Your welcome. But seriously, I will say this, people are confusing Anti-Gauntlet with Anti-Tentpole. RPGambit is mostly right, teams without the Gauntlet are at a large disadvantage. It's no different than a Feat-less team in Golden Age. Could there be an amazing Featless team? Yes, but there are going to be far, far, far, far, far MORE amazing teams with Feats.

It's funny how people are equating Gauntlet with tent-pole all of a sudden. When it was first revealed I feel like most of the talk was "15pt TK!" So do I doubt that there is a team or teams out there without the Gauntlet that do well? No, I do not doubt that. But the team would have to be perfectly tight, even teams like Metron/NC had wiggle room for objects/nurse etc... it's been fairly rare to find an amazing team with no wiggle room. And if it's that focused, meaning there are no substitutions possible, I feel like it's a gimmicky team because most "well rounded" teams have lots of subs possible. And if it's a gimmicky team I feel like it's Anti-tentpole. Which is far different than anti-Gauntlet, which I don't even think can exist yet to be honest.
Why is this? I thought she looked awesome, then about a minute later I decided she is fairly terrible and have yet to change my opinion.
Well it definitely appears to be an Anti-Stranger team for sure. But it doesn't solve the Barrier Problem. Also, it has something that I HATE to see on anti-tech teams, and that is RELIANCE on each figure. You are relying on the anti-tech Earth Man and Thanos bring. If one of them falls your strategy can fall apart quickly. And with the Gauntlet I would still expect the Stranger to have a vast numbers edge which means one or more of your characters should fall before he does.

That's just me though.

Oh, did you help him playtest the team I designed? That WAS nice of you!

I thought of the Stranger team a when I first saw the figure before I read about it in the thread. He has been just theory craft until today.

Let's go back to your analysis. Is it assumed the gauntlet is on a tentpole? Yes in most cases. Why are most not thinking about 15 pt tk option. Because no one hasn't solved the second part you talked about. You have to have a team that can take on a tent pole with the rest of your points. So would you rather spend that 15 pts on an attacker or support. Most people really are answering with attacker as the way to go.

You talked about how one could have a featless team and do well but there would be more teams that would do well with feats. In the same since when we look at support figures with the gauntlet we are looking at them in the same context when it comes to tk. It is going to be a one time thing unless you are willing to take a click afterward. That means that you would have to follow up with some sort of healing to continue tking later down the line or get a benifit when that figure gets to 2 or 3. But you can't plan for 2 or 3 unless the support fig has indom or will power or has some other gimick. In the end the gauntlet becomes equivlent of putting trick shot on a figure with rce and no running shot. Yeah you can get some mileage out of it but your not maximized.

Does that mean that support gauntlet tech is bad? No it doesn't. But what it does mean is that currently there is no solid way of using it in an equal effective manor as a person who put the gauntlet on an attacker.

So we are back to putting the gauntlet on the attacker. If you look at my older post I laid out in detail what you need for a gauntlet holder. You need at least 7 clix of life preferably 8 or 9. Why is that. Because most gauntlet holders can one shot you with a running shot pulse wave combo otherwise. Sadly you are not getting that many clix of life on the cheap like the old days. So that mean we are spending 150 pts up. Pure proccess of elmination puts us right back to the tent pole logic.

Now you could say that the 150 Supes/Eradicator combo or anything breaks that mold. In all honesty it doesn't because you are basing a lot of Supes doing damage with a solid follow up attack. In the end you are expecting Supes to die to boost Eradictor so that he is either unstoppable or hyper effective. Thus you are back to the tent pole mechanic.

When we seriously look at the attack and damage numbers needed to take another gauntlet holder on you have to land 4-6 clix of damage in your turn. That is after damage reduction. If you can't your going to get stomped by the opposing gauntlet holder.

So yeah the meta with the gauntlet is shifted toward tent poles and 2-3 figure teams. Look at half of the teams listed in this thread with the gauntlet at 300pts. They are not 4 or 5 figure teams.

The gauntlet meta is not set in stone but unknowingly we have stated what a good gauntlet holder looks like.

I must disagree. In fact... if you were to use a TNT strategy then you would land on 5,6,7 different Gauntlet Clicks and use probably none of them. On the other hand if you use Astral Strange and keep letting him take 1 unavoidable until he dies so he can TK then you are using everything the Gauntlet provides him. Likewise if your using it on an attacker who doesn't wait until 2-3 then they are more likely to use the PB/SS/Imp etc... that may come up.
Hmmm... I'm not sure we can measure that. But even so... I'm not sure I can agree. In truth you can't guarantee that any figure you put it on will get much if any use out of it. I mean, what if your figure with the Gauntlet gets KO'd on turn 2?
No, I still disagree. I think your logic already fell apart.
No offense to anyone but something important to note is that the reason people like the Gauntlet is it turns previously unsuccessful tentpoles (Doomsday, Lobo etc...) into mildly successful ones. But the truth is is that the Gauntlet, like feats, only makes figures better. So great figures become amazing, good figures become better. So just because people are playing Sinestro and Maelstrom and Imperiex now doesn't make them part of the top-tier meta.

