Posting as my first test subject; Mother Myrtle, with the Reanimator Role.
Playing with the Alchemist Class Deck with the Ultimate Equipment Add-On Deck, the Reanimator Myrtle is able to spend allies to explore... then combo between Robe of Items, Twitch Tonic as well as a veritable ton of deck-searching powers and long-term supportive cards, finished off by her Reanimator's power to re-draw and re-use Robe of Items again and again...
...to what end? To explore, and move, and explore, and explore again, and stack more and more and more dice together, building a larger and larger hand size and re-using any effect she wants to finish a scenario in a single turn with ease. I demonstrated this as my first test in the play-by-post thread, where I took scenario 3-5D, an AD5 scenario in Season 3 (using Mummy's Mask) and blitzed through about 18 cards with ease; though I'm pretty confident I could've continued indefinitely, whether 20 or 200 cards, unless there was a very, very specific consequence which could not be avoided by rolling a 20 or so on just about any skill, or if I ever went through 6-8 or so explorations without encountering a monster.
I also summed up my observations and thoughts, and identified that despite stacking the game as much as I could against Myrtle (keeping basic/elite boons, kicking out basic/elite banes, removing Traders, removing Loot cards, taking the 'weaker' interpretation of her first power), the turn-1 victory was still trivial to accomplish, and I believe I could solo most scenarios from Adventure 5 onwards in a similar fashion with her. I also described possible 'nerfs' that could be applied to cards or powers that would prevent this chaining exploit, but hopefully keep the cards or powers strong enough to still be highly desirable to most players.
I'd be extremely interested to hear what people's thoughts are on the Reanimator + Robe of Items + Twitch Tonic combo, or any other builds people want to test. I've got no shortage of my own ideas, but I want to see what the community has already come up with.
TL;DR: Mother Myrtle, with Reanimator Role, with the Ultimate Equipment Add-On Deck.
Solo play, Scenario 3-5D.
Key Cards: Robe of Items, Twitch Tonic
Victory achieved in 1 turn.
Continuing turn. Summoning and encountering Aghash.
Use Divine for the check to defeat, and recharge Blessing of the Ancients to add a die. Myrtle uses Wisdom in place of Divine.
Divine 18:2d12 + 4 + 2d6 + 2d6 + 1d4 ⇒ (12, 6) + 4 + (1, 5) + (5, 3) + (2) = 38 -> Aghash defeated and Towering Obelisk closed.
Discard Robe of Items to draw Twitch Tonic and Potion of Focus from my deck.
Discard Master Cartman to move back to the Quarry, burying Disable Mechanism for the scenario power, and exploring.
Quarry 1: Bladeguard
Auto-acquire.
Deck is empty; attempt check to close. Banish Potion of Focus to add my Craft skill, and discard Blessing of Nethys to add a die.
Fortitude 11:2d8 + 1 + 1d12 + 6 + 2d6 + 1d4 ⇒ (3, 3) + 1 + (10) + 6 + (5, 1) + (1) = 30 -> Quarry closed. Game over.
Checks to recharge Potion of Focus and Blessing of Nethys occur, but no difference to the end of the game.
Displayed: Potion of Heroism, Wandermeal, Potion of Restoration, Steal Soul, Restoration, Stone Skin,
Deck: 11 Discard: 3 Buried: 4
Notes: Game over; and I could've kept going for a long while yet. Wayfarer, Twitch Tonic to redraw allies, Call Potion to redraw Twitch Tonic, spend allies, Twitch Tonic to redraw allies, Delve to redraw Twitch Tonic, spend allies. In those 9 or so offered explorations, at least one monster defeat is all but guaranteed to draw Robe of Items and keep going all over again.
Sideboard cards:
Favored Card: Spell Hand Size 6 [X] 7 [ ] 8
Proficient with: Light Armors
Powers:
You may use your Wisdom skill for your Arcane ([X] or Divine) check.
When you would banish ([X] or discard) a boon that has the Alchemical, Arcane, Divine, or Liquid trait for its power, you may instead attempt a Knowledge check with a difficulty of 7 ([ ] 5) plus the card’s adventure deck number. If you succeed, recharge it ([ ] or shuffle it into your deck); if you fail, discard it.
[ ] You may recharge a card to add 1d4 to a Wisdom check by a character at your location ([ ] or to add 2d4 to his check against a card that has the Animal, Aquatic, Plant, or Vermin trait) ([ ] or the Outsider or Undead trait).
