Weekly One-Shot #79: Depth Charge

Challenge Mad Bomber Blade vs. Redeemer Fanatic, G.I. Bunker, Absolute Zero, and Freedom Six Tempest in the Ruins of Atlantis

Randomized start with a nice nod to Adam West in the description.

Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb.  

For those unfamiliar.

Mint. Something like 90% of the damage was Fanatic. Including a 29-point Wrathful Retribution that left Baron with 3 HP…and Fanatic offered Absolution.

Randomization means that all I can say that’s useful is, G.I. Bunker neutralizes Challenge Mode Baron.

Wow, that was terrible.

Turn 1: Blade Battalion, Hasten Doom, MDP, MDP, Backlash Field. Environment: Leaking Room.

Turn 2: Blade Battalion, Hasten Doom, MDP, Powered Remote Turret, Blade Battalion, Slash and Burn. Environment: Mystical Defenses

Turn 3: just a Living Forcefield, but the damage is done. Bunker foam grenades environment.

Turn 4: Devious Disruption and game.

Won on Tempest's third turn. Pretty much the perfect environment plays for me - it led off with Phosphorescent Chamber and the second one was Pillars of Hercules. Since I had Blade flipped on AZ's second turn, I just left Pillars of Hercules out and went to town.

Also had a good draw off Blade's deck - his first two turns were both Hasten Doom into one target into Slash and Burn. The second S&B hit Absolute Zero for 7, which I gladly sent back at Blade for 8 thanks to the Transducer.

Only losing 1 Ongoing/Equipment against Mad Bomber Blade is pretty much the dream scenario, I can't remember the last time I did that well.

Mine was just as bad, but far more painful.  Ignoring the bomb stack it went:

Turn 1.  Living Forcefield  (Easy enough - G.I. Bunker was already dealing with that)

Turn 2.  Backlash Field

Turn 3.  Backlash Field

The heroes then proceed to draw zero ongoing destruction, and all die horribly.

Second game went much better, but we almost lost Bunker at the end which would have made everything much more difficult.

Took me three tries.  Similar stories as others with bad draws for the first two games. Third wasn't looking well either - everyone incap except Fanatic. She Redeemed three to four times a round with Phosphorescent Chamber so that was actually 6-8HP healing per round until she finally drew Wrathful Retribution about 6th from the bottom of the deck. Baron had 22HP, Fanatic down to 1 after he start of turn zaps her, so I'm thinking awesome, 30pt Wrath. Then Hasten Doom, Fanatic resurrects to 10HP with Aegis.  Now she only does 21-2=19 leaving him with 3 HP.  Can you guess who saved the day? Yes, hooray for the Kraken!

Mint, but a bit of a strange one. Tempest went down early thanks to a Kraken with no real way to take it out. I thought I had mostly stabilized midgame, after the flip (which did wipe a lot of cards) and with a Phosphorescent Chamber out, but some bad luck with multiple Hasten Doom/Price of Victory shenanigans into a rather devestating Slash and Burn left AZ the last one standing. I thought for sure I was a goner, as the the trash was already pretty full and I only had 9 health or so, but then I just kind of drew the perfect cards to set him up immediately, and it turns out that a set up AZ with three Thermal Shockwave power plays a round and damage and healing buffs is kind of stupid. Like, tank 10+ damage a turn and still be at full health when you started badly injured stupid. The environment decided to be really nice to me too, giving me targets to hit to power bigger Thermal Shockwaves and letting the Kraken out once Blade was lower than I was.

Near Mint for me. First game I got Blade flipped with relative ease, but then the environment decided it was time to murder me, with 2 krakens and 2 mystical defenses.. ouch!

Second game the environment was much less of a factor, though it still did drop Absolute Zero with a surprise Kraken, as Fanatic kept things in check with Zealous Offense, and Tempest finally drew a Cleansing Downpour which, combined with AZ's incap power provided everyone with a hefty 4 points of healing each rounds. Blade didn't last long against that.

All I can say is I don't think this is the team I would have taken against Challenge Bomber Blade, Absolute Zero aside. I mean, at least put GI Bunker in the front so he can maximize his effectiveness! D:

That only matters the first round for Fanatic but after that if you keep using the power it works the same.  

I actually thought of some other advice.

Omni-Cannon is a trap. With no Ammo Drop draws, you’re at a card disadvantage unless you spend a long time in Recharge.

In my experience Baron Blade (any version) is not a villain you slow-play. Hit him hard and fast, don’t wait to be all set up. (See above re spending a long time in Recharge, and thus why the Cannon is a trap.)

Freedom Six Tempest just doesn’t work for me. I ignored his power all game. But if you’re desperate for Ongoing or Environment destruction, it might pay off. I guess.

On the front side I agree since Bomber Blade never puts any targets in play but on the flip side you get a card draw when he plays a target.

Freedom Six Tempest just doesn't work for me. I ignored his power all game. But if you're desperate for Ongoing or Environment destruction, it might pay off. I guess.

It won't be used often but if you get an Ongoing/Equipment you don't plan on keeping out like Elemental Subwave Inducer you can dig for more useful cards.  

Near Mint.  Same deal as what others got: despite this team having a good bit of ongoing control, I got none, but did get double Backlash Fields and a whole mess of targets under BB when the Pillars of Hercules finished the job.  Absolutely nothing I could have done about it.  Second game was a little touch and go at first, but I got a Wrathful Retribution at just the right time, taking him from 20 HP to 2, and he's much easier to deal with on his flip side (for a while, but long enough).

