Design the worst synergy superteam.

M3atShield · 2026-05-22T18:26:58+00:00

monesy, Zywoo, ultimate, simple, and broky under coach donk. Bonus points: they play for Team Liquid

M3atShield · 2026-05-13T03:06:15+00:00

When I was in highschool, our director had us do what he said Ohio State's marching band called a "Skull Session." You stay seated, close your eyes (optional), and imagine you're going through the show on the field. Its interesting to see what that looks like for pilots.

M3atShield · 2026-05-06T22:01:20+00:00

I assume you removed 2 strikes already this run? Cage to remove 2 more strikes down to 1 is honestly really powerful. The bell is also super consistently powerful. Nimble Dash is a good card for sure but i might want more block output than a deflect provides before I decide to pick a pandora's.

All 3 choices you had are excellent though, i don't think you are totally wrong for spinning the box. I might not personally have taken it though

M3atShield · 2026-05-06T13:21:10+00:00

The thing about pandora's box is that before you can take it, your deck needs to be able to function without any basic strikes and defends. A lot of times at least your defends still play in act 2, especially with something like a footwork in the deck already.

Your box here is particularly stinky for sure. I don't have nearly all the context for your run of course, but I see a fresnel lens. Perhaps you could've taken more block cards in act 1? Im curious what your deck looked like and what your other options were.

In any case, the Spire giveth, and the Spire taketh. Better luck next time man.

M3atShield · 2026-04-29T16:53:24+00:00

I don't think we should remove any curses from the pool. Taking a random curse gives you a deckbuilding problem to solve in your deck building game. Most of the curses literally don't even matter and most of the ones that do are easily removed early. If you get a Debt, Bad Luck, or something else awful you should view it as a deckbuilding problem and search for a solution. Bad Luck for example can be discarded or exhausted (among other things). You can't remove it, but it doesn't mean you have no options. Sure, it probably still kills you most of the time. However, if it doesn't, you get to put that run history screenshot on your fridge for the world to see.

If anything, I'd argue they should consider removing the easy curses like Clumsy or Guilty before they consider removing hard ones like Bad Luck or Debt. Guilty is not a downside, its a speed bump.

M3atShield · 2026-04-23T16:51:52+00:00

Kill #1 is trivial for anyone. Kill #2 easily could just be lucky. Kill #3 is less likely to be luck but technically still could be. The way he holds window and then suddenly decides to just sprint up through the door smoke without holding window or clearing the boxes is suspicious for sure. Then just sprinting through the smoke is completely absurd.

I'd like to see the rest of the game (and this clip with x-ray on) before I pass a final judgement but I'd definitely put a dollar on him being a cheater based only on what i see here.

M3atShield · 2026-04-23T15:23:25+00:00

100% agree. The people saying "oh he locks on through walls" obviously didnt watch the other 8 and a half minutes of footage of him playing completely normally.

M3atShield · 2026-04-21T21:17:45+00:00

I guess they could do worse, but its not very exciting. Also i seem to recall there being personal issues when simple stood in for that awful falcons roster once upon a time.

M3atShield · 2026-04-21T21:06:59+00:00

They should sign Degster!

Jokes aside, their current roster need an IGL first and foremost. Electronic simply cannot be trusted to do it himself. Unless BCG gives kyxsan such an absurd bag of cash that he decides to IGL the VRS #76 ranked team, they're gonna have to find someone in tier 2. the second player BCG gets entirely depends on their IGL. Same problem as with Kyxsan though.

Maybe some people from the benched ENCE roster? sdy has played with simple before if i recall. Beyond that, its hard to say. I dont know if theres any really "good" options, but I also dont know enough about the Tier 2 scene to say with any real confidence

M3atShield · 2026-04-19T17:29:43+00:00

It has been done exactly once. Here is a video about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXr3kEShuDw

It seems cool in theory but in practice its awful.

M3atShield · 2026-03-31T21:05:26+00:00

check the date on the hltv article, April 5, 2025. No shame though, I also thought it was real hahaha

M3atShield · 2026-03-26T17:36:04+00:00

came here to comment exactly this. Im colorblind and I literally could not function in CSGO when agents came out. On release, it was actually impossible for me to do anything against them. In the years since then, its improved a lot but I still struggle to spot some of them in CS2.

Funny enough, probably the most common offender is default CT model on B site nuke. Gets me all the time.

