[FFT Arena 138d] Agile Zombies (Swiss) vs This Will End In Tears (iamBQB)

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• published: 19 May 2013
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Two returning faces will face off in the battle of The Quick (Raise 2) and the Undead. Agile Zombies is an immortal Oil Team. Hawk's Eye Thieves provide the Oil. These Cursed Thieves are ridiculously fast at 15 Speed, the highest speed you can naturally attain. Not only will they be hitting hard with their Hawk's Eye, but they'll be coming back very quickly when they get dropped. Only problem is that combined with the Thieves puny MP pool and no form of MP recovery, if the enemy can tank the threat of a 15 Speed Hawk's Eye twice per Thief, then all that's left are Sasuke Knives. Talking Geomancer abandons with Feather Mantle while trying it's best to Insult the enemy into Berserk to take advantage of its high Physical Evasion. It also has Mimic Daravon as a back up skill. Finally Blaze Gun Paladin has an odd loadout. With only 55 Faith, Blaze Gun will not be dealing all that much on its own. It has to rely on Oil to deal good damage, and with those Thieves only able to apply Hawk's Eye twice, the team better hope that'll be all they'll need. This Paladin also has an inordinate amount of MA stack on it. While this may seem to be a classic blunder of assuming MA increase Faith Gun damage (and it might be) this MA actually serves another purpose. Murasame will heal himself and his Talking Geomancer to stick around as long as possible to run the clock for Cursed Ring to trigger. While Koutetsu would have be capable of healing the Cursed Thieves as well, it would lack that important self heal property and thanks to those Thieves' sheer speed, a source of healing can actually be forsaken. It also has Masamune to make those 15 Speed Thieves into 18 Speed demons. Its final skill is the team's only form of non-undead revival, Reraise. Reraise is very dubious as a form of revival and unless proven otherwise, I could never recommend as a replacement as a method of revival. It's also very weak here thanks to a lack of MP restoration for this Paladin. It does have Wizard Robe as an attempt to compensate for this weakness, but it only delays the inevitable. This team with only temporary safeguards against death, has a very dubious tanking ability. It can only really ever win if it gains the upper hand early on and never lets go. This Will End In Tears will make the enemy cry by disrupting the enemies' plan with Item Breaks, status and even Stat Breaks. Phoenix Thief is unusual case as it carries both Mind Ruin and Power Ruin. While Golden Hairpin greatly augments his Ruining potential, he must make good use out of each Ruin as it's still a finite amount. While Move MP Up would remove this problem, Always: Slow ensures by the time he's in danger of running out of MP, the battle would have been more or less already decided. He also has Bizen Boat and Teleport, both have a questionable amount of use for this kind of unit. Perhaps the JP would have been put to better use. Cursed Item Break Archer breaks Weapon, Head and Armor items. The decision to run Punch Art over Basic Skill is a major flub. Not only is he carrying Stigma Magic and Revive, two skills easily supplanted by Basic Skill's Heal and Wish, with Wish being outright superior thanks to its Vertical Tolerance. Martial Arts compounds this further because taking Basic Skill would have allowed for cheap access to Concentrate, a very helpful trait for Breakers. Raise 2 Oracle has a very strong MA stack for high Zombie/Paralyze accuracy. Without Silence protection, it will have to watch itself for opposite Yin Yang Magic. Masamune Priest forgoes MP recovery and carries Robe of Lords and Golden Hairpin for max MP. It also carries Holy for some needed power. Protect and Shell are there to take advantage of Power and Mind Ruin, but Phoenix Blade greatly hinders the Ruining process, which needs to be spread on a timely fashion so that the team can properly survive long enough to Zombie Raise 2 everyone. I think Seal Evil would have been also a great addition to this team. These two new teams will have a very interesting dynamic on the battlefield. Both teams want to run the clock for maximum self-revivals. Tears has double Raise 2 to take down Agile Zombie's 15 Speed Thieves, but they won't stay don't for very long. Coupled with (a limited) Hawk's Eye and not being too set back by Power Ruin, they are very dangerous to Tear's mage units. Making things worse is the possibility of getting caught by Insult by the Magic Defense Up Geomancer. If Tears loses their mage units, defeat will follow shortly. All isn't hopeless for Tears however. Weapon Break will utterly ruin those Thieves. And as counterproductive as Phoenix Blade is for Ruining, it is great for running distraction, easing pressure off of Tears. Paralyze and Holy can make that Talking Geomancer back down. Blaze Gun Paladin will remain a nasty sticking point thanks to his high Magic Evasion, but once a Zombie makes it through, he will be laid low in short order.