Lesson 8: Attacking and Guarding
- Brampton Booster
- Jul 17, 2012
- Comment
Woah there! This is a REALLY outdated post. For more current and accurate articles visit my main page.
We are slowly moving into the gray area, a variable of the game that is somewhat over our control.
Whether a unit is used for attacking or guarding, it is still the same unit. So, how do you decide how many to keep to guard? A large amount of thought is based on circumstances. What is my current Shield? What is the damage right now? How can I keep my cards ready for my Winning Image? What can the opponent do after he successfully survives the turn?
Vanguard is all about preparation. You are the commander of a large army. Moving blindly forward will send your units over the pits of Tartarus. I had you start with the obvious magic numbers then we delved into the meta and started by building a ‘perfect’ deck. You also learned how to use that deck with everything taught about the Winning Image, resources, sub-games and so on. You now need experience to bring all of this together. You need to get out and actually put all your men on the line to conquer your opponent. And then you will start to question yourself; how to proceed? The Battle Phase is the battle ground where tragedy ensues and it’s up to the commander to make sure whatever you have can pull through.
That generates headaches as nobody is certain for how to proceed. Even meta players aren’t going to remember every detail of everything that happened: just an educated guess(some do have perfect memory but most are like this). So while there are no definite answers here, I can lead you to the right direction.
On the Attack
Main thing is to know what to attack with and what to guard with. That means you shouldn’t call (non-returning) Triggers and Nullguards for boosting; hey can’t even reach a shield stage by itself.
A general plan of attack is using the unit with either the most pressure or lowest power to go first, followed by the Vanguard and finally bring it down with the highest power unit.
The first attack will most likely be the toughest decision for the opponent. If the attack is let through, then a good on-hit ability can activate. As well, it is much easier to block the first attack due to lower POWER. But if a trigger is found in the damage check, then guarding for the turn becomes much easier. If the attacked was guarded, then you used less shield then what you would on other attacks. However, guarding lowers the shield value for the two more powerful and stronger attacks. Taking advantage of this, you can attack with a weak unit with an on-hit effect to stack pressure on the opponent’s choices.
Vanguards are just vanguards. Guarding them means a bunch of Shield and not guarding them means possible on-hit skills. Crits wreck havoc no matter what they decide to do. Nothing else to say here.
The last attack should be high power. Even if the vanguard is defended, a trigger can put the opponent in a tight spot with a dangerously high power. Though, without an extra shiny star letting it go is the best choice as it saves them the trouble of wasting shield.
The other two options for attack are less common. Using the Vanguard to attack first has the drawback of losing [STAND] and without a high chance of triggers it can be just an easy pick and choose for the opponent. Using Rearguards to attack first and then the vanguard is for the late game where you whittle down any shield they have and get ready for a big finish. Perfect guards can ruin your problems, less you get the only useful trigger (and therefore situational) [STAND]. And when you get it a bad premonition strikes at the core of fighters hearts as they now have another attack to contend with.
Not a suitable option for attacking is going with the highest power Rearguard and then the low powered one. The reason is triggers. In this field, if the opponent gets a trigger when you attack then your last attack is abruptly negated. Use the weaker first, then whether or not he gets a trigger you still have another attack. Being a power unit, if it doesn’t sport an extra shiny star the opponent will probably let that through more often then not.
The other two plans of attack are much less common. Using the Vanguard to attack first means your strategy is to to create more powerful Rearguards at the cost of [STAND] and 2-pass shield(since you want to give any trigger to your opponent). Using rearguards to attack first and lastly the vanguard is to drive the opponent into a finishing blow with your vanguard. This plan works best if your opponent does not have a perfect defense at hand. It also works much better if you have pressure units, forcing the opponent to choose the lesser of two evils, but even more so if you have [STAND]. [STAND] is a great trigger when you attack this way because the opponent believes they have dealt with everything, and then this devastating trigger makes them cry in agony. Perfect guards are ruined; you need to thin your defense into so many places any trigger can pierce through.
Two more things to cover. One is to apply early damage so you can force a lot of entropy that as you know, accumulates forever. Once the middle game starts entropy picks up to two, though if you put some early attacks in that means they had -2 three turns ago. In the same instance I should go over Limit Break. If the Limit Break can be activated easily or continuously, like Garmore or Ezel, best to thin resources or stockpile before hitting that 4th damage. Other wise, do try to get them to it as fast as possible. The reason is that a lot of normal people take that damage just for Limit break. As explained in my resources article willingly getting Limit Break is a trap so lure them into it. Even if they don’t fall for it, you lose nothing. Other then a small reminder to hit for magic numbers, that’s all you need to know about attacking side.
On the Defense
Defending is a much concoction thicker then molasses(odd metaphor, I know). Triggers make life so much harder if you don’t predict them, but you also have to be constantly thinking about advantage here. Attacking is semi-autopilot, guarding is full-on manual. The simplest advice to give in this section is to not let 4 damage when your opponent rides to Grade 3. This should be pretty self explanatory by now.
Pick and Choose
The plan is getting two damage this turn. Since the first attack is the weakest, let’s block that so we don’t lose so much shield. Let’s remove Triggers and Criticals out of the equation for now. On hit effects happen to be on the vanguard and rearguard. Just great. You need to take damage, and so the opponent exploits this to get some advantage to hold off on whatever you happen to do with the damage.
Adding in Triggers for the opponent, you now need to consider more options. You can let the vanguard through, opening doors to nasty criticals and powerful on-hit effects. If you guard the vanguard, then you need to hope for either a [STAND] or [CRIT] so you get the necessary damage. Lastly, you can let the rearguards through: if the opponent checks a critical, you now either have to decide to take more damage then you intend to, or take less damage then you want to. So you see the second option is profitable if the opponent get’s a critical, and the latter not so much. Ending the turn with more damage then you need gives the opponent a damage advantage, and you cannot use the extra damage. Ending the turn with less damage gives the opponent a card advantage, and you still cannot use the damage available.
Not only do you have to contend with what the opponent might check, you also need to worry about your own triggers. Say you want 2 damage, and you let the final attack to get 2 damage, Then you check a [HEAL]. Argh! So a simple plan of defense has so many possibilities. To be honest, regardless of what you do you’ll lose advantage. Your job is minimize the loss AND build to your own Winning Image. And now let’s set up a chart to see, on a macro scale, the changes in the game due to guarding or not guarding.
| Guarding | Taking damage |
|---|---|
| Shield decreases | Shield stays the same |
| - Eliminates on-hit effects | - Keeps your state, therefore able to take more damage later |
| - Fulfills use of guarding materials(like triggers and perfect defenses) | - Keeps you trigger phasing tempo |
| - Clears space, if you had intercepted | - Might be able to keep limit break or Heal imprisoning |
| - Makes people mad | - Lose cards |
| - Lose units possible for attacking/boosting | - Keep units possible for attacking/boosting |
| Damage stays the same | Damage increases |
| - Able to get triggers, keeping tempo | - More vulnerable to losing |
| - Able to use guarding material for a later, more important jobs | - Set off LB and/or unlock new abilities(and therefore options) |
##Misplays
These scenarios are examples of things you should consider. We are going to follow the thinking of people who made these blunders and do better. We are going to understand why they are made and recognize not to fall for these same mistakes. Many times these mistakes occur due to the fact that we overlooked something, did not expect a trigger at a crucial moment, not examining what the opponent can do or not expecting an opponent to act the way you think(we all make mistakes, but one of the great things about humans is that we can learn from other people’s mistakes). So these misplays will help you understand how to look for them and choose the right option.
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