I can't pretend to anything like flamethrower49's expertise with the game, but here in embryonic form is a collection of thoughts I've had about The Scholar since I started playing Shattered Timelines.
-----
THE BASICS
As I see it, The Scholar will primarily follow one of two primary routes through a given game—tanking and counterpunching.
Tanking
He can tank with Flesh to Iron(s) and use his play phase to boost/shield other characters with Don’t Dismiss Anything, Proverbs and Axioms, and Alchemical Redirection—the “tank-and-crank” strategy. The Scholar will vacuum up damage and effectively give everybody else double turns.
A slight variation on this is the “tank-and-bank”—focus on mass card drawing (Bring What You Need, Know When to Hold Tight) and await the right moment to deploy Know When to Cut Loose. I think this is generally suboptimal when done in place of tuning up the other heroes, but against certain villains (particularly ones who have a built-in waiting game like Dawn and Spite), strategic deployment will make inevitable victory a mathematical certainty.
Counterpunching
Flesh to Liquid(s) + Flesh to Energy(s) makes The Scholar a punching-bag that punches back. He’s still tanking, after a fashion, but instead of shrugging the damage off, he's using it as fuel for a heal-to-damage attack through his base power or “Get Out of the Way!” or any out-of-turn healing from other heroes. His health will yo-yo up and down from round to round, but, barring bad luck, he shouldn't be in real danger of dying; there are just too many ways for him to regain health.
ATTACKING
Know When to Cut Loose is a sucker’s bet 90% of the time; you’re better off playing the cards for their individual powers or banking them to keep one or two Forms going. 10% of the time—when capping off a “tank-and-bank” strategy—this card will win the whole damn game. Deploy it to kill or cripple villain characters; otherwise, you’re better off using the cards themselves.
Truth Seeker is useful in very specific circumstances—generally, you’re better off using Bring What You Need for drawing, then powering more Forms for damage. Sometimes, though, it's more helpful to do two things acceptably than one thing well; thus, this card.
Offensive Transmutation does something that other heroes can do more easily, but it’s nice to have it nonetheless; there will be slow moments where The Scholar’s biggest contribution is just standing there and taking the hits, and cards like this let him provide some additional utility. Slap it on whatever's likely to do the most damage in the next round (or whatever'll do damage in a way that The Scholar can't tank), and it'll give the heroes some useful breathing room. Villains who do most of their damage personally (like Spite) are especially vulnerable to cards like this one.
“Get Out of the Way!” is a key part of the using the counterpunching strategy against minion-based villains; combining it with Mortal Form to Energy allows you to catch the villain and his minions coming and going.
POWER COUPLES
Legacy and the Scholar are OMG BFFs in a big, big way. Legacy’s Motivational Charge and Galvanize will elevate the counterpunching strategy from sustainable DPS to a non-stop beating, and presence of two beefy tanks will ensure that the other heroes rarely get hit.
Omnitron-X loves The Scholar. Why? Because The Scholar will nearly guarantee that Omnitron-X’s fragile Components never leave play; Omnitron-X is never gonna get close to 5 damage. Plus, Don’t Dismiss Anything lets Omnitron-X get set-up in half the time. (Similarly, Unity can play bots directly with Don't Dismiss Anything; her restriction only applies to her own play phase.) And The Scholar’s just fine with Omnitron—his Innervation Beam dovetails nicely with a counterpunching strategy. (With Omnitron X and Legacy together, The Scholar is conceivably putting out 4-6 damage per round automatically, without including his own plays and powers.)
Wraith and the Scholar only have one really great interaction, but it’s a killer: Smoke Bombs. If Scholar is the highest HP hero in the game and Smoke Bombs is in play, Flesh to Iron becomes an unstoppable forcefield. Even if he’s not the highest HP hero, judicious redirection of damage with Smoke Bombs will quickly equalize everyone’s HP, at which point The Scholar can heal back up and continue as above.
MISCELLANEOUS
The Scholar should really be the first hero to play. He responds well in the immediate aftermath of villain plays, either with damage cards like “Get Out of the Way!” and Grace Under Fire or with tanking cards like Alchemical Redirection and Expect the Worst. Moreover, other players will benefit from seeing the results of Don’t Dismiss Anything or Proverbs and Axioms in deciding what to do during their own turns. Similarly, it'll be helpful for them to know that they’ll be sheltering under an Alchemical Redirection or that a Flesh to Iron will stay in play until next round.
