Card by Card Comparisons

Continuing with an idea that came up in the "frustrating hero" thread, which is getting far enough off-topic already that I don't want to do this there.

Indeed it is Ronway.  I've come up with a couple more I want to add.

• Tachyon's Fleet of Foot is strictly better than Legacy's Bolster Allies.  Both let everyone draw a card, but Fleet doesn't cost you your play, plus it's a Burst and thus contributes to the rest of your deck (I'm drawing a fine line on the "in a vacuum rule" here, but I'm not assuming any specific other card being necessary to make this one work, as with the Ammo in the Submachine Gun).

• Bunker's Auxilliary Power Source is better than AZ's Glacial Structure; both let you destroy them and draw three cards as a Power, but AuxPS can instead be destroyed to use two powers in one turn.

• Bunker's Heavy Plating is better than any of the Ongoing cards which likewise reduce damage by 1 (Legacy's Fortitude, Tempest's Otherworldly Resistance, and Haka's Ta Moko; I'm told the Scholar has a version which is not Limited, and thus would be better than all of these as well as mostly-better than HP), because villains are less likely to destroy Equipment than Ongoings, and because (as far as I'm aware) there are more effects on various Environment and friendly-hero powers which can help you get Equipment into play from your hand or trash, compared to doing so for Ongoings.

• Haka's Taiaha can damage two targets, and so is better than the various cards mentioned under Absolution, and arguably better than Absolution itself, except in terms of damage types (more things are immune to Melee than to anything else, it seems).

• Legacy's "THOKK!" is strictly better than Fanatic's Brutal Censure except in terms of damage type, dealing more damage while both let you draw a card.

• Ra's Flame Blast and Tempest's Lightning Smash are both better than Legacy's Back Fist Strike (which in turn is better than Haka's Elbow Smash and Visionary's Psychic Spike, as mentioned above), dealing more damage and (except in the case of Psychic Spike) being less likely to get ignored, because more things are immune to Melee than any other damage type.  (I'm pretty sure this is true; certainly it's true in the subset of the game I'm familiar with, which consists of the Enhanced Edition and about half of the first two expansions, but excludes Timelines and the mini-expansions.)

• Legacy's Danger Sense is better than Haka's Enduring Intercession…well, better for Haka at least.

I think I had another one in mind when I started typing this, but it now escapes me.  Actually, I remembered it.  This will do for now.  Thanks to BlueHairedMeerkat for prompting the original question and to Ronway for doing most of the work of answering it.

One thing to keep in mind is that you can't just compare cards the same way you would in a game where you build the decks.  Absolute Zero's self damaging would be really bad in other decks, but they become benefits with his modules.  Similarly, something like Fortitude becomes better than Otherworldly Resistance when combined with Lead From the Front redirecting damage to Legacy.

I'm curious what makes you say Villains are more likely to destroy ongoings than equipment.  The vast majority of villains destroy "Ongoing and/or Equipment cards" to the point where it seems like they should have had a common keyword.  When they do make a distinction like Dreamer or Omnitron, I think they always have equal amounts of destruction for each.  And then there's the environments.  There is no forced Ongoing destruction (short of Imbued Vitality + damage), but there are a few mandatory equipment destruction cards.  Equipment is probably easier to pull back out of the trash though.

A more on topic response, Mist Form and Telekinetic Cocoon are almost identical except that Mist Form gets you an extra card draw.  This caused a little envy when Visionary and Nightmist were sitting next to each other.  I think it is justified by the fact that Visionary can still contribute alot with Demorilization/Twist the Ether/Wrest the Mind, whereas Mist Form is pretty much just a recharge.  (Especially now with the ruling that it shuts down Amulet of the Elder Gods).

Citizen Dawn, The Matriarch and The Dreamer destroy Ongoing cards more often. Apostate's Apocalypse leaves a few Equipment cards alone but spares no Ongoings. The Ennead destroy Equipment cards more often. Omnitron punishes Equipment plays more strongly than Ongoing plays by forcing you to take damage for every Equipment card played and by destroying the Equipment first.

TLDR: It depends on the Villain.

I forgot about the Citizens that destroy ongoings and that Horrid Cacophony didn't hit equipment cards.  (Both villains that I don't play much).  but I'm still not seeing how the Dreamer destroys more ongoing cards.

When she flips, she destroys H ongoings.

Ah, right.

