officially sick of falkow

[evaunit01]

/rant on

yes, this first part is going to be a rant. i am literally sick and tired of getting my butt handed to me by falkow that, as soon as i see their cookie cutter haste soldier go out, i hit the give up button. i have not won one dang match since i got to the 10+ arena against falkow. everytime i switch my gowen file to compensate for something they do, they have another stupid card that negates it and pretty much tears me apart. whats even worse, this is the bloody starter deck they are using. im sitting here with two ex packs and getting beat by 5 or more LP because of the undine/slpyh/seahunter destroy coupled with their soul cards which just decimate my whole field.

my win percantage went from 54 percent to now 40 percent, all just because of stupid falkow. my rating is now in the 1200's, all because of stupid falkow. even lawtia, that used to get under my skin, didnt give me this much trouble figuring them out. but falkow i just can't figure them out.

/rant off


now, since the i got it out of my system, how the heck do you fight these people. they use the same strat everytime. the only cards im packing diffrent from starter gowen is, 2x rogueerst,2x blitz soldier,2x dude that steals defense and makes it atk, 2x kurina and a few other oddities. nothing special like panther soul or what not.
my usual attack is kurina, brave soldier or combat monk, rogueresst to rank up. but after i get them out, they start the slyph/undine tatic and its pretty much over as soon as their soul cards hit...

does anyone have a way to deal with this?

[teasel]

why not splash some sylphy/undine on your own? even one can stop the witch opening

[evaunit01]

i dont think i have any undine/slpyh cards. only one witch

[Grain]

FALKOW
Most Iczers will consider Falkow to be the weakest of the four colors. It's defiantly the thinking man's sphere, and has the potential to dominate any game provided the Iczer plans everything out in advance and never makes a misstep. Falkow rewards card combos the way Lawtia rewards timing...
Falkow card skills are among the strongest, which makes them good at giving each other bonuses, but even better at doing card skill combos. If your idea of fun is to plan out all your moves and contingency plans in advance, you might be able to tap into Falkow's hidden strength.

~Dueling Article#1: Choosing a Deck

It sounds like Falkow is supposed to be able to beat everyone.

[Romdeau]

That article is what I made my basis for my first pick as Iczer "Proxy"-little did I know that average in the AGI department meant dead last 24/7. Refess is the slowest sphere and there's no question about that.

[Grain]

That article is what I made my basis for my first pick as Iczer "Proxy"-little did I know that average in the AGI department meant dead last 24/7. Refess is the slowest sphere and there's no question about that.

I think the problem is that the article was written using speculation of the 4 year old Japanese game and not the Enlgish launch.

[KratosAurion]

I have to agree with the topic creator. Lawtia and Gowen can be pretty good given the right cards/people, but Falkow is just painfully broken even as a starter deck. And it only gets worse if the player adds better soul skills.

Seriously Falkow needs a nerf. They make you play by their rules, they always go first, hit harder than everyone, have better tanks than refess, decide which targets to hit and don't let you put anything on the table because of that bloody return. It's way too much for a single sphere, you pretty much got everything there and it's not even hard at all to play it right. If the people who made the dueling articles had any idea of what they're doing, they'd put things like "don't play refess cause it sucks, just go falkow and you'll be able to win for free".

Some Falkow players say Lawtia gives them problems but seriously it's not like they don't have the tools to deal with it. They can just keep spamming the haste soldier and throw out some cheap spirits to activate soul skills as they recover, and when the opponent is out of shades it's pure win for falkow. All in all, I doubt there's a good counter for them out there, in fact they kind of counter everything in the game.

Anyway, rant off. I can't agree more with the TC, and I'd really like some help on beating Falkow like I requested in that other thread.

[ANIMEniac]

The only thing about Falkow that gets to me is Return. Return is such an overpowered card for the price.

Once Falkow has at least 2 good hitters, Return kicks in to reduce your field. Now you have no tank and take all the hits. You won't have enough to play another solid unit. Unless your souls can remove their guys, damage souls will barely slow them down. Revive a unit takes 1 sp, no big deal. They play a few small guys and have enough for another Return if you manage something solid. If you wait for the level 4, you've already lost too many units and LP to hold out.

