A Case for re-unbanning Gravity Perseus
So it's been about 2 1/2 years since Gravity was banned from the Limited Format. Recently I have been talking with a few other mentors and other people who are knowledgeable about the game, and the majority of them believe that Gravity is nowhere near as "broken" as it was back in January 2014.
Gravity was originally banned from Limited Format after only four tournaments had been held, one (or two? I don't remember if the Toronto one was) of which was unranked. In hindsight, banning a part after only two ranked tournament seems like a bit of a hasty decision to me.
- Gravity was used heavily in the first unranked NC tournament, but as it was unranked people were likely not playing as seriously as they would have in a ranked event, and were trying out relatively unorthodox combos (I remember Gravity X:D placed in that event).
- At the Toronto event Gravity was used a few times, mainly on a D125GCF but I also remember seeing some unusual combos there too (Sagittatio 90RF and Libra X:D). I remember the F230GCF variant was used at least once by Jesse and that Kei beat it with Samurai Wyvang.
- At the Michigan (maybe it was Illinois) event, I remember Coach saying Gravity was used a relatively low number of times (I want to say 4) and that it lost all of its battles. I don't remember if it was used by any of the placers but I do remember that Coach used it twice, so it was definitely used by someone who knew what they were doing.
- The ranked NC event (which I believe was the first event where Gravity F230GCF was common knowledge throught the competitive players in the community), Gravity saw moderate use (on B:D, R145R2F, and F230GCF setups) but the only placer who used Gravity was [)ragon, who only used it once. Though I lost to the F230GCF variant twice during that tournament it was probably more due to my lack of skill with Lightning and Metal Flat than Gravity being OP. The people who beat me with it were also Dark_Mousy and geetster99, who are both highly skilled players that probably would have beaten me without Gravity anyways.
The primary reasons behind Gravity's popularity during the few tournaments prior to its ban was that it was at the top of th!nk's "this might be too OP" list, and mainly due to Kaneki/Galaxy/whatever he was back then's testings which showed Gravity dominating most opponents. While th!nk was unquestionably a very influential member when it came to deciding the Limited banlist, it was later discovered that Kaneki's tests were all fabricated. The posts of these users, among others, may have caused people to overestimate Gravity's abilities. Admittedly I was a supporter of Gravity's ban when it happened, but in retrospect it was more of an overreaction to the two losses I suffered at Raleigh: Revival than anything else.
Multiple new developments in the Limited metagame (the discovery of Dark Knight LTAC or Scythe Stallers, for example), have rendered the versatile "problem combo" that was the primary reason Gravity was banned (Gravity F230GCF) significantly less effective than it was before these developments occurred. I did some tests against a few of the most popular contemporary combos in Limited, as well as a few other combos I believe would be a good option to use against Gravity in a tournament situation/combos I expect to become popular in the current meta.
The Gravity I used in these tests is the heavier version of Mold 1 (34.7 grams) from Random Booster 7. for all of these Gravity was always launched in the opposite spin direction of its opponent, and against Attack types it was Weak Launched, but with enough power to Tornado Stall for Mobile Defense/Stamina purposes. Gravity was always launched first, except when it went against Flame 230MB when I launched Flame first an Scythe MF, where I alternated every round. My F230 is also orange Takara Tomy. Not sure which mode my Perseus was in, but I don't think it particularly matters with the Stamina ver. (which is the best ver. for F230GCF), and like maybe 2 of the combos I tested against it would even hit the CW in the first place.
MF-L Gravity Perseus (Stamina) F230GCF vs. MF Flame Cancer 230MB
Gravity: 8 wins (6 KO, 2 OS)
Flame: 12 wins (1 KO, 11 OS)
2 ties redone
Gravity win rate: 40%
The way this match normally played out if Gravity did not KO was that Gravity would remain in the center and lose spin while Flame circled around it at an extreme angle and outspun it without contact.
MF-L Gravity Perseus (Stamina) F230GCF vs. MSF-H Dark Knight Zirago (Crystal Up) 90RF
Gravity: 11 wins (2 KO, 9 OS)
Zirago: 9 wins (8 KO, 1 OS)
5 ties redone
Gravity win rate: 55%
A lot of these OSes were very close, but Gravity managed to OS 90% of the time.
MF-L Gravity Perseus (Stamina) F230GCF vs. MF-L Scythe Escolpio W105MF
Gravity: 5 wins (all KO)
Scythe: 15 wins (11 KO, 4 OS)
3 ties redone
Gravity win rate: 25%
Back in 2014 geetster discovered that Burn 85MF was able to beat Gravity F230GCF, and that seems to hold true for the more modern Scythe Staller as well. All 5 of Gravity's KOs were late game and all happened in consecutive rounds, which was weird but probably doesn't mean too much lol.
MF-L Gravity Perseus (Stamina) F230GCF vs. MSF-H Bandid Wyvang (Crystal Up) H145RSF
Gravity: 7 wins (2 KO, 5 OS)
Bandid: 13 wins (12 KO, 1 OS)
2 ties redone
Gravity win rate: 35%
While this opponent isn't particularly popular yet, I can see it becoming so in the near future as it mauls Flame 230 and Earth LTSC.
MF-L Gravity Perseus (Stamina) F230GCF vs. MF-H Scythe Escolpio TH170C
Gravity: 14 wins (1 KO, 13 OS)
Scythe: 6 wins (5 KO, 1 OS)
1 tie redone
Gravity win rate: 65%
I used a combo similar to this at Anime North with Beafowl (because it's shaped like Pegasis II and is also my favorite CW) and RSF (because I'm more comfortable with launching that aggressively than CS), and the concept was that it would be tall and grippy enough to resist most LTAC and could KO HTSC with the Scythes. Like the Bandid combo, it's probably going to become popular in the near future as well.
MF-L Gravity Perseus (Stamina) F230GCF vs. MF-H Lightning L-Drago D125RF
Gravity: 4 wins (1 KO, 3 OS)
LLD: 16 wins (all KO)
1 tie redone
Gravity win rate: 20%
um, outch. Lightning was always the go-to wheel to counter Gravity though, so I kinda expected something like this.
As for Gravity on traditional Attack/Stamina setups, I've found that Gravity doesn't have quite as much power as Pegasis, LLD, or DK (Cosmic, Screw, and Quetz get better results for me too, but your results may vary), and the versatility of dual spin doesn't really help it much as an Attack combo (unless you're up against RS, which is rare) since you probably won't be winning any LAD battles anyways (especially if you're using R145). With the meta as unfriendly as it is to CH120EWD and B:D height spin-equalizers I can't see Gravity having terrible success there either.
So, what does everyone else think? Is it safe to unban Gravity now? I think it would definitely be interesting to see it reintroduced into the current meta, and frankly looking back I'm not particularly sure it should have been banned in the first place given the context of the ban.
p.s. leave batman alone pls