Nyarlathotep's Dungeon: Monado Mandala Week 13

[Nephrite]

"You are beginning to annoy me. Ah well. Let us see how things progress."

Team Tal and Piggy vs. Floor 3
Team Yoshiken vs. Floor 1


(Note, Taishyr is on hiatus for a week or two. He'll be back soon!)


Team Talaysen and Piggyman's Matches

Floor 4a: Counter-Punch

"Let's try something completely different...!"

*For this floor, any damage done to the enemies provokes one counter of the enemy's choice. Multitarget attacks cause all members hit to counter. These attacks are only targetted at the person who attacked the enemy, regardless of the original targetting mechanic.

Battle #16: FFT Squire x5 (w/ Nagrarock)

Squire: "The boss doesn't want you getting any farther."

Battle #17: Yosuke and Kanji

Yosuke: Let's do it, partner!
Kanji: Shut up and die!

Battle #18: Chie and Yukiko

Chie: Aha! Is now our chance?
Yukiko: There!

Battle #19: Nel, Fayt and Cliff

Nel: Let's go.
Fayt: All right!

Boss Battle #4: Genevieve

Genevieve: Worthless fools, wasting my powers... I shall show you true magic!



Team Yoshiken's Matches

Floor 2a: THESE! ARE! BOSSES!!

Battle #6: Milon, Baigan and Kainazzo (FF4 SNES)

Milon: I have returned from death to crush you!
Kainazzo: Oh, that fool? The one who refused to give his kingdom to me...?

Battle #7: Booster and Mack

Booster: WELCOME TO MY TOWER!!!
Mack: Boing boing!

Battle #8: Scarmiglione-Z (FF4 DS)

Scarmiglione: Ha ha ha... I have come back from death yet again...

Battle #9: Kary and Kraken

Kary: I, the Fiend of Fire shall stop you!

Boss Battle #2: Augus and Nimufu

Augus: Yes! Fight to the death for my god...


---------------------------------------------


Team Talaysen | Raquel, Jude, Arnaud, Yulie
[Synergy Bonus: This team fully heals after every battle. However, if a character dies they suffer a Max HP penalty until a full heal]
[Floor 4a]
*Any damage provokes one counter from the enemies for this floor. They may choose any attack, but any MT attack can only be used against the person who attacked them. MT attacks used on the enemy provoke a counter from all enemies. These counters go off unless the enemy is killed with an attack.
Team Talaysen vs, FFT Squire 5x (Nagrarock (25% Frog))
Team Talaysen vs. Kanji and Yosuke
Team Talaysen vs. Chie and Yukiko
Team Talaysen vs. Nel, Fayt and Cliff
Team Talaysen vs. Genevieve

Team Piggyman | Orlandu, FF5 Chemist, Cray (Speed?), Garnet, Adray
[Floor 4a]
*Any damage provokes one counter from the enemies for this floor. They may choose any attack, but any MT attack can only be used against the person who attacked them. MT attacks used on the enemy provoke a counter from all enemies. These counters go off unless the enemy is killed with an attack.
Team Piggyman vs, FFT Squire 5x (Nagrarock (25% Frog))
Team Piggyman vs. Kanji and Yosuke
Team Piggyman vs. Chie and Yukiko
Team Piggyman vs. Nel, Fayt and Cliff
Team Piggyman vs. Genevieve

Team Yoshiken | Cielo, Geno, Juan, Yukiko, Rosa (Status Symbol Law)
[Floor 2a]
Team Yoshiken vs. Milon, Baigan and Kainazzo (FF4 SNES)
Team Yoshiken vs. Booster and Mack
Team Yoshiken vs. Scarmiglione-Z (FF4 DS)
*Full Heal
Team Yoshiken vs. Kary and Kraken
Team Yoshiken vs. Augus and Nimufu (BoF2)

Speed? - The effective speed of one character is reversed (60% becomes 140%), but after the first round of combat, their speed returns to default and can not be increased in any way.

Status Symbol Law - Team is fully status, debuff and ID immune, but has all their total statistics multiplied by .90.

