The New York Oracle, Martyrs & Misfits

lgbrokhoff · 2026-04-29T14:00:08-0700

Hello Deadlockites!
And thank you for clicking on this thread! This is a presentation, to all of you, and to the developer team, should any of them be reading. Over the last month and a half, I have personally checked more than a YEARS worth of threads within the Hero Suggestions forum, dating back to the spring of 2024. Out of all of these multitudinous posts, I have selected SIX, just six, which I believe to be the most wonderful, whimsical, ready-to-go hero suggestions that the Deadlock fanbase can provide. In this presentation I will display each of these heroes, along with a link to their own forum post, a picture of them, a summary of their lore and abilities, and finally my bulleted list of reasons for why their lore, gameplay, and design fits into Deadlock. I will then explain how I think this group of characters would interact within the game in terms of their lore and how their gameplay might alter the meta, if they were all to be added together.

I must request that when asking questions about any of these heroes individually you direct these inquiries to said hero's dedicated forum post. I also strongly suggest, that if you cannot currently take the time to read the full post, you scroll through the post first and read the segment on whichever hero name or art grabs your eye. (I promise you, all of them are worth it.) Without further ado ladies, gentlemen, and Pockets, I give you Martyrs & Misfits.

AMNH-3015 (Or Ami, for short) by @LegosaurG
Excerpt from the New York Oracle, Can We Trust A Fossil To Guard Our Fossils?
"Children all across New York love the unofficially official director of the American Natural History Museum for bringing a truly magical experience to the museum, imbued within each of it's fossils, curios, and artifacts. Read on to see what AMNH-3015 is doing to crack down on recently increasing heist attempts..."

Lore:
Ami was originally a simple fossil residing in the American Natural History Museum, however when the Maelstrom hit and a gate opened in New York City, the entire museum was flooded with it's supernatural energy, one of the most influential aspects of this was the immediate revival of the fossils within the museum. While the museum workers ran and most likely pissed themselves, a small number of the fossils who had been given a more human adjacent intelligence than the rest of their petrified friends had taken it upon themselves to run the museum. With specimen AMNH-3015, or as the children who visit the museum like to call them, Ami, running the show. Ami has now decided to take part in the ritual in hopes of using their wish to grant sapience to the other revived fossils that did not receive it.

Abilities:

Ami's first ability allows them to leap at a target area, momentarily rooting themselves and any enemies within a very small range of the landing zone, while dealing multiple minimal-damage light melee attacks.
Ami's second ability summons their pachycephalosaur friend to be ridden, it can be dismounted and sent forwards at high speeds towards enemies to damage and knock them back.
Ami's third ability allows them to shield themselves with hardened amber, similarly to Celeste's shield, when broken or upon running out, it will release a pool of amber around Ami that damages and slows enemies over time, immobilizing them if they stay in it for an extended period of time.
Ami's ultimate ability summons a gigantic tyrannosaurus rex, which replaces Ami's first three abilities with it's own, offers it's large melee attacks, and has a huge health pool. It has two negatives, which are that if parried it will suffer a hefty movement slow, and while mounted Ami takes increased damage.
The T Rex's first ability stomps the ground, dealing a small amount of melee damage and sending nearby enemies high into the air with reduced air control.
The T Rex's second ability allows it to pick up both enemies and friends in it's mouth and throw them forward, though this is a highly telegraphed attack, it does a decently large amount of damage, heals for a percentage of said damage, and increases the T Rex's lifetime when chowing down on enemies.
The T Rex's third ability allows it to spew a long line of sticky amber similar to Ami's third ability, however rather than immobilizing enemies who reside in the amber too long, this amber will decrease the cooldown of Ami's ultimate per stack gained by enemies trekking through the amber pool.

Why I Think Ami's Lore Fits Deadlock:

The timeline is well thought out, AMNH-3015 was discovered in the 1930s, and it's only formal moniker at this time was in fact it's specimen ID.
The maelstrom has already demonstrated it's ability to animate inanimate objects in their intended state in Ivy's backstory, and it would most definitely work on this once living subject.
Ami's motivations are a fitting kind for the Deadlock cast, and their wish is both a reasonable thing to fight in the ritual for, and an interesting cause, rooted in familial love for Ami's fellow dinosaurs.
Ami could have interesting voice lines with several of the cast, particularly in a scholarly sense with Dynamo, a rivalry with a Mo and Krill that have smuggled minor oddities from the museum, or even Paradox expressing her want to steal the American Museum of Natural History's newly living fossils herself.

