Character Rebalances - M.O.D.O.K., Nebula, Silver Surfer

IceIX

New month, new batch of rebalances! This time we're going in for a 5-Star that has gotten a little attention in the past, but still needed a bit more love, along with two of our 4-Stars that were sitting at the bottom of the used rankings. They deserve better, and we'll give it to them! Nebula, M.O.D.O.K., and Silver Surfer, come on down!

These buffs will be coming very soon (as early as 10/27!) So let's get right in to it.

M.O.D.O.K.
Doomsday Plan - CD timer reduced from 8 to 6 turns
The ability is fine in concept and decent in execution, except that it requires too much wind-up and set up to get to actually use. The CD tile does a decent amount of damage, but is only really usable with other characters of low AP powers that ALSO don’t cause board shake that would then blow up the CD tile in the process. By changing this to 6 turns, it makes it into an ability that creates a decently strong 3 turn tile with one extra ability use, or an instantly damaging strong hit for characters that have low AP abilities.

Afterburner - Damage increased by ~100%
In the words of M.O.D.O.K.: Works fine, fire's not hot enough. Let's increase the temperature, and thus, the damage, by approximately 100%. Should suffice till the next round of testing.

A Hammer For Every Nail - No change
This ability works fine when it has the chance to move through its phases. With the increased damage from Doomsday Plan and Afterburner, this turns into a reasonable damage alternative instead of pretty much his only damaging ability.

Nebula
Warped Enhancements - AP cost 9->6, increased healing by ~100%
This ability has the same exact problem that Wolverine’s Recovery had before its recent buff. It’s a decent heal at all levels, but it never happens since it’s just too darned expensive. This makes the heal even more effective and turns her into a decent enough damage sponge at the cost of some Blue AP.

Galactic Rage - Increased all damage by ~50%
In theory, this ability is very powerful when it’s able to be used at max effectiveness, which is what it was balanced against. However, this just doesn’t really happen in practice. Getting 10 Special tiles out there and having 10 Green AP ready to make use of isn’t something that occurs unless you’re specifically setting up for this, in which time you could have done something more impactful. As a result, we've rebalanced around a midpoint, where 5 tiles seems more reasonable, resulting in a ~50% across the board damage increase!

Grim Efficiency - Increased base damage by ~100%
The obvious idea here is that the player is supposed to have 9-12 Green AP when this is used so that it immediately rolls into a usage of Galactic Rage with 6-8 Strike tiles on the board in order to use the latter move at a reasonable amount of damage. Which, in a slower, more deliberate world makes sense, but in anything even approaching the speed meta we have now means that you’d be waiting an absolute minimum of 7 turns of near perfect Red and Green matches to use this combo. Which we all know won’t happen because the matches simply won’t be there. So we've rebalanced the ability around being used more on its own, with the Strike tiles being a bonus that still synergizes with Galactic Rage.

Silver Surfer
General - Match damage and health increased equivalent to current levels.

Perfect Being - AP cost 9->6, healing increased to remain equivalent to new health
The charged tile generation at the new cost is pretty effective, although not on the level of the Mighty Doctor Thor. Meanwhile, with the reduced cost (as well as his increased health), his healing has essentially increased by staying the same percentage-wise to his health, while costing 33% less AP.

Cosmic Beam - Increased damage by ~75%
This puts the ability on par with more current character's nukes, making for a simple ability that does what it says on the tin: Beams the enemy with the Power Cosmic.

Silver Singularity - Now downs the enemy on expiry, ignoring revival effects
This ability now acts like what it is, a black hole created by the Power Cosmic. There is no escape. No avoidance. No revival (at least until the next comics run). When it goes off, the opponent is just.... gone.