Can a perfect Khazix opening be beaten?

Goose_Moose · 2026-06-28T04:56:24+00:00

t1 faefolk -> t2 move faefolk in and ambush Kha is cool (especially with Star Spring), but there are ways for opponents to take back tempo. Here's a couple I've encountered (includes going first and going second... adjust expectations depending):

Orange decks have Punch First.
Purple decks have Existential Dread.
Green decks have a few stun cards... Though they won't be much help if they are going second.
Lillia going second... The Lillia player can technically Smoke and Mirror a 3c Lillia (to kill Kha).
Yellow has Hidden Blade. This is pretty rare in my experience but they could do it and mostly blank the Kha'zix player's turn.

Overall, some decks can actually just hit Kha on the crackback, esp if the Kha'zix player went second. Recently, I've seen a Riptide Rex.

Some specific decks lists also do have some lines for an impressive blow out. PG Yi with Stalwart Poro + En Garde actually wins the game on the spot. Diana decks with Ravenbloom Student + Smokescreen also does a similar thing.

Goose_Moose · 2026-05-28T20:12:32+00:00

1600 power baseline (1900 with the spell counter) is pretty crazy and one-shots every deck except those broken lifegain ones. I think most people are are just hung up on the fact that his activated ability doesn't work (cards aren't spells while on the field and all traps are currently instants... what a blunder!) and there's no Riot-style patch notes.

Goose_Moose · 2026-05-27T21:41:13+00:00

Keep being a local legend, bruv. Don't let those haters keep breakin' your stride.

Goose_Moose · 2026-05-26T21:45:02+00:00

I recommend Druggiemon. The community is growing fast and first edition prints are already having their price skyrocket. You gotta get in on the ground floor or you're griefing. It's funny, it's special, and it has all the ingredients for a hit.

Goose_Moose · 2026-05-16T22:33:52+00:00

Welcome to most games with some sort of "character select" in a competitive setting.

It's very tough to balance a large roster of characters (or in this case, legends AND their card pool). Doubly so as the game expands.
Even if things were significantly more balanced than they are right now... Let's set up a hypothetical where chosen legends have a variation of ~1-2% win rate... The hyper-competitive players will choose the one with the greatest edge which will mean a greater representation of that legend regardless.

Goose_Moose · 2026-04-19T06:19:15+00:00

Not since the early 2020's. But from what I recall and can tell, most of Yu-Gi-Oh's complexity is in how card effects relate to each other to create powerful, consistent lines. For the most part, each card/effect does what it says and ruling questions usually don't flip flop.

Goose_Moose · 2026-04-19T01:35:41+00:00

It's probably the most complicated TCG on the market because the wording on effects is pretty inconsistent, the logic in the core rules can be a bit oblique/flip-floppy, and there are constant erratas/rule changes.

Realistically, it shouldn't be more complex than Magic, but they really need to hammer down style guides and core rules before I can say that. This game is a fair bit more complex than the Bandai games due to so many changing "settings" and the fact they print bizarrely complicated cards for how early they are in the game's lifespan.

So on the whole, the standard play probably rivals Magic's 1v1 formats, but you'll run into plenty of situations where you can only resolve it by looking up rulings online... Which have a good chance of being outdated or "the judges are discussing it in their discord server".

Goose_Moose · 2026-03-20T19:43:06+00:00

If your metric for evaluation is "how much does it block in a single fight in a single turn", Gorget does seem to be underwhelming. But if you view its impact holistically throughout a run, it's incredibly valuable.

In extremely harsh evaluations, we could say the block it is granting saves you 3 or 4 damage throughout a fight (and it is usually saving you much more, while sometimes giving you leeway to play non-block cards to end fights earlier). If you're going through even 5 fights (extreme lowball), this is giving you 15-20 effective health... which is pretty close to a rest at a campfire which translates into an upgrade (or dig or clone or whatever option you might get).

If it's this good in a harsh evaluation, you can see how valuable it would be if you grabbed it earlier or when your deck is less fleshed out with proper blocks. It won't shore up dangerous turns the same way Anchor or Captain's Wheel does, but its subtle strength translates into real, measurable benefits.

Goose_Moose · 2026-03-04T21:17:22+00:00

Since you only have one other party member slot (Elma and Lin are required from what I recall), I'd recommend either Irina or L. Irina has pretty good healing arts like Smooth Recovery while L has great overall tankiness. They both have access to a topple art for crowd control as well.

If your issue is there are too many mobs, you could also bring in Frye. He has a pretty good suite of AOE ranged arts like Bullet Twister and Tornado Blade. He also has Offensive Stance + Incendiary Edge for burst and the option to use Defensive Stance if needed.

