The Chairman plays “Rook City is Mine!”, which plays Ethereal Bonds and Imbued Frailty.
The Operative puts The Broker into play from the deck; The Broker puts Informant into play from the trash.
Absolute Zero draws Thermal Shockwave and Frost Bound Drain.
Writhe plays Fight and Fade; Informant plays Undivided Attention. The Operative deals 5 Melee damage to Lifeline (26), then The Chairman deals K.N.Y.F.E. 4 Melee damage (26). Fight and Fade then resolves, killing the Informant; The Operative deals Absolute Zero 4 Melee damage (25), then The Shadow Cloak comes into play. Writhe plays Erratic Form, then activates his power. Draws Distorted Perception and Sciamachy, and protects Lifeline. Finally he draws Somber Tinker, discards Distorted Perception to Erratic Form, draws Lies of the Shadows, and is done at last. That was one eventful first turn!
The Sentinels play Coordinated Assault, with one of them (let’s say Dr. Medico) hitting the Ethereal Bonds for 6 (3). The Idealist then TK-punches the Broker for 3 (2). Draws Positive Energy.
Lifeline plays Cryptic Alignment and uses it, discarding Ley-Line Shift to kill The Broker. The program weirdly claims that this was done by “Lifeline’s Extract Power”. Regardless, it’s definitely his work, and so it’s fitting that the Operative tries to punish him, but Writhe’s Mk II Shadow Projector protects him. Lifeline draws Infernal Detonator.
K.N.Y.F.E. plays Overcharged Null-Shield, kills the Ethereal Bonds with her innate power, and draws Overdo It.
Realm of Discord plays Negative Energy Field, destroying the Imbued Frailty.
The Organization plays Perfect Human Specimens, activating the NEF; one of the damage instances is wasted on Chairman, and another bounces off Lifeline thanks to the Shadow Projector, while the others hit AZ (24), Knyfe (25), and Operative, who falls to (44) and is then immediately healed back by Perfect Human Specimens, which does nothing else. The Operative puts The Fence into play, who puts Thief into play; Thief destroys Cryptic Alignment, and would heal his dark masters if they weren’t already full.
Absolute Zero takes another draw-2 turn, getting Thermal Shockwave and Cold Snap.
Writhe plays Lies of the Shadows; NEF damages Operative (44), AZ (23), Lifeline (25), and Knyfe (24). Mk2SP draws Concealed Assailant and Umbral Siphon, protects Lifeline again, and Writhe draws Darkly Dreaming, discards the Siphon, and draws Unquiet Night.
The Sentinels play Telekinetic Wallop; NEF hits Operative (43), AZ (22), and Knyfe (23), bouncing off Lifeline and Chairman. The Wallop hits the Fence (3) and the Operative (40), then kills the Thief. Operative succeeds in stabbing Lifeline this time (22), then the Idealist uses her power on Operative (38), and the Sentinels draw Restorative Burst.
Lifeline plays Ley-Line Shift, triggering the NEF again; Operative goes to (37), KNYFE to (22), AZ to (21), and the damage also bounces off the Shadow Cloak now that Writhe is one of the highest. Lifeline is protected from his self-damage by the MK2SP, and he’s given a choice between Undivided Attention, Null-Point Calibration Unit, Fight and Fade, Positive Energy, Harrow, Amplified Combatant, and Portal Fiend. He chooses the NPCU to put into play, then uses his power selfishly to draw Terminarch’s Casing, Orphic Repository, and then Discharge Lifeforce in his Draw phase.
Knyfe plays Battlefield Experience, and NEF hits Chairman (-), Operative (36), Writhe (-), Lifeline (-), and Knyfe (21). Using the power, KNYFE kills the Fence, and the Operative stabs Writhe, who discards Concealed Assailant to cancel the hit. K.N.Y.F.E. draws Overcharged Null-Shield, then plays Overdo It; NEF hits Oppy (35) and KNYFE again (20), plus Lifeline (21). She draws Wrecking Uppercut, then deals herself 2 damage to keep Overdo It (18).
Claustrophobic Delusion enters play; NEF is triggered, but Operative is made immune to damage…except that I then did an Undo which somehow made her take the hit (34). Not sure what’s going on there… I guess there were no other villain targets, and she was tied with the Chairman, so I had a choice whether to hit her or not. With the various other protections in place, only AZ falls to (20), with Writhe and Lifeline ignoring the hit. The NEF finally goes away, and the Environment is done.
