The Book of Deadpool (III)

[Splash]

Oof, like wolves led to slaughter, well now we know DP can shoot. I'd run the next game against some range, and try to get all his powers used.
We'll just have to save the Merc reflections for before the next games.

[Ericth74]

Yeah it wasn't the best match up.

[Ericth74]

C3G STANDARD PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: Deadpool III

Version tested:

Spoiler Alert!

NAME = DEADPOOL
SECRET IDENTITY = WADE WILSON

SPECIES = MUTATE
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = MERCENARY
PERSONALITY = INSANE

SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 6

MOVE = 5
RANGE = 6
ATTACK = 5
DEFENSE = 5

POINTS = 300

"ME FIRST! ME FIRST!"
Start the game with the Glyph of Teleportation Belt on this card. Once per turn, if an enemy figure moves at least one space and ends its movement within clear sight of Deadpool, Deadpool may immediately use his Teleportation Belt as long as he is placed adjacent to that enemy figure. After placing him in this way, he must roll an unblockable attack die against all figures adjacent to him.

MERC WITH A MOUTH
Enemy figures attacking Deadpool with a normal attack count all blanks rolled as skulls. After rolling defense dice for Deadpool against an opponent's normal attack, if he does not receive any wounds, the attacking figure receives a wound for each blank Deadpool rolled.

"CRAP, I REALLY NEEDED THOSE"
Deadpool must subtract 1 from his Move and Range numbers for each Wound Marker on this card. Instead of moving normally with Deadpool, you may roll 1 combat die for each Wound Marker on this card. For each shield rolled, remove a Wound Marker from this card.

Army Test
Map: Conflict Chernobyl
Units: 800 pts – Deadpool 300, Deathstroke 275, Tattooed Man, Terra VS 800 pts – Capwolf, Werewolf x4(Red, Blue, Yellow, and Pink)

Spoiler Alert!

Damage Dealt: R1T3 Werewolf(Pink) 3 wounds
R2T1 Werewolf(Red) 1 wound
R2T2 Yellow 1 wound
R2T3 Yellow 3 wounds
R3T1 Blue 2 wounds
R3T2 Cap 2 wounds




Me First: Never made sense to use it this game. It was a bad match-up for it as the enemy didn't have any range and I would be moving to get them something to attack. They also healed so doing the one wound would have been pointless.

Merc with a Mouth: He never was attacked as the enemy couldn't get to him with the rocks, plants and friendly figures blocking him off.

Crap: N/A as he took no damage

R1- Cap kills a tree. Terra places 2 Small Rock Outcrops on pinch points forcing the Wolves to go around the west side of the center height(this totally changed the game and is a Move I need to remember in the future.. Deadpool hits a Werewolf for 3 wounds. Deathstroke kills the wounded Werewolf(Pink). Red puts a wound on Terra.
R2 – Red attacks Deathstroke, its blocked. Yellow attacks Terra doing a wound. Deathstroke reveals the x-marker. Tattooed Man uses his Barbed Wire and Dragon tattoo markers to pull Red next to him and attack down on Red rolling 5 skulls and doing 4 wounds. Deadpool attacks Red from range doing a wound killing him. Deathstroke attacks Yellow doing 2 wounds. Cap moves(could make teleported Deadpool but made more sense not to, Cap had no attack and heals) Yellow moved and healed 1 wound, Blue moved. Deadpool hit Yellow for 2 wounds. Yellow and Blue attack Deathstroke doing 2 wounds, Yellow heals 1. Deadpool attacks Yellow doing 3 wounds, killing him. Cap attacks Terra and does 1 wound. Blue attacks Deathstroke doing a wound. Deathstroke uses Head Games on Cap forceing him to attack Blue, Blue takes a wound. Deadpool attacks down on Blue from range, Blue takes a wound.
R3 – Cap attacks and kills Terra. Blue attacks up on Deathstroke who blocks it. Deathstroke reveals the x-marker and takes a turn with Tattooed Man who attacks Blue doing a wound. Deadpool attacks down from range on Blue, doing 2 wounds killing Blue. Deathstroke hits Cap from range doing 2 wounds. Cap attempts to move but Tattooed Man uses his Snake Tat to keep him from moving, Cap heals one. Deadpool attacks down on Cap(Cap final rolls 13 or higher to get his Shield Defense) and takes 2 wounds. Cap attacks Deathstroke doing 2 wounds, leaving him with 1 life left while healing a wound. Deadpool attacks down on Cap who blocks it.
R4 – Deathstroke reveals the x-marker. Tattooed Man hits Cap for 2 wounds to end the game.

