SCU Game 2 (Matriarch & Dinos) - Player Discussion and Commentary

Do you know what you are going to pull with impromptu invention?

My plan with the first one (just completed) ended up adding Utility Belt and Micro Targeting Computer to play.  Good and flexible for dino targets.

For the other two I am favoring using them to make sure I get two Stun Bolts into play.  IF I can use Utility Belt to put two of those into the Matriarch per turn I can take quite an edge off of her retaliation damage, get some damage past DR from cohorts, and use them on dinos if necessary.  If there is a turn where we don't need Stun Bolts due to another effect than it will be knives or something else for broader damage.

I will also be favoring getting a Mega Computer or two into play - I would like to take an edge off the potential environment damage from the T-rex and the toxic plant life.

We might also want to discuss how we feel about the Obsidian Fields.  The villain obviously benefits from them the turn after they come out.   We do as well, but they also will boost retaliation damage that both Carrion Fields and the Matriarch herself will be putting out. So it might be situational to destroy them at some point in the round; e.g. right before someone goes mass fowl wiping.  Thus we can agree that someone will be making a 2-card discard for this at the appropriate time.

An odd wrinkle to the switched villain and environment turns (which I'm still not sure was a good idea) is that you guys benefit from Obsidian Field for a full round before it can do anything for Matriarch, apart from retaliation damage.  This fight may well end up being a cakewalk, but then that possibility is the only reason I brought a Diff-4 villain out for our second match anyway.  The third one should be difficulty 2 or so.

Hey, Tachyon and AZ can you let me finish off the fields? I'm getting Ammo drop out and want all the draws I can get, especially now when I'm looking for the omni cannon and the flak one

I assume you mean the Carrion Fields, as the Obsidian Field is not worth a card to you....

You know that you don't have to be the one to kill something in order to benefit from Ammo Drop, right?

Tachyon, I think you're up.

Yeah, That's what I meant.

 

And Oaktree, if we need to, I will probably have extra cards to discard a few rounds in so I could destroy it before her turn if we don't need to kill it earlier.

 

EDIT: AZ I don't have ammo drop down yet, so if you kill the Carrion Fields before my turn I won't get the draw.

Aha. That wasn't clear, maybe because I hadn't checked the game thread in detail.

If you mange to keep that out when someone goes fowl-slaying you're gonna get buried in draws.  :wink:

I still think that the PBF format leaves something to be desired, and that we could benefit greatly from having some sort of software that would display a constantly updated virtual game table in the OP.  It wouldn't need to have the art, but it should at least display cards as cards with a bit of color-coding, and update numbers dynamically as they're posted in the thread.

No amount of scrolling up and down the page can make up for being able to just SEE everything laid out where it belongs.

Yeah, Oaktree That's the goal. Then I can charge Omnicannon as I go and still contribute by giving modes for ongoing destruction

I am also curious how this match is going to play out.  If AZ and Bunker get set-up I half-suspect that it will be a very short, but intense, fire-fight.  Especially if the Obsidian Fields are still around the heroes may decide to forego extended defense for something that lasts for a round like Hypersonic Assault while everyone just hammers the Matriarch into putty. 

With "Draw 2 - Play 1" I don't expect the environment to play many dud cards and it should escalate quickly to help act as a distraction; e.g. I expect the Raptor pack that just got squashed to be the last easy target we see there - it will be the Rex Brothers and the Toxic Plants or Erupting Volcano stuff.  Though the last is more of a climactic event, and also less annoying to stop in a 5-hero game as compared to a 3-hero game.  If a "weak" environment card comes out it probably indicates you drew two weak ones and did not have much choice.

And this really isn't the ideal combo of villain and environment for reversing their order.  If the environment had a card that played the top card of the villain deck then things would be a lot edgier for the heroes since an environment card could trigger a flock of fowl cards to come out right before the villain turn began with no way for the heroes to kill them first.  (At which point I would expect the heroes to concentrate heavier on DR, redirect, etc. plays simply to prevent getting mangled by this.)

I actually picked raptors over River of Lava for dramatic reasons.  However, since there's no chance of the raptors building up as long as you have no villain, I'm debating having each new Raptor Pack that enters play also bring all the previous ones back from the trash, so that the pack just grows and grows until reaching the full 18-damage swarm (not counting the Obsidian).  That would be significantly less pathetic than what we have now.

Holy hell, this is going to be a short game.  Maybe the Matriarch ought to just run away and plan her revenge now, not bother with the actual fight.

Oh wow, 3 Fleet of Foots coming next turn...

OK folks - here comes the first wave.

10 fowl in play and two Carrion Fields active - they will both retaliate for 2 toxic (1 + 1 for Obsidian Field) whenever a fowl is killed.  Plus a Pteradactyl Thief that needs to be taken out.

If I follow previous plan and use turn to roll out at least one Stun Bolt via an Impromptu Invention play I intend on doing the following:

a. Stun Bolt into 15-HP Carrion Field (this will reduce it's retaliation damage from 2 to 1.)

b. Throwing Knives into the 4-HP Carrion Field, the Pteradactyl Thief, and a fowl - My Stealth in effect will reduce the Carrion Field retaliation to zero.

=

I'm after Legacy of course, so targets might shift depending on what happens.  If someone wants the Obsidian Field destroyed before their action please indicate so as soon as possible so that the discards can be taken into account and that no one after that player expects to take advantage of the Obsidian Field still being there.

 

 

I didn't have better plays, so I took out the low Carrion Field and the Thief and damaged the other Carrion Field. Remember that the Carrion Field deals retaliation damage to everyone but the highest HP (which is Legacy).

I believe that if AZ plays a Fueled Freeze and destroys 0 Ongoing cards, it would still take out all the Fowl, due to the various damage boosts. Of course he'd rather complete his buildup, so an Accelerated Assault from Tachyon would be great.

I can also kill them all with external combustion if you guys can get the carrion field down to 5 health

Actually, I can get it from 6 health. Thats what I get from not reading the card before I post.

Ideally we can take out the Fowl without you having to hit yourself.

I do feel like it would be better to take out the Obsidian Fields. We're already getting obscene amounts of damage boost, and I think the Obsidian will mostly help the environment and villain (when she comes back).