Weekly One-Shot #370: Homecoming

[Thunderbird]

Voss returns to Dok’Thorath for a Challenge vs. K.N.Y.F.E., FV Absolute Zero, Heroic Luminary, Redeemer Fanatic, and FVI Wraith!

“Challenge” mode didn’t seem to be much of one when he’s only allowed to flip once and gets but a single extra card play! I was tempted to fish for Cold Snap first thing, but I’m glad I chose Sub-Zero Atmosphere instead. Probably the best use I’ve gotten from that card. Only one Forced Deployment showed up and was wiped out on K.N.Y.F.E.'s turn with her gauntlet, allowing plenty of time to wipe the board again. Couple Regression Turret with Stun Bolt and Voss was effectively neutered. Trickiest part was keeping track of cold dealt by AZ so he didn’t self-immolate from Thermal Shockwave.

[QuirkyDM]

Made some mistakes and let Voss flip a few extra times accidentally. This turned out to be pretty painful when Subzero Atmosphere let Voss draw his extra card immediately and have it act- first with Forced Deployment and then playing both his ships on the same turn. I had intended to keep him on his first side and use Chastise on a lone minion to keep Voss there, pinging away at him all game, but then once the environment was under control with Mega Computers, I switched to Zealous Offense. And then stupidly brought out Cold Snap which killed off that minion. That just forced me into high damage mode where I did 50+ damage in one turn and finished him off the next.

[TakeWalker]

yeah, I had a few flips the first time through that ended up losing me the fight

second time was a success, though, and I think the only real difference was taking extra effort to keep the environment under control. like, you’ll always be taking AoE damage every round, but you can at least make sure it’s only from one source at a time.

also, whoever suggested Emboldening AZ was a genius, that really helped speed things along

[skywhale]

I accidentally found out (thanks to KNYFE) that the key to not having the environment flip Voss is to leave the Ion-Lancer in play. Not flipping him also set him up perfectly so that Orbital Bombardment played the exact turn before he played Forced Deployment… so I let that sit all the way until Wraith’s turn, and then watched as the Dok’Thorathian military did my job:

Sub-Zero Atmosphere and Chastise also paired together perfectly to ensure Voss didn’t do any damage on his turns. I even got a Wrathful Retribution off with Fanatic at 1 HP!

[FrivYeti]

Near-Mint for me after a truly disastrous chain of events. Voss played the Quark Drive, the Gene-Bound minion came out of the environment deck, that caused Voss to play a minion of his own, then he flipped at the start of his turn, got a free card play that turned out to be Forced Deployment, and then played a ton of minions immediately and obliterated my team.

Second time around I was more careful, and ended up uppercutting the quark drive straight into the trash, leading to an easy win.

[The_Justifier]

A fairly easy win, similar to the OP; using the Servo-Gauntlet on a Gene-Bound is perfect for thwarting Forced Deployment when KNYFE is at the top of the inish order, and likewise with having Primed Punch to one-shot the lone Guards when they turn up. By the time Wraith got her turn each round, there wasn’t a ton left for her to do (mostly she got on the Mega Computer to shut down the Thorathian Military, who spent the entire early game hosing down both us and the Voss army with laser fire). Voss did flip back once thanks to Gene-Bound Ravagers triggering the Translocator, but he didn’t stay flipped long while Cold Snap and Focused Apertures were wiping the board constantly with KNYFE’s assistance.

Twas a disappointing game for Luminary though, as her deck was the only one that loses all its buildup to the damage-fest and thus doesn’t get to alpha strike after a few turns; I’d have had much more fun if I’d gotten out AATP so that the Turrets would puncture armor, so she could shut down some of the AOE attacks and manage to keep her Devices out so that she could build up for a big power blast. Fanatic also played a fairly low-key role this game, almost never using her innate since she was busy swording things, while much of AZ’s contribution was just being a tanky healer with Thermal Shockwave, doing hilariously huge amounts of fire damage to himself and then bouncing back with another HP or three. I might have enjoyed throwing in Embolden and Coolant Blast to make him do more of a solo job on Voss, perhaps even through the minions, but I’ll save that strategy for a game with a lower H value.

PS - I also abused SZA to keep Voss’s new arrivals from ever doing anything, which was part of why this was so easy for me. It almost backfired once with his flip mechanic, but nothing I couldn’t handle. It’s a pretty ridiculous card against villains who don’t really destroy your Ongoings much, while being uselessly suicidal if they frequently do…not the best game design, but then it is from the original core set. Later decks are good at avoiding cards like that, so they play much more smoothly (have I mentioned lately how much I love the Void Guard?).

[doppelgangerung]

On my first attempt I failed to manage the environment, resulting in a couple of my heroes falling, and Voss flooding the zone with his gene-bound army.

On my second try, I was able to keep the environment pacified, and once I changed tactics and kept the Ion-Lancer in play to keep Voss from flipping and turning violent, it was just a matter of wearing him down until Fanatic drew Wrathful Retribution to put the win in reach. Wraith’s Smoke Bombs allowed Luminary to build up a nice collection of Devices, SZA gave the heroes (and the environment) adequate time to dispense with whatever minions entered play, even through a Forced Deployment and a short-lived Quark Drive - the Warlord’s (space)ship came in just a little too late to turn the tide.

Note: although it never played out this way, I realized when the Quark Drive Translocator was destroyed that it could be affected by many of Luminary’s cards (just none of the ones I had in my hand at the time)