Why I Think Ami's Gameplay Fits Deadlock:

Ami's base kit provides the perfect resources for being an initiator, and like most initiators has an ultimate that allows them to dominate the ensuing team fight for a period of time, however their ultimate is unique in it's function of controlling an absolutely gigantic area for an extended period of time, rather than quickly ending a fight by providing the resources to their team to kill the enemies.
Ami has multiple abilities that discourage clumping up in team fights, such as their ability to deal tick damage, slowing, and immobilization with amber residue left on the ground, and their ability to deal increasing melee damage to enemies within close proximity to each other.
Ami's ability to decrease their ultimate's cooldown from enemies caught within their amber further discourages clumping up, and rather than grouping enemies up to be slaughtered, spreads them apart, to be picked off.
The natural reaction to Ami's ultimate will likely create a scattering effect at the end of many team fights, as an initiator Ami can then capitalize upon this by re-engaging a lonesome, escaped, foe.
Once more, due to Ami's ability to reduce their ultimate's cooldown, the scattering effect that could be seen at the ending of team fights, and ensuing initiation allows Ami another opportunity to use their cooldown, if enemies did not properly flee from amber covered areas fast enough, thus providing both an interesting way to prevent Ami from using their ultimate multiple times in a row, but still a way for that to occur if not properly counterplayed, despite the cooldown being so high.
Despite being such a high mobility character themselves, Ami can be countered interestingly by other characters with high mobility, who could easily take advantage of the expanded team fight area and avoid giving Ami the necessary clumping to provide them reduced cooldowns and high damage output.

Silhouette & Design Comments:

The silhouette of a dromaeosaurid such as Ami is one that naturally evokes thoughts of an ambush predator, an intelligent, yet vicious creature, capable of mauling it's carefully selected targets, this provides a good read on Ami's initiator playstyle.
When one thinks about an intelligent dinosaur such as Ami, they might immediately think of the velociraptors from Jurassic Park, but it is common knowledge today that much of what is seen in the original movie is the result of unfortunate misinformation. The velociraptors seen in the movie were based on deinonychus, which was considered a species of velociraptor at the time, and also happens to be what Ami is. Interestingly, while there is little evidence to support velociraptors being highly intelligent pack hunters, such evidence does exist for deinonychus, and this is where the misconception of velociraptors being clever girls come from. When you want a smart dino, it's the deinonychus.

Mylo by @gustavnis
Excerpt from the New York Oracle, Local Butcher Falsely Accused!
"Does your meat inside the ice-box not taste the same as the other fillets? Well it's possible you may have mistakenly purchased a cut from Mylo's butchery shop! Despite previous investigations by the FDA for it's unorthodox practices, you can rest assured that the small meat markets products are all safe for consumption, and it's popularity is on the rise with good reason!"

Lore:
Mylo was a simple salamander-esque creature living in the impoverished areas of the city, with little opportunity to support himself, Mylo began to exploit his own biology. He began cutting off the quickly regenerating parts of his body and selling them as meat, and over time he soon enjoyed butchering his own body. One day Mylo was met by a strange entity. The entity, taking interest in Mylo's masochism, offered him a deal. The entity's power in exchange for a regular flesh sacrifice. Of course Mylo accepted the permanent customer.

Abilities:

Mylo's first ability chucks a cleaver towards a target area, the cleaver leaves a heavy slowing area around it while planted. It can be recalled to drag itself through the ground to Mylo, leaving a slowing line as it cuts through the floor.
Mylo's second ability chops off his own tail, clearing himself of all non-ultimate debuffs, including immobilizations, and then while on cooldown this ability provides Mylo with increased health regen and movement speed while the tail is regrown.
Mylo's third ability allows him to throw one of his meat hooks at an enemy, which will suspend them in the air for a duration.
Mylo's ultimate ability projects the entity forth from his mouth, he gains control over it, and can use it to fly around anywhere within a certain radius of his body. By shooting enemies with the entity, Mylo will heal himself.

