Ridiculous challenge time GO

So someone on the forum mentioned playing through as the Dark Watch. "Ho ho," I said naively. "That sounds like a good time. I'll use the Dark Watch team (Dark Watch Expatriette, Mister Fixer and Nightmist - the only 3 available on iPad) against every villain in the most thematic environment for them, in alphabetical order."

As you can imagine, I'm stick on The Chairman in Rook City. So, anyone want to give it a go? The Chairman, Rook City, DW Expat, DW Mister Fixer, DW Nightmist (in that order).

The closest I've managed to get was getting the Chairman down to 20 and the Operative down to 3 before Nightmist conked it.

Let me know how you go!

I'll give it a try at some point today.  Rook City and any villain is rough normally.  The best scenario I would hope for is both Prison Breaks coming up early.  

You want a real challenge/exercize in futility?  Try DW Nighmist vs Spite - your base power becomes comepltely useless.

I'm working my way through the alphabet! :D

That someone would be me.  This is my thread on the subject:  https://greaterthangames.com/forum/topic/dark-watch-challenge-8106 .  I didn't stick strictly to themes because I didn't want to beat my head against various brick walls.  The Chairman in Rook City is really, really tough with ANY team.  The Dark Watch team would need stacked decks to an extent that exceeds DW Nightmist's deck-stacking capabilities.  And even then it's likely to be a grind.

I wish you well.

Wouldn't Spite discard before getting a chance to look at the top 3 cards? Or do the cards he discarded count toward what DW Nightmist would normally reveal?

I don't do the video game, but I just tried a physical game. I completed the team with DW Setback in the spirit of the game. And I won! This is modulo the usual caveats of a physical game: I certainly forgot some effects. I even know what some of them are; I know I forgot several times effects that would have helped me.

I got the underbosses and thugs cleared away while most of the team was still active (flipping The Chairman). Predictably, Nightmist went into Mist Form and holed up for a while. There were only a few cards left in the deck, including both Prison Breaks. But DW Mr Fixer has an incap power that lets you put a card from a trash under the associated deck, I had Tony Taurus out, and DW Setback has an incap power that lets you optionally discard cards from a deck. So I kept recycling harmless cards like Undivided Attention, while digging for the Prison Breaks. Once I had both Prison Breaks out of the deck, I could go on and do other stuff.

Meanwhile, I had Toxic Sludge out, which was rapidly taking The Operative down low. (Not The Chairman, as he is immune.) At some point Nightmist came out of the Mist Form, brought out a Mist-Fueled Recovery for 13 health, and started bringing out her relics: Amulet of the Elder Gods and Starshield Necklace. (In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have bothered with the Necklace.) At that point there are many ways to win, but one of the easiest was to go back in to Mist Form and just redirect damage away.

One of the rules I forgot sometimes was The Chairman's retaliation damage when a villain target deals him damage. That would have ended the game sooner.

I don't think DW Setback was crucial to the team; the ability to discard from the villain deck was very nice, but I think there were other ways around it.

One rules question I was unsure of: DW Expatriette has an incap power to reduce the next damage dealt to a hero target. When Nightmist is immune from damage, does that get "used by" or does it keep accumulating?

The would have to be dealt damage and Nightmist in that case is immune.   So that power wouldn't be used up until a hero could actually take damage.  

I tried this in the app and got demolished.  I didn't have the damage output necessary to deal with Underbosses and Thugs.   Really didn't help that the only tool Mr Fixer got the whole game was a Pipe Wrench I needed pretty much any other tool.  

You also cannot redirect damage when the target is immune to damage, because no damage would be dealt.

Ah! Well, that invalidated a lot of the game. I think I still would have won, but very differently.

Setback isn't in the video game, so that route is out for me! I'm keen to beat it with just the 3 available DW characters. I know Christopher strongly believes that you can beat any villain in any environment with any team (except the two or three known unwinnables) - "Without incap shenanigans", IIRC.

I think either Mister Fixer needs meditation or his redirect style in his opening hand or Nightmist needs to go into mist mode super early to have a chance. The trouble is that when the thief comes out, suddenly every equipment/ongoing that you can play is at risk.

