: play original Fixer, DW Nightmist, Chrono-Ranger, original Bunker, and Team Leader Tachyon some game.)  After that, of course, it's more of a crapshoot...but most heroes can't get more than 1 card into play per turn, so the rate of change tends to be small, with each hero who plays a one-shot falling behind the ones who play an O/E.  Of course, sometimes the O/E is a Driving Mantis.  :)

I've got a version of Ambuscade on my site that makes him more of a fun challenge, IMO.  Check it out if you'd like: www.spiffworld.com/sotm/printable.cfm.

One thing my group does with ambuscade is that we leave any traps that he plays active even if we beat him.  So that way when we play him again, he has a few traps already primed.

Two recent ideas we tried had him play the top card of his deck whenever an environment card was destroyed, and had his traps destroy hero cards, Unavoidable Explosive destroying (H) cards, and Rigged to Detonate destroying all the cards of the hero it hits.  

That fast furious game play went a lot faster that game.  I found it fitting with Ambuscade being the anit-Haka, that he'd also gain from environment being destroyed.  The traps destroying cards made them actually scary, combining both he was no slouch, burning his deck, and making you nervous that those traps were going to destroy all your stuff.

We also used the shuffle a trap play a card rule, but we do that so much we don't even think of it as a house rule anymore.

My group really likes this version of him.  It has become our standard version with the original an "alternate" that we use at times to introduce new people with.

The variant I've tried is a more substantial modification (on par w/ Mad Bomber Blade):

The basic idea is that Ambuscade, as a hunter, prepares before he engages and then focuses on one target. The rest of it is just to distract the people he is not hunting. 

Setup: Find H-1 traps and insert them face up.

Front Side: Every time a hero plays a card reveal the top card of the villain deck. If it is a trap or a device, play it. Other wise shuffle it into the deck. At the end of the villain turn, if there are H devices in play, flip Ambuscade.

(Advanced: At the end of the villain turn, reveal the top card of the villain deck. If it is a trap or a device, play it.)

Back Side: Ambuscade is immune to damage from every hero except for the hero with the highest hit points at the start of the villain turn. Redirect all damage dealt by Ambuscade to the hero with the highest hit points at the start of the villain turn. When a villian card would be played Ambuscade regains H hit points and deals the hero with the highest hit points H projectile damage. And the end of the villain turn deal the hero with the highest hit points 5-X energy damage, where X is the number of devices in play. At the end of the villain turn if the personal cloaking device is not in play and there are fewer than H devices in play, flip Ambuscade. 

(Advanced: At the start of the villain turn Ambuscade deals the Hero target with the highest hit points H-2 fire damage).