Cards you never play

Rhapsody of Vigor: Even though it's nice to have an AoE heal, the other two melody cards feel like they have a bettr effect. I hardly play this, especially considering that the melody cards get played last in general anyway

Divine Sacrifice: As nice as the irreducible damage is, it's kind of hard to get past the secondary effect. It just backfires way too easily.

Overdo It: As useful as a second play is, KNYFE usually doesn't get too many extra cards anyway, so it seems to have a very limited use. Not to mention it takes up your play for that round.

Superhuman Durability: It just feels way too situational. You usually only take that much damage consistantly from environment cards, and there's already a way Legacy can work around that

Tire Iron: I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who thinks that tire iron is inferior to all the other tools. The only situation I play it is if I don't have another tool in my hand.

Dang it I wrote a long response in the other thread that's lost now apparently....

Hmm, why can't I quote in response to this first message?

I can't either so I'm manually quoting 

If you have any damage buffs or even just Gene Bound Shackles this is great.

Excavation is the first card I think of when this type of topic comes up.  I mean, I can see the case it's useful, but I have literally never played it, having never found it a better play than something else in Ra's hand.  

I think I've only played Prayer of Desperation once in all of my Fanatic games (a lot of games) because I find, like Recharge Mode, it's such a huge cost for not a lot of extra card benefit (somewhat proven by the vastly superior version of it in Know When to Hold Fast)

Lemme See That... with Guise is one I don't use often as the benefits from a single equipment normally isn't enough to justify taking it from a player for a round.    It's awesome to use with Mr Fixer and the Argent Adept occasionally but not quite as much with others. 

Gatling Gun- To be fair, it is 3 damage when you're in Turrent Mode. But it delays Bunker's setup by another card, so it's hit or miss for me. 

Astral Premoniton- Any discussions involving "cards I don't like to play" are basically the reason NightMist is my favorite hero. Her gameplay means you get so much use out of cards without ever having to play them. The 4 Astral Premoniotion and Mists of Time are fantastic to discard to heal up, so it never feels like NightMist is ever drawing any bad cards.   

Vicious Cyclone- Combine with Gene-Bound Shackles and Legacy. 

Two of my least favorite cards are Gimmicky Character and Say Cheese. Both feel nearly useless in most situations, and unlike Retcon, they only give an additional play, not the additional draw that I'm usually looking for. I tend to discard these for Blatant Reference.

Can't remember the name of the card, I think Updated Intel..? from Parse's deck. She usually has other cards I would rather play.  

Polyphoric Flare is always trash fodder for me -- AA has low enough HP without smacking himself, and most of the time I'd rather get another instrument or song out.

I don't think I've ever had Recharge mode enter play on purpose. For it to have any real value, you'd need it in play for two turns (one to play, then one to collect 3 cards), and I'd rather simply play a card, then use Bunker's power (or Auxilliary Power Source) if I'm desperate for cards. Upgrade Mode, too, for similar reasons -- unless it's out for multiple rounds, all it means is you can't use your power phase. While Bunker might be slow to set up, it's frankly worse to do nothing but set-up.

Punish The Weak I almost never use -- basically it only sees play if I'm up against a minion heavy deck and those minions are around 4 or lower HP -- that way, Haka can get two kills in with it. Otherwise, the de-buff happens more often than the buff.

For Legacy, Superhuman Durability shines better when you have him fully set up, including both his buff ongoings. That way, Heroic Interception turns from a regretable but acceptable 3-HP self hit down to a negligible 1-hp self hit. But yeah, unless I'm in a 5-H game, it's usually not worth it.

Nightmist's Elder Ring usually goes straight to the trash. She can usually reliably do 3 or 4 damage with each turn anyway, so unless the situation's desperate, I don't usually need to give her a damage boost. As for Astral Premonition, it's true that other characters do that better, but if none of those other characters are around, it's handy to have all the same. The beauty of Nightmist's deck is that she's a true jack of all trades -- not only does she have just about everything in her deck (deck control, deck freezing, damage, ongoing destruction), but she just draws so damn many cards that she's guaranteed to see all of them in her hand at some point or another, even moreso than Tachyon.