[SnowFire]

Team Talaysen | Raquel, Jude, Arnaud, Yulie
[Synergy Bonus: This team fully heals after every battle. However, if a character dies they suffer a Max HP penalty until a full heal]
[Floor 4a]
*Any attack provokes one counter from the enemies for this floor. They may choose any attack, but any MT attack can only be used against the person who attacked them. MT attacks used on the enemy provoke a counter from all enemies. These counters go off unless the enemy is killed with an attack.
Team Talaysen vs. FFT Squire 5x (Nagrarock (25% Frog)) -
Nagrarock has *ONE* attack power.  This means that it takes way too long for the Squires to actually kill people here.  The ideal situation for the Squires is to Frog everyone then throw stones at them...  but I'd see a Frog-attack as Frogging a full WA4 hex.  Which includes reversing Frog.  Thus, simply wait for 2 WA4 characters to be frogged, then pile into the same hex.  Now WA4 wins easily (as any two non-Frogged characters can win - Jude has Joint Struggle, Arnaud has Dispel, Yulie has healing, Raquel has smash).  And that's ignoring their offensive possibilities.
Team Talaysen vs. Kanji and Yosuke -
...I'll let others handle the P4, but full heals means I don't have to think too hard about it for the later fights.  Illusion on Kanji is probably pretty handy here, though.
Team Talaysen vs. Chie and Yukiko
Team Talaysen vs. Nel, Fayt and Cliff -
This is the tough one.  Worst case scenario: Fayt & Cliff flatten Yulie, Nel Freeze Daggers Raquel.  So...  Nel needs to never get a turn.  Problem is the usual Yulie Turn Shifts in Raquel doesn't work due to Yulie being dead?  Arnaud Slows Down Nel, fine.  There's still incoming Fayt & Cliff turns aimed at Yulie.  Jude however ran to Yulie's hex like the good little Knight he is and prayed Defender kicked in for one of those two attacks?  Assuming it did and Yulie is alive, Turn Shift (Slow Down'd Nel still beats out Raquel here), kill Nel.  Yulie's next turn is faster and she heals up, and I think they take things from there...  buuut that required Defender to kick in and save Yulie.  What are the odds?
Wait, better plan.  Jude Funny Poses Fayt.  Now Fayt likely has to attack Jude rather than Yulie, and don't think Cliff OHKOs Yulie?  Eh, sounds good to me.  Though this might not work if Yulie's max HP was reduced, so hmm, maybe the P4 fights matter after all.
Team Talaysen vs. Genevieve
Slow Down, Turn Shift, 2x Raquel turns.  Raquel & Arnaud eating a single spell doesn't matter.

Not actually a pass vote until I see what others have to say about the P4 fights, though.

[dude789]

Talaysen and Piggy both fail.
Talysen's team does not deal with Genevieve at all in this format. She OHKOs Yulie with her solid physical damage and Raquel gets killed on a counter. After those two are gone it's just a matter of mopping up. Anything the other fights can do is just extra (Arnaud getting frog is a strong possibility and they have no way to get rid of it.)

Piggy has less trouble and would beat Gen if it wasn't for the fight before. Unfortunately Garnet can not heal freeze. So at least one or two people are going into final fight frozen. Garnet's reflect would save them but it's ST and that's not good enough.

Yoshiken makes it through without too much trouble.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Would hitting P4 weakness stop a counter in this format? I'd kneejerk that it would, which makes the P4 fights trivial for Garnet/Cray/Adray on Piggy's team. He's definitely got all the necessary elements by this point.

Arguably, Arnaud Jumps to a Leypoint for elemental damage against P4 weakness in those fights as well.

[SnowFire]

Re dude's comments: Came up in chat.  Don't think dude agrees with me, but re Genevieve speed (and, for that matter, SO3 / anything average speed) vs. WA4:

Arnaud is 114% speed.  100/1.14 = 88 clock ticks for Arnaud's turn.  Genevive at 88/100 CT.   Slow Down makes Gen / whoever 44% speed, so 12/ .44 = 27 more clock ticks for her turn.  Total: Her turn is after 88 + 27 = 115 clock ticks.  Yulie has 90% speed, and 100/.90  = 111 clock ticks.  So Yulie can beat average speed after it was Slow Down'd.

