Wasn’t K throw known?
I didn’t have k throw I had aaa and my topdecked 8 or 9 or whatever it was.
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Unfortunately if that was a scenario the 2nd to last turn and I played a normal then it was just a straight misplay. But honestly that combat I don’t remember cleanly enough. If you can supply the details that would be helpful. But I’m not sure that’s correct either, cause if I did normal you didn’t Block you would’ve had more cards, and you didn’t Dodge cause I die (unless that turn I played my second Joker which was entirely possible).
I threw into your normal and you did a weak combo for like 15 damage or so.
Ok that makes at least a little more sense and I think I remember. It wasn’t a good play but it’s what I had at the time. I didn’t have kill in hand. Blocking felt pretty bad cause I lose to Throw and doesn’t really advance anything. Unless I have kill Dodge with Val is not good. So choice was Throw or Attack and I wasn’t comfortable with either.
If you decide not to shoot out AAA, Throw would’ve been better cause it loses to nothing that you would throw out. So yeah I would say misplay as I would’ve ended up in the same scenario, doing some damage picking up an Ace and setting up the kill / tie next round. I could’ve just Blocked it out, but like you deduced it just makes me vulnerable to the play you made and still 2 combats away.
Sorry for the spam all, but re-reading this morning obviously I was a little tired when I wrote my explanations (way after sleepy time for me) so not sure if everything made sense in the ramblings.
At that point I was operating on an Playing to Win vs a Playing Not to Lose game theory I picked up during my Magic days. Basically Blocking is the “safest” play and just waiting till you roll AAA out there. But it doesn’t get me any closer to winning, just not losing unless you play Throw. I didn’t want to wait to get Thrown, I wanted to be proactive in getting to a “winning” position (a double KO was also a win in this case).
Best way to do that was get you down to AA range. As discussed Throw would’ve been better, but I went the Attack route. As far as my gameplan goes it gets me to where I wanted to be either way.
It also played on the general tendency for players to grab their powered up Supers and then use the threat of them to manipulate the opponents combat reveal choices instead of just throwing them out there.
I still think it was the correct line giving the situation, I just didn’t play it as well as I could have. I hope that makes at least more sense.
We can definitely debrief more if you like, but lets take it to PMs so I don’t keep gumming up the result posts.
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match 1
gutterowl 3-2 @WondrousHippo
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traded a hit or two before starting an early vortex and riding it all the way home
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perse fights a running blender, does not come back with her hands
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take an early beating but almost manage to get my feet back under me at 12 health, but reached a little far. had aces in hand, figured opponent would block, went for throw, got duffed in face for exactsies. i start noticing a pattern…
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this one, i cottoned on that my opponent wanted to throw reds almost every reveal. so i just went hardcore purple, daring my opponent to actually throw me. they didn’t. eventually i scouted all four sets queens with bys and just started leaning on them with aa as the fastest attack.
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my opponent changes tack and we do a lot more dancing and double purples. but eventually they blinked and i set up the ol’ millia oki to victory.
ggs, yo. one thing i did note that you might need to work on is optimizing damage. you were throwing a lot of high normals as king-pumps when you didn’t need to. remember, each k-pump is only worth 3 damage, while a raw 6 is worth 6. if you’d optimized your combos more, you might’ve taken game 5 before i could get settled in.
you also tended to get stuck a lot on 2 card and 3 card hands. a lot of playing setsuki is figuring out how to play out the whole hand each beat. there’s tips on that (starting with throws when you think you can bully me, keeping k and q handy for purging awkward throws, using k-linkers to bridge gaps in your straights, etc). a lot of good sets players here can go into more detail.
good luck in your next rounds!
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Knifight Gutterowl 3-1 Knifight
Really scary games against Gutterowl.
First game against Onimaru went pretty in her favor early game with 2 aces attached, a couple combat wins and I think hand advantage, not to mention blocking a gold burst. Slowly was able to block off the aces and squeak in with some throws until late game where I felt pretty strong knowing the FAs were coming and either dodging or falling back on pokes with the acros I had saved up in case of a really scary combat loss.
Second game the Pers switch was a mixed bag for me. Like Gutter commented she’d never lost the Pers/Ven matchup, but also Pers was my main for a long time so at least I know the gameplan well. Second game was pretty clinical and I somehow got her under 20, but the comeback wasn’t real since we both knew I’d need the acro at some point and she was just waiting with the 9 for a few turns with me under 10 life. Finally lost a combat and got 9ed.
