[Confred]

Before PlayTest Commentary:

Spoiler Alert!

Michelangelo was an interesting character to me. Taunt is good, but he has 4 life. What if he taunts and whiffs and they don't and he dies for free? They are getting free attacks against him. I want him at 100 points. I could scale him down a bit. Perhaps remove the -1 to attack after the taunt. I wanted that to represent them getting unnerved by the taunt.
I suppose I could also/instead use "After moving and instead of attacking". This will probably be the change to bring him down to level but dang I pictured him taunting and then smack smack!
And another note with Taunt was to setup a Whirlwind.
-Edit 3/2
Taking another look at classic figures. The original RotV figures aren't as powerful as I remembered them. Mikey with his current stats plus Counter Strike alone might land him at 100pts.

Michelangelo
Mutant
Unique Hero
Ninja
Tricky
Medium 4

Life 4
Move 5
Attack 3
Defense 6 (4)
Points 100 (110)

Taunt 14
After moving and before attacking, choose one opponent’s figure within 3 clear sight spaces of Michelangelo and roll the 20-sided die. If you roll a 14 or higher, move that figure adjacent to Michelangelo and force it to attack Michelangelo with one less attack die. Figures moved with Taunt 14 are never attacked for leaving an engagement.
Whirlwind Special Attack
Range 1. Attack 3.
Michelangelo may attack any or all figures adjacent to him with Whirlwind Special Attack. Roll each attack separately.
Counter Strike
When rolling defense dice against a normal attack from adjacent figures, all excess shields count as unblockable hits on the attacking figure.


- The Play Test (at Defense 4): 1-4
Michelangelo vs. Kumiko (-20)

Spoiler Alert!

The board is flat, basically the shape of original RotV packaging with a center pond of swamp and water.
Mikey wins initiative and runs up 5 spaces and taunts for an effective range of 8. She rolls 3-1=2 attack into his fierce 6 defense and he immediately gets nerfed down to 4defense for the rest of the test. They both whiff and he cannot penetrate her 5defense on his follow up attack. Getting a double attack off of Taunt is cool.
She rotates around, gets height and attacks inflicting one wound.
Round two Mikey moves on equal height and then taunts her back down. This feels odd but I allow it. He attacks with height.
From here each turn Kumiko climbs back up and special attacks to bypass his Counter Strike. The fight is a bit dull, perhaps it's just me.
Kumiko Wins Round 2, Turn 2, with 2 Wounds.

Michelangelo vs. Ne-Gok-Sa (-10)

Spoiler Alert!

Change starting zones to lengthen distance between the figures.
NGS gets initiative but nowhere advantageous to move to so he turtles. Mike sneaks up, still out of range. NGS turtles. Mike runs in and Taunts NGS down a level inflicting 1 Wound with counter strike after NGS rolls -1 and Mikey +1 die. Whiffing on attack.
NGS climbs back up, fails Mindshackle but inflicts a wound. Mikey Taunts NGS back down and inflicts a CS wound. The smacks a massive 4 skull blow against only 1 shield. Still sort of a boring match, perhaps it is still just me.
Michelangelo Wins Round 1, Turn 3, 1 Wound
Counter Strike and Height + being able to position is powerful, but not fun yet. The positioning once already engaged is dubious, threatening to be nerfed.

- Taunt isn't automatic . Continuing tests appropriately
Michelangelo vs. Atlaga (-10)

Spoiler Alert!

Rolling for the Taunt COMPLETELY changes how he plays. Before he would move just enough and then pull the enemy closer. Now he has to run in adjacent just in case the taunt fails. In this case, Atlaga was steadfast the entire way through and the guardian didn't pay heed to the ninja trickery.
Mikey wins initiative but cannot engage, but Atlaga can on his turn so he runs to the best possible position and passes. Atlaga misses with his withering bolt but scores an arrow wound for 1.
Mikey runs adjacent in case taunt fails and it does. He rolls max skulls at 3 and Atlaga blocks 2 and then he rolls max skulls for 4 and Mikey blocks 3.
They duke it back and forth each rolling impressively, but Mikey can never undermine the Kyrie and ultimately fails
Atlaga Wins Round 1, Turn 3, 2 Wounds
Without Taunt automatically working, the gameplay was much more entertaining and the ability wasn't degenerate. I'm starting to think the altered 4Defense is too low. But I will play a few more and find out.