I spend a lot of time using Expatriette to feed Mister Fixer - if he can keep his "do damage to everyone" card out, that can be a gamechanger.

Not sure exactly what counts as "incap shenanigans". You're obviously very unlikely to win this game without some incapped characters. Mr. Fixer's incap of putting cards from the trash under a deck is obviously going to be useful.

The Thief fortunately has super-low health, and The Fence also is relatively soft.

I may try again with the three characters you listed, and playing the redirects correctly this time.

Did you think about swapping Ex-Patriette and Mr. Fixer? Mr. Fixer can take care of The Informant without playing a card, for instance.

I think intentionally incapacitating Tempest in order to get immunity to melee is the sort of shenanigan that counts.

That was specifically the example that inspired Chirstopher's comment, in fact!

I like the idea of keeping the character order the same for every game, but if you feel like it's not possible without shifting them, I'm open to changing it up.

Killswitch - Spite's discard from the get-hit-and-discard-your-top-five card goes off after the triggering power has been fully resolved. This includes whether that power triggers any other powers, though after each of those the drug effect would also trigger as I seem to recall it's whenever a hero uses a power, rather than "the first time" :(. So DW Nightmist would be able to look at her cards but then get hit and have to discard them all and the next two :P.

Stuff that triggers on a power use goes off after the triggering power has been resolved (unless it triggers other powers, in which case it will go off after the final power has finished resolving). Stuff that triggers on a card play goes off before the text of the played card.

Not entirely true.   If you play an Ongoing or Equipment with static effects like Fortitude any reaction that would deal damage would get reduced by one.   If the Ongoing or Equipment has a come into play effects those will wait to trigger until that response occurs.  

Allow me a brief question; What are the aformentionned "two or three unwinnables"? I'm ashamed to not be aware of those…

One is Parse, Wraith, and Legacy in Megaopolis facing the Ennead with Shu out.   None of them have any damage type beyond Melee or Projectile.  

I would guess there's an ordering of the decks where that game is winnable, however.

Yeah, probably, since Shu might not come out at all. OTH, I don't think that's still true on Advanced, unless someone thinks there's a way to take out the other eight Ennead in five rounds.

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

Err, I'll get back to you on that one.

EDIT: OKAY!

T he Ennead open Set [26], Geb [32], Atum [30].

ROUND 1

ENNEAD: Start: Tefnut [29] enters play. Play: The Desert's Wrath, for no damage. Green hand; Set hits each hero for 1, Tefnut hits the Wraith for 2, Geb hits Legacy and Parse for 2 each.

LEGACY [29]: Play: Inspiring Presence, heal all heroes for 1. Power: Galvanize.

WRAITH [24]: Play: Chain four Impromptus to bring out MTC, Utility Belt, Throwing Knives and Razor Ordnance, then play Combat Stance. Power: Razor Ordnance Set [19], Throwing Knives Tefnut [24], Atum [25], Geb [27].

PARSE [24]: Play: Snap Decision. Power: Shoot Set [15].

ENVIRONMENT: Play: Plummeting Monorail [10] enters play.

Set - 15, Atum - 25, Geb - 27, Tefnut - 24, Legacy - 30, Wraith - 24, Parse - 24

ROUND 2

ENNEAD: Start: Osiris [27] enters play. Play: Elemental Storm; Set hits all heroes for 3, Wraith hits Set [11]. Green hand; Set hits each hero for 1, Tefnut hits Parse for 2, Geb hits Legacy and Wraith for 2, Wraith hits Geb [23].

LEGACY [24]: Play: Surge of Strength. Power: Galvanize.

WRAITH [18]: Play: Throat Jab Atum [21]. Power: Razor Ordnance Set [4], Throwing Knives Atum [16], Geb [18], Set .

PARSE [18]: Start: Discard a card to play Exploit Vulnerability. Play: Exploit Vulnerability. Power: Shoot Atum [12].

ENVIRONMENT: Start: Monorail hits Tefnut [19] and Osiris [22]. Play: Police Backup. End: Police shoot Osiris [21].

