The Book of Cosmo

[Arkham]

I'm guessing this will not pass to Initial Playtesting as-is, so we'll have to wait to see where @johnny139 and @japes fall in terms of the design direction. I'm not in support of 3 attack and dropping Telepathic Paralysis, so any suggestions on a replacement or alternate option, please share.

[Tornado]

Personally I like what you have now and agree with your reasoning for eliminating the SZ synergy. For me TP really just depends on if it is right for the character and it sounds like it is. Something like that helps to justify why he can mess with heavy hitters.
We just need to keep his stats in check which I think they are currently.

[Yodaking]

Originally Posted by Arkham

As for the dropping of the Security aspect, and the overall staying in the Start Zone encouragement, I felt it would have resulted in him being less likely to be paired with the Guardians. The Guardians play style is one that is very push forward as a pack, not so much stay back in the base. I feel Cosmo would have been drafted with those that are much more likely to stay back and camp, which I'd prefer not to emphasize with all 3 of his powers.

As-is, he can be useful on the go, and useful staying back, or a mix of the two. Send him and his team out in round 1. Stay in a pack protecting Star-Lord, having Groot carry himself and Rocket around as needed. Then if things get dicey for Groot or Gamora, have Cosmo send them back to the Start Zone for healing, while the rest of the team keeps the pressure on. Once healed, bring them back out.

Telepathic Paralysis allows Cosmo to add additional support by giving an actual reason to take a turn with him rather than purely hoping a numbered Order Marker placement on him isn't a complete waste if the Cortex isn't needed. Taking a turn with him would potentially allow you to negate an opponent's turn, buying your team some additional leeway. If we go with an attack of 3, there's little reason to ever attack with him. If we have Telepathic Paralysis, it's at least worth it for the possibility alone. Add a +1 from Star-Lord, and you've got a decent reason to take that turn and attack, further building that marriage between the characters that's already pretty valuable. Going that extra mile doesn't hurt though, as we want to give every reason to team them up thematically as a premiere option.

Agree with everything you said here.

[johnny139]

I like your reasoning for Telepathic Paralysis. It's not the sort of thing I think is strictly necessary, but it works for him overall ("arresting" the enemy) and does give him a bit of an offensive bite. I'm okay with his Attack at 4 but agree it probably wouldn't hurt to bring it down to 3.

In general I wish there was more of a reason to keep him in the Start Zone - since he rarely left Knowhere and was pretty much just the home team during that period. I sort of feel like he should be required to stay there for Continuum Cortex to work. I dunno, that might be me.

[Arkham]

I understand the desire to see him more Start Zone oriented, but I see it along the some lines of Alfred, Amanda Waller, Nick Fury, Prof. X etc. in the sense that yes, thematically he'd be the one to stay back at the base and run support. However, this being a game where that's harder to really capture with Start Zones essentially being part of the battlefield(not so much a traditional "base"), it seems it's best to allow him to be functional from the Start Zone but not exactly required/tied to it at the cost of his playability/draftability in his thematic pairing.

After all, the Start Zone isn't really Knowhere, it's just a designated starting spot for each team in the themed environment you're playing in. Heimdall is a bit of an exception, but unlike Cosmo, his design works well to treat the Start Zone as such, because he's offering a huge boost for staying back, and doesn't require the OM on him in order to provide the bonus of the Bi-Frost.

With that said, one possible way to make it run a little smoother using him from the Start Zone, would possibly be this route:

CONTINUUM CORTEX
After revealing an Order Marker on the card of a figure you control and instead of taking a turn with that figure, you may remove any number of unrevealed Order Markers from this card. For each Order Marker removed, you may choose a figure you control. If the chosen figure is not in your Start Zone, you must place it on any unoccupied space in your Start Zone. If the chosen figure is in your Start Zone, you must place the chosen figure on any unoccupied space on the battlefield not within 3 spaces of a Start Zone. Figures moved by this special power will not take any leaving engagement attacks and cannot be placed adjacent to any enemy figures.

This means you can hang back in the Start Zone with Cosmo without having to potentially waste Order Markers on him simply as an insurance policy. You'd naturally keep the X on him as no other Guardian needs it, so you could safely reveal the X in order to bring/send out a figure, only requiring the figure who revealed the initial Order Marker to sacrifice their turn.

So that'd essentially give the player a reliable, alternative way to use Cosmo to their advantage. When he's out on the field, he's much more likely to need that X for Psychic Defense, so this change would make keeping him back at least a bit more viable rather than an OM gamble. Just a possible alternative to what we have, with a very minor change in how it is initially triggered, but still requires a turn sacrifice and an unrevealed OM burn to be used, so it's not any less balanced.

