Tempest Part 2

Variants

Xtreme Prime Wardens Tempest

Base Power Rating: 2.5 / 5

“Thunderstruck” is an interesting power that can prevent certain targets from using their effects. This power is generally useful for minion-heavy decks who have effects that work during the end of their turns. Examples of this include, but are not limited to:

• Chairman’s Under-Bosses
• Matriarch’s “Huginn” and “Muninn” cards.
• Almost every Citizen in Citizen Dawn’s Deck. 
• Almost all of Voss’s Minions and both of his Spaceships
• Apostate’s “Condemnation” and “Corrupted Effigy” cards. 
• Dreamer’s Deck: Whipacorn, Tooth Fairy, Granite Oni, Grotesque Arachnoid, Illusory Demon, Macabre Specter.

You get the point. This card can shut villain minions down. It can be fun preventing villain mooks from using certain effects. Unfortunately, this power has its downsides. Being able to shut down minion effects is nice, but it only works for one target. Minion-heavy decks are good at bringing out multiple minions at a time. Shutting down one effect is okay at best, but it’s usually better to just destroy that target.

Another problem is that this base power is useless against single target villains. This base power only really works against non-character cards.

Prime Wardens Tempest

Base Power Rating: 2 / 5

The base power of Prime Wardens Tempest is lopsided in its usefulness. Playing up to 3 cards is amazing! But being dealt 3 damage each time you play an extra card isn’t. What’s worse is that the text of the power reads “the environment deals damage” so you can’t mitigate the damage Prime Warden Tempest takes with cards like “Mega Computer” or “Mass Levitation.”

This means that “Arc of Power” has to be used sparingly, if at all. Frequent usage of this power forces Tempest’s HP will quickly drop to 0. 

Freedom Six Tempest

 Base Power Rating: 1 / 5

Ew. What an awful base power. The idea behind this power is to destroy a card in exchange for drawing 3 cards. This might sound like a fair trade off in theory, but in practice it’s really flawed. This base power essentially requires Tempest to play a card and then use his power to destroy it. You could argue that Tempest can keep the card and then destroy it at a later time, but that means that Tempest has to use his base power sparingly.

There are ways for Tempest to draw cards that don’t involve destroying one of his cards like Localized Hurricane, Aquatic Correspondence, or Reclaim from the Deep. There’s also the fact that there are multiple other heroes that can provide Tempest consistent cards to draw like Team Leader Tachyon, Freedom Five Wraith, Lifeline, etc.

Having 25 HP also doesn’t do him any favors either. This is the second-lowest base HP of the Tempest variants. When combined with his awful base power, it makes you wonder what the reasons are for using him.

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Synergy  

Synergy # 1 - Damage Buffing

Tempest is the ultimate example of a damage-dealing hero. Like every hero whose main job is to beat down the bad guys, he loves getting his damage buffed. So, Standard Legacy and Parse are the go-to characters here. Legacy in particular can make Standard Tempest’s base power amazing as it can easily turn into dealing every target 3 damage a piece.

Synergy # 2: Deck Manipulation

I already brought this up when I talked about “Into the Stratosphere” so I won’t spend too much time here. Tempest’s “Into the Stratosphere” synergizes really well with other heroes who can manipulate the villain’s deck. The idea here is to send a certain card back to the villain’s deck and then use cards like “like Wraith’s “Infrared Eyepiece,” Visionary’s “Precognition,” or Parse’s “Extraordinary Senses” that can either put the card at the bottom of the villain’s deck or can discard it altogether.

Synergy # 3: Scholar

Scholar has a card in his deck called “Mortal Form to Energy.”

This card lets Scholar deal damage equal to the amount of HP he recovers. Tempest’s “Cleansing Downpour” can easily provide Scholar with a consistent way to recover HP. For Scholar that’s a free 2 damage dealt to any target of Scholar’s choosing during each turn.

