Weekly One Shot #279: Knife After Dark

Games SotM: The Video Game
#1

Standard Spite in Rook City vs. RC Wraith, DW Fixer, XPW Haka, and Black Spot Comodora.

Minted at 14/14/14/7. Would have been 14 across the board, but Fixer got impatient and whacked Comodora with a Tire Iron just so he could finish off Spite before Haka.

Started out trying to stack decks with the Infrared Eyepiece and Sleuth, and quickly realized Spite gets extra plays anyway. His healing on the front side was too much, so then I just shifted to make him flip ASAP. Thought just for second I could cheese it with Compound Upsilon to recycle Grease Gun and Chronological Sweetspot, but of course grease is no good when it’s back in your hand and Spite gets all ragey.

A good time was had by all! Well, maybe not the Victims…

#2

Yeah, it’s Spite, so it’s not a lot of fun, but on the bright side Wraith is there so it’s quick.

I did a bit more building up before the flip; keeping the Sidekick out meant that everyone’s hands rapidly ballooned out of control, and using extra card draw for everyone who could get it meant that when Spite flipped I pretty much locked him from being able to do damage permanently through Grease Guns, Ground Stomps, and figurehead-boosted Throat Jabs. Then I shot him to death and called it a day.

#3

I hid Thiago after a round, just to be safe, but it might have been unnecessary. Getting a few cards under the Safehouse was pretty simple, even after he broke them all out. I spent most of the game using Comodora’s power to mill Spite’s deck since trashing his Drugs brings them out and flips him faster.

Mostly, just getting Wraith double stun-bolts (then Smoke Bombs) was what made this less painful than it could have been. Still a slog, but not painful.

#4

So, Spite.

I hate fighting Spite.

But given that, this team is well set up to shut down Spite’s damage-dealing (and hence shut down his really irritating healing). Like others, I made good use of “Throat Jab”, “Grease Gun”, “Ground Pound”, “Stun Bolt” and “Hoist Chain” to cancel or greatly reduce Spite’s damage output. In fact, I suspect the heroes took more damage from the environment than from Spite, which is a rare situation.

However, there is a LOT of card destruction or cards-moved-back-to-hand in this game, so its hard to keep heroes’ equipment and ongoing cards in play. I got VERY lucky one round with La Comodora playing a blind “Weigh Anchor” and getting 4 or 5 cards into play, which was a lifesaver.

I kept “Potential Sidekick” almost the entire game, and he was really a big help; he’s in the running for MVP this game. But everyone was really helpful:

  • Wraith using “Stun Bolt” every turn (and later a boosted “Razor Ordnance”) to do some serious damage to Spite and cut down on his damage;
  • Mr. Fixer made a great move getting “Riveting Crane” into play, neutralizing Spite’s damage reduction;
  • Haka was great at hitting things;
  • La Comodora was doing great support work.

Actually on La Comodora’s last turn, she saw an opportunity to get a lot of equipment cards in her discard pile to set up a big hit with “Run Aground” the next round, so she moved several victims to the safe house to discard a lot of equipment cards, discarded more to keep other equipment cards in play and was all set up to bury Spite … but the game took a funny (good) turn and Wraith finished Spite off the next round. (Hey, Spite is her nemesis; its only fair.)

The heroes got Spite down to mid-20s hit points on his front side, which is a very unusual situation for me (neutralizing his healing let them do that). He flipped his last turn and then Wraith immediately finished him off.

Environment was pretty terrible (hey, its “Rook City” - what do you expect?), but Spite got “Mynd Phyre” out early so no environment card stayed in play for long.

This was more entertaining than a fight against Spite has any right to be.

The person who set this up isn’t evil, cruel or sadistic at all!

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#5

Mint, with everyone except Wraith in the teens - reducing or preventing Spite’s damage kept his healing under control long enough to get him into the 20’s before he flipped; I lost focus on Wraith’s HP in the final round, and let her get dropped by the retaliatory damage, but the remaining team members had no trouble finishing him off.

#6

I had this really fun interaction where La Comodora would put victims or his ongoings under the bottom of the deck, then parse would put them on the top, so then I knew at least two if not three cards in advance what Spite was going to do. I kept this cycle going for so long that Thiago gave everyone their whole deck in hand practically, and then Wraith, La Comodora, Parse, Haka, and even the safe house were ready to Exodia-style obliterate Spite once I let him flip. All in all, I got a much deeper understanding of Parse and La Comodora’s decks! 10/10

#7

Okay, made a few minor tweaks on my second game, and was even more effective.

Defeated Spite while he was still on his front side! He only had 3 “Drug” cards in play as well.

By making minor changes, was able to keep “Dr. Tremata” in play the entire game after she showed up on round 2 (the heroes kept nerfing Spite’s damage ability, so he could not attack the good doctor). This really helped control the environment deck. Also, was able to get La Comodora fully set up for her “Harnessed Anomaly”/“Weigh Anchor” super-attack and she buried Spite at the end.

Even more fun game!

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#8

I agree that Fugue State Parse and La Comodora compliment each other wonderfully (La Comodora’s “Rudder In the Timestream” can put cards from Parse’s discard pile to the bottom of Parse’s pile, where she play them using her next “Power” phase). But Parse wasn’t in this weekly one-shot, was she? I thought it was Mr. Fixer in that spot.