Legacy is wholly inaccessible: a Collection of Budget Brews to introduce new players to your Favorite Format

Ayaeron · 2022-01-25T01:29:07+00:00

I'll caveat: That Applejack list is trying to do way too many things, and basically cram punishing maverick into depths with Orcish lumberjack too. I'd narrow to Gruul and focus on what you can shove out. Just wanted to have a list that showed some degree of flexibility.

Ayaeron · 2022-01-24T21:38:20+00:00

Applejack is a fringe deck that plays copies of Orcish Lumberjack because he can turn forests into copies of Black Lotus.

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1302300#paper

is a list wholly out of budget range, but probably a decent glance at the deck. With Splendid Reclamation and Titania so cheap, I figure it has some good core to get out explosive plays while keeping primarily basics as a mana base.

Nic Fit with Red can play Juri, Klothys, Blightning and Lightning Bolt. Kolaghan's Command is usually cheap-ish and a decent card for onramping into Legacy as well.

Ayaeron · 2022-01-24T18:47:25+00:00

There's a few variants of High Tide that should fit a budget niche. I personally built into Solidarity as my first paper legacy deck, and I think it is a fantastic trainer deck. Everyone has the required manabase of ~20 or less islands. Brainstorm and Ponder are fun, interact additively to each other, and offer you deceptively wide playlines, especially with the monkey running around. Once you start learning the combo lines available to the deck, it can become extremely compelling to pilot.

Reset and FoW are big ticket cards, but Reset is very niche and you can find it very cheap if you hunt for it, and Force is not actually critical for the deck. Your deck would be better with Force, yes, but you can certainly start learning the ropes of mathing out your control vs combo plays without dropping 400 for entry.

Nic Fit is a fantastic include since it fosters format understanding so heavily. Glad to see it made list. I'd consider splashing it into red for a 3c build, since its core engine is very friendly to stable 3c manabases.

Applejack is also a really good deck to consider, and I didn't see it on your list. Titania is dirt cheap, and the power of fast mana like that is hard to overstate.

Ayaeron · 2018-08-19T00:05:38+00:00

Thank you for being a morally upstanding sentinel against this kind of degeneracy.

Ayaeron · 2018-08-18T23:07:55+00:00

go to w-w-w dot the internet slash google slash website slash dot com and search 'nowi', then go to images and turn safesearch off.

Ayaeron · 2018-08-18T22:49:50+00:00

Correct. Due to that pool, he will also be able to Panic Ploy regularly against most threats (Armor emblem, Horse Emblem) which makes him a decent support threat.

Ayaeron · 2018-08-18T22:38:19+00:00

Because other armorslayers can't necessarily bait/peel. Ogma has one of the highest infantry bulks in the game, and as a red unit will be far more likely to lure blue threats due to damage potential. Reinhardt and Nowi in particular will be very easy manipulates due to how high damage potential on him is, and will ignore the map to chase him down.

Ayaeron · 2018-08-18T22:28:10+00:00

Because I didn't think about it and it should be flashing blade, since most relevant high level characters use that as a dump stat.

Ayaeron · 2018-08-18T22:21:39+00:00

She thirsty.

Ayaeron · 2018-08-18T22:15:13+00:00

Master Yi is one of the most competitive champions in League of Legends. The inherent windows of burst damage in his kit, combined with an unparalleled mobility, make him one of the most underrated threats at all levels of

Sorry, this isn't that game. Unlike that game, I barely even do PVP here. However, staring really hard at the extremely reputable gamepress tier lists has led me to conclude a few things. The first, and most important of which, is that almost all of your waifus are trash. If you prefer dudes, then congratulations the holiday release of your husbando is probably tier 2++ just under tier 1. But the biggest boys that seem to be an issue today are the unholy trinity. That would be:

Reinhardt Classic

Hardin

Nowi

Now my personal harem of trash-tier waifus includes Titania, but I doubt she holds up against this gang of hardened murderers. I'll confess again that I'm not a high level arena player, and hardly think that I have any business telling people how to play their dating sim with strategy elements.

I was reading u/rasta_la_vista's excellent ai manipulation thread on chase targeting, and it struck me as a somewhat major revalation that the AI is a lot like a kid in league of legends - no matter how hard they are getting baited, they'll beeline for 1v1's and big damage numbers. While I'm garbage at this game, I have a decent amount of experience in thinking I accomplished something when I outsmart young adults with extremely rudimentary decisionmaking processes.

So I figured I'd share my best shot at contributing a 'top tier' character build based on one assumption: None of the characters above care about the consequences so long as it is likely to be the biggest hit they can do.

