Once again, I feel compelled to describe my entire game, not quite as thoroughly as with the Kismet game because it was not so brief, but at the same time, its prolongation meant it possessed a surfiet of awesome moments which I feel deserve to be immortalized. Alas, I am overdue to go down for the night, so I cannot do the entire formal writeup; instead, I am depositing the following disorganized collection of notes in hopes that I can make sense of the entire thing tomorrow.
This was the first time I'd specifically assembled a team of powerful heroes for no other reason than to try and win an intensely difficult fight. And with a bit more luck, they could have pulled it off - Cappy was actually down to 22 health, but last-survivor Visionary could have novaed out and reduced her by another 14 or 15 HP before inevitably dying...she took a chance that she might survive one more turn and stayed in her TK Cocoon, which was Plundered by a Motley Crew. Unity died after two turns in which she had done nothing but Brainstorm, having paid a high price for not distracting Final Breath with a Bee Bot because she wanted to help wreck the ship. She was the only one to die before a 2-HP Visionary hid in her Cocoon to avoid the same fate; she watched a 3-HP Legacy abruptly die to Shemise and Swinging Blades, and Haka and Ra eventually succumbed too, Haka going down just before he could fire Savage Mana with an Imbued Fire bonus, and Ra being forced to Walk the Plank when his 7 HP was exactly the wrong total compared to Visi, who was still at 2 and thus couldn't invincibly take Cappy's EOT shot that turn. With all other heroes dead, Visi came out of her Cocoon long enough to use two powers and play three cards, the last being another Cocoon; she mind-controlled Battle Forged and used him to carve up Cappy once, but without a third card in play she couldn't repeat the stunt, and Swarm of Scarabs (which Ra had recycled with Excavation, figuring it was relatively harmless!) kept her from drawing in search of another Cocoon. So she made her failed gambit to survive, and finally succumbed, rather than conceding as she did in my last Matriarch fight when TKC kept her alive likewise.
heroes took 27 damage on turn 1!
For the first time in my experience, Legacy had a Flying Smash on turn 1, which proved very useful against all those Crew and the Ship. (We mostly ignored Maria Helena's own HP in the early stages of the game, but she did so little healing that I would later regret that decision.)
Visi's round 1: Prophetic Vision. Shemise and something else to bottom of deck; Rod of Anubis on top. Visi would soon get this, but spend most of the game not using it - no other hero could spare the powers to use it once Unity died.
Rounds 1-2, heroes avoided playing O/Es. It was the right decision as Plunder was played, then Raiding Party brought out Mable (or some similar sequence). Only after that did the heroes risk putting cards down and started keeping ahead of Cappy's destruction. Lack of Equipment in play meant Unity couldn't make her Bots, though initially she drew none, and only 2 even after two Brainstorms - she had Flash Forge but there was never time to use it.
13 damage to the ship in Round 1! Had Visi done Mind Spike instead of Prophetic Vision, Ra's Flame Spike (which he "wasted" by playing it when he didn't have a second power out) would have sunk it.
unity at 10 HP after second villain turn.
round 2 Judgment of Anubis would sure have been nice to know about in advance! Two targets (including the ship) had been at 2, and Haka and Ra directly blasted them, when they could have weakened other targets and let Anubis finish everything off.
Really wish Unity had been last in turn order; I debated it, but had never played Ra in position 5 of 5 (or had I? now I wonder if my notes were wrong, since I thought I remembered doing it), so I let him have it. Unity skipped first two power phases; didn't want to discard anything (all her cards were so good, including Hasty Augmentation with two damagers after her) to Workbench for Bee Bot, so Brainstormed twice, then died to a sudden Captain's Orders, having finally drawn Stealth Bot.
Thanks to Akana (called up by Urshe), the Challenge of Fire (ditto) never fired! It showed up the one time a villain target died before Akana did, and thus it was in play at SOET. Ra had three cards he was fine with discarding (duplicate Flame Barrier, redundant Summon Staff after he'd already drawn or Summoned them all - I recall that when forced to Walk the Plank once, he'd chosen the draw-two turn and gotten double Staffs for his trouble, making me wish he'd played the Flame Barrier instead); Haka chipped in two, and Legs and Visi one each. (I have previously considered that the Challenge is harder to complete in 3-hero games than in 5, but had not reckoned with hero incapacitation...it gets very hard if enough heroes die in H=5, but in H=3, it can actually become impossible if two heroes die, leaving one who can't possibly discard 5 cards by discarding 3 cards, and thus can't avoid being roasted every turn thereafter unless they have a Blinding Speed or Flash Flood-type card.)
