All aboard the Monster Train

Well, you gotta have something at the bottom. I've had a great run with everything except those three.

But you're right about one thing: Dark Calling should probably be above Monstrous. Maybe Brawler/Reaper should, too. Big Boy Penumbra isn't bad, but it does require more commitment than any other champion.

We join our Covenant 18 Hellhorned/Umbra run already in progress. After a couple of battles, we have assembled a motley crew: Wrathful Hornbreaker Prince, Alloyed Construct with Largestone, and Overgorger with Healthstone.

I should explain a little bit about the Umbra mechanics. You can see that we have a few Packed Morsels, which generate some 0-cost Morsel units. At the end of each round, if there's a non-Morsel unit on the floor, the non-Morsel unit at the front of the floor will eat all Morsel units. This triggers the Morsels' Eaten abilities, providing a small benefit to the eater, and the eater's Gorge abilities, if any. The basic Umbra card costs 1 Ember and produces a single common or uncommon Morsel. (I couldn't tell you what the rarity of most of the Morsels is.)

So Overgorger and Alloyed Construct interact with Morsels in unique ways. Overgorger permanently becomes stronger when it eats, on top of whatever temporary benefit the Morsel provides. It starts out as a 0/15 but can easily become incredibly strong over the course of a run. The Alloyed Construct, on the other hand, is the only card with Inert or Fuel in the game. It can't attack until it's eaten a Morsel, and each Morsel gives it one turn to attack. It starts out at 25x2/25, which is pretty good, but bear in mind that it generally won't be able to attack on its first turn.

Our Overgorger enters the Daedalus fight at 6 attack and leaves it with 22. We walk away from that fight with Shroud Spike, which will do some very good things for Overgorger in future battles.

Which major enhancement do we take? There's a case to be made for all three: on one hand, we rarely have the Ember to play all of our cards; on the other, our deck is thicker than I'd like, and an extra card per turn could make a big difference there. But capacity could be nice, too, allowing us to play more Morsels on each floor. I ultimately decide on extra Ember, since our core units are 2 Ember each, and then I go on to take a Demon Fiend after a bit of an internal struggle. I'm still not sure it was the right move.



The next battle opens with a dilemma: with the Alloyed Construct on floor 2 and the Overgorger on 3, I am forced to let Hornbreaker Prince go. He needs someone in front to work, but our big units need extra space to function effectively (or at all, in the Construct's case). Was Ember the wrong pick?



We win the battle after taking an alarming 40 Pyre damage. On the bright side, Overgorger will take a nice 50 attack into the next battle.

There's a case to be made for Crucible Extension here, especially with our capacity woes being what they are, but I decide on Grovel, which I will not cast in the next couple of battles.



The Alloyed Construct went unplayed, and everything else that's not Overgorger is dead (or about to be). Facing off against a train full of enemies, can it carry us to victory, or is this the end? Luckily, we don't have to worry about the Overgorger dying, as the artifact we took at the start of the game will daze enemies that enter the third floor, but Overgorger kills at most one unit per wave. I'm beginning to suspect that the trial (giving enemies Multistrike) was a bad idea.



Up above, our Pyre is about to take 24 damage. We can't do anything to decrease that, but we can improve our situation against the boss, who enters with Lifesteal 10. We play Branding Rite on the front unit to kill it, then we deploy the Construct and the Imp. They won't do any damage, but they'll burn through some of the boss's Lifesteal stacks. We get a lucky break: our third artifact draws two cards after our third play of the turn, and one of those cards is an upgraded Vent, which gets rid of the unit in the rear (who buffs the boss's attack by 2 on death, but we still come out ahead in that exchange).



We've scraped by thanks to the Overgorger! With Lifesteal 12, the Overgorger can easily overtake the boss, and we get two more Gorge triggers thanks to Daze (as otherwise, the boss's Sweep would kill the Morsels first).

The next upgrade path has an artifact shop selling Fossilized Fangs, which doubles all Gorge triggers. Is this a value trap, or is it totally awesome? I think it's somewhere in between: it's decreasingly relevant for Overgorger, who has plenty of attack at this point, but it will do great things for Alloyed Construct, allowing us to feed it half as often. Since we regularly have trouble keeping it running, this will make a big difference for us.



