The Book of Stan Lee

[tcglkn]

Second post updated with the new power. I don't know if we want to make any more changes here or if I just need to wait for someone to run the initial playtest. Do I need to run the CRB checklist here?

[Yodaking]

I don't see anything that looks troubling about this design, but then that is what the checklist if for since we often miss things on our own, so might as well give it a run through and see if anything pops up.

[tcglkn]

COMPETITIVE REVIEW BOARD CHECKLIST

Competitive Concerns

Does the design offer worrisome Order marker movement or efficiency (Commander Rogers, Joker (I), Ozymandias)?
No, did not want to make him a Marvel OM hub for this reason.

Does the design offer superior Auto wounding (War Machine, Cosmic Cube, Selene)?
Nope, I'd be surprised if he got a hit in on any midsized hero.

Does the design cause the prevention of abilities (Blob, Polaris, Meteorite)?
No negation here.

Does the design offer too much mobility to your army (Angel, Indigo-1, Martian Manhunter (I))?
Nope.

Does the design allow you to disrupt an opponent's positioning too easily (Gravation, Jean Grey, Vulture)?
Nope.

Does the design boost other figures (outside of a narrowly defined set) (Captain America, Star-Lord, Sage)?
Depends on if you consider Marvel cards narrowly defined or not. I'm not concerned about it yet.

Does the design have one or more excellent defensive powers (5th Precinct Beat Cops, Magical Defense, Speedball)?
He can prevent an entire hit one time, and then boost other's defense by allowing one reroll per turn.

Does the design auto destroy or take control of other figures in a way that unbalances the design (Psycho-man, Gorgon, Enchantress)?
Nope.

Does the design have any other concerns (Magma creating lava tiles, pre re-eval Crow's invulnerability, pre re-eval Mad Thinker Mind Games and limiting design space for Androids)?
Nothing as concerning as lava or mind control.

Summary of Any Competitive Concerns/Suggestions for Changes: Everything looks safe to me. I'm unsure of cost but he'll probably fall in the 160-200 range.

[Yodaking]

I'd say, yes he does boost a broad selection of figure in it being any Marvel card with his re-roll power. Does that in itself cause any issues, for the most part I would say no. We have re-roll powers on other cards so we know how those work and just letting any figure re-roll one die shouldn't be an issue.

However, I now have a question about a few specific figures. Domino and Scarlet Witch both do some re-roll stuff while being Marvel cards, is stacking their current powers with Stan's ghost going to create any competitive or mechanical concerns that need to be addressed?

Scarlet Witch makes the opponent re-roll skulls, so no mechanical issue there, but then she can re-roll one def. die after already making the attacker re-roll skulls, will that be too annoying to get past for a normal attacker? Worth testing to see in the Initial.

Domino can already re-roll her defense dice, up to 2 of those dice once according to her power. How does that stack with Stan Lee? I think since it says once on her card, you couldn't re-roll either one of those 2 dice again via Stan Lee, but you could re-roll 3 dice via Stan Lee (2 with Domino's power & 1 with Stan's power).

[tcglkn]

Scarlet Witch does sound slightly concerning. Domino sounds fine we might just want to FAQ that you can reroll 3 dice for her not 2 and then 1 of those.

I'd be fine restricting the True Believer boost to Marvel Heroes without Magical Defense, they already have a good defensive power and don't really need the boost anyways. That avoids the Scarlet Witch issue.

[Arkham]

That seems like an odd exclusion. If anything it should be those without Superstrength. I think it should be fine anyways. His cost will need to be figured based on the best combos either way.

[tcglkn]

Originally Posted by Arkham

That seems like an odd exclusion. If anything it should be those without Superstrength. I think it should be fine anyways. His cost will need to be figured based on the best combos either way.

I could see the flavor being they are more resistant to the "spirit" of Stan Lee that this is kinda representing. But I'm also fine testing him out as is and seeing if it is really a problem.

[Lazy Orang]

Who are some of the characters Stan Lee's most icnoncally connected to?
Spider-Man: Superstrength
Incredible Hulk: Superstrength
Fantastic Four: Half have Superstrength

A no SS restriction makes no sense to me.

[tcglkn]

Yea I think there just needs to be no restriction on the power. It's a flavor fail if you restrict basically any Unique Marvel Hero out of it.

[Spidey'tilIDie]

FWIW, I have this mini.

[IAmBatman]

Originally Posted by Spidey'tilIDie

FWIW, I have this mini.

It's worth a lot if you take pictures!

[dok]

Highly concerning design. Marvel is definitely not a narrow set of cards. One free re-roll every turn is basically +1A/+1D for anything with good stats (and effectively more for some figures that get special bonuses, like Blob). And then he gets to block an attack without taking any damage each round. And he does all this without ever taking an OM. And he's basically always in position because he bounces on and off his card every round. This design is the definition of efficiency. It combos extremely well with defensive figures, as Stan can cover for them and then they can cover for Stan.

Also note that outside of a fairly narrow range of designs, "What If?" doesn't really matter, so you can easily build unrestricted builds and just use Stan to boost the Marvel portion.

Blob, Angel, Stan, Magneto [1/2 depending on rest of build], [ProfX/Cyclops2/Destiny+Mystique2/Sidekicks], [Deadpool/Cable/Domino/Scarlet]? Nasty. Go ahead and toss Aaron Cash in there if you like.

Another "fun" idea is using him as a blocker for Cosmic Cube wounds.

EDIT: Stan + Jocasta + Invisible Woman + Mr. Fantastic + Thing