Why I Think Mylo's Lore Fits Deadlock:

Mylo represents a trade that was very popular in NYC during the time that Deadlock takes place, the 50s was the last decade before supermarkets became popularized in big cities as opposed to local butcher shops in every neighborhood, it's likely that Deadlock will at some point want a character who is in this line of work.
Mylo's relation to the entity is an interesting concept to be expanded upon, it could be considered a more obvious form of Shiv's "monster" and/or a similar scenario to Graves, where the entity is using Mylo to fight in the ritual on it's own behalf for darker purposes.
Mylo might have a kinship with character's such as Celeste, for their freakish nature, or even be considered a delicacy, to his own benefit, by other members of the cast. Drifter could express his want to try Mylo's butchered flesh.

Why I Think Mylo's Gameplay Fits Deadlock:

As described, Mylo is a mortar character, his kit excels in sectioning off areas, and dealing massive damage from a distance, the only other character that currently fits into this niche is McGinnis, and it could be expanded very well by Mylo.
While Mylo's kit is not majorly detailed, by choice of Gustavnis, this leaves it open for many unique features to be implemented to his abilities through their upgrades.
Mylo's first and third abilities can be used to inhibit and prevent the rotation of enemies through a battlefield, chokepoint, or objective, which is easily followed up with his ultimate.
Mylo's second and third abilities can be used as escape utility, to better reposition himself during a fight if approached by an enemy, this works nicely with his ultimate which can be used after repositioning to aid teammates drawn to the point of his assault, or they can be used if his ultimate is disrupted to avoid being taken advantage of.
Mylo offers himself to more than the obvious mortar playstyle, as all of his abilities would function well to detain enemies, or even finish off low health enemies who have successfully escaped.

Silhouette & Design Comments:

Mylo's silhouette immediately suggests a sedentary playstyle, his stout frame and stubby haunches very obviously imply that he is not meant to travel as much as he is meant to watch from afar. Beyond his silhouette, when looking at his actual design this is further reinforced by his eerily large human smile in combination with his animalistically beady eyes, that seem to be sadistically watching, with a level of mental maturity/development falling just below the requirement to be truly labeled as psychopathic.

Sheretz by Me
Excerpt from the New York Oracle, The Government Is A Fly On Your Wall!
"Have you seen a strange mummy figure around town? Has your living room been plagued with silverfish? Numerous reports have been coming in about a strangely mannered person residing within the city for the last few years, and rumors have her pegged as one of the OSIC's top curators. Is there a federally planted bug in your home?"

Lore:
Sheretz was a member of the curator division of the OSIC, however when a mission to interrupt a Paradox theft went awry, she found herself at the mercy of an ancient artifact, transforming her into a swarm of insects. After being dismissed by the OSIC, Sheretz now fights in the ritual to earn herself the wish of dismantling the Paradox organization. Permanently.

Abilities:

Sheretz's first ability allows her to create a large explosion that gives her one stack of Peel Away, damages enemies, and heals herself and allies. Three stacks can be consumed to alternate cast this ability which will provide a percentage of damage dealt as extra healing, as well as increase the range of the explosion per stack.
Sheretz's second ability places an extra set of wrappings at any location within range, Sheretz can then recast the ability to teleport back to that set of wrappings after a long channeling duration. If Sheretz is significantly damaged during the channeling duration, it will be canceled and she will be Cursed.
Sheretz's third ability is a passive that causes her to gain stacks of Peel Away as she takes damage, these stacks increase her weapon damage and certain aspects of her other abilities, but also cause her to take increased damage from all sources. These stacks can be manually reduced over time by channeling this ability's active.
Sheretz's ultimate ability sends a fast traveling swarm after any target within range to pick them up and carry them back to her, if it picks up an enemy it will damage them over time, and if it picks up an ally it will heal them over time. These swarms can be destroyed by gunfire, and escaped by performing a dash-jump.

