The Best of 2017 (or, the MPQ Oscars)

Dormammu

The holidays are here and we all know what that means - lots of retrospective looks back on the year that was. Marvel Puzzle Quest saw many changes over the year, but at the heart of it all is the characters and 2017 saw a lot of big meta-changing releases. There will probably be one or two more releases yet this year, but it can be hard to judge new characters right out of the gate (the jury is still out on ME Hulk, for example). But if you were in charge of rewarding the best of the best characters released in 2017 (so far) with a statue, who would you choose?

2017 Nominees: Carol Danvers (4-star); Riri Williams; Black Panther (5-star); Mordo; Phil Coulson; Hawkeye (3-star, 5-star); Iron Fist (4-star); Cloak & Dagger; Star-Lord (3-star, 5-star); Rocket & Groot (4-star); Gamora (4-star); Doctor Octopus (5-star); Sandman, Spider-Man (5-star Red Suit); Vulture; Mockingbird; Yondu; Rogue; Thor (5-star); Nightcrawler; Lockjaw; Gambit (3-star, 5-star); Daredevil (5-star); Hulk (4-star Main Event); Electra (3-star)

Award Categories
Best Visual Effects Ability Animations
Best Costume Design Character Artwork
Best Actor in a Supporting Role New Male Support Character
Best Actress in a Supporting Role New Female Support Character
Best Actor in a Leading Role New Male Lead Character
Best Actress in a Leading Role New Female Lead Character

Other (optional) Categories
Best Film Editing Character Re-balance
Best Original Screenplay New Story Event

Straycat

Best Animations - Lockjaw   Little unfair advantage that he gets 6 additional character appearances
Best Artwork - Cloak and Dagger
Best Male support - 3* Hawkeye - Love his purple and blue gen, and I'm not counting Gambat as a character
Best Female support - Mockingbird - Free powers!
Best Male lead - Vulture
Best Female lead - Carol
Best Rebalance - Riri

Addaran

I only tested a few of them, during loaner missions/PvP.

Best Character Artwork goes hand down to Mockingbird though! Love both of her look (mission and beach-wear). Her face is really pretty, she doesn't have the weird snarl that some other female characters got...

RTA3000

echo a lot of Straycat's comments:

Best Artwork - Cloak and Dagger 
Best Male support - Coulson - Just gives and gives, and with Carol, the two are the definitive backup!
Best Female support - Carol - the ultimate support character.
Best Male lead - Vulture - introduced a different level of strategy
Best Female lead - Gamor4 - One of my first 4* champs and she's been solid, with or without 4Grocket
Best Rebalance - Riri - definitely brought her into the game more for me

fight4thedream

Best Ability Animations - Doctor Octopus 
Best Character Artwork - Nightcrawler
Best Male Support Character - Vulture
Best Female Support Character - Mockingbird
Best Male Lead - Doctor Octopus
Best Female Lead - Captain Marvel 

Best Boss: Apocalypse
Best Character Re-Balance: 3* Spider-man (although his yellow should probably get a new animation)
Best Story Event: Webbed Wonder 

Dormammu

Here are my picks...

Best Ability Animations: Rocket & (Baby) Groot
Yes, their green power makes incredibly annoying matches, getting rid of my own special tiles and disrupting other potentially good matches. And yes, more often than not that dang bomb blows up in my face. But I can't help using it. Watching Baby Groot run around mischievously on my phone's screen is worth the headache.

Best Character Artwork: Rogue
Nailed it! She's beautiful and powerful looking with a classic look. Love her hair, love her poses, love her costume, and the cover selection is perfectly apt. I had been waiting since launch for my favorite X-Man to show up and Rogue's release did not disappoint.

Best New Male Support Character: Phil Coulson
When Phil was announced I said, "Really? Phil Coulson? This is the guy we need in Marvel Puzzle Quest?" (Remember, this was before Rogue, Nightcrawler, and Gambit). I wasn't at all excited for him. But never judge a book by it's cover, I learned, as Coulson turned out to be a a key guy on a lot of teams. His synergy with Carol alone is worth the price of admission.

Best New Female Support Character: Cloak & Dagger
Ok, so technically these two are eligible for both genders, but I put them here because they needed a trophy. They're never going to do enough damage by themselves to front a team, but for any black/yellow user they're invaluable support as an AP accelerator. My #1 wave node team lately is Carol/Coulson/C&D.

Best New Male Lead Character: Spider-Man (5-star Red Suit)
To me, Spider-Man is Marvel comics. His 1-star is fine but quickly obsolete. His 2-star is a (literal) joke. His 3-star was pathetic pre-rebalance, his 4-star is someone else, and his 5-star (black suit) looks great but plays somewhere beneath great. It was important to get a Spider-Man into the game that is fun, effective, and classic. Mine is only 1/3/3 but I at least have an idea what he plays like - and I love it.

