Ida solo in Realm mode

[tiamats4esgares]

After beating Nightmare in Realm mode (and by beat, I mean the one where you can do 5 acts, I don't like endless mode), I thought I'd try out hard mode solo with Ida! I tried one game with Pierre first but died in Act 1. Now with Ida, I'm level 20 and in act 3! And I think I've got a pretty good deck. Now it's just a matter of ranking up these cards. Here's what I got:

-3 Summon Spirit Bears
-1 Eyes of the Wolf
-2 Healing Wisps
-2 Herds
-1 Animal Companion
-1 Master of Bear
-1 Wild Cunning

For a total of 11 cards, which is my minimum.

Thanks to a white hat I turned rare early, I got +1 card draw (so 6). With all 3 bears already played and having drawn Master of Bear and Wild Cunning which stay in hand, I draw the rest of my deck every single turn! And I have 4 AP now. So I can cast Healing Wisps or Herd three times in one turn if I need to with Eyes of the Wolf, or twice each, or play Animal Companion with 2 other cards. Can even play Animal Companion twice if I want because I'm using Improvise as a Synergy card (and also using Shift).

I could retain 1 card if I wanted to, and so I could actually add a 12th card to this deck, but not sure what would be good to add. Maybe Extinction of Behavior to give the bears some immunity? Maybe Deflect or Wall of Thorns to give myself some more block? I had a Wall of Thorns in my deck but removed it. :P Maybe shouldn't have. But I don't like that it's 2 AP and I don't have a way to generate channel. I think I can get Deflect if I respec a common card but I tried a few time and no luck? The only 2 cards I have that aren't in my deck are Hurl Javelin and Positive Reinforcement, so, I don't currently have any commons to trade away. Also no top armor piece (haven't found one all game) that gives Deflect and no Shield that does either (also no Block/Dodge that I could convert to Blue with a rune, which I DO have).

I guess I could replace Eyes of the Wolf with Natural State, I could keep an eye out for an Elemental III space on my grid, and then I could have my way of getting channel. Hmmm....

I'm a little bit worried my bears might struggle to kill things come late game, but I'm only on Hard. I don't think they could do Nightmare. I think I should be fine on Hard. :P

I'll keep this updated on what happens! If anybody cares. :P

EDIT: Then again, Eyes of the Wolf can be specialized in to draw 2 cards, instead of 1, if that's ever useful to me at all. Then again, not sure if it is. Hmm....

If I get rid of Eyes of the Wolf, I could level it up first to 4 and then Assimilate it to get +12 initiative. I don't currently have any other green card to use for that.

[tiamats4esgares]

Level 27. I got a Natural State! :D I'm going to try and get Wall of Thorns back, maybe. Might be nice to have. :P

[tiamats4esgares]

...It was super, super, SUPER easy. Every battle was easy mode. It was easier than when I did hard mode with 3 people. Legit. lol

[happyscrub]

The way XP works, it is easier for solo