Most Unorthodox Strategy

Greetings fellow Card Hunters! I'm new to this forum as I just found out about Card Hunter a few days ago through PC Gamer. And wow, can't believe I let a gem like this fly under my radar. I've recently been spending countless hours in both the campaign and multi-player mode, and I'm currently levelling up my all-human party for use in the multiplayer arena.

So onto the topic. The very concept of Card Hunter allows for smart tactics, grand plays, epic comebacks, and of course, some unorthodox strategies. So let us all share the unorthodox strategies that you have utilized, either in the campaign or multi-player arena.

I had a few of these, but my most recent and best one will be the fight against Tvericus. On my first try I was really prepared as I just breezed through the first three levels with ease. But when time came to fight Tvericus, I wasn't prepared for the overwhelming amount of undead and of course, Tvericus himself. My party got cornered by the entrance and was just slaughtered mercilessly. So on my second try, I equipped my Priest with Entangling Roots and my Wizard with that Force Push card to keep Tvericus at bay, but luck wasn't on my side as I wasn't drawing these cards and the undead again began to corner my party (which is pretty much expected on this stage). As the zombies boxed my party in, I noticed that they're all placed perfectly in that there is no 2x2 tile that Tvericus can squeeze through so he can start hammering at my units. So I let the zombie stay where they are (around 4 of them) and just let them gnaw away at my Warrior and Priest while my Wizard rain down spells on Tvericus turn after turn. I got a lucky break when both Entangling Roots and the Fire Tile came up, which allowed me to deal heavy damage to Tvericus. After a few turns, my Priest is running low on health as all my Heal Cards are spent on my Warrior so something has to happen, and behold, an opening came up which allowed my Warrior to finish off a nearby Zombie, run in next to Tvericus, and land the killing blow with a 7 dmg Bludgeon (which is the exact amount of health Tvericus has left after my Wizard's barrage). Tvericus managed to land a heavy blow on my Warrior before the killing blow though, which left him at 3 HP, too close for comfort. After that, my party just cleaned up the remaining zombies and continue on to take the win.

So there it is, a simple but for me, pretty unorthodox strategy which relied on keeping my enemies alive - well technically they're Undead but the idea is there - to achieve a greater goal. I'm pretty sure I'll come up with more of this as I progress and improves both my party and my skills in this game. I apologize for the the long read though, just wanted to share.

So what's the most unorthodox strategy that you've come up with Card Hunter?

 

Using winds of War on your team to move then can be fun, or the normal uses:move enemys to near you or to lava/acid/spikes.
Using force blast on yourself to push a char without movement near a enemy to strike it or away from lava.

 

Haven't tried it but I have thought about using Bad Luck on my own team to keep from activating the armor on something like Frenzy Aura.

 

Two listings here. 1 that is mine but not too original, 1 that caught me flat footed.

The evil one I never saw coming.

MP game. My opponent is running 2 priests and a wizard. I think I am in for an easy win until all three of his characters group up and drop the bomb on 2 of my chars who have used their moves and are in LoS of the wizard.

Savage Curse gets played on the wizard and I have my first glimmer that something bad is coming. As he unloads and empties his hand.
Then I discover that the priests are loaded up on Inspiring Presence, Altruism, and Inspiration... (Given how relatively rare the presences are I was very surprised when he played 5)
The wizard drew card after card after card powered by the priest card draw machine. Lobbing beefed up spells at me he 1 rounds 1 of my characters and gets a second to half health.

My own not too original one.

After I picked up a 3rd Staff Of The Inferno I started in on the 1 HP challenges using this strategy. And while going through the challenges I picked up a 4th staff and then a 5th... Still looking for a 6th, but I also have 12 no token items like Orb Of Flames and Storm Circlet. With 3 wizards it is fairly likely for me to draw 2-3 Firestrorms on turn 1. Low level dwarf wizards generally will live through 3 firestorms. Combine this with the low HP/low armor enemies in missions with levels 1-6 (only exception being the wizard tower which has both high HP and armor), and most boards can be 1 round cleared in purifying fire.

I can go through all the level 2-6 modules, except wizard tower, in about 30 mins now. This usually will often pull in an epic treasure to fund my retries on quests, items like Firehide Robes to optimize this grind even more, and the occasional goodie like Snitrick's Shield as options for my no orb item allocations.

 

I've noticed that against mobs (goblins?) that have blocks or missile blocks, using a healing pulse will trigger these, sometimes causing them to use up those block cards.

 

Something I discovered recently with my priest is the use of Bad Medicine. I tended to shy away from weapons that have that card until I started making my enemies choke it down when they are at full health! The best part is it doesn't activate armor and will trigger blocks. I've also considered using it on my own priest when she's got Holy Armor and/or Boosted Heal.

Another fun thing to do is put boots with Charge on your elf wizard. Weaken them with spells at a distance then fly in for the kill! Especially nice with cards that boost movement.

 

Smoke Bomb, ftw! Smoke:

• clears damaging terrain (acid, lava, stone)
• clears stopping terrain (map, acid, stone)
• blocks ranged magic attacks (except cones)
• blocks ranged healing and buffs
• blocks ranged melee attacks

Also, Slippery + high damage attacks on a warrior. Just be sure to pass first, so that at the beginning of the next round you can slip up behind an enemy and one-hit KO! No blocking if you end up behind the enemy, and because it's a free move you can even slip past stopping terrain or their front line of warriors to surprise a wizard or priest a couple squares back.

