AGE Puzzle of the Month-August

The secret to defending is understanding your opponent. Watch out, this Dio has a few tricks up her sleeve!

Can you play around them all?

Cards in the puzzle:

Dash I/O, Symbiosis Shot, Teklo Foundry Heart, Achilles Accelerator, Cerebellum Processor, Boom Grenade, Stasis Cell, Zero to Sixty (R), Zero to Sixty (Y), Zero to Sixty (B), Zipper Hit, Soup Up, Out Pace, Throttle, System Reset, Null Time Zone, Bravo Showstopper, Fyendals Spring Tunic, Quickdodge Flexors, Shelter From the Storm, Battlefront Bastion, Oasis Respite, Raging Onslaught, Fearless Confrontation.

Solution & Hints, Below:

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Instead of attacking for 5, Dio should have activated Stasis Cell immediately. This mistake could lose her the game. She should have targeted Tunic and Quickdodge Flexors with each half of Stasis Cell, preventing some of your defensive options on the first chain-link and putting Stasis Cell on the bottom of her deck to Boost away later.

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Dio's strongest possible line involves playing System Reset for X=2. But maybe you can stop that...

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Don't forget Null Time Zone can be cranked off the top.

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Solution:

"I'd catch a Grenade for ya"

1. Defend with Tunic and Fearless Confrontation, taking 1 damage so Boom Grenade hits.
2. Activate Tunic for a resource to play Oasis Respite, targeting Boom Grenade. Gain 1 life returning to 3.
3. Dio attacks for 3 with Zero to Sixty, boosting away Soup Up. Defend for 2 & 1 with Battlefront Bastion.
4. Dio activates Cerebellum Processor, drawing Out Pace, 0 action points. Dio activates Achilles Accelerator, 1 action point.
5. Dio attacks with Out Pace for 4, pitching Zipper Hit, boosting away Throttle. 2 resources floating. Defend for 4 with Shelter.
6. Dio activates Teklo Foundry Heart, banishing Zero to Sixty and System Reset. 3 resources floating
7. Dio attacks for 3 with Zipper Hit, boosting away Zero to Sixty. 2 resources floating. Defend with Raging Onslaught.
8. Dio plays Null Time Zone off the top, gaining a counter on Symbiosis Shot.
9. Dio attacks for 2 with Symbiosis Shot. You have no cards left, take 2. Go to 1 life.
10. You have survived.

The key here is taking Boom Grenade so Dio can no longer System Reset for 2 action points, this lets you survive the turn. After the first chain-link Dio can play their pitch stack in a few different orders however, all of them result in some combination of 5 (on-hit boom), 3-3-4-2. Without resolving System Reset for 2 action points & 2 steam counters, Dio cant swing Symbiosis more than once and doesn't have enough damage to kill you. Technically, 5-3-3-4-2-2 (the System Reset line where you cover Boom Grenade) is the same overall value. However, defending with your tunic and covering Boom Grenade is impossible without using Shelter on the first chain-link. This allows Dio to fork you into holding Oasis and Battlefront Bastion for the 4-power breakpoint of red Zero to Sixty, which she can punish by naming Oasis with Null Time Zone.

Congratulations and thank you for playing!

-Ben