Voting on this field first ofc because I have to start with the trainwrecks. Just to note, I can of course vote on Nicholai, Moppy AND Menardi. Super has no mercy.
NICHOLAI
Nicholai is like 0.5 PCHP for me on a good day. According to Dhyer's damage numbers he 2HKOs so I guess if he doesn't explode turn 1, being on the wrong side of the speed average, he could do something. Maybe. He might 3HKO instead since levels are slightly higher from what I recall or something but shouldn't matter given that amazing stat spread.
Nicholai (SH2) vs Alice (SH1) - Nicholai goes first, but can't kill Alice. She Gospels, heals the next turn, then 2HKOs him back. Gj Nicholai.
Nicholai vs Natalia (TotA) - 2HKOs, isn't OHKO'd
Nicholai vs Mystic Knight (FF5) - MK uses Drain Sword and pretends he's Gafgarion without the mustache.
Nicholai vs Lily (MK2) - If I'm reading Dhyer's notes right, Kill Point for MK2 is about 4800 damage. So at 0.5 PCHP, Nicholai dies to 2400 damage or so. Lily does this in her sleep and goes first (completes in 1.95 turns).
Nicholai vs Bernadette (S5) - Bern's damage is uh...not good. Nicholai just needs to not get OHKO'd which he should manage...right? RIGHT?!
Nicholai vs Malak (FFT) - Malak goes first and 3HKOs. Nicholai however 2HKOs. RIP.
Nicholai vs Tim (WA2) - Heal locks at worse.
3-4.
Good job Nicholai. You can beat the mighty Malak and Tim. I hope you are proud of yourself. Actually given who I *can* vote on, you should be proud of yourself - no sarcasm.
EIKO
Is Eiko like the only Middle who isn't horrible abject failure that I can vote on ;_;. Please have mercy.
Eiko (FF9) vs Alice (SH1) - Alice runs into SP issues against any healer.
Eiko vs Natalia (TotA) - I'm not sure if Sharpness is enough to pressure. Eiko can Mini and a turn or two spent on Sharpness is a turn or two more Eiko can sling that her and the moment it hits, she's dead in the water since Nat can't overcome Eiko's healing at that point.
Eiko vs Mystic Knight (FF5) - I think? Silence Sword/Break Sword are basically killer and Eiko can't win with the 1 turn she gets.
Eiko vs Lily (MK2) - Probably has some sort of Ice equip cheese in there. *Checks*. Yep.
Eiko vs Bernadette (S5) - See above. Silence is also fatal here, even if takes a zillion turns to hit. Bern has some serious offensive issues, and I think this match sort of highlights this.
Eiko vs Malak (FFT) - Unlike Snowfire, I'm not sure if Malak needs to block transformation type statii. Malak's low faith keeps him pretty safe. Worse yet, he might actually win this through GOKUU ROD Innocent Procs -_-. SUUPPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRR!!
Eiko vs Tim (WA2) - Both want to status each other out (Eiko with Silence, Tim with ID) and they have basically the same rate (40%). Eiko's faster, so she wins. Easy. If you see Silence as not catching Force abilities, then Tim wins I think. Eiko can't really stick damage to him without blowing her resources and Tim has infinite healing cheese for that noise.
5-2.
Outside of losing to potentially MALAK, she close to sweeps. This pool isn't even particularly strong, but she is probably a stronger Middle than most people think. In a division where damage isn't that great, her lowish status procs and buckets of healing are often enough.
SNOW'S FAVOURITE DUELER AKA ODIN
There are three ways I can see you taking Odin. Either that he's extremely frail (~0.3 PCHP, Jeremy tier), but with good offense. This is synonymous with advanced set ups and subsequent crystal playthroughs. Second, you can see him as having really bad damage (Toughness), until about Limit phase but okay durability. This assumes you have modest twinking, but not anything crazy like Option A. Finally, you can see him as being bad at both (Toughness + Offense Twinking), which while it doesn't leave him as frail as in Option A, still probably means he gets 2HKO'd by everything ala Nicholai. None of these are Heavy interps. Personally, I fall into Option A - it's what I'm most accustomed to seeing. This leaves for some hilarious failure I assure you.
Odin (VP2) vs Alice (SH1) - OHKOs with Advent.
