Attempt One on the Million Damage badge

I had an interest in trying this for awhile, and had already begun crafting gear that would give me some bonus spells. Sunday night, I decided to finish what I started. Unfortunately, I spent about two hours gathering up the materials to craft my helmet and my boots, only to discover (after crafting both), that I had already crafted the boots. Ah me. Good bye, gold.

I didn't think I'd do it the first time out, but I needed to see how close I could get. I chose Lady Blackhope's tower in Unicorn Way. No one would be able to jump into my fight (watch out for porting friends, though!), the two monsters were very light on damage dealing, and they wouldn't put up spells that would hurt the effort (like Weakness, or any kind of shields). I wouldn't get any kind of cross-school boost, but I could easily live with that.

Here's how I was equipped:

· Blazing Chieftain's Helmet (gives 40% Fire Blade item card)
· Chief's Garb of Flames (gives 35% Fire Trap item card)
· Boots of Wyldfire (gives 35% Wyldfire item card)
· Dragonbreath Bow (gives 37% critical chance)
· Raven's Ruby Talon (gives 5% fire damage boost)
· Jewel of the Feint Amulet (gives 75% Feint item card)
· Ring of the Wolf's Song (gives 4% general damage boost)
· Pet Phoenix (gives 5% fire damage boost, can cast Fire Trap pet card, gives Grand Phoenix spell)

And here was my deck (Bundle of Eternal Flame):

· Efreet (895 fire damage)
· 25% Fire Trap
· 35% FireBlade
· 25% Fuel
· 35% Elemental Blade
· 2 x 25% Elemental Trap
· 7 x Fire Prism
· 3 x Fortify aura
· 6 x Pixie

My sideboard, of course, is where the main damage was stored:

· 250 Gargantuan TC
· 35% Berserk
· 25% Curse
· 35% Dark Pact
· 70%/20 Feint
· 30% Fuel
· 35% Ice Trap
· 30% Fire Trap
· 40% Elemental Blade
· 2 x 30% Elemental Trap

You'll notice that I included ice damage, which I accessed through my prism. All of my ice damage (except from elemental trap) rested in my sideboard, so I started pulling from my sideboard early. I had some pretty good draws and thought I might not need to use a reshuffle, but eventually I got stuck without putting on my ice trap, so I cast what I could, discarding all fire traps until I got it. I then cast it, followed it up with a prism, and reshuffled.

I made a fairly obvious error. I THOUGHT that I might be able to double up on the elemental traps, casting one of each kind (regular and treasure card) before the prism, and then again each kind after the prism. My logic was that the fire would be used from the one, and the ice from the other. It just don't work that way. When the routine for determining which spells to register in the stack, it will ignore all subsequent cards that are exact. Treasure cards, item cards, school cards, and pet cards are all treated as different spells, even if the card is otherwise exactly the same (for those who didn't know this). Treasure cards of the same name but different percentage level are also treated as separate non-duplicated spells. So the extra school and treasure trap cards were ignored. The good thing is that the elemental trap doesn't matter in what order it is cast (before or after the prism).

I knew enough to save my berserk for last before casting my efreet. No need to take any more boosted damage than I had to.

Final result? Around 420,000 damage. Had I sat down and calculated it on paper, I could have avoided going in and using up my treasure cards, but hey. Sometimes you have to actually feel how it plays. I was a little disappointed, but not much. I didn't get a critical, and that would have gotten me close to the million, but even that wouldn't have been enough. So I needed to re-examine my cards and calculate it out for a second attempt.