Bucky
New Member
Posts: 8
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Post by Bucky on Sept 27, 2016 19:36:05 GMT 1
A lot of the classic character guides just poofed. We should try to replace them so new players know what's going on. This is a large project and I'd like some help with it.
Up to date guides on the official forum: BBB Gloria
Old guides that made it to the official forum: Argagarg Jaina Gwen Lum Midori Quince Troq Valerie Vendetta (partly updated)
Characters with no surviving online guide: DeGrey Geiger Grave Menelker Onimaru Rook Setsuki Zane
Guides I am working on: Vendetta Geiger
Non-character-specific matters that need guides for newer players: Basic concepts - Density and effective density - Safety (Max Send vs Max Clear) - Tempo
Intermediate strategy - Tempo - Tracking the opponent's hand - Pigs and cycling control
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Post by flagrantangles on Sept 30, 2016 15:10:47 GMT 1
I can help with editing and posting guides, but I'm afraid I haven't ever played Puzzle Strike so I'm not capable of writing guides for the characters.
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Jude
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Posts: 111
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Post by Jude on Oct 12, 2016 22:26:14 GMT 1
I think I still have the rough draft to the Geiger Geide in my Google drive. I'll look for it later tonight.
Edit:
Here is what I have of the guide. It seems mostly like the final version besides the match-up section. But's that's okay because I've always felt bad that I didn't mention Oni as a bad match-up in the official version. I just had barely any experience fighting him at the time. Him and Sets are probably the worst two.
Copy & Pasted from my drive:
I. Overview:
Geiger dresses well and messes with time and stuff (someone can fill in whatever seems good here)
Triangle:
Almost in the middle, slightly towards defense
Strengths:
-Character chips give his deck more consistency than others.
-Can often play puzzle chips second turn to get off to a quick start.
-Starts with 2 brown to black washers.
-Can play any strategy well.
-Wears a suit.
Weaknesses:
-Disruption can mess with key chips.
-Available strategies can be bank dependent.
-No innate rushdown or defense.
-Need to be able to play every style well to be successful.
Gieger's General Gameplan
Geiger's character chips help him use other chips in his deck better. Therefore you want the best possible chips in your deck. Best possible doesn't always mean most expensive. Geiger's main strength is that he can move chips around from his bag, hand, and graveyard.
This helps him mitigate bad hands by evening out his forks, enders, and purple orbs increasing his decks reliability. His main downside is that he doesn't have any innate strengths. This means that while he can play any strategy well, he is not going to out econ an econ character and rushdown characters can rushdown better than him.
To play Geiger well, you need to properly judge the situation you are in and not try to beat a character at their own game. This is true for all characters in general but much more so for Geiger. Rushdown econ characters, play defensively against rushdown, out econ defensive characters, and hope the bank supports the playstyle you need.
II. Puzzle Chips:
Chips Geiger Loves
-Dashing Strike, Gem Essence, One True Style, Axe Kick, Combinatorics
These chips all have a brown arrow. All of your character chips are brown, two of them wash to black.
Dashing strike is good pile control and doesn't disrupt your cycling like other reds do.
Combinatorics can see immediate use if you use the arrow to play Research and Development to fetch a combine from your bag.
-Bang then Fizzle, Button Mashing, One Two Punch, Recklessness, Custom Combo, Punch Punch Kick, Gem Essence, One True Style
With no natural forks Geiger is stuck with only playing a single ender per turn. These chips help every cycle of your deck be more productive.
Don’t let the wound on Recklessness scare you away from buying it, especially later in the game. As long as you don’t over use it early on it shouldn’t be an issue.
Using X-copy on any chip with an arrow can also be a suitable replacement if no other fork is in the bank.
-Signature Move
Allows you to play a variety of other chips in your deck, or Future Sight if you need to draw. Especially useful as the game progresses and you see your character chips less often.
-Ouch!, Stolen Purples, Mixmaster
These are all strong enders. Most characters can only play them once per cycle but with It’s Time for the Past Geiger can play them twice as often. You can get a lot of mileage with just a single copy, Ouch! is once a turn anyway so having multiples is rarely beneficial.
Chips Geiger Fears
Disruption
Chips that help the opponent's strength
III. General Tips:
Know if the opponent is playing a shorter or longer game than you, and plan your strategy accordingly. Remember that this changes with every chip that your opponent buys. If you see them changing strategy midgame adjust accordingly.
Things to remember about character chips:
-No rule says that you have to play the chip you retrieve, they just give you an arrow. Sometimes it's best to use It's Time for the Past to put a chip in your hand and then play Future Sight and pig the puzzle chip you retrieved for next turn.
-Sometimes Research & Development is best used to put a chip you want to draw next turn back in your bag, whether you use the orb you drew or not. It is also usually a good idea to purchase at least one more orb early in the game so you can get the most out of this chip.
-Both Research & Development and It’s Time for the Past can be used as brown to black washers even if they don't have a valid target. This is affectionately called a Geiger Washer.
2nd Turn Puzzle Chips
Geiger has a high percentage chance of being able to play It’s Time for the Past on a puzzle chip he bought on the first turn. Ideally you won’t draw It’s Time for the Past in your opening hand. If you do, hopefully you can use Research & Development to put in back in your bag or play Future Sight to pig it. Be sure that if you use Future Sight to pig two chips so your chips don’t cycle back into your bag. Some chips are much better to play on the second turn than others. Here are some of the better ones:
-Bang then Fizzle
Geiger loves seeing this chip in the bank. There is a good chance that you will be able to play Future Sight afterwards as well. You will then have 10/11 chips in your deck. If you are lucky enough to draw all 6 1-gems and your crash, you get a 7 buy. You at least get a guaranteed 6 buy. If Combos are Hard is in the bank it is probably your best choice.
-Risky Move, Money for Nothing, Training Day, Sale Prices
All of these chips will give you more buying power. Although, depending on your strategy they may become a liability later in the game. Money for Nothing self trashes, so it is often a good choice.
-Axe Kick, One of Each
If you happen to get a 5 buy on your first turn, either of these are good options depending on your gameplan.
IV. Matchups:
Matchups Geiger Loves
Matchups Geiger Fears
-Anyone with natural disruption. Against these characters don't expect to get off to a quick start. Even discarding a 1-gem can have a major impact on your buying decisions. Realize this is probably going to happen and plan your opening turns differently. Especially against Vendetta since Surgical Strike will cycle your deck and guarantee you can't play a second turn puzzle chip.
I mean I guess you could have just typed it out of the book but I don't have it, so I'm not sure how much the final version got edited.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2016 16:00:49 GMT 1
I bought a copy of the Puzzle Strike Strategy Guide back in the day. I'm not sure what the sources of that book are, but it covers all the characters and all the chips. Would that be useful for this project? I have a scanner at home, I could maybe try to figure out some text recognition stuff.
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Bucky
New Member
Posts: 8
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Post by Bucky on Oct 17, 2016 19:01:32 GMT 1
Unfortunately we can't use the guidebook because of copyright. However, I believe the guidebook's guides were based off the schnauzer guides that I did get permission to copy.
---Geiger Guide comments--- *You're missing the non-red versions of adopt-an-ender. *Not all disruption is equal; I'd call out Chip Damage specifically in the chips feared section. *Geiger does fine against Vendetta because It's Time for the Past messes with both Surgical Strike and Stunlock. He wants to set up faster than normal cycling in this MU because of Surgical. *I'd call out Grave as a Feared matchup; Grave likes a lot of the same chips but also pulls ahead with Martial Mastery.
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Post by flagrantangles on Nov 7, 2016 13:19:33 GMT 1
Since the forums still exist as a ghost, I was able to lift the Menelker guide.
I. Overview:
Master Menelker is the personification of “playing to win” and he will utilize any means at his disposal to attain victory. He is unmatched in his mastery of the martial arts and can take on the form of the mighty Deathstrike Dragon, striking fear into the hearts of those who would oppose him. In Puzzle Strike Master Menelker is primarily focused on disruption. He forces opponents to change their general game play style and can take apart even the best of plans.
Strengths:
-Into Oblivion can be used to remove any chip pile from the bank that can threaten your strategy.
-Bone Cracker can disrupt an opponent’s buying potential and can allow you to expect their next move by letting you see their hand.
-Deathstrike Dragon is a really powerful chip that not only removes all 1 gems from your gem pile but also sends half of them to your opponent. Time the use of this chip wisely though as it must be trashed after you use it.
Weaknesses:
-No built in economy/rushdown/defence strengthening abilities means you will be less efficient at specific tasks against characters that specialize.
-Buying combines early may hamper your ability to effectively use Deathstrike dragon but buying them late may mean that your opponent has already set up his economy and can efficiently retaliate against smaller (1 or 2 gem) crashes.
Master Menelker’s General Gameplan
Master Menelker’s general strategy revolves around disrupting and hampering his opponent so buying disruptive attacks with red arrows (such as Combo Practice or Sneak Attack) is often desirable. Make sure you buy a few 2 gems and brown banner chips to help with your late game economy and ability to play multiple chips. When your gem pile hits 6 or more 1 gems this is usually an opportune time to use Deathstrike Dragon to empty it out and send some gems over to your opponent unexpectedly. Near the end game (after using Deathstrike Dragon), buying combines and crash gems becomes very important for allowing you the ability to finish your game and attain victory. Be careful though, if you notice you are playing against a character that specializes in defense, build a strong economy early (as opposed to stocking up on attacks) or use into oblivion on a blue banner chip to remove a defensive option from your opponent.
II. Puzzle Chips
Chips Master Menelker Loves
- Colour Panic, Hundred-Fist Frenzy, Pick Your Poison, Combo Practice, Sneak Attack, Stolen Purples
Master Menelker wants to disrupt your strategy and attacks are the way to do this. Generally, attacks with red arrows are desirable so you can play more attacks and hence cause more disruption. Hundred-Fist Frenzy is a great brown to have because it makes your attacks even more disruptive and, should your opponent play nothing in his/her action phase to remove it from play, that will help your cause because it is a turn where your opponent is inactive. Be weary of what chips your opponent is buying early on in the game. If they try to buy lots of blue banner chips to ruin your day then focus on your economy or use Into Oblivion to remove the said chips.
- Gem Essence, Roundhouse, Combos Are Hard, Punch Punch Kick
Late game (after Deathstrike Dragon), Master Menelker will need a way to draw chips and gain black/purple arrows so he can make sure he is efficient with his action phase and so that he can crash gems as often as possible to make sure opponents can not mount a retaliation. These chips will help him accomplish just that task and Gem Essence will help him cycle out unnecessary 1 gems while still allowing him access to arrows that he will need.
Chips Master Menelker Fears
- Combo Practice, Pick Your Poison, Colour Panic, Ouch!
Having no innate defensive chips, Master Menelker is very susceptible to attacks and can often be forced into inefficiently buying blue banner chips by characters that can rush well. Chips that force Master Menelker to discard chips will be a huge hindrance in that they will make purchasing good chips difficult and/or make his action phase very underwhelming.
- Self-Improvement, Blues Are Good
Very strong defensive chips that allow for ignoring attacks or drawing more chips need to be neutralized at any given opportunity or focus on building your economy and using late game purples to win you the day.
III. General Tips
- Though disruption is your main tactic do not be afraid to focus on your economy against rushdown or defense based characters. Deathstrike dragon can be used to clear your gem pile of gems and buy you the time you need for economy building.
- Be careful when using Into Oblivion and make sure you do not remove a gem pile you may need at a later time. Also remember that Into Oblivion can cause Panic Time.
- Bone Cracker is a very valuable tool as it will disrupt the buying power of your opponents but remember that as the game goes on having money (gems) in hand is not as valuable as it was in the beginning so don’t hesitate to skip using Bone Cracker if there are better plays.
IV. Matchups:
Matchups Master Menelker Loves
Master Menelker is great against characters that rush him down and send him chips such as Jaina. His Deathstrike Dragon really shines as she tends to have a weak end game so beating her rush generally means beating her. Use Stolen Purples near the end game to secure victory.
Matchups Master Menelker Fears
Like Grave, Master Menelker does not have any glaringly bad match-ups but if one deserves honorable mention it is Onimaru. His Riposte is a great defensive tool that helps deal with Master Menelker’s disruptive tact, his Double Slash lets him keep pressure on in both the early and late game, and his Wartime Tactics allows him to adapt to any strategy you can throw at him.
