Bentley's Vote
First of all, thanks for giving me the opportunity to judge the battlezone, I found it very entertaining and lively. Good job to both of you
Let's keep this short and sweet.
Amalgams.
I salute DS for using a thematic one, although one should notice Krypto is stupidly strong for low herald and TP is one of those problems that tend to appear, oddly enough, DS didn't really use either that much. LoB in the other hand has overall flexibility going on for him instead of sheer power both of his picks while a bit more boring are solid.
In this particular level I'm giving LoB the edge, because he utilizes more fully the potential of his characters. DS is more running a fast Cosmo hybrid for most proposes mmm
LoB 1 - DS 0
Strategy
Both strategies sound solid enough in paper. DS avoided direct contact not to provide Absorbing Man with any potential boost and LoB's defense was better against ranged attacks from the get to go. It's in the offense that things get tricky.
LoB's best bet to nullify Krypto's powers were energy absorbtion, but he only provided those scans at the very end, and those included a rather long sequence of Richard emptying his own power reserves to become "empty" (and this is a newby Nova with a smaller reserve of the Nova Force). It's a good feat, but considering there is going to be a