***** Abigail Brand (Commander of S.W.O.R.D.) *****

bbigler

The best thing she can do is passive team burst healing, but Medusa does that much better while having 2 other good powers. 

I see some optimism here trying to figure out how to make her good, but I seriously doubt she will ever get played 

ThaRoadWarrior

On the contrary, I think the best thing she can do is force-fire a repeater. It's a shame that is a 1 time CD that costs that much and goes away. If she could do that passively say whenever she matches yellow or something, similar to how Flaptain or coulson work, you could use her to really push on a character with good but slow repeaters like Danver5, Ronan, Magneto, maybe Loki, Fi5k I guess, I don't know, I really think that was an under-shoot on that one that could have really been a cool niche for her to fill.

entrailbucket

ThaRoadWarrior said:

On the contrary, I think the best thing she can do is force-fire a repeater. It's a shame that is a 1 time CD that costs that much and goes away. If she could do that passively say whenever she matches yellow or something, similar to how Flaptain or coulson work, you could use her to really push on a character with good but slow repeaters like Danver5, Ronan, Magneto, maybe Loki, Fi5k I guess, I don't know, I really think that was an under-shoot on that one that could have really been a cool niche for her to fill.

Hawkeye really likes that it's on a cheap countdown vs an active power.  If Drax did decent damage he would too.

Like I said, there's probably some fun countdown tile combo teams you can make with her.  It's just that there is absolutely no reason for you to do that, because she's slow and *also* doesn't do much of any damage.

bbigler

On the contrary to that, I think her CD tile to resolve other CD / Repeaters is her worst power.  By the time it resolves, the other ones would have resolved anyway. Most CD & Repeaters are 3 turns or less, so a 2 turn CD tile is pointless. If you keep placing new CD tiles or Repeaters then it could do something, but it would be randomly chosen and this tile could be matched away too. 

 IMO: She is so slow that she’s unplayable, approaching Wasp level uselessness 

ThaRoadWarrior

That’s why I say it really could have been a cool thing if it worked in bulk, but since it’s one for one and done, it’s a missed opportunity. I think Ronan really needs somebody who can blanket force down repeaters and he would be more pick-2 playable.

entrailbucket

It's funny -- I don't think she is bland or boring.  She does a bunch of stuff that nobody else can do at the 5* level.  It's just that the stuff she does is stuff that nobody really wants to do, because there's always much better stuff you could be doing.

bbigler

If her numbers were better, she could be useful. This is how I would design her: 

Passive: Drain 1 random AP when a friendly CD or Repeater resolves (no limit!)

Passive: Team Burst healing for 3K when a CD or Repeater resolves (no limit!)

8 Purple: Deal 8K and Create 2-turn Repeater that drains 3 AP of a chosen color. 

(Fortified at Level 5)

6 Blue: Create 4 x 300 Strength Attack tiles and a 2-turn Repeater that creates 4 more
(Fortified at Level 5)

6 Yellow: Resolve 2 friendly CD and/or Repeater tiles
(Resolve 4 at Level 5)

**With this design she’s not OP by herself but could be great with the right partner, and not terrible to fight against 

Sekilicious

entrailbucket said:

It's funny -- I don't think she is bland or boring.  She does a bunch of stuff that nobody else can do at the 5* level.  It's just that the stuff she does is stuff that nobody really wants to do, because there's always much better stuff you could be doing.

It harkens back to your point about Ultron's red. It is low because it is a new power and they do not want to accidently create another Gambat, i.e. someone who dominates the meta to the point where everyone else is irrelevant. I like @bbigler example above, but can also see a scenario where her, Coulson and Hawkeye just dominate the simulator because every time she fires that cheap yellow Coulson and Hawkeye generate a million ap. This way they can see how she is used and release someone with a better modified version in the future. Besides, if every 5* was playable (read meta, most characters are playable with the right partners) we would get the opposite complaints, when people cannot keep up because the meta changes with every monthly release. 

ThaRoadWarrior

That team would get gobbled up by a hulk-oye team anywhere you used it, it doesn't do anything to prevent the enemy from doing things on defense.

Her yellow, for 5 ap, creates a 2-turn CD that will choose presumably at random from the available CDs and repeaters on the board which one it's going to drop to 0. Compare that to say Goblin King which costs 9ap and then reduces all CDs in play by 1 immediately. I'd almost say that was the superior power even though it takes about the same number of turns to take effect for just under twice the cost. Because it doesn't plop down a vulnerable CD, and it works on the entire board. I think if the power needs to be a single-target thing, it should be choosable at fire, or it should work more like Black Panther's yellow and Iceman's blue, where just collecting the yellow up past a certain point causes it to happen in the background passively rather than being active and tied to a CD.

entrailbucket

Characters like this remind me of that scene from Raiders where the swordsman does a super complicated practice routine to show off how skilled he is and challenge Indy to a swordfight, then Indy just shoots him.

While Abigail and whatever friends on her countdown/repeater team are putting countdown tiles out and watching them bounce around and burst heal and drain AP or whatever, the good characters just show up and passively kill her in one turn.

Sekilicious

Yeah I was grasping at straws there. Who knows why some characters are DoA and others are meta shifting. Who knows if Brand turns out like Cyclops or Magneto. She probably won't be Colossus, Kitty, or Carnage and turns out to be playable in spite of the derision. Maybe she will turn out like Ultron, Cyclops, Yelena, and Wasp. Part of a store containing the next meta. 

HoundofShadow

All she needs is the right synergy. Think C5rol. She was trash or probably DoA for a year or two until BRB/Polaris appears. I remember there was a thread discussing whether she or Th4nos is faster with BRB/Polaris.

