Alright, I am right now in the middle of a solo game against Apostate (because I keep hearing how awful he can be and that's never been a problem)
Well, I shouldn't have said anything because he just Profane Summons me and now I've got 2 Gauntlets, the runes of malediction, condemnation (of course), the periapt of woe, AND the orb of delirium (ALSO HE HAS A TENDRIL OF MADNESS ON HIS FACE)
Assuming I survive (it's early days in the game luckily), I'm wondering if Jack Handle (plus alternating tiger claw) will allow me to smack the orb 6 times. That'd be nice.
....So this isn't going well. Expatriette gets rocked for 12 but her flak jacket takes it. then condemnation hits her for 5.
Good news is that argent lets mister fixer play an extra card so he's all set up to overdrive and take out the orb in one go. Okay.... things could be worse?
ANOTHER PROFANE SUMMONS. Now ALL the relics (except the orb) are out. I.... I think I might cry.
Lol, ouch. And yes, Jack Handle would repeatedly hit the Orb if it's out because it'd redirect the hit from each of the other Relics - "I hit the Orb. I try to hit the first Gauntlet, it's redirected to the Orb. I try to hit the second Gauntlet, it's redirected to the Orb. I try to hit the Runes, it's redirected..." etc. Plus of course the Orb gets two soak because the Runes are out. Chrono Ranger's Whole Gang bounty is pretty effective against these things - I played it on the Effigy the other day, then destroyed it and the Runes were on 4hp so they got insta-killed and therefore removed the +2 soak from all the other Relics :).
Yeah, I wish I had brought Chrono-ranger- I was trying to do randomized heroes.
So I couldn't make it without playing a hero card so the tome pulls out an apocalypse. YAY. The world is at least somewhat fair though, because the marsquake knocks it out of commission before it can obliterate everything.
That's exactly what happened to my wife and I the first time we ever played Apostate, he had every relic out in the first 3 turns. We only won thanks to a timely Nightmist Amulet+Mistform combo (and every other hero knocked out)
See, my first two games against him were walks in the park. We had Fanatic with us, and she's a beast with her nemesis bonus. So the rest of us could focus on relics and she'd just smack him over and over. So we blazed through those 66 hp and never ended the game with relics out.
On the forums, I hear how awful he can be and I'm like "bah, he's a pushover."
He heard me. That's the only way I can explain it. He heard me and he laughed.
Tome doesn't act when you play a card, but when you draw one. And you never have to draw a card unless you or the environment play a card which specifically says "draw a card" as opposed to "you may draw a card".
There was another cool use of bounties right there, actually - "No Executions" on Condemnation meant it went to the bottom of the deck when we smashed through all its hp. Then when the Tome came out a few turns later and was destroyed, there was no Condemnation for it to bring out of the trash. The sword still came back later anyway, as one or two of Apostate's cards had him shuffle his deck and a later Profane Summons brought Condemnation out, which had worked its way to near the top of the deck.
oh that's what I meant, sorry. expat was out of cards and she really needed something more than just prejudice to get around that beastly damage soak. (if I didn't make it clear earlier, mr fixer was irreducible, so he shrugged it off)
I tried Apostate again. I brought Chrono-Ranger along and everything. Good. Grief. Pride clearly goeth before the fall because I got murdered. We lasted a little longer this time, but he was back-handing us left and right. I'm telling you, I played two games against him and had no trouble at all. It happened. I swear.
Yikes. Definitely can sympathize with you though. Lots of villains I play against with people here online tend to go down pretty quickly for some reason, so I keep thinking, "Can't be THAT bad..."
Then I try for myself and get absolutely obliterated.
Makes me appreciate Visionary's deck manipulation a LOT. The painful effects WILL still happen, but at least you'll have some say about WHEN.
So, Visionary, Chrono-Ranger, and Fanatic heard about my Apostate troubles and dragged Tempest along to end this once and for all. Copious usage of Precognition and bounty cards, plus Zealous Offense and Tempest doin' his thing. He went down in 5 rounds, and would have gone down in 4 if I had been able to get rid of the darn sword earlier.
Fun times, I had 2 into the stratospheres and kept batting apocalypse back onto the deck. (Then Jim grenaded that crap) That really shut him down.