[Lazy Orang]

Originally Posted by Arkham

I understand the desire to see him more Start Zone oriented, but I see it along the some lines of Alfred, Amanda Waller, Nick Fury, Prof. X etc. in the sense that yes, thematically he'd be the one to stay back at the base and run support. However, this being a game where that's harder to really capture with Start Zones essentially being part of the battlefield(not so much a traditional "base"), it seems it's best to allow him to be functional from the Start Zone but not exactly required/tied to it at the cost of his playability/draftability in his thematic pairing.

After all, the Start Zone isn't really Knowhere, it's just a designated starting spot for each team in the themed environment you're playing in. Heimdall is a bit of an exception, but unlike Cosmo, his design works well to treat the Start Zone as such, because he's offering a huge boost for staying back, and doesn't require the OM on him in order to provide the bonus of the Bi-Frost.

With that said, one possible way to make it run a little smoother using him from the Start Zone, would possibly be this route:

This means you can hang back in the Start Zone with Cosmo without having to potentially waste Order Markers on him simply as an insurance policy. You'd naturally keep the X on him as no other Guardian needs it, so you could safely reveal the X in order to bring/send out a figure, only requiring the figure who revealed the initial Order Marker to sacrifice their turn.

So that'd essentially give the player a reliable, alternative way to use Cosmo to their advantage. When he's out on the field, he's much more likely to need that X for Psychic Defense, so this change would make keeping him back at least a bit more viable rather than an OM gamble. Just a possible alternative to what we have, with a very minor change in how it is initially triggered, but still requires a turn sacrifice and an unrevealed OM burn to be used, so it's not any less balanced.

Sounds cool to me!

[Viegon]

Originally Posted by Arkham

CONTINUUM CORTEX
After revealing an Order Marker on the card of a figure you control and instead of taking a turn with that figure, you may remove any number of unrevealed Order Markers from this card. For each Order Marker removed, you may choose a figure you control. If the chosen figure is not in your Start Zone, you must place it on any unoccupied space in your Start Zone. If the chosen figure is in your Start Zone, you must place the chosen figure on any unoccupied space on the battlefield not within 3 spaces of a Start Zone. Figures moved by this special power will not take any leaving engagement attacks and cannot be placed adjacent to any enemy figures.

What if we added a "while Cosmo is in your startzone" restriction to this version? That would enforce the startzone theme that some people want, but still have him play well with the Guardians I think.

[Arkham]

It'd make it so using him on the field(which is where Groot can carry him, he can use Telepathic Paralysis, and Psychic Defense to protect Star-Lord etc.) loses the benefit of bringing his teammates back to the Start Zone if they are in danger, but if that's something people are fine with losing I'm not totally against it. I feel it'll definitely take away from his effectiveness, but I don't think it'd ruin the design.

You're essentially making the player choose to use Cosmo as a means for teleporting figures from the base and back, forgoing his other contributions, or using him in the field and forgoing that benefit.

[Yodaking]

I'm okay with that trade off. Leave him in the SZ and make use of his ability to send out or recall the other members of the team as needed, or join the team in the fight directly and he can use his psychic powers to aid the team instead. You can always call Groot back to the SZ when you are ready to bring him out into the fight and send them up together.

[Arkham]

Yeah, it's probably the best compromise we can come up with. I've racked my brain trying to think of all the different ways to do so, and the change I suggested along with the Start Zone restriction, probably accomplishes that the most. I'm good to see it through to testing at the very least.

I'll reset the voting with the change.

I propose a vote to move to Initial Playtesting.
@Viegon
@johnny139
@Tornado
@japes
@TrollBrute
@Yodaking

-Changed his attack to 3.
-Lowered the roll required for Telepathic Paralysis from 12 to 9.
-Cortex requires being in the Start Zone.

We can always adjust from there.

[Tornado]

Yea

[japes]

I'll be in and out this week. Sorry about that but there's nothing I can do about it.

I'm ok with this as but I have a few comments.

First I'm not sure if the wording is possible but...
I understand the need for the removing OM to teleport figures out into the field as that's a pretty powerful ability. However skipping a turn on an OM for a figure and then burning the X to bring it back to the SZ seems like a steep price considering Alfred and Heimdel as referenced above.

I like the idea I'm just not as sure as Viegon if all the restrictions are needed. Perhaps they are.

Either way I'm a YEA for intial.