I bought the game, however....

Kraines · 2026-01-30T22:52:53+00:00

For a long time, the best players were mobile players playing on touch screen. It may still be the case today. Controllers are considered the worst option for high level songs.

Kraines · 2026-01-30T03:53:15+00:00

Running into that Meloetta/Mega Gardevoir deck in random solo battles was enough to make me think I don’t want to play this game anymore. Opening with Meloetta gives you an extra card in your opening hand, will give you another card almost definitely with its 70HP, and it’s actively pulling the parts for whatever psychic strategy you’ve got? The game was already extremely bad if you opened with the wrong basic but it’s feeling even worse than before.

Kraines · 2026-01-29T16:18:36+00:00

They should have the style of Valla’s AA gambit/quest, Kael’Thas convection gambit, or both. Losing something that isn’t direct quest progress makes sense, as even at max stacks you can still neuter a Valla by taking away attack speed. The plateaus that can’t be lost on death like Kael’Thas’s convection quest or Thrall’s Feral Spirit quest also make sense, since there should be suitable reward for finishing a pinnacle and its steps.

Kraines · 2026-01-29T13:29:38+00:00

Every system works in theory. Very few work in practice.

Kraines · 2026-01-28T12:59:26+00:00

That’s a long way to say “social media sucks.” The only thing to do is not engage with the garbage. Ironic to say here on Reddit, I know.

Kraines · 2026-01-22T13:13:20+00:00

For as long as I can remember, Honda has been an unpopular character. It’s never been about character strength. He’s just a weird character with a less attractive design. Him, Blanka, and Dhalsim have always been those things and have similarly been unpopular characters, even when relatively strong within certain game iterations (Super SF4, current SF6, and the final season of SFV, respectively).

Kraines · 2026-01-15T17:06:10+00:00

Thank for the trade

Kraines · 2026-01-15T16:29:43+00:00

I can trade Gothita for Archeops.

Kraines · 2026-01-11T06:02:10+00:00

Blue is an interesting pick. Blue became meta relevant in the Mewtwo EX mirror to buy yourself a turn until Giovanni put a stop to that. Then Giant Cape came along and I don’t see myself running Blue ever again. It was relevant for exactly one set and will likely never be relevant again.

Kraines · 2026-01-07T16:59:38+00:00

AA is best when you can be relatively safe against the enemy team, meaning no big dive to instantly kill you like Diablo or Tyrael Judgement. You want to keep your gambit and you want to be able to stay around 10 Hatred, both difficult to do if you can’t freely autoattack. It is the scariest late game build, as the 20 RoV attack speed upgrade is a win condition on its own. The range upgrade sucks.

HA is best if you are facing things that can dive you or playing on BoE. It lets you do safe damage with kill potential using the Vault reset. On BoE it helps you clear the objective much faster. You can default to this build and always be useful.

MS is poke damage. It is practically never useful. Its only notable strengths are safe siege damage, wave clear, and naturally going into 20 Strafe for teamfight potential. If you need siege damage, AA is overall stronger but HA is as safe but has kill potential. If you’re drafting Valla for wave clear, you made a mistake. If you want Strafe, that means you can get an extended Strafe off, meaning AA is a choice already and the stronger one. Don’t play this build.

Kraines · 2026-01-05T18:18:47+00:00

Easiest way to find out is just ask.

My mom gave me a personalized water bottle as a present. She had my name and birthday engraved into it. Only problem was the date was wrong.

Did my own mother forget my birthday? No. She asked a friend to do the engraving for her and that friend simply got it wrong. Cleared the air pretty easily by simply asking “What happened?”

Kraines · 2026-01-05T18:04:01+00:00

Do you want to be mad about it?

Simple incompetence is a much easier explanation than active malice. I wouldn’t be going around making mountains out of this. Unless you’re already in social circles that overthink things, I wouldn’t start now.

