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"I looked Death in the Eyes, and I Didn't Blink"

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Rabk
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"I looked Death in the Eyes, and I Didn't Blink"

What follows is a session report from a particularly thrilling game I was fortunate enough to play last night. For those poor souls who haven’t yet memorized the game, there’s a block at the end of this post with summaries of the cards metioned.

Final act, at rise:

Chrono-Ranger, Setback, and Parse are battling (advanced) Apostate on Mars, and boy, has it been rough. Apostate came out of the spaceport-gate throwing relics every which way, beginning with a first-turn Runes of Malediction and getting progressively worse from there. The fallen angel just ended his turn with full health: Jim and Parse are down to one hp each, while Setback is sitting flush with a whopping four. CR just lost every piece of equipment he owned to the Pervasive Red Dust and the others are a bit short well since the biosphere has already caught fire twice, which a pair of imps took as an open invitation to join in the fun . Not that any of that really matters, since Apocalypse just hit the table and nobody has any ongoing destruction at hand. But even that horrific freak of a card is powerless: Parse keeps yelling about a Self-Destruct Sequence that’s expiring at the start of the next environment turn, but our heroes have just been too busy trying to stay alive to fix it.

As bleak as things look, however, they are still doggedly hanging on to hope. That handsome hellion’s last relic just got burned to the ground and he has By Any Means, The Ultimate Target, and two(!) Targeting Arrows stuck to his back. Could they possibly have a chance?
 

Dramatis Personae:

Wagner Mars Base

In play:

  • Pervasive Red Dust
  • Fire in the Biosphere
  • Villainous Weaponry (3hp)
  • Self-Destruct Sequence  (one card left in countdown pile)

 

Apostate (66hp)

In play:

  • Imp Pilferer (3hp)
  • Relic Spirit (9hp)
  • Apocalypse

Active effects:

  • +1 damage taken (Targeting Arrow)
  • +1 damage taken (Targeting Arrow)
  • +1 damage taken (By Any Means)
  • +1 damage taken from Chrono Ranger only (The Ultimate Target)

 

Chrono-Ranger (1hp)

In play:

  • By Any Means (on Apostate)
  • The Ultimate Target (on Apostate
  • The Whole Gang (on Relic Spirit)

Relevant cards in hand:

  • Eye on the Prize
  • Displaced Armory (x2)
  • No ongoing or environment destruction

Active effect:

  • +4 to next damage dealt (from Critical Multiplier)

 

Setback (4hp)

In play:

  • Looking Up
  • Surprising Fortune (not relevant, but included here for completeness)

Relevant cards in hand:

  • Karmic Retribution
  •  No ongoing or environment destruction

 

Parse (1hp)

In play:

  • Snap Decision
  • Critical Multiplier

Relevant cards in hand:

  • Between the Lines (x2)
  • No ongoing or environment destruction

Expiring at start of next turn:

  • Targeting Arrow (x2) on Apostate

 

And, Action!:

[All damage directed at Apostate.]

During Chrono-Ranger’s play phase he chains together

  1. Eye on the Prize (5+4), drawing another Prize
  2.  Eye on the Prize (5), drawing another Prize
  3. Eye on the Prize (5), drawing something irrelevant
  4. Displaced Armory (5), plays Jim’s Hat from trash
  5. Displaced Armory (5), plays Masadah from trash

Chrono-Ranger activates Masadah (7).

Setback drops a Karmic Retribution for (10) and then powers it up by Looking Up (6).

Parse’s arrows are set to expire at the start of her turn, but Snap Decision was in play before they were so before that happens she gets to discard a card (triggering Critical Multiplier & applying it  to herself) to play Between the Lines to let CR to use Masadah (7). Then the arrows expire, and during her play phase she drops another Between the Lines to let Setback activate Looking Up (4) one last time, She then wraps it all up by using her own base power to stick that fiery bastard for (2) plus the (1) bonus point still waiting from her start-of-turn discard with Critical Multiplier.