Drawing your second Don’t Dismiss Anything of the game sets you up for potentially vicious card engine. Repeatedly using one Don’t Dismiss Anything to place another Don’t Dismiss Anything on the top of your deck will essentially allow you to surrender your play phase indefinitely in exchange for giving everyone else a free card play every round. When deployed early in the game or when paired with setup-heavy heroes (Argent Adept, Unity, Omnitron-X), this combo will let the team come out swinging. The trade-off, however, is that you will be giving up everything else—no Proverbs and Axioms, no Alchemical Redirections, no mass card drawing, etc. Your draw phase will go towards keeping a single Form in play (preferably Flesh to Iron), and you will be effectively in stasis as you keep the engine running. If you’re going to run this engine, try to get Bring What You Need out before starting, then use your power phase to bank cards towards paying for Forms or an eventual Know When to Cut Loose.
Remember that Forms are not limited; you can stack them to augment their effects. Just remember that you have to pay for all of them—two Forms is generally the sustainable limit, either through card-drawing abilities or by skipping your turn to draw twice. You can put out more Forms in short bursts, but even with the Scholar’s various card-drawing powers, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to sustain them for more than a round or two. (On the other hand, it’s generally better to get a Form out there and use it when you can; you’ll get more use out of that in the long run than in storing them up waiting for a card surplus that may never come.)
Very nice work. I really like reading guides, even for characters that I feel I have a handle on (which unfortunately isn't many).
Flamethrower49's guides were actually my entrypoint into the game in a way. I read most of his available guides after I had kickstarted Infernal Relics, but before I had any idea what cards were in any of the heroes decks. It's always nice to see other people's perspectives on different decks, especially since part of the appeal of this game is that there is no single correct way to play any hero.
I hope we'll see more people writing guides in the future (and that Flamethrower keeps 'em coming). I'm currently trying to work up the courage to write a guide for Absolute Zero. Maybe in the next couple of weeks...
Some other power couples:
Scholar loves when Argent Adept can let another Hero play a card, allowing Scholar to use his Draw 5 Cards one-shots without immediately ending his turn.
And while pretty much everyone loves Team Leader Tachyon, Scholar loves her more.
ALSO Scholar and AA's play card out of turn can set up the "Expect the worst" "Alchemical redirection" combo of damage negation. That's a fun one.
Nice! This will be added to my growing compendium.
I'm not sold yet on the Don't Dismiss Anything engine. It looks super strong, but you have to play the card, and my other heroes just keep flipping up disastrous cards. (End of Days, Inventory Barrage, Oblivion, Enduring Intercession type of cards, where they have a time and a place, but right now, they suck.) Of course, a hero can get a card back instead if they think that might happen, but that's not nearly as strong a thing for the Scholar to do every turn, and besides, it's hard to resist the pull of free plays. (The same thing that has us killing Set game after game, whether or not it results in unmitigated disaster.) Unity/Argent Adept/Omnitron X, though, it certainly works pretty well for them.
It's definitely a high-risk, high-reward strategy. (I've also End of Days'd myself, but it was fortunately right at the beginning.)
Don't Dismiss Anything is great when combined with Vernal Sonata or Reclaim From the Deep. In this case, you probably want The Scholar to go last, in order to get the benefit of playing cards like Take Down, Grease Gun and Ground Pound out of turn.
don't let me forget to add this to the wiki! ornif someone else does that's good too
Lynkfox.
http://sentinelswiki.com/ The Sentinels of the Multiverse Wiki
http://mindwanderer.net/sotm/ - SoTM Statistics! Updated DAILY!
PM me if you're interested in playing with the Statistics Data!
i wikied it. Finally :p
Lynkfox.
http://sentinelswiki.com/ The Sentinels of the Multiverse Wiki
http://mindwanderer.net/sotm/ - SoTM Statistics! Updated DAILY!
PM me if you're interested in playing with the Statistics Data!
You forgot to add Inspiring Precence. That extra +1 comes with a HP for everyone. With MFtE that is a free damage.
In fact, due to Legacy being able to buff everyone, Scholar might not need StL. Solid to Liguid always flet like a buff to me than a way to heal faster. I mean, the +1 healing is nice but it works best iwht MFtE. It's like scholar is saying "I heal 2 and deal 2 but I need to spend two turns playing it unless I Keep Moving and i need to discard 2 cards a turn: while with Legacy he says "I heal 1 deal 2 and I only need to discard 1 and spend a turn setting up!'
Motivational charge might even do more damage...
(With Mortal form to energy)
Legacy: Galvanize.
Scholar: +1 hp, (1+1=2)
(With Mortal form to energy and solid to liquid)
Legacy: Galvanize
Scholar: +2 Hp, (2+1=3)
(With Motivational Charge)
Legacy: Motivational Charge. 2 damage. Everyone heals 1. Shcolar deals 1.