Anyway, we'll see how things break down but I don't see the dramatic shift from "well rounded" to Tentpole you are seeing. The "best" team pre-Gauntlet is the best team "Post-Gauntlet". I think that illustrates my point better than anything else.

It's like MetronCrawler. No one "designed" it. I thought of it when I saw the Stranger spoiled. And I'm sure others beat me to it as the GG spoilers were up for a solid day before I saw them (it was actually a Jarimy post that let me know the spoilers were up).

What do you think is the best single gem option for stranger ?
I'm torn between reality gem and time gem they are both solid options maybe give the edge to reality though
Soul gem is not really needed IMO he will have plenty of other means to heal himself

Yes. Seriously I can't decide either. I think that Super Senses is more beneficial though because of the following defensive situation...
He has Super Senses (gem) and chooses Prob as his power. He is very tough to hit, and has a decent shot at hitting.

He has Prob on his turn (gem) and chooses Super Senses. Now he isn't as hard to hit and has a decent shot at hitting.

Which is why I like Time Gem. Ultimately I feel he's like Metron where the games won't be decided by his ability to hit so much as his ability to not get hit.

I keed. But seriously: I agree. Between his Keywords, power set and the points available once he's equipped with the gauntlet + 1 gem, the team practically builds itself.

Yeah, it's between those two, and it's a tough call. I think we'll have to see how much RS/PW dominates at 300 before I'd say Time is the better choice. As PW ignores everything, the only way to guarantee your gem will help you is to choose one that works on offense. BUT, super senses on top of other powers like IMP or SC is really rough for your opponent outside of PW.

I think it's one of those things where matchups will determine if you made the best choice or not (e.g. playing the soul gem against Thanos is a bad matchup).

But if it's him and two Renegades, then he HAS to hit reliably to win.

Has anybody tried a Renegade/Agent variant?

However, I do agree that you can't go wrong with either of those two gems. It would come down to a playstyle preference.

2 Renegades, I'd be more comfortable with the PC gem than if it was Agent/Renegade. The double barrier would give protection, and he'll have the stat boosts (theoretically) before or not long after he gets into the fray.

Agent/Renegade variant, I'd definitely choose Time Gem.

After typing this up, I find myself leaning towards the Time Gem even more now

The thing is, it seems like we're losing the best RS/PW'ers (Noh-Varr, Thorbuster) and not gaining many in that spot. I see a lot of RS/PW sprinkled in on dials now, but nothing reliable we can count on. the Target Iron Man isn't bad but compare him to Thorbuster and he's seems pretty bad.

I been reading a lot of the post and like te stats and strategy behind running a full IG on Stranger, but I think that it would be best on Malestrom

Malestrom 225pts
IG fully loaded 40pts
A.I.M. Reng 34pts.

I agree that this is now MAD via the IG (Thanks Poli Sci degree). Whoeve get to Godhood first is one thing, but with Malestrom, you are possibly doing so at the right time with crazy stats. Okay, I know that Malestorm has PC, but if someone does run Dirk you don't have to worry about losing anything as a result. Plus, you still gain so much via the gems and with Malestrom with Enhancement and Godhood at he right time, you could be RS, PSB, at 7 damage and 13 attack and don't forget that hydra TA.

If you got the Glove it's all love if you know how to motion your dice in the cosmic ocean.

I would agree if Maelstrom started out respectable. But really, you have to help your opponent to make Maelstrom perform. Each click you push him, makes it one click easier for your opponent. But I'm sure I'll try him and full IG eventually just to see how it runs.

I would agree, but this is going to be an arms race. you don't have to push. Set back and roll for Godhood. One way or another you are going to get to that sweet spot at the end of hs dial and then it's on like donkey kong. Plus don't forget that special power the world stops for me. You get to tha sweet spot and it is a Heroclis Rope of Dope.

Last year in the Worlds Tourney, a couple games went down to a roll off because no one made any attacks. I really think without Nightcrawler to do a dog pile on Malestrom there is a great chance that he can turn the tides at the right time. Stranger is a guy who is best if he can get the IG to godhood ASAP. Malestrom's special powers and trait allow you to take your time.

I said her map, not her hahaha. Isn't the GG map hers on one side?