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voltimer · 3 years ago

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'The Magic of Johto's Level Curve'

(or, 'a leisurely analysis of the singleplayer balance of Pokemon GSC and HGSS')

The Johto games - especially HeartGold and SoulSilver - seem to have a very good reputation. Some often put the aforementioned HGSS into their top 3 or describe it as the core Pokemon experience. I personally agree with this sentiment and HGSS is either #2 or #1 depending on my mood (it usually competes with Black 2 and White 2).

Despite all its praise though, there seems to be an incredibly consistent point raised against it: the level curve. I see it described as unbalanced, janky, and generally bad.

There are two main problems people tend to cite. First is the level progression in Johto itself, with Gyms 5, 6, and 7 not exactly being a smooth progression upwards and then Team Rocket's Archer and the 8th Gym having a notable level spike compared to those last three. Wild Pokemon levels are also usually a lot lower than the major boss fights they are ahead of, making raising new 'mons harder and grinding for boss fights longer. The other problem is Kanto, whose problems can essentially be said to take Johto's levelling issues and ramp them up. The jump from fighting Blue to the Elite Four rematches and Red is also very significant.

What I'm not going to do here is refute that the above isn't true - these level scaling inconsistencies are certainly present. It's also very different to the vast majority of main series entries, whose level curves are more linear and gradual. Gens 5 and 7 even have a feature which multiplies exp gain based on how much lower or higher you are than the Pokemon you defeat which in a way acts like a rubber band around each game's level curve, ensuring you can catch up easily but not go too overlevelled either. Playing GSC and HGSS when the rest of those entries are like that is a bit jarring. Pokemon is so well-known for having quite a formulaic design across its main series and when compared to that formula with regards to level progression and the like, the Johto games do seem a bit off-colour.

What I am going to do though is try to explain why this so-called bad level curve is at the very least not actually that bad, or, if I can convince you well enough, that the Johto games actually have a unique and (what I call) magical singleplayer game design not properly replicated in any other entry. It goes to the core essence of Pokemon's theming, and it fits with the fact that Johto's narrative also happens to put the most focus on those themes than the rest of the series.

When I say the core essence of theming, I mean the very basics of every Pokemon adventure: you, the player, leave home to go on a journey around your region, meeting various people and overcoming various challenges along the way together with your partner Pokemon. Challenges you overcome are all thanks to the bonds you share with your partners and how you raise them with love and care. As you get older, this is the sort of thing in Pokemon that you probably end up taking for granted. It's typical "power of friendship" stuff, and most people will tend to come to conclude through learning about the game mechanics that this sort of thing is superficial and that stats are all that matter in the end. The more modern Pokemon games also have such a big focus on larger-than-life stories with big climaxes featuring the box Legendaries that it's easy to lose this basic level, down-to-earth narrative theming.

Johto is significant for not having any larger-than-life aspects overshadowing its core. Instead, the core takes centre stage. There is no real overarching story besides your adventure. Team Rocket's antics take a sub-plot role but in the end act as a foil to your story, being one of the more major obstacles you overcome. Catching Ho-oh or Lugia is no cataclysm either, but rather a reward for your achievements throughout the game and thanks to your good and pure heart - recognised by the Legendary in question. Moments throughout the game like how you deal with the situation at the Lake of Rage, or the Dragon's Den trial where you're asked questions to test your ideals as a trainer (which, of course, you pass with flying colours) all contribute to this core as well.

The way Professor Oak congratulates you after defeating Lance ties the knot perfectly on the main campaign:

"Ah, <player>! It's been a long while. You certainly look more impressive. Your conquest of the League is just fantastic! Your dedication, love, and trust for your Pokémon made this happen. Your Pokémon were outstanding, too. Because they believed in you as a Trainer, they persevered. Congratulations, <player>!"

These are just examples of the main story events, though,and Johto has a lot more than that. The region is filled with things to do beside the main campaign - Berries/Apricorns, Pokegear calls, the Ruins of Alph and other optional caves, the Bug Catching Contest, and (in HGSS) the Pokeathlon and Safari Zone, just to name a few of the more notable ones. Tama Hero's review of Pokemon GSC talks a lot about this and it's well-worth a watch even beyond the section describing the games' breadth of side content.

Tama Hero also touches upon the supposed level scaling issue, and her response to the complaints is that there is a "sprinkling" of opportunities for small bits of exp gain throughout the game which should help you stay on track in most cases, and where you can't match levels, you can outplay your opponent.

I certainly agree with the latter. It always feels entirely possible to beat bosses at a level deficit throughout Johto. The Johto League is one of the key cases where you'll probably end up at level disadvantage, but I've consistently been able to defeat it with a team of lv 40s on average (so nearly 10 levels behind Lance's peak), and I'm pretty certain that my not-even-10-year-old self did so as well, even though it took me many, many attempts. From various people I've talked to and bits of let's plays I've seen over the years, this seems to be the common experience too. I think only a minority of people have had to grind to match Lance's levels in order to beat him at all. Granted, it might take you a couple of tries at that level disadvantage (or a great couple of tries more, like little ol' me), but that's surely not an unreasonable expectation. The concept of getting stuck at a difficult stage in a game could be called a universal one, and I think most people agree that it's always pretty satisfying to finally surmount a challenge like that. This can even be said about other Pokemon games - Kanto, Hoenn and Sinnoh also all have large level spikes at the end. In fact, at least when it comes to the end of the maingame, I'd argue Hoenn and Sinnoh have a larger level spike than Johto, but they're not considered impossible or anything

Regardless, though: it's certainly possible to win difficult battles in Pokemon at a level disadvantage. Tama Hero argues that the strategy required to do so isn't something the game teaches you very well, but I think this is a tad pessimistic. In the end I think that most wins will just come down to understanding of more fundamental skills that you've probably learned through the course of the game naturally - using type matchups (gyms are all type themed), using moves with stat changes (the earlygame is full of moves like Growl and Tail Whip), using status moves (no doubt you're going to see the effects of Paralysis and Burns throughout the game at least), and apt use of items (bosses always use potions and often use held items). Players also have more control over the battle than the enemy, with the default Switch mode and a huge amount more items available. It's true that the games don't teach you the deeper, untold mechanics very well, but learning about those only unlock even more ways to succeed for the numbers-minded veterans.

On the topic of those deeper, untold mechanics I also want to talk about something which Tama Hero doesn't mention at all - Effort Values, or EVs. Most of you reading will probably know about these by now, but for those who don't, EVs are hidden values which can increase a Pokemon's raw stats by a certain amount based on the other Pokemon they defeat. They were present in a slightly different form in Gens 1 and 2 in the form of "stat exp" but the premise was the same: your Pokemon grow twofold when you defeat Pokemon, by gaining visible exp for levelling up and visibly gaining stats every time that exp bar fills, but also by gaining stats little by little every time they defeat any Pokemon. Your Pokemon's EVs weren't visible to you in-game until Gen 6 with the Super Training graphic, and numerically weren't until Gen 7 where you can press X on the Pokemon's stat screen to show what are called "base stats".

EV optimisation is crucial to competitive play because the stat boosts they give are quite significant. Competitive players will "min-max" spreads, putting as much as possible into 2 stats to maximise strengths and not wasting any on stats they aren't making use of. In maingame playthroughs, though, EVs will usually end up being a balanced spread because you'll invetivably be facing a variety of Pokemon with different EV yields throughout the game. EVs can also be increased with the Vitamin items (Protein, Calcium, etc.) which you find a handful of throughout the game (and can buy at a premium) and can be used to manually raise EVs, though only to a certain point.

In Gens 3 and onward, a Pokemon can have up to 252 EVs in 1 stat, and 510 in total. At Lv 100, 4 EVs in a stat grant 1 point extra to it. For the singleplayer campaign the conditions are a bit different, but if we assume as a standard that by the Elite Four your EV total is maxed out and you have an even spread, your stats will all be up to 10 points higher than they would be without EVs. In Gens 1 and 2, you can actually max out all of a Pokemon's stat exp values but you're unlikely to cap them all for a good while beyond the maingame so we can consider them about the same as in the later gens for this.

But why is this important?

Firstly, the difference EVs make in the above scenario account for what is usually about 5 levels' worth of stats. Depending on your exact distribution, it could be a couple more or less levels' worth in each stat but the bottom line is that they make your Pokemon's strength higher than it may seem based on level alone.

This means that the wild Pokemon grinding that is criticised for being too tedious in Johto as a result of low levels is also better than it seems because even when you don't level up, you're gaining EVs for every one of those you defeat. The stagnant levels in the midgame of Johto also contribute more to your Pokemon's growth than it may seem from the slow level gain. The Pokegear rematches which you gain access to after defeating Team Rocket before Gym 8 may also be a little infrequent, but they also very often give you Vitamins afterwards to add to all of this.

Secondly is what seems to be a fairly unknown fact: in-game trainers do not have any EV spreads. Thanks to the work of speedrunners, we have exact data of enemy trainers' Pokemon to show this. Trainers do have IV spreads based on their "AI level" (more 'advanced' AI levels will have up to 30 IVs across the board) but the difference near-perfect IVs will have on their Pokemon is not as great as the combination of random IV spreads and relatively balanced EV spreads yours.

That 10 level deficit vs Lance is suddenly more like 5 in practice. Some of his Pokemon also happen to have pretty high stats naturally in Gyarados and the Dragonites, and the level deficit will still be slightly present, but once we factor in strategy again, you can abuse their type weaknesses and make good use of items, status and whatever else have you to swing the odds in your favour.

The only way you can find out anything about EVs in Johto is from a NPC in Blackthorn City who gives your Pokemon the Effort Ribbon if they have reached their total of 510, and the only practical way for a player without the technical knowledge to have achieved this is to have spent time throughout the game doing lots of little bits of training - in other words, putting in the effort - to have incidentally capped their Pokemon's EV total. It's only fitting that you find this NPC towards the end of the Johto campaign because it's likely that by this point a couple of your team members will be eligible for the ribbon.

This finally ties back to the point of core theming. EVs are an invisible stat giving your Pokemon an extra edge over their in-game opponents, or, at worst, one closing a gap in strength between them, as a result of all of the time you've spent raising those Pokemon throughout the game. In other words, EVs are essentially the statistical representation of the "dedication, love, and trust" you have for your Pokemon which gets you through seemingly difficult challenges. Levels, then, are only a surface representation of your Pokemon's strength: they create the feeling of an uphill battle, but you can win against the odds by believing in yourself and your partners. It's probably exactly what you thought as the naive and uncynical child playing through a Pokemon game for the first time, and probably one of the ways you made such fond memories of it. In hindsight, this is definitely how it was for me. It is a sort of magic, really.

There is still a big Red elephant in the room, and I do think that the level gap between the end of the Kanto Gyms and Red is maybe too hard to go and beat immediately after even with the power of EVs and such, but Red is by all means a superboss and final challenge of the Johto games, and I don't think it's unreasonable to have to grind for a while to build up for and to finally be able to take his team of Lv 80s on. The same can be said about the Elite Four Rematches in this game and others, Steven in Emerald, or that one Barry fight in Platinum if you do decide to beat the E4 rematches 20 times to make his levels nearly match Red's. If you're setting out to fight a superboss like this, the grind is part of the prerequesites. It's definitely still possible to beat someone like Red with a 10 or even 20 level deficit if you play well, though. I admit, I haven't beaten Red in a long time, but I have beaten Emerald Steven with a ~15 level gap before. Tama Hero also said she has beaten Red with a team of level 50s in Crystal in the review.

I said before that the other games in the series haven't replicated this sort of thing as well. Gen 5 was the beginning of a marked shift away from this design, with its overarching story-driven style and a change to exp gain which would honestly be incompatible with the level curve in Johto. Gen 6, whilst returning to the exp system without level deficit multipliers, saw different means of statistical representations of the 'dedication, love and trust' trio in Pokemon Amie, which can break the game almost as much as the Exp Share when enough Affection is built up. Gen 7 brings back Gen 5's exp system whilst retaining the Exp Share and Affection systems, and actually ends up even diverging from the EV design which went before by having in-game trainers and Totem Pokemon with competitive, min-maxed EV spreads from as early as the Trainer's School. Whilst I am yet to play Let's Go and Sword and Shield, their Exp system with a 'permanent Exp Share' of sorts makes it a huge amount different and from what I've seen and heard, overlevelling is quite easy despite the game being designed around the feature. I really hope that Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl at least return to Gen 6's exp mechanics, or better, reunite us with the held-item version of the Exp Share which doesn't make me feel like I'm cheating whenever I use it.

Before I go too off-topic, though, I should probably return to the original thread of this post to make some concluding remarks. What can't be denied that the way GSC and HGSS are designed may not be for everyone. I know for sure that a lot of people prefer to be able to breeze through a Pokemon game at a brisk pace without many roadblocks, but as someone who in recent years has come to appreciate much slower-paced and immersive singleplayer Pokemon playthroughs, I can't help but love the way GSC and HGSS are designed in the way I've explained, or appreciate their unique identity amongst the rest of the series. Coming to think about this has also shed light on why I adored HeartGold as much as I did when I first played it way back 11 years ago. I poured hours and hours into the game, and as a result, its magical design put me under its spell.

_____________________________________________________________

Though I linked to the references I did use when they appeared, here they are again. Do check them out if they're of interest to you!

Tama Hero's GSC review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgtMVKP2T6Y

speedrun.com trainer data for HGSS: https://www.speedrun.com/pkmnhgss/guide/k2zij

speedrun.com trainer data for SuMo: https://www.speedrun.com/pkmnsunmoon/guide/d2683

Tama Hero (YT) is one of the few people I know who actually makes longer-form Pokemon analysis content besides Aleczandxr (also YT), who whilst not being a 'PokeTuber' has made some brilliant analyses of storytelling through setting in Sinnoh, Hoenn, Johto, and just recently, Unova. I did not refer to them here but I can highly recommend their content, at least.

Thank you very much for reading to the very bottom here. This is my first time writing something like this and I appreciate it.

#voltimer longpost #pokemon #gsc #gen 2 #gold and silver #crystal #gen 4 #heartgold and soulsilver #analysis #hgss

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manjiroro · 3 years ago

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hi hi congratulations on 500!!! could i please get a haikyuu matchup?

my top kins are historia reiss, hinata hyuga, & yuji itadori. i’m an ambivert, though more introvert leaning. for my personality, i’m quite compassionate and energetic. i try my best to be kind to everyone, & ive taken up the recent saying of “do no harm, take no shit” because i have… well, i used to basically take whatever treatment but not anymore!! i have standards noww!! i tend to love anything soft & cute, and im quite fond of animals (i stop to pet every dog i see, it’s a must). for my interests/hobbies, i love yoga, ice skating, walking, shopping, makeup, and writing. whether it’s for myself or someone else, shopping and/or dressing up is always so fun, even if there’s no special occasion. for my dislikes, i would say overall just general rudeness and cruelty. i can’t vibe with mean people, sorry!! my favorite traits in others are kindness (i love when people are nice!!), maturity (i lack this most times so it’s fun to see in others, or to try to drag them down to your level), patience, and passion (it’s the best thing in the world when someone starts telling you something they care about and you can just see it in their eyes— aaa!). i’m also bisexual, so i don’t really have a gender preference.

please and thank you!! remember to drink some water today and take care of yourself!! congratulations again <3

500 milestone event (closed!!)

hello!! thank you for joining my event huhu you seem like such a cute person wjsnnd thank you for the reminder and you too! drabble is under the cut!!

i match you with.. AKASHI KEIJI

akashi is someone who has all your favourite traits huhu

and your traits are his favourite too

akashi really loves that you’re kind to everyone and your energetic personality never fails to put a smile on his face

he’ll be the kind to support you with every decision you make so when you tell him about someone who had wronged you, he’ll be there to back you up

since you’d always be dressing up, he’ll also dress up with you

he doesn’t mind having matching outfits with you

when you stop to pet a dog, he’ll stand beside you and watch you with love

people tend to mistake you for a married couple whenever you do that especially when you’re wearing couple outfits KAMWM

although he isn’t the type to talk much about himself, when you tell him about how you wish to hear more about him though then he’ll open up slowly

“keiji keiji!”

“yes love?”

“let’s go on a date!”

you excitedly bounced in front of him, making his chuckle and pat your head, giving you a nod. after getting dressed, the both of you head out, hand lacing with each other.

as the both of you continued walking, your eyes sparkled at the sight of a tiny puppy and its owner walking in your direction. you instantly gravitated towards the pup and asked the owner if you could pet it.

you knelt down to give the puppy a few head rubs to which it starts nuzzling into your touch, making your heart swell. akashi on the other hand, watched you with a soft expression, one that was filled with love. the owner watches the both of you and chuckles,

“ah the both of you look like a cute couple, how long have you two been married for?”

akashi perked up, ears slightly turning red. you on the other hand rose up from the puppy, your face feeling hot as you scrambled for words.

