I remember the compilation of 3e ideas but I wanted to put a full suggested changelist in one post to talk about it. I want to tone down the top 4 a little bit (I think their current power is a bit much) and even out the more extreme matchups but leave the other characters mostly unchanged. For example, while Persephone is relatively weak overall, I don’t know of any MUs of hers that are especially bad, so I’m fine leaving her as she is, while BBB is a fountain of MU jank, which I really want to dial back some. I made an exception for Val because it’s kind of sad that she’s as ignored as she is and I’d like for her to be at least a bit more fun to play. Anyway, here goes:
–Zane:
•Maximum Anarchy is now a 1 damage, 2.0 speed attack with the following rulestext:
“When Maximum Anarchy hits, lay the top 4 cards of your deck out faceup. Both players take damage equal to the combined ranks of these 4 cards (face cards are 10 and Jokers are 1). Then put them into your hand.”
Reasoning: Maximum Anarchy was intended to be a trickshot thing you don’t normally do but potentially puts you way ahead if it works. This is at least a lot closer than 2e MA.
–Troq.
•J no longer has Troq Armor.
He only has this because of his BBB matchup, and it is a big part of his dominance in other MUs. I’m making changes to BBB that should remove the need for Troq Armor, so off it goes.
•War Stomp no longer makes the opponent discard.
This is for flavor reasons rather than balance. Making opponents discard is supposed to be Menelker’s special thing, and there’s no thematic reason for Troq to also have it.
–Geiger
•Time Stop only affects J and Q and the opponent draws if Geiger throws the opponent this way.
Time Stop is rather oppressive for any character that can’t easily contest its speed because it heavily undermines their ability to build a hand. Rook suffers especially in this way. They get to draw a card to help make it less disastrous, though it still hurts.
•Cycloid Revolution is now 1.0 speed
There really shouldn’t be a 0.0 super attack anywhere (worth noting that the only 2 characters in the game to have something like that are top tier and would still be good without it) and Geiger in particular doesn’t really need that.
–Degrey
•Troublesome Rhetoric no longer heals Degrey. Instead it makes his attacks
and throws deal +2 damage this turn.
That’s it for now. Not only is getting 12 HP back for losing combat a really strong way to cover bases, it doesn’t fit Degrey thematically. He’s less about creating no-win situations and more about punishing mistakes hard. Therefore he gets a way to potentially make a good bait extremely devastating instead. I thought about changing Point, Counterpoint, but I’m not going to for now.
–Onimaru
•Onimaru’s 10 throw now knocks down and can be pumped thrice.
Onimaru is intentionally designed to not have much KD and be weak to dodges, but he kind of needs a little bit more in both departments to do okay against Degrey and Arg. I chose his slowest throw so he doesn’t really want to use this throw outside of those MUs.
–Valerie
•If J deals damage or block damage, it returns to your hand and you draw a card.
She is subject to high variance and her J does fairly little despite her being supposed to be the rekka character. This change helps with both.
•K no longer has Splash of Color
By Sirlin’s design rules (max 4 abilities per character), Val doesn’t have any ability slots so the K ability will go so the J ability can take its place. This ability basically lets her get cheeky hits from time to time but is otherwise just J fodder usually, so she’s not losing that much.
–Rook
•Rook’s special dodges recur if the opponent play block or dodge.
He needs these as a threat to function in many matchups, so having such restrictive access to them is pretty punishing. Also they’re the only special blocks to not already do this.
•Normal throws now do 12 damage.
He’s the only character who can’t pump or combo off his throws at all, and he’s supposed to be about his throws, so they really ought to be just a bit scarier.
–BBB
•Range now ends at the end of the range turn if BBB hasn’t had range move be blocked or win combat at the end of the turn
The reason BBB matchups are so polarizing is because of the way range works. I’m going to try to make it weaker but compensate by making him able to function outside of range.
•BBB’s normals are now x.4 speed (except for Robo Headbutt).
•Robo Headbutt is a 1cp Combo starter in addition to its ability
I think he probably needs more to make up for range ending so easily but I’m not sure what else to give him right now, so I’ll probably add more later when I’ve thought of something for that