As mentioned before, Tempest and Scholar have a great recycle combo in the form of “Reclaim From The Deep” and “Don’t Dismiss Anything.” Tempest lets every hero take one card from their trash and put it on top of their deck while Scholar plays “Don’t Dismiss Anything,” which lets everyone put the card they just put on top of their deck into play.

This combo also works with Omnitron-X and Freedom Five Bunker. These characters have base powers that let heroes put the top card of their deck into play.

Tempest’s Cons

• Low HP: The only Tempest variant who doesn’t have low HP is “Prime Warden’s Tempest.” Having low HP means that Tempest can only take so many hits before needing to heal his own HP.

• Inability to Control Which Targets He Hits:There are some situations where dealing damage to every target is a bad thing, like when fighting against Dreamer. Standard Tempest’s base power and his Grievous Hail Storm card can’t control his targets, which means that he can wind up destroying cards that you don’t want destroyed.

• Variants with Lame Base Powers: For most heroes, it’s not difficult to see which variants are the most useful. That being said, the heroes that I frequently use generally have at least 2 different versions that are fun to play as, and are worth using.

        Tempest is not one of those heroes. I consider Standard Tempest to be the most consistently useful of the bunch by a significant margin. “Xtreme Prime Wardens Tempest” can be fun to use, but his base power comes across as very situational. He also has 2 less HP than the Standard version of Tempest. I don’t even bother to use “Prime Wardens” and “Freedom Six Tempest” anymore as I consider their base powers to be detrimental to them. This means that there’s only one version of Tempest that’s fun to play as, which is a bit of a disappointment.

Overall: Standard Tempest is another example of a hero who’s very fun to use. He’s easy to pick up while also being effective at what he does. If you need a Bruiser that can beat the villain down, then Tempest is a great pick. There’s another reason why Tempest is awesome: “Cleansing Downpour.” That card single-handedly turns Tempest into a one-man medic team. Seriously, it’s the best healing power in the game.

Tempest is another hero that I will continue to use. If you’re new to the game then Tempest is another hero that I recommend using. You will not regret it.

I Was Lightning Before The Thunder: Tempest

So what happens when you combine Storm and Aquaman and actually made them cool? You’d get Tempest. Tempest is a baller who dishes out lightning damage as if he were Thor while also being able to provide some neat utility on the side.

Base Power: Squall -“Tempest deals each non-hero target 1 projectile damage.”

Rating: 3 / 5. This power is a mixed bag. On the one hand the ability to deal each non-hero target damage is amazing. It’s extremely helpful when facing off against villains who summon armies of minions to fight against you as this power can destroy multiple targets at once, making your life easier.

On the other hand, not being able to control who Tempest attacks can be bad in certain situations when you don’t want to attack something (like Dreamer for instance). This power also has issues when facing off against villains with damage reduction abilities.

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Card Guide: For the remainder of this post I will be evaluating each and every card in Tempest’s deck and will then rate each card on a scale from 1 - 5. Here’s the rating scale and what it means:

- 5 / 5: A must use card. Cards with a 5 / 5 rating are the best cards in the hero's deck. If you're playing as this hero it would be foolish not to use these.

- 4 or 4.5 / 5: These are cards you're most likely going to use a lot. They have a few more drawbacks than a 5 / 5 card, but they’re still pretty good overall.

- 3 or 3.5 / 5: This means one of two things:

1. Moderately Useful: The card is decent, but not super good. It’s nice to have but you can go an entire game without using it and you won’t be missing much.

(2)  Mixed Bag: The card’s pros and cons are roughly equal. Usage of these cards needs to be taken on a case-by-case basis and considered carefully.

- 2.5 / 5 or below = These cards are not very good. They have major drawbacks and their usefulness is limited at best.

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Tempest’s Best Cards

These cards are all rated 5 / 5.

Lightning Slash: 5 damage before damage buffs happen, with no drawbacks, is nothing short of amazing. This card will never not see use. It can kill some enemy mooks in one hit and soften up others. 

