I played way, way too many rounds of this board state before realising: this is a stalemate, isn't it? I can essentially draw infinite cards and regain all my health, and even if all my ongoings are wiped out I can't be taken down before getting a Flesh to Iron out again.
Even Scarabs can't prevent me from drawing cards, because Bring What You Need gets around them. (Plus they'll likely be destroyed by Akash before I even get close to running out of cards).
On the other hand, I can't do any damage, so I'm entirely relying on the environment to take out those Ensnaring Brambles (which prevent the hero targest with the lowest HP from doing damage). Before it can (which is an agonizingly slow process; 3 damage from Swinging Blades each turn, 3 from Spike Trap if there's no targets with lower HP, maybe a bit of extra damage from the environment) Akash'Bhuta will play a Rejuvenating Entropy (restoring all limbs - and environment targets - to full health) to bring them back before all 3 are gone.
I still have the game running, so if I'm wrong, let me know. I played about 10 rounds like this before realizing that I was getting literally nowhere.
If Akash'Bhuta plays Earth's Sacrifice you'll lose all but one Ongoing which which might allow the limbs to destroy you before you could get setup again. Since you aren't really taking out limbs it is likely to show up frequently.
The match really can go either way right now. I just quit when in that situation, due to the fact there is no telling how long it will be. It could be over in 2 more rounds or it could be over an hour before the resolution.
Eventually Scholar will lose his Ongoings and won't have enough card plays to get them back into play as only Expat grants an extra card play. Since he can't deal with any of the limbs the odds of the Ongoing destruction card coming up again is highly likely. He will eventually be able to draw cards again once Akash'Bhuta destroys all the environment cards but that also will give Akash'Bhuta more cards plays especially if she has flipped in this target rich environment. I could see this dragging out for a while but I think odds favor Akash'Bhuta on this.
OTOH, Scholar only needs one Flesh to Iron in play in order to avoid the majority of the damage being dished out. That's pretty easy to keep in play indefinitely, even with cards that occassionally wipe out his ongoings.
I hit almost the same situation in the Final Wasteland. There just wasn't enough environment damage to take out the Brambles, and too many targets in the environment -- Akash seemed to play her whole deck every other turn.
Similar thing happened in Insular Primalis, but luckily Volcanic Eruption + 2 Obsidian Fields > Brambles. Just sat back and chilled under Expect the Worst.
The only chance that I see is for the environment to do your work for you. Between Challenge of Fire, Swinging Blades, and Mdjai, the Tomb could in theory deal 6 damage to each limb every turn. 9 damage if Cast Into the Underworld came out that turn. The problem is avoiding Disrupt the Field and Rejuvenating Entropy until the Ensnaring Brambles are destroyed.
You'll have to work pretty quickly before they come out again, but if they're gone then at least a victory is possible, if still difficult.
Even if they do all get there, Scholar should be able to get most of his deck in his hand, at which point anything going into his trash will pretty quickly end up in his deck. Remember, he's not doing any damage, so he has nothing to do but draw lots of cards, and he has lots of ways to draw lots of cards.
I'm imagining a scenario where the environment causes Akash'Bhuta to play a card on the environment turn. That card causes Scholar to lose his Flesh to Iron cards. Then the environment and Akash'Bhuta get a round of damage in. Scholar unable to deal damage has no means of regaining much health and this scenario could easily happen multiple times if none of the limbs leave play.
Sure, but chances are that he's got another Flesh to Iron to play. By the time Akash'Bhuta gets around to destroying it again, he'll have had a bunch of turns to use his base power to get an HP and he's got some cards that give him HP. He doesn't need any of the other forms.
You keep saying he has Flesh to Iron in play and he can't if it gets destroyed during the environment turn opening him up to damage from the Environment and Akash'Bhuta limbs. If the limbs remain in play it could happen a lot.
The point I'm trying to make is that it's reasonably easy, if you're playing a long game/many rounds, for Scholar to get most of his deck into his hand, so if Scholar loses one copy of Flesh to Iron, he can just play another one. Yes, he goes one round taking a bunch of damage, but then it will be quite a while before he loses Flesh to Iron again and he can heal back up in the meantime.
Both Expatriette and Haka give a bonus card play, and the worst-case scenario is one round of environment + limb damage without Flesh-to-Iron in play, which is definitely not enough to take the Scholar out. Plus, if you play smart, it's easy to keep 5 ongoings out, so even that worst-case scenario doesn't happen very often.
Between the Idol of Anput and the Scholar's HP-buffs (and other incapped heroes giving him extra powers/reducing damage) I think you would absolutely have to do something wrong to be incapped in this situation. Something happening "quite often" means every 5 rounds or so, and it only takes a round or two for Scholar to get back to full health and full tableau.
