I’ve read a few people suggesting new commons or new characters, but it’s usually a list of D-listers I’ve never heard of. However the Lone Star tournament showed that successful early rosters all follow a very specific trend (Storm+Iron Man). I do think it would be fun to have a new level 50 common (which, admittedly, I’d have to make room for) to give low-level rosters more variety, and make those recruitment tokens exciting for a little while.
Considerations: A new hero should…
- …overlap with Storm a bit, as a viable alternative for AP generation. Also, sort of overlap with other characters so there’s no clearly ideal team to put her on.
…be identifiable to a wide audience and exciting to collect.
…have an interesting set of powers, yet not be too complicated for new players
…be part of the X-Men. X-Men are underrepresented right now (not counting duplicates). And fan favorites.
Anyway I pick Rogue (Classic). She’s cool, she’s well known, and while she has a lot of power she is pretty low-key and perfect ***** material. Plus she’s sort of tied into Moonstone with the Ms. Marvel angle. AND the Brotherhood.
In terms of powers, she definitely needs an energy drain ability, Absorb Power. While AP steal makes sense, you need to avoid overshadowing Aggressive Recon. You could give her a Purple of her own, a cheap/passive, “steal 1 AP of various colors” power, but instead, let’s give her a power that makes her attacks better and her opponents’ worse, e.g., a power that adds one strike tile and one defense tile to the board. Higher levels could create more tiles. To step on Iron Man’s (& Cap’s) toes a bit, let’s make the defense tiles it changes yellow (and for reasons noted below, the strike tiles purple).
- It should be Red, because Red is thematically tied to super strength, or Black, which keys to exploiting an opponent’s weaknesses. However, Black is more often environmental, like summoning hail, demons, or creating opportunities for attacks/criticals. So let’s make it Red.
I also said she should have AP generation. It should be Green to keep synergy low, but instead of a big, random spread like Storm, I give her a small, targeted Green attack (Forceful Punch, since Green is all about overwhelming force) that destroys 1 tile and gains AP. At higher levels it destroys 2 target tiles and costs less AP. So often in MPQ I wish I had the one-tile destruction of “Weaken” from Puzzle Quest 2!
- This power would be much cheaper than Lightning Storm but useful in its targeted nature (much like Grey Suit Widow’s Pistol), allowing the player to create matches and cascades without ending the turn as well as deal with countdown tiles. If targeting a countdown ends up being too powerful the power could scale in what type of tile it targets or be limited to basic tiles (aiming for simplicity).
Finally I think she should have a passive that encapsulates her flight and invulnerability. Yellow usually represents resilience but it is a bit of a mixed bag, and there are already many Red/Green/Yellow characters. To create interesting low-tier choices we need to pay attention to possible synergies and overlap with all characters but especially the ***** ones (to avoid creating a perfect niche for her to fill). Red/Green is a common combination, and most often shows up with Yellow, so I suggest we cheat a bit and make her power Purple. Indestructible!
There are already a couple Purple-defense oriented characters and you don’t want those combinations to get out of control (especially since Rogue’s primary already creates defense tiles!). So my idea is to give Rogue a passive purple that reduces the amount of damage she takes–not her teammates–based on the number of purple tiles on the board. It essentially makes every purple tile a mini-protect tile, but only when she’s the target of the attack.
Rogue’s powers are straightforward but would create some interesting gameplay considerations:
- I would order Rogue’s strongest colors Purple-Green-Red, so that on a maxed ***** team with Iron Man and Storm, only Purple is going to bring her to the front and her other powers have a lot of overlap.
Juggernaut would still match green over her (Despite being only 40).
Only one other character has Purple/Green/Red abilities, and no other character uses PGR for primary damage values.
I contend that with the right numbers she could be a useful alternative to Storm on teams of every level (at least until 85+).
On a team with characters of high level, or lower characters with Purple as their 1st or 2nd color, especially Bullseye or Spider-Man which capitalize on those colors defensively, Rogue wouldn’t get her Purple benefit as easily (until her allies are downed, uh-oh).
Since the strike tiles she creates (using Absorb Power) are purple, it reduces the ability of those purple defense tiles to compound her defenses (but could block enemy defense tiles if there are no more basic purples left).
And of course against Rogue as an A.I. you can simply pick a different target, until she’s the only one left.
tldr; here is one possibility
**Rogue (Classic) ***
Forceful Punch 7 AP
Rogue has absorbed the strength and training of fallen foes. She punches with incredible force, destroying a target basic tile and generating AP.
Level 2: Affects any non-countdown tile. Level 3: Costs 6 AP. Level 4: Costs 5 AP. Level 5: Targets 2 tiles. Costs 7 AP.
Absorb Power 7 AP
Rogue’s touch weakens her enemy, while increasing the power of her attacks. Adds 1 yellow defense tile and 1 purple strike tile to the board. (roughly 6 per tile at level 50)
Level 2-5: +1 AP, +1/+1 tile each level
Indestructible
Passive: Rogue is resistant to all forms of damage. Reduce the amount of damage she takes by x for every 6 purple tiles on the board. (x roughly 10 at level 50)
Level 2: For every 5 purple tiles. Level 3: For every 4 purple tiles. Level 4: For every 3 Purple tiles. Level 5: For every 2 Purple tiles.