That said, Mist-Fueled Recovery and Mists of Time I almost never use, mostly because I prioritize Master of Magic and Starshield Necklace so she rarely needs to do a big heal all at once.

For Omni-X, I almost never use Singularity or Self Sabotage. I tend to focus on steady damage, and by the time it's ready for a finishing move, I've usually got Omni-X attacking four times before his play phase anyway, so except for one time it was thematically appropriate (nuking everything he had to destroy Omnitron), I don't even bother with it as a finisher.

For Ra, Drawn to the Flame gets the back seat. Global damage is great, but I'd much rather just get rid of those ongoings, so by the time it gets to Ra's turn, there's none left for him to burn.

For Tachyon, Accelerated Assault is just a weak version of Hypersonic Assault, so it gets tossed away. At least it's a Burst. Lightning Reflexes usually doesn't see use, either, since I tend to have the goggles and Pushing the Limits out anyway.

Tempest's Elemental Subwave Inducer almost never gets into play. I tend to, in general, prioritize cards that take effect now, so something you have to wait a round to get any effect out of fall by the wayside. I think the most I've played it was when I used Unity on his team, so she could get a free bot.

For the Wraith, Combat Stance and Inventory Barrage don't see much use for me. Her equipment is too good to throw away, and Combat Stance suffers from being Melee damage. If I can get Twist the Ether on her, though...

Self-Sabotage is amazing when fighting Omnitron, though, because you can use it to blow up his components, and then deal him damage.  It's one of the easiest ways to deal with Cosmic Omnitron's initial setup, especially on advanced.

Accerated Assault and Sucker Punch aren't particularly good, but they see lots of play because Tachyon is so often playing everything she can, and has literally no better options.

I occasionally play Mass Levitation, but I almost never use it.  Visionary's other powers are almost always better.

Nobody's mentioned Suture Self yet?  I pretty much only play it if Wraith has zero other useful play options.

I rarely play Turret Bot, although I wouldn't say never.

I guess it would also be a good play in the new Carnival Environment, of course with Te Moko in play.

 Excavation and Wrathful gaze

flawless execution

Incendiary rounds (only if I don't have hollow)

vitality conduit (Usually just use as fodder)

superhuman durability (weaker shielding winds)

elemental subwave inducer (I do use this for PW and F6 tempest but otherwise its mostly useless to me)

Haka of shielding (I use restoration over it every time unless I know I will take x amount of damage) I do use punish the weak on minion high villains and single target villains because being the only non-hero means you get a +1 damage and it makes you hurt your allys less when rampaging

uncharmed life (no idea how this could be made useful)

Bounty board (slower version of ranger's mark?)

undetectable relinking (I could see how this would be usefull in some cases but I think i have only played it once or twice ever)

foresight and brain burn (I do like brain burn against certain villains like chairman and baron blade but otherwise its mostly just made suggestion useless while hurting myself)

robot reclamation ( I mostly only use if I have no bots in hand or deck)

human shield (Even with his signature out I rarely want to redirect damage to a target that already has such low hp)

singularity (I always use defensive blast over this for aoe damage)

gimmicky character and X-TREEEEEEEEEEEME!!! ( Both are edge case plays for me)

If anyone knows any clever ways to use these cards that I hadn't thought of please let me know.

For Human Shield Normal Mainstay can get up DR 2 with Durasteel Chains and his power.   With that he can protect his other Sentinels members at worst and absorb some other low hits too.   

Personally I like Haka of Restoration and Haka of Shielding to cycle through cards.  

Gimmicky Character is mainly useful with Selling Out because you can discard a One Shot to play 3 One-Shots and use one of those One Shots to play an Ongoing. And of course if you know that e.g. Prison Break is on top of the Villain deck, it's good to be able to discard it. Say Cheese is a damaging One Shot that lets you play more damaging One Shots - great for big combo turns.

I tend to use Divine Sacrifice on cards like the Gene Bound Guards that don't deal damage, or when it would kill the target, but on the odd occasion I do use it to redirect damage.

It's rare that I use Enduring Intercession, but on the odd occasion it's very handy. It makes cards like Hunter and Hunted a bit safer.

