# of specials per hero

[BasiliskFang]

So, some characters have 10 specials (Wolverine and Spider-man), Wolvie has 3 OPDs, Spidey has 2, both of these characters got a special each in a different promo set, both are Inaugural characters.

Rogue has 7/3 opd. < Inaugural character
War Machine has 6/3. < Inaugural character

Special instances:
Dr.Doom has 4 OPDs, Cable 5. < Inaugural characters
Wasp 2/2 < only new char from marvels.
Typhoid Mary has 3/2. < Introduced in X-Men
Spawn 5/2. <Image
Neron 3/2. <JLA
Knockout 4/2. BS

So obviously, the only rhyme or reason for the amount of specials is when they were introduced and if they got 2 cards in IQ. Some old characters have only 1 OPD, like iceman and most BS characters. Then obviously, only heroes got cards in the marvels, not all tho. Ab Evil would have gave the villains a card each.

Don't know if anyone would be interested in doing homemade/custom cards to at least 5 normals and 2 OPDs.

[thetrooper27]

I would like to see each character playable.  Maggot has 5 specials and can find his way in a deck because he has some playable cards.  I'm all for seeing as many specials as the community wants to design, but to me, the most important thing is that every character can fit into a deck.

[BasiliskFang]

perhaps some reasons why someone is or isn't playable needs to be discussed.

[thetrooper27]

I'm all about it... but everyone seems to be on vacation... I hope everyone's just busy and not hurt...

[gameplan.exe]

I'm all about it... but everyone seems to be on vacation... I hope everyone's just busy and not hurt...

QFT

[thetrooper27]

QFT? FTW?  What do these stand for... I'm STILL a buffoon...

[gameplan.exe]

QFT? FTW?  What do these stand for... I'm STILL a buffoon...

These go beyond Overpower.

FTW = For The Win
QFT = Quoted For Truth
- some other common ones:
DoW = Devourer Of Worlds
DTR = Draw To Replace
FROG = For Remainder Of Game
FROB = " " " Battle

[thetrooper27]

Loving my edumacation

I can't wait to get my OP diploma!

[Hotobu]

perhaps some reasons why someone is or isn't playable needs to be discussed.

Basically when people say "not playable" it's in reference to their relative strength. Carnage is not playable. While his cards aren't "Dracula bad" (I propose that this be the start of a meme BTW) there's simply no reason to put him in a deck unless it's for fun. Why play with Carnage when I can play with Deadpool? (Even without his Marvels card).

With the heavy variety that OP offers I don't think there can be a concise definition of who is and isn't "playable." Given enough time for editing and a large word count I'm sure I could offer up something meaningful, but I really don't think it's worth the effort. I think the best rule of thumb for whether or not someone's playable is to think about how you feel sitting across from that character and where their priority would be. Would you ever look at this character's grid/specials and think "damn I've got to take them out first?" if not how much worse than them would their teammates have to be for them to become a priority?

So let's look back at the Carnage example. He's simply not a threat. Blade Hand is pretty good, and so is Symbiotic Web, but that's just two specials. I'll live with him potentially getting those two off to go after someone like Heroes for Hire. Also why play Carnage when I can play Deadpool? Bushwack is WAAAY better than Blade Hand, and I'll take Don't Lose Your Head over Symbiotic Web; yeah someone not being able to attack is potentially excellent, but it still isn't guaranteed to actually have any affect whatsoever. Deadpool has a better avoid, the same AA and High Threshold of Pain. Unless you REALLY want to play Carnage for some reason there's simply no reason to play him.

[thetrooper27]

I like that way of thinking.  I usually know who I want to knock out first, or at the very least, I recognize which characters pose the bigger threats.  That's a good method for determining a characters playability.  On the flip side, most of the decks I build are for fun purposes.  So if I want to put Carnage on a team, I have no choice but to use what he's got. 

Now sometimes a special might be alright without me knowing it.  For the longest time, me and my friends never used AI's that only targeted Universe cards, or avoids that only targeted Universe cards.  Now we consider them, because of teamworks.  I always thought She-Hulk had lame specials till I started talking to you guys.  So when I say that I wish there was a way of rating them, maybe what I mean is like a star rating system 1-5... 