Best New Female Lead Character: Riri Williams
I use Riri more than any of my other characters. She so fun, so versatile, and so effective. She does so many things - she's a self battery, she can rearrange the board, she can do large quantities of damage, and she can incapacitate an enemy for a couple of turns. She's always a good choice to bring into battle, but when she's boosted she's an absolute terror that can dismantle entire teams of foes in short order.

Best Character Re-balance: Riri Williams
My first double-trophy winner! The developers re-balanced Riri not long after her release and improved her from a mid-to-lower tier character into one of the top 4-stars in the game.

Best New Story Event: Apocalypse
Yeah, that was fun. I liked the Four Horseman mechanic and I liked that Apocalypse was a total badass without being too impossible to bring down. It got a little dicey towards the end, and Teen Jean was almost required, but a great event overall.

BumpoTheClown

I'd like to nominate 2* Hawkeye for a Lifetime Special Achievement Award in the field of Most Confusing Add Level Icon.

Dormammu

aesthetocyst said:

Nice thread idea, could be a great annual feature.

Where are the nominees for ...

Other (optional) Categories
Best Character Re-balance
Best New Story Event

I couldn't find a list online  If there's a list somewhere of all the rebalances and new events that someone can point me to, I'd be happy to edit my original post.

As for being an annual feature, it is!

TPF Alexis

fight4thedream said:

Best Character Re-Balance: 3* Spider-man (although his yellow should probably get a new animation)

They could at least just re-use the animation from the 1* Spidey's red.

BlackBoltRocks

@Dormammu I think you forgot 3* Elektra haha.

2017 Nominees: Carol Danvers (4-star); Riri Williams; Black Panther (5-star); Mordo; Phil Coulson; Hawkeye (3-star, 5-star); Iron Fist (4-star); Cloak & Dagger; Star-Lord (3-star, 5-star); Rocket & Groot (4-star); Gamora (4-star); Doctor Octopus (5-star); Sandman, Spider-Man (5-star Red Suit); Vulture; Mockingbird; Yondu; Rogue; Thor (5-star); Nightcrawler; Lockjaw; Gambit (3-star, 5-star); Daredevil (5-star); Hulk (4-star Main Event)

Award Categories
Best Ability Animations: The first category, and I'm already having trouble lol. I decided to go for Carol Danvers; her initial Photonic Barrage animation gives you that sense of anticipation when she soars upwards, and the animation when her countdown resolves makes me go PEW PEW everytime, even more so than Nova.

Best Character Artwork: Black Panther for me. I absolutely love the suit they gave to Chadwick Boseman, and am absolutely stoked for his movie in February. Plus I love his swiping motion when he returns from being Stunned/Invisible. Classic Gambit comes a close second.

Best New Male Support Character: I'm very tempted to go with 0/0/5 Gambit. But in the interest of fairness, I'll go with Phil Coulson. 5Hawkeye pushes him all the way.

Best New Female Support Character: Gamora. While the big hitters are punching holes in opponents, Gamora's running around stunning people, chipping away at them, and providing special tiles. Oh wait, every purple tile is your special tile? Here's Gamora to down you!

Best New Male Lead Character: Gambit Peter Parker. Anyone who can chuckle in the face of Black Bolt and Thanos deserves an accolade.

Best New Female Lead Character: Toss-up between Carol and Riri. Both are right at the top of the 4* metagame. Someone flip a coin.

Other (optional) Categories
Best Character Re-balance: Has to be Riri. She went from being an extremely niche character with laughable health and one good ability, to a top-notch 4*.

Best New Story Event: all the Boss events this year. Because I joined a new Alliance, and we hit maximum progression in every single event

BigRussian

Can you call them the Matchy's or something, haha?

Dormammu

BlackBoltRocks said:

@Dormammu I think you forgot 3* Elektra haha.

I DID forget Electra! Thank you - added her with an edit. Great post.

DAZ0273

Best Ability Animations  - Gotta love Baby Groot!
Best Character Artwork   -  Cloak & Dagger are spot on.
Best New Male Support Character  -  Son of Coul
Best New Female Support Character - Gamora for that stun
Best New Male Lead Character - Iron Fist - yeah probably not a popular choice but his green is nice and his black feels like it hits hard like uhm, something iron-y.
Best New Female Lead Character - She could easily be a support character too but it has to be C4rol.

Other (optional) Categories
Best Character Re-balance - 3* Spidey gets some damage and it is good damage!
Best New Story Event  - Apocalypse reigns over the weak with some nice puzzley aspects.

NMANOZ

Best New Male Support Character - 3 star Gambit
Best New Male Lead Character - 5 star Gambit

Jaedenkaal

Best Ability Animations - Yondu

Best Character Artwork - Lockjaw
Best New Male Support Character - Vulture
Best New Female Support Character - Mockingbird
Best New Male Lead Character - 5* Daredevil
Best New Female Lead Character - Carol
Best Character Re-balance - Riri
Best New Story Event - Apocalypse