BattleCON G20 - KingdomAces (Lixis) vs. Zorblag (Magdelina)

[KingdomAces]

Spoiler: Pregame

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

[KingdomAces]

Spoiler: Beat 1

Vine Lance
Probably obvious, but it's a good move, so...

Spoiler: Ante

No ante

Leaving now though, sudden stuff.

[KingdomAces]

Spoiler: Beat 1 - Clash 1

Vine

Lance

Shot

Eh. Can't clash with this one.

[KingdomAces]

I forgot you had that. Probably should have used Drive, because there's nothing else I could do.

[KingdomAces]

Spoiler: Beat 2

Venomous Strike
If you predict this again, with Excelsius Drive, I might start doing moves that aren't extremely obvious. For now though, I'm going with this. And doing either 3 or 0 damage.

[KingdomAces]

Pass

[KingdomAces]

And I didn't think about the clash again.

Spoiler: Beat 2 - Clash 1

Venomous

Strike

Burst

[KingdomAces]

Don't think I have an option here.

Spoiler: Beat 2 - Clash 1

Venomous

Strike

Burst

Drive

Something tells me this is going to make the next few beats a lot harder than they should be.

[KingdomAces]

Advance 1 twice.

START OF BEAT 3

oMLoooo

Lixis 18/5
Discard 1: Venomous Drive
Discard 2: Vine Shot
Finisher: Virulent Miasma

Magdelina - 17/6
Discard 1: Priestess Strike, Shot
Discard 2: Force Special Dodge
Finisher: Apotheosis
Level: 1
Trance Counters: 0
-2 Priority (For a total of +1 Power, -1 Priority, Stun Guard 1)

I think.

[KingdomAces]

Yeah, forgot about that somehow.

Spoiler: Beat 3

Pruning Burst
Safety Blessing has to be coming this turn, right? If it's not, then Grasp is a far better move, but not letting you heal and level is more important than force or positioning.

Spoiler: Ante

+2 Priority

----Pass if pass----

[KingdomAces]

Yeah, retreat 2.

Don't have time to keep going now though.

[KingdomAces]

Spoiler: Beat 4

High risk plays!

Vine Lance

No ante.

[KingdomAces]

Pass

[KingdomAces]

Ow. This is bad.

Spoiler: Beat 6

Naturalizing Drive

[KingdomAces]

Pass

[KingdomAces]

No, it doesn't seem right. I'm losing and you're only level 2.

Aside from that, yeah it seems fine.

[KingdomAces]

Spoiler: Beat 5

Venomous Shot

Spoiler: Ante

Soak

[KingdomAces]

Stun Guard

[KingdomAces]

Pass

(And probably not doing next beat now.)

[KingdomAces]

Thanks for anteing the power, I completely forgot that Force Special existed again.

And I take back everything I said about the matchup. Magdelina is ramping far faster than I thought she would.

[KingdomAces]

Oh yeah, I'm leaving the corner.

Spoiler: All the wrong things

END OF BEAT 6

ooooLMo

Lixis - 8/3
Discard 1: Venomous Shot
Discard 2: Naturalizing Drive
Finisher: Virulent Miasma

Magdelina - 10/4
Discard 1: Force Special Strike
Discard 2: Priestess Dodge
Finisher: Apotheosis
Level: 2
Trance Counters: 2
(Bonuses are A total of +2 Power, +0 Priority, Stun Guard 2)

[KingdomAces]

Spoiler: I missed the edit button.

Still leaving this here though, because new page.

END OF BEAT 6

ooooLMo

Lixis - 7/4
Discard 1: Venomous Shot
Discard 2: Naturalizing Drive
Finisher: Virulent Miasma

Magdelina - 10/5
Discard 1: Force Special Strike, Blessing
Discard 2: Priestess Dodge
Finisher: Apotheosis
Level: 2
Trance Counters: 2
(Bonuses are A total of +2 Power, +0 Priority, Stun Guard 2)

[KingdomAces]

Yeah, definitely not doing next beat now.

Force Special Strike is 4+2 power, and I soak 1, so I think I have 8.

[KingdomAces]

...and I forgot that you anted Power, after thanking you for doing so.

