Recently got the Lifeline - Blood Mage unlock and here is an easy guide on how to get through all the one-shots without damaging yourself:


Enemy - Ambuscade, Environment = Court of Blood


Hero 1 - TL Tachyon

Hero 2 - Dark Conductor AA

Hero 3 - FF Legacy

Hero 4 - Dark Visionary

Hero 5 - Lifeline

The actual unlock criteria is "Win a game in the Court of Blood with Lifeline on the team. Play each of Lifeline's unique one-shots while both copies of Cosmic Immolation are in play. Lifeline must be incapacitated by Blood Countess Bathory. No other heroes may be incapacitated."

Two cards you will want to get for Lifeline asap are Matter Manipulator and Discharge Lifeforce. These make it super easy to draw cards when it isn't even your turn as well as keep the environment a non-issue by deleting whatever enemies you don't want to face. I would even suggest restarting a few times until your opening hand has a copy of Matter Manipulator in it.


Again, the way to maximize Matter Manipulator is to use TL Tachyon's character power and AA's abilities to allow Lifeline to draw cards on other heroes' turns. When Lifeline draws cards, it triggers Matter Manipulator to ask if he wants to use a power instead and Lifeline's character power allows HIMSELF to draw twice. This means between turns for Lifeline, he can potentially draw 4 extra cards.

Visionary's role is to help manage the Villain deck and the Environment deck. Legacy's role is to heal the party and tank damage whenever he can.

Preparation for 1 Round Play:
- AA needs to have cards in play that allow other heroes to either play cards or use powers and an instrument to activate those abilities. Personally, I suggest:
1. Inspiring Supertonic,
2. Inventive Preparation and
3. Telamon's Lyra.


- Legacy needs Heroic Interception in hand

- Lifeline needs:
1. one copy of every one-shot in hand (total of 8 different cards),
2. all 3 copies of Calculated Action (1 of the 8) and
3. both Cosmic Immolation cards either in hand or in play... with this strat, in hand is perfect
4. It is good to stack up a lot of ongoing cards in Lifeline's play area because it makes Cryptic Alignment more powerful and you will need ongoing cards to dispose of when you eventually play Unnatural Upheaval.



This will most likely take a few rounds (roughly 5+ rounds) to get everything you need in place. The hardest part will be getting both Cosmics Immolations and all of the Calculated Actions. Just take your time, be patient and play your ongoing cards with Lifeline as you progress. It is not a bad thing to have duplicate ongoing cards in play either because it just increases your Cryptic Alignment's power until you are ready to go.

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**NOTE** - Any unbolded one-shot cards below are interchangeable in their play order. I just wrote which ones I played as an example. The bolded ones are intentionally played at certain times.

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With Inventive Preparation, Inspiring Supertonic and Telamon's Lyra you are able to give Lifeline the ability to play 1st Cosmic Immolation from his hand and then you make Legacy use his character power which allows Lifeline to play the 2nd Cosmic Immolation from his hand. I can't remember the order of which one comes first out of the "play a card" action (Lifeline) and the "use a power" action (Legacy > Lifeline).

This one is pretty simple... just make sure you play Heroic Interception. This will make sure Lifeline can't take damage as he runs through his cards super quickly and again it lasts until Legacy's next turn... aka AA will be able to go again while this is active.

1st = Calculated Action gives you 2 more plays
2nd = Unleash Energy uses a play but also gives you one... still 2 plays left
3rd = Calculated Action (second copy) uses a play but adds 2... 3 plays left
4th = Harrow
5th = Ley-Line Shift
6th = Haunting Memory... you need to go into your trash and retrieve a Calculated Action and 2 other cards

The turn order will go around and eventually you will run back into...

When you use your instruments, you need to make sure Lifeline gets another chance to PLAY A CARD... I suggest keeping it simple and using Inventive Preparation's Accompany (Rhythm). This will repeat what we did before by playing the Lyra and then Lifeline can play:

1st = Calculated Action (third copy from hand)... 2 plays
2nd = Calculated Action (retrieved copy from trash)... 3 plays
3rd = Enclave's Tech
4th = Repair Ley-Line
5th = Unnatural Upheaval... I like to save this one for last and at this point you should have quite a few ongoing cards you can dispose of without having to kill off your Cosmic Immolations.

Do NOT make the mistake of getting rid of the Cosmic Immolations. LEAVE THEM IN PLAY!!

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With this round complete, you should have done everything needed to get the variant unlock with the exception of having the Blood Countess Bathory incapacitate Lifeline.

Remember... You need to not have any heroes incapacitated with the exception of Lifeline and win to get the unlock. AND... Blood Countess Bathory has to be the one to incapacitate Lifeline.


The easiest way to have the Countess get the last hit on Lifeline is to make sure Infecting An Heir is in play (these are both environment cards) as well as both of the Cosmic Immolations to maximize her damage. She needs to be the one to melee Lifeline which means:

- Countess has to be the vampire (environment card) with the most HP,
- Lifeline needs to be the non-Vampire target with the lowest HP - this includes Angry Mobs, Ambuscade's devices, and Visionary's Decoy Projections
- Lifeline needs to be at or below 6 HP before it is the environment turn, assuming you have both Cosmic Immolations in play (+2 damage/card).

If you are having trouble trying to work that out, remember that you can attack yourself or your allies as long as the card specifies that you are attacking a target and no other wording. Remember that Visionary will help you move through your environment deck along with Legacy's character power and Lifeline's Discharge Lifeforce card. When you pull that off, no other heroes are incapacitated and you've killed Ambuscade, then you have yourself a variant card unlocked!



Best of luck and congratulations!