Masters of the Universe

[IAmBatman]

Masters of the Universe

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NAME = THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE

UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE STORY

POINTS = 60

STORY PROLOGUE =
- At least 1 Unique Hero that is an Honorable Champion and 2+ other Unique Heroes that are in the Masters of the Universe faction must be on your team.

STORY SETUP =
- Choose a Unique Hero you control that is an Honorable Champion.

STORY RULES =

HEROIC WARRIORS
Before your chosen Hero's ordered activation, you may activate up to 2 Masters of the Universe allies, each skipping their attack phase. If you do, your chosen Hero skips its move phase. After your chosen Hero's ordered activation, you may activate a Masters of the Universe ally, or 2 Masters of the Universe allies if your chosen Hero is engaged, each skipping their move phase. You may not activate additional figures this turn.

PUBLISHER: MATTEL
KEYWORDS:

SPRING 2024 - ANNIVERSARY: To defend the mysterious powers of Castle Grayskull from nefarious threats like Skeletor and his evil warriors, the Sorceress picks a champion in the form of He-Man and surrounds him with allies. Together, they are called the Masters of the Universe!

Resources and Rulings
• See this card's wiki page for synergies and strategies!

Credits
• Playtesters:

• IAmBatman
• MrNobody and Ericth74
• Lord Zed

• Card art: japes
• Comic creators: Mattel

Updates
• N/A

[Arch-vile]

We have slightly different formatting for the Beam Struggle story OP. Definitely need to spell out Masters of the Universe faction too.

Dig the overall direction here. Really neat way to build faction synergy.

[IAmBatman]

I wasn't sure on OP formatting because we don't have that in the template thread yet. I'll take a look at Beam Struggle in a bit.

For some reason I thought we'd gone MotU on other cards like we did TMNT for the turtles, but Teela shows me that's not true. So be it. I'll edit that part.

Only real change from workshopping last is I bumped the cost to 50. I found the most combos with existing stuff that way.

Looking at these builds for testing:

He-Man (320), MOTU Story Card (50), Man-at-Arms (180), Teela (170), Ramn Man (180), Battle Cat (200) (1000)

He-Man (320), MOTU Story Card (50), Man-at-Arms (180), Orko (65), Lightning Bolt x3 (15), Stratos (150), Man-E-Faces (150), Teela (170) (1000)

He-Man (320), MOTU Story Card (50), Orko (65), Lightning Bolt x3 (15), Stratos (150), Man-E-Faces (150), Teela (170), Ram Man (180) (1000)

He-Man (320), MOTU Story Card (50), Man-at-Arms (180), Orko (65), Lightning Bolt x1 (5), Man-E-Faces (150), Ram Man (180) (1000)

[IAmBatman]

I propose we move to initial playtesting

[Arch-vile]

yea

Couple of wording suggestions:

STORY PROLOGUE =
- At least 1 Unique Hero that is an Honorable Champion and 2+ other Unique Heroes that are in the Masters of the Universe faction must be on your team.

[IAmBatman]

Updated. Thanks.

[Ericth74]

yea

[MrNobody]

Yea

[Tornado]

Yea
Really like the look of that first army. Looks like Orko gives you the flexibility for the others.
Cool direction here for faction building.

[IAmBatman]

Originally Posted by Tornado

Yea
Really like the look of that first army. Looks like Orko gives you the flexibility for the others.
Cool direction here for faction building.

Yeah, eventually I'm hoping to add more smaller totals (Cringer, Prince Adam, etc.) to increase that flex, but Orko + spells is a nice early flex filler.

This passes

Probably going to try to run around four tests for this one to have confidence the faction as a whole feels right, so might take a bit, but excited to be at this point!

[IAmBatman]

Did a bunch of tests (will post in a bit). I may want to make more tweaks down the road, but here's a few things:

1. I want to change the attack bit to allow you to attack with one ally even if He-Man is not engaged. That lets you avoid having to overexpose him in order for the faction to have any offense.

HEROIC WARRIORS
During an ordered activation with an Honorable Champion Unique Hero:
• Instead of its move phase, you may activate up to 2 Masters of the Universe allies for move phases.
• After its attack phase, you may activate up to 1 Masters of the Universe ally for an attack phase, or activate up to 2 Masters of the Universe allies for attack phases if that Honorable Champion is engaged.
You may not activate additional figures this turn.

2. I want to boost the cost to 60 points (still lets you do Teela, Battle Cat, Man-at-Arms, Orko, He-Man, 5 point spell, which I think is their best factional build and a fun thematic grouping).

