That rat bastard

I was so close to beating that rat bastard. I was just hoping for a good environment card or an ongoing card from that rat bastard.

Plague Rat is tough on advanced. 

Ouch.   If you thought it was damage race on normal it goes up another level on advanced.  

I know! I mean an infected Fanatic on Advanced is CRAZY strong. It's an arms race at that point, I was just too slow. 

Yesterday I ran into a fight against advanced Plague Rat which went absolutely completely out-of-control. I was playing with the complete F5 and it resulted in Plague Rat doing 85 damage to the heroes in just one turn!

Advanced Plage Rat (+1 damage) had Plague Locus (+1 damage) and Shadowy Ambush (Play a villain card when PR does +5 damage) in play. The fight was in the Realm of Discord with Imbued Frailty (+1 damage) in play. Because of +3 damage dealt by PG and H=5, every one-shot of PR resulted in an extra villain card play. So in PG's third turn, he played consecutively:

Vicious Onslaught -> Ravage -> Noxious Bite -> Vicious Onslaught -> Tooth & Claw -> Tooth & Claw -> Noxious Bite. Also, all infections cards, 2 Afflicted Frenzy cards and 1 Bestial Vitality.

Even with Legacy having played Heroic Interception his previous turn (!), at the end of PG's turn the result was:

Legacy: 21 -> 0 HP
Tachyon: 15 -> 0 HP
Bunker: 17 -> 6 HP
Wraith: 20 -> 2 HP
AZ: 23 -> 4 HP

With all the heroes infected and multiple ongoings of PG on the table, it's not necessary to mention the outcome of this battle.. I could only smile when I saw PG dominating me.

This led me thinking whether it is possible to play all of PG's cards in just 2 turns. Turns out, even without the aid of the environment and without any major DR to the heroes: yes, advanced PR is able to do that (even with H=3). For this, his turns has to be like this:

Turn 1: Shadowy Ambush
Turn 2: Tooth & Claw -> Shadowy Ambush. After that, PG plays 2 cards every time he deals +5 damage, and still has to do the second damage by Tooth & Claw (resulting in 2 card play). If always at least one of these 2 cards is a Tooth & Claw or Noxious Bite, it will be a train unstopapble. I calculated that for H=5, this will be 199 damage done by PR in just 2 turns.

Of course this is a very specific set-up, but it is crazy to realise a villain can play his complete deck in just 2 turns. Also, you can imagine that even with a less optimal set-up, a situation like this can be devastating, like my experience yesterday.  

So, it rests me to say: all hail the Plague Rat!

Am I the only one here that's had success against Plague Rat? I've yet to lose a match against him. Some were close, others we're downright dominating.

Attached the pic of one of them.

I'm presuming you've regularly got Ra on the team. Ra's one of the characters who can outright eliminate Plague Rat's biggest advantage (the ability to make heroes hit themselves) singlehandedly. Him plus Visionary can render him entirely impotent.

Personally I don't like fighting him much, because unless you're specifically mitigating him like that, it's a damage race in which he has a big head start.

I like playing against Plague and I've had success against him with a lot of teams.   I like Mr Fixer the best with Driving Mantis and Jack Handle out. 

Yeah I learned late that Ra + Imbued Fire + Flesh Sun God makes it completely free.

But in this battle, you see it was in Pike, and both Biometrics in play. Essentially any and all damage dealt by Infections were healed. And Fixer's Crane style made me hit through defense, so…yeah.

Weird cuz any other match I have on Pike ends with a lot of pain for me.

Rat is just a damage race, I for one love Fanatic vs. Rat, and anyone who deals multiple instances with regularity, of course I also play advanced more often than not.

With Plague Rat it either an outright domination on my part, or a close race where luck as in oen of our favors.

I don't mind him that much, because even though the right heroes can obliterate him, there are a few combinatios that can outright fail. 

Also, him on advanced makes the race even harder. 

Wanna see the Rat absolutely demolish your team? In a 5-hero game, destroy an Infection when two Shadowy Ambushes are in play. 

I quite often take Jim against Rat - those two just destroy each other but more often than not I manage to take him out before he kills me...and if I don't, I've usually whittled him down enough that the other heroes can finish him off. Infection + Plague Locus + By Any Means + Ultimate Target = five points of damage every time I hit him with all my plinky attacks, which means a total of ten damage with the Compounded Bow. Twice in a round, thanks to the fact that Rat is guaranteed to hit someone on his turn ;).

• another one damage for the nemesis bonus!

Yeah, it seems the hero nemesis to a villian should always be played when fighting them cuz they're deck fits with the playstyle of the villain. I have yet to win a match against Matriarch without Tachyon in my team, and my only victory against Spite that wasn't a close call had Wraith.

Too bad we have to wait to get Chrono so I can see if it he holds up against Plague Rat.

Oh, derp, yes I remembered the Nemesis bonus until I came to actually type out that list of damage buffs, at which point it totally disappeared, lol.

Radman - Jim wrecks Plague Rat. As I mentioned previously, it's really just a matter of who dies first and if it's Jim, he'll have done enough damage that the rest of the team should hopefully not have too much trouble finishing the job :).