Battle report: Pandora v Kirai

So here is a short battle report for my first outing with Pandora

I had 26ss to play with. The Strategy was Turf War. I took Take Prisoner and Distract as my schemes. Dr Walnut took Breakthrough and A Line in the Sand! 

I was really nervous when it came time to deploy. He had Kirai, Izamu, Lost Love and Philip & the Nanny. I had 

Pandora The Box Opens, Aether Connection and Wings of Darkness (I think)

Candy Best Behaviour

Doppleganger

Primordial Magic. 

I was really, really sure I was going to be wiped out easily. My crew was built to buff and debuff but I didn't actually have any hitters. On the upside I was drawing 7 cards a turn and able to prevent 2 damage on my prevention flips for Pandora. She also had Terrifying 13(All). That at least made me confident she would be ok in the centre for a bit. 

As we went into turns 1-2, the Kirai crew just grew, adding Gaki, Onryo and a Hanged. I think he must have added a good 30ss to his crew over the game. Filthy, filthy ressers, especially in a 26ss game and he was basically running a 50s crew. 

Poor Pandora found herself surrounded by evil spirits in the centre. Primordial Magic turned Izamu insignificant whilst Pandora engaged him, 2 Onryo, a Gaki and Lost Love. Then Candy nipped in, handed out Distract to Izamu and another model, then took her (0)action Run Away Home to teleport back to the deployment zone. Co-incidentally my Take Prisoner target was Phillip & the Nanny, who was trundling unopposed towards my deployment zone convinced he was going to score an easy Breakthrough. 

Pandora stayed resolutely on her feet in the middle, lashing out with Incite and various other nastiness, constantly messing with activation orders. I had no idea how much pain she could dish out. Plus she kindly removed the immunity to horror duels from various models as needed. I was stunned how she just held the centre, barely taking a wound whilst enemies just lost wound after wound to Incite and Failed WP duels. 

The Final Turn was actually looking tight. I managed to get Candy and Doppleganger into melee with Philip but close to Ikoryo too so max two points were available. My hand was drained and I was out of stones so Doppleganger copied Philip & the Nannies (1) action that allows him to discard a scheme marker to draw. That helped a lot. 

Dr Walnut was cursing his hand as the last activations ticked away. He knew it was time for an all out push to secure victory. Ikoryu lashed out at Candy to try to free Philip to enable him to get a 2nd Breakthrough marker down but she and Doppleganger weathered the storm.

The rest of Dr Walnut's crew activated ready to try to shift Pandora and get some markers down for A Line in the Sand. Sadly all of them, including Kirai failed their Terrifying duels leaving 4 models paralysed and unable to score anything. I felt terrible for Dr Walnut as his hand was drained by Neverborn tricks leaving him nothing to cheat with as he went through a run of dreadful cards. I'm sure Pandora just raised a disdainful eyebrow and smiled a mocking smile. 

With that bombshell of a last turn, the game tilted decisively to me. I only scored 2 Turf War as Pandora was on her own, but I got 2 Take Prisoner and 3 Distract against Dr Walnuts 4 Turf War and 1 Breakthrough.

A surprising 7-5 win to me on my first outing with Pandora. I was amazed by just how much easier she made things on the table than I'm used to with Yan Lo. When I activate him, very little happens and no one worries. Activating Pandora, it became clear, really made things happen.

So all aboard the Neverborn Train for 2016.