Top 5 Tips For Brawling in WC!

[Zeno]

The last two lists of mine could be considered silly and whatnot, but I'm being serious with this one. There's a couple of people I could help with this information, so I've decided to share some of my tips and tricks with you to help you become better. Anyone can benefit from an old man's wisdom, so even if you think you know what you need to do, you might want to give this a read anyway, as there might be something I know how to do better than you do.

You are free to ask me questions through pm if there's anything on this list that needs a better explanation. I will try to be as thorough as possible, but as always, if you don't understand something, tell me. This might be something I can do on the regular basis if there's a demand for it, so let me know.

[Zeno]

Number 5: Stay Organized

It's really hard for me to put all of these in any specific order. I consider all of these equally as important, so consider that when you see these. I don't want it to seem like you should value one less than the other. You need ALL of these, or at least I think so, considering I've gotten to this point doing these things...

Staying organized is mainly referring to how you keep your Bakupack, but it also applies to honor points and shop usage. Let's talk about Bakupacks first.

You need to keep your Bakupacks clean. It shouldn't be a cluttered mess in there. What I should see when I go into my Bakupack is what I have, what type of item it is, and what class it belongs to. I should not go into my Bakupack seeing a bunch of stuff that I can't immediately identify. Why not, you ask? The answer is extremely simple. Think of it as notes you take for a class. When you look at those notes, you want to know what you're looking at so you can study, right? That's all a Bakupack is: notes. I need the Bakupack so I can have the information I need to apply it to the quiz/exam: an actual brawl. The only difference is that the brawl is open note. Even in those instances, it would make sense to have this information readily available so that you know what to put, right? See where this is going?

It's also a HUGE time saver when you know what's in your Bakupack. All of us have things to do. It makes it so much easier on our minds to just be able to know where our stuff is and how to identify them so we can apply them and go about our business.

Remember: You can't win a brawl without taking notes. Remember that.

Keeping track of your notes allows you to see what you have and what you don't have. The good part about brawls that you don't get for exams is that after you take your test (brawl), you can go back and add more information to your notes while not having anything negative count against you (aside from a loss, but...is that really a deal breaker?). This teaches you what you NEED to be successful in brawls, so the next time you go in the shop to buy or create something, you know what you need to get. You don't go around in the shop and mindlessly make or buy things. You're doing this for a purpose, to succeed, to be the best like no one ever was. Wouldn't you want to know which direction to go in? Sure you would. Keep track of your Bakupack.

[Zeno]

Number 4: Understanding How Card Classes and Effects Work

This is very self-explanatory. You need to know how these function. Instinctively, you know this already, but a lot of you are not applying this the way that you should be. You CAN and WILL lose every brawl if you do not take this aspect seriously.

Compare this to a chess board. As a former competitive chess player myself, I needed to know all of the basics. I needed to know how many spaces are on the board. I needed to know all of my pieces. I needed to know how they move, what they can do, what they can't do, what they can do in the beginning/middle/endgame, how they can protect other pieces, how they can attack other pieces, etc.

It goes on and on. In reality, if you want to become as strong as...well...me or Calvin for example, this is what you're going to have to do. By the time you come to me asking for a SERIOUS fight, you need to have your mind in order. You need to know the remaining cards a player has left to play at all times, what your opponent could possibly play or can't play, what you can play or can't play, how this effect might affect you or the opponent, how things will look in the middle to endgame if a certain effect is played, how to maximize your effect usage, what your positioning is in the brawl, your opening, your counterattack, your EVERYTHING. The bottom line is...you need to know MORE than your opponent, or you're going to lose.

You need to have this thought in the back of your head that says, "If I play this effect, such and such will happen because of it." If you can't envision different scenarios of what will happen if you play something, then you have no business playing it. How are you going to play something and you don't even know what's going to come later on as the result of you doing it? That just means you're throwing things out without any thought. You need to be able to think ahead, and the crucial understanding of how these cards work is what's going to get you to the point of being able to do that.

[Zeno]

Number 3: Understanding the Rules

You knew this was coming. Can you believe that it actually plays an important role in winning brawls other than keeping you out of trouble with the staff? Of course you do! It's frustrating when you see someone play a gate card without a normal ability, and you - the person that knows the rules - understands that they're doing themselves a disservice by not doing so. It's good for you that they don't understand the rules, but it's not good for them. That's why I have to make this known.

In addition to knowing how your items function, there's another crucial tactic that you need to use in conjunction with that. It's as simple as understanding the rules that you're abiding by. It goes like this.