COMBO PRACTICE CLARIFICATION: Well given that combo practice is causes Menelker to discard chips and its red so he has no innate against it, someone making good use of this card could really mess up Menelker's economy or action phase which is why i listed it under fears and why i wrote:
"Having no innate defense chips, Master Menelker is very susceptible to attacks and can often be forced into inefficiently buying blue banner chips by characters that can rush well. Chips that force Master Menelker to discard chips will be a huge hindrance in that they will make purchasing good chips difficult or make the action phase very underwhelming."
and he loves this chip because of the discarding of chips effect and because it has a red arrow on it meaning he can play multiples and thus pull back some more reds or deathstrike dragon from the discard pile which was put under the loves pile.
You think it needs more clarification?
Also, apologize about the font. I typed it in word originally and didn't change the size.
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Post by flagrantangles on Nov 7, 2016 13:22:55 GMT 1
I didn't see Persphone listed among the guides you mentioned so here's her guide: Persephone Strategy Guide (terse version for official formatting - but still likely too long)
Triangle: On the Defense/Econ edge, much closer to defense.
Overview: Persephone is an immortal who knows that the way to dominate is through patience.
Strengths: Incredibly strong attacks and attack chip synergy. Using Always In Control to clump gems together gives her moderate economy.
Weaknesses: No innate rushdown or pile control. No innate thindecking or deck-cleanup abilities. More enders than arrows, meaning that she cannot play all her chips in the early cycles.
Persephone's general game plan:
Perse generally wants to play for the long game, beating her opponent either as they fall apart from wounds or as she uses Always in Control and her extra draws to out-econ them, or if she can land a Mistress's Command to end their game.
Puzzle Chips
Chips Perse Loves:
Forks: Perse's more enders than arrows setup and her ability to draw chips off of P&P or AiC means that she really wants forks. One True Style, Gem Essence, Button Mashing, One Two Punch and similar chips are great early buys for her. Chips with Red Arrows: Perse starts with a pair of red chips and usually wants to buy more, so anything with a red arrow on it is good for her. As well as the forks mentioned above Color Panic, Chip Damage, and Pick Your Poison tend to be the best of these for her Premium Red Enders: Perse loves all red attack chips. Ouch!, Mixmaster and Stolen Purples are probably the best, and with her immunity blue she also defends against them better than most other characters. Hundred Fist Frenzy: Perse starts off with two red fist chips and a red arrow. Hundred Fist Frenzy lets Perse use any red attack chip for pile control, so HFF is great for her. She can discourage an opponent from skipping their action phase to end it by playing HFF when the opponent is at 5 or 8 pile. Chips with Pigs: Another way for Perse to space out her enders and avoid worry about drawing the wrong thing off of P&P is for her to play chips with pigs like Secret Move, Safe Keeping, Pick Your Poison, and One of Each Combos are Hard Perse can often use an early Always in Control to stack gems in one draw to get an early $6 buy. Even better, CaH is a surprisingly good chip to make an opponent play via Mistresses Command - as she can make them gain both a Wound and a [1] with it.
Chips Perse Fears: Blue Shields: Any blue-shield reaction can be used against Perse's red heavy game. Blues are Good and Thinking Ahead can negate her attacks making her waste precious actions. Money for Nothing can give her opponent a massive Econ boost. Ebb or Flow can give an opponent viable rushdown and can fizzle Mistress's Command. Self Improvement and Improvisation's reactions can also be problematic, but sometimes their mains can be useful to Perse. Training Day, Chips for Free, Now or Later These deck-cleanup enders can mitigate the damage Perse's wounds cause and also give an opponent a viable Econ ramp. Chips with Brown Arrows: Perse doesn't start out with any brown chips nor have any brown arrows, so she generally has less of a brown game than anyone else. Thus chips like Axe Kick, Combinatorics are better for her opponent
General Tips:
What to Do as Persephone: If you have Always in Control in the first draw of a cycle look at the bank and look at what gems are still in your bag and consider what you could buy if you saved two gems from this hand to add to the next hand and whether that's worth a low buy this turn. Use P&P to wound early. Look for a win when you land MC. If there's not a win look for the best way to degrade your opponent's deck.
What not to do: Don't choose to draw off of P&P in the midgame or later if you might draw your only crash without an arrow to play it or a pig to save it. Don't play Mistress's Command just because you can. Sometimes you will need to Crash more or even have another red that's better in the current situation.
Matchups Perse Loves: Valerie, Gwen, Gloria: These deck-cyclers are especially vulnerable to early wounds, and Perse's immunity blue puts a crimp in their attack chip synergies. Perse just needs to watch that they don't out-econ her in the lategame. Troq: Giant Growth thindecking falls apart against wounds and the Orb buy restriction means that Troq is often very vulnerable to having his sole Crash trashed via MC. Setsuki: Between wounds making deck-cycling more difficult and the propensity for over-engineering leaving Sets low on Orbs, Setsuki is often very vulnerable to MC, and Double Take is often a very tempting choice.
Matchups Perse Fears Bal-Bas-Beta: BBB can use Rocket Punch to respond to P&P and to fizzle MC, plus he can Upgrade the wounds Perse gives. Arg: In the match between the wounders, Perse has two notable disadvantages. Firstly, it's easier to avoid gaining more wounds when you only have to discard one wound than when you have to discard two, so in the midgame and later Hex will be causing more wounds than P&P; secondly Bubble Shield and Protective Ward give Arg a slight edge in pile control making it very difficult for Perse to win before the midgame. Perse cannot win on defense in this match, she must go either Econ or Rushdown Zane: Maximum Anarchy lets Zane change a wound-heavy hand into a useful hand, while Crash Potato and Crash Bomb give Zane a notable edge in purple density. The arrows from Maximum Anarchy tend to be less useful if Perse pursues a Red-heavy strategy. Perse needs to keep a closer eye on pile control while trying to buy chips that are useful whether Zane uses MA or not and trying to wound him enough to make the game go long.
Other Notable Matchups: Midori, Degrey - while the overall matchups are about even, both of these characters have character chips which they can be Commanded to use to trash their best chips, meaning that they have to be extra careful against Perse.
Persephone Guide (stupidly verbose version for forums only)
Triangle: On the Defense/Econ edge, much closer to defense.
Overview: Persephone is an immortal who knows that the way to dominate is through patience.
Strengths: Incredibly strong disruption and disruption synergies. Always In Control's ability to clump gems together on alternate turns can give her moderate economy. Always in Control's Immunity reaction gives her Mild anti-disruption
Weaknesses: No innate rushdown or rushdown synergies. No innate pile control. No innate thindecking or deck-cleanup abilities. More enders than arrows, meaning that she cannot play all her chips in the early cycles.
Persephone's general game plan:
Perse generally wants to play for the long game, beating her opponent either as they fall apart from wounds or as she uses Always in Control and her extra draws to out-econ them, or if she can land a Mistress's Command to end their game.
Puzzle Chips
Chips Perse Loves:
Color Panic: This is downright insane for Perse. It's a red chip that can deny the opponent the chance to play [Orb]s and it's also a red chip that can fork into a red and black arrow. Thus if she draws it from P&P she can play it and another chip. If this is in the bank, Perse should buy three of them as fast as possible, and she almost can't lose if she does. With the most recent Color Panic, you generally want to try to choose a color they don't have with the first one in a chain. (this is most often blue, but pay attention to their character chips, what they've bought and their discard ) Pick Your Poison: A red attack chip that can be played into or off of P&P and gives Perse a pig which she can use to hold onto enders she may draw off of P&P. And the opponent will usually choose the more painful discard option to avoid going to 6 or 9 pile while Perse has a red arrow. Chip Damage: Another red attack chip that can be played off of or into P&P. Even better If played before P&P in the combo, the opponent will often discard wounds, thereby making P&P more likely to add another wound and giving Perse more draws - if that's not enough, the P&P draws can be used to gain the chip that CD let Perse topbag, so she can regain a [Gem] or add another Red Fist into the attack chain. One True Style:This is a fork that also helps Perse's pile control. Perse can play her character chips off of the red and blue arrows, however she doesn't start with any brown chips, so she will eventually want to buy at least one if she is using OTS. Gem Essence: This is awesome for everybody. Perse needs cheap forks and an opponent thindecking [1]s away suffers more from wounds. Again, note that Perse doesn't start with any brown chips, so if she's using GE as her fork she may want to buy a brown chip or two. Button Mashing: A cheap fork that self-trashes. This can be useful to let Perse play P&P and Crash in the early cycles or to setup Crash + MC comboes in the midgame. However it's self-trashing means that Perse probably wants a [2] gem or three before going for it. Recklessness: Another cheap fork and interestingly Perse can choose her own discard to draw off of with P&P - so the downside is slightly less severe for her than for many other characters. One-Two-Punch; Punch, Punch, Kick; Custom Combo: These more expensive forks are great for Perse, but she most needs them when she goes red-heavy, in which case she's least likely to be able to afford them and most likely to need to buy pile control preferentially. Ouch!: A brutal red ender, this can be played off of P&P and gives wounds which can feed P&P. Even better it can trash Combines, thereby discouraging an opponent from rushdown. And if the opponent tries to use it themselves, Perse has an immunity blue. Mixmaster: Another powerful red ender, this helps against rushdown and Perse can use it for pile control off of P&P. And if the opponent tries to use it themselves, Perse has an immunity blue. Also, since Perse is playing for the long game against anyone but Arg and Degrey, she's usually happy to crash a [2] in her pile instead of giving an opponent a window to mix it. Stolen Purples: The third of the premimum red enders, this one is yet another way for Perse to defend against rushdown as it makes the opponent discard all [Orb]s. And if the opponent tries to use it themselves, Perse has an immunity blue. Perse just needs to be careful to keep her pile low in the midgame and later where her deck is too bloated to reliably have AiC as a reaction. Really Annoying: A way for Perse to cause more and more reliable wounds. However an opponent can counter by buying RA themselves. While AiC's immunity reaction provides some help against that, if it goes to an all-out wound-war, whoever manages better purple density through the wounds will win the game. Just a Scratch: A way for Perse to cause more and more reliable wounds. An opponent can buy it to trash the wounds Perse gives, but unless that opponent has forks or red chips, they'll be spending actions to do so and giving Perse an advantage. Knockdown: This is a red to purple washer, which lets Perse Crash after playing P&P. However the other effects of it are not as big a deal for Perse, as the opponent will often have a wound to discard and she usually wants an opponent to countercrash in order to extend the game. Dashing Strike: This provides pile control in a red chip which can be played off of P&P. However Perse cannot innately use the brown arrow it provides, so she'll want to purchase brown washers or enders if she goes this route. Sneak Attack: This chains with P&P and can setup MC, so it can be useful. On the downside it increases the tempo of the game, which isn't Perse's usual game plan. She should use this if trying to rush, or if the bank has great MC options, or if she's using HFF strat but she should avoid using this when she's playing for the long game or if there are strong blue reactions. Hundred Fist Frenzy: Perse starts off with two red fist chips and a red arrow, but lousy pile control. Hundred Fist Frenzy lets Perse use any red attack chip to crash, so HFF is great for her. She can discourage an opponent from skipping their action phase to end it by playing HFF when the opponent is at 5 or 8 pile so that skipping their action phase leaves them potentially vulnerable to Mistress's Command. Safe Keeping, Secret Move these cheap piggy chips offer a way for Perse to space out her enders and avoid worry about drawing the wrong thing off of P&P. Thus they are often great little buys when Perse is using AiC to clump gems on alternating turns. Comboes are Hard Perse can often use an early Always in Control to stack gems in one draw to get a $6 buy in the first or second cycle often. Even better, CaH is a surprisingly good chip to make an opponent play via Mistresses Command - as she can make them gain both a Wound and a [1] with it.
Chips Perse Fears: Blues are Good and Thinking Ahead these can negate Perse's attacks making her waste precious actions. Money for Nothing can give her opponent a massive Econ boost - however that boost does bloat their deck with [3] gems, so in a bank with no high end chips it can be worth it for Perse to spam attacks into MfN reactions. Ebb or Flow can give an opponent viable rushdown and can also fizzle Mistress's Command. Training Day, Chips for Free, Now or Later These deck-cleanup enders can mitigate the damage Perse's wounds cause and also give an opponent a viable Econ ramp. Chips with Brown Arrows: Perse doesn't start out with any brown chips nor have any brown arrows, so she generally has less of a brown game than anyone else. Thus Axe Kick, Combinatorics and even Dashing Strike are often better for her opponent.
Other Notable chips Improvisation: This has a reaction that can be real trouble for Perse, however it's main is a psuedo-fork that also cycles, which can be really useful to her. Also, it's awesome when Perse can use Improv's reaction to hit an opponent with MC on their turn. Self Improvement: Both the reaction and the main are great against P&P. However, Perse loves to MC an opponent into playing this. Additionally, if Perse has collected forks with blue arrows, she can use this to slimdeck better than her wounded opponent can.
