Madness Level 8 Strats (campaign)

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Curious what your madness level 8 strats are. I've beaten madness level 8 once (9 including modifiers, as "impending doom" is basically free) after quite a few attempts which mostly failed at ylmer, otherwise failing in act 3 against ravager packs. Team compositions and strats I was using in madness 7 quickly got stomped in 8. I'm very interested in what's worked for others.

I'll give a quick rundown of what setups have taken me far.

General Observations

* The starting resource and card rarity limitation constraint is brutal (2200 gold, 2200 shards for a fully upgraded team). In lower madness levels, it was feasible to swap out the majority of a hero's cards. In fact my roster for madness levels 1-7 was a bit different to the one I used to beat 8 (I was sharp-stacking Grukli for 1-7). The constraint also means you can't rely too much on equipment. I think it's more valuable getting your starting deck and pets, then divining, rather than going for equipment unless it is very good like the hunting ring or chalice of kings
* Healing becomes significantly more important, arguably more important than block in a3. This is for two reasons. First, because of hero speed debuffs/enemy speed buffs, it's not unusual for some battles to have the entire enemy team go ahead of you because of a quick slower. So block here is less useful, until you get cards to buff your energy and you can stack fortify across the whole team. Second, some common units have 'purge block', which makes block stacking less viable
* A hero dying is incredibly bad, because they receive two upgraded death's doors. The only hero I've been able to have die and still carry on through bosses is Magnus, because I don't use him for offense at all. Injuries are also pretty bad
* Getting to level thresholds for heroes asap is even more important - level 2 for all heroes apart from evelyn ASAP is a must. You should be hitting 1 just before/after fighting yogger (I go through the cellar, taking the injuries if necessary). And 2 should be hit towards the end of a2 (before the boss, which for me is hydra)
* I generally sit at around a 20-card deck size, with 1-3 boons per hero. Andrin is closer to 15, evelyn and reginald closer to 25. In my comp, only Andrin can really power through the exhaust mechanic for a few extra cards, because of momentum and a general low-cost deck.

Team comp

The classic
Andrin - Evelyn - Reginald - Magnus

The tl;dr strat here is: Andrin debuffs with mark and vulnerability. Magnus defends, and debuffs with slows and vulnerability. Evelyn nukes enemies with elemental bolts, buffs reginald's energy, and ele-resist buffs the team. Reginald heals and smite/flashes.

* Andrin is a debuffer and secondary damage hero. He focuses on stacking as much mark as possible, through upgraded slices, upgraded ricochets, and a couple of mark skills. He also is decently survivable because of deflects (hand-neutral, but gives you block). He also takes chant of celerity, to buff everyone's speed for the first couple of turns. Hunter's ring is fantastic on him, as is the item that gives you evasion on skill use (procs every turn as you always cast a deflect). Pet-wise, I usually give him the clairvoyance pet. Level-wise, wild-hunt and momentum are musts.
* Evelyn is the primary damage hero. She focuses on cold/lightning, in particular elemental bolt is a must-take (dual-element, so mark stacking and bless does double-time). She also buffs reginald's energy. Also, she buffs all heroes' elemental resists. I also take a few unupgraded (global) rains on her for good measure. Pet-wise, I give her the lightning seahorse. Level-wise, I usually go for elemental proliferation, and the additional ele debuff stacks.
* Reginald is a healer and secondary damage hero. His deck starts out as pretty much the default deck, but with upgraded flashes (0 cost), upgraded heals (1 cost and vanish), and upgraded barriers (1 cost and heal). His damage really picks up in a3 once he's hit level 2 and gets a free smite after casting a holy spell. Priorities for him are efficient healing and dispell/buffering -> damage -> blessing. Sacred ceremony is excellent. If you get the item that blesses on heal, and chalice of kings or its upgraded, fantastic. I didn't get either in my run. Pet-wise, I give him the sheep, later upgrading to the seahorse through the a2 quest. Level-wise, I go for focus heal and smite-on-holy-spell.
* Magnus is a debuffer and tank hero. I generally remove all attacks from him ASAP (second town I get rid of the last couple strikes). He stacks howls, intimidates, and team defence cards like barricade and its 5-cost big-brother which brings fortify to the table. This is the one hero I don't mind dying every now and again. as death's doors don't affect him too much. He gets the dispelling harpy pet. Level-wise, wolf-guard (very good against purgers, repeat-attackers) and defence cost reduction is what I go for.

I've put them in this order because of back hero monsters. In particular, back hero purgers and silencers.

Pathing

A1: typically up to rope event, through cellar (pit path), to the broken shrine for some mid-act upgrades, then up to yoggers and down to ylmer. This ensure heroes have levelled by the time they are fighting ylmer, team members have an energy-boosting boon card, magnus potentially has another boon from the werewolves, and there is good opportunity for cards and equipment
A2 (greenish portal): down to croco village, reading the note, then supporting the crocos in the tribal war. Down to the boat, heading to the seahorse pet event (another team boon) and putting it on reginald, and likely skipping the northeast boss in favour of going to the merchant, past the wall, and across the hole using the rope. I skip the boss because the fight node after getting the seahorse pet is brutal. But the items the boss drops are quite nice for the team if you have the resources
A3 (reddish portal): Middle goblin route, ideally passing the dying merchant and grabbing the pet upgrade if possible - I usually go for magnus for the team fast and dispel. Kill minotaur, then try to scale the lava. Harpies are a pain, despite the harpy matriarch dropping some good stuff for the team