The Book of Man-Thing

[Yodaking]

yea

[dok]

Not pod builds.

Quick questions:

• Does the unblockable attack die against a LEA attampt happen if Man-Thing is destroyed by the LEA? The power should probably say either way.
  
• Is there a reason Provocation's wording doesn't mimic "Hate" from Psycho-Man? Is it intended to work differently?

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2 shields per blank against normals is a lot; it gives him the same average shields as 10 defense and about the same variance.

As far as who to pair him with - he's fairly anti-synergy. Weather Wizard does come to mind but I don't actually think that would work very well. My inclination would be to try to get him into position and then pair him with a good autowounder who won't trigger his power. Just try to get one turn per round with Man-Thing for healing. Graviton seems like a good option, as in addition to dealing autowounds he can rearrange figures to prevent opponents from setting up formations that trigger lots of LEAs.

I'd also consider adding Jason as another figure that can draw fire and won't accidentally trigger Provocation. Finally, I might try tossing in Iron Patriot and just keeping him as far from Man-Thing as possible while still maintaining clear sight.

[Tornado]

Great insight there dok.

Yea

[Yodaking]

I actually didn't catch that he would be moving adjacent to his allies and dealing auto-wounds to them. Thematic or not, I'd rather we have him only go after opponents attacking figures. If he is going to be going after his allies all the time, then pairing him up with some archers/snipers seems like the go to move. Range 8+ units can sit back and not worry about triggering him on the front lines. I like the moving opponents figures idea quite a bit though, I just don't have Gravitron so I'd give Red Tornado and/or Storm a try. Both should be pretty good at keeping your opponent from surrounding him for LEA's.

[Arkham]

He has to move when an ally attacks, but the unblockable is optional for that reason. If we want to make it only trigger on opponents who attack, then we’d make the unblockable a must.

I played a game just now and I was going to suggest having it only trigger on opponents attacks as I’m noticing Man-Thing moving all over the place every turn makes it feel a bit silly like he’s a squirrel. Cutting that to just opponents will likely feel a bit more reasonable.

Originally Posted by dok

Not pod builds.

Quick questions:

• Does the unblockable attack die against a LEA attampt happen if Man-Thing is destroyed by the LEA? The power should probably say either way.
  
• Is there a reason Provocation's wording doesn't mimic "Hate" from Psycho-Man? Is it intended to work differently?

I'm thinking we can just change the unblockable on LEA aspect to them taking a wound if they fail to roll a skull, for simplicity as suggested before. That should clear that up.

EMOTIONAL PROVOCATION
After Man-Thing or any friendly figure within 5 spaces of Man-Thing rolls defense dice, you must move Man-Thing as close to the attacking figure as possible. If you end this move adjacent to the attacking figure, roll an unblockable attack die against the attacking figure if it does not have the fearless personality. When Man-Thing moves with this special power, if a figure rolls a leaving engagement attack against Man-Thing and does not roll a skull, the figure receives 1 wound.

As for the wording, I used the wording from Drax, which surprisingly I missed the last part of his power which mimics the same idea I had with the wound potential on those taking LEAs against him, so that works out well. It also looks like we don't need to spell out him taking leaving engagements in addition to the fail potential, as just the fail possibility already explains that:

RELENTLESS ADVANCE
After his Nemesis takes a turn, you must move Drax as close to his Nemesis as possible, moving up to a maximum of 3 spaces. When Drax moves with this special power, he may move through all opponent's figures except his Nemesis and if a figure rolls a leaving engagement attack against Drax and does not roll a skull, the figure receives 1 wound.

[dok]

Oh, if the unblockable die is optional, then Frankenstein or really anything works fine. Heck, you could use him in pod builds with Weather Wizard and all that.

[Arkham]

Yeah I wouldn't want to shoot the design in the foot by having him constantly hurting your own team. His draftability would plummit.

The change to only having him move when he or his allies roll defense is probably best anyways, as I said he was moving nearly every turn and it just became a bit silly to see this big swamp monster bouncing all over the battlefield.

[Arkham]

With a wording change to focus more on the attacker rather than defender then attacker, as it makes it a bit cleaner:

EMOTIONAL PROVOCATION
After an opponent's figure takes a turn in which they attacked or caused a wound, if Man-Thing is within 5 spaces of the figure, you must move Man-Thing as close to the figure as possible. If you end this move adjacent to the figure, roll an unblockable attack die against the figure if the figure does not have the fearless personality. When Man-Thing moves with this special power, if a figure rolls a leaving engagement attack against Man-Thing and does not roll a skull, the figure receives 1 wound.

This would see him act after the turn, to hopefully avoid interruption issues, and it would also see him moving even if it were a special power that caused a wound rather than just attacks.

[Ronin]

Seem like reasonable changes. Does make him quite a bit easier to use.

[Arkham]

This has given me an idea that I'm actually really digging, as I had thought about this before but I was struggling to make it work with the prior wording. Further borrowing from Drax, I'd love if Man-Thing had a bonus when attacking the last person to attack. It makes thematic sense that Man-Thing would hardly want to attack someone not currently giving off violent/fear type emotions. So what if we went this route:

EMOTIONAL PROVOCATION
After an opponent's figure takes a turn in which they attacked or caused a wound, that figure becomes Man-Thing's Provoker. After his Provoker takes a turn, you must move Man-Thing as close to his Provoker as possible. If you end this move adjacent to his Provoker, roll an unblockable attack die against his Provoker if they do not have the fearless personality. When Man-Thing moves with this special power, if a figure rolls a leaving engagement attack against him and does not roll a skull, the figure receives 1 wound. If Man-Thing attacks his Provoker with a normal attack, add 4 additional dice to his attack.

Then we nerf his base attack to 2. Basically, we encourage the player to use Man-Thing to stay on the current Provoker. Strategically, it can allow the opponent to manipulate the battle to a degree, but I feel that's a positive and unique mechanic given the theme and nature of the creature. Give him decent strength and survivability, but make him significantly weaker if he's attacking those that aren't the current issue, as that's out of character.

Thoughts?

[Scapemage]

I like the theme behind that idea, Arkham. It quite literally makes figures afraid to attack for feat that Man-Thing will come for them. I worry it takes too much elegance away from the card, though. Constantly having to keep track of who the Provoker is could easily prove confusing, especially when squads are involved where figures can have the same sculpt.

[Arkham]

To be clear, there's only ever 1 Provoker at a time. So whoever attacks/inflicts a wound last on the opponent's turn would be the Provoker on his turn. He would also still be able to move and do the unblockable after each of their turns as before.