So many heroes are balanced around damaing themselves that I consistently feel that this Writhe is one of the best cards in the game and absolutely crushes opponents in any mode. Some quick examples I've found of how to use him:
1. Golem Unity - Free Bots all day every day! It changes her power to "play a bot!"
2. Setback - I like to get an absolute ton of unlucky tokens in the pool. Writhe can turn off that 3 damage for Looking Up, then later on, Destroy LU for an insane Cause and Effect turn. Do this to Iron Legacy for extra fun.
3. Dr. Medico likes to beat the crap out of himself to heal others, but until he has Experimental Medicine, the damage is really just optional. Let Writhe keep him nice and healthy until then.
4. Prime Wardens Fanatic - Already one of the strongest powers in the game, this makes her read play the top card of her deck and grant a power without a drawback. It also makes Embolden a way better play on this version, as taking only 2 from that for the 2 power uses instead of five is amazing.
5. Extreme Prime Wardens Haka - Redirect and heal without taking damage. Thanks! It also finally lets me play Enduring Intercession which used to be discard fodder.
6. Idealist - Now, Id is just a damage boost.
7. Any Legacy - Heroic Interception? Every turn if you can! He's immune to first damage, everyone else is immune to all damage. Take down not hurting Legs is pretty solid too sometimes.
8. Nightmist - the power reads draw 2 while she gets set up, and when she is, it lets you just use Heedless lash... heedlessly, among others. Draw for no damage and destroy X ongoing with no damage are pretty amazing too.
9. Ra: Setting Sun: Deal 2 irreducable to everything and don't bother hurting yourself.
10. Prime Wardens Tempest - Now it's just 1 free card play.
11. Visionary - Wrest the mind is quite punishing, but not when the redirect is free!
Writhe takes some of the strongest cards and characters in the game and utterly busts them. I think Cosmic Inventor Writhe is one of the best characters in the game. What else can he do?
Not to mention that he can really nerf the team villains. Friction attacks healthiest hero-does nothing. Bugbear attacks healthiest hero-does nothing.
Also, with the amount of card draw, he isn't starving for cards to ignore damage if he has the cloak, and he has enough cards that can summon it if he needs it.
Yep. He may be "slightly" broken.
Yeah, his healing counter is one of my favorite things he does. I haven't quite thought it out like all of the above, but yeah his damage mitigation can certainly help some heroes. I usually just take all the damage on those above functions and do them anyway. HP is a resource in a damage race to KO the enemies before they KO you, so as long as the return on the damage taken is worth it, I'll make that investment.
Power uses are also a resource, so whenever Writhe is setting up to let one Hero do one of the above things this round without investing the HP, you're also not using some other power instead. Basically if he lets Legacy play Heroic Interception this round without taking damage that's pretty much a single power equivalence to healing Legacy for 3 HP (slightly better since Legacy doesn't have to take the damage to start with). Compare that to Tachyon letting everyone draw a card, or Legacy giving everyone +1 to damage done, or Tempest healing all hero targets for 2 HP each, or Haka hitting two targets for 3 melee damage each, etc., and it's definitely a solid power use, but I wouldn't call it broken. Not in my experience thus far at least.
That said, where I think his power gets on slightly more competitive ground is if you're able to: 1. Choose a hero who's also drawing villain fire that round and 2. Choose a hero that can use that same power out of turn with the help of someone like Argent Adept, Greatest Legacy, etc. I think getting both of those working in your favor, while still not broken, moves it into the upper echelon of power uses.
I definitely think Cosmic Inventor Writhe >> base Writhe.
Most characters have pretty awesome tricks they can do. Cosmic Inventor Writhe, as you point out with the combos, has his fair share. He's definitely in my top 20 competitive characters. I'm not sure on top 10 yet, though, and I really don't think top 5.
I still kind of prefer base Writhe, because he feels more like the way you're supposed to play Writhe. Destroy the Shadow Cloak for awesome card effects? Sure, get it back the same turn. Want to use powers other than your base? Now you can!
Cosmic Inventor is for breaking the game in fun and memorable ways, but it makes him way more supporty. :B It's almost, but not quite, the Naturalist vs. Hunted Naturalist question.
