Sunday, May 5, 2013

Vanguard and Misplaying: Episode 121

Hand: 4 unknown cards, 1 Spinodriver

BT11-082

BT11-035       BT11-012       BT11-036



TD08-005       TD08-001       BT10-003

                                        BT10-026       BT10-057

Hand: 3 unknown cards, 1 Perfect Guard, 1 Perfect Guard discard, and 1 Draw Trigger

So we shoot into the match at this point. Aichi is at only 3 damage while Izaki 4, and it's Izaki's turn. Izaki draws into his 5th card in hand, and starts off by Break Riding into another Spinodriver. With its skill, he eats Beamanklyo and Baby Rex to draw 2 new cards and give +10,000 power and a Critical to his Vanguard. On top of this, he also uses Baby Rex's skill to call out Tyrannolegend. It's unknown if he just drew into it or had it in his hand the whole time, but he then calls Iguanogorg out behind his Vanguard. Tyrannolegend attacks Phallon only to run into a Draw Trigger, Spindodriver gets cockblocked by Mark, and Phallon then gets attacked and retired by Cryolopher. By the end of Izaki's turn, the fields look like this:

Hand: 4 Unknown cards, a Perfect Guard, Perfect Guard fodder, and a Draw Trigger

BT11-037

BT11-035       BT11-012       BT11-013

Aichi then starts his turn, drawing into his 4th card. Calling Gallatin, it quickly runs into a Draw Trigger from Izaki. Gancelot then proceeds to draw out Izaki's Perfect Guard, and finally an Alfred boosted by Stallion goes and deals the 5th damage to Izaki. By the end of that, Aichi's hand and field look like:

FC01-013       TD08-001       BT10-003

                                         BT10-026       BT10-057

Hand: 5 unknown cards

Izaki's turn now. He draws into his 5th card and Break Rides into Tyrannolegend. +10000 Power, +1 Critical, and eating his Iguanogorg and Tyrannolegend for 2 new cards in hand. He also uses Iguanogorg's skill to Superior call behind Cryolopher. Especial Counter-Blast for +5000 power, and call out a Draw Trigger, Sonic Noa, and Beamanklyo, his attack force is ready for the turn. 

BT11-037       BT11-085       BT01-066EN C

BT11-035       BT11-013       BT11-036

Cryolopher attacks Gallatin, setting up for Tyrannolegend. Retiring Cryolopher, Noa, and Iguanogorg, the Limit Break boosted Tyrannolegend attacks for a whopping grand total of 41K. Aichi then drops his entire hand, 3 10Ks and 2 5Ks, to put up a 2 to pass on Izaki. Izaki, hoping for a 2 to pass, drive checks his first Critical Trigger and places the power to his Vanguard, passing the Critical to Beamanklyo. Second check...and a Tyrannolegend. Having to abort, Beamanklyo now swings in for a 2 crit strike, pushing Aichi to 5 with no damage triggers. At this point, Izaki should have 5 cards in hand, 1 Grade 3, 1 Heal Trigger, 1 Critical Trigger, and an unknown card.

Aichi's turn, he draws into 1 card in hand, and calls Blaster Blade Liberator to retire Beamanklyo. Stallion+Alfred proceed to run into a Heal Trigger and Cryolopher. Gancelot now attacks and is put into a 1 to pass against a Critical Trigger. First check, nada. Second check, Critical Trigger. Gancelot now swings in, and deals the final blow to beat Izaki.

Bullshit.

Alright, before I start raving away at Aichi's plot armor, there's just one thing I noticed. In that first turn, why did Izaki choose to keep Cyolopher over Beamanklyo? It made no real difference, but a 12K attacker is a 12K attacker after all.

Anyway, on to the topic at hand. Since I've written it all out in step by step text form, I dare someone to call any other little discrepancies out. For now however, let's look at Izaki's final turn.

BT11-037       BT11-085       BT01-066EN C

BT11-035       BT11-013       BT11-036

Cryolopher attacks, killing off Gallatin. Next, steroids tested Tyrannolegend attacks and Limit Breaks, eating Iguanogorg, Cryolopher, and Noa. Activate Iguanogorg's skill, and recall it to the open frontrow Rear-Guard circle. After depleting Aichi of his entire hand, check into a Critical trigger. Apply all effects to Iguanogorg. Send in Beamanklyo to deal the 4th damage, which is Phallon, and finally finish off Aichi with the critboosted Iguanogorg, for Aichi's sixth damage to be Blaster Blade Liberator.

Goddammit Izaki.

