We all had a great experience with the new Deck Rotation rules at our Experimental Burst Format event in Toronto last weekend: burstlimit!
The battles were made so much more exciting because they were two-sided rather than just one-sided because of the winner's ability to switch their Beyblade after each round. Allowing the winner to switch empowers them slightly–justifiably so–but also makes them think more critically about the entire battle because they have to consider the effects of every possible choice; they know they can stick to their current Beyblade, but they have to consider what could happen if they switch, if they switch and win again, if they switch and they lose, and so on. And they need to think about what their opponent's strengths and weaknesses are more than they did before when they'd be stuck with their choice by default. It's felt really challenging and invigorating and was very fun to watch.
The enforcement of it felt slightly awkward in the first couple battles of the first Deck Rotation BeyBattle of the finals, but that was only because we were all so used to the old rules where the winner was not permitted to switch. After that, it became natural to us and to the judges to ask the winner first if they want to switch.
(Oct. 21, 2016 3:34 AM)Bey Brad Wrote: When I won rounds, I didn't really feel incentivized to switch, which I guess was Beylon's point — the idea is to keep the loser at the advantage while also empowering the winner. But usually it just means stick with what works, unless you used something easily burst-able to win the previous round, in which case maybe pick something else. But I found this even more annoying than just being locked into my combo, and that it also removed a lot of the risk/reward elements and the necessity of planning ahead.
In some ways you are right, but in my experience at our event in Toronto I felt like the possibilities opened up by allowing the winner to decide whether they want to switch or not (and knowing that if they lose their opponent will also have the choice of whether they want to switch or not in the next round) made it exciting in the sense that you have to gauge much more carefully the strengths and weaknesses and mindset of your opponent to determine how they will react in every possible situation that lies ahead (which is aided by the fact that you know their entire deck in these new rules, which I also liked in this particular ruleset).
For some context, I'll give you an example: the final battle of burstlimit between pyrus1000 and myself.
pyrus10000's Deck
Dark Deathscyther Gravity Defense
Deathscyther Spread Revolve
Minoboros Heavy Zephyr
My Deck
Odin Heavy Orbit
Deathscyther Gravity Revolve
Valtryek Knuckle Variable
1st Round:
(pyrus10000) Minoboros Heavy Zephyr vs. (Kei) Deathscyther Gravity Revolve: Kei Wins via BF (0-2)
2nd Round:
(pyrus10000) Dark Deathscyther Gravity Defense vs. (Kei) Odin Heavy Orbit: pyrus10000 Wins via OS (1-2)
As the winner of the first battle, I intentionally picked OHO here knowing that pyrus10000 would likely switch to D2. I knew I had a chance to OS him, but that I would likely lose. I wanted to draw him into a position where he had to decide whether to switch to MHZ against my OHO (which he was vocally concerned about before the battle and I was confident with defensively), D2GD again in which case I would switch to DGR (which isn't a problem because if I won I could switch it out), or his DSR which I could defeat easily with VKV. Surprisingly, he chose DSR and I subsequently defeated it via Burst finish to go up 4-1:
3rd Round:
(pyrus10000) Deathscyther Spread Revolve vs. (Kei) Valtryek Knuckle Variable: Kei Wins via BF (1-4)
Planning to some degree is possible in our previous rules where only the loser could switch, but in this tournament and example the possibilities felt so wide-ranging to me. In our previous rules I would have been locked in to DGR after the first round, meaning that I would be left wide open to another MHZ vs DGR battle and there was a good chance I wouldn't be so lucky the second time around (as you'll see in the sixth round of this BeyBattle). Because I switched after winning the first round in response to information I knew about my opponent, the complexion of the entire BeyBattle changed.
4th Round:
(pyrus10000) Dark Deathscyther Gravity Defense vs. (Kei) Valtryek Knuckle Variable: pyrus10000 Wins via OS (2-4)
Here I stuck with VKV because I knew switching to DGR would draw his MHZ and switching to OHO would draw his D2GD. I had success with VKV against D2 at our previous event anyways, and I was up 4-1, so VKV seemed like a fair choice especially considering I had some wiggle room with a 4-1 lead.
So, even though I had the ability as the winner of the previous round to switch here, I was held back because of my opponent's ability to get the last pick. The winner is empowered by being able to switch, but they are also still held back to a significant degree knowing that their opponent can respond to whatever they do. Sometimes this can be part of your strategy–like it was early in the battle for me–but sometimes you're bound by it and have to stick with your combo.
5th Round:
(pyrus10000) Minoboros Heavy Zephyr vs. (Kei) Odin Heavy Orbit: pyrus10000 Wins via BF (4-4)
Having won the previous round, pyrus10000 switched to MHZ for this final round. I chose OHO in response because I was hoping it would close out the battle for me ... little did I know that Minoboros is good at bursting Odin lol. I probably could have won if I played more aggressively to try and KO MHZ, but I weak launched a bit and ended up being Burst Finished.
6th Round:
(pyrus10000) Minoboros Heavy Zephyr vs. (Kei) Deathscyther Gravity Revolve: pyrus10000 Wins via BF (6-4)
At this point I knew my deck was flawed. I wasn't feeling too confident in OHO (I chose it on a bit of a whim to begin with just because I could in this experimental event and I wanted something that would set me apart from the D2GD or SD that everyone would be running), VKV is not good against mobile opponents, and I didn't have any good responses for something on a plastic Attack Driver like Zephyr ... so I went back to DGR and end up losing haha.
Would be really interested to hear thoughts from @[Mitsu], @[pyrus10000], and @[Naru Blader] who were the other finalists!
(Oct. 21, 2016 3:34 AM)Bey Brad Wrote: Finally, other parties have brought up before that the unique parts rule is probably not even necessary, and all it does is stop someone from using 2 Heavies or something. Running two of the same Layer or Driver will almost always be disadvantageous.
I like this rule on a philosophical level more than anything; even if the difference only is between using 2 Heavy Disks or 1 Heavy and 1 Gravity, I still see it as a positive because there
is differences between each Disk even if they are not obvious that may manifest themselves in the BeyBattle and a players choice of where to use a particular part knowing that they can only using it once.
The main argument for abolishing this rule is that it would allow for a wider audience to participate in the format. If running more than one of each part is legal, players who don't haven three Beyblades could technically participate with just one Beyblade. Not that this would be recommended, though since they'd probably lose every battle ... But I'm sure most players would have a handful of Beyblades at least anyways. The question would just be whether they have three complete Beyblades with all different parts; if they didn't, removing this rule would make it easier for them to play with what they have.