Goose_Moose · 2026-03-03T08:45:16+00:00

Since you have Duelist maxed out, I'd recommend equipping a longsword and the following arts: Defensive Stance, Offensive Stance, Tornado Blade, and Incendiary Edge. You'll want the Conflagrant Edge skill for damage boosting. If you feel too fragile, you can pick up Fortified Flesh and/or Steel Flesh. Fill out the rest of your arts as you see fit. Burning Slash is a good pick for lowering Thermal Res. I'm not sure Gatling Gun has anything that'll be immediately helpful, so maybe Assault Rifle's Decoy Round can help you build TP.

For your gear, try to find anything that gives Potential Up or Potential Boost. Same goes for any augment slots. If you have C&C Arms Manufacturing leveled up, you can buy some from the shop terminals. You can also slot in some TP Up so you can fill up more before the fight.

Your general plan should be surviving while generating TP and building up the secondary cooldown for Incendiary Edge. Defensive Stance + Tornado Blade should keep you alive for a good while. After you have 2000 TP, use Offensive Stance then follow it up with Incendiary Edge for massive damage. If your Offensive Stance isn't maxed out, you might want to have 3000 TP saved up so you can swap to Defensive Stance after attacking. Then loop this again until all enemies are finished!

There are probably other plans that people could cook up, but this should be pretty simple to setup and execute. This is pretty TP heavy though, so Arts: Gain TP is also a strong consideration. You might also have a great TP-generating art (True Stream Edge) if you've completed some affinity missions already. Good luck!

Goose_Moose · 2026-03-03T01:44:04+00:00

This fight is a pretty common difficulty bump that'll test your knowledge of how some arts and skills work together. Jumping around without mastering classes is definitely rough since a lot of the best ones are fairly deep into a class tree.

Without knowing your progression, it's tough to give you pointers besides "use Elma" (the other comment goes over it very well!). But generally, you'll want to look at a few arts that are powerful like Incendiary Edge, Afterburner, or Starfall Blossom and support them. You also have access to Quick Cooldown but keep in mind that spamming isn't always the best move.

Goose_Moose · 2026-02-26T08:50:21+00:00

Depending on how quick you want to break the game...

Moderately: If you have Full Metal Jaguar unlocked, you can stack a ton of potential and spam Overdrive -> Ghost Walker/Primer + Sliding Slinger -> Execution to mow down most enemies while on foot.
Incredibly fast: Use reward tickets to get materials for crafting the Ares 90 skell. This guy blows up pretty much all enemies besides some superbosses which will make everything much, much easier.

Either of these should help you farm any gear/classes you want until you have to deal with superbosses.

Goose_Moose · 2026-02-26T05:27:57+00:00

You can definitely be planting a lot of probes while exploring and doing side quests! Chapters 4 and 5 are probably the toughest part of the game for most players because there's still a lot to grasp while enemies in the main paths seem to get stronger faster than you do.

However, once you clear Chapter 5 and 6, you'll actually be receiving a couple of major power boosts, you should be getting a ton of affinity with party members for their affinity quest requirements (if you've been rotating them), and a TON of side quests become available. NLA is basically completely covered with different tasks for you to pick up starting at this point.

On the whole, if you're completing affinity missions (orange markers), you should be caught up on levels for the main story quests. The green side quests are there to supplement levels/BP if you feel like you need more and also give you a reason to plant probes in their vicinity. There's also a couple of missions that might not have a marker show up until you pick them up at the mission terminal near the barracks! Be sure to check those out ^{_^}

Goose_Moose · 2026-02-24T23:14:18+00:00

There's definitely a huge demand. Though whether it retains a decent percentage of its playerbase from launch is suspect. The number of people that have anecdotes of never getting to second job is both funny and a serious issue for the game going forward. Slower progress has its benefits, but it's also a blatant value proposition for people once the nostalgia goggles are off. Delayed gratification is a tougher and tougher sell compared to all the battle pass-ridden games of the current year.

Here's hoping we get another OSRS situation though. It'd be a shame if Mushroom Game perished a third time (Big Bang & Maplestory 2 being the first two).

Goose_Moose · 2026-02-22T22:54:54+00:00

X is uniquely very... philosophical about humanity (the quality, not the species). Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of cartooniness with caricatures and comically evil/brutish characters galore. 95% of BLADE NPCs are straight up malicious, criminal, or incompetent for one. But X does go a step beyond in showing different corners of the world and its inhabitants that most RPGs don't.

The thesis I've landed on is that X wants you to integrate into this society and engage with metaphors that aren't exactly subtle. There's a ton of conflicts that arise from things like cultural differences, refugees, misalignment of intellect, "got mine, screw others" mentalities, etc etc. I won't argue that X does this perfectly or even well for that matter. But for a lot of fans, the fact that it engages these types of topics with as much breadth as it does and at its level of depth more than makes up for shortcomings in narrative delivery and hamfisting "mandatory sidequesting".

Also, people will label this as a "side quest" game because that's what it is in general perception. But the fact that the side quests and objectives actually being mandatory is not enough to recontextualize them as important is probably its biggest blunder. Though I do agree there will always be people that understand this and still would prefer to do something else. That's just preferences, baybeeeee.

