The Shortest Possible Game

Other Games SotM Game Engine
1

So, during a few games of Sentinels yesterday the question came up of what the shortest possible game of Sentinels would be. A friend of mine came up with the following three-turn victory: Play against Iron Legacy with Nightmist and Tachyon, get Nightmist to use Mists of Time of Tachyon to put all her bursts in her trash, then have Tachyon play Lightning Reflexes followed by a pair of Lightspeed Barrages. There's no prize for spotting the mistake, but it did get us thinking about how quickly it could be done, given a perfect draw.

 

I did manage to come up with a four-turn victory against Iron Legacy or the Ennead (assuming Nuit doesn't appear):

The villain does their thing.

Legacy plays Inspiring Presence and Galvanises.

Omnitronks plays Slip Through Time, Timeshifts out one of and then plays the other of a 4-type Plating and Defensive Blast, then uses Defensive Blast to hit the villain(s) for 12.

Unity uses Hasty Augmentation on Omnitronks to use Defensive Blast to deal 20 more damage to the villains.

 

There's also a six-turn version to deal with Akash'Bhuta:

Akash chains together three Primeval Eruptions in order to get out every limb she has.

Legacy plays Inspiring Presence and Galvanises.

Argent Adept plays and uses Syncopated Onslaught to boost Omnitronks' and Akash'Bhuta's damage.

Omnitronks plays Slip Through Time, Timeshifts out one of and then plays the other of a 4-type Plating and Defensive Blast, then uses Defensive Blast to hit the villains for 16. Handily, this is also enough to destroy all her limbs, causing her to deal herself 135 damage.

Chrono-Ranger plays Displaced Armory to get out the hat and deal three damage, chains together four copies of Eye on the Prize for 12 more damage, then plays Sudden Contract to play By Any Means on Akash and deal her four more damage.  Then he shoots her for four.

Unity uses Hasty Augmentation on Omnitronks to use Defensive Blast to deal Akash 28 more damage, which finishes her off.

 

So, that's the game: pick a villain, choose basic or advanced (my former strategy works on advanced, but the latter does not), and see how quickly they can hypothetically be slaughtered. Defensive Blast is a lovely way to churn out damage, but more creative methods are extremely welcome (as are speedy hero defeats, if anyone can figure out a way to do them that doesn't involve self-harm or murdering the Dreamer).

2

Shortest would have to be against Dreamer, wouldn't it?  Put Ra first, have him blast her for 6 damage, game over.

3

I admit it, I lol'd :slight_smile:

This is a curious exercise, though the more champs you have, the more opportunity you have to deal lots of damage. If you went after Iron Legacy with 5 and got the perfect card draw… say, AZ's and one other ongoing destruction on the opening draw (can Tempest kill 2 ongoings with one card?), you could get him down to just above his flip point on the first turn (AZ: EW base power, Ra with fire blast + power, Wraith II'ing to get out Razor Ord + Targeting PC, Grandpappy backhand + Wraith using her power… that's well more than enough), and then unless he does something incredibly crazy (I'm not that familiar with him), again with perfect card draw, they'd easily put enough damage into him to finish him off turn 2.

4

I had a very quick game against Kismet yesterday. Legacy, Ra, Fanatic and Expatriette faced her in the Tomb of Anubis. Fanatic's opening hand contained Divine Focus and Prayer of Desperation. Kismet started her fourth turn, but she didn't finish it.

5

Our shortest game to date (at least, since we started keeping stats...but I think even including any that came before that) was three rounds, with Legacy, Chrono Ranger, and Redeemer Fanatic against Iron Legacy. I can't remember anything of what cards were played or whatever (it was right after I got hold of Shattered Timelines, so over a month ago now), only that we managed to kick his arse in ten minutes :D.

We've also had several four-round games over the months, against various different people. But only the one three-rounder. So far.

6

I'm certain five players with a good draw could curbstomp Iron Legacy in 2 turns.  His low hit point total makes a quick victory most likely against him.  Of course, if you don't do that, he's more than willing to take you down within a round or two more.

My quickest game on the other hand was indeed against the Dreamer.  Scholar played Don't Dismiss Anything, and Nightmist flipped up Oblivion, 3, 4.  This was on turn one.

7

How about Iron Legacy versus Fanatic and team. Iron Legacy and the rest of the heroes attack Fanatic, leaving her at 1 HP. Fanatic plays Wrathful Retribution and Exocism. Will that be enough?

8

If she is Redeemer Fanatic it would be enough.

Edit: For some reason it didn't dawn on me that Redeemer Fanatic doesn't have Exorcism!

9

There's a one-round win in the statistics, by someone named thedentist against Mad Bomber Blade; the team is Wraith, Visionary, Ra, AZ (on Mars). I can't see how this is possible though...

10

 

It was Second Round on May 4th.

11

Gloomweaver takes a turn and does NOT play a relic.

O-X uses its base power to reveal a relic and put it into the trash

AA plays Inspiring Supertonic and allows O-X to again use its base power to reveal a second relic and put it into the trash.

