Weekly One Shot 230 Quoth the Harpy

So this wasn't bad at all, even with me doing some dumb stuff at the start. I suspect this is mostly due to having a strong set of heroes who are really good at opposing the Matriarch.

I was a little too clever for my own good, which beat me up a little; when one cohort popped out so early, I expected the deck to be stacked to pull out the other one pretty soon, so I deliberately dropped Huginn to 1 so that I could wipe both birds at once.

And then Muginn was at the very bottom of the deck, which meant that I basically gave the Matriarch free damage boost and damage reduction for most of the game, which also meant that she survived through to her flip. That would probably not have happened if I had just killed the bird early on and then let Benchmark and the Harpy flatten her with a series of pings.

But I still minted, so all good. 

Got my mint, but it was long, bloody and tedious; not fun at ALL.  The Matriarch flipped (I think that's the first time that's happened to me in a fight with her) and that was unpleasant.  The Harpy fell on the Matriarch's final turn, and the other heroes weren't feeling too well either.

I *thought* I was being clever with my battle plan, but as usual when I think that, I'm making things harder for myself.  I misremembered how "the Mask of the Matriarch" worked, and thought it would take effect the round it was played.  This caused me to fear the Matriarch's card "Darken the Skies" which puts the mask back into play.  This lead me to use Nightmist's "Astral Premonition" to bury all three of the Matriarch's "Darken the Skies" cards at the bottom of her deck, thinking this was a pretty good idea.

This was not a good idea.

After rereading how "Mask of the Matriarch" *actually* worked, I tried a second game, leaving the "Darken the Skies" cards in place, and just kept destroying the mask each time it showed up.  The "Darken the Skies" cards actually worked as brakes on card plays from the Matriarch's deck, leading to a much easier game.  By not using Nightmist's power on "Astral Premonition" but instead on her innate power, I was able to get her "Mistform" card into play earlier in the game, and thus I was able to keep "Dr. Tremata" and "Tony Taurus" in play by redirecting the damage to Nightmist, which she absorbed without problem.

The Harpy did some small but steady attacks.

Not surprisingly, the Scholar was the team's tank, getting "Flesh to Iron" into play on the second round and keeping it out the rest of the game.  This let him take the Matriarch's damage with no or small effect when bird cards were destroyed.  He was also a strong support character, playing "Don't Dismiss Anything" and "Proverbs and Axioms" at key times.

Also not surprisingly, Benchmark was doing all kinds of good things once he got set up.  I would have *really* liked to get his "Reinforced Chassis" into play, but I don't think I ever saw that card.

For me, Nightmist is a hot or cold character; either she is really useful, or she is a cheerleader.  Here she was really useful.  She played "Mistbound" twice (thanks to the Scholar retreiving it from her trash) which is key against the Matriarch.  Then she went into "Mist Form", absorbing damage from birds and protecting the friendly environment targets.

The second game was much more satisfying. The game ended at the start of Benchmark's turn on round 6.

I really like The Scholar, but I always, always make mistakes with him at the beginning of his turn. When it asks me to discard a card to keep his elemental effects going, I try to play a card, and end up discarding a good card instead of fodder. After doing that two rounds in a row, I restarted, because I wasn't going to make it that game.

I'm curious what approach people are using to win quickly/with all heroes up, because while I won on my third game, it was only with The Scholar still up. He's pretty hard to bring down as the last hero, so I wasn't worried, but it took some time to find and play Grace Under Fire 3 times and finish the fight. (Some actions shuffle the deck, I wonder if I should have done those fewer/more times.) Leaving the fowls up for Grace Under Fire (and to avoid retribution damage) just dealt too much damage to the other heroes. I didn't have any great tactics emerge for any other hero with the cards I drew.

Mint at 0 / 14 / 24 / 11. 

Killed the Mask ASAP each time it came out. Killed Huginn as soon as I could reasonably do so. Tried to get plenty of Ongoings out so further hits from Horrid Cacophony would let me keep Flesh to Iron out. Matriarch did not survive to her flip. She got her second cohort out on her last turn, but by then I had Benchmark tossing irreducible damage around and the 2 DR didn't matter.

Harpy: Generally poor game for her. Ended up with two Uncontrollable Flocks out as destruction fodder and to help get rid of the Scum and Villainy that came out. She pinged some stuff and generally took a beating, then took herself out in the second to last round as a heroic sacrifice, playing Arcane Explosion for 5 damage to all villain targets and an additional 2 to Matriarch thanks to Benchmark. She then got in the way before any allies took a hit. On her one incap turn, she let Benchmark use Tactical Communicator to get around DR.

Scholar: Truth Seeker turn 1, Flesh to Iron turn 2, and generally a lot of punching. Had a round 3 or 4 (I forget) Alchemical Redirection to save damage to others. Used an early Grace Under Fire to take out a Cohort. In the last round, used the second Grace Under Fire to do severe damage and set up Benchmark for the win.

Benchmark: Generally played a ton of cards. Ended up with 6 Hardwares out, I think? Used a lot of Tactical Communicator, and in multiple rounds, Countermeasures wiped the board of birds while Scholar soaked the retaliation damage. By the end, though, he had more HP due to steady healing from equipment and Scholar taking a bunch of chip damage the round he had Redirection out. 

Nightmist: Not a super game for her? An early Mistbound slowed Matriarch down, and after drawing a bunch of cards, I used several rounds of Astral Premonition to bury birds and make sure Matriarch was only going to play one card. On her final turn, she just shrugged and shuffled Benchmark's trash for some healing.

Environment: I ignored Blighted Streets, popped Scum and Villainy with Harpy, and otherwise it didn't really matter.

Mint with all but Scholar ncapped, and he was in great shape.

Mint at 0 / 29 / 15 / 0. Looks like this resurgance of The Matriarch was too much for teacher and student of magic, as the problem was solved by alchemy and technology :/

Likely because I'm behind the learning curve on The Harpy and Nightmist, although the team was initially doing well. The Scholar used Flesh to Iron and never looked back, Benchmark was able to setup without much issue and Nightmist was able to briefly shut down and control The Matriarch's deck whle The Harpy did initial damage. Everybody was weakened from self damage and attacks by the time Huginn and Munnin (Cohort edition) were both out. Sadly, the Scholar was between Alchemical Redirections as the last Fowl were felled while a Carrion field was out. Even The Matriarch's two rounds of healing after her deck flip didn't do much by the end, as I was ready to have The Scholar drop a 14+ Know When To Turn Loose to finish her off but Benchmark beat her to the punch with a combination Overhaul Loadout/Cooling Systems bounce into setting up more discards and Powers into a Multi-point HUD Inferno missle pod for something like 4 + 14 damage.

I felt I learned more about using Benchmark effectively. His Software Ongoings are easy enough to retrieve if destroyed by their own effect or The Matriarch, and there's subtlties to setting his cards up in particular orders to best utilize their effects. And my new favorite trick, Overhaul Loadout both Cooling Systems and any other Software (on top of whatever you were changing) to use its Cold damage attack more than once a turn if you had a previous Software play.

Ooh, great trick! AND it gets you 3 cards!

Mint with 0/25/26/10 despite some boneheaded mistakes (hey, I put Mistbound back on top of the deck -- and then promptly played a card that looked at and tossed it.  Oops!).  Once Harpy fell, Nightmist tanked at the bottom, Scholar tanked at the top, and Benchmark got fully loaded and pounded the Matriarch down (though she was close to flipping for the second time).

I played again without making that Mistbout mistake, and took her down 15 cards before flipping, 5/16/9/1.