Here's my two submissions. I haven't really seen anything similar to Giant Cephaloid, though I can see a bunch of us were on the same wavelength for Time Thief. Who knew there'd be so many Kang the Conqueror fans out there? I attempted a Dark Freedom Five (Fearsome Five, anyone?), and was glad to see that better men (and women) than I not only had that idea but executed it better than I would have. Here's hoping that we see that concept in the final expansion, contest or no contest.
Giant Cephaloid
Similar to: Starro, Parasite, that creepy Unity thing from that one episode of Superman: The Animated Series
You have the mad scientist, the sentient robot, the alien warlord - what you need is the mindless, giant monster. Well, how about a mind-eating, giant monster? Giant Cephaloid is a 20-foot-tall squid that spawns little baby cephaloids. Its spawn then attaches to heroes and transfers its host's psychic energy to its mama squid. Facing Giant Cephaloids means making interesting, game-changing decisions while avoiding treacherous tentacles and mind-sucking spawn. Throw in a story-connection to The Visionary (PSY-200 was derived from the first cephaloid specimen - WHAT!) for good measure.
Time Thief
Similar to: Booster Gold but - you know - evil, Kang the Conquerer
The best moments in SotM are not necessarily always when you are doing massive chunks of damage. I love those moments where you start tossing cards around in excitement because you just know a combo will work out. Time Thief is an attempt at making the entire game like that moment. For the first half of the game, heroes are racing to damage Time Thief as much as possible while he powers up his time machine. After he activates his machine, the heroes are racing to power the machine again before his new altered timeline form, Lord Tempus, destroys them all. This villain deck is highly narrative, fits the expansion theme to a tee, and should make for a tense, fast-paced game.
Giant Cephaloid's deck was pretty extensively play-tested. Time Thief's was not play-tested at all. Comments on either would be incredibly welcome. Enjoy!
Aww man, good work... Giant Cephaloid is one of those that I really want to print out and battle in Megalopolis, I really like my aliens to be really "alien" and while there is a direct Starro conection, in terms of the villains in the game I think this would be unique and fun.
Time Thief is definately the best mechanic I've seen in terms of tieing a time travel theme to gameplay.
I think the complete reset is a bit harsh though, and if none of your heroes have abilities to destroy their own equipment they could get stuck on the reverse side waiting for him to play two more devices.
Still, the idea of a time travel creating an altered timeline and then the heros time traveling to reset it is such a classic comic / scifi plot which in retrospect is perfect for a flip mechanic.
Thanks for the kind words, guys.
@lugaru - Giant Cepahloid was play-tested a ton and I think ended up with something close to how I intended it to play. Still can't quite figure out how to get a ton of spawn out into play without absolutely devastating the heroes. I would welcome any and all comments you have if you do end up printing and playing the psycho squid!
@dypaca - The reset is pretty harsh, though the thought behind it is the chronal manipulator brings you back to the start of the game - just in a different timeline. I figured it'd be pretty devastating the first time people play Time Thief, but in future games, they'll know to save cards when he's close to jumping. It's just another interesting choice that'll need to be made. Still, he wasn't play-tested AT ALL, so his deck is most likely completely unbalanced. I plan to try him out regardless of contest results because Kang the Conqueror has always been a favorite of mine.
I like both of these villains a lot
Giant Cephaloid is an awesome concept, and the deck looks to put it into action pretty well. The cards get a bit wordy, talking about heroes without spawns attached, but that is unavoidable, really. I love the alternate victory mechanic. Time Thief is interesting - borrowing devices from other villains and heroes is a good idea. I also wonder about the total reset on a flip, but I get where you're coming from mechanically. Good luck!@ax0r - I struggled so much with the "hero target without a spawn attached" wordiness. I'm hoping that the repetition of the phrase when facing GC just fades into the background after a couple of rounds.
I played Time Thief twice today, with Fanatic, Bunker, and Unity defeating him easily each time in the Ruins of Atlantis. He almost killed Fanatic once, more because she sacrificed herself in order to deal tons of damage. Otherwise, each hero was at about half-health at the end of each game.
The Time Thief side plays really well as is - I was constanting trying to decide between unloading as much immediate damage as possible, saving my own skin from his varied devices at the cost of him charging the time machine, and building up my hand.
The Lord Tempus side did not come across as powerful as I intended. The first game he had a shot at laying on the pain with a nasty of trio of devices. Fanatic's End of Days card made short work of that. She's a natural against Time Thief. The second game, he just never got the right devices out to really hurt the heroes. I feel like Lord Tempus should regain some HP (5? 10?) when he flips to represent his increased power. Also, Quark-Drive Accelerator, while really painful in the hands of Time Thief, is completely counter-active to Lord Tempus' motivations.
There's about four cards where it'd be appropriate to have Time Thief and Lord Tempus sides interact with them differently. For example, Quark-Drive Accelerator would read as so:
If Time Thief is in play, at the end of the villain turn, put the top card of the villain deck beneath the Chronal Manipulator card. Activate the Chronal Manipulator if requirements have been met.
If Lord Tempus is in play, this card deals each hero target X energy damage, where X equals the number of cards beneath the Chronal Manipulator. Then, destroy this card.
Thematically, Time Thief uses the Quark-Drive Accelerator to speed up the time machine's progress, whereas Lord Tempus sabotages the Quark-Drive Accelerator to hurt the heroes. Portable Impulsion Beam and Overload the Quark-Drive are ripe for similar treatment. It'd also allow me to get rid of some text on the rather text-y Lord Tempus side of the villain card.
Great feedback so far, guys. Thank you so much.