The full Exceed sets are now out and it looks like it might be good, but I don’t see much discussion outside of reviews.
Rook96 has said he likes it and is also a BattleCon fan like I am. I can probably get it pretty cheap ($17 for 4 characters) at my FLGS. He’s gotten a bunch of requests for a RWBY license and if he gets that, I’ll probably go all in for at least those characters.
How well is it balanced? What are some good characters? How should I be thinking of strategy?
i own 8 chars but i haven’t persuaded anybody to play with me yet >.< i’ll talk about it here if i ever do
Which characters by the way?
I have lots of posts saying what I like about Exceed, but will try to formalise my thoughts by focusing on your questions.
How well is it balanced?
I do not have hundreds of matches. But I have played a lot of games and I have not come across any instance I thought unbalanced. I think this is because Exceed is very dynamic and has a lot in common with video fighting games. Is your opponent rushing you down? Maybe you will try to retreat a lot and keep the spacing open. Being zoned heavily? Maybe you will focus on attacks with armor to weather the storm and use boosts to close the distance. There are many other options and this increases with the characters abilities. So I think balance is good because you have multiple ways to respond to situations.
What are some good characters?
I have not found any bad ones yet, I only have three left to play. But I will talk about some characters I found notable for me. One is Satoshi the ninja. All of his boosts cause a strike after they are played. This is bad for hand economy because you cannot draw a card for doing an action if it results in a strike. First time playing him was hard to get anything to work. But in the second game he clicked and it felt awesome. He likes to space himself out of his opponents attacks and build his hand. When the timing is right and he has built his gauge from the occasional hit, he then goes berzerk and does one crazy strike after another while darting closer and further away. Pure awesome.
Another character called Baelkhor is interesting. He tends to get a WTF response as he seals cards from his and his opponents deck (sealing removes it from the game). He also cycles his deck really quickly and his effects cost life. At first it seems like he is throwing cards and life away, but after the first cycle of his deck he goes nuts. He has monster stats and abilities and has an all or nothing blitz to win. It feels awesome and your opponent has a panic moment when you kick into gear. He is also the only character that can change from his Exceed mode back to his standard mode.
How should I be thinking of strategy?
This is my favourite part of Exceed at the moment. How do you want to think of strategy? This game has heaps of room for personal style. Every card has a strike or a boost. Some players might prefer the boost, while others might prefer the strike. This changes card by card and develops more as you play the game. So more than any other game including Yomi and BattleCON (which I also love to bits) you can have a unique play style that is easy to see and describe.
This could be interpreted as Exceed either being random or not having much strategy. But that is not true, you just have a toolbox for how you will approach things. Do you know your opponent is going for their range 2-3 ultra on their next turn? Maybe you play a +2 speed boost so you can close the distance before they hit you. Maybe you have a strike that prevents you from being hit at range 3-4, so you play that instead. Or maybe you play a defensive boost so you can trade with them and then retaliate with your own ultra using your newly acquired gauge? The list goes on and on.
I might have waffled a bit, but the punchline is that Exceed is my new favourite game. Yomi is still heaps of fun and has the best quality period, but Exceed is special fun. For example, I played my daughter who was using Zoey. I was using Morathi and landed his ridiculous Ultra that does 15 damage. I said good game and put my hand out. But my daughter had played block and had enough gauge and force from her hand to reduce my damage to 0. Even worse is that because she survived then her boost from the previous turn could still activate - giving her 4 life back. Not only was my daughter not out of the game, she rebounded to win it. Not many games give that kind of fighting game hype like we had and it was special. There, Exceed has fighting game levels of hype - you do cool s*%t.
Thanks for reading. 
I’ve played of bit of EXCEED and it’s currently my second favorite game in the genre. Here are my thoughts on it (I’ve only played around 15-20 games):
lv99 played it super safe with balance. Every fighter has a 30 card deck and of those 30 cards 16 of them are the same across all decks (the normals). So in an asymmetric game you are more alike then not. This is bad imo and when playing it can sometimes feel like playing a very un-optimized deck in a CCG style game. I would have preferred it if the character’s cards were more unique.
I suppose they went with the route of more similar then not because of there original plan to make this game their LCG (so even more characters then BattleCON). But, I think that plan was scrapped because the game wasn’t popular enough and the fans were against that idea.
There are a couple of characters that change up the normals which I appreciate because it makes their normals apart of their kit and unique to them. Lily, for example, is one of the games long range fighters and her unique ability gives all of her normals +0-1 range. This little touch just gives an extra something to her normals and makes them feel very cool (the opponent now has to be weary of range 2 Grasps and range 4 Sweeps, wowow)
Another thing I find annoying about the normal is their attack tends to be more exciting/powerful then characters unique moves. Sweep is among the best non-Ultimate attacks in the game, if not the best, and it is a normal that every one has access to. The game just plays it very safe. Some characters have moves that are in the same vein as Sweep but Sweep out classes nearly all of them. The exception to this that I’ve found is Morathi’s Revenger which is a lot better then Sweep (Which makes that move like S+++ tier)
Since the normal attacks are so good often times I’m just looking at the boosts on a characters unique moves because those are geared toward the character.
The 7 card max hand is pretty limiting. Moves also need specific counters. It’s not like Yomi where you can stop any move with the right call. In Exceed you can make perfect call outs but it might not do you any good because you don’t have the proper move in your hand to counter it.
