XPW Tempest, XPW Fanatic, and XPW Haka vs Challenge Grand Warlord Voss in Megalopolis. Remember that each time he flips, he plays a card!
My practice game was rough -- flipped him too soon, and then after he had a few minions out, Forced Deployment came out 3 times in a row (with no ongoing destrucion in hand). I ran out of Ground Pounds, and Rooftop Combat meant that they wrecked Haka (who was protecting Tempest). However, Tempest is a beast once you get him set up, and I won with Tempest and Fanatic at 5 hp each.
The real thing went much easier. Tempest stuck with Cleansing Downpour for awhile. When Forced Deployment came out, Haka dropped a Ground Pound, followed by a Rampage to clean house. I even found a use for Enduring Intercession -- I played it as a sacrifice to the TCF Conqueror to destroy (with Rooftop Combat out, so I knew Haka was safe), protecting my useful ongoings. Easy with, with heroes at 16/15/15.
Comfortable Mint on this one for me as well. Honestly, Voss' Challenge ability is pretty much a complete non-factor as always. I don't think I've ever played a game against "normal" Challenge Voss where his ability gave him more than a single additional card play during the entire game, and this one was no different.
Mint. A little hectic, but these three heroes are pretty stunning together. The first round was set up really well for them to weather the initial Deployment, and I ended with everyone around 8-11 HP. I think saving Ground Pound for the second Deployment was really the key to victory.
Pretty easy Mint for me. All heroes ended on 24/26/24 hp.
Kept Voss on his flipped side with the fire minion in play. Tempest spent the match healing, Fanatic spent the match collecting cards in case I needed an emergency End of Days and Haka had a fun time collecting minions under his Savage Mana, effectively rendering any Forced Deployments null and void.
Also left out Rooftop combat and made sure to deal only <9 damage to Voss each turn to keep it in play (which shockingly due to damage reduction was pretty easy to manage), meaning the environement spent most of the game doing pretty much nothing of note.
Mint.
I did make the mistake of letting the Conqueror destroy Cleansing Downpour (gasp!), so I didn't have the healing available to me for the whole game like others did, but it still turned out ok. I also never used Ground Pound, because Tempest was able to delay the second Forced Deployment with an Into the Stratosphere, and then when it did come out, he destroyed it on his turn with a Ball Lightning, so Haka was able to clear the board with a Rampage before the Minions got a chance to act.
On the last turn, Fanatic fell to a Frost Hound, but Tempest and Haka were able to put Voss away.
Tempest 5HP, Fanatic out, and Haka 4HP.
Near Mint due to what I can only describe as a Brainfart moment.
Was crusing along just fine, second Forced Deployment came out but I knew Haka had Ground Pound so I would just let him play that and wait the round needed to destroy all the minions again. Then it got to Haka's turn and I.... just didn't play Ground Pound. Got to the environment turn and realized what I had done. Thought I might have been able to survive the round and recover when Close Quarters Combat came out. Knowing there was no way the 10hp heroes could survive the increased damage, I reluctantly rewound and made the proper card play.
Ended with Tempest and Fanatic around 5 and Haka down due to some other mixed priorities and bad plays, but Tempest wears Voss down fast once he gets set up.
~Komori
Mint, Tempest 21, Fanatic 10, Haka 19. I also did this and then got tunnel visioned about it. I belatedly realized how much damage output I'd been sitting on and finished the game probably four rounds later than I needed to. I didn't even bother with Haka of Battle since Savage Mana by itself was overkill after Tempest and Fanatic's turns.
Mint.
Best advice without spoiling is to not play it fairly liberally. There aren’t too many surprises, and you’ll know what to do. Don’t fear the potential disaster.
I THOUGHT I was the the last Scion but it's actually .....
So... DO play liberally, then?
McBehrer is the sole winner of this game... And McBehrer, I would step carefully should you find your way down dark alleys. More than one vote said simply, "McBehrer must die."
McBehrer confirmed to be Biomancer!
-- Trajector
Finished at max HP because I could. Fanatic was largely superfluous. Kept Voss on his front side with the Firesworn until the turn when Haka had stashed enough minions under Savage Mana and had a big enough hand to end it with Haka of Battle. Locking the environment was key.
I squeaked by with a Mint, with everyone in single-digits HP.
It’s not that it was hard, it was mostly that I didn’t play all that well. I decided to flip Voss early and keep him flipped, rather than play the delaying game. As others have pointed out, once Rooftop Combat comes out, it’s smarter to let him keep him on his front side with one minion. It keeps the environment out of play, and gives you a significant damage advantage. If you keep Cleansing Downpour, which I didn’t, you can heal what little damage you take from that minion.
I did keep keep Ground Pound in hand until the 2nd Forced Deployment came out. I used Into The Stratosphere to delay it, put out Savage Mana, Ground Pounded to nullify damage after the minions came back, and then Rampaged to put them all under Savage Mana. I had almost, but not quite, enough under Savage Mana to put Voss down after that. One more round of damage dealing, and then when Haka did use Savage Mana it was significant overkill.
I had a pretty easy Mint, but I did make some mistakes with XPW Fanatic. First, I had Embolden on Tempest so he could both use his base power and heal, but I had used Kill the Spirit on a minion, so the damage she had to deal to Tempest to keep Embolden out was redirected to the minion and Embolden was destroyed. Later I was using Chastise on a Firesworn to protect him from the Electrical Storm and keep Voss from flipping, but Fanatic's required self-damage was also redirected, destroying Chastise. None of this was a big deal, but it shows that Kill the Spirit can be a double-edged sword...which seems appropriate for Fanatic.
Those cautionary tales seem like valuable instruction to me.
Redirecting the Embolden damage could be useful, if you don’t really want to do the damage to your hero, and the target’s worthwhile (i.e. the villain, not a minion).
I don’t usually think of Chastise as a way to keep a weak minion in play to avoid villain flipping. Mostly I think of it as a way to disable a powerful target I can’t take out right now. Also, if you do want to drop Chastise next turn, Kill the Spirit’s clearly a way to get an extra bit of damage in the bargain.
I always flip Voss unless I have lots of irreducible damage. Cleansing Downpour is plenty adequate to keep up with his damage output, Haka has Ground Pound and Rampage to deal with Forced Deployment (I wish I'd gotten Savage Mana out in time, but no such luck), and Fanatic... well, she soaks up some damage and whittles Voss down consistently over time. HP was in the mid to low teens but I overkilled Voss substantially with Haka of Battle. For H=3 it's not a hard battle.
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One mildly interesting thing about this game is that I actually played Haka of Shielding. Normally damage is either too low or too unpredictable to make it worthwhile, but Plummeting Monorail was in play, Haka was 2nd highest HP, and it made sense to block the 4 points he was going to take after Te Moko.
If I don’t have any immediate play I’ll often use Haka of Shielding or Haka of Restoration for the card draw and a slight benefit.
Crush your enemies, drive them before you, and laminate their women! - Guise, Prime Wardens #31
Near mint, messed up the first game with the second forced deployment.
Should have been an easy mint. After one stupid mistake and 2 mis-clicks on my tablet I still managed a Mint with all 3 heroes alive, but Inwas nervous.
Mint. I also lost Cleansing Downpour to the ship, but it’s reasonably easy as long as you keep Ground Pound and Rampage back for the second Forced Deployment.
Into the stratosphere on his teleportor thing saved a turn as well. I flipped Voss and kept him flipped all game basically - he’s much easier to deal with without damage reduction.