Yeesh. Too many uninteresting duelers in this Middle field, even among those I can theoretically vote on.
Hope vs Fred (S3)
Can't pulse his damage.
Hope vs Matthew (FE7)
Sure, inclined to tiebreak and let Matthew go first... but... according to the stat topic, Matthew does ~.30 PCHP damage a hit. His opening double knocks Hope down .60 PCHP. Hope uses Haste / Protect. Let's see Medic as slow enough to let Matthew get another shot in... a Protect'd hit still won't finish the job (Haste means no more doubles). Hope heals it all off, and also equips some light ID resistance + throws up Veil for the ID, then Faith'd magics his way through.
Hope vs Vivi (FF9)
The only relevant status Vivi offers are Slow and Death, and Slow is easily dealt with. Not really inclined to hype Stop too much (throwing away the instant win so it's only 2 turns, not enough to kill Hope through Shell with damage), and Petrify, dunno, maybe, but not sure it matters. Hope goes first, uses Haste / Veil, and enters with some ID resistance just in case. Vivi has like a 5% chance of connecting with Death. Now granted, Vivi can halve Hope's elements (but can't null them all), so Hope offense fails forever in this fight, more so than usual. (No Ruin Commando for Hope.) But with him Hasted and Vivi HP still not great and Vivi basically unable to threaten Hope (damage just meets Medic + running out Vivi's MP), I think Hope will kill before the ID connects. The ID connects in ~15-20 turns, and the damage should kill in about 14 turns, but Hope is hasted so it's more like 10 turns.
Hope vs FuSoYa (FF4)
Bah, FF4 status hype. Most of the final dungeon is immune but hey the two enemies we found that are vulnerable to it eat it 100% of the time. Regardless FuSoYa's got a bunch of options and most are fight-ending so Hope's Veil doesn't slow this down enough.
Hope vs Dalton (CT)
Dalton vs. Haste-Healer.
Lightning vs Fred (S3)
Lightning vs Matthew (FE7)
Lightning goes first to me, but it doesn't matter, 2 Ruin spam sets don't finish the day.
Lightning vs Vivi (FF9)
Vivi gets one shot of the ID and Lightning will enter with some resistance anyway.
Lightning vs FuSoYa (FF4)
I'll go with super, sure.
Lightning vs Dalton (CT)
Dalton vs. Healer.
Sazh vs Fred (S3)
Sure, Fred draws first blood, but then he's up against Haste / Protect'd Sazh. He has a 3HKO, so now it's a 5HKO or so with the first hit getting around Protect. I think Hasted / Faith'd Sazh can finish Fred in time with magic.
Sazh vs Matthew (FE7)
Unfortunately for Sazh Matthew has MEvade so the above plan doesn't work. Matthew damage does massively fail after Haste / Protect turns off his doubles but Sazh still has to set up Bravery and then miss a bunch of times which is fatal.
Sazh vs Vivi (FF9)
No Veil for Sazh but he just outslugs before status lands with gunshots.
Sazh vs FuSoYa (FF4)
See Lightning / Super.
Sazh vs Dalton (CT)
I don't think CT protect helped against Iron Orb / Nus, so it doesn't help Sazh here. And Haste is useless with counters. He can uh Bravery -> outslug if you have horrible Dalton HP respect I guess, but it needs to be a 2HKO or something. Actually, the stat topic does claim that Dalton has ~.85 PCHP or so, so a 2HKO is actually pretty probable here... after Bravery. So the way Sazh wins is Haste / Bravery -> Iron Orb -> instant double on gunshots. If he misses the instant double Dalton burps him out. Unfortunately the stat topic claims that Dalton barely avoids an instant double from 13 Speed Crono, so if we throw out turn 1 of Sazh at average speed, I'd see post-Haste Sazh as roughly Cronoish, so he doesn't get his double.
