Prime Wardens (in order: Captain Cosmic, Argent Adept, Fanatic, Tempest, Haka) vs. Challenge Matriarch in Realm of Discord.
Took me a while to get the season pass redownload to behave, so I don't have time for a Matriarch match tonight. Especially one that may have tons of plink damage headed toward constructs. But I'm looking forward to giving it a shot, I love the Prime Wardens as a team.
Wait, this was challenge? I didn't even notice.
Admittedly, I pretty much ignored the Carrion Field, except for dropping a Chastise on it. So no wonder I didn't notice.
Mint. I screwed up near the end and everyone ended up a lot lower than they had to, but nobody died. Lilith is pretty forgiving in this fight, and of course the Prime Wardens kick serious hiney.
I got reminded it was Challenge Mode when I tried to put Carrion Fields on top of her deck using Into the Stratosphere and it remained in play. With that I ended up with a near mint instead since I rewound to play something else.
Hey John, I think you may have slipped a few pop culture references into the One-Shot description. :V
Surprised myself with a Mint. Everyone was under 10, but there's a reason Argent Adept is pictured on Dynamic Siphon. He dealt the finishing blow!
(Protip: Don't play Savage Mana first turn, you'll lose it. :C)
I always tell the truth. Even when I lie.
I badly mistimed and miscounted a play at what turned out to be the second to last turn which almost cost me the game (and did cost me a massively charged Savage Mana), but I just barely managed to focus fire Lilian down with Fanatic and Tempest at the very end before she'd go nuclear on me. Mint, but too close for my taste this time.
A Mint for me. Fanatic incapacitated, everyone else 20+ HP. I definitely made a bunch of mistakes this time but still won handily.
If anyone’s having trouble:
Chastise on the Carrion Fields, Into the Stratosphere on the mask, and squall are a great way to start… take out the mask round 2 and focus on damaging Matriarch from there on.
Mint.
Chastising the Carrion Field was pretty sweet. Tempest Squalled the birds with wild abandon, and it didn't hurt too much. A well-timed Into the Stratosphere with Matriarch at about 25HP putting the Mask back on top (which had just come back out from a Darken the Skies) gave the heroes another "safe" round…enough to take care of Lillian with a Lightning Slash.
Oops! Too late. Turns out, it wasn't really needed anyway.
All heroes at 12HP at the end, except Tempest at 13HP (thanks, Energy Bracer!) and Fanatic at 7HP (thanks, Sacrosanct Martyr!).
Yeah, I focused too much first game on trying to Savage Mana away the Mask and the Cohorts, even after the Cacophony, and I didn't hit on the Chastise solution (especially when paired with an Energy Bracer) until too late.
Frankly, second game I still spent too much time on Savage Mana tricks given the other Cacophonies, but there, I also dealt enough damage and spread around the bouncebacks that I took down the Matriarch with everybody alive but under 10HP. Near Mint.
Easy Mint, though Tempest was down (thanks, Localized Hurricane!) and everyone was low (Thanks, all the birds!)
Mint, but I too wasted too much effort on trying to get the Mask and Cohorts under Savage Mana. I forgot there was no deck control in this team, and not enough sacrificial ongoings to keep Savage Mana out. Getting Energy Bracers on Tempest, added to Otherworldly Resilience, and Chastise on the Carrion Fields (while there was only one of them) were key to survival, but otherwise I would have done better by simply focusing damage on the Mask and then the Matriarch herself. The Realm of Discord also helped out a ton--I'd accidentally put a Dynamic Syphon on Tempest (thought it was a Vitality Conduit), but it got triggered when Time Crawls was out, so I got to wipe the board for free. And then I got Negative Energy Field when the highest-HP targets were the Matriarch, the two Carrion Fields, Tempest, and Fanatic with Undaunted out, so that helped deal a mess of damage in the end. Poor Argent Adept couldn't keep out songs to save his life and ended up just wielding a Cosmic Weapon.
Mint in a handful of rounds. Really wasn't that bad, especially for a Matriarch game. Didn't even get the chance to pull Savage Mana shenanigans.
I could see how it would go very differently for folks based on how the tops of their decks play out when Ghostly Images hits. Worked out great for me, I did enough damage in that environment turn to knock her down to 27, which I had just enough firepower to burst through before she got another turn.
Cosmic at 12, AA at 12, Fanatic at 3, Tempest at 14, Haka at 13. As the HP totals would indicate, I wiped the board a couple times and Fanatic burned herself out a bit in the final round to help us get over the top.
Everybody did a nice job dealing damage except AA, who did a nice job boosting other people's damage.
Near mint. The first time I spent too much effort trying to Savage Mana everything, and – most fatally – not killing the birds.
The second time, though, I only let them sit for one turn, focusing down the Mask and not playing ongoings (except for Hurricane) during the first round. Haka of Battle made me get Mere, and I focused on buffing Fanatic and Haka for damage. I used Into the Stratosphere on Huginn, and I killed her the next round; never saw the second Darken the Skies, Cacophony, Cohort, or Carrion Fields.
Final hp was Cosmic/Argent/Fanatic with 10, Tempest with 14, Haka with 15.
Mint. Tempest was the superstar with Captain Cosmic and Fanatic as supporting roles. With an Energy Bracer, Otherworldly Resilience and Elemental Subwave Inducer, Tempest tanked all the psychic damage from The Matriarch and Fanatic put a Chastise on the Carrion Fields, so after a few rounds, the villain deck was under control. When Huginn and Muninn came out, I sent Huginn Back into the Stratosphere, took Muninn down to 4 and then used a Final Dive and normal attacks on the next round to stick both in the trash at the same time and keep them out of my way.
Another Energy Bracer on Fanatic meant the Chastise damage was minimized, though I screwed that up at the end of the game by putting Undaunted down and cancelling all the damage, which sent Chastise away. Haka and Argent Adept had Cosmic Weapons out so they could do more damage. Haka and Argent Adept were mostly there to ping some damage put out Ongoing cards to protect the Tempest/Fanatic setup. The environment targeted Tempest, who ignored all the damage, and it wasn't until Negative Energy Field came up that the environment did any damage to the heroes. But at that point, Tempest and Fanatic were ignoring the damage and the Matriarch's time was up and Tempest used a Localized Hurricane to put her away. Tempest in his 20s, every one else in low 10s.
slow clap
That is a beautiful setup. Tempest as tank isn't something I often see played.