Weekly One-Shot #21, The Hero We Need

Heroic Infinitor vs. Argent Adept, Captain Cosmic, Sky-Scraper (her image isn't shown on the cover) and Chrono-Ranger in the Time Cataclysm.

My goodness, this one was insane!  Argent Adept has an absolutely attrocious deck order (I suggest using an early instrument card to shuffle it) and it will be a brutal slug most of the way.

I got Mint, but only barely.  I had to tank for several turns at the end with lucky draws from Sky-Scraper and even had Constructs in play as extra targets to absorb damage towards the end.  I had to wait for the final card of Infinitor's deck (Whispers of Oblivion) to get the win (as it is the easiest way to take out all the Manifestations in one foul swoop on his starting side).

The Time Cataclysm deck order is incredibly frustrating too.

Perhaps it would have been better to purposefully flip Infinitor?  I don't know.

Oh, one thing I was glad to learn:  Fixed Point does not stop Infinitor from putting cards underneath his card, thankfully.  I ended my final hero turn with only one Environment card between me and victory and I nearly had a heart attack upon seeing Fixed Point, but I still managed to win...


Well Heroic Infinitor makes Manifestations indestructible from the get go so Fixed Point makes no difference.  Chrono was my main source of damage as I set him up on the first round to get Masadah and a Temporal Grenade through a Micro Assembler.   Then on the next round played a Sudden Contract and had Dynamic Siphon and Autonomous Blade on him so he could laying into the Manifestatioms.   The Temporal Grenade came in handy so I could quickly deal with a Surprise Shopping Trip.  All heroes (Infinitor included) ended the game in the teens.   

Mint, my first ever win with Fixed Point in play!  Also won on the last card in Infinitor's deck.  Game got a lot easier once I drew the cards I needed for Skyscraper's tricks.

Mint.

Well, that was close.  I ended the game with Fixed Point in play, on Infinitor's last card.  If I had reordered the damage, I could have won with Chrono at 1, and everyone else 0 or below.  When Cosmic Crest is tanking Twisted Miscreations by virtue of being the highest HP hero target, you know you're dangerously low on health.

Also, have I mentioned how much I love Heroic Infinitor's victory pose?  I find it hilarious for some reason.

Also, Heroic Infinitor, Kaargra Warfang, and Gloomweaver are the only villains that can be defeated while Fixed Point is in play.

The Dreamer too, right?

Edit: And just to round out Season 1, I guess we should also mention Wager Master will join that list.

Nope.  "When a Projection card is destroyed..."

You can destroy all of the projections before Fixed Point comes out.

Uh, yep!  Her win condition isn't checked until the start of the Villain Turn.  Destroy the Projections during the Hero turns, Environment plays Fixed Point, Heroes win!

Oh, good point.

Hey, does anybody think that it's possible to win before Infinitor plays his last card?  I've played around a little, but I haven't managed to do it.

Chrono was so useless in this! 

I thought everyone was valuable between what they could setup.   Chrono was the primary source of damage to the Manifestations in my game with his Masadah. 

I played Dynamic Syphon and Micro Assembler on AA to get mint. It was bonkers (and took many many taps). AA shot the Syphon with scherzo, Chrono shot it with Bow, and shopping trip triggered it about 10 times. Cosmic and AA worked together to keep it healed. I bet AA used over 100 powers.

My win screen looks a lot like yours, OP. Minted, but it took about three rounds too long. Atlantean Throne Room came out and I went, "Yay, Thorathian Monolith will save us!" And then the Fixed Point showed up and everything was terrible. :C Another round of Infy playing all of his one-shots went by. But at least I got those extra rounds of Dead or Alive healing in?

Other than Chrono not being great against Heroic Infinitor, this was pretty fun, if harrying.

Mint.

I probably didn't play Arget Adept optimally (I rarely feel like I do), but I used him as a healing machine. Harp, Inspiring Supertonics, and Rhapsody of Vigor with Dynamic Siphon kept everyone's HP up (including Infinitor's).

Cosmic Crest was helpful, it was fun playing Compulsion Canisters to have Manifestations damage each other, and Chrono-Ranger used the Masadah.

Like others, it was the last card in Infinitor's deck that ended it. 

All heroes left with either 7 or 8 HP. (even Infinitor!)

Mint.

Never saw Rhapsody of Vigor, so used Vernal Sonata and Emergency Evac to do what little healing I could. Seems like all of the one shots are at the top of the deck as by the end of the third round all of the Manifestations were at 0 or below. I luckily played Thorathian Monolith just before Surprise Shopping Trip appeared which meant loads of FastForwarding as nothing happened.

Well, until I played Aggression Modulator on it. It only did the rounds three times, but very sweet.

How did that work? Aggression Modulator says it has to go on an Environment target. Do you mean that bug thing, maybe?

Yes, I'm an idiot. I did "try" and play Aggressive Modulator on surprise shopping trip, and must have done damage to only the heroes. Must learn to watch what is going on rather than frantically pressing the fast forward button.

