Character Rankings (part 1)

[gameplan.exe]

I posted earlier that my brother and I have ranked all of the characters from OPL based on their Power Grid and their Specials. I'll get into the details of how we assessed their Grid-values and Special-values, but first

Elemental to our rating system is the balance of importance between a good Grid and good Specials. I now have a good opportunity to ask some of my new OP-playing peers. So I ask, which do you think is more important?

[BigBadHarve]

I say equally important, simply by virtue of the fact that I often craft a team as much from the Grid as I do from potential specials. Ultimately, it really depends on what I'm aiming to do with the team in question, strategy wise.

-BBH

[gameplan.exe]

BBH - that's pretty much exactly how I feel. I'm very interested to see how this turns out. I just hope I get more feedback than 5 or 6 votes.

[drdeath25]

I went with equal also. When i make a team, i want synergy in their power grid just as much as the synergy of their special cards.

[CoS]

i disagree with equal across the board. If you team does not contain an 8 stat then you are not likely to win consistently against other competitive decks. I am LOOKING to have 8s on my team more than 7s and 7s more than 6s. Honestly i don't care how great their specials are (look at Ghost Rider). I still won't put him on my team when I value the ability to throw an 8 or block an 8 with a power card over the most fantastic array of specials. I realize this is personal but when you seriously consider character rank power grid and the ability to use up to an 8 power card is HUGE (think of the power pack battles where it is an AUTO win if your 8 is against a max 6).

[BigBadHarve]

i disagree with equal across the board. If you team does not contain an 8 stat then you are not likely to win consistently against other competitive decks. I am LOOKING to have 8s on my team more than 7s and 7s more than 6s. Honestly i don't care how great their specials are (look at Ghost Rider). I still won't put him on my team when I value the ability to throw an 8 or block an 8 with a power card over the most fantastic array of specials. I realize this is personal but when you seriously consider character rank power grid and the ability to use up to an 8 power card is HUGE (think of the power pack battles where it is an AUTO win if your 8 is against a max 6).

I know many people who also go that route, for me I would rather a team of strong 7 characters than to throw an 8 in there just for the 8. But a 7 or 6 character with really good cards will make up for the lack of an 8. Yes, in power pack having an 8 makes the difference, but if I concentrate my fire on your 8 characters, odds are you're going to lose them before we get there, which will even out the playing field.

That being said, I try to incorporate at least one 8 character to many of my teams, but I certainly don't mind using 6 or 7 characters with good specials.

Hell, an extremely competitive deck from the old days was - Invisible Woman, Nightcrawler, Spider Woman and Scarlet Witch. No 8s at all, but it was a hard deck to beat. (At least, until they changed the rule for Nightcrawler's Trick Transport so that it was no longer defensive.)

-BBH

[rucker73]

I like to mix up my deck building strategy a lot with the decks I make.  And I love to use a character with a poor grid that has unique or helpful specials.  One of my favorites is an anti-teamwork deck with Psycho Man, who would never be used on a team based off of his grid.

I think that it's a lot easier to work a deck around a character with mismatched stats and great specials then to just plunk someone in who fits the grid but essentially does nothing else for you, especially with addition of Any Power cards and so many team based defensive specials.

Also I would love to see you and your brothers character ranking list.

[Palatinus]

I have never really done anything that could be called competitive play, but the way I like to play is to play characters with interesting specials.  Some of my favorite characters have really good grids, but crappy specials and so I wind up playing characters like Ghost Rider and Mojo because I like how they play.  My lack of experience likely means that there characters that are better than I think they are as far as specials go, but all-in-all, I favor low stat characters with fun specials.

[BigBadHarve]

I too love Ghost Rider. He doesn't get a lot of play because people often avoid the Max-6 characters. But Ghost Rider is a good example of a character they got right, as far as I'm concerned.

His grid means that he fits with almost any team. His inherent keeps him alive that much longer. He doesn't have a single unplayable special (not that I use them all when I do play him, but they're all useful.) Also, as a character in the game context, he's balanced. A myriad of great cards, but that's offset by the fact that he's an expensive max-6. That's a pretty good balance.

-BBH

[Palatinus]

My favorite characters to play have always been Ghost Rider, Mojo, Sentinels, and Jean Grey.  Ironically, I've never actually made a deck with just those characters.  I think I might try to put that together.

[gameplan.exe]

Obviously, we have a pretty small pool of votes, but what I suspected to be true, seems to be. I think most people agree that good Specials and a good Grid are equally important. More or less.

So, to follow up a little more on how my brother and I attempted to quantify a Character Ranking system, look for my next post soon, Character Rankings (part 2).

[Ravencroft]

@BBH

OK i agree with you that having an 8 is a huge help, two of my favorite teams are invisible woman, mojo, reyes and spider woman. Not a single 8 but its a defensive beast. Also Mojoworld as a home base is as tough as nails. Not a single 8. Those decks are even tough when i play my Hulk, Morlocks, Mojo, Darkseid deck.

[Hot Rod]

The issue of having an 8 is really hard to quantify; on one hand a character with an 8 versus a 7 is basically a character with a "Gladiator" that's a non opd and can be used to follow up on teamworks, but a character with an 8 is also a character that wont have an inherent ability, and whose specials will probably be a little weaker.

Certain specials when grouped together will win you games single handedly (such as leeches), so sometimes it's worth not having an 8 in order to maximize on a particular strategy.

At the end of the day I know I will always try to get atleast a single 8 on there due to deck building limitations with the power pack and teamworks.

[Nate Grey]

Unless its a good defensive deck, we also try to have at least one 8 stat character in each deck. Having those extra 8 power cards in your deck also helps dilute out your hand to avoid duplicates.