I apologize for the topic rez…
…But what if the potentially legendary Yomi 3.0, nectar from the Font of Yomise, included a new universal mechanic? Parries! :o
Unofficial Rules that may be Canon Someday (Now with extra, spicy, detail!):
“Parrying is a way to negate & prevent an Attack without taking any damage. (Throws cannot be Parried.) All characters can Parry. To Parry, place a card of a particular rank face-down as your combat card. In addition, place your “Parry” card face-down next to it. If your opponent combat-reveals an attack of that rank - nice stuff - you Parry it. You start the game with “Parry” and “Non-Parry” cards that have your character’s unique card back on them in addition to the seven cards you regularly draw. These two cards allow you to signal Parry-or-Not without outright giving it away.
If you don’t wish to Parry, play your combat card face-down with the option you wish to use facing your opponent and put your “Non-Parry” card face-down beside it.
To prevent a 3 attack from Zane, for example, Quince could preemptively counter with a 3 of his own. The suit of the 3 shouldn’t matter, imo, but maybe there should be bonuses for exactsies Parries in which rank & suit match.
If you both parry, no one wins combat & your combat cards are discarded. It’s very similar to a Dodge/Dodge situation, but it’s kind of a Build-a-Dodge Workshop!
If you successfully parry, you draw a card and the opponent gets to face-down a could-be Joker - after which you can follow-up with any single move you could normally play or a full combo, if you prefer! (And I think many will!)
If your parry isn’t successful, you get to face-down a maybe Joker if further hits are possible and your opponent finishes their combo. (If your opponent won combat with a Normal Attack they’d draw a card - as normal! ) If you parried with a 3 or something & got hit with a Super Attack that’s an Ender and doesn’t allow for Pumps (Discarding cards for extra damage.) - you just take the damage from it right then.
In addition, if you parry with an Ace - and have two other Aces to spend - you may be able to successfully predict & parry an opponent’s Three-Ace Super Attack! If you don’t have enough Aces to Parry their Super but combat-revealed one anyway, it’ll be like you played No-Card in combat and you take the damage immediately and your Ace is discarded. (While playing in person this might sound challenging, but I think people would get used to it. In the online version it could be more restrictive and just not let that Ace get played as a parry, because you don’t have enough to back it up.)"
I think this whole Parrying thing is a very interesting mindgame unto itself, but it definitely still needs to be tuned & I’ve not tested anything about it yet! I’m just wildly imagining possibilities! It could shake up things if characters with slower Super Attacks could instead more often use them defensively through Parrying. Obviously, hit-confirming would then have more utility, but what if they have the Joker…?
Right now, I think that Jokers should win combat against Parries, but can Jokers be used to Parry anything or what? They are sometimes wild! But, I wonder what other people think about this! Are there other suggestions?
And maybe you could get a bonus by doing a “Perfect Parry” for actually matching the same rank & suit with your Parry card instead of just the same rank? Extra combo points almost makes sense, but then that’d mess up the purity of Onimaru’s 1 CP. wat to do…?
Also, thanks again to @Cerrus for fighting against this ridic fan character I was making who had an ability to parry. It was really dumb at the time & I’m sorry for not changing it right then.
Edit: Thanks for the critique, @Hobusu!
I was really trying to use only components Yomi already had, but it is rather awkward to signal your Parry beforehand… Maybe it’d be better to have “Parry” and a “Non-Parry” cards with the character’s standard card back on them that you start the game with in addition to the regulation seven cards. Then, if you wanted to Parry with a 2, you could play a 2 face-down with your “Parry” card. If you want to play Max Anarchy raw, then you’d face-down an Ace along with your “Non-Parry” card. That would allow Parries to be more fully concealed, though it might be too cumbersome for some…