The Book of Isamu

[philowar]

Originally Posted by Firemaster

The simple summary of this guy: If he does anything, he's worth his points.

And if he doesn't do anything, well for 10 points that's OK too.

[GForce3062]

Originally Posted by philowar

And if he doesn't do anything, well for 10 points that's OK too.

That's definately okay! I think it's a bigger risk to not use them than to send him out against Krug.

[JELEINEN]

He's toast against the Gladiatrons since the cyberclaw would negate his vanishing ability.

[GForce3062]

Originally Posted by JELEINEN

He's toast against the Gladiatrons since the cyberclaw would negate his vanishing ability.

He's toast against anything with his might one defense/one life. But his 'Vanish' prevents him from becoming toast sooner.

[jcb231]

Originally Posted by Scape_Scrub11

First hero with 1 life....just noticed that

Except for DEathwalker 9000, Deathwalker 8000, Deathwalker 7000, the Swog Rider, and the Dumutef Guard.

[player_of_volleyball]

Even if you used him as a distraction and he didnt kill anything, he would still be worth his points and with his vanish he would make a great distraction IMO.

[IAmBatman]

Originally Posted by jcb231

Except for DEathwalker 9000, Deathwalker 8000, Deathwalker 7000, the Swog Rider, and the Dumutef Guard.

First non Soulborg Unique Hero with 1 life? :P

[DingoDarkly]

I've only used thius guy in one game so far and he lasted quite a long time. I played and Utgar vs Einar/Jandar game and he kept attacking Raelin and managed to Vanish everytime someone took a pop at him!

[Menchy]

The reason this guy was created is pretty simple. Hasbro wanted to create a low cost filler unit, but if his stats sucked noone would bother putting an order marker on him. So they decided to make him a ming vase with a laser gun...of sorts. If he kills someone, great. If he gets shot down his first time, well for 10 points noone's really going to care.

[Homba]

The fact is, if Isamu makes several 60% chance d20 rolls (65% if you have the +1d20 glyph), nothing can kill him, except a "destroy" ability - and his being a hero makes a destroy roll much tougher to make. The amount of damage he can do to Jandar figures is staggering if he survives to make a few attacks - which will be common since a 60% chance is more-likely-than-not. What competitive player in their right mind is NOT going to give themselves this opportunity, at essentially no cost?

What is the most common Jandar hero? As S_P said, Raelin. But I'll take it one step further: Isamu is not just a designed Raelin killer, I'll speculate he's a designed "Raelin preemptor." The only justification for Isamu's too-low cost is to deter Raelin's presence altogether. Perhaps the designers decided that Raelin was just too ubiquitous due to the huge benefit for her cost. Rather than re-pricing Raelin, add a 10 pt unit that turns Raelin into an 80pt dead-Kyrie-walking. Tournament players will be statistically less likely to include Raelin with the knowledge that Isamu will likely be on the other side.

The design problem however, is that ALL Jandar heroes are affected in the same way, and will become marginally less used at the highest level. If Raelin truly motivated the design of Isamu, then his attack bonus could have been Raelin-specific. From my point of view, that would have been slick.

For that reason (that he chills ALL Jandar heroes), I don't think "an anti-Raelin unit" is the secret behind the low cost of Isamu. I think the design team, this "play test group" mentioned by Craig in the podcast, is just out of touch and dropped the ball. Get some new voices in that group. It's clear to everyone here how 10 pts misses the mark by a minimum of 100%. It's tricky pricing these low-costers because an error is much more glaring. No one in the "play test group" or otherwise was able to remove the enthusiasm goggles and see clearly here.

What's really needed is a specific anti-Q9 (Q9-preemptor) figure along the lines of Isamu. Perfect opportunity here, with Isamu being anti-Carr in his bio, (anti-Vydar). I guess the design team dropped that ball too.

H

[txedomask]

Originally Posted by JELEINEN

He's toast against the Gladiatrons since the cyberclaw would negate his vanishing ability.

Does cyberclaw comepletely negate vanish? The way I am reading it is that he vanishes and takes no damage then can choose to move. So in theory you could vanish to avoid the hit and stay where he is.

[johnny139]

Originally Posted by txedomask

Does cyberclaw comepletely negate vanish? The way I am reading it is that he vanishes and takes no damage then can choose to move. So in theory you could vanish to avoid the hit and stay where he is.

Ah, but it also says he can't end his move adjacent to another figure.