General Tips:
What to Do as Persephone: If you have Always in Control in your first draw (or the first draw of any cycle) look at the bank and look at what gems are still in your bag and consider what you could buy if you saved two gems from this hand to add to the next and whether that's worth buying a [1]-gem or even a wound this turn. Use P&P to wound early. Wounding is best in the early game and merely drawing an extra chip is not as good. Look for a win with MC. If there's not a win look for the best way to degrade your opponent's deck. After the first couple cycles make sure to play your crash each cycle
What to do when you land that Mistress's Command
Firstly, look for a win. If there is a way to make the opponent ante beyond where they can recover (Riskonade, Ebb or Flow, Risky Move, It's Combo Time) or to deny them a needed crash (Self-Improvement, Degenerate Trasher, Chips for Free, No More Lies, Purge Bad Habits) or the ability to draw said crash (trashing chips or playing optional draw chips like Now or Later, Creative Thoughts, Martial Mastery for other options or making them play forks or linkers uselessly), then Perse should do that. Second look to avoid the loss: If Perse is in danger of losing, she needs to use MC to prevent that. Usually this means either Ebb or Flow or making an opponent run into Perse's countercrash, but sometimes options like Riskonade's draw or Zane's Max Anarchy help here. Third look to degrade their deck. Wound is the go to choice here, but Perse can sometimes do better. Combos are Hard can be used to give an opponent both a Wound and a [1] (unless they reacted in which case the first-chip restriction causes it to fail). Perse can also degrade an opponent's deck by making them play chips they may already have like Recklessness, Safe Keeping or Unstable Power to bloat their deck or by using Now or Later or Gem Essence to trash their best gems, Fourth look for immediate advantage. Perse can make an opponent crash a small gem to waste their crash, or make them combine to have both a [2] and a [3] instead of a single [4], and sometimes it's worth it to MC an opponent to using Sale Prices so that Perse gets the discount on her turn. Finally, don't neglect to consider alternatives. Using Self-Improvement to trash their crash is great, but using Option Select as Self-Improvement to trash their crash does the same thing without giving them a chip they might use later. Giving them an X-Copy to double-play a Self-Improvement they already have can leave them orbless, etc
What not to do as Persephone: Don't choose to draw off of P&P in the midgame or later if you might draw your only crash without an arrow to play it or a pig to save it. Don't play Mistress's Command just because you can, sometimes you will need to Crash more or even have another red that's better in the current situation If you do land a Mistress's Command, don't be afraid to give them a chip that might become problematic later. By the time they are at 6 pile and with you degrading their deck there just isn't a lot of later left in the game.
Matchups Perse Loves Valerie, Gwen, Gloria: These deck-cyclers are especially vulnerable to early wounds, and Perse's immunity blue puts a crimp in their attack chip synergies. Perse just needs to watch that they don't out-econ her in the lategame. Troq: Giant Growth thindecking falls apart against wounds and the Orb buy restriction means that Troq is often very vulnerable to having his sole Crash trashed via MC. Setsuki: A top Perse vs a top Sets is about even. However a good Perse against an only kinda good Setsuki is a slaughter. Between wounds making deck-cycling more difficult and over-engineering leaving Sets low on Orbs, Setsuki is often very vulnerable to MC, and Double Take is often a very tempting target.
Matchups Perse Fears Bal-Bas-Beta: BBB is an emotionless killing machine and therefore nigh-immue to Perse's emotional manipulation. He can Rocket Punch in response to P&P or to fizzle MC, he can Upgrade the wounds Perse gives. Overall he's far and away the toughest matchup for Perse. Arg: In the match between the wounders, Perse has two minor but notable disadvantages that combine to form Voltron make this difficult for her. Firstly, it's easier to avoid gaining more wounds when you only have to discard one wound than when you have to discard two, so in the midgame and later Hex will be causing more wounds than P&P; secondly Bubble Shield and Protective Ward give Arg a slight edge in pile control making it very difficult for Perse to win before the midgame. Perse cannot win on defense in this match, she must go either Econ or Rushdown Zane: Maximum Anarchy lets Zane change a wound-heavy hand into a useful hand, while Crash Potato and Crash Bomb give Zane a notable edge in purple density. The arrows from Maximum Anarchy tend to be less useful if Perse pursues a Red-heavy strategy. Perse needs to keep a closer eye on pile control while trying to buy chips that are useful whether Zane uses MA or not and trying to wound him enough to make the game go long. Perse using AiC's super-pigs on useless chips just to increase her hand size can be strong bluff against a Zane player.
Other Notable Matchups Midori - Midori's Dragonform Rushdown can be difficult for Perse to deal with, but if Perse can land Mistress's Command she has a decent shot of making Midori Purge one of his few [Orb]s Degrey - Degrey can trash the wounds Perse gives, but Perse's immunity blue gives her decent early game economy against him and if Perse can land Mistress's Command, she can make Degrey trash his most important chips.
Perse vs the World:
Grave: This is mildly in Perse's favor. Unless Grave can get fast cycling (Axe Kick) or added deck slimming (Gem Essence, Button Mashing, Self-Improvement, Now or Later) Perse wins the long game and Grave has to try a monopurple rush. Jaina: Perse v Jaina is pretty close overall. Mixmaster, One True Style or Ouch! really help Perse here. Knockdown, Risky Move and Riskonade help Jaina. The key is whether Perse can get early wounds past Burning Vigor and/or manage to negate BV's extra ante with AiC. Midori. Eight times out of ten, Perse just wins. But that's because eight of ten Midori players in quickmatch haven't got a clue. Against a Midori player who knows what they are doing this is a roughly even match. Perse's wounding slowing :psorb: cycling and the threat of MC into Purge are hard for Midori to handle, but Midori's rush is hard for Perse to handle. This match often turns on whether Perse can buy a 2nd/3rd :psorb: without allowing Midori to Rig Train into an additional :psorb: of his own or not. Setsuki: Like all Suki matchups, this is heavily bank-dependent. This is also a magnified skill differential match; by which I mean that a top-tier Perse player will mop the floor with a merely good Sets player, and a top Sets player will run rings around a merely good Perse player. The usual chips are good and bad for each character, but it's worth noting that Perse usually has the advantage in the very long game, Now or Later is a better Sets counterpick than any :psblueshield: and in an otherwise neutral bank, Color Panic Perse has the advantage over Chips for Free Sets. Rook: Rook needs to rushdown here. Unfortunately rushdown makes it hard for Rook to afford a 2nd Crash fast enough to reliably have one when Perse is wounding him. This is in Perse's advantage, and Rook wants to counterpick in useful :psblueshield:s or Iron Defense to use offensively. DeGrey: I think this is roughly even, but it's a big skill magnifier. Neither character can successfully perform their default strategy against the other, so whichever player is better at thinking outside the box and adapting on the fly usually wins this. DeGrey is one of the very few matchups where Perse is unlikely to have the edge in the very long game. Valerie: Wounding usually gives Perse a meaningful advantage over Val. However, Val can put together a respectable rushdown, and she sometimes has valid options trying to match Perse :psfist: for :psfist: or going all-in :psblueshield: since she's good at playing blue mains. Geiger: This matchup is the major reason Geiger is not joke tier. It's bad for Perse. Bag searching and discard replaying is relatively better in a bloated deck, giving Geiger quite a bit of wound resilience. His innate :pspig:s also cut down the bloat that P&P can inflict in the first place while letting him hold or bluff :psblueshield: reactions. With a first-cycle Combine, he has just enough rush to be a real problem for Perse. Lum: The goth match is bank-dependent. I suspect that it's very very very mildly in Perse's favor, but I haven't had too many matches against highly skilled Lum players, so I'm afraid that I'm biased. Arg: Again, there are not many top players playing Arg, so this match remains largely guesswork. I think Arg has a slight edge, but it often comes down to who gets the first wound through the other's negation :psblueshield:, since each wound makes it less and less likely for that negation to block the next wound. The other match where Perse is unlikely to have the edge in the very long game. Quince: Bank-dependent. Quince can use his ongoing :pspig: well against Perse, and Flagstone Tax's penalty for first-cycle crashing means Perse gets off to an even slower than usual econ start. However, MC gives Quince even more pile control difficulties than normal. Oni: This is supposedly one of Oni's worst matchups. However I personally think that its bank-dependent with Perse having only a slight overall edge. Cheap forks (Button Mashing, Gem Essence, One True Style, Bang Then Fizzle) all help Oni way more than they help Perse; econ ramps help Oni; and between his innate :pspig: and WTTing :psblueshield:s for other chips mains, Oni isn't all that bad off against Perse. She does win the long game, and early wounds can cripple his already sluggish economy. In this matchup, Perse needs to watch out for Riposte's reaction and use AiC to try to time her :psfist:s to get past it when it can recover meaningful chips. Perse also needs to watch for Double-Slash overload rushdown, especially if there are any :pspuzzle:s that let Oni increase ante. Oni needs to either keep it from going long or be able to trash/upgrade multiple wounds per cycle. Perse will frequently consider unusual-for-her buys here, such as Gemonade and Iron Defense. Bal-Bas-Beta: The nightmare match for Perse, BBB's ability set is everything Perse does not want to see. Upgrade lets BBB trash up to 2 wounds per cycle, and gain +:ps$: for doing so -- meaning that wounds don't really slow his econ. Cog Engine's ongoing +:ps$: lets BBB still make positive buys even with many wounds and Combine buy penalties while Cog Engine's ongoing +:pspig: lets BBB hold either a :psblueshield: or a Wound to deal with P&P. Rocket Punch is a pile-control :psblueshield: which doesn't lengthen the game, since it doesn't actually reduce the total number of :psgem:s in piles, but Rocket Punch will fizzle a MC attempt. Furthermore, the multicolored low-end forks (One True Style and Gem Essence) Perse likes are usually better for BBB. In this match Perse wants to try to use her AiC super-pigs so that she can bait BBB into using Rocket Punch reaction against a :psfist: which she can then counter-countercrash. Troq: This is favorable to Perse. Troq's main weakness is early wounding, and MC cuts the target range for Troq's pile to just 7 or 8. Troq can rush pretty decently, so Perse needs to prioritize buying pile control chips and pay attention to how big a :psgem: Troq can GG into crashing at any point. IMX, Troq's best odds here are actually to go for early econ and forgoe much of his thindecking. This is one of the few matchups where Troq wants to use More Shiny to trash from Pile, since that gives him bigger early buys. However since that's bloating his deck and P&P wounds are likely also bloating his deck, he needs to buy :psorb:s in the midgame more than he needs to Giant Growth. Menelker: This is close and bank-dependent. Menelker loses the long game to wounding, so he needs to try to land DD for the win or go for an early Panic Time rush. As usual, Menelker tends to lose when DD is counter-crashed, so Perse wants to try to get an additional Crash (or Iron Defense or Gemonade) as early as possible. Gloria: Perse usually beats Gloria in the long game, and Gloria is pretty much the worst rushdown character in either set. However Gloria can on occasion manage to econ and wound-trash to win a Master Puzzler / Hammer Race. Gloria needs to be very careful in when and how she plays all of her character chips, and Perse needs to be wary of playing :psfist:s into :psblueshield:s Gwen: I consistantly underrate Gwen....but many of Gwen's favorite :pspuzzle: chips are better for Perse than they are for Gwen. In a :psfist: war, not only does Perse start with a negation :psblueshield:, but P&P chaining gets stronger as the match goes on while Shadowswarm discard declines in value. Gwen really wants useful brown banner cycling or trashing chips in this matchup. Vendetta: Perse has a narrow edge over Vendetta most of the time, however Vendetta's crash-denial rushdown is a threat and Perse should usually prioritize pile control (going for an early 2nd Crash). Vendetta needs to carefully track what the odds are that Surgical Strike will be negated by AiC as well as the odds of Perse having a countercrash (or a Combine effect which can be Stunlocked). Zane: This is the most commonly seen of Perse's bad matchups, and while Perse wins if it goes long, Zane threatens either a strong rush ( by Potato-ing her Crash and then wheeling away her biggest money hands while Crash Bombing at her ) or a solid midgame economy ( by crash bombing for :ps$2: in the first 2 cycles and then wheeling away any of his own wound-heavy hands). Perse can only really prepare for one of those possibilities, but Zane gets to choose the timing of Max Anarchy to set up whichever one she can't handle.