“oh no no! we’re not married!”

“oh! my bad, the both of you just looked too adorable.”

the owner apologised and you said farewell to them, and the puppy, continuing your walk with akashi.

“ah how many times has it been that we’ve been mistaken for a married couple?”

you sighed while looking at your boyfriend.

“hm.. too many times to count. but why don’t we accept it.”

“huh, what do you mean keiji.”

akashi stopped you in your tracks, making you look up at him.

“i meant, we should get married. not now, but sometime in the future.”

your face starts to become hot again but you still manage to give him a small smile before nodding,

“of course keiji.”

and how could you ever say no to a man like akashi keiji

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shihozaki · 4 years ago

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Hello! May I have a matchup for Haikyuu? (Y/N, she/her, 17)

I’m Infj/Capricorn/Ravenclaw, and I am often surprised that these three types represent my personality so well! People in my school say I’m organized, punctual and steady just like a typical Capricorn. Thanks to these traits, I am good at making steady efforts to solve hard, boring schoolworks for better results. I didn’t realized that I have high standards of things around myself, including my work ethics, until hearing this from others. They think that my life might be quite stressful and mundane, but I am fairly satisfied with my lifestyle! Like Infj, I am also good at catching others’ needs and empathising with them. So my friends usually text me when they struggle with something either emotionally or extrinsically, and I really appreciate them! Oh, and I'm usually calm and emotionally stable, but the general mood of the day tends to change depending on the weather! The things I like to do are watching light-hearted teen drama films, listening to chill playlists while studying, writing diaries and daily checklists, daydreaming, looking up at the sky for a long time on a fine day, etc! Thank you :)

Hello! Tysm for requesting, and for being so patient :)))

I pair you up with Koutaro Bokuto!

- Oh boy

- Bokuto adores you. A lot. He thinks it's amazing how you are so organized (because as we all know, this man does not know what organized even means)

- He always talks to you about his emotions, since Bokuto is a moody man, and he really appreciates that you take him seriously

- HUGS EVERYWHERE

- Bokuto is a cuddly man, so whenever you’re writing or daydreaming, he will randomly hug you

- He honestly thinks you’re a goddess because you solve all these problems without complaining? Bokuto is amazed

- He treats you like a goddess too. He often tries to make you laugh and always packs extra snacks to share with you at lunch :)

- You guys have a really cute and comfortable relationship!

- He texts you often, (using memes and emojis) to check up on you. He’s not amazing at communicating but he’s trying!

- You guys try to study together (key word: try), but you guys end up on the couch, cuddling and talking about life

- You always go to his games. Once you were late and Bokuto was in his “sad mode” until he saw you. You light up his day!

- Bokuto talks about you a lot with his volleyball teammates (according to Akaashi). His teammates believe that he can’t go for an hour without talking about you.

- Overall you guys have a funny dynamic relationship, filled with smiles and cuddles!

Scenario: Studying together!

“Koutaro, what are you doing..?” You ask. “Origami!” Replied your boyfriend. He folded his math homework into a triangle shape, opened it up, and placed it on his head. “See? I made a hat!” Bokuto smiled proudly. You sighed. It was almost 9 PM, and Bokuto didn’t even get past question number 4. “Bokuto… aren’t you forgetting something?” You said, trying to imply that he needs to unfold his homework. “Oh, right, I forgot!” Bokuto took off his ‘hat’, and to your surprise, placed it upon your head. “There! You got a hat now!” Bokuto grinned. “You look like a princess.” You blushed. Your boyfriend was childish sometimes, which meant he had no filter. But you found it cute. As you watched Bokuto make a paper airplane with his science notes, you cleaned up your papers. The homework wasn’t due until later anyway, might as well relax and have some fun with Bokuto now. It was rare to see Bokuto so focused on something other than volleyball. “(Y/N), How are you so good at this already?! I just showed you how to do it! You’re good at everything.” Bokuto whined. You chuckled. “No, These are all basic origami shapes. There are much harder ones. Like a paper sword.” Bokuto’s eyes lit up. “A paper sword?!” You blinked. Damn. Will you get any sleep tonight? Bokuto grabbed the rest of his notes and piled it in front of you, as if he was asking, “Please make a sword!” You laughed and shook your head. Bokuto was… something else. You spent the rest of the night building an origami sword with Bokuto, and fell asleep with your head on his chest after having a sword fight. How did you get such a rowdy boyfriend? But you don’t regret it for sure.

Song: Invisible by Linkin Park

Thank you for requesting, I hope you enjoyed it! Criticism is welcome, and I hope to see you again soon :)

#haikyu x reader #haikyuu fanfiction #haikyuu matchups #haikyuu!!#matchup #matchups #matchups closed #x reader

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sortavibing · 4 years ago

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i just found your blog and it’s so pretty!! i hope you’re having a nice day,,, could i get a male hq matchup pls?? i go by rita and she/her pronouns. i’m questioning atm. i’m an intj-t & a libra sun, aquarius moon, leo rising, & i kin tsukishima & kageyama.

i’m reserved, thoughtful, hot headed, creative, judgmental, polite, open-minded, & cunning. when you first meet me, i am polite and tend not to talk a lot. once you get to know me i’m v chill and i like to joke around and get to know more about you. i can also be kinda dumb sometimes. i do tend to get angry and annoyed towards everyone but i don’t show it. i just kinda shut myself down and try to talk myself into letting go. i like doing things a certain way and to my standards. i care a lot about my grades and getting into a good university but i do tend to procrastinate and take breaks,,, i end up getting my work done on time. i am self conscious and care a lot about what others think about me,,, i am self critical and tend to beat myself up. i tend to get impatient easily and bc of that i like to get things done quickly. i like relaxing and spending time by myself. i don’t really like interacting with ppl,, i only have one irl friend & a few online friends. i do have anxiety & tend to overthink things a lot & have a hard time trusting ppl.

i’m 5’6 with a pear shaped body & a tummy. i have a round/oval face & glasses. thick brows, brown eyes, brown wavy hair. my hair is grown out rn bc of covid but i plan on getting it cut back into bangs & collar bone length. i’m latino so i get darker when i’m in the sun but i’m v pale atm </3. i wear a lot of black clothes and high waisted pants. i’d describe my style as 70s/80s mixed with dark academia. i always want to look presentable in public but i just wear comfy clothes when i’m at home.

my hobbies include writing, playing the sims, & baking. i also enjoy watching anime, reading on here, looking at tiktok, & playing uno or guess who. i have a dog & a hamster. i start cleaning when i feel uncomfortable or anxious ig. when i get bored i like to plan things. my likes/interests include true crime, history, & psychology. i also watch reality tv for entertainment 😩. one of my favorites shows is daria & i listen to a lot of different music,,, i just like what sounds nice. i have so many dislikes,,, but my main dislikes are ppl who are discriminatory & don’t try to educate themselves on issues. (basically trump supporters & my family members who believe facebook </3) i also dislike ppl who complain a lot but don’t help themselves and then continue to complain like pls?? it’s not my responsibility to fix these problems you can easily fix yourself?? & ppl who aren’t considerate of others.

i want a partner who is kind, loyal, & open-minded. i can’t stand ignorant ppl who only care about themselves. i want someone who loves me & accepts me. my love language is quality time & gift giving (both ways). someone who is willing to split the work & deal with my moods and hear me out. mmm i think that’s about it! <3

hello! thank you for reqesting! ok but reality tv is so fucking funny i don’t understand- like it’s such stupid comedy but i love it. anyways, here’s your matchup!

generating matchup...

matchup: complete

i match you up with kita!

what first drew kita to you was your calm personality, since he is pretty chill as well, and he wanted to meet someone who isn’t too loud like the miya twins. once he got to know you, he started seeing your joking personality, which he liked even more, because you were always able to make him smile and relax.

like you, he also has a habit of cleaning, so if you are feeling anxious, he will come over to help you clean things up, while listening to you rant about whatever comes to mind, while soft music plays in the background. he just wants to help you destress, and since he enjoys cleaning as well, it makes it a lot easier to help you feel better.

kita is smart as well, so you guys will always study and work on homework together, and he will always remind you not to procrastinate, and ever since you started working with him, you have been turning in your work earlier than usual, and school is even easier. kita makes sure to give you guys breaks though and brings snacks and drinks to have while studying, but he always gets you guys back on track after the break.

he really likes your pets (surprisingly), so if he ever comes to your house, he will always bring something small for your dog, and he will subconsciously pet him while talking to you. you have so many pictures of him with your dog, and all of them are so cute, so you have to save them all.

one of kita’s love languages is quality time, so he just likes being around you, doing whatever you want because he thinks that anytime spent with you is time well spent. you guys often take a train or bus to a nearby city and spend the day just walking around with each other, eating at small bakeries, watching street performers, and buying little souvenirs. he holds your hand the entire time, and if he’s feeling especially romantic, he’ll surprise you with a small kiss on the cheek. your city dates are always fun, and you have many small presents that remind you of each trip.

since he knows you enjoy baking, kita will offer to try to make a cake for the birthday of someone that you are close to. you guys end up having a lot of fun, because kita doesn’t really know what he is doing, so he tries his best, but in the end, you have to help him a lot. the cake actually turns out pretty well, and he is pretty proud of making it look so good, and he’ll mention that he wants to bake with you more, and you have to agree because he looks so happy to be able to share an interest with you.

he will write you little notes saying how much he misses you, or how pretty you look today, and they usually are accompanied by a little gift. they always are so cute, and turn up in the most surprising places. you started leaving notes and small gifts for him too, and whenever he finds one of your notes, he will get really happy that his girlfriend wants to do these cute little things with him, and will keep everything you give him.

if you ever are uncomfortable because you have to socialize with a large group of people, kita will always be there to help you, whether it is giving an excuse for the both of you to leave, or by handing you one of his earbuds so you can listen to whatever music you want with him. he hates when you are feeling anxious, so he will do whatever he can to help you feel better, or at least be a little more relaxed in the situation.

when you first introduced kita to true crime, he was kind of confused why you liked it so much, but he slowly started enjoying it, and now he loves to listen to podcasts about it or talk about it with you, because he finds the minds of these killers fascinating, and he always wants to learn more about it. he won’t listen to the podcasts alone, but he will write down the names of the episodes he wants to listen to with you, so he can hear your real-time opinion on the person, and he can put his opinion in too.

overall, you guys are very calm and collected, and people envy just how well you guys are able to understand each other. kita will never even think about leaving you, and he is always open to try what you want to do, because he just wants to make you happy, and enjoy every moment that you spend with him.

i hope you enjoyed!

#haikyuu #haikyuu matchups #kita #kita shinsuke #haikyu #haikyuu!!#haikyuu headcanons #haikyuu imagines #haikyu imagines #haikyu headcanons #kita imagines #kita headcanons #kita x you

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edelgoth · 5 years ago

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matchup commission for spookyeyesableye

hello!! this took me a bit longer than i would’ve liked, but i hope it’s worth the wait!! thank you for commissioning me!! i hope i don’t disappoint & that this was worth the wait. i broke form in regards to the romantic matchup, but i hope that’s okay?? do let me know if you’d prefer a character from your house, though

Hey, can I have a house matchup with a romantic pairing? I'm an ENFP straight male, and am cool-headed and laid back most of the time. I'm also a bit of an empath, being pretty good at reading people's emotions without needing to ask. However, I tend to be quite passive, sometimes to the point where I have trouble standing up for myself. This combined with my indecisiveness and internal worrying about what other people think of me results in a rather low self esteem.

I usually try to hide this, sometimes turning it into a self-deprecating joke. Speaking of which, I’m a bit of a goofball, and like to make people laugh. Admittedly, my sense of humor can be a bit dark, and I have a habit of being mischievous and sarcastic from time to time, but I do my best to not step over any boundaries, and am good with other types of comedy too. I think part of this stems from me wanting everyone to be happy.

If one of my friends is feeling down, I try to do whatever I can to support them and help them feel better. I generally dislike conflict, and want to resolve issues peacefully whenever I can. Some of my hobbies/interests/things I like include anime, playing games (especially anything involving strategy), horror, writing, and animals. Thanks for reading! Sorry about it being long.

Hello, spookysableye (the enfp guy from ko fi) here. I am so sorry to add stuff in last minute, but I want to add in that I also like swimming, nature, reading, and sweets. I'm fine if it takes more time with the new info; I just figured adding a little more could help. Again, sorry for bothering you last minute with this ;-;

i thought about where to put you a lot, and after much deliberation, i put you in…

the blue lions!!

i’ll be honest, it was a tough call between the blue lions and the golden deer. i think you’d fit both houses excellently, and your personality would complement each cast of characters well. but, after some thinking, i decided to put you in the blue lions because i think you fit the themes of azure moon quite well. you strike me as a kind, emotional person, and i found azure moon to be the most personal, emotive route out of the four. i also nearly put you in the black eagles (you’ll see why later), but your approach to conflict, your empathy, and your emotional soul really does scream blue lions.

dimitri: i can see you and dimitri becoming quite close, and him trusting your counsel. like you, dimitri wants everyone to be happy, and it’s something he dedicates his life to once he becomes king. his methods are quite different to yours, but i think you’d connect over the basic principle of it. dimitri is also someone who dislikes conflict, and does all he can to avoid it. it does his heart some good to hear those values echoed in someone else. but at the same time, he enjoys how laid-back you are. it’s a nice change of pace from the world he grew up in, and it helps him relax a little.

i can easily envision you working as one of his advisors both during and after the war. he likes having you by his side because you understand his values, and can help him best respond to the struggles that will face him as king. and he knows that you he can trust you, because he’s spent much of your friendship watching you do whatever you can to support your loved ones in times of need. that’s something he wants to extend to his entire kingdom. you’d have a friendship that would stick with you well into your later years.

dimitri isn’t much of a funny man himself, but he can recognize a good joke when he hears one. he surprises you, sometimes, with what he’ll laugh at; but on the bad days, he’s just glad to hear something that makes him smile. sometimes he might think a joke is a bit too rude and reprimand you for it, but that’s rare (and usually fuelled by a pre-existing tense mood, probably brought on by the stresses of being king)

while your personal struggles aren’t the same, i feel like there’s a overlapping area where you can understand each other well. it helps him feel a little closer to you, knowing that you struggle with your own sense of self-worth.

but, he tends to remind you of your virtues often. he’s always reminding you that your ability to read people is precious, and that you truly do have a good heart. he’s not necessarily doing it on purpose; he’s just a very earnest, genuine person, and he often can’t hide his admiration for people. once dimitri’s friends with someone, nothing can stop him for revealing the true depths of his fondness.

dimitri doesn’t tend to lean on people, seemingly out of a fear of burdening people, but he does occasionally lean on you. he doesn’t tend to put those feelings into words -- instead, he just seeks your company, and asks you to distract him for a while. whether that’s just talking, going on a horse ride, or finding something to eat... he just wants to let the feelings pass while with someone who has at least an inkling of what he’s going through.

tends to like talking ideals with you. it helps him smooth out the logistics of the things he believes and the change he wants to implement once he becomes king. and, being able to talk about the things he’s passionate about and the values he holds close to his heart genuinely excites him. yes, it’s also good to talk out your opinions with people who have a different perspective, but it can also be nice to chat a while with a like mind.

and, as a working team, it goes quite well; dimitri’s the one who has to make the big decisions (cancelling out any trouble your indecisiveness may cause you), while you can focus in on the more personal, small-scale aspects by talking to citizens of all levels (and using your ability to read and understand people’s feelings to the best of your ability). let’s just say that dimitri is immensely grateful for you and the role you fill, not only professionally, but platonically.

dedue: he appreciates your laid-back, cool-headed demeanour, and finds you quite easy to get along with. first and foremost, he appreciates what you do for dimitri; he’s glad that dimitri has someone else he can trust. dedue has always regarded you with respect because of that. he also tends to agree with the advice that you offer dimitri, especially after the war; it calms dedue to know dimitri has another good friend beside him.

i feel as though dedue would be a good grounding force whenever you were particularly worried about something. he’s just always so assured and stoic that it’s easy to feel like things are going to be okay when you’re with him. i don’t see the two of you having a particularly deep friendship by any standard metric, but i do think there’d be a sense of respect and gratefulness shared between the two of you. you know that if push came to shove, you could rely on dedue; and he’s very much aware that the inverse is true.

dedue also enjoys nature, and i can see you taking breaks together either in the greenhouse or the forest that surrounds garreg mach. whenever you do go out together, it’s very peaceful; you don’t need to say much, nor do either of you want to. it’s just nice to catch a moment of peace, whether that’s watching how the tree tops sway in the wind or how dedue tends to his flowers.

dedue likely doesn’t share your sense of humour, as flexible as it can be. but, sometimes, when you’ve made a joke, he’ll look off into the distance for a moment. then, he’ll say that it reminds him of a common joke format in duscur, or a clever pun in his native tongue, or a popular monologue. they’re surprisingly quiet, tender moments, when you get to see another side to him.