On topic, The Scholar's Offensive Transmutation could be considered slightly better than Wraith's Throat Jab.  It is the same card except for damage type, and Voss's ships + advanced Gloomweaver are immune to melee damage.  And I suppose Omnitron's Adaptive Plating is more likely to be set on melee than infernal across all hero teams.

Of these, I've played against Dawn, Matri (though I didn't remember Ongoing destruction in her case), Apostate and Omnitron, but not Ennead or Dreamer.  I had kind of forgotten about Omni, and Dawn does have a card that destroys both, but she has multiple Citizens who destroy Ongoings every turn, and nothing of the sort for Equipment.  Plus the environment I was thinking of was Wagner Mars Base, where Red Dust destroys H equipment cards, but also lets each player get an equipment into play from their discard, even if they didn't have one to destroy in the first place.  Nothing equivalent to that for Ongoings which I've seen.  My impression probably comes mostly from Dawn, who I've fought against twice, but boy does she make the point strongly.  And it just seems like in general, more heroes rely heavily on Ongoing in the first place; only Bunker and Wraith seem to focus more on Equipment, while Visi has absolutely none, Legacy and Tachyon and Ra all have like one in their deck (and Tachy only has like three Ongoings, but still), and Haka and Zero have roughly equal quantities of each.  Still, having less equipment in the first place isn't what I was talking about with Heavy Plating, so I concede that I have overstated the point.

Although I don't have the cards with me, I believe Wraith's Infared Eyepiece is strictly greater than Nightmist's Investigation.  I believe they have the same effect but Wraith draws a card and NM must discard a card.  Visionary might have a card of the same style but I might just be thinking of Dark Visionary.

The card you are thinking of is Astral Premonition, which can look at the top 2 cards of any deck, where Infared Eyepiece only looks at the villain.

Card balance is definitely dependent on the hero's other cards and powers, and I'm glad it is.

Although I hate playing Wraith's self heal card (Suture Wounds or Self Suture I think) because it's kind of a waste, it works well in her deck because she is very dependent on powers via equipment.  So by making it an one-shot, it fits her synergy and flow much better.

Fleet of Foot is better than Bolster Allies in all ways indeed, but I think it was for both balance and theme reasons.  Tachyon is fast.  Legacy is fast, but not nearly as fast as Tachyon., it makes sense.  As powerful as Fleet of Foot is, I think if Legacy got a free play, it would be far more powerful relative to Tachyon.  Legacy has so many powerful cards that for him to get free plays would be making him far more powerful.  I'm actually surprised that Legacy has an extra power card (Legacy's Ring), since once he can use 2 powers, it's completely devestating to the villains (be immune to 2 damages, +1 to damage and immune to 1 damage, +1 to damage then deal 3 damage and everybody heals 1, etc).

Suture Self. I played that card a million times, but never noticed the title's a pun until someone pointed it out here on the forum.

I didn't catch it till it was said out loud.

I just realized it reading this thread...

It's certainly not a bad card; I don't know of another one-shot that heals more, except under narrow circumstances (like Aegis of Resurrection).  Bunker can regenerate but has to use his powers, AZ needs the NPCU; with all of her Equipment, it's actually rather interesting that Wraith heals herself the old-fashioned way instead of building a gadget for the purpose.

Tachyon is fast.  Legacy is fast, but not nearly as fast as Tachyon.

True, but Bolster Allies isn't about being fast.  I don't really get why Fleet of Foot draws everybody cards.  I'd be happy if Bolster Allies had a rider such as "Legacy regains 1 HP" - it would still be a somewhat weaker card, but not STRICTLY weaker.  Likewise, I'd give other such outmoded or identical cards minor variances just to make them cooler (even at the cost of slightly overcomplicating play).  For instance, Haka's Elbow Smash could add +1 damage to Crush this turn, since that would only help if you weren't using Mere or Taiaha instead; it's be a small but significant reason to not feel completely inferior when Legacy does a Back Fist Strike.

I'm actually surprised that Legacy has an extra power card (Legacy's Ring), since once he can use 2 powers, it's completely devestating to the villains (be immune to 2 damages, +1 to damage and immune to 1 damage, +1 to damage then deal 3 damage and everybody heals 1, etc).

He needs it because otherwise he could never gain the benefit of his own Galvanize power, and that would be sad.  I rather with Absolute Zero had a version of the Legacy Ring and Utility Belt in his deck, because it makes me sad not to be able to combine Thermal Shockwave and Coolant Blast.