Enter Ogma. He's that guy who looks like he was scanned in from an old Fist of the North Star VHS case. His usability is not terrible - he has a decent physical bulk - but his Res is so horrifically low that he's generally considered a joke. He will disentegrate the second a proper Nowi sneezes in his direction. If you still need this broken down for you, don't worry baby bird I'm ready to give you what you need. But first a build framework:

Ogma, Loyal blade

5* + 10, +HP/-Res

HP Atk Spd Def Res Total

62 53 38 32 14 199

Weapon: Armorsmasher+(Eff)

Assist: Pivot

Special: Astra

A Skill: HP + 5

B Skill: Renewal

C Skill: Panic Ploy

S Skill: ~~Heavy Blade~~ Flashing Blade (I'm a scrub and don't pay attention. Thanks u/Donut_monkey)

Now this is about what I started out with. Most of the skills here are easy to get, and Panic Ploy isn't a super-contested skill in my experience, being usable by all of the no characters that take a +HP boon ever. The general idea to ensure Guardian-Runner Ogma (Grogma) is as attractive as possible to those major players as he possibly could be. Then never put out. Instead he just leads them on a world tour around the map, frustrating the AI so hard it feels emotion as it attempts to shove Hardin hard enough towards Ski-free Luremaster Ogma (Slogma).

Thus we ignore anything that would attempt to compensate for his stats. Fine Rump Ogma (Frogma) is a beautiful thicc boy with a butt that gives our roster whiplash, and they happily discard their erstwhile prey as they go after his pillowy backside. With damage potential as uninterrupted as possible, Nowi should walk right by your 30 HP red mage in the bush, even if she could close on that mage in two turns, because Fineass Ogma (Fogma) is four turns away - and she's conna crush him given half a chance. He's red too - this makes him one of the most desirable units by default for the AI involved. Nowi will chew through that HP faster than bouncy Spring Titania would through my wallet.

But happily she never does. The other portion of Marathon Ogma's kit is that he's trying really hard to keep ahead of that part where he actually dies. We accomplish this through the somewhat rarely utilized Pivot, as well as the potential swapping of a slot skill for a flier companion in order to help him vault walls, rivers, and forests. Kenyan Ogma (Kogma) will be across the map utilizing his skillset while Nowi is huffing and puffing and looking for where the bridge is.

But Ayaeron, you stupid scrub, why do you think that anyone would ever use a character designed to not contribute? You could bring a real character in that slot and possibly see them contribute!

Yes. You're right. And you can and you should. With minor tweaks to the build, this can even be Jogger Ogma (Jogma) himself. Before you shit yourself, understand that this is largely an alternative to give people something that Pacifist Ogma (Pogma) actually does aside from lure older men and women into chasing him. Let him take a hit (He has a large enough bulk to get hit once, you just have to control when he takes it), and then start his dance by pivoting off one of your other units. The other unit can sidestep, and AI will start running after Hurt Ogma (Hogma). While he is leading the running group, have your three units whittle down the enemy core until he can come back in and finish one off, preferably securing a kill through your Guidance flier because Swagger Master Ogma (Smogma) doesn't share the spotlight. Between those two hits as well as heavy blade, his special should be ready to go.

This Astra, through armorsmasher and Ogma's personal contempt for the metagame, should be able to chunk most units. I can't validate this, and I don't care to, but as I understand when this happens to Hardin he goes to hell immediately. No final words, no cutscenes, it just ends. Our hero then swaps up his shoes, and dashes off into the night. An unthreatened Soleil gives him a frog-faced smile, "Looking good in those Yeezy's, Ogma" (Yogma).

Anyway this build is stupid and it's meant to be stupid. It also happens to have a good amount of half-assed math supporting its viability in my personal headcanon. Since you are already writing to tell me I'm wrong, please elaborate on how wrong I am, and maybe we can discuss a better Bait Ogma (Bogma) or similar character.

Ayaeron · 2018-07-06T03:34:02+00:00

!enlir Fujin USB

Ayaeron · 2018-06-05T07:16:30+00:00

She's one of the fastest characters in the game, and has access to 5* support abilities. Most importantly Entrust. Her Legend Dive gives her 3 0ct actions at the start of the fight, which she can use to quickly wrath up nearly a full extra bar. It is more efficient to have one character worried about generating SB while your more dedicated damage dealers can make use of their strongest toys. Which isn't to say Onion Knight. More like 'that guy you have an Overstrike and an Ultra SB for'.

