The tl;dr version is that I'd like there to be fewer victory squares, or at higher victory requirement for the enemy. I find Totem Maze (the second stage of Black Plume Mountain) to be very easy with Volcano very difficult without it. So much so that it feels like the map is nothing more than a test of whether or not I have Volcano in my build. Maybe I'm missing something; but to me it seems a bit shallow. I'd much prefer if other strategies were viable. When I first tried the map, my strategies involved using Toughness, blocks, and Impenetrable Nimbus to safely get close to a totem, and then kill it in one round - or use Hot Spot or Winds Of War to get it off the victory spot. The big challenge was getting into position quickly enough, and with the right cards to deal with the totems. The turn limit is tight, so there can be no waiting around for the right cards. And an unlucky Maze Of The Mind could get a character instantly killed. I'd use Smoke Bomb to cover the dangerous corridors - or try to soak up the mind mazes with short moves, or cantrip moves before making my 'real' moves. I found that although I could win this way; it still required a lot of luck. If the enemy happened to have one too many Maze Of The Minds, I would lose. If I didn't happen to draw a suitable set of damage / defence cards, I'd lose. If an Umber Bulk body-blocked a critical passage, I'd probably have to spend my damage cards getting rid of it, and then lose because I wouldn't have enough turns to draw more for the totems. The bottom line is that this careful planning and strategising was interesting, but still insufficient. On the other hand, if I just use Volcano sometime within the first handful of turns, then I win. One card wins it while all my other strategies fail. I think Volcano is about the least interesting way to win the map. It short-circuits most of the challenges. But I can't find any other reliable way to win. To me, the core problem is just that there aren't enough turns for other strategies to work. If I just had a couple more turns, then I think I could reliably win using my other strategies. So my suggestion is that either the enemy's victory point requirements are increased by a couple of starts, or one or two of the back-line totems should not be on victory squares (so that the player isn't under such turn pressure to kill them all). (And if you happen to know of a reliable way to win which doesn't involve Volcano, I'd be interested to hear it.)
When you say "any of the following", do you mean that just by using any one of those cards, you can win reliably? (Like, >90% of the time.) I don't think I could... Nimbus and cantrip moves I've already mentioned - they are certainly useful, but not enough to be reliable. I did try firestorm before I tried volcano, but I'd forgotten about that. You still have to make your way to the back of the map, and then draw the cards you need to kill the totems - but at least it doesn't require you to nimbus-dive the final row of totems. I think the only reason I gave up on firestorm is that I realised volcano would be better... maybe I'll try it again to see how it works out. Whirlwind can be useful, relies on the enemy not drawing immovable, and a bit of luck to get the totems off the victory squares. Let me just clarify what I was trying to say in my original post: Using volcano is an easy and reliable way to win. Other strategies can win too, but not reliably enough to risk trying instead of volcano (in my experience). ie. I can win with nimbus, touch-of-death, quick-run, etc; but it usually takes a couple of attempts. It's hard justify using a couple of restarts when I know that volcano is going to work almost every time. I think that the volcano strategy side-steps most of the interesting features of the map. And so I think it would be more fun if the other strategies worked effectively enough that players such as myself don't feel pressured into using volcano. I've had a few of attempts at this map in which after a hard-fought battle, both Bulks and a few totems are dead, and I just needed one more turn to deal with the totems... It's an exciting challenge. The volcano strategy is a lot less exciting.
WW/WWE should work decently too. It might backfire occasionally, but at least it stops the clock long enough to draw Resistant Hide or Grounding Plates.