Set - X, Atum - 12 (can't deal damage), Geb - 18, Tefnut - 19,  Osiris - 21, Legacy - 24, Wraith - 18, Parse - 18 (2 cards)

ROUND 3

ENNEAD: Start: Isis [26, +2 taken] enters play. Ennead play Elemental Storm, but Atum can't deal. Green hand; Tefnut hits Wraith for 2, Wraith hits Tefnut [15], Geb hits Legacy and Parse for 2, Isis hits Wraith for 2, Wraith hits Isis [20]. Legacy plays The Legacy Ring. Wraith plays Stun Bolt. Parse plays Impossible Shot, shoots Isis [13]. Play:  Ennead play Elemental Storm, but Atum can't deal.

LEGACY [21]: Play: Motivational Charge. Power: Galvanize, Motivational Charge Geb [13], heal heroes for 1.

WRAITH [15]: Play: Stun Bolt. Power: Razor Ordnance Atum [5], Throwing Knives Atum , Isis [6], Geb [8].

PARSE [17]: Start: Discard a card to Impossible Shot Geb [3]. Play: Impossible Shot Geb . Power: Shoot Isis .

ENVIRONMENT: Start: Monorail hits Legacy [17] and Osiris [16]. Play: Police Backup. End: Police shoot Osiris [15] and Tefnut [14].

Set - X, Atum - X, Geb - X, Tefnut - 14,  Osiris - 15, Isis - X, Legacy - 24, Wraith - 18, Parse - 18 (3 cards)

ROUND 4

ENNEAD: Start: Nephthys [28, +2 taken] enters play. Ennead play Sun's Fury, Nep hits each hero target for 1, Wraith hits Nep [22]. Legacy plays Flying Smash, hits Nep [14], Osiris [9], Tefnut [8]. Suture Self. Parse plays Syntactic Analysis on herself, reveals Syntactic Analysis and Between the Lines; SA on Legacy, brings out Flying Smash ( Nep [6], Osiris [3], Tefnut [2]) and Bolster Allies, and BtL on Wraith, who Throws Knives for the win.

Yup, doable. Needs ridiculous luck, mind, but theoretically possible. Man, I do enjoy doing these

That's surprising it only took to the beginning of the fourth round.   I would have thought it would take another full round at least.  Like I stated earlier the caveat on that setup being impossible is with Shu out which advanced makes it nearly certain it will occur but as seen by you not automatic.

Can you put something together for his original setup against the Chairman because I've had nothing but getting trounced so far.   

I don't think the "any given Sunday" assertion applies to Advanced, though.

Awesome workup, BlueHairedMeerkat!

Cool. I'm not very familiar with Parse. Did not realize how cool Exploit Vulnerability is.

Couldn't you use Buffer Overflow to discard Shu?

Shu is a Villain card after all.

The Ennead members are played.  The top card from the Shrine gets moved into the play area.  

Right, okay, let's do.

ROUND 1

CHAIRMAN: Play: Prison Break. End: Operative pulls Broker [5], Broker pulls Informant [2].

EXPAT [30]: Play: Tactical Shotgun, Broker plays Prison Break. Power: Tactical Shotgun the Informant , Operative hits Expat for 1 [29].

FIXER [29]: Play: Tire Iron. Power: Strike the Broker [2, X],  Operative hits Expat for 1 [28] . Destroy Tire Iron

NIGHTMIST [28]: Play: Tome of Elder Magic {3}. Power: Tome adds a spell to her hand.

ENVIRONMENT: Play: Tony Taurus [3] enters play. End: Tony takes 3 damage.

Chairman - 35, Operative - 45, Expat - 28, Fixer - 29, Nightmist - 28 (4+1 cards)

ROUND 2

CHAIRMAN: Play: Perfect Human Specimens. End: Operative pulls Deputy [9], Deputy pulls Crooked Cop [5].

EXPAT [28]: Play: Assault Rifle. Power: Rifle the Deputy [8] and the Cop [3].

FIXER [29]: Play: Dual Crowbars. Power:  Strike the Cop , Operative hits Fixer for 2 [27], hit the Deputy [3], destroy Rifle.

NIGHTMIST [28]: Play: Heedless Lash {1}; reveal Starshield Necklace {1}, deal 3 damage to herself [25] and the Deputy , Operative hits Expat for 1 [27], Master of Magic enters play. Power: Tome adds a spell to her hand. End: Discard Mist Form {3} to heal 3 [28].

