Bunker Pentecost: "Today We Are CANCELLING The Apocalypse!"

One of the worst openings I’ve ever had in a SOTM game turned into one of the most impressive victories I’ve had lately; you’ll see why I had to title it with a Pacific Rim quote. This is the Weekly challenge “The Face of Evil”, featuring Apostate on Ultimate in the Realm of Discord.

Apostate starts with “Condemnation” and Tome of the Unknowable in play, then plays Runes of Malediction. He fries Bunker {25}, then stabs Nightmist {24}.

NightMist plays Heedless Lash, revealing Scouring Mists [4]. She takes 4 {20}, deals 2 to the Runes {4}, and then becomes the first of many, many heroes to skip their draw step, as well as her power which also draws cards, since nobody wants to trigger the Tome.

FV Tachyon has a horrible opening hand and can play nothing better than HUD Goggles, which is pretty terrible given that she isn’t going to draw cards. She Blitzes Apocalypse for 1 {65} and is done.

Argent plays Rhapsody of Vigor and Vocalizes it, healing Nightmist {21} and Bunker {26}.

FV Bunker plays Adhesive Foam Grenade, which later turns out to have been probably a mistake, although it did help with the theme as we’ll see later on. Activating Tactical Uplink - which is the only way to get new cards without the Tome happening - he ignores Tachyon’s Supersonic Response and Argent’s Pipes, because the only thing I could see was Mistbound [4]. It turns out that I would have been much better off letting Nightmist draw a card once, triggering the Tome one time, and then on her next turn played Mistbound to buy a full round of the Tome being turned off! But I hadn’t realized this yet, so I just immediately played Mistbound (discarding one of her Elder Rings and a Mists of Time) to turn off the Tome long enough for Bunker to draw his Auxiliary Power Source.

Thanks to Bunker and Nightmist, neither the Realm of Discord nor Apostate gets to play a card, so after Apostate fries Bunker again {22} and then stabs Tachyon this time {22}, we’re back to Nightmist’s turn, and Mistbound expires. Playing her other Elder Ring, Nightmist ends her turn, and Tachyon skips her turn completely for no benefit. Argent plays Vernal Sonata, which heals everyone but himself {Nightmist 22, Tachyon and Bunker 23}. The team gets Mistbound back, though Nightmist no longer has the cards to be able to play it again; Bunker retrieves his Grenade, and the other heroes have nothing to recycle. Activating the Rhapsody again, Argent does more healing {NM 23, other two 24}, and then ends his turn; we’re back to Bunker again.

Playing the Auxiliary Power Source, Bunker uplinks and reveals the same three cards as before, but with Mistbound unavailable, he figures he might as well put Drake’s Pipes into play.

Realm of Discord plays its first card, a Spinning Vortex; as near-paralyzed as I am, I’m not about to give anything up, so the team just takes damage, with Nightmist’s Elder Ring causing her to take 4 {19}, and Tachy and Bunker both fall to {21}, and Argent takes damage for the first time, ending up at the same number.

Apostate plays the Periapt of Woe, so now his double-punch is worth 6 damage, which Argent chooses to take {15}, after which Tachyon gets stabbed for 4 {17}.

Nightmist plays no card, but she wants that Mistbound and enough cards to use it, so she reverses course on not knowing the Unknowable Tome, and Investigates, taking 3 damage thanks to that stupid Ring {16}. The Tome plays Corrupted Effigy, NightMist draws Mists of Time, and the Tome plays Gauntlet of Perdition. In her draw phase, NightMist draws Mist-Fueled Recovery, and Apocalypse plays Fallen Angel, hitting each hero for another 4 {Nightmist 12, Tachyon 13, Argent 11, Bunker 17}. Adding insult to injury, the Runes of Malediction heal back to {6}. Tachyon again does literally nothing, and Argent just does his little song again, healing the party to {13, 14, 12, 18}. And now we’re at Bunker again.

