"Mighty Morphin's Too Weak"

When the first big box expansion came out a lot of people in the community began to say that Hyperforce, as a whole, was broken. And the same thing happened when we began to see Zeo cards. Now, after having played couple of games of both MMPR and Hyperforce themed teams, I've got a few practical thoughts on the matter, practical meaning that I've actually played it and seen how the games play out between the two teams, for the better and for the worse. For the purposes of this article I am going strictly with anything labeled MMPR for the MMPR team and anything labeled Hyperforce and Jen Scotts from Time Force; Lauren Shiba will not be counted here. She was added in later, and I've not seen her played enough to be able to give intelligent commentary on her playstyle.  The two teams are almost polar opposite of each other. MMPR has higher damage output and combo's more easily, but Hyperforce has better defenses and more tricks to finagle their way out of tough situations.

MMPR'S Really Frickin' Strong

MMPR's pool of characters is much larger. You have two versions of almost all the base five, not to mention the upcoming two versions of Green and White rangers. It's a much more varied team, with decks having multiple roles and able to do pretty much whatever the players need. Hyperforce, however, have less options overall. HF Red can only be played one way, MMPR Red can be played three different ways! The sheer variety in the MMPR team is subtle, but cannot be discounted here. And in that way they definitely win out over the Hyperforce team, and probably most teams, if you were going just for theme.

MMPR's overall energy generation and nova damage is a lot better as well. None of the signature weapons in their team do anything less than four dice, by and large, and the only three dice weapons (Power Axe and Dragon Dagger) have mitigating circumstances, making them some of the heaviest hitters in the set. And thanks to Jason and Kimberly it's very easy to generate energy and attack. Momentum is king in this game, and MMPR rules that roost. Hyperforce, while they have a higher energy gain numerically, do not get it as easily as the MMPR team. Yes, Overclock from Jen Scotts is amazing! I love that card! But you have to discard a card to get any use out of it, and it has to have high shields, which often measures the utility power of the card. So you're giving up something valuable to get that energy.

All of That Being Said....

Hyperforce's overall damage output is better, in no small part due to Chloe's Impulsive ability, Martin's Find Weakness maneuver, and cards like Headbutt, which allow for greater consistency and make the team more adaptable. You won't get the flash-bang-pop of MMPR, but Hyperforce certainly doesn't slack off in the damage department. You're managing a smaller, but more consistent, stream. Granted, there are times you really need to nova, and that's harder to do, but if you're doing a pretty consistent stream of damage then do you really need the nova to begin with? I mean, sometimes that's going to bite you, if you're playing all your damage boosts at all times you're going to get a very good string of damage. The existence of Hyperforce Black then allows you to get all the creatures that you didn't kill, mopping up the remainders.

Hyperforce's utility is a lot broader than than MMPR's. Each and every card is loaded down with little tricks that make the Hyperforce team a good deal more cerebral than MMPR. HF Blue in particular requires you to be more measured; you'll need to play a much longer game than MMPR. Bursting is really hard to do, but that's because you're not sprinting, but running a marathon. Do not look for the immediate kill in Hyperforce, or to not take hits, because you will, it's why the characters have so many defensive abilities. Your entire strategy has to be different. Hyperforce can take the hits. Let them.

Do not, I repeat, do not measure the success of Hyperforce by MMPR standards, and vice versa. They're very different teams, do very different things, with their own strengths and weaknesses. Yes, Hyperforce's cards are much more flashy than MMPR's and yes, in isolation they look a lot stronger. But none of these cards are in isolation, and Hyperforce has some significant weaknesses where MMPR is stronger, and vice versa. The game didn't break with Hyperforce. I highly doubt it'll break with Zeo.