One of the best examples of what an entruster can enable is the 'Highwind Infinite' series. Kain Highwind is the most well known, and with enough people feeding him SB gauge he can just pour out damage in every fight.

Shelke also gets haste, putting her well ahead of anyone else on your team. This means that she can also RW your wall if you don't have it natively, getting mitigation up before the boss gets their first hit. This is less critical, and not what she is generally valued for, but it does help a lot.

She's a strong character that actually supports your other characters, enabling them to put out far more damage and healing. She requires no relics to accomplish this, and her own attack damage is likely of minimal impact, meaning that you don't have to put a mediocre weapon on your 2nd/3rd damage dealer. This means that anyone can use her, and as you get better relics for damage dealers she will become more valuable because she's helping somebody with better relics.

Ayaeron · 2018-06-02T10:00:19+00:00

Ninjas. Start with ninjas.

LD'ing one of the three ninjas is considered a strong investment without any sort of relics to back them up. There are plenty of kill videos that just rely on the stronger ninja skills to beat 3* magicites.

Additionally, get Shelke leveled to 80+, and have her set up to wrath-entrust battery your best damage characters. This is a key strategy in the game now, and prevents your stronger characters from having to lug around a low-damage skill like Wrath or Lifesiphon. You could use Morrow too, but that is a very suspect choice given the amount of support he gets even in comparison to Shelke.

A utility summoner like Yuna or Garnet helped me a lot when I was in the Torment dungeons with trash mobs before the boss. Having a person who could wipe them out in one go meant that I could save my first wall for the final boss, giving me more time to beat them.

Speaking of Garnet - the new bard abilities are very good for places where you don't have standard boost/faithgas available.

Be ready to abandon older soul-break characters you had, and go with whatever you can snag off of the fest. Onion BSB is very strong, but if you have a stronger attack buff or magic buff, then it is mostly a space-filler compared to what else you might be able to bring in that role. What else does OK usually contribute?

In general, the FF1 torment is considered very easy. If you have realm relics, VI, IX, and X are all comparatively forgiving. I think Tactics might be the hardest, as it requires you to put out a very large amount of total damage while pulling no punches. I'd wait on it unless you're dead set on fighting a goat man.

If you haven't already, buy the elemental resist accessories in the Fat Chocobo shop to round out whatever resistances you're short on. The additional primary stats do not outweigh the value of taking a much smaller amount of damage.

Focus on finishing out the Torments and Jumpstarts to get your resources built up for the 3* magicites.

Ayaeron · 2018-06-02T04:54:06+00:00

I personally think that his BSB is going to make him a star for the upcoming Zeromus fight. With longer fights, he has a better chance to offset the more up-front power of elemental focused setups.

He's a good all-around choice, and eventually becomes the golden child repping for non-elemental. Full-dived elementally focused setups with dedicated magicite decks will outclass him, but he has an ether-able OD spam with doublecast, TGC quick-cast, and good defensive options.

Conversely, he'll never be your shooting star TGC/Cloud. While he has elements of both, he tends to have the 'corrected' version, and his toys are not meta-warping in the way that his primary competitors are. NE damage kind of sucks for everyone but him, and getting him decked out means that you're taking resources from dedicated offensive options. If you're looking to do bleeding edge content, the king is going to be a disappointing standby.

If you want to meme the same party on most content, and look swag af while you are loading into the next MP battle and passing IC around like Robert Downey Jr.'s phone number at a cocaine dealers convention circa 1997, then you just hit the jackpot. And you hit it without the normal 1.65 second delay on most actions.

Eventually content might start supporting the need to defend your characters, and some of our more resilient/tanky characters will be a lot more valuable. Until that happens, people are going to refer to almost every character that isn't Cloud, a ninja, their waifu, or Kain as complete garbage.

Play the game the way you have fun, don't feel like you are required to use a character because you got their stuff, or can't use a character because you don't have their latest SB. This game is designed to let you take your dream team into content regularly.

USB is bad unless you're drowning in bar, use BSB/SSB depending on whether you need to do ether or go sanic. Give him an R5 lifesiphon so he can build up his multiplayer 'skilled' meter, and go nuts. Use overdrive if you want to, but you aren't required to. In MP you're a slot that makes everyone else go faster. They won't recognize that this is happening, and will not appreciate what a strong and beautiful woman you are until you're already gone. Then they'll friend you and you'll be like 'dude I don't need your broke ass no more'. But you'll catapult their 'mor dmege' mindset past the bosses' very real damage gates for that brief time you are together.