Somewhere around here, Visionary used a Brain Burn to hide five cards on the bottom of Cap's deck, including the Ship and Mable. Totally worth it, even though it left Visi low HP and got her nearly murdered, driving her to hide in the Coccoon rather than contributing to the game thereafter.
I forgot I had a Take Down, and drew Walk the Plank off the villain deck; I had intended to have Cappy steal Ra's Drawn to the Flame that turn, but after she made Ra Walk the Plank, I reasoned she had to have stolen the Take Down, despite this being an utterly stupid choice for the heroes to make. But Ra used D2tF to very good effect one turn after that, so it was all good. Then he had to Walk the Plank again, but the turn after that, he got dead Unity to play his Solar Flare before his turn, and with that plus the Staff of Ra, he roasted the Revengeful and Ordering Maria Helena, all her surviving crew, and a couple of mummies for 7 each, and then did it twice the next round thanks to dead Legacy.
"NOW you show up!" - the Legacy Ring arrives on what will prove to be Legs's last turn. At that time, he had no alternate powers, having discarded Next Evolution and passed on picking up the Rod of Anubis prior to drawing the stupid Ring. (Why can't he start with it in play?)
Good old Heroic Interception and Rampage! Haka took out almost all the villain and environment targets without hurting anyone but Legacy (for just 1 HP). But it figures that right after that, Shemise would show up, and despite not finding a Rod of Anubis was free to deal 2 damage to 3-HP Legacy, letting either Swinging Blades or, without them, Captain's Orders finish Legs off, all while Visionary's 2 HP had exempted her from being 2nd-lowest when Shemise fired, then from being lowest for Captain's Orders if not for the Swinging Blades. Very aggravating...I should have had Unity heal her one turn, instead of making Haka and Ra and herself play cards.
ARRGH! A 2nd Flame Spike after a 2nd Walk the Plank on Ra, now that he has out Drawn 2 the Flame
Haka ate Anubis!
END GAME STATE
LC In Play - LC (side A, 23 HP), Captain's Orders, Maria Helena's Revenge x2, L'Episte (5 HP), Siege-Breaker (6 HP), Battle-Forged (5 HP), Chip and Trueshot (just raised by A Motley Crew, I didn't bother to give them HP).
LC Trash (shuffled by Motley Crew, but no cards had left it otherwise since the Brain Burn) - 3 Walk The Plank, 2 Motley Crews, 1 Temporal Thief (after the first Motley), All Together Now, Captain's Orders, and the game-ending Plunder (after the second Motley).
Environment: turn 1 Rod of Anubis due to Visi. Turn 2 Judgment of Anubis (and thus also Anubis). After that, order is unclear, but the rest of the trash in sequence is Spike Trap (I remember being very unsure whether to destroy that immediately, taking Anubis damage for destroying Haka's Mere and denying it to Cappy in case of a Plunder, or risk leaving the Trap in play to hit either a Crew member or a Hero; I opted to do the former and perhaps that was the wrong choice), other Judgment of Anubis (not sure if I actually resolved this; if so, it was probably during Heroic Interception), Cast Into the Underworld (I'm SURE I didn't resolve this; it and probably the Judgment must have been discarded by Urshe), Akana, The Challenge of Fire, Swinging Blades, Nomti (I believe he was heavily involved in the mauling of either Ra or Haka, but ended up in Savage Mana after Ra roasted him for 7 on Legacy's turn), Shamise (also Savage Mana), Anubis (heavily beaten up by Ra and Haka before going into Savage Mana...this is the only time I can recall killing him with attacks, rather than outright with a Bio-Engineering Beam or the like), and final card in trash was Mdjai (who was killed by damage redirected off of La Capitan during the one round when she was on her Split Across Time and yet took damage - stupid Temporal Thief). Game ended with Idol of Anput in play as part of the Environment, and Visi holding the mostly-useless Rod (which she had finally fired once or twice between Cocoons, having seldom if ever used it before her near-death experience). Ra had Excavated the Idol, Swarm of Scarabs, and Urshe in that order during one of Unity's incap turns...by the time the Swarm came out, nothing could kill it, and Ra used his final incap turn to put it under the deck, since taking out Captain's Orders would do little good.
