Rogue Champions- Vision Review

Vision (Alter-Ego)

• Android.
• Recover: 3. Health: 11. Hand Size: 5
• While you are in Dense mass form, you get +2 REC.
• While you are in Intangible mass form, you get +1 hand size.
• Setup: Put your mass form upgrade into play, Intangible side faceup.
• Comments:
  • Just like on hero side, his mass form plays a major role in his function on alter-ego.
  • He can either heal faster or get the standard six cards.
  • He can not change mass forms while alter-ego, so know what you need when you flip down.

Mass Form

• Mass Form. Permanent.
• Intangible
  • Vision cannot attack or defend.
  • Reduce the amount of damage Vision takes from each attack by 2.
• Dense
  • While in hero form, Vision gets +2 ATK and +2 DEF.
  • Response: After you change to this mass form, draw 1 card.
• Comments:
  • Damage reduction of two is huge, and a completely new thing. There are a lot of minions that can not touch him as long as he is in that form. Villains often will only be doing whatever boost damage turns up.
  • The limitation of not being able to attack or defend is a very minor inconvenience (providing you are not playing solo). You don’t want to defend, when defense often only negates two damage anyways. Though, notably, you can not defend anyone else while in this form.
  • The response of getting to draw a card has an appeal for switching to Dense form. You get a card and can then unleash a devastating attack.
  • He’ll often then want to flip to Dense for a strong attack and then down to Alter-Ego form to heal.

Hero Deck

Ally

• Vivian (1)
  • Android. Champion.
  • Cost: 2. Resource: 1 Wildcard.
  • Attack: 1 Thwart: 1. Health: 2.
    • While you are in Intangible mass form, Vivian gets +2 THW.
    • While you are in Dense mass form, Vivian gets +2 ATK.
  • Comments:
    • A two cost ally that can thwart or attack for 3? Hot damn.
    • A key note is that you are always in one of your mass forms even if you’re in Alter-Ego form.

Upgrades

• Density Control (2)
  • Cost: 1. Resource: Mental.
  • Superpower.
  • Hero Response: After you change mass form, discard this card → add a Vision event from your discard pile to your hand.
  • Comments:
    • This is useful for gaining an attack card you couldn’t use while in Intangible.
• Solar Gem (1)
  • Cost: 2. Resource: 1 Wild.
  • Item.
  • Vision gains the Aerial trait.
  • Resource: Exhaust Solar Gem → generate a Wildcard resource.
  • Comments:
    • Wildcard resources are always handy to have.
    • This plays into his general flexibility as he can have the resource type he needs for different cards.
    • Aerial does not do anything special with his deck.
• Vision’s Cape (1)
  • Cost: 1. Resource: 1 Physical.
  • Item.
  • While you are in Dense mass form, you gain retaliate 1.
  • While you are in Intangible mass form, you gain stalwart.
  • Comments:
    • Stalwart is something new for heroes. Granted, while Intangible, he can’t attack so he doesn’t worry much about getting stunned. But at least he when he flips to Dense, he’ll be able to attack.
    • Retaliate is a nice boost when he’s going to be taking more damage.

Supports

• 616 Hickory Branch Lane (1)
  • Cost: 1. Resource: 1 Mental.
  • Location.
  • Alter-Ego Action: Exhaust this card → search your deck and discard pile for an Android ally and add it to your hand. (Shuffle.)
  • Comment:
    • Recycle your androids.
    • The key part of this is that you search your deck and discard. This allows you to play your android, defeat it, then get it back right away.
    • Switching to Alter-Ego just to use this can be worth it.