but, in general, i think his stoicism would provide some good comedic contrast. other people can’t help but chuckle when they see you, dimitri and dedue together. it’s just such a strange combination of personalities, and the fact that you work so well as friends almost makes it funnier.

dedue doesn’t tend to use his words that often, especially not in a vulnerable context, but he’s grateful for your ability to read his emotions. he’s aware of the fact that he’s difficult for most people to read, and that’s part of the reason some are afraid of him. knowing he doesn’t have to worry about misunderstandings when he’s with you is a big relief.

i touched on this earlier, but you do make a good supporting team for dimitri. if dedue is the shield, you’re the helmet (does that make sense?). you both have your strengths, and you’re both aware of that; and that helps you work more effectively as a team.

what i’m essentially saying with all of this is that you’re a great example of the benefits of an enfp-istj balance. you cover each other’s weak spots, while also providing a sense of comfort and support, even if it’s never quite verbalized.

felix: i think you’d be able to give felix a run for his money, all things considered. he’s abrasive and sharp-tongued at first, but i feel like you might be able to hide any hurt his words cause by remaining cool-headed. sometimes, it’ll just be you having difficulty standing up for yourself; but felix really can’t tell the difference. and it annoys him, at first. he kind of hates that you can read his feelings so easily; it makes him feel like you’ve got the jump on him.

but, over time, i think that semi-antagonistic relationship would blossom into a surprising friendship. once he’s gotten used to having you around, he starts to like you a little. he might gripe a bit at your mischievous side, since he doesn’t really get it, but you’ve woven yourself into the tapestry of his social circle and now it’d be weird if you weren’t there. he’s still gruff, but he’s more well-meaning now; and that means he’s not going to let you remain passive. he starts to challenge you just as you once challenged him, even if you weren’t totally aware you were doing it. and, even if he’s never as close to you as some other people listed her, you can both count your friendship as one that was important for your personal growth.

even before you became friends, felix would often catch himself stifling a laugh at some of your darker jokes. i think it’s a type of humour he’d enjoy, and one that he doesn’t run into much amongst the faerghus nobility. not that he’s going to admit you’re funny, though; not during your monastery days.

once you’re comfortably friends, though, i can see the two of you having some fantastic sarcastic banter. felix doesn’t seem like the guy to hold back, so things might get quite savage from time to time. but, if you two came to expect it from each other, it doesn’t really feel like a blow.

i can see you trying to freak him out with some horror stuff, but it never works. felix is completely unflappable. at first, that seems like a challenge. but, once you’ve gotten to know him, you just have to sadly accept that you’re never going to win this one.

he’s always pushing you to improve, and pressuring you to get some more practice in. and he’s not the type to really take no for an answer (unless you manage to annoy him enough that he leaves you alone. see: sylvain). so, you better be ready to work your ass off once you’ve established a rapport with him.

trying to support felix during the more difficult times is a bit of a learning curve; a totally different approach needs to be taken, and it might even feel a bit uncomfortable for you at first. but he does notice that you’re trying to go about it a different way, and he does appreciate it. even though he’ll never say it.

i think, interestingly enough, you’d have a lot of discourse about conflict. you both approach it very differently, but felix’s feelings on fighting and war and death are quite complex; there’s a lot of space to explore those thought, and while you don’t get to often, those conversations are usually illuminating.

sylvain: i can easily see you and sylvain being quite close, once you got to know each other. you’re similar in some ways; you’re both laid-back, you’re both good at reading other people’s emotions, and you both have low self-esteem. i think you’d both find yourselves surprised at how well you get each other. sylvain never expects anyone to understand, but here you come, able to read him like a book and going, “hey -- i get it.” it’s disorienting at first, but there’s no way he’s going to toss up a friendship like that.

furthermore, you’re both goofballs, too. actually, i think sylvain would enjoy all your senses of humour, tbh; he’d probably be glad to have someone he can be a little dark with. you might be a bit of a “gremlin team”, if that makes sense; ingrid’s usually annoyed with you two (mostly sylvain), but you two are having a good time. and honestly, i think you could temper him a bit; he’s got a lot of bitterness to work through that you lack, and talking it out with you could help him a ton. your cool-headed temperament is a god-send at times like that, and i think you could really encourage him to stop and reconsider his perspective. it’s the sort of thing that makes him glad that he met you.

you two are hilarious together. ingrid doesn’t think so -- as i said -- but the rest of the house is genuinely surprised by how funny you can be together. you bounce off each other quite well, and you always seem to be on a similar wavelength. sylvain often suggests that the two of you should have a stage show. you vehemently said no.

sylvain feels like he can actually talk to you about things that he’s only touched on with mercedes. he often flips between speaking too bluntly or too vaguely about how he’s really feeling, but you’re always quite good at picking up on the subtleties of the conversation. for sylvain, it’s a massive relief to get it all off his chest -- and to also get a fresh perspective on everything that’s going on. sometimes, he genuinely just wants you to tell him he’s being stupid. it’s surprisingly effective.

in return, sylvain tries to teach you how to be more confident. it’s a bit of a faux pas, as he himself is deeply insecure. but what sylvain really means by teaching you confidence is trying to teach you how to pick up girls. i’m sure you can imagine what a disaster that would be.

in that aspect, he’s your number one hype-man. but honestly, he’s your number one hype-man no matter what; whether it’s getting a girlfriend, doing well in a test, being impressive on the battlefield... sylvain’s going to be there, cheering about how “you’re the best, bro!!” every time you’ve tried to tell him to pipe down has failed. everyone else just had to get used to hearing it on the battlefield.

on a less wholesome note, he tends to rely on you to... smooth out some self-induced conflict he often lands himself in. you’re a bit like his personal pr team, cleaning up his messes alongside ingrid. he apologises for it, but to no avail; almost every fortnight when you’re at the monastery, you’d stalk into his room glowering. needless to say what the following conversation was about.

when you were at the monastery, sylvain would tend to come swimming in the lake with you. his main objective was to try to catch a glimpse of some attractive people who might be hanging around. nonetheless, it became something of a weekly habit for the two of you, regardless of whether anybody else would be there or not. once you reunite at garreg mach during the war, you started doing it again, in hopes of chasing that same feeling of mindless youthfulness. it’s a small comfort.

ingrid: i think ingrid would have a lot of respect for you. she admires people who can keep their cool under pressure, and who’ll do whatever they can to support a friend in need. although, i feel like the two of you might’ve gotten off to a rocky start. as i said, you share some similarities with sylvain -- that might be enough to raise her hackles (she loves him, of course. she’s just not sure if she can handle two of him). of course, once she gets to know you she realises you’re not that much like sylvain (you took his best bits), and it’d be very easy to build a friendship from there.

once she gets to know you properly, she begins to admire how you manage to make everyone happy. a part of her is a bit jealous, really. a small part of her wishes she had a talent for it. but, no matter how hard she tries, she just can’t wrap her head around your humour. but, it’s nice that she tries. does she have a bit of a crush on you? maybe. is she going to admit to it? absolutely not. she’s quite content leaving your relationship at it’s arms-length; a friendship that’s usually called on whenever sylvain’s fucked up.

you usually play mediator whenever she’s mad at felix or sylvain, to varying levels of success. your aptitude for understanding the feelings of others comes in handy here; you can see both sides of the argument, and you can help ingrid do the same. i think she struggles with expressing that her strictness is just a result of her love for both boys, and you can help bridge that gap.

and, as i said, you two often team up to clean up sylvain’s messes. she’s glad that someone understands what a burden it can be, and who doesn’t thing she’s being unreasonable. it’s a bit better to share the load, and she knows she can trust you to be diplomatic.

she’s another person who comes to you for advice, although it’s a rarer occurrence with her -- mainly because getting her to tell you what’s wrong or what’s really going on is like pulling teeth. but she tends to trust your words, and at the very least, they give her something to think about.

sometimes, she berates you for your own jokes, though. usually, it’s just because she’s had a bad week or a stressful day (or her father has sent her another letter). she usually apologises soon afterwards, although she always feels bad about it.

she wants to see you stand up for yourself more, and she tries to teach you how. but, ingrid can be a bit gruff, albeit in a different way to felix. it usually doesn’t work out quite how she wants it to, and she always feels bad about it. but, it all comes from a place of care -- she just wishes she could express that better.

i can see you helping her look after the pegasi, and that’s where you two have most of your chats. she enjoys working with someone who likes animals, and who genuinely cares about them. for some reason, it helps her relax a bit -- maybe because she knows you’ll take the job seriously.

annette: i hope you’re ready to adopt a little sister, because there’s nothing you can do about it. i think annette would bounce off your personality quite well, and you have quite a few similarities while also balancing one another out (watch me say this about every second person in this matchup). your laid-back, cool-headed personality would balance out annette’s more excitable, frantic one, and it might help a little with her anxiety. but, you’re both enfps, and i think annette would like having someone around who understood her thought patterns well.

i also think annette is quite capable of mischief, so that side of your personality appeals to her as well. she also appreciates how you’re able to set a boundary between what is and isn’t acceptable or appropriate; it makes it just that little bit easier to let loose and have some fun. she just has a lot of respect for you as a person, and tends to enjoy your company immensely.

annette tends to enjoy your sense of humour, being a bit of a goofball herself. i think you’d constantly be making each other laugh, no matter how stupid the joke. the other members of the blue lions can’t help but smile when they hear your laughter echoing through the monastery.

annette can be a bit of a firecracker, and she will stand up for you without hesitation. hell, she’d stand up for you to you. she just loves you very, very much, and she needs you and everyone else to know that. her and mercedes would be gassing you up all the time, let’s be real. it’s just a little triangle of positivity.

you and annette make up the “mercedes’ baked goods no. 1 fan club.” any time mercedes is in the kitchen, the two of you aren’t far away, already drooling over the smell of whatever she’s put in the oven. mercedes loves having you two there, too, since you’re both so supportive; like i said!! little triangle of positivity. too wholesome.

please drag her outside and into nature for a bit of a detox,,, she’s just go-go-go, and while she says that’s how she’s most comfortable in her byleth supports, it’s still important that she takes a break every once in a while. i can see the two of you just grabbing a book each and sitting in the forest outside garreg mach, just enjoying the peace and quiet of the forest (well. so long as raphael isn’t out there training).

speaking of books -- you two are trading them all the time!! annette loves sharing them with you because she wants to talk to someone about them; she just has a lot of thoughts bouncing round that head of hers, and she wants someone to understand them. she also just enjoys getting a different perspective on them; so expect a lot of books on all sorts of things shoved in your face each week.

i think that she would look up to you as an older brother figure. she’s an only child, and that can get pretty lonely; you’re pretty much the perfect image of what she’d imagine her big brother would be like. and the respect and adoration she would direct towards such a person is pretty on par with how she’d feel about you. but, since you’re not real siblings, it means you can dodge a lot of the bickering. which is a good thing. i personally wouldn’t want to be getting into a spat with someone who knows spells like cutting gale.

mercedes: you and mercedes would definitely be close. you’d have a very natural friendship, as your personalities complement each other quite well. you seem to be the more logical out of the two of you, but you still have a sensitivity that mercedes finds her strength in. it’d be very natural for a friendship to develop between the two of you, and i think it’d be quite easy to open up to one another. there’s a ring of platonic soulmates to your friendship, and it makes it very precious to her.

i think you’d have a good understanding of one another. for one thing, you both err on the side of pacifism, and you both prioritize the happiness of others. i think mercedes would be quite grateful to have someone at her side to help her take care of everyone, even if you tend to focus more on making them laugh. together, you’re a bit of a cathartic dream-team (i’ve always said that mercedes is just the counselor of garreg mach, after all). as such, she’s quite good at reading people, and therefore in-tune with your insecurities. you might keep them inside, but nobody can hide anything from mercedes.

of course, mercedes disagrees with your negative self-assessments. she’s not afraid to tell you how wonderful she thinks you are, and to combat any negative thoughts with unshakable positivity. she knows you well, so she knows when you’re being hounded by worry; and so, she’s very good at well-timed compliments and reassurances, without you having to say anything.

a lot of your jokes fly over mercedes’ head. but, that can be funny in it’s own way; it’s almost that she’s too pure, in a way. dark humour and sarcasm just don’t seem to land. but she laughs anyway, just because that’s the sort of person she is.

during the tougher times, i can see you two playing a ‘caretaker’ role for the rest of your friends. during the war time, mercedes makes sure to check in on everyone, enlisting your help to do so. there’s only so much the two of you can do on your own, but together?? maybe you can help make life a little more bearable.

during the war, you’re one of the people that mercedes turns to. she’s really not a fighter, and the constant battles and suffering are sometimes too much for her. knowing she can turn to you takes a massive burden off her shoulders, and she can allow herself to be the one getting taken care of for once.

as a lover of ghost stories, she tends to find enjoyment in the horror stories you have stocked up. she likes to trade books with you, seeking out titles on all sort of ghoulish things. her own mischievous side comes out in these little trades; she wants to out-frighten you, if she can.

she’s always baking you sweets. she loves baking in general, and having a willing recipient is always a strong motivator for her. you’re always the first (alongside annette, of course) to try out the results of any new recipes she tackles. whenever you’re busy or feeling down, she always drops off a care package -- usually a little wicket basket stuffed to the brim with all sorts of baked goods.

ashe: you two would have an adorable friendship, might i say. ashe himself is quite laid-back, and he also wants to help other people and make them happy. you have a similar way of going about things; the main difference is that you fall back on humour, while ashe relies on sheer earnestness. that being said, ashe is capable of being quite goofy (i may never forgive him for his tea-rrible pun), which means the two of you could certainly have a lot of fun. for the most part, you’d have a very fun, light-hearted friendship.

but, on a more serious note, ashe is very understanding and patient, and i feel like you’d really get along with that sort of person (if the rest of this house matchup is any indication). furthermore, you both dislike conflict and want everyone to be happy; and for ashe, they’re pretty core values. i feel like ashe would look up to you a little, almost as a big brother figure. of course, as you got older, that’d even out a bit and he’d definitely consider the two of you equals, but i think you’d always have a special place in his heart.

and yet another house mate who would love sharing books!! at this point, you really should just start a book club -- ashe’s books of choice are, of course, his knight tales. expect a lot of gushing about his favourite stories; he just really, really wants you to like them!!

sometimes, you feel like teasing him, and hand him over a book on some topic of horror. most of the time, ashe just politely declines. other times, you’ll start recounting the story to him. those times, he starts to cover his ears and chant “la la la”, the poor boy. he can barely handle ghosts, let alone any other horror trope.

he’s also the biggest fan of your writing, and the best audience. once you let slip that you enjoyed doing some writing on your own, ashe begged that you let him read it immediately. and, because it’s ashe, and nobody can say no to ashe, you handed over what you considered to be your best manuscript. and he adored it. he was just so enthusiastic about everything you’d put into words, from the plot to the characters to the world at large. for his birthday in that year you shared at the monastery, you wrote him a short story about his adventures as a knight. suffice to say that he cried.

as i said, he looks up to you almost as a big brother figure. beause of that, he’s always coming to you for advice, guidance and support. he takes your suggestions and approval very seriously, and he’s always hopingt o impress you a little. he’s a bit like annette, in that regard.

but, he’s always ready and willing to give that same support back!! you’d know that, no matter what, you could turn to ashe if you needed help. and he would respond ten-fold.

him and annette form your protection squad, standing up for you whenever necessary. and, of course, loudly singing your praises to anyone who’ll listen. it’s embarrassing, yes, but they’re so earnest about it that it’s pretty sweet.

other notable connections

dorothea: listen. listen. you and dorothea were made for each other. first of all, you both tend to worry what people think of you, and have low self-esteem. some people may say that it’s not a good thing for a couple to share something like that, but in dorothea’s case, i think it would provide a sense of understanding that she desperately needs. i think she’d flourish with someone more empathetic, who can read her feelings without her having to unpack them all. at the same time, you balance each other out; dorothea can be a bit of a spit-fire, while you’re more cool-headed. you’re indecisive, but dorothea isn’t afraid to shoot for what she wants. a relationship where you can cover each other’s weaker spots while still maintaining a good connection is a rare and precious thing indeed.

she enjoys your more laid-back, cool-headed personality, finding it quite refreshing amongst the inhabitants of garreg mach. she finds you quite funny, whether you’re being a little dark or mischievous or sarcastic; she can be quite sarcastic herself, after all. all in all, i think you two have a lot to laugh about, a lot to talk about, and share a sense of loving understanding. with you, dorothea genuinely feels like she can let her guard down, and just relax for once. in her mind, it was only natural that she fall for you.

like mercedes, dorothea knows where a self-deprecating joke comes from and when to be worried about it. it’s not that she treats you like an idiot for talking badly about yourself; she’ll just tell you you’re wrong, and give you a long list of reasons why. of course, she understands it, but because she understands it, she wants you to stop feeling like that as quickly as possible.