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Post by flagrantangles on Nov 7, 2016 13:34:07 GMT 1
DeGrey guides: DeGrey is a scholar, but certainly not a gentleman! His Pilebunker keeps opponents from maintaining an economy while granting him additional momentum. No More Lies keeps his deck small and efficient. And Troublesome Rhetoric intimidates opponents into powering him up still further.
Strengths: - Gets stronger the longer the game goes on due to his ability to slim his bag with No More Lies - Pilebunker forces many characters to change their economic strategies - Capable of playing either a brutal disruption game or a remarkable economy game - Doesn’t worry too much about being forced to buy wounds
Weaknesses: - Poor gempile control - Needs arrow support to excel - Strong blue chips can counter Pilebunker - Vulnerable to discard effects
DeGrey’s General Gameplan
Degrey likes to use No More Lies to trim his deck down to the bare essential tools he needs to outlast or crush his opponent – tools easily bought with the help of Troublesome Rhetoric and a Pilebunker-fearing foe. Meanwhile, frequent Pilebunkers keep the opponent from building their deck too quickly. With forks and a small deck, Degrey can play a consistent barrage of his favorite chips.
Puzzle Chips
Chips DeGrey Loves
- It’s a Trap, Button Mashing, Secret Move
These are affordable chips that enable DeGrey to keep his deck nice and slim while providing him with more Arrows. It’s a Trap gives DeGrey even more control over all opponents economies by making essential chips unsafe for them to buy. Button Mashing provides him with a fork, allowing him to play Troublesome Rhetoric and Pilebunker in the same turn. Secret Move provides a timely pig.
- Bang then Fizzle, Safe Keeping Bang then Fizzle goes well in a slim deck and can really speed up DeGrey’s game. Once his gempile is too large he can get rid of it with No More Lies! Safe Keeping gives DeGrey some added gempile control; the 1 gems received from it are not a big hassle, as DeGrey can always toss them away with No More Lies.
- Dashing Strike, Color Panic, Knockdown
Red chips that help DeGrey with his weaknesses. Color panic also provides him with a fork and washer. Dashing Strike gives him more pile control and can combo into or out of No More Lies. Knockdown is good because it allows DeGrey to slim his Bag with No More Lies and then wash the Arrow red to purple so he can crash uncounterable gems.
- Recklessness, Punch Punch Kick, One True Style, Gem Essence
A slimdecking Degrey will almost always use every arrow he gets. The wounds from Recklessness are temporary, and multiple Punch Punch Kicks can let Degrey draw and play every action chip he has. Extra red arrows are always great.
- Pick your Poison,, Mix Master, Hundred Fist Frenzy
Pick Your Poison works great as a bridge between No More Lies and other attacks, or a buildup to Pilebunker. Thanks to the pigs he can rest assured of drawing his crash next turn. Mix Master makes it difficult to rush Degrey down. A lategame Hundred Fist Frenzy lets DeGrey buy lots of reds while keeping his gempile under control when most opponents can’t afford to skip turns. If there is also a fork in the pool he becomes a force to be reckoned with.
Chips DeGrey Fears
- Self Improvement, Really Annoying
These chips heavily punish Pilebunker.. Self-Improvement’s main allows the opponent to slim his deck when DeGrey wants it full of 1-Gems from his Pilebunker, and the reaction can leave the opponent with more money than he had before being hit with Pilebunker. Really Annoying puts wounds into his deck and slows down his slimming.
- Risky Move, Sale Prices, One of Each
All of these chips let the opponent buy expensive chips without large gems, making Pilebunker less threatening.
- Ouch, Stolen Purples, Chip Damage
All of these chips are deadly to Degrey’s gameplan. Ouch and Stolen Purples punish slimdecking by eliminating his few purples, while Chip Damage make him discard the chips he’d otherwise trash.
General Tips
- If DeGrey uses No More Lies too much he can destroy his own economy as well. Be sure to use it carefully. - Use Pilebunker with forks to learn what’s in the opponent’s hand and make plays accordingly. - Don’t always use the draw on Pilebunker. If No More Lies is in your bag, you can deliberately avoid cycling to play it more often. - Degrey can attempt a rushdown by buying early Combines and trashing the wounds you’re forced to buy.
Matchups:
Matchups DeGrey Loves
Degrey generally does well in matchups against characters who like to draw big gems,, giving him favorable matchups against Gloria, Geiger, Valerie, and Menelker. Degrey wants to build a small deck that can threaten regular Pilebunkers, preventing his opponents from playing the long game.
Matchups DeGrey Fears
Rushdown through crashing a lot of gems can ruin DeGrey’s day before he can refine his bag enough to win. Midori and Rook are especially tough, because they also generate their own money. Vendetta and Zane can rush him down while disrupting his deck, and Setsuki can play around Pilebunker by Double Taking puzzle chips.
DeGrey has for some time been my absolute favourite character, somewhat misrepresented by my not-so-high gamecount. I believe my views on him are different from the norm. I see him as a fluid character, able to fit well within all sides of the triangle; rushdown, defense and economy. Right out of the box he is strictly economy and nothing else but get a combine early and he can stand up, with an uphill battle, against Midori and Jaina. Note this isn't strictly defense per se, but rather a counterrushdown.
Where he truly shines though are the games where the opponent is not presenting any immediate threat: 2 cycles in and no combines, maybe some countercrashes done and little to no disruption. It does not matter if you are Setsuki, Grave or Gloria: DeGrey is going to rock your long game if you do not stop it. And unlike you he does not need any bank assistance at all to do so. (A deck consisting of only character chips, combines and crashes is a realistic long term goal.)
This got to be a hell of a long post. :pspig:
General strategy truisms: In the early game, make it a top priority to trash as much as you can, even if you forsake a juicy buy. Trashing two :ps1gem: and buying a wound is better than trashing nothing and buying a :ps2gem:! Exception: make sure that you at minimum have 2 :ps1gem:'s in your deck so that you can line it with a crash. This is almost never an issue. First two cycles, buy only money and maybe Combines. Forks are not needed yet and :pspuzzle: reduce money density, something that is very important early. Exception: 6-cost chips and Bang then Fizzle. Some people have asked me if it is good to trash your crash gem early. While it is not completely prepostrous, I will have to run some maths before saying anything else than No. DeGrey Cycling: This deserves its own paragraph. Two of DeGrey's character chips draw a chip from the bag and both will be played frequently. It is important to know what choice to make out of Pilebunker and when to avoid playing TR altogether - the cantrip is the likely choice but sometimes it makes harmful cycling.
Example: First turn, hand is Pilebunker,1,1,1,1. Question you have to answer, do you want the combine? Then use piggybank to avoid cycling No More Lies away. Otherwise 40% chance of drawing another gem to buy a :ps3gem: is well worth it.
Example 2: Turn 2, your hand is Troublesome Rhetoric,No More Lies,1,1,1. Your hand from turn 1 is in discard, you bought a :ps2gem: . Best play is to ignore TR and go for secure trashing. You want NML for the next cycle, and do not want to separate NML from Pilebunker. It would be better of course if TR cantripped, you drew the :ps2gem:, trashed, then bought another, or Pilebunker doing something similar, but that is just roughly 20% chance of happening. Maybe not low enough to deter you.
Example 3: Turn 2, your hand is NML, Pilebunker,Crash Gem,1,1. Your hand from turn 1 is in discard, you bought :ps3gem:. This time you should trash both gems with NML then draw a chip from Pilebunker. Whatever you draw you are happy, 1-gem being best and 3-gem being worst. Assume you drew 1-gem, your next hand will be TR,1,1,1,3 which is a very strong money hand for turn 3. This DeGrey will rush to DCG and Master Puzzler real soon. If you drew the :ps3gem: off Pilebunker you buy a 2-gem and enjoy your future above average buys.
How early should DeGrey buy a Combine? With reliable slimdecking, any chip in DeGrey's deck will be played more often than in anybody else's. Thus the decision about the first combine is important in that it will be highly effective at building big gems while having big impact on your longterm economy. A DeGrey that buys a Combine first turn is going to have unparalleled combining ability but also worse economy options than Vendetta. General rules - In response to the opponent's first one unless you have other methods of pile control. When your gempile reaches 6. If you believe a DCG is within reach you can wait much longer. If there are non-OTS forks or X-Copy in your deck you can play your crash gem more often, i.e. at all, postponing your need for a Combine. Vs Jaina, Rook, Midori and Troq there is no excuse to wait. I will make a complete list of the puzzle chips I find more beneficial to DeGrey than to your average opponent:
Mix-Master - While the terminal action is problematic to handle, it is very useful in that your opponent will have great difficulty in tracking if you have it or not - DeGrey rarely has a discard pile. It is a good deterrent for rushdown and with a high purple density DeGrey will suffer less than most if applied against him.
Bang then Fizzle -Try to manipulate your draws so that you hit a 2-buy first cycle while still trashing at full speed. Not always possible, no big deal. Trash it as soon as you hit 5-pile- once there, you are unlikely to go down. This chip makes an otherwise slow DeGrey starting economy go TURBO, with pilebunkers flying almost every turn.
Money for Nothing - Because it takes a bankchip slot and is useless as a defense against Pilebunker. You will probably not ever buy this yourself though unless forks are available.
Master Puzzler, The Hammer -Takes up bank slots that could house bad chips, generally unaccessible to opponents. Absolutely something to aim for if opponent is not pressuring enough.
That is all.
Chips that are generally good, but often benefit opponent more than you:
Sneak attack Roundhouse Improvisation Pick your Poison All forks except Gem Essence and Recklessness Thinking Ahead (if powerful reds are in the bank, otherwise this is a bad chip.)
Chips that I find terrible for DeGrey. If several of these are in a bank it might be worth to randomize rather than counterpick away piece by piece.
Stolen Purples - You love to hang around at 6-9-pile. Your deck is going to be small. It will contain a high purple density. Soon enough you will have your first DCG. You will use it yourself, but it will be bittersweet at best.
Gem Essence - One of the most powerful chips you can buy first cycle, and it is totally useless to DeGrey. Early economy is already a troublesome issue and buying this instead of a:ps2gem: spells catastrophe. First priority to counterpick away.
Risk to Riskonade - Ever heard the story about the lawyer that loved getting punched in the face before he was ready? No? Me neither.
Really Annoying - Ok, I will reveal a secret. Wounds are the worst thing that can happen to a slimdeck strategy. Especially when they can be gained while you use an important character chip. If you buy this instead of a 1-gem early you start a wound war you can't handle.
Knockdown - DeGrey loves countercrashing. A big part of the early-midgame, countercrashes are DeGrey's only source of pile control. (You do not have time to play the Crash Gem.) Knockdown makes this strategy very awkward.
One of Each - Allows your opponent a good access port to a stable economy while ignoring the :ps3gem:. Due to DeGrey's need for an early spike economy and the draw from Pilebunker this is actually a worse buy early game than a :ps3gem:. There is nothing good about the presence of this chip.
Most of the chips I have not mentioned in either of these lists are bad for DeGrey in that they are not very useful but might be a hindrance.
Tips for players facing DeGrey: No matter the character, you are the beatdown. Buy Combines ASAP. Troublesome Rhetoric: early game the cantrip option is the safest, at this stage DeGrey has trouble scraping money up and will just pig whatever you do not want him to play. Later when most/all :ps1gem: are trashed the ender option becomes better. Want him to get :ps$2: :pspig: or draw a :ps3gem: and get :psblack:? If you are using upgrading chips to get bigger money gems, make your gems as cohesive as possible. :ps2gem::ps2gem::ps2gem: is much safer vs Pilebunker than :ps1gem::ps2gem::ps3gem:. If you put pressure on DeGrey by forcing him to play his Crash Gem, rather than countercrashing, you are greatly hampering his economy as well as protecting your gems from Pilebunkers. Wounding and disruption like Chip Damage and Pick your Poison are highly effective. Note that whatever chips DeGrey will discard from CD or PyP are very likely to be good stuff.
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Post by flagrantangles on Nov 7, 2016 13:39:34 GMT 1
Onimaru Guide
I. Overview: Onimaru is a master tactician and can create a good result out of just about any situation. He can pinpoint an opponent's weakness and adapt his strategy to exploit it. He is resiliant to being attacked himself and has many ways of turning the opponent's attacks to his advantage.
Defense:70% Rush: 10% Econ: 20%
Strengths: -Very flexible. Rarely has too many or too few arrows. -Resilient to purple and red rushes -A wide variety of very good starting options
Weaknesses -No innate econ -Bank dependant, though it's rare to find a bank he can't use -Vulnerable to wounds
Oni's general gameplan: Oni wants to identify one or more powerful chips in the bank that he wants to play many times and a cheaper or equal cost chip that links or forks into the powerful chip. He wants to buy the powerful chip and then use WTT on it to play the linker or fork into it.
