The goal of this puzzle is to win the game on the first hero turn. (Not the first round - that's easy. The very first hero turn). You may use any set of heroes, against any villain and any environment, and you may stack every deck however you want. Can you do it?
Sure we can.
Iron Legacy, natch (for now). Two Galvanised, Vigilance, two Demoralising Presence, plays Iron Fist Strike. Everyone's taking nine damage, one lucky hero is taking ten more and the first player is taking six for playing a card, but who really cares about any of that? (Actually, the Scholar does, but in the good way.)
That player, naturally, is the Scholar, and he's bringing Legacy, Chrono-Ranger, Ra and Captain Cosmic.
Start of Turn: Nope.
Play: Scholar plays Don't Dismiss Anything:
Legacy plays Inspiring Presence.Power: Better Living [128].Ra plays Imbued Fire.
CR plays "By Any Means" on Iron Legacy.
Scholar plays DDA:
Scholar plays Keep Moving x4, bringing out 3 Mortal Forms to Energy and a Solid to Liquid, then plays Proverbs and Axioms:
CC plays Harsh Offense, which reveals 3 constructs [110].
Draw: Draw a card.
End of turn: Nada.
So that's pretty much everyone except Akash taken down in a turn (and I could manage her, but it'd take a different approach). I'm not convinced it's the best - CC is certainly swappable for someone more effective - but it's good enough.
EDIT: Oh, and if the Scholar doesn't get hurt by the villain just aim the first Quick Shot at him.
Well, that's one method. Chaining DDAs does allow you a lot of flexibility. I know of at least one other method taking advantage of DDA, and I'm sure that there is more.
There's also at least one solution that doesn't require Scholar. Can you find that one?
But surely that's the best we can do, right? Right???
Nah. Let's beat Akash on the first villain turn.
Akash'Bhuta, Realm of Discord, Scholar, Nightmist, Chrono-Ranger, Ra, Legacy.
Start of Turn: Nothing.
Play: Three Primeval Eruptions, putting all twelve limbs into play, followed by both Disrupts the Field. The first plays Imbued Frailty, for a global damage boost; the second plays Ghostly Images:
Scholar reveals Don't Dismiss Anything:
[quote]
Legacy plays Inspiring Presence.
Ra plays Imbued Fire.
CR plays "By Any Means" on Akash.
Nightmist plays Amulet of the Elder Gods.
Scholar plays DDA:
[quote]
Nightmist plays Oblivion and reveals two 4's. Seven damage to each Limb and hero (minus Nightmist, who redirects), 10 to Akash [10]; then seven more to each limb, Carapaces first [154], and eight more to Akash herself [162].
Scholar plays Keep Moving x4, bringing out 3 Mortal Forms to Energy and a Solid to Liquid, then plays Proverbs and Axioms:
[quote]
Legacy self-harms and Galvanises.
CR self-harms and uses Quick Shot [168].
Ra self-harms and uses Pyre [175].
Nightmist heals.
Scholar heals [199].
Legacy plays Back-Fist Strike [208].
CR plays Eye on the Prize x4 into Terrible Tech-Strike [245].
Ra plays Fire Blast [255].
[/quote]
[/quote]
Nightmist reveals three Heedlesses Lash [279], plays Oblivion, reveals at least one 4 [288], dies.
Ra reveals Fire Blast [298].
Legacy reveals Back-Fist Strike [307].
CR reveals Terrible Tech-Strike [320].
[/quote]
End of Turn: Akash smoulders at -120HP.
So that's possible.
Okay, so no Scholar. Let's take Iron Legacy again, with the non-defensive setup posted above, but with Flying Assault played, so that's 9 damage to all, 6 more to the highest two and 6 to the first hero for playing a card.
Let's try out Setback; I suspect he might be able to do some stuff.
Start:
Play: Fumbling Fool for 5 Unlucky tokens.
Power: Risk. Gain a token, reveal Turn of Events, spend 5 tokens to let heach hero use a power:
Super-Scientific Tachyon plays the bottom two cards of Chrono-Ranger's deck: "By Any Means" and "The Ultimate Target". Both go on IL.
CR Quick Shots [3].
Omnitron-X plays the top card of CR's deck: Eye on the Prize x4 into Terrible Tech-Strike [22].
Prime Warden Fanatic deals herself 3 damage, plays the top card of her deck: Wrathful Retribution [40].
Setback deals himself 2 psychic damage.
Draw: Yup.
End: Nothing.
Alright, here are my solutions:
Scholar, Rook City Wraith, Ra, AZ, in the Time Cataclysm
Alternatively: PW Fanatic, Parse, and three other heroes with HP 29 or lower, vs Iron Legacy
Iron Legacy starts with 2x Galvanize, 2x Demoralizing Presence, and Vigilance.
Iron Legacy plays Iron-Fist Strike, hitting Fanatic for 10.
Iron Legacy deals each hero 7.
Each hero deals themself 2.
Fanatic plays Brutal Censure [2].
Iron Legacy hits her for 6.
Fanatic deals her 3 damage, and plays Wrathful Retribution for 10+7+2+6+3 = 28 damage. Then Parse hits Iron Legacy for 2. That's 2+28+2 = 32 damage.