[X] When a character at your location defeats a monster, you may draw an ally ([X] or a spell or an item) from your discard pile ([X] or search your deck for a card of that type and draw it).
Discard Robe of Items to redraw Twitch Tonic and Potion of Focus from deck. Deck Shuffled.
Discard Pahmet Clansman to explore.
Towering Obelisk 7: Blessing of Nethys
Auto-acquired with Divine.
Discard Wayfarer to explore.
Towering Obelisk 8: Aspis Commander
Perception 13:1d4 + 4d6 + 1d4 ⇒ (3) + (3, 6, 3, 4) + (4) = 23 -> Aspis Commander would be defeated, but instead Usij Cultist is summoned from the scenario power.
Reveal Sunrod for combat, recharging Potion of Focus for its power.
Usij Cultist damage type:1d6 ⇒ 6 -> Fire.
BYA Wisdom 8:1d12 + 4 + 4d6 + 1d4 ⇒ (9) + 4 + (2, 4, 2, 1) + (3) = 25 -> Passed.
Combat 20:1d12 + 4 + 3d6 + 3d6 + 1d4 ⇒ (7) + 4 + (1, 6, 3) + (3, 2, 3) + (1) = 30 -> Usij Cultist defeated and overkilled. Myrtle takes 1d4 damage, but will display Stone Skin to ignore it, and a blessing is discarded from the blessings deck. Robe of Items drawn from discard.
Aspis Commander defeated by a noncombat check. Myrtle draws a card (Laboratory Coat), then uses her power to draw Call Potion from her deck.
Summon Aghash to attempt to close. I forgot to include that card's text, and I'm about to end the game, so it seems like a good time for an update.
Mother Myrtle wrote:
Hand: Blessing of the Ancients (Acq.), Sunrod, Twitch Tonic, Delve, Robe of Items, Disable Mechanism (Acq.), Wayfarer, Laboratory Coat, Master Cartman, Blessing of Nethys (Acq.), Call Potion,
Displayed: Potion of Heroism, Wandermeal, Potion of Restoration, Steal Soul, Restoration, Stone Skin
Deck: 8 Discard: 1 Buried: 3
Notes: Even with the design flaw, this was trivial. I still had methods of damage resistance, barrier destroying, etc.
Sideboard cards:
Favored Card: Spell Hand Size 6 [X] 7 [ ] 8
Proficient with: Light Armors
Powers:
You may use your Wisdom skill for your Arcane ([X] or Divine) check.
When you would banish ([X] or discard) a boon that has the Alchemical, Arcane, Divine, or Liquid trait for its power, you may instead attempt a Knowledge check with a difficulty of 7 ([ ] 5) plus the card’s adventure deck number. If you succeed, recharge it ([ ] or shuffle it into your deck); if you fail, discard it.
[ ] You may recharge a card to add 1d4 to a Wisdom check by a character at your location ([ ] or to add 2d4 to his check against a card that has the Animal, Aquatic, Plant, or Vermin trait) ([ ] or the Outsider or Undead trait).
[X] When a character at your location defeats a monster, you may draw an ally ([X] or a spell or an item) from your discard pile ([X] or search your deck for a card of that type and draw it).
Banish Delve to search and add Twitch Tonic back to hand.
Knowledge 7+2:1d8 + 3 + 2d6 + 1d4 ⇒ (6) + 3 + (3, 4) + (4) = 20 -> Delve recharged.
Discard Master Cartman to move to Dilapidated Plaza, then explore. The scenario power causes me to bury Hunga Munga.
Dilapidated Plaza 1: Aspis Commander
Diplomacy 13:1d4 + 2d6 + 1d4 ⇒ (2) + (6, 3) + (3) = 14 -> Aspis Commander would be defeated, but instead, due to the scenario power, I summon and encounter Usuj Cultist.
Usij Cultist damage type:1d6 ⇒ 6 -> Fire
BYA Wisdom 8:1d12 + 4 + 2d6 + 1d4 ⇒ (8) + 4 + (3, 2) + (1) = 18 -> No penalty
Using Sunrod for combat, recharging Potion of Focus to its power.
Combat 20:1d12 + 6 + 3d6 + 1d6 + 1d4 ⇒ (1) + 6 + (6, 4, 1) + (5) + (3) = 26 -> Usij Cultist Defeated. Myrtle draws the Restoration spell from her deck with her power.
Aspis Commander defeated with a non-combat check. Myrtle draws a card (Delve) from defeating the Aspis Commander with a non-combat check and searches out Stone Skin from her deck with her power.
