we’ll be sad to see you go. Especially as the New Yomi Sequel is almost here and it sounds like you don’t plan on returning for its glorious release.
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Gingivitusks vs. @Rinzler
3-2
Gingi wins!
Had a greaaaaat early lead then got CMB’d outta nowhere. bummer
Had a greaaaaat early lead then got CMB’d the turn I decided to stop attacking
These times I relied on 7’s to confirm whether the threat was real or not. It was once, but it got 5’d
GG’s Rinzler. As you said, fun games.
8 Likes
Those 2 CMBs though 
dangerous
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Woof, you’re telling me. I keep having flashbacks to if I HAD dodged that last reveal of that 3rd game. Gives me the willies
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"He wouldn’t though, surely. 
…would he? 
"
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Grats on #1 @Gingivitusks. Can’t lie I was hoping @Rinzler could find one more CMB to close out against you, sounds like a hell of a set. Sorry I missed it 
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I tried my hardest, thanks for watching. You should’ve been there! Lots of laughs, one of the funnest sets I’ve ever played.
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Hey thanks! Been a pretty long slog and I definitely got lucky a lot of games. Couldn’t have done it without the expert knowledge drops/support of my sparring partners @Knifight and @variable.
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Knifight vs Ginorm
3-0
Really good games, only the last was one where I had anything resembling a decisive victory. @migohunter says he got it. Gotta run atm, but I’ll be back to do a proper write up and post the link later.
Edit: Oops. Sorry about that wait.
So if I hadn’t won that first game I suspect I might have just gone 0-3. Zane is my worst match up by a mile in spite of all the research I did for my round 1 CKR match. Definitely glad I decided to fall back on my Lum. I think it helps me resist some of the mental guard break Z can put out to have more reversals than he has Jacks. In my experience so far I’m finding that the common situation is that I’m getting up safely a reasonable amount of times either from Q or threat of Q/AA, and then at some point late game I have QQ and so I Q into a Crash Bomb and trade 8/10kd.
Then I get to make one of those really fun kind of reads. Because a lot of people might know the matchup well enough to have made the note that QQ is a pretty common option Lum will have late game and that judging from life/card totals he might be in position to start soft pushing a no combat win win or a timer scam with that 16 life. But if that’s not on the forefront of your mind it seems overwhelmingly smart to go for a mixup normal right after you beat the first Q.
That wasn’t really what happened in
Game 1
@Ginorm steadily outplayed me a little bit at a time all match long. I think every throw he played landed and he had a C&D ready when I hit a straight and powered up. Also hit me with huge damage off a 13.3 speed 9. But first turn Shenans were a Joker and an Ace and it didn’t get better from there. I had long enough that even after getting getting my hand remade I still had the cards to Pandamonium a mixup normal and put him down to 22 where he just had to take an unfortunate guess on a 10 throw mixup. The really unfortunate part was that he got a slow turn, meaning that after throwing or shenaning all his 5’s my 10 throw was actually the dominant throw in the game that turn. So Ginorm makes the play I think you almost have to make in the situation to Crash Bomb and I get to very safely dodge into 10. Ginorm actually commented after that he was almost confident enough to throw me. Funny enough I completely get his thinking. Against a player who you don’t have much info on I think you’re almost being externally commanded to follow through with the value trap even if you gut says to throw.
Game 2
Ginorm switches it up to Gwen and interestingly enough I don’t think I’d ever played the match up even though @Gingivitusks has a very very good Gwen. It’s pretty interesting since she has the 1.2 K to shut down careless J pokes but I feel like that scary midgame moment when Gwen is one combo and some turns away from death is even scarier against Lum. That tends to be the time where Gwen really needs to power up if she ever wants to have a credible threat of out throwing the Lum 6, but also when Lum is about to start blackjacking you and playing 7s the second you power up.