Blowing the Auxiliary Power Source, Bunker plays Maintenance Unit and activates it {20}, but first he uses Tactical Uplink; Nightmist reveals Master of Magic [2], Tachy still has her SSR, and Argent has a Polyphoric Flare, so Master of Magic gets played, while Bunker hangs onto his recycled Foam Grenade.

Imbued Vitality enters play, one round late thanks to the Foam Grenade, and it’ll remain in play for several rounds, to devastating effect. This is one of several cards which is giving the unusual character to this particular game, the elements that make this “issue” feel unique and unlike the usual SOTM experience; the apocalyptic feel very much derives from this one card. (On a slightly different note, the log annoyingly pauses here to list every single card in any hero or villain deck which is affected by this Distortion.)

Apostate plays Fallen Angel again; this time it’s not just 4 damage to all four heroes {Nightmist 9, Tachyon 10, AA 8, Bunker 16}, but also drops the Elder Ring to {4}, since it’s a Relic and thus accidentally protected by the Runes of Malediction, while Master of Magic, HUD Goggles, Drake’s Pipes, Rhapsody of Vigor, and Maintenance Unit all fall to {2}. Bunker is punched by Apostate for 3, fried by the Gauntlet for 1, and fried by Apostate for 3, leaving him at {9}, and then Condemnation lets Apostate stab Tachyon {6}, whereupon the Gauntlet burns her as well {5}.

Nightmist finally plays her Mistbound on her own turn; Master of Magic heals her to {13}, then she ditches Mists of Time and Mist-Fueled Recovery, and at last the Tome loses its paralyzing hold on the team. Nightmist does an Investigation, and for the third time she takes extra damage from her Ring without gaining any benefit from it yet. She draws another Elder Ring, Call Forth, and Heedless Lash, and is finally done.

Tachyon plays Pushing The Limits, then Nimble Strike {Apostate 64}, drawing Supersonic Response, which she then plays, hitting him for another 2 melee and 2 sonic {60}. Tachy then Blitzes him once {59}, and draws Hypersonic Assault and more HUD Goggles.

Argent plays Instrumental Conjuration, so he can draw a card while the option exists; Eydisar’s Horn goes into play from the deck, and he gains a Syncopated Onslaught, which was not what he was hoping for. He activates the Rhapsody by blowing the Horn this time, simply because it sounds better than singing; Tachy heals to {6}, Bunker to {10}, AA to {9}, and rather than healing Nightmist, he chooses to heal her Master of Magic {3}, in the hopes that it will in turn heal her, while the Rhapsody also heals itself {3}. Something weird about having all your spells come to life on you, man… Draws Alacritous Subdominant.

Bunker plays another Adhesive Foam Grenade, which in retrospect he REALLY shouldn’t have, but when you put an Army gearhead into a universe of magic and fiends, you can’t really expect him to react optimally. Tactical Uplink reveals Oblivion [1], still more Hud Goggles, and Inspiring Supertonic, along with yet another Foam Grenade; Oblivion is my somewhat ill-starred choice, because as much as I’m afraid of losing all my stuff, I’m more afraid of those Relics staying in play any longer, most notably the Tome of course. Unfortunately, Nightmist chooses this moment to reveal two 4s (Tome of Elder Magic and Astral Premonition, which means that with the +1 from Elder Ring, she’s dealing 5 to everything that isn’t a Relic and 3 to everything that is. The Runes of Malediction fall to {3}, Corrupted Effigy suffers the same hit, as does the Gauntlet {2}, Condemnation takes only 2 damage and is left at {9}, the Periapt takes just 1 {3}, Apostate feels the full force of the blast {54}, and thank everything that’s holy, the Tome is outright obliterated. But it comes at a high cost; HUD Goggles are a thoroughly acceptable loss, but Rhapsody of Vigor would have been really nice to keep around, and the Pipes that could have played it and another Melody are also killed, as is Master of Magic. So all our healing powers are gone, including Bunker’s Maintenance Unit, and the party is decimated; Nightmist herself retains {5} HP, as does Bunker, Argent has only {4}, and Tachyon is dropped to {1} along with the previously-undamaged single Ongoing and single Equipment cards (Pushing The Limits and Eydisar’s Horn), neither of which is terribly useful; the Elder Ring also survives because of its Relic status, being left at {1} as well. Having finished blowing up her own allies, Misty at least obliterates the Runes (no Demons have shown up, so there isn’t a trade-off beyond the one we’ve already suffered), then the Effigy, then the Gauntlet, and even the ultra-durable Periapt, and hits Apostate for another 5 {49}, drops Condemnation by 4 {5}, and is finally done. Bunker officially feels outgunned. draws his Foam Grenade, and is through.

