Lucario-Master
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Time is on YOUR Side!
By Kevin Gomez
By Kevin Gomez
Now that there has been a few weeks of Battle Roads and we have gotten used to the new format, (in terms of sets).
There has also been another big change that came with the New Year, the amount of time for each match.
For all of you who haven't been to a BR or haven't heard about it they have changed the time amount for each round and what happens when time is called.
Now I feel like this change is for the better and I will go more in depth about it later but first let me explain it in full detail to everyone out there who doesn't know it or understand it.
Each round of Swiss will be 30 minutes now ( 10 less from before). When time is called there are 3 extra turns before the winner is announced. When I say 3 I don't mean that each player gets 3 turns but 3 more turns will be played overall.
An example:
Time is called on Player A's turn, his turn is now called turn 0, then when he finishes player B goes and his turn is turn 1,
Then back to player A as turn 2 and finally to player B with turn 3, after the 3rd turn whoever has the fewest prizes left wins, or if its tied then they go into normal sudden death (whoever takes the next prize wins).
Now this may seem like a HUGE improvement to the 40 minutes they did before. Many people on the last few minutes of the game could stall because they were in the lead and could win if time ended on their turn, so now you don't just lose to stalling.
Or at least not even close to as much as before. But we lose 10 minutes per round so that means we traded 10 minutes for 3 turns.
Now according to the Pokemon rules, each player should make a move every 10 seconds. Even if both players make a ton of moves it usually won’t take 10 minutes for 3 turns (well with the ruling it doesn't matter how long you take once time is called but still).
We do lose time off this ruling and that can be very devastating to some "slower" decks. But in all honesty today's format is blisteringly fast and many decks will take 30 minutes or less to win.
How can this help you?
Now we know about the rules. I want to talk about how it can be used for/against you.
I have played in 2 BRs with it now and I have found it relevant to how games end up.
The main concept is that you always want time to be called on your opponent's turn. Now this may seem crazy considering our old time system rewarded the player for playing slow and making time end on their turn, but the new system is the exact opposite and it should get rid of almost all stalling that happens.
Why must time be called on the opponent’s turn?
Because if it is, then you will get the last turn before whoever has the fewest prizes win.
Let's just show how it works out
Turn 0: your opponent
Turn 1: you
Turn 2: your opponent
Turn 3: you
So, as you can see, you each get 2 turns, but having the last turn is just as important as it was last season.
Having the last turn will let you control what happens.
When time is called on your opponents turn they may be midway in their turn and have made their decisions on how they are gonna play the next few turns out. Now they know time is winding down but they haven't been prepared for time (Very high level players will be).
So they really only have next turn to do things based off of it being there "last turn".
You, on the other hand, have turn 1 and 3 and you have the following options:
A. Turn 1 you could try to take the commanding lead knowing they can't catch up, and even if they do you have the last turn to take it back or prepare for sudden death.
B. Set up for turn 3 by trying to keep the game tied or preparing for 2 or more KO's on turn (I won a game at my BR by setting up a 3 KO turn).
C. Make sure your opponent can't take a prize so you can keep your lead and win.
All of the options are fine and having the last turn is good no matter what. If you are behind by too much and can't come back, you’re still in a better position.
Having the last turn just puts you in a position of control if you know how to use it right and your opponent will have to make hard decisions based on game state and what he thinks you can do.
He will have to think of things like
If I get a KO here to tie it will he be able to KO back?
Should I try to overextend to take the lead?
How many KO's can he get and how defensive should i play?
How am I set up for Sudden death?
Making your opponent make the tough decisions is always better and most of the time you can play a situation one way to make them think certain things.
Of course, you will have to make decisions too. How to play the last turn. Even if he/she does make a surprise play that you didn't see, you will always have time to respond but the opponent wont be able to respond to the surprise plays you make on turn 3.
Now of course everything said here can and will be used against you if you are the one whose last turn is turn 2.
I also would like to add that this isn't an auto win sort of thing. Only if you are a good player will you be able to take advantage of this, but I hope that my article here has helped you understand it and will help you to win games with it.
Until my next article
The Master
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