Why I Think Sheretz's Lore Fits Deadlock:

The Paradox organization and the OSIC are two entities within the Deadlock universe that are clearly extremely influential, yet only a few members of the cast showcase this. While more members of Paradox cannot be added to the roster for obvious reasons, it could be expanded upon through the backstories of other characters, and as for the OSIC, another member of the organization is all but guranteed to appear on the roster.
The curator branch of the OSIC has already been mentioned in the game many times.
Sheretz's wish proposes an interesting question about the power available to many of the strongest entities within Deadlock, can the patrons erase Paradox from existence entirely, if not, how powerful is Paradox, and what does the OSIC plan to do about it.
Aside from the obvious interactions with Haze, and Paradox, Sheretz could have interesting conversations with many other members of the cast, such as Mo and Krill, Dynamo, and Graves.
Sheretz's relationship with Haze gives her a best friend on the roster, helping to humanize Haze, and further expand upon her theme of choosing between her morals and individuality, or duty to the OSIC, as well as giving her another thing to watch out for during the ritual, that being Sheretz and Sevens relationship.
Seven respects Sheretz for her decision to keep and expand upon her power at the cost of her humanity, creating a new dynamic for both characters, with Seven wanting and insisting that Sheretz follows in his footsteps, while she is truly nothing like him, even though in his eyes her path is inevitable.
Many of Paradox's voice lines express contention between the Paradox organization and the OSIC, particularly in conversations with Haze, where the curator division is directly mentioned. Sheretz will allow us to see what this contention looks like in the form of a character.

Why I Think Sheretz's Gameplay Fits Deadlock:

Sheretz's kit is designed to fare well in 1v1s, and then be capable of creating space while in a team fight most effectively if she is in the front of it. Sheretz can thus play as an initiator, and then a frontliner. Her group healing also allows her to stay in a team fight for a very long time if her abilities are used correctly.
Like most characters, Sheretz is compatible with several different build styles, as she could reasonably be built into spirit burst damage, healing effectiveness, or weapon damage, and this works well with the philosophy that's innately baked into her kit of forcing ultimatums on the player.
Sheretz being forced to be in the middle of the frontline to properly use her first ability synchronizes well with her second ability being able to place her there while majorly damaging and stunning enemies within the area, as well as the drawback of taking much more damage than most characters would when enemy fire is focused on them.
The two ways for Sheretz to increase her bullet damage in her base kit gives her a good reason to build into weapon items despite being a majorly spirit based character. This works well with her first ability as well, because while her stacks increase so does her bullet damage, and if she exhausts the cooldowns of her first ability gaining stacks and can't catch up to a foe, she can then finish them with her gun.

Silhouette & Design Comments:

Sheretz's silhouette of a simple build with thick, baggy, protruding khaki shorts portrays a fragile yet somehow tanky character with a high damage and utility potential.
The OSIC uniform jacket around Sheretz's waist displays her attachment to her old job, however having it tied around her waist and not worn also shows her wish to let go of everything in the past, even though she really can't.

Blutson by @AJC007007
Excerpt from the New York Oracle, Mosquitoes Will Soon Be Running Our Streets!
"Reports of a fourth majorly influential gang within the city have been emerging, and what's more, the up and coming gang supposedly has a membership dominated by a nearly extinct species of mosquito vampires! Better stock up on bug incense from Isley Sisters Florist & Nursery before it's all sold out!"

Lore:
Blutson was a simple goon among Wraiths gang, but he had bigger dreams than to continue living as a throwaway body. Seeking superhuman power and immortality, Blutson found a vampire willing to stoop down to the scum of society and convert him, this vampire was of a very rare species, a mosquito vampire. Being harangued and looked down upon by the snobs of vampire society did not fit Blutson though, and so he returned to the gang life, a life that would not have him in his new disgustingly insectoid-vampiric form unless he forced his way in himself. Gathering the starving vampires rejected by every layer of society, Blutson has donned a new title, as the leader of The Blood Sun.