3. I want to lower Man-at-Arms' attack by 1 (the bonuses from Teela and height when carried about by Battle Cat plus Order Markers coming over got to be a bit strong).

4. I want to increase soft synergy with He-Man and Man-at-Arms in exchange, though, and let He-Man reveal the "X" for his power punch instead of removing it (but make it just the X, not any other OMs). I think making the knockback a must when you do that, though, and making it only work when you do that is the way to go.

5. I need to update some Battle Cat language to make it clear that his occupants are adjacent to him and each other, just for clarity (relevant with He-Man's deflection ability).

6. I need to clarify on Ram Man that his double activation is only once per turn so that when He-Man is activating him for a move or attack phase he's not doubling both.

7. I think I want to let Orko ignore elevation of up to 1 level with his levitation ability. It just doesn't feel like levitation currently. I think I want to lower his life to 2 as well so he's a less scary end-gamer with his d20 rolls.

[IAmBatman]

C3G STANDARD PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM
NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: NMASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE
VERSION TESTED

Spoiler Alert!

NAME = THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE

UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE STORY

POINTS = 60

STORY PROLOGUE =
- At least 1 Unique Hero that is an Honorable Champion and 2+ other Unique Heroes that are in the Masters of the Universe faction must be on your team.

STORY SETUP =

STORY RULES =

HEROIC WARRIORS
During an ordered activation with an Honorable Champion Unique Hero:
• Instead of its move phase, you may activate up to 2 Masters of the Universe allies for move phases.
• After its attack phase, you may activate up to 1 Masters of the Universe ally for an attack phase, or activate up to 2 Masters of the Universe allies for attack phases if that Honorable Champion is engaged.
You may not activate additional figures this turn.

PUBLISHER: MATTEL
KEYWORDS:

Team Test
Map: CELL GAMES ARENA
Units: He-Man (320), MOTU Story Card (50), Man-at-Arms (180), Teela (170), Ram Man (180), Battle Cat (200) (1100) vs JL Trinity (1000), Atom (100) (1100)
Unit Summary: I’m not sure it’s worth 50 points so far. The story card definitely adds to the efficiency of the faction, but it forces He-Man to be at risk in order to do so. None of the MotU members are that stalwart, so Superman and Wonder Woman rolling big attacks cut through them faster than they could respond. Since He-Man has to be engaged before getting the attack bonus for MotU Story Card and his team kept losing initiative, it only ended up going off for one attack phase.
Game Summary

Spoiler Alert!

Wonder Woman uses a Justice Marker. Initiative MotU. He-Man has Battle Cat carry him forward and Man-at-Arms comes right behind. Wonder Woman advances. Man-at-Arms mounts Battle Cat and Battle Cat carries him forward. Teela advances. Batman advances. He throws batarangs at Battle Cat and both of his passengers, but can’t hit any. Ram Man and Teela advance. Superman advances. He throws a tree at Battle Cat from height disadvantage, but it’s blocked and the tree is destroyed. Superman uses a marker. Wonder Woman avoids Vigilant Strike, Teela heroically surges forward, and Wonder Woman punches Battle Cat for 3 wounds. Batman engages Battle Cat, takes a Vigilant Strike wound, is engaged by Teela but uses a marker to avoid a wound, then punches out Battle Cat. He-Man and Man-at-Arms are placed and each roll a damage die. He-Man’s hits Batman for 1 wound. Atom is placed next to He-Man but fails to hit him for a wound.
Wonder Woman uses a Justice Marker. Initiative Trinity. Superman takes height on He-Man and punches him for 3 quick wounds. Atom uses a marker but can’t hit He-Man. Wonder Woman attacks down on Teela and Batman uses a marker to get past Evasive Dodge. Teela takes 3 wounds. Batman uses his batarangs and hits He-Man for a fourth wound (auto wound) and then finishes Teela with the attack itself. Ram Man jumps next to Wonder Woman and Batman but rolls 2 shields for his damage dice. He-Man uses the X and attacks Superman, but can’t hit. He knockback Superman and hits for 1 damage. Ram Man hits Wonder Woman for 2 wounds. Man-at-Arms can’t hit Wonder Woman. Superman punches out He-Man. Man-at-Arms takes the Order Markers. Atom pops a marker, picks up the sword, and fails to hit Ram Man with a d20 roll. Man-at-Arms double attacks Wonder Woman for 2 wounds. Superman fails to save her. Superman punches Man-at-Arms for 3 wounds. Man-at-Arms would finish Wonder Woman, but Superman saves her and takes 1 wound instead.
Wonder Woman uses a Justice Marker and Atom replaces it. Initiative Trinity. Superman punches out Man-At-Arms and then uses his last marker. Atom swings the Power Sword at Ram Man for 2 wounds. Wonder Woman punches out Ram Man.
I did a rematch to see if it was just the dice, and the Trinity rolled again.