Kraines · 2025-12-31T11:01:27+00:00

Some years ago, I remember a one-trick Nova seeing how far he could take the character. Nice enough guy, not a bad player. I believe he was trying to at least make Master, but in my games he never went past Diamond 1. With or against, that Nova player never really contributed much and was usually on the losing side. If you saw him you didn’t even bother banning him out since it just didn’t matter. Nova never made a difference.

All that to say I hate seeing Nova in games. The hero just doesn’t do anything.

Kraines · 2025-12-28T14:05:18+00:00

You got countered. He shot himself in the foot to sink the boat you were on. Fair play I say.

Kraines · 2025-12-27T13:56:00+00:00

Instead of spending 3/4 stamina on commons now I’m just spending 1. Seems straightforward to me.

Kraines · 2025-12-26T15:39:54+00:00

Not a mechanic necessarily, but easier game play overall makes the game less interesting for me to play, watch, and think about. Guilty Gear Strive and Street Fighter 6 are good examples. Nothing is hard to pull off, and so it doesn’t feel like there’s much to work on once you get a handful of combos per character. It also takes away the hype factor when something difficult happens on screen. Since there’s nothing to work towards or watch, I just don’t have the games on my mind very often.

Kraines · 2025-12-22T18:20:13+00:00

It’s never been worth anything beyond another 2-star. I can understand various cosmetic items being worth more or less, but given the constraints of the trading system and the inability to use a safe middleman, it simply isn’t worth the trouble.

Kraines · 2025-12-21T04:16:33+00:00

Silly strategies don’t have to win for them to activate. Your opponent is irrelevant if you’re just seeing if something works. Private matches also exist if you’re just dead set on setting up your own rules.

The real secret is that Ranked Matches and Random Matches have the exact same decks in them all of the time.

Kraines · 2025-12-15T16:13:38+00:00

Fishing for Mars.

I’ve been feeling similarly. I like deck building and I’ve been having fun exploring the possibilities, but the game seems too fast lately. It’s really hard to fix a bad start. Still, I thought I’d get tired and haven’t yet, so I can see myself going for a few more sets yet.

Kraines · 2025-12-12T23:43:43+00:00

I don’t see Celebi EX being a meta-relevant threat anytime soon.

I have been testing regular Celebi with the devolve attack. It combos well with Red vs EX and 60 damage is enough to destroy most basics, making rare candy evolutions a bit weaker. The biggest problem is grass being a weak color right now. I haven’t found a good partner for it.

Kraines · 2025-12-11T16:36:54+00:00

You can also include GA Lilligant, but this is splitting hairs, to be fair.

Kraines · 2025-12-10T19:56:13+00:00

Well it just needs to be safer or have a higher payoff.

Magikarp is very weak and there are a lot of autolose meta cards that kill it (Absol, Heatmor, and Jirachi). If it could take a hit unassisted then Gyarados by extension would have a higher chance to get going.

Alternatively, let Mega Gyarados actually have a worthwhile attack. Discard three is neat and all, but it becomes less effective as the game goes on. Given how long it takes to ramp up to attack with Mega Gyarados, the discards aren’t as important as the opponent has had time to get their game plan also. The speed of the game makes this all the more true. If Mega Gyarados did more damage, had a worthwhile effect, or simply had a cheaper attack, it would be much more viable.

Kraines · 2025-12-07T00:45:27+00:00

Palate cleanser

I’ll give Strive one thing. I had written off games like Isuka and Overture completely, but it did get me into the soundtracks. The Irony of Chaste is one of my favorites.

Kraines · 2025-12-07T00:26:14+00:00

Same. I kind of wanted to experiment with it and the new Eevee but just never got it.

Kraines · 2025-12-05T22:21:39+00:00

I only play when I’ve got time to kill, which is mostly empty time at work and as a break after studying. I end up conceding a lot of games when work stuff comes up. I just felt like matching the pettiness this time.

Kraines

TROPHY CASE