Weekly One-Shot #121 Marching Orders

Advanced Sargent Steel, Biomancer, Ambuscade, Miss Information, & The Operative are trying to lay the beat down on F6 Tachyon, Old Man Legacy, Termination AZ, F6 Tempest, F6 Bunker in Magmaria. 

My first attempt did not go well. An early discard meant that AZ lost his module installation, as well as a misplay of Hypersonic assault without enough damage boosts, meant I had a few null turns which you can't really afford in a vengeance game. 

Will probably watch this thread for ideas/ abusable synergies and make another go at it. Seeing lots of people saying it was easy/fun so I think I missed something obvious. 

Comfortable mint here with everyone in double-digits at the end. The key you're looking for in abusable synergy is Old Man Legacy + Absolute Zero. Play Cold Snap in round one with AZ and use Violent Shivers. You'll take a beating sure, but it's nothing compared to the frozen hell he'll unleash next turn, when Legacy's Gung Ho let's him use Violent Shivers again, and clear the field with a monstrous cold snap. After that, everything becomes much more manageable :)

Ah thought that was what I was looking for but my cold snap got mulched by Carbon Adept on Biomancers turn 2. The second time around I shall make it so it doesn't die so easy. 

Yeah, I for their first turn plays, I had Legacy and Tempest play Take Down and Grievous Hailstorm respectively and sacrificed them to the Carbon Adept to keep Cold Snap around for the big pay-off.

On a second playthrough, cold snap made it through and so did all my other ongoings due to judicious use of 'Bonk!' and promptly punched them into the floor.

Also, have you ever had Absolute Zero punch himself 5 times with a mad boosted cold snap?  I have now! Thanks, Glamour.  

Surprisingly easy Mint.

The secret, I think, was "Gung-Ho Absolute Zero the turn before he goes so Cold Snap decimates everything". Granted, after we took out Ambuscade, Glamour made sure "everything" included "the heroes", but no one ever got too far into the single digits. Tempest and AZ cleaned house.

Mint, with the heroes at 6, 12, 12, 10 and 7.

I screwed up and let Carbon Adept destroy Cold Snap, so the first few turns were rather rough. I had to take him out before I could put up Inspiring Presence and it took a while to get there (I used Heroic Interception and Take Down to keep the villains at bay for a while). Once that was up, the Hypersonic Assaults did their job protecting the team. However, Legacy using Gung Ho on Tempest to play Ice Storm worked pretty well once I got rid of Carbon Adept and anything that could destroy on-goings. Once I dropped Miss Information, it became clear it was just a matter of time.

There were some other misplays that weren't fatal, fortunately. I hit a "choose for me" stupidly on one Hypersonic Assault play, instead of hitting MegaGunner first. Took 4 unnecessary points of damage to Tachyon. Oh well.

But overall, it was fun, in part because I do a lot of games with these villains and I was very happy to see the initial cards they were dealt. I was also very happy that Glamour came out late. Too often my luck is that she and ReVolt pop out at the very beginning and I take way too much damage taking her down...

My minty goodness was "The America's Greatest Legacy" show. Everyone low teens except AZ who was around 5.

Super slow start for me. Misplayed Hypersonic Assault due to Advanced Miss Info and all the minions kept coming. Halfway through the game I realized the above Cold Snap + Gung-ho + Violent Shivers combo, but by then it was too late. Instead, I did my usual of Gung-ho'ing TL-Tachyon for massive card draw. This strategy, however, let me play every single copy of Take Down (a god-send in Vengence games. 5x the normal no card draw!) and Heroic Interception in his deck, one turn after another. This let me get an Omni-Cannon charging, Cleansing Downpour down-pouring, and plinking away at everyone once I got Inspiring Presence out as well. A couple of External Combutions got all the minions down low, and a Crystalloid Behemoth finished them off. At that point I was clear to start bringing the villains down.

Take down order for me was Miss Info to get rid of the DR and her flip side is usually actually beneficial to heroes-> Biomancer -> Sgt. Steel -> Operative -> Ambuscade

Funny notes: One Shot Biomancer with Omni-Cannon. Took down Sgt Steel after he played !Pyro who hit AZ who countered with enough to kill Steel. Took down the Operative with a Sucker Punch which is always satisfying. Redirecting the self damage from Heroic Interception to the Tunneler is silly (How would that work? Legacy volunteers to save everyone by holding the Tunneler up as a shield?).

Near Mint.

Absolute Zero and Legacy MVPs.

In both games, I managed to Sucker Punch the Carbon Adept before it triggered, so I didn't have to worry about losing Ongoings.

In the first game, I was so excited about all the damage Absolute Zero was doing, that I took out Ambuscade too early (in the midst of a huge Fueled Freeze), and Glamour really ruined my day.

Second game, I played slightly less recklessly, and it was no problem.

All heroes at 7-9HP at the end.

Mint. 11, 6, 7, 11, 9.

Heroic Interception makes Glamour so much less painful.

Fine.

I lost several times, because I couldn’t build up as long as Carbon Adept and Ray Manta were in play, and by the time I managed to take them out, Sargent Steel had agents doing a metric buttload of damage to all my heroes every turn. Miss Information’s -1 debuf neuters most of the team, particularly Tachyon, and Steel and Biomancer both heal their minions every turn so it’s difficult to wear them down if you don’t kill them outright. Or rather, Steel gets a medic out early who does the healing.