ENVIRONMENT: Play: Dr Tremata enters play. End: Tony Dies, Tremata takes 3 [3].

Chairman - 35, Operative - 45, Expat - 27, Fixer - 27, Nightmist - 28 (4+1 cards)

ROUND 3

CHAIRMAN: Play: Perfect Human Specimens. End: Operative pulls Contract [7], Contract pulls Hired Gun [3]. Contract hits Nightmist for 3 [25]. Hired Gun hits each hero for 3.

EXPAT [24]: Play: Flak Jacket. Power: Shotgun the Contract [3].

FIXER [24]: Play: Driving Mantis. Power: Strike the Contract , Operative hits Fixer, hit redirected to Hired Gun [2], hit the Operative [38], destroy Flak Jacket.

NIGHTMIST [22]: Play: Scouring Mists {2}, reveal Planar Banishment {2}, take 2 [20], deal 2 damage to the Hired Gun , Operative hits Expat [23], hit the Operative [36]. Power: Tome adds a spell to her hand. End: Discard Mists of Time {4} to heal 4 [26].

ENVIRONMENT: Play: Falling Statuary deals 3 to Fixer [21]. End: Tremata killed, Statuary destroyed.

Chairman - 35, Operative - 36, Expat - 21, Fixer - 21, Nightmist - 26 (4+1 cards)

ROUND 4

CHAIRMAN: Start: Chairman flips. Play: Perfect Human Specimens heals the Operative [40]. End: Operative pulls Muscle [8], Muscle pulls Enforcers [6]. Enforcers make Expat discard a card.

EXPAT [21]: Play: Assault Rifle. Power: Assault Rifle Muscle [6], Operative [38] and Chairman [33].

FIXER [21]: Play: Bloody Knuckles. Power: Strike Chairman [27], Chairman hits Fixer, redirects to Operative [36], hit The Operative [27], destroy Knuckles.

NIGHTMIST [26]: Play: Oblivion {1}, reveal Mist Form {2} and Mist-Fueled Recovery {4}; 2 to all but Fixer, who redirects to Operative, Chairman deals 1 to Nightmist [23], then 4 to all villains, Operative hits Nightmist for 1+1 [21]. Power: Tome adds a spell to her hand. End: Discard Astral Premonition {4} to heal 4 [25].

ENVIRONMENT: Falling Statuary deals 3 to Operative [16]. End: Statuary destroyed.

Chairman - 21, Operative - 16, Expat - 19 (3 cards), Fixer - 21, Nightmist - 25 (4+1 cards)

ROUND 5

CHAIRMAN: Play: Undivided Attention deals 4 & 3 to Nightmist [18]. End: Operative pulls Fence [6], Fence pulls Thief [2]. Thief destroys Shotgun, Fence heals Chairman [24] and Operative [19].

EXPAT [19]: Play: Submachine Gun. Power: Assault Rifle Fence [4], Chairman [22], Chairman hits Fixer, redirect to Operative [18], hit the Operative [16].

FIXER [21]: Play: Charge; deal 3 to Chairman [19], Chairman hits Fixer, redirect to Operative [15], hit the Operative [11]. Power: Strike the Fence , Operative hits Fixer [19], strike the Chairman [14]. Destroy SMG.

NIGHTMIST [18]: Heedless Lash {2} reveals Heedless Lash {3}, deals 3 to herself [15] and The Operative [8]; play Heedless Lash, reveal Oblivion {4}, deals 4 damage to herself [11] and The Chairman [10], who hits back [10]; play Oblivion, reveal Mistbound {1} and Call Forth {4}. 1 damage to each target minus Fixer, who redirects to Chairman [8], then 4 to each non-hero, Operative deals 2 to Fixer [17]. Power: Tome adds a spell to her hand. End: Discard Mistbound {4} to heal 4 [14].

ENVIRONMENT: Play: Falling Statuary. End: Destroy Falling Statuary.

Chairman - 4, Operative - 3, Expat - 18 (3 cards), Fixer - 17, Nightmist - 14 (4+1 cards)

ROUND 6

CHAIRMAN: Play: Undivided Attention deals 4 to Expat [14], 4 to Fixer [13].