 

Ever since I got good access to reliable mail, I haven't worried about getting out of the way of my own AoE anymore. Apply enough low level burn effects to your own characters, and you can push other debuffs right off of yourself. Cleansing power of fire, and all that.

 

smoke bomb = cleanse in disguise. This spell is seriously useful.

 

I like Charge plus Rushing Aura, or other movement boosters. Nobody expects 8 damage to fly at them from across the field!

(this is actually really impractical and hard to pull off, but I did it once, so I thought I'd mention it)

 

Charge + Teleport Self - noone expects your warrior to charge through the wall either. I did not find the build viable, but was worth it just to pull it off ^^

 

I guess it's not really that unorthodox, but two things I really enjoyed:

- in the campaign (orcs / goblins maps, sorry forgot the names), trying o lure as much as possible of the small 9hp goblins around the ogre, play the Impenetrable Nimbus and walking up to the orc just to have all the adjacent goblins killed in his AoE attacks

- using Talented Healer and stacking up on life-leech cards (Spear Of Darkness, Consuming Touch) and throw in some Inspiring Presence for good measure, if the draw is good you can heal yourself to full, seriously damage your opponent and walk away all within 1 turn

 

I've had some success with a 3 dwarf party in Multiplayer. 2 warriors fueled by a cleric filled with heal and frenzy cards. 1 dwarf has a bunch of charges and step attacks like viscious thrust while the other has bashing items to hold victory squares. any encumber or halt spells is the bane of the team's existence.

 

It's essentially the main focus of the spells, but I've really enjoyed using Bad Medicine, Misguided Heal, and Bungled Heal. Bad Medicine is great on opponents who are full health. They take the full 4 damage over time. Misguided Healing is great on allies with armor. A single reliable mail or two reliable leathers will give you a 4hp heal. Bungled Healing is great on allies near full HP opponents or, if you're feeling risky, on opponents with blocks/magic resist armor. They can repel the heal, losing out on 5HP and discarding any blocks when applicable. Also, killing opponents with Misguided Heal is pure gravy. Just a minor joy to pull them off at their optimal.

Other than that I run a 3 Elf Party. I've only managed two games against opponents in MP (rest were Gary), but they've been okay. The first was terrible. A full dwarf (warrior?) group, but they had dual shouts that gave everyone extra cards, charges/sprints, and all managed a form of berserker armor I'd never seen before. By the end of the first turn they had each used about 7 cards each. I was faced with dwarves I couldn't outrun and who severely outgunned me.

Second fight was much better. Met near the middle, was exchanging well, but the opponent dropped a nice combo on my warrior including an acid spray into the victory zone that took him to red. The opponent then sent me a chat that said, "How much did you pay for that crap? lol, GG kid". I assumed he was talking about my basic package. I dashed my warrior out, kited around the corner, healed up, used barge/bashes to frustrate the guy's cleric/warrior trying to chase the <2 HP easy kill while his acid prevented capping. Next turn he drops his mage on the point immediately. Bad move. One flanking manuever around the chokepoint + a move from my cleric = Assassinated mage. Was able to destroy his cleric on its way back but didn't have the collective health to stick around and fight a 25 HP dwarf warrior. So I baited his warrior off the point with my 6 HP cleric and capped it for the win in his face. He ragequit. Quite satisfying to crush someone who is being a dick.

 

Okay, so, we've had tons of threads pointing out how "friendly cards" are good when cast on enemies. Minor Heal can trigger a Block. Heck, it can do damage if the enemy has a Jarring Block. Misguided Heal or even Unholy Frenzy can finish off a weak one. (Not to rain on your parade, Selfish. I love doing the stuff you list.)

Here's one that people don't discuss much. Why you might see me casting Righteous Frenzy on you:

1). You're at low health and I'm preparing a long-range kill card like Devastating Spark. Sure would annoy me if you had spare Missile Blocks, huh? Enjoy your +2 melee damage while you have it, pal: you're dead at range on my next move.

2). The oldest of three attachments on your character is Impenetrable Nimbus. Again, enjoy your extra +2 while you have it: you were COUNTING on not suffering damage this turn, and now you're in trouble.

3). I know you have Parry cards like crazy but no more Attacks. And you were looking at my melee character a moment ago. Now you're looking away because I cast a spell on you from behind. WHACK.

The same applies to other weak-ish cards, sure, but Righteous Frenzy is particularly helpful in deckbuilding: it avoids Demonic Revenge and is almost exclusively zero-token. I like it.

 

Just discovered Path of Knives + Telekinesis evil way to kill someone.

Anyone know if it works with Whirlwind?

 

Ah shame, I've not used Whirlwind at all so don't know its workings.

Ohhh, just thought about a team of 3 mages, using PoK + multiple Telekinesis, nasty, nasty.

 

Winds Of War, Telekinesis, Improved Telekinesis, Maze, Force Bolt, Force Blast, Bash (and similar) work very well with Path Of Knives

EDIT:
got a MP match once when I got 2 path of knives and 2 winds of war (all that I had in that deck) in the first 2 rounds vs a poor mobility team, at the same time I was running pure basher warrior and a lot of push/slide skills... ohh how fun that was