Fix a 5* -- Episode 8: Surfer Sores

Marvel Puzzle Quest MPQ Character Discussion
1

This would make sense if someone was paying me to do it… but instead, I’m just giving myself work.

5* Silver Surfer

Quick Recap:

Blue - 9 AP Heal (real heal) and create some charged tiles. Also, can’t stun him.

Red - 7 AP to deal damage and create some charged tiles.

Black - 12 AP create a special locked countdown. Each turn it destoys some surrounding tiles that deal damage and generate AP. When it hits 0, deal a bunch more damage.

The Breakdown and My Suggestions:

He was the first and for a minute he stood tall. No stunning, true healing, he was our first example of a 5* and he was pretty impressive. Cut to now over 30 5*s in the game and he loses some of his shine.

At the outset, I’ll say this, he should work like 4* Thor and his Red and Blue should be boosted by the number of charged tiles on the board. He should heal more and do more damage. Do that and leave his Black as-is and I think he’d be nicely improved in the mid-tier. But let’s break things down a little.

Blue - Healing is okay. True healing is great. Why is Okoye effectively a better healer than the Silver Surfer? Firstly, because this is a game that uses comic IP, it’s not a translation of comic powers and battles. Calm down. Secondly… I don’t have an answer. He should heal better than Okoye. He takes world-ending hits and comes back. He wields the Power Cosmic. If a power of his is going to be used for healing, then I would do something I don’t normally do and say it should cost more and restore him to full health, or like 75% at least. Make it cost something like 13 or even 16 and have it restore him to near total

Red - I already mentioned this, but it bears repeating. This guy wields the Power Cosmic! How about 7AP does current levels of damage, but if he saves up (a la Red Hulk) then he should be able to unleash insane damage (at least as Infinity War Cap levels).

Black - Good as-is. No notes.

Those are my ideas. So…

How would you help fix 5* Silver Surfer?

Previous Episodes:
Black Widow
Jean Grey
Green Goblin
Wasp
Cap (Civil War)
The Hulk
Archangel

2

I think I’d go more with a Hulkbuster-type effect on the red than use Rulk as the template. Let it just cleanly scale with the amount of red AP, rather than having a threshold of extra AP that buffs it. Maybe have it create an extra Charged tile for every three red you have past the minimum cost as well, or something like that.

That would help set it up for blue, which could then scale with the number of Charged tiles on the board. Possibly do the threshold thing here, so if there are enough Charged tiles on the board, he turns them all to basic and heals to full.

3

I think healing powers are always better if they’re cheaper. Gives much better chance for the AI to play the character well and make him annoying on defence. Surfer already can pull a save from near death and prolong the fight at the most inopportune moments… I like the idea of improving his existing skills by charged tiles present - I’d give his blue’s boost like that. Probably make him heal to full with enough charged tiles present, maybe 8+ or 10+ at full covers.

Red is pretty cheap and spammy already, but lacks damage. In this case, charged tiles could be used by converting one of them into a crit on top of current effects. Cheap powers that result in crits can be nasty on defense, as anyone who’s fought Phoenix or Spidey should know. :slight_smile:

Black is fine, but it annoys me that all these special types of tiles some 5*s have are easily destroyed by line clears or even random tile destruction. I’d like too see at least some of them protected the way Apocalypse Horsemen tiles are. Jean’s resurrect, Bolt’s motivation, Strange’s Eye of Agamotto and Surfer’s Black Hole! tile. (How do you even destroy a black hole?)

4

I’m leaning towards saying he’s fine as he is. Maybe a little jump in the damage of his red. Maybe change Black Hole to a 2-turn repeater (1-turn at level 5) that stays in the center of the board doesn’t drop.

I would love love to add a passive to the him. Maybe something like, if you match a charged tile, deal damage to all enemies or something similar.

5

The black hole can destroy Strange’s Eye of Agamotto, for whatever that’s worth.