Return of the Hair Toruney: It Begins

[DragonKnight Zero]

It all started out with a few thoughtless remarks.  Being derided as a dumb blonde, an assumption that blue haired girlfriends were possessive, Edge drunkenly declaring green hair superior for magic users, yet another witty crack about"silver-haired prettyboys", and so on.  As is often the case in the DL-verse, it was looking like things would get violent when some enterprising sponsors saw an opportunity for profit.

Rather than brawl in the streets and making a mess out of things, have a sanctioned bloodbath in the arenas and sell tickets to the show.  A call went out for teams where all the members had one thing in common: the same hair color.  Eight teams have come forth for your viewing pleasure while a ninth tried to gain entry but were rejected for lacking enough members.  Teams of 4 battle it out for glory, but mostly to gloat to the losers.

The matches for the first round are as follows.

Red - Aurora (CoL), Millenia (Grandia 2), Jessica (DQ8), Agate (Trais series)
vs
Blue - Rena (SO2), Rudy  (WA1), Artea (Lufia 2), Magus (CT)

Rena has been allowed a Mental Ring.  Between this and her Fallen Hope, she can keep casting for a very long time.

Silver - Lenneth (VP), Souji (P4), Chris Lightfellow (Suiko3), Marcus (FE6 only)
vs
Black - Yuri Lowell (ToV), Zerase (Suiko5), Fang (FF13), Sancho (FM4)

Hassou Tobi is banned.  With it, Souji would solo every team in the competition which would be boring for the viewers.  Marcus is limited to his Fire Emblem 6 powers.

Sancho has replaced the items in his pack with goods that will benefit his non-mech allies.  Ammo (other than shotgun ammo) has been replaced with medicines that recover skill points, MP or otherwise.  He has been granted armor with similar durability to his wanzer as well as a shotgun of similar make to Gallows' (ha, ha).

Pink - Jess (MK), Arche (ToP), Et (MK2), Makalov (FE series)
vs
Brown - Lilka (WA2), Elc (Arc the Lad 2), Tosa (ToCS), Arnuad (WA4)

Blond - Primm (SoM), Tidus (FFX), Alisa (ToCS), Sonya (Suiko1)
vs
Green - Elincia (FE10), Clive (WA3), Emeralda (XG), Terra(FF6)

Due to the large number of participating fighters, voting will be open for longer than standard: 10 days.

Short form

Red vs Blue
Sliver vs Black
Pink vs Brown
Blond vs Green

[Pyro]

Red - Aurora (CoL), Millenia (Grandia 2), Jessica (DQ8), Agate (Trais series)
vs
Blue - Rena (SO2), Rudy  (WA1), Artea (Lufia 2), Magus (CT)

Jessica is awesome but she's lacking assistance here... Area, Magus, and Rena all get a chance to heal off what she does. A Staff Magic Burst will get healed off by Rena before it can be capitalized on.


Edit: Right although Jess turn 1 Magic Burst might not wipe the enemy team Agate leads or follows up with an S-Craft Dragon Dive that does... Or if Artea tags him first he can try a line-effect Delay to help give Millenia a turn. Millenia getting a turn is very bad.


Silver - Lenneth (VP), Souji (P4), Chris Lightfellow (Suiko3), Marcus (FE6 only)
vs
Black - Yuri Lowell (ToV), Zerase (Suiko5), Fang (FF13), Sancho (FM4)

Souji is perhaps a bit of a mean foe to use here. Given the diversity and what he can do while physically immune under Silent Lake, he surely wins?


Pink - Jess (MK), Arche (ToP), Et (MK2), Makalov (FE series)
vs
Brown - Lilka (WA2), Elc (Arc the Lad 2), Tosa (ToCS), Arnuad (WA4)

Team Brown seems to have a lot more synergy with buffs/heals/debuffs/damage. Even Elc who is normally a solo fighter has MT Divide to be silly with.

Blond - Primm (SoM), Tidus (FFX), Alisa (ToCS), Sonya (Suiko1)
vs
Green - Elincia (FE10), Clive (WA3), Emeralda (XG), Terra(FF6)

Tidus in a... team fight.... I see. Anyways Initiative 200% speed with MT Slow on the opposing team is insane and Primm/Alisa/Sonya have the damage/utility to shut down green team in a hurry too.

[Dhyerwolf]

Wouldn't Magic Burst from Jessica kill everyone on the other team outright (minus Fire resistance)? Or did it unfocus or something?

[Tide]

Red - Aurora (CoL), Millenia (Grandia 2), Jessica (DQ8), Agate (Trais series)
vs
Blue - Rena (SO2), Rudy  (WA1), Artea (Lufia 2), Magus (CT)

No vote - don't know enough about either team to really make a decision. I will say though, I imagine some combination of MT between Millenia and Jess' Magic Burst might lead  to some MT KOs on the other team. Rudy's most definitely dead but I dunno if its enough to kill both Artea and Rena and team Red needs both I think.