Chain Lightning: This card is super helpful when dealing with multi target villains like Chairman, Citizen Dawn, etc. 4 damage right off the bat is very good and even 3 damage is still respectable. What makes this card even better is that you get to pick and choose your targets. You can also choose not to deal the 3 or the 2 damage. So this card is still awesome even if you’re only fighting a single target villain.

Ball Lightning: Continuing the trend of awesome damage output with zero drawbacks is Tempest’s “Ball Lightning.” 4 damage is very good, but what tips Ball Lightning into “amazing” territory is that it also gets to destroy two different ongoings. This makes Tempest very useful against villains like Iron Legacy, a villain who has tons of ongoings from the start. Ongoing destruction is also optional, so if there aren’t any villain ongoings you can still use this card without having to worry about blowing up your own ongoings.

Otherworldly Resilience: Hmm….a card that reduces damage by 1. Where have I seen this before?

Oh yeah. “Otherworldly Resilience” is the Tempest version of Legacy’s “Fortitude”. It has the exact same effect and it serves the same purpose as “Fortitude” which means that it gets the same rating as Fortitude: 5 / 5.

Reclaim from the Deep: Oh, what have we here? A recycling card? Awesome! The ability to recycle cards in this game is incredible! “Reclaim from the Deep” lets you reuse your best cards over and over. Did you just use “Hypersonic Assault” and want to shut down the villain’s ability to do damage again? Just use “Reclaim from the Deep.” Did you just prevent the enemy from using cards with “Take Down” and want to do that again? Just use “Reclaim from the Deep.” What’s even better about this card is that it works for every hero on your team while letting Tempest draw the card he just recycled. This card gets even better when it’s combined with cards that let you play the top card of your deck like Scholar’s “Don’t Dismiss Anything.”

Gene-Bound Shackles: 99% of the time the villain with the highest HP will be the main villain that you’re trying to beat. So this card gives Tempest a free + 2 damage against the main villain of the game. And there’s no drawbacks to using it. This card is instrumental to dismantling villains, so you should play it whenever you get the chance.

The “Pretty Good” Cards

These cards are all rated either a 4.5 / 5 or a 4 / 5.

Grievous Hail Storm: “Grievous Hail Storm” is an upgraded version of Tempest’s power. It attacks just as many targets as “Squall” and deals twice the damage that Squall does. What makes this card even better is that the other Tempest variants have some lame base powers, which means that if they want to deal lots of damage, this card is really good for them. The only reason why I hesitate to put this as a 5 / 5 card is that there is one other power Tempest might want to use instead, depending on the circumstance. Even with that taken into account “Grievous Hail Storm” is a powerful go-to card when Tempest wants to deal damage to large numbers of targets.

       Rating: 4.5 / 5

Cleansing Downpour: The “other power” I referred to during the “Grievous Hail Storm” section was this card. “Cleansing Downpour” alone can turn Tempest into a team medic if the need arises. I tend to use this card if everyone on the team has low HP. It’s one of those cards that doesn’t always get used, but when you find yourself in a situation where you need it, this card becomes your best friend.

Rating: 4.5 / 5

Flash Flood: A useful card for getting rid of pesky environments. And you get to destroy two environments for the price of one card! Destroying 2 environment cards is optional too. You can use this card to only destroy one environment if you need to.

Rating: 4 / 5

Aquatic Correspondence: Tempest gets to draw 3 cards with no strings attached. The only nitpick that I have is that Tempest is similar to Wraith in the sense that so many of his cards are great that playing a card that lets him draw cards almost feels like a let down. This is usually because Tempest would rather wreck enemies with cards like “Lightning Slash.”

