Sadist

Alert

Destroy

Resource

Control

Type

Power to Torment

Gains Power By Inflicting Pain

After any destiny, use this power to target one alien and ravage one of their ships. Gain one boon for each alien other than you with 6 or more ships in the warp.

As the invader, after destiny, if an alien’s power is deactivated, you may ignore destiny and target that alien’s system for invasion.

Legacy: After every warpfall, aliens with fewer than 8 ships in the warp must each destroy one of their ships.

A merciless blackguard that likens the screams of innocents as ambient background music, the Sadists wish to rule only to increase the total amount of suffering they can inflict. All else is a secondary concern.

Any: Destiny

Mandatory

Wild Flare

Whenever you would destroy one or more other aliens’ ships, either through an aspect or the result of an encounter, you may discharge this flare to draft one pod per alien that loses ships.

Any: Any

Super Flare

When using your power, you may discharge this flare to target an additional alien and ravage one of their ships before gaining boon(s).

Any: Warpfall

Modifications

Original Sadist has the power to “Inflict Pain.” It reflects original Masochist’s power to “Hurt Yourself”, but I opted to go for something snappier for both.
Original Sadist’s power is an alt-win condition that lets Sadist declare victory if all other aliens have 8 or more ships in the warp. I modified it in accordance with my “no alt win powers” edict.
Original Sadist uses lost ships instead of only destroyed ships. Since mine isn’t an alt-win alien, I reduced it to only destroyed ships to prevent Fungus and Void from strictly helping Sadist with their power, since their effects are more permanent than simple destruction.
Original Super Sadist activates during warpfall to choose any alien to revive ships while choosing a different alien to lose one in its place. It’s effective for the original Sadist power, but I don’t think it fits the power to have Sadist helping other aliens, even if it can target itself.
Sadist’s legacy honors the tradition of inflicting pain by making everyone lose a ship until everyone has at least 8 ships in the warp. I like it as a throwback to the original power that wants all aliens to have 8 ships in the warp, and it works pretty well as a legacy, giving everyone effectively 8/12 ships but at a slow enough rate that someone could win before feeling the full force of it. Original Cosmic has no legacies.

Tips

Sadist gets the most boons from many aliens having ships in the warp. It can also choose to focus down one alien to try and deactivate their power. Depending on its matchup, it will need to gauge which matters more.
When opposing Sadist, be very careful with your ship count. If you get into the danger zone, Sadist can focus you down and deactivate/eliminate you, especially with other ship destruction aspects in effect.
Sadist’s primary power leads into the secondary aspect. Since deactivated aliens are likely to be weaker, Sadist may wish to target them to destroy more of their ships in combat. However, Sadist still has the choice to follow destiny if it doesn’t like its odds.
Since Sadist’s ability to focus down an enemy cannot be avoided, the only way to get around it is to either win before Sadist can take you out or earn ships through warpfall, lucre, or boons to nullify it. If you don’t have the most ships in the warp, Sadist is more likely to ignore you. Take advantage of that to try and fly under the radar. Or get on Sadist’s good side to make it choose to target someone else.
Sadist’s best bet to start gaining boons from its power is to target the defender. If the defender loses, Sadist can hit them again the following invasion to get the ball rolling. Otherwise, it can target the next invader. There will be diminishing returns as aliens start targeting bases with fewer than four ships to destroy, but Sadist will likely be able to start earning at least 2 boons per invasion in a single cycle.
As with original Sadist, the Warp Key is the alien’s biggest threat. If it can get ahold of any warp keys, it can reduce their impact by using its boon gaining to never need a resupply. It just has to be wary of compensation, since its larger cache will make it a target for it.

Development Notes

If Masochist and Genius cannot take the crown for worst alt-win alien, then it would definitely go to Sadist. While it does have the ability to work toward both of its win conditions at once, the destiny limitation makes it unable to focus down an enemy without drafting the right pods. Especially with my version, where sponsors aren’t known until after arrival. Sadist is also hard-countered by too many aliens that either protect ships or easily pull them from the warp, such as Benefactor, Doctor, Zombie, Wormhole, Love, Observer, original Bulwark. It doesn’t have much going for it, and mechanically it raises questions about why its win condition gives it a win.
When redesigning this power, I wanted to ask myself what kind of Cosmic match a sadist would love. It would probably be one where everyone else was losing a bunch of ships and Sadist, by comparison, was not. The ability to pick at someone’s ship count is what came to mind, making ships more valuable as a resource if Sadist is involved.
I also wanted to make sure Sadist and Masochist had a good dynamic, as the two parallel well with each other. Sadist inflicts pain while Masochist loves being in pain. So if Sadist keeps inflicting pain on Masochist, both end up rich in resources.
I had to ask myself the same question I asked Masochist. Inflicting pain makes Sadist “happy”, but what does that mean mechanically? Do they get dominion? Combat power? Authority? Lucre? I ultimately decided boons make the most sense for both in the same vein as Ghoul. If their power grants them the same kind of energy that Ghoul gets from feasting, an energy that can either be forged into a pod or revive a ship from the warp, I think that makes sense as a means of framing these sorts of boon-granting powers universally.
I considered several different variations of Sadist’s power, trying to figure out the version that is most engaging. I tried a version that has Sadist destroy the ship of an alien with the most ships in the warp, making it much more punishing to lose ships. I didn’t like this design since it didn’t offer much of a means of recovering without a warp key, since the only alternative would be to put another alien deeper into the hole. It can become a foregone conclusion that an alien will lose their power or become eliminated. I also tried a version that would give Sadist a boon for every four ships an alien has in the warp after destroying their ships. This version of the power also specialized in focusing down a single alien, which I don’t think makes for the most engaging experience. I opted to create an incentive for Sadist to divide its focus instead of being forced to do so like Assassin. If an alien loses four ships, Sadist needs to target it twice with its power to get one boon each invasion. The potential to gain passive income every invasion is insanely valuable, so I wanted to make sure it wasn’t too easy to build up a tally of 4-5. Other aliens would need to play poorly for Sadist to become that successful, and the warp keys will refresh Sadist back to zero. I think these two powers make it fair, but it might potentially be too weak.
Sadist and Assassin have an interesting dynamic, since both take the role of destroying one ship per encounter. Unlike Assassin, Sadist isn’t limited by destiny and actually gets something for its effort. However, Sadist cannot snipe, and the ability to focus down a target makes Sadist more targetable as an enemy. A Sadist is more hateable than an invisible being of the shadows.
Sadist makes any ship-destruction power more of a threat, which extends to special destruction powers like Void and Fungus. The fewer ships an alien has to work with, the more Sadist will want to target them. However, Sadist does prefer the ships to go to the warp rather than being vaporized, since it can gain more boons that way.
I changed the timing of Sadist’s use clause from warpfall to destiny so Sadist can intentionally target the defender.