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sniffnoyYou know, it's surprising how easy it is to forget the "never give your opponent an out" principle when you haven't played a game in a while. Or not *forget* it, exactly, but fail to put it into action.
E.g. played a few games of Kongai the other day, after having not played for many weeks. We're in the endgame; he's down to just Yoshiro (with Insignia, IIRC), I have MLM (with Phylac) and Rumiko (scroll, duh).
Now neither of these are good against Yoshiro - Rumiko is just terrible against him, and MLM can heal, but if Yoshiro lands one stun, that's pretty much it. And MLM was at pretty low health, while Rumiko was low enough to be killed by a single Rising Dragon. Fortunately he was also at low health - low enough to be killed by a single Life Drain, I think; unfortunately he was at high energy. I think I had just swapped in, so full energy on my side as well.
The turn begins and it's time to decide on range changes. Obvious thing to do is pass - we're at close range. Then I can go Life Drain, while he presumably goes Open Palm.
Thing is, if Open Palm procs, he wins unless my Phlyactery procs - in which case he still probably wins. If it doesn't, he loses. OK, Open Palm has a proc of 25%, so I guess this doesn't *exactly* fall under "never give your opponent an out" - though I'm pretty sure I perceived it that way afterward, so maybe I was mistaken then, or maybe I'm misremembering now.
I could switch out, heal, and stall; but I wouldn't drain his energy that way, as Open Palm only costs 15, Rumiko would die immediately, and it would still only take a single proc to kill me.
Unless... what if I got far? He'd be forced to Chi Blast me if he wants to do damage. MLM would die, but when I brought in Rumiko, there wouldn't be much he could do. Now note, I said he was at "high energy", but I don't remember just how high - probably around 80 or 85. High enough to do two Chi Blasts? I should have computed that, but I didn't ...oh wait, that would require 110 energy, so no, definitely not! A Chi Blast and a range change? Again, should have computed it, but didn't. That would require 95 energy, of course, so even if he had enough, he couldn't attack after such a range change, leaving me still in a winning position. Now, he might *not* Chi Blast, of course, but then he'd just be even worse off.
So basically, I saw the path to victory... and didn't take it. Because, I mean, MLM going far against Yoshiro, that's ridiculous, right? So I guess what actually happened is, after not having played Kongai for quite a while, I forgot to actually trust my reasoning over my usual heuristics. And I just allowed my opponent an out.
-Harry
E.g. played a few games of Kongai the other day, after having not played for many weeks. We're in the endgame; he's down to just Yoshiro (with Insignia, IIRC), I have MLM (with Phylac) and Rumiko (scroll, duh).
Now neither of these are good against Yoshiro - Rumiko is just terrible against him, and MLM can heal, but if Yoshiro lands one stun, that's pretty much it. And MLM was at pretty low health, while Rumiko was low enough to be killed by a single Rising Dragon. Fortunately he was also at low health - low enough to be killed by a single Life Drain, I think; unfortunately he was at high energy. I think I had just swapped in, so full energy on my side as well.
The turn begins and it's time to decide on range changes. Obvious thing to do is pass - we're at close range. Then I can go Life Drain, while he presumably goes Open Palm.
Thing is, if Open Palm procs, he wins unless my Phlyactery procs - in which case he still probably wins. If it doesn't, he loses. OK, Open Palm has a proc of 25%, so I guess this doesn't *exactly* fall under "never give your opponent an out" - though I'm pretty sure I perceived it that way afterward, so maybe I was mistaken then, or maybe I'm misremembering now.
I could switch out, heal, and stall; but I wouldn't drain his energy that way, as Open Palm only costs 15, Rumiko would die immediately, and it would still only take a single proc to kill me.
Unless... what if I got far? He'd be forced to Chi Blast me if he wants to do damage. MLM would die, but when I brought in Rumiko, there wouldn't be much he could do. Now note, I said he was at "high energy", but I don't remember just how high - probably around 80 or 85. High enough to do two Chi Blasts? I should have computed that, but I didn't ...oh wait, that would require 110 energy, so no, definitely not! A Chi Blast and a range change? Again, should have computed it, but didn't. That would require 95 energy, of course, so even if he had enough, he couldn't attack after such a range change, leaving me still in a winning position. Now, he might *not* Chi Blast, of course, but then he'd just be even worse off.
So basically, I saw the path to victory... and didn't take it. Because, I mean, MLM going far against Yoshiro, that's ridiculous, right? So I guess what actually happened is, after not having played Kongai for quite a while, I forgot to actually trust my reasoning over my usual heuristics. And I just allowed my opponent an out.
-Harry
