Legacy Part 4 - Variants and Synergy

Variants

One of the coolest parts of “Sentinels of the Multiverse” is that each hero has different varieties or “variants” of themselves. The variant will still play with the exact same deck as their regular counterparts, but will have two major differences. Said differences are:

Their HP Will Usually Be Different: Sometimes it’s higher. Sometimes it’s lower. This doesn't apply to every variant though but it is common for a variant to have different HP than their standard counterpart.

Their Base Powers Will Always Be Different: The biggest difference is in their base powers. That variant’s character card will have a different innate ability. This usually changes how the character is used in a substantial way.

So with that out of the way let’s discuss Legacy’s Variants. Here are the Legacy variants along with their names and powers:

America's Finest Legacy

Base Power Rating: 5 / 5. This is the guy I’ve been talking about in my previous posts so there’s no need to retread what I’ve said before.

America's Greatest Legacy

Base Power Rating: 5 / 5.

So here we have a Legacy variant who is still a support character, but in a different way. America's Greatest Legacy lets other characters use their powers more often. This will always be useful! Every Sentinel has at bare minimum a base power and they all like to use their powers more than once. America's Greatest Legacy is your man if you want more power plays to happen.

Freedom Five Legacy

Base Power Rating: 5 / 5

Freedom Five Legacy is one of the few Sentinels in the game where his base power gives you a choice. What’s even better is that both of these choices are great!

1. You can either move an annoying environment card to the bottom of the environment deck. This solves one of Legacy’s problems about the lack of a long-term solution to an environment card.

2. One of the heroes on your team gets to play an extra card. It’s similar to WW II Legacy in the sense that you’re letting another hero get an additional play, which will ALWAYS be useful!

America's Newest Legacy

Base Power Rating: 4 / 5: America's Newest Legacy is my least favorite Legacy variant. By no stretch of the imagination is her base power bad, it’s just that the other three are so AMAZING that she suffers by comparison. That’s saying a lot because other heroes would love to have 3 damage (with no strings attached) as a base power. It’s just that increasing damage and providing other heroes extra plays (whether it be powers or cards) is so much more useful that dealing damage seems lackluster by comparison.

The usual argument that favors America's Newest Legacy is that she’s better for smaller teams of 3 heroes. There’s a problem with this argument: Teams of 5 heroes are strategically superior to teams of 3. Teams of 5 heroes can deal more damage, combo with each other more often, and can are better equipped to deal with threats. Generally speaking, you should be playing with teams of 5. So saying that she’s more useful for less advantageous situations that you can easily avoid isn’t much of an argument in her favor.

To her credit though, America's Newest Legacy does make the best use of “Surge of Strength”. For the other three “Surge of Strength” is a nice card to have, but is ultimately a luxury. With America's Newest Legacy that card goes up from a “3 / 5” to a “5 / 5” because she’ll always benefit from it thanks to her base power. She also benefits a lot from “Inspiring Presence” since she can immediately deal damage. She’s fun to play every once in a while and America's Newest Legacy is better than no Legacy, but she’s definitely the Legacy Variant I use the least.

Which Variant Is The Best?

Interestingly enough, Legacy is the only hero in the game that has multiple good options when it comes to variants. Even if you do choose America's Newest Legacy, you’re still better off than having no Legacy at all. Damage buffing, getting to use an extra power, or play an extra card are all amazing choices and you can’t go wrong with these versions of Legacy. In terms of ranking the Legacy variants we have:

America's Finest Legacy = America's Greatest Legacy = Freedom Five Legacy > Young Legacy.

Teamwork Time

One of the beautiful elements of “Sentinels of the Multiverse” is that certain heroes work well together. Team composition matters when it comes to Sentinels. So this section will be focused on explaining which heroes are worth pairing up with each of the Legacy variants:

America's Finest Legacy

If Legacy is the love child between Captain America and Superman, then Guise is this game’s version of Deadpool. Guise and Legacy make a great team due to a couple of cards in Guise’s deck. The first card in Guise’s deck that works really well with Legacy is….

This card lets Guise copy Legacy base power, Galvanize, meaning that for one turn your entire team gets a + 2 damage buff. It almost goes without saying that an extra damage buff is AMAZING! Your entire team will be destroying enemies way faster with this in play.

The other card in Guise’s deck that works well with America's Finest Legacy is…

This is a card that lets Guise copy all of Legacy’s “ongoing” cards at once. The best use of this card is to wait until after Legacy has played “Inspiring Presence” and then to play this card. Once you play this card as Guise you’ve essentially got a second “Inspiring Presence” which means that the team will get another + 1 damage buff AND he even gets to copy the + 1 team healing. Since we’re on the topic of team healing this card can also copy the effect of “Motivational Charge”, allowing for extra team healing for a turn.

Who Benefits From Legacy Being on the Team: One of the awesome parts about being Standard Legacy is that he can fit really well on just about any team. You see, most of the heroes in the game are primarily damage dealers. What they want is to be to deal as much damage to enemies as possible. Legacy enhances their abilities to do this by having them be able to deal more damage. As such, the answer to “Who Benefits From Legacy Being on the Team” is...over 90 % of all the other heroes in the game.

