Warlock is truly an awful card. The base stats are among the worst in the game for 3-cost allies. The heal ability is actually ok on rate - 1 resource becomes 2 thw/atk as you choose. But it is SO SLOW. A Sidearm can speed things up a bit, but in the aspect with Med Team and Defensive Training, Warlock is far from the best way to do a Voltron strategy. X-Factor is a useless trait. I sympathize with the designers because a self-healing ally does have potential to be broken. If the cost were 2 or especially if one of the stats were 2, Warlock would become very strong, so there is not much to play with in the numbers. As it is, Warlock is just too weak to justify playing.
In a genius-deck-matters, a sidearm and a Warlock sound like a better two card package than Med Team and ally X.
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DirgeOf1937
· 1
Med Team plus a 3 cost 2 ATK 3 HP ally costs 8 resources, and includes 6 points of healing. Sidearm + Warlock would be 6 resources + 1 per 2 heal, so by the time you get to 6 healing that's 9 resources. By the time Sidearm + Warlock pulls ahead on rate, that's like 9 or 10 turns...very long time and less flexible
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Stretch22
· 714
Your assertion seems to be that the only cards worth consideration are the ones that can generate the most output for the least amount of input in the shortest time frame. In Marvel Champions, the optimal strategy is a rush strategy for defeating any level of difficulty. I will agree that minimizing input while maximizing output in as few turns as possible feeds that rush strategy. Although there are certain protection builds for specific heroes that can be rush, protection builds for most heroes will likely be non-rush. A genius focused protection deck will definitely be non-rush. If you measure the quality of a card by how much it feeds the rush strategy, then most cards are truly awful, including Warlock and many heroes, and there are optimal heroes with optimal aspects with optimal cards that are worth your time. My assertion is that in a genius heavy, protection deck employing a non-rush strategy, Warlock and Sidearm is a better two card package than Med Team and Ally X.
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DirgeOf1937
· 1
If by rush strategy you mean having the most damage and thwarting at your disposal to answer minions and side schemes from the encounter deck before they make you lose, then yes that is how I evaluate cards.
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Stretch22
· 714
That's not at all what rush strategy means.
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DirgeOf1937
· 1
Forgive my mild sarcasm. The first sentence in your second comment is exactly correct, but you mis-attributed that to an argument for a rush strategy rather than simply staying alive. You need damage and thwart to answer side schemes and minions no matter your deck strategy, and I think Warlock is too slow for accomplishing that
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Stretch22
· 714
Rush strategies are only efficient at low player counts and really only consistent at solo. Typically, the game functions as a slow build-out where eventually player cards outvalue the villain.
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TrueHiddenMist
· 71