Silver - Lenneth (VP), Souji (P4), Chris Lightfellow (Suiko3), Marcus (FE6 only)
vs
Black - Yuri Lowell (ToV), Zerase (Suiko5), Fang (FF13), Sancho (FM4)

Er..forget HT, Team Silver is ridiculously stacked. The good news for Team Black is that they can get around Souji's AND Lenneth's elemental resistance/blocking BS as Zerase and Fang both have Non Elemental attacks. The bad news is pretty much everything else. You have 3 Godlikes on the same team that synergize well with each other. Chris' Silent Lake + Lenneth & Souji physicals basically smashes any target. And without any good source of Reviving, team Black is in deep. Marcus might be deadweight, but that  so doesn't matter here. Oh and to add insult to injury, Lenneth2, Souji and Chris can all heal and Lenneth2 and Souji can revive. RIP.

Pink - Jess (MK), Arche (ToP), Et (MK2), Makalov (FE series)
vs
Brown - Lilka (WA2), Elc (Arc the Lad 2), Towa (ToCS), Arnaud (WA4)

Team Pink is kind of weak. Jess being the only healer there kind of hurts. Team Brown on the hand is like the stat buff/debuff team of hell. They also have really bizarre synergy with Towa's Weakner creating weaknesses for Lilka, Elc  and even Arnaud to hit off of, along with Reinforce giving everyone more meter to use their advanced abilities. I imagine Team Pink gets outclassed really badly - Elc probably rapes someone's MP (Arche?), then Arnaud and Lilka proceed to do horrible things with buff/debuffs to the other team (Illusion shuts down Makalov, Lilka can Quick others on her team). Don't  see what Team Pink can really do here.

Blond - Primm (SoM), Tidus (FFX), Alisa (ToCS), Sonya (Suiko1)
vs
Green - Elincia (FE10), Clive (WA3), Emeralda (XG), Terra(FF6)

Tidus in a team match is ridiculously good. Initiative Hastega/Slowga creates way too much of a speed gap for the other team to do much. Alisa can just equip for Altair Cannon and that plus Purim spamming MT  spells  is going to overwhelm the other team way too quickly. She doesn't even have to worry about healing here, cause that's Sonya's job and she's really fast too. Terra can stall this a bit with Cure 2, but there's just way much MT damage flying everywhere after the Speed difference that they can't do much about.

[SnowFire]

Red - Aurora (CoL), Millenia (Grandia 2), Jessica (DQ8), Agate (Trails series)
Blue - Rena (SO2), Rudy  (WA1), Artea (Lufia 2), Magus (CT)

Jessica is pretty fast, so, uh, RIP Artea & Rudy.  Gonna assume Magus & Rena can equip some fire resistance gear and survive, but they need a hell of a plan here.  Depending on CP interps, Agate can either also unload an S-Craft, or will wait until his turn and Wild Rage 2 an S-Craft at them, and Millenia will have MT damage, and Aurora has slow MT damage...  basically Magus needs to use his PC form and get instant death off on like most everyone, then have Rena start a revival train, but I kinda doubt it; Magus's ID was "area around him" which is like 2/4 even getting target at most.  So even if, with the best possible interp, Magus ID's say Agate & Aurora, Millenia & MP-less Jessica might STILL win from here.  Ow.  Note that if we randomly ban Magic Burst, Jess still has options like "Oomph Agate if he starts with 100 CP" followed by horrible Dragon's Dive death.


Silver - Lenneth (VP), Souji (P4), Chris Lightfellow (Suiko3), Marcus (FE6 only)
Black - Yuri Lowell (ToV), Zerase (Suiko5), Fang (FF13), Sancho (FM4)

Yeah, Silent Lake strats are go here, mock Zerase's magic & Fang's status game.  Bit of an initiative interp-off since all of Fang/Yuri/Lenneth/Souji/Marcus are some shade of average speed init, but the resulting slugfest will have Lenneth overkill, Souji either BRave Bladeing or using some MT physical damage, and even Marcus chipping in a little, while only Yuri has anything a shade as impressive.  Fang going down will be very bad, since she's the best person to take care of Souji safely once SL expires, and the other team risks getting solo'd by Souji if they aren't careful thanks to physical resist + extra life cheeze.

Pink - Jess (MK), Arche (ToP), Et (MK2), Makalov (FE series)
Brown - Lilka (WA2), Elc (Arc the Lad 2), Towa (ToCS), Arnuad (WA4)

I suspect Team Pink hype revolves around Arche quickly casting some MT spell, but if Pyro's voting this way, yeah no.  Wait too long and get MP-ruined as noted.  I will say that I'm pretty skeptical of Illusion being useful vs. Makalov - if any character has a good excuse for the equivalent of Raquel's Move-and-Attack to get out of a debuff square while still attacking, it's high movement FE cavaliers!  Makalov is even from a game with nonsensical lava traps on the floor he moves off of then thwacks.


Blond - Primm (SoM), Tidus (FFX), Alisa (ToCS), Sonya (Suiko1)
Green - Elincia (FE10), Clive (WA3), Emeralda (XG), Terra(FF6)

Tidus in a team match.  Terra never sees a turn, everything is downhill after that happens.