An easier question to ask would be “Who Benefits the Most From Legacy Being on the Team”? The characters that benefit the most from Legacy’s “Galvanize” are heroes that can deal damage multiple times a turn, but only deal small amounts each time. There are three characters who fit this description:

These three heroes have low damage output, but tend to deal damage in rapid bursts. When Tachyon, Chrono Ranger and Omnitron-X are combined with Legacy their damage output skyrockets. These heroes become twice as effective than they would normally be whenever Legacy’s around. After those three the next heroes who benefit a lot from Legacy’s ability to buff damage would be….

Tempest, Ra and Haka are characters who can already deal huge amounts of damage on their own. With Legacy on the team they become monsters who can tear enemies apart. 

I could keep on listing heroes because everybody likes this guy, but I think you get the point.

America's Greatest Legacy

America's Greatest Legacy is in a similar situation to his standard counterpart in the sense that he can fit really well with just about any team you put him in. So once again an easier question would be “Who Benefits the Most From America's Greatest Legacy Being on the Team”?

Action Hero Stuntman:

At the top of the list of heroes who benefit the most from America's Greatest Legacy’s power is “Action Hero Stuntman”. Also known as “French Rambo”. This guy becomes near god-like when he’s on the same team as “America's Greatest Legacy.” Why? Well, “Action Hero Stuntman” is a character who wants to use his base power as many times as he can. The more he uses his power, the more cards he can play and the more damage he can deal. “America's Greatest Legacy” lets him use his power again which means that he gets to play an extra card and gets to deal more damage. Always pair these two together. “Action Hero Stuntman” and “America's Greatest Legacy” is a bromance made in Heaven.

Team Leader Tachyon:

Wait a second. Is that Tachyon again? Well kind of. This is a “variant” of the Tachyon I alluded to earlier. As you can probably tell, Legacy is not the only hero who has variants of himself. Anyway, Team Leader Tachyon is a hero who lets your entire team draw cards. Letting her use her power results in your entire team getting to draw an extra card. This will result in a rapid accumulation of the number of cards in your character’s hands to use against enemies.

Wraith:

Wraith, also known as this game’s version of Batman, is a character who has a lot of cards in her deck that can only be used during her “Power Phase”. Wraith has a lot of awesome cards that can be used at this time and having “America's Greatest Legacy” around means that she gets a second chance at using them. As we’ll discuss later once we get to her article Wraith has a lot of great options so giving her an extra power use is a huge benefit for the team. 

Once again, I could keep going, but this list is getting pretty huge so I’ll just reiterate that “America's Greatest Legacy” can synergize with just about any team you put him in.

Freedom Five Legacy

This version of Legacy’s base power involves letting other heroes play cards from their hands outside their turn. Naturally, the more cards one has in their hand the more options there are available that “Freedom Five Legacy” can give you access to. As such, “Freedom Five Legacy” naturally wants to be paired with other heroes whose powers revolve around letting other characters draw cards at faster rates.

Team Leader Tachyon:

Hey didn’t you just put her on the other Legacy’s synergy list? Yes I did. As you’ll find out when we get there, Team Leader Tachyon is another one of those heroes who synergizes with basically everyone. Team Leader Tachyon provides each and every hero with more cards to draw, which in turn means that when “Freedom Five Legacy” gets to use his base power of letting other heroes play cards from their hand the number of cards to play will be lengthy indeed.

Scholar:

So there’s a Sentinel in this game that reminds me of Hohenheim from Fullmetal Alchemist.

Anyway, Scholar has several cards in his deck that are more fun to play as outside of his turn. “Know When to Hold Fast” normally ends his turn in exchange for drawing 5 cards. Thanks to Freedom Five Legacy’s power, the turn ending effect doesn’t matter because it isn’t Scholar’s turn. Scholar also has access to a powerful combo involving two cards called “Expect the Worst” and “Alchemical Redirection”. There’s just one problem: Scholar normally can’t pull off this combo by himself. But if he’s allowed to play an extra card outside his turn then he can pull this combo off easily.

Lifeline:

“Lifeline” is another hero that provides other members of the team extra cards in their hand. This time he manages to do it while also boosting the number of cards in his hand too, providing the player with two extra characters with more cards in their hand.

America's Newest Legacy:

What I find ironic about America's Newest Legacy is that the hero she would have benefitted the most from would have been her dad. America's Newest Legacy is an example of a damage dealing hero whose damage output would have been awesome when combined with her dad. Unfortunately you can only have one variant of a hero present during a game so America's Newest Legacy will never be on the same team as her dad.

That being said, she still likes damage buffs so let’s see if we can find some other heroes that can do that for her.

There are two heroes who are known for their ability to buff damage: Legacy and Parse. Fugue State Parse buffs damage differently than Legacy, but nonetheless she’s America's Newest Legacy’s best option for improving her damage output. Cards like “Exploit Vulnerability”, “Critical Multiplier” and “Targeting Arrow” are the cards that let Parse do this.

La Commodora:

“La Commodora” has a card called “Paradoja Figurehead” which can let her give one hero a + 1 damage buff. Young Legacy is a good candidate for that card.

Visionary:

Visionary, like La Commodora, has one card that America's Newest Legacy can take advantage of: “Twist the Ether”, which can give a free + 1 damage whenever used.