Quandary of Brothers (Spike Brothers Puzzle)

Brampton Booster
Oct 12, 2012
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Difficultly level: Quite Easy
# of Puzzles: 7
Clan(s) used: Spike Brothers

NOTES:

Answers are about a paragraph or so below each question, so scroll lightly.
I write ‘unit with a final shield value of 5000′ like this to save me space-> \5/
PG’s will be / and Grade 3’s will have \/. S-intercepts and the like will be at \10/ if they use their effects.
Triggers are denoted like this -> [HEAL]

Okay, let’s get started. Imagine, if you would, the rather grim fate that appears before you:

Clockwise from top-left: Mecha Trainer, Wonder Boy, Medical Manager, High Sped Brakki, Dudley Emperor, High Speed Brakki

The opponent being ever so smug decides to call final turn against you. Now for the conditions of this ‘Final turn':

Both of you have five damage.
the opponent can use Dudley Emperor’s skill (enough soul/hand and whatnot)
The opponent will follow the following battle strategy; attack with both rearguard Brakki’s activating their skills, attack with Emperor targeting 2 Juggernaut Maximums, then finish it off with another two Rearguard attacks using the soulblast.
Neither of you are going to check triggers.
Your only unit on the field is the vanguard, whose current POWER is 11000.

Puzzle number 001:

You have 55000 Total Shield represented by 7\5/ and 2\10/. Are you able to survive the turn regardless of what your opponent tries to do? If not, how many more \5/ do you need?

No, you need 1 more \5/ to survive the turn.

Consider the following pattern of attacks:
Brakki+ boosted by Mecha Trainer(19k), guard 1\10/.
Brakki+ boosted by Medical Manager(21k), guard 1\10/ and 1 \5/. (used all \10/)
Emperor+ boosted by Wonder Boy(21k), guard 3\5/.
Juggernaut Maximum+(16k), guard 2\5/. (used 2\10/ and 6\5/)
Juggernaut Maximum+(16k) ~ Since you need 10000 to guard, but only have 5000 on hand, you cannot guard the next attack.

If you found that 55000 is enough to guard, you might be thinking something like this:
Brakki+ (14k), guard 1\5/.
Brakki+ (14k), guard 1\5/.
Emperor+ boosted by Wonder Boy(21k), guard 1\10/ and 1\5/.
Juggernaut Maximum+ boosted by Medical Manager (23k), used 1\10/ and 1\5/.
Juggernaut Maximum+ boosted by Mecha Trainer(21k), guard 3\5/ (used 2\10/ and 7\5/)

What happened?
The trick here is on the Manager’s side. Consider the shield used in both cases:
Brakki (14k \5/) then Juggernaut boosted (23k \5/ & \10/) 20000 Total Shield
Brakki boosted (21k \5/ & \10/) then Juggernaut (16k \10/) 25000 Total Shield

Brakki by itself does not hit magic numbers (14k). A 1000 boost allows that. Futhermore, adding 5000 to that boost allows Brakki to forces yet another guard. Seeing as how Manager is 7k, this causes the opponent to guard with three times the shield then otherwise.
0: 5000 guard
1000-5000: 10000 guard
6000-10000: 15000 guard

Juggernaut himself(16k), has the ability to cause one more stage then Brakki by itself. Using the same chart:
0-3000: 10000 guard
4000-8000: 15000 guard
9000-14000: 20000 guard
So unless you has a 9000 booster, Juggernaut would require the same guard as Brakki in most boosting cases. By themselves though, you can see Juggernaut has that extra stage of power which makes him superior to Brakki. An interesting thing to note is that the opponent needs to same amount of guard to stop both Brakki and Juggernaut if it was boosted between 5000 to 8000.

If you found that that you needed to have more then 2 \5/, then you might need to redo your calculations.

Puzzle number 002:

Say you have 7\10/ instead. Are you able to withstand the onslaught without taking damage in any case? If not, how many more \5/ do you need?

No, you need 1 more \5/ to survive the turn.

I hope you didn’t use the previous example’s pattern!

Consider the following pattern of attacks:
Brakki+, guard 1\10/.
Brakki+ boosted by Medical Manager(21k), guard 2\10/
Emperor+ boosted by Wonder Boy(21k), guard 2\10/.
Juggernaut Maximum+(16k), guard 1\10/
Juggernaut Maximum+ boosted by Mecha Trainer(21k) ~ Since you need 15000 to guard, but only have 10000 on hand, you cannot guard the next attack.