I dunno, it seems like Genevive needs to have nearly every interpretation go her way to have a shot in that battle.  Even if she does beat out Yulie and kill her, Arnaud spends his turn with Fragile instead.  Was pointed out in chat that Jude could have gone to the Fire Ley Point and Ley Boosted, and then Raquel smash + boosted Jude smash likely kills Gen even if you let her counters annihilate anything.

Also, dude, re SO3 Freeze...  that wears off naturally I believe?  Even in battle?  (Rarely matters since Freeze is usually followed shortly thereafter by death, admittedly)  So I wouldn't see that as a concern for Piggyman's team.

[ThePiggyman]

Alright, let's do this.

Team Piggyman vs, FFT Squire 5x (Nagrarock (25% Frog)) - Initial weapon break from Orlandu means only 4 shots of Frog are going in at any one time. The Squires want to Frog Chemist, but even then, that's hopeless, seeing as he can Maiden's Kiss himself back in shape (atleast, I'm pretty sure Frogs can still use items). Their offense is so terrible, anyone who can handle the Frog status is fine here.

Team Piggyman vs. Kanji and Yosuke - Yosuke's getting off a hit, but that's about it. If you're worried about the confusion, Chemist is Charming him first thing. Yosuke can't kill him in one turn. Orlandu, Cray and Adray handle Kanji, with Garnet healing counters and blows, while Yosuke hits himself to death, and Chemist constantly reapplies Charm.

Team Piggyman vs. Chie and Yukiko - This is the exact same fight as above, made easier by the fact Yukiko's got an Ice weakness. If anything, Chemist is gonna spare one of his turns on a Half-Elixir for Garnet, in case she healed a bit too much in that previous fight.

Team Piggyman vs. Nel, Fayt and Cliff -
Okay, so, here's the tough one. To be honest, Nel needs to Freeze Chemist ASAP, or she's getting Charmed, and I'm not sure she can get it off. ARPG puts them all at average speed, personally, and Cray's using his first turn to give Chemist a 50% speed boost. Chemist is only JUST below average, at 0.98x, that boost is letting Chemist get a turn first, and Nel gets Charmed. At that point, she's doing whatever, while Orlandu and Adray slowly dismember Fayt and Cliff. Broken weapon on Cliff makes him a non-factor, although Fayt can still bust some MP. Assuming he goes for Garnet, Adray can still heal in the mean time, while Orlandu shatters Fayt's weapon, and forces him to use his magic to be at all threatening. Cray can finish off Cliff in the mean time. Chemist can't do anything, due to having to reapply Charm, but remember he's been speed boosted, so he'll pull a double in not too long, which he can use to restore Garnet's MP. At that point, Nel's stuck in a Charm-lock, against someone FASTER than her, while Fayt's offense has been severely diminished. Garnet can actually heal off the worries now.

Now, jumping to the worst case scenario, let's say you don't think Chemist can get his turn after the speed boost (Nel speed respect or something? I don't know, but just in case). Garnet's still relatively above average, and can pull off Reflect on one person. Said person is going to be Chemist. Orlandu, once again, is starting off by destroying Cliff's weapon. Chemist needs to die to prevent the Charm, so big question here is if a physical from Nel and Fayt (and no weapon Cliff <.<) is enough to take him out. If Cray isn't speed buffing Chemist, he can use Shield (+20% DEF) on Chemist, to make sure he lives the assault. Chemist can't be taken down. Nel's Charmed, Cliff's weak, and it's back to Fayt alone trying to cause as much damage as he can.