In certain mu trading happens a lot and it can make it very difficult to mount a comeback if you find yourself behind. These types of situations seem to happen in mu where both fighters have ample access to armor and/or stun guard. In mu where you don’t have much stun guard comebacks definitely seem possible.
There are many cards to memorize if you want to play well. This will probably come with time but whenever you play a new mu I’d HIGHLY recommend that you look at the opponents Ultimate moves. These moves tend to be very powerful and can hit super easily if you don’t know which cards can beat them (against some Ult the best you can do is block it).
I’ve found the build up characters to be weaker then the characters that are just good right now. It seems like lv99 thought people would give more time to let their opponent play boosts for days. Characters like Eva seem a cut or two bellow others.
The name of the game strikes me as funny. I often have a hard time justifying activating my character’s EXCEED mode. The Ult moves can do a lot of damage and both Ults and EXCEED mode compete for the same resource. Here are a couple of examples; when playing as Alice if I get 3 gauge I can go EXCEED which gives me a dodge at a specific range or I can wait until I have one more gauge and threaten a 15 damage super at range 3 (all characters only have 30 health). Nehtali can either go EXCEED mode for 3, which makes a bad UA less bad or she can get two more gauge (a not hard thing for her to do) and threaten a 12 damage speed 7 (this is very fast, if you’re attacking most characters have to block to not get hit) super at range 2. However, some characters do care more about their EXCEED mode while others are pretty mu dependent.
While a lot of the Ultimates are hype some of them leave me wondering what it’s supposed to be. Morathi’s God of War Ult is a worse version of a normal move (Sweep) and Kaden (a character I’m looking forward to trying) has an Ult, Rising Host, that leaves me completely confused on how and when you’d ever want to use it.
Having said all that I do really enjoy the game. The characters do feel different I just wish they were more different.
I enjoy the mix of igo yougo turns with simultaneous reveal combat. For me it kind of gives it a feel of typical card battler with the boosts being like your spells and permanents. Then you get your fighter double blind combat reveal action with all the excitement that it provides.
I’m looking forward to the next set in the game. lv99 will be creating a brand new property for the next set so I’m curious to see if they’ll be able to utilize the system in interesting ways.
I have all the characters but I’ve only played these so far:
Hedi (hated her)
Nehtali (one of my favorites)
Alice (one of my favorites)
Gabrek (okay, kind of meh about him)
Lily (she’s cool)
Eva (not sure what I think about her)
Baelkhor (want to play him more but I can see potentially liking him a lot)
I’ve played against:
Reese
Vincent
Ulrik
Mei Lien
Morathi
I just picked up the Alice, Gabrek, Ulrik, Zoey set and played a few games after trying the PnP.
So far, I am at least tentatively agreed on the Exceed abilities. They seem to make you even stronger where you are strong, while the finishers are more likely to help you where you are weak. If the opponent is avoiding your ability already, going exceed won’t make a difference. Some of them will still be really useful, especially if you get you were using the normal ability.
Rook mentioned how cool some of the boosts on normals are, and I like how different characters like to use them differently.
It seems like there are ways to deal with the 7 card hand limit, like the force draw, which allows you to quickly cycle through your deck. Also, movement can dramatically change your best options.
I’m glad that they took a safer route on balance compared to most of Sirlin’s games. Most of his stuff are too difficult to introduce to my friends, but this hits a sweet spot. I’m hoping that it has better balance than BattleCon, which seems likely.
I’m looking forward to the next set too.
Sorry for the loooong post but I’m at work and need to do something to fill the time.
Nice! Which character/s did you play?
Of this set I’ve seen three of them in game
I really dig Alice. Her “I want to hit you with the tip of my sword” style is a lot of fun to play. When both players are familiar with the game it will be a cool game of Alice trying to be at range 3 while the opponent does everything in their power to not be at range 3. 8 damage sweep? get rekt.
She is also one of the characters where I really like both the attack and the boost on most of her unique cards.
Special Moves:
Sword & Cross - a strong set up card. If the opponent is really mobile and good at avoiding your preferred range this can shut them down.
Grim Determination - the Boost on the card feels a little out of place for the character but still seems solid.
Soul Gazer - this card is hype! It is hilarious to cancel an opponents Ult move with this 1 damage attack. Speed 8 is super rare. I think it’s the only non-ult with speed greater then 7? It’s hit effect also has solid set up stuff for Alice’s preferred range. Great card
Bullet Time - essentially makes Alice go EXCEED for a combat at much cheaper cost.
Dark Corruption - The only unique attack I’m not crazy about. Ignore armor isn’t near as good as ignore stun guard (armor doesn’t seem too common). It’s hit box is also extremely narrow and can’t benefit from Alice’s UA. It has good speed though so it can potentially do work.
Soul Eye - Divine - This boost is bananas. It gives her so much set up and safe Ult potential it’s crazy. I’m not even good at the game and I think this boost is super strong. I can only imagine if I’m ever able to memorize every one’s cards it will become even better. Want to play Cross Blades? name Assault/Cross/Dive to get rid of its strongest counter and then get to see if they have any other way to beat it. Even beyond setting up Ults it can be used as a control tool. Opponent has enough gauge to use a scary ult? Just Divine it right out of their hand. Strong stuff for sure.