II. Puzzle Chips
Chips Oni loves to WTT for:
Cheap chips with arrows: -Bang then Fizzle -One True Style -Gem Essence -Button Mashing -Sneak Attack, Combo Practice, Color Panic
These chips are all great because Oni can use WTT to play them and then play something else. For instance, if Oni is holding Ouch and WTT in his hand, he can use WTT to play Sneak attack and then play Ouch. One True Style, Gem Essence and Button Mashing are especially powerful, as they give him extra arrows to play all kinds of crazy combos. If they are in the bank, he can get quite a few strong enders and use WTT to fork before he has to worry about actually buying forks. Special note: Normally he doesn't want to use Double Slash too much early because he probably has better things to be doing (like playing disruption enders or econ boost enders) and having some pile gives a draw bonus. However, if bang then fizzle is available, using double slash to keep his pile low so he can use WTT to play bang then fizzle every time it comes up is a strong play.
Things that are cheap and work best when played early in the game -Bang then Fizzle -Risky Move -Riskonade -Training Day -Sale Prices -Money for Nothing
These chips are great because Oni can use them early but not clog up his deck with them. For instance, he can buy an expensive ender on his first turn. Then use WTT on it on his second turn and play risky move on a 1-gem. He gets a solid econ boost, upgrades a 1-gem into a 2-gem and doesn't have to worry about drawing risky move later in the game.
Chips that Oni likes to buy: Chips that trash chips: (The goal is to get rid of 1-gems to draw more puzzle chips at a time) -Self Improvment -Now or Later -Gem Essence
Chips that turn 1-gems into puzzle chips, especially if there's a fork at or below the cost of the chip: -Training Day -Chips for Free
Oni's end goal is to have a hand full of a variety of puzzle chips. He can almost always use WTT to make sure he has the correct number and color of arrows to play whatever he draws and create massive combos. Thus, the quicker he can get his deck full of good puzzle chips, the better. Trashing his 1-gems and upgrading his 1-gems to 2 and 3 cost puzzle chips are both great ways to go about this.
Powerful enders (when a cheaper chip can link or fork into them): -Ouch, Mix Master, Stolen Purples Stolen purples in particular is deadly. If you have a $4 puzzle chip in your hand or discard, you can WTT for Stolen Purples at just about any time and the opponent will have little recourse. -Iron Defense -Improvisation -Chips for Free -Draw 3
These enders are especially strong if there is a cheaper or equal cost fork. For instance, if Ouch! and Button Mashing are available , every time you draw Ouch! with WTT you can play WTT as Button Mashing and then play something else. This means that even though Ouch! is technically an ender, it often doesn't work like one and that makes it especially deadly.
-Signature Move If the game draws on, Signature Move can also be a very strong chip to allow the use of WTT more than once per cycle. WTT is one of the strongest chips in the game and having a chance to use it multiple times in a row can make you dominate the late game.
Chips that Oni fears: -Ouch!, Really Annoying, Just a Scratch Oni really wants to draw as many puzzle chips at a time as he can. Wounds prevent this and can really fizzle his strategy.
Generally expensive chips: -With no econ, Oni rarely gets a chance to buy and play expensive chips and when he does, it's usually much later than his opponent. Also, almost all the expensive chips have black arrows on them which is something Oni needs a lot less than other characters and so the expensive chips aren't worth quite as much to him.
Also note that Oni doesn't use brown arrows well since he will usually want to play WTT *before* his puzzle chip so he can reveal that puzzle chip. Only when he has a 2nd puzzle chip in hand or discard of the same value, can he use the brown arrow efficiently.
III. General Tips
Oni is great at using the bank and absolutely loves chips that are good early but not so good later in the game (Risky Move, Bang Then Fizzle, Riskonade, Money for Nothing). He can buy an expensive puzzle chip early and then use WTT for one of these jump starts without having to worry about clogging up his deck with them. Ideally his goal is end up with a deck of mostly puzzle chips of various costs, with a few forks and many enders. The greatest thing with Oni is that by using WTT wisely, he can avoid the biggest problem of fork/ender decks which is drawing all his forks in one hand and then all his enders in the next hand. Typically he'll want more enders than forks because it's easier to WTT an ender for a fork (2 chips: WTT and Ender) than to play a fork and WTT an ender for another ender (3 chips: Fork, WTT, and Ender).
Onimaru is generally good mid to longer games, because WTT means he's typically doing more than his opponent each turn and that adds up after a while.
Oni can create some very strong starts by buying a puzzle chip first turn and using WTT on it second turn. Using riposte to pig WTT if you draw it on the opening hand is often a strong play since you can use it on whatever puzzle chip you bought on turn 1. The only exception is if there aren't any cheap puzzle chips in the bank that you want to play on turn 2.
Once he gets to drawing 2 or 3 decent puzzle chips per turn, either through buying a lot of them or ideally through clever use of trashers like Gem Essence, Now or Later, Self-Improvement or upgraders like Training Day or Chips for Free, he can play some crazy turns and smash in all but the most stalwart defenders.
Oni generally shouldn't be buying purples early unless there's a specific reason (for instance, playing against an opponent who is going all in for a rush strategy). Double slash is a good way to keep your pile under control during the middle game and having strong puzzle chips is doubly important because WTT needs them and can't use purples.
IV. Matchups:
Matchups Oni Loves Oni is great against characters that have a particular weakness. For instance, Lum is particularly vulnerable to wounds so if Ouch or Really Annoying are out, Oni can buy and use them very efficiently. He is great against characters that have a powerful red attack like Vendetta. Riposte essentially nullifies Surgical Strike which is Vendetta's strongest weapon. Oni is also excellent against characters that don't have strong end games. For instance, Jaina can't penetrate his defenses early because of Double Slash and has no way to beat him in a long game.
Matchups Oni Fear Econ characters like Setsuki give Oni the most trouble. He has trouble pressuring them early without help from the bank in the form or Risk to Riskonade or Combinatorics or by attacking them with reds and he has no real way to match their econ. If chips like Combos are Hard or It's Combo Time are out and he's playing an econ character, he will be in for a tough fight.
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Post by flagrantangles on Nov 7, 2016 13:42:19 GMT 1
Setsuki
I. Overview:
Setsuki is a character that heavily relies on bank interaction, so she often must think on her feet to come up with a creative ways to set up powerful combos. Her key feature is her chip Double Take which allows for unique strategies, most notably those that involve heavy use of cheap brown puzzle chips to boost her economy. Her other two chips chain into Double Take, targets for future Double Takes, and each other to allow this little ninja to cycle through her deck extremely quickly. Be careful though- Setsuki can be fragile to aggressive characters, so don't forget about defense!
Strengths: - One of the strongest, if not the strongest, econ gameplans in most banks. - Has a natural brown fork, one of the best because brown to black washers are by far the most common type of washer. - Two chips that help cycle fast, and one that keeps your deck thin allows her to be playing any chip she buys very often. - In addition to econ chips, Double Take has synergy with many reds, especially wounding chips.
Weaknesses: -Poor interaction between character chips and purple chips makes her vunerable to rushdown. -No natural defense or pile control. -Suffers in banks without wounding chips, cheap econ puzzle chips such as Training Day, or brown to black washers such as One Of Each. Fortunately, banks that Setsuki absolutely cannot interact with at all are rare.
Setsuki's General Gameplan
Setsuki typically wants to use cheap brown puzzle chips to boost her econ to where she can transition into a powerful lategame engine deck. She is also very strong using Double Take with Just A Scratch or Really Annoying, and can also play an aggressive game by using Double Take on reds with Hundred Fist Frenzy. Due to her strong endgame power, most other characters will try to rush Setsuki down; in this case, is Setsuki's goal to balance building an engine to triumph in the endgame while defending a rushdown.
II. Puzzle Chips
Chips Setsuki Loves
- Chips For Free, Training Day, Risky Move, Sales Price, Money For Nothing, Draw Three, Now or Later, Self Improvement
While Setsuki loves most bank chips, her favorites are the aforementioned cheap brown (and a couple blues) puzzle chips that Setsuki can load up on and Double Take in the first few turns. If multiple are present, give preference to the one listed first. If you are lucky enough to have Double Take on turn two, you can almost always get at least a 6 buy with one of these in the bank. Note that the first 3 chips will actually upgrade your starting 1-gems; and Chips For Free can even upgrade your Crash into a 4-gem. Be careful using Risky Move versus very aggressive characters. Now or Later and Self Improvement can trash two 1-gems from your discard, vastly improving your deck cycling rate and average money density if you buy a 2-gem or better.
-Just a Scratch, Really Annoying
These wounding chips can be devastating to your opponent used in conjunction with Double Take; especially if Gem Essence or One True Style is in the bank, forgoing your usual strategy in favor of giving your opponent as many Wounds as possible is often a good idea!
- It's Combo Time, One of Each, Roundhouse, Degenerate Trasher, Punch Punch Kick, Axe Kick, X-Copy
Setsuki will usually be able to afford these very powerful expensive chips before her opponent. Furthermore, besides Axe Kick, they give her the required brown to black washer in order to play purples and other chips off of drawing them with Bag of Tricks and Speed of the Fox. She will usually want as many of these as she can (with the exception of a single Degenerate Trasher) get before she has to start worry about her gem pile.
- Dashing Strike, Hundred Fist Frenzy, Iron Defense, Option Select
Dashing Strike not only chains into all of Setsuki's character chips, but can be used as a defensive or offensive chip that can be bought and played next turn if you know you will draw Double Take without cycling.
Hundred Fist Frenzy synergizes with Setsuki's brown fork and Double Take allows her to crash twice with it using a single red chip. If Setsuki is lucky, she can play Speed of the Fox, Hundred Fist Frenzy, and then Double Take a Dashing Strike to send 4 gems in 1 turn! While not all listed here, any red chips available in the bank can be used in a pinch with Hundred Fist Frenzy.
Double Take targeting Iron Defense is a quick way to get two 5-buys and be set on Crashes for the rest of the game.
Among the endless powerful bank combos you can do with Double Take targeting Option Select such as Stolen Purples + Mix Master, this can function as two Crash Gems for pile control.
- Master Puzzler
In many banks, Setsuki will be able to rush buying Master Puzzler as fast as possible. Note The Hammer is not as strong for her, since her econ tends to be bursty with Double Take and then goes away afterwards.
Chips Setsuki Fears
- Ouch!, Sneak Attack, Color Panic, Chip Damage, Pick Your Poison, Knockdown
Setsuki does not fear many puzzle chips since she can make strong use out of them herself with Double Take. Because Setsuki often wants to play a long game, these aggressive reds are usually bad for her. The once-per-turn clause on Ouch! limits it's interaction with Double Take, and Setsuki is usually light on purples which can be targetted by Color Panic, or used to discard to Chip Damage.
- Risk To Riskonade
This chip speeds up the pace of the game to a level Setsuki does not usually like and will often force her to buy pile control chips instead of building her econ.
III. General Tips
- Setsuki can Double Take a turn 1 buy on turn 2 if she does not play Speed of the Fox in the first turn or draw Double Take without Bag of Tricks to pig it. This is extremely powerful and should almost always be used if possible. Similarly, any time Double Take is in your bag and you will not cycle next turn (or you can pig it), you can buy a puzzle chip with the intention to Double Take it next turn. - If you choose to discard Double Take turn 1, play at least one of your other character chips to cycle your bag during the first two turns. This will almost guarantee being able to play Double Take on turn 3 with your turn 2 buy unless you are redraw it without playing Bag of Tricks on turn 2 (note this means you chose not to pig it on turn 1). - Try to pay close attention to your pile height, pigs, and chips left in bag so that you refill it only at desirable times to take advantage of Double Take's powerful effect every cycle. - A common rookie mistake for Setsuki players is to go overboard building an engine; remember, in the endgame, crashing gems is the only thing that matters. It is better to draw half your deck and crash 4 than to draw your entire deck and crash 3. Furthermore, it is important to actually survive to the endgame in the first place. - While Setsuki is one of the only characters that can set up an extremely strong economy without ever buying money, it is often advisable to buy money the first one or two times you can use a brown econ ramp chip over engine parts. - If you are significantly ahead of your opponent in economy, it is probably time to transition to buying mostly purples and focus on crashing 4-gems to not allow them to catch up, but also not to unexpectedly die.
