**** Blade (Modern) ****

Jesus Jones

Anon said:

Using Blade with 4Clops is really fun. Scott generates Red without matching red so Blade can put down strikes. When Bloodlust starts pumping you can easily continue feeding him red ap. Once there's one enemy left, just use Scott's red to clean up. Actives on 5 colors as well. Great synergy.

I use this combo as well, and for my 3rd I flip between DrDoom (Blue makes Black) and 3Fist (Purple makes Black)

zodiac339

Skrofa said:

The only thing I would change about his black is sort of invert the condition for creating red tiles.
As it stands, you need to have red AP to generate red tiles. What if the clause was "if below number of red AP, generate number of red tiles"?
I feel that this might be a bit more useful...

What I was thinking was:
Supernatural Sense, 7 Black. Destroy 4 AP in enemy's strongest color. This power's cost goes up by 1 for each 2 red AP you have (max cost 11), if you have at least 7 red AP, then does the convert tiles to red thing.

Elric_VIII

Just got Bl4de champed! Wooo, that makes 6 (4 if you count XFW and Fury )

And, just as I said while I was building him, his black needs to change. Right now it helps you win more if you've already got Bloodlust online and is an overcosted Shehulk's "Furious Charge" the rest of the time. Really, just some minor tweaks would make is usable as more than a last resort before a nuke comes. 

Here's an idea, lower the AP cost to 7-9 (3 matches) and make the conditional part something like "If there are less than 7 red tiles on the board, create X red tiles." This lets Bl4de recover from a red-deficient board, but doesn't give him insane cascades/AP generation if the board already has red.

Vhailorx

Congrats, 4* blade is a beast.  

A fix for his black would be nice, but it seems very unlikely given his current place in the meta.  In the mean time just ignore it.  Focus on red production.

Elric_VIII

Vhailorx said:

Congrats, 4* blade is a beast.  

A fix for his black would be nice, but it seems very unlikely given his current place in the meta.  In the mean time just ignore it.  Focus on red production.

Yeah, right now I'm running him with IMHB to get as much red as I can, then finish with Repulsor Punch when I'm back down to 9. I'm only covering 4 colors, but the combo of an active and passive red with a 2 battery skills keeps me chugging along in most fights.

Yepyep

I think his black is an excuse to put three covers into a color. A lot of the powerful characters have 2 strong and 1 much weaker color to make distributing 13 points easier. I find this helpful. Characters like Medusa I find challenging because I'm frequently unable to decide which color(s) to shortchange!

Crowl

Tiger Wong said:

It's fine. Why do you guys want it to be OP so badly?

People don't want it to be overpowered, merely readily usable when you have the ap and not just on a rare occasion, that doesn't seem unreasonable from a 4* power that is fairly expensive as it is.

Tiger_Wong

Just use it when you need it. It's not that hard. The power is fine. 

Elric_VIII

Tiger Wong said:

Just use it when you need it. It's not that hard. The power is fine. 

This is really a useless statement. The issue is you pretty much don't need it when its condition is fulfilled. It's a power that really only works when you're already winning. Minor AP drain is not worth 11 AP, so you use it when you already have red to get more red. It's a backwards version of 3*IF AP generation with an overly high cost. Rare are the times when that extra few red does more than save me a few rounds. 

Tiger_Wong

Not rare enough imo. I have no problem holding on to the power until I need it. Also, I'm not always gonna get straight to 9 red/Bloodlust. There have been quite a few times where I match 4 red, match 3 red, and then am stuck for a number of turns looking around for another red match. And then, I can't get even get any strike tiles on the field because there aren't enough. His black power handles that AND depletes the opponents strongest color. Stop comparing it to other powers. Does any other character have a red that not only puts VERY STRONG strike tiles RANDOMLY on the field so you don't steal from yourself, along with becoming a VERY STRONG every turn attack that the opponent can't stop or turn invisible against or match/destroy/remove your tile from?

look at it this way...... if the power really was as "useless" and some people are saying and didn't exist. There would be WAY MORE times you would be totally screwed with a character doing nothing but sitting there at 7/8 AP. 

Elric_VIII

Tiger Wong said:

Not rare enough imo. I have no problem holding on to the power until I need it. Also, I'm not always gonna get straight to 9 red/Bloodlust. There have been quite a few times where I match 4 red, match 3 red, and then am stuck for a number of turns looking around for another red match. And then, I can't get even get any strike tiles on the field because there aren't enough. His black power handles that AND depletes the opponents strongest color. Stop comparing it to other powers. Does any other character have a red that not only puts VERY STRONG strike tiles RANDOMLY on the field so you don't steal from yourself, along with becoming a VERY STRONG every turn attack that the opponent can't stop or turn invisible against or match/destroy/remove your tile from?

look at it this way...... if the power really was as "useless" and some people are saying and didn't exist. There would be WAY MORE times you would be totally screwed with a character doing nothing but sitting there at 7/8 AP. 

It's completely reasonable to compare it to other powers in both effect and AP costs of vs. those of similar star level. The circumstance you set up is very specific (therefore not very common). A match 3 and a match 4 of red, less than 10 red tiles, no other red matches, and 11 black AP while also not being within a round or 2 of winning. "Useless" may have been an exaggeration, but there is definitely a disconnect in the relationship between its viability, its cost, and its synergy with the rest of the kit.

So I think one of those things needs to change. Powers that you only want to use in very specific circumstances should not be so costly. Additionally, since I think you are implying it, if his other 2 powers are strong enough that he needs a largely unhelpful power, then balance his other powers. Maybe make this always generate AP but make Bloodlust eat 2 red. 

Just as an example, look at Bagman: His powers are actually pretty good as support in the 2* tier if you just look at the effects. What makes him bad is the excessive AP costs. If, for some reason, you wanted to make Bagman a realistically playable character you could either scale up the effects or scale down the AP costs.

Or, the original IM40: His power costs were so high for such little effect to offset his AP generation ability. This made him bad, people would build him as 5/5/2 just to use him as a battery for better powers (level 3+ of his yellow increased the AP cost each rank). That type of balancing only served to make him one-dimensional. Now his powers are scaled up to match their cost and he's a decent character in 3* land. He's still used as a battery in 4* rosters, but that comes with its own set of balancing concerns.

My preference for this would be a reduction in AP cost to match with its functionality. Make it cost 7 AP for the same effect and you've got something that requires 3 matches for the first use, and only 2 more for the next 2 uses. This makes it comparable with a bunch of 3* powers that generate AP like Iron Fist of K'un-Lun or Mutant Revolutionary. It doesn't need to be stronger than those lower rank powers since the rest of his kit is very good.

Tiger_Wong

Tl:dr

youre whining to make it OP. It doesn't need to be. It's fine. 

Elric_VIII

Tiger Wong said:

Tl:dr

youre whining to make it OP. It doesn't need to be. It's fine. 

For a second there I thought I'd get a reasoned argument. Silly me. Well, have fun being smug.