My initial thoughts were basically just block a lot and 6 throw just enough to put pressure on Gwen’s strong 7 throw/dodge range. Generally it doesn’t take long before you can start threatening A or AA(AA). I think it’s actually one of the matchups where I’d most consider using a 10 for a Straight or Flush to speed up your hand development early on if given a chance. Ginorm made the solid range shift to heavily preasuring Chains of Ice and following up with Relentless Strikes to starve my blocks. The amount the 6 pressures her to attack into blocks later game seems pretty high, so after playing passive for a while I just poked out a King with the quad ace after the first joker was gone. I’m actually thinking this might be a weird matchup where Gwen actually saves her Jokers for late game specifically because of that.
Game 3
Ginorm switches to the Midori, definitely my favorite character to go for the reverse 3-0 with, and I think Ginorm’s main? He played it really well. Went for a gold burst that I thought was crazy at the time, but I’m glad I watched my replay because I should have guessed that meant he had 3 of a kind. Shame on us for doubting him, Migo. But Ginorm got a decent life lead off of a good 3J+ combo. I embarrassingly fudge a 10 play after powering up. Ginorm made a good read that I might not go aggro after a mistake, but unfortunately he over estimated me because I just threw Quad aces again. Good moment later on where Ginorm starts mounting a comeback and I have a really funny bust on a lethal Blackjack. Unfortunately it was an anticlimax and the hero lost, because I was having a great time and would have loved to play some more games. Talking about the game right after was almost as fun as the games though, super satisfying to confirm that we were thinking so similarly about plays through the whole game. Possibly the most fun games I had all season in a season of fun games. Hope you can make it into the play offs, I’ll be rooting for you and Gingi in the finals!
And here’s the link to @migohunter’s great commentary. Thanks again for only casting matches where I win.
7 Likes
@vengefulpickle So correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems to me that if @GutterOwl wins their next match, they will have a three-way tie with @Ginorm and myself. Is that right? We appear to have a triangle of beating each other: I beat Ginorm, Ginorm beat Gutterowl, and Gutterowl beat me. So, what happens?
1 Like
I haven’t checked whether your assertion of a triangle is correct, but assuming it is, per original rules post:
I’m not 100% sure if challonge will do that tie-break correctly, so I’ll be double-checking before awarding playoff slots.
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The amount of Panda Aces hit was pretty spectacular. I think after each time I got bopped I said to myself, “That’s what I would’ve done.” The reason is I feel like there is a general tendency that after someone powers up, they tend to hold onto the option. Now there are a couple of good reasons to do that. You want to wait till lethal and / or you want to threaten the option causing the opponent to play more predicatively. Sometimes though it’s also a worry that you spend time collecting this resource and you don’t pull the trigger because you are worried it won’t hit, and then you never spend it.
While the former are good reasons to hold onto it, I think those options combined with the anxiety of “throwing it away” causes a situation where the opponent can actually feel comfortable that you just aren’t going to use that option and can just play their game as normal. If you never throw it right away or soon after you clearly have it, they have no reason to fear you. Also taking a big hit of 40+ damage can really alter their mindset and cause them to make mistakes far beyond the results of that game. A large percent of wins I attribute to these kind of moments that I was able to capitalize.
In terms of our match, I fell pray to the same kind of thinking that I exploited a lot of the season, not respecting the Super option right after collecting it. I got hit multiple times and never adjusted. I mentioned the couple times I did briefly think of it, but always ruled it out and never choose to respect it. Shame on me. Also I never really set myself up to be in that situation myself in the Zane or Midori games. Gwen can’t do it cause her Aces don’t have the punch to create it (with that pick I was just hoping for MU unfamiliarity that was still a decent MU).
Side Comment: Midori became my “main” after the first couple of matches as I tend to gravitate towards grappler playstyles. I used to main Troq back in the old days so I wanted to play something different this time out. However, after @Gingivitusks 3-0’d me in my first match when I played Rook, he was off the table too. It worked out though as I really like Midori’s playstyle as there are some extra psychological aspects to Dragon Form to explore. If you couldn’t tell, I really like the mental aspect of Yomi. But I use the term main loosely. As my record shows I play a lot of characters, sometimes to a fault. In the IYL though I think the benefits outweigh the risks as it’s easy to scout the opponent and in a Bo5 a hard counter or unexpected pick can really give you an advantage as long as you can win Game 1.