ALTERNATIVELY, Nel could opt to Freeze Orlandu, but Cliff's weapon will already have been shattered, and I am told Freeze DOES wear off. Chemist does his trick, and it's back to the two guys against my team. However, now Orlandu's out of the equation, until Freeze wears off. Adray, Garnet and Cray are playing a stalling game here against Fayt, which is manageable enough. Even if they manage to kill someone off their counters or something, Garnet and Adray both have revival. The following strikes from Cray and Adray can probably kill Cliff after Orlandu's initial blast. Garnet can use Mini on Fayt anyways, if you're worried he can take out my team too quickly.

Team Piggyman vs. Genevieve - My team's probably going to be a little drained after that last fight, but all that's needed is Reflect on Orlandu, and he can likely solo Gen from there. I'll look into it more, but apparently, Gen is average speed, which is letting Garnet have her turn.

=)

[Monkeyfinger]

Tal passes. First 3 fights are no threat. Frog doesn't carry over between fights so Raquel can solo #1 at worst. Neither Yosuke nor Yukiko are threats to anyone and Chie and Kanji are both crippled by illusion. SO3 fight... sure, Fayt and Cliff take Yulie out. Nel can't do shit on turn 1, and the team stops her from getting a turn 2. With raquel landing the finishing blow, she doesn't get taken down by a counter. Now, everything Fayt and Cliff do provokes a counter from someone dangerous. Arnaud feeds them a debilitating stat down, Raquel feeds them pain, Jude does the same only less. Raquel can play things slow with dragon edge if need be. So they pull through and all casualties revive. As for Genevieve? Quick and bloody. A full round of attacks minus Yulie kills her. Jude attacks and dies to a counter, Arnaud attacks and dies to a counter, Genevieve OHKOs one of the girls, the survivor attacks and puts Gen away. Actual respect for VP1 lategame boss HP would let her survive that beating and win, but who with the mental capacity to operate a keyboard has any of that?

Piggyman passes too. The cray + Orlandu double team kills key targets in every fight before they get turns (including the boss) and with Nel dead before she can try freeze hax Orlandu and Cray will be alive to take Gen down... if Fayt and Cliff kill the geriatric, Chemist just brings him back.

Yoshi ... passes? Kary's great defense buys her a turn to carve up Rosa. Kraken probably gets 2 turns as Geno doesn't have good MT spam yet. He can kill Geno with those. But... Augus's terrible defense and physical reliance means that Juan can probably take him one on one, even giving up the first strike to go crush Nimufu. Kary might have magic that can cook Juan but rosa has revival already and Kraken can't OHKO her, so it's moot.

[Monkeyfinger]

Arnaud is 114% speed.  100/1.14 = 88 clock ticks for Arnaud's turn.  Genevive at 88/100 CT.   Slow Down makes Gen / whoever 44% speed, so 12/ .44 = 27 more clock ticks for her turn.  Total: Her turn is after 88 + 27 = 115 clock ticks.  Yulie has 90% speed, and 100/.90  = 111 clock ticks.  So Yulie can beat average speed after it was Slow Down'd.

What would Yulie do with a turn? Protect can't save anyone except maybe Arnaud from an OHKO, and turn shifting isn't much help here since Raquel only gets one shot no matter what. This is all down to how durable you see Gen.

EDIT: Hi-sanctify, never mind.

[Dhyerwolf]

Re dude's comments: Came up in chat.  Don't think dude agrees with me, but re Genevieve speed (and, for that matter, SO3 / anything average speed) vs. WA4:

Arnaud is 114% speed.  100/1.14 = 88 clock ticks for Arnaud's turn.  Genevive at 88/100 CT.   Slow Down makes Gen / whoever 44% speed, so 12/ .44 = 27 more clock ticks for her turn.  Total: Her turn is after 88 + 27 = 115 clock ticks.  Yulie has 90% speed, and 100/.90  = 111 clock ticks.  So Yulie can beat average speed after it was Slow Down'd.

Small problem here is that the WA 4 speed curve comes out to 102%, so Arnaud is more like 112% and Yulie is 88%. Granted, don't think that changes anything if you see Genevieve as average speed (But it might!), but makes it...really, really close. Think Genevieve acted first, so if you take that into extra consideration like I do, might still pre-empt Yulie (I really only read this, so I have no idea how crucial this would even be).