IV. Matchups:
Matchups Setsuki Loves
Setsuki probably has the most favored matchups out of any character. She excels against characters without a strong rush or disruption game, as she will almost always have a superior endgame to them. However, note that in certain banks with poor Double Take options she can be disadvantaged against these characters that she is usually favored against, such as Grave.
Matchups Setsuki Fears
Setsuki primarily fears the rush characters that can add gems to their piles such as Jaina and Midori. She is also vunerable to characters that can crush her defense while performing a rushdown such as Vendetta and Zane.
Afterword: Setsuki is one of the most complex characters in the game to master, but also one of the most powerful. This guide only covers some of the extremely basic strategies using Setsuki; experiment on your own to unlock her true potential!
A Setsuki Strategy Primer: When I started out, I really wanted a quick reference guide for what is considered the status quo mid-to-high level play for each character's initial turns. Problem was, early guides suggested seemingly impossible things, such as buying an 8-cost chip on turn 3. Of course as one plays the game these things start making sense, but I’m thinking of newer players, as well as experienced players starting out with a new character.
Enter the startegy guide.
I’ll try to map out the first two cycles for Setsuki, with specific examples. This isn’t the only way to play her, and doesn’t cover everything. It’s also nothing new – it’s just much more specific than "you can arrange to play it on turn three, barring bad draws".
DT: Double-Take (Play a puzzle chip twice) BoT: Bag of Tricks ( :pspig::psbrown::pschip: ) SotF: Speed of the Fox ( :psbrown::psbrown::pschip: )
Classic Startegy - The Setsuki Slingshot This (awesome) trick works with most hands and most banks, and its disruption (by Zane, Vendetta, Gloria or DeGrey messing with your cycle) doesn't hurt much. You should probably be doing this whenever you can.
Turn one: Any hand with BoT: Play only BoT. :pspig: DT if you have it, but always :pspig: something. No DT, no BoT: Just don't play SotF. You can crash. Other hands do not allow a turn 2 slingshot and will be covered separately.
Buy something that will make a good DT next turn. Really Annoying*, Risky Move*, Sales Prices, Training Day*, Chip Damage, Draw Three, Just a Scratch*, Chips for Free*, and Money for Nothing are all decent to excellent, with the starred chips recommended. With sufficient money, you could buy two different chips.
Turn two: Your hand will automatically contain DT. Play only DT, using the puzzle chip in your discard - depending on the chip, this should either give you an effective $7+ buy, or seriously damage your opponent's deck.
Almost anything that costs $6+ is a great buy if your DT was an econ boost, including a :ps4gem:. Axe Kick or One of Each are good if you somehow didn't make it to $6. You do not want to DT any of these. If you went for a disruption DT, most brown chips in the turn one buy list are still pretty good here. Remember that the chip you used DT on is gone.
Turn three: If you have the chips in hand for another good DT (possibly using BoT and SotF to get what you're missing), you should probably do this - but you can play your other character chips first this time. Otherwise, if you can :pspig: DT (or don't have it) you could try another slingshot by buying a new puzzle chip to put in your discard for it; Even with high money, if your buy leaves you with $1, getting another RA or RM for that is good.
In any case, try to play and draw as many chips as you can* on this turn, raising the amount of money to spend. *If you're setting up a new DT next turn, have a look at your gem pile and bag size to make sure you won't have to reshuffle this turn, though - you may need to hold off on some draw chips.
Good buys remain much the same, though finances may be in a lull, depending on previous buys and current draws. If you don't have :psbrown: to :psblack: chips yet, consider them specifically, as they allow you to play a lot of stuff and still crash.
Turn four: By now there are just so many possibilities, depending on what you bought and drew, it's nearly impossible to give a generic play - but a lot of versions of these first three turns put you in a situation where you can draw and play a lot of chips, getting lots of money. If you've set up a second DT, just remember to play it as your last action, as it ends your turn.
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Post by flagrantangles on Nov 7, 2016 13:44:10 GMT 1
Rook
Rook is made of rock, making him as solid as you’d expect. He’s a straightforward character who can quickly put big gems in his hand or pile and bury careless opponents in the ensuing avalanche.
[Triangle: leaning largely towards, rushdown, split between econ and defense]
Strengths: - Able to build 4-gems very quickly - Builds up a modest economy without buying new chips - Lots of control over his gempile
Weaknesses: - Few arrows - Vulnerable to wounds and disruption. - No innate combo tricks
Gameplan
With Strength of Earth and an early Combine, Rook can guarantee a 4-gem before his third cycle, letting him put the pressure on. Strength of Earth should be played frequently in the early game to build up height bonus, and judicious use of Stone Wall will protect Rook’s pile without sacrificing offense. He can also use Stone Wall to pig one of his other character chips to set up Strength of Earth into Big Rocks, or Strength of Earth into a washer. Rook wants to keep his opponents under too much pressure to use their usual tricks, so avoid countercrashes and concentrate on putting gems in their pile.
Puzzle Chips
Chips Rook Loves
- Button Mashing, It’s a Trap
Both of these chips let Rook wash brown arrows while keeping his deck the same size. He can use It’s a Trap to trap the opponent’s favorite puzzles or keep them from buying big gems while he uses Big Rocks. Button Mashing can combo with Stone Wall’s main action.
- One of Each, Roundhouse, Punch Punch Kick
All of these chips can wash Strength of Earth’s brown arrow to black while keeping Rook’s effective deck size small. Punch, Punch Kick also gives Rook a fork. One of Each boosts Rook’s economy and gives him pigs he can use for Crash Gems and other important chips. Roundhouse is handy because it actually shrinks Rooks effective bag size!
-Combos are Hard, X-Copy
By skipping Combine, Combos are Hard is a chip Rook can pick up really quickly and then use in order to get an early Double Crash Gem and anything else he needs. X-Copy lets Rook crash more and really keep up the pressure!
- Risk to Riskonade
A single play of this chip will set up a terrifying offense for Rook. Against Rook, it’s too unsafe to consider.
- Gem Essence
Gem Essence lets Rook play Strength of Earth much more often, both by shrinking his deck and by letting him follow it up with any chip he wants. Once he’s has two Combines and a Crash, it might even be worth picking up more than one.
Chips Rook Fears
- Mix Master
This counters Strength of Earth pretty well, often forcing Rook to crash before he’s ready. Try only building 2-gems until you draw your Crash.
- Really Annoying, Just a Scratch, Ouch
Rook doesn’t like wounds clogging up his bag as it slows down his ability to combine and crash fast. Ouch additionally messes up Rook by trashing his Combines.
- Stolen Purples
Rook likes to have more purples than most characters. This chip strongly discourages such a thing, as it can literally cripple Rook’s turns, again making Strength of Earth much riskier.
General Tips Buying a Crash Gem (or even a Combine) over a 3 Gem is often a good idea. Big Rocks will provide the gems you need to buy cost 6 chips. Rook can use Stone Wall’s main to ensure that he draws Combine or Strength of Earth on the first hand of a cycle, making a quick 4-gem that much more likely. - Sometimes it’s better to hold off on counter crashing or using Stone Wall in order to gain some pile-height bonus.
Matchups:
Matchups Rook Loves
Rook loves playing against lategame characters with poor pile control, like Setsuki, Gloria, Degrey, and Quince. Against Rook, many characters are forced to crash early instead of using their character chips or building up an economy. Quince’s Flagstone Tax is countered by Strength of Earth, which lets Rook both keep his pile high and threaten big crashes.
Matchups Rook Fears
Rook has barely any cycling ability, so characters like Zane and Vendetta, who can pluck the Crash Gems from his deck, present a real challenge. Argagarg wounds him while blocking his Conbines, and Jaina can rush him down while tossing out additional attacks. Rook will need extra crashes and careful use of the bank to survive. Sun Bro, Mar 7, 2012 #1 Sun Bro Sun Bro Member This is obviously a rough draft. I've been helping my girlfriend with her homework tonight but I promise I will improve on this very soon! As usual any feedback/advice/help is welcome! Sun Bro, Mar 7, 2012 #2 ApolloAndy ApolloAndy Well-Known Member Both of these chips are useful to Rook when we can’t afford a combine.
Typo? ApolloAndy, Mar 7, 2012 #3 ChumpChange ChumpChange Well-Known Member Staff Member Edited Rook; filled in a lot of blanks and generally cleaned up the language.
Rook is made of rock, making him as solid as you’d expect. He’s a straightforward character who can quickly put big gems in his hand or pile and bury careless opponents in the ensuing avalanche.
[Triangle: leaning largely towards, rushdown, split between econ and defense]
Strengths: - Able to build 4-gems very quickly - Builds up a modest economy without buying new chips - Lots of control over his gempile
Weaknesses: - Few arrows - Vulnerable to wounds and disruption. - No innate combo tricks
Gameplan
With Strength of Earth and an early Combine, Rook can guarantee a 4-gem before his third cycle, letting him put the pressure on. Strength of Earth should be played frequently in the early game to build up height bonus, and judicious use of Stone Wall will protect Rook’s pile without sacrificing offense. He can also use Stone Wall to pig one of his other character chips to set up Strength of Earth into Big Rocks, or Strength of Earth into a washer. Rook wants to keep his opponents under too much pressure to use their usual tricks, so avoid countercrashes and concentrate on putting gems in their pile.
Puzzle Chips
Chips Rook Loves
- Button Mashing, It’s a Trap
Both of these chips let Rook wash brown arrows while keeping his deck the same size. He can use It’s a Trap to trap the opponent’s favorite puzzles or keep them from buying big gems while he uses Big Rocks. Button Mashing can combo with Stone Wall’s main action.
- One of Each, Roundhouse, Punch Punch Kick
All of these chips can wash Strength of Earth’s brown arrow to black while keeping Rook’s effective deck size small. Punch, Punch Kick also gives Rook a fork. One of Each boosts Rook’s economy and gives him pigs he can use for Crash Gems and other important chips. Roundhouse is handy because it actually shrinks Rooks effective bag size!
-Combos are Hard, X-Copy
By skipping Combine, Combos are Hard is a chip Rook can pick up really quickly and then use in order to get an early Double Crash Gem and anything else he needs. X-Copy lets Rook crash more and really keep up the pressure!
- Risk to Riskonade
A single play of this chip will set up a terrifying offense for Rook. Against Rook, it’s too unsafe to consider.
- Gem Essence
Gem Essence lets Rook play Strength of Earth much more often, both by shrinking his deck and by letting him follow it up with any chip he wants. Once he’s has two Combines and a Crash, it might even be worth picking up more than one.
Chips Rook Fears
- Mix Master
This counters Strength of Earth pretty well, often forcing Rook to crash before he’s ready. Try only building 2-gems until you draw your Crash.
- Really Annoying, Just a Scratch, Ouch
Rook doesn’t like wounds clogging up his bag as it slows down his ability to combine and crash fast. Ouch additionally messes up Rook by trashing his Combines.
- Stolen Purples
Rook likes to have more purples than most characters. This chip strongly discourages such a thing, as it can literally cripple Rook’s turns, again making Strength of Earth much riskier.
General Tips
Buying a Crash Gem (or even a Combine) over a 3 Gem is often a good idea. Big Rocks will provide the gems you need to buy cost 6 chips. Rook can use Stone Wall’s main to ensure that he draws Combine or Strength of Earth on the first hand of a cycle, making a quick 4-gem that much more likely. - Sometimes it’s better to hold off on counter crashing or using Stone Wall in order to gain some pile-height bonus.
Matchups:
Matchups Rook Loves
Rook loves playing against lategame characters with poor pile control, like Setsuki, Gloria, Degrey, and Quince. Against Rook, many characters are forced to crash early instead of using their character chips or building up an economy. Quince’s Flagstone Tax is countered by Strength of Earth, which lets Rook both keep his pile high and threaten big crashes.
Matchups Rook Fears
Rook has barely any cycling ability, so characters like Zane and Vendetta, who can pluck the Crash Gems from his deck, present a real challenge. Argagarg wounds him while blocking his Conbines, and Jaina can rush him down while tossing out additional attacks. Rook will need extra crashes and careful use of the bank to survive.
rabig_schnauzer thoughts: Since I've been trying to get a better handle on Rook during his free week here, some thoughts:
Rook has an arrows shortage, starting with Crash (Purple Ender/Reaction), another Purple Ender/Reaction, A Purple to Brown Washer and a Brown Ender. This combines with his lack of deck-thinning / improvement chips and his ability to grow his own gem pile to make most puzzle chip enders generally poor buys for him. Unless he's already done some engine building, he's unlikely to get to play such chips more than twice before they become liabilities reducing his odds of drawing a Crash.