that being said, you’re definitely the sort of couple to roast each other on menial things. you’re both sarcastic, it was bound to happen. but you’re both mindful to never dig at any sore spots. you two get quite clever with it, resulting in some inside jokes that are quite complex. she enjoys that you can keep each other on your toes, and it helps her feel like you two are really equals if you can joke like this.

whenever you’ve burned yourself out looking after others (especially during the war time), dorothea does all that she can to look after you. she admires how you’ll do whatever you can to support those closest to you, and she thinks it’s something very beautiful. but, she also sees how exhausting that can be, and how much it takes out of you. she knows you so well, and therefore knows exactly the support you need after a long day (or week. or year). and best of all, she’s not afraid that it’ll be unrequited; whenever she needs this kind of attention, she trusts that you’ll return it.

during the war, dorothea takes solace in the fact that you also dislike conflict. the war hits her particularly hard, and she struggles with comprehending the violence and the suffering every day. getting to spend time with you in the quiet moments, away from anyone who wants to talk or moralize about the war, she can relax. she just wants peace, and she knows you do to. it’s more comforting than you could imagine.

she likes small animals, so i can imagine the two of you “accidentally” adopting a bunch of strays around the monastery. you’re just feeding some kittens because “she feels bad” and the next thing you know a hoard of cats is following you around the monastery like a little army. and after the war, once you’ve settled down together, your house is always filled with and frequented by a whole host of animal patrons (she has a particular fondness for small animals, and there’ve been a few times you’ve feared an impending squirrel infestation. thankfully, it never happened).

she tried, many a time, to convince you to write an opera for her. she says she’ll handle the music, that’s fine; but she wants to see one of your stories come alive on stage. you caved, eventually, and started writing it during the second half of your monastery year; once the war hit, you didn’t really have the time to think about it all that much. but, every so often, you’d revisit it, adding a scene or two to try and take everything off your mind. when you were reunited with dorothea at garreg mach, you showed it to her. she cried. once the war was wrapped up, dorothea set her next goal as getting this opera produced. working with yuri as they set up their own opera company, dorothea ensured that the very first performance they put on was of your opera. to say that it made you tear up may be a bit of an understatement.

yuri: you echo him, in a lot of ways. cool-headed, laid-back, empathetic; yuri could really respect a guy like you. you care about your people, and that’s something he can get behind. it’s something that makes him feel like he can trust you, and maybe even rely on you when the going gets tough. furthermore, i think he’d genuinely enjoy all facets of your humour; he can be playful and goofy, but he can also be a bit more macabre. but like felix, i think he’d kind of hate that you can read his feelings so well -- but, he can read yours too. he’s probably the first person who encouraged you to actually pursue dorothea. two people he genuinely liked, in a stable relationship? hell yeah.

i can see yuri encouraging you to stand up for yourself. he’s had his own struggles with self-esteem and self-worth through his life, and he hates seeing you go through something in a similar vein. he learnt that you have to fight back. and honestly, he wants to see you realise your value. and, frankly, he just thinks you’re a likable guy.

you didn’t mention pranks in your description, but i feel like yuri would constantly be embroilling you in a little prank war. it’s nothing big or grand; he’ll just nab a sock from your room, or pocket all of your ink vials from your desk. nothing that takes a lot of effort, but something annoying enough to catch your attention. he’s goading you, trying to get you to bite back. whether or not you do, however, is a different story.

on a more wholesome rope, he often tries to rope you in to looking after orphans with him. he reckons they need a good laugh, and you’d be able to provide that. sometimes he tries to set up dates for you and dorothea this way; yuri’s still there, of course, but he’ll give you a suspiciously wide berth.

you two would have sarcastic banter from when you met until the end of time. it’s not quite roasting, as with dorothea, but you might have an entire conversation full of double entendres and attempts to out-wit each other. yuri loves it; it keeps him on his toes, and you actually manage to keep up with him.

he tends to generally enjoy your company, as well. he likes spending his down time with you, whether that’s hanging out in one of your dorms, near the river in abyss, in the library, etc. you’ve got a relaxed vibe to you, and i think that’s something yuri would always find some comfort in.

when yuri’s trying to help you with your self-esteem, he’s very subtle about it. he usually tries to find ways to demonstrate your own strengths to you, or to reveal how little notice other people tend to take. he never really approaches you with rhetoric, because he thinks that real life examples are more effective.

he’s always challenging you to strategy board games, determined to win. it’s a habit that follows the two of you long into your friendship; even during the war, he’ll crack out an old, familiar game every once in a while, just to alleviate some of the stress and worry hounding the both of you. hell, you’d still be challenging each other well into old age (and each game ends with the losing party vowing that next time, they’re going to come out on top).

claude: frankly, if i think you’d get along with yuri, logically i’d think the same thing about claude (the fact they don’t have supports is a CRIME). and honestly, he was one of the main reasons i thought of placing you in the golden deer. i think you and claude would have a great rapport, and a friendship that balances the two of you out. he’s a bit more chaotic and confident, while you’re more low-key and a bit insecure. but, you’re both laid-back and share similar senses of humour, so you’d naturally have a good rapport.

over time (and especially the war), i think claude would come to trust you more than most. similarly to dimitri, he puts stock in your counsel, and will consult you on the next move every once in a while (it’s not frequent, as claude always likes to keep his cards close to his chest, but you’d notice him letting you in on his schemes more than he used to). you would inject a bit more humanity into the way he approaches things (i mean, i perceive claude as fairly humanitarian, but he’s very,,, big picture?? i think he can forget to care for people’s feelings in the moment -- like when he starts to grill rhea after they’ve only just rescued her from captivity. he acknowledges that she must be exhausted, but it doesn’t stop him from pressing her for info. i’m going off on a tangent, back to the point--). overall,i think you’d have a close friendship that can incur growth in the both of you!!

he’s always trying to get you to pull pranks with him. i can see you joining on on the less complicated ones (because claude definitely has some overwrought & highly ambitious plans that he’d like to pull off), and the two of you making quite the name for yourselves during the monastery years

like you, claude loves to read (his bed, both pre- and post-timeskip, is littered with books), and he’s always lending and recommending new titles for you to read. if you actually get around to reading them, he’s going to talk and talk and talk at you about it, asking you for your perspectives and opinions

during the war period, claude will occasionally take you out on his wyvern, heading towards a somewhat remote natural location. he knows you love nature, and he thinks you both deserve a break. he always brings a book (or maybe a couple) to read, happy to spend a couple of hours just appreciating the calm that nature brings.

as i said, claude puts stock in your counsel, and that’s evident during the war. he appreciates your cool head and your dislike of conflict, and he thinks that will help him achieve a peaceful resolution to the war.

but at the same time, as mentioned earlier, your empathy would help him out a lot. you would help him realise when he wasn’t thinking of the emotional consequences of his actions.

you’d always be making each other laugh. claude is a bit of a goofball himself, and he can also be quite sarcastic. you two would build up quite the repertoire of inside jokes that nobody else understands -- something of a godsend during the war.

hilda: ah, hilda. the other reason i wanted to place you in the golden deer. but alas, the pull of hilda and claude wasn’t enough to make me displace you. i think you have the sort of personality that both intrigues and perplexes hilda; she enjoys that you can be a bit mischievous and goofy, and yet you’re so willing to bend over backwards for others. and on-top of all that, she can’t comprehend the fact that you’re insecure while being so likable. you just don’t make sense to her, so she just has to get to know you better.

while i’m still set as dorothea as your romantic match, i do think you and hilda would have some kind of,,, romantic tension, so to say?? especially at the beginning, before anything had happened between you and dorothea. either way, i think you’d have some natural chemistry, and you’d find yourselves drawn to each others’ company. hilda isn’t much of a fighter, but you’d be surprised to see her stick up for you every now and then; if you need defending, hilda’s your girl.

she’s always taking advantage of you, as she usually does. but she’s a little bit kinder, a little bit more appreciative when she’s goading you to do something. and when she says thank you, every word is sincere

she’s cleverer than she lets on, so she knows when a self-deprecating joke is hiding something more dour, and will playfully reprimand you for such talk. she knows you’re better than what you think you are

regardless of if you’re romantically interested in each other or not, hilda’s always flirting with you. she hopes that maybe one compliment will stick, and help you feel a little bit better about yourself. and, she just likes making you blush

she just enjoys being in your presence, finding you someone she can really relax around. you don’t seem like the type to judge, and hilda likes that; she doesn’t feel any pressure to be someone she’s not around you -- and that’s a big relief during the war

always telling you that you should try to make yourself happy for once; she’s noticed how you prioritize everyone else, and while that’s certainly admirable, she thinks you should give that same energy back to yourself

don’t expect her to make any grand gestures, though; but you will find her organizing tea time and lunches for the two of you more often than you’d think

#matchups #matchup commission #house matchup #blue lions matchup

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crystalelemental · 6 years ago

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FE Fates Replay - Weapons

I decided to do this separately, instead of injecting it into the story parts. I’m trying to leave the story and characters separate from gameplay stuff, but weapons in this game were handled really badly.

First thing’s first: weapons are now unbreakable. Except healing staves, because fuck you I guess. Seriously, why are they the ONE THING that breaks? Complete and utter horseshit. Anyway, this single change has a major ripple effect throughout the entire game, and it’s not a positive one. It’s time for me to sit back in my rocking chair and ramble on to you kids about the good old days when your shit just broke all the fucking time.

To some of you, that statement may sound facetious or insane, depending on whether you think I’m serious. I am serious, but that’s not the point. The point is, I’m right about this. See, breakable weapons had all sorts of benefits. For instance, if you had a tank, you could break the weapon of the boss that sat on a throne, and have weaker units hit them repeatedly for minor damage to farm out some levels, without having to have random encounters, or risk your life in arena. Breakable weapons also meant that you could bring a weapon with 1 hit left, guaranteeing that an enemy would barely survive so a weaker enemy could finish the job. They weren’t substantial effects, but they were smaller and more helpful effects.

Now, the core weapons are still here. Brass weapon, which is really light and very not strong. Iron weapon, a bit stronger, but kinda your “standard” weapon type. Steel, which is heavier and stronger. And Silver, which is the strongest of all. To really understand what I’m getting at, we’re gonna have to talk about old mechanics. See, back in the day, characters had a stat called “constitution.” Constitution determined essentially how much weight you could handle on your weapon. So, let’s say an Iron Lance was 6 weight. A Knight, who would have really high constitution, would be able to wield it no problem. But a Pegasus Knight, which had, say, a constitution of 4, would struggle. To account for this, you would take the difference between the weapon’s weight and your constitution, and subtract that from the unit’s speed. Essentially, a Pegasus Knight would have high speed, but couldn’t afford to power up to Steel weapons without a severe speed penalty. But, a character like a Mercenary, who tends to have higher constitution, would be able to wield a Steel weapon without said penalty. It was another component of distinguishing units. Some could easily use Steel without a drawback, some couldn’t and needed to use weaker weapons to play to their strengths with double-strikes and higher evasion.

Silver weapons, in these days, were invaluable. They had higher might than even Steel weapons, but weight wasn’t as bad. They were stronger and lighter than their steel counterparts, and were considered the ultimate in standard weaponry. Their downsides, however, were two-fold. One, they were expensive. If you didn’t have a lot of money, you probably didn’t have many of them. This was a more minor drawback, but it existed just the same. Two, durability. Steel weapons tended to have 30 durability. Silver had 20. They’d break fast, especially in the hands of faster units that didn’t have the best attack stat. You basically got 10 rounds of combat out of them, and with only five inventory slots, you needed to be carrying more weapons, which meant less support items.

Now, consider what would happen if you kept those weapons, but removed durability. Suddenly, such a system doesn’t work. Cost is no longer a problem, because you only need to ever buy one, and durability is removed, both negating how many you need to carry and freeing up inventory space. Clearly, the Silver weapons are now, maybe, a bit too good? So, how do you balance this out? Fates decided to fiddle with stats outright. Much like with the hidden daggers, stat changes were kind of a fixation for this game, for better or worse. I, personally, think it needlessly complicated a lot of things, but that’s not important. What is important is how Fates handled this.

Steel Weapons universally give a -5 Speed penalty. That’s enough that, if you had even speed, the enemy now double-strikes you. Now, Steel was heavy enough in previous games that this feels pretty similar, but without the convolution of having to know how Constitution works. I can respect the attempt. But what we lost was the distinction for sturdier units that still had a speed stat. Mercenaries can’t really use Steel anymore. There’s a heavy stat penalty for that, and they use speed a lot. Silver weapons got hit as well. Now you lose attack and skill when you attack. It’s less severe, at only two points of loss, but they recover only one point per turn. So you’re still taking a hit to both damage, and likelihood of hitting in the first place. Considering that skills exist and many activate off of your skill stat, that’s even more significant.

But here’s what really gets me. S-rank weapons, the ultimate weapons of their type, the ones you can only wield effectively if you’ve spent the entire game mastering the weapon. They have penalties as well. For instance, the S-rank katana halves your strength stat through your next action. The weapon itself has 18 might, which is pretty good, but if your Strength is capped, you probably lost as much damage as the weapon’s might. At that point, you’re better off with Brass than you are this thing. The sheer, overwhelming deficits inflicted on the player by these stronger weapons is outrageous, and it leads into my problem with forging.

Forging an Iron weapon is the smartest action you can take. Why? Because you buff up your weapon damage quite a lot, maybe not to the point of the Silver and certainly not to the level of the S-rank weapons. But there’s no draw-backs on them. So instead of hurting your ability to hit enemies or activate skills, you just have raw damage. Instead of halving your strength stat, you just...get the damage. It’s an outright better weapon than the ultimate S. And so, the best weapon in Fates isn’t the thing you’ve been building toward getting that you only obtain in the final hour as you approach the ultimate boss of your route. It’s the simple Iron weapon, upgraded through dozens of artificial stones you collected in My Castle and paid for with a dozen copies of the same weapon and hundreds of thousands of gold you farmed.

So that’s why I hate the weapons in Fates. That is, without question, the thing that holds the gameplay back. Because you didn’t really...need these deficits, you know? You could’ve done just fine without them. But no, if we did that, why would anyone need to collect resources? If no one needed to collect resources, why would they visit other castles? If you won’t visit other castles, then why even offer that? Exactly, why even offer that? My Castle was an arbitrary idea that they generated, and tied into core gameplay mechanics in a way that does nothing but drastically slow down progress through the plot. It’s invasive and unnecessary, and it really, really bothers me.

BONUS ROUND

I’m also gonna complain about the weapon triangle! In the olden times, by which I mean Awakening, the triangle was simple. Swords beat Axe, Axe beat Lance, Lance beat Sword. Easy. Tomes have historically had some weapon triangle of their own. In older times, Light beat Dark, Dark beat Anima, Anima beat Light. In the Radiant games, it was Fire, Wind, and Lightning in a similar deal. But tomes have always been outside of the weapon triangle. Why is that? Well, two reasons. One is that tomes are problem solvers. Got a physical wall in the way? Blast it with magic. The other is that, despite being said problem solver, mages are frail, and having no strength against a particular weapon means that they go down to about any physical fighter that gets in range. Archers especially are devastating for mages, because they hit the weaker defensive stat and are also ranged fighters.

Now, though? Now, tomes are included in the weapon triangle, as just a whole thing. All tomes are good against bows now for some reason, while they’re weak to daggers. This means that ninja, who tend to have pretty good resistance, become hard counters to mages. Which is honestly okay. I don’t really dislike the idea of having things be able to beat mages. Apparently, in the times before I got into the series, magic was horrifically overpowered. But now, we run into some problems.

Dagger users have range, weaken enemy defenses, and have high resistance and speed. Unless your unit is physically sturdy, strong, and skilled, ninjas win out. So personally? I kinda felt like they were a bit much in this game the first time I played. Maybe I’ll think differently as I go through now, but they really felt like the most powerful unit. But the more devastating thing is that...Lance and Dagger occupy the same category. Meaning lances have advantage over tome. Meaning that Generals, the super physical tanks that can only really be handled by mages, have fucking weapon advantage over mages now. Brilliant work, Fates, expertly done.

Bows being in the weapon triangle also bothers me. Mages have advantage there too, so Bows have less of a chance. Ninjas took their main niche. Oh, except for dealing with flying units. But flying units are mostly lance and axes, so no change there, at least. It just feels arbitrary.

Honestly, I think Heroes did this concept a lot better. Tomes come in different kinds, and they have advantage over one another, but also are strong against a particular melee weapon. Daggers and bows are considered outside of the weapon triangle, so the weird matchups no longer exist. Now, if only the next game can confirm that healers can attack, we’ll be in real business...