Abilities:

Blutson's first ability lunges forward, impaling an enemy on his retractable proboscis and carrying them with him. If Blutson hits a wall during his dash, he will be stuck to that wall for the remainder of the dash's duration. Any enemies impaled will also be stuck to the wall, and will take a small amount of bonus spirit damage upon hitting it. Blutson heals himself for a percentage of all damage dealt.
Blutson's second ability is a charged passive, that causes every dash he performs while a charge is available to leave behind a cloud of mosquitoes, which will deal a large amount of spirit burst damage to any enemy that enters it. At max level, enemies also take damage over time for as long as they are in the cloud.
Blutson's third ability allows him to jump into the air, and shoot out his wings. While in the air, he cannot move traditionally, but rather can dash in any direction he pleases, with reduced stamina cost and increased stamina regeneration. Blutson's fire rate is increased while he is in the air.
Blutson's ultimate ability divides both himself and his health pool between six large mosquitos which he pilots around. Enemies that the swarm passes through will be damaged, and the mosquitos will heal for the damage dealt.

Why I Think Blutson's Lore Fits Deadlock:

Blutson gives us another peak into the gang life in the cursed apple, presenting a starving gang fighting to come up amongst the Seventh Moon, and Wraith's gang, while being entirely composed of society's biggest misfits.
Blutson's knowledge of Yamato's brother, the real Yamato, fleshes out Yamato's story, showing a possible connection between the gangs in the cursed apple and the original Seventh Moon, as well as premeditation on the plans to take over the streets of New York.
Blutson perfectly follows Deadlocks theme of taking a trope, and making a few alterations to create something entirely unique. We see this type of inspiration in characters like Victor, Vindicta, Doorman, and Drifter. Blutson's mosquito based vampirism is a trope that does exist in media, but is incredibly rare, I myself cannot name any other instance of it off the top of my head, though I am aware it is out there. A mosquito based vampire as a very rare, endangered species of vampire helps to add to the absurd and whimsical type of worldbuilding that Deadlock has established as it's trademark.

Why I Think Blutson's Gameplay Fits Deadlock:

Blutson's kit plays perfectly into his character, being a high mobility character with sustain, allowing him to literally play like a mosquito, flying around during team fights and dealing damage over time to any enemy who treads through his pest trails.
Due to Blutson's proboscis dash being capable of sticking him in walls, Blutson still requires precision attacks in order to properly deal damage, or his attempts will get him killed. This is reinforced by his trails of pests being impact based until tier 3, as wasting stamina on areas that opponents will not walk into, or not dashing directly on them, will make it harder for him to escape after leaving his pests, especially if his third ability is currently on cooldown.
Blutson's ultimate includes very interesting gameplay, where players can very easily deal significant damage to Blutson by killing off his mosquitos, however do to the mosquitos sustain, it further strengthens his role as a mosquito-esque character during fights, as it demands attention with the threat of minimal but constant damage.

Silhouette & Design Comments:

Blutson's silhouette is none too complicated, and shows a character who will not be incredibly imposing in a team fight, but has the potential to be incredibly incessant.

Plutonica by @Oleg-fav
Excerpt from the New York Oracle, Radioactive Rallies Tighten Tensions!
"Tonight a mysterious spirit emanating huggable warmth, and armed with a loveable personality is being paraded around New York by one Maximillian Fairfax, and his top engineer, Maggie McGinnis, stating that she will be the next big step into harnessing nuclear spirit power! The question we're all asking, could this be our peacemaker?"

Lore:
Plutonica is a naive, yet powerful spirit. Representing one of the most powerful forces of the Universe, Plutonica exhibits control over electromagnetic radiation. This is an enticing entity to invest in for a company looking to create the most destructive weapons imaginable. Despite being a primeval necessity of nature, Plutonica was adopted by the power hungry Fairfax Industries, and treated like a human child in the impressionable, infantile years, with little in the way of education on the value of a human life.

Abilities:

Plutonica's first ability is a passive that causes her gun to build up a stack of radiation on enemies hit by it. At a certain threshold this causes a damage-over-time effect, and at a higher, secondary threshold it causes the target to emit a radioactive aura that inflicts radiation upon enemies within the aura, up to a certain maximum, which is less than the threshold to gain the aura itself.
Plutonica's second ability creates a large tubular field in front of her that builds up a movement slow on enemies within it over time, as well as stacks of radiation, when upgraded to tier two. The movement slow caused by this effect builds up doubly fast when Plutonica is not shooting.
Plutonica's third ability creates a large dome around her that has a chance to destroy projectiles passing through it, and subsequently healing all allies within the dome when a projectile is destroyed.
Plutonica's ultimate ability can only target enemies with a large amount of radiation stacks. An enemy targeted with this ultimate will instantly take an incredibly large amount of spirit damage. While this ability is not on cooldown, every instance of Plutonica's spirit damage gains a low, flat damage increase.