Undivided Attention is played. The Operative initiates 4 Melee damage to Writhe: Cosmic Inventor. Void Guard Writhe discards Penultimate Penumbra to cancel the Operative hit. The Chairman then initiates 3 Melee damage to Writhe; Lies of the Shadows destroys The Shadow Cloak, and Writhe draws Sciamachy. This redirects the damage to The Operative, who takes an extra point from nemesis (30). The Operative puts The Contract into play; he succeeds in hitting Writhe for 3 (19), then the Hired Gun comes out and shoots everyone (AZ 17, VG Writhe 16, Medico 10, Mainstay 11, Idealist 8, Sentinels Writhe 11, Knyfe 15, bounces off Lifeline).
AZ plays Thermal Shockwave, hitting Hired Gun (2), healing himself with a bonus from the Contract (19), but then taking 2 fire (17), Not sure I thought that through. Draws Focused Apertures.
Writhe plays Sciamachy. The Hired Gun kills itself, Operative stabs Lifeline (17), and the Shadow Cloak returns to play. Draws Nowhere to Hide and Portable Dark-Lab, protects Lifeline again, and draws Unquiet Night, discards Portable Dark-Lab, and draws Darkly Dreaming.
The Sentinels play Horrifying Dichotomy; Dr. Medico deals The Contract 3 Energy damage (4), then Writhe does 3 more (1), and the Idealist’s power finishes him off. Operative tries stabbing Lifeline, but he’s shrouded in shadows, and The Sentinels draw Human Shield.
Lifeline plays Terminarch’s Casing. He activates Extract Power, draws Harrow, and causes KNYFE to draw Primed Punch before he also draws Nordidian Sulph-Axe. The Casing zaps Operative (29) and Lifeline is done.
Overdo It lets KNYFE play and immediately activate Primed Punch, dealing 4 to the Operative (25), before following it up with a Wrecking Uppercut (22), discarding Perfect Human Specimens, and then stabbing again with her power (20). Draws another Overdo It and gives up the one that was in play.
Realm of Discord plays Ghostly Images. AZ reveals Cryo Chamber, taking 2 (15); Writhe reveals Cloak Projector, and the Shadow Cloak partially protects him, so he takes only 1 (15 as well). The Sentinels lose Human Shield, and Dr. Medico chooses to take the hit (8); Lifeline then reveals Unnatural Upheaval, destroying Erratic Form, Thermal Shockwave, and Lies of the Shadows in order to deal 4 to the Operative (16). KNYFE loses Battlefield Experience, taking 2 (13), and Ghostly Images destroys itself.
The Chairman was flipped to its back side; The Muscle is played, and the Operative fetches The Deputy, summoning Enforcers and Crooked Cop. The Sentinels discards Human Shield to avoid Enforcer damage, and the Organization is done.
AZ plays Thermal Shockwave and activates the power; he hits Crooked Cop (4), heals himself (16), then hits himself with Fire and undoes the healing (15). Draws Glacial Structure.
Writhe plays Somber Tinker draws Unnerving Target, moved Umbral Siphon from trash to hand, and plays it. Activating this is tempting, but instead Writhe uses his innate, drawing Erratic Form and Distorted Perception, and protecting Lifeline. Draws Unnerving Target.
The Sentinels play Positive Energy. The heroes heal (AZ 16, VG Writhe 16, Medico 9, Mainstay 12, Idealist 9, Sentinels Writhe 12, Lifeline 18, Knyfe 14), then Iddy hits the Crooked Cop (2), with Claustrophobia protecting everyone else. Mainstay Blocks and Second Chance is drawn.
Lifeline plays Orphic Repository, using it to do in the Crooked Cop, and ignoring Operative’s retaliation as usual. Draws Discharge Lifeforce, and heals 1 from the Casing (19), putting a card from trash under the OR.
Knyfe plays Overdo It, then blows the Null-Shield to draw Infiltrate and Obfuscate, another Overdo It, and then Incidental Contact before taking the Overdo damage (12).
Ethereal Bonds comes out, but fails to hit Lifeline because of the Shadows.