Diplomacy 9 (Closing):1d4 + 2d6 + 1d4 ⇒ (4) + (6, 5) + (2) = 17 -> Location closed.
Discard Robe of Items to search out and redraw Potion of Focus and Twitch Tonic.
Display Restoration to draw 2 cards (Anesthetizing Slime, Call Potion).
Myrtle is continuing her turn... but lets make a scenario update as well as review her hand. There's some things I need to clear up.
Mother Myrtle wrote:
Hand: Blessing of the Ancients (Acq.), Sunrod, Twitch Tonic, Call Potion, Delve, Stone Skin, Potion of Focus, Wayfarer, Master Cartman, Anesthetizing Slime,
Displayed: Potion of Heroism, Wandermeal, Potion of Restoration, Steal Soul, Restoration,
Deck: 7 Discard: 1 Buried: 1
Notes: The design flaw still cuts, but again, something to discuss in a retrospective. Even so, I'm increasingly confident I'll manage a turn-1 win here.
Sideboard cards:
Favored Card: Spell Hand Size 6 [X] 7 [ ] 8
Proficient with: Light Armors
Powers:
You may use your Wisdom skill for your Arcane ([X] or Divine) check.
When you would banish ([X] or discard) a boon that has the Alchemical, Arcane, Divine, or Liquid trait for its power, you may instead attempt a Knowledge check with a difficulty of 7 ([ ] 5) plus the card’s adventure deck number. If you succeed, recharge it ([ ] or shuffle it into your deck); if you fail, discard it.
[ ] You may recharge a card to add 1d4 to a Wisdom check by a character at your location ([ ] or to add 2d4 to his check against a card that has the Animal, Aquatic, Plant, or Vermin trait) ([ ] or the Outsider or Undead trait).
[X] When a character at your location defeats a monster, you may draw an ally ([X] or a spell or an item) from your discard pile ([X] or search your deck for a card of that type and draw it).
Banish Twitch Tonic to draw Crystalline Carnivore back to hand. Myrtle will either recharge or discard it with her power, but there's no difference to my next action.
Discard Robe of Items again to draw Twitch Tonic, Potion of Focus and Potion of Restoration from discard pile & deck.
Display Potion of Restoration to draw 2 cards. Current hand below:
Mother Myrtle wrote:
Hand: Blessing of the Ancients (Acq.), Wayfarer, Call Potion, Sunrod, Delve, Twitch Tonic, Crystalline Carnivore, Potion of Focus, Steal Soul, Anesthetizing Slime,
Displayed: Potion of Heroism, Wandermeal, Potion of Restoration,
Deck: 8 Discard: 1 Buried: 0
Discard Wayfarer to explore.
Quarry 4: Burning Child
Use Charisma to defeat. Wayfarer+Wandermeal+Potion of Heroism+Charisma.
Charisma 10:5d6 ⇒ (3, 6, 5, 2, 5) = 21 -> Burning Child defeated. Display Steal Soul. Draw Robe of Items from discard, again.
Fire Damage:1d4 ⇒ 2 -> Recharge Armored Kilt and discard Potion of Focus.
Current Status:
Mother Myrtle wrote:
Hand: Blessing of the Ancients (Acq.), Sunrod, Delve, Twitch Tonic, Potion of Focus, Anesthetizing Slime, Robe of Items,
Displayed: Potion of Heroism, Wandermeal, Potion of Restoration, Steal Soul,
Deck: 11 Discard: 1 Buried: 0
Notes: Growing even further; I have realised a design flaw with this build, but discussing it can wait until after the scenario. It has to do with keeping Alchemical allies around.
Sideboard cards:
Favored Card: Spell Hand Size 6 [X] 7 [ ] 8
Proficient with: Light Armors
Powers:
You may use your Wisdom skill for your Arcane ([X] or Divine) check.
When you would banish ([X] or discard) a boon that has the Alchemical, Arcane, Divine, or Liquid trait for its power, you may instead attempt a Knowledge check with a difficulty of 7 ([ ] 5) plus the card’s adventure deck number. If you succeed, recharge it ([ ] or shuffle it into your deck); if you fail, discard it.
[ ] You may recharge a card to add 1d4 to a Wisdom check by a character at your location ([ ] or to add 2d4 to his check against a card that has the Animal, Aquatic, Plant, or Vermin trait) ([ ] or the Outsider or Undead trait).