EXPAT: Play: Hollow Points on Assault Rifle. Power: Assault Rifle the Operative and the Chairman .

So yeah. Possible, but tricky.

I've got an ettique question.

I also accepted the Ennead challenge and worked a solution last night.  Would posting an alternate solution look too much like competing?

That is not my intention.

I didn't think there was time to get Legacy and Parse developed like BlueHairedMeerkat did.  I'm impressed.

I went for a brute force solution.

I didn't want to step on any toes, but I would have been curious to have some eyes on it to see if I missed anything.  I haven't played the Ennead that much

Anyway, I will return to lurking now.

Thanks

Nothing wrong with posting another solution.  Each one will have pros and cons that make it good to analyze.

Okay.  Here goes.  Hopefully I didn't make any errors:

The Ennead open Set [26], Geb [32], Osiris [27].

ROUND 1

ENNEAD: Start: Nephthys [28] enters play. Play: The Grave Beckons, nothing happens. Black symbol; Legacy discards Danger Sense, Wraith discards Suture Self, Parse discards Critical Multiplier.  All heroes deal themselves 1 damage and have 3 cards in hand.  Nephthys heals all villain targets 1 but they are already at max.

LEGACY [31]: Play: Inspiring Presence, heal all heroes for 1 (All heroes now at max). Power: Galvanize.

WRAITH [26]: Play: Chain three Impromptus to bring out MTC, Utility Belt and Throwing Knives, then plays Razor Ordnance
  Power: Razor Ordnance Set [19], Throwing Knives Set [14], Nephthys [23], Osiris [22].

PARSE [26]: Play: Syntactic Analysis on Legacy revealing two Flying Smashes.  He plays them both.  Set [9], Osiris [17], Nephthys [18].  Set [4], Osiris [12], Geb [27]
  Power: Shoot Set [X].

ENVIRONMENT: Play: Plummeting Monorail [10] enters play.

Set - X, Geb - 27, Osiris - 12, Nephthys - 18, Legacy - 32, Wraith - 26, Parse - 26

ROUND 2

ENNEAD: Start: Tefnut [29] enters play.
  Set Incap Power: Enead play The Grave Beckons, nothing happens. Black symbol; Legacy discards Danger Sense, Wraith discards Suture Self, Parse discards Critical Multiplier.  All heroes deal themselves 1 damage and have 2 cards in hand: Legacy [31], Wraith [25], Parse [25].  Nephthys heals all villain targets 1: Geb [28], Osiris [13], Nephthys [19].
    Legacy plays Backfist Strike on Tefnut [23]; Wraith plays Combat Stance; Parse plays Synactic Analysis on herself, revealing Targeting Arrow and Between the Lines.  Plays Targeting Arrow on Geb [25] (+1 damage to him) and plays Between the Lines on Wraith who uses Throwing Knives: Geb [19], Osiris [8] and Tefnut [18]; Environment plays Targeting Innocents [10]
  Play: Desert's Wrath: Plummenting Monorail and Targeting Innocents are destroyed; Osiris hits all heroes for 2: Legacy [29], Wraith [23], Parse [23], Wraith hits Osiris [4]. Green hand; Geb hits Legacy and Wraith for 2: Legacy [27], Wraith [21], Wraith hits Geb [14]; Nephthys hits all heroes for 1: Legacy [26], Wraith [20], Parse [22], Wraith hits Nephthys [15]; Tefnut his Wraith [18], Wraith hits Tefnut [14]

LEGACY [26]: Play: Backfist Strike on Nephthys [10]. Power: Galvanize.

WRAITH [18]: Play: Throat Jab Tefnut [10].
  Power: Razor Ordnance Geb [6], Throwing Knives Geb [X], Nephthys [5], Tefnut [5].

PARSE [22]: Play: Between the Lines: Wraith uses Throwing Knives: Osiris [X], Nephthys [X], Tefnut [X].
 

I went this way because I really thought if you spent the time to build Parse and Legacy's machine up, you'd never catch back up to the Ennead.

I was wrong about that.

Enjoy

Thanks BlueHairedMeerkat. While I may not get that setup it does make me feel it's worth a few more tries. 