I wish I'd thought of this, things might have gone a little better (not that I was hurting for damage done by the end). I just sort of had no idea what to do with Sky-Scraper in this one.

Mint. Fixed Point in play, all heroes and Infinitor below 0.

Perhaps it would have been better to purposefully flip Infinitor?  I don't know.

I had Inifinitor flip once and he went into a feedback loop, cycling through his deck a couple of times and whittling my heroes down to zero.

This scenario continues to kick my butt. (Along with last week's.)

Got Near Mint but should've got Mint because I spaced out on something - but: even though it got quite hairy, I mostly had things in control, or as much in control as you can vs. Infinitor.

With the disclaimer that the decks will vary after shuffle effects and such a few turns in, the keys for me were:

- Cosmic Crest lets Capt. Cosmic tank the dudes that deal 4 energy damage to the highest HP hero.  Keep it alive at all costs.  Argent Adept made me goof up when Surprise Shopping trip came up (was trying to get Skyscraper to play a one-shot to nuke SST), but refrain from playing cards if you have to because if you keep Cosmic Crest and its buddies out, it makes things super easy.

- Argent mostly gave Sky extra card plays - his opening hand sucks but you get alactrious subdominant after turn 1

- Skyscraper does a little bit of everything - have her get Chrono the Masdah ASAP - that and compulsion canisters will be your primary source of damage.  I never got Monolith in my game, fwiw.

- Immediately after Fixed Point shows up, Heroic Infinitor plays a one-shot that plinks everything for 1 damage.  This is your best window to win:  If the one-shot resolves without burying all manifestations he will play a few more dudes and you're going to have a bad time.  Therefore, the turn BEFORE is when you gotta get all the manifestations below zero.  If Sky and Chrono are doing their thing you should have enough damage to make that happen.  Where I goofed was there was so many manifestations that I didn't scroll all the way to the right and missed out on a 4 hp manifestation that I could easily have hit.  Also, don't be afraid to buff Heroic Infitor with Syncopated as well to make sure the manifestations go under him.  (I can't remember offhand if it was Throne or Shopping Trip that's your cue that Fixed Point/Whispering Madness(?) is next)

Minty fresh, everyone around 12 or 13 HP (except Sky-Scraper, because she ate a bunch of damage from Thorathian Monolith). AA, well, I've had worse draws. Skipped his first turn to get Alacritous Subdominant out quick, then used it to help set everyone else up (Proportionist helped a ton), then swapped it out for Syncopated Onslaught to buff Infinitor and Chrono Ranger. I did end up focusing on CR -- he got Masada out and a Dynamic Syphon, which helped tag-team Surprise Shopping Trip (I got Monolith out before it came up, had AA put a Temporal Grenade out for CR, then had SST hit the Dynamic Syphon first so CR could just nuke it).

I didn't see Compulsion Canister until after Sky Scraper's last turn, and Captain Cosmic nuked all his constructs to bring the last Manifestation down before Fixed Point came out.

All in all, wasn't too bad -- but gorram, am I learning to hate Infinitor's (both versions) DR.

Got a Mint! Nice to get one again.

I really wasn’t sure what to do with AA’s opening hand. Didn’t get much use with him early on. CC got Cosmic Crest out early to tank the energy damage, and Sky-Scraper helped Crono get the Masada out early. He really came into his own once he got Hunter and Hunted, Compound Bow, and two bounties out.

The normally terrifying Ocular Swarm manifestations were just punching bags, good targets to leave for last as they did nothing. The “2 energy 2 psychic” ones were only a minor danger to the constructs, as two of them would take one out. The bigger problem was the “3 Fire damage to the two highest HP targets”, which kept hitting both Infinitor and CC.

The Surprise Shopping Trip was a big problem. No damage to the manifestations but plenty to everyone else. Sky-Scraper took it out with Emergency Evac.

I blew a chance to wipe out a manifestation with Catch a Ride, but it turned out fine, as Infinitor then played Whispers (or whichever card he has that hits all targets for one) and I believe chained into a second one and cleared all the manifestations for the win.

It's possible. You have to use Sky-scraper's Neutralizing Resonator in order to do it, though. The bottom of Infinitor's deck is stacked like this (bottom card listed is last card played):

Crazed Artifice
Whispers of Oblivion
Crazed Artifice
Lambent Reaper
Recalescent Hellion
Whispers of Oblivion

What happens is Crazed Artifice reveals Whispers of Oblivion and the next three cards, discarding the Whispers of Oblivion and playing the two Manifestations. In order to get Whispers of Oblivion to be played instead of discarded, you must discard Crazed Artifice, the only means of which is via Neutralizing Resonator on the proper turn. (The turn in question is the round where he just plays Ocular Swarm, fyi).

I managed to win by Infinitor's fourth turn by utilizing Neutralizing Resonator twice, on rounds three (discarding Lambent Reaper) and four (discarding Crazed Artifice). If you were to play Neutralizing Resonator in the first round, then theoretically it's possible to win on Infinitor's third turn, since his card then would be Whispers of Oblivion, but I'm not sure whether that's possible.