BattleCON G13 - KingdomAces (Lixis) vs. Zorblag (Seth)

[Zorblag]

And I need to think a bit about priorities before the next beat. I thought I had my move, but now I worry about clashes. I probably won't get to it until this evening, so no rush at all on your end (not that there was anyhow.)

-Zorblag R`Lyeh

[KingdomAces]

You had absolutely no reason to stand still though. Drive and Burst were the only two ways you could hit me, and I don't think anything that isn't trying to hit me would be advantageous for you at this point.

Spoiler: Beat 13

Venomous Dodge

Spoiler: Ante

Pass

This game, I think I've been focusing way too much on abusing my Stun Guard, and assuming that I'm going to fail to stun you no matter what I do. I think that Lixis is favored in the Seth matchup on paper, I've just not been playing as well as I could. Or maybe I just look at Seth's styles and see them all as being mediocre, even though they cover each other and make it a lot harder to come up with sweeping counters than it is for my options.

For the whole set, I think my two biggest problems were being too afraid of Omen, and not realizing that you actually win from long range, between Fools, Vanishing, and Omen (Shot).

Or I could just have no clue what's going on. I don't know.

[Zorblag]

Spoiler: Beat 13 Attack Pair

Mimic's Shot

-Zorblag R`Lyeh

[Zorblag]

Ante Stun Guard 2.

Spoiler: Next Ante

Beyond Eyes Shot, then Power +1, then pass.

-Zorblag R`Lyeh

[KingdomAces]

Pass

[KingdomAces]

I think I'll just keep passing.

[Zorblag]

OK, it looks like that should be the game. You win priority. You can dodge to where ever you want and Mimic's will keep me as close to following as it can (which never takes me out of the range 4 I'm starting at,) and then the potential advance 1 from Venomous also doesn't shake me. I think I then hit you for 5.

Good game and good match!

-Zorblag R`Lyeh

[KingdomAces]

Eh, I was convinced that you were going to Wyrding Omen. I think the only way I could have survived this beat would have been either Rooted or Naturalizing with the extra soak, and I'm bot sure what I could have done from there.

I'll think about what I'd want to do next later. I was thinking of Tanis, but that would ruin the whole simplicity thing.

[KingdomAces]

^ apparently took me 20 minutes to write. Yeah, I'm too out of it right now to make any meaningful decisions. (Which what to ante here was not.)

[Zorblag]

As far as the matchup goes, I do think that it probably favors Lixis as well. I know that the first game and for the first half of the second I felt like I was mostly reacting to your play, often guessing badly. Lixis has range options that aren't great, (which makes the long range tricky for you,) but which make brawling tough (and I think Seth would like to Brawl more than fight at range.) When I backed off I had to settle for doing damage 1 or 2 at a time and a mistake can erase several beats worth of gain. Seth's styles do all look really mediocre. When you add everything up he's got a combined -3 on stats for all of them. It's as you say the manipulation they allow that makes him viable. I know that right now there's no way I'd want to play him in a live game and it there were a lot of beats where it felt really touch and go. I guess I settled into more of a groove towards the end of these last two games, though the second was mostly because I landed the finisher. If you were worried about omen (which I hardly ever gave much thought to,) I was worried about Lance and Naturalizing (which seemed to be among your least used cards.) Those were the ones that most often thwarted the plans that I was trying to put together.

In any case, thanks for that match! I'm interested in switching to someone else for the next match. I do want to play Cadenza at some point so maybe it could be him. I'm fine with you either sticking with Lixis or swapping to whoever else sounds fun to play! Let me know when you'd want to start; it could be now or it could be after a break.

EBWOP: Tanis would be fun to see in a game! I'd be fine with Tanis vs. Cadenza if you'd like. Also, I never actually considered Wyrding Omen. I did look at Fool's Omen though with a Beyond Eyes Shot ante. Wyrding Omen feels like it would lose to whichever of shot or drive I didn't guess.

-Zorblag R`Lyeh

[KingdomAces]

I just assumed that you were going to Beyond Eyes Lance every single turn, or otherwise wanted to save it for something better. That card is probably the main reason I like Lixis, so the fact that I barely actually used it shows how much I was afraid of your ability.

Naturalizing, I didn't really use because I didn't think I'd ever stun with it, and thought it would be more effective to go for damage because I was trying to get around Beyond Eyes in other ways rather than purposefully triggering it. Because of Omen. I'd have to look back, but I think that was not something I was doing the first game, because I forgot it existed. Getting stunned by it once during a turn when I used Naturalizing and thought I had a guaranteed hit was enough to push me off it for the rest of the set.

But yeah, break.

[Zorblag]

For me the thing about Naturalizing wasn't the damage. It was that I couldn't do extra damage when you played it and when you hit (which I think you often would) I'd have that extra base locked up. Hitting as Lixis is almost always worth it even if you're not doing much damage (which I'm sure you know.) I could wiggle out of the locked bases in the last two games, but that really makes it harder to play.

Although it might be interesting to play another 10 or so games with this matchup (and maybe we'll come back to it again later as I think that we're currently fairly close here,) I'm definitely ready for a different matchup for our next game.

-Zorblag R`Lyeh

[KingdomAces]

I think I'm ready whenever you are. (Or at least I will be by the next time I'm on a computer.)

Cadenza seems to have a lot of raw power, but Tanis has a lot of weird things that she can do. In addition to the faux teleportation, there's ignore stun guard and ignore soak, and what seems just silly to me, Playful. Which seems like it should pretty much make Battery useless. Still, this is probably a terrible decision on my part. I really want to try this character though.

[Zorblag]

I haven't actually looked at the characters at all recently. I just know that Cadenza is straight forward which appeals to me after playing some Seth games. Tanis I don't remember much at all past the puppets, but I'll see them soon enough!

I'll probably set the game up this evening.

-Zorblag R`Lyeh