3rd game I got a little more momentum earlier on, but was still pretty even. GO has incredible hand control and I wish I had a replay just to study what she took back to always have varied options, power up fodder for aces and always get the 10 on me. At one point I even powered up with a small hand from deck with 3 aces in discard just because I’d been locked for so long I had to get some options she didn’t know. Eventually worked out, turning point seemed to be when I threw a 5 with nothing to back it up to stuff a throw and scare her into thinking I had a big combo, she bluffed with a queen and suddenly my hand was comparably decent. Eventually got a few more pairs and was able to get lethal with a Q AA combo.
Last game went crazy fast, got a kd early, finally had the cojones to do what I never do and trust in not getting queened and use my 1.0 K throw. Opening with a 4.0 Jack made me either suspect that he starting hand was bad or that it was shaped for a power up and 10 play for the second kd and get it back. She blocked with a 5 and I went for a 3 mixup since I felt pretty confident she either didn’t have a good poke or didn’t want to use it and got a good combo into 7. She’s at 36 exactly so I power up for my third ace (think I raw drew the first 2 right off) and she doesn’t bother bluffing the dodge so I finish the game in probably the fastest win I’ve ever had as Ven.
Really, really scary games and very solid play from GutterOwl. I think my biggest asset was that I’d watched a game of hers earlier today and how she played against me was exactly how I’d (try to) play against somebody I hadn’t played before. Combined with the fact that she didn’t have any scout on me to know what I knew or how I played or even if I’m pretty scrubby since I might just be playing my first games ever for all she knows. I think that’s really what let me get away with a few key plays until last game, where I just drew amazingly and had an early K mixup where there wasn’t much to do about it but guess right. If the set was much longer idk if I’d have been so lucky playing against such a surgical Persephone.
Good luck in the rest of your matches GutterOwl! Hope to play you again soon!
Side note, and sorry to drone on so long, but big thanks to Gingi and Variable for all the practice games that helped me get into shape last few weeks. I was pretty discouraged after I practiced so hard and had CKR no show, so having some fun games to play and learn from really helped keep me in shape and got me looking forward to all my matches coming up. Really looking forward to more games!
Quick Edit:
Mixed up the last games, third one was triple ace finish, last one was just red K with a pumped jack at the end.
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Glad to hear you enjoyed your games, great writeup! Just fyi, I checked and you do have the replays of all four matches available if you want to review GutterOwl’s plays.
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Oh wow, I never even knew that option was there under profile, thanks for the tip!
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JHSnacks vs. Feebee
End Result: 3-1
We started off in a battle of two diplomats assigned to a case. A court case: attorney vs. lawyer. In the end I proved to be the dandier.
Suddenly, a frickin’ panda bursts into the court room. The attorney of course had no idea what to do, and complied with the sentient panda’s request to gamble. Turns out bears are good at poker.
“Order in the court,” came the cry from the head judge at last. Once order was restored, the attorney was able to regain his composure. Things were especially stately in this third game.
The final moments were tense as the jury deliberated, but the diplomat prevailed in the end.
(Am I doing this reporting thing right? Also, do diplomats make good lawyers? I feel they would.)
GGS Feebee
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Can confirm, this is the proper way to kayfabe.
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fixed ty 
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Never heard anything further from CKR 
#sadlum
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Hm. I hope he’s doing alright.
flagrantangles wins 3-1 vs @Rinzler
We had a rollicking good time with these matchups. I got thrown on KD way more than I’d like to admit and also took some GIGANTIC wallops to my face, BUT I gave as good as I got because 67Q++ is DELIGHTFUL. CMB was assembled in the first game but I ended up losing before it needed to be played. The rest of the games saw Rinzler trapped in low hand jail. I will say that I did block or dodge an unusual, possibly even obscene, amount of gold bursts. It’s part of what made the game so wild!
GGs, Rinzler! You were a treasure to play against!
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flagrantangles wins 3-2 vs @Fluffiness
These were delightful games to play! The back and forth was fun, exciting, and tense! Quince can bully anyone on a low hand and it turns out that if you attack me enough when I expect you to throw, I will eventually get the point and learn how to block/dodge. I did get some successful Q and A bonks in, which is, of course, marvelous, but I also got pummeled with raw 5 attacks, which is, you know, more fun for my opponent. GGs, Fluffiness! I wish you well!
5 Likes
Two matches coming in:
Southpaw Hare vs @Rinzler
Southpaw Hare 3 - 2 Rinzler
Southpaw Hare wins!
@migohunter recorded the match, which can be seen here.
Southpaw Hare vs @JHSnacks
Southpaw Hare 1 - 3 JHSnacks
JHSnacks wins!
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@vengefulpickle One minor thing bothering me. The link you have in the first post does not work. You need to take the /participants at the end off. Sorry it was just bugging me.
Oops! Thanks, fixed.
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