Why I Think Plutonica's Lore Fits Deadlock:

Obviously the time period calls for an atomic character, Plutonica is exactly the kind of entity that an occult world like Deadlock would be most fascinated, and worried about, in the middle of the 20th century. More importantly, she is the kind of entity that Fairfax Industries would invest in.
Plutonica's naive nature offers interesting dynamics between her and the rest of the cast that have ties to the Fairfax name. With McGinnis, she could display a Stockholm syndrome type of relationship. Pocket might try warning her of their father's greed, while Dynamo could view her from both a point of scientific interest, as well as through the lens of his ties to Maximillian Fairfax. Dynamo might be established, even, as a character similar to Einstein or Oppenheimer, expressing severe guilt for having helped in Plutonica's acquisition.

Why I Think Plutonica's Gameplay Fits Deadlock:

Plutonica would introduce another frontline carry to the game, similar to Victor, where she would place herself directly before the enemies, attempting to stack as much radiation on them as possible, while slowing them down using her second ability, and blocking projectiles with her third ability.
Plutonica's ultimate poses a major threat to all enemies who allow themselves to build up too much radiation, however it is an ability that can be counterplayed through many methods, such as spellbreaker, dispel magic, or even cheat death. Having an ultimate in the game that very heavily encourages either playing around the front line of the enemy team, or counter-buying, would help to teach new players good habits like these that involve playing more reactively.

Silhouette & Design Comments:

Plutonica's silhouette does well to suggest her role as a frontline carry. Her gigantic, spherical, metallic shell and dangling frail body convey a character with immense potential and heavy defenses. When combined with her glowing blue skin, her obscene power becomes very apparent.
Plutonica's major power spike would likely be when she purchases escalating exposure, which of course has a hazard symbol as its item icon, and that is very funny.

Sunny by @ToastyGhostey
Excerpt from the New York Oracle, City Cleaner Retires In Favor Of Patron Summoning!
"An elderly Chinese immigrant, and pillar of the community, known for his odd jobs and hard work around the city to keep it clean, is announcing his well deserved retirement in the form of the upcoming ritual."

Lore:
Sunny grew up being told that all he should do in life was work. Sunny, being full of life and whimsy, refused to give in to drudgery, so he decided that he would work jobs that made him feel like he was truly living for himself. After moving to America and finishing his work helping to build the transcontinental railroad, Sunny began traveling across the country performing any odd job he could, upon finally making it to New York, he caught wind of the ritual, and in his old age Sunny thought to himself, I need some change.

Abilities:

Sunny's first ability throws a thin metal rail at a surface, dealing spirit damage on impact and allowing him to hang off of that rail while it is stuck into the surface. Sunny may also swing off of rails that he's hanging on, or by dashing near them, which preserves his momentum and allows for greater air mobility.
Sunny's second ability allows him to stand on his pole, he may then jump off of the pole to a target area, and deal light spirit damage in that area. Any black powder left behind by Sunny will be ignited when he leaps from the pole.
Sunny's third ability is a passive that causes him to leave black powder everywhere he goes, this powder causes enemies that walk through it to receive increased weapon damage, and can be ignited by his abilities to created burning black powder, which deals spirit damage to enemies walking through it, as well as building stacks of increased weapon damage on them.
Sunny's ultimate ability disperses a bundle of dynamite throughout a radius around him, each stick of dynamite will detonate after a delay, however dynamite that lands in ignited black powder will detonate instantly, and deal increased spirit damage.

