Post by keith0913832 on Feb 22, 2016 2:05:08 GMT 8
INTRODUCTION
As mentioned last week, this week's article would be revolving around a different set of Antic Follow-ups. In general, the play style is roughly the same but these cards would give you the momentum advantage. Yup, we are referring to this group of Antic Follow-ups.
Whilst the previous group of Antics grant an irreversible, unstoppable 6D, this group of Antics are slightly more prone to reversals. As of this writing, there are only 3 non-superstar specific cards that stop momentum.
From here we can see that unless your opponent is packing Theodore Long Is In My Corner, Momentum is going to be unstoppable if your opponent has less than 4F. Even if he has 14F or less, he still risks the chance of eating a bulk of the damage before reversing on overturn.
The Antic, however, faces more chances of reversals. Since it is a Follow-up, it is susceptible to reversals such as Keep Your Eyes Open Or It's Game Over and Talk is Cheap. Thus, you must think of a way to lure them out with random Mid-match Antics to throw them off, or you can stop them from playing the reversals. Although unorthodox, Previously Unannounced Match is a very appropriate card to do so. By just playing PUM for your Pre-match, you are restricting your opponent to just 1 Mid-match slot, putting him in a dilemma whether to save the slot for something better or not. Therefore, you know that your Antics won’t face much resistance from his Backlash. Another method would be to depend on luck when you use Eat Spit from The Degenerates Faction. Most decks will play at least 4 Pre-match cards, leaving them with another 6 to 8 in their backlash. Eat Spit therefore have at least a 50% chance of discarding those Antic reversals. If you failed to do so, just play another Antic to lure it out.
Now that you know how to play them, here are my top 3 picks for playing these Antic Follow-ups. Please note that they are my personal suggestions, and there are others out there who might be suitable.
1. Kofi Kingston
Another reason for the lack of play of these cards is due to the difficulty of getting them in hand. Kofi Kingston’s Pre-match helps to solve it. Your Destiny Is Mine allows the player to retrieve a Non-unique card every time he successfully plays Follow-up Maneuver. Therefore, the recommended flow would be this: 1) Use ability to play Follow-up Maneuver. 2) activate Your Destiny Is Mine to retrieve either Antic Follow-up or another Maneuver. 3) Play the Antic and follow that up with a Momentum-ed Maneuver. To further increase the chances of you having enough cards in hand, I would suggest running either Climbing The Ladder or McMahon Family Jewels for draw power as you will be expending 2 or 3 cards from your hand per turn.
2. Santino Marella
By ignoring the Follow-up requirements, Santino has the potential to hit a string of Momentum-ed maneuvers if he has the correct set-up. Since his ability ignores the requirement totally, Santino's main problem will be to get the maneuvers and the Antic Follow-ups in his hand. A good way to do so would be playing RP:Leg. by focusing on RP:Leg, you are able to retrieve Leg Maneuvers from your ringside over and over again. Throwing in a random Bionic Elbow will also help as it will create a series of Momentum-ed Maneuvers since Bionic Elbow grants Momentum to a target Leg. And since Leg maneuvers mainly range between Core and Mean, his ability restriction does not affect him much. He will only be missing out Figure Four and Steel Chain Shot.
* Error in tactic corrected. Thanks Deburaito.
3. Carlito
This superstar has the capabilities of solving the 2 main problems of playing Antic Follow-ups. Firstly, his ability allows him look at the top 3 cards, put 1 in hand, 1 in Ringside and 1 at the bottom of his Arsenal. Therefore, he has a higher possibility of getting the required Antic Follow-up or maneuver in hand to continue playing. The second part of his ability, plus the fact that he is already in The Degenerates Faction, means that he has better chances of getting rid of those Mid-match reversals earlier on in the game with Eat Spit as well. Since he has a small Handsize, Climbing the Ladder is very much recommended as well.
CONCLUSION
With that, we have come to the conclusion of another Deeper Dive. In general, Antic Follow-ups possess strong effects that can deal a lot of damage if used appropriately and by the correct superstar. Hopefully the 2 articles have given you some insight on the different ways they can benefit your deck and how you can pull them off. Certain tactics that I mentioned in the articles can also be used on other similar decks but that is for your own exploration! As usual, feel free to leave your comments or feedbacks at the comment section below and we will look into them next week.
Till next time, thanks for reading and have a nice day!