The Muscle hits AZ for 2 (14), Writhe for 1 (15), a total of 4 to the blocking Sentinels (Medico 8, Mainstay 11, Idealist 8, Writhe 11), and 2 to Knyfe (10). Prison Break is played; The Contract, The Fence, and The Broker come back into play, and then the five Underbosses all bring out their cronies, with an extra Enforcers still in play. The first Enforcer shakes down the Sentinels for a Second Chance; the Contract shoots Lifeline, with the Casing counteracting his bonus, and Lifeline falls to (17). The Sentinels also discard Restorative Burst, then the Hired Gun fires for 6 to everyone thanks to the Chairman’s involvement; AZ falls to (8), Writhe blocks 1 point with the Shadow Cloak and is left at (1), the Sentinels also have Block up (Medico & Idealist 3, Mainstay and Writhe 6), Lifeline is unprotected save by his Casing and falls to (12), and KNYFE takes the full hit (4). Thief destroys Umbral Siphon, healing the Operative (19), and the reign of terror concludes.
AZ plays Focused Apertures, causing Informant to play Perfect Human Specimens, healing Operative to (25). AZ then activates Thermodynamics to heal 3 (thanks, Contract!). Draws Isothermic Transducer.
Writhe plays Unquiet Night, causing the Informant to call in the other Prison Break. Claustrophobic Delusion is destroyed, and then Writhe unleashes Darkly Dreaming. The
Informant plays “Rook City is Mine!”, and two sets of Explosive Bubbles are played. The Thugs start dropping like flies; Informant goes down first, and Lifeline takes 3 through his Casing (9). Crooked Cop survives the initial hit (2), as do both Enforcers (3); the Hired Gun dies, and AZ takes 4 (7). Writhe hits the Operative for 2 through the Cop’s protection (23). The Thief then dies, and Writhe discards Erratic Form to cancel the Operative hit. Writhe then hits the Chairman for 2 (33), and takes 3 in retaliation (7). Now the Underbosses all take damage, with the Shadow Cloak bonus counteracted by the Cop; the Broker ends up at (3), the Fence at (4), the Contract at (5), the Muscle at (6), and the Deputy at (7), plus finally the Ethereal Bonds falls to (6) and both Bubbles to (2).
Explosive Bubbles is now at 2 HP. Writhe surrenders the Cloak to complete his masterstroke; unfortunately this heals the Chairman back to (35) and the Operative to (26), but thanks to the Chairman bonus, the self-damage of all the Thugs is through the roof, so Crooked Cop dies (Lifeline to 6), then an Enforcer (AZ to 3), and another Enforcer (Writhe to 3), the various Underbosses are left at 1/2/3/4/5, Ethereal Bonds at (4), and both Bubbles die. The Chairman is knocked down to (33) again, sadly not retaliating against himself, and the Operative to (24). That was some turn! Writhe activates Cosmic Inventor, drawing Lurking Shadows and Somber Tinker, and Lifeline’s shadow armor goes up again. Writhe draws Grasping Shadow-Cloth.
The Sentinels play Positive Energy again; AZ, Iddy, Medico, and VG Writhe heal to (4), Mainstay and Lifeline and OG Writhe to (7), and KNYFE to 5. The Contract falls to (1), the Muscle to (2) and the Deputy to (3), then the Broker dies, and her Operative retaliation to Lifeline is canceled by the shadows; the Fence dies as well, and Sentinels Writhe takes this hit, falling to (3). Iddy then hits the Operative (22), and then the Chairman (31), who kills her in response. Someone tells Herr Doktor Physician to “heal thyself”, so he does (10), and the team draws Hippocratic Oath.
Lifeline plays Discharge Lifeforce, using it to explode the Ethereal Bonds, and the Contract is taken out, with the shadows protecting Tarogath from the Operative as usual. Lifeline goes on to hit The Deputy (2) and the Operative (21), draws Haunting Memories, and heals to (11); the Orphic Repository gains another card.
Overdo It lets KNYFE play Incidental Contact; she hits the Operative twice (19), then kills the Deputy (but she didn’t shoot the sheriff). Lifeline shrugs off the retaliation as usual, and his Casing also ignores the Incidental Contact; the Muscle also dies, and Operative successfully stabs Lifeline through his Casing for 2 (9). KNYFE reduces herself to (4), then crosses the Chairman (30), who nearly kills her in response (1), before being hit again (29). Having survived, she stabs AZ, Dr. M, and both Writhes (3), as well as Mainstay (6). With her main card play, the best KNYFE can manage is an Infiltrate and Obfuscate; she uses Energy Lance on the Chairman (27) and draws Energy Burn, ceasing to Overdo It.