[X] When a character at your location defeats a monster, you may draw an ally ([X] or a spell or an item) from your discard pile ([X] or search your deck for a card of that type and draw it).
Hand: Robe of Items, Wayfarer, Potion of Focus, Crystalline Carnivore, Call Potion, Sunrod, Delve,
Displayed: Deck: 13 Discard: 0 Buried: 0
Notes: Excellent starting hand! Let's see how this performs.
Sideboard cards:
Discard Robe of Items. Add Potion of Heroism, Wandermeal and Twitch Tonic to hand.
Display Potion of Heroism. +1d6 to all checks.
Free exploration.
Quarry 1: Ossumental Swarm
Using Sunrod for combat, recharging Potion of Focus to its power. Sunrod deals a bonus 1d6 against undead. Use Crystalline Carnivore to add a die, then use Myrtle's power to try to recharge it.
Knowledge 7+4:1d8 + 3 + 1d6 ⇒ (3) + 3 + (3) = 9 -> Crystalling Carnivore discarded.
Combat 20:2d12 + 6 + 5d6 ⇒ (4, 3) + 6 + (1, 5, 6, 6, 4) = 35 Swarm defeated. Blessing of the Ancients drawn from the box. Reanimator power used to draw Robe of Items back to hand.
Wandermeal is displayed.
Current status:
Mother Myrtle wrote:
Hand: Blessing of the Ancients (Acq.), Wayfarer, Call Potion, Sunrod, Delve, Twitch Tonic,
Displayed: Potion of Heroism, Wandermeal,
Deck: 12 Discard: 2 Buried: 0
Notes: So far so good. Lets see how long we can keep this running; 10 cards should be a cinch, but can I get a movement ability and do even more on the first turn?
Sideboard cards:
Favored Card: Spell Hand Size 6 [X] 7 [ ] 8
Proficient with: Light Armors
Powers:
You may use your Wisdom skill for your Arcane ([X] or Divine) check.
When you would banish ([X] or discard) a boon that has the Alchemical, Arcane, Divine, or Liquid trait for its power, you may instead attempt a Knowledge check with a difficulty of 7 ([ ] 5) plus the card’s adventure deck number. If you succeed, recharge it ([ ] or shuffle it into your deck); if you fail, discard it.
[ ] You may recharge a card to add 1d4 to a Wisdom check by a character at your location ([ ] or to add 2d4 to his check against a card that has the Animal, Aquatic, Plant, or Vermin trait) ([ ] or the Outsider or Undead trait).
[X] When a character at your location defeats a monster, you may draw an ally ([X] or a spell or an item) from your discard pile ([X] or search your deck for a card of that type and draw it).
For my first test, I will be playing the following:
CHARACTER:Mother Myrtle, with the Reanimator Role card.
DECKS:Alchemist Class Deck and the Ultimate Equipment Add-On Deck.
TIER: 5 (Has completed 3 scenarios since entering Tier 5)
FEATS: 5 Skill/6 Power/5* Card
*A bonus Card Feat was gained from completing Adventure 3-4 SCENARIO: 3-5D: IN CHAOS, ONE SHALL REIGN
USING LOOT/TRADERS?: No.
What I'm Testing:
Robe of Items is an incredibly powerful Item 5 from Ultimate Equipment; it can be discarded to draw 3 cards from your deck or discard pile with the Accessory, Book, Liquid or Object traits. Those four traits - particularly "Liquid" and "Object" - make up a colossal portion of all items in the game, allowing it to pretty consistently be used to draw your three other best items, even if you just used them.
Meanwhile, Myrtle's Reanimator role lets her draw allies, spells or items from her discard pile (or her deck) when a monster is defeated at her location. Meaning it's pretty trivial to re-use Robe of Items (and, by extension, 3 additional items) over and over and over. Some items in Ultimate Equipment can, for example, serve to explore your location or bolster your checks or heal you... but the most important of which is arguably actually Twitch Tonic from the Alchemist Class Deck, which can draw 2-5 allies from your discard pile with every use. Chaining these effects together can bring you 2-5 explorations out of every monster killed, whilst the rest of her deck can focus on providing the means to fight and defend herself and bolster all of her checks.
I am of the opinion this is probably a too-powerful strategy... but I think Myrtle's already a kind of absurdly powerful character even without an Ultimate Add-On deck, mostly with her ability to discard, recharge or shuffle back all kinds of cards that really shouldn't be able to be exploited so easily. Blessings, Armor, Weapons, Spells, Items.
