Voting Combo Brawler because it's the better-performing of the two here.
Pugilist(Combo Brawler) (EO5) vs. Nash Latkje (Suikoden 3) - So, Silent Lake isn't doing much help here. One-Two will likely land two binds by turn 2, all of which are...not great for Nash (Head will disable casting, Arm cuts his damage in half, Leg cuts his speed down), on top of just plain enabling Leading Blow. Blessing makes it so that Nash needs four turns, not three, to kill and is a non-action. Technically Silent Lake could stop that, but he's using a turn to stop something that doesn't even take an action. - putting this on hold for now while I re-evaluate
Pugilist(CB) (EO5) vs. Alena (Dragon Quest 4) - interesting bit of damage racing. Alena outspeeds, but will probably need three turns to kill even with crits thanks to the one shot of Blessing--assuming Arm Bind and Leg Bind from One-Two don't land before then. Those will halve her damage, and more notably, her speed. Buuuuut even with two binds by turn 2, Pugilist will probably miss the kill with Leading Blow. There's too much RNG here for this to be in Combo Brawler's favor, so Alena gets the win for me.
Pugilist(CB) (EO5) vs. Meliadoul (Final Fantasy Tactics) - Hellcry shuts down EO characters forever. To add insult to injury, she's got access to a blocker for Arm Bind.
Pugilist(CB) (EO5) vs. Crono (Chrono Trigger) - Not allowing Vigil Hat's blanket status immunity - I'm cracking down a bit more on universally available blanket status blockers, especially when they don't really come at much of a cost by my interps. Crono 3HKOs but Blessing will make that need to be 4HKO - and two binds are statistically going to land on Pugilist's second turn. Either Head+Arm which leaves Crono helpless, or either+Leg which could likely delay Crono to where Pugilist will get their third before Crono gets his fourth.
Pugilist(CB) (EO5) vs. Cherche (Fire Emblem Awakening) - I am not recalculating averages to discount the C24 Brave Weapon Shop for a single match.
Pugilist(CB) (EO5) vs. Adachi (Persona 4) - I'm pretty sure Adachi blocks disables here, Combo Brawler is SOL with just average physical damage to rely on.
Pugilist(CB) (EO5) vs. Danette (Soul Nomad) - Not Combo Brawler's matchup, I feel. Danette can just pile on too much too quickly thanks to Enliven and counters.
Pugilist(CB) (EO5) vs. Miranda (Legend of Dragoon) - I'm pretty sure One-Two will kill in two rounds.
Pugilist(CB) (EO5) vs. Bart (Xenogears) - Pugilist has a notable accuracy and speed edge before anything else. Even if Bart gets his full evade game up, Combo Brawler will still have a 50% chance to hit due to their raw accuracy and they'll have landed at least one bind. Leg Bind, to add insult to injury, disables evade entirely, so once that lands, Bart's getting the crap beaten out of him without remorse. Also those turns setting up his evade game mean that he's not doing damage.
Pugilist(CB) (EO5) vs. Kimahri (Final Fantasy X) - In theory, Leg Bind could disable E+C. Too bad Low Blow has to *hit* in order to do that.
Pugilist(CB) (EO5) vs. Gryz (Phantasy Star 4) - Wins the quickdraw, Arm Crusher does double duty of disabling Crush and kneecapping Gryz's damage. It's a massacre from there.
Pugilist(CB) (EO5) vs. Lemina (Lunar 2) - Concussion will land Head Bind before she gets two shots, and One-Two both goes first and 2HKOs. She needs three shots due to Blessing anyway.
5-5 with one abstain and one re-evaluation. Feels solidly M/H borderline.
[EDIT] Special Guest Write-In: Ninja(EON)!
Ninja(EON) vs. Nash Latkje (Suikoden 3) - Nash isn't blocking Confuse or Petrify. The latter will still land before he kills and just leave him open to Drawing Slice execution.
Ninja(EON) vs. Alena (Dragon Quest 4) - Alena resists the hell out of Confuse at least, and she would technically go first. Diversion Gambit is menu-level initiative and thus outspeeds Alena's first turn, so she now has to try and hit through 90% evade for the first three turns. Izuna or Daggers will land its status, and Ninja can delay that to time with the end of DG, allowing for a Drawing Slice execution.
