In a separate post because fun.
Necron, Rose, Asgard, Altima, Rolf, Arngrim
Tempted to hand Necron its full quadraturning in a duel anyway, just limiting the skillset. Which eh. 55k FF9 HP's still pretty bad, he's like 0.75x PC HP to me off below average speed... which pretty much doesn't matter in this pool, since even Rolf misses that much damage turn one and Necron just smashes everything. Go him. So, let's move on to Altima, who sweeps non-Necron people, not much to see here. Then, Rose. She beats Asgard (...) because of reasons explained by the elves, while Arngrim eats ID. Rolf... beats her, faster and 2HKOs, he already manages Arngrim. On the other hand, he loses to Asgard (misses the 2HKO, ID should be turn two). For similar reasons, Arngrim also fails against Asgard and goes swept. So, we have:
Necron: 5-0
Altima: 4-1
Rolf: 2-3
Rose: 2-3
Asgard: 2-3
Arngrim: 0-5
Arngrim stays down. Past that, this is crazy.
Emeralda, Ramsus, Vahn, Ramladu, Cristo, Balk
oh goody having to figure out lol1 damage averages. I'll kneejerk averages as somewhere in 2.6k (a charge, miracle art and lolmajeeks should amount to roughly that much in three-turns and averages are hellishly tight in the game. To make matters worse, the loss in damage from arts that need charge and that don't is -crazy-, usually at least as much as 2x). So. Vahn's big magic damage burst doesn't even deal 70% to average mdur. More than enough to handle Ramsus of the sub-half PC HP, though. Not enough, however, to handle Balk and his MDef UP+Feather Mantle on average, nor Ramladu and his 2/3 elemental reduction. Balk manages Vahn mostly by Don't Act spam, though, while Ramladu just OHKOs. Cristo owns him and then, Emeralda... to even entertain the idea of two-rounding Emmy, Vahn needs a fully charged bar - which takes a Spirit turn. And Emmy is faster and 3HKOs. Gooooooooodbye.
Okay, now for the actually competent people: Ramladu largely plays the OHKO games all day, except against Cristo, who still gets owned. Ram's regen kinda sucks in practice (25% mHP, but you typically like 4HKO him in-game and you have huge numbers), but Cristo damage is so bad he can't actually punch through it very effectively and he likely still takes damage even after Kabuffing twice (that offense is nuts, 1.1x PC HP against -endgame- HP figures, which are higher than what he actually faces). So, it's pretty much waiting for timely crits/doubles and laughing. Balk's evade can give some trouble and it's his hope against Ramladu, but he hates the elemental resistance and one hit of the mace is game over. Everybody else just dies without being able to kill first... except RAMSUS, because Mirror Stance goes first. Fail. Then, Emmy: Balk vs. Emmy is kinda mirror-matchy, but the caveat lies in that he evades her attacks and she doesn't evade his... on the other hand, she probably 2HKOs him and is accurate, and he could get low-variance Bolt shots, lowering him to a 4HKO in extreme cases, and he can never 2HKO her back even with high variance rolls throughout. So, eh, vote for her. Ramsus dies to her magic (...). Cristo, on the other hand, just Buffs and IDs. Now, for Balk: he already beat Cristo, Emmy and Vahn. And got OHKOed by Ramladu. Welp, that leaves Ramsus, whose argument based on Blade Grasp doesn't sway me, especially considering Mirror Stance doesn't handle even AP-stored Deathblows. So, this leaves Ramsus vs. Cristo... and Cristo goes first, thwacks and wins by default to me, on virtue of doing more damage if Ramsus spams MS and just outlasts otherwise. Failure.
Ramladu: 4-1
Balk: 3-2
Emeralda: 3-2
Cristo: 3-2
Vahn: 1-4
Ramsus: 1-4
Vahn and Ramsus down. Have fun figuring which of Balk and Cristo go up, maybe both.
Dekar, Squall, Nina4, Lucca, Nina2, Grey
Dekar > Nina4 > Nina2 > Dekar for weapon triangle games in this pool, and they otherwise mangle all. Squall 2HKOs Grey and does it first, does the same to Lucca and Grey also 2HKOs Lucca before she does much of anything.
Dekar: 4-1
Nina4: 4-1
Nina2: 4-1
Squall: 2-3
Grey: 1-4
Lucca: 0-5
Nina2 goes up while Lucca downgrades to instill unmitigated terror in Light.
