New Feature: If you think this review is too long to read, just skip straight to the scores and then read the summary for a concise overview!  Yes, the summary now lives up to its name.

 

MegaMan is still a relatively new game.  As such, some of my terminology may be confusing, as I plan on using the game specific terms to refer to cards.  For example, Energy refers to cards in your deck, but Power refers to cards in your Power Gauge.  Confused?  You can download the current rule book here, from Decipher’s MegaMan TCG site.  If something doesn’t make sense, make sure the game meaning is being applied to the word.

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Name   : NumberMan

Title     : Calculator

Set       : Power-Up!

ID         : 1 C 4

Type    : NetNavi

Emblem: [Nu]

Strength: 1

Defense: 3

Blast    : 2

Effect   : None

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Time for these numbers to crunch you!

 

Oh, accounting humor. @_@ I have faced some wicked NumberMan decks, but have had some trouble building my own.

 

Stats                : No NumberMan Ally or alternative NetNavi cards, so as is often the case, the name and Title mean relatively little.  NumberMan’s Emblem is a pale green circle ringed with blue that has a green right triangle in it: probably a 30-60-90.  There even appears to be a yellow square in the 90 degree corner to mark it as such.  Geometry is cool. ;)

 

NumberMan has the lowest Strength in the game: one.  The good news: he is not alone, as S1 is the most common Strength in the game.  This sad stat is offset by a D3.  This is the top Defense in the game; only four other NetNavis share it, and no current Navi has a base Strength that can beat it.  Finally, he has an average B2.  This Blast allows for relatively frequent Blasting, but you don’t have to avoid low Destiny cards as much.

 

Card Effect       : Nada.  This card has no built in effects: once again, this is a place holder for my sake and the sake of readers who are half asleep and might think I skipped it. ;)

 

Uses/Combos   : NumberMan, not surprisingly, likes to play with numbers, specifically, Destiny Numbers.  Let’s do a quick run through of his cards, what they do, and whether they do it well:

 

Calculated is a Yellow Resource.  Even with Yellow’s ability to power-up extra, it may take time to get into play seeing that it requires five Power in addition to [Nu].  It has a good Destiny 4.  The effect allows redirect up to two lost Energy, placing them in your Power Gauge.  Since many of NumberMan’s other cards require you to discard Energy, this card should definitely be in your deck.  Run four copies, but don’t freak that you probably will be doing good to get two into play.

 

Next is Counter Attack, a common Yellow Resource.  It has a low Destiny 2, and the effect isn’t that stellar: lose two energy to burn just one of your opponent’s Power.  Still, its only requirement to be put into play is [Nu], and Calculated can ease the pain.  I’d recommend running two to three despite it seeming puny.

 

Ready For Action is a common Red Resource.  Again, a low Destiny 2 but it only needs [Nu] to be put into play.  Again, when you go to spend it for its effect, you have to lose two Energy.  This time, you get a +3 to your Blast Destiny.  Again, this is not great, but it is not terrible.  It is another two to three card recommendation.

 

MiniBoomer is NumberMan’s custom BattleChip (in spite of being used by MegaMan in both game and cartoon).  This card is pricier to use than the Resources, but also much better as far as I am concerned.  You need [R][R][Nu] to play it: not crippling, but it will require effort and/or timing.  You then lose two Energy… again.  This time though, you look at the Destinies on the cards and add them to your Strength.  Even if you get two Destiny 1 cards, you still “break even” in terms of damage.  The card itself has a Destiny 3.  I would run three copies, and four would not be out of the question.

 

Best Throw Ever is NumberMan’s custom Event.  It’s pretty pricey: 5 Power and [Nu][Nu][Nu].  Plus, look at how the effect works.  You lose 3 Energy and note the total of their Destiny Numbers, then add that to your Blast Destiny.  Pretty sweet, but it’s really hard to play unless your deck is heavily focused on powering-up.  After all, you need to Blast before modifying your Blast Destiny, and to do that you need to burn Power.  Even if you lower his Blast to just one, you’d also need to power-up.  Otherwise it’d be pretty sweet-in a bad deck, at worst you be break even, doing 3 more damage to the opponent.  In a well built deck, you could be doing substantially more.  As long as you have some relatively easy ways to power-up, outside of the NumberMan specific cards (that makes the combo even harder using just his own stuff) then maybe run two to three.  At least it has a great Destiny 5.

 

Higsby, Nerdy lets you top deck a card from your discard pile every time you play a NumberMan card.  Even better, he has a solid Destiny 3 but only a [Nu] requirement.  This top decking combos well with many of the cards listed for NumberMan.  Basically, you heal a point of damage and can set up a big Blast or other effect dependant upon your next cards Destiny.  Run four.

 

 

As for other cards in general, I recommend cards that help you power-up extra and cards to destroy the opponent’s Power and Resources.  If you successfully fit all that into a deck, and can get it to flow smoothly, you’ll find you have a Navi that seems insanely “lucky”, getting fantastically high Blasts, thanks to Higsby’s deck stacking talents.  Final tip-run some Destiny 7 cards, even if you can’t actually play them, they just need to be used for stacking your deck’s Destiny.

 

Ratings

 

Casual             : 3.25/5-He isn’t terrible, but don’t expect a true “NumberMan” deck.  You’ll probably just focus on Power/Resource destruction, powering-up, and boosting your stats in more traditional Red/Yellow methods.  Still, that is a solid strategy, and he becomes the flip side of GutsMan: using his Defense to wait out his opponent while Blasting and using chips to peck away at the opponent.

 

Tournament     : 4/5-With a realized NumberMan deck, you actually can hang with the big guns.  You’ll still try to keep them crippled with Resource and Power destruction, but you’ll also be Blasting for good hits while trying to set up a killer combo to finish what they have left in one hit.

 

Limited            : 3.5/5-Roughly the same as Casual, but while you will have a harder time getting complimentary cards, everyone has that problem.  Also, the D3 becomes truly awe-inspiring when players have to rely mainly on Blasting to strengthen their Navis.

 

Summary

NumberMan plays with loaded dice.  His NetOp can manipulate the top of his deck ad thus his Power Gauge.  Most of his cards work by discarding Energy from the top of his deck for extra damage.  This is backed by his great Defense and solid Blast, although his Strength leaves something to be desired.  If you love setting up ridiculous combos, give him a whirl-he’s got your number.