[Clear Tranquil]

*Notes -

* Adray still does *not* have revival, MT healing or Berserk yet unless you're generous on the leeway what with Triple EXP and what not - I tend to lean that way but yeah MMV.

* Adray has no armour! Unless you allow IC (I allow him/Peppita/Sophia the Elven Cloak for instance) Adray's armour choice is basically non existant and even so his best main game armour iirc is the Alabative Shield from Moonbase. I think the Alabative Shield is his best armour period >_> Maybe a refined Seraphic Garb but that's post game.

*Edit* - I take that back and eat my hat. Adray does have revival and Berserk. F4 already heh.

* Garnet does not have full revival. This is an issue when you only have one other reviver and your team is being reamed twice over with counters.

*Fayt/Nel > Cliff > Adray - Their default movement rates is the tie breaker. Adray is lovin' this ARPG characters as average speed interp overall though >_>

* Nel can only not do shit T1 if you don't buy Divine Wrath. Now I know the issues with that move but yeah. With the stat topic (which I fully endorse considering all the damn work OK put into it!) Nel is second and Cliff fourth for damage. Even w/o Divine Wrath Splitting Sky is another beast entirely w/th Berserk as a factor, it only costs like an additional one fury per tick for the extra hits. Fayt respect is misplaced, he can't fully chain Ethereal Blast even w/th Berserk -and- he has to use Side Kick as cancel fodder to Ethereal Blast if he wants anything even vaguely resembling a chain at all. Ethereal Blast only works as serious offence w/th Berserk - and- minus fury factors on equipment. His other offence comes from infinity juggling with Divine Blade but -that- is with the aid of another character. Yeah no Side Kick and Air Raid are not damage, Fayt just not compete with the cannons of this game. Full EB chains and infinity juggling is *awesme* but he doesn't have that DL.

* Nel's money freeze is physical yes. No Reflect hype. Baad.

* However Body Temp might resist Nel's freeze I dunno? FF9 status blocker interps I know but you might find leeway in the dungeon =-) Or maybe not >_>

* Nel can Ice Daggers > Divine Wrath freeze shatter in a chain or Cliff/Fayt can shatter the target on their turn yeah.

* Cliff has Aerial Assault for MP damage.

* Yoshi's team seriously desires Geno Whirl. I hope he has it because Geno's basically the only one on that team with speed >_> Ceilo is only average, Juan, Yukiko and Rosa are all below average (unless I'm reading the S3 stat topic wrong Juan's speed is really quite terrible) and Status Symbol Law is not helping. I forgot to address this on F1 but yeah in addition Rosa and Yuki also have below average HP/DEF again compounded by SSL - and - Rosa's the only one on that team w/th revival at this stage <_<

[DjinnAndTonic]

Tal and Piggy both lose to the Fayt/Nel/Cliff combo, I'm thinking. Those three just take out too many key members of the respective teams too quickly for the revivers/status-healers to catch up. Chemist Charm respect is iffy, too. Sadly enough, they have no trouble with any of the other matches by my interps.

Yoshiken... waiting for now, but leaning pass.

[Bardiche]

(unless I'm reading the S3 stat topic wrong Juan's speed is really quite terrible)

Juan is second-best at speed. Stat topic places him at ~145% speed.

[Nephrite]

(unless I'm reading the S3 stat topic wrong Juan's speed is really quite terrible)

Juan is second-best at speed. Stat topic places him at ~145% speed.

That's before the Status Symbol Law and if you allow him to have an... S in Swing, right? I dunno if he can get that yet.

[Bardiche]

(unless I'm reading the S3 stat topic wrong Juan's speed is really quite terrible)

Juan is second-best at speed. Stat topic places him at ~145% speed.

That's before the Status Symbol Law and if you allow him to have an... S in Swing, right? I dunno if he can get that yet.