Bloody Baptism - This card might have less flash then some of her other stuff but I think it serves a useful purpose in her kit. Alice’s biggest weakness is her awkward ranges and this move helps with that. It has the best hit confirm of all her moves by far at ranges 1-4. It has okay speed and low damage. The damage is probably easily remedied on this card because of the Before effect which should allow you to get in range to activate Alice’s UA. The Before effect of the card is what really makes it exciting for me. It allows Alice to dodge some dangerous attacks and get into her own preferred range. At the very least it beats Sweep clean at ranges 2-3 and that alone is pretty decent.
Hunter’s Instinct - This card is all helping Alice’s narrow hit boxes and the boost on it is no different. A useful boost.
Guardian Slasher - This card is super hype and makes Alice worth playing. This card sums up what Alice is all about, get in the right spot and then wreck. At the very least it is doing 7 (unless Hunter’s Instinct boost is up) but can do 9 damage. That is nuts for a normal card. I can’t tell if its After effect is a good thing or a bad thing. Movement is generally good but if Alice is already at her range does she really want to move? Either way this card is amazing and feels so good when it hits. Makes the other player really scared to be at range 3
Soul Eye - Diabolic This is another amazing boost. Gives her ridiculous control and information. If it hits the named card it just lets you auto smash even if it doesn’t you now know their hand. Its a win no matter what happens. The only thing I’m not certain about is if you can name Ultimate moves? it doesn’t say you can’t but that seems way too good if you can.
Ultimate Moves:
Surprise Punishment - This attack has me a little confused. It doesn’t feel like it fits in with her kit/style. A range 2 move that advances you 3 spaces will put you at range 1 on the opposite side of the opponent. I guess it’s main use is if you are about to be cornered and you’re at range 2 you can use this as an escape and give yourself more room to back up and get back to your range.
Backflip - The boost is pretty solid. I could see playing it a lot but not getting too excited about it. It seems super cool until you realize that all Ult moves can move you 1 or 2 spaces. The good part about it is it allows you to move over the opponent and still get another space of movement + getting that card draw so your hand gets a little bigger by the end of the turn.
Cross Blades - Now this is one of the coolest attacks in the game. It pretty much hits for 15 damage (half life) but there are still quite a few ways to beat it so it’s hype when it lands. It just feels like a really good and fun Ult. It’s how Ults were meant to feel.
Try Me if you Dare - An amazing super gets an equally amazing Boost. It lets Alice move to her range and then gives the opponent a really tough choice. A very fun Boost.
One of the reasons I like asymmetric games is all the different play styles and finding your character/s. Also even if you only like one character in the game it can still be a blast and a great game. Alice might be that character for me. The fact that she cares so much about positioning makes the existence of the board very relevant. Some characters just have crazy hit confirm and the board isn’t near as much of a factor. Alice is all about getting the right set up and then hitting for crazy damage. It’s a blast of a style to play. It’s also extra fun for me because I actually like her specials more then the normals. Also her dress is dope.
I was pretty bummed about being meh on Gabrek. I was really hoping to like the games grappler but he was just so-so to me. I liked his UA quite a bit but not much else. It felt like all his moves were about getting in but once he got in he didn’t have anything that wowed me (Choke Hold being the one exception). Grasp beats all of the stuff he wants to do up close to. This is were some of the luck bothers me. His Ults are boring as well. All the other characters have their Ults do different things. His were just two different versions of the same move. Maybe I’d like him more with more plays, not sure.
It’s funny the more I get into card games the more I like control style of play. So far in EXCEED I like Alice (those Divine Eyes are super controlly), Nehtali, and Baelkhor best. In Codex I’m liking Blue more and more (and really want to make my Law, Truth, Disease deck work). I’m going to have to start picking up Persephone in PS and Yomi. Pretty much I like things that make me feel safe (that’s one of the reasons I like BBB) and control gives me that.
Other topics
When I said they were safe on balance I was talking about how similar there characters can play do to more of their decks being the same cards. I really wish more of the characters were Unique. Like I wonder what the game would be like if each character had 3 copies of 4 of their specials then their signature or most generally useful special had 4 cards. Then two of each Ult would give you 20 cards. That leaves room for 2 copies of each of the following: Block, Grasp, Assault, Cross, Dive. Maybe it wouldn’t work. It would definitely require some tweaking. I just wish the characters had more uniqueness about them. I just want more Guardian Slashers, lol.
Continuing what I was saying about build up characters being weaker.
Eva is a character I really want to like but she leaves me wanting better stuff.
Upgrade - This move really leaves me wanting more. It’s just a way worse version of block. The only reason I can see why this move exists is to deal with an opponent that declares a strike at a range where they’re not effective just to get your Boosts to fall off. I should have a chance at doing more though. At the very least it should be a range 1 power 1 move.
Mandatory Upgrades - This Boost just exacerbates Eva’s problem of fighters wanting to resolve strikes against her often. It should be a degrading power level and only activates if the opponent declares a strike. Something that buys you time and not something that makes the opponent want to immediately get rid of your Boosts.
Riot Machine - Maybe you can get this attack to go from terrible to just bad? not sure.
Revoke - Okay this Boost is pretty awesome. Probably the coolest thing about Eva is Revoke.
Enki Thresher - Another terrible attack. Who cares if you have Stun Immunity if you’re not dealing more damage then you’re taking?
