Opinion: “Until Death” Isn’t Good Enough
Ah, Sevastopol. I want to like you... but G. Hierophant fell short. So I should have known...
I got stuck in gauntlet this season. Wasn’t being super careful, and had the misfortune of spending all my Freeze immunity before a battle with Mother Russia. But it wasn’t just her, the real rub was a maxed Redan with Yggs being fed by a maxed Lazy wearing Prudence. Of me being frivolous with LAD (using him in a previous match). Of a couple hang-up/force closes when I had promising teams with too many effects going around... and bugs witnessed, like a Mercenary taking damage with Midgards on and Perfect Vanish showing, Redan healing to full health with Perfect Heal Block and Crave both active on her, and a Czar that died with Dark Ghost getting revived again, anyway.
Anyway... to the point ^^!!
One of my most promising teams was the second I tried. I saw Prudence and thought about the Apparition Mother throws around, and got the jitters. I thought, “I have to move fast!”
But moving fast w/out Freeze immunity attacking into a Redan wearing Yggs isn’t an easy task. So, Starfire. That was my play. Starfire is always risky, but in the long run this Gauntlet match didn’t matter. I’ll get a new tali set (Envious), and I’m not chasing the crown. Even better, Starfire on Sevastapol! That’s how you do it right! Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Plus, this team ^^ has no regular passive disable.
Starfire matches are always quick, but here’s how quick this one was:
I (unfortunately) went first. If I had gone second, I probably could have won. So I did... stuff. This wasn’t my game plan, exactly.
The AI attacks all out of order like. Redan, and THEN Ed., and THEN Lazy, who is slotted second. Lazy’s attack into my team kills Redan when the damage is reflected. I guess her ability THEN sees Redan as a deceased toon, and revives her. I guess. It felt a lot like cheating.
Game over.
Redan can now heal, Sevastopol is now useless, and because it’s the AI Redan is now going to attack me and full heal every time I attack into anyone, instead of just sometimes.
There is a lot of reviving going on across all areas of the game these days... and, in light of it, cool effects on paper like Sevastopol’s just don’t cut the mustard. Apocalypse is a nice tool that fails short for the same reason. Maxed Grims and Icarus(es) are ubiquitous, everywhere... and are devaluing any effect that stops with death. I’m not sure a Sevastopol has helped me win a single match where I thought he might make the difference; the absurd effort to obtain him and his useless Bespoke have paid no dividends.
And really, this is a rant. But it’s also an opinion. If toons with endless revive cycles keep being added to the game, there has to be some sort of balance. Sevastopol among all these protections and revive skills is a lion cub stranded on a tree limb in a herd of stampeding wildebeests. He should be a lion.
And “Apo” I thought was a good solution tor teams that loop and loop with no regard for things like caps on extra turns. Turns out, killing a team once just gets you closer to your own death... once they loop, inevitably, anyway.
(There are other examples... but I’ll be done, for now.)