True. But the speed curve is way lower at the start, too, you should remember; (almost) no one has an S in anything yet, meaning all Swings and Spells are slower. Even with Status Law Symbol, he loses 1 or 2 speed at worst, still netting him as "highly above average" coupled with the overall lower speed.

Fists already beat out other things at speed.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Juan doesn't have an S in Swing, that's Emily.

[Nephrite]

Juan doesn't have an S in Swing, that's Emily.

Oh. ...Well then.

[ThePiggyman]

Tal and Piggy both lose to the Fayt/Nel/Cliff combo, I'm thinking. Those three just take out too many key members of the respective teams too quickly for the revivers/status-healers to catch up. Chemist Charm respect is iffy, too. Sadly enough, they have no trouble with any of the other matches by my interps.

Ok, if you don't buy the Charming (item limit on Chemist? Confusion-preventing accessories?), here's a new plan.

Turn order is looking like this; Cray > Orlandu > Garnet > Nel > Cliff > Fayt > Adray > Chemist.

Keep in mind that Cray CAN make sure Adray/Chemist get a turn before the other three, thanks to the speed boost. Also, Adray has Cure Condition, which removes ALL negative SO3 status ailments, Freeze included. What Cray can do is boost Adray's speed, so he can unfreeze everyone that tries to attack Nel. Orlandu's gonna blast Nel for as much damage as he can. At this point, Orlandu can get a Twisted Headband and a Power Sleeve, and his damage is quickly rising. Admittedly, he still doesn't have Excalibur or his Bracer, but I'd peg a Holy Explosion at 0.7~ PCHP at this point. That's taking into account both the losses. Along with that, Garnet's now got Bahamut, which is a solid 2HKO (0.6~ PCHP). Nel's got below average HP, and is not getting a turn through that barrage. However, worst case scenario now is that Orlandu is Frozen, and Garnet's nearly dead from Cliff/Fayt counters. A speeded Adray, though, can unfreeze Orlandu before Cliff and Fayt move. With their turns, Cliff and Fayt can probably kill whoever they want, but I've got three active revivers. If they off anyone that isn't Chemist, Chemist is using his upcoming turn to revive them FULLY. If they off Chemist, Orlandu's shattering Cliff's weapon (meaning that counter becomes negligible, and keep in mind, both Cliff and Fayt are hurt from Bahamut. With a broken weapon, Cliff can't do much threatening, which leaves Fayt alone to take on my team, with everyone alive (except maybe Garnet, but Adray or Chemist is picking her up).

I can manage this fight, and I can manage Gen after it, too. Orlandu and Cray honestly probably handle Gen themselves.

[Yoshiken]

Monkey: Cielo has Mazio at this point along with Elec Boost. That's hitting Kraken for weakness as well as being MT, so I'm guessing he definitely falls on Turn 1.

CT: S3 runs on charge times. For the stat topic, lower speed values are better, so Juan is, in fact, damn fast.

Fight-by-fight analysis shortly~

[Random Consonant]

Piggyman passes, but it looks pretty close.  Abstaining on the other two teams.

[Yoshiken]

I know there's a split in interps regarding extra turns from SMTers hitting weakness. My analysis assumes these aren't allowed, but those are available in all but the last fight for those who allow them. Definitely makes the floor a joke if you do.