So far, she doesn't have someone who can go winfinite, and the fact that she has so many colour overlaps with Coulson and 5* HE seem to suggest it was done deliberately. 

My best team for her is Wanda/Odin based on my current roster. If her healing doesn't have any cap, it could be broken. Of course, iHulkoye or SC can down her team even with those healing. We don't have a lot of cd/repeater spammers in 5* land, so her partners seem to be from 4* land.

If she has a partner that can do something similar to Anti-Venom, where healing can be converted into passive damage, then she could be even more interesting. I would like to see such ability in 5* land too.

TheRiddler

That active yellow reduces a countdown or repeater. I'm assuming its random. If that is the case there are characters that you don't want to use with that power because you want their repeater or countdown on the board.

Odin's Blue that gives healing each round and 2 levels in powers to allies

Scarlett Witch's Blue and Green are a countdown and repeater that you want on the board

Beta Ray Bill's Blue that gives protect tiles everytime he takes damage

Valkyrie's Black Bounty Hunter

Thanos Infinite Power

Gamora's Black

Archangel, Black Bolt, Black Panther, Cable, Captain America, Ghost Rider, Kingpin, Knull etc. all have repeaters/countdowns that benefit you while they are on the board and not when they expire.

Then you also have the countdowns/repeaters that work when they are matched or destroyed before they expire. That power knocking them to 0 means they do nothing.

That aside so who is her dance partner? All her powers are pretty much revolving around countdowns and repeaters being on the board. It seems kinda pointless to use her with characters that don't create countdowns or repeaters as well. That knocks out a fair amount of the characters.

At the 5* tier I'm seeing Apocalypse, Kitty, Ronan, Hawkeye and Iceman. With Kitty and Apocalypse you have much better options though even at the 4* tier.

The character looks pretty limited in PVP. I see the potential there for some other teams but its looking like alot of work to get an average payoff.

Hellblazer666

acescracked said:

Hellblazer666 said:

Never heard of Abigail Brand so this release does nothing for me

You were familiar with Big Wheel?

yes he was on the 90's Spider-man Cartoon I just re watched on D+ recently

ThaRoadWarrior

Ronan wants his CD and his repeaters to burn down as fast as possible. I think he was almost her best partner.

TheRiddler

ThaRoadWarrior said:

Ronan wants his CD and his repeaters to burn down as fast as possible. I think he was almost her best partner.

I thought the same but the more I looked at it I don't know how well it would work. Especially in a pick 2.

You have good coverage with every color except Green.

Her purple is 8 AP for 9k damage and destroys 1 AP every 2 turns. Which is funny considering the rework we just got of Phoenix for 8 AP you get 16k damage and 4 695-strength strike tiles. The purple passive here also destroys 1 AP whenever a countdown goes off but it only allows it once per turn.

Her blue is 6 AP and creates attack tiles and creates a repeater that removes enemy tiles. No passives. With Ronan you seemingly want to be firing his Blue as often as you can so kinda negates this power.

Her yellow is 5 AP and it creates a 2-turn countdown tile that takes another countdown or repeater down to 0. If this takes Ronan's black down to 0 that is pretty good. If it takes one of his blue repeaters down to 0 then all it does is create a duplicate which isn't really worth 5 AP IMO.

For me the biggest problem here is that Ronan is doing all the damage. In a PVP situation against this team all you gotta do is stun Ronan and then its over. So BRB/Polaris just has to get 7 blue AP and its match. The same with BRB/Kitty with her circuit breaking taking these tiles off the board while boosting their own protects. Wanda/Colossus eats this team up. You can run Shang-Chi with Morbius and match away the repeaters and countdowns or use Shang-Chi red and purple to match away the tiles. And with this team if those countdowns and repeaters get matched away quickly you are likely dead in the water. And even if you win you are likely taking a fair amount of damage.

In PVE I can think of some good teams. But there are a ton of good PVE teams.

bbigler

Let’s keep some things in mind: 
1. Not all characters should be great
2. Any team can be beaten
3. The 4*tier has twice as many options as 5*

So, don’t say a character or team is bad because it can be beaten. Apocalypse and Shang are easy to fight. There are usually better partners in 4* land because it’s bigger. I already said that I think she’s trash, but it’s possible that she could be useful somewhere someday. 

dianetics

ThaRoadWarrior said:

Ronan wants his CD and his repeaters to burn down as fast as possible. I think he was almost her best partner.

Ronan may be her best partner, but is she Ronan’s best partner? Probably not.
Outside of Ronan I don’t see her having much viability. If you can get his blue and her yellow off it looks like a bad day, but you will need to chase yellow to feed it.
She is not a threat on her own which is her biggest weakness. She does not punish you for not targeting her.

ThaRoadWarrior

You need his blue and then about 100 of her yellows unfortunately. This only burns down one tile. His best partner is an Original Bishop level blue generator

Bad

PASSIVE) Up to 3 times per turn, when a friendly Countdown or Repeater tile's count reaches 0, Abigail Brand's team gains a burst of 353 health. (Max level 1419 health)

A repeater never reachs 0. So my guess is that any repeater activating pulls her passives until reaching the capped limit.

Antivenom damages with karoline dean active green, however it doesn't work with GE's yellow or odin's healing, so it's a total mistery if it will work with her conditional healing. 

I think abigail could reinforce a nasty defensive deterrent with odin and a dangerous third.It should  be a team made for delaying the attacking player.
I don't see any other use for her, but it could be an effective use if it becomes popular.