It’s fair to mention I was using one of my “generic” teams, and not something dedicated to killing a specific Troop first.
Another ingredient to the problem was Chalcedony’s placement in lead position – if it was located behind 2 or 3 other Brown Users then certainly it wouldn’t be nearly such a problem. (We definitely have shufflers like Rift Lynx, Dust Devil…)
I’ve run into similar scenarios against Dungeon Bosses like King Jarl Firemantle (DPS + Red+Yellow generator + fills all six colors) and King Gorgotha (mass exploder + fills all six colors), where if they become first in line to collect Mana they simply never stop casting and it effectively loses you the match.
But even in context, the ability to create an uninterruptable endless loop is an intrinsic design problem. Copycat isn’t a guaranteed summoner, Detect-o-Bot eventually selfdestructs…
Still there’s several easy solutions. Use Satyr Musician (or a similar troop) to silence Chalcedony. Use Frostmage class to freeze her. Use an empowered troop with one that has a similar mechanism. That way it’s your turn only. Or simply devour her.
There’s 1200ish troops, more than 3 dozen classes and LOTS of possible combinations to defeat ANY troop or team quite easily.
I want to actually test a battle vs. Chalcedony in last position, but I’ve not had success yet … not due to Chalcedony looping itself, but rather me forgetting that it needs to be a four-Construct team (aka. have to wait a few turns NOT killing something) since anything less is much more manageable. There’s also the consolation that I don’t have to take out Chalcedony specifically, just any Construct on her team and it’ll nerf her gem creation.
And one of my easiest combinations for disabling a pesky single troop is something like Dynamite Goat + Dragon’s Eye. (Half the time combined with Borealis sniping the newly transformed victim)
UPDATE: Now also in Chalcedony’s defense, she certainly isn’t the first Troop that has given me an ugly surprise … I think that incident goes to my first time seeing Harpy Eagle fully traited and dealing double Skull damage to literally everything not immune to Hunter’s Mark. Was pretty upset to discover that traits like Eagle Eye and Knockout are applied before the Skull match that actually triggered them.
Still, the fact remains that historically, they’ve nerfed troops for less, and there’s a fundamental design problem with any strategy where the only possible counterplay is prevention. Today while doing Lv.1 Explore runs I ran into two situations where Chalcedony was able to cast over 20 times in a row dealing a cumulative 200+ damage to my team, completely uninterrupted/unopposed. Her spelltext may as well read “deal # damage to 1-99 random opponents” for all the difference it makes when in an all-Construct team.
In one case she was partially Mana blocked by Czernabog but it actually didn’t make any difference as the AI seemed to prioritize her spell over others (and – let’s be real here, a human player would do precisely the same!).
But as long as I’m farming Hellcrag for the Kingdom Pass battlecrasher (yes I know, I could farm any other Kingdom) I think I’ll start logging this in my spreadsheet…