Thus in most forkless pools, Rook has to decide whether to go for a monopurple rushdown, or whether to go monogem and try to get a Double Crash Gem before going monopurple. He's better-than reasonable, but short of great at either strategy, and has to execute one or the other with no ability to switch it up - resulting in a great deal of predictability for his opponent to take advantage of.
Rook should have a good economy, but it often doesn't matter. There's a weird issue in that it's very common for him to start with a pair of $4 buys in his first two turns, but the vast majority of $4 cost Puzzle chips are poor buys for Rook - thus leading him to either go with early Combines for a rush so heavy that he can't play econ later or to buy chips below $4 cost on his opening cycle, thereby failing to leverage the early boost in money he should have.
Seriously, here's the rundown on the 4-costers:
Chips for Free -okay for Rook, can be played off of Rook's brown arrow, adds cycling. However with his additional ante, Rook has to be careful not to cycle past his Crash in the early-mid turns though. Also better for the majority of opponents than for Rook, meaning that his advantage of being able to often buy two on the first orbit is usually negated.
Combinatorics - not an ender, but another purple to brown washer. The effectiveness of how well it combines with Strength of Earth combining and Combine combining is arguable - however the pile height minimum makes it a poor choice for a first cycle buy.
Dashing Strike - Not an ender, but Red to Brown washer, Rook has no red arrows, and arrow duplicates arrow Rook already has, making this mediocre
Gems to Gemonade - Another purple ender, and largely duplicates Stone Wall's reaction. This is only a buy if Rook needs the draws for engine building or :psorb:s have been trapped multiple times.
Hundred Fist Frenzy - Rook has zero innate red synergies, making this largely a waste.
Improvisation - A sort of fork / sort of draw, this is okay for Rook, provided he refrains from buying additional gems and goes slow econ via Big Rocks upgrading. The reaction is sometimes okay against the reds which can be problematic for Rook. There is a small chance that Improv into Strength of Earth is a lategame suicide.
Iron Defense - this is one of Rook's best $4 chips, since it can minimize the odds of a heavy Strength of Earth rush backfiring on a poor draw, and it's generally adequate to only play it once or twice.
Mixmaster - This chip wrecks Rook. He has no red arrows to play it himself and it negates much of the advantage Rook can gain with Strength of Earth.
One-Two Punch - the all-purpose fork is pretty good for Rook, giving him a pair of arrows to play his purple chips off of, and frequently opening up otherwise untenable strategies for Rook. On the downside, Rook's only innate cycling control is Stone Wall's main, so he requires some luck to get the fully effective draw with the fork and a pair of enders in the same hand on his second orbit.
Ouch!: Have I mentioned that Rook is bad at playing :psfist:s and lacks red arrows ?
Pick Your Poison: Have I mentioned that Rook is bad at playing :psfist:s and lacks red arrows ?
Self-Improvement: Another actually good $4 coster for Rook. The reaction really does help against many of the :psfist:s that can plague Rook, and the main is reasonable even if it can only be played twice in the early game - having nice synergy with either Big Rocks gem upgrading to give Rook a very solid midgame economy or with Strength of Earth to let Rook pressure with frequent 4-gem crashes
Stolen Purples: As I think I implied somewhere, Rook is downright bad at playing red chips. This chip by itself ruins monopurple and can deny Rook the chance to Crash after he's built a 4-gem.
So with that in mind, Rook often will want a [2]-gem or a $3 cost puzzle chip over a $4 cost puzzle chip in the first cycle. And well, the entire cast is capable of buying a [2] gem and a Combine on turns 1 and 2, meaning that Rook often does not see his economic advantage at the start.
Overall, Rook is mainly a midgame character, and his primary strength seems to be in controlling the tempo of the game. Strength of Earth's added ante can speed the game up, and gives Rook the option of how big a gem to crash before other characters gain that option. Stone Wall's gem negation reduces total gems in piles, lengthening the game. A lot of the skill to playing Rook seems to be in knowing which characters he has to rushdown (Arg, Perse, Sets, DeGrey, Lum, Onimaru, Quince, BBB) with the tempo at maximum and which character he wants to slow things down against from the get-go (Jaina, Menelker, Zane, Midori) and what sort of bank suggests what sort of tempo for the characters who can go either way.
As to other chips:
A Rook player should squee with delight when Gem Essence is in the bank. The deck-thinning fork is good for just about everyone, however for Rook it fixes his arrow shortage, can be played profitably by itself or with any combination of his character chips, well with Big Rocks gem-growing to turbocharge Rook's midgame economy and works well with Strength of Earth to boost his pressure Rush, while also giving him a reason to consider Red or Blue enders in the bank. Midori is likely the only matchup where an opponent does better with Gem Essence than Rook does.
The cantrips are obviously good for Rook, and it's not uncommon for Rook to face the choice between a first-cycle [3]-gem or a 1st-cycle One of Each.
Secret Move can be pretty good for Rook, and I kinda worry about it's omission from the strategy guide. It's a brown to black washer, allowing Rook o crash after Strength of Earth; it stays in play offering virtual deck thinning so long as Rook has adequate :psorb:s before playing it (and if he's going rushdown, he does); and it fixes Rook's worry that the chip he most often wants to :pspig: is his only chip with a :pspig: on it. That it also lets him time his Crash better to line up that [4] send or avoid a countercrash is just icing on the cake.
And while not actually good Color Panic is better than it has any right to be for Rook. It's the worst fork for him -- but it's still a fork. Thus he should buy it in pools lacking any other forks. even if he has to purposefully whiff with a pair of Color Panics to get a pair of + :psblack:s in a single turn. It also has some nonobvious synergies with his pressure rush and general :psfist: vulnerability. Picking Purple allows Rook to reduce the number of :psorb:s his opponent can play leaving them more vulnerable to Rook's looming big gem, while an opponent hitting Rook with a Color Panic (purple) will often make Rook discard a purple character chip that he didn't have the arrows to play on his turn anyways. Alternately, Rook can pick Red and thereby reduce his opponent's ability to hit him with :psfist:s.
Color Panic is better than you think for Rook.
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Post by flagrantangles on Nov 7, 2016 13:47:10 GMT 1
Zane's main potato is changing their crash gem with your strategy.-garcia1000 Zane triangle.png Strengths -Extremely versatile -Can prevent his opponent from playing their good chips -As much or little cycling as he wants -Can play chips (especially enders) far more often than most other characters -Potatoes -Anarchy
Weaknesses -Opponents with lots of strong multicolored enders -Maximum Anarchy can benefit Zane's opponent more than him if it is played at inopportune times
Zane's General Gameplan Zane has several different viable plans, although the bank, draw, and character matchup determine which one is optimal. He can go for a quick win by crashing lots of gems with Crash Bomb and preventing the opponent from countercrashing by exchanging their Crash Gem with Crash Potato. He can also go for a big economy by using Maximum Anarchy to put his best gems in his hand. He can also go for lots of attacks to wear down his opponent with wounds and antes, since Maximum Anarchy allows him to play most of his attacks every turn in addition to crashing gems at his opponent.
II. Puzzle Chips
Chips Zane Loves
Note: Zane can use almost any bank chip effectively. This is a partial list of puzzle chips that are especially beneficial to him.
-Risk to Riskonade Zane can use this with Maximum Anarchy and a Combine to get consistent 4 gem crashes. Generally in your first 2 buys you can get both a Risk to Riskonade and a Combine. One thing to keep in mind when playing Riskonade after Maximum Anarchy is to be careful not to cycle your discard into your bag if you intend to play Crash Bomb using a Crash Gem from your discard pile.
-Knockdown Zane mostly uses this if he is not able to give his opponent his Crash Potato early. It can also be useful if your opponent buys an early Crash Gem or Double Crash Gem or to crash multiple times after playing Maximum Anarchy
-Really Annoying Zane can play Really Annoying multiple times each turn, filling his opponent's deck with wounds. If his opponent buys RA's to try to counter this strategy, it will allow Zane to play even more RA's (as a reaction). The wounds that Zane receives are not very harmful to him, as he can just cycle out of them with MA. His ability to play Crash Gems in his discard as DCGs (with Crash Bomb) is very useful in this situation, as it gives him better pile control than his opponent. When Zane's opponent has a deck full of wounds it is also easy for him to Anarchy their pile control chips out of their hand.
-Ouch! Ouch is very useful for Zane because he can buy one copy and play it most turns, while his opponent would likely need multiple Ouches to be able to do the same. Zane can also use MA to put his opponent's combines in their discard for Ouch to trash while preventing his opponent from reciprocating.
-Hundred Fist Frenzy HFF is very good for Zane because he can often play it and multiple reds in one turn. However, you should be particularly careful in your use of MA to prevent your opponent from doing the same.
-Pick Your Poison This chip is extremely useful for Zane because either option his opponent chooses will be beneficial for him. When played after MA it also allows him to draw more actions to play off the arrows. The pig also allows Zane to save MA for a more convenient time.
-Chip Damage, Color Panic, Sneak Attack, Repeated Jabs General attack chips that are useful for Zane. If you can somehow play Chip Damage before MA, it can be very powerful. Zane can also use Maximum Anarchy to play Repeated Jabs multiple times in a turn.
-Chips For Free Zane can use Chips For Free better than most other characters due to having a brown arrow from MA. He can also go for mega economy by upgrading both players' Crash Gems into 4 gems. The extra chips also let Zane play more actions off MA's arrows.
-Risky Move, Ebb Or Flow Both of these chips allow Zane to add large gems to his gem pile, which is very useful for rushdown strategies. Risky Move also provides an econ boost.
Chips Zane Fears
-Dashing Strike This chip can be problematic for Zane because it allows your opponent to move gems out of their pile while still allowing them to crash (using the red and purple arrows from Maximum Anarchy). If Zane builds a strong economy, however, DS is largely ineffective against him.
-Gems to Gemonade Gems to Gemonade is an issue for Zane in banks without Riskonade, as it gives his opponent a low cost way to react to his crashes. It can also give his opponent the money they need to buy a Crash Gem or DCG. Against this chip Zane should probably red rush or build a big economy.
-Combos Are Hard Combos Are Hard provides an easy way for Zane's opponent's to get expensive bank chips (especially DCG) a lot earlier than they normally could. That being said, CAH can often be manipulated with Maximum Anarchy so that it is not a threat. Zane can also use CAH pretty well himself.
-Mix Master Mix Master allows Zane's opponents to combine off MA's red arrow without losing money (as they would if they played a Combine). It also breaks up any combined gems in Zane's pile without really costing his opponent an action. You can play around this by not keeping large gems in your pile or by choosing a defense or economy strategy.
-Self Improvement Self Improvement can be problematic for Zane because it weakens both his red attacks (the reaction) and his Anarchy (the main). Because of these two issues, you will probably want to rushdown opponents when SI is in the bank.
III. General Tips
-If you have an early opportunity to swap your Crash Potato for your opponent's Crash Gem, you should almost certainly do it. Crash Potato can only crash 1s and is unable to countercrash, so this is often a good time to rushdown. Be careful of your opponent returning your Potato, however. -Play Maximum Anarchy when your opponent has their good chips in their hand, not when they have their good chips in their discard pile. It is also important to track your opponent's action chips to minimize their use of MA's arrows. -Play Maximum Anarchy when you have your good chips in your bag or discard pile, not when you have your good chips in your hand. -Maximum Anarchy can ruin the plans of opponents who use pigs or characters that use chips from their bag or discard pile (Onimaru, Setsuki, Geiger, Quince, Zane). -In late game, you can countercrash on your opponent's turn and use Crash Bomb to trash the Crash Gem from your discard pile. You can also use Maximum Anarchy to get the Crash Gem back in your hand.
IV. Matchups
Note: All matchups are bank dependent.
Matchups Zane Loves Because Zane is so good at using puzzle chips, many of his beneficial matchups are more based on the bank chips than the character he is facing. Some characters that he is especially effective against are Geiger and Gwen. Zane can beat Geiger using pretty much any plan, although purple rush and red rush are most effective. It is also important to swap your Crash Potato as early as possible. Against Gwen, you want to play Maximum Anarchy as much as possible in order to make her gain wounds by discarding Shadow Plague. However, it is important that you do not provide her with the extra arrows she needs to play Shadow Plague consistently. Both red rush and purple rush are effective against Gwen. The matchup that Zane loves most of all, however, is when he is matched up against himself. Crazy things happen when Potatoes and Anarchy are flying around, and this is exactly how Zane likes it.
