Weekly One-shot #155: Bombs Away!

Ultimate Mad Bomber Blade vs. Road Warrior Mainstay, Stuntman, Setback, and DW Mr Fixer in Silver Gulch. 

Good luck!

OWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.

My first attempt was lost, and I figured that out on the second round.

Holy Mother of God, was that brutal.

I got a “Fine.” Lost the first two games. Won the third with 0/4/0/5. The incapacitated abilities of VG Mainstay and Setback were the final winners, and they let Stuntman hit off-turn with irreducible damage. The Baron had 2 Living Forcefields up, so he was the only one hitting.

However, most folks here are going to be interested in the earlier stages.

I figure you’ve got two rounds to get the Baron to flip. He’s going to hit you with 0, then 6, then 8, then 11 damage otherwise.

The early key was using Mr. Fixer’s Meditation Card to bring Riveting Crane out. I didn’t do that the first game, and when the 11 damage round hit, I was toast. In the second game, I got it out so that everyone could hit the Baron, but didn’t do damage fast enough. I took him down in the round of 8, but my heroes were too wounded to make it. The third game I got the Baron down to 2 by the end of Round 2 and had used Setback’s Turn of Events, so Mainstay had his power doubled. He took the blow of 8, then punched back for 1+1, which caused the flip.

Even then, it was in doubt. Once the Baron flipped, Riveting Crane went away and it became hard for anyone other than Stuntman to hurt him. Thus, the incapacitated abilities for the win.

This seems unwinnable. It’s a damage race, and we’ve got heroes who aren’t really all that good at dealing the sort of massive damage required to bypass the Baron’s 2 damage reduction (3, since Living Force Field comes out early). It doesn’t help that the Baron gets some really great rounds which bump his damage up rapidly.

The key to the front side seems to be Riveting Crane, but that gets trashed after the Baron flips, and there’s no recovery after that. The heroes just end up flailing ineffectively while the Baron kills them one by one. Stuntman’s base power is the only reliable source of damage at that point, since it bypasses DR.

On the positive side, Dark Watch Fixer is less restrained than usual, since Mainstay and Stuntman are fine with Fixer destroying their cards.

The environment is largely a non-issue until the Explosives Wagon comes out. It’s a boost for the heroes, but they die almost immediately afterward so it’s just a short bump in power.

Messed up horribly in the first round using my anti-ongoings to ping out the forcefields, allowing a backlash thing to stay in play meaning I couldn't win the race at all. 

I also did not use Riveting Crane in my first attempt -- Yikes.

About to try my third game.

The Baron ramps up REAL FAST.

Finally got a fine with 0/6/0/6 after 4 tries. 

Seems to me you need to focus everything on keeping Stuntman alive, no matter the cost, and especially if the cost is Mainstay and Setback go down, as they can feed Stuntman more power uses that deal irreducible damage. Played Leader of the Pack to redirect everything I could from Stuntman to Mainstay early, leading Mainstay to dropping by the third round, but leaving Stuntman around 20hp at the flip. Through careful use of redirects and healing, I kept plinking away slowly at Blade until Setback finally dropped as well. At that point though, the Baron was close enough that one more round of boosted irreducible damage brought him down.

It also seems to me that Fumbling Fool the first round is very helpful in terms of keeping the environment from picking on the heroes early, but I am not sure its enough. 

~Komori

Fine.

On my fourth of fifth try, I can't remember.

It does seem to almost require keeping Stuntman alive and having Mainstay and Setback's incap abilities feed the irreducilbe Stuntman power some spam.

At least it's pretty short?

Stuntman 1HP, Mr. Fixer 4HP and Mainstay and Setback 0HP.

Well, this one is a matryoshka doll of problems. I approached it a slightly different way, and finally succeeded after many, many attempts.  

I'll give a general overview, then go into more detail beneath.

First phase  

1. Riveting Crane is phenomenal.

2. Bring it is extremely useful for the first phase. 

3. Turn order matters- Mainstay can do a LOT of damage when the baron flips if you time it right. 

Second Phase

1. Get rid of Living Forcefield

2. If you redirect backlash damage to the baron, he hits himself. 

3. Friendly fire. 

Here's how I approached it:

Main problem bomb side: You need to take Baron Blade out before the second round (so that he doesn't hit you for 8).

Riveting Crane can get your through the -2 armor, but it was Mainstay's Bring It that really shone. Shard Strength + Leader of the Pack meant that every time someone hit the Baron, Mainstay would tank and retaliate for 2 irreducible points. I saved my ongoing destruction for the second phase, and powered him down, flipping him round 2 on Setback's turn (Turn of Events is key). 