Mint, but a close one - only Bunker (5hp) and AZ (3hp) left standing.

GI Bunker kept busting holes in Blade's armor while Fanatic and Tempest did most of the damage.  Unfortunately, that damage was mostly through Sacrosanct Martyr and Localized Hurricane, which meant that they were taking hits fast too.  The team flipped Blade pretty quickly, but then two krakens came out back to back (!) and wiped out Helena and M'kk.  Things were looking bad, but Blade's Slash and Burn hit AZ for just enough fire damage for him to turn a Coolant Blast into the difference maker in the game.

Weirdly, random draw gave Blade almost nothing but his one-shots for the entire game so I didn't have to deal with the annyoing ongoings or early boosts to his death ray.  Instead I just had a crazy damage race with multiple Slash and Burns, Devious Disruptions, and Hasten Dooms.

2 losses so far. 

Couldn't get rid of the @$#%#$%# Backlash Field. 

Finally beat it, took probably 8 tries.

I hate to say it, but you just have to get lucky. :/ Don't exactly have to have the precise cards in hand to win, but things need to line up just right regardless.

I lost horribly on my first attempt, and haven’t made a second yet.

I did appreciate the Adam We reference, though.

RIP TV’S ADAM WEST?! (Where?!)

I agree with the luck comments.  I managed to mint it, but then played it again on a different device and it took me 4 or 5 tries until I got enough damage dealing to take him down before he powers up the death ray.

yeah, I nearly threw my tablet out the window after a late game, fully set up, can't afford to get rid of most of this, can't afford not to, Devious Disruption.

This particular one really reinforces my loathing for Randomized Start One-Shots.  This Team really isn't built for this challenge.

This team is built for it otherwise no one would be completing it.   Any four hero team in this same environment is likely going to have the same difficulty.  

A team with more reliable ongoing control, more damage mitigation, and/or more damage output would do better.  Swap GI Bunker for F6 Bunker, F6 Tempest for PW Tempest, and AZ for just about anyone with less setup (AZ can be great in this fight, but he's too random) and this would be more consistently winnable.

Easy enough to try if you want.  Let us know how you fare.  

GI Bunker is essential to get through his constant 2 DR.

Three of the four have some ongoing destruction. GI Bunker busts BB’s DR like nobody’s business. AZ can turn the Baron’s recurring Fire damage into revenge, or nullify it completely on himself. Fanatic can nuke, damage, and tank, and Tempest is a strong damage dealer. This doesn’t seem like a poorly suited team to me.

Near mint - First game was over quickly with a tough draw like others encountered. Second game was a good with only AZ incapped (walked the razors edge on hp and paid the price) all other heroes in the teens. Never saw wrathful retribution (which is the game breaker in the setup), but was able to just wear him down.

Mint.

Tempest went down quickly, targeted by a Kraken at least once. Absolute Zero went down right after the flip, but had helped make the flip happen by turning the exploding bombs into cold damage to Blade. After the flip, Fanatic dealt a 31 damage Wrathful Retribution, then went down to the backlash field. Bunker, with 2HP reamianing, finished Blade off on AZ's incap turn with a Flak Cannon--taking Blade out before the backlash field kicked in.

Bunker used Foam Grenades a few times--pretty sure that's why victory was achieved.

I give up on this.

I can get no traction. 

Yeah same

I finally got a Good late yesterday, when I got insanely lucky.

I forgot that GI was needed for the damage reduction, so I left him in. And I noticed that this was an entirely base-game team, so I left it at that.  I chose vanilla Haka as an average character (i.e. not Legacy or F6/SS Tachyon) with no special advantage in this battle (unlike Ra and Vis).

Experiment #1: GI Bunker, PW Fanatic, PW Tempest, Haka.  Except… by accident I chose Advanced instead of Challenge, but I didn't notice because I was using Bunker every round and fast-forwarding and only half paying attention to Blade's turns, so it was effectively Ultimate.  Got Blade down into single digits, but did lose.  Would have won handily without Advanced on.

Experiment #2: Retried the above game.  Nearly identical result.  This time noticed my error.

Experiment #3: Swapped PW Fanatic back for Redeemer and actually chose Challenge this time.  PW Tempest never used his base power, and in fact F6 Tempest would have been better, since I had him skip a couple of turns to just draw more cards to try to deal with double Backlash Fields.  Kraken was the MVP of this game: it heavily injured Tempest, then moved on to Blade.  Fortunately, Fanatic got Zealous Offense right then and shut off the Kraken's damage until Blade was once again lowest.  Tempest did get taken down by a couple of Slash & Burns, but then used his incap power to double up on Krakens and bring Blade down that much faster.

I could try again with vanilla Tachyon or Wraith, perhaps, but I'm convinced of my point.  AZ is just not good–he's too setup-dependent, and even though he has ongoing control, he just has the one card and no way of getting to it faster.  Wraith and Tachyon have even more ongoing destruction and damage mitigation, so they probably wouldn't have been any worse than Haka.  There's certainly some luck, but I do think this becomes a much easier battle with a different team, namely, ditching AZ for someone faster and more consistent.

I found AZ to often be my most reliable source of damage.  Though really all you've done is prove yourself wrong that just a couple of team tweaks make this matchup all that much easier.  Ruins of Atlantis makes or breaks this game for the heroes more than what Blade does.   Backlash Field early on certainly hurts but Atlantis is what gives this game more difficulty.