#fire emblem fates #fire emblem fates replay

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yehosera · 7 years ago

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UK Nationals 2018

In this event I placed 17th, narrowly missing out on the top 16 cut. However, despite that, I was genuinely impressed that this deck managed to go X-2. The event was another fantastic 2 day event run by Square Enix. Day 2 had a team draft and gunslinger vs Masahiko Morita (he has an amazing signature, defo get him to sign foil Jihl Nabaats opus 1 with a silver pen if you get the chance!). Day 1 was 7 rounds of swiss, best of 1 and day 2 top 16 best of 3.

What Deity Do I Thank For Letting This Go X-2

https://ffdecks.com/deck/5723262336106496

--Generated By FF Decks (www.ffdecks.com)--

Deck Name: What Deity Do I Thank For Letting This Go X-2

Created by: yehosera

Forwards (23):

1 The Emperor (2-147)

3 Famed Mimic Gogo (3-142)

2 Knight (3-139)

1 Viking (4-133)

2 Porom (5-135)

1 Cloud of Darkness (5-126)

2 Lenna (3-144)

3 Paine (1-199)

1 Paine (2-063)

2 Ranger (3-053)

2 Y'shtola (5-068)

1 Zidane (3-056)

2 Trey (3-064)

Monsters (2):

2 Tonberries (4-132)

Summons (8):

3 Famfrit, the Darkening Cloud (3-123)

3 Chaos, Walker of the Wheel (3-071)

2 Diabolos (5-062)

Backups (17):

3 Gladiator (4-126)

3 Brahne (4-134)

3 Yuna (1-176)

2 Arc (2-050)

2 Rikku (1-089)

1 Brother (1-197)

3 Maria (1-083)

As after any loss, the first thing I should look to is what I could’ve done differently rather than blame my tie breaker luck. In my losses, I didn’t notice many actual mistakes, most of what I was doing wrong was stylistic errors. This deck relies on stockpiling removal as there’s so little of it in the deck. During the earlier rounds, before I understood this aspect of the deck, I was using Chaos, Walker of the Wheel to push damage through instead of holding onto that card until time ended. Taking what I learned from nationals into account I can now draw conclusions as to what it is that makes this deck weak and how to improve it.

Forwards

The issue with the forwards, is that a lot of them have the same text “big”.

Ranger, Knight, Trey, Lenna.

Some of them have cannot be targeted by abilities in their text, but realistically they’re just big. This is simply too many cards that are just big. This meant that when I started to fall behind on board, I could not look to my forwards to save me. If the opposing forwards were simply bigger, then there was basically nothing my forwards could do about it. Both of my losses were to decks with bigger forwards, Mono Water with Refia and Mono Earth with Psicom Wardens.

Can’t Play Brigade

Zidane, Y’Shtola, Porom, Emperor.

These were instrumental in most of my wins. The Emperor really went above and beyond. Having so many forwards that disrupt what my opponent was able to do was super strong for generating game over situations several turns before the game was actually over. Those cards I would play again in Water/Wind without a doubt.

The Rest

Viking, Paines, Cloud of Darkness, Famed Mimic Gogo

Viking was more of a side effect of playing standard units, he has no place without Brahne and Gladiator. Paine I would probably play again in Water/Wind, seems a bit above average. Cloud of Darkness I feel is a staple in the archetype, simply because it gives a way for the colour to snowball a lead. Famed Mimic Gogo, until people calm down with their discard decks, Gogo is needed as he proves a way to defend yourself early on in the game for only 1 CP. Gogo was definitely one of the standout cards in the deck.

Summons

Famfrit, the Darkening Cloud is very important for removing the first forward that they play. The strength of the deck comes from being able to seize initiative early. Famfrit combined with Yuna tends to make it as such that your opponent cannot take control of the board efficiently because their first threat is so easy to remove. The downside to this card is how prevalent Thaumaturge is. As long as cheap forwards exist, the Famfrit will struggle vs Ice to pickup anything of any value. I would suggest pairing this card with a colour that can handle smaller forwards with ease, Fire or Lightning for example.

Diabolos, the only combat trick in the deck (when writing this, I forgot there were 2 copies of Tonberries, which shows how useful they were). As this deck has a low removal count, the battle phase is where this deck needs to be gaining advantage. The lack of combat tricks, however, makes this hard sometimes, because of this, it is important not to use Diabolos for CP whenever possible. Due to Diabolos making up 100% of the deck’s battle tricks and 25% of the deck’s removal keeping that card in hand is really important. One of the mistakes I was making during early rounds was using Diabolos for CP. In a fatigue deck it’s okay to use Diabolos as CP due to the abundance of removal options, however, this is not fatigue and does not have the luxury of multiple efficient ways to remove cards thus increasing the value Diabolos has.

Chaos, Walker of the Wheel. This card is the centre piece of the deck. The sacrifice of having multiple flexible Water summons and Yuna (1-177) is so that this card can be played. The strength of this card is not just that it is an Odin for 4 less CP, but that it is easy to play multiple in one turn. Initially I was using the card to push damage, however, it is more efficient to save up multiple and swing the board in one massive push. This is because the deck does not have a constant stream of removal, so removing 1 a forward just to push a damage is not good. At that rate, you’ll only deal about 5 damage before running out of removal options. It is best to go as wide as possible onto the board, then try to blow the opponent out in 1 turn with multiple instances of Chaos, Walker of the Wheel or Famfrit, the Darkening Cloud.

Monsters

2 Tonberries, just to have a couple more combat tricks. I think I played this card once. It was okay. Could easily go down to 1. Leyak might have a place in the deck instead.

Backups

Maria and Arc were very good, they’re part of the reason the deck is even functional. The point of those cards is to try and make Knight the largest forward on the board, so you’re free to attack every turn with it. Games where Maria was missing, made the deck feel terrible. Games where Arc was missing, didn’t matter too much, but the games where I had Arc the deck felt very strong. Maria is mandatory, Arc is more snowbally. If there’s space, I would consider a 3rd Arc, Maria however, she cannot be dropped to 2 in this kind of Water/Wind deck.

Yuna. The whole point of the deck was to try and abuse early forwards with Yuna and Famfrit. She’s pretty key in this deck. By playing Yuna, you gain 2 turns of not taking damage and reach a higher backup count. She also makes Chaos, Walker of the Wheel potentially the best removal card in the game. Her remove from the game effect has a lot of uses in a variety of matchups. The most frequent is vs Setzar, he misses his Dull + Freeze effect and vs most Earth decks, Miner loops can be interrupted by removing the Miners from play.

Rikku, she’s only really in the deck for Paine. Deckout is not something that comes up frequently at all with this list. You don’t really even need her down as part of the ideal 5 backups. However, it seems silly to not have at least 1 copy of this card for EX Paine to search to help smooth out the early backups.

Gladiator is exceptional in this deck. Not only is it a breakable, but it allows for Knights and Rangers to keep on fighting. As the deck relies a lot on the battle phase to remove the opposing forwards and has only 23 of it’s own, the ability to revive forwards is very useful as they’re likely to be dying frequently.

Brahne is only at 3 to fill space. As there’s only 2 Knights and a Lenna without a Knight is a bit sad, so getting a Knight early for CP is useful. Also, there aren’t very many 3CP backups in the colours that the deck wants. I tried King Tycoon, however, pulling Lenna out of the deck too early isn’t helpful at all. Basically Tycoon is a better EX Burst, but Brahne is better when played generally. Normally I would advocate for 1 Tycoon, just to have variation in backup names, but there are so many named backups that have to be on the field, you just can’t afford to expire 2 slots on searchers.

Brother, fetches Paine, fetches Yuna/Rikku. It’s just a strong generic search card for the archetype.

Summary

The deck is not a bad deck, it’s just not the best deck. In terms of edits, there aren’t very many to consider without changing archetype. The Famed Mimic Gogos aren’t mandatory, they’re more an answer to so many Ice decks existing in the format, same with the 2nd Trey. Those 4 cards could be extra Knights for more raw muscle, Larsa for Dadaluma decks or some extra removal forwards.

TL;DR No Cid Raines, no win.

#FFTCG #yehosera

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rebelmeg · 7 years ago

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Let's Get Personal

1: 6 of the songs you listen to most? Recently, it's been "Secret Love Song" by Little Mix, "Poison" by Rita Ora, "What Ifs" by Kane Brown and Lauren Alaina, "U and Ur Hand" by P!nk, "Perfect Matchup" by Kenny and London Holland, and The Greatest Showman soundtrack 2: If you could meet anyone on this earth, who would it be? Robert Downey Jr. 3: Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 23, give me line 17. “When was the last night or day you took time off?” 4: What do you think about most? Writing. A new idea, a current idea, something I need to jot down, something I need to fix, the one I want to read. 5: What does your latest text message from someone else say? I'm fine, unless you want the time. 6: Do you sleep with or without clothes on? Underwear. 7: What’s your strangest talent? Personalizing or adding to things that probably do not need to be personalized. (The beige Calvin Klein purse was BORING so I defiled something expensive to make it more “me”.) 8: Finish the sentence. Girls… are strong; Boys… are allowed to be soft. 9: Ever had a poem or song written about you? Not that I know of. 10: When is the last time you played the air guitar? I'm not an air guitar person, I have a THING about looking stupid and I’m certain that I can’t pull off looking cool doing air guitar. 11: Do you have any strange phobias? Nah, just the regular ones. 12: Ever stuck a foreign object up your nose? Don't think so? 13: What’s your religion? LDS 14: If you are outside, what are you most likely doing? Walking to my car. 15: Do you prefer to be behind the camera or in front of it? Behind, definitely. 16: Simple but extremely complex. Favorite band? I do hate this question. I'll go with Queen, it's the first one that popped into my head. 17: What was the last lie you told? I don't recall. 18: Do you believe in karma? Eh, sorta 19: What does your URL mean? I am and have always been a little bit of a rebel. 20: What is your greatest weakness; your greatest strength? Weakness, personal motivation and time management. Strength, creativity. 21: Who is your celebrity crush? RDJ and Sebastian Stan 22: Have you ever gone skinny dipping? Yep. 23: How do you vent your anger? Stewing about it, venting to other people. 24: Do you have a collection of anything? Soooo many collections... I collect shot glasses as my travel souvenir. 25: Do you prefer talking on the phone or video chatting online? Phone. 26: Are you happy with the person you’ve become? For the most part. 27: What’s a sound you hate; sound you love? Permanent markers on cardboard boxes give me the heebie-jeebie shivers, the sound of a soda pop tab opening a can makes me swoon with happiness. 28: What’s your biggest “what if”? I'm not sure. Maybe what if I'd married someone else (not a desire at all, but something I've wondered about from time to time), my life would be entirely different from what it is now. 29: Do you believe in ghosts? How about aliens? No and yes, but not in the traditional sense. 30: Stick your right arm out; what do you touch first? Do the same with your left arm. The chair next to me on the right, the child that is being clingy on the left. 31: Smell the air. What do you smell? My house and my perfume. 32: What’s the worst place you have ever been to? A casino. 33: Choose: East Coast or West Coast? I've never been to the East Coast, so I can't really say. 34: Most attractive singer of your opposite gender? Oh geez, I don't know. 35: To you, what is the meaning of life? To do your best, be kind, and be happy. 36: Define Art. Life made viewable. 37: Do you believe in luck? Not really. 38: What’s the weather like right now? Rainstorm is heading this way. 39: What time is it? 9:31 am 40: Do you drive? If so, have you ever crashed? Yep and yep. Not a big crash, though, minor one. Fixed the alignment! 41: What was the last book you read? Currently reading "Blood Fury" by JR Ward 42: Do you like the smell of gasoline? Don't mind it as long as it's not too strong. 43: Do you have any nicknames? A fair slew. Meg, Megs, Rebel, Mom, Mama, and then standard endearments. 44: What was the last film you saw? Geostorm, I think. 45: What’s the worst injury you’ve ever had? Not sure if this counts as an injury, but I ended up in the hospital with a miscarriage that required surgery. If that doesn't count, I broke my foot falling out of a tree. 46: Have you ever caught a butterfly? Yep! I found one on the grass once during recess as a kid when it was raining, it was close to getting crushed by the other kids playing ball. I held it cupped in my hands so I could show my teacher, its wings dried while I held it, and it flew away while we all watched. 47: Do you have any obsessions right now? Fandom ones, heck yeah. 48: What’s your sexual orientation? Straight. 49: Ever had a rumor spread about you? Probably. 50: Do you believe in magic? Everyday magic, yes. 51: Do you tend to hold grudges against people who have done you wrong? Yeah. 52: What is your astrological sign? Libra 53: Do you save money or spend it? I spend like it's burning a hole in my pocket. 54: What’s the last thing you purchased? Lunch last week. 55: Love or lust? Love 56: In a relationship? Yes 57: How many relationships have you had? Just one serious one. 58: Can you touch your nose with your tongue? Not quite. 59: Where were you yesterday? Home. 60: Is there anything pink within 10 feet of you? My elbow is resting on a pair of my daughter's pink underwear. 61: Are you wearing socks right now? Yep, I love socks. 62: What’s your favorite animal? Bears, penguins, peacocks, owls, dogs. 63: What is your secret weapon to get someone to like you? Being kind and friendly. 64: Where is your best friend? Teaching school. 65: Give me your top 5 favorite blogs on Tumblr. Oh geez, I can't narrow it down to just five! 66: What is your heritage? Mostly British, good mix of other UK and European ancestors, I’m a 2nd generation American. 67: What were you doing last night at 12AM? Watching Gilmore Girls and folding laundry. 68: What do you think is Satan’s last name? Don't think he has one. 69: Be honest. Ever gotten yourself off? Of course. 70: Are you the kind of friend you would want to have as a friend? I hope so. 71: You are walking down the street on your way to work. There is a dog drowning in the canal on the side of the street. Your boss has told you if you are late one more time you get fired. What do you do? Save the dog quickly. 72: You are at the doctor’s office and she has just informed you that you have approximately one month to live. a) Do you tell anyone/everyone you are going to die? Yes, everyone. b) What do you do with your remaining days? Be as happy as possible and spend as much time with the people I love as possible. c) Would you be afraid? Heck yes. 73: You can only have one of these things; trust or love. A huge part of love IS trust, so love. 74: What’s a song that always makes you happy when you hear it? Goody Goody by Julie Lavery, it's an upbeat, bouncy song. (Which is funny, because the lyrics tell a sad story) 75: What are the last four digits in your cell phone number? Nope, I use it as a passcode for stuff sometimes. 76: In your opinion, what makes a great relationship? Humor, taking care of each other. 77: How can I win your heart? Interact with me. 78: Can insanity bring on more creativity? Yep. 79: What is the single best decision you have made in your life so far? To start writing again. 80: What size shoes do you wear? 7 81: What would you want to be written on your tombstone? *shrugs* Something nice. 82: What is your favorite word? Popcorn. I love the sound and the visual appearance of the way the letters are arranged. 83: Give me the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word; heart. Love, courage, strength. 84: What is a saying you say a lot? "Best thing ever!" 85: What’s the last song you listened to? "Hey Soul Sister" by Train 86: Basic question; what’s your favorite color/colors? Purple! 87: What is your current desktop picture? Shamrocks 88: If you could press a button and make anyone in the world instantaneously explode, who would it be? I don't know enough to be able to make that decision. Also, too many corrupt world leaders to narrow it down, I think. 89: What would be a question you’d be afraid to tell the truth on? I can think of many. 90: One night you wake up because you heard a noise. You turn on the light to find that you are surrounded by MUMMIES. The mummies aren’t really doing anything, they’re just standing around your bed. What do you do? "I am too tired for this nonsense, either sit down and chill or go downstairs and wait until morning." 91: You accidentally eat some radioactive vegetables. They were good, and what’s even cooler is that they endow you with the super-power of your choice! What is that power? Time manipulation without accelerated aging. I just want to be able to nap whenever I want and have time to catch up on my Netflix list... 92: You can re-live any point of time in your life. The time-span can only be a half-hour, though. What half-hour of your past would you like to experience again? The first time my hubby and I held hands when we were dating. It was perfect and absolutely adorable. 93: You can erase any horrible experience from your past. What will it be? Ugh, I'm not sure, there are two that immediately spring to mind that were pretty awful. 94: You have the opportunity to sleep with the music-celebrity of your choice. Who would it be? I have no idea. 95: You just got a free plane ticket to anywhere. You have to depart right now. Where are you gonna go? Europe. Anywhere in Europe, but particularly the UK. 96: Do you have any relatives in jail? I don't think so? 97: Have you ever thrown up in the car? I'm sure I did when I was a kid, but not that I can remember. 98: Ever been on a plane? Finally went on one for the first time a couple years ago! 99: If the whole world were listening to you right now, what would you say? Be kind.

#let's get personal #about me

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entergamingxp · 5 years ago

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Temtem is the “Evolution” That Pokemon Sword and Shield Wasn’t

January 13, 2020 12:00 PM EST

Temtem might be heavily inspired by Pokemon, but it builds on the concept so strongly that it deserves merit in its own right.

