(Skip to the "***" if you just want to see the combo...)

I've been OL'ing a Shadow of Nerekhall campaign against a fun group:

Andira(H&M) the Spiritspeaker

Lindel(H&M) the Stalker

Trenloe(H&M) the Skirmisher

Leoric the Hexer

These heroes are dirty. They're not the most overtly powerful party I've ever been up against, but their abilities synergize like you wouldn't believe (I do not believe that the heroes did this intentionally, as for the most part they picked their heroes/classes individually.) They prefer to stick close as a group- so that Andira can use healing rain, stoneskin, and tempest, and most of my attacks get -1 (from leoric) and then cause my monsters damage (from Andira,) not to mention the bonuses they get from attacking hexed monsters, or being near trap tokens.

I decided early on to go Infector (to help make up for some of these bonuses and do a little "hexing" of my own) and I'm using Alric's plot deck- I have no intention of summoning the agent- but the defense benefits of "Armor of Darkness" and "Fight in Formation," coupled with the master monster buffs from "Dark Champions" and the threat acquiring power of "Veteran Council" was exactly what I was looking for.

It's been an interesting ride so far- I won the Intro, Local Politics, Oath of the Outcast, and just now, Respected Citizen. The heroes have won The Rat-Thing King, and Rude Awakening (that one hurt- the Skirmisher now has Valyndra's Bane, and can't miss with "Unstoppable".)

So- I'd just lost encounter 1 of "Respected Citizen," which means I don't get "The Scoundrel" for encounter 2 (I really wanted that) but since I won "Local Politics," I can still do what I need- and luckily, I was able to damage (and more importantly, INFECT heavily) the hero party. After setup of encounter 2, I exhaust "Dark Champions" and "Veteran Council." This isn't a big surprise to the heroes, as it gives my master hulk some more health, and an attack buff. However, the real surprise comes when I reveal my influence effect- I chose to replace the thieves with changelings, and play "The Magistrate" corrupt citizen card, and their jaws just drop as they realize what I've done:

By default in Act 1, the master changeling has 6 health, and rolls a gray/brown.

From Dark Champions :

The changeling's health increases to 8, and he gains a brown die. His attacks also gain surge: +2

From The Magistrate :

He gains 1 additional health per hero (+4) and adds a gray die to his defense pool. Additionally, his "Hideous Laughter" works within 5 spaces now.

From Adaptive Contagion, Airborne, and Contaminated (all put into play in encounter 1):

I can discard 1 infection token from a hero to add:

-a damage to my attack results

-a shield to my defense results

-a shield to his attribute roll

***To sum it up, that's a 12 health master changeling, rolling gray/gray/brown/brown , who has an added surge:+2, can add 1 damage or 1 shield in most cases, and drops heroes attributes by 1 (while I have the ability to also increase their rolls by 1.) This is neglecting the defensive bonuses I can add once per round by triggering " Armor of Darkness " (+ 2 shields) and " Fight in Formation " (up to +3 shields, and if it blocks all damage, it's free.)

I was scared of this monster. He survived the quest, even though I never managed to kill Bertram, I was able to win (mostly by "Knockback" and "Whisper" -and some helpful immobilization by my medusas- to pin heroes near/in the hazard spaces, which didn't directly net me fatigue, but made it much easier to get.)

That was a long post- but any competing stories of monsters you've buffed with card effects, or other thoughts?

My favorite known combo at this point is this:

Act II Cave Spiders + Expert Blow + Splig's Raided Armory + Splig Agent

Act II Cave Spiders: Minions attack with BYY, s:+2. That's a 5,63 average.

Expert Blow: +2 to every attack , because of "s: back to the hand" (as long as you don't miss any attack, or you have Dark Fortune).

Raided Armory: +1 to every attack, and a free surge to use with Expert Blow.

Splig Agent: " Get Them", and other attack with all the minions. If you attack also with Splig, that's a 6,43 average.

Finally, that's a total of 8 attacks of 8,63 average, plus one attack of 9,43 average . Cave Spiders are likely to last only one turn with their low health and defense, but I think this combo is enough to knock down all heroes at once (or at least some of them). Combine with some Blood Rage if necesary.

That is quite impressive- I was buffing one monster for an entire encounter, you've buffed an entire group for one turn.

Haven't had the opportunity to play with any plot decks yet in any playgroups. I have been using Zachereth's in my solo run, it's quite fun. But when I picked up Alric Farrow last week and saw his plot deck, I was amazed. Needless to say, I would like to pair that deck with Warlord and see what comes of it.

I don't really have an example of a particular "combo", also because every card is a "combo" if you start piling on effects granting you damage, surges, etc.

But the strongest attack I ever got was Act II Mirklace surrounded by 3 Chaos Beasts. That's a lot of dices with Sorcery to basically make sure to deal maximum damage for short range.