I had to change the hair up, and the suit isn't exact because Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka had a purple blazer, beige-white slacks and vest, a tan brown floppy bow, and matching tan brown shoes. His hat was a sort of burnt orange color, with a matching tan brown band. And he had a gentleman's cane, which in the Wizard101 game has an approximating match with what Marleybone gentlemen dogs carry, but I don't know if there's any wand that matches that.
So I came up with this:
Of course, I blinked.
I'm going to just come out and say it - this isn't a nuanced 100% approach. Maybe there's a strategy to easily do this using another school's proficiencies, but with a Pyromancer, it's about timed brute force and a hell of a lot of luck.
For those that don't know Judge Veg's cheats, let's break it down. The big one is his polymorph. At the end of the first round, he polymorphs one wizard at random. It SEEMS the majority of time he polymorphs the first position, but that's not the case every time. This polymorph is to one of 4 forms of vegetable representing the schools of Ice, Life, Death, and Storm. There are only two ways the polymorph ends: after the duration expires (15 or so rounds), or the player gets hit with a single target shadow spell (Grrnadier or Lamassu). He casts the shadow spell Wings of Fate, but this doesn't break polymorph. At some random interval later (after one test it was at the end of the 9th turn), he will again cast a polymorph, and it can be on a different wizard, or the same previously polymorphed wizard. The form is again random, so while polymorphed as a Life vegetable, you can be polymorphed again as a Life vegetable, for example. That will reset your vegetable spells and polymorph, but not your current life total.
When going in as a group, you can guarantee the first position is polymorphed if everyone else waits a turn to enter. There is a late cheat, but it doesn't trigger until after the second turn is started. That late cheat is a free-cast Grrnadier to the face. From the wizard101central page I linked to, it mentions a turn skip, but I haven't seen it actually do anything (Judge Veg says "I hold you in contempt of corn"). The last notable cheat is that if a player casts Feint on Veg, he will clear the Feint and all other unprotected traps on him, which likely includes prisms. You can use Indemnity on the Feint, and the preceding traps to protect them, but it's easier to cast Indemnity Feint first.
So how does one take down Judge Veg without help? If you go in solo, there will be only a Death minion (Dead Beet) with him. While you're polymorphed, having to deal with Veg AND the minion will be tough. So here's what I did to complete this solo.
0. The zero step (I didn't do this, and I should have): equip a defensive may cast pet. Shields and heals will help you while you're polymorphed.
1. I built my deck small so that I can kill the minion as fast as possible. I used Fire Dragon, Epic, Indemnity, Feint, Sharpened Blade, and two Fireblade. Indemnity Feint went on first.
2. While polymorphed, I used the form's spells to either put traps on Judge Veg; use defensive spells like shields, threat reduction spells, and heals; and/or throw away attacks in hand to cycle through the deck.
3. When (if) I finally got hit with a single target shadow spell, I put the rest of my spells up and cast the Fire Dragon.
4. If you get lucky and Judge Veg hits you early with the right shadow spell to take you out of polymorph, you can go for the kill, rather than quick killing minion. I had a Weakness on me in one battle, so pulled my tc Fireblade, put on my three blades, and hit with Fire Dragon. It wasn't quite enough for the instant kill, but he died in a two turns from the damage over time. Which is good, as he polymorphed me at the end of the hit turn.
What am I leaving out from this. It NEVER went down straight forward. You'll take a good amount of damage before coming out of your polymorph, since you're getting hit with either Lamassu or Grrnadier for around two thousand damage on top of the beating you've already gotten while polymorphed. You might not have the time to set up blades before using the Fire Dragon. If you won't last another turn, use the Fire Dragon to clear the minion. Dying and using the dungeon recall feature, the minion will stay dead, and that gives you more time the next time you come out of polymorph.
Constructing your sideboard depends on how you want to play out the rest of the battle. You could equip a mix of heals and Life Shield, even a Reshuffle or a Fire Dragon treasure card if you had to prematurely kill the Death minion. The only debuff that the Dead Beet and Judge Veg have is Weakness at a set -25, so a single extra Fireblade treasure card easily compensates for that.
So what usually happens? I usually get polymorphed more than once. If I live long enough, by the time I come out of the polymorph, I have less than 2000 life remaining. His attacks are all life so Life Shield helps, but he frequently casts Wings of Fate, a great shield killer as well as a good way to keep the Judge's life high. I find it too hard to kill Veg while in polymorphed form. Storm cannot stack enough traps to kill, even with Storm Owl and a previously placed Feint, as the player doesn't give any equipment boost to the Storm's power, and the Judge is a great healer, so chipping away is ineffective. One reason I used Fire Dragon is that it's an attack all enemies spell that circumvents the Pacify ability of Grrnadier, and it's not a shadow spell. While you are polymorphed, you will receive almost no power pips and never a shadow pip. Coming out of your polymorph, you will want to kill in 3 turns time, and if Veg hits you with Grrnadier, either to take you out of polymorph, or just hitting you again with it, the Pacify effect lasts 3 turns. and I think pushes you to a four turn wait. That just might kill you. Also, Fire Dragon isn't a shadow spell, and depending on your shadow pip generation, you might not be able to get a Fire From Above off in 3 turns time.
There are reportedly badges for killing Judge Veg while polymorphed, depending upon the form, so that's a task for a group. Unless you're crazy (see below).
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A super longterm fight would be using the above strategy to kill the minion (use a Helephant or some such), die, then redo your deck to have your main hand equipped with a variety of Life Shields, Tower Shield, Pixie, and Satyr, while equipping your sideboard with universal blades and traps. You will want to be polymorphed at least twice, hopefully having built up at least 3 power pips before this happens, and utilizing the extra blades and traps for a one-hit kill in the polymorphed form to earn your badge.
Who knows? Good luck in whatever you do. But if you're polymorphed into the Storm form? Forget about it.
