Broken and Done

Ah, the sweet smell of success. Or is it the volcano?

So, I have beaten Sentinels of the Multiverse... for now. There will no doubt be new challenges when they start expanding the game, as well as new heroes to try out on the existing villains. In addition to beating all four villains, I have - with a little help from the internet  - unlocked the six variant cards: Mad Bomber Baron Blade, Cosmic Omnitron, America's Newest Legacy, GI Bunker, Super Scientist Tachyon and Rook City Wraith.

At this stage, therefore, it feels appropriate to give my more matured thoughts on the game.

First up, it is clear that not all villains are created equal. Baron Blade is pretty straightforward and his Mad Bomber variant is... Well, he's either a doddle or a nightmare depending on how fast he gets his bomb power charged. There is a chance that he could utterly demolish you in a few turns. With either version it pays to hit him fast, and a team of hitters - including Legacy for his Galvanize damage boost and Nemesis advantage - is useful.

Citizen Dawn calls for a specific approach, and is perhaps the only villain for whom it is worth just taking hitters - Fanatic, Ra, America's Newest Legacy and Haka all have straight-up damage powers, and that's what you want against Dawn. Sure, boosts are nice, but she has a tendency to wipe out your ongoing and equipment cards that makes buffers (Legacy) and gadgeteers (Wraith, Absolute Zero) problematic. Tempest also does damage, but he hits all non-heroes more often than not, which means that there is a risk of taking down more citizens than you mean to, and that's a problem as it causes Dawn to flip to her solar avatar side, which renders her invulnerable, and with Dawn it's basically a race until she gets one of her Return with the Dawn cards out with a trash full of enough citizens to properly fuck your shit right up.

Omnitron also regularly draws cards out of the trash, but in smallish numbers. It's worth keeping its force small, although keeping some components in play for Cosmic Omnitron can be helpful. Deck controllers are useful, especially if the Wraith can keep it from ever using the goddamn Sedative Flechettes*. Varied damage types are handy here, so taking Wraith and Tempest is a mistake and Wrait will rarely get to use two attacks per turn without one being blocked by Adaptive Plating Subroutine.

Finally, there's Grand Warlord Voss. Again, crowd control on his minions is key - you want to limit him to one so he doesn't flip - although GI Bunker's Panzerbuster power bypasses his vast damage resistance, making it worth a direct assault. The need to limit the numbers of minions, however, makes it worthwhile to go for spread damage and deck control; Tempest - also a nemesis - and Tachyon are useful here. Ra's ability to convert damage types can also be handy if you need to hit his spaceships, which are unpunchable.

Bring on the expansions (and the multiplayer.)

* There is a small sub-group of cards that I truly hate, like Sedative Flechettes, Return with the Dawn or fucking Technological Singularity, which might as well be called the Wraith-Killer.