So, I played on Wagner Mars Base for the first time this morning and came across an unusual circumstance. I was fighting Plague rat and my team was Haka, Fanatic, Tachyon, and Ra.
First turn, Ravage comes out and I've got three Infected heroes. Annoying. A few turns later, Meteor Storm comes out. "Wait a minute" says I, "Why can't I just keep riding this out until I can get really well set up for a one-two punch?"
So, Tachyon has Pushing the Limits and Embolden on her and is just churning through her deck without drawback. None of Plague Rat's cards (or the 3x Villainous Weaponry) really matter because no damage is being dealt. Being infected doesn't matter either. Another Infection comes up and Plague Rat flips, at which point all of my heroes spend a power to destroy the Infection without taking damage. This goes on with all of my heroes building up while Plague Rat flails around uselessly.
Finally, I'm ready for the hammer blow. I skip a turn, then Tachyon plays all three Lightspeed Barrages with 19 Burst cards for 57 damage in a turn. Ra and Fanatic finish the Rat off before he gets to take advantage of damage being turned back on.
Yeah, meteor storm can be really nice against Villains that don't destroy environment cards (like Plague rat) and don't have an alternate win condition (like Grand Warlord Voss).
plague rate is especially vaulnerable, since he doesn't destroy ongoings or equipment either.
That's a good point - if he had a big wipe like Devastating Aurora or something, I wouldn't be able to comfortably keep stalling without worrying about losing everything. I guess I was so used to environment cards making things worse or at best being neutral that I wasn't expecting it to work out so completely in my favor
It all balances out. If you end up in Pike Industrial with the Plague Rat, you can very easily see the situation reversed on you. All damage toxic? Plague rat immune to toxic? .........yay.........
Well, Plague Rat also isn't a villain that escalates with time. Aside from handing out more infections, he doesn't really "build up". He's mostly 1 shots. Compare him to Apostate, Citizen Dawn, or even Iron Legacy; they'd each have an army of minions or ongoings setup to crush you as soon as the meteor storm ended.
In your case, your team got to build up, but Plague Rat never did (could).
I suppose the worst Plague Rat could do would be to get out all his ongoings like Bestial Vitality and stuff (I think that one gives him soak as well as heals him at either the start or end of his turn...I forget exactly what it does but it's annoying anyway)...but if you've spent your own time building up enough stuff to wipe the floor with him (eg Lightspeed Barrage, Haka of Battle), I suppose it doesn't matter 'cause he'll never get a chance for it to come into play anyway (except the soak...if Bestial Vitality gives him soak - I can't remember if it does). Then again, if you're able to burn through your decks with no worries about getting hit, I suppose even that doesn't matter as long as you have someone who can destroy ongoings. And someone who can take out environment cards would be good in case the Countdown came out :).
I shall have to try this at some point (Rat on Mars) and see if I can pull off such a satisfying win too :D.
Very true. I could see situations where being unable or unwilling to get rid of Meteor Storm would end very badly for the heroes. I wasn't trying to argue that Meteor Storm is always a boon or anything, just making sure I played it right and also relaying a thoroughly awesome final turn.
I was able to get a similar set up a while back, playing with a new player. It was amazing for the teaching/learning experience: he (my friend) was able to really appreciate the characters he'd picked (Fanatic and Tachyon) with a complete set up. Same thing happened: one-two punch, and you're out, you Rat!
Since this thread was posted, it’s been ruled that you can’t use some of these cards without actually taking some damage: https://greaterthangames.com/forum/topic/answers-to-debated-questions-3871
So you would have lost Pushing the Limits and Embolden. Destroying the infections seems to be OK, though, so it probably wouldn’t have made a big difference. I guess Plague Rat has no way to destroy environment cards?
