Let's try to keep with the several iterations... I am starting to lose count. The current one is facing the (quite good) strategy of an alpha strike based on save-or-suck instead of trying to deal damage, from post #858.
Ed: "AGAIN?!?"
Alfred: "Yes. They just found a pile of dust under his porch, like the other day..."
Lady Marian from the Book Club: "It's horrible!"
Lady Juliet from the Book Club: "Oh Mystra! They killed Binky!"
Ed: "That will be solved in a few days of prayers, don't worry!"
Alfred: "I wonder what happened..."
Ed: "Could it be the last sorcerer returning?"
Alfred: "No, I am positive he is still enduring the eternal choir of high-pitched 6 years-old voices."
Ed: "Then...if it's not him, could it be...
(the camera center on Ed, who turns toward it with a worried look, as an ominous music plays)
Ed: "HIS BROTHER?"
Alfred: "It could be. Nonetheless, I'll take no protective measure whatsoever, and just walk around idly, suspecting nothing and certainly not another attack from him!"
Ed: "Good, good..."
So, we're facing a Sorcerer who deflty entered Foggy Bottom again and sat, hidden, at a 60 ft range to cast both Polymorph and Flesh to Stone from Hiding.
With Alfred +5 to initiative compared to the Sorceror, he was likely to win the roll. Let's say nonetheless he elected to fail as he was standind idly, tending to a lovely new cultivar of catnip he would call Binky's Purr in hommage to his late friend (who would be back in a few day, when casting True Resurrection would be an option again) in the outskirts of Foggy Bottom.
Facing a Polymorph attempt, which could be debilitating, Alfred immediately asked his Simulacrum, telepathically, to expand a reaction to make him succced at the saving throw in case he missed "on his own". Facing a Flesh to Stone attempt, he did the same using his own Convergent Future. Being exhausted sucks, but it beats being turned to stone. Alfred was certain he had won the fight at this point, so he sighed in relief. If both ennemies had cast spells with a 60 ft range, stupidly forgetting to use Distant spell on them, they had broadcast their position and vulnerability to a Wished Symbol of Insaniity, whose trigger would be "whenever I go more than 100 ft from the Symbol. Then the Simulacrum would Teleport both of them in the air, 1,020 ft up from their position. They knew that no body can fall more than 500 ft per round according to the Xanathar-Newton laws, so they'd safe for some time. Their disappearance triggered the Symbol, with a 75% chance of remove their opponents from the fight. Action economy was against them: the symbol acts not only when it's triggered, but also whenever one ended his turn inside the area of effect. If none of them resisted, they'd be screwed (56% change of happening), if only one of them resisted, (38% chance of happening), they could, if acting cleverly, escape at most. If they didn't, the cuddling airborne pair would simply Teleport to Candlekeep Teleportation circle and plan their counter-attack. So the best-laid plan so far ended with more than 1 in 2 chances of being defeated outright, and no risk for Alfred. That was subpar.
