{"id":341,"date":"2025-09-15T00:00:05","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T00:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mountbakergames.com\/manifold\/blog\/?p=341"},"modified":"2025-11-18T22:52:58","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T22:52:58","slug":"choosing-heroes-and-finding-your-niche","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mountbakergames.com\/manifold\/blog\/choosing-heroes-and-finding-your-niche\/","title":{"rendered":"Choosing Heroes and Finding Your Niche"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is a child post of Manifold Foundations<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a game of Manifold TCG, players start with a team of heroes and a deck of support cards. The game\u2019s fundamental win condition is to defeat your opponent\u2019s heroes before they defeat yours. This means that at every point during a game of Manifold you have at least one hero in play. That makes them tremendously important, and choosing them is a consideration you may find yourself agonizing over. Warhammer <\/em>players love the list building sentiment that this evokes, and Magic: the Gathering<\/em> Commander players love the build-around aspect reminiscent of picking their, well\u2026 Commander.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By finding the heroes that provide what you\u2019re looking for, you get to make sure every match you play is your favorite version of Manifold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Heroes Bring to the Table<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While the rules text on heroes, and the way they contextualize the support cards you\u2019re going to play, is the sexiest part of list building, it\u2019s only one of the important elements that you need to balance when choosing your heroes. Your heroes determine:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. The colors of support cards you can include,<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. The quantity of locales available to you,<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Your health total,<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. The damage breakpoints at which you\u2019ll lose heroes,<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Which dice you\u2019ll be able to create at the start of the game,<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. How you can resolve the energy symbol,<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. And of course, special abilities.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    This seems like a dizzying number of things to consider, but fear not. Since all these elements combine in consistent ways, you don’t have to memorize the details to learn the broad lessons you need to successfully build a manifold deck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Hero Points and What They Mean<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    When building a deck, you\u2019re going to have 45 support cards and up to<\/em> 45 points worth of heroes and prestiges. When shuffling two expansion decks together you may find yourself with up to 48 points worth of heroes, that is fine for expansion pack play, but you need to get it down to 45 or below in order to start playing in tournaments. Heroes come in point costs of 9, 11, 15, 21, and 45, while prestiges come at 3 or 6 points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    45-point heroes usually have 30 health, roll 3 dice, provide 4 locales, and have a powerful build-around ability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    21-point heroes usually have 16 health, roll 2 dice, provide 2 locales, and have an ability that guides you towards specific forms or subtypes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    15-point heroes usually have 12 health, roll 1 dice, provide 1 locale, and either offer a powerful ability or an additional dice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    11-point heroes usually have 10 health, roll 1 dice, provide 1 locale, and have generically useful, if not particularly powerful, abilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    9-point heroes usually have 8 health, provide zero locales, but provide substantial power either in the form of 1-2 dice and\/or powerful abilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    6-point prestiges usually provide 1 dice and 3 health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    3-point prestiges usually provide 1 dice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Common combinations which sum to 43-45 include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    One 45-point hero.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Two 21-point heroes and a 3-point prestige.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    One 21-point hero and two 11-point heroes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    One 21-point hero, one 15-point hero, and one 9-point hero.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    One 21-point hero, one 15-point hero, a 3-point prestige, and a 6-point prestige.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Three 15-point heroes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Four 11-point heroes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Some major takeaways that can be gleaned from this without too much calculus are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n