Sub-problem- on flip, he destroys everything

If you take some time with turn order, you can double up on Bring It while damage is still irreducible, then when the Baron flips, you can immediately play the Void Belter, use it and destroy it for 10 damage to the flipped baron. 

Main problem, death ray side: Nanobot armor means that you need irreducible damage or 3+ damage. 

Mainstay Strategy: Either stay alive and try to keep the environment in check/play ongoings for Fixer, or die and help setback/stuntman draw cards.  I found that since I was keeping the Backlash field in place, drawing was worth more than Stuntman getting extra power uses.

Stuntman: since you won't have much HP, and the Baron has a backlash field, be very careful about using your irreducible damage.  I found that I saved it for off-turns, so that I could essentially trade 3 stuntman HP for 3 Baron HP.  Stuntman and setback were key in managing appearances from extra backlash fields and forcefields- you need to get rid of them ASAP.  Keeping the environment in check was also crucial.

Setback: I focused on getting friendly fire out and immediately pummeling setback to build up a pile of tokens. This is because if you get REALLY aggressive with it, Stuntman, Fixer, and Mainstay all have the ability to hit multiple times, which will proc Friendly Fire multiple times. Setback's HP will plummet, but if you can get Wrong Time and Place out when he has 10+ tokens, you can really unload on the baron.  After my 5th defeat, I started cheating FLAGRANTLY with Cash Out, so that I knew exactly what order Setback's cards were in to maximize his usefulness. It still took me over a dozen games to beat the Baron. 

Fixer strategy:  After the flip, get rid of the forcefield (I used Kick the Tires), and keep the backlash field around. Your goal is to get Fixer his Pipe Wrench and Driving Mantis, so that he can consistently redirect the backlash damage, which hits the Baron for 1 each time. This will cause the Baron to hit himself for 1.  Be really, really careful if the Water Trough comes out- it increases lightning damage. I got rid of it with Mainstay.

I suppose there have been enough slow one-shots for a damage race.  I'm just gonna bide my time on this one until enough posts are up.

Attempt 2 led to me flipping him and then dying. 

[Censored] Devious Disruption.

Fine,  but that was rough! 4th attempt...

Finally got it on try 4 or 5 , 0/4/0/0

I suicided VG Mainstay early into baron blade to try to flip him before enemy turn using the leader of the pack/shard combo. 

5th time, 4/0/0/6. Riveting Crane is huge, obviously. I hated it the first couple of times I played it but that win was super-satisfying.

Near Mint. First attempt, I saw how critical Riveting Crane would be and thought I did a reasonable job burning through the front side of Blade, but I lost Stuntman early on the flip side and had no good way to get through the last half of Blade's HP with the 2 DR.

The second attempt is the kind of one-shot that I dislike (see the Dark Watch vs. Matriarch one from a while back): the tiniest bit of foreknowledge gives you a plan that turns the game from near-certain loss to near-certain victory. In this case, all I changed was how I played Mainstay. Looking at his opening hand, I didn't see how Shard-Strength would be a particularly effective play given the circumstances; sure, it would give a little extra counter damage, but a couple extra HP off Blade's front side didn't seem to be that big of a deal. Combine it with his first draw, however, and it turns into extra damage plus redirection to make Blade flip in the middle of the 8-damage AOE, saving the rest of the team from the big hit. Once Mainstay went down, oh look - he could pass powers to Stuntman and pile on more irreducible damage.

I’m still finding this impossible.

I can get Baron Blade to flip in the middle of round 2. I hadn’t realized how powerful Leader of the Pack would be in this situation. Yeah, it totally wrecks Mainstay, but it lets Mainstay do enough damage to Baron Blade to flip him. Provided, of course, that Riveting Crane is out.

I’m still not doing nearly enough damage to Blade on his flip side, since no one is hurting him but Stuntman and his base power. Sure, Stuntman gets opportunities to do stuff with Cliffhanger and In Media Res, but it’s still barely scratching Blade at 3 points each hit while Blade rapidly ramps up to 11+ points per attack.

Many of Stuntman’s usual bag of tricks are of no use. Hidden Mine does absolutely nothing, for example, if Blade has Living Force Field up.

EDIT: Tried again, lost again. This time the Baron got 2 Backlash Fields up, and no one drew cards to destroy them, so it was 6 points of damage to Stuntman if he tried to do 3 points. That wasn’t sustainable, of course, and pretty soon everyone was dead again. And no, Driving mantis / pipe wrench wasn’t much help.

Near Mint on my first try (achieved by mercilessly abusing the Rewind button. Mainstay down with Stuntman at 1, Setback at 5 and Fixer at 3. That was nothing short of brutal, but I can safely say that I've never appreciated Riveting Crane quite this much before!

