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