[DragonKnight Zero]

Red vs Blue

Good match, could go either way.  Boss Magus makes any sort of MT damage risky but his offense outside counters is a nuisance at best and Millenia still has Spellbinding Eye to be evil with.  Aurora and Rena have a fairly wide range of interpretation as far as equipment.  Isn't Artea cast best in magic defense? (even with Lufia 2 magic defense as laughable as it is)  I don't see him being one-shotted by Magic Burst.  Giving Rena turns to get her buff game going is bad and Artea is speedy with strong healing and revival as well as some offense.  I'm inclined to go with Elf's view on DQ8 PCs not twinking setups at will and I really like the dynamic of the blue haired team.  However, my favorite individual character of the 8 is on the red team so that's how I'm tiebreaking.

Sliver vs Black

Team Black is rather outgunned here.  Silent Lake doesn't play nice with Souji's buff spells but him and Lenneth ganging up on someone is still painful.  Sancho can still heal while silenced (and I scale him with the 3rd UCS shop so he's a bit more sturdy) but I think he's going down first.

Pink vs Brown

Yikes.  With both Lilka and Arnuad, one wants either fast, powerful offense or crippling status to take them out before they can get their buff/debuff game going.  Which apparently, team pink lacks.  Maybe having godlike supporter Rika would have given them that push; then again maybe not.  Two members being highly neutered by MP busting hurts even more.

Blond vs Green

Offhand, I don't see team green stopping Tidus from getting his speed game going.  I don't respect MT Secret of Mana magic damage (power division takes place before subtracting magic defense) but I do respect Primm's buffs and status options.  Can't block engulfment?  Get set of fire forever.  Also, Tidus on a Quick Hit rampage where every hit is a guaranteed critical is disgusting.  Even if Terra gets a turn to drop an Ultima, the other side will heal it off with their massive speed advantage.

[Dhyerwolf]

Isn't Artea cast best in magic defense? (even with Lufia 2 magic defense as laughable as it is)  I don't see him being one-shotted by Magic Burst.

Magic Burst is a set damage attack (MP x 2). Even if it checked Mdef, Artea cuts magic by only 8%.

Anyways votes
Red v Blue
Silver v Black
Pink v Brown
Blond v Green

[Dark Holy Elf]

The only thing DQ8 has which could be considered magic defence is the Magic Barrier spell, which affects Magic Burst if my reading of the BMG is correct (as, of course, does elemental defence). It's magic. That MPx2 is just the baseline for how the damage is calculated before modifiers, but that doesn't mean it ignores defence (as an analog, take something like the FFT Mithril Gun, which has a fixed baseline of 64 damage... but is still subject to Protect and Defence Up, so we consider it subject to physical defence in the DL).

That said Artea's MDef not being good enough to survive sounds perfectly plausible. Votes later.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Red vs Blue: Jessica gives me some headaches. Like... really am not sure DQ8 PCs should be able to swap their builds around (since you can't in-game) but I'm not sure what build is her best, optimized Magic Burst claims KOs she'd miss otherwise but no whips is horrible if she runs into fire resistance. Anyway Magus has great MDef so he survives anyway, and Black Hole is pretty bad news... though its AoE is weird. Artea's MDef also seems underrated by the stat topic, it's nearly 100 points above average (=24 points less damage) which is a 13% cut, not 8%. think blue has the edge, very open to arguments.

Sliver vs Black: Silent Lake just outpaces Zerase and is awful news for the other team which is very reliant on Zerase + Fang's magic to get things done.

Pink vs Brown: I considered abstaining since I don't know three of the eight fighters here, but honestly it's pretty clear anyway. Team Pink was great last time out when it had Rika, but this time it's definitely underwhelming, yep. If Arnaud and Lilka are great at controlling things at least, and Arnaud in particular seems incredibly tough for Team Pink to do much against.

Blond vs Green: Tidus + Primm alone is quite batty. Even if you allow Ultima, Terra's far less special in team matches.

[Random Consonant]

Red vs Blue - This sounds like you need to hold Agate to FC and/or not let Trails PCs start with 100 CP for Team Blue to win this to be honest.
Sliver vs Black - uh yeah Chris/Lenneth/Yu is a bit much to deal with.
Pink vs Brown - Team Pink is pretty outclassed here yeah.
Blond vs Green - Good lord, Tidus in a team match.

[Pyro]

Jessica should have enough skill points for TDL (whips), Magic Burst (Fisticuffs), and +100 MP (Staves). At worst she'd have only +50MP from Staves instead. That is great and gives her quite good damage, although I suppose a 3-turn damage average with Tensionx2->Magic Burst would make The damage average something like 350... Which only gives her an effective high 2HKO with it. Agate is really quite fast when going for his Craft usage though, so between the two of them they can probably wipe the enemy team?

[DragonKnight Zero]

Results

Red vs Blue
Silver vs Black
Pink vs Brown
Blond vs Green

Round 2 coming up.