I would definitely recommend setting things up so that Mainstay can play, use and destroy Void Belter during Blade’s flip. Getting 10 damage on his flip side while Riviting Crane is still in effect is pretty huge for getting a jump on the second side.

If I recall the last game I lost correctly, I did that. When the Baron flipped and started destroying things, I used Leader of the Pack's destruction effect to play Void Belter, used Shard Strength's destruction effect to use Void Belter's power, and then used Void Belter to destroy Void Belter. I seem to recall that Void Belter got the +1 damage from Shard Strength even though Shard Strength was destroyed. I should re-read the text on the card to see why.

Didn't matter. As I said, the Baron got 2 Backlash Fields up, which meant that I had a choice between waiting and dying or suiciding against the fields and dying.

I think I'm gonna need a step-by-step on this one. @_@ Tried again, used Riveting Crane, got him to flip on Setback's third turn, after Mainstay went down. Then everyone just kind of died, one by one, with no hope. Definitely not catching the winning strategy out of everyone's posts.

Here's my latest game. Somewhat abbreviated. Uh, spoiler, I won. I wasn't expecting to when I started writing this. This is long - I'd use Spoiler tags if we had 'em.

Baron plays his opening hand: Hasten Doom, 4 targets that go under his card, Backlash Field. HP is 27 / 25 / 29 / 27.

Mainstay plays Shard Strength, uses Bring It.

Stuntman plays Stylish Armor, uses Trireur Incroyable for 1 point, takes 2.

Setback plays Fumbling Fool, uses Risk, draws Surprising Fortune.

Mr. Fixer plays Meditation, chooses Riveting Crane, uses Bitter Strike, does 1 to the Baron and makes all damage irreducible. Destroys Surprising Fortune.

The Environment plays Temporal Event followed by Lost in the Past.

Blade does 6 to everyone. Mainstay hits him, gets Backlashed, hits him again. Blade plays Hasten Doom, Mainstay hits him again. Blade plays Living Force Field. Blade is at 22, heroes are 15 / 17 / 21 / 16.

Mainstay plays Leader of the Pack, uses Bring It.

Stuntman plays The Usual Solution, Backlash hits Mainstay, Mainstay hits Blade, Backlash hits Mainstay, Mainstay hits Blade. Stuntman destroys Living Force Field, because I want Backlash around to fuel more retaliation from Mainstay. Stuntman hits Blade. Stuntman uses his base power to hit Blade for 1.

Setback skips card play because nothing's suitable except maybe Cash Out, and I know perfectly well he's about to topdeck Turn of Events. Setback uses Risk, draws Turn of Events. Void Guard Mainstay goes first, gets another Bring It. Stuntman his for 3, Backlash hits Mainstay, Mainstay hits Blade, Backlash hits Mainstay, Mainstay hits Blade three times. Blade is at 3 HP.

It's still Setback's turn. Mr. Fixer hits Blade for 3, flipping him. Blade is at 40 HP, and destroys everything. Effects follow.

Stuntman uses Stylish Armor to draw Stylish Armor. Lance Flammes isn't going to be helpful with Riveting Crane gone, and Hidden Mine's effectively a one-shot. Stuntman plays Training Montage - it's not legal to play a replacement Stylish Armor because the original isn't quite gone yet.Stuntman takes 1 damage and draws 2 additional cards, then plays L'Embuscade. Blade is still blowing things up, so playing Dramatic Cliffhanger won't be a help since Stuntman has already used his power.

Stuntman destroys L'Embuscade, hits Blade for 5.

Mainstay destroys Leader of the Pack, plays Void Belter, destroys Shard Strength, uses Void Belter, hits Blade for 4, destroys Void Belter, hits Blade twice for 3 each.

Backlash Field hits Mr. Fixer for 3. Blade's at 25, heroes are at 5 / 16 / 19 / 13. Blade still has Backlash Field up.

It's Mr. Fixer's turn. He plays Pipe Wrench, doesn't use his power because he'd have to destroy the Wrench.

The environment plays Stout Barrel, Temporal Event, Sustain the Portal. No one discards cards. Blade takes no damage, the heroes take 2 each (except Fixer, who takes 1).

Blade does no damage with his death ray, discards 1 target, plays Backlash Field. He now has 2 Backlash Fields in play.

Mainstay uses Kick the Tires to destroy a Backlash Field, uses Bring It.

Stuntman plays Stylish Armor, shoots blade for 1, takes 2.