Events

• Just Passing Through (2)
  • Cost: 1. Resource: 1 Mental.
  • Superpower. Thwart.
  • Play only if Vision is in Intangible mass form.
  • Hero Action (thwart): Remove 3 threat from a scheme, ignoring the patrol keyword and the crisis icon
  • Comment:
    • On its own, this is a decent thwart card, three threat for one resource.
    • The ability to ignore Crisis and Patrol are situational but very powerful when those situations arise.
• Mass Increase (1)
  • Cost: 1. Resource: 1 Physical.
  • Superpower. Defense.
  • Play only if Vision is in Dense mass form.
  • Hero Interrupt (defense): When Vision defends, prevent all damage from that attack. Stun the attacking enemy after that attack resolves.
  • Comments:
    • One resource to prevent all damage and stun the enemy? Epic value.
    • There is only one of these in your deck but it’s a good candidate for the card to retrieve with Density Control.
    • If you’re playing Protection, Jocasta can help you cycle this one more often.
• Phase Disruption (1)
  • Cost: 2. Resource: 1 Energy
  • Superpower.
  • Play only if Vision is in Intangible mass form.
  • Hero Action: Confuse an enemy. Choose an attachment on that enemy with the text “Hero Action” or “Hero Response” and discard that attachment.
  • Comments:
    • How many villains have some kind of attachment that is really nasty? Often, you can remove those but have to give something up to do so. With this card, you get to pick the resources you spend and you get to confuse the enemy as well.
    • Especially good if the attachment wanted more than two resources or you must exhaust to do it.
    • Another good candidate for Density Control.
• Solar Beam (3)
  • Cost: 3. Resource: 1 Energy.
  • Superpower. Attack. Thwart.
  • Hero Action (attack): If Vision is in Dense mass form, deal 7 damage to an enemy.
  • Hero Action (thwart): If Vision is in Intangible mass form, remove 5 threat from a scheme.
  • Comments:
    • This is Vision’s big attack card and the first underwhelming card. The value you get from this card is lightyears away from the others. Three cost for seven damage isn’t bad, but most heroes have three for eight.
    • The thwart option is the worse value.
• Superdense Strike (2)
  • Cost: 2. Resource: 2 Physical.
  • Superpower. Attack.
  • Play only if Vision is in Dense mass form.
  • Hero Action (attack): Deal 5 damage to an enemy. This attack gains piercing.
  • Comments:
    • This is a much better value than Solar Beam. In addition to 2.5 damage per resource (as opposed to 2.33) you also get Pierce.
    • Pierce is only situational useful but many villains have the ability to gain tough so it will come up more than you’d think.

Nemesis Set

• Obligation: Corrupted Programming
  • Boost Icons: 2
  • Treat your mass form upgrade’s text box as if it were blank, except for keywords.
  • Alter-Ego Action: Exhaust your identity → remove Corrupted Programming from the game.
  • Comments:
    • This is following the latest trend of Obligations doing something beyond the old standard of giving the option to flip, and then exhausting to remove it. Though, this is fairly close.
    • Instead of getting to flip at the time of draw, instead you lose your Mass Form until you decide to flip to Alter-Ego and exhaust. Very similar but an important difference.
    • If you were relying on the damage mitigation of Intangible, draw your Obligation and then get attacked, you could end up in a bad situation health wise.
• Nemesis: Ultron
  • Minion. Android. Elite.
  • Attack: 2*. Scheme: 2. Health: 6.
  • Boost Icons: 2
  • Toughness
  • Forced Interrupt: When Ultron attacks you, if Ultron Drones is in play, put the top card of your deck into play facedown engaged with you as a Drone minion.
  • Comment:
    • This is an appropriate nemesis.
    • He works much like villain Ultron, potentially turning your own cards against you.
    • His wording is “if Ultron Drones is in play”, appears weird at first. When you draw Shadows of the Past, you’ll play the Side Scheme, which brings in the environment, and there is currently no way to remove an environment from play. But there are some fringe cases where a heroes nemesis minion can come into play without drawing Shadows of the Past. That makes Ultron less painful in those cases.
• Side Scheme: Ultron Unleashed
  • Threat 3
  • Boost Icons: 3
  • Acceleration Icon
  • When Revealed: Search the encounter deck, discard pile, and set-aside area for Ultron Drones and put it into play. Shuffle the encounter deck. Each player puts the top card of their deck into play facedown, engaged with them as a Drone minion.
  • Comments:
    • Ultron comes into play with friends.
• Ultron Drones (1)
  • Boost Icons: 2.
  • Environment.
  • Each facedown Drone minion engaged with a player has a base SCH of 1, base ATK of 1, and a base hit points of 1.
  • Forced Response: After a facedown Drone minion is defeated, place that card in its owner’s discard pile.
  • Comments:
    • This is essentially the same environment as you get with Ultron the villain.
    • It does nothing unless Ultron is in play but does not technically leave play once it’s played.
• Relentless Android (2)
  • Boost Icons: 2.
  • Treachery.
  • When Revealed: If Ultron Drones is in play, put the top 2 cards of your deck into play facedown, engaged with you as Drone minions. Otherwise, discard 2 random cards from your hand.
  • Comments:
    • This is an all around annoying card. In some ways, it’s less annoying when Ultron is in play. Two Ultron Drones are frustrating if they turn out to be cards you really wanted to draw, but 1/1/1 minions are easy enough to deal with.
    • When Ultron is not in play, discarding two cards from your hand can be a major deal. There’s not much you can do with a hand of three cards, especially early on before you even have any engine built.