Lost Memories - Same problem as Mandatory Upgrades
Plasma Barrage - Maybe her 2nd best special attack? but still bad
Auto-Defense Engine - Same problem as Mandatory Upgrades and Lost Memories
Cyber Destroyer - This is probably her best special? but it’s still meh.
Emergent Technology - A decent boost but nothing to get super excited about (especially when it’s combined with the rest of her kit).
Her Ults don’t make up for any of the above
Shifting Technology - Terrible, easy to stun it out and it does little damage itself. Requires a lot of build up which is really hard to do.
Liberation - Same problem as a lot of her boosts. It makes the opponent want to strike you right away. Guarantees you 1 gauge though.
Harnessing Chaos - another bad Ultimate. Requires so much build up that the opponent will never allow.
Rejuvenation - meh
Her whole kit makes it seem like Lv99 has a huge disconnect with how the game is actually played. Eva requires so much build up to even maker her attacks on par with others attacks that it’s silly. You would want to strike often at a boost heavy character any way and all her build up stuff just makes you want to do it even more. She has no deterrents. Mandatory Upgrades, Lost Memories, and Auto-Defense Engines should have been something along the lines of: Gain +2 speed/power/armor. If the opponent stikes on their next turn get an additional +1 or they take 2 damage or they can’t move you or some other effect. She really needs some sort of effect that scares the opponent off of striking and if they aren’t scared then her move becomes just as good as theirs. Just way to much set up and no good way to pull it off. I would be happy to be proven wrong though.
Meanwhile you have a guy like Morathi who is the absolute opposite of a build up character. He’s a wild swing character so he’s effective even with 0 cards in play and in hand. And Lv99 goes and gives him an attack like Revenger:
Range 1-3
Power 5
Speed 1
Guard 7
Hit: The opponent discards 2 cards at random, then add the top card of your discard to your gauge.
Excuse me, what was that now? not only does it have good hit confirm but it makes them discard two random cards and it gives me double gauge? Why does this exist? So the guy that just plays off the top of the deck and makes the opponent play off the top of the deck has great cards. Meanwhile the build up character’s stuff is just terrible and needs so much set up that will never happen. Morathi’s other special attacks are good too.
Morathin and Eva are on complete opposite ends of the build up spectrum and I feel like Lv99 games went too far with making Morathi’s attacks just all around good so he can play off the top of the deck if he wants to. And then they give Eva a pile of junk to build off of.
I just hope the fact that every one has access to the same normals doesn’t make them lazy about balancing the special and Ultimate moves.
Having said all that I still really like the game and will continue to play my favorites (I’m a little worried Baelkhor will fall into the too much set up required to be good camp) but this game definitely has tiers and Eva is way in the bottom.
If you read all that then I salute you 
I think I’ve been a little too negative towards a game that I like so far so I’m going to make a post analyzing another of my favorites and why she’s fun to me. Also I’m bored so you must suffer through my posts 
Nehtali’s UA is one thing I don’t like about the character. It’s not like the opponent wont be able to use their gauge and Nehtali using her UA is more beneficial to the opponent then it is for her (barring removal of key cards from the discard) because it costs her an action. The EXCEED side is just as bad. I wish it did the same thing as the standard side and no longer cost her an action, and maybe only make it cost 2 gauge to go EXCEED. Now onto the good stuff.
Specials
Darkness Barrier - a good card if you find yourself at long distance from most of the cast. Especially good against distance fighters. When standing at range 4 be weary of Dive because I’ve been wrecked by that once before. It can’t hit close opponents but Nehtali has a lot of space creaters to allow this card to function properly.
Soul Exchange - Even if you find yourself in a mu where the attack isn’t that good have no fear because the Boost is great. Being able to steal a Gauge from the opponent is phenomenal. Especially cool if it brings them away from their Ult threshold. It does “hurt” some of Nehtali’s other moves but it’s worth it.
Azazel’s Torment - Decent attack if the opponent has 2 or less attack. It has okay speed but is fast enough to beat out the close range normals and creates a lot of space for Nehtali so she can continue to do her thing. If the opponent has 3 or more gauge then it just takes the attack to the next level. In addition to all the good stuff it did before now it actually deals strong damage.
Divine Harvest - A costly Boost but creates space and still allows you to attack. Good if you really need to get away.
Hellfire - awful early game but as you get more and more gauge it gets decent. It’s ability has no limit so it can deal up to 29 damage if you happen to find yourself with 29 Gauge. It has good hit confirm but slow speed which makes it a more niche card. Still has it’s uses. I think it really starts humming when you have 7 or more Gauge. This card does allow you to put your high amount of Gauge to work with out spending it, which lets you save your Gauge to set up an Ult kill.
Gauge Boost - While the attack may not be useful for awhile the Boost is always useful. A simple but effective effect. Just get more Gauge to set up that top tier Ult.
Volt Damnation - If you have a lead this card can help you close it out. It allows you to trade pretty successfully. Ignore Armor is just an okay effect though unless it catches a block. This attack gets better once Hell’s Salvation Ult is available because Block is one of the only ways to beat it. So you force out the Block and then catch them with Volt Damnation.
Swift Destruction - This Boost is costly but at +4 speed it turns almost any move into something super fast. It’s better to use it to set up mid range speed moves because if it’s followed up with a fast move it’s kind of a waste.