It's time for Fel. This variant starts with Spell Shield 5 on its Alabaster Guardians -- bad news for anyone using spells that only hit the front unit, but no big deal for us -- and Fel hops from floor to floor applying Armor 10 to our enemies.

We've set up our champion quite nicely. What to do with the others? I decide to put the Construct up above (where a Morsel has already been deployed), while the Overgorger goes below with the Welder Helper up front to tank some hits. Since two of these units are surviving, we'll need the Construct to deal with them.



We're served another sticky situation on the next turn. There are many ways to play this: Cave In will drop everything but the Alabaster Guardian down to the second floor, which could be nice. Shroud Spike is always tempting on the Overgorger, but do we want to take 8 Pyre damage?

My move here is to Torch one of these units, then Shroud Spike a +attack Morsel on this floor. That takes the Construct to 14 fuel and 60x2 attack -- enough to clear the floor. I hang on to Packed Morsels, as there isn't enough space to use them effectively.

After this move, we stabilize and win: no Pyre damage, with Overgorger reaching an impressive 162 attack. Because we've got the artifact boosting our card draw, I upgrade Ember again. Our capacity is what it is.



We're given the choice between two fun options. Grrrg's Goad is fun with our Demon Fiend, but little else benefits from it. On the other hand, Concussive Coals was a pretty good relic on our last run, during which we wanted to take hits. It'll do great things for our survivability here, leaving us with only one floor that takes full damage. Coals it is!

We have two battles to go. Will we turn a shaky middle game into a victory? Will we be able to put Multistrike on our Overgorger and then duplicate it? I don't yet know! Find out with me when we return tomorrow.

Well, the bad news is that the offerings after this battle allow us to duplicate Overgorger or try to get Multistrike on it. The good news is that the trial offered for the penultimate battle is Armor Emblem: Enemy units enter with Armor 20. To our crew, Armor 20 is a drop in the proverbial bucket.



This battle could hardly have started more smoothly. We're getting Daze procs all over the place, and our Overgorger is now sitting at Lifesteal 6. The next turn gives us another Shroud Spike, and we're off to the races.



The boss hits the table mostly dead. This isn't as promising as it might appear, since he'll be much stronger by the time he ascends. As it turns out, though, he only gets to 15x2, and he's dead on the second floor without my help. There are no cards worth taking after this battle, but we're 400 gold richer thanks to the trial reward.



So the question is now which way do we go? On the left, we can upgrade our units; on the right, we can get a second Overgorger (now at 250/40).

It's a close one. The presence of card removal on the left tips the scales for me. The extra Pyre health doesn't hurt, either.

The unit upgrade shop starts out with +10 attack, +25 health, and Endless (put it on top of your deck if it dies). Endless is worth considering, I suppose, but I check out the artifact shop before making any purchases.

Over there, we find Ashes of the Fallen (Summon abilities trigger an additional time), Lightstone Casing (spells gain an extra upgrade slot), and Commemorative Spike (at the start of battle, summon a Morsel Miner on each floor). The Commemorative Spike is worthwhile -- maybe less for the +5/+5 the Morsel Miner grants when eaten than for the presence of a Morsel for our Alloyed Construct -- so I grab that and reroll.

The next set is Winged Indulgence (enemies get -1 attack), Scorched Steel (friendly units enter with Armor 5), and Imp-cicle (at start of turn, add a random Imp to your hand). These are merely OK.

Heading back to the unit upgrades, I decide not to risk rerolling. Overgorger gets Endless, Alloyed Construct gets +10 attack, and our heretofore-unmentioned Steelworker gets the +25 health. Only then -- and mostly out of curiosity -- do I reroll. Multistrike is on offer (alas!), but we can no longer afford it, nor does Overgorger have any slots left. We put Damage Shield 2 and Rage 7 on our Demon Fiend. Time to fight Seraph.



