Knifight Vs. @variable, 3-1 Knifight
Really scary matches against Variable. Having some games together before definitely made things pretty interesting. And really fun having a huge crowd, thanks for watching everybody! Got lucky enough to have a caster, so I’ll try to remember to link that when it’s up.
Edit: International Yomi League 8 - variable vs Knifight - YouTube
First match we play looks like Variable started with a very smart play of blocking for a turn before he threw out the AA to beat the 2 I think he knew was coming, but unfortunately Ven always draws like 8 acros, so I get out of it. I get a throw and mixup, he gets a few positive spins, I 4 the K spin and so on and so forth. Basically we took turns putting each other in the blender until we’re low life and I make a hard call to disrespect the K spin and AAA. I think the moment I pulled ahead was when I managed to bait a blue burst, next turn got an acro and landed the gold burst to follow it up Probably my favorite match of the set. Quince Ven is one of my favorite match ups especially against a really solid Quince like Variable’s. Looking at a replay, he did a great job of not giving away his weird starting hand, I had no clue that’s what he was working with.
The Grave switch really surprised me, I was expecting the Geiger. I think it was a good call though. I think making things a little less crazy and more of a fundamentals game is the kind of game Variable has a good chance of beating me with. In our practice/fun we’ve played a few where I get a giant lead and then he just plays perfectly solid at 20 life for like 20 turns and beats me. Idk if that’s even what he was thinking though.
First Grave game was pretty standard but I’d think we both played pretty smart. First turn I 7 throw since I think he’ll respect the 2. Like 2 turns later he throws the king to call out the 2 I hadn’t even showed. I get a raw K, he knows I’m gonna be a coward and dodge to see if there’s a queen and just tosses me, I acro, he tens, I acro again. He calls out another raw no KD 11.0 K and chucks me again. We play a little more cautious and get up to big hand, but his throw/block/Q range is slowly widening a good life lead. I kind of desperately play a 9 after a his queen and get his 9 which swings things a little back my way since I had 2 hidden aces. He smacks my 3 with a KKA and life is now 6-40ish. I finally get a second 2, win that poke. I figure he’s eager to finish it with probably throw/A/Q, but I don’t know which. So I power up to throw off the gold burst play and he 7 throws so I live for another turn. With 3 7s and a ton of other throws in the discard I assume Q/A is pretty likely, or at least likely what’s likely in hand, so I go for a dodge and get my AAA off for the win.
Next game was pretty quick, a few turns in he powers up for an A and wins with a 2 poke. I think to myself surely that’s not TPoS, keep my joker and don’t even bluff. So of course as I’m sure you know life is now 28-90. K poke wins and a 10 to block my acro, and then a good safe callout on my joker and things are looking a lot worse. I had a lot of good chances. I definitely feel like he’s short on non throw options so I keep trying to get a hard call with 5 pokes and stuff since I’m out of good pokes, but he makes the very smart call to just throw slightly less bad pokes and carefully inches away. Trying to wait for a few dodges but they don’t come he gets a Jack and chips me down. Basically he played perfectly in the lead and made some very good hard reads. I should have been a little more careful with early dodges and should have at least powered up for the threat of AA/AAA.
Last game was a little more standard, I get some K pressure, he evens it up by throwing my dodge on his wake up again and tacks on an A, I get him back down and he calls out the K with a Q. We’re both medium hand but I suspect I like mine a little more so I get a 4 throw combo which puts me back ahead slightly. He gets a block and KtOs an ace. I figure if he does it his hand might not have much value left after all the high value pokes and powered up dodges and I’d still have a slight life lead, so I 2 poke knowing it might get hit and finally deny some KtO value (he’d been making great use of it all through the set enough to keep my carrion reach under control). At this point he’s close to lethal and my hand has every option I could want including the 3 2s and a joker to cover a dodge, so being pretty sure he doesn’t have another joker I decide to count on him not guessing I have the 2s until he either starts blocking them or that something that beats them is lethal. First 2 gets aced, second 2 gets Ked, still safe at 27 life, then third 2 lands and I get lethal.
Really fun matches again! And really scary all the way through. Feel free to add in stuff I might have missed, Variable. Reading through that I don’t think I highlighted your KtO play enough or how your 7s always came out at the right time when I didn’t want you to see my hand. Same for any of you guys that watched! Thanks for watching, and thanks for remembering to promote it, Variable!
Good luck in your matches, dude! Kick some butts.
If you like what you see, add the game to your Steam wishlist - it goes on sale pretty regularly.