Once again, nothing at all happens on the Environment turn (though there is a Distortion just hanging out there this time), and all Apostate can do is deal some damage…but the party is close to death, so that’s plenty. If he still had either Gauntlet or Periapt, he’d inflict a casualty or two; as-is, Nightmist falls to {1} from his unholy punch, Bunker survives a Condemnation stab at {2}, and the barely-alive party starts trying to figure out how to avoid getting totally obliterated as soon as he takes another turn.

Nightmist plays Call Forth, discards Scouring Mists, and tutors up Amulet of the Elder Gods, Starshield Necklace, Tome of Elder Magic, and Amulet of the Elder Gods. Since Investigation is suicide, I initially skipped her power, but then remembered that Elder Ring can turn into a card, so I did that, getting Enlightenment as well as Mist Form.

Pushing The Limits destroys itself, leaving only one non-character hero card in play; Hypersonic Assault stuns Apostate {48}, hopefully buying the heroes a bit more time to try and rebuild themselves. She then decide to Blitz every card away, in case something pops out and kills her; Apostate goes down to {45}, and then she draws HUD Goggles.

Argent plays Alacritous Subdominant and then Vocalizes it; Nightmist gets her Amulet i into play, and the bard draws Inspiring Supertonic.

Bunker plays Decommissioned Hardware to get his Maintenance Unit back, healing himself to {4}. Draws External Combustion.

Explosive Bubbles enters play; it hits Apostate {43}, deals 1 to Condemnation {4}, and then blasts some of the animated Hero cards {Amulet, Maintenance Unit, and Alacritous Subdominant all 4}.

Imp Pilferer pops out, and the Challenge Mode plays a bonus card, which is Profane Summons; Orb of Delirium and Gauntlet of Perdition enter play, with no more relics remaining among the 13 cards in the deck. The Pilferer carries off Eydisar’s Horn and Apostate is done.

Nightmist plays Starshield Necklace, then Investigates herself; discarding Elder Ring and Amulet of the Gods, she hits the Orb for 2 {10}. She draws Call Forth, Oblivion, and Mist-Fueled Recovery, then discards Heedless Lash to heal to {4}.

Tachy plays HUD Goggles, then Accelerated Assault; Apostate falls to {42}, Condemnation shrugs the hit off, and Orb of Delerium absorbs one hit for the Gauntlet and another for itself {8}, while the Explosive Bubbles drop to {4} and the Imp is left at {2}. Blitz recycles the Assault to hit the Orb again twice {6}, but then changes her mind {8}, and instead kills the Imp in case nobody else gets around to it. Draws Fleet of Foot.

Inspiring Supertonic enters play, so Argent is fully harmonized; he Vocalizes the Supertonic, allowing Bunker to Uplink; Scouring Mists, Research Grant, and Arcane Cadence, as well as Upgrade Mode which goes right into play. Scouring Mists is played, revealing a 3; NightMist discards Call Forth and Oblivion, blasting the Orb down to {5}, before directly targeting it {3}, bouncing off the Gauntlet {1}, and dropping the Bubbles to {2}. The Adept draws Arcane Cadence.

