Card draw simulator
| Derived from |
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| None. Self-made deck here. |
| Inspiration for |
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| None yet |
tdhtim · 103
Main Idea
Doctor Strange is one of my favorite Marvel characters, making it very disappointing to see just how rigged he is. I've seen other attempts at balancing him that involved a hard limit on the number of invocations he can play each turn or dealing yourself a treachery card after going through the invocation deck, but neither of those seemed very effective. So my goal was to come up with a mechanic for Doctor Strange that did a better job of balancing him, created more interesting choices than spamming invocations, and added more theme, and I believe my proposed changes accomplish just that.
New Rules
Much of story about Doctor Strange (both in the MCU and the comics I'm familiar with from the last 10 or so years) focuses on magic taking a physical toll on Doctor Strange that he has to compensate for in various ways; his obligation even hints at this. So the main new rule for Doctor Strange that accomplishes these theme is this:
Playing invocation cards costs Doctor Strange 2 health.
I've been playing with the spells in his hero cards costing no damage, the idea being that the hero cards are more simple spells that he has mastered and costs him nothing, while the invocation spells are stronger and more challenging, therefore incur the toll. At this point, I only have two other small rules to supplement the main one. First, the damage that you take from playing an invocation card ignores tough but does not discard tough cards. Second, Master of the Mystic Arts ignores the cost of taking 2 damage.
In sum, the new rules are:
- Take two damage to cast an invocation spell
- That damage ignores toughs
- MotMA ignores this cost
Improvements I've Experienced
First, these rules force you to play Doctor Strange differently: You simply cannot play two spells each turn and live. The fact that I knew I wouldn't need to reserve my exhausts solely for invocations made me use his basic powers (all of them) quite often, which encouraged me to use Magical Enhancements and felt great. I had to be significantly more choosey on when to use an invocation spell and which one to choose. The fact that I wanted to be more choosey and that I was loosing health faster made how I utilized Wong more interesting too. The new rules also encourages you to focus on healing abilities, which ties into him being a former surgeon.
Second, the games I played also felt way more thematic. Needing options for healing encourages you to choose protection, which gives you access to characters that thematically fit with Doctor Strange, including the Midnight Sons and the Night Nurse. In one game, I was at 4 health and died from drawing thought casting while holding Iron Fist. With such a thematic end, I couldn't be mad about losing :)
For me, these updated rules have breathed new life into playing as Doctor Strange. Even with these rules, Doctor Strange is still in the top tier of Champions heroes. However, games should be more balanced and, even more importantly, interesting and thematic. I hope you enjoy.
| 3 comments |
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May 11, 2022 |
May 12, 2022
Justice has making an entrance, so you could pretty easily cast an invocation then thwart with entrance to heal all of that damage. Because he's an avenger, you can play united we stand in leadership. You could also aim for the Adam Warlock ally to get his healing effect. Aggression is the toughest one because getting excess damage for moment of triumph is more of a challenge than getting healing in the other aspects, but regardless of your aspect, you can always use Wong, first aid, down time, and the basic health upgrade I'm blanking on. Hope you enjoy it, and please let me know how it goes! |
May 27, 2024Just paired a similar list with Sp//dr J for RoRS campaign. I really enjoyed the deck and house rules, but I did feel his insane draw power made the drawback matter very little. I almost always preferred drawing cards and healing up over playing any of his hero cards which is a shame. Not sure how i'd fix it but this was a step in the right direction I think. |
Seems promising, thank u. I'm going to try this variant and the one "give him an encounter card after cycling his encounter deck". Don't think your house rule pushes doctor to protection aspect too much? I know, he's/was a surgeon... But also is a construction restriction.