Soul Thresher - This is my favorite Special attack of hers. It’s just so safe. It hits nearly the entire board at speed 7. While it does have a power of 0 you can spend a Gauge to give it +2 power. So pretty much how it goes is you play it don’t spend the Gauge because it wont stun, but you still add Soul Thresher to your Gauge. Or if the card will stun you spend the Gauge and go neutral on Gauge for the turn. I think it’s a great all around card and it becomes amazing vs ranged fighters because they tend to not have much stun guard or armor on their stuff and the Speed 7 will usually outspeed the stuff they want to play.
Clutch of Evil - This Boost is just stupid good. It turns Hell’s Salvation into “the opponent can’t stand at range 2” into “the opponent can’t stand at rang 1-3” being able to move the opponent and then strike is just a great effect. It goes with the theme of the card of your stuff just hits.
Ultimates
Heaven’s Punishment - It’s hard for me to get too excited about this card because I feel it’s outshined by her other Ultimate. However, it does make the opponent scared to store a bunch of Gauge and they might spend it when they would otherwise not want to. It’s ranges also combine nicely with her other Ult allowing her Ults to cover ranges 2-5. Maybe more use of this card will make me change my mind about Nehtali’s UA. Will have to try it more.
Begone! - Even if you don’t like the attack the Boost is good. Allowing you to push an up close opponent far away just lets Nehtali get back to what she want’s to be doing.
Hell’s Salvation - This is what Nehtali is all about. Her whole kit is just a means to hit with Hell’s Salvation (at least that’s how I like to play her). At Power 12 Speed 7 it is one of the best Ults in the game. The Gauge cost of 5 isn’t near as big a deal for Nehtali as it is for other fighters because of all the ways she has to build up Gauge. Get 5 Gauge and then watch as the opponent is terrified to get any where near you. If they do then they just die.
Building Power - Draw 2 cards. Add one of them to your Gauge. this never not good (unless you’ve already shuffled your deck then don’t play both of these for the Boost). Just a very strong Boost and lets Nehtali play the way she wants to play. That Hellfire special is looking better all the time.
Nehtali just has a solid toolbox of stuff. She’s got some power for a price style cards to get big spikes in power. She has both up close and long distance options. She have several space creating moves. And to top it all off she has more Gauge generation then any character in the game + one of the best Ults.
Doing these write ups has made me realize none of my favorite characters are in the same box. And if I don’t like Kaden (I’m hoping to play him soon) then I’ll have exactly one character I like in each box but I haven’t tried or even seen every one so that might change. Which kind of leads me to my point. If you had to get just one box which one would it be?
I got the box I mentioned because it had some of the least fan-service and some odd posts on one of the boards talked about 3 of the characters (Ulrik, Alice, Zoey) being some of the best in the game. I read over some of their cards and figured I’d be able to find some characters I liked in there.
I’ve played the most games with Alice. I’ve taught several people and started with Alice, especially when I just had the PnP.
Then we tried Zoey vs Ulrik with me playing Zoey and I got annihilated. Not much to say about either character other than Zoey’s card advantage probably has her play a bunch of boosts or get favorable spacing. Her attacks are probably better than their printed stats because of that.
Then we played Gabrek vs Alice with me as Gabrek. I agree that the UA and Choke Hold were great and the rest of the character could use some work. One of the abilities gets a 3+ power if the opponent uses a wild swing, so that gets a huge boost when he goes Exceed, but doesn’t seem to have as much strategy. Mostly, I guess it influences when you go Exceed. I won, but the Alice was new to the game and I’d had a few matches.
Can PbF be possible with exceed?
It would be simpler than Codex, I think.
You would just need to add some way to handle face down actions. BattleCon often uses md5 hash, but spoiler tags would also work.
What did you think of her? I’d be a little bummed if she was top tier because I usually like to play mid tier or lower characters but I can see the top tierness in her for sure.
It definitely seems possible. It might move a little slow but it should work. Strikes would bog things down a bit, but maybe not too bad? You would just need to use the honor system for combat reveals which is something you’d have to do any way when playing a card game through forums.
I’ve tried to set up playing EXCEED through Skype with a couple of people but it’s never worked out. EXCEED would work really well over Skype and if any one ever wanted to set up a game with me we just let me know. Would be cool/interesting to get some games in and more game data in general.
I think that she has a few extra “parry” options, which probably land her in top tier. That and her 15 power Cross Blades finisher. We don’t usually have to reshuffle, so we’re still newbs, and countering her definitely involves using more cards for movement.
With her favorite 3 range stuff, Dive and Assault should be decent counters, but the priority on most of her attacks is so high, she can stun those right out of play. That leaves stun guard plays, but Alice still builds gauge and counters those hits in Exceed Mode. If your character can play at range 4-5, you’re much better off. This game’s BattleCon equivalent of a shot is range 1-3, not 1-4, and the board is larger, so you have more room to set that up.
Ulrik might be a decent counter with his ability to mix up ranges on his Unique Ability. I’ve only played against him though and didn’t get a good feel for him.
Yeah, these are still really good counters to Crossed Blades. However, and here’s the cool thing about these types of games, Alice could anticipate the counter and double counter with Guardian Slasher.
I still think of range 3 as being within range of limbs/melee weapons. Both Sweep and Spike out to that range.