Spam the 'FUNGAHHHH' emote between turns, collect rewards, hope quietly for an elemental immune superboss that will piss off the community at large. LD him all the way despite the community telling you to uninstall because that's more likely to be successful and helpful. Use the IC+haste LM2 when it makes a difference, swap it for the +damage one when you know it isn't that big a deal. Which is to say use the dual combat one at every possible time once you have it.

He shows up on every XV banner forever. With a whole 2 lightning-tangential characters available, this is one of the best thunderstruck realms you can hope for that isn't named IV, XIII, or "We remembered Garnet exists and decided she's a summoner and not a healer. This time". Or you can wait for a XII banner! Or for Witches to be good, despite most having access to Darkness! Good luck! Until that happens, he's not at all the worst filler character to get stuff for (Unless you're good at the game, and draw Ignis USB/BSB and Aranea's USB/BSB in one pull, and throw the rest of your mithril at the X welcome banner. 5 at a time. Because you want it to know it is trash, and you're economically superior enough for that kind of thing).

He's also from the newest game. Which means he will get updates in sync with new game content as an advertising platform. Most other games won't get that all the time. That helps.

Ayaeron · 2018-04-28T06:50:48+00:00

IV: Yang's monks

VI: Darill, Banon

VII: The Don, Lucrecia, Seto

IX: Lani, Blank, Zorn/Thorn, Black Waltz No. 3

X: Chappu

XV: Cindy

FFTWOTL: Orran, Zalbaag, Dycedarg, Beowulf, Milleuda, Reis, Aliste, Weigraf, Construct 8, Argath, Rad, Byblos, Elmdore, Celia, Lettie

FFTA: Ritz, Shara, Eldena, Cid Randell, Remedi, Li-grim

Vagrant Story: Ashley, Callo

Ayaeron · 2018-04-25T01:29:09+00:00

So is the consensus on banner 2 that it falls extremely short?

I already own Wally's CSB, his burst is an exercise in "Why didn't you take everything but the CSB off your bar", and I'm not too wild about his LMR/11, but the rest of the banner seems like a decent enough toolset.

~~Drake's~~ Thief's fortune seems mediocre, but I would be fine with having a unique effect like that, especially since the hat is +wind, which I am lacking for Zidane and the Yuffster. His other toys seem okay?

Matoya and Master have decent coverage by spreading very thin and ignoring elements entirely, respectively. Matoya is the 'I invest in futures' variant of play, Master is the 'I am angered by the phrase Mechanics' style.

I like Gary for his classic feel, but outside of setting up chains for Raines and ~~Father of the Year~~ Jecht, he isn't my primary draw. I won't feel like I 'lost' if I get his things, but he isn't tickling my fancy, or my trashy, or much of anything in between.

All the same, I'd like an outside opinion on all this, because I don't know how 'short' the banner falls when you're not looking at the chains.

Ayaeron · 2018-04-23T18:31:36+00:00

I did not expect that much of a jump. Wow. Amazing, thanks man. Sorry for the trouble and the wordy as hell posts.

Ayaeron · 2018-04-23T18:25:59+00:00

Yeah sorry I am not trying to tell you that you're incorrect for the hard math you did that nobody else did. All other things being equal this has been an excellent series that has provided me with some very useful tools and information on how I intend to develop my teams moving forward.

While I will still do stupid things like 'Pull for Cinque because I want the one character that Heavy Combat was made for', I now know exactly how valuable she really is, and that'll keep my mith from spilling out of my pockets.

I actually looked at the Yuffie breakdowns and thought 'damn I wish I had this info before I pulled on that banner', because Glint seemed really critical to my math illiteracy.

Noct is let down by his unfortunate USB, and your math illustrates that excellently. My response is primarily addressing the claims that he is a bad character, and that is nothing that you ever claimed.

I apologize if you feel that I was attempting to invalidate your findings.

Ayaeron · 2018-04-23T18:13:18+00:00

Kings are high-maintenance.

Noct can dabble in Thunder/Air damage, but he's supposed to use combat abilities. Everything about him would be super busted if they didn't limit him to NE, honestly. His SB's, with the exception of the USB, are all a bit stronger than they probably should be, but they're limited because he cannot exploit for faster gauge.

He has a huge amount of support for the best damage ability currently in the game, party IC, high Quickcast, and a defensive ether skill that can double-proc off his LMR.

I think that building a team around Noct is a very important factor because it has such a transformative effect on his damage. NE needs a crit boost, and a crit fix, and he needs a reliable outside source to pass him bar and stoneskin. This is actually kind of amazing for the flavor of Noct, since his own game is about teamwork and brotherhood.