Team Yoshiken | Cielo, Geno, Juan, Yukiko, Rosa (Status Symbol Law)
[Floor 2a]
Team Yoshiken vs. Milon, Baigan and Kainazzo (FF4 SNES) - Milon durability is a joke and he probably dies to a single Agi. If not, Cielo has Elec Boosted Mazio to finish him off while hurting the others. If people take Baigan with arms, then Geno & Juan probably hit those on their turns. Otherwise, this fight's over in one round.
Anyways, back to interp with arms. Juan and Geno hit the arms while Kainazzo either goes into his tsunami, which is then broken by Mazio from Cielo, or he uses his GODLY PHYSICAL of the 4HKO. Baigan also uses a puny attack, while Cielo attacks/Mazios (if Baigan regenerated the arms) and then Rosa heals off the minimal damage taken. Geno/Juan finish off the bosses.
Team Yoshiken vs. Booster and Mack - If really needed, everyone on the team can guard/skip turns, so Cielo can spend turns using Tarunda if you don't see the team blitzing past Booster's limit. Alternatively, skip Juan/Geno's first turns (or kill Mack) to allow the entire team to sweep him. Easy fight is easy.
Team Yoshiken vs. Scarmiglione-Z (FF4 DS) - Average speed and damage that won't be able to kill? Counters are worth nothing? Weakness problems with both Rosa and Yukiko? Yeah, nice sweep here.
*Full Heal
Team Yoshiken vs. Kary and Kraken - Seeing as DDS has no speed stat to lower, Cielo is still average despite SSL, and generally wins interps due to the playables moving first in most fights in-game. This puts him faster than Kraken/Kary, and thus allows Geno/Cielo turns to kill Kraken before he gets a turn. As for Kary... Juan's attack's already hitting, and Cielo can use Mazio?!?! yeah no. Anyways. Kary attacks and... might kill Rosa? I'm not sure how good FF4's equipment options are at this point. I'll assume worst-case, probably does with SSL. Juan and Geno finish off Kary.
Team Yoshiken vs. Augus and Nimufu (BoF2) - Nimufu is a joke and might even be killed while Yukiko and Cielo take their turns as normal (Maragi and Elec Boosted Mazio). A~and... if you don't see Augus dying to the overall blitz, Yukiko has Agilao at this point, while most PCs are on Lv 1 spells still. Win.


Kneejerking that Piggy passes, although I could be swayed. Charm and status healing push him through the first few fights, and... I'd guess Cray is speed-boosting Chemist, who can Split Shell Nel or Fayt while Orlandu Weapon Breaks Cliff - takes a counter, but I'd guess Cliff can't do much of any worth now. Garnet probably moves a little after Chemist, meaning she can use Bahamut to wipe out Nel here. From there, this fight isn't really much of a challenge - Garnet and Adray can keep the team healed while Chemist can Split Shell people and Orlandu can Weapon/Armour Break if necessary before killing. The next fight seems pretty easy if the whole team's alive.

[Talaysen]

Talysen's team does not deal with Genevieve at all in this format. She OHKOs Yulie with her solid physical damage and Raquel gets killed on a counter. After those two are gone it's just a matter of mopping up. Anything the other fights can do is just extra (Arnaud getting frog is a strong possibility and they have no way to get rid of it.)

Genevieve really isn't a problem.  Battle goes like this:

Jude: Move to fire hex if available, though a wind hex is better if he grabs Assault Buster (L52, so well within GC point range).
Arnaud: Jump to an elemental hex, Slow Down Genevieve.  (I'd see Yulie going before Genevieve but I know you don't, so let's assume not.  Slow Down reduces average speed to 42% of normal at endgame, but it's better earlier in the game, even.  42% is easily enough for these purposes.)
Genevieve: Kill Yulie.
Jude: Ley Boost if he found a fire or wind hex, otherwise defend or something.
Raquel: Moonlight.
Arnaud: Fragile
Jude: Whatever his best damage is here (likely Assault Buster).  It's backed up by the +100 ATK or +100 RFX from Ley Boost.  Eats a counter and dies.
Raquel: Intrude -> Moonlight -> Intrude etc. until maxed Power Charge, attack.  Eats a counter and dies.  If THIS doesn't kill Genevieve...
Arnaud: Magic.  Backed by Crisis MAG with three allies dead.  Also gets a 1.5x mult from the ley point.

She's eating Jude's best damage backed by Ley Boost, a double or so powered Raquel physical, and an Arnaud magic blast backed by 3x Crisis MAG and the leypoint, all under Fragile.  That's more than enough to take her out.

[SnowFire]

Piggyman's arguments sound fine to me, so he gets a pass.

