The Definitive Guide To Building A Monster Toon On A Budget; Volume 1
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Some of you already know the techniques I'm about to explain, either through me, or 2nd hand through those I've told in the past. These techniques are what allowed me to become a top toon in just a few months, and becoming a top 3 toon in under a year. There will be some folks that are going to be upset with me for sharing this info, but I feel like enough folks know already, that it isn't a huge secret anymore. Furthermore, if the average level of play improves across the board for all players, it will force top toons to improve and create more good competition for everyone. The weaker toons will become stronger and have a fighting chance, and the stronger toons will have to fight harder for their wins. While this may seem bad for a few players, myself included, I feel it will be good for the overall game as a whole. Seeing Hard Left Hook's performance thus far in the 1st Draft Wars is what convinced me this knowledge is good for the community and the game, as a whole. Sorry, Frank.
1st and foremost, you want to build a strong base deck for your powers. This chapter of the series delves into that, while future chapters will delve into raiding, gear, and skill point allocation. But those chapters will simply help you make the most of what is learned in this Volume.
The biggest trick in the game currently is Super Charges (from hence forth reffered to as sc). Depending on where you get them, they can cost as much as 80 MP each, with the store being the highest purchase cost. They can also be found at a discount in the Black Market in patrols, or won for free in raids and climb events. I'll go into how to quickly and even cheaply collect sc in a future volume. For now, just understand that sc are THE MOST IMPORTANT part of powering up on a budget.
SC add 1 point to a cards stats relevant to the type of sc used. Each different card you have has a limit of 150 sc per stat. So each card can add 150 att sc, 150 def sc, and 150 move sc. That's 450 sc per card to fill them. The beauty of sc is that the sc bonus to your power card will go to every card you have that is a duplicate. So if you have 4000 of a card and an sc hits it, you just went up 4000 points on that stat BEFORE tiering, sp and gear bonuses. Each sc goes to a random card when used. So there's no telling which card it will go to. But by limiting the number of cards it can land on by limiting your number of different cards and maximizing the total number of cards you want them to land on, you can create a lot of control as to where the sc do land.
Now let's go into that concept some. Your chance of sc landing on a card are 1 in however many cards you have. So if you have 5000 cards your odds of hitting any one specific card are 1 in 5000. But if you have duplicates, those odds are multiplied by the number of copies. If you have 3000 of card A, 1500 of card B, and 500 of card C, you have a 60% chance for card A to get the sc, 30% chance for B, and 10% for card C. If the sc hits A, you gain 3000 pre bonus, pre tier addition to your stats. But if it lands on B, you only get 1500. If it lands on C, you only get 500. If it lands on a card you have one of, you only get 1 measly point. So limiting the amount of different cards the sc can land on can make the difference of spending as much as 80 mp to gain 1 point vs gaining a few thousand.
Now, the trick to making this happen is choosing 3 cards, and 3 cards only, to build your toon with. 1 att card, 1 def card, and 1 move card. You want all other cards to be duplicates of these 3 cards. By doing this, you guarantee to make the most of your sc. You can add other cards later, AFTER you fully sc these 3 cards. This insures you get thousands of points for your sc instead of just a few. Please note, you will still have to keep 3 of each card you want to use for Atlas.
Now the question becomes which cards to choose. That answer will be dependent on you and your resources like time and money. There are a couple basic guidelines to which 3 cards you should pick, though. 1st, it has to be a card that you can EASILY get an unlimited number of. So you don't want cards that are hard or slow to get, or cards that are limited to a finite number. Let's go into the pros and cons of each to determine which is right for you.
Bux cards are the cheapest, fastest way to power up this type of build. It's not my preferred choice for a number of reasons, but it isn't entirely a bad one. It's just that, with this information now out, it's the bottom rung technique. Bux cards just don't start off as strong as their Crystal and MP counterparts. Furthermore, they require a deficit. So you have to find a way to maintain that deficit and that takes earning bux. Depending on which bux cards you use, that deficit can quickly become too much to handle normally, forcing you to play at a much weaker rate than you would want to run during tournament. Luckily, there's an Atlas Perk, War Profiteer, that allows you to erase your deficit during wars. That Perk is MONSTEROUS for Bux toons. So if you go this route, be sure to get 2 stars on that Perk. The biggest pro to this choice is Bux cards are quick and easy to acquire. The biggest con is the deficit. But again, during wars, that deficit can be negated with a Perk. This option is best suited to free and budget players with little time.