Recharge Mode is good for when you really need damage reduction, or if you know some Ongoings are going to get blown up.

Mass Levitation is sometimes the safe play. If you want to prevent the Environment from blowing up Citizen Spring, for instance, or if the Explosives Cart is going to kill everyone.

I don't know how Coolant Blast and Undetectable Relinking were mentioned. They're great.

It's funny, many of these cards were really useful in a recent PBF game in Vengeance format on the BGG forums. In particular, Guise played Gimmicky Character and Say Cheese (although neither was as good as Best Card Ever, of course), and Drawn to the Flame was absolutely amazing, especially once Ra got his staff out.

Thread link for anyone interested: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1541627/sotm-pbf-66-few-villains-more-c...

I still don't see how to use Punish The Weak effectively.  I see how it could be useful for Rampage, but most of the time I would sooner take the extra 1 HP hit to each hero than spend the extra card play to set up and extra power use to get rid of it afterwards.

But 5 damage should be enough to clear any of them anyhow, even with a damage reduction of two out, you still wouldn't need a +1 damage.

Also, if you're playing against someone where it's generally beneficial to deal damage to the lowest HP target rather than leaving some around (for example Akash'bhuta, the Ennead, or La Capitan) or a villain without additional targets (like Plague Rat or Iron Legacy), then Punish the Weak can function like a normal damage booster like Surge of Strenght (with the added benefit that any damage to heroes is reduced, which is especially nice against Plague Rat)

Also Punish the Weak has synergy with Savage Mana: since you want to kill stuff you'll be hitting the lowest HP usually.

Funny thing about Haka of Shielding, in one of the guides it's compared favorably to Haka of Restoration (2HP prevention vs 1 HP Heal) and Vitality Surge (bigger card cycle)

Uncharmed Life has been useful for getting Setback hit when the damage has a rider, like "Heroes dealt damage this way can't deal damage until next turn". I know I used it in Realm of Discord more than once.

Now that I see it listed the one I have never used is Flawless Execution.

Flawless Execution is handy against the likes of The Dreamer, as it effectively functions as a universal damage boost, unlike KNYFE's damage boosting equipment.

This amuses me, since that's one of my favourite AA cards. I'm much less likely to play Scherzo of Frost and Flame; 2 damage is fine, but not compared to a lot of what AA can do.

I feel the same, but today I played with a new player (their second game), they took Ra and really liked this card. Different strokes, I guess.

Sucker Punch, Wrathful Gaze and Suture Self are ones I would add.

Oh, huh. I forgot Wrathful Gaze even existed, which I suppose goes to show how often I use it.

I remember 1 game where we were facing Akash'Bhuta and as AA my opening hand contained 2 Scherzos and Pipes.  The first 2 environment plays were both Obsidian Field.  By round 3 AA was doing 16 damage a turn!

Mists of Time is a card I don't use.  Even when flipping her deck might be a good play I typically have better ones.  

It works great with salvage yard though!

Thats a good one I saw posted elsewhere.   Most times though it does not seem the best play.  

The only time Mists of Time is really a useful play is when most of your deck is in your deck, and you are ready with Mist-Fueled Recovery the next turn.  So, it's rarely useful.  On the other hand, it has 3 and 4 as its spell points, so it still has value even though it's rarely playable.

I stack the trash with 4s (maybe 3s) then after a bit switch the decks and just unleash for a few turns.

I don't use it often, but there are a couple of situations it comes in handy:

(1) Villains who don't put out targets themselves.  (Spite, Iron Legacy, Plague Rat come to mind).  Unless you're playing in a target-rich environment, a lone villain will almost always be the target with the lowest HP, so it's effectively a +1 DMG for Haka.  

(2) Overcome Damage Reduction:  It can help to take out pesky things like Voss' Gene-Bound Guards, Citizen Truth, and Gloomweaver's Disciple (forget his name) that does -1 DR -- they're all low-HP targets, so will likely qualify for the +1 DMG.

(3) Feed Ongoing Destruction:  If you're dealing with villains that like to destroy ongoings, having it out there to sacrifice to keep your more valuable ongoings from getting killed, or as food for DW Fixer's power.