Setback skips his card play.  He could do 1 with Exceeds Expectations or Cash Out, but I'm saving tokens for something more effective (hopefully). I've got Silver Lining, but I'm sorta leaning on Setback falling down so he can lend power plays to Stuntman. Setback uses Risk, draws Cash Out, spends no tokens. Mainstay, and Setback discard cards, everyone heals for 2.

Mr. Fixer plays Driving Mantis, his Blade for 2, redirects Backlash Field to Blade, Backlash Field his Blade in retaliation. Fixer destroys Stylish Armor.

Stuntman chooses Stylish Armor (again), plays Dramatic Cliffhanger.

The Environment plays Water Trough, Temporal Event, Sustain the Portal. No one discards. Stuntman destroys Dramatic Cliffhanger. plays Stylish Armor, shoot Blade for 3, takes 3. Sustain the Portal does nothing to Blade, 2 to everyone but Mr. Fixer.

Blade does 2 to Setback, draws Devious Disruption. Stuntman destroys Stylish Armor, draws Lance Flammes, shoots the Water Trough and destroys it (reducing Devious Disruption damage). Mr. Fixer keeps his stuff, everyone takes 5 damage. Mainstay goes down.

Blade plays Hasten Doom, Mr. Fixer redirects, Stuntman and Setback take 2. Blade plays Hasten Doom, everyone takes 2. Blade plays Living Force Field. Blade now had 3 DR.

Blade is at 17, heroes are 0 / 1 / 6 / 9. Stuntman can no longer shoot Blade without dying.

Mainstay is down, heals Stuntman and Mr. Fixer for 1 each.

Stuntman plays The Usual Solution, punches the barrel, destroys Backlash Field, then shoots Blade for 1.

Setback plays Friendly Fire, skips his power use because Risk will give him a useless Plucky Break. Yes, I'm using Rewind to cheat.

Mr. Fixer skips his card play because Charge can't get through 3 DR. Mr. Fixer hits Blade for 1, destroys Friendly Fire.

The environment plays Explosives Wagon.

Blade hits Mr. Fixer for 6, destroys 1 target, plays another Living Force Field, bringing him up to 4 DR.

Blade's at 15, heroes are at 0 / 2 / 6 / 4.

Mainstay gives Stuntman a power, Stuntman shoots Blade for 4. Blade's at 11.

Stuntman plays Dramatic Cliffhanger, shoots Blade for 2. Blade's at 9.

Setback skips his card play, uses Risk, draws Turn of Events. Stuntman shoots Blade for 4. Mr. Fixer does nothing. Setback takes 3 damage. I didn't want to use Mr. Fixer to destroy Dramatic Cliffhanger because Stuntman has already used his power this turn. Blade's at 5.

Mr. Fixer plays Overdrive, hits Blade for 1, destroys Dramatic Cliffhanger. Stuntman plays Planquez-Vous, shoots Blade for 4, game over.

"Fine." Heroes at 0 / 2 / 3 / 4.

Got my fine, after 3 games gave in and used the rewind (alot).  Stuntman and fixer were both up, having two wagons actually help alot.  A step by step will not be too helpful as he shuffles when he flips.

I thing this is the oneshot that has given me the most trouble in a while.

I got blade to 1 HP after Setback was my only hero.  I made a mistep trying to follow Gus's guide.  That's good enough for me to be honest.  At least it was a good tutorial for how to use Bring It.

Thanks, Gus. :D This one's really a lesson in how to use every single one of these characters: the Fixer people tend to shy away from with the Style I use the least, Mainstay wanting to take damage so he can retaliate, Setback as pure support to help Fixer and Stuntman.

Mint for me! First time I got mint on a difficult challenge, so that was nice. I didn't think I was going to get it at first because I made several unoptimal decisions, Including Destroying Riveting Crane fairly early. I managed to pull it through after I drew anothe Riveting Crane with Setback as my only downed hero.

If at all possible try to get a high unlucky pool stored up before you get wrong place, wrong time. Being able to reflect Blades damage back at himself and then having him eat his own backlash field while damage is irreducible is awesome. 

I went and found my login to give a different perspective on this. I got Near Mint on the second try, with a nail-biting 0/1/0/1. I used Alternating Tiger Claw instead of Riveting Crane, and used ongoing destruction on the Backlash Fields instead of the Force Fields. I got really close the first time, taking him down to 4 hp, and Riveting Crane honestly never crossed my mind. ("No good, he has DR 3...") All damage dealt to the Baron was irreducible.

Mainstay's role was relegated to soaking damage for everyone at the top of round 3, then providing Stuntman with out of turn powers. It was rough, but I really like that the scenario requires Dark Watch Fixer's unique talents.