Temtem is a lot like Pokemon. Let’s get that out in the open right away. Developer Crema has described Temtem as “a massively multiplayer creature-collection adventure inspired by Pokemon” on their Steam page. Their inspirations are open and unabashed. Many will look at this and simply dismiss it as a Pokemon clone, or an ascended fangame. But I feel that writing Temtem off so quickly is disingenuous; this is clearly a passion project that they have worked very hard on to differentiate it. The inspirations are worn openly on their sleeve, but Crema has done the legwork. It’s immensely rare that I’ve seen a game of such polished quality this early in the development phase.

So with that preamble out of the way, what is Temtem actually? What makes it stand out compared to Pokemon? Let’s dive in.

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What? Your Turn-Based Combat is Evolving!

You start your adventure in Temtem with a bit of light plot and backstory. You’re leaving your hometown to go attend school in the next town over, focused primarily on study and battle of Temtem. After a brief farewell with a selection of NPCs, you make a quick detour to the home of a local Temtem professor, who grants you one of three Temtem to begin your adventure with. You’ll have a quick introductory battle with your plucky rival, wherein you easily best h-

Wait. No. He actually one-shots you immediately using a rare and powerful type of Temtem that has type advantage on all three starters. Huh. That’s new! Either way, with this crushing defeat under your belt, the Professor grants you a second Temtem: a toucan-inspired bird named Tuwai.

Sidenote: I am contractually obligated by DualShocker’s EiC to insist that Tuwai should have been named Toucanslam.

With these two Temtem, you begin your journey proper. Though your immediate goal is to reach the next town and attend classes, there’s nonetheless an encounter with the first Dojo leader along the way. There’s eight of these, and besting the trainers at all of them would surely make you a master of Temtem. As you progress, you’ll encounter an evil organization named Clan Belsoto that you need to stop from achieving their unsavory aims. All the while, you explore the world, find new creatures to battle or capture, defeat all other Temtem tamers in your way… pretty standard stuff for the genre, and it probably sounds a lot like a Pokemon game by now.

But the details are what Temtem excels at. Almost immediately, trying to sink into the old habits of Pokemon will be rebuffed with mechanical alterations and twists. Even from the outset, battles will require strategy and careful consideration. Sure, the average wild Tateru or Pigepic is unlikely to be too threatening, but they’re not going to roll over and die for you either. Allow me to list a few critical systems that allow Temtem to stand out from genre conventions.

Double Battles. You’re granted a second Temtem immediately, and all battles allow you to field two creatures. You might find solo Temtem in the wild or on the occasional tamer, but you can always wield two. This immediately starts affecting strategy, and that’ll become more apparent very quickly.

Moves Require Stamina. Pokemon fans are used to using a set move until it runs out of PP and can’t be used. Temtem instead sees a general Stamina bar for each creature, which starts at full and replenishes a little each turn. As long as you have Stamina to use the move, there’s no problem. If you don’t have the Stamina, you can still use the move, but the excess Stamina will draw from your health and cause your creature to miss the next turn. You also have the option to wait a turn without using a move, if you so wish.

Some Moves Have Cooldowns. In addition to Stamina, some moves cannot be used until the Temtem has been active for a set amount of turns. They then go on cooldown after use for a similar set of turns. This is usually combined with Stamina in some way; stronger moves might have a cooldown for less stamina usage, or else they have a high stamina cost but can be used immediately.

Standardized and Stackable Status Effects. If you inflict Poison or Sleep on an enemy, it will always last a set amount of turns. Damage and debuffs are consistent. Also, you can inflict multiple status effects at once; a Temtem can be affected by two at once, and newer effects will overwrite the oldest one.

Synergy Effects. Certain moves will receive boosts or additional effects based on what kind of Temtem their partner is. My Mental starter Houchic has a move called Energy Manipulation that inflicts damage and the Exhaust status. If the partner Temtem is of a nature type, that damage and status duration is increased. Once again, planning and team composition become more important.

No RNG. Every move has perfect accuracy! Every status effect will land! There are no critical hits! When you use a move or engage in a turn, you can guarantee that it’s going to impact, unless otherwise canceled out by an enemy effect (or your Temtem is defeated before it’s used).

This is only a selection of adjustments and considerations that Temtem employs to spice up the somewhat old turn-based, menu-driven combat of the genre. And this is only a few of the critical differences because there are definitely more; Temtem traits, stat training, individual stat values amongst the species, breeding, and so on. There’s a wealth of combat options under the hood for the clever tamer to employ.

None of this would count for anything if there was no way to utilize it, though. Pokemon has a wealth of options with movesets, but it adequately doesn’t factor into the game until you start playing competitively. Picking a single Pokemon and sweeping your way to the endgame isn’t just a viable strategy… it’s the ideal one. Temtem bucks that trend by offering more of a challenge even in the basic tamer battle.

Attempting to blast your way through with strong moves? Health pools tend to be larger in Temtem, so you’ll get a significant advantage but then drain your stamina and be left vulnerable for a time. Otherwise, your moves might be locked by cooldowns, so it’s best to utilize status effects or soften them with lighter attacks. Type advantages and disadvantages remain — there are 12 different types in Temtem, reminiscent of Pokemon but condensed somewhat — and can stack up to 4x. Still, I’ve found even these don’t guarantee a one-shot at similar levels. Enemy tamers and wild Temtem have some semblance of strategy that they employ, and are leveled up in a way that kept them a fair challenge without stopping to explore or grind.

Even with all these changes, many long-accepted systems remain in place. Using a move that’s the same type as your Temtem grants it a damage bonus. Moves are split into physical and special categories, with a different defense stat tied to each. Temtem with higher speeds will move first, though moves have a priority system that can interrupt that if they’re fast/slow enough. Temtem will evolve into stronger forms after a time; evolution is based on the levels they’ve gained since joining you, however, rather than always at a specific threshold. It goes on and on.

Stats Aplenty

Uncertain of what to expect when going into the game, I quickly found myself given a wealth of options and considerations for battles that immediately enticed my tactical mind. I had to weigh my choices, make good use of items, plan my moves… I was engaged with the system from the outset. The new creatures, moves, evolved forms, types, synergies… all of it made for a far more compelling battle system than I had expected. Persona 5 is a stand out example of how to make actions matter in a turn-based RPG, and now Temtem is promising to do similarly for monster collecting games.

Now, it’d be reasonably easy to get absolutely flooded by information given all the elements at play here. Thankfully, Temtem takes a few commendable steps in how it presents the details you need. First, it provides clear and well-designed tutorials as the game unfolds. They’re paced well instead of dumping exposition on you all at once, plus they’re also completely optional if you already are familiar with the systems. Further information is just a mouseover away (or hover if you’re using a controller), so it need not bog down the screen unless you need it.

Once you’ve gotten past the initial steps and are actively seeking out the information, though, Temtem has you covered. Much of the advanced or esoteric information that is unclear in a lot of games are readily accessible here. Beyond just your levels and stats, you can see every move your Temtem has learned (and you can swap them out between battles). You can see the individual stats that your Temtem has, how much stat training points it has accrued, the cooldown and synergies of moves, and so on. Accessing the Tempedia, you can also quickly cycle through some of the Temtem’s animations, as well as read the traits they can get and the stat Training Value it gives on defeat. It’s all just a click or two away when you need it.

Perhaps the only piece of information I couldn’t find at the drop of a hat was a type matchup chart, but hopefully Crema will include that in later versions.

“It’s incredible to consider just how well polished and presentable Temtem is.”

Speaking of type matchups, the target will be marked as gold or red for effective or ineffective type matches in battles… but only if you’ve got a member of that evolutionary line in your party. It’s a decent balance between providing unknown information in combat and encouraging the player to learn and remember.

It’s incredible to consider just how well polished and presentable Temtem is. Playing for about a dozen hours, I didn’t even come close to exhausting the content on offer. I took my time exploring and tend to be quite methodical, but there’s a tremendous amount of content already good to go. The art style and graphical design is strong, consistent, and pleasant to look at. Under the hood, the systems are functional and sophisticated, yet I rarely ran into any kind of performance issue or a bug. Temtem’s quality would stand out compared to some full-priced triple-A releases at launch, and yet it’s only in a closed technical alpha.

This is all the more impressive when you consider something I’ve yet to speak about: this is a massively multiplayer online game.

From the very outset, I was seeing other players present in the world. There was a functional chat that I could jump into. A slew of multiplayer functionality including full co-op play, casual or competitive battling, trading… that’s all present and correct, even at this early state. Shout-outs to JoCat and Skill Up, who I saw running around in-game. Temtem is still built with the notion that you can play solo just fine and not have to interact with anyone else, but the fact that it all just worked so seamlessly means anyone encouraged to interact won’t have to try too hard.

Aged Up For the Pokemon Veteran

I honestly wasn’t sure how I felt about Temtem when going into the alpha. I’ve had my eye on it for long enough that I quickly raised my hand at the opportunity to preview it. Nonetheless, I had really been struggling to find the spark in Pokemon style games for a while and wasn’t sure that this would resonate any better with me. Not only did Temtem exceed my expectations in pretty much every regard, but it also helped me realize what I failed to feel in Pokemon for some time now: respect for the series veteran.

I’m an old hand among the video game playing crowd by now. Pokemon Red was far from the first game I ever played, but it was one of the first I ever specifically sought out. I played it until I was broke from spending so much on AA batteries for my Game Boy. It’s a cherished memory and one of the major stepping stones that set me on my games player/writer path. From then on, I would usually pick up and play any new mainline Pokemon releases.

And yet… with every passing generation of Pokemon, I approached it with increasingly less enthusiasm.

I was 10-years-old when I played Gen 1. I’m now in my 30s, and I have played through this song and dance so many times. I know what to expect, I know the strategies, I know the formula. But rather than accept that this might be a possibility and provide difficulty options or challenge, Pokemon simply stays the course. Sure, there’s a universal appeal to Pokemon at its heart, but it really struggles to grasp me beyond this. Every new game feels like it’s aimed at 10-year-old Kris, never reaching beyond. Tentative steps towards something more meaningful or improved are occasionally taken, but they’re rarely committed to and often are accompanied by multiple steps backward.

“Not only did Temtem exceed my expectations in pretty much every regard, but it also helped me realize what I failed to feel in Pokemon for some time now: respect for the series veteran.”

It’s easier than ever to power level your team to the point of devastating all opponents. Trainers rarely have a full lineup of six Pokemon. The enemy levels always feel lower than necessary to be a threat. There’s little that amounts to strategy or careful planning beyond “spam type effective move to easy victory.” Hell, sometimes even choosing type effective moves is overkill. All of this could be assuaged by a more exciting plot, but they remain incredibly basic and child-friendly. Instead, I just gather my team of favorite designs and power on through.

I held out hope that Sword and Shield would take steps to address this, but quite frankly? They didn’t. The overall negativity surrounding Dexit didn’t help matters, either. So after careful consideration, I didn’t buy them. Instead, I went back and did a Nuzlocke run of Heart Gold, having a very merry time in the process. That is very likely where my experience with the mainline Pokemon will end. Despite my love for these cute creatures, and my multiple decade connection to them, I just find nothing to draw me in anymore that I cannot get with the games I already own. It’s Mystery Dungeon or nothing for me, most likely.

Or maybe it’s just me.

Nonetheless, this was the state of mind that I approached Temtem with. Coupled with my background and the robust mechanical systems on display, I walked away with a smile on my face. Temtem is a game made by people who clearly respect Pokemon, but more than that: they respect the long-time Pokemon veteran who wants to see the series grow into something more. In this one closed alpha of an indie developer, I have experienced more development of the Pokemon formula than I have in the better part of 20 years of Game Freak’s games.

“Temtem has enough options and complexity to appeal even to those who have Caught ‘Em All before.”

Crema has their finger firmly on the pulse of the jaded Pokemon fan. Temtem has enough options and complexity to appeal even to those who have Caught ‘Em All before. But even with that in mind, it’s far from unapproachable to newcomers or younger audiences. I genuinely think there is something for everyone here, and I cannot wait to see how it develops from this point forward.

Temtem will be available on Steam Early Access from January 21st, with console releases planned once the Early Access period ends. There will be a handful of server stress tests before this; you can find a full list of dates and times on the Steam page. I’ve gone from a curious bystander to an eager follower in just a dozen hours of playtime, so there’s little doubt I’ll be in-game somewhere.

January 13, 2020 12:00 PM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/01/temtem-is-the-evolution-that-pokemon-sword-and-shield-wasnt/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=temtem-is-the-evolution-that-pokemon-sword-and-shield-wasnt

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housebeleren · 5 years ago

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Arena Deck Tech - Dimir Control Eldraine Standard

Today I thought I’d try something new. I play a fair amount of MTG Arena, and I wanted to take a look at one of the decks I’ve been enjoying playing and evaluate the card choices & its win rate. I tend to play somewhat offbeat decks, and am not one to just go for Bant Ramp or 4c Fires just because they’re the “best” decks.

So the deck I’ve been playing the most in Arena Best-of-One Standard is Dimir Control. This deck is ill-suited for “Traditional” Best-of-Three play, largely because of Veil of Summer in the sideboard it simply too good of a hoser for it. It’s funny, historically when these color hoser cycles come around, Green always gets one that’s so embarrassingly worse than the other 4 that it’s completely unplayable (see: Display of Dominance). Guess this time they tried a little too hard to make it playable that it completely invalidates most control strategies. Hurray! But Best-of-One is a different beast, and it’s definitely possible to tailor a control deck to work in Standard and combat a variety of strategies.

So, now that I’ve played 100 games with the deck in Eldraine Standard, let’s take a look:

Art: Anna Steinbauer

Card Choices

For a control deck, the majority of card choices will be dictated by the metagame, but there are a few foundational pieces that form the backbone of the deck, and there are some clear choices for win conditions. Bear in mind that most of these card choices were made back when Golos Field of the Dead decks were still legal, and will probably need further tweaking in a post-Field Standard.

The Backbone

4x Thought Erasure

4x Narset, Parter of Veils

3x Discovery / Dispersal

2x Drawn from Dreams

This group is pretty straightforward. The biggest single reason to run Blue & Black together is that Thought Erasure is just so effective. That said, thanks to Gilded Goose, it’s losing some of its potency on the draw, so it’s possible dropping one for another Negate is correct. That said, it’s your single best way to preemtively deal with their biggest threats. Narset, Discovery, and Drawn from Dreams are your main card draw package, and both Narset and Drawn from Dreams get around any opposing Narsets you may encounter. Of course, Narset completely shuts off some strategies, particularly the Red/Blue Draw Two deck that some people have been toying with.

It’s also critical to remember that Discovery has a second half, even if you’re mostly just playing the first mode. In the late game, bouncing the highest CMC permanent of your opponent’s can be exactly what you need to pull ahead. If they’re hellbent, it’ll force them to discard it. Being a split card makes it a much better late game draw than a normal cantrip would be. Also, it combos nicely with God-Eternal Kefnet, since if you draw into it with him he makes it a Recoil, which is super good.

Aggro Hosers

3x Cry of the Carnarium

2x Legion’s End

2x Ritual of Soot

1x Disfigure

1x Ob Nixilis’s Cruelty

1x Enter the God-Eternals

1x Massacre Girl

Just because Oko is the big bad, doesn’t mean you can’t have a plan for Aggro. In fact, having a wide range of good removal for aggro strategies is critical. In the current Best-of-One Meta, I’ve moved up to three copies of Cry of the Carnarium in the main deck. It may seem excessive, but it’s basically always the card I want to see against an aggressive start. It cleans up basically anything that mono-Red or Red/Black are running, and the exile clause efficiently deals with Footlight Fiend, Judith triggers, and Afterlife creatures. It is also literally the only card that can deal with an early Cauldron Familiar/Witch’s Oven combo, since Cry exiles any cards that already went to grave, so it’s normal ability to dodge removal doesn’t work here.

Legion’s End and Ritual of Soot are other great ways to clean up the board after aggressive openings, and it’s critical to remember that both of them also take care of Oko’s Elks and Nissa’s animated lands, plus they both also hit a resolved Hydroid Krassis. Legion’s End is particularly good for this, since it will also eat any copies they may have drawn into from the first one, preventing them from easily chaining them together. I’ve gone down one copy since Field of the Dead was banned, and replaced it with the aforementioned Cry of the Carnarium.

Finally, I like one Enter the God-Eternals as a midgame way to stabilize, and the lifegain it gets you is super relevant against a fast start. Massacre Girl isn’t always what you need, but she eats up aggro decks, and also kills any Afterlife creatures plus their tokens, which is handy. Against control, she is a threat with evasion, and sometimes they’ll have used up all their removal by the time you land her, so she’ll end up sticking around.