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Deathstroke 5 wounds/1 life left, Deadpool full 6 life left, Tattooed Man full 5 life left.

___________________________________________________________

Army Test
Map: City Park
Units: 1000 pts - Deathstroke 275, Ravager(Rose), Deadpool 300, Raven plus 25pts in spells VS 1000 pts – Fantastic Four

Spoiler Alert!

Damage Dealt: None, got 1 attack in and it was blocked.

R1 – Johnny puts 2 wounds on Deathstroke. Mr Fantastic moves and Deadpool uses Me First, missing on Torch but hitting Mr F for a wound. Mr F attacks Deadpool rolling 3 skulls, Deadpool rolls 5 shields to block it. Deadpool would like to teleport away to engage Sue but is Rubber-Wrapped so he attacks Mr F, who blocks it. Johnny attacks down on Deadpool(3 skulls, 2 blanks) and Deadpool takes 4 wounds(1 shield and 4 skulls). Raven attacks Mr F with Hellfire, he blocks it.
R2 – Johnny Flames on and puts 2 wounds on Deadpool killing him.
Rest of the Game – Fan 4 mop up the Merc team pretty quickly.

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Fill in here.

___________________________________________________________

Army Test
Map: City Park
Units: 1000 pts - Deathstroke 275, Ravager(Rose), Deadpool 300, Raven plus 25pts in spells VS JLA Trinity

Spoiler Alert!

Damage Dealt:
R1T3 Superman 1 wound – Me First
R2T1 Superman 2 wounds

Superman flew across the map and beat down the Merc pretty quickly. Once again Merc with a Mouth worked against Deadpool with Superman hitting Deadpool for 2 wounds and then what would have been 7 wounds(boosted by 3 blanks).

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Superman 5 wounds/2 life left, Batman and Wonder Woman both full life and didn't leave the startzone.

___________________________________________________________

Army Test
Map: Conflict Chernobyl
Units: 800 pts – Deadpool 300, Deathstroke 275, Tattooed Man, Terra VS Rogues – Captain Cold 200, The Top, Abra Kabadra, Weather Wizard 100, Tar Pit

Spoiler Alert!

Damage Dealt: R2T2 Tarpit 2 wounds
R2T3 Tarpit 2 wounds
R2T3 Captain Cold 1 wound – via Me First
R3T3 Weather Wizard 2 wounds

Rogues had some hot dice and were able to quickly control the middle of the map. Me First kept Deadpool bouncing around but was also hit downfall putting him in too much danger. Merc with a mouth didn't inflict any wounds but caused a few extra.

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Captain Cold 4 wounds/1 life left, The Top 2 wounds/2 life left, Abra Kadabra 1 wound/3 life left

___________________________________________________________

THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY: 300 pts seems too high as is. He works in Merc builds well and probably fine in Insane builds. I like Merc teams so I used him there.

GENERAL THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT: I ended up playing 4 games, as I couldn't figure out if it was me and how I was playing with Deadpool or the design, but something felt off. Ultimately I feel like the design needs some tweaks. “Me First” is fun and thematic power that works just fine as is. The upside is you can get some free movement and deal out some auto wounds to all adjacent figures(but that includes your own!) The down side is that you just put him engaged with an enemy whose turn it is, and if that figure attacks with their Normal Attack they are going to have blanks count as shields with the Merc with a Mouth power. Now I may have just had bad luck with the skulls in my 4 games but to me Merc with A Mouth is a power that should be his signature power, and currently in kind of falls flat. It worked against him much more often than helped him. Merc with a Mouth only dealt out 2 wounds in 4 games but added like 7 or 8 wounds to Deadpool. I feel this power needs to be reworked. I worry that it might be tough for people to want to draft a 300 pt figure with a power that hurts himself so much. I wish I had a solid suggestion as to what to do to it, but I found it pretty frustrating to play with. “Crap, I really Needed Those” could use a tweak as well, I wonder if it was a passive heal that it may work and feel better. Maybe something like your basic take a turn and heal a wound power, rather than not attacking and rolling dice and hoping for lots of shields. The times that I used it, I only rolled 1 or no shields on 3 or 4 dice. Maybe make it skulls, that could make it more reliable. I know that there are lots of different play styles and other testers may feel differently, my opinion is that I think there are some pretty good ideas here but 2 powers need a rework before it should continue on.