   Rating: 4 / 5

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“Mixed Bags” & Moderately Useful Cards

The Moderately Useful Card

Into the Stratosphere: This is an interesting card in that it can slow certain villains down by sending one card back to the top of their deck. This doesn’t work as a long term solution. but sometimes stalling a villain is what you need. It works better when it’s combined with a deck manipulation power like Wraith’s “Infrared Eyepiece,” Visionary’s “Precognition,” or Parse’s “Extraordinary Senses” that can either  put the card at the bottom of the villain’s deck or can discard it altogether. This cards also lets Tempest deal damage to a villain, which is nice.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

The Mixed Bag Cards

• Localized Hurricane: This is an example of a card that looks incredible, but has one major downside that hurts its usefulness. This card has the ability to deal 2 targets 3 damage and even lets Tempest draw 2 cards. That should make it an automatic 5 / 5 card, but there’s one major caveat: It increases the damage Tempest takes by 1. This extra + 1 damage is a big deal as it makes it easier for villains and environment targets to drop Tempest’s HP to 0. 

      Tempest can cancel this effect with “Otherworldly Resilience,” but even then you’re still depriving him of much needed armor. I’ve always used this card as a means to temporarily boost Tempest’s card draw. But even then I always make sure this card gets destroyed so Tempest can’t take extra damage.

Rating: 3 / 5

Electrical Storm: Electrical Storm has its fair share of pros and cons.

Pros

• Consistent damage that does not require the use of a power.

• It can bait cards like Spite’s “PL602 Compound Omicron,” reduce the number of cards underneath La Capitan on Ultimate Mode, or also bait out “Glamour” in a Vengeance Five fight.

• Area of effect damage is a plus.

Cons

• It can’t be turned off, which means that this card will hit targets that you don’t want to hit.

• It only deals a measly 1 damage so non-heroes with damage reduction effects can laugh it off.

• It’s effect doesn’t activate until the next turn which means that it’s totally possible for a villain to destroy this card before Tempest ever gets to use it.

Whether this card gets used or not will depend completely on what circumstance the player is in.

Vicious Cyclone: Discard 3 cards in order to deal 1 damage per card discarded. Not a favorable trade-off, unless you put some work into it. This card needs a lot of work in order to be used to its full potential. You essentially need to feed Tempest cards every turn and you need to buff Tempest’s damage. Thankfully, both of these things are easy to do.

Something important to note is that each card that’s discarded is its own attack, so the damage buffs really pay off. This card is used best as a “finishing blow” type of card along the lines of Wraith’s “Inventory Barrage,” only this time the cost is nowhere near as steep.

Rating: 3 / 5

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“Limited Usefulness”

Cards in this section are rated a 2.5 / 5 or worse. This means that at best they’re situationally useful, as opposed to consistently useful. All of the cards in this section have major drawbacks.

Shielding Winds: “Shielding Winds” reminds me a lot of Legacy’s “Superhuman Durability” card. They’re both cards where damage gets reduced once a hero is about to be dealt 5 or more damage. The major difference is that Tempest’s “Shielding Winds” card affects every hero while Legacy’s “Superhuman Durability” only affects himself.

So why the comparison? The main reason why is because “Shielding Winds” has the same problems as “Superhuman Durability.” So I’ll copy / paste what I wrote about “Superhuman Durability” because those criticisms apply to this card:

“The main problem with this card is that the majority of villain and environment cards don’t deal 5 or more damage in a single attack on a consistent basis to make this card worth your while.

There are a few villains who do consistently deal this much damage, like Iron Legacy or Cosmic Omnitron, but in those situations it’s always better to prevent the damage with cards like “Throat Jab” or even “Heroic Interception” then it is to merely reduce it. A - 3 helps, but it’s not a good long term solution, especially when other heroes have vastly superior options on the table.”

Elemental Subwave Inducer: This is my least favorite card in Tempest’s deck. For starters, changing his damage type comes across as unnecessary. It would be one thing if it were like “Twist the Ether,” but here it doesn’t really do anything for Tempest.

You’d think this card was going to be a lot better since it further reduces damage for him, but it only reduces damage of a certain type. As I mentioned in my Legacy article with “Next Evolution/” most villains deal multiple different kinds of damage. So unlike “Otherworldly Resilience,” “Elemental Subwave Inducer” doesn’t consistently protect Tempest. Its effect also doesn’t start when you play it. So it’s possible for this card to get destroyed before it even gets the chance to do anything. It’s usefulness is limited and situational at best.

Rating: 1 / 5