Bunker tosses the Upgrade Mode aside, and AGAIN plays Adhesive Foam Grenade; I clearly had no idea how hard that card was screwing me over this game. I think I meant to use the Maintenance Unit to heal Bunker, so that he could tank Apostate’s next attack, but instead I Uplinked again, revealing Starshield Necklace and Anpunku’s Drum along with the previous Research Grant, which is what I choose to play. Also revealed, however, is Turret Mode, which pops into play and allows the Maint Unit to be used anyway, though at the expense of drawing a card. For some reason, I Undid this, only to perform it again; after healing to {6}, Bunker ends his turn.

Explosive Bubbles hits Apostate {40} and the HUD Goggles {4}. Apostate then plays Remorseless Provocation, hitting Akpunku’s Drum for 3 {3}, then playing another copy which also blasts the Starshield Necklace {3}. Finally, Relic Spirit enters play, then a Profane Summons does nothing. Apostate’s anti-Exorcism with bonus Gauntlet damage is wasted on Turret Mode {1}, then Condemnation stabs Inspiring Supertonic with another Perdition point {2}. Relic Spirit heals Condemnation {5} and the Orb {2}, also healing Nightmist’s Amulet {5} and Necklace {4}. Thanks, Relic Spirit!

Nightmist plays Enlightenment, reveals Starshield Necklace [1], and then Undoes that action, since she already knew what that card was and thus shouldn’t have made that mistake (I still bemoan the app’s inability to track known revealed cards within an otherwise-random deck). She instead plays Mist-Fueled Recovery, shuffling her 20-card trash to gain 10 HP {14}.

Tacky plays Fleet of Foot, drawing Research Grant and giving out Planar Banishment and Telamon’s Lyra, while Bunker’s Mode prevents him from benefitting. Research Grant is played, then Tachy Blitzes the Bubbles down to {1}. Draws Synaptic Interruption.

AA plays Musaragni’s Harp, playing it to activate Alacritous Subdominant, and while he’d like to set himself up even more, Tachy begs for him to let her play Synaptic Interruption, so that she doesn’t, y’know, die. The Supertonic heals him to {6} and he draws Instrumental Conjuration.

Ditching the Mode, Bunker plays External Combustion, dropping back to {4} and frying the Bubbles, the Orb, and leaves the Gauntlet at {2} and Condemnation is at {3}, while Apostate has {37} and the Relic Spirit is at {6}. Undoing his initial Uplink, he uses the Maint Unit and goes back up to {6}, then draws Turret Mode. I could have rewound to do the Uplink and had Turret Mode still let me heal, but I really wanted to draw cards.

Portal Fiend enters play, then Apostate plays Fiendish Pugilist and then Fallen Angel; Tachyon would die right here if not for her Synaptic, which instead lets her kill the Gauntlet before it can heal. Nightmist allows herself to take 3 rather than deflecting it {11}, the Amulet she chose not to use is left at {2}, Starshield Necklace falls to {1}, HUD Goggles to {1}, Research Grant at {3}, AA at {3}, Anpunku’s Drum dies, Alacritous Subdominant survives at {1}, Inspiring Supertonic does not, the Harp falls to {3}, Maintenance Unit has {1}, and Bunker goes down to {3}. Condemnation heals to {8}, then Apostate fries Nightmist {7}, who is still the only hero target above 3 HP, so he also stabs her {4}. So much for those healing mists. Condemnation heals to {9} from the Relic Spirit, though it also repairs the Amulet {3} and Necklace {2}. Fiendish Pugilist then brings Nightmist down to {1}, and she starts her turn.

Left without other options, Misty goes into Mist Form, drawing Planar Banishment and Oblivion, discards Tome of Elder Magic, and heals to {4}.

Tachyon can play two cards, but about all she’s holding is a Limited duplicate of her 1-HP HUD Goggles, so she works on her Research Grant, drawing Synaptic Interruption and Sonic Vortex, discarding the Goggles. Draws Fleet of Foot.

