nerdelemental
09-16-2009, 08:54 AM
Here we go again!
The basic duel is used in almost all occassions where one model interacts with another model. However, the core concepts of spellcasting might look the same, but the order of operations are slightly different and certain new requirements have to be met.
The first difference to get your head around is that if my model is generating some kind of bad effect against one of your models and you will be allowed to defend against it in a duel, instead of flipping the cards at the same time and then cheating in the order of "loser first, then the other player", in spell casting the caster must generate the entirety of the spells casting value before the defender does anything at all. Think of it like the Master must focus and harness all of his fate manipulaton and magic/spirit manipulation into the big energy blast and then unleash it all. When defending against a spell, the defender will know right from the start what the numbers are to beat and the casting total will never go back to the caster for any additional opportunity for a cheat.
In this example, I'll be running Ramos with a hand that looks like 12 ram, 10 crow, 10 tome, 4 tome, 3 tome, and the Black Joker (and 4 soulstones). You're running a merc list and your hand looks a bit disappointing with 10 ram, 8 mask, 7 crow, 4 ram, 4 mask, 1 mask.
It's your activation and you begin with Misaki (full stats on page 196). It's only the second turn and there's still a bit of space between both of our forces, but I've arrogantly left my Ramos out in the open, thinking he's safe with so much territory. You eyeball it and guess that there's about 12" between your Misaki and my Ramos and must have overlooked some of Misaki's tricks. Because of that distance, Misaki doesn't need to consider any of her spells other than (0) Wind as all of her spells affect her and her combat potential. She attempts to cast (0) Wind (and I realize what's about to happen and would like to Counterspell that but Counterspell only works if I am targeted and here I am not being targeted) and she flips her card which is a 6 Tome but she need to hit a 10 mask with her Ca of 5 no attached suit. So she's at 11 tome - high enough value, but not the suit. She'll have to cheat in order to make it work, but her options are limited to the 8 mask, 4 mask, or that Ace and the 4 would leave her CC (casting cost) too low and you hate to give one of your only decent cards in hand to this one spell. But you don't have a choice if you hope anything good happens as your hand sucks and the rest of your models aren't in a good position, either, so you cheat with the 8 Mask and discard the 6 Tome. So your Wind spell works as it's range is C for caster and there's no resist involved and your melee reach is now 6" as your sword is out flying like a kite. Misaki Charges your Ramos, moving 7" and there's 5" between us but that's within her new melee range and the melee duel goes as normal. She's got Melee Expert so she swings again. Let's assume she does some damage and in the brouhaha she doesn't use any of her cards in hand, letting fate guide her strikes as they go. Ramos lives.
My activation and I opt for Ramos who's itching to give some love back. As Wind is written, the 6" reach lasts only during her activation, so Ramos is not engaged now. He is in good board position but the Merc army can maneuver really well and he doesn't like feeling so exposed. I want to make a Spider and it'll only cost (0) AP but it would cost a Tome of 8 or better and I'm only holding that one card to do it: 10 Tome. I have to plan my whole activation before I do anything because he's a Tome hog. I don't have to move to fry that wench, Misaki, so I'll have (3) AP to do it with spells (1 from Casting Expert). Unfortunately, I hoped to use my Tome on the Electrical Fire spell as it would not only get my number high for possibly more damage, but more importantly trigger Surge and allow me to cycle one of my 3 crappy cards away for something more useful. So, I decide that I'll try to fry her first and hope fate gets me the Surge and I'll wait for the spider or that cheat until the last minute to see if I get it to work all on its own.
I attempt to cast Electrical Fire at Misaki. I flip a card (you do nothing but wait until I'm completely done generating my casting numbers). It's a 8 crow bringing my total to 16 crow/tomes (tomes built into my Ca stat). The spell can be successfully cast but I must cheat it as high as I want before unleashing it and with Misaki's Df (defense) of 5 I know you'd need at least a 12 to avoid it altogether. I let it stand without cheating it and blast you. You flip for Misaki's defense and flip a 9 ram so you're at 14 ram defense and don't have the cards in hand to make it any better so you take it. Like a normal combat duel, my damage flip is based off of the difference between our values to determine Twists of Fate and we're between 1-5 so :mali-fate. I flip an additional card for the negative fate and must use the lowest with no ability to cheat it and flip a 11 ram and 5 mask. I've gotta use the weak damage of that 5 mask so 2 damage off of Electrical Fire's damage of 2/3/4 and Misaki is down to 5 wounds left.