Anyways, enough babbling on. It was by far my favorite 0-3 game I’ve played ever. It took away the sting of missing out on a win-and-in for the playoffs.
5 Likes
WELP YA AIN’T GOTTA WORRY ABOUT IT
god i think mi-go recorded that. imma have to fake my death and come back with a new account and a fake mustache after that game 3. variable’ll be in with the report soon.
7 Likes
Oh no, GutterOwl… I don’t think you need to create a new identity for yourself after this. 
Round 13
variable vs. @GutterOwl
: The party starts on turn one with a raw Missress’s Command! GutterOwl assured me before the match that step one was On Your Knees, but it appears that the dancing game changed in the interim. Only Oracles have access to these patch notes! Very fortunately, Quince doesn’t get hit and the game can continue without GutterOwl gazing at my hand, dismantling it, and running a mixup on me with a high likelihood of success! …However, this is one of those sad Quince games where the Quince player never gets in for real. I had two Patriot Mirror setups, but GutterOwl defended against them very well! Then I got continuously thrown for attempting to dodge the rest of the game, it seemed like… Like, rude. Not all politicians have to go there as much, but for Quince it’s a whole lifestyle of dodging questions and evasive answers… He lives for this stuff… Or, did. Until GutterOwl said, “Why don’t you just, ya know, not.” Oof. What’s he dodging or attacking for? Specifically to get thrown or attacked again… ? Pretty much! 
: After passing on, somehow Quince became a multisouled being…(This is still up for interpretation!) At least, he bared his single soul many times! The thing is, once “truth” is gone it can be retrieved! Also, I feel like Quince just happens to not be bothered by ByS as much as most other characters are, because his cards are just, like, “bad,” for the most part. He has some unique cards, of course, but his throws are “slow” anyway so, if he doesn’t have a 7 is it really that bad? However, yes, sometimes it’s important to have a reasonably fast throw and eventually ByS is going to be denying Quince things he might like to have, actually!
Anyway! I eventually get spinning this game, only to… not go for it at first! :s Then GutterOwl lets me discard dodges for a while… :x Throwing in the face of annihilation (being KD) ended up being the next strategy I tried, and it paid off! After that, the spin engaged and took it from there! ^^
This game was weird. I was in serious danger for most of it, and I feel like I got lucky on many of my blocks. Quince has so few credible wakeup options in this MU and that makes, “Down-back and pray” one of the only reasonable things left. Against odd crossups there is some counterplay, and Quince does have AA to beat any normal or throw, actually, but that’s also actually a pretty big ask in my opinion. Most of the time that’s not going to be there… So…
Quince got rather lucky in this game to skate out of there with a timeout! And, GutterOwl, you didn’t misplay at the end. In retrospect that last Two Truths delivered up two winning piles. You were unlucky to not have a 9, though… That was unfortunate, because I’d have to give up the life lead to make any of my cards uncounterable. I just don’t want you to beat yourself up about that moment, because I don’t think you did anything wrong or something that requires you to change your name and determine which fake mustache you should don!
(Echoing voice: Skipping to the endgame) I didn’t go for what (looking back) appears to’ve been a just-lethal K-Spin. I instead go for an attempt at a cheeky CotG as a lethal mixup to my lethal mixup, but it’s rendered un-cheeky because it did not work! It was smart of GutterOwl to poke at me if there wasn’t a fast throw handy. I’m luckily able to close it out with a Patriot Mirror before too late!
variable wins, 3-1!
Thank you very much for playing, GutterOwl! It was a fun set! Your Perse is really fun to play against so I hope we get matched up again sometime~ 
3 Likes
I just wanna say that I’m very much for any shenanigans, high jinks or misdirection that involves fake mustaches. Especially if it involves ripping off that fake mustache in the next IYL Finals to reveal a hidden true identity.
I’m fairly confident the rules don’t forbid this, though I unfortunately also don’t think there’s any clause for extra time to accommodate said mustache removal and declarations of incoming revenge.
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The only hidden identity I’m interested in is MOM DESTROYER. Who was that dastardly villain?
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I fear we may never know.
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what a true hero of all the people they were
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