Visionary: 4 HP left prior to final turn, and 2 damage prevented by Haka's incap turn (since she could neither play nor draw cards when Cocooned among Scarabs; she also couldn't use powers, so Legacy had depowered the Environment just in case there was a damaging card I'd forgotten). Hand in no particular order: Mental Divergence, Suggestion, Brain Burn, Prophetic vision, Cerebral Hemorrhage, Mind Spike, Twist the Ether x2, Psychic Maelstrom. Trash, in correct order: Prophetic Vision, Mind Spike, Brain Burn, Wrest the Mind (used on L'Episte to deal quite an impressive amount of damage to one of his allies once, after which he died without Visi being hurt), Mind Spike, Decoy Projection (discarded to Challenge of Fire while in Cocoon), TK Cocoon, Psychic Maelstrom (probably a stolen card from Temporal Thief pre-ship-sinking), Precognition (definitely a stolen card, from the later Temporal Thief which probably was ultimately the reason for Cappy's survival), Mass Levitation (discarded to Enlightenment when fishing for a second Cocoon, which she found and thus survived another round or two after chancing dropping back into the game), Wrest the Mind (played on Battle Forged during Unity's penultimate incap turn, followed by a TK Cocoon on Haka's), and the final Cocoon.
Legacy: All cards he saw prior to dying -Heroic Interception (probably a stolen card), Fortitude, Flying Smash, Take Down, Danger Sense (the very first stolen card, played entirely out of lack of anything better to do that turn - all his cards on turn 2 were Ongoings and this was the only one that didn't damage him, except for Next Evolution which he thought he might eventually use - all of which is very ironic given that the Environment killed him), Next Evolution (discarded to the Challenge of Fire), Heroic Interception (actually played), Bolster Allies, Heroic Interception and the Legacy Ring (his hand at the time of death - he had Fortitude in play at some point, and it was either stolen by Cappy or proved insufficient to save him, due to just 1 extra damage from Haka's Rampage; had he not taken that 1 damage, he was prepared to play Interception again).
Unity: All cards she saw prior to dying - Powered Shock Wave (discarded to round 1 Enlighten), Brainstorm x3 (2 played, 1 in hand at death), Stealth Bot, Flash Forge, Construction Pylon, Hasty Augmentation, Inspired Repair, Bee Bot, Modular Workbench x2. Except for the duplicate Bench, these were all cards she had in hand and couldn't bear to discard in exchange for a "mere" Bee Bot - which would have saved her life, and she wouldn't have died having never used a Power that game.
Haka and Ra lived longer, so I'm less clear on which of their cards were discarded, stolen, played, or what, and will simply list the cards in what appears to have been their hand, trash, and play order at time of death (the three piles possibly not in that order).
Haka: All cards he saw prior to dying - Dominion (not sure if this one was in his deck - he definitely never saw the next card in the pile, so that's where his unused cards begin), Rampage, Ta Moko, Rampage, Ground Pound (he probably should have played this, but there were few other O/Es to protect it), Elbow Smash (used on Cappy before killing Anubis with Mere), Haka of Restoration (for about 4), Mere, Dominion (never worth a play), Ground Pound, Punish the Weak (discarded this somehow, despite LC being alone on the field at the time, since it seemed unlikely to stay beneficial forever in this match), Taiaha (very useful on round 3), Vitality Surge (after hand reduced to 1 card, this was drawn), Rampage, Ta Moko, Punish the Weak, Elbow Smash, Enduring Intercession (he wasn't about to play that by the time he drew it), Dominion, Haka of Shielding (for about 2 cards), Savage Mana (in play, with three Environment cards in it, at the time of death), Ta Moko, Mere (probably also in play, though they might have been stolen cards - I remember two of her three after one flip were his).
Ra: All cards he saw prior to dying - Flame Spike, Inferno x2, Living Conflagration, Blazing Tornado, Scorched Earth (all of these were probably in hand), Flame Barrier, The Staff of Ra, Imbued Fire, Drawn to the Flame (all of these were probably in play), Flame Barrier, The Staff of Ra, Summon Staff, The Staff of Ra, Summon Staff x2, Flame Spike, The Staff of Ra, Summon Staff, Flesh of the Sun God (this along with Summon Staff and Flame Barrier were discarded to the Challenge of Fire, and it was the only one he felt even a little sad to give up), Excavation, Flame Spike, Solar Flare, Scorched Earth (this killed Mdjai, hitting her twice because of Cappy's advanced side B ability). The Staves of Ra were extremely popular theft targets for Cappy, since Ra liked not having them in play when his next turn began...he gained 12 HP this way and that almost certainly kept him alive as long as he was.