It's Sap Seraph again, same as last run. We get a fairly amenable hand, containing Overgorger and Shroud Spike. A 2-Ember Shroud Spike is good for four eats of that Morsel Miner, bringing the Overgorger to 280/60. We also have an artifact that deals 30 damage to the front unit when we play a card with Consume, so that 280 damage goes straight on Seraph.



See if you can spot the problem! "Is it that your Overgorger is about to take 70 damage?" Yeah, that's the one. Fat lot of good Multistrike would've done for us here. Endless is looking a lot better.

But what's this? Our "draw 2 after playing 3" artifact gives us Prismal Dust, good for Damage Shield X. That will keep the Overgorger alive for this turn -- and not much longer, but that'll prevent quite a bit of Pyre damage.



A series of lucky events keeps that ball rolling. Shroud Spike with a Damage Shield Morsel gets us a good bit of mileage, and we eventually pull a Lifesteal Morsel, which will have Overgorger good as new in no time.



We're on to the Final Wave now. This floor is dead to rights, but at least we'll get rid of the adds in addition to dealing a nice bit of damage. Can Overgorger and Alloyed Construct get the job done?

A Branding Rite on the Steelworker puts Seraph at 720 damage on this floor, which is certainly a relief. I throw Rage 6 on the Alloyed Construct, where it's twice as effective, but I'm hoping Seraph won't make it to the third floor.



And we're very close right off the bat. A Branding Rite on the Overgorger gets us where we need to go.



Thanks, Overgorger. You ended the game at a permanent 326 damage, and I couldn't be prouder. Gorge Penumbra would be jealous.



And that's another win in the books, again with all trials! I have to say I wasn't at all sure we had this one going into the last stretch, but it seems like there was never any need to worry. (Of course, if Overgorger had died, and we hadn't put Endless on it, then we would have been in heaps of trouble.)



Our final deck. Join us next week as we meet the Awoken and attempt to put a cap on our faction combo win list!

Welcome back to Monster Train, where we have joined an in-progress Awoken/Melting Remnant run. The stars of the show this time:

• Bristling Sentient: 0/60 with Spikes 20.
• Animus of Will, as seen on-screen. It starts out as 3x3/3, which is brimming with possibilities.
• Paraffin Thug: 20/3 with Slay: Gain 20 gold. I've upgraded it to 20x2/28.

There's a fourth star in the wings, but... well, we'll meet that one if we survive the next battle. Our game plan is (as is always the case for me with the Awoken) Regen stacking. Last battle, we did it on Paraffin Thug, although the Sentient is usually the preferred target.

The Thug has done great things for our economy. We've got over 700 gold at the moment, though that's going to go down a bit as I upgrade some units and remove others. I've forgotten that there's an Unstable Vortex waiting to devour two more of my cards, but I'm never disappointed to have extra removal opportunities. Our deck goes into the next battle at a slim 22 cards.



This is a tough one. You know I like to push my luck on trials, but this might be a little too far. Sweep will do bad things to our Animus, and without it, I don't like my odds on killing all these things before they make it to the Pyre. I'm forced to pass.



A couple turns in, I've assigned each of my star players to a separate floor. This is probably overly greedy. Post-Covenant 10, it's a good idea to put a unit on the top floor during the first turn so that it'll be able to attack if the Collector spawns there (which it did), and I put the Paraffin Thug on floor 2 to take the kill here. You usually want to stack up a single floor, but we've done the actual opposite.

But that's a worry for later. Now it's time to introduce Awaken, our next VIP. For 3 Ember, it restores 30 health and applies Regen 4. We've upgraded it to cost 2, and our Split Anvil artifact makes it so that when we play a spell, all cheaper spells cost 0 for the rest of the turn. This makes Awaken a nice combo piece. I cast it on Paraffin Thug for the Regen, then I heal up the Sentient and use Steel Enhancer to increase Thug's health and attack by 3.



Behold the power of Regen stacking. The Paraffin Thug wins this combat already, but Awaken and two Restores take him to the point where he's only ending up with 3 damage. That's money in the bank!



And there's the final member of our team! I lent this unit to a rogue Winged, and he's returned it three battles later with a nice Revenge effect.