Scholar: heals 1
4 damage.
Imagine Legacy Ring and/or two MFtE. that +1 HP can do a lot or work.
Programming is like Life: Complicated and too many rules.
A Biophospherescent Chamber in the Ruins of Atlantis would be very helpful too, then (all healing +1, all damage +1, though it forces a discard from everyoneat the end of the environment turn if you didn't all discard to get rid of it at the start).
I am the Wordweaver...
Basically, I like writing stuff ;)
Oh yea, that's a good idea. If scholar uses his base power to heal 1, the chamber buffs it to 2. Wih a MFtE the dmage he does is +1ed for 3, and if he has a SoL that's an extra HP for 3 heals 4 damage.
Course, that would be three discards so with th echamber out if everyone can aford discards. It would be best to just have one form out with the chamber (two if your team focus on Smoke Bombss/Flesh to Iron or other have Scholar take it all strageties.)
Another good team up for scholar is Team Leader Tachyon. Now, I know TLT works best with everyone, but Scholar needs extra draws. WIth TLT Scholar can draw two without having to skip his card play and power. Thus, he adds more fuel to his engine.
Programming is like Life: Complicated and too many rules.
My favorite team up with the Scholar is Tempest.
Rain is wicked, and Scholar giving Tempest an out of turn power to heal everyone. . . yeah.
But the amazingness is having Tempest play directly before the Scholar. You reclaim from the deep with Tempest and DDA with the Scholar. In a four player match that lets the other two cycle one card from the trash into play each turn, all out of turn.
It isn't always worth it, but there are tons of one shots that can be far more valuable than the card play you are giving up. As long as Scholar and Tempest return a copy when they play their own card it works indefinitely. Tempest Scholar Adept can also be an amazing 3-man team because of the ridiculousness you can get into with vernal added in (a heal too) and extra card plays from Adept to let you cycle more if needed. Add an Expat if you want someone to churn out ridiculous damage while they have fun with cards.
They kind of break the Multiverse.
The new variant has been public for about 2 months now, and I want to discuss it. I think it changes the way I play him a lot, even if I don't know his incapped powers.
Scholar of the Infinite
Channel: The Scholar deals himself and 1 target X infernal damage, where X = the number of cards you've discarded since the end of your last turn plus 1.
This power is very attractive, and I tend to use it alot as soon as I have a form in play. Combined with Flesh to Iron, this is usually 2 damage to any target,
3 if you played a one shot that turn.This power makes him better at the Tank n' Crank Strategy mentioned above, because it lets him deal more damage.But his Counter Punching strategy makes him burn himself down much quicker, and doesn't work all that well when he can't reliably heal himself every turn. Get out of the way is only good with minion based villains, while transmutive recovery, proverbs and axioms, and expect the worst are only 7 out of his 40 card deck. 2 discards for MftE and StL +1,
+1 for a one shot you play that turn= 3 damage per power use that suddenly isn't quite so easy to heal from - unless you're playing a minion based villain, in which case, go for it. Losing health, and then rocketing up quickly again is pretty dang fun, and now John can do it almost as much as Nightmist, with 31 health to begin with! (Get out of the way brings the good heal cards to 10/40, which feels more forgiving, though that might be me being biased by round numbers)WIth normal Scholar, FtI doesn't combo well with the other 2 forms, since I ignore most of the damage I take. WIth Infinite Scholar, I'm more likely to combo FtI with the other 2 forms, since I can ignore the first couple points to me, and then heal/use the rest. It's also a game changer to start counting how many cards you've discarded in a turn. Know when to turn loose is slightly more attractive now, since that damage can be doubled +1, and it's useful with a small hand. (3 cards in hand, 1 is turn loose. 2 damage, and then 3 more damage to the target with my power use)
Keep Moving and Don't Dismiss anything can be an extra card discarded this turn, while Expect the Worst and Alchemical Redirection are an extra card discarded the next one.Infinite Scholar has a bigger weakness than normal Scholar, because I don't like to use his power without a form in play. It combos so well with them, but without them, just means I'm taking as much damage as the target, without a way to use it to my advantage, while decreasing my tanking cababilities.
I think that's everything I've discovered about him so far. Critiques?
Edited to correct my misunderstanding.
Note that playing a card is not the same as discarding.
But when I play a one shot, it goes to the discard pile, correct? So doesn't that mean it got discarded? And this happens before my turn is over? if not, then I've been playing this completely wrong.
I will type through this, to see where my assumptions are. I play a card.
