After the long break in March and April, your favorite strategy puzzle is back and ready to test your knowledge of strategy, card pool and making the most of your finely honed kung fu!
This month's puzzle comes to us from Steve Feldon!
THE PUZZLE:
How much power you can gain because of the Molten Heart in a single turn?
You're in a duel. Your opponent goes first, and has an predictable play strategy: every turn, he plays a single Manchu Soldier at the leftmost location tied for the minimum number of characters and, if he can afford it, a Great Wall in the front row (if he can legally play a Feng Shui Site.) He never attacks, always tries to cancel each attempt to steal power from him with precisely one Great Wall--the leftmost unturned one--and intercepts as evenly as possible, with any extra Manchu Soldiers intercepting the attacking characters with the highest fighting.
You're blessed: your deck always gives you whatever cards you want. It's magic. You never have bad shuffles, ever. Every turn you get to pick the cards you want, although you're still limited to filling your hand normally and normal power generation rules.
Since your opponent is never going to attack you, you're going to win, but the goal of this challenge isn't to win. . . . It's to see how much power you can generate during a turn because of the Molten Heart. The winner of this contest will be the person who can general the most power because of the Molten Heart in one turn, with ties being broken by the person who can do it fastest--in the smallest number of turns.
As always, folks, please submit all answers with your FULL name and mailing address to me at icediadem@yahoo.com.
If you do not include your full name and mailing address, not only will you not receive your prize, but I will also send my pocket Chuck Norris to your home and he will roundhouse kick your kitten.
Happy playing, all!