The Scholar plays Proverbs and Axioms and O-X elects to deal damage to itself so that it can again use its base power to reveal  a third relic and put it into the trash.

Environment turn.

On Gloomweaver's second turn, Gloomweaver loses due to three relics being in the trash.

Six total turns

12

Beautiful!

13

After my faliure with thinking mists of time could work on other heroes *sigh* I feel I aught to make a contribution here. It's hardly as elegant as arenson's but heh. I also aught to say I dont have the set of the game here of my own... so you might have to make do with some shady descriptions.

Numbers in brackets represent infernal numbers on Nightmist's cards.

 

Turn 1: Iron legacy (Ongoings of 2X galvanise, something else with no damage reduction.) He hits us. Ow. Im assuming he also plays a card which could be useless to him here, possibly another of the something else with no damage reduction. 

Turn 2: Legacy: Inspiring Prescence, Galvanise.

Turn 3: Nightmist: Heedless lash (1) plays Heedless lash (2) plays Heedless lash (3) plays Oblivion (4) which rolls a 4, 4.

Damage total of 4, 5, 6, 6, or 18. Nightmist is now at 6hp minus however much Iron Legacy hits her for, I'm assuming less than 6 (if this is a problem you can switch the heedless lashes around to do a couple less damage to Nightmist and legacy). Iron Legacy took 4, 5, 6, 6, 6, and is at 5hp remaining

Turn 4: Omnitron X: I am not familiar with this deck. I AM familiar with nightmists however. Some random card that could maybe help, then use their power to make Nightmist play the top card of their deck - convieniently Oblivion, rolling another 4, 4, overkilling Iron legacy by a solid 7 points of damage.

 

This kills both Iron legacy and Nightmist in 4 turns, but heck, isn't that the funnest bit of Nightmist?

14

There has to be a way to get this done sooner.

Turn 1: Scholar plays Proverbs and Axioms. Legacy Galvanizes! Rook City Wraith makes the environment play a Fixed Point! Omnitron-X goes "Yo scholar, play the top card on your deck!" Ra heals, because why not?

Scholar gets don't dismiss anything. Legacy gets an inspiring presence. Ra gets out an imbued fire. Omnitron-X gets some nice 4-type plating. Wraith gets her hairdryer, whatevs. Scholar gets another Don't Dismiss Anything. Let's do that again! Legacy gets another inspiring presence. Ra gets out another imbued fire. Omnitron X gets another (different) 4-type plating. Wraith gets a grappling hook, sinking the fixed point, declaring that enough of THOSE shenanigans. Scholar gets a know when to hold fast, and ends his turn while enjoying a drink.

Turn 2: Omnitron-X! It gets a out a defensive blast, and hits for... 48 damage, if my math is correct? 8 types of damage, each get +3 from legacy, and +2 from Ra, so 8*6 is 48 damage on turn 2. Iron Legacy is murdered brutally. Wraith asks exactly who shuffled these decks.

 

15

WAIT

 

Scholar plays a Proverbs and Axioms. Legacy Galvanizes! Rook City Wraith topdecks a Fixed Point! Unity and Scholar both heal! Omnitron-X goes "Hey Scholar, play the top card of your deck!" Which is, of course, a Don't Dismiss Anything.

 

Legacy gets an Inspiring Presence. Unity gets a powered shockwave, for 3 damage to all villains. Omnitron-X gets 4-type plating, Wraith gets whatever, Scholar gets another Don't Dismiss anything.

 

Legacy gets another inspiring presence. Omnitron-X gets a Defensive Blast. Wraith gets a grappling hook, destroying the fixed point. Scholar gets "Get Out Of The Way", which becomes 4 damage to all non-hero targets. Unity gets hasty augmentation, which lets Omnitron-X use defensive blast, which hits for (1+3+2)*4 is 24 damage. Which, on top of the 7 damage earlier, is 31 damage to all non-hero targets. The Ennead, who didn't start off with Nuit or Geb, are all brutally murdered on turn 1.

 

If you want Geb-proofing, or to kill Iron Legacy instead, assume Wraith's "whatever" was a throat jab, for an extra 4 damage.

16

Legacy can only have one Inspiring Presence in play as it is a limited card.

17

Same with Imbued Fire; Limited can't be got around with Fixed Point. However, using your method the Scholar, Tempest and Ra can possibly do infinite damage: Scholar plays DDE, brings out a Fire Blast, a Reclaim (put the Fire Blast back) and a DDE, which plays Fire Blast and the second Reclaim, which puts back Fire Blast, the first Reclaim, and the first DDE. Then the Scholar plays DDE.

 

18

Oh, limited can't be gotten around with Fixed Point? My bad, I thought limited just meant "When it comes into play, if there's an existing card with the same name, destroy it", which Fixed Point would prevent, was unaware there were clarifications on that.

19

 

Impressive!! This only needs 2 cards per player! (1 for Ra)

1 Like
20

Whoah. I think my brain just broke. That's awesome.