So I was able to play a couple of games of EXCEED and a different game in the genre, Way of the Fighter (WotF). And while WotF didn’t have any hype moments (it was pretty bad) EXCEED was filled with them. Here are some that I remember:
Kaden vs. Miska (lengthy character analysis to come tomorrow while I’m at work, mwhahaha)
this is over the course of two games
Kaden opens of the game with Chain Strike to get the stun and advantage while pulling Miska into range. Follows up the next turn into Sweep. Opponent plays Focus so we take equal damage. However, the random discard from Sweep was able to rip a Sweep out of the opponents hand. Oooooooooooooooh!!
Kaden and Miska are at range 6. Miska calls out the Chain Strike so plays a Sweep of her own. She’s correct and is pulled right into range to completely wreck for a 6-1 trade. Ooooooooooooooh!!
Kaden and Miska at range 1. Kaden has known EX Sweep in hand and goes for strike. Miska plays around EX Sweep but gets smashed by hidden EX Grasp. Ooooooooooooooh!!
Kaden and Miska at range 3. Kaden at 3 health and in EXCEED mode (first time I’ve gone EXCEED in a long time) with Insurmountable in play. Miska is at 8 health and is in the corner. She is low on cards so is just draws more She also has Defend in play. Kaden grabs both Sweeps from discard using Silence and lays it down with it being 100% known what it is. The opponent can do nothing about it and gets smashed for a 9 damage exactsies Sweep. This all happened with Kaden having 1 card left in deck after already reshuffling that game. Miska has also reshuffled as well and had about 7ish cards left in her deck.
Miska is getting ready for a power play with two copies of Fierce in play for +4 attack. Miska plays reading then looks through Miska discard (the vast majority of her cards are in the discard) and picks Dive. The pick is right allowing Kaden to get the stun and getting rid of all Miska’s built up power.
There were other hype moments but I don’t remember them exactly. I remember there being some really exciting dodges with Miska’s knock back stuff and huge chomps with Bear Rush. There was also some beastly EX Double Charge Executioner play and some solid stun outs with EX Rising Host.
EXCEED is a blast and it’s moving up the ratings for me. A lot of thinking making interesting plays and hype moments (at least so far). Just wish some of the weaker characters were better.
So, we played some Ulrik and Zoey last night. I prefer Alice’s gimmick because she feels riskier, but here are some thoughts.
Zoey has some cool gimmicks to add cards to gauge. She can go exceed and get her cards back in hand when she uses gauge, in addition to her normal ability to keep her card in hand if she hits. That allows her to store cards in gauge and kind of keep a larger hand size. Unfortunately, her supers are cheap and boring.
Ulrik seems to really like moving far out of his opponent’s range, then advancing into melee so they either whiff or get stunned. His Exceed allows him to do that a little more often. I just figured out that I was not supposed to draw a card if I used his ability though, even though it is an action.
One of the friends I am teaching keeps getting the boosts mixed up with the attack and tries to play one as the other or get both at once. He’s learning, but I’m not getting the greatest match up experience to figure out how powerful they are.
Yeah I don’t think it’s written that great in the rule book but the rule is: If you strike on your turn, no matter where the strike came from, you don’t draw a card at the end of your turn.
She kind of sounds like this games Lum (minus the boring Ults). Coin Toss spam for days.
So I wanted to make a some what goofy some what serious post rating each characters Sweep. Sweep is one of the best cards in the game and different characters can do different stuff with it. Now since Sweep is such a good move even the worst Sweep is still a good card. Here is the rating system:
So Clean (the best)
Clean
Acceptable
Dingy (the worst or something bad happens that makes it below average or their kit covers the same area as Sweep making it less important)
Reese - That high power 6 makes it easier to get the stun to utilize his UA. For this reason Reese’s Sweep is CLEAN.
Heidi - Nothing special about her Sweep. She does make using the boost slightly more attractive (which could be a bad thing) but she still only gets ACCEPTABLE for her Sweep.
Nehtali - Nothing special or different. If Sweep goes to the opponent’s discard she can get it into their Gauge which is good in the right mu or if they’re about to reshuffle. However her own Sweep is still only ACCEPTABLE.
Vincent - The President of America (this is the only lore I know) doesn’t need to Sweep. His kit has ample amounts of armor, guard, and ignore guard. He don’t need to Sweep. Vincent’s Sweep is DINGY.
Alice - At ranges 1-2 Alice’s Sweep is just like all the others. At range 3 her Sweep is hitting for a monstrous 8 damage. SO CLEAN. But, I’m only giving her a final score of CLEAN because of it being only ACCEPTABLE at ranges 1-2 (and she will probably have to use it at these ranges often).
Zoey - Are you kidding me Zoey? Infinite Sweeps? SO CLEAN. nuff said.
Ulrik - He can use his UA to get into Sweep range but then is also in range of the opponents Sweep. ACCEPTABLE.
Gabrek - At range 2-3 his Sweep is just like every one else’s but at range 1 he’ll be drawing a card while the opponent will be losing a card. CLEAN
Lily - a range 1-4 Sweep possibly 1-5. The madness. Lily is SO CLEAN
Miska - She’s got a buddy that helps her Sweep. Threatening Sweep from two different locations is good but expensive. Her Sweep in normal mode is just ACCEPTABLE. However, when she goes EXCEED her Sweep easily rockets up to SO CLEAN.