Arcane Cadence is played; it reveals Alacritous Subdominant (topdeck), Instrumental Conjuration (hand), Scherzo of Frost and Flame (bottom), Polyphoric Flare (trash), and plays Vernal Sonata. NightMist heals to {5}, the Amulet to {4}, the Necklace to {3}, Tachy and her Goggles to {2}, Research Grant along with AA and his Harp to {4}, Subdominant and Maint Unit to {2}, and Bunker to {4}. Nightmist gets back her Recovery, Tachy her Fleet of Foot, Argent the Inspiring Supertonic, and Bunker sets up Turret Mode for another Uplink. Not wanting to trigger the Subdominant’s self-destruct, he chooses to Vocalize its Perform effect, allowing Tachy to play two Fleet of Foots in a row, drawing the party all of its Subdominant cards as well as Oblivion, Nimble Strike, Alacritous Subdominant, and Heavy Plating. Tachy plays another Synaptic Interruption, and Argent draws Silver Shadow.

Bunker puts up his Heavy Plating, then Uplinks, no longer having the guaranteed Turret Mode, but hoping to pull one randomly. Elder Ring, Hypersonic Assault, Counterpoint Bulwark, and Heavy Plating are revealed (he later draws this last), and Counterpoint Bulwark goes into play.

Portal Fiend plinks Condemnation {8}, and then the Time Flies come out, finally ending the Imbued Vitality (interestingly, the game log doesn’t say anything about the cards which had Vitality Imbued in them turning back into non-targets). Fortunately, while Time Flies could have produced an instant Apocalypse which I couldn’t do anything about, it instead just plays a Profane Summons, shuffling the remaining 6 non-Relic cards.

Going full Challenge Mode at last, Apostate chains out Relic Spirit, Imp Pilferer, Fiendish Pugilist, and Apocalypse; no longer distracted by animate musical instruments and pieces of technology and even abstract mystical concepts (I wonder what a walking, talking Alacritous Subdominant looks like, or feels like when you punch it), Apostate attacks Nightmist, but she’s invincible, ignoring not only him and his sword but also the Pugilists. Condemnation heals to {10} from the two Relic Spirits, and Imp Pilferer destroys Heavy Plating.

Dropping out of Mist Form somewhat reluctantly, Nightmist plays Planar Banishment, revealing Elder Ring [3]; she discards Enlightenment and Oblivion to hit the Pilferer and kill it, then cancels the Apocalypse and wipes out both Environment cards. She might have played another card first, but I assume I didn’t have a good one to play, possibly not anything that wouldn’t have killed her before she got the Banishment off. But now that there’s no risk of pulling a 4 and killing herself, she’s free to Investigate and get more cards to power the Amulet; she falls to {3} and draws Elder Ring, Oblivion, and Heedless Lash, discarding Oblivion to heal to {7}.

Tachy plays Nimble Strike, hitting a Pugilist {5}, then she draws a Hypersonic Assault; unable to hit Apostate with this she plays Sonic Vortex, getting 4 targets. She hits both Relic Spirist {3 and 6}, then both Fiendish Pugilists {2 and 3}. She then Blitzes; she could scoop all four Bursts from trash to deal 5 total damage and kill the Pugilists, then play HSA during Argent’s turn, but for whatever reason I didn’t do that, instead doing a single Blitz on the tougher Grannum {2} and drawing Nimble Strike.

Telamon’s Lyra enters play, and finally AA is fully set up; the Lyra performs the Subdominant, which plays the Supertonic, then accompanies the Bulwark to let Misty draw another Amulet, while he draws Cedistic Dissonant.

Bunker plays another Heavy Plating, then Uplinks, revealing Scouring Mists [3], Research Grant, Rhapsody of Vigor, and the Gatling Gun he’ll soon draw. Rhapsody of Vigor comes back into play, no longer walking and talking and healing itself, and Bunker is done.

