Hypothetical - what would this skill cost? And what color?

Phaserhawk

The other option I could see is 10-12 AP of whatever color, lets put the skill on Ultron. The ability says

Concussive Blast----10
Ultron powers up his offensive and defensive powers and prepares to fight all he blasts a target for 150 damage and his adamantium and force fields create 2 random protect tiles strength 11
Lvl 2---225 damage
Lvl 3--300 damage
Lvl 4--375 damage
Lvl 5--450 damage and protect tile strength to 25
Max damage 3000 max protect tile 50

Unrelenting---12

Ultron cannot be stopped. If you are above 90% max health, Ultron destroy's himself to destroy target and create a random CD tile, if tile resolves, Ultron reforms his body to 50% Health.

Lvl 2---Above 80% Health
Lvl 3---CD tile 5
Lvl 4---Above 70% Health
Lvl 5---Above 60% Health and CD tile countdown goes to 4

Nanities - Yellow Passive
(PASSIVE) Ultron's nanoties mends major injury and sustains his assault. If Ultron and his team makes a Yellow match, the Nanities activate reaparing Ultron for 59 Health.
Level 2: Repairs 62 health.
Level 3: Repairs 65 health.
Level 4: Repairs 68 health.
Level 5: Repairs 72 health.
Max Level: Repairs 562 health.

This is how you would be able to do it, you would have to probably give up your own life to kill.

Unknown

I would say 15 is a good number.

With 14 red, HT and Patch can execute pretty much anyone.

To kill someone under 40%, it costs 8 red for Punisher.

It is only one character, so it wouldn't be devastating for it to be 5 matches.

As for color, I think it would need to be one of the high demand colors. Most likely red . Red seems to be the single target burst color. Human Torch, Patch, Punisher, Captain America, Daredevil (however bad it is), Hulk (however bad it is), IM40, Deadpool.

The only question is who would they give that ability to? Thanos?

Budget Player Cadet wrote:

Lerysh wrote:

Replace "Downs Enemy Charcater" with "Does 10200 Damage" and have it cost 14 Red. Basically a less math, more reliable The Best There Is.

But that misses the point. (Even if it didn't, your math is off - Hulk has more than 10k life). But right now, in PvE, I have a Juggernaut at level 150, and he's already above 12k health. That's the point of this skill - a big fat "tinykitty you buffed PvE characters". Not only that, but it also completely ignores shield tiles. That's the idea here - an uncompromising, "you're losing a character now" skill. And I kinda like black for it, now that I think about it.

From a game balance standpoint, I couldn't see them putting an ability that powerful on black. Right now there are only 2 black abilities worth using; Xforce, who only super veteran players and whales have leveled, and Black Panther.

That color is way too open for them to put such a strong ability onto.

I think green and red are the only possibilities at this point. Maybe in the future, once they start churning out better color diversity, they can change it to black. But right now it would just create the same "if you want to win, buy and max this character" mentality.

Unknown

If they made it 12 AP, you could 6AP boost. 2 matches (or a minor cascade) and you've taken out their top hitter instantly.

If you add any sort of drawback, a countdown timer, self-damage, anything, the cost could be much less.

Unknown

Wait, BP and XForce have the only good black powers? What about:
- Hailstorm (significant board disruption, quite a lot of damage for 9AP)
- Summon Demons (It's 1.2k in attack tiles. That's nothing to scoff at.)
- Inferno (It's 1.2k in attack tiles even cheaper. Again, nothing to scoff at.)
- Psi-Katana (2 matches for 1.2k damage and a fairly meaty attack tiles? And remember how well just single attack tiles play with strike tiles!)
- Molotov Cocktail (it's easy to forget that this is like 2.4k damage for 7AP, plus a bunch of attack tiles)
- Hypersonic Punch (3k damage and stun? Yes please!)