Odin vs Natalia (TotA) - OHKOs with her base combo chain.
Odin vs Mystic Knight (FF5) - Mystic Knight actually has to power up! Too bad Odin doesn't have anything really dangerous at full HP and Mystic Knight will likely survive at least 1 Hit. Flare Sword, thwack, ded.
Odin vs Lily (MK2) - Of all the resists that Odin does catch, the one thing he doesn't is ICE. Do you know what killed the All-father?! TEH ICE CREAM
Odin vs Bernadette (S5) - Jesus Christ. Bern runs head first into Odin's Limit range (regardless of physical or Breath of Ice). This gets her gloriously wrecked by his Limit moves which should never ever happen. Failure.
Odin vs Malak (FFT) - For the record, Malak does have some form of damage control thanks to Odin's resists and his equips. Unfortunately for him, any sort of strategy he pulls with chipping relies on a huge amount of luck through Untruth. He either needs things to hit only once, or hit him and not Odin, and so on. Without Untruth, his physicals 2HKO Odin and put him into Limit range like Bern. Two people giving Odin access to Spiritual Lancer. What the flying *fuck*
Odin vs Tim (WA2) - JESUS ON POGOSTICK WHY. Odin goes first, hits Tim with something and gives him enough FP for a L2 Elemental Spell which OHKOs him. Moppy durability is about 7 kinds of amazing. I'm sure Snow will have a field day when he gets to this. SUUPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!!!
2-5.
What a fucking disaster. Gets OHKO'd by pretty much everything, INCLUDING Tim L2s. I guess in the LIGHT border, some duellers have issues bypassing his amazing 0.3 PCHP range, by doing less than that which in turn means he does splatter with those high damage moves he will normally never see. Next!
Oh no. OH NO NO NO ;_;.
MENARDI
As a reminder, Menardi is essentially WA1o Harken. 5HKO physicals with about a 20% chance to ID (Earth Elemental), 3HKOs if she spends two turns to buff it (but the buffs wear off after about 5 rounds). Has magic that maybe 3HKOs? It's fire so it's pretty easy to cover. She's fast though. Maybe that can save her!? (SPOILERS: No).
Menardi (GS) vs Alice (SH1) - Leonardo's Bear + Cotton Panties = Menardi has no offense and gets beaten to death by Booc. Eph approved.
Menardi vs Natalia (TotA) - 3HKOs first or something. The fact that DEATH SEIZE is her best bet here is just pathetic.
Menardi vs Mystic Knight (FF5) - Blizzaga Sword. Smiting happens after. Menardi can't stop this.
Menardi vs Lily (MK2) - Menardi's about 125% average CTB speed? So she'll 4-3 Lily, but since she needs to like buff TWICE to even get 2HKO damage (she 5HKOs without...). Chances are, she'll use Supernova and try for the 3HKO. Unfortunately, during that time, Lily can pump out 6218 damage just before the 3rd turn. AND it hits weakness. So if we assume the weakness is about 25%, that's ~7700 damage or about 1.62x above the Kill point. Do I see Menardi within that HP range? No.
Menardi vs Bernadette (S5) - IF ONLY BERN COULD BLOCK ID ;_;
Menardi vs Malak (FFT) - This is some amazing abject failure. Earth Clothes kills the ID and Malak's low faith means Menardi has to go physical. He does lose if he doesn't get a heal off, but there's also that she can get hit by the blast and her durability isn't good enough that I can rule out stick beats. So yeah. AMAZING, but not as amazing as below...
Menardi vs Tim (WA2) - WHAT IS THIS PANDEMONIUM? Menardi needs to buff herself to even scare Tim and unfortunately those buffs have TIMERS. So Tim just sits there and uses First Aid until he gets an open shot (since Menardi needs 2 Impacts to do anything...), then summons Material. As long as he keeps 25 FP in the bank, he won't lose since he can safely open with Thanatos X without eating a OHKO. Oh, and to add insult to injury? The summon is WATER ELEMENTAL so it also hits Weakness and 2HKOs her ass. SUPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!!!!!
1-6.
...Epic. Gets owned by the Mighty Tim and Mad Dog Malak. Only wins against Bern because she can't block ID. When your record in this spectacular mess of a pool is a 1-6, you know you're a real winner.