• HEROIC WARRIORS: Used for [7] move phases and [2] attack phases. Felt [underwhelming]

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Superman with 5/7 Life, Batman with 2/4 Life, Wonder Woman with 2/6 Life, and Atom with Full Life win.
Rematch: Superman with 3/7 Life, Wonder Woman with Full Life, and Batman with 3/4 Life win.

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Team Test
Map: WAKANDAN ROYAL FOREST
Units: He-Man (320), MOTU Story Card (30), Man-at-Arms (180), Stratos (150), Man-E-Faces (150), Teela (170) (1100) vs Fantastic Four (1000)
Unit Summary: After getting run out twice, I tried the MotU Story Card at a slightly lower number to help with team building. The tweak to the attack phase part of MotU made it possible to use some of the faction’s range and not just rush in with He-Man and over-expose him. Here the game flow let the MotU get the drop on the Fan Four and run them over. It seems they’re set up for big wins and big losses.
Game Summary

Spoiler Alert!

Initiative Fan Four. They advance as a group. Stratos carries He-Man to height. Teela advances. Thing, Torch, and Reed advance. Man-E-Faces and Man-at-Arms advance. Man-at-Arms attacks the Great Evergreen and sends it on top of Thing for 1 wound. Invisible Woman advances. Reed advances, Teela Heroically Surges next to him for 1 wound, then he hits her back for 2 wounds. Man-at-Arms grabs OM1 and OM2. Stratos carries He-Man into engagement with Mister Fantastic. Man-E-Faces engages Mister Fantastic. He-Man reveals the X and hits Reed for 2 wounds with a 7 skull attack from height disadvantage. Man-E-Faces, in robot mode, fails to hit Reed. Man-at-Arms, with +3 attack thanks to Teela and the OMs, takes out a whiffing Mister Fantastic.
Initiative MotU. Stratos carries He-Man next to Invisible Woman and Thing. Teela engages Invisible Woman. He-Man one-shots Invisible Woman with his X used. Stratos flies over Thing and hits him for 1 wound. Man-E-Faces hits a whiffing Thing for 1 wound from height disadvantage. Man-E-Faces goes Human. Teela surges and engages Human Torch. Thing punches He-Man for 2 wounds. Man-at-Arms grabs OM1 and X from He-Man. Man-E-Faces and Man-at-Arms advance. He-Man takes out Thing and is no longer engaged with an enemy. Thing had OM2. Stratos carries He-Man next to Human Torch. Man-at-Arms moves. He-Man punches Torch for 2 wounds. Man-at-Arms shoots down Torch and finishes him off.
Just like last time, I replayed the game to check the results. In that match, Thing went down too fast and Human Torch missed a key Flame On roll and only generated one wound with his Supernova, allowing the MotU to roll again. Swingy team so far!

• HEROIC WARRIORS: Used for [12] move phases and [6] attack phases. Felt [much better with the tweak]

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): He-Man with 4/6 Life, Teela with 2/4 Life, Man-at-Arms, Man-E-Faces, Orko, and Stratos with Full Life win.
Second game: Teela and Man-E-Faces with Full Life, He-Man with 3/6 Life, Man-at-Arms with 1/4 Life and Stratos with 2/4 Life win

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Team Test
Map: CONFLICT CHERNOBYL
Units: He-Man (320), MOTU Story Card (50), Orko (65), Lightning Bolt x3 (15), Battle Cat (200), Teela (170), Man-at-Arms (180) (1000) vs TMNT (750), Splinter (250) (1000)
Unit Summary: Back up to 50 points. We’ll see how they feel in another match up. The interplay between Battle Cat, Man-at-Arms, and Teela here is a ton of fun, but probably a bit too juiced. I’m lowering Man-at-Arms’ attack by 1.
Game Summary

Spoiler Alert!