Lawt has enough trouble playing with all their main guys (unless you play endless night) in the front, lined up for that row damage soul. Gowen has a bit more options for row 1 and 2 units.

Removal is such a powerful effect in this game. Damage can be handled b/c I can revive, and if it dies, at least i get the sp back. Lose a guy means I lose my field and opponent gets to build up some more.

[Taiki]

I don't agree with your thoughts on Return. I only recently added returns to my file to counter other falkow players once I got into the folart arena but I find myself never using it because it's just way too expensive.

The only reason why returns hurt so much is because it gets used in a situation where there is a clear advantage to do so. Otherwise, a return is nothing more than trading my 3sp for your 3sp.

You need to keep in mind when another falkow player would find it advantageous to use a return.
1) When you have 1 tank guarding soft cards
2) When you invest too much into a card
3) When the falkow player runs out of things to do (only time I ever use it)
4) When you are really low on sp and the falkow player is confident that you could get locked
5) When you are brutally outnumbered and/or have a low unit count

In my opinion, if you can stay away from those situations, having a return used on you really doesn't do anything.

When fighting against a Falkow player, I would want to have as much direct damage soul cards as possible. Assassins are a plus. Salamanders are also a plus if you use them to pick off udines/sylphs and to activate your own soul cards. Starting off with a card that has 0 revive cost helps with the haste soldier problem. Common 1st soul card is usually a card that will give sp so that the Falkow player can get out their tank asap. Killing the sea crab thing early puts you at a huge advantage. LeBeau soul card effect helps but anything with less than 70def is still weak to a falkow playing the starter. Falkow players hate things with more than 50 hp.

If anything I would be crying about how much the Azure Dragon - East can turn a pebble into a bomb.

[Candi]

If anything I would be crying about how much the Azure Dragon - East can turn a pebble into a bomb.

It's funny you say that, I play Falow and I used to be very successful in Crest - now I am up and down in Folrart. I usually run a semi-return deck and I actually removed my Vordore's. I found I only played them when I was already winning and they offered me no solace when I was having a rough game against a very aggressive Gowen (which always seems to catch me off guard). He has been replaced with another card that manages much better and everyone hates more.

AS for beating Falkow - I've been beaten by every sphere out there at least once, and it's not because I don't know how to play. Refess smoked me last night in training arena with a super shield knight bumped to level 4, I have also been beaten by Refess starter. Gowen beats me more often than any other sphere if they start aggressively and fight ruthlessly - like Gowen should. Lawtia is trouble for me, mostly because more and more now I am seeing LeBeau + Zuggy, which is a terribly undrhanded combo more irritating and threatening than anything Falkow can throw at them - except maybe Mystere/Expert Sorcerer.

Needless to say Falkow is not unbeatable, in fact those who usually exit Crest on super long winning streaks (15-20 wins long) are not Falkow but Lawtia if they are running a LeBeau Soul Card or two. Everyone struggles with Falkow, they are designed for control and speed. Their units are largely defenseless so take advantage of that - their big tank is the sea hunter but he's slow as molasses, slam him hard and slam him early - without that guy riding the front line a Falkow player has to scramble. As for returns, expect them. Most of us run at least 2 sometimes 3. We will save one just in case of LeBeau or another powerful buff going to a unit, but you will suffer one early for the sake of field position. It's not broken - it's a 3 SP trade for 3 SP (or less if we return a level 2). And we only get 1/2 turn field advantage over you because we spent a turn setting return. Also, someone said something about Falkow hitting hardest - not true, we hit fastest which may seem like it's the hardest because a unit drops before you get a move (thanks to Magic Scythe or Eagle Soldier) - Gowen hits hardest and Lawtia hits even harder, at night. Speed wins over power, but that doesn't mean power can't win. And of course Falkow players make you play the game their way - it's the control deck of the game.

I have played 3 out of 4 starters (sorry refess), and i have gotten to level 10 on all three and I have trounced Falkow players on all three decks (oddly enough as Falkow the game's are hilarious in Crest - Backlash's every other turn - it becomes a game of who can be more unpredictably successful, because backlashing a return is a viable tactic ) - everything has it's merits and you just gotta play lots to discover what counters you have to things that other spheres do (such as Falkow).