I assumed you wouldn't be able to cut them down so quickly; I figured building would be the best way to go, to get a lock on the group in the long game, hence me saving big guns like Syntactic and Between the Lines until right at the end. I guess we both learnt things today  :P

I'd say so.

=D

It really is fun trying to think these through.

Haven't looked to see if it would change the outcome, but the heroes' damage is boosted at this point by Inspiring Presence and Galvanize, so they'd deal three to themselves.

Figured I would have missed something.  But even with their health would adjust down by two in all further entries, the outcome should be the same.

They should actually end with Legacy [24], Wraith [16], and Parse [20]

Thanks for catching that.

FIXER [21]: Play: Bloody Knuckles. Power: Strike Chairman [27], Chairman hits Fixer, redirects to Operative [36], hit The Operative [27], destroy Knuckles.

This wouldn't get redirected; Bloody Knuckles would ensure that it was more than 2 damage.

FIXER [24]: Play: Driving Mantis. Power: Strike the Contract [X], Operative hits Fixer, hit redirected to Hired Gun [2], hit the Operative [38], destroy Flak Jacket.

Nor would this; Nemesis damage + contract = 1 + 1 + 1.

Those were the only two errors that I saw though!

I didn't attempt to follow the whole game, but The Contract was just killed here, so is no longer boosting damage. (Doesn't the ongoing effect go away before the retaliation damage?)

You're totally right! I just played again (damn those prison breaks...) and he definitely doesn't boost the damage from his own death.

I don't think it messes with the final numbers, but I think you also missed a handful of Chairman retaliations.

Okay I've tried this over 100 times now, and I think I'm going to declare it humanly impossible and move on.

Feel free to screenshot the "win" page to prove me wrong!

Good evening.  Got him right before he'd have killed me.

Justin Elby posted a Mint victory on the Steam forums, screenshot time stamped at 45 minutes after the one-shot was made available. He tried to post it here but was delayed by account verification. We believe that he was first, and think it's only fair that he wins the prize. We're still making certain though.

Well done ordalca! Beating this one-shot is a huge accomplishment, I have never done so myself despite probably 20 or more tries.

Ah, well.  They definitely earned it with the mint.

Yep it's a tough challenge even with your choice of three heroes. 

Finally managed it. (http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=729783262) So far as I can tell, the secret is some combination of 'get really lucky with prison breaks and the environment' and 'Dark Watch Mister Fixer with dual crowbars is wow'. That is, his first two plays were prison break, the environment got out both helpful sidekicks, and Fixer did 16 damage a turn for the victory turns.

That was *tough*, even with that much luck. Massive congratulations to Justin Elby. I have no idea how anyone could "just do it."

Inspired by the one-shot and Peter’s idea, I decided that it sounded like fun to try to run through each villain (and villain variant) currently available in the video game. Just finished it up yesterday. I feel like I learned a lot about both Mr. Fixer and Nightmist through this project… not as much for Expatriette.

I tried to spread out the environments as evenly as I could - I started out by making sure to do one base set environment with each of the base set villains, then did a couple of thematic matchups (Plague Rat in Pike Industrial, Gloomweaver and The Dreamer each in Realm of Discord, Ennead in Tomb of Anubis), then tried to even things out by reusing environments or going out of my way to use mini-expansion environments (Kaargra Warfang in Megalopolis, Infinitor and Heroic Infinitor each in Omnitron-IV, Iron Legacy in Silver Gulch). I’m sure some of the matches would have been much harder had I used different environments for each villain, but I didn’t go out of my way to make it easy either.

Here are some stats and thoughts from my set of 28 Dark Watch experiences.

Most Resets: The Chairman in Rook City (30+)
Second-Most: Iron Legacy in Silver Gulch (8)
Third-Most: Ambuscade in Rook City (7)

Obviously the Chairman in Rook City was an awful matchup. Iron Legacy is Iron Legacy, but a friendly set of Ongoings and the presence of Tactical Shotgun, Bloody Knuckles, and Explosives Barrel was enough to outpace him. I was surprised at how bad the Ambuscade in Rook City matchup was, though. So many environment cards play villain cards, and so many of Ambuscade’s cards play extra cards, that he was often getting 4-5 card plays per round. Ambuscade is weak, but if he’s consistently getting that many card plays, he can bury this crew easily. I’d never been so happy to finish off Ambuscade as when I redirected his own damage back to himself, causing his own reactive plating to kill him.