9 comments:

  1. Tyrannolegend's skill:
    [AUTO](VC) Limit Break 4 (This ability is active if you have four or more damage):[Choose three of your rear-guards with "Ancient Dragon" in its card name, and retire them] When this unit attacks a vanguard, you may pay the cost. If you do, this unit gets [Power]+10000/[Critical]+1 until end of that battle.
    [ACT](VC):[Counter Blast(2) - Cards with "Ancient Dragon" in its card name] This unit gets [Power]+5000 until end of turn.
    [CONT](VC/RC): Lord (If you have a unit that doesn't belong to the same clan as this unit, this unit cannot attack)

    Tyrannolegend couldn't have ate Sonic Noa. Izaki cheated.

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    Replies
    1. Call the Cryolopher in his hand.

      Delete
    2. Seriously? I know the writers are crud but wow.

      I deeply fear for the future of this show.

      Delete
  2. Aichi plot armor aside, calling Iguanogorg in the front would imply Izaki knew that:
    a)He'd drive check a critical;
    b)Aichi would use up his whole hand, or even have enough cards to guard the Vanguard;
    c)Aichi would not damage check a trigger during his fourth check.

    Sure it's easy to see what the winning move was in hindsight, but I wouldn't call it a misplay, unless Izaki had a sudden case of Psyqualia no-one was aware of and decided to just ignore it.

    On the Sonic Noa thing, it doesn't change anything gameplay-wise, you could just pretend he called the Draw trigger behind Beamankylo and Noa behind the Vanguard and the outcome would be the same.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. a)false, he could've used any trigger to get a new attack out of that. A Critical just happens to be the one he does pull and the one he'd need to win.
      b)Dude, the attack's going for 41K. Ignoring Perfect Guards, who could've possibly have guessed Aichi had 3 10Ks in hand and no Grade 3s for just the right amount of shield to hold off Izaki's attacks? Also if Aichi didn't have enough to guard the Vanguard, that could've been a clear win right there so...
      c)Do you automatically assume the opponent is damage checking a Heal at their 6th damage?
      Yes, crap happens, but sometimes you just have to take things in stride. Even if the deck was still random and we didn't know Phallon was there or hell, if we didn't know Blaster Blade Liberator was there either, it's still in Izaki's favor to win at that point.

      Possibly, but who doesn't want maximize the potential output of their attacks?

      Yeah so, moving on.

      Delete
    2. a)Ah, true.
      b)Maybe I didn't phrase it correctly, but that's exactly my point, no sane person could possibly have guessed that Aichi had JUST enough shield to survive that attack, seeing as his previous drive check got him no triggers, anything else and he'd have to guard for one to pass. As far as Izaki was concerned, he already had this in the bag.
      c) I'd like to think damage checking any trigger is slightly more likely than checking a heal as your sixth.

      I'm not arguing that the move he made led to his loss, or wasn't the optimal play in this situation, my point is, even though his play was sub-optimal to the way things played out, I wouldn't classify it as a misplay, because I see a misplay as a harshly pointless or just outright wrong move akin to the Kourin vs. Ren situation, or Flame of Victory being called behind Pellinore during the World Championship finals.

      But maybe it's just me only seeing the harsher lapses in judgement as misplays, I mean, I don't even treat Kyou boosting his Maximum during his bout with Kai as a misplay, just a sub-optimal play made in the heat of the moment, because the way that played out for Kyou too was freaking contrived, and no one in their right mind could actually be expecting that specific outcome.

      Delete
    3. b)Then why not just play optimally outright? No sane person may guess he may have the shield, but the possibility he does is still there. Why not just leave no doubt by setting up so that if Aichi did have the correct amount of shield, the next attacks can still deal a lot of damage, and if he didn't, he gets the win anyway.
      c)yeah, about a 2/3 chance when simplified...
      Here, just multiply 2/3 by 11/12, and that's the simplified probability Aichi won't pull either a damage trigger or a heal trigger. Guess in who's favor is it to win still.

      I really only dubbed it a misplay to simplify naming purposes because there is one problem with that sort of reasoning. Subjectivity leaves far too open margins for anybody to say practically anything they literally want. Sure, you can go and argue that not playing optimally is not a misplay, but a line has to be drawn somewhere, and I just decided it to be any non optimal play that also happens to cost a player the game.

      Delete
    4. Adding onto that, retiring Beamanklyo instead of Cryolopher in that first turn would be an example of a non optimal play. However, it had no direct influence on the gamestate or possible victory anyway, so obviously one really can't deem it a misplay, which is why I only addressed it in 2 passing sentences, but didn't pick away at it deeming it a total misplay.

      Delete
  3. The biggest misplay on his part was attacking Aichi and putting him at anything looking like limit break at all. When his Legend missed and he pulled the crit instead of attacking his vanguard. He should have KILLED ALFRED!! This would have insured that Aichi could not only NOT break ride. But not hit him for proper numbers UNLESS he drew a second Alfred. Just what I took back with me from the game. I'm a firm believer of if it won't kill them.. Force them to lose a card instead.

    ReplyDelete