Weekly One-Shot #118 Not Some Old Dog

Advanced Variant Kismet Vs Chrono Ranger, Visionary unleashed, omnitron-X and FV Wraith in the block.

Minted but That was Close ™

Some early mis plays (telekinetic caccoon I am looking at you) led to me taking far to much damage far to quickly. Char turning up so early as well caused me problems.

In the end had Only wraith up stun bolting kismet lots with lots of projectile damage being boosted by visionary. But a guard got the final blow. Leaving me with Wraith: 1HP everyone else 0

Edit: Thought it was funny I beat the luck villain by a lucky environment play.

Mint, but it was sloppy. The last round saw Chrono-Ranger going down to Char plus two Rogues and Glass Jaw. This left Kismet at 1 HP and a Defensive Displacement keeping everyone but Wraith from doing that last stupid point of damage to her.

My best play was Twist the Ether on Kismet and Smoke Bombs. Omnitron was always highest, and making sure Kismet was dealing whatever kind of damage he soaked meant I didn't have much to worry about all game.

This.

Mint.

Also got out an early Infrared Eyepiece, and avoided quite a bit of trouble that way.  I took out Char right away with a Grappling Hook, so I never felt his damage. I spent the whole game digging for a Defensive Blast, and I finally Got one, but Omnitron-X ended the game with a Plasma Cannon at the start of his turn before I could use it. Oh, well.

Lots of reshuffling (Reset, Displaced Armory, Impromptu Invention, etc.) so everyone's results will vary, I imagine.

Chrono-Ranger started with the Talisman and got picked on early, but once Smoke Bombs happened, there was nothing to worry about.

Chrono-Ranger 3HP, Visionary 24HP, Omnitron-X 24HP, Wraith 23HP.

I did the same thing but put the talisman on wraith, and got out the eyepeice and utilty belt to use the talisman and eyepeice to make sure i would know what was comming. 

Mint, but close.

Wraith and Visionary both at 1, Wraith was below 5 for about 7 rounds total. I got lucky and discarded the environment blocking card early and then buried lady Luck with an eyepiece later on.

I found it a relatively easy mint, mainly because I dug for Telekinetic Coccoon with Omnitron, and got it right away. I knew Visionary would rapidly end up with the most HP, which meant that flipping Kismet twice meant that she’d end up with the Talisman, a bunch of Jinxes, and she’d tank all the damage provided Kismet didn’t play too many lucky cards.

Secondary was getting damage reduction on Kismet. To that end, I got out Neurotoxin dart gun for Chrono Ranger, Twist the Ether (before the Coccoon went up), and Stun Bolt. That’s -3 to all Kismet’s damage, which meant her “attack all heroes” effects fizzled.

Chrono Ranger and Wraith took a ton of damage before I got this set up, but didn’t fall down. The first-turn Prison RIot was bad, bringing out Char, Time Crazed Prisoner, and a Rogue, but it was followed by a Lock Down so I didn’t need to worry too much about the environment.

Once Wraith had an Infrared Eyepiece out, I just made sure that Kismet played nothing but Jinxes, which all piled on Visionary one way or another. Chrono Ranger put down bounties to boost damage, and Omnitron got a bunch of weapon components out since he wasn’t taking any damage. I probably should have prioritized the Eyepiece over Smoke Bombs and Stun Bolt, since in practice I never got a benefit from Smoke Bombs - Kismet was only attacking Visionary.

By the time I was done Chrono Ranger and Wraith were back in the mid-teens because of a Omnitron’s healing rays. Chrono Ranger’s relatively low health did make me delay putting out Hunter and Hunted, but even with By Any Means and The Ultimate Target out, he was doing 6-9 damage a turn to Kismet. 3 damage from the dart thrower, plus 3 damage any time he played something like Eye on the Prize.

Near Mint.

The first game was BRUTAL. I managed to end up with five jinxes out, the talisman in her hand, and her playing cards that let her play other cards in addition to doing damage. Each hero took 15+ damage in that single round, which killed everyone but Omnitron and left him at 1 hp.

Along the way to getting my butt kicked, I realized that Decoy Projection is not your friend when you have Smoke Bombs out. They do a great job of keeping it alive. I also made a mistake of having Wraith churn way too many cards digging for Mental Divergence, which never came up. I also realized that Demoralization is not your friend as it hits the talisman when it's in your own hand. Similarly, Omnitron's Defensive Blast needs to be done judiciously.

The second time around, I took out jinxes and unluckies whenever I could so they wouldn't build up. Twist the Ether, Stun Bolt, and Neurotoxin Dart coupled with Omnitron's plating kept the damage more reasonable. What I'm proud of is dropping Wrest the Mind on the Time Crazed Prisoner when the environment trash was full. 

A strategy I thought of but didn't try would be to use the Talisman's ability to rearrange the first three cards on the Environment on the first round. That'd move the Prison Break back. Of course, that's non-intuitive so it only looked like a good strategy in hindsight.

So the second time around, I finished with Wraith at 3 (where she sat for a few rounds to my surprise) and everyone else in their mid-teens. That was a definite improvement over round one.

Fairly easy Mint. Wraith got the talisman and took a bit of a beating early, but with plenty of control options and and damage reduction no one else really took much damage, and once I got Smoke bombs I was out of any real danger. Finished with Wraith in the mid teens and everyone else well in the 20’s.

Not sure I’ve ever had as much out with Omnitron X as in this game. Thanks to Twist the Either and plating he basically took no damage at all.

Kismet can jump off a bridge and die. 

That’s my thought on her in general, but hey, works for this One-shot. 

Mint, even though Chrono-Ranger got dropped to 5 HP almost right off the bat.  But two Stun Darts and a Neurotoxin (with Ultimate Target) every round basically shut Kismet down, and Wrest the Mind on a Time-Crazed Prisoner demolished her.

Dead on Chrono-Ranger's fourth turn, everyone in the 20s except Wraith at 8. Obviously I chose Wraith to be the Talisman target. 

Chrono-Ranger: searched for the Dart Thrower, Ultimate Target, By Any Means, pile on the damage.

Visionary: Twist the Ether on Chrono-Ranger, picked off the Time-Crazed Prisoner before he could become a problem.

Omnitron: Don't remember much of what he did other than making Chrono-Ranger play the top card of his deck and pile on more damage.

Wraith: Dropped Smoke Bombs round 1, toasted Char with a Grappling Hook, and sat there using the Talisman's power every turn and stacking the least harmful Lucky card on top each of the first couple rounds, then Karmic Disjunction when I knew Kismet was dead.

Mint.

While Smoke Bombs and Infrared Eye Piece are normally a Wraith's best friend, double Stun Bolts along with Chrono-Ranger's Neuro-Toxin Darts also do pretty good when Kismet is the only villain in play. Besides Utility Belt, I also dug for Mega-Computer to keep everyone's damage down. Except the heroes' of course.

Chrono-Ranger using his bounty to use a power when Kismet attacked let me put on another Neuro-Toxin dart on her to really nuke her damage. I put Twist the Ether on Char at the start because I really hate him and I expected him to last longer to pile extra damage on the villain and less damage on the heroes, but he only lasted one round.

In the end, Visionary did very little, but Omnitron-X pulled out lots of components, including some healing and then decked Chrono-Ranger as much as possible. Once Hunter and Hunted plus Compound Bow came out, it was all over.