STATS:
Ori 7/7/2/4/10 (+2 armor)
Black Dog: 6/4/1/14/5 (+1 armor)
CONFIGS: Going forks config.
STRATEGY:
I’m sure we’ll get the typical Laz rant about how his robot is super fast and immune to smothering and high-centering and he can easily chain hits as soon as he flips me.
Okay, cool. Yeah, he stands a decent chance of getting a bodyshot if he can get a solid hit on me… But it’s not a when in this matchup, it’s legitimately an IF. My forks are a HARD counter to Black Dog’s wedge: I have enough reach that before his forks reach my wedge his drum reaches my forks and glances harmlessly off. Both sets of forks are so narrow the chances of them actually meeting are super-slim, and even if they do it’s 50-50 at best for him. He can go “angle in with my lower speed and worse control lol”, but… where? His drum’s so wide that he can’t really avoid it contacting my fork, unless he gets ALL the way to my side, where it might… hit the side of my wedge, which is also sloped, and still not be able to get under and launch me.
The main threat is shock damage. I need to limit how many full-power hits I take by being SUPER aggressive and in his face and using all those glancing blows to keep his drum at low speed – but keep closing speeds low. If he’s backing up pursue, if he’s advancing stop or back off slightly – especially if he’s running inverted (or spinning downward with the forks out to mess with me). Spinning downward I wanna make sure he wastes as much KE as possible hitting the forks and doesn’t get enough bite to do more than glance off the wedge. It’s fairly steep so it shouldn’t be that easy to climb up with his weapon. Watch out for gyro flip maneuvers, and back off and let him flop into awkward positions.
Keep the pressure on but use the flipper as little as possible: there’s little benefit against BD and it leaves me open. Only use it if I can toss him onto the pipe organ, and if possible push him on it instead, but USE THAT HAZARD. 4 damage vs baseplate or if I’m lucky a wheel could cripple him. Pinning is hard, but keep pushing him and don’t give him any space to spin up. If his drum’s only hitting at like 12 power because it’s slowed down, there goes his shock damage win condition. He can back off my wedge but immediately ram his weapon again if he does.
If I do get flipped, try to juke away from the inevitable attempt to chain and THEN self-right – take a hit with my front if necessary since a bent-downward fork still sort of does its job. If my forks are bent upward, go for his sides more to force gyrodancing.
Okay, cool. Yeah, he stands a decent chance of getting a bodyshot if he can get a solid hit on me… But it’s not a when in this matchup, it’s legitimately an IF. My forks are a HARD counter to Black Dog’s wedge: I have enough reach that before his forks reach my wedge his drum reaches my forks and glances harmlessly off. Both sets of forks are so narrow the chances of them actually meeting are super-slim, and even if they do it’s 50-50 at best for him. He can go “angle in with my lower speed and worse control lol”, but… where? His drum’s so wide that he can’t really avoid it contacting my fork, unless he gets ALL the way to my side, where it might… hit the side of my wedge, which is also sloped, and still not be able to get under and launch me.
The main threat is shock damage. I need to limit how many full-power hits I take by being SUPER aggressive and in his face and using all those glancing blows to keep his drum at low speed – but keep closing speeds low. If he’s backing up pursue, if he’s advancing stop or back off slightly – especially if he’s running inverted (or spinning downward with the forks out to mess with me). Spinning downward I wanna make sure he wastes as much KE as possible hitting the forks and doesn’t get enough bite to do more than glance off the wedge. It’s fairly steep so it shouldn’t be that easy to climb up with his weapon. Watch out for gyro flip maneuvers, and back off and let him flop into awkward positions.
Keep the pressure on but use the flipper as little as possible: there’s little benefit against BD and it leaves me open. Only use it if I can toss him onto the pipe organ, and if possible push him on it instead, but USE THAT HAZARD. 4 damage vs baseplate or if I’m lucky a wheel could cripple him. Pinning is hard, but keep pushing him and don’t give him any space to spin up. If his drum’s only hitting at like 12 power because it’s slowed down, there goes his shock damage win condition. He can back off my wedge but immediately ram his weapon again if he does.
If I do get flipped, try to juke away from the inevitable attempt to chain and THEN self-right – take a hit with my front if necessary since a bent-downward fork still sort of does its job. If my forks are bent upward, go for his sides more to force gyrodancing.