Positive Energy Field enters play; the Chairman shuffles his deck and plays “Rook City is Mine”, triggering the field to heal KNYFE (2), VG Writhe (3), and AZ and the two Sentinels (4). The resulting play is Imbued Vitality, re-triggering and then immediately removing the PEF; KNYFE heals to (3), VGW to (4), and the others to (5). The log is strange here, listing every card in a player’s hand as having become a target despite them not being in play; they’re listed by deck and then alphabetically, and the players have large hands, so that was probably close to 1000 of the excess characters I’m removing in order to post this report. With all that out of the way, Chairman summons a Portal Fiend and finishes his power grab; The Operative dives into the reshuffled deck and puts The Muscle into play, though he can no longer find an Enforcer to bring in.
AZ plays Isothermic Transducer and is finally ready to unleash his wrath; Thermal Shockwave heals him for 2 (7), then deals 2 to the Operative (17) and 2 to the Muscle (6), hitting himself for 4 (3) which then Transduces to hit the Operative for 5 (12). Draws another Transducer.
Sciamachy forces the Operative to hit herself (doing it to the Chairman might have been more fun, but I don’t want to kill all the Underbosses again, even without their Thugs, so Oppy has to go). She reduces herself to (1), and Writhe plays Unnerving Target and retrieves his Cloak. Mk2SP draws Somber Tinker and Distorted Perception, protecting Lifeline again, and Writhe draws Swallowed by Shadow.
Hippocratic Oath enters play (as a 6-HP target, funnily enough; for the Transducer and the Shadow Cloak, this vaguely makes sense, but the Oath and Unnerving Target are really baffling). Medico heals KNYFE to (6), and Good Hero - Bad Hero is drawn, before Lifeline (10), Medico (6), and AZ (4) are healed.
Lifeline plays Nordidian Sulph-Axe, but fires the Orphic Repository instead, hitting the Chairman (25) and shrugging off the retaliation, plus spending two cards to strike Operative (8) and Muscle (4). Lifeline draws Unnatural Upheaval, Terminarch’s Casing zaps Chairman again (24), and the turn ends with the Repository reloading.
For reasons that I suspect relate to the Portal Fiend, KNYFE spends her entire turn kicking Lifeline’s butt; Energy Burn uses up his shield for the turn and then gets through for 1 past his armor (9), then she uses her power to do another 1 (8). I’m sure there was a better option here somewhere…or maybe not, it’s comic books. As expected, the result of this assault was to make the Portal Fiend attack the Operative, who couldn’t have been killed by KNYFE’s barrage of attacks; it deals her 10 damage, more than enough to take her out, and while Lifeline would have escaped this hit, it was well worth spending a couple of his HP and all of KNYFE’s attacks to get rid of her before she could fetch another Boss. Spinning Vortex then enters play, possibly as a representation of Lifeline’s emotional state after being attacked by his ally; she ditches Infiltrate and Obfuscate, which never accomplished anything by being in play, while Writhe discards Grasping Shadow-Cloth to avoid taking any damage for his stuff, Lifeline shrugs it off (and couldn’t have if the Portal Fiend had hit him, so he would have fallen to 8 HP anyway if KNYFE hadn’t attacked him, not that I’d known this), and Medico’s Hippocratic Oath prevents him from damaging himself, instead letting him heal AZ of the 3 damage he’s about to take (if only Visionary could have turned it into cold…). Original Recipe Writhe fries himself extra crispy (1), and Mainstay also beats himself up about everything (3); that was quite an annoying card for the Environment to spit out, but at least it doesn’t make the animated Ongoings and Equipments damage themselves as well.
The Muscle attacks everyone, starting with Writhe, who takes 1 through his cloak (4) and then retaliates with 2 psychic against the Muscle (2). AZ also falls to (2), and his various pieces of kit fall to (4), along with Writhe’s things, the Hippocratic Oath, and Medico himself. Maystay barely survives (1), and old-fashioned Writhe doesn’t; Lifeline shrugs it off, but his three Endling artifacts and his Discharge Lifeforce spell are struck, and KNYFE falls to (4) as well. It’s looking rough for both sides of this fight! The Broker is played normally from the deck and does nothing else.