Michelangelo vs. Agent Carr (-0)

Spoiler Alert!

These two were closely matched.
Agent Carr wins initiative and kites Mikey around for the first 3 turns, eventually scoring one wound. On the third turn Michelangelo finally covers the gap and once toe to toe Carr couldn't handle the pressure and is taunted into the water. But that Sword of Reckoning is friken scary! Carr is wounded by CS but not by the chucks.
Carr disengages and kites some more, but it clearly isn't working. Mikey taunts two more times from height but 5dice vs 5dice has some tension. They cancel each other both times. But Mikey's attack scores 2 wounds for 3 total and Carr uses his sword and lo' and behold 2 wounds. 3v3, 1v1, Mikey whiffs and Carr doesn't.
Carr Wins Round 3, Turn 1, 3 Wounds
This fight was very close and very heated. Against hard-hitters, Taunt loses its shine.. that is with the current defense of 4. At this strength, he feels closer to 90pts.
He wishes he had Disengage, but he doesn't and he won't.

Michelangelo vs. Sgt. Drake Alexander <RotV> (+10)

Spoiler Alert!

Sgt. Drake Alexander Wins Round 1, Turn 3, 1 Wound.
This fight revealed some interesting thoughts. 4 defense is enough to be somewhat effective but not enough to be intimidating. I like that it is basically a +1 attack and I like that it becomes +2 with taunt.
Taunt doesn't happen often at all but when it was auto it wasn't fun. I like this rate and at +1 with Donnie it will be better and appropriate.
I think I like his stats as is now. But his points might very well drop to 90 or 80. Testing of the other turtles will show if their points need adjusting and any increases will come from Michelangelo's point pool.

Results: Defense drops from 6 to 4, Points drop pending.
On Second thought, Michelangelo should be imposing and intimidating to approach with his twirling display of Nunchaku.

- The Second Play Test (at Defense 5):
Michelangelo vs. Kumiko (-20)

Spoiler Alert!

Kumiko intends to move just enough to be out of range, but miscalculates. Michelangelo uses that knowledge to cook something fierce and the taunt is successful, -1 Attack +1 Defense is huge and takes her down to 1, his following attack of 4 skulls seals the deal.
Michelangelo Wins Round 1, Turn 1, 0 Wounds
With height and taunt bonuses working together, the ability scales quickly and fast. 5 just might be too high; more testing will tell.

Michelangelo vs. Atlaga (-10)

Spoiler Alert!

The match doesn't finish because all needed information is gathered. 5 Defense is too high and feels wrong.

Result: Keep Defense at 4.

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Splinter Commentary

Spoiler Alert!

With Master Splinter I did the classic 'with customs, err to overpriced'. I used Ulginesh as the base and well he controls two more characters and isn't limited in range of influence.

Responses to Criticism

Spoiler Alert!

I mentioned you in the original post. I wanted to be apart of your project and you didn't.
Most of what I wanted to do was tweak. And that is what this is: A variation of your stuff. Posted from the point of where our creative differences split. You didn't want to budge and I kept thinking about it so I made my own post and continued.
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Leonardo was the first of your cards I poured myself into and I agreed with what you were doing and this is my deviation of it.
In fact, for all the cards yours had inspiration to it. But so did the shows. So did the movies. So did the wiki. The personalities and classes, except precise from Leo, where all me, turns out ours are similar.
We are making characters not from scratch, but to emulate existing figures.
Even tackling the TMNT so close after dealing with your posts was inspired by the Super Hero Custom makers where they each make their own versions of known superheroes. And their cards are similar, even in color and appearance.
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Our Michelangelo's are completely different.
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But in the end, we creators are kin and shouldn't be at war. I returned to the characters and wrote thoughts on each. Turns out that approach is more pleasing in the end. Now I know. Give credit where credit is due.