011 - Battle Report x2 - Pandora vs Ramos/Kirai

I've had a couple of games in the last few weeks that I've not mentioned, one against Ramos and a second game against Kirai. In both cases I played Pandora.

My game against Kieran (Ramos) was the first outing for my panda Teddy, and unfortunately he didn't last long. Teddy and the Steamborg Executioner spent the first couple of turns warily eyeing each other up across the table, until I made the mistake of getting too close with Candy. The Steamborg charged her, used a trigger to throw her out of the way, and then got a second charge off against Teddy! I really underestimated his ability to get up close quickly, and he managed to shred Teddy into small pieces of fluff and stuffing within the space of a single activation, before Teddy'd had chance to eat a single enemy. Pandora was not happy about that one bit, and projected Self Loathing to force the Steamborg to slice off all his own legs (coming to the realisation that he was a massive freak of nature no doubt!).

The rest of the game was spent fending off exploding Arachnids while Ramos led from the rear. Eventually I'd thinned their ranks enough to go after the Arcanist leader, but by that point it was just Master vs Master. Pandora forced Ramos to flee with a crafty trigger, at which point the sixth turn ended and I was sadly denied the chance to pursue and finish him off. The victory points showed a level draw which I was happy with, as it had been close fought throughout.

The second game against Paul's Kirai crew leaves me with mixed feelings. Although I won decisively, with a final score of 7-1, it wasn't a particularly satisfying victory as I didn't do much of the work myself. I believe Paul may have upset his Puppet Deck somehow, because it decided this game was a great opportunity to royally screw him over and, to be honest, he didn't stand a chance.

In his defense, having more Kirai experience than the last guy that fielded them against me, Paul pulled some surprising and powerful tricks out of the bag. I was particularly upset when I sent an Onryo fleeing, only for Kirai to sacrifice it and resummon it right back where it had been standing! She also managed to infiltrate a friendly looking Seishin close to my lines and then switch it with Datsu-Ba who proceeded to flail around with her skinning knife to damage 4 models at once!

However with the cards against him this wasn't enough. For three turns out of the five we played, he didn't pick up a single card higher than a 5 in his control hand. Unable to cheat effectively, he couldn't do anything except look on in despair as I picked apart his crew with Willpower duels. My Stitched-Together, taking the field for the first time and without Paul able to cheat against him, managed to Gamble his life against a Gaki, the Datsu-Ba, and the Ikiryo, killing all 3, and earning himself model of the match for me. I'll definitely be bringing him again next time!

In the end, I hadn't lost a single model, and Kirai was left on her own, using Uncontrolled Crying and feeling quite Pitiful.

"I know how she feels" quipped Paul.