BattleCON G16 - KingdomAces (Lixis) vs. Zorblag (Cherri)

[Zorblag]

She's Baaack! It's another game of BattleCON! Returning to the arena is everyone's favorite Biomancer, Lixis! This time she's here to beat up on the Dreamwalker Cherri. Cherri will never see it coming! Er, and now I feel bad for even making that joke about a blind character.

If you're interested in learning about or playing a game yourself at some point I'll point you to the BattleCON discussion thread in the Arcade. For now, thanks to KingdomAces for stepping up to be the next scummer to whale on a Troll in the pbf fighting series!

We'll be playing with Dodge and the Force Gauge.

Ante the first beat will go to Lixis on 1 and Cherri on 2.

Original Roll String: 1d2 (STATIC)

1 2-Sided Dice: (1) = 1

@KingdomAces, go ahead and submit your discard 1, discard 2 and finisher. Remember that Discard 2 is the one you'll get back first.

-Zorblag R`Lyeh

[Zorblag]

Spoiler: Opening Discards and Finisher

Discard 1: Force Special Dodge
Discard 2: Catatonic Burst
Finisher: The Watchers

-Zorblag R`Lyeh

[KingdomAces]

Spoiler: Pregame

Discard 1: Force Special Dodge
Discard 2: Pruning Shot
Finisher: Virulent Miasma

This is probably a mistake, but I'm not scared of you. Lixis often has the advantage in clashes when the opponent has less bases than she does, Lance prevents Dreamscape from being a guaranteed melee hit, Mirage would only make it less likely for me to be outsped half the time, and Pruning could theoretically get to 9 priority against it without spending force, and Naturalizing eats tokens while generally doing 2 damage, so you don't get it back. I think the only matchup advantage you have is that Lixis is going to have a hard time getting around Blind.

That is, assuming I'm reading the interactions correctly. Even then, none of this is actually going to stop me from just getting outplayed, which has been the case for a majority of these games.

[Zorblag]

I think you matchup well here, yeah. Lixis is actually a pain for brawler types to fight against as trading is worse than normal. We'll see how this goes!

Spoiler: Beat 1 Attack Pair

Mirage Shot!

Your Ante.

-Zorblag R`Lyeh

[KingdomAces]

Spoiler: Beat 1

Venomous Grasp

Spoiler: Ante

Pass

And for the record, this wasn't actually random. I think you quoted one of your previous OP's without removing the part of the tag, which made it static. Either that or you edited the OP before you posted again, so the edit message doesn't show up. If Lixis actually had important antes then I might actually care about this.

[Zorblag]

I'll ante the Insight Token.

And yeah, I'm not sure what happened this time with the roll. I thought that I deleted the part that I normally do from the previous roll, but clearly something went wrong. In any case, I decided that it didn't matter enough to go and fix.

-Zorblag R`Lyeh

[KingdomAces]

Pass

[Zorblag]

Pass.

-Zorblag R`Lyeh

[Zorblag]

Spoiler: Beat 1 Attack Pair Clash 1

Mirage

Shot

Strike!
Which is a really terrible choice as most of your plays beat it.

-Zorblag R`Lyeh

[KingdomAces]

Spoiler: Beat 1 - Clash 1

Venomous

Grasp

Lance
Though I'm predicting Stare here for the guaranteed clash.

[KingdomAces]

Yeah, that probably was a terrible choice. I'm pretty sure I could have avoided that regardless of what I did, if I was willing to sacrifice damage. I guess you were predicting the Dodge?

Don't move.

[KingdomAces]

Wait, I don't even have Dodge right now.

I guess you got me to burn my Lance when I wasn't expecting to actually use it?

[KingdomAces]

ooLooCo

Lixis - 19/3
Venomous Lance
Force Special Dodge

Cherri - 16/3
Mirage Strike, Grasp
Force Special Dodge
-Insight token available
-Next Beat -2 Priority

You know, I probably should have waited for you to discard something before writing this, but I think I somehow forgot my Unique Ability when I started.

[Zorblag]

After activating (as I wasn't stunned due to strike) I move to range 3, so the position would be ooLooCo.

I will discard grasp as my second base.

Spoiler: Beat 2 Attack Pair

Dreamscape Shot!

Spoiler: Reaction Ante

Insight Token

-Zorblag R`Lyeh

[KingdomAces]

Spoiler: Beat 2

Pruning Drive

Spoiler: Ante

Pass

[KingdomAces]

Priority +2, then pass as I'm out.

[Zorblag]

I'll follow suit. Priority +2 and then, similarly, pass.

-Zorblag R`Lyeh

[Zorblag]

Spoiler: Beat 2 Attack Pair Clash 1

Dreamscape

Shot

Drive!

-Zorblag R`Lyeh

[KingdomAces]

Spoiler: Beat 2 - Clash 1

Pruning

Drive

Burst

I was hoping you would think the priority was me being stupid either that or you would use Blind. Now this is worse than I thought was possible. If I'm understanding the mechanics properly, I have exactly one out to Drive, which would clash with Shot, that I was planning on using here. And because WIFOM, I really want to just use Shot anyway, but eh.

[KingdomAces]

Retreat 2. So now the movement fizzles, and you're forced to Drive right into the Burst, right?

[Zorblag]

Yup, that's right. That's twice in a row I've guessed wrong how you'd do the next clash, this one I could avoid one or the other, but not both. Well, I'll keep at it.

I'll advance 2. I'll discard shot and burst.

LooCooo

Lixis - 18/2
Pruning Burst
Venomous Lance

Cherri - 11/2
Dreamscape Drive, Shot, Burst
Mirage Strike, Grasp
-Insight token available

-Zorblag R`Lyeh

[Zorblag]

You know what, let's just advance 1 instead.

LoooCoo

Lixis - 18/2
Pruning Burst
Venomous Lance

Cherri - 11/2
Dreamscape Drive, Shot, Burst
Mirage Strike, Grasp
-Insight token available

-Zorblag R`Lyeh

[Zorblag]

Spoiler: Beat 3 Attack Pair

Blind Dodge

Spoiler: Opening Ante

None

-Zorblag R`Lyeh

[KingdomAces]

Spoiler: Beat 3

Naturalizing Drive

Also, what is a Blind Stare? Why is that something that is even possible? Actually, why is her Base Stare anyway? I don't remember any of her powers doing anything that could be described a stare, and she's obviously not doing it with her eyes.

More relevantly, the force gauge kind of nerfs Blind pretty badly. This matchup is seeming more unfair every time I look at it.

[KingdomAces]

Pass