The question is really "can the Scholar take out Akash'Bhuta", and I think that's a bit trickier to answer.
Tomb of Anubis plays Urshe, bring forth the 3 target Trials. This means Akash'Bhuta will play 4 cards total. Earth's Sacrifice, destroying 4 of the Ongoings, along with playing 3 Entombs. Sure, the Flesh to Iron was safe, but the Entombs will squeeze out 6 damage to The Scholar. Her card play on her turn, another Earth's Sacrifice, destroying another 4 Ongoings, most likely the rest. The combined damage of all Living Rockslides and Arboreal Phalanges to The Scholar would be 15. This will leave The Scholar at 8 or less HP. And thanks to Mdjai, that 6 damage that Living Rockslide would have done to the ENvironment was lowered to 3 damage, leaving everything in there alive. Legacy allows THe Shcolar to heal for 2 thanks to the Idol, bringing him to 11 or less HP. DW Expatriette allows The Scholar to use the Idol again, going to 13 or less HP. The Scholar plays Solid to Liquid, uses Idol to go to 16 or less. Being clever, they plays Expect the Worst to ignore all the damage. The Environment deck reshuffles, then playing something that isn't important. On Akash'Bhuta's turn, she plays Disrupt the Field, destroying the pre-estabalished 5 environment targets. She now plays 5 cards. Primordial Eruption chain!!!! Akash'Bhuta's deck reshuffles!!! Earth's Sacrifice is played, Expect the Worst and Solid to Liquid are both gone. Throw in a Rejuvenating Entrophy for gits and shiggles, all her limbs are back to full. The Environment plays Spike trap from all that fun. Once again, the combined total of the limbs are 15 damage, The Scholar is at 1 or less. Legacy and Expat allow him to use Better Living, going to 3 or Less. He plays Solid to Liquid again, using Better Living to to go to 5 or less. Haka allows him to play Flesh to Iron. Spike Trap squeezes 1 point of damage to The Scholar, bringing him down to 4 or less. Swinging Blades is played, it squeezes 1 point to The Scholar, bringing him to 3 or less. Finally, on Akash'buta's Turn, the Arboreal Phalanges will each squeeze in 3 points total, bringing him to 0 or less.
I'm pretty sure there are some suboptimal plays in there, but rather than dwell on that I'm going to ask: can you write a similar scenario where The Scholar wins?
You'd want Wasteland in play with Env. targets but not Ratmen or Worm.
Have Wasteland remove the Brambles from the game.
Then you want to Keep using DW Expat to keep Akash's heal destroyed and keep whittling down Akash until big shots of "Get out of the Way" and especially a few turns of chaining a few Keep Moving's into all your Energy forms in play then playing "Get out of the way" for some big time damage shots.
With the ability to destroy Allies of the Earth before it heals her you can make it a war of attrition, and at that point it is all about odds of whether Akash can string together the perfect storm before you can win the game.
Strategic management of hand/trash/deck is always key in these games to maximize your ability to recover your best cards and use them frequently.
That scenario would fall entirely on your hope you mentioned earlier that the environment takes out those Brambles. Now I have time to review
Your best hope is Swinging Blades and The Challenge of Fire are in play to deal 3 and 2 damage to everything. That brings the Ensnaring Brambles to 2 HP each. On Akash'Bhuta's turn Entomb or Allies ofthe Earth is played. On the following environment turn Spike Trap is played and the ensuing damage from Challenge of Fire and Swinging Blades takes out the Brambles and Living Rockslides. Now your hope is that on Akash'Bhuta turns that ideally an Entomb or Allies of the Earth is played. This leaves Akash'Bhuta at 57 HP after her turn assuming the destruction of three Brambles in play. So that leaves Scholar with a two card plays and two power uses and limbs should be at 1 or 2 hp. On Scholar's turn I would play "Get out of the Way" to take out the each Carapace first dealing 8, then 9, then 10 to bring Akash'Bhuta to 30 HP. After " Get out of the way" resolves all three Phalanges would be at 1 Hp and Scholar would have 2 damage to deal to Akash'Bhuta to bring her to 28 from his healing. Haka would need to just give Scholar a second play of "Get out of the way" which takes out the rest of the limbs and takes out Akash'Bhuta.
Edit:
In between those environment turns Expat should destroy the Ongoing play by Akash'Bhuta and Scholar should try to get more Mortal Form To Energy cards in play.
This would all have to be preceded by a Disrupt the Field play and which gets Swinging Blades or Challenge of Fire out.