AZ plays Sub-Zero Atmosphere, who will keep a Hired Gun from instantly killing the whole party (including the dozen or so intrepid heroes created by Imbued Vitality) if it comes out; activating Thermal Shockave, AZ heals to (4), zaps the Broker (3), takes 2 fire (2), and Transduces 3 cold to himself (5). Draws more Apertures.
Writhe plays Unquiet Night to get rid of the Portal Fiend, then plays Distorted Perception; sadly this won’t work nearly as well on the Chairman as I’d like, but I do it anyway, knocking him to (22) and then triggering a retaliation strike, which is avoided by discarding Somber Tinker. Destroying the cloak, Writhe forces the Chairman to kill both his own Underbosses (frankly, it probably didn’t take that much of a push), and then he hits himself with a bonus from the Operative (19).
Draws Concealed Assailant, Umbral Siphon, and Penultimate Penumbra while protecting Lifeline as usual.
Good Hero - Bad Hero heals mainstay to (4), then he punches Chairman (16) and is killed for his temerity; a pity I couldn’t have put the healing somewhere else. Now a solo act, Medico no longer needs to choose among various powers; he heals himself to (7), draws Restorative Burst, and grants an HP each to Lifeline (9), KNYFE (5), and the surviving version of Writhe (5).
Lifeline plays Harrow, not damaging himself thanks to Writhe, but of course getting successfully hit (6) by the Chairman after reducing him to (13). But Chairman can only retaliate once per turn, so the Sulph-Axe makes for an effective 1-2 punch (or rather a 2-1), leaving Pike at (10). Draws Cryptic Alignment and zaps Pike again (9), allowing the Orphic Repository to return a card to his hand, whatever difference it makes.
KNYFE has nothing much to do, not daring to trigger the Chairman’s retaliation, so she plays a Null-Shield and pops it to draw Focusing Conduit-Blade and another I&O, followed by Battlefield Experience.
Time Flies enters play, disposing of Imbued Vitality (oddly, the game log doesn’t say anything about all those targets going back to normal cards). It then goes to Chairman’s turn, and his start-of-turn bonus play from Time Flies is “Rook City is Mine!”, which plays Time Crawls. (“Make up your mind, Man! Chair! Chair-Man! Whatever you are!” shouts Guise from the peanut gallery.) Realm of Discord then shuffles itself and switches Distortions again, this time to Claustrophobic Delusion. (Another weird line in the log: Time Flies cannot do anything else: [CompletedCardPlayAction: CardPlayed=“Rook City is Mine!”]) Prison Break is then played; apparently the Muscle and the Broker don’t hold any sort of a grudge against the employer who just executed them while raving about shadows, and they come back into play at their full HP. AZ plays Frost Bound Drain, only able to hit the Broker (1) because of the Delusion; the fire damage knocks AZ down to (2), then he transduces back up to (6). Thermal Shockwave them heals him to (8), roasts him to (4), and freezes him again to (9). Draws Hoarfire.
Writhe now plays Penultimate Penumbra, and makes the baffling decision to destroy 6 cards…oh wait, that’s just the game log being weird again, he has 6 to choose from, and the log claims he “will” destroy all of these, but he only actually takes 1: AZ’s Transducer. Writhe kills the Broker, then he drops the Muscle to (5), and then his power draws him Portable Dark-Lab and Nowhere to Hide. This time he protects KNYFE instead of Lifeline, and draws Cloak Projector.
The Sentinels plays Restorative Burst; Dr. Med can’t stand to be alone for long, so he brings his daughter back at (3) before healing everyone (AZ 10, Writhe 6, Medico 8, Idealist 4, Lifeline 7, KNYFE 6). Iddy pokes the Muscle (3), then the pair draw Sentinel Tactics. Medico heals himself (9), Lifeline (8), and KNYFE (7).
Lifeline plays Harrow, taking 2 through the Casing (6), wipes out the Muscle, and hits Chairman down to (6), taking 3 gross and net in return (3) before giving the Chairman a Nordidian shave-and-haircut (3), drawing Haunting Memories, and zapping Pike again (2). KNYFE plays an Overdo It for no reason, then stabs the Chairman to finally end the game.