Number of Incapacitations in Wins:

Expatriette 10, Mr. Fixer 8, Nightmist 0

Number of matches where Nightmist was the only survivor: 5 (Progeny, Baron Blade, Plague Rat, Akash’Bhuta, Skinwalker Gloomweaver)

Final Expatriette Evaluation:

Most Helpful Cards: RPG Launcher, Tactical Shotgun, Assault Rifle, Reload
Least Helpful Card: Unload

Expat had serious, consistent survivability problems. As the only member of the crew with no damage reduction or healing, she was incapped as often than not, even in wins. Flak Jacket was occasionally helpful, but as often as not, it got destroyed by villain / environment Equipment destruction, or was a target for Mr. Fixer’s Bitter Strike.

For damage and overall effectiveness, Expatriette was the least consistent of the three characters. If she started with a Shotgun, RPG Launcher, Quick Draw, Assault Rifle, or (in some circumstances) Hairtrigger Reflexes, she could get some things done. If she started with a bunch of Speed Loading and Ammo with no guns to put it in, she could barely even feed Fixer. Battles rarely felt like they turned on what Expat could or couldn’t do, though Hairtrigger Reflexes was essential against the Chairman.

RPG Launcher and Assault Rifle were great cards for piling up extra damage by bouncing it off Mr. Fixer. Reload was frequently good. If nothing else, ammo cards were good as destruction fodder for Fixer if I didn’t want to break his setup. All of the ammo cards came in handy at one point or another. Assault Rifle and Liquid Nitrogen Rounds were particularly great (in combination with Driving Mantis) for reducing certain targets’ damage by 2 each round!

This team setup makes Unload almost unplayable. I only had time enough to make it worthwhile once: vs. Deadline in Enclave of the Endlings, which had the requisite low ongoing/equipment destruction from the environment as well as Fixer either skipping his power phase or only destroying his own stuff. More often than not, Expat either didn’t survive long enough for Unload to be useful, or Fixer was destroying Expat’s stuff to save his own. But man, that one time, she did 35 damage combined in her last two turns…

Final Mr. Fixer Evaluation:

Most Helpful Cards: Driving Mantis, Pipe Wrench, Bloody Knuckles
Least Helpful Card: Riveting Crane

With the scale of damage to 3 heroes, there were a couple of fights where Mr. Fixer was nearly untouchable. Spite, Spite: Agent of Gloom, Kismet, and Gloomweaver each were powerless to stop him once he got Driving Mantis and Pipe Wrench out. AOG Spite was particularly weak - after he flipped and did a pile of damage on that first turn, we cleaned out the Safe House and he didn’t touch Mr. Fixer for the rest of the game.

Even by themselves, Driving Mantis and Pipe Wrench were amazing. Driving Mantis gave Miss Information, The Operative, Cosmic Omnitron, Ambuscade, and Akash’Bhuta’s limbs severe cases of the old schoolyard disease “Stop Hitting Yourself!”. Driving Mantis also ruled the day in several environments. Omnitron-IV, Dok’Thorath Capital, Tomb of Anubis, and even Rook City turned annoying AOE damage into redirect gold.

Meanwhile, Pipe Wrench completely soaked Matriarch’s counter damage, allowing me to roast birds with impunity. Bloody Knuckles was consistently great, though it did cost me one match when Slamara from Enclave of the Endlings played it off-turn.

Overdrive was interesting as a round 1 play (for example, it helped me get rid of Deadline’s glaive right away), but otherwise I saved it as discard fodder or if I desperately needed the extra damage (finishing off the villain, double Jack Handle to wipe the board, etc). It wasn’t consistently useful, but it was great in a pinch.

Honorable mention to Jack Handle for completely breaking the Kaargra Warfang fight (JH + The Seeker + The Mindbreaker = we win the Favor battle 28-6), but overall, Jack Handle wasn’t as essential as I thought it would be.

