Tachyon, Dark Watch Expatriette, Redeemer Fanatic, and Visionary vs. Matriarch in the Realm of Discord
This one's a randomized start, so don't expect the same card order for everyone.
I minted this one without too much trouble. Never thought the matriarch was as tough as her difficulty rating suggests.
Hypersonic Assault takes out waves of birdies. I used a suggestion to bury the mask so it wouldn't come back when darken the Sky hit the table. The last couple of rounds I just let table he birds build up and focused on laying into the Matriarch with everything I had. Left about 10 birds and both carrion fields on table hehe board when I finished off Lillian with a pair of Lightspeed Barrages.
Ah, the Matriarch, Lady of the Two Dozen Meaningless Decisions Yes Thank You App I Just Want To Kill Birds.
Near Mint for me this time; I quickly rewound without thinking, annoyingly, though without rewind tuning my play I may have died, so, who knows.
Failed twice. First time I was close then a ****ing cohort. Second, well I bombed. I DESPISE the Matriarch
Edited for language. -Mod
Visionary was the star of the show using Suggestion to put Mask on the bottom of Matty's deck and darken the skies on top. Did this again the next turn so for 2 rounds in a row all Matty did was hit me with the 5 birds that were already in play. I had Fanatic take over from there using Devine Focus for 2 damage per turn and then dealing herself 4 damage to enable a 21 point Wrathful Retribution.
I'm pretty sure this is the biggest streak of losses I've had against the Matriarch. Mostly seems to be a combination of setup issues and running into both Cohorts early. Giving it a few more tries tonight but only Fine at best on this.
Mint! Couldn't get rid of the mask until the third round and by then all Darken the Skies were played already. Two early Hypersonic Assaults kept the field clear of birds with no damage. Visionary got three Suggestions, so kept killing and suggesting Huginn (Muginn not played or in trash yet). Visionary Enlightened Tachyon every turn so she could build up to two 21 Damage Lightspeed Barrages in about 7 rounds. Everyone ended with HP in either high teens or low twenties, board empty of birds and Carrion Fields and Cohorts, Matriach unflipped.
I near-minted this one. In the first game, Tachyon didn't get a hypersonic assault until very late, drawing it just as Huginn and Muninn came out. >:(. Expatriette's first three rounds had no weapons, even with extra draws. It was very painful.
Second game lasted a while, but when Matriarch flipped, she played one card a round until just before Fanatic got Wrathful Retribution. With that and Expatriette having Pride and Prejudice with Hollow Points on Pride, I managed to take her down pretty quickly.
It’s good to know I’m not the only one without a near mint or mint. Makes me feel less like a cruddy player.
EDIT: Finally did it. Finally. Hard. Lucked based. But did it
Lost my first match due to just horrible draws. Bunch of fowls and both carrion fields out on turn 1. The next three turns, half my team couldnt do damage since both ethereal bonds came out consecutively (with bubbles hitting me every turn as well). Both cohorts were pulled out the turn after and when i finally managed to kill some stuff, darken the sky pulls back literally everything. Got no enviro destruct until the turn i was about to lose and no hypersonics pulled to let me stall. Think i may have played an unwinnable game, especially if nearly all my damage was coming from the visionary.
I thought too late that I should use Suggestion to put the Mask on the bottom, but early Hypersonic Assualts got me through the game, and I ended it with a flipped Matriarch being done in by a Wrathful Retribution.
Near mint for me this week, which is an improvement on the last two weeks.
First time around, I got a terrible start with most of the fowl out with both Carrion Fields and no Hypersonic Assults in sight. Fanatic got out Undaunted which kept it interesting, but eventually the swarm of birds were too much.
On the second attempt a far kinder card draw made life easy, and it didn't take long to get Lillian all pouty and upset about the unfairness of the world.
This was my first battle against Matriarch and also my first Mint! What an interesting mechanic!
It was a good game, I might have to try these ladies as a team again some time.
But also I got lucky. Very very lucky.
Matriarch pulled out Darken the Skies on the first turn and didn’t pull a second until Visionary had put the mask and several fowl on the bottom of the deck.
Hypersonic Assault was definitely a life saver, as was a starting hand including a Shotgun, Hollowpoints, and Reload for Expatriette.