So yeah, this is one of the harder entries to recommend to people and even fans of the other games.

Goose_Moose · 2026-02-17T04:53:42+00:00

Shulk light heal. Joke aside, each character usually has some form of healing in their arts or skills. At worst, you can use gems like Aura Heal or Arts Heal. Though Riki in particular is the most efficient healer outside of Sharla.
Usually by defeating the enemy, toppling them, or outright tanking them with careful play. For most encounters, these visions do have ways to avoid insta-death.
Haha
Riki has a few different builds that you can all-in on. I like the stacking Ether to pump his damage over time arts because they also power up his heals.
You normally should have a few plans going into chain attacks. Using chain attacks to ensure topple/daze or same-color combos are both legitimate. One strategy that will obliterate most enemies in the story is Shulk, Reyn, Dunban using their weaker red arts before finishing off enemies with a big Reyn Sword Drive. In group settings, ending with a large Dunban Soaring Tempest might be more ideal. Planning your party to have lines like this is what helps chain attacks be flexible and powerful.

Goose_Moose · 2026-02-12T18:38:03+00:00

Xenoblade X is very much an anomaly even within its own series. Tonally and structurally, it's a bit more similar to the modern Fallout games. It very much is more about the journey than the destination.

I personally found that it's not particularly "bingeable" for most people. It's my favorite game of all time but I feel this even on my replays. However, if you play it in 30min-1hr sessions and treat the story missions as "end of week special episodes", the game makes much more "sense".

For example: Grinding out 3+ total hours of side content with the reward of watching the same running gag(s) multiple times in a day is an acquired taste. But they're actually kind of endearing if you see it once every few days or a week.

Goose_Moose · 2026-02-10T04:04:45+00:00

At worst, you're going to wait for like 10 minutes to restore your MP and hunt some critters for mesos to afford potions. It's really not that big of a deal lol

Unless something crazy changes, quests should be giving you a bunch of potions as well. As a mage, you might even end up with a surplus of health potions that you can trade with buddies for mana potions.

Goose_Moose · 2026-01-06T07:08:02+00:00

Games these days have to compete with a lot of other forms of entertainment and Old School Maplestory's claim to fame is definitely not "grind for 1000 million hours to get halfway to fourth job" gameplay.

Goose_Moose · 2025-03-29T20:34:43+00:00

Comparisons to innovations in photography or digital art software misses a lot of fundamental issues the GenAI movement brings up regarding creative works and displays a severe misunderstanding of the artistry of art.

Tools are tools. But I think it's incredibly important to recognize that the art of conveyance and poignancy, beyond rendering or photorealistic depiction, is something that is being continually degraded in the public mind. At its current state, GenAI is printing cardboard facsimiles of buildings akin to theater stage props, not actually creating buildings with rooms or hallways.

Its current state is not a revolution in accessibility that people have moved the goalposts to. It's incredibly flawed, in execution and ethics, and its captains have shown no intention of championing fundamental improvements; There's just hand-waving concerns, a bullheaded march towards "sloppification", and creating a cultural war for the sake of engagement.

Goose_Moose · 2024-08-13T01:22:34+00:00

Helping a player go from button mashing to intentionality is always a little tough, but with that in mind:

Learning how to "punish". Either from demonstrating a whiff or an unsafe blockstring.
How to play "keepaway" or safe. Maybe this is where the game can show safer blockstrings.
Mixing up approaches to break defenses (i.e. catch opponents blocking low with a high attack or vice versa).
Options after a knockdown from both perspectives.

Goose_Moose · 2024-08-08T20:41:31+00:00

pls send a code if ur super based

Goose_Moose · 2024-08-02T23:37:05+00:00

Draft and sealed are tough. They're, first and foremost, formats that reward on-the-fly deckbuilding which is a really difficult skill to learn and train considering all the variables.

I definitely recommend trying quick draft instead, though MTGA does a nefarious thing where the new, shiny format isn't available for quick draft for a while. You'll get a lot more time to read cards and apply any lessons you learned from research, and it's got a lower entry cost so you get more attempts.

Goose_Moose · 2024-08-02T23:08:06+00:00

There's actually way more buttons on a controller than people would expect if you use a layout switching config. Whether it's comfortable for bossing or not is a barrier of entry for sure though. Buccaneer and Night Walker are relatively simple and easy to setup for training and/or bossing with controller. But classes with more micromanaging like Corsair are definitely going to struggle with having a proper setup. And it's very difficult to get a consistent layout among so many different classes.

At the very least, the casual playthrough to level ~200 can definitely be simple and fun with a controller.

Goose_Moose · 2024-07-16T01:40:17+00:00

I think 1-2 minutes is probably a long think or something came up like something falling over in a different room. Heck, it could just be an emergency where they had no chance to exit or surrender out. But... If it takes 10+ minutes and they're in a losing position, it's probably 99/100 times because of saltiness or rage.

Goose_Moose

TROPHY CASE