Did you see the screen cap I posted of my Fables? I jokingly suggested them as an opponent to one of Brook's decks and he accepted, otherwise I wouldn't be using them. If they can do stuff like that, summoning all four of those monsters in one turn, and they're a deck that I love to begin with.. Why do you think I stopped using them? The answer is that while making a field like that is fun once in a while, just beating people effortlessly is the opposite of fun for me, and I didn't want to play against a meta where the game was decided on turn one. I would much rather work on a Crystal Beast deck or a Destiny Hero deck, or even an Ojama deck (they're really underrated) to face you right after you came back and maybe lose more than win but believe that we each had a chance of winning than simply use my Fables and win 98% of the time. Winning 98% of the time isn't fun. Winning 2% of the time isn't fun. Winning 50% of the time is fun. Edit: And I'm not even trying to get you to come back.
Spoiler I just summoned a bunch of monsters in one turn!
Well, I don't have a gamecube, so.. Anyway, I'll see what I think about Michaiah and company.[DOUBLEPOST=1374203869][/DOUBLEPOST]After playing through the first two missions on normal and losing the second one multiple times, mainly due to Edward being the unluckiest Myrmidon ever to have lived, I understand why you might be irritated with the game. I initially thought it was just really hard, but unlike in my native Sacred Stones where vulnaries come in sets of three, in Radiant Dawn they come in sets of eight which, combined with Michaiah's Sacrifice, leads me to believe you are intended to play more defensively. In the second mission, knowledge of the three AI types that I've encountered so far proved to be very useful. I call them Charge, Wait, and Retaliate. Units set to charge will simply run at you either from the start of the game, or once you get within a certain distance of them, regardless of whether or not they can reach you that turn. Simply waiting for them to get in range that you can walk up and kill then is ideal. Wait units wont move until you are within range where they can move to you and attack you that same turn. These you can step to the edge of their move and attack range to cause them to charge at you without nearby Wait units who aren't also in range coming for you, allowing you to kill them without taking too much damage If you can hit them from outside of their move and attack range due to terrain, they will not come to get you, they will just stand still. Retaliate AIs will simply stand still until you either attack them or enter into their attack range (without needing to move) but once you do they will start moving, switching to either Wait, or Charge. I'm not sure which, or if there is any situation in which it matters. They can safely be ignored as long as you don't enter their attack range and you can set up an easy OTK on them, but they tend to be positioned in a path or objective such that you are forced to defeat them to advance. Most bosses blocking objectives have this AI type, but common units can have it as well.[DOUBLEPOST=1374213083][/DOUBLEPOST]Honestly, after my streak of horrible luck with Edward ended I have no problem with this game's difficulty yet, though I'm sure it will get harder.. Just with the fact that it keeps giving me a game loss if I lose a single person.. I'm okay with the fact that if I make a mistake, or even just get really unlucky I'll lose a person. I'm not okay with the fact that when I lose someone it will just say "Game over." and make me restart. If this is a Fire Emblem game it should just let them die and let me continue!
Your distinction between The Sacred Stones and the other games seems to be that you can grind. I play it without using the tower, aside from maybe once when it's first unlocked, because it's a new zone. Leveling up everyone isn't necessarily the best idea, but even when I'm leveling up basically everyone and not doing any tower grinding, all of my characters are competent. Sure, it's hard to keep them safe while still getting the first few levels on them to make them decent, and even then they're still at risk of a fast death if you make a mistake and they get focused, but they all can take down most enemies one on one with no difficulty, and using good strategy and knowledge of how the AI acts it's not too hard to keep clearing levels while increasing support relations and spreading out the EXP to keep everyone good. If you feel like your team is weak, that may be because of the way the game is constructed. You wont get to a point where anyone can walk into an army and not risk instant death unless they have a very large portion of the XP your entire party has, and have naturally good defenses. Your characters are meant to die. Going a game without people dying is an accomplishment, not an expectation. And finally, you have the amount of XP your team is meant to have. The game is meant to be hard, so your raw stats aren't going to make things easy for you, but unless you've somehow horribly miss-managed your XP (e.g. a promoted archer being at max level while the front liners are all level one) or gotten your strongest people killed (e.g. said archer getting critically hit or mobbed and dying) your raw stats are strong enough that the game is winnable if your strategy is good enough. I'm actually going to start a game of Radiant Dawn, I think. If there's anyone who you think is particularly useless, tell me and I'll see what I can do with them.
