Today, I was planning to have an exciting little game of SotM, where the heroes had to save Megalopolis from a rampant Akash'Bhuta, in the grand kaiju tradition. But as I was grabbing hero decks, I realized that this wouldn't work - Megalopolis only has three targets*, so Akash'Bhuta would hardly be a threat - someone like Rook City Wraith could probably keep it from flipping once with a little luck.
But that got me thinking: where is Akash'Bhuta most dangerous... and what does that mean? So, here I am counting down Enviroment decks from least to most targets, with a little musing on how it can make sense (or just makes none) why the Chaos-Born Creator reacts to these places the way she does.
Least Threat (3-4 Environment Targets): Megalopolis, Pike Industrial Complex, Rook City, Wagner Mars Base. I hate to lose my city-smashing dreams, but these do make a kind of sense - each is a bastion of humanity and technology, and they tend to be highly hostile towards life (Rook and Pike's pollution, Wager's being on Mars) to boot. Bad places to be a nature avatar, no matter how violent.
Mild Threat (5-6 Environment Targets): Realm of Dischord, Ruins of Atlantis, Time Cataclysm. Oddly, everything in this category seems to represent a locale where some other form of energy might be interfering with Akash'Bhuta's energies, which I find pretty neat.
Normal Threat (7 Environment Targets): Insula Primalis, Tomb of Anubis. I know this is a small category which could have been folded into the previous one, but I single it out because Insula Primalis was the Environment that Akash seems to have been designed for, as well as having the most Environment targets at the time of Akash'Bhuta's release - the Tomb, meanwhile, is tied with it exactly, and was released alongside Akash. It's easy enough to see why Akash'Bhuta is strong in Insula Primalis (her cards frequently show it, in fact), but to be honest, I have no idea why Anubis, a god of Death, would fuel a goddess of uncontrolable life so well. Perhaps it's some kind of supervillain-based reincarnation cycle?
Exceptional Threat (10 Environment Targets): Silver Gulch 1883, The Block. There are no Environment decks with 8 or 9 targets, so when we rejoin our countdown, Akash'Bhuta will be insanely fast. And these locations where the Avatar of Destruction can come into her own are... a high-tech prison, and an old-timey gunfight. Huh. I will admit I didn't see that coming. On further reflection, though, I actually really like this: when is a god of chaos most powerful? After she's broken free from time. The Block is outside of normal time, and Silver Gulch is in the past - clearly, Akash'Bhuta has accomplished one of her long-standing goals just getting here.
Greatest Threat (12 Environment Targets): The Final Wasteland. And this confirms what I was saying ealier, with gusto. The Final Wasteland is further away in time, and more overrun by uncained life than Insula Primalis ever was. It is only natural that this is the most dangerous place to fight Akash'Bhuta.
Ironic
P.S. I virtually always play on Advanced, meaning that when Akash'Bhuta flips, she also goes on an insane murder rampage, which is why the speed of her first flip is a major factor in how challenging I find her.
* I have the non-Enhanced Edition. I understand that for many of you, it has four.
"Is it a bird?"
"Is it a plane?"
"No... it's ironic!"
Please note that both Sivler Gulch and The Block have cards that play extra environment cards.
Especially when getting to the block, as a Prison Riot will not only play 2 Inmates in a 3 hero game, it also has the chance to discard a lot of cards, thus making Akash'Bhuta flip that much more nasty.
I have been toying with the idea of which Villain 'belonged' to which environment thematically. Some of them are cannon (Dawn+Insula Primalis) but some others just fit. With Akash I didn't know where to place her and thought about Ruins of Atlantis since I don't see any other villain fitting there. Thematically, she chould have been the responsible of the destruction of Atlantis and is coming back to life from there. Looking at your analysis you sold me on Insula: better strenght level and better theme.
A possible explanation for the Tomb:
The residual energy from past conflicts of the Egyptian gods help to empower Akash'bhuta. Anubis could concievably be using chaos magic-the same kind Akash uses-to revive his mummies to help him defend the tomb. Alternately, having so many different mummies-essentially, zombies-around could be disrupting the natural order of life, thereby creating the chaos energy that drives Akash.
Love the insights, by the way. Definitely going to take on Akash again with these in mind.
Sudden realization: Akash in Silver Gulch can turn out to be a bit less dangerous than I thought. 10 targets makes for a lot of extra villain plays, but if Lost In Time winds up getting put into play (which it might not, with all the Environment cards going straight to the trash and all), you've got free reign - the Environment deck will be VERY slow to reshuffle, until Disrupt the Field messes up your plans.
Conversely, Sustain The Portal is now a mixed bag, speeding up the arrival of the Destroyer, but then helping you to get back to the Creator, too. Guys: time travel is wierd.
"Is it a bird?"
"Is it a plane?"
"No... it's ironic!"
Personally, I always find the idea of fighting Akash'Bhuta on Mars absolutely hilarious. She's essentially Mother Earth, so what the hell is she doing on Mars? Plus, how did she even get to mars? She is generally portrayed as being a part of the terrain, usually connected to the ground and rising out of the earth, so I'm having a hard time imagining how she would board a spaceship, even though she can apparently shrink down to the size of a normal human. We usually make some jokes about Mother Earth taking a vaction to Mars and deciding to wreck some shit while she was there.