Regarding Mother Myrtle's first power, and Loot cards:
Myrtle's first power (the ability to substitute Wisdom for Arcane or Divine) is in a gray area of the rules right now (see the semi-official rulings regarding Varril's own powers), specifically as to whether you can use an attack spell with her Wisdom skill or not.
On the one hand, the intention of the designers, for now, seems to be that you can't 'chain together' effects that let you define what skill you're using. You can't say "I use this spell to use Arcane for combat" then "I use this power to use Wisdom for Arcane". Furthermore, Myrtle is an exceptionally powerful character with potent combos and value as-is.
On the other hand, it makes one of her powers almost useless if it cannot be used for attack spells. At least it allows her to use her Wisdom skill to acquire arcane spells easier... but spending a power feat to use her Wisdom skill in place of Divine seems pointless if it can't be used alongside a spell. She's unable to make normal recharge checks, and 90% of cards that have Divine as a check to acquire have Wisdom as another check to acquire anyway. Based on the boons available in the Class Deck, as well as her character design, it seems likely to me the original intent was that she could cast offensive magic fine.
However, for the purposes of this test, I will assume that she cannot use attack spells with her power, in order to intentionally limit her power level. I will also avoid Traders and Loot cards to further limit her power level, and best represent what this build could enable in any Season of play. I will also ignore Die Bumps.
Why 3-5D?:
I needed to pick an Adventure 5 scenario for this test so that Myrtle would be able to have the Robe of Items deck 5 boon, and I picked the most 'normal' scenario in the Adventure that wasn't mired in unusual rules or boons or banes and that seemed it would work fine in a solo party.
Decklist:
Delve Spell 2
Call Potion Spell B
Steal Soul Spell 5
Restoration Spell 4
Stone Skin Spell 1
Laboratory Coat Armor 1
Twitch Tonic Item 3
Potion of Heroism Item 4
Potion of Restoration Item 2
Sunrod Item 4
Potion of Focus Item 2
Robe of Items Item 5
Wandermeal Item B
Crystalline Carnivore Ally 4
Anesthetizing Slime Ally B
Flensing Jelly Ally 2
Wayfarer Ally 5
Master Cartman Ally 2
Blessing of Kofusachi Blessing 1
Blessing of the Savored Sting Blessing 4
Build Intent and Prediction:
The intent of this build, for now, is to stack as many 'long-term' bonuses as possible, like Steal Soul, Potion of Heroism and Wandermeal, then chain Robe of Items, Twitch Tonic and Master Cartman for explorations and movement, and re-use Sunrod endlessly for combat checks.
The biggest weakness of this deck is that it's entirely reliant on the combo to explore aggressively, and it has almost no means of combat. Myrtle has virtually no decent options at combat aside from Sunrod; the grenade-style items and some Alchemical weapons work okay with Myrtle, but they can't be revealed for their use, making them of limited use when I'm trying to chain endless explorations together. A grenade item could be re-drawn repeatedly with Robe of Items, but the same can be said of the re-usable Sunrod once I get it in my hand to begin with.
I'm willing to spend some turns 'setting up' to get the combo, but once I've drawn Robe of Items and Sunrod I should be good to go, and I have plenty of means of searching out combo pieces or partial combo pieces - Call Potion, two "Restoration" cards, Delve and Blessing of Kofusachi.
I predict that I won't be able to chain together 'movement' effects as much as I'd like, though I think it would be technically possible - however unlikely - of a turn-1 completion of the scenario... I think I'm more expecting it to take 3-5 turns to complete, assuming there's no particularly dangerous effect that causes me to bury or banish a combo piece.
Favored Card: Spell Hand Size 6 [X] 7 [ ] 8
Proficient with: Light Armors
Powers:
You may use your Wisdom skill for your Arcane ([X] or Divine) check.
When you would banish ([X] or discard) a boon that has the Alchemical, Arcane, Divine, or Liquid trait for its power, you may instead attempt a Knowledge check with a difficulty of 7 ([ ] 5) plus the card’s adventure deck number. If you succeed, recharge it ([ ] or shuffle it into your deck); if you fail, discard it.
[ ] You may recharge a card to add 1d4 to a Wisdom check by a character at your location ([ ] or to add 2d4 to his check against a card that has the Animal, Aquatic, Plant, or Vermin trait) ([ ] or the Outsider or Undead trait).
[X] When a character at your location defeats a monster, you may draw an ally ([X] or a spell or an item) from your discard pile ([X] or search your deck for a card of that type and draw it).