Ramos does it all again for his second AP. He flips a 5 tome. That would be cool because he'd get his Surge trigger to go, but his casting total is only at 13 and he must get at least a 14 or the spell won't even work. Instead of cheating that away with a bigger card from his hand, I opt to use a soulstone and discard one of my three. I flip a card from my control deck, put it into play and add the value to my casting total. I flip a 11 crow so my casting total is 24 tome/tome/crow. I unleash that hell upon Misaki. You flip a 12 ram so your defense is 17 ram and you're again holding nothing that can make it better. The difference is in the 6-10 range meaning my damage flip will be a single, neutral flip with no twists of fate. I flip a lousy 1 mask so weak damage. But, since it wasn't under a negative fate flip, I can cheat it. I use my 10 crow from my hand making it moderate, or 3 damage and Misaki's at 2 remaining life.
I activate the Surge trigger allowing me to discard a card and draw a card. I discard the 3 Tome, keeping the Black Joker in my hand and draw a 7 mask. I kept the Black Joker because I don't want it to go to the discard pile. Between turns it would get shuffled into the fate deck and I don't want to see it come up when I'm not expecting it so I just hold it.
I use another AP to fire it off again, knowing that if I hit her with any level of damge I'd whipe her out. So, I flip and it's an 8 mask bringing my total to 16 mask/tome. Not amazing, but you haven't been using cards to protect Misaki in the defense duel so you either don't have them or you're holding them for something better during your offensive strikes. Either way, I figure I'll be safe enough with what I flip (you'll again need a 12 to avoid it altogether). The spell goes off and now you have the flip and it turns a 12 crow! The queen smiles on you as your total hits a 17! I wish I could go back and nudge the spell with either my 12 ram from the hand or burn a soulstone. Misaki, unfortunately, is still standing.
Ramos a card hog, and specifically a Tomes hog, but he's got quite a bit of versatility. You just have to be patient and run him well. In this example, I could have made a spider, backed up, cast Arcing Screen for protection, and still tried to fry her with an Electrical Fire.
The basic duel is used in almost all occassions where one model interacts with another model. However, the core concepts of spellcasting might look the same, but the order of operations are slightly different and certain new requirements have to be met.
The first difference to get your head around is that if my model is generating some kind of bad effect against one of your models and you will be allowed to defend against it in a duel, instead of flipping the cards at the same time and then cheating in the order of "loser first, then the other player", in spell casting the caster must generate the entirety of the spells casting value before the defender does anything at all. Think of it like the Master must focus and harness all of his fate manipulaton and magic/spirit manipulation into the big energy blast and then unleash it all. When defending against a spell, the defender will know right from the start what the numbers are to beat and the casting total will never go back to the caster for any additional opportunity for a cheat.
In this example, I'll be running Ramos with a hand that looks like 12 ram, 10 crow, 10 tome, 4 tome, 3 tome, and the Black Joker (and 4 soulstones). You're running a merc list and your hand looks a bit disappointing with 10 ram, 8 mask, 7 crow, 4 ram, 4 mask, 1 mask.
It's your activation and you begin with Misaki (full stats on page 196). It's only the second turn and there's still a bit of space between both of our forces, but I've arrogantly left my Ramos out in the open, thinking he's safe with so much territory. You eyeball it and guess that there's about 12" between your Misaki and my Ramos and must have overlooked some of Misaki's tricks. Because of that distance, Misaki doesn't need to consider any of her spells other than (0) Wind as all of her spells affect her and her combat potential. She attempts to cast (0) Wind (and I realize what's about to happen and would like to Counterspell that but Counterspell only works if I am targeted and here I am not being targeted) and she flips her card which is a 6 Tome but she need to hit a 10 mask with her Ca of 5 no attached suit. So she's at 11 tome - high enough value, but not the suit. She'll have to cheat in order to make it work, but her options are limited to the 8 mask, 4 mask, or that Ace and the 4 would leave her CC (casting cost) too low and you hate to give one of your only decent cards in hand to this one spell. But you don't have a choice if you hope anything good happens as your hand sucks and the rest of your models aren't in a good position, either, so you cheat with the 8 Mask and discard the 6 Tome. So your Wind spell works as it's range is C for caster and there's no resist involved and your melee reach is now 6" as your sword is out flying like a kite. Misaki Charges your Ramos, moving 7" and there's 5" between us but that's within her new melee range and the melee duel goes as normal. She's got Melee Expert so she swings again. Let's assume she does some damage and in the brouhaha she doesn't use any of her cards in hand, letting fate guide her strikes as they go. Ramos lives.
