When we saw Scholar's incap text on the Handelabra stream, I was confused by his incap powers. One of them was a basic one, like play a card or power, something like that, I forget exactly. Another one was all targets regain 1 hp.
But then the last one was "Choose a player to discard 3 cards". Is this just a sign that Scholar is a little mentally unhinged from knowing too much? or are there any situations where this could be useful? I don't have all the decks yet, so I don't remember if one of them could make use of that incap power, besides an unflipped Scholar of the Infinite himself.
Tachyon likes discarding some burst cards which aren't useful to play. Parse could use it for Critical Multiplier. Absolute Zero to setup a Modular Realignment play. I'm sure there are other cases too
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AZ should only need to discard for a modular realignment early game. In mid to end game when scholar has gotten incapped he usually has a few cards in his discard pile to use anyway, Same with Tachyon, she usually has plenty in her discard pile by the time a hero is incapped, as well as ample opportunities to throw lots of cards into her discard pile without needing help. There are times when I want to have cards in the discard pile, but not by directly having to discard them, I'd much rather have them discarded straight from the top of my deck.
Above all, the opportunity cost to discard instead of having a player use an extra power? I'll use an extra power every time. Parse is a great edge case though, I'd forgotten about critical multiplier. Do any of the team villains give the heroes bonuses for just discarding?
NightMist can find it useful for stacking the discard with 4s before switching the discard and deck.
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Al the situations I listed can be just as useful mid to late game as they can be early on. Overall that incap ability is just more situational just like what other heroes have.
Crush your enemies, drive them before you, and laminate their women! - Guise, Prime Wardens #31
It's not just modules that get put into play by the (unfortunately named) Modular Realignment, it's all equipment. So discarding a Cryo Chamber is a valid tactic late game.
I am thinking the discard might come in handy against the final boss, who (things have been pointing at) The Scholar not surviving, making themeatic sense too.
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Honestly, it's still probably better than Golem Unity's power to destroy one non-character Device card, which if I'm not mistaken is only useful against two villains.
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Ambuscade, Baron Blade(normal and vengeance version), Deadline, Friction, Grand Warlord Voss, and Omnitron all have devices in their deck. Though Omnitron is the one it would be the most effective against.
Crush your enemies, drive them before you, and laminate their women! - Guise, Prime Wardens #31