Weekly One-Shot #290: Toxic Treepies

Games SotM: The Video Game
#1

Ultimate Matriach vs. Team Leader Tachyon, Freedom Six Tempest, Dark Watch Expatriette, and original Haka at the Pike Industrial Complex.

I expected this one to be tough. Because Matriach. And because Ultimate. And because the Details text suggested there would be a lot of Toxic Vats.

But it was a surprisingly easy Mint at 12/14/26/31. Matriach’s deck was really anti-stacked - no Fowl in the top 5 or so - pretty much all the damage I took all game was from Cold Vat, Vat Explosions and Horrid Cacophonies.

I was trying to get Savage Mana out to trap the Mask and the Fowl… but it never showed up until right before I won, despite following a “take every opportunity for Haka to draw cards” strategy.

Failing that, there is a great synergy with Hairtrigger Reflexes and Hypersonic Assault that I wanted to take advantage of. Because Expatriette would wipe the Fowl as soon as they came out (while Hypersonic was still in effect) you’d effectively get 2 turns worth of protection for every time you played HA. Just make sure to hit the Domains and Matriach before any Fowl. The nemesis bonus lets Tachyon tag Matriach even after Muninn is out (as long as Huginn isn’t). But sadly, I never got Hair-trigger Reflexes. You might have better luck if you get different random shuffles from Arsenal Access/Quick Draw than I did.

Playing Into the Stratosphere on the Mask is a great way to neuter Matriach too. Her following turn is just playing the Mask again, no Fowl or Domains or Cohorts or One-Shots… Two Into the Stratospheres combined with Reclaim From the Deep lets you do this a bunch.

Plays from Matriach were Horrid Cacophony and Carrion Fields round 1, Mask round 2 (thanks to ITS), Darken the Sky round 3, Muninn round 4, 3 birds and Horrid Cacophony round 5, 2 birds and Darken the Sky round 6.

Plays from the Environment were Toxic Vat round 1, Chemical Explosion round 2, Lab Rat round 3, Cold Vat round 4, and Chemical Explosion again round 5.

Tachyon helped Haka draw and got 2 Hypersonic Assaults and generally did Tachyon things.
Tempest did the Into the Stratosphere/Reclaim from the Deep combo I talked about that. Other than that, some damage from Localized Hurricanes.
ExPat just used the Shotgun all game.
Haka did all his draw cards (Haka of __, Mere, Dominion, Vitality Surge). Finally a Haka of battle let him finish it off.

I had Matriarch at 22 HP at the start of round 6, and had finally drawn Haka of Battle. That, combined with a Lightspeed Barrage, finished her off with plenty to spare.

#2

“Surprisingly easy” definitely sums this up! I had the same expectations going in, and the only thing that tripped me up was forgetting all her worst cards were indestructible because challenge mode. Still Minted easily.

#3

Agreed, it was fairly easy to mint on Ultimate. Even forgetting I couldn’t use Into the Stratosphere on Muninn didn’t trip me up too much. I had both cohorts in the negative, hoping to make her flip and get rid of them. She ended up going down with zero cards on her stack once I got a Haka of Battle boosted by half his deck, though.

Oh, and I learned what a treepie is! Had heard of magpies, but never those before. :bird: Cue The More You Know rainbow and sound

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#4

Oh! :open_mouth: It’s a bird? Makes sense, I guess. I just imagined pies in and/or made out of trees, myself. :B

#5

Yep, they’re 4 genera (plural of genus, also just learned that!) in the family Corvidae. Pretty on-brand for Lillian Corvus!

#6

Had to settle for near mint myself - Into The Stratosphere never made an appearance, and neither did Haka of Battle, so I had a bit of trouble dealing enough damage the first time around to take Matriarch down before Hugin popped out and made a real hash of things. The second time things proceeded more smoothly (though still no ItS for Tempest or HoB for Haka) and Tachyon was able to end the game with a Lightspeed Barrage.

#7

But… Tempest starts with it? Using it the first round gives you one round of set up time, which is pretty great that early. From there, I did use Localized Hurricane a lot which gives a lot of card draw and found another.
~A-Kat

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#8

I should have said, Lightspeed Barrage and Haka of Battle are both buried pretty deep. Tachyon was Pushing the Limits most of the game and using Team Leader power, and Haka was using Mere so they were both getting 3 cards per round. Matriarch was down to maybe 30 HP once they finally drew them, with about 10 burst cards in trash and 18 in Haka’s hand. Basically just ignore the annoying ravens and dump all damage on the villain.

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#9

Shoot, you right - I’m sure I played it first turn, and then forgot. Didn’t try to retrieve it with Reclaim From The Deep because I got busy milking everyone for as much damage as I could get out of them - which worked better the second time around.

#10

Yeah, I’m pretty sure the vats killed more Ravens than I did - lucky they were slow coming out!

#11

Got this one in just under the wire, but earned my “Mint”, with the heroes are 8/8/22/24.

For an “Ultimate edition” matriarch fight, this was not bad. Matriarch’s deck was well set up (at least from the heroes’ point of view), not sending out waves of birds until the last few rounds. Also, Tempest played “Into the Stratosphere” to send “Mask of the Matriarch” back to the top of her deck, which bought the heroes more time, and he was prepared to do that several more times if need be.

Tachyon was (not surprisingly) the MVP this game. Her +1 “nemesis” bonus was critical, and she used it every chance she could. Twice it was critical, since by that point “Muninn” was out and attacks against the Matriarch were -1, and I really needed Tachyon to hit Matriarch with “Hypersonic Assault” so Matriarch wouldn’t do retaliatory damage to the heroes when the bird cards were destroyed. On Tachyon’s last turn, she played 7 cards and put 5 more “Burst” cards into her trash to allow her to play “Lightspeed Barrage” that sent Matriarch exactly to 0 hit points. Nicely done, Meredith!

Tempest was useful to get rid of “Mask of the Matriarch” once, and played the risky card “Localized Hurricane” and used it almost every round.

Expatriate played “Tactical Shotgun” on her first turn and used it every round. Big guns are a girl’s best friend.

Haka, oh Haka, you disappointed me. I mined his deck like mad, looking for “Haka of Battle” to end this fight early, and while he got a big hand of cards, he never got the card he wanted. He did some support damage, but not what I expected.

“Pike Industrial Complex” is NOT a fun play to look around. And those vats are really, really fragile! But honestly, it could have been worse.

I think the entire match was over on Tachyon’s turn on round 6.

A fun fight, which is not usually the case in Matriarch fights. I guess the person who set this match up isn’t evil, cruel or sadistic at all!

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