With 620 gold (thanks largely to Paraffin Thug), I can't not take the trinkets path, but I walk away largely disappointed. A reroll shows me Pyrestone Housing (units gain an extra upgrade slot), which I take without being especially excited for it.



Fel herself is a non-issue, but we do leak more than I'd like to admit, taking 30 damage to units who slip through the cracks. We're offered Cycle of Life (3 Ember: Enhance a unit with +10 health. Apply Spikes 4), which I'm more than happy to grab. We upgrade Ember, since our deck is slim and our capacity is fine.

We're facing the opposite problem compared to the previous run: a solid start, but we struggled to contain Fel's followers. Can we carry this across the finish line, or is the LP doomed to end on a loss?

If I'm buying the third unit upgrade slot, you'd better believe I'm headed for unit upgrades. Starting our Paraffin Thug at 30x2 attack will let him scale gracefully into the lategame (and get extra Slay triggers).



Then, we get this event, which lets us sneak a fourth upgrade onto a unit of our choice. This would be great on the Awoken Hollow, but it's not even fully upgraded at the moment. Instead, it goes on the Paraffin Thug, bringing him to 30x2/53. That's better than a lot of third-tier champions! Speaking of which, the Sentient is now 120 health with Spikes 40.

The trial for the next battle is Heaven's Seal: Non-boss enemy units restore all health when they move up a floor. The reward is 400 gold, which we frankly don't need. I take the coward's path after staring at the 160 health on the Gilded Wings.



We find ourselves struggling to stay apace with the damage thrown our way in this fight. It's a very good thing that we didn't bother with the trial.



The boss has a single, heavy hit that makes quick work of the Sentient. Is this the end for us?



No -- but only because I stacked up the Animus of Will on the third floor. We were one Steel Enhancer away from despair.



The trinket shop offers nothing impressive (and in particular, I can't figure out how Votive Key isn't actively detrimental to most decks), but I can't pass up Winged Indulgence on a Spikes build. It's not enormous, but consider that Seraph himself has 10x3 attack by default.

A reroll gives us Gnarled Root (grant +1 stack of Spikes each time it is applied) and Sap Tap (the first time each turn a friendly unit is healed, draw 1). Gnarled Root sounds better than it is: we only have one card that grants Spikes, and otherwise, it's just Spikes 41 instead of 40 on the Sentient. Sap Tap would be very nice, but it's just outside of our price range. Alas, for a single Paraffin Thug kill more. I buy Gnarled Root and a Healthstone for Awoken Hollow, taking us to exactly no gold. It'll have to do.



This is Seraph the Diligent, whose effect is usually the easiest one to work through. What the description doesn't mention is that this Seraph incarnation adds three Blight cards to your deck, which deal 1 damage to your Pyre if you don't play them for 1 Ember. They don't count as spells, naturally, but there are events in the game (that we didn't see) that can make those Blight cards work for you.



We draw all our big names on the first turn. I deploy Awoken Hollow and Animus of Will to the third floor -- on the second floor, they'd miss the occasional third-floor summon from Seraph. Paraffin Thug takes a spot behind the Sentient, and we use the Wildwood Tome to make him Quick (mostly to get it out of our deck: it is unlikely to do much for us in this battle).



We're looking good going into the final wave. Immediately, Seraph is taking over 50% damage, but we can do better. We play both Awakes on the Sentient and reform our best Draff.



Just like that, Seraph is down to nearly nothing. I notice that our Pyre is about to take 10 more damage, but I think we're OK from here.



And so we are! There's no reason to take more Pyre damage. I toss the Vengeful Shards out rather than Cycle of Life the Awoken Hollow.



It was a messy finish, but we made it there.



And my collection is complete! Next stop: Covenant 25 wins on all combos.



Here's our vital statistics for this run. We ducked out on two trials and took lots of damage at the end, so our score was not so good, but we made it through. Three for three, and that's excellent considering my overall win rate (only 6 of my 30 most recent games).

Thanks for reading along! Hopefully, this made some sense to those of you who haven't played the game -- and if it looks interesting, I'd recommend grabbing it. It's real good!