Beast: Analyze ***** 
Doc Samson: Power Punch **
Any Hero: Devourer of Worlds *****
Juggernaut: Head Butt ****

... and so on.  Sure some specials will be better situationally, but most you could probably rate.  I didn't like Viking Pyre nearly as much until someone opened my eyes to how good it can be.

[Hotobu]

Well I happen to think She-Hulk is a bit lame. Not completely, but she'd be a bit low on my list. Still though a star system is still prone to a lot of variance.

You mention Doc Samson's AE. For him I'd give it 1 star because it's completely, absolutely awful; it's the worst in the game as a matter of fact. For Carnage I'd give it a 3, and for Deadpool I'd give it a 4. Starjammer's (C'hod) is impossible to rate. Starjammers + Spawn would make it awesome. If Starjammers have the highest energy on the team then it sucks. From a battlesite strong in that powertype it may be worthy of a 5.

Speaking of battlesites they make some cards take on a whole new life. Look at Callisto by Morlocks. On a team with the morlocks this card isn't even worth using. On a team weak in strength icon hits it's absolutely fantastic. Then there are the EJ specials. These are so so from characters, but exceptional from battlesites. The reason is that from a character you're playing they can only be that card. From a battlesite they're one of however many possibilities you have for that activator. Let's say you're playing a location with Shadowcat, and you've got a Shadowcat activator. If you're up in cards and your hand is decent on defense then using her activator as the EJ late could be huge, but if you need it you can also use her avoid. That flexibility increases the usefulness of these specials from a battlesite.

[gameplan.exe]

My brother and I tried to go very in-depth with a rating system. I actually had a spreadsheet with every character marked out. We had a system to rate their Power Grid based on cost, dual grids, max level, playable teamworks, etc. Then we tried to go through and rate each person's offensive cards. It was fairly simple, we took the face value and added a "bonus" for various secondary effects, but we only broke that down into a handful of catagories (if it added card advantage for draw/discard, if it had a negative effect, etc).

Where we really got hung up was with defensive cards. We basically tried to value them (approx 1-3), but we quickly ran out of room with that rating system. As we continued to explore, we got up to about 1-7, trying to gauge and differentiate between the myriad types of avoids and how many people they covered, and how many types of attacks they defended, etc, etc, etc.

It was exhausting, to say the least.

[thetrooper27]

It probably would be hard to rate each special... but it would just be a guide anyway.  Some cards are no brainers (good thing for me), and others seem to slip past me, such as the Viking Pyre I mentioned.  She-Hulk is indeed lame if you want to make a competitive deck, but if I'm a She-Hulk lover and want to play her, she has a few cards to consider playing in a fun deck featuring her.  I don't really build tournament level decks because my friends wouldn't likely wanna play against me if every deck I had featured Xbabies and Spawn and other tier one characters.  Drafting teams would be awesome, or building a team from a story arc I enjoyed reading and if I had She-Hulk, I would play her moderately useful specials in that fun context. 

[TGW]

My brother and I tried to go very in-depth with a rating system. I actually had a spreadsheet with every character marked out. We had a system to rate their Power Grid based on cost, dual grids, max level, playable teamworks, etc. Then we tried to go through and rate each person's offensive cards. It was fairly simple, we took the face value and added a "bonus" for various secondary effects, but we only broke that down into a handful of catagories (if it added card advantage for draw/discard, if it had a negative effect, etc).

Where we really got hung up was with defensive cards. We basically tried to value them (approx 1-3), but we quickly ran out of room with that rating system. As we continued to explore, we got up to about 1-7, trying to gauge and differentiate between the myriad types of avoids and how many people they covered, and how many types of attacks they defended, etc, etc, etc.

It was exhausting, to say the least.

Do you still have this spreadsheet? If so, are you able to post it? I'd be interesting in reading through it and I think it would make for some great conversation on the board.