Ramp/Oko/Fires Hosers

3x Negate

2x Murderous Rider / Swift End

2x Sinister Sabotage

Negate is your best tool against both Oko & Teferi, and it’s possible playing 4 is actually the correct answer in the current meta (possibly cutting one Thought Erasure for it). Once they’re resolved, Murderous Rider is your best, most versatile removal, and it also works well against aggro, since it blocks most small things and the Lifelink offsets their early attacks. Usually when played this way, it’ll just eat a removal spell, but I’d rather it take a Skewer than me.

Sinister Sabotage is in there as additional counter power against cards you can’t survive if they resolve, but it’s possible that the right answer is to consider one Sabotage and one Disdainful Stroke, given how big Fires decks have been recently. Having a Sinister Sabotage stuck in your hand on the draw because your third land came into play tapped while your opponent resolves Fires of Invention feels really bad. Sure, it doesn’t happen much, but it is possible.

Win Conditions

2x God-Eternal Kefnet

1x Liliana, Dreadhorde General

1x Ugin, the Ineffable

1x Lochmere Serpent

Every control deck needs win conditions. God-Eternal Kefnet comes down the earliest and provides consistent advantage on every draw. He’s gotten a little worse since Eldraine, since he doesn’t play as well with Murderous Rider, but he’s still a powerhouse and an important inclusion in any control build. The fact that he comes down on 4 makes him a reasonable stabilizer against aggro decks. He won’t be fast enough to stop an explosive start on his own, but curving Cry of the Carnarium into Kefnet will usually do the trick.

The absolute most powerful win condition is Liliana, Dreadhorde General. She dominates the board and provides you with a steady stream of bodies and card draw. Given the popularity of Questing Beast and Red burn, it’s critical to determine whether using her minus right away is actually the best plan of action. Sometimes, even if they only have 2 creatures out, it’s best to make the Zombie first, because that puts her out of reach so you can untap with her plus additional removal and counterspells. Ugin does a passable Liliana impression and is better in some cases, like against a resolved Fires of Invention.

I like having the one Lochmere Serpent in the build as well, mainly as a surprise factor. Most people aren’t expecting him, and it’s really satisfying to have him eat an opposing Questing Beast out of nowhere. He’s more of a pet card than anything else, but I like having it.

The Wishboard

1x Fae of Wishes (Mainboard)

2x The Elderspell

2x Unmoored Ego

1x Ashiok, Dream Render

1x Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage

1x Command the Dreadhorde

1x Mass Manipulation

I’ve included one Fae of Wishes in the deck as a way to pull some silver bullets out of the sideboard. It’s possible 2 are correct, but the wish is just costly enough that most of the time you’re better off just going with the main gameplan. That said, pulling The Elderspell or Unmoored Ego out can be brutal against certain decks. Command the Dreadhorde is a great win condition against opposing control builds, and Mass Manipulation is incredible against big Green builds. In fact, it’s so good I’ve considered cutting Lochmere Serpent and adding one Mass Manipulation mainboard.

I don’t have a fully built sideboard because I only play this deck Best-of-One, but if I ever played it in Traditional Standard, I’d fill it out a bit more.

Deck Performance

The deck has been a solid performer, but it doesn’t put up amazing numbers. My overall win percentage with it in Gold tiers is 52.5%, which is perfectly decent. I will also note that the deck was at its best when Golos/Field of the Dead decks were dominant, with a nearly 60% win rate at that time. This isn’t because it has a particularly great Golos matchup (I was evenly 50/50 against it), but that Golos meant there were fewer Green-based ramp strategies and Oko decks in the format, which are harder for Control to deal with. To be clear, a turn 2 Oko with you on the draw is basically unbeatable unless the rest of their hand & subsequent draws are garbage.

But overall, the deck has still been working okay despite the drop since Oko became the big bad of the format. Here are some win rates against the main decks I’ve played against (at least 4 or more games):

Golos Field - 12 games - 50%

Mono Red Aggro (no Cavalcade) - 11 games - 36.36%

Mono Red Cavalcade - 8 games - 50%

Simic/Bant Ramp - 7 games - 42.86%

Gruul Aggro - 6 games - 50%

Mono Green - 6 games - 50%

3/4c Fires - 6 games - 33.33%

Cat Food - 5 games - 60%

Mono Black - 5 games - 80%

Golgari Adventures - 4 games - 50%

Based on this, it looks like the deck is awful, but the nice thing is that it preys on offbeat decks really well. I have yet to lose to any Orzhov or traditional Esper Control decks (other than Esper Doom), and it eats Izzet decks for lunch. So even though it’s not great against the big bogeymen of the format, it is really well positioned against most of the random decks you’ll face, which brings the win percentage up.

Next Steps

The framework of the deck was built when Golos was the big bad, but I’ve made some tweaks since then. The most notable updates have been increasing the number of Murderous Riders and Negates in the mainboard, and slightly reducing the number of Legion’s End and Ob Nixilis’s Cruelty.

If Oko stays the dominant deck of the format, maindecking Noxious Grasp may be the best gameplan to improve the matchup, instead of just having the 2 copies in the sideboard. Not sure what to cut for it exactly, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.

Cards I’m exploring are the aforementioned Noxious Grasp, as well as Brazen Borrower. Normally I don’t love bounce effects for true control, as they are typically better suited for tempo builds. But in this world, just having a 3 drop flier to challenge opposing Planeswalkers could be exactly what the deck needs. I’m also considering Disdainful Stroke to combat Fires of Invention decks, but that doesn’t deal with either Teferi or Oko, and those are honestly the biggest issues this deck faces. If I were playing Best-of-Three, I’d definitely run a couple in the sideboard.

Anyway, that’s it for this deck. I love playing Blue/Black based control, so I’m going to keep trying to find ways for this deck to shine, through every shift in the meta. Have fun on Arena!

#MtG #mtgarena

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thegloober · 6 years ago

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Regardless of inning, Zach Britton should face the middle of the A’s lineup in the Wild Card Game

2018 Wild Card Game Preview: Oakland Athletics

(Al Bello/Getty)

Oddly enough, one lingering question going into tonight’s Wild Card Game is who’s going to close for the Yankees? It’s a question rather than a problem. The Yankees have about five relievers who could handle the ninth inning, if necessary. We just don’t know who Aaron Boone will use in a save situation tonight.

Since returning from his month-long stint on the disabled list Aroldis Chapman has pitched mostly in the seventh and eighth innings as he works to get back into a groove. His first outing back was a mess. Three runs in two-thirds of an inning and he was all over the place. In four games since, Chapman has not allowed a hit, and he’s struck out eight of 13 batters. That’ll work.

Zach Britton has filled in at closer recently and he’s been excellent, though in two games against the Red Sox the defense refused to turn double plays behind him. Britton has allowed two earned runs in his last 17 appearances and 17.2 innings. Opponents hit .145/.206/.194 against him in those 17.2 innings. The further he’s gotten from the Achilles injury, the better he’s been. A graph:

Britton did not have a normal Spring Training following that Achilles injury. He’s gradually regained velocity on his trademark sinker and, as that’s happened, his ground ball rate has climbed. Britton posted a 77.8% ground ball rate with the Yankees. That is both outrageously good and right in line with his 77.7% ground ball rate from 2015-17. That’s what Britton does. He gets ground balls.

“Arm-wise, I can’t tell you how great my arm feels compared to any other year since I’ve been in the majors,” said Britton to Dan Martin during yesterday’s workout. “Maybe when I was 18 in the minors. I think the time off and wasn’t able to work out and I just rested helped.”

As noted this morning, Aaron Boone has said he’s open to letting Britton close in the postseason. It kinda depends how Chapman felt and looked as he returned from the knee injury, and, aside from that first appearance, Chapman was lights out. The triple-digit velocity wasn’t there, but he used his slider effectively and pitched very well, including in a save situation Saturday.

My hunch is the Yankees want Chapman to close in the postseason. They want him to be the guy at the end of games, which would free up Britton to pitch in other situations. Marc Carig wrote a great piece about the tools the Yankees use to determine bullpen matchups recently. It’s behind the paywall, so I can’t give away too much, but this part stuck out to me:

The concept itself is not new. There’s no shortage of publicly-available data to expose which hitters might have trouble against cutters buried in on the hands, or two-seamers that nick the corners. But the Yankees have used their blend of data to tailor those projections. With their tools, it’s possible to estimate a hitters’ performance not against just two-seam fastballs in general, but two-seam fastballs thrown by Britton, or curveballs thrown by Robertson, or sliders thrown by Chapman. Specific velocity and spin is taken into account and matched up to a hitters’ bat path, which can also be precisely measured.

Given that information, computers can simulate an expected result. From there, game plans can be formulated, strategies mapped out, scenarios anticipated. If they choose, pitchers can use those insights in their own preparation. Fearing overload, many of the Yankees’ relievers prefer to steer clear. But since coming from the Orioles, Britton has embraced the data, which he called far more detailed than what was available to him in Baltimore. In some cases, the projections have contradicted his instincts. In others, they have only reinforced the game plan he had already formulated.

Pretty cool! I remember reading something last year that explained the Indians essentially simulated and projected Edwin Encarnacion’s season before signing him. They used all the Trackman data and all sorts of neat stuff to map out the schedule, and the pitchers Encarnacion might face, and the possible weather patterns. They baked all that into the cake, projected Encarnacion’s production, and used it to determine whether he was worth signing. And, obviously, he was.

According to Carig, the Yankees do something similar with their bullpen matchups. They project how their relievers, with their individual stuff, match up against specific hitters. It’s pretty cool. Ultimately, it’s up to the pitcher to perform. The system may say David Robertson is the best matchup against Khris Davis in tonight’s Wild Card Game, but if Robertson hangs a curveball, Davis will hit it to the moon. Make the most informed decision and hope it all works out on the field, basically.

Anyway, I mention this because it seems possible the best way to use Britton tonight will be against the middle of the Athletics lineup, rather than as the closer. Maybe the middle of the lineup comes up in the ninth and this all works out nice and easy. But what if they come up in the seventh inning in a one-run game? Or in the eighth? The A’s have several extreme fly ball and home run hitters in their lineup. Their standard middle of the order:

3. Jed Lowrie: 33.2% grounders and 23 homers 4. Khris Davis: 35.3% grounders and 48 homers 5. Matt Olson: 35.9% grounders and 29 homers

One-hundred-and-forty players had enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title this year. Among those 140 players Lowrie had the seventh lowest ground ball rate, Davis had the 20th lowest ground ball rate, and Olson had the 25th lowest ground ball rate. They are three of the most extreme fly ball hitters in baseball. Fly balls tend to be rewarded at Yankee Stadium.

Britton, meanwhile, is an extreme ground ball pitcher. The most extreme ground ball pitcher in baseball when he’s on and he’s been on these last few weeks. The matchup makes perfect sense on paper. The Yankees should use their very good ground ball reliever against the very good fly ball hitters in the middle of the A’s lineup. Right? Right. Maybe it doesn’t work out. Maybe Britton leaves up a pitch up and gets burned. Or maybe the A’s beat him with ground ball singles. It’s baseball. You can do everything right and still get beat.

What does the Yankees’ proprietary matchup system say about Britton vs. Lowrie/Davis/Olson? Beats me. I’d love to know. Here are three heat maps showing where each guy hits the ball the hardest — by that I mean fly balls or line drives with a 95 mph exit velocity or better — against left-handed pitchers. It’s Lowrie, Davis, and Olson from left-to-right (click to embiggen):

If you’re a lefty, you need to keep the ball down against the switch-hitting Lowrie. Against the right-handed hitting Davis, the best spot for a lefty is down and in. Elevate the ball too much on the outer half and he’ll drive it the other way. Olson is a left-handed hitter. Looks like a left-handed pitcher has to pitch him away. Britton and his sinker appear to be a good matchup candidate against those three. Perhaps the Yankees see it differently.

We still don’t know who will close for the Yankees tonight and it’s not because they lack options. I think they want it to be Chapman, but, if he’s not where he needs to be following the knee injury, it could be Britton. Boone’s bullpen usage will not happen on a whim. There’s a lot that goes into these decisions, and it’s possible Britton is most valuable to the Yankees as a middle of the A’s lineup specialist tonight, rather than as a closer. And, if that is the case, it won’t matter whether he pitches the seventh or eighth or ninth, as long as he faces the right hitters.

2018 Wild Card Game Preview: Oakland Athletics

Source: https://bloghyped.com/regardless-of-inning-zach-britton-should-face-the-middle-of-the-as-lineup-in-the-wild-card-game/

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junker-town · 7 years ago

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The Iron Bowl live blog: Score updates, key notes, and more from the massive Bama-Auburn game

One of the biggest Iron Bowls ever is on CBS and streaming at CBSSports.com.

Preview

The Iron Bowl has always been a regional holiday. It is a rivalry so bitter that it couldn’t be played for 40 years. It has killed trees and somehow made Paul Finebaum a national name. It is always a big deal.

Sometimes it’s an even bigger deal, however.

When Auburn and Alabama kick off in Auburn on Saturday afternoon, it will be the eighth time that an Iron Bowl has featured two top-10 teams. Most of the previous instances have produced classic games.

1963: No. 9 Auburn 10, No. 6 Alabama 8. Tiger backup quarterback Mailon Kent engineers a late score and outduels Joe Namath.

1971: No. 3 Alabama 31, No. 5 Auburn 7. The most hyped Iron Bowl to date features two unbeatens, but only one shows up.

1972: No. 9 Auburn 17, No. 2 Alabama 16. Punt Bama Punt!

1974: No. 2 Alabama 17, No. 7 Auburn 13. Unbeaten Bama falls victim to a fake punt but makes enough stops down the stretch.

1994: No. 4 Alabama 21, No. 6 Auburn 14. Unbeaten Bama lets a 21-0 lead dwindle to one touchdown but makes a last-minute fourth-down stop in Tide territory.

2010: No. 2 Auburn 28, No. 9 Alabama 27. The Camback.

2013: No. 5 Auburn 34, No. 1 Alabama 28. The Kick Six.

Six of the seven games have been agonizing and tight, and three ended up with nicknames. That’s a pretty good percentage.

(I also can’t help but mention that, while Alabama leads the overall series, 45-35-1, Auburn won four of the seven biggest games. I’m assuming Auburn fans already noticed that.)

So what’s in store for their eighth top-10 meeting? Can Auburn, a four-point underdog, wreck Bama’s national title plans, just as it did in 2013? Can the Tide survive their trip to the Plains without another named game?

Two big, and rather similar, questions come to mind when looking at this game’s matchups.

Let’s walk through them.

Question No. 1: Can Alabama protect Jalen Hurts?

When you peruse Alabama’s statistical profile, you don’t exactly find many weaknesses. In bigger or smaller categories, the Crimson Tide are mostly in the top 30 at worst. But one particular pair of rankings does stand out:

Alabama’s offense ranks 103rd in Adjusted Sack Rate, and Auburn’s defense ranks eighth.

Hurts is one of the best rushing quarterbacks in FBS. He picks his spots well, he’s big enough to break weak tackles, and in two seasons as Alabama’s starter, he’s rushed 272 times (not including sacks) for 1,855 yards and 21 touchdowns. Under new coordinator Brian Daboll, he’s cut his rush frequency from 11.5 per game to 9.1, but he can still scoot.

The problem with a lot of good runners, however, is that they trust that their legs will bail them out of trouble, and they’re not always correct. While the national sack rate tends to hover around 5.5 percent, only one of the top 10 non-option rushing quarterbacks (Mississippi State’s Nick Fitzgerald) is under 5 percent. And of the 10, Hurts’ 9 percent sack rate is lower than that of only UNLV’s Armani Rogers (10 percent).

This is important for a number of reasons. For starters, Auburn is one of the best in the country at leveraging you into passing downs. Ask Georgia. The Tigers rank first in Standard Downs S&P+, allowing just a 36 percent success rate on such downs. They aren’t necessarily all that disruptive against the run (just 57th in stuff rate), but they hold you to minimal games and force you behind schedule.

Bama’s offense when behind schedule: good, but not great.

Alabama’s offense ranks 36th in Passing Downs S&P+ and 69th in passing-downs success rate; Auburn’s defense ranks fifth and 11th, respectively.

Passing downs (second-and-8 or more, third/fourth-and-5 or more) are when turnovers and sacks tend to occur, and in their tightest games of the year, the Tide were dreadful on passing downs. They had a ghastly 5 percent success rate on PDs against Florida State, 22 percent against LSU, and 25 percent against MSU.

(The only closer game in which Bama was able to bail itself out: Texas A&M, against whom the Tide had a 40 percent PDs success rate ... but only a 33 percent standard downs success rate. Odd game.)

If Auburn is able to slow Alabama’s run game down — and it also bears mentioning that Bama is only 29th in Rushing S&P+ — then the Tigers could harass Hurts and force some three-and-outs. That starting Bama guard Ross Pierschbacher is questionable with a high ankle sprain could make matters even dicier for Bama, both in run blocking and pass protection.

Flipping the field and keeping the home crowd engaged? Sounds like a pretty good formula for an upset.