My activation and I opt for Ramos who's itching to give some love back. As Wind is written, the 6" reach lasts only during her activation, so Ramos is not engaged now. He is in good board position but the Merc army can maneuver really well and he doesn't like feeling so exposed. I want to make a Spider and it'll only cost (0) AP but it would cost a Tome of 8 or better and I'm only holding that one card to do it: 10 Tome. I have to plan my whole activation before I do anything because he's a Tome hog. I don't have to move to fry that wench, Misaki, so I'll have (3) AP to do it with spells (1 from Casting Expert). Unfortunately, I hoped to use my Tome on the Electrical Fire spell as it would not only get my number high for possibly more damage, but more importantly trigger Surge and allow me to cycle one of my 3 crappy cards away for something more useful. So, I decide that I'll try to fry her first and hope fate gets me the Surge and I'll wait for the spider or that cheat until the last minute to see if I get it to work all on its own.
I attempt to cast Electrical Fire at Misaki. I flip a card (you do nothing but wait until I'm completely done generating my casting numbers). It's a 8 crow bringing my total to 16 crow/tomes (tomes built into my Ca stat). The spell can be successfully cast but I must cheat it as high as I want before unleashing it and with Misaki's Df (defense) of 5 I know you'd need at least a 12 to avoid it altogether. I let it stand without cheating it and blast you. You flip for Misaki's defense and flip a 9 ram so you're at 14 ram defense and don't have the cards in hand to make it any better so you take it. Like a normal combat duel, my damage flip is based off of the difference between our values to determine Twists of Fate and we're between 1-5 so :mali-fate. I flip an additional card for the negative fate and must use the lowest with no ability to cheat it and flip a 11 ram and 5 mask. I've gotta use the weak damage of that 5 mask so 2 damage off of Electrical Fire's damage of 2/3/4 and Misaki is down to 5 wounds left.
Ramos does it all again for his second AP. He flips a 5 tome. That would be cool because he'd get his Surge trigger to go, but his casting total is only at 13 and he must get at least a 14 or the spell won't even work. Instead of cheating that away with a bigger card from his hand, I opt to use a soulstone and discard one of my three. I flip a card from my control deck, put it into play and add the value to my casting total. I flip a 11 crow so my casting total is 24 tome/tome/crow. I unleash that hell upon Misaki. You flip a 12 ram so your defense is 17 ram and you're again holding nothing that can make it better. The difference is in the 6-10 range meaning my damage flip will be a single, neutral flip with no twists of fate. I flip a lousy 1 mask so weak damage. But, since it wasn't under a negative fate flip, I can cheat it. I use my 10 crow from my hand making it moderate, or 3 damage and Misaki's at 2 remaining life.
I activate the Surge trigger allowing me to discard a card and draw a card. I discard the 3 Tome, keeping the Black Joker in my hand and draw a 7 mask. I kept the Black Joker because I don't want it to go to the discard pile. Between turns it would get shuffled into the fate deck and I don't want to see it come up when I'm not expecting it so I just hold it.
I use another AP to fire it off again, knowing that if I hit her with any level of damge I'd whipe her out. So, I flip and it's an 8 mask bringing my total to 16 mask/tome. Not amazing, but you haven't been using cards to protect Misaki in the defense duel so you either don't have them or you're holding them for something better during your offensive strikes. Either way, I figure I'll be safe enough with what I flip (you'll again need a 12 to avoid it altogether). The spell goes off and now you have the flip and it turns a 12 crow! The queen smiles on you as your total hits a 17! I wish I could go back and nudge the spell with either my 12 ram from the hand or burn a soulstone. Misaki, unfortunately, is still standing.
Ramos a card hog, and specifically a Tomes hog, but he's got quite a bit of versatility. You just have to be patient and run him well. In this example, I could have made a spider, backed up, cast Arcing Screen for protection, and still tried to fry her with an Electrical Fire.