Question Regarding Various Rules Clarification for a Newb

[Kyoujin]

Hey OverPower Crowd,

I'm a new player that's going to be playing quite a bit of Overpower in the very near future.  Because of this, I have read through the rules various times (fragmented, mind you) in order to fully grasp everything before beginning.  Anyway, I have a few questions.  I've done my best to search the forums for answers, and I apologize if I have overlooked them. 

Having said that:

1. While there is no limit to the total number of cards a player may have in his deck, he must have at least 56 cards (51 if you are not playing with Event cards).

Does the 56 card rule include the cards placed before the game commences (characters, locations and/or Battlefields, etc).  Further more, my deck may include 56 cards even if I run just one single Event?  Could someone explain why the number changes due to the addition of Event cards?

2. Each Character may have a maximum of one Power card, one Universe Card, one Tactic card, and one Special card Placed on him at any given time.

Does this rule effect when I play cards during battle?  May a character that has a Universe and Power cards placed also play a Universe and Power card (for example) from my hand?  I guess I'm asking if "Placed" also includes cards played from my hand?  I'm guessing no, and placing seems to have a great significance regarding strategy and bluffing.

3. I may not combine Universe cards together?  For example, may I play Training card in conjunction with a Basic Universe card as well as a power card?

4. What significance do the two letter codes present other than using them to search the Meta database?

I believe that's all the questions I have for the time being.  Thanks very much for any help you can provide.

-K

[gameplan.exe]

Glad to have you here, Kyoujin!!

I'll be happy to address these questions, and feel free to post more. There are lots and lots of very knowledgeable players here (much more than me, but I can handle these initial questions  )

1. The 56 cards only include the cards that will be shuffled. that's the actual deck. Otherwise, you have your roster (characters), your locations (Homebase, Battlesite, or both), and mission cards. These don't count toward the 56 cards. They also don't count as "placed" cards, because they're set from before the start of the game, where "placing" is an actual phase of the game itself (before every battle starts).

The limit used to be 51 cards, in the earliest form of the game, before Event cards were introduced (in Mission Control). Because you draw a card to replace your Event card, they wanted to increase the total deck size, so that you're not reducing the number of other cards you would have had. The first release of Events had 5 for each Mission set, so it would be 51, or 51+5, to ensure you're not reducing the initial 51... make sense? (Note, they released a 6th Event for the Marvel Missions, 6 for Image, still only 5 for DC).

2. For placing, each character can have 1 of each type of card (which you listed), placed under them for use in the future. Any card placed under a character can only be used by that character, but cards in your hand are still usable by anyone. So, if you place a lv.6 power card to Spider-Man, and Iron Man is attacked with a 6, you cannot use the card from Spider-Man to defend Iron Man. The same is true for Universe and tactic cards. Specials may only be played by the character that belongs to them.

So, the beginnings of strategy there are that you can draw a hand, place none, some, most, or all, of those 8 cards to your players. Whenever that hand ends (whether immediately, through immediate conceding, or after playing a few turns), whatever cards are still placed under your characters will remain there, going into the next hand.

When you draw your next hand, you need to consider the placed cards from previous hands as part of the current one, for the purposes of discarding duplicates. So, if you still have that lv.6 power card placed to Spider-Man, and you draw another, the card in your hand is a duplicate.

3. You cannot use multiple Universe cards with any single action. Also, you couldn't use a Training Universe (TU) and a Basic Universe (BU) together anyway, since BUs have minimum use requirements of 6, 7 or 8; TU have maximum use requirements of 5 or less. So, Spider-Man has a 6S rating, he can use 6S+3, +2, +1 but he couldn't use the S TU, because they would be only for 5S or less, so he's not qualified. He could use an Intellect TU, though, since his I is 5, but he couldn't use an Int BU, since it would have to be 6 or higher.

4. The Special codes are supposed to give you information so you'll know what is placed to your opponent, if you don't know the card by name. So, if I see that Spider-Man has "Wall Crawl" placed, I might not know it by name. But, if I know that "AG" is an avoid attack Special, then I have a heads up. The codes weren't always printed correctly, though. The checklists usually have them noted with the printed code and the correct code.

The other time Special codes come up is for the purposes of building battlesites. When you build a battlesite, you may only have 1 of each Special coded card under it, regardless of differences in names. So, Daily Bugle can only have 1 AG coded card, either from Spider-Man, Venom, or Green Goblin.

There are game mechanics and cards that will create exceptions to points 2 and 3, though.

See the Special cards:

* CASSIDY KEEP (BR) <IQ> {U}
        Banshee may have 1 additional card Placed on him until Banshee is KO'd.
            May be played from Reserve.

     * AMBIDEXTERITY (HC) <IQ> {U}
        Beast may combine multiple Basic Universe cards with each Power card
            attack for remainder of battle.

[Kyoujin]

Great, thanks very much!  Really appreciate it.

[steve2275]

Hey OverPower Crowd,
I'm a new player that's going to be playing quite a bit of Overpower in the very near future.
-K

hey 
and nice explanation ncann

[Demacus]

Welcome to the forums Kyoujin.

Good job filling in the blanks Ncann.

[Kyoujin]

Thanks for the warm welcomes!

Another question: I noticed that Event cards have a name listed on them that corresponds to the Missions Cards (Maximum Carnage, Separation Anxiety, etc).  Can I only use an Event card that matches the Mission Cards I'm using?  Can I mix and match my Mission cards, or does it have to be from the same set?  If I can mix and match, does that mean I can use any number of Event Matching that Missions type?

Thanks again!

[steve2275]

Thanks for the warm welcomes!

Another question: I noticed that Event cards have a name listed on them that corresponds to the Missions Cards (Maximum Carnage, Separation Anxiety, etc).  Can I only use an Event card that matches the Mission Cards I'm using?  Can I mix and match my Mission cards, or does it have to be from the same set?  If I can mix and match, does that mean I can use any number of Event Matching that Missions type?

Thanks again!

nope
just one specific event
but u can also use the "any mission" mission in addition your chosen specific mission
    ANY MISSION
    Event:
     * HIDEOUT DISCOVERED!  <CG> {U}           Silver Sable
        Discard all placed Teamwork Universe cards. No Teamwork Universe cards
            may be played this battle.
     * TO SAVE THE WORLD!  <CL> {R}            Squadron Supreme
        For remainder of Battle, after Venturing, if one player either draws or
            discards cards, Placed or in Hand, then other player must draw or
            discard an equal number of cards, either Placed or in Hand.

[Demacus]

All 7 of your mission cards must be from the same set, thus, events must be linked to that specific mission.  But there are 3 event cards floating around out there that are can be used with any mission set in addition to the specific events for that mission set.

[Kal-el]

To round out Steve's list from above, the third Any Mission event:

    ANY MISSION
     * SOVEREIGN SEVEN  <JL> {VR}              Sovereign Seven
        Remove one hit from the Permanent Record of all characters with an Inherent Ability.

[Kyoujin]

Thanks again, crew!

I can see that this is a very helpful community!

-K