How to win?

Wraith, Tempest, Fixer vs. Blade, Friction, Proletariat in Freedom Tower -- Four losses in a row, each worse than the previous.

How do I win this matchup?

 

In the first game I started with ongoing destruction and a Grease gun. Took out Blades protection and used Grease Gun. Wraith got set up w/ Razor Ordnance and Micro Targetting computer. Tempest had a nice set of one-shots and his base power. Proletariat was mostly ineffective and Friction wasn't doing a ton of damage. For a while I felt like I was ahead. Blade was getting pretty low. I took out Friction. Freedom Tower was mostly helping. But along the way my ongoings got wiped. Then my equipment wiped. I lost, but not terribly.

 

The other games were varying amounts of atrocious. Unable to dent Blade, for the most part, because of no ongoing destruction and few big hit attacks. Fixer never really got set up in any game. Wraith struggled to get to a very good set up and then struggled to keep equipment in play. Likewise for Tempest. Focus on defense? Nope, Smoke bombs, Otherworldy Reslilience, Stun Bolt, and Driving Mantis all failed to keep up with the damage output, even when in use together, then would get wiped. Friction and Proletariat, neither of whom seemed particularly dangerous in the first game, came out swinging in most of the other games.

 

Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Somebody show me the way.

I'll try this myself and see what I find.   Tempest is normally a solid choice in this with his powers which hit multiple targets.  

Oh, man. I just took these three heroes up against regular Blade. Wanted to get an easy win to cleanse the palate.

 

Not so much.

 

I came close to losing on the front side due to cards (12 in the trash) AND hit points (everyone in single digits. Fixer got incapacitated. Tempest ended up spending his turns mostly healing and destroying Entry Points. Wraith finally got fully set up and was able to take out Blade with an Inventory Barrage. 

Won this one on the first try. Had some pretty good cards to start with:

  • Stun Bolt neutralized a lot of Friction's damage
  • Ball Lightning took out both of Blade's Ongoings and made quick work of Impulsion Beam (which is a pretty harmless device to get first round, when multiple powers and plays are not too common)
  • Driving Mantis redirected a ton of little shots back at the villains. This was particularly nice when Blade played Regression Darts. I had Driving Mantis in play the whole game.

The environment was pretty benign. Never got an Entry Point. Frost's Cryo Chamber was actually pretty nice for tearing through villain targets (again, Driving Mantis was helpful).

I took out Friction first, then Blade, then Proletariat. Proletariat was barely involved in the fight. An early Regroup and Recover wiped out his clones and then Tempest kept putting Flanking Maneuvers back on top of his deck.

Stun Bolt friction, focus Proletariat, survive Blade.

That's the basic strategy I'd go with.

You can't really afford to have Tempest playing defense with that lineup, he needs to pump out damage to get rid of somebody (if you can't stun Fristion focus her first)

Ideally you get either damage or tank Fixer going, but hoist chain is a big help.  Mantis is always amazing in Vengence format, but the biggest thing is keeping the entry points in check.  Those will destroy you.

I've had bad luck between starting off games with Regression Darts, Entry Points, and Vyktor coming out in the first round.   

Won it on the fifth attempt.

Fixer acting as tank with Driving Mantis (would have loved to see a Pipe Wrench but not this time).

No Ongoing destruction so had to just accept that. Proletariat pulled out Strength of the People and that almost killed us. Made him a much higher priority target than usual.

Tempest died from the cryo-chamber but let Wraith use a Razor Ordnance to knock Blade down faster. The others finished on 1 hp each. Friction died first, then lots of focus fire on Prolie as soon as he lost his minions, then the Wraith and Fixer pounding on Blade. He died thansk to redirecting Cryo-Chamber and then Fixer having just enough health to tank a couple of Smoke Bomb redirected Vengeful Assaults before Blade at 1 hp punched himself in the head for a narrow hero win.