Why I Think Sunny's Lore Fits Deadlock:

As user Rukir says on Sunny's forum post, Sunny is a uniquely American character that would fit perfectly into Deadlock, even based on his inspiration alone. As I consider myself a true American patriot, I believe a supernatural America, should supernaturally celebrate the immigrants that built it. An adaptation of Sun Wukong to match the ACTUAL journey to the west taken by Chinese immigrants in the 1800s is perfect for the world of Deadlock.
Sunny introduces another character hailing from a more Western area of the United States, this calls to mind how several people have said that Holliday does not fit the theme of Deadlock due to her spaghetti western aesthetic. Personally, I disagree with that sentiment, as I see it, Holliday represents a very influential aspect of American culture, and to be represented in the cursed apple amongst the Deadlock roster adds a huge amount of flavor to the game, expanding upon this with Sunny helps to soften the tightness of the theme and will allow Deadlock casting decisions that are historically and thematically influenced, rather than only based on the region.
Sunny has potential kinship with characters like Grey Talon, for their old age and power in it, as well as Infernus, for their wisdom, and wish to change their future due to a lack of satisfaction with their past.

Why I Think Sunny's Gameplay Fits Deadlock:

Sunny's first ability, if I'm not mistaken, is similar to Skyrunner's scrapped second ability, however it serves the kit much better, as while it lacks the utility that comes with the environmental grapple, it has it's own, more balanced utility in the form of Sunny's swinging and momentum conservation, in addition to it's impact damage, all together making it a more well rounded form of an amazing ability that never got to see the creative uses players would've had for it.
Sunny's high mobility combined with his Powder Monkey passive will allow him to take control of the field in an interesting way, he also might have similar counter play to Infernus due to this, despite having a considerably different playstyle.
Sunny offers himself to a range of experience levels, as the planning that it may take to properly light and take advantage of his black powder can be used to it's full extent by a highly skilled player, his incredibly agile, forgiving, and silly playstyle may automatically draw in new players, without being too harsh on them for selecting a skilled character.
Sunny's shotgun weapon will allow him to take advantage of stacking weapon damage from his black powder while maintaining full mobility.

Silhouette & Design Comments:

Sunny's silhouette is very obviously a primate, this alone is enough to hint towards his exceptionally high agility in gameplay, and even his ability to swing around, but one must also take into account that in many cases, especially Sunny's, animations are half the work for recognizability during the heat of battle, and with Sunny it can definitely be assumed that seeing him flying through the air with whatever animation he may receive would undoubtably tell you exactly who it is.
The icon for Sunny's ultimate ability is very creatively inspired, as it shows several sticks of Dynamite tossed into the air in an order that may appear random at first glance, but is actually intentionally made to resemble the Chinese character for cloud.
Sunny's derby hat is, in my eyes, what ties his whole design together. As a hat collector myself, I'd like to point out two incredibly important aspects of this design choice, the first being mentioned in the original forum post by Toasty Ghostey himself, which is that the hat may be Sunny's, "one big spend on himself that he want's to hold on to." Reading that I was instantly reminded of the culture behind these hats, and nearly all brimmed hats seen in the American west. A hat is much more than an object in most of these cases, it is a reflection of the wearers personality, and a good hat will live with them forever, experiencing their hardships from the top of their head, it is the perfect object to represent his prized self-indulgent fruit of labor. Additionally, derby hats were popular amongst the American working class during the latter half of the 19th century, and were also tremendously popular amongst the higher class individuals of the American east coast during that same time period. I think that not only does this represent his life as a worker well, but also his travel eastwards to the cursed apple, where he finally will enjoy the finer things in life.

How would these characters change the game?
Now that you've seen all of the heroes within this presentation, the remaining question is, what if they were all added? How would the game change? What could we expect to see happening between these characters both in the universe of Deadlock, and on the battlefield? Well, here are the best guesses that analysts at the New York Oracle can provide!

