I thought it might be fun to start a community driven guide to each character. The goal is to provide basic and advanced strategies , as well as counters for those strategies. While I'm sure many of these ideas have been discussed elsewhere, the goal with these threads will be to gather links and try to put everything in one easy source. That said, I am hardly an expert on any of the characters, and I strongly encourage others to add their own input.
Legacy
Legacy is a versatile character who can serve as a token generator for himself and his team, a guardian for his less durable allies, a melee striker, or a hybrid of two roles.
Token Generation Legacy: This is probably the most obvious Legacy build. By running Galvanize and Inspiring Presence, Legacy can hand out quite a few Attack +1 tokens and can even throw in a few Defense +1 tokens when necessary. Token generating legacy can be countered a couple of ways. The obvious, and most effective counter is Baron Blade's Devious Disrupter. However a second counter would be to use a character such as Citizen Dawn paired with Citizens Blood, Sweat & Tears to generate -1 tokens to negate corresponding +1 tokens.
Guardian Legacy: By running Danger Sense and Heroic Interception, Legacy can switch places with his less durable teammates and protect them from attack. With his high health, large pool of defense die, and Danger Sense's auto block, Legacy can absorb quite a beating without succumbing to incapacitation. The best way to counter this strategy is to use forced movement to break Legacy's line of sight to his allies or somply pile on the damage to K.O. LEgacy.
Melee Striker Legacy: To be most effective with this strategy, you need to have the promotional card Flying Smash. Without it, Legacy's low action pool can sometimes hamstring his ability to get into the fight. To be most effective you must assess how many targets you can attack and how far you need to travel. If you cannot reach your target with a move/sprint, you will likely want to arm Legacy with Surge of Strength and Flying Smash. If you can attack multiple targets, you may also want to use Surge of Strength and Flying Smash. However, if you can preserve your move, save your attack +1 counters for a Thokk, as you will get more bang for your buck with its higher hit percentage. Finally, if your will only be able to attack one target arm Surge of Strength and Inspiring Presence to load up on attck +1 tokens for a massive 6+ die Thokk. The law of averages suggests you will get 5 hits on six die Thokk which should overwhelm most defenses to get some damage through. To counter striker Legacy, keep your distance to capitalize on his low action pool, try to avoid tight formations where flying smash's radius one can hit multiple targets, and use elevation to make it dificult for Legacy to score hits. (editted to reflect the wisdom of the debate below)
I was going to wait to do this until after GenCon, but for some ideas on Legacy:
Your starting powers should include at least one defensive power (Heroic Interception or Danger Sense) if Legacy is not going first and you don't have Beacon on your team. You can swap it out at the start of Legacy's turn. Run Danger Sense in most cases, but run Heroic Interception if you have a weak ally you don't want the enemy to be able to take out before Legacy can go (Unity, Visionary and Tachyon, I'm looking at you!). If you are teamed up with Beacon, a token generator like Surge of Strength or Galvanize would also be a good start for him. Beacon's extra action can feed your allies more tokens. Beacon + Legacy (with Galvanize) + Bunker = First turn Omni-Cannon with extras (x2 Galvanize for + 4 attack tokens all before Bunker goes. Add in Turret Mode and Auxiliary Power Supply for extra fun).
Remember that Motivational Charge heals your allies even if you deal no damage. This can be great for mid-battle recoveries and can really extend the life of Danger Sense if everyone is attacking Legacy.
Another counter to Legacy's Danger Sense + Motivational Charge is large damage aimed attacks (Lightspeed Barrage, Fission Blaster, Omni-Cannon, Custom Hand Cannon). He can take the attacks, but he can't take them forever.
Legacy's weaknesses are low-damage attacks (although he can build up tokens to overcome this) and low action economy. Because of this, Legacy will rarely aim, he has a tough time closing in on ranged opponents, and he is hindered by -1 Attack tokens.
Legacy's Danger Sense really counters characters with low attack dice. This includes Ra (usually), Tachyon, Visionary, Proletariat and The Operative (above 2 health).
Characters who counter Legacy well include Baron Blade, Bunker, Beacon and Ambuscade.
"Deja-fu? You've heard of that?"
- Lu Tze, Sweeper, Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett
Inspiring Presence + Surge of Strength is a pretty good build, with solid move rolls a 6 dice melee attack is really strong, and you still generate tokens for allies.
My thoughts on Legacy:
1. Token dispenser Legacy is used too liberally, one half of his turn and both powers is a lot to give up, unless you are going for Omnicannon or Focused Blast Surge of Strength and Legacy's 6 hp being in the fight is a better option. A 6 dice melee attack is crazy good. Think with your auto-misses.
Obviously not if you can't get in attack range though. Before you close feel free to token drop, but if the fight closes in stop putting the brawler in the back row and punch someone's face in.