I don’t think I ever bothered with Riveting Crane. The only villain who really gave me damage reduction issues was Apostate, and I found Alternating Tiger Claw more useful in that situation because I had Jack Handle out. Riveting Crane would have made the Infinitor battle a little faster, I guess, but then I would have been taking more damage…

Final Nightmist Evaluation:

Most Helpful Cards: Amulet of the Elder Gods, Mist Form, Mistbound, Oblivion
Least Helpful Card: Master of Magic

The total lack of deck manipulation in Expat and Fixer’s deck meant that I often had to lean on Nightmist to get me through dicey situations. Mistbound explicitly won me at least three of these matches by stopping Omnitron’s double-play side, Grand Warlord Voss, and Heroic Infinitor dead in their tracks. Astral Premonition saved me from more resets against La Capitan by helping me bury Raiding Party and All Together Now! after I got her ship in the trash, and also helped me know when to get victims under the Safe House against Spite.

Nightmist did the BIG hits via redirection. Between my Omnitron and Cosmitron wins, there were three times where she redirected the full 15 from Electro-Pulse Explosive back to itself to save us having to so much as scratch it. Wagner Mars Base’s Oxygen Leak and Insula Primalis’s Volcanic Eruption also helped me land some huge hits on Progeny and Citizen Dawn. La Capitan’s L’Epeiste also developed a severe case of Traitoritis in our win, regularly delivering 6-8 damage per round to his boss. Thanks for being the first guy to attack, L’Epeiste, you’re a peach.

Oblivion was at its best when I could set it up as a 2/4 or 3/4, dependent on what Expat and Fixer had in play. With a 2/4, all I needed was Driving Mantis out to make it worthwhile. With a 3/4, I could potentially take 0 damage (Flak Jacket, Driving Mantis + Pipe Wrench, Amulet of the Elder Gods) and redirect 6 more damage to the enemy. I only got that setup going twice, but it absolutely wrecked the villains when I did. One of my last moves in the challenge was a 1/4 Oblivion that did 16 damage to Mad Bomber Blade’s flip side. (A nearly dead Explosives Barrel was out, so: 2 to Blade from the first card, 2 redirected from Fixer, 2 redirected from Nightmist, 6 from the exploding barrel, and 4 from the second card.)

Master of Magic basically never came in handy except as destruction fodder for Fixer. I think I had MOM out and actually healed HP from it once over the course of these matches. Even Tome of Elder Magic - a card I almost never use in normal matches - came in handy a couple times by grabbing more cards to fuel all of Nightmist’s discard abilities.

Good stuff all around. I feel like I’m a better player (at least, with Mr. Fixer and Nightmist…) because I took on this challenge. I look forward to more villains so I can take this crew for a spin again…

The main piece with DW Expat I notice is that at least with bad starting hands is the base power is at least helpful.   With DW Nightmist I often found Master of Magic to be more helpful since losing card draw makes Starshield Necklace less useful for it as healing.  Amulet of the Elder Gods I've found has mixed results with this version if I don't get Enlightments or Call Forth.   

You list your games in the 1000 games of SotM thread and add results to here https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeOjRTJHDrEuJ7ifOuZcDWYnC9ZEZiaGa-tcCDwAPIgYRPzPQ/viewform as well

bolnerap: Really cool writeup. Thanks!

DW Expat + Original Fixer = Amazing.

DW Expat + DW Fixer = Only one can flourish.

DW Expat is great for unloads, when you aren't sacrificing cards to Fixer.  Fixer is also fantastic for Expat when using Overdrive from Salvage Yard doesn't mean you need two cards to destroy.

Speed Loading + Salvage Yard is one of the best team-ups in the game.  Free Ammo plays and as soon as you run out Fixer puts them all back in your hand.

Salvage Yard was great for DW Nightmist as well - Mists of Time round 1, Salvage Yard round 2.  One of the Steam folks mentioned that combo a while back and I took every chance I had to use it.  Giving Nightmist that many extra cards early in the game is huge.

Never thought about Speed Loading and Salvage Yard together... I'll have to try that out with regular Fixer sometime.  I rarely had the chance to actually use Speed Loading with this crew except in the Deadline matchup I mentioned.