Had a good time against him with Omni-10 a few weeks ago - managed to get out the Ablative Coating very early on, and errm...the thingy...Omni-10's version of the Adaptive Plating Subroutine that I've forgotten what it's called right now...so every time he took irreducible damage from Rat, he got to zap him in return because of course, Rat only ever deals melée and toxic damage (both covered by the Ablative Coating). Probably got out all the other components at some point too (at least both Innervation Beams I'm sure) to counter the damage a bit with healing, but basically managed to slowly plink away at him every time he hit me, which was fun :).
Personally I found it odd that Meteor Swarm prevents damage, as my instinct is to think a card with that name ought to be dealing damage. I mean, you're getting hit by meteors. But whatever, this is not the goofiest thing that can go weird in the game.
It has been my impression that the original four Environments tend to be beneficial at least as often as harmful - Insula Primalis's dinosaurs are more likely to chew on villain mooks than on all but the most battered of heroes, Metropolis gives you Rooftop Combat to increase all damage, which often helps the hero side more since there are three heroes blasting one villain, Ruins of Atlantis's Phosphroescent Chamber does the same plus improving your healing, and the Font of Atlantean Power likewise gives you an extra card from each hero and just one from the villain. Marsbase is annoying with the Self-destruct and the strictly one-sided Villainous Weaponry, but even so, it offers you Meteor Swarm for some relief, and the outside chance to hit the villain for up to 14 damage with Oxygen Leak, if you can survive that much yourself.
Now, in the later sets, Environments seem to get much more vicious and more generally hostile. Rook City has Toxic Sludge, Realm of Discard has those Bonds, and oh GOD the Tomb of Anubis! (It didn't help that I was fighting The Matriarch…)
For that matter, Villains also seem to have gotten nastier. I've mopped the floor with Baron Blade and Citizen Dawn, but tonight both Apostate and Chairman utterly slaughtered me. Then again, Akash'Bhuta went down pretty easy, and Grand Warlord Voss was tough as nails, so maybe it just depends.
Rook City was the Nasty expansion, those environments and Villains are tough, and the heroes aren't especially strong. As for Villains, they often Vary, I've wiped Apostate handily, and other times he just crushes you.
Tomb of Anubis is often not bad, but yeah, not against the Matriarch.
I always imagine the person giving up their turn to get to the defensive controls and put up a screen or activate anti-meteor lasers or something.
One of my pet peevs is the art for the card, it looks like Legacy is outside the base, but "Doesn't require Oxygen" has never been given as a power they developed, you'd think that would be a big deal.
Agree on that about Legacy, it's too Superman-y without a clear background of why. More that I thought as implied that in the Plague Rat art part of how heroes get infected is by breathing the toxic air (besides wounds) since Wraith doesn't get infected and it's wearing a mask.
I usually play Meteor Swarm that it also reads "At the start of the environment turn rocks fall, everybody dies". It's just too abusable playing it as written. I've also played putting 2 cards under it and discarding one at the start of the environment turn, same as Destruction Sequence, and when someone skips his turn it all goes away (if not, TPK).
According to the rulebook, Matriarch is one of the two toughest villains in the game besides Chariman (and Iron Legacy, who's in a different rulebook). I don't know if I buy that; if I hadn't been in the Tomb, I didn't get the impression May would have been anywhere near that nasty. Chairman, though, is just ridiculous. You really do feel like you're fighting an entire criminal empire that's got all the angles covered; a definite workout, regardless of where the fight is happening.
Danger Sense kind of covers that, damage from Oxygen Leak is, presumably, damage from lack of breathable atmosphere, and Danger Sense makes Legacy immune to environment damage.
EDIT: Also, being able to fly high in the sky and still needing to breathe/insulated would lead to all sorts of fun problems!
Danger sense I figured would help him avoid those situations, and he developed flight early, before closed cockpits and upper atmosphere flying, I assumed he flies low and doesn't mess around with low Oxygen heights. I really don't like Legacy as Superman, I very much like him being much less indestructible, but still a powerhouse.