And then there's Fastball Special, which while pricy can still be great if you toss someone like LCap or Patch, and Intimidation, which is probably the most-used black skill in the meta right now, due to its prominence in sentry bombing. Black is most emphatically not a wide-open color. Sure, the list of straight-up "bomb" skills like ROTP is fairly short, but Personally, I'd say in order of openness for 3*s, you'd have purple-blue-yellow-black-green-red. Purple is the obvious loser - there is probably two really good purple skills (if you count Fury), another mediocre handful, and then you're done. Blue has plenty of skills, but most of them are just garbage like Bewilder, Defense Grid, Settlement, and Ballistic Salvo. Yellow has a handful of truly great skills (Thunder Strike, Recharge, Sacrifice) but most of the rest are forgettable. Red and Green are, of course, your bread and butter skills.

Unknown

Budget Player Cadet wrote:

Wait, BP and XForce have the only good black powers? What about:
- Hailstorm (significant board disruption, quite a lot of damage for 9AP)
- Summon Demons (It's 1.2k in attack tiles. That's nothing to scoff at.)
- Inferno (It's 1.2k in attack tiles even cheaper. Again, nothing to scoff at.)
- Psi-Katana (2 matches for 1.2k damage and a fairly meaty attack tiles? And remember how well just single attack tiles play with strike tiles!)
- Molotov Cocktail (it's easy to forget that this is like 2.4k damage for 7AP, plus a bunch of attack tiles)
- Hypersonic Punch (3k damage and stun? Yes please!)

And then there's Fastball Special, which while pricy can still be great if you toss someone like LCap or Patch, and Intimidation, which is probably the most-used black skill in the meta right now, due to its prominence in sentry bombing. Black is most emphatically not a wide-open color. Sure, the list of straight-up "bomb" skills like ROTP is fairly short, but Personally, I'd say in order of openness for 3*s, you'd have purple-blue-yellow-black-green-red. Purple is the obvious loser - there is probably two really good purple skills (if you count Fury), another mediocre handful, and then you're done. Blue has plenty of skills, but most of them are just garbage like Bewilder, Defense Grid, Settlement, and Ballistic Salvo. Yellow has a handful of truly great skills (Thunder Strike, Recharge, Sacrifice) but most of the rest are forgettable. Red and Green are, of course, your bread and butter skills.

When you think "best abilities in the game" does even a single one of those abilities come to mind?

Because they definitely don't for me.

You're correct in saying that Red and Green are bread and butter skills.

That's why this bread and butter ability belongs in that group.

Unknown

So we call the ability "snuff out" Its black and cost 1 black mana and 3 generic - er I mean 14 Black AP or sacrifice one of your own characters to play.
Instant kill to target creature - er I mean character.
We could also have "Dark Banishing" a cheaper alternative at 10ap but only destroys nonblack creature - er I mean non villain character.

P.S. please note that any similarities between these powers and those of collectable card games are purely coincidental and not bound by any form of copywright infringement or plagiarism.

Unknown

Phaserhawk wrote:

The other option I could see is 10-12 AP of whatever color, lets put the skill on Ultron. The ability says

Concussive Blast----10
Ultron powers up his offensive and defensive powers and prepares to fight all he blasts a target for 150 damage and his adamantium and force fields create 2 random protect tiles strength 11
Lvl 2---225 damage
Lvl 3--300 damage
Lvl 4--375 damage
Lvl 5--450 damage and protect tile strength to 25
Max damage 3000 max protect tile 50

Unrelenting---12

Ultron cannot be stopped. If you are above 90% max health, Ultron destroy's himself to destroy target and create a random CD tile, if tile resolves, Ultron reforms his body to 50% Health.

Lvl 2---Above 80% Health
Lvl 3---CD tile 5
Lvl 4---Above 70% Health
Lvl 5---Above 60% Health and CD tile countdown goes to 4

Nanities - Yellow Passive
(PASSIVE) Ultron's nanoties mends major injury and sustains his assault. If Ultron and his team makes a Yellow match, the Nanities activate reaparing Ultron for 59 Health.
Level 2: Repairs 62 health.
Level 3: Repairs 65 health.
Level 4: Repairs 68 health.
Level 5: Repairs 72 health.
Max Level: Repairs 562 health.

This is how you would be able to do it, you would have to probably give up your own life to kill.

I like this because you would not want to use the kill shot as a finishing move as there is no time for him to put himself back together you would want to use it early and try to take someone out quickly.