Eva - If there’s one good thing to say about Eva it’s that she can get a little bit more mileage out of Sweep then some. Light is a good Boost. Unfortunately it is on a really good attack. Thanks to her UA Eva is a character that can make good use of both the Boost and the attack on the card (just don’t get stunned if you lose priority). That’s why I’m giving the unfortunate robot girl a rating of CLEAN on her Sweep.
Kaden - If Sweep is an A+ tier attack then EX Sweep would be S tier if it didn’t take up both of your Sweeps. Luckily for Kaden this is very true. He has so many ways to get his Sweeps back (Dark Tide Summon, Silence, Double Charge Executioner, and Recall) that he can choose to use them either standard or EX and get a ton of mileage out of them either way. And the great thing about EX Sweep is it beats Sweep clean (EXCEED EX Sweep for 9 damage!!). Now that is SO CLEAN.
Satoshi - His Sweep is conditionally SO CLEAN. Unfortunately, it is a condition the opponent can and will want to play around (it’s not like most characters wont want a lot of cards vs him). The threat is still there and it is definitely possible to get that additional damage so Satoshi gets a rating of CLEAN on his Sweeps.
Mei Lien - another conditional character. Mei Lien’s first Sweep his ACCEPTABLE her second is SO CLEAN I’ll average that out and give her Sweep a rating of CLEAN. However, She can get additional Sweeps using Tempestuous and Lighting Strikes Twice so her Sweeps do have the potential to be SO CLEAN if you want to play for them.
Bealkhor - There’s probably a good chance Bealkhor is going to want to banish both copies of the opponents Sweep before they play them. This requires banishing one of your own Sweeps. With only one copy of Sweep in the game things are going to get DINGY. Or does giving him a monopoly on Sweeps make him CLEAN? is it worth it to give yourself only one Sweep if that attack potentially hits for 9 damage at speed 3? Maybe that’s SO CLEAN levels of good? However, he does have the chance to blow up his own Sweeps with Endless Power. Put this all together and I’m going to say his Sweeps are DINGY but then for that trade off he makes his opponent’s Sweeps non-existent (worse then DINGY).
Morathi - He’s got an attack that makes Sweep look okay. Any time you’d want to play Sweep just play Revenger instead. This makes Morathi’s Sweeps DINGY.
Maybe I take back what I said about the characters being too similar because of all the normals in deck.
Morathi is still happy if he draws sweep on most Wild Swings though, right? And its presence makes his Wild Swings stronger on average?
Sweep is just a great card in general. Even the characters I gave a rating of “DINGY” to I still think Sweep is a good card for them. They just have stuff in their kit that covers what Sweep does so it ends up being less important for them. But I agree with what you said. The existence of Sweep in Morathi’s deck is good for him.
So I was able to play some Kaden games last week (I was surprised by how much I liked him) and I wanted to share some quick thoughts about him.
UA
He’s got a solid UA. Since he’s THE EX fighter it makes up for extra card lost on performing an EX strike. He’s better on defense because his abilities can telegraph which cards you can EX with (this can be used to your advantage however). He’s got a ton of moving the opponent effects so Focus can be more of a problem for him.
EXCEED Mode
I really like his EXCEED mode and feel it gives his kit exactly what he needs in the form of scary attacks. His Ults are utility Ults so he needs to get his damage in from other attacks and his EXCEED mode lets him do just that. His Ults are also cheap to play so there isn’t much conflict in being able to EXCEED and Ult when you want to. Any attack that was so so in normal mode becomes at least good in EXCEED mode.
Havoc Call
I almost feel like this card is a non-attack. Range, Power, and Speed could have all been N/A and I would think it has the same value as it currently does. The card seems to be all about it’s always active ability and when that ability is going off the attack isn’t hitting. It has solid range but the Power and Speed doesn’t excite me. A card that still has super value vs long range fighters.
EX Mode
Getting up to Speed 6 is good because then it will beat out a lot more stuff but doesn’t get too much more impressive otherwise.
Perfect Evolution
Even if the attack is no good in a mu I don’t think I’ll ever be disappointed to have this card in my hand because of the boost. Really helpful for finding the right card and finding it secretly too. A really solid Boost. Also gives you a higher % chance of drawing a better card as your end of turn draw.
Calamity Bell
Another niche attack imo. It is good for beating stuff like Sweep and the dreaded Revenger. It counters really specific stuff so having a good knowledge of the opponent’s cards is essential if you want to use this attack correctly. It has a good Guard value and it can be helpful to push a ranged fighter into a corner.
EX Mode
Nothing to get excited about, so so.
Recall
Another niche card with a universally good Boost. Recall helps you set up EX attacks when you draw into the second copy after playing the first. Or it can be used for other purposes. Such as getting a key card back in hand, making the opponent think your EX attack will be of the card you just returned to hand. Or any other chicanery you can think of.
Chain Strike
More niche strikes. Really strong vs long/mid range fighters. Great speed and a good effect. If a ranged fighter is getting away this card will pull them right back in. Against melee fighters it probably wont see any/much play.
EX Mode
Probably shouldn’t ever be EX’d
No Pain
While the attack is going to be really good vs ranged fighters the Boost is going to be really good vs melee brawlers. This Boost can let all of Kaden’s slow attacks still connect vs those ignore guard/armor attacks. So against ranged fighters save for the attack. Against melee fighters save for the Boost.
