Psychic Manipulation

This reads something close to "thwart 3 and confuse the villain", although the timing is definitely more uncomfortable.

The card I most want to compare this to is Crisis Averted; same cost, same aspect, both have the effect of negating a large chunk of scheme. Crisis Averted is going to consistently give you 6 thwart. Assuming there's 6 scheme on the main scheme, the villain needs to thwart 3 for this card to break even. A scheme of 2 or 1 I'd consider a whiff; 4 means you've got real value out of this card. As such, I'd only play it against Villains with a scheme of 2 or higher (preferably higher); it's just too easy for you to spend 4 total resources to get four thwart (Compare For Justice!)

There is one upside this has over Crisis Averted; Crisis is only useful if the villain already has 6 threat on the main scheme. In 3-4 player that's barely an ask, but in singleplayer that is a risk. Confuse (and pseudo-confuse, like this card) are highly valuable in singleplayer, as one bad Scheme can end the game.

So, to synthesize these two theorums, along with the Psionic kicker, if you are playing a singleplayer Phoenix (or later Psylocke) Justice deck, and you intend to take on Expert-level villains, this might be a good 1- or 2- of, as a way to thwart+confuse (something Phoenix also has in her hero deck, of course.).

6/15/23

DaLucaray · 14

Oddly enough personally I'd compare it to... sonic rifle, now what I'm going to write is definetely affcected by me being mostly solo player, but the main question: when do you get most value out of P. Manipulation: there is some threat on main scheme and you go AE, next turn you emerge with recovered HP and no/little threat, in true solo you are at the biggest risk of having main scheme completed from 0 to threshold in 1 turn, so what other card can help you? One that confuses the villain, granted we get more and more steady/stalwart villains, I'd still compare it Mainipulation to S Rifle, and I'd say single rifle with 2 confuses will prevent more threat than single manipulation — Aatxe · 14 6/16/23

One thing to be aware of is that this card won't prevent an activation the same way confuse does. That may not matter all the time, but some villians have special abilities that trigger during or after an activation. An few examples would be Green Goblin, Nebula, and Ronan. — erikw1984 · 6 6/16/23

Huh, now that I think of it, how does this even interact with Green Goblin in Risky Business? His scheming doesn't add threat, it removes a state of madness counter instead. I guess this card would do nothing then? — erikw1984 · 6 6/16/23