What happened?
Let’s examine the other side now. As in the previous example, boosting in either case gives you the exact amount of TOTAL shield. But let’s consider what is actually used to guard:
Brakki (14k \5/) then Juggernaut boosted (21k \5/ & \10/) ~ 2\5/ and 1\10/
Brakki boosted (19k \10/) then Juggernaut (16k \10/) ~ 2\10/

Not only do you have to know the total shield in your opponent’s hand, You also need to know what the cards to shield are! If you want to become competitive, don’t take shortcuts! Sometimes an opponent’s hand may look large, but if they aren’t holding any \5/ then you can force them to overguard at least one attack.

There is another solution which answers the puzzle, but the execution is slightly flawed:
Brakki+ (14k), guard 1\10/.
Brakki+ (14k), guard 1\10/.
Emperor+ boosted by Wonder Boy(21k), guard 2\10/.
Juggernaut Maximum+ boosted by Medical Manager (23k), used 2\10/.
Juggernaut Maximum+ boosted by Mecha Trainer(21k) ~ Since you need 15000 to guard, but only have 10000 on hand, you cannot guard the next attack.

The difference?
The second solution, on close examination, requires 55000 Total shield, like the last example. The former solution, and in my opinion the best way to complete it, needs 60000 Total Shield. Don’t settle for anything but the best!

If you found that that you needed to have more then 2 \5/, then you might need to reconsider some things.

Puzzle Number 003:

If you had 4\5/, 3\10/ and 1/(Perfect Guard), can you mitigate the Final Turn, no matter what the opponent tries to pull? If not, how many more \5k S/ do you need?

Yes, You can stop the final turn.

Perfect guards can help you guard any attack, and they will generally guard an attack that normally requires 15000 or 20000 shield (If the opponent’s vanguard attacks for 23000, then it would almost be like guarding with 15000 and having any trigger applied to the Rearguard instead of the Vanguard). Since you will be discarding a Grade 3(\/) most perfect guards will be something like \15/. In this case, it became a \10/, but that is enough to endure. And while we are on the topic of Perfect guards…

Puzzle number 004:

Considering that you have 8 cards in your hand, what is the maximum number of perfect guards you can have and still remain alive at the end of the turn, for every case? (think outside the box)

Six

I’m not joking. Having 6/ and 2\10/ can help you outlast.
There will always be at least two attacks that can be guarded with \10/.
For the other three attacks use Perfect defenses dropping perfect defenses.
I don’t know why people don’t want to run 4 perfect defenses, but then again, it’s their own fault. I mean, reasons like cost and experience are reasonable, but in higher play (even if it is just casual) 4 perfect guards is going to do a lot more help then harm. As you can see, Perfect guards do not ruin anything and often makes it better.

So, after my little quip I think we should move on to the next puzzle.

Puzzle number 005:

If the opponent’s vanguard’s POWER is changed from 10k to 11k, will it affect any results of the previous puzzles?

No. All the attacks are hitting against 11k. If the board was looking like this:

Quandary Fail

then you can feel holy.

Puzzle number 006:

Holding 2\5/ & 2\10/, you are obviously not going to survive without [HEAL]…But is 1[HEAL] enough? Or do you need yet another chance?

Yes, its enough.

The trick is to allow the first attack that requires 15000 to guard through. Touching on this lightly, if you feel like you can only win if you check [HEAL] on the sixth damage, you will still need to do some calculations on the position after your turn ends after getting that heal trigger to see if it actually helps.

Puzzle number 007:

To finish it off, let’s join the dark side and work with the field. With 60000 Shield(all \5/), can the opponent defeat you IF he chooses a unit other then Juggernaut maximum to call?

No. Since Juggernaut hits for 16000, the only way to force more shield is to get units with a combination of 20000. You can try to be fancy with Devil Summoner and Dudley Daisy, but that is only going to give you 19000. Ouch.</p>

Conclusion

And there we have it. I didn’t put any really difficult questions (which involves triggers and/or mulitple effects), so if your friends are in the mood for vanguard but not necessary fighting you can pull this simple puzzle out and see how fast they can grasp basic problems.