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Re: The Book of Abra Kadabra (public playtesting)
C3G STANDARD PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM
NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: Abra Kadabra @150 points
Army Test
Map: Custom
Units: Abra Kadabra, Donatello, Hand Mystics, Hand Ninja x3 (700) vs Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Iron Man (Mk IV) (700)
Spoiler Alert!
Abra ended up duking it out with Luke Cage here. He was able to use his Techno-Magic to score a couple wounds on Luke at once (Luke only came up with 1 shield, but 64CTM subtracted it away so that Luke was hit with both skulls Abra rolled), but then the Hand started focusing on moving up some of their other guys to control the map better, and Abra got hung out to dry. Faux Magical Defense did help his durability quite a bit though, and let him hang with Luke for a while. Before he could get back in the fight for real, an initiative switch doomed him and he went down.
The Hand were able to bring Luke down early thanks to the headstart Abra gave them, though, and kill an OM with him, so that was nice.
Donatello and the Hand went on a little tear, with Donny throwing Iron Fist into a killbox of Ninja who all started slinging 3-4 skulls and made short work of him. The Mystics made the call to resurrect him and almost immediately regretted it as Iron Man wiped out two of the Mystics on the very next OM.
Fortunately for the Hand, Donny made another key Anti-Grav roll to chuck Iron Man into the killbox. The Ninja didn't have quite as good luck against him, but they didn't really need to kill him quick, just keep him away from the last surviving Mystic. Iron Man took down a couple, but they eventually got the better of him.
Unit Summary: - Damage Done (Normal Attack): 2 wounds to Luke Cage in 1 attack
- Smoke and Mirrors: not used
- 64th Century Techno-Magic: gave an extra die to Luke Cage and subtracted 1 shield from his defense 1 time.
- Damage Taken/FMD: 0 wounds from Iron Man in 1 repulsor attack, 1 wound from Iron Fist in 1 attack, 3 wounds from Luke Cage in 3 attacks (destroyed)
Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): 6 Ninja, 1 Mystic, Donatello unwounded, brainwashed Iron Fist unwounded
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Army Test
Map: Custom
Units: Abra Kadabra, Captain Cold, Girder, The Top (615) vs Strong Guy, Spider-Girl, Wild Child, Armor (615)
Spoiler Alert!
The Mutants tore up Captain Cold and The Top here, which put a real cramp on the Rogues' style. Abra Kadabra and Girder rallied a bit, but didn't quite have the efficiency to win the day.
The Rogues did manage to get their bonding going one time: Captain Cold wounded Strong Guy, then activated Abra, who used Smoke and Mirrors to switch places with him, spiriting Captain Cold away from the front line and going after Strong Guy himself. This seemed pretty slick, but then Abra failed to wound Strong Guy and the Mutants' next OM was on Spider-Girl, who swung right over Abra and took out Cold. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Best laid plans.
Anyhow, after the Mutants took out Cold (and Top fell shortly afterward), Abra managed to take out Armor with an assist from 64th CTM, and held the line for a bit while Girder moved up. When Abra went down, it was Girder's turn at bat, and he had a chain of 5+ skull attack rolls that flattened Spider-Girl, flattened Wild Child, and then got redirected back at him by Strong Guy to end the game.
Unit Summary: - Damage Done (Normal Attack): 0 wounds to Strong Guy in 1 attack, 3 wounds to Armor in 2 attacks (destroyed), 2 wounds to Wild Child in 1 attack
- Smoke and Mirrors: used 1 time to switch places with Captain Cold and take his place engaged with Strong Guy. 1 time to switch places with Spider-Girl (disengaging from Strong Guy and getting height on Armor). 1 time to switch with Wild Child just for kicks.
- 64th Century Techno-Magic: used 1 time on Strong Guy to no avail, 2 times on Armor (the first time resulting in a wound on her, the second time she whiffed and he dealt exactly two wounds to destroy her)
- Damage Taken/FMD: 1 wound from Strong Guy in 2 attacks, 3 wounds from Wild Child in 3 attacks (destroyed)
Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Strong Guy with 1 wound
THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY: Abra's a pretty fun piece. Smoke and Mirrors is an old favorite of mine. His durability and ability to get around some annoying defensive powers make him a pretty solid value, even though the Rogue faction is still a little on the weak side. I think he'd be cool in a Suicide Squad build, but I like to go a little higher in points with them and didn't have the time for a bigger match.
As a mechanical note, I played 64th Century Techno-Magic like it modified results before counting skulls/shields/blanks for powers like Flash's or Luke Cage's (since I've no idea why that power is there, if that's not what the intent is). That's consistent with how we tested Zatanna, but not with the ruling on Judge Fear back in the day. My recommendation would be leaving the wording here as-is and just overturning the ruling on Fear, since that ruling's always been kind of a headache and I don't think the boost would break him. That's a call for the Heroes, though. (This has come up a couple times since we made that ruling on Fear but we've never quite gotten a resolution on it)
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