Lore:

Ami and Sheretz would both contribute to the museum culture of the game, that is, they would create rivals for characters like Mo & Krill or Paradox, and open gateways for other archaeologically inclined personalities to be added to the game. Their relationship would provide wholesome conversations, that could also fill in a little bit about both of their pasts, as well as include discussions about the other well-educated or thieving characters on the roster.
Blutson and Ami would have a possible small rivalry, or rather an estrangement, due to Ami and Sheretz's friendship, and Blutson's hatred of Sheretz.
Ami could say something about having heard of Plutonica, or knowing something about her, due to her existence as a nature spirit, who has presumably lived much longer than her adoption by Fairfax.
Sheretz may be a commonplace customer for Mylo, and you might say the same for Blutson.
Blutson has a hatred towards Sheretz due to an incident that happened prior to her transformation in which she was tasked by the OSIC to retrieve an artifact that him and his gang were after that could quench any creature's hunger forever. Sheretz feels that she needs to reconcile this in some way, and Blutson wants her dead. Blutson's hatred for her also puts him in an interesting position, where he is going to soon be an up and comer for the Sandman divisions kill list with his increasingly influential paranormal gang, and also is a personal threat to Haze.
Blutson's naivete could cause him to be entirely clueless about the power Plutonica has, or the worlds recent obsession with her.
Blutson might ask if Plutonica is the reason people taste funny lately.
Plutonica could create contention for characters with close ties to the Ixian war.
Sunny might have kinship with Abrams, over their experiences as immigrants to the states, and even Ami for her age, or a dislike for Blutson's ignorance in his old age.

Meta:

Ami would perform best for contesting objectives, and how they can use their abilities during chases and team fights. Their 2nd and 4th abilities would dominate respectively. Ami would truly shine when in an open area fighting over walkers or patrons. I believe that their ability to iniate, and then destroy the battlefield would help a team of junglers play well into a powerful team fight comp, and generally help metas where characters that excel in huge grouped up team fights, or characters who obliterate objectives too fast are dominating.
Mylo would be decently useful as a backline support, similar to McGinnis, with area denial that is a lot like Paige's. He would be secondary to supportive character's who have i-frames in a dive meta, but still trump those without, due to his ability to clear immobilization, and retreat further into the backline. In a comp or meta where several frontliners or bruisers are butting heads, he would be quintessential due to his ability to dish out huge damage when not being focused, and lock enemies into or out of small areas, in a similar way to Vindicta or Grey Talon.
Sheretz would serve her team very well in metas with other frontliners like Victor, where she would hugely increase their group healing. She would also aid in creating space for characters dwelling in the backline to move farther up due to the healing she could offer them, and the damage that couldn't be ignored for long enough to focus them. She would perform greatly with characters like McGinnis or Mylo behind her, and character's like Silver, Victor, Abrams, or Billy beside her.
Blutson would perform perfectly as a mosquito character. While his damage output may not be extremely high, his immense control over his positioning while flying, greater than that of Grey Talon or Vindicta, makes him a much more omnipresent issue. He would perform very well when there are no other characters who can reach him in the lobby, and be a big help in matches where team fights happen a lot at chokepoints, covering the field in his swarms.
Plutonica would be a very powerful frontline carry. She would be a hybrid gun/spirit carry, who aids in creating space on the frontlines in a similar way to Sheretz, where she forces enemies out of the range of her Proton Flux and radiation beams, while protecting those around her using her projectile deflecting Fission Field. Plutonica and Sheretz would perform extremely well together, and dominate in a gun carry meta, that would generally counter Sheretz, but be countered itself instead by Fission Field.
Sunny would be useful both in the jungle for catching up to fleeing opponents, or defending certain spots on the map, with his trails of black powder and steel rails already set in place ready for him to defend. Sunny would generally fit into any meta depending on the players playstyle, simply as an extra character who could jungle, help defend objectives, and perform decently well all around. As an extremely high mobility character, Sunny would be in danger from slows and silences that disallow him from catching up to enemies, but would still be capable of igniting his preplaced black powder, helping to stop enemies with the potential to easily escape. Likely, he would perform very well in a meta with many fast junglers and initiators.

In Conclusion, Thank You For Reading!!!
As you have seen in this presentation, a lot of love, effort, and forethought went into these characters, their designs, and lore. These forums contain many such cases, each made with a piece of the person who created them, and the reasons they love Deadlock baked right into the core of the character. Of these six I've covered, for even one achieve the love from the community or consideration from the developers it deserves would be a spectacularly heartwarming sight.

The New York Oracle, Martyrs & Misfits

lgbrokhoff

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