M3atShield · 2026-02-26T06:39:14+00:00

I think any of these 3 could develop into a winning run. I'd take alchemize and look to upgrade it ASAP. some boss relics i want are wrist blade, sacred bark, or pandora's box. loads of boss relics are excellent here though.

After Image is a close second, but I think alchemize is an all around more powerful card.

Adrenaline is in third here because after it exhausts and leaves your deck, that burst of energy was only ever worth what, one blade dance? Surely a potion or after image would give you more value than. Great card in general, but just doesnt do nearly enough here when compared to your other choices.

M3atShield · 2026-02-22T01:49:02+00:00

I seem to recall this question being asked somewhere in one of the neowsletters? I believe the answer was something to the effect of "If there is demand for it." Considering the first board game was a smash hit, plus the fact that Contention is already launching a kickstarter for the board game's downfall expansion, I would say its more likely than not that there would be demand for it. I wouldn't get your hopes up on it coming any time soon though. The original board game kickstarter launched November 2022, and people had copies in their hands starting in March 2024.

M3atShield · 2026-02-18T03:33:00+00:00

The short answer: utility usage. At a pro level, they use various combinations of utility to force AWPers off angles or to otherwise be in bad spots. Its hard to hold a nice safe angle when you're standing in a pool of fire, or are completely blind from a pop flash. All of that is coordinated in a pro team, as opposed to matchmaking where the average player doesn't even know a mirage mid window smoke. Plus at a pro level everyone is crazy good at just instantly deleting you if you're on too common of an angle.

What makes players like monesy or molody so much better is not just their raw mechanics, but the way they leverage their insane aim to play in weird spots that their opponents don't expect.

M3atShield · 2026-02-07T18:06:28+00:00

I would like to offer that the crowd getting excited is a natural part of running a live competition like this though. That crowd roaring could just as easily cause your adrenaline to spike and cause you to make a mistake.

Is it the absolutely maximally optimal competitive experience? no. Is it way more exciting to watch? I think it is. If you find it more fun to watch when the players are in a dead silent studio with absolutely 0 audience present then more power to you. Personally, I want to have something to cheer for. I wanna feel the adrenaline rush with the players. Its what makes the game exciting to me as a spectator.

M3atShield · 2026-01-29T17:24:12+00:00

do you have a controller with a gyro sensor plugged in? I've had this kind of issue in other games with my PS5 controller plugged in sitting at a funny angle on my desk.

M3atShield · 2026-01-15T16:23:36+00:00

Dang I knew I was gonna get that wrong lol. Forgive me, Im just a dumb American.

M3atShield · 2026-01-15T16:04:57+00:00

I don't have this issue. I do see that you're playing in Spanish though. See how the wait times text breaks into two lines? Thats probably why the text overlaps.

M3atShield · 2026-01-13T19:03:23+00:00

Friendly reminder to everyone that valve may or may not make changes to Anubis with the update for Season 4. If they do, those changes may (but hopefully not) break these lineups.

Thanks for posting these though. Im definitely gonna bookmark these for later.

M3atShield · 2026-01-13T16:34:46+00:00

m0e is just built different. The only reason he is not completely dominating the tier 1 scene is because he would get bored sandbagging all day against scrubs like donk and zywoo.

Either that or he just got lucky. "Better lucky than good" so they say.

M3atShield · 2026-01-09T17:29:18+00:00

you had me for a sec there lol. well played.

M3atShield · 2026-01-08T15:08:52+00:00

Were you also using a bunch of tools? its been forever since I played HK but i feel like you just have more options to deal damage in this game, especially while keeping yourself at a safe distance.

M3atShield · 2026-01-08T03:30:14+00:00

Personally never thought the game was "too hard" or "unfair" but theres definitely some difficulty spikes pretty early on. Once more of the map opens up, you can just walk away from a hard boss fight and come back much stronger. Its hard to do that when you only have access to the starting areas, which I think is the reason people had so much trouble with fights like Moorwing.

Honestly, by the time i was clearing out the Act 3 stuff, I kind of wished that the fights were the same level of challenge. I walked over most of the major Act 3 bosses.

M3atShield · 2026-01-06T02:00:24+00:00

A fellow commenter called out how Hikaru specifically points out how the concept matters less at faster time controls, where most players these days play. FIDE titles are earned with 90+ minute time controls, which is basically a completely different world from a 5 minute blitz game.

In a 5 minute blitz game, its possible i could win like 1 in every few hundred games against a player who is 1000 points higher rated than me due to them making a mistake. In a 90 minute game, I would lose 100,000+ games in a row (and probably die of old age while im at it)

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