Fusion Bane
Now we finally see some heavy hitting. This card does great damage but has terrible speed and decent at best guard. If it does land it will trade well and will let you draw an important card. Although it does mill your deck faster then you may want. The flip side of this is that getting cards into discard has value for Kaden. Good effects and damage. If only there was a way to make it more reliable. An important thing about this card is its ability procs as an after effect. So even if the attack whiffs you still get to use it’s ability (as long as you don’t get stunned).
EX Mode
Now the EX mode is getting interesting. This card goes from tricky to pull off to difficult to stop when played EX. It gets to that important threshold of 6 on defenses so it is much harder to stun. It then hits for silly damage at 7.
Secret Weapon
An expensive Boost (his most expensive) but it serves an important role. If Kaden is having a hard time getting his EX attacks online this can be the tool to help him do so.
Double Charge Executioner
Another card that lets Kaden hit hard. Unfortunately it hits just as slow as Fusion Bane but it hits just as hard. It has good Guard at 5 and it will survive most things with out the need to EX it. It’s ability is very strong. Being able to pull any card from the discard is great for any character and especially so for Kaden. It will let you set up anything you want. Like Fusion Bane, this card’s fantastic ability goes off on After so even if it whiffs you still get a good effect. Great card.
EX Mode
The EX mode is tempting because it becomes so much harder to stun. The downside to EX mode is it only lets you trigger its after effect once where if you played them separately you’d get two cards back from the discard. I think this is a card that definitely has a lot of use both as EX and normal strike.
Chain Extension
Where the attack is a close range power punch the Boost gives you an opposite effect. It lets you add 0-2 range to your next strike. This is better then other characters range increase and it can help him come to grips with long range fighters.
Kaden has a very interesting tool box of special attacks. Where Havoc Call, Calamity Bell, and Chain Stike are more niche but have generally valuable Boosts. While Fusion Bane and Double Charge Executioner feel like his bread and butter attacks with more niche (though still very good) boosts.
Rising Host
I’ve gone back and forth on this attack a lot. When I first saw it I thought it was amazing because of it’s ability. Then I thought the card was bad because the ability only got you two copies of a bad attack. Now I’m of the opinion that the card has some strong niche uses. It is good as a fast stunner. If performed as an EX attack it hits at Speed 7 (with ranges of 1-3). But it only hits for 2 (4 if you’re in EXCEED mode). So it can stun stuff but doesn’t trade well.
EX Mode
The nature of this card makes it so if you can play it EX you should play it EX, 100%.
Insurmountable
Even if I come to the conclusion the attack is garbage the card would still be great because of this Boost. +3 Armor and +3 Guard is absurdly good. This Boost makes Kaden feel like a total beast and gives him the feeling that he has more health then the average fighter. The Boost is so good that it gives the Hit effect of Rising Host so much more value. Used an Insurmountable Boost early in the game? Play Rising Host and get it back. One of the most valuable Boosts in the game, imo.
Dark Tide Summon
Strong hit confirm, good speed, and an amazing ability makes this Ult a strong one. All at the cost of 2 gauge too. Now the power is on the low end of even normal attacks but this Ult more then makes up for it with its ability. Being able to return all copies of another attack on hit is crazy good. It should be used for it’s ability to set up turns as opposed to using it to kill now. Seems mu dependent. Against fighters with lots of Guard it seems a lot less good.
EX Mode
It becomes a pretty respectable attack in EX mode (especially when EXCEED is activated) but then you only get to trigger one of the best effects in game once instead of twice. Plus if you save both copies for the Boost you can use this sequence to get maximum effectiveness: Silence, Recall (to get Dark Tide Summon back), Silence, Silence. Doesn’t have to be all jammed together like that but it’s something that is possible. If the EX attack is used the combo can also be triggered by using Double Charge Executioner to get a copy of it back.
Silence
Luckily the best part of the attack (its on Hit effect) is 100% copied by its Boost. So even in mu where the attack is super risk you still get access to the fantastic effect. Great card and really allows Kaden to play the way he wants to play.
Kaden’s Ults are very utility based. They are in no way game finishers. He needs to get his damage in with his normals and specials. Having said that they do give him good speed (a weakness of his) so they can get a lot of mileage vs fast fighters with no/low guard.
Notable Normals (EX Mode)
Sweep - Because making a strong card stronger is always good. Also 100% cleanly beats Sweep no matter who initiated the attack. Also beats one of Sweeps counters (Spike) if Kaden initiates the Strike
Focus - You get to draw 2 cards, have an armor of 3 (with 6 guard), and still hit for 5? Yeah I’ll take it
Assault - Gets it up to the important speed 6.
Overall I enjoyed playing Kaden very much. All the discard manipulation and tool box of abilities and attacks is quite fun. Even though all fighters have 30 health all the armor Kaden has access to makes him actually feel like a big beefy guy and I liked that a lot about him. Looking forward to more games as him.
I want to try skype exceed. I’ll be free after 4hours
Ah man, every one on here seems to be on a completely different time zone then me. 4 hours is still pretty early for me.
Either way today is probably going to be no good for me. Just for future what time zone are you in? I’m Pacific Time (GMT -7)
EDIT: it turns out I’m now GMT -8