This is not at all the experience I've had with the series. I've played mainly Sacred Stones, without using the tower to grind, and a little Radiant Dawn. None of the classes are really great compared to the others. They each have their own role. Your archers shouldn't take any hits from a range where they can't shoot back, and when they can shoot back they should be putting out more damage than they're taking if they're decently leveled. An archer will go down if they are under level and two or three archers target them, or a strong axe user manages to land a hit. Your healers can't go into the danger zone without being in serious danger, yes, but they don't need to if you can pull back your other troops. Sometimes people do die in one turn without you being able to stop it, but usually if you're protecting your weaker units you'll have a turn before they die to run back to the healer, who can then heal them. Your combat mages can fight in close combat or at range, but they should be used primarily at whatever range the enemy can't retaliate at. Their damage isn't better than an archer's, and they tend to have less defense and evasion, as far as I've seen, so they have to be protected just as closely. As for close combat fighters, they wont survive if you just charge in against a swarm of enemies, but usually if you can place them near the edge of the enemie's range you can pull just one or two at a time, and by having a straight line of fighters you can minimize the amount any one unit can be ganged up on, spreading damage and ensuring survival. If you're really not doing much damage with anyone, it may be a heavily armoured enemy that needs to be attacked with magic or an armour piercing weapon. There are often enemies that Ross wont be able to do much damage to with his Axe, but Eirika's Rapier can penetrate the armour for lots of damage, or I could have Lute shoot with a fire ball to bypass the armour and hit the usually low resistance. Yes, you start out with only a few powerful units, but if you train the rest, they become powerful too. When I'm starting a new game, I try to avoid hitting anything with Seth. He's there to rescue people if necessary, but he doesn't need any exp to be really strong, so I don't give him any. Instead, I try to funnel as much exp as possible into Eirika. Once she gains enough exp to fight on the front lines, she is very powerful and can take down enemies in one or two rounds, and dodge most attacks while surviving even axe and lance hits. On the other hand, the first time I played a campaign I let Seth do all of the work because he was so good, and the Eirika was forced to stand in the back because she did no damage, couldn't dodge worth anything, and would die in a single hit. At least with Sacred Stones, drops aren't random at all, so 1 and 2 aren't much of an issue for me. The game also gives you a few gems at various points which can be sold for a lot of money, but I tend to stick with using basic weapons for most situations. Save the Killing Edges and Rapiers for super strong enemies. number 3 shouldn't be an issue if your characters are actually dying a lot. Sacred Stones hasn't gotten me more than 3 or 4 people who couldn't come, even with very low deaths. It seems like you're falling into the trap that I mentioned above, of allowing the characters who are strongest to do all of the work throughout the game, and in doing so dooming the weaker characters to be forever useless.
My Constellar RUM deck is actually doing pretty well. Spoiler
Just played a game where I fusion summoned five times in one turn :). I had been losing that game too.
I'm sure I would be flattered had I watched that show.
For the past two weeks I've had the unshakable feeling that something important happened on July seventh, but I couldn't figure out what :(
Wait, is your birthday July seventh?
Jay, please don't spam your own arena.
It isn't as annoying, but it badly hurts more decks, is more splashable, and is one of the few traps that can't be shut down by decree.
It generates no advantage. It stops players from doing certain things, yes, but it doesn't directly generate advantage. A single MST will trade one for one with it, it simply adds to the number of things killed by Heavy Storm, and Decree makes it completely useless. Some decks aren't even significantly harmed by it. Honestly, I think decree is about three times as strong a card as macro.
It's because macro decks tend not to be able to do very much against a strong deck that they don't completely shut down, and even decks that they would normally shut down can counter with Decree, MST, and Heavy. My Fables have always won much more than they lost against Macro builds despite the fact that they are incredibly reliant on the grave.
That's actually the.. Tag force 4 effect, I believe. The anime is all dark, and 5 is infernity, but also makes it so you can't react with S/T when it attacks.
Since no-one is accepting this.. If you want to duel me again, I'll use a deck that can be used in random. Although I think if Anime hundred eyes were legal, something similar to that deck could be used. Edit: edited for the different ban list, of course.
You're forgetting the Starlight ruling. It isn't proper Synchro Summon, so Stardust isn't properly summoned, so he can't be re-summoned. Also, Captain America is immune to negation due to his not being affected, so I couldn't use Stardust. On top of that, his effect activates on the field, so cards like Veiler and Chalice will still negate him, assuming they are used before he tributes himself. Force focus only negates while face-up though, so Stardust ignores him. Also, no. It is small on my computer, I was posting the large in case you wanted to read its effect, but didn't want to look up the card. Also, now smoke can copy/paste into his old post if he wants. Edit: Brook has informed me that I miss-understood the wording on Force Focus; it would negate stardust, as the monster does not have to remain on the field after the resolution of 25, only until it resolves. Then 25 will negate any effect it activates until after it leaves the field, and since Stardust activates on the field, it negates Stardust.
The last set card was Burial from a Different Dimension, so I could have chained it returning Naga, Vennominaga, and.. Probably Fane for the direct attacks. Also, anyone wondering about Grinder Golem and the monsters I can't summon.. Grinder gives level one tokens for a fast hundred eyes, and I can easily get rid of the other monsters with Dark Grepher.
I don't want this duel to drag on too long, as it's late in my time zone, so I'll finish you right now. First, I special summon Grinder Golem to your side of the field, in exchange summoning two grinder tokens to my field. Spoiler: Grinder Next, I'll activate the final card in my hand, Foolish Burial. Spoiler: Foolish Sending Berserk Dragon from my deck to the grave. Spoiler: Dragon Now, my Hundred-Eyes dragon gains the ability to attack all three of your monsters. Battle phase--- Attack Force Focus! *your LP 6800* Due to Vennomingaga's effect, a Hyper Venom counter is placed on Hundred-eyes when it deals damage. If three Hyper Venom counters are on it, I win the duel. *one counter* Attack Ginder Golem *your LP 5800* *two counters* Finally, destroy Captain America. *your LP 3800* *three counters* Game over.