Ugh! Negative Energy Field enters play, then Apostate tries to un-cancel another Apocalypse, triggering the NEF to hit himself but being protected by the Pugilist. Condemnation also ignores the Field, but the Relic Spirit feels it {5}, and Nightmist’s Amulet isn’t worth wasting on just one damage, so she falls to {6} before being fried down to {2} by Apostate. Condemnation stabs AA {1}, Relic Spirit heals the sword back to full, then Grannum hits Bunker, whose plating keeps him up at {2}. Now that nobody else is higher than Tachyon’s 2, she can Synaptic the Pugilist’s damage to make him kill himself. (Weirdly, the game says that his “remaining actions are canceled”, even though he has none.)

Nightmist plays Planar Banishment; the NEF again bounces off Apostate and Condemnation, but the Relic Spirits fall to {2} and {4}. With the trash a few cards away from reshuffling, I’m not quite ready for them to die yet. Nightmist reveals Scouring Mists [3], discards Oblivion and Mist-Fueled Recovery, and kills the other Pugilist, before wiping Apocalypse and the NEF, wasting the third possible kill. Skipping her power phase, she draws Heedless Lash, discards an Amulet, and heals to {5}.

Tachyon plays Nimble Strike, finally hitting Apostate again {36}, draws Research Grant, and then fires off her HSA to leave him at {35}, also dropping the Relic Spirits to {1} and {3}. Blitz brings Apostate down to {34}, and she draws Lightning Reflexes.

AA plays Silver Shadow, healing to {3} and drawing Arcane Cadence. The Lyra performs the Supertonic, which powers the Harp, which performs the Subdominant, which lets Bunker play a Gatling Gun. He heals again {5}, and tells Tacky to draw Sucker Punch (which can be used in an exploit to kill Apostate even if he has Relics in play, though her low HP total means she doesn’t dare hold onto it that long). Argent draws Inspiring Supertonic.

The Gatling Gun fires at Apostate for 2 {32}, then Bunker plays Turret Mode. Maintenance Unit heals him to {4}, then he uplinks to reveal Call Forth [4], Blinding Speed, and Polyphoric Flare as well as Ammo Drop. Polyphoric Flare goes into play, and Argent burns himself down to {3}, powers the Harp, performs the Supertonic, powers the Lyra, performs the Subdominant, and plays Arcane Cadence. He reveals another Arcane Cadence (topdeck), Instrumental Conjuration (bottom), Vernal Sonata (play), Sarabande of Destruction (hand), and Syncopated Onslaught (trash). Misty heals to {6}, Tachy to {3}, AA to {4}, Bunker to {5}, and the party recycles Mist Form, Hypersonic Assault, Silver Shadow, and Upgrade Mode. Tachyon draws Hypersonic Assault, and AA heals to {6}. Argent and Bunker and everyone else are now done, as he discards Turret Mode to keep the Gatling Gun.

Explosive Bubbles enters play; Apostate falls to {30}, Condemnation to {10}, and Nightmist and AA and Bunker to {4} each.

Apostate plays Imp Pilferer, the last card in his deck, then reshuffles and pulls a Gauntlet of Perdition. The sword heals back to full, Research Grant is pilfered, and Apostate would kill two heroes if he wasn’t stunned.

Misty plays Elder Ring, then investigates her face, discarding Heedless Lash x2 to discover the secrets of how to reduce Apostate to {27} HP. Draws Mist Form, Call Forth, and Mist Form, then discards Call Forth to heal to {8}.

Tachy plays another HSA; Apostate falls to {26}, one Relic Spirit dies, finding no Relics to raise, and the other Spirit and the Imp are both dropped to {2}, while the Gauntlet and the Bubbles are left at {4} each. She plays Research Grant and uses it to draw Blinding Speed and Sucker Punch, discards Lightning Reflexes, and draws Supersonic Response.