I don't use Sky Scraper's Explosive Reveal.  I think I have only ever used it once.

I don't know how many people will get the reference, but; with Punish the Weak and Savage Mana, Haka is the equivalent of a "Carry" in DOTA.

WIth these cards, you encourage a playstyle of taking out many low-HP targets, and getting the finishing blows when others have weakened them, building SM up faster than you otherwise would. Place Haka late in the team order, get other party members to wear enemies down, and give Haka the last hit.

Keep in mind that the "lowest HP" check is applied to each target at the time you damage them; if you're attacking multiple targets, hit the lowest HP one first, and destroy them, a new target is now the one with the lowest HP and PTW will give that boost against them too. In certain cirumstances (especially against villains heavy with many low-HP targets, like Omnitron), PTW and careful ordering can be the difference between leaving everyone alive, or wiping everyone out (and getting a big Savage Mana boost to boot). When Savage Mana does fire, you generally do so much damage that the -1 damage for hitting a none-lowest target (assuming you haven't clear the rest of the board in advance) will be negliable anyway.

In one of the very first games I plaed of Sentinels, I was playing Haka vs. Voss and I played Punish the Weak to improve my ability to stomp all over his minions while the other players focused on bigger targets.  I don't play it often, but it does have some use.

My friend and I call this the "janiotor Haka" build

Superhuman Durability's effectiveness, as other cards like it depends a lot on H. With 4 players or less it's rarely useful, but with H=5 and some villains, it's very useful. In the same way, Undaunted gets very powerful in many H=3 fights.

Enduring Interecession is a card I play often. Haka may lose a lot of hp, but other members of the team are fine and can fight far longer - and Haka of Restoration means you can endure even longer. In fact, Haka is very good at handling environment's with lots of targets, thanks to Enduring and Punish the Weak, letting everyone else take care of the villain. Until Haka finishes with a big savage mana fueled by all these environment targets.

Excavation allows Ra to draw up to three cards. The only way he can have extra draws outside of Summon Staff.

Prayer of desperation is incredibly useful after using Divine Focus for a full round, or even Wrathful Retribution : lose a turn to go back to a full hand.

I recently learnt to play Nightmist with no Talisman, using her other powers. It's a very different Nightmist, less destructive, but very good at controling, both the villain and her own deck. I spend far less time waiting for a talisman now that I am used to having her do other things.

Drawn to the flame is my favorite Ra card : with the Staff, you can deal 1 damage to every target even if the villain has no ongoing. Add imbued fire and solar flare for maximum destruction. And if the villain has ongoings...

Coolant Blast is only effective if you can be sure to drench AZ in flames. When he is in team with Ra, AZ often becomes the main target of Ra's damage... In some environments or against some villains, it's good single target damage - even if you dont have modules in play.

I like Mass Levitation a lot. It neutralizes most of environments, and life is easier when you don't have to worry about all that damage.

There are less and less cards I never use - last year I decided to "force" myself to play all cards I didn't find interesting and see what happen, and they are all very surprising.

I actually got a lot of good use out of Punish the Weak while trying to unlock Heroic Infinitor. It basically negated his damage reduction.

I've never thought of using coolant blast, for some weird reason. in the rare occurrence you don't have Isothermic Transducer. That seems obvious now that you mention it. Thanks for that.

I knew I forgot one - but it's still 3 cards.

Also, for Coolant Blast : if you took no fire damage, it deals zero damage - that can be increased. If Legacy galvanizes you, it's a good card to play in your first round.

And there is the rare but wonderful case where you have both Thermal Shockwave and Coolant blast, and Fanatic Emboldens you.

Against the likes of The Ennead, Coolant Blast can be simply straight up better than Isothermic Transducer, because they've already hit you for fire damage. Isothermic Transducer doesn't reach into the past.

I would have really liked to see that discussion on Sub-Zero Atmosphere. I hardly see the point of playing it if the field isn't cleared, which AZ normally needs his play to either help do just that or continue his set-up.

Coolant Blast- This card really shines when you've been juggling around fire damage for the last round, be it from your own one-shots or outside sources like enemies or environments(or even your own team-mates). And if you can somehow use Thermal Shockwave beforehand outside your turn? Beautiful.