2. Flying Smash isn't all that. If you just go with # of dice clearing auto-misses 5 dice 1 auto-miss is roughly equal to 7 die 2 auto-miss, the difference is tiny percentage wise, and you lose your 6. Don't flying smash 1 target if you can move and punch them. Also you should run 6 dice because Surge+IP is wicked.
Frankly move+6 dice Thokk is better than 7 dice smash+ 3 dice Thokk, and sometimes better than 5 dice smash+5 dice Thokk. Add in the inspiring presence tokens and your team is often better off.
Had a match where our legs was token dropping and then switched galv for surge and dropped 9 dice on Dawn for an Incap. There was surprise that we would even do that.
3. Don't handcuff interception and DS. Spreading damage around can win you a match, esp. if you can heal with not Legacy. Let your allies take damage, save them when they are at high risk of incap, maximize healing.
4. Use intercept to switch from token drop to deathpunch mode. Sit at long range giving someone tokens while someone gets close, then switch galv. for Intercept and jump forward. One of my favorite times is using slip Wraith with token Legs to cause nightmares in the enemy base, and when they think they finally have her Legacy is in their face and he has 7 attack+1 tokens and nearly full health, while Wraith sits back safely ready to snipe. (Omni-Punch is the name you use when Legs throws that uppercut)
Pairings:
Beacon. Always Beacon. Focused Blast is just too good when you have 3-5 A+1 tokens.
Baron. Even better than Beacon because they cannot counter your token gain and aimed fusion blast + tokens is awesome. This pairing is why Legs can't give tokens to enemies and why dodge tokens became single use. They got hardcore nerfed and they still rock. Remember Baron rocks at token generation also, and he's tough, be tough and one-shot people.
Pull off the team of Legs, Beacon, Baron and the world gets awesome.
Ra. Solar Flare loves Interception, and it also lets you get close to pull off things like my favorite Ra trick, Tornado on someone, flame spike in play, and you run up to them for 4 attacks.
Legacy is countered by those same people, focused Blast laughs at Danger sense, and Baron crushes Legs as much or more than anyone. Solar Flare + Tornado on a long distance token Legs is good times.
Considering the die analysis, I can see your argument on buffing Thokk rather than Flying Smash. However, I still think a 5 die Flying Smash followed by 5 die Thokk is better than a 6 die Thokk. Big picture, IP, might help the team out more in a long sustained game, but when it is all about the incap I still think 2 attacks are better than 1.
Now where I think this analysis is more important, is looking at this mid-game when you are switching modes. Let's say for arguments sake you went token heavy to start and thus are rocking Galv and IP. It is turn 2, you already have one attack +1 counter, It is time to attack, and you will only be able to hit one target. Do you:
1. Play Surge & IP, you put all your eggs into one basket, and throw down a massive Thokk 7 die Thokk; or
2. Play IP & Smash, throw two attacks, and use a 5 die Smash followed by a 5 die Thokk?; or
3 Play IP & Smash, aim, and use a 7 die Smash? (If this is even a viable option, I would never use this option if your opponent has a dodge token as 6 is an auto miss)
Also keep in mind that Flying Smash hits multiple targets and allows a movement of three before making the attack. So if you are just short on movement or have a lot of targets to hit Flying Smash comes in more handy.
Crush your enemies, drive them before you, and laminate their women! - Guise, Prime Wardens #31
Aiming a Flying Smash is terrible. Your odds are bad, and you can't get a 6. 7 dice aimed with 2 Automisses that take out a 6, is practically equivalent to 6 dice unaimed with 1 automiss. 2 attacks aren't always better than 1 either, because they roll defense for both. Solid results on Smash+5D Thokk is 2 dice over a 3 defense roll. 6 dice Thokk gets you equivalent odds and 2 +1 tokens.
Flying Smash unboosted is a crap shoot, you might get a damage, you might get lucky, you might do nothing. Use it when you need to move and fly to engage. When you can move and Thokk, Danger Sense or IP is better.
This all comes down to the economics of dice, best explained with +1 tokens. Your #1 value for using the +1 is the chance of it being a defense+1 or damage dice, meaning you are past their defense roll already, and then you look at the odds of missing or failing range.
That's why Wraith with Targeting Computer and Throwing Knives is the best target for +1 tokens.
In our example Thokk at 6 dice is likely to hit 5 of them, where Thokk at 5 dice is likely to hit 4, and Flying Smash at 5 dice is likely to hit 3 dice. You are banking on dice luck, which is fine, but investing in luck is unwise. Thokk at 6 dice gives you better odds at dice above defense, and allies with +1 tokens.
If you can get extra attacks with Smash, it becomes a better choice, but again you are looking at a likely even roll, which you need to weigh against the bonus a different power could give you.