Thread: Rock-Paper-Scissors: Competitive Play 101
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Old February 5th, 2021, 02:07 PM
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Re: Rock-Paper-Scissors: Competitive Play 101
Didn't want this to get lost...so porting it here.
Quote:
Originally Posted by FreshFoods View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dysole View Post
Wonder Woman does best in Paper Armies. Martian Manhunter does best in Scissor armies. Your preference for army type is going to influence which one you want more.

~Dysole, not sure how many people are still familiar with that terminology
I’ve never heard of armies being described like that, could you explain what they are?

Quote:
Originally Posted by IAmBatman View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dysole View Post
Rock - Ignores abilities, usually a small number of figures, hits really hard (Most event heroes, Massed White Martians)

Paper - Throws a lot of quality attacks, often the ones that people gravitate to and look the best "on paper" (Fan 4 builds, Avengers builds, Prof X builds)

Scissors - Focused on disruptive powers and messing with the opponent's strategy (Armies that are focused around things like throwing figures into engagement with Blob, stealing OMs with Ozymandias, removing clear sight, etc.)

In general Rock > Scissors > Paper > Rock

You can hybridize some of these (Legionnaires feels like a really good example of a Paper/Scissors hybrid) but it's a real good way to think of army composition. dok and I tend to love Scissors builds while most of the community gravitates toward Paper and then you'll have people like MegaSilver who loves Rock builds.

~Dysole, hoping that's clear enough
I'd be interested to get an analysis on how Wonder Woman is Paper (I'd view her as Rock given the above definition) and how Martian Manhunter is Scissors?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dysole View Post
WW is a Paper with a Scissor ability. She works great in JL or Champion builds which are paper builds. It's very rare you're going to add her into a scissor army though.

MM fits so nicely into Scissors builds since a lot of them love being able to place figures where they need to be. That's the gist of it.

~Dysole, informationally
Quote:
Originally Posted by IAmBatman View Post
OK so Rock ignores things but only passively? Her lasso struck me as more rock (nullification) than Scissors (figure movement). But maybe I misunderstand what Rock is.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dysole View Post
Anti-Monitor is a great example of a rock. Huge Event Hero so immune to almost all annoying effects. Can literally just destroy figures. What your opponent does is kinda inconsequential; you're gonna play him the same way every time. That's kinda what I mean. A paper or scissors build is much more responsive to what the opponent does than a rock build. A rock build is just gonna truck along and do its thing.

~Dysole, hoping that clarifies
Quote:
Originally Posted by IAmBatman View Post
OK, I think that makes some sense. Though going for Anti’s auto destroy is generally a bad play unless you have multiple targets.

Would common swarms with only one real place to put Order Markers qualify as rocks?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dysole View Post
Not impossible but usually no. If you're throwing a lot of attacks you're more paper. Rocks tend to have a small number of big attacks.

~Dysole, who really should go find the original discussion her, dok, and soundwarp had on all this
Quote:
Originally Posted by IAmBatman View Post
So Paper = Normal maximization of turn/attack efficiency
Scissors = Disruption of normal turn/attack efficiency
Rock = Shrugs off disruption and keeps moving forward slowly

More or less? (I do think completely tidy categories for these are difficult, since most cards and armies represent little bits from at least two areas and sometimes three).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dysole View Post
Roughly.

~Dysole, agreeing that many units/armies are hybrids
Would I want it to be everything I love...sure...but that's just not realistic so I'm going to focus on finding things that will make me unhappy and work on fixing those.
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