This is ridiculous beyond imagination. Two level 290 muscle putting down 1127 strike tiles sucks the fun right out of the game. Only 3 clears before this happened.
This scaling needs to be looked at, and rolled back.
Worst part is the Muscles are on 4 nodes! Doesn’t help when you have an undercovered Cho against Muscle and freaking Bullseye so match damage does nothing.
Most players likely gave up because I’m sitting on the T10 and I’m a T50-100 PvE player. This likely won’t last because I cannot see myself fully clearing some of these nodes.
I’m relying on my old reliable team of Loki, Patch and Daken.. works most of the time. I can’t wait for this event to end.
This is where my Elektra/SW combo comes in. Throw in a battery like IM40 and these nodes are a breeze. by the time he throws out two or four of those tiles, I usually have at least 7 to 14 purple saved up, quick steal and it’s over.
Could be worse, they were nerfed a while back
Doesn’t it feel like that has been rolled back too?
It’s just as broken for new players. There have been nodes where I’ve lost my A team of featured characters on the first clear and it’s just stupid to try to get four. Go on to the next node without Muscle and it feels ridiculously easy in comparison.
However, this is the first event where I have one roster option available that can reasonably deal with them. If the next event featuring them is back to only having 4* options, I’m back to being screwed over on all their nodes.
When it gets out of hand I boost +2 Red/Yellow AP and +1 All AP, with IM40 and 3Cap. One yellow match and I have IM40 feed Cap red & blue, then use Cap’s shields to negate any countdown tiles I can’t match away when they reach 1 turn. Sometimes I’ll bring Daredevil or Loki for some extra insurance, but most often I’ll grab 3Falcon and keep a reserve of blue so that Redwing eats a few countdown tiles and takes some heat off Cap.
If it’s just goons, I won’t even take any damage most of the time.
Nope. Since you’re fighting goons, they’re going to tire you out eventually. Superheroes can’t beat them every time. It’s not like you see heroes trouncing anything but supervillains. You’re supposed to lose. You will overcome those goons eventually, but it’s a long, hard fight. That’s the point.
Wait…
Take the right tool for the right job
Options
Quake (boosted) AOE nerf for their tommy gun damage
Antman - use blue to capture those strike tiles and see how long the match lasts
Tean Jean - Goon killing superstar
Elecktra - strike tile capture
Loki - you’ll have some very nice defensive tiles very quickly
Moonstone - capture those strike tiles
At all levels of play there is a tool for every job - use those and you’ll look forward to seeing goon nodes
I’d say the reason the muscles are so overpowered is not the strength of their strike tiles but the cheap cost of it. Only 3 yellow! Start the match, try to scramble to black for your Loki, the enemy makes a yellow match, and next turn there are 3 yellow countdown tiles on the board. It’s a race you might occasionally win, but with the high health of the muscles, sooner or later one of those tiles goes off and you’re looking at 2000 match damage.
Daredevil also removes the tikes plus deals damage.
3* Magneto puts up a bunch of protect tiles that may overwrite enemy tiles.
2* Black Widow slows down the CDs
Invisible Woman locks those tiles which removes their functionality.
Spider Woman also outright removes special tiles.
Star-Lord and Captain America can overwrite special tiles.
Then you have the characters that stun, or the ones that destroy the board, or the ones who block the damage with protect tiles.
Sometimes it’s not that something is too hard but rather that you are not using the best strategy.
Championed or not, no one is using a 5 yellow Magneto for the small chance to overwrite tiles
The wonders of having a lower tier roster.
Honestly I’ve just been running Scarlet Witch and stunning the absolute hell out of them.
Or OBW (boosted). Sure, she’s a glass superstar, but pile up enough blue, and you can kick the can down the road all afternoon.
Muscle have always been a problem for everyone regardless of level. Miss one threaten and match damage quickly spirals out of control. My Muscle top out at 384 and drop 2x 1952 strike tiles, that’s over 4k damage on a simple match 3. Sure boosted Quake lets you ignore Tommy gun, but Threaten is an issue even for 5 
Moonstone doesn’t really cut it when at best she takes 3 of any tile at 9 black AP. That’s generally too slow and completely unreliable for a 2* player when they pump out 2 tiles a turn. A 5 black Loki is still pretty far away for me. Other 3* suggestions and tile overwriters like Cap are again way too slow to keep up. The only other reasonable suggestion I see mentioned above is OBW. She can delay every countdown, which is actually useful, but one Threaten you can’t deal with in time and it’s probably game over.
It’s really telling when my team of IM40 and OBW failed Cap Marvel’s essential (3 Muscle) twice attempting the second clear for lack of yellow/blue AP, yet the first four clears of the 4* essential (Ares, Juggernaut, Moonstone) is a walk in the park for any team I care to put together. I also retreated once after getting two 5 matches on the opening round when a few rounds later I saw how I couldn’t match any countdowns and had no yellow AP available, much less any place to put my own countdowns. Oh, and the first Muscle still had most of his life yet. I had a great opening, but it was worthless against these guys. Fun times. These mooks are just plain overpowered compared to the actual superheroes a 2 and 3* roster can field.
Well, threaten not that big deal unless enemy make a match, right ? I always feared more Tommy Gun than Threaten, honestly. It’s becoming an issue when a hero pared with couple of Muscules, like Juggernaut… shudders
KK, 4cyclops, IM40. Boost yellow and once those recharge go off, blast away, bash away, stretch, repeat.
Noticed the list of options and following reply still left off She Hulk AND Doc Ock as viable partners to an IM40 battery.
So that’s what.. 11 options between 3 and 4 stars?
BSSM is a 5 star option
Pvp ruined this game.. too many people focused on which character is fast and the rest can sit at min level, fully covered but not good enough to put iso into.