Argent plays Sarabande of Destruction, then plays the Harp, performs the Supertonic, powers the Lyra, accidentally performs the Supertonic, and Vocalizes the Subdominant. He tells Tachy to play Sucker Punch, destroying the Imp, then Nightmist draws Master of Magic and Argent heals to {6}. Draws Silver Shadow.

Turret Bunker fires his Gatling Gun at Apostate {23}, then drops out of the Mode, even though he has no cards to play. Activating Tactical Uplink, he reveals Call Forth [2], Lightning Reflexes, Arcane Cadence, and an Upgrade Mode which goes into play. Lightning Reflexes lets Tachy play another Sucker Punch to kill the other Relic Spirit, then she plays SSR to hit Apostate {21}. Bunker draws Ammo Drop, then discards it to the Gat.

Ethereal Bonds enters play, and Misty discards Master of Magic and one Mist Form, moving the attack to Apostate {19} and redundantly preventing him from dealing damage this turn. With all his minions and toys destroyed except that (literally) damned sword, and unable to deal any damage with that or his flaming hands, the only thing Apostate can do on his turn is try to un-cancel the Apocalypse again.

Lacking another Planar Banishment, Misty plays Mist Form, then draws Call Forth and Astral Premonition, discarding the latter to heal to {12}.

Tachy plays Blinding Speed to cancel the Apocalypse yet again, wasting her second play from those Hud Goggles she’s had this whole time. Research Grant draws another Blinding Speed and Sonic Vortex, discarding the former, then draws Quick Insight.

Silver Shadow could heal AA again, but instead he uses it to trigger Counterpoint Bulwark, letting Bunker draw Auxiliary Power Source. AA also plays Instrumental Conjuration, retrieving Drake’s Pipes into play and drawing Arcane Cadence. Doing his little song and dance again, he plays the Pipes at the end rather than granting a card play, using the Sarabande to destroy Ethereal Bonds and the Rhapsody to heal everyone {Tachy 4, AA 7, Nightmist 13, Bunker 5}, and due to a miscalculation of what the Bubbles might do, he also heals the Gauntlet back up to {5}. Bunker draws Turret Mode, Argent heals to {9}, and he draws Xu’s Bell.

Bunker shoots Apostate {19}, ditches Upgrade Mode, and plays AuxPS; Uplinking, he reveals Heedless Lash [2], Pushing The Limits, Inventive Preparation, and more Heavy Plating. Inventive Preparation goes into play, and Bunker draws and discards the Plating and is done.

Ghostly Images is played; Misty reveals Heedless Lash [2]. The log helpfully says “NOTE: Ghostly Images is not cancelled by Mist Form because the card says ‘put into play’ rather than ‘play card’.” Revealing Mists of Time [3], Misty ignores the self-damage and just blasts Apostate for 4 {13} thanks to her Ring. She puts the card into her hand, since there’s no benefit to playing it (she literally had 16 cards in her deck and 17 in her trash, and the latter weren’t mostly among her better cards), and then Tachy reveals Pushing the Limits and hits herself for 2, going back down to {1} again. AA gets Arcane Cadence; results: Vernal Sonata (hand), Cedistic Dissonant (trash), Scherzo of Frost and Flame (play), Sarabande of Destruction (bottom), Counterpoint Bulwark (topdeck). Bunker pulls Maintenance Unit, taking only 1 through his plating {4}. Explosive Bubbles then hits Apostate for 2 {11}, Condemnation for 1 {10}, Argent for 2 (7), and bounces off Nightmist

Fiendish Pugilist shows up again, bringing the Periapt of Woe along; Nightmist ignores all the attacks of Apostate and Grannum, so she opts to stay invincible on her turn, drawing Mists of Time, Planar Banishment, and Enlightenment, discarding the Mists to heal to {17}.