If you have to understand what you're playing, then it obviously makes sense to have to know if you can DO what you're doing. It also makes sense to apply it to your opponent as well. If you know the rules well enough, then you'll have a good indication of what your opponent can or can't do to you while you're brawling, thereby making it easier for you to understand the flow of the battle.

If you know that your opponent has used up all of their counters and only has normal abilities left to play, then all you'd have to do is use a prevention. There you go. Game over. This is a simple example for this aspect of brawling.

Take it a step further and see if your opponent has already used a special. Well, logic would have it to where most opponents will not be able to play anymore special abilities, so pop a prevention on their normal abilities, and you have established a clear method of control over what your opponent can do. That's where the rules come into play here. If you know them, you can use them in your favor in battle to gain an edge.

Once you become more advanced, you can start thinking about this on high-level terms. For example, think of the way that you use counter effects. You know that there's two times you can counter a card, one time you can counter a gate card or support weapon, and one time you can protect/absorb. Does it matter in the order that you play them?

If you answered no, then it's a blessing that I took time out of my day to enlighten you on this information. Yes, it does matter.

For example, your opponent has an ability and gate card active. You use a card that negates BOTH the ability and the gate card. Guess what you just did? You just lost the only limit you had that allows you to counter gate cards and support weapons, so if your opponent decides to bring out a support weapon, and its effect doesn't affect you to where you could use the protect limit you have to guard against it, then you can't counter whatever that support weapon does. Scary, isn't it? That's why I'm here to tell you to THINK about the rules when you brawl.

[Zeno]

Number 2: Understanding Why You Win or Lose

I'm breaking my own rules here, but THIS right here is what you should be paying attention to over everything else, but for good reason. You're going to be applying everything that I already said to this aspect of brawling right here.

I mentioned being a former competitive chess player. During tournaments, some required the players to take notation. That means that we record what is moved where. Reading this notation can allow others to reenact the game precisely as it played out in real time.

Luckily for you, you don't have to do all of that. The "notation" is right in front of you.

When you look at this "notation", you need to be able to explain how things played out the way that they did using all of the knowledge that you've gained from before. This is how progress is made.

What? You think that doesn't make any sense? Okay. Let me give you an example from my own personal experience as a sprinter. I'm trained by a former Olympian as I'm trying to get to the next level, and he's looking out for various flaws in my sprinting technique. By looking at these things, he can easily tell me why I ran fast or why I didn't run as fast as I could be doing.

That's what you're doing with this aspect. You're checking the brawls that you've been in so you could see what you did that led you to win, and why what you did was so important for how the brawl played out. You need to be able to review your moves to see why they were not really the best choices that you could have made, and what your opponent did that led to your defeat.

If you don't understand why you won a brawl, then you didn't deserve to win the brawl to begin with. How are you supposed to replicate that success if you don't know what you did? You can't expect to keep winning with the mentality that says, "Oh, Damian, it worked against this guy, so it's going to keep working." You're a loser if you think that. Losing isn't the only way one can improve. You can improve by winning too, but if you're going to sit there and not know how you did it, then you're worse than the loser.

If you don't understand why you lost a brawl, then it's good thing you didn't win, because you're going to suck for a very long time. No one wants to keep losing over and over again, so the smart thing to do would be to look at the brawl, see how you lost, and make sure that whatever you did that led to you losing the brawl doesn't happen again.

THIS is how you learn to win and to keep winning. It isn't a magical secret that helps you win brawls. THIS is it RIGHT HERE.

[Zeno]

Number 1: Stay Composed and Stay Focused

You can look at this and number 2 as this one being good for short-term events and the former for long-term events. Staying composed is VERY important. There are going to be times when you're put into bad scenarios. If you want to make it through those bad times, you need to keep a stable hold on your emotions so you are able to think through your predicament. People tend to make rash decisions when placed under pressure. You will lose this way. I promise. This is an important life lesson as well.

Even if you're ahead, you need to stay focused, as anything could happen that could change the situation at any second. If you become cocky and forget what you've learned, then you're really not as strong as you thought you were. Arrogance is a killer.

You realize this more when you reach the higher echelon of the brawling world. The majority of brawls at the top level are often won based on this aspect. When it comes to two opponents that are closely matched in power, and it becomes a tense situation, the person who wins that brawl was the person who kept better control of themselves. It becomes a game of who can make the best decisions in horrible situations. That's the pro level for you.