So I finally gave up and looked here. Pete’s claim that he managed to BONK the Carbon Adept before he triggered led me to re-examine what I was doing. Heroic Interception is the obvious play turn 1 with Legacy, since the Net absorbs the self-damage, and Carbon Adept will probably eat Inspiring Presence, but it’s the wrong play. With Inspiring Presence in play, there’s enough damage to take out Carbon Adept, except that Miss Information will re-play World Improved if you’ve eliminated it, so Tempest can’t do damage on his turn. Still, External Combustion + Tachyon’s Sucker Puch will still take out Carbon Adept.

After that, it’s easy. 2x Shivers + Inspiring Presence + Cold Snap will wipe the minions, Supersonic Assault eliminates 90% of the damage, and Take Down prevents the other 10% and prevents the villains from building up. I had a couple of each of those cards, which meant I took virtually no damage until the end.

I had the same problem Pete had, I accidentally took down Ambuscade a bit earlier than I intended via those supercharged Cold Snaps, and Glamour did a bunch of damage to my team. Even so, I was able to put down The Operative for a second time immediately afterward, and that ended the game.

Target order was Sargent Steel (because I had such bitter memories of what he does if he builds up) -> Miss Information -> Biomancer -> Ambuscade -> The Operative. I intended to take down Ambuscade last, but as I said, I knocked him down accidentally while I was working on The Operative’s second life. Biomancer at #3 was a bit of an attack of opportunity, when Absolute Zero was in a position to take him down, after Cold Snap had eliminated his “first attack each turn” damage resistance.

Mint with everyone at 6 or under.

I had a tactical error from using "Choose For Me" on Hypersonic Assault, and Mr. Facsimile threw it back in Tachyon's face. Fortunately, I'd shut down Steel and his minions, and that was enough.

Absolute Zero and Legacy were a great pair here. Would have been awesome if AZ had ever been able to keep a piece of equipment out, but it didn't matter in the end. Tempest did some good damage with Localized Hurricane once it finally showed up. Bunker dropped Combustion a few times.

Incap order was Miss Information -> Steel -> Biomancer (thanks to a big hit from Lightspeed Barrage) -> Operative -> Ambuscade. Had to pull some targeting shenanigans to get Ambuscade down last since Operative pops back up with 10 HP on Advanced.

Had a fun interaction with Supersonic Response. I used it on Mega Gunner, took the counter damage intentionally, then got to hit him again to make sure he went down on AZ's turn.

Near Mint, though my solution looks different than everyone else's. Likely because I don't know how to use AZ properly. :)

First game, I made more than a few mistakes. I tried using Take Down early and often to slow the villains, but it only ended up shunting a lot of damage to Legacy and along with the mistakes, I just utterly failed.

Second game, Legacy started out with Heroic Interception and the snare took the damage for me, so that was good. Bunker focused solely on ongoing cards, first Miss Information's painful cards and then the snares. After a few turns I wiped out Carbon Adept with AZ and Tachyon, slowed down by Miss Information of course. Then I could play Inspiring Presence and finally use the Hypersonic Assaults to slow down the damage. The only damage coming at that point was from new targets on the field and cards that had heroes damage themselves. However, Legacy could also use Take Down now and he did. Tempest used Reclaim from the Deep to give Take Down and Hypersonic Assault back to the heroes. And since they had 2 copies of those cards in their hands and Tempest had 2 Reclaim from the Deep, I could endlessly recycle those cards. When Bunker pulled up two Adhesive Foam Grenades, the entire board was locked down. The only thing Tachyon had to do was hit Biomancer twice- once with any attack and then a second time with Hypersonic Assault to prevent Biomancer from damaging Legacy with Take Down.

There was a small hiccup when Ambuscade went down and Glamour came out. By that time, it was well in hand, but Into the Stratosphere sent Glamour back to Ambuscade's deck and there was no one around to draw her again, so that was it for her. Everyone ended around 20hp.

…

…

That's Genius…

Beautifully devious. I love it.

I was totally going to do that on my Near-mint run, but by the time she came out, there were no other Nemeses in play, so I just ignored her and rekilled the Operative.

Oh crap, why didn't I think of that? D:

Mint.  My game ended slightly earlier than I thought it would, because I didn't realize you don't actually have to beat the rest of the Slaughterhouse Six to win as long as you've beaten all of the villain character cards.

Near Mint. I took a slow and steady approach to this one, mostly because I didn’t think of that big damage AZ combo (I’m always so wary of Violent Shivers...). First game I had a couple of miss plays that cost me, but I was still making good progress until the damage just spiralled and I lost everyone.

Second game I still lost Bunker, but I stabilised to a position where Tempest was healing everyone 4 each round between him and Legacy. Bunker’s incap kept me cycling Hypersonic Assault and I slowly pulled through the Villians - Ms Information first to get rid of her global damage debuff, then Steel (who kept the best set up), then Ambuscade (waited until all Slaughterhouse members were out and defeated before popping him with only Glamour left in his deck), then Biomancer (normally leave him until last so I can focus on him a bit easier, but had some big hits saved from Tacyhon so took the opportunity) and finally Operative who is probably the least dangerous here, but just takes a little while to chew through with her advanced resurrect.

Definitely learnt a few tricks from reading how others approached this though - particularly about playing Termination AZ in a different way to regular AZ and that Glamour into the stratosphere trick - she wasn’t too bad here as she’s last up, but I’ve had too many games ruined by an early Glamour to not want more good ideas against her!