Subquestion: Can Auburn force Hurts to go to someone besides Calvin Ridley?

Hurts’ general pass progression has, on many occasion over the last two years, been as follows:

Look for Calvin Ridley.

Run.

Ridley has been targeted 78 times this season; he’s caught 52 of those passes for 858 yards and three scores. In Bama's last two games (a tight win over MSU and a laugher over Mercer), he has eight receptions for 274 yards; those were his first 100-yard games of the season.

It’s good to have a reliable No. 1 receiver, but if a defense can slow Ridley down, where might Hurts go with the ball? The next three top Bama targets (seniors Robert Foster and Cam Sims and freshman Jerry Jeudy) have combined for only 69 targets, 35 catches, and 545 yards.

Guys have had their moments. Jeudy had three catches for 48 yards against Tennessee but has zero since. Foster had a 52-yard reception against Colorado State. Freshman Henry Ruggs III has five touchdowns among his seven receptions. Freshman DeVonta Smith caught the game-winning score against MSU.

At some point, though, Bama might need a deputy receiver who can catch five, six, or seven passes in a given game. Who might that be?

Auburn’s done a mostly great job against No. 1 receivers this year. LSU’s D.J. Chark caught five of six balls for 150 yards, but he was the exception. Against seven other power conference opponents, the Tigers have allowed an average of seven targets, four catches, and 51 yards per game to No. 1 receivers. If that’s what Ridley ends up with, the Tigers would live with that.

Question No. 2: How does Auburn stay on schedule?

Alabama’s offense is a bit underrated. Fans pretend it stinks because it’s weaker than the Bama defense, but an Off. S&P+ ranking of 16th is far from embarrassing.

The problem for opponents tends to be that, even if you are one of the lucky few to really limit the Tide offense, you still have to score.

As I wrote a couple of years ago, only super-efficient teams tend to score on Alabama.

Saban destroys inefficient offenses. Eats them for breakfast with one of those Little Debbie sandwich cookies.

Let's break out a stat from my toy box (one that will be offered soon within my Football Study Hall stat profiles): Success Rate+. It is an opponent-adjusted version of the success rate measure defined here. Every play is deemed a success or failure based on down-and-distance criteria: gaining 50 percent of necessary yardage on first down, 70 percent on second down and 100 percent on third and fourth down. Success rate is basically an on-base percentage for college football, and it allows us to track which teams are staying on schedule and ahead of the chains, so to speak.

Of Bama's 12 losses [between 2008 and mid-2015], six came to teams ranked in the SR+ top five and 10 came to teams in the top 20. (This table further emphasizes just how incredibly out-of-character Bama's loss to Oklahoma was, and for both teams.) If you're able to effectively move the ball four to six yards at a time and avoid passing downs, only then can you utilize the tempo and spread principles we've seen Alabama struggle with from time to time. Plenty of spread offenses have failed miserably against the Tide in this regard.

Since I wrote that, the only team Bama has lost to was Clemson in last year’s national title game.

2016 Clemson ranked first in SR+.

2017 Auburn? Currently ninth.

The Tigers have grown into themselves, responding to a 14-6 loss to Clemson with a four-game 42-point average. Since a second-half stumble and loss to LSU, they have averaged 44.

Clemson and LSU are the only teams to hold them under 6.3 yards per play. Auburn has torched two excellent defenses, with 40 points and averaged 6.9 yards per play against Georgia (No. 11 in Def. S&P+) and 49 points and 9.1 yards per play against Mississippi State (16th).

The formula is simple: soften you up with Kerryon Johnson, then hit you deep. Johnson missed the Clemson and Mercer games in September and averaged only 2.7 yards per carry against Missouri. But he's grown into the feature back role that came open when Kamryn Pettway got hurt.

Over his last seven games, Johnson has averaged 27 carries and 141 yards per game. He doesn't have to do everything; he just needs to keep his average over about 5 yards per carry for the defense to fail against run/pass options and play action.

The Georgia game was a master class in patience. Jarrett Stidham's first 15 pass attempts of that game produced eight completions for 60 yards and a sack. As UGA began to strain, however, and as Johnson found more room, Stidham began to get more aggressive. Over his last 10 attempts, he completed eight of nine throws for 154 yards and took only one more sack. He finished with touchdown passes of 32, 42, and 55 yards.

This all sounds great. But following this formula means running on Alabama.

And while this team isn't quite Saban's best (and while this defense is far from healthy), the Tide still destroy your run game. They are fourth in Rushing S&P+, are allowing gains of five-plus yards on just 29 percent of rushes (third-lowest rate in the country), and have allowed just two rushes of 30-plus yards all season.

You don't need 30-yarders to beat Alabama, but you at least need five-yarders. Will Auburn find the space?

It's not surprising to note that in the Tigers' two losses, AU backs averaged just 4.4 yards per carry; it's also not surprising that Stidham, therefore, struggled to pass. He was 22-for-50 for 244 yards and took 14 sacks (11 against Clemson). Success leads to more success for Auburn, and failure leads to more failure.

Depending on where you look, Vegas has Alabama as either a 4- or 4.5-point favorite at the moment. My S&P+ ratings see it even closer than that, giving the Tide a projected 2.8-point advantage, which correlates to just a 56 percent win probability.

The game could very well come down to who can run the ball and who can’t. You don’t want a piece of either one of these defenses on passing downs, so who does a better job of avoiding them?

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yehosera · 7 years ago

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Earth Decks!

This blog will go over two Earth decks. Earth is a colour I usually avoid, but due to it’s recent strength it is not a colour I intend on ignoring. What better way to learn about a colour than to build and play some decks involving said colour!

5 Forwards

Earth has a grand total of 5 premium forwards.

Dadaluma

Raubahn

Ingus

WoL

Cecil

The foundations of any mono Earth + splash another colour should start with looking at how these 5 forwards can be put to use in conjunction with the other colour.

Dadaluma, provides the groundwork for Earth in any deck that can utilise ping damage easily on the Dadaluma. Strong supporting cards, like Miner and Tama, allow the Dadaluma to rip holes into established boards in matchups where the opponent simply cannot handle multiple instances of Dadaluma.

Raubahn, essentially says kill any problem forward. Cards like The Emperor or Kam’La that other colours might struggle to remove, Raubahn provides an easy answer to. Synergy cards like Ingus propel the removal card from a simple removal card to a forward that can straight up remove another forward on entry and stick around to fight more.

Ingus, makes your dudes bigger. Earth isn’t a very good archetype if it does not have the strongest dudes. In addition, pushing cards like Vanille/Calbrena up to power levels whereby they can trade with opposing forwards without any assistance is very strong during the middle stages of the game.

WoL, lets you attack every turn.

Cecil, provides some comeback mechanics if you fall behind early and a powerful EX Burst from 3 damage onwards. In addition, he is a very strong Tama target.

Other noteworthy forwards

Vanille, due to her near infinite presence she is a formidable card, however, she requires at least 8 deck slots to be that strong. If the deck has space for the 8 slots required for her, (2 copies of herself and 6 copies of Hecatoncheir) she is a very potent card

Guy/Yang, both cards cannot be dulled. This makes them strong if the deck you build is weak to Ice cards AND has a way to protect them from the popular Mateus, the Corrupt

Rydia, if your deck is not playing a backup Rydia, she provides some insurance against FFVI and mono Lightning decks by being able to break most of the forwards with Gaea’s Wrath (although the assistance of Hecatoncheir is needed if they are playing Duke Larg). Decks that play Vanille can also play Rydia, as they will have the high number of Earth summons required for Gaea’s Wrath.

Delita, very strong when played with Star Sibyl after playing Shantotto. The card is only really strong because it is an extremely high value target for both Star Sibyl and Tama.

Earth/Wind

https://ffdecks.com/deck/5167947089707008

--Generated By FF Decks (www.ffdecks.com)--

Deck Name: Earth/Wind v1

Created by: yehosera

Forwards (20):

1 Kam'lanaut (5-148)

1 Kefka (4-147)

3 Ingus (5-074)

3 Dadaluma (4-085)

3 Raubahn (4-096)

2 Wol (5-075)

1 Cecil (5-086)

2 Y'shtola (5-068)

1 Zidane (3-056)

3 Barbariccia (3-066)

Monsters (6):

1 Calbrena (5-079)

3 Cactuar (4-058)

2 Leyak (5-071)

Summons (6):

3 Hecatoncheir (4-093)

3 Diabolos (5-062)

Backups (18):

1 Chaos (1-184)

3 Enna Kros (1-095)

3 Miner (5-082)

3 Star Sibyl (5-091)

1 Shantotto (1-107)

1 Tama (4-086)

3 Archer (1-088)

1 Semih Lafihna (5-059)

2 Maria (1-083)

The deck is very simple, survive until Dadaluma can clean up house.

The card choices are relatively, however, still deserve some explanation.

The earth forwards are all of the strong ones outlined earlier. There’s a lower Cecil count, because the deck already has comeback mechanics with the Dadaluma and Dadaluma is a higher priority target for the Tama and Miners than Cecil is. Also, a lower priority on WoL, as the opponent shouldn’t really have forwards to block with, so the pushing power that WoL provides isn’t too useful, in addition, your cards can be up to triple buffed so the +2,000 power modification should be almost useless.

There are 6 wind forwards. While Barbariccia normally is useless vs mono coloured decks, the additional Cactuar searcher and the existence of Semih makes dealing 2,000 damage to a forward an easy feat most of the time. Y’shtola and Zidane are the strongest stand alone Wind cards, so the leftover space was dedicated to them.

The two Dark forwards are good for demanding an immediate response from he opponent during the early game, and decent ways of spending CP in the late game. During the early game Kam’La is strong as it searches a 2 CP backup to help make reaching 5 backups an easy feat, and during the later stages Kam’La can get Kefka to provide the player with 2 Forwards over 2 turns. Kefka being an EX Burst is a nice thing, but the real strength is being able to find Cactuar as the deck cannot function without 2 of them on the field.

The summons are the best summons in each colour. 1 Diabolos can come out for a singleton of Asura to help vs Ice decks and Al-Cid decks.

The backups are fairly standard, except Tama takes a spot away from a Shantotto. During the very early phases the Shantotto is better as it clears a board without any conditions, however, during the mid-late stages (whenever 2 Cactuar hit the field), Tama can create a similar effect over 2 turns with the Dadaluma. 2 slots went to Maria over the Semih. The double buffs mean that Raubahn can survive his own effect without assistance from Ingus. The downside to this is that there are only 3 targets for Star Sibyl. This drastically reduces the power level of the card as the game goes on, but Star is mostly there just for securing Kam’La during the early phases or providing the player with a copy of Shantotto for defensive purposes during the early game.

Nothing fancy in the monster section. Just 1 copy of Calbrena over the 3rd Leyak. This lets Kefka fetch Earth CP while also providing a means of prolonging games. A lot of the time, you’ll just have Dadaluma and the Calbrena on the field. Once this happens, you don’t really have anything you need to spend CP on, so the expensive activation cost of the Calbrena is mitigated, also at up to 10,000 power, the revival effect is a joke.

This deck is well rounded and a pain for other decks to handle. If you see a lot of Water decks, remove Calbrena and 2 Maria for Paine and 2 Rikku to mill them out. Vs Ice, there’s Guy + Black Mage as potential additions to make sure that you’re able to survive their really strong onslaught of Dull + Freeze cards during the mid-game, however, as long as a Leyak is drawn, Ice can’t really interact with the forwards in this deck while they’re dull and cannot interact with the Leyak. There aren’t any bad matchups other than Water for this deck, it’s an all round decent deck, you just need them a bit of draw luck as there’s no Dadaluma searchers.

Earth/Water

https://ffdecks.com/deck/5136615571718144

--Generated By FF Decks (www.ffdecks.com)--

Deck Name: Earth/Water v1

Created by: yehosera

Forwards (21):

2 Warrior of Light (2-145)

3 Ingus (5-074)

2 Dadaluma (4-085)

3 Raubahn (4-096)

3 Wol (5-075)

2 Cecil (5-086)

1 Porom (2-136)

1 Refia (5-141)

3 Porom (5-135)

1 Gau (4-123)

Monsters (5):

1 Bangaa Thief (4-088)

3 Adamantoise (4-121)

1 Green Dragon (4-124)

Summons (5):

3 Hecatoncheir (4-093)

2 Bismarck (5-133)

Backups (19):

1 Monk (2-089)

2 Pellinore (3-094)

3 Enna Kros (1-095)

2 Miner (5-082)

3 Shantotto (1-107)

1 Tama (4-086)

1 Leonora (3-143)

3 Aria (III) (5-123)

3 Yuna (1-176)

Fall behind early, clear their forwards cheaply and efficiently for a couple turns, then snowball the field with Warriors of Light.

Again, for earth forwards the strong ones. A priority this time on the WoL, as Water has natural Warrior of Light synergies, there’s an extra Cecil over a Dadaluma. This time because Water has no innate ways of dealing damage to it’s own cards, the Dadaluma is likely to have it’s effects wasted without the copy of Pellinore being drawn. Also, Water just has more EX Bursts, so it’s more friendly towards taking damage making Cecil a stronger card.

Warriors of Light. The board becomes basically unbreakable if an Ingus/Refia + Warrior of Light is drawn. Any additional cards with the job Warrior of Light turn them into unstoppable behemoths, hell bent on attacking you each turn. WoL, Warrior of Light, Ingus, Refia are basically interchangeable with the While, Red, Black and Pale riders respectively.

Porom is in the deck, mostly because Porom allows the deck to play 4 additional EX Bursts, while also providing a means of filtering towards Adamantoise + Raubahn. It’s really important to play those two cards onto the field at the same time, as that tends to be what starts the snowball, so Porom helping to filter towards the snowballing effects while also providing a strong early game defence is key for not simply dying in the first few turns vs Ice decks. There’s a copy of Gau in the deck as Adamantoise is a REALLY key card for the deck.

There are 5 monsters, all of which can be summoned via Gau. The real reason to play Water with Earth is access to the Adamantoise, turning Raubahn into a monster. 5 CP break their forward, draw a card. Sign me up please. The Tonberries is to help prevent people pushing through your defences before the board is set up with the Warriors of Light of the Apocalypse or WoLotA for short. Bangaa Thief is more of an exploit that currently exists in FFTCG, whereby nobody has nice ways of killing monsters, so by playing the Bangaa Thief it’ll just kind of exist as a 7k phantom forward until the game ends.

The summons can be swapped around. Keep 3 Hecaton, as again with Adamantoise you’ll be clearing away forwards like it’s nothing. The Bismark though, they aren’t particularly potent in this deck, they’ll let you recycle Raubahn, or even save him from his own effect (if you return the Raubahn to your hand, the 9,000 damage is still dealt to their forward). Other than that, it’s a nifty combat trick to keep the Poroms/early forwards from dying too easily in combat. The Bismarks could even become Moogle in this deck. Due to how basically every card costs 4 CP, it’s very likely that on 5 backups 1 will go to waste, so the Moogle filtering towards WoLotA/Raubahn+Adamantoise isn’t something to be discredited.

The backups are very clunky, they can be smoothened out a bit. Only 3 2 CP backups is very low, however, there really aren’t any others that are worth playing in the deck, maybe a Doga to help save the WoLotA during the later stages from some lightning cards. That being said, there are still 3 Aria and 2 Miners that can be played on turn 1. So it’s not too hard to find a backup to start the game on. Even if you don’t find a backup, most of the time Warrior of Light + WoL can just sort of get there without any backups. There are a grand total of 6 reactive backups though, so don’t expect to hit 5 without playing Shantotto+Yuna. They should be a part of your gameplan. Accept losing the board early to two forwards and playing Shantotto off of 3 backups to remove just two forwards as a good play. Sure it’s not the Shantotto clearing 5 forwards it could be, but the deck isn’t very strong at combat during the early phases and doesn’t want to bleed-out to a Setzar + Celes for example. Yuna is exceptional at buying time, as long as she exists in the top 10 or so cards you become incredible difficult to kill. If a player is trying to aggro you out, she can be EX Burst to buy an additional turn (2 cards closer to Shantotto), and if she can be played on a card that has a high initial investment, e.g. Setzar, she’s basically removal. In summary, expect to start shaky, with a single backup, then try to reach 3 backups, then you can start looking to steer your opponent towards a board state whereby Shantotto is good/Yuna is good. Then you can start playing FFTCG/WoLotA simulator.

Overall, this deck is actually a really strong deck. It’s biggest weakness is how binary in function basically every card is. However, they’re all REALLY good at their single functions. So yeah, reach 3 backups, get some cheap stuff down like the baby Warriors of Light/Porom, try to rob them of Tempo with Yuna/Shantotto then start playing WoLotA simulator!

TL;DR Dadaluma, Raubahn, Ingus, Cecil, WoL are the reasons to play Earth

#FFTCG #yehosera

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