1. It leaves my hand 2. It goes into play 3. Its effects take place. 4. The effects resolve. If it was ongoing/equipment I leave it in play. If it was a one-shot, I send it to the discard pile... Okay, it looks like I'm assuming that I'm the one either leaving the card in play, or sending it to the discard pile when it''s effects are over. It's possible that the card moving to the discard pile is handled by the card/game mechanics, and doesn't count as a card I discarded. While possible, I'll need confirmation. Got any links?
Edit: Also, what about "destroy this card" effects? Do those count as discards?
This is incorrect on two points.
a) there is no discard pile. There is a trash, but it's not called the discard pile. (The distinction is trivial, but it makes it harder to argue that one-shots are discarded because they're placed in the discard pile)
b) When you play a one-shot, it goes into play just like any other card. It doesn't move the trash until after it is resolved. This is different from discarded cards, which move directly from your hand to the trash.
EDIT: I see you already understand b). My mistake for not reading thoroughly. But point a) still stands. There is no discard pile.
"Do you not know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?"
- Terry Pratchett, Going Postal
I have a rulebook.
Om the Glossary, under One-Shot:
It is moved there, not discard or destroyed.
Destroyed cards are also not discarded. Look under Destroy:
Discard and Destroy are two separate and distinct actions.
Discard means removing a card from your hand without playing it.
Destroy means removing a card frrom play that has some kind of duration (ongoings, equipments, targets).
Playing a card is a third, discting action, and in the case of one-shots, does not count as a discard or a destroy.
The wording on the cards is very important in this game, and refer to seperate and discrete actions.
BurningStickman7 on Steam.
My first novel: "Brothers of the Curled Isles"
The C-Team Podcast
Okay, that is fair. Luckily, it doesn't mess up how I've been playing him that badly. Most of what I said is still accurate, except the varying damage amounts based on how many cards played in a turn. Turn Loose with a 3 card hand (Turn Loose included) would be 2 + 3 damage, instead of 2 + 4. and just ignore the rest of the stuff in that same paragraph about counting cards played.
Any other critiques on my Infinite Scholar guide?
Not that I can see, although I haven't had a chance to play with him yet.
I will caution you though, that until the physical cards arrive with Villains, the promo abilities aren't set in stone. I don't think it's likely to change much, if at all, but it has happened (Compare the original PW Captain Cosmic with his actual power)
"Do you not know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?"
- Terry Pratchett, Going Postal
So wait, the power described in the image in the post you linked is not the actual final power on the PW Captain Cosmic promo?
"Until the start of your next turn, whenever a construct card is destroyed, you may either draw a card or play a card." <-- this is not the final text?
Nope. The actual text is "Until the start of your next turn, whenever a Construct card is destroyed, you may shuffle it into your deck instead and either draw a card or play a card." It was changed because multiple uses of the power (using Grampa Legacy, Embolden, or Ardent Adept) made it too easy to create an infinite loop of drawing, playing, and destroying constructs.
"Do you not know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?"
- Terry Pratchett, Going Postal
Thank you, but that just means all the more reason to test with him now, to make sure it isn't broken! The only interaction that I can think of would be with Prime Warden Haka, if he uses a Haka card on the Scholar... and Scholar gets to draw and discard for the Haka effect. But, I think that's unlikely. Haka probably draws and discards his own cards, and _then_ applies the effect to the hero. And now I thought of another question, but it probably requires its own thread.
The promo cards have undergone some testing and were already revised from the intial playtesting file before they were put out to the public. I would expect less revisions this time, but it's still possible. Freedom 6 Wraith also got a change after initial viewing.
G+ games: I am part of the 100%
Thank you much. None of the versions I've seen online have that text so it's good to know.
So with Scholar of the Infinite available now I'm curious how this changes people's strategy with him. So far I find I mostly hope to find Truth Seeker or Bring What You Need to use instead of this new power. While nice to have a base damaging power I dont find myself using it too much.
Crush your enemies, drive them before you, and laminate their women! - Guise, Prime Wardens #31
Haven't had the chance to use it yet, but I'd imagine the best strategy with it is to have Flesh to Iron and something else out and discard two or three cards total -- that way you can do damage without taking it.
I've been finding with regular Scholar that my strategy depends largely on how many enemy targets there are in a deck. Grace Under Fire and Get Out of The Way are dynamite against guys like Matriarch, but against Spite or Plague Rat, they're more or less useless.
While blowing everything on a Know When To Cut Loose is great, I've found much more consistent success with two or three Mortal Form to Energy cards out -- preferably, I'll use Take What You Need to put them on the bottom and stockpile Keep Movings. Then, once there's a lot of targets out, play them all at once, put out three Energies, then Get out of the Way -- with a big enough set of targets, that translates to three huge attacks, especially if you manage to have a Solid to Liquid or two out (or other buffs).