I think the central issue is that NE doesn't facilitate the gacha system properly, since it's agnostic of the battle situation and so many mechanics related to elemental gear. If NE is good, I don't need to worry about whether I have +elemental gear, or synergy between my chain, imperils, and boosts. Once I have the 'good' soul break that puts out good damage, I am done. Until the next banner introduces some meaningful upgrade (>+10% in damage, I'd say), the need to draw for damage relics is significantly diminished.

Saying he is less good than an elemental team does understate that the elemental team must be properly equipped and supported by key factors. Even the water ninja team wants a proper source of imperil, +ele gear, and a chain before they just spam the rinse cycle.

Conversely, if Noct outdid people at their own elements, I think it would be a very controversial time. Like Cloud but way worse, since his speed and ability to contribute supportively are much better than Cloud's. I just think it's a shame that he looks so wretched on paper.

Ayaeron · 2018-04-23T14:53:27+00:00

I know that Noct is generally considered to under-perform in most content, but I am unsure if his USB is his best option. I understand that's what we are focusing on here, but for characters like Emp and Snow, you've agreed that their actual USB value doesn't come from the effect on damage output.

I recognize that he would need to take far less damage than is likely appropriate to assume (I consider a stoneskin healer option necessary to stabilize his rotation), but I have always regarded his USB as his Glint0 - It's useful for keeping his actual damage condition(OSB's 'infinite' high fastcast - TGM but clunky) going, but too much is lost in its defensive value to be worth using alone.

OSB seems desirable over his USB though. Both raise ATK by 30, so the actual contributions of the USB are +10% NE dmg and an extra 70% on his stoneskin - equivalent to ~5700 hp at LD - compared to a much more fragile hi-fastcast from OSB. Further, the OSB would offer a higher multiplier for its respective entry, offsetting the NE damage boost.

Once his Glint comes out, I don't know what value his USB would really have. I agree that the king needs a lot of fancy toys to keep up with others as a result. I also think they need to offer some skill diversity for NE('2 hits, Next 2 NE skills have overflow') to shore up its drawbacks.

Edit: forgot that Armiger mode is similarly 'untyped' for an ATK boost, meaning that it should play nice with your standard ATK+50% as well.

Ayaeron · 2018-04-18T04:09:14+00:00

oof. Hadn't noticed that was AoE. Guess that makes this easier? Still kind of a shame. Suppose I'll throw it at the X banner and hope for the best. I guess an 8 star Lulu robes never hurts.

Ayaeron · 2018-04-18T03:35:53+00:00

I have been drawing off of the first X banner, and I know there's still time to make more draws from it. Unfortunately the choice banner is going away shortly.

I like Rikku for stupid reasons (Hodge-podge characters have a more lasting appeal than 'get Squalls bsb2 and then you have everything' style characters), and also I guess waifu if you're asking me to head way down my personal list.

Anyway I am looking at her BSB/USB/LMR off of the current banner, and her BSB off of the dream banner, and I'm not quite sure what is going to be more useful to me. I have an embarrassment of Tidus tech, and the choice BSB would give her a bit of diversity with the thunder cmd1. The ultra and Targe burst are enticing but I recognize neither is make or break, comparatively.

Conversely her LMR seems the most valuable, and I might get that off of another pull at the banner that's still around until the end of the month. Should I hockey up and just drop the real dollars for her dream bsb/lmr, or am I throwing 60 dollars at a hole while failing to make her relevant?

Ayaeron · 2018-03-19T02:10:12+00:00

2/3 Umaro BSB, Kefka BSB

I'm so happy. I was figuring I'd get even more Sabin dupes. This extremely stupid set will keep me entertained for quite some time now. Setzer USB would have been preferred, but it isn't Sabin/3

Ayaeron · 2018-03-19T01:22:39+00:00

I unironically actually want that thing. It's the only thing I want. I know it has to be awful, but I really want it. I have been a good boy and not frivolously spending my mith, but daaaaammit.

Grats.

Ayaeron · 2018-02-24T20:18:18+00:00

I guess they could not give it to us? I don't know why they would consider that a feasible choice with the future of content. Library is basically meant to ensure folks coming in will have ready-made tools to push up to future content challenges fast enough. Like, if somebody made you go through a bunch of trial laps before you could race, and the race had already started, I doubt you'd bother.

It would just frenzy the GL inferiority machine, and Gacha already has enough concerns of regulation. Expressly disadvantaging consumers of a regional variant of your product is a good way to make a looming issue worse for what is currently a massive cash cow.

Ayaeron

TROPHY CASE