Final result? The hero team managed to reduce Apostate from full health to exactly zero hp in a single three-turn round, all while crouching under the Damoclean threat of an Apocalypse, a Self-Destruct Sequence, and practically zero health remaining. At the moment they won, the only thing that separated them from the end Mars (and the world) was a single draw phase; even if they could have somehow averted both of those, though, they still would have been ripped to shreds when Apostate’s took his own turn. But did those brave souls even flinch?

...

No.

 

Now that’s what I call grace under pressure.

 

[Card reference, relevant effects only]:

Wagner Mars Base

·         Pervasive Red Dust – eats equipment

·         Fire in the Biosphere – deals damage & (potentially) eats ongoings

·         Villainous Weaponry (5hp) – increase damage dealt by villain targets

·         Self-Destruct Sequence – “If the countdown pile is ever empty, everyone dies. Game over.” At start of environment turn, discard the top card of the countdown pile.

 

Apostate

·         Runes of Malediction (6hp) – DR2 to all relics

·         Imp Pilferer (3hp) – eats ongoings/equipment

·         Relic Spirit (9hp) – generic bad guy

·         Apocalypse [ongoing]  – At start of environment turn, destroy everything on the table except character cards & relics

 

Chrono-Ranger

·         Eye on the Prize [one-shot] – Deal 1 target 1 projectile, you may draw a card, you may play a card

·         Displaced Armory [one-shot] – Search your deck or trash for an equipment card and put it into play. Deal 1 target 1 projectile

·         The Masadah [equipment] – Power: Deal 1 target energy damage equal to the number of bounty cards in play

·         Jim’s Hat [equipment] – You may play an extra card during your play phase.

·         By Any Means [bounty] – Increase damage dealt to attached target by 1.

·         The Ultimate Target [bounty] – Increase damage dealt by Chrono-Ranger to attached target by 1

·         The Whole Gang [bounty] – No relevant effect, but counts as a bounty in play

 

Setback

·         Karmic Retribution [one-shot] –  Deal 1 target 7 melee

·         Looking Up [ongoing]  – Power: deal 1 target 3 melee

 

Parse

·         Snap Decision [ongoing] – At the start of your turn, you may discard a card to play a card

·         Critical Multiplier [ongoing]  – Whenever you discard a card, increase the next damage dealt by a chosen hero target by 1

·         Between the Line [one-shot] – One hero may use a power now

·         Targeting Arrow [one-shot] – Until the start of your next turn, increase damage dealt to selected target by 1

·         Pinpoint Shot [base power] – Deal 1 target 2 projectile


...yeah, me too.

Ameena
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Woooo, that's cool...that sounds like one epic final turn - I bet that's a game you're gonna be remembering for a while. Love games like that :D.

Btw nice Mouse Guard avatar ;).


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arenson9
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Wow!


Hi. My name's Andy. Feel free to call me Andy, since, ya know, that's my name. (he/him/his)

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Katsue
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I'm pretty sure the Targeting Arrows would expire before Snap Decision can be used, since they give a bonus until the start of the next turn, and if you're using Snap Decision, it's already the Start of Turn.

Rabk
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Katsue wrote:

I'm pretty sure the Targeting Arrows would expire before Snap Decision can be used, since they give a bonus until the start of the next turn, and if you're using Snap Decision, it's already the Start of Turn.

 

The way I've always played that "until the start of your next turn" effects expire during the start of turn phase, with all cards acting in the order that they were played. The Snap Decision was on the table first, so it would get the opportunity to do its thing before the Targeting Arrows have reached their expiry date. For it to work the way you say the Arrows would need to say, "Until the start of your next Start of Turn phase," or at least that's the way I read it.

I'm happy to admit it if I'm wrong, though - it certainly wouldn't be the first time.


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Ameena
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As far as I'm aware, you did it right - anything which triggers at a specific time (eg Start phase) does so in the order it entered play. That's the only time when card order matters, in fact (so all Omni-10's components go off in played order, for example) - all other stuff goes off in the order the players decide.


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McBehrer
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We've had this asked about Legacy's Next Evolution as well, and the official response is that those triggers expire before the start of turn begins.


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McBehrer confirmed to be Biomancer!
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Rabk
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Meh, that's frustrating. crying

Thanks, McBehrer.


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