Tachy plays Quick Insight, drawing Synaptic Interruption, Lightspeed Barrage, and Fleet of Foot, discarding discards Sonic Vortex and (for some reason) Synaptic Interruption. She plays Fleet of Foot, drawing the party Mistbound, HSA, Counterpoint Bulwark, and Upgrade Mode, then she plays Lightspeed Barrage at a value of 13 to finally destroy Condemnation. Blitzing away these 13 cards, she then beats the Pugilist to death (6/14 hits), then destroys the Gauntlet {11/14}, and finishes up by stripping the Bubbles down to {2} HP, having apparently noticed that Nightmist is now above Apostate’s HP, and then hitting him just once {9}. I might have done better just to hit him for 3, but I didn’t. Naturally, having just emptied her trash, she draws Lightspeed Barrage.

Argent plays Cedistic Dissonant, plays the Harp and Lyra again, and Vocalizes the Dissonant, breaking Drake’s Pipes (according to C&A, this should instantly kill him, but fortunately it does not) to destroy the nigh-unbreakable Periapt. Bunker draws another AuxPS, Argent heals to {9}, and Argent draws Silver Shadow.

Bunker shoots Apostate {7}, and if he’d popped his AuxPS he might have finished the game this turn, but instead he just plays a second one and then pops the first to draw Flak Cannon, Omni-Cannon, Ammo Drop, and Grenade Launcher, discarding Upgrade Mode.

More Ethereal Bonds show up, and Nightmist ignores them and the Bubbles, although Argent is knocked back down to {7} instead of Apostate being hit again.

Apostate plays Fallen Angel, and because I didn’t have Tachy play Synaptic or HSA on Argent’s turn, she finally dies after all this time at 1-3 HP. Argent falls to {4}, Bunker to {2}, and Misty remains invincible, so Apostate has accomplished all he’s going to.

Dropping out of Mist Form, NM plays Enlightenment, finding an Elder Ring [1]; she lets herself take 2 damage rather than burning cards {15}, draws Tome of Elder Magic, cracks the Ring to draw Mist-Fueled Recovery, draws Starshield Necklace, discards Mist-Fueled Recovery, and heals to {19}.

Tachy allows Bunker to play an extra card on his turn, then AA plays Silver Shadow, activating Inventive Preparation to let Bunker play his Omni-Cannon before his turn. That’s basically game right there, but Argent throws in a Vernal Sonata, healing the party {Nightmist 20, AA 5, Bunker 3}, and recycling some cards but who cares anymore. The harp plays the lyre and Bunker heals to {5}; popping the Subdominant at last, the band plays on and Argent Vocalizes to let himself play an Arcane Cadence (Inventive Preparation [topdeck], Scherzo of Frost and Flame [bottom], Instrumental Conjuration [hand], Sarabande of Destruction [trash]), having gotten back a Silver Shadow from the Sonata, and playing that to give Bunker the Turret Mode he got from Vernal Sonata. AA finishes with an Instrumental Conjuration, bringing back Eydisar’s Horn and drawing Inventive Preparation. Bunker is fed a Recharge Mode, the Subdominant finally expires, and AA draws the Scherzo.

Shooting the Bubbles for some reason, Bunker pops his AuxPS, fills his Omni-Cannon, and plays Flak Cannon and Grenade Launcher. He didn’t actually need those, as the Gat and the Omni-Cannon would have been plenty to kill Apostate, but Stacker here is mad as heck about the literal Hell they’ve just been put through (I would flat-out headcanon that this Realm of Discord is actually Avernus, since we don’t have a deck for that). Just for fun, he Uplinks; Argent Adept’s deck is empty at the moment, so the only possible output is Nightmist’s card, which happens to be a Heedless Lash which reveals Scouring Mists [4]. Amuleting her self-damage onto Apostate, then Lashes him directly. So with 11 damage worth of guns to choose from, and at least one Power to use on them, Bunker ends up not having to fire at all. Apocalypse, officially, canceled.