Initiative MotU. Raph rushes forward. Battle Cat carries forward He-Man. Man-at-Arms moves next to them. Leo advances and has Mikey advance next to him. Splinter saves the OM to Raph. Mikey cowabungas and circumnavigates Battle Cat in order to engage Man-at-Arms. Teela surges forward and hits Mikey for 1 wound. Mikey hits Man-at-Arms for 2 wounds. Battle Cat carries Man-at-Arms out of engagement and drops He-Man off next to Leo (the damage die misses). Orko engages Mikey. He-Man hits Leo for 2 wounds and knocks him back for a third, and is no longer engaged. Using the tweaked version of the card, Man-at-Arms attacks down on Mikey for 1 wound and Raph for 2 wounds. Leo re-engages Battle Cat and He-Man and gets hit for a protective strike. He rolls poorly and can’t hit He-Man and then leaps back. Raph attacks He-Man, hits for 2 wounds, flips next to Battle Cat and takes a protective strike hit, then fails to go again. (Man-at-Arms recovers 3 OM’s). Donatello engages He-Man, fails to trip him, and fails to hit him. Just a tough stretch for the turtles. He-Man would take out Raph but Splinter intervenes. Man-at-Arms attacks down and obliterates Splinter (defeated) but can’t hit Leo. Battle Cat can’t hit Raph.
Initiative TMNT. Donnie puts 1 wound on Man-at-Arms. Leo hits a whiffing He-Man for 3 wounds from height disadvantage. Raph double attacks He-Man from even height but can’t hit him. Donnie engages He-Man, takes a protective strike wound, fails to trip He-Man, then takes He-Man out. Man-at-Arms rescues the (unrevealed) Order Markers. Mikey can’t get an evasive Teela or cowabunga. Man-at-Arms double attacks from height and takes out Raph and Leo (ouch). Man-at-Arms takes out Donnie then fails a second attack (from height) on Mikey. Mikey flips up next to Battle Cat to even the height. Protective Strike hits him for a wound. Teela moves next to him and Heroic Surge misses. Man-at-Arms catches Mikey whiffing for the win.
I replayed with Man-at-Arms at -1 Attack. In the rematch, Man-at-Arms gets taken out by Leo and Raph before he can get picked up by Battle Cat. Turtles go on to steamroll.

• HEROIC WARRIORS: Used for [6] move phases and [4] attack phases. Felt [good]

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Teela, Battle Cat, and Orko at full life and Man-at-Arms with 1/4 Life win.
Rematch: Splinter with Full Life, Donnie with 2/4 Life, Mikey with 2/4 Life, and Leonardo with 2/5 Life win.

___________________________________________________________

Team Test
Map: CITY PARK
Units: He-Man (320), MOTU Story Card (50), Orko (65), Lightning Bolt x1 (5), Battle Cat (200), Ram Man (180), Man-at-Arms (180) (1000) vs Captain America (240), Iron Man (270), War Machine (260), Black Widow (230) (1000)
Unit Summary:
Game Summary

Spoiler Alert!

Initiative MotU. Battle Cat carries Man-at-Arms forward and Ram Man advances. Cap advances and fails to hit a tree. Battle Cat carries He-Man and Man-at-Arms forward and Ram Man advances. Man-at-Arms attacks down on Cap twice but can’t hit. Iron Man and Cap attack Man-at-Arms through obstruction and Cap hits him for 1 wound. Ram Man jumps next to Cap and Iron Man and rolls 2 skulls then hits each for 1 knockback wound (ouch). Battle Cat drops He-Man off next to Cap (the damage die fails) and He-Man uses the X and smacks Cap back 3 spaces but doesn’t do damage. Ram Man fails to hit Iron Man. Black Widow advances and snipes Man-at-Arms for 2 wounds. War Machine hits Man-at-Arms with Air Assault to finish him but misses He-Man. War Machine shoots down on He-Man for 1 wound.
Initiative Avengers. Cap takes height and tosses his shield, hitting whiffing Ram Man for 3 wounds, He-Man for 1 wound, and missing Battle Cat. Ram Man double moves thanks to Battle Momentum and wounds War Machine and himself, then finishes Iron Man (Black Widow rescues the OM’s for War Machine). Battle Cat dumps He-Man next to War Machine and the damage die hits. He-Man takes out War Machine (Black Widow rescues the OM’s for Cap). Cap punches out Ram Man. Black Widow can’t hit He-Man from range and height. He-Man has Battle Cat carry him forward and set him next to Cap (damage die fails) and has Orko advance. He-Man punches out Cap but is still engaged with Black Widow. Battle Cat fails to hit Black Widow. She attacks down on He-Man twice and hits for 2 wounds but can’t take his OM. He-Man has Orko move up and has Battle Cat pick him up and drop him next to Black Widow. The damage die fails. He-Man and Battle Cat finish Widow with attacks.

• HEROIC WARRIORS: Used for [13] move phases and [7] attack phases. Felt [strong]

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): He-Man with 2/6 Life, Battle Cat with Full Life, and Orko with Full Life win.

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UNIT SUMMARY: I think it’s close. I want to try it at 60 points for testing.