She and Fanatic whittled her down and Tachyon finished her off with Lightspeed Barrage.
She never had the chance to flip, and the cohorts were nowhere in sight.
THIS is why I love weekly One-shots! I've been fighting the Matriarch for years (however long its been since Rook CIty was re-released with Infernal Relics). I never once thought to use Brain Burn like that.
Haven't tried it yet, but my buddy did. He got a Mint, but just barely; everybody down, except for Fanatic at 3hp. Here's how he described it:
Man oh man, was that a close one. First, it was a close and tough match to begin with. I got some help along the way from the slow-mo themed distortion that reduces damage dealt to heroes by 1. I had Visionary go into her cocoon so she's absorb most of the hero with the lowest HP attacks and eventually the hero with the highest HP attacks. And I had Fanatic's Undaunted, which is DR 1 if it's exactly 1, which is perfect against the fowl. Then the negative energy distortion came into play (1 damage to the 4 targets with the highest HP) and I started whittling her down with each card. Tachyon did her sonic, can't deal damage card to neutralize Matriarch and the Carrion Fields, then took out all of the birds. And Fanatic (who had a huge hand) got out her discard a card to deal damage against the highest every turn, so she was whittling her down too.
The really close call (for a mint condition) is that I had her dead to rights but I played stupidly for kicks. Going into the last round my second hero could have finished her off but I decided to drag the game out and let the last hero take her out with the negative energy distortion. On the last heroes turn it got down to all of the heroes and Matriarch at 1 HP and somehow I misinterpreted choosing which targets counted for the negative energy. I thought the negative energy would damage my three heroes then Matriarch and end the game. But how I chose them made all of my heroes get damaged! (Just now I'm wondering if I had one hero at 2HP and I was only picking the other three.) Anyway, it drops everyone except Fanatic and Matriarch. I couldn't remember if another distortion would cancel the negative energy before or after it deals damage and the next environment was a distortion. Luckily for me the negative energy deals damage first, so I stopped playing around and had it take out Matriarch. Obviously I could have rewound and still won but I almost made myself lose the mint!
Got a Mint on my first try. Matriarch dropped a few birds, then Huginn. Tachyon had Hypersonic right off the bat to clear all the Birds, then Expat dropped Hairtrigger and Fanatic had Divine Focus for fodder. Matriarch slammed both Darken the Skies on her next turn, so Expat went to town and she couldn't do anything. Cleared the Cohort and the Mask on the next round and had Visionary Brain Burn her for 12 cards. Poor Lillian couldn't really do much for the rest of the game as everyone just beat her down, though Muninn and both Carrion Fields did appear and I took some unnecessary damage by killing a few Fowl via Expat's Reflexes the round I went to finish the game. I ended the game via multiple double-digit Lightspeed Barrages by Tachyon.
Mint.
Opened with both Cohorts. I dealt with the mask, and then decided that this was stupid, and devoted my effort to digging for End of Days. Found it quickly, didn't take too much damage from the birds that were out, and then started plugging away. Dealt with the next wave of birds with a Hypersonic Assault, and didn't have many problems after that. Two Lightspeed Barrages took her all the way down, and I had a third Barrage and a Wrathful Retribution waiting in the wings had the proven ineffective.
Two interactions that managed to surprise me: The Mask is a relic and thus avoided End of Days, and Decoy Projection is a distortion, and thus gets destroyed by the Realm of Discord's distortions.
My first non-mint! I made a really dumb mistake early on (messed up the order or operations for End of Days) and never managed to recover. Three consecutive Darken the Skies didn't help either.
Mint.
Had what I felt was a pretty favorable randomized draw--the Darken the Skies came out relatively early, Tachyon had plenty of draw and Hypersonic assaults available.
The only problem came when both cohorts were out at the same time about mid-game. They stayed out for a turn or two, destroying my ongoings/equipments...but then Fanatic was able to Final Dive Muninn into Huginn and take them both out.
That was pretty satisfying, and created a cool mental image of a winged hero grappling with and then dive-bombing one large bird into another large bird.
Fun stuff!
Near mint for me, I hit a rewind without thinking about it. No Earth shattering bad play either, just a mistake. Oh well.