Also, looking back I said my beat 5 pair was for beat 6, and my beat 6 pair was for beat 5. I'm never actually going to get better at this, am I.

[KingdomAces]

I assumed you only said this past one was Beat 5 because I already had posted mine.

And I meant more the mechanical things. Not getting into how good my play is subjectively, I still miss something every other turn. Like, I absolutely should not have forgotten that you needed to discard an extra base after I hit you, given how many times I've played as Lixis so far. I only wrote the total bonuses the first time because both Venomous and level buffs were active, and was planning to remove that line if I did the summery again the next beat, but I think I'm showing that I need it regardless.

[KingdomAces]

Spoiler: Beat 7

I want to Burst so badly, but I did that last time. That means you have to have a counter for that, AKA not Spiritual Grasp, right? And Pruning Grasp would make you too scared to use Pruning Drive? I really don't like this, but some sort of Shot has to be coming. If you use Safety Shot and spend the force to become unstunnable, then at least I'll still be alive.

Pruning Strike

I almost didn't actually write the attack pair again.

[KingdomAces]

Pass

[KingdomAces]

Spoiler: For Post-Beat

...and I forgot about the Stun Guard 2 from level. I guess I'm Soaking this Beat.

[KingdomAces]

Drive/Dodge

again?

[KingdomAces]

Sure. You really outplayed me a vast majority of the earlygame, where I'm supposed to be the one racking damage on you, so I want another try at that as well. The thing is, no matter what it's looking like Lixis doesn't win fast enough to kill you before you start getting a lot of power/priority, and Force Special and Spiritual (if you want to risk it) mitigate the fact that the rest of your styles are negative everything.

Also just thinking, do you know what would be a really weird matchup? Magdalina vs. Adjenna. Literally no damage is being done the first half of the game.

[KingdomAces]

Nice. I haven't been paying attention, since barely anything usually happens there.

Sorry I'm taking so long, I actually have a lot less options than I thought I did. I really wish Shot wasn't on discard right now.

[KingdomAces]

Spoiler: Beat 8

Rooted Dodge

Well, it's not really a Drive vs. Dodge decision, because Drive is a far better option in every way. Naturalizing Shot would clash, leaving Lance vs. Dodge, but that's not available. If I use Naturalizing, I can't kill or stun, and if I use anything else I'm getting outsped. I could take a chance on you not counter-anteing Priority and Miasma, but that seems unlikely. I think Dodging is literally all I can do. Now I just hope you didn't use Excelsius, because that would make next turn even worse for me. And there's no way you're not using Excelsius Drive. But I still think there's a better chance of you not using Excelsius than you not countering a priority ante.

[KingdomAces]

Oh yeah, I have priority. Pass.

[KingdomAces]

Retreat 3.

I think I actually have a chance of winning this way, but it's still really low.

[KingdomAces]

It's better because it makes Lance/Burst/Miasma/Shot all somewhat viable options. If I was in a corner, I think it would be possible for you to do something that covers every single option I have.

[KingdomAces]

...nevermind, I still think you have an option that covers everything.

[KingdomAces]

Spoiler: Beat 9

Force Special Grasp

Technically I could actually clash now, but not in a way that I can also counter Dodge. While that wouldn't kill, that would just leave me in an even worse situation than the last two beats since you would have shot, and I don't really feel like dragging it out when I have practically no way of making progress.

I might actually want to reconsider going for a rematch here. I at least want to think about it a bit more.

[KingdomAces]

Power +1

[KingdomAces]

Pass

I just wanted to get you down to 1 HP.

[KingdomAces]

Looking at him makes my head hurt. I don't know why that is seeing as I've at least tried to play Tanis. (Though, reading the Arcade thread made me want to look at that game again, because it was against Cadenza and I forgot how the battle against him went. I probably forgot because I didn't want to remember how badly I got beaten. That does make me wonder if I actually can play her.)

At least right now though, I'd either want to take a break and watch if you end up starting another game with someone else, or play a character I've already used. Joal and Hikaru are the main ones I'm considering right now.

[KingdomAces]

I'll think about that later. I actually might just have a headache in general right now. I blame MafBlack.

[KingdomAces]

Sacred: Attacks at range 3 or greater do not hit you or deal damage during this beat. I feel like I've seen this somewhere before...