Otherwise I go for tanking and support.
BurningStickman7 on Steam.
My first novel: "Brothers of the Curled Isles"
The C-Team Podcast
I haven't gotten to play Scholar yet, but it sounds like he discards cards to find l his forms. If that's so, then TL Tachyon and Visionary would both combo well with him.
Scholar discards to keep his forms in play at the start of his turn. So this new base power with Scholar of the Infinite can be fed by that and I'm just wondering with that new power on the variant if anyone has changed their strategy with Scholar.
Crush your enemies, drive them before you, and laminate their women! - Guise, Prime Wardens #31
One fun trick is to try and get out as many Mortal Form to Energy cards as possible in one turn (Keep Moving is key for this, since it lets you draw an Elemental out of the deck, put it into play and then play another card), and have a team of healers spam them at Scholar until his turn comes up again: For preference: Greatest Legacy (Gung Ho+Motivational Charge), Tempest (Cleansing Downpour) and Argent Adept (Apply the strategy here, swapping Rhapsody of Vigor for Scherzo of Frost and Flame) are the best for this kind of nuke turn, especially if Legacy has Inspiring Presence out.
The one hurdle to this strategy is that you might heal him back up to full before you're finished, especially if you have any Solid to Liquids out.
BurningStickman7 on Steam.
My first novel: "Brothers of the Curled Isles"
The C-Team Podcast
With the promo, I use Flesh to Iron far more than I previously did, as it reduces the damage I'm doing to myself with the base power while still feeding/increasing the base power. It definitely changes how I play him, but some of that is also dependent upon the cards.
Reminder: He also has a card that lets him discard his hand to do damage, making that card twice as useful with the variant and more likely to see play. (Not remembering the name right now, though -- is it Know When To Cut Loose?)
"See, this is another sign of your tragic space dementia, all paranoid and crotchety. Breaks the heart." - Mal
Unicode U+24BD gets us Ⓗ. (Thanks, Godai!)
That would work well with the Sentinels -- Dr. Medico can heal a target for 3, and then Sage would turn it into 6 or so damage?
Positive Energy Field in the Realm of Discord is also good for this.
BurningStickman7 on Steam.
My first novel: "Brothers of the Curled Isles"
The C-Team Podcast
Rabit - It's Know When to Turn Loose :).
I've had fun with the Liquid-and-Energy combo, having a couple of each in play and lots of card draw from various sources, then getting healed as often as possible, not just by myself but by teammates if applicable (Tempest and the Adept, for example, are great at this :D). You add on the bonus hp for however many copies of Liquid you have out, then deal that much damage as many times as you have copies of Energy in play, or more if you have a damage buff from somewhere. The problem comes when you inevitably end up getting healed back to full, at which point healing does nothing and therefore you can't deal any damage. But you just try and make yourself the centre of attention and look to your fellow heroes who can hit multiple targets of their choice to try and whittle you down a bit so you can carry on with the wrecking :D.
I am the Wordweaver...
Basically, I like writing stuff ;)
Thanks! Posting from work can have its disadvantages...
"See, this is another sign of your tragic space dementia, all paranoid and crotchety. Breaks the heart." - Mal
Unicode U+24BD gets us Ⓗ. (Thanks, Godai!)
Nah, it's because you don't play enough SotM! I suggest upping it by 30 minutes every day.
BurningStickman7 on Steam.
My first novel: "Brothers of the Curled Isles"
The C-Team Podcast
No arguments here. I'm lucky I get in a game every two weeks!
"See, this is another sign of your tragic space dementia, all paranoid and crotchety. Breaks the heart." - Mal
Unicode U+24BD gets us Ⓗ. (Thanks, Godai!)
Just my $.02 (and maybe not news to anyone here):
(1) My favorite Scholar combo: Keep Moving + Know When to Hold Fast. Lets you put out an instant Flesh to Iron for tanking, then immediately draw the five cards needed to sustain it for a while. You have to skip using a power, but early in the game, the loss of 1 HP in exchange for a quasi-permanent -2 DR every turn, plus five new cards in your deck, is a great exchange. I almost never want to see Flesh to Iron actually in my hand, since Keep Moving will allow me to pull out a Flesh to Iron whenever I want, *plus* play another card.
(2) Scholar + Nightmist. Alchemical Redirection, plus 1-2 Flesh to Irons, can make the Scholar Nightmist's best friend -- she gets to use all of the cards that would cause her damage, but the damage gets directed to Scholar, who absorbs it with Flesh to Iron. Makes Scouring Mists, Heedless Lash, and Enlightenment *much* more powerful.