Small problem here is that the WA 4 speed curve comes out to 102%, so Arnaud is more like 112% and Yulie is 88%. Granted, don't think that changes anything if you see Genevieve as average speed (But it might!), but makes it...really, really close. Think Genevieve acted first, so if you take that into extra consideration like I do, might still pre-empt Yulie (I really only read this, so I have no idea how crucial this would even be).

Actually...  assuming what you say is true, this would switch it from a small Yulie win to basically a tie.  And I would tiebreak for Genevive here if she goes first.  Granted, it doesn't really matter to me, but could matter elsewhere...  notably the SO3 fight.  Now that I think about it, I am inclined to penalize spellcasters like Adray & Sophia in init, and give some credit to Nel & Fayt speed hype in return...  that'd also render efforts to stop Nel from Freezing Raquel problematic.  Sure, Raquel could get lucky and not have it affect her, but...  hrmm.  Dispel hype on stopping Freeze?  Wouldn't normally agree with this, but it's something.  Assuming that, then Nel finishes off Yulie instead.  Raquel still smashes Nel, Arnaud would have Slow Down'd Fayt...  but I'd also let Fayt walk out of Slow Down's hex fairly fast so this is a temporary measure at best.  Jude Funny Poses Cliff again.  Arnaud Shut Outs Fayt so he can't wander out of Slow Down, and arguably this messes up his physical game some as well (still has magic, but Shut Out isn't great for stopping attacks in WA4 outright, so unsure).  Cliff hammers Jude, he's been hit twice now.  Jude...  FP permitting Mystics a Berry, Raquel got hit once by Nel and Jude is hurtin', otherwise does something like Funny Pose Cliff -> Defend?  Raquel Dragon Edges Cliff to try and keep from dying.  Fayt gets a turn in somewhere but he's trapped in Slow Down.  I think WA4 grinds out a very narrow victory here tentatively, even with losing the speed break?  Ugly.  And it does require letting Arnaud's Dispel stop Freeze.

Generally willing to tiebreak matches requiring a bit of luck in favor of the team over the Dungeon, it's only when they need to get lucky repeatedly that it's a problem.  So pass to Talaysen.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Turn order is looking like this; Cray > Orlandu > Garnet > Nel > Cliff > Fayt > Adray > Chemist.

Yeah, LOL at Garnet casting Bahamut being faster than Nel. Also, while I could buy a Cray-speeded Adray as faster than Cliff and Fayt, I don't think he's going before Nel.

The way I would see that strategy going down is: Cray speeds Adray, Orlandu attacks Nel, gets Frozen, Nel Freezes Adray, Garnet does her Bahamut thing, gets killed by Fayt/Cliff counter. Fayt/Cliff kill Chemist on their turns. Now the only one left moving is CRAY. And he's now suffering the speed 'penalty' from his sealstone.

It's close, though

[Clear Tranquil]

SO3 has no confusion/chaos blockers but what I forgot to bring up yesterday was that SO3 characters have access to equip changing in battle. So Orlandu has to keep breaking Cliff's weapons >_>

This is probably all a moot point anyway because wasn't Orlandu known as a SO3 spoiler with MP busting?

Nel can't freeze Adray, Anti-Freezing Amulets are definitely available by now <_< She can chaos him though!

Garnet has above average speed and .. uhh I think Fayt and Mirage actually become faster than Nel (if they've been in motion for a while) Yeah irrc Adray too starts off at one speed (i.e godawful) but becomes decent if he's been moving around a while. Captain K did testing on this. Even so it's a hard thing to swallow Adray suddenly becoming faster than everyone with haste/speed up buffs and it's probably not happening T1 regardless.

Eh I'm not even entirely sure Nel's default movement rate is faster than Fayt's though. Testing tiem.

**

Oh so I was reading the stat topic wrong   Thanks Bard and Yoshi <(^^)>
My respect for your team just went up!

[DjinnAndTonic]

Garnet is above average speed, but... FF9 speed spread isn't that significant. And if I'm recalling correctly, summons are slow to cast. I just don't see 27 speed to a 25 average as beating out Nel, who's noticeably faster than most of the cast at this stage.