Midas has always been one of the trickiest models for a coach to deal with on the pitch, as befits his larger than life personality, and adaptable playstyle. In Seasons 1 and 2, we represented this with the True Replication Character Play, a powerful ability that allowed Midas to copy any non-Captain Character Play in the game for his own, and use it for the rest of the game. Whilst this was a fantastic and fluffy rule, and gave Midas immense versatility. One thing that became obvious to us over time, however, was that True Replication was also hamstringing future development of the rest of the game. Going forward into Seasons 3 and beyond, what we really wanted to do was to realign the ability to allow us a little more creative space when designing future Character Plays, and not have to continue with such a careful balancing act against Midas. After early development and testing, it became apparent that our first ideas on this weren’t quite meshing with the character. We felt that whilst the changes which we made were good, we were taking out a lot of the fun of playing Midas, as well as finding ourselves getting further away from his character.

It was time for a new direction.

In Season 3 onwards, we’ve looked at focusing Midas even more on his character and personality, without relying so much upon a key Character Play to define him. Midas is now exactly who you’d expect him to be – a superstar striker, flamboyant and dynamic, always dangerous to your opponent, wherever he is on the pitch. Whilst he kept two of his Character Traits, Light Footed, and Unpredictable Movement, as they were still in keeping with his new role, and most of his profile stats remain the same, the real difference is how we amended the rest of his Traits, and Character Plays (as well as an updated Playbook!). An obvious one to include with Midas’ new role was Super Shot, a classic play that can be found on many of our strikers, but we also added a new trait named Showboating, which allows Midas to be extremely dangerous and efficient. Not having to spend the MP cost for the Pass ‘n Move, and Give ‘n Go Teamwork actions means that Midas is deceptively mobile on the pitch, especially when considering his new Heroic Play, Promise of Fortune. This allows the Alchemist coach to spend the MP they just saved in granting even more movement, and a bump in ARM to make Midas more survivable. Also noteworthy is that this also allows Midas to make Snap Shot! actions for 1 MP! Couple that with Midas’ newfound Dodging abilities (just take a look at that juicy momentous 2” Dodge, 2” Push result after five hits… isn’t that tempting?), and he’s extremely difficult to pin down or predict.

But Midas also can offer his teammates something, even when he doesn’t have the ball, and his other two Character Plays are designed with this in mind. The first is Midas Touch, the replacement for Heavy Burden. Midas Touch is incredibly useful – allowing for either Midas or a teammate to gain extra hits against the opposition models, just when you need them for that vital Take-Out or Character Play. The second is Lure of Gold, a fantastic play for letting you move your other models around the pitch outside of their normal activations, keeping in theme. Both of these are incredibly potent when you consider Midas’ new Legendary Play, Magnum Opus, and how the snared condition will affect the opposition; with the opposition giving up DEF and extra hits, or friendly models moving at greater speed whilst their opponents are made to be slower, the Alchemist’ Guild under Midas are extremely capable, and a very difficult proposition for any opponent.

We’re very happy with the new Midas, having reached a design for the model which we think retains the same sense of character and importance for Alchemist’s Guild coaches, and that also is a very difficult model to deal with on the pitch for opponents. We can’t wait to see how you’re all going to adapt your teams to suit his new playstyle – on both sides of the pitch!

Let us know what you think of the Chosen One in Season 3 by heading over to our forums at Steamforged.com, where you can discuss Midas with your fellow coaches! We’ll be back on Wednesday, with another Season 3 card reveal!