Ninja(EON) vs. Meliadoul (Final Fantasy Tactics) - This one's interesting - if Meliadoul gets a single turn where she can use skills, she has an extremely good chance of winning, since the only damage Ninja can put out after Hellcry is Toxic Mist. Meliadoul can (and will have to) set up to block Sleep and Petrify at the cost of her evasion, preventing any executions. If Panic doesn't land the first turn, Ninja's SOL. Assuming it does (I'm willing to let 71% barely hit turn 1 nowadays), Ninja gets about 3-4 turns where Meliadoul is alternating hitting them and herself.
And the clones will come out here. The initial clones from full can barely survive a basic attack, so either Melia whacks the original turn 1 or hits one of the two turn 2. Either way, we've got two clones with 81 TP and weapon intact, but at least one at risk of being splatted in the next attack. If she's attacked Ninja twice in her confusion by now, she's killed a clone and likely has sealed a win, but that's fairly unlikely.
Both clone again in the next round, leaving four with 36 TP. Now, this could go two ways - if Meliadoul attacks herself on this turn, she loses, as two clone the next round and Drawing Slice is guaranteed to kill in one attack after that. If she doesn't break confuse on this turn, she also loses, as it is increasingly unlikely she could have precise enough targeting to single out a single 36 TP clone. If she breaks confusion this round and kills a clone...there's three on the field, but only one can divide safely, and Accumulative Resistance would have kicked in, requiring three shots of Ninpo:Panic to get her back in a confused state. If they do that, Ninja runs out of gas and doesn't have enough TP to kill. If two of the three survivors clone, Meliadoul kills the one that doesn't. If one clones, Meliadoul kills one of the two that doesn't. In short, she gets a slow but sure win in this case...but there's enough ifs leading up to that branch that I'm going to say Ninja wins this more often than not. Probably like a 55-45 or 60-40 but it's a close one. Was not expecting this in a Proving Grounds.
Ninja(EON) vs. Crono (Chrono Trigger) - If you do allow Vigil Hat to block CT statuses...Crono is still in for an uphill battle. EO evade is strong and Crono's going to be trying to punch through 90% of it for his first four attacks. Vigil Hat does *not* cover Petrify, as well, so Izuna will just screw him.
Ninja(EON) vs. Cherche (Fire Emblem Awakening) - Goes first, lands Panic or Sleep without eating counters, wins. Can use Diversion Gambit to add insult to injury, even.
Ninja(EON) vs. Adachi (Persona 4) - Adachi fucking up all of Ninja's day.
Ninja(EON) vs. Danette (Soul Nomad) - Goes first, lands Panic or Sleep, murders. Could even throw on Diversion Gambit to avoid counters if Ninpo:Panic would provoke them.
Ninja(EON) vs. Miranda (Legend of Dragoon) - Doesn't immune sleep, lol.
Ninja(EON) vs. Bart (Xenogears) - Bart is fairly outmatched here. His evade game is debatable considering Ninja's accuracy rating, and even if you assume that WS+BC would take Ninja's accuracy to 0 anyway, well...it's rough for him. Even giving him multi-blockers, he has to pick between Physical and Mental. Physical blocker means he gets hit with Panic, which utterly destroys his evasion game anyway and leaves him open to Sleep and Drawing Strike splortching. Mental blocker means he's trying to damage race Toxic Mist, which *will* kill in three turns. If he's doing that, he *can't* set up the evade game, which means Hawk Strike plus Poison Mist takes him down in two turns. And he can't 2HKO Ninja.
Ninja(EON) vs. Kimahri (Final Fantasy X) - In theory, Kimahri could give himself resistance to one of Ninja's many statuses. Stoneproof would block Izuna if E+C didn't. On the other hand, Ninpo:Toxic Mist has a base rate of 1000%, Daggers is functionally MT, Hawk Strike is a focusing RT, and Panic Exists. Kimahri fails one way or another.
Ninja(EON) vs. Gryz (Phantasy Star 4) - Oh. Ninja's got below-average DEF and Gryz can make most of the Ninja's disables turn 2 via Psy-Mail. But Crash is single-target and Double has no real cost. On the other hand, after a few doubles one could argue a Sweeping would take Ninja out. Ninja really wishes I would Yamikei Clause in the deathblocker.
Ninja(EON) vs. Lemina (Lunar 2) - Lemina is fighting with either status or just getting cut down from behind 90% evade.
10-2. I've definitely underranked Ninja, they're a Heavy.