[tcglkn]

For Merc with a Mouth I still stand by something closer to Spider-Man (Avengers) Distracting Banter special power. It's generally beneficial to Spidey and at worst a wash. Where as this power boosts your opponent's chance of skulls from 50% to 66% and then only offers a benefit when you block their boosted attack. Deadpool doesn't even really get a benefit during the attack from the power like Spider-Man does.

Something like this would probably play much better:

MERC WITH A MOUTH
Opponents' figures attacking Deadpool with a normal attack roll one additional attack die but subtract one skull from whatever is rolled. After rolling defense dice for Deadpool against an opponent's normal attack, if he does not receive any wounds, you may roll one unblockable attack die against the attacking figure.

It's still a more aggressive version of Spidey's power but the theme of you attack a bit stronger but it's more of a flail of annoyance comes across better in this version and then you get a small reward whenever Deadpool successfully defends.

For the healing power I'd probably just drop this line completely. He gets free movement from his Me First power so giving up his movement should be fairly easy to do, but you get something guaranteed out of it this way. And you can even add something like this to the power so he has a little bit of consistent free healing.

"CRAP, I REALLY NEEDED THOSE"
Deadpool must subtract 1 from his Move and Range numbers for each Wound Marker on this card. Instead of moving normally with Deadpool (and at the end of each round), you may roll 1 combat die for each Wound Marker on this card. For each shield rolled, remove a Wound Marker from this card.

[Ericth74]

I think those are both really solid improvements but still get across the theme you're looking for.

[MrNobody]

I think I’d prefer to just see a Healing Factor-style thing on “Crap…” Like at the beginning/end of his turn, remove a wound.

The appeal of that power (to me) is imagining Deadpool comically hopping around while missing a leg or whatever. But that doesn’t seem to be happening when giving up his move to heal is the ideal play for a wounded Deadpool.

Tbh, I’ve never been super enamored with Distracting Banter…but it does what it does.

[tcglkn]

Originally Posted by MrNobody

Tbh, I’ve never been super enamored with Distracting Banter…but it does what it does.

Have you played that design cause it's definitely a power that plays much better than it reads.

[MrNobody]

Originally Posted by tcglkn

Have you played that design cause it's definitely a power that plays much better than it reads.

Sorry, I typed that message up in a hurry and that came off as way meaner than I intended!

Yeah I’ve played him a few times. Fwiw, I think sticking a counterstrike or something like that on there adds a lot to it. (But I might drop the -1 skull aspect at that point.)

[Soundwarp SG-1]

Originally Posted by tcglkn

Have you played that design cause it's definitely a power that plays much better than it reads.

Sadly most designs only have a 3rd grade reading level. It's a growing problem in the educational system

[Splash]

Thanks a ton for those extra games @Ericth74 , they really give a clear picture of what needs changing.

I'm realizing there is a clear negative not just to Merc, but to all 3 powers, so I'll read over everything here and get back with my thoughts. : )

[Splash]

"CRAP, I NEEDED THOSE"
Deadpool must subtract 1 from his Move and Range numbers for each Wound Marker on this card. Immediately after revealing an Order Marker on this card and moving normally with Deadpool, remove one Wound Marker from this card or two Wound Markers from this card if Deadpool ended his move unengaged.

So for the healing power, I think changing it from giving up move to making it so he reveals an OM would enable the Move subraction/"hobbling along" to come into play more often and it still gets across that he needs to be consciously attempting to heal. It also gives him a riskier brand of undead resilience, because he can heal an additional wound he would receive from an lea by being unengaged. This power more represents him getting his crap together after going ballistic and backing off to take a moment to recover before going after someone again. It also plays into his reduced range, because his options might be more limited if he does become unengaged.

[Splash]

I think Ericth74 is definitely right that Merc With a Mouth is the signature power. It should be specific enough where it shouts Deadpool, but general enough where it could go on a future Deadpool or Deadpool Corps design.

Currently I'm leaning heavily toward tcglkn's Banter rework.