Genius

Alert

Resource

Control

Type

Power to Outwit

Outsmarts Opponents to Win Encounters

As a leader, after arrival, use this power to declare a numerical value. At the start of combat, if the opponent’s driver’s might is within 1 of your declared value, draft up to 4 pods. If your driver’s might is within 1 of the opponent’s driver’s might value, blitz your opponent.

Legacy: After contact, if both fleets are brigades, the first alien to correctly type the might totals of both fleets in the text channel may gain 2 boons.

Isolated and unappreciated, the Geniuses were derided for their bold, unorthodox ideas about how the Cosmos should be ruled. They tried to let it go, but after thinking on it, they decided to make it their life’s mission to be proven right.

Leader: Arrival

Mandatory

Wild Flare

As a leader, after launch, you may discharge this flare to target any alien. That alien must draft one pod.

Leader: Launch

Super Flare

When either your driver’s might or declared value is within 1 of the opponent’s driver’s might, you may discharge this flare to get both rewards from your power.

Leader: Arrival

Modifications

Genius received a complete overhaul, as the original power is an alt-win alien, which my Cosmic doesn’t permit. Original Genius wins when it has 20 pods in its cache, and it can gain a pod boon when winning on offense, instead of dominion.
My version of Genius repurposes the power from original Poison, which I have also overhauled.
Original Super Genius had the power to draft 4 pods if guessing the opponent’s driver’s aur value with an offset of 3. The idea was repurposed into the base power, so the new super flare enhances the base power by letting Genius draft and blitz if either of its conditions are met.
Original Genius has an optional power, since you may not always want to rebound your ships for pods instead of gaining dominion.
Genius’s legacy takes advantage of the fact that aliens only normally communicate through voice chat and tests the math skills of everyone at the table. The first alien to correctly calculate the might totals of both fleets gets 2 boons, which can add up pretty quickly if one alien dominates the mental math prowess. Original Cosmic has no legacies.

Tips

Genius’s power is designed with mind games in mind. Your declared value can act as a deterrent to your opponent playing a specific pod. This can also be used to bait the opponent into playing that value, thinking that the value is “safe” from the threat of blitz.
As Genius, remain aware of all aspects that could potentially modify pod values. If opposing Volt, factor in the supercharging unless you have a zap handy. If opposing Mirror, consider if there will be a reversal.
When opposing Genius, make sure you do the math. Genius uses might value for its calculations, not aur value, meaning it applies to the pod after modifications. If Genius declares “30” and you are Volt, think twice about playing that 10 pod.
If you have a power that can alter your encounter pod’s might, take advantage of it to avoid Genius’s strategy. Powers like Oracle, Chosen, and Magician can use their powers to make it more difficult for Genius to outwit them.
Playing a negotiate or poison pod ensures that Genius won’t be able to activate its power. This also makes it more difficult for Genius to play these pods, since it will be powerless while using them.

Development Notes

For Genius’s design, it was important to make the declared value the non-lethal one, since the opponent will know it going in. Unless they make a misplay, have nothing else to play, or have a dynamic combat power like Calculator or Sorcerer, they aren’t going to intentionally play a pod that makes them lose. But they might intentionally play a pod that gives Genius pods if it means avoiding that loss.
Having Genius’s power based on might value instead of aur value gives us much more freedom to play around with different power interactions, while also giving powers that modify their pod value more freedom to escape Genius’s plans. It creates an interesting divide between powerful combat powers, as Warpish is just as ill-suited to face Genius as Vacuum, but Chosen is much more adept at dealing with it. Consider Genius vs. Calculator (a fitting matchup). If Calculator equalizes Genius’s 15 after priming an 08, Genius will end up with a 07, resulting in Genius blitzing Calculator. In a Genius vs. Sorcerer fight, Genius can declare the pod it will play in expectation of Sorcerer using its power, if it does so, it can guarantee its 4 pods. Sorcerer can use its N-swap strategy to guarantee that Genius’s blitz won’t proc, but this can end up giving Genius 8 pods from one invasion.
The forge is a very important factor when determining how “wide” the gap needs to be for Genius’s power to activate. If Genius can play an 08 and cover everything from 00 to 20, it’s definitely too oppressive for an average game. Original Poison’s range is 3, which works pretty well for the original forge, covering 05 to 11 if Poison plays an 08. Since Genius covers potentially two different values, it has a range of 2 to 4, which can be broken up between two different numbers. Since the range spans both directions, the number needs to be very small. Even a difference of 2 with two selections allows for a range of 8. I needed to set both to 1 in order to stop Genius from having too much reach.
Original Genius falls into the same pitfalls as Masochist, where its power doesn’t help it to work both of its victory conditions at the same time. When winning on offense, Genius can get pods instead of a foreign base, forcing it to pick between one or the other. While the pods can be used to subsidize future wins, using the pods actively works against Genius’s win condition. Also, as with Tick-Tock and Masochist, no one other than Genius really feels satisfied when one player wins because they won a game of solitaire before the game ended.
The biggest issue with Genius is the existence of the Cache Zap. Like Masochist with the Warp Key, Genius can have its win stolen from it because someone happened to draft a pod a the right time. While dominion is fairly stable, Genius’s cache size is highly volatile, especially with pod-stealing powers. Original Masochist basically has no play with original Healer, but original Genius has no play if Trader, Demon, Whirligig, or several other similar aliens that take caches outright participate. Original Genius gets about as much benefit from losing the encounter via compensation as it does from winning. It just keeps its ships around.
The Original Genius super flare gave me the idea to swap out Genius’s power with original Poison’s. It’s such a fitting idea to force the Genius to read the opponent’s mind through intellect alone. The original Poison only has the “win if within 3” aspect of its power, without the secondary draft ability. I combined the two to really explore the mind game potential with the power. Genius can say “40” and then play an 08, getting wide coverage. Or it can say 08 and play 08, ensuring that it gets both benefits if the opponent plays a common pod.
Genius and Mind form a great tag-team, which is highly amusing and thematically appropriate. If they’re in the same match, Mind can sponsor Genius to improve their odds of winning, or Mind can sponsor Genius’s opponent to nerf them hard. Since Genius can name any numerical value, there is no number Genius can’t “reach”, so Mind’s ability to trump Genius depends on Mind’s cache coverage.
Genius has one of my favorite legacies, acting as a unique passive effect while also fitting very well into the theme of Genius’s power. How wonderful that the aliens honor the fallen with math. If my Cosmic ends up automatically calculating encounter totals, I’ll need to make sure it can be disabled for this legacy.