Smoke Bombs- To the person who's team almost got killed by these...How? This card can be great when you're trying to keep low hp hero targets alive(bots, constructs, other heroes...). Did you get hit by one of those 'Hit everything with 5 damage' cards? If that WAS the case, then yes, I can see the problem. I suppose that just means you got to think like the Wraith herself and be wary of tactics you know a villain will use beforehand.

Rhapsody of Vigor- Nobody doesn't like healing. And what's great is that it works on everything, not just heroes. Bolster the Explosive cart so it doesn't die as soon, heal up the Dreamer so Haka can safely rampage...

Prayer of Desperation- Even if it flat out ends your turn, this card is great if you're running low from having Divine Focus out or after playing a Wrathful Retribution, or any villain that loves to make you discard.

Polyphoric Flare- To be honest, yes I use this as discard fodder more often than I play it. But that doesn't mean it does not have its uses. This card is more designed for late game play I think. By that time an extra power usage is almost like cheating for AA. Not only will you already have enough of your instruments out to make it useful then(barring lots of equipment destruction), you should also have Supertonic out to heal yourself up from the damage it causes.

Drawn to the Flame- During those times when you're fighting villains that have tons of ongoings and you don't have any way to destroy them in hand, Drawn to the Flame can be the glowing silver lining of the situation. It's especially potent against Dawn, I find. ;)

Combat Stance- Yeah it's not projectile, but the Wraith does more than just throw stuff. This card is useful for when you need some retribution damage, especially from things that attack you once every turn like Treacherous Ape.

Inventory Barrage- Again, a card designed for late game. When the chips are down and you need a LOT of damage done to a target(2x damage for each equipment card) and you need to do it NOW,

Bounty Board- Great as a first play after you destroyed a target with three of your precious bounties on it or to get them back in your hand after an ongoing wipe from villains like Omnitron or Blade.

Robot Reclamation- A bunch of your bots go down last turn? Had to discard some bots to escape something deadly? Or do you REALLY need Bee-Bot back after using it last turn? Easily reclaim those robots with this card, and even put one in your hand!

I don't think any of the cards are really 'Bad', but some are very situational. You just gotta find the right time to play them. :)

Polyphoric Flare I use a decent bit, because it lets me chain instruments that might get left out, esp. lets me stack his damage mods, and usually it involves Supertonic healing me anyway.  It is a late game card, and not as good as Silver Shadow, but it works.

Robot Reclamation more often than not is just to get that one golem I really want back in hand, usually Mr. Chomps, Bee Bot or Stealth Bot (but occasionally Cryo Bot).  Used to just get one back it is better than Flash Forge in that it is a 1 for 1.  If I have Stealth out and a reclamation in hand it means I can burn S. Bot and get it right back in play the next turn.  It is amazing.

Excavation I also use a good bit.  It allows me to stack the environment a bit, I love it in any env. that has nasty cards and good cards.  Like in Atlantis once Hercules hits the trash I will put almost and card back in the deck to keep that card from cycling around again, and Font of Power is a serious Excavation target.

There are almost always cards you would have come out rather than others, and that's what Excavation is for.  Even in short games I've had Font of Power or Bloogo come out twice because of excavation.

I used to say The Scholar's Know When to Turn Loose.  Then I played a game against Advanced Progeny where I would not have been able to win if it weren't for that card.

Yeah, come to that, I avoid a lot of the 'finishing move' types of cards mainly because I'm enjoying the set-ups and tricks that I've got. Part of me would rather see how long I can string out the Argent Adept's combos or have everything pinging off Cosmic's constructs -- thus extending the game -- than just blow up the villain with a Haka of Battle or Inventory Barrage.

I think half the time I've used Haka of Battle, it was when Haka would've been able to finish the villain off with a normal Crush anyway and I just wanted to finish big.

I get Excavation's usage, just in a deck that has no avenue for extra card play I rarely find it to be a better play than his other cards.  To be fair, I rarely play Ra because he is usually played by others that I play with (and he just dones't really do it for me) so I'd probably play it if I played his deck more