How are you playing Don't Dismiss Anything, 3 Keep Movin' and Proverbs and Axioms? The starting handsize is 4.
Don't Dismiss Anything plays the top card of the deck, which is assumed to miraculously be Keep Moving Forward.
That doesn't account for it.
BlueHairedMeerkat's initial post says Scholar PLAYS DDA, DDA "plays" DDA(2), then DDA(2) "plays" Keep Moving, which allows more PLAYS. The chain is another 4 PLAYS (3xKeep Moving and 1xProverbs and Axioms). That's 5 cards in hand before the draw from P&A.
Nobody went for the cheap solutions with Wager Master?
Yep, well spotted. The Akash solution still works (because the first DDA is played by Ghostly Images) but the other one loses the Solid To Liquid and thus shaves six damage off it.
I'm surprised no one listed one of the quickest wins that can occur. Lets see if I can do this right:
We'll be fighting Heroic Infinitor with Omnitron-X, Mr. Fixer, Expatriette and Bunker at the Enclave of the Endlings.
Heroic Infinitor starts out with two Twisted Miscreations and Two Occular Swarms. He plays a third Occular Swarm and punches a Miscreation for 1. The Miscreations choose to hit Expatriette and Mister Fixer.
Omnitron-X is up, and he knows what is about to happen due to time travelling. He plays Temporal Shielding, then uses Time-Shift on Infinitor, revealing Insanity.
We put Insanity into play, and it plays a Twisted Miscreation, then all three Recalescent Hellions, then all three Lambent Reapers. So all now all Manifestations are in play.
Insanity plays one last card, which is Whispers of Oblivion, so all Manifestations are down to 3, with one Miscreation at 2.
Whispers of Oblivion plays another card, which is another Whispers of Oblivion, so all Manifestations are down to 2, and with one Miscreation at 1.
The second Whispers of Oblivion plays a card, and guess what, its a third Whispers of Oblivion, so one Manifestation is under Infinitor, and all the others are at 1.
The third Whispers of Oblivion still has its card play left, so it plays Machinations of a Madman, which reveals a Crazed Artifice, so 1 last wave of damage comes through to wipe out all the Manifestations, winning the game.
Oh, and Omni-X finishes with full health since Machinations of a Madman chooses to hit all the Manifestations first, so the only damage that could get through to him never actually arrives.
Cheeky little robot knew what would happen and watched everyone else go mad while he remained unharmed XD
Ok, If my math is correct, I think I got 243 damage using Parse, Scholar (Classic), Grandpa Legacy, Ra (Classic), and Chrono Ranger (Classic)...
Let's see how deep the rabbit hole goes...
Setup:
Scholar – Keep Moving (KM) x3, Proverbs & Axioms (P&A)
Chrono Ranger – Eye on the Prize (EotP) x3, Terrible Tech-Strike (SC)
Legacy - Doesn't matter.
Parse – Syntactic Analysis (SA)
Ra - Doesn't matter.
Parse plays SA on Scholar
Scholar plays Don’t Dismiss Anything (DDA)
Legacy plays Inspiring Presence (damage +1)
Ra plays Imbued Fire (Damage +2)
CR plays Sudden Contract for By Any Means (4) (Damage +3)
Parse plays Targeting Arrow (TA) (4) (Damage +4)
Scholar plays Offensive Transmutation (6)
Scholar plays DDA
Scholar puts DDA on top of deck
Legacy plays Motivational Charge (MC)
Ra plays Summon Staff
Ra plays Staff of Ra (Ra damage +1)
Parse plays SA on Scholar
Scholar plays DDA
Parse plays Targeting Arrow (5) (Damage +5)
CR plays Displaced Armory for Compounded Bow (6)
Ra plays Fire Blast (11)
Legacy plays Back-Fist Strike (10)
Scholar plays KM for Mortal Form to Energy (MFtE)
Scholar plays KM for MFtE
Scholar plays KM for MFtE
Scholar plays KM for Solid to Liquid
Scholar plays P&A
Legacy damages self to Gung-Ho Scholar
Scholar heals for 2
MFtE deals damage (7)
MFtE deals damage (7)
MFtE deals damage (7)
Scholar uses Better Living
Scholar heals for 2
MFtE deals damage (7)
MFtE deals damage (7)
MFtE deals damage (7)
Ra Damages self to Pyre (8)
CR Damages self to Quick Shot (6)
Parse Damages self to Pinpoint Shot (7)
Scholar heals for 3
MFtE deals damage (8)
MFtE deals damage (8)
MFtE deals damage (8)
Scholar plays P&A
Scholar heals for 3
MFtE deals damage (8)
MFtE deals damage (8)
MFtE deals damage (8)
Parse heals for 2
Legacy Damages self to Motivational Charge (7)
Scholar heals for 2
MFtE deals damage (7)
MFtE deals damage (7)
MFtE deals damage (7)
Ra Damages self to use Staff of Ra (9)
CR damages self to use Compounded Bow (6) + (6)
CR plays EotP (6)
CR plays EotP (6)
CR plays EotP (6)
CR plays EotP (6)
CR plays Terrible Tech-Strike (6) + (7)
[EDIT] Just realized that Grandpa Legacy lets me squeeze out an extra 20 damage. Adjusted.