Matchups Zane Fears Although Zane does not have any really bad matchups, Valerie, BBB, and Grave can be troublesome for him. Against Valerie, it is usually best to go for an econ strategy, due to the fact that she can play Chromatic Orb almost every turn in this matchup. This weakens the advantage Zane usually gains from Crash Potato and Crash Bomb. BBB can be problematic due to his high ender density and (multicolored!) pile control with Rocket Punch. Both heavy econ and red rush strategies are effective at neutralizing BBB's advantages. Grave can be a problem for Zane due the fact that Grave has two different colored drawing chips and an extra countercrash (Reversal). Red rush is Zane's best plan of attack against Grave.
rabid_schnauzer thoughts:
Some additional thoughts:
Crash Bomb inside the first 3 turns can make for really strong Econ - since Zane is generally losing a Crash but then replacing it with a 3 gem and can Anarchy to find that 3 gem. Potato gives Zane just enough pile control to go crashless for a few turns - whether by having a micro-crash or swiping an opponent's crash. Signature Move can often be good AGAINST Zane - it can either fetch a chip that he Anarchied into your discard or it can let you fecth and return Potato off a :psbrown:, meaning that post-anarchy an opponent can regain and then mmediately play your their crash. Stolen Purples makes for extra bizarre decision trees in Zane matches. A crash in discard can be Potato'ed, a Crash in hand can be SP'ed - and even Potato itself can be SP'ed from hand. Max Anarchy is an advantage -widening chip. This means that chip-ratio cards such as Axe Kick, Roundhouse and Chip Damage can often be the deciding factor in Zane matches. Alternately, one-for-one chips like Color Panic and Knockdown can widen an advantage or make it unwise for Zane to play Max Anarchy, depending on pile height bonuses. Likewise if Zane goes for a long-game strategy, he generally wants to be able to use Anarchy for cycling, forking and exchanging weak draws, but in order for it not to be better for his opponent he has to be sure to stay ahead on : wounds - so Ouch!, Really Annoying, Just a Scratch as well as Now or Later and Self-Improvement can be a big deal in those games.
DrFaustus additional input: I wanted to add my 50 cents to the Zane guide for a while now, and I guess now is the time.
First on the Position on the Triangle: I mostly agree with putting Zane all over it, because depending on the bank, he can play every style quite efficiently. But his biggest strength is defense. This comes (a) from his crashing potential: no other character can potentially crash 4 gems during his first cycle. And (b) he can disrupt opposing rushes at critical moments by stealing their crashes (rebuying it significantly slows down any rush) via potato, or by making it very unreliable, if they have their crash when they need it due to MA.
Of course, his rush is pretty good due to similar reasons, but here Zane has to rely on the bank to provide some means to increase the ante.
Economy has been described pretty well.
General Strategy, or how to use his character chips: Maximum Anarchy: Don't use it early, until you really have to (e.g. in a riskonade rush). Think about it like that: After MA, you and your opponent get the same amount of cycling (usually). Then you have 4 arrows, one of each color, while your remaining deck only contains purple chips + what you bought. So, if you bought money + combine, it isn't even a fork! On the other hand, your opponent gets the 4 colored arrows plus the :psblack: they already have usually, so it is a guarantied fork as soon as they have two non-gem, non-wound chips on their hand. So prepare your deck to include multiple colors, extra draws and chips that make your opponent discard into your deck before you unleash this powerful chip. Crash Potato: Potato basically provides you with an extra crash gem and messes with your opponent. Swap it as soon as there is a chance, but don't play MA only because you hope to find their crash in the discard. Be patient with that, it makes them nervous anyway. Once you have stolen their crash, you can often crash at them without fear for counter crashes. Just make sure, that this rush down is really the appropriate plan right now (you might be feeding them the height bonus to econ for DCG). If you have access to extra cycling and/or pigs, you can crash-bomb one of those crashes away and use your tools (cycling, MA, pigs) to keep the other crash out of your own discard and be save. Crash-Bomb: Basically this makes Zane similar to Jaina with an innate double crash. It doesn't even give wounds, to Crash-bombing for money early is viable (though I don't end up using it often). It's biggest advantage is, when you get to a :ps4gem: in your pile early and then crash big for an early kill. One other thing I really like in defense mode is to counter crash on the opponents turn, then crash-bomb that crash from discard and use the extra money to buy a new crash gem, so your deck size stays stable. Another general point for Zane is how to use :pspig:s. When I started with him, I found :pspig:s pretty useless, because, when you use them naively, you tend to get your powerful enders together in a hand with Max. Anarchy, which would provide the arrows. But playing MA discards those good chips. So instead, better don't use :pspig:s, let the chips go to discard and then draw them from MA. But the trick really is to find the optimal time to play Anarchy. Thus, if you get a strong hand + MA, play what you can, drop the good chips you want to play again and pig Anarchy, to play it when your hand sucks!
On specific chips: draw three: no one has commented on it in this thread? WHAT? If it is in the bank, it is almost a must buy for Zane: Drawing three chips after MA is just too powerful to neglect. However, clever opponents buy it for themselves to deter Zane from using MA, or in order to benefit more from it. For that reason, there is not much reason for Zane to swap it in for a rematch. But just don't ignore it! Pick-your-Poison: Just putting it here, because it's one of my favorite chips for Zane: It gives additional draws after MA, so Zane gets better cycling and a higher chance to use all his arrows, it makes the opponent discard so he can use less arrows and even provides :pspig: to save a crash that might otherwise lie around in discard after that turn. Mix-Master: Since I see Zane as a strong defensive character, I don't agree with him hating it. He often can make much use of it, but that is situational. Ebb&Flow: This is a really nice option for Zane to increase ante go rush-down. He can play it of MA's blue arrow, which usually has no other use, or after playing combines or even as an reaction. The big advantage over Riskonade is that it doesn't power-boost the opponent after playing MA. Also, if Zane ends up in a tricky situation, it becomes a live saver. Iron Defense: Some Zane players really like this chip, but I don't. When I experimented with it, I found it would not only make it difficult to generate enough actions to 1. play ID, 2. play a crash from pile, 3. crash-bomb away those crashes in your deck. It also added an additional chip to the deck + those crashes that entered your deck for which then crash-bomb didn't turn up at the right time. Maybe it helps for crashing for money + defense, but I find a clean thin deck does a better job at that. Maybe Dogmantra or other Zane+ID fans can elaborate? Zane's Match-ups: Zane really loves to play against rush-down and has favorable match-ups against Jaina, Midori and Rook. Those characters like to go mono purple and increase the ante. Besides additional ante (and wound trashing, which isn't important here), Zane has the same tools as Jaina: additional crashing potential, ability to double-crash and a fork with +:psred:. So he can survive Jainas crashes, but since crash-bomb doesn't give wounds like UP, he can easily stabilize. Stealing crashes from a rush down character via potato makes them very unreliable, since they tend to add ante with few crashes in their deck. Anarchy makes that even more dangerous for them, since mono-purple decks hardly profit from forks. Finally, Midori and Rook are quite vulnerable to red :psfist:s, and Zane loves to include those in his deck. Geiger seems to have trouble with Zane, too. But actually I think that's mostly because the geiger players don't adept enough to Zane's style and rely on their :pspig:s. That's countered by MA. But Future sight provides additional draws from MA, It's Time for the Past let's them get stuff back, if Anarchy discarded it, R&D allows them to pull potato out of their bag to swap it back when there is a chance. I'd think Geiger has the tools to deal with Zane, when played correctly. Thin deckers like Troq and Degrey can be difficult if they reach their "never with a discard"-state. You absolutely can't tell, when MA makes them discard good stuff or helps them draw it. With additional cycling, they draw their complete deck anyways and use all arrows. And after the first cycle there is just no chance to steal their crash gem. On the other hand, Zane can usually pressure them enough early and still has a chance. Grave is special, because a first cycle MA let's him draw almost his complete deck (additional draws from RiskToRiskonade not even included). If he goes for money first turn, that can mean a turn 2 DCG or turn 3 MasterPuzzler! So don't even think about MA or Riskonade rush here! Other than that, he isn't that much of a problem. He will buy forks, if they are in the bank and after that, you can play Anarchy as you like, which makes his forks often unnecessary. Get some combines, add some red disruption and try to kill him with a big :ps4gem:+:psgem: crash-bomb. The real problem for Zane are characters with additional pile-control and a tendency to buy a lot of powerful enders: Onimaru, BBB and Valeri. I guess, here you should try economy, wounding or come up with something creative.
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Post by flagrantangles on Nov 7, 2016 13:48:06 GMT 1
Grave
Multi-purpose chips like Versatile Style and Martial Mastery allow Grave to adapt his deck to any opponent. His powerful Reversal will block mindless aggression attempted against him, letting him up a powerful lategame deck.
[Triangle - leaning towards econ/defense]
Strengths: -Extremely strong early game buys, often being able to afford a 3-gem in the first cycle. -Reversal significantly slows down the game pace against aggressive characters. -Reversal and Versatile Style’s draw effects both work great with forks -Martial Mastery can continuously improve Grave’s economy even if his buys are focused on defensive or offensive chips. - Two brown washers
Weaknesses: -No forks without help of the bank to take advantage of his draws. -No innate defense against reds. -No innate rushdown
Gameplan
Grave can do well with most strategies, and can rapidly change his deck using Martial Mastery, letting him quickly transition out of otherwise high-risk plays. An always solid tactic is to pick up big gems and a fork, and cycle quickly to draw the gems as often as possible. Grave can easily pick up an early Double Crash Gem this way, and then transition into Combines for the win.
Against aggressive opponents, you should countercrash often to allow your superior endgame deck to triumph. Against even stronger endgame characters, you want to quickly build a high purple density and focus on crashing uncounterable 4-gems.
Puzzle Chips
Chips Grave Loves
- Gem Essence, Custom Combo, Button Mashing, Recklessness
Grave loves all forks, but especially these ones. Grave can train 1-gems into cost 3 chips right away, and Gem Essence and Button Mashing both thin his deck. Custom Combo is fantastic and Grave will make better use out of it than pretty much anyone- you can even Martial Mastery it into a Double Crash Gem if you need to! Recklessness is a low-rent Custom Combo, but much more difficult for opponents to use. Smart use of these forks will let you you nearly always draw the chips you need.
- One of Each, Punch Punch Kick, Roundhouse, It’s Combo Time
Grave loves these cycling chips more than most other characters as a strong econ lets him fill up on them very quickly. Axe Kick is particularly good in that Grave has two chips that can wash the brown arrow into a black arrow, which his opponents may often lack. Note that Grave can Martial Mastery 2-gems into One of Each and Axe Kick!
- X-Copy
X-Copy works great to turn the cycling chips listed above into a fork, and Grave’s pig option on Versatile Style allows him to more consistently draw it with his Crashes than other characters.
- One True Style, Dashing Strike, Combinatorics
Thanks to Martial Mastery and Versatile Style, Grave has an easy time turning these brown arrows black, giving him amazing pile control while he plays the enders he wants.
- Bang Then Fizzle
Most characters can use this maybe once or twice if they purchase it... Grave can protect his pile with Reversal, and later turn it into a Combine!
- Master Puzzler, The Hammer
Grave often has much more money that his opponents. If your draw and opponent permit, rushing straight for Master Puzzler can be a viable strategy.
Chips Grave Fears
- Chips For Free, Draw Three, Training Day
While any strong ender (such as Mix Master) can usually be put to better use by Grave’s opponents than by Grave due to his lack of forks, these chips in particular give access to Grave’s specialties to other characters.
General Tips
- If using Martial Mastery to improve your money, you should use it on the highest gem value that still gives you your desired buy that turn. - You can often use Martial Mastery on puzzle chips you aren’t playing that turn, then buy them back before cycling. - You can use Versatile Style’s pig to safely play draw chips without worrying about accidentally drawing your crash. - Towards the endgame, Martial Mastery should be used to convert your money into more relevant chips, such as 1-gem into Recklessness, or 2-gem into Crash Gem. - It’s sometimes worth buying a chip you won’t play just to upgrade it into something else.
Matchups:
Matchups Grave Loves
Grave excels against other defensive characters such as Valerie and Onimaru because neither can effectively rush the other down, which benefits Grave since he can safely build with little interference
Grave is also fairly strong against rushdown characters such as Zane or Vendetta. Reversal’s reaction can drastically slow down the pace of the game. Even in full defense mode, he can consistently afford pile control chips and eventually stabilize and overwhelm his opponents with a superior deck.
Matchups Grave Fears
Grave does not have any overwhelming bad matchups, but among his worst are even stronger endgame characters such as Setsuki and Troq. In these matchups, Grave must often play as the aggressor to force them out of their engine mode and into a defensive pile control mode by combining his own gems and not letting them countercrash.
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