Crystal cards are the next option, and my preferred one. Store bought Crystal cards are limited, and cost Crystal to acquire. This is a very bad choice. Crystal cards won in Fight Club (fc) are slow to come by, and not worth the time it takes to acquire. These cards are best sold to tier others. Crystal cards from raids are as abundant as you are able to do raids. They also don't cost any crystals to acquire, which you'll need for tiering. Furthermore, many raids also drop sc, speeding up your sc acquisition for free. This is what my deck is primarily made of. I suggest it for any player with enough time to raid regularly. Once your deck is full, you can slow your raiding down to 1 raid per level.
Mp cards cost a lot. At my level, there's nothing cheap about trying to fill my deck with over 15000 cards. Furthermore, store bought cards and most Shuffle cards are limited in number. Once they sell out, you can no longer take advantage of already placed sc on future growth. Once this happens, it will take another 450 sc to build up a new card. Unless you're super rich, this kind of process is probably outside most of your guys reach. If you do decide to buy MP cards, and realize you will be collecting another 450 sc each time you start the process over, be sure to buy as many as you can at 1 time. For the purpose of pure power, Challenge cards and AMP Den cards are a solid choice. The 1% Shuffle cards that are unlimited are still going to be expensive to acquire in large numbers and then tier. MP cards won through competition and game play come far too slow to make them viable choices. Raid MP cards are a viable option, but do still cost MP to tier. I advise to go after the ones that are more common. This path is best suited for those with a large budget in line with the likes of Avenger, Super Rakly, and Skelanimal.
Another option, 1st brought up by Daryl Danforth /Zombie Ex-Girlfriend, is to use Bux cards for 1 stat, Crystal for another, and MP for the last. This will certainly ease your resource gathering efforts, but leave your toon somewhat unbalanced in their stats. With Move being the most important base stat, it's probably best you used your strongest card (MP) for that.
Once your 3 cards are fully sc'ed, with 450 sc each, you can either stop trying to acquire sc and put those MP towards things like gear and consumables, or you can pick out other cards that you can start scing, which will make a stronger card later, but are harder to get. Use these to supplement the power of your base deck. They could be your Atlas cards, for example. They could be the new patrol cards, Serpents Strike, Eagle Eyes, and/or Wings of Night. They could be the 1% Shuffle cards. They could be the AMP Den cards. Just be sure you buy the max possible if you go this route, since they are only available for 1 month. All of these choices are good to SUPPLEMENT your base deck with. If you plan on going this route once finished with your base deck, and you already have your expansion cards in your deck before selling off all your cards, consider keeping them. It will slow your the rate of your sc growth on your base deck, but be more beneficial in the long run. Do factor in tiering as well. In many cases, a fully tiered, fully sc'ed Crystal or Bux card is stronger than a fully sc'ed MP card that isn't tiered.
Once you are satisfied with your deck, you can now start using those valuable MP you were spending on sc to gather gear. Obviously, the Shuffle is your best bet for great gear. Be sure to sell any cards you get from the Shuffle, that you aren't using in your deck. Then use the MP from selling those to spin the Shuffle some more. Rinse and repeat. Your acquisition of good gear will now come much faster. The cards you sell will cost too much and take too long to be as strong as your base deck cards anyway, and will only hinder your growth progress.
This is THE most valuable information on solid toon building in the game. This is the information that starts free and budget toons on their path to beating the big budget players. Here's the catch 22 though. They all know it too now. Still, it's one helluva game balancer to level the playing field.
In our next volume, we will be going into raiding and how to get the most out of it. Good luck heroes and villains. I hope I've made your path to power that much easier to accomplish and your goals that much closer within your reach.
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