It's similar to that dynamic for sure. Writhe has enough other ways to get his cloak out, though, and the 2 card draw with his Cosmic Inventor only helps unearth those. I think Cosmic Inventor lets you have your cake and eat it too with him destroying his cloak for fun effects and still having the ability to offer support. I still use his other powers plenty with either version (though I don't use the portable lab/card draw one very much in either form).
I think regular Writhe is more fun. You can pull out the cloak and keep destroying it for all these cool effects. With Cosmic Inventor, I find I tend to just leave the cloak out all the time and use the "destroy the cloak" cards as discard fodder (except Grasping Shadow-Cloth). I just spam his innate power and play cards that are kind of meh. It's highly effective but kind of boring.
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I do love that we've been given additional tools to handle self-damage with this last batch of heroes. Before it was just Flesh of the Sun God shenanigans or shudders DW Setback. Now we have CI Writhe and Harpy's Applied Numerology - both better choices imo.
The dynamic between these two base powers reminds me a bit of Nightmist vs DW Nightmist. DW Nightmist and base Writhe are all about strategically maximizing the effect of your limited resources, while base Nightmist and CI Writhe are designed to weather the early game before making big plays with their overstuffed hands down the line. It's certainly possible to play a more conservative, low-risk style with the latter pair, but I've found that their sheer breadth of options gives them more freedom to do what they want.
Nightmist has enough self healing that her self-damage isn't too much of a problem. In fact it's usually helpful for her because of her redirect. If you reall want to make her busted bring any two of Tempist/Argent Adept/Scholar (and anyone else that moves card from the trash to the top of the deck) after putting one of each number of card in her trash.
Meanwhile Legacy is more broken in team fights with a pocket Writhe. Lead from the Front basically turns into a once a turn negate damage card. Same for anyone else that has the option to redirect damage to themselves.
I'll put things in here later.
Pardom, I'm not fully familiar with all of the OblivAeon hero decks just yet. Harpy's 'Numerology' card only applies to herself, correct? Or can that change cards from other hero decks?
Applied Numerology allows the first time each round a hero target would be dealt damage by a hero target they may reduce that damage by 1. So it applies for every hero target.
Crush your enemies, drive them before you, and laminate their women! - Guise, Prime Wardens #31
My new beat everything team, by the way:
Action Hero Stuntman, AF Legacy, CI Writhe, Nightmist, Malpractice -it's been smoothing everything.
One of my enduring fave combos: XPW Haka's Die Hard with Legacy's Heroic Interception - damage immunity for everyone except Legacy, and any damage he takes gets redirected to Haka, who ignores it. If Visionary can keep cycling HI from the trash to the top of his deck, things can get real broken real quick!
My current beat everything is AG Legacy, TL Tachyon, Requiem Captain Cosmic, Malpractice Medico, and Prime Wardens Tempest
Probably my favorite thing about this combo is how much they love a Heroic Interception. Cosmic, Medico, and Tempest just go ape with the self-damaging powers. And Legacy lets one of Cosmic and Tempest have two goes at it during that round.
Then the Medico/Cleansing Downpour combo is really nasty too, especially if Experimental Medicine is out and Legacy lets you use it a second time that round. All the better if you have a bunch of damaged constructs. That's just massive irreducible damage at that point.
Very good points! The fact that CI Writhe's power takes effect on the target hero's turn as well as the environment and villain means he can easily wind up preventing 8+ damage a turn.
The only listed example it doesn't quite work is the for Idealist's Id. Yes, it will prevent the damage, but moving a card from underneath another concept to underneath Id isn't optional. So if you have any other concept in play with a card under it, you must move a card from one to underneath Id. If you have none, however, CI Writhe will indeed prevent the damage Id would've done to you.
"It's all chaos. Be kind."
It's easy to use up all the Fragments before Id tries to eat one--in fact, I often have to be careful not to. On the other hand, letting Id stockpile cards under it is a perfectly acceptable strategy for Super Sentai (and often isn't a bad move combined with Bored Now).
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