Also how on earth could we ever call a one hit kill ability "bread and butter" no, just no. Dealing huge amounts of damage is red, straight up killing someone is black.

Unknown

Oooh, new idea.

Blue skill - Deep Freeze
15 AP Target is frozen in place and stunned for 4 turns, additionally place a 4 turn countdown timer on the board. If the countdown goes off frozen (stunned) target is shattered (downed)

HailMary

Cryptobrancus wrote:

Oooh, new idea.

Blue skill - Deep Freeze
15 AP Target is frozen in place and stunned for 4 turns, additionally place a 4 turn countdown timer on the board. If the countdown goes off frozen (stunned) target is shattered (downed)

Since I don't have a clear picture of CD proc timing in my head, are you basically saying "if the CD survives till proc without extension (e.g. Antigrav, tile-lock, user-stun), then instakill"? Or, are you saying "if the stun could be extended at least 1 turn, or the CD could be accelerated at least 1 turn, and the CD procs, then instakill"?

Unknown

Hmm, I was not accounting for CD manipulation. I was saying stun for 4 turns. also CD time for 4 turns independent of the stun that would "shatter" the stunned person if it goes off. Maybe because of CD manipulation there needs to be a rule that the target must still be stunned to be shattered. Still would have awkward loopholes and be inelegant to implement.

Maybe make it a coup de grace style ability that normally does damage but also can do extra damage/instakill stunned opponents with enough covers. But put it on a character that has no stunning abilities and the stock value of Spiderman will rise dramatically.

Another wacky idea for an ability.

Gambit, Draw a Card. Purple 12 AP
Removes one random special tile from the board (enemy or ally) and does effect based on the type removed.
Strike tile : Damage target
Attack Tile : AOE damage
Defense tile : Team healing
If there is one of each Strike, attack, defense, and crit tiles on the board throw the whole deck and down target opponent.

Unknown

I got one that I posted a while ago but it had gotten lost:

Steal Ability 15 Purple:
Rogue kisses her opponent draining their power and stunning them for a time. Places a countdown tile on the board, while this tile is active Steal Ability becomes a random power of the victim, useable with the correct color AP, if the tile is matched Steal Ability returns to play.
Level 1: stunned for 2 rounds, places a 4 turn countdown.
Level 2: stunned for 3 rounds, places a 6 turn countdown.
Level 3: stunned for 4 rounds, places a 8 turn countdown.
Level 4: stunned for 5 rounds, places a 10 turn countdown.
Level 5: + 5 AP Oops Rogue stoll too much and now has the power permently, the opponent is stunned for the remainder of the match.

Obviously it would be for Rogue, I got the idea from 's Fastball special. Simulates her power pretty well.

Unknown

Cryptobrancus wrote:

Oooh, new idea.

Blue skill - Deep Freeze
15 AP Target is frozen in place and stunned for 4 turns, additionally place a 4 turn countdown timer on the board. If the countdown goes off frozen (stunned) target is shattered (downed)

This makes it an automatic finisher if your opponent is down to one enemy. Not sure if that's what you intended?

Unknown

You are assuming I thought it through farther than concept phase

Unknown

Budget Player Cadet wrote:

Lerysh wrote:

Replace "Downs Enemy Charcater" with "Does 10200 Damage" and have it cost 14 Red. Basically a less math, more reliable The Best There Is.

But that misses the point. (Even if it didn't, your math is off - Hulk has more than 10k life). But right now, in PvE, I have a Juggernaut at level 150, and he's already above 12k health. That's the point of this skill - a big fat "tinykitty you buffed PvE characters". Not only that, but it also completely ignores shield tiles. That's the idea here - an uncompromising, "you're losing a character now" skill. And I kinda like black for it, now that I think about it.

Ok, but if it's literally for giant slaying in PvE it needs to be priced accordingly. Bullseye can do 10,000 damage for 16 black under very limited circumstances. If you want a skill that 100% kills someone even if they have 20k+ health, I'm thinking 18 or maybe even 20 black AP is balanced. This skill then gets priced out of PvP use tho.

Another thing to think about that's been mentioned, how would you scale it with level? Just reduced AP cost maybe? Or start at 50% damage (no boundry like Deadpool) and scale up to 100% at 5 covers?