Midori is a noble dragon who focuses on training his deck to be as powerful as possible. With a powerful deck, there is no opponent he can’t crush with his mighty dragon form! Will his opponents be foolish enough to fight him fairly, or will they try to disrupt his killer potential?
[B]Strengths:[/B]
- Best purple rush in the game.
- Purge Bad Habits gives you a huge amount of money for a rushdown character.
- Extremely good matchups against certain characters, particularly in attack-light pools.
[B]Weaknesses:[/B]
- Bad at playing attack chips and weak defending against them.
- Starved for arrows, so unable to make great use of ender puzzle chips.
- No orbs in Dragon Form is a major restriction.
- Bad matchups against characters that start with crashes.
[B]Gameplan[/B]
Midori’s main plan is to tune his deck so that he can crash every turn in Dragon Form. This usually involves buying one or two purples to start, then entering Dragon Form and upgrading into more with Rigorous Training.
[B]Puzzle Chips[/B]
[B]Chips Midori Loves[/B]
- [I]Gem Essence, Button Mashing, Secret Move, It’s a Trap[/I]
These do everything that Midori wants to do; they thin his deck and help him with his lack of arrows. The thinner his deck is, the fewer purples he needs to become a threat.
- [I]Combos are Hard, Punch Punch Kick[/I]
Midori can consistently buy these chips on turn 3 or 4 if he uses Purge Bad Habits and buys some money. The Double Crash Gems from Combos are Hard are usually much stronger for Midori than they are for your opponent because of Dragon Form. Punch Punch Kick both “thins” his deck by replacing itself and gives him a much needed extra arrow.
- [I]Recklessness[/I]
Midori has two character chips that can trash wounds, but the real power of this chip comes from playing multiple Dragon Form–enhanced crashes in a turn for quick kill. Very few characters can use this chip as well as Midori.
- [I]Iron Defense, Combinatorics[/I]
Pseudo-purples are great for any character that has an orb restriction, and Midori is no exception. The 6-pile limitation on Combinatorics is usually a manageable restriction, since DF keeps Midori’s pile high. Iron Defense needs forks in the pool to play smoothly, while Combinatorics likes to have a washer so that you can use your other purples that turn. However, the payoff for both is huge.
[B]Chips Midori Fears[/B]
- [I]Dashing Strike, One True Style[/I]
These are pile control chips that Midori has little use for, since he is anteing 2-gems all the time. He is bad at washing the brown arrow and even worse at using OTS’s red arrow.
- [I]Hundred-Fist Frenzy[/I]
While Midori can use this chip to crash without buying purples, Hundred-Fist Frenzy crashes aren’t affected by Dragon Form, and characters with reds or better engine play can set this chip up much faster. Your best bet is to buy money so that you can profitably skip a lot of turns, forcing discards to slow the opponent until you can buy a Double Crash Gem.
- [I]Ouch![/I]
Not only are combines a liability against Ouch!, Midori probably won’t have the spare arrows to use the attack himself. Often the best plan against it is, sadly, to do your standard purple plan, knowing it will be worse and less effective.
- [I]Stolen Purples, Color Panic[/I]
Against frequent anti-purple attacks, Midori’s standard heavy purple gameplan is pretty much useless. Against Stolen Purples, thin decks and Dragon Form become liabilities. Losing your only Crash Gem in your 8-chip deck with a pile full of 2-gems is probably a game loss. Try to build an engine deck to draw the purples from your bag. Brown chips are “protected” from Color Panic by Midori’s character chips.
[B]General Tips[/B]
- Purge Bad Habits is your strongest early action. It gives money without giving your opponent height bonus, and it improves your deck in future rounds.
- In your standard heavy purple plan, your goal is to have two crashes, one combine, and as little else as possible. You usually should enter Dragon Form after you have bought one combine or one crash, with the plan to Rigorous Training your final purple.
- Don’t forget that your countercrashes are also uncounterable.
- Your decision to enter Dragon Form should be dictated by your opponent’s character and the bank. If your opponent is aggressive, or there are aggressive chips in the bank, you should delay entering Dragon Form until you are confident you are “stable.” If the opponent is weak to rush, or there are favorable chips in the bank, you should enter Dragon Form as soon as first cycle. If Training Day or Iron Defense is in the bank, you might be able to get away with entering it first turn.
- You are going to want to use Purge Bad Habits and Crash Gem every cycle. This means you are nearly ender-saturated already, and can’t make use of more without strong forks – even powerful enders like Stolen Purples or Ouch!
[B]Matchups:[/B]
[B]Matchups Midori Loves[/B]
Midori’s best matchups are characters that can’t really do anything to stop your standard plan. Gloria and Rook have purple reaction chips that are useless against your Dragon Form. Quince is also easy, as your constant stream of 2-gems into your gempile makes his Flagstone Tax irrelevant.
[B]Matchups Midori Fears[/B]
Valerie and Onimaru are your nightmare matchups, because they have built in pile control to fight off rush and can use any of the “bad for Midori” chips effectively. Jaina’s rushdown and red synergies can punish Dragon Form severely.
Written by vivafringe, edited by ChumpChange