*****Heimdall (The Gatekeeper) *****

ThaRoadWarrior

Shuri's top color is blue, so when you throw her in the air you'll come down with blue as well as having her cost reduction make it so that Heimdall's blue only costs 3AP. It actually works quite well as a team; I tried it with Jessica Jones also since her top color is red, and the traps will generate blue for you when you find them, but I think the silent red/yellow collection from Thor is just too much faster to make those other novel strategies meaningful. But unboosted, I'm curious if that ~60k damage nuke is going to feel as good as ~115k for your trouble...

atomzed

Vhailorx said:

He has a unique (at the 5* tier) ability set that closely matches something we have already seen be meta in the olden days.  We know that a match-5 denial character can be meta from way back in the days of Jeanbuster taking over as a hard-counter to the previously dominant imhb/if.  right now, the top end meta is fast, passive damage (ih, polaris, X-slaught, etc) combined with damage boosters (okoye, apoc, kitty, etc), so KM is kind of left out in the cold.  But if the meta swings back to tile spammers (e.g., fist buster, or to a lesser extent thorkoye) or crit-tile production (i.e., 5* versions of america/karnak), KM will be the counter move because he is brutally punishing to those types of characters.  He will need a tank, since his red frustratingly provides no damage reduction whatsoever, and a superior red damage outlet would be good too, because his red won't quite cut it against the toughest pve opponents (I would note that Heimdall could do both of those things reasonably well, but that pair would still need a battery AND stun/board control/suppression rather badly).   

Thanks for the well thought out post. 

I think that KM is a hard counter against kanark and Chavez. Their strengths are totally negated by KM passive. 

Besides the circumstances that you mentioned (meta change), I think KM could shine with partners who could create multiple critical tiles. If there’s a gladiator Hulk purple equivalent, but in the form of a passive, the opponent will be in a catch 22 situation. 

Another possibility is that a character which can negate critical damage. Like the new worthy Cap passive (which negate match 4 damage). Then there is no downside to KM red. 

Caracticus

atomzed said:

Thanks for the nice write up  I have similar opinions about Heimdall too. A good third wheel, And useful in a lot of situations. When he is essential he actually can carry the team... my fave is to fortify red tiles and drop apocalypse red to 3 ap... and watch those fist bashes

I am intrigued by your comment about KM. What makes you think that he is right at the edges? 

I was debating champing Heimdall, and ended up doing it before he left LL.  You're post is on point. I actually use him a lot now, specifically to lower Apoc red or black cost.