Hey guys, first post on the forums for me!
My group and I don't get a chance to play too often, so A) we only have SotM EE and the recently released combo pack reissue thing for Rook City and Infernal Relics, and B) we've barely played any hero/villain/environment more than once. So sorry if this is all old news, we're still discovering a lot.
We played Spite for the first time, with Rook City, and Nightmist, Expatriette, and Argent Adept (in retrospect, a team that was pretty terrible at dealing damage). It got to the point where everyone but Nightmist was incapped, but with Mist Form and Starshield Necklace in play (as well as most of her other equipment and ongoings), she could just stall forever since Spite only returns one ongoing/equipment card to your hand in a H=3 game and Rook City doesn't affect ongoing/equipment. Nightmist can always replay the one card that was returned to her hand, always keeping Mist Form in play.
We could keep stacking Expat's 3rd incap ability ("Select a hero. The next time that hero uses a power, that hero also deals 1 target 1 projectile damage") indefinitely, so we just ended the game once we realized that, since we said "OK, let's pretend we played 40 more turns of this" and we could kill Spite in one turn. We also had a favourable order for the drugs, in that the damage ones (Mynd-Phre, Demon's Kiss) were the first 2 drugs we pulled, so even if Nightmist had to return all of her ongoing/equipment to her hand, Mist Form would only be returned to hand after the damage from those 2 was dealt.
This "keep playing damage immunity against Spite" also works with other incapped abilities:
- Option 1: keep stacking "Select a hero. Increase the next damage dealt by that hero by 2". Once stacked enough times, instead of replaying Mist Form, play Amulet of the Elder Gods so you don't kill yourself, then Oblivion or simply activate Investigation. With Visionary's Telekinetic Cocoon, play a damage one-shot instead for the same effect. (Absolute Zero, Fanatic have this, Expatriette almost has this but is more susceptible to DR)
- Option 2: use "One player may play a card" to get two card plays during the hero phase. Occasionally play Oblivion to wear down Spite, then with your second play put down Mist Form again. Spend many turns hiding behind Mist Form while Starshield Necklace restores HP. With Visionary's Telekinetic Cocoon, occasionally destroy TK Cocoon so you can play a damage one-shot, then replay another TK Cocoon from your hand. (Bunker, Fanatic, Haka, Tachyon, The Wraith have this)
Now, this obviously falls apart if PL626 Compound XI is the first drug to enter play and if you have H=4 or H=5, since Nightmist will lose her damage immunity and HP regeneration each turn and take damage from Spite's abilities and would have difficulty surviving long enough for those incap abilities to build up. Still, when Nightmist kinda trivialized the rest of the Spite fight in our situation, my group was kinda put off, because unless Nightmist got incapped in the first few turns, she has so much card draw that it seems inevitable she would get her setup going, then nothing can really stop it. Our poor team barelt outpaced Spite's life gain, but Nightmist + incapped heroes proved to be completely safe and unstoppable.
In what other situations does Nightmist's Mist Form or The Visionary's Telekinetic Cocoon trivialize the game? It sounds like my group may want to avoid those if only because, while amusing, it doesn't seem necessary to play those matches out if damage immunity will make the game a guaranteed win. From what I can tell, aside from Spite, these seem like they might apply:
- Plague Rat: with no way to destroy ongoing, Mist Form or Telekinetic Cocoon make it hard to ever die. His HP regen from Bestial Vitality and Plague Locus would make things trickier, so whittling him to death via Option 2 is less viable, though stacking Option 1 should still work.
- Grand Warlord Voss: also trickier, because you'll have to leave Mist Form/TK Cocoon occasionally to use Oblivion or Demoralization + Psychic Maelstrom to clear all the minions and prevent Voss from winning with minion count. Because of Voss' innate DR based on minions, Option 2 seems all but impossible, but Option 1 shouldn't be a problem.
- Gloomweaver: he has many "a hero must destroy one of their cards or else take damage", but with no forced destroy, you can safely hide behind Mist Form or Telekinetic Cocoon and never take the damage. Pouch of Bones regen is problematic, so Option 2 is less viable, but Option 1 should still be fine.
- Baron Blade: not guaranteed, but assuming your team lasts long enough to flip him, you have all the time in the world, because like Gloomweaver, his only relevant card is "destroy one of their cards or else take damage" but you can again hide behind damage immunity. Baron Blade has minimal life gain, so Option 1 and 2 both seem viable.
- Most environment cards: while some throw a monkey wrench into things (Realm of Discord, Megalopolis), none of the environment decks I have seem to really do much to ongoing cards, so this strategy isn't impacted by the environment deck very much.
Sorry that ended up being so long-winded, but I tried to be as thorough as possible. Also a few other random questions:
When you redirect villain or environment damage with Amulet of the Elder Gods, that damage doesn't get boosted by Elder Ring, right? My two friends were convinced that Nightmist somehow gets ownership of the damage by redirecting it (like she's preventing it, then creating an equivalent damage pointed at something else), but I'm fairly certain that Amulet is just reassigning a target, so Elder Ring doesn't care.
We haven't played against him yet, but does Apostate ever flip? Once you get him low, shouldn't you always just focus on clearing out all the relics before you reduce Apostate himself to zero? My friend suggested that maybe you would intentionally flip him if your heroes are almost dead, because he deals half as much damage when he is a Dark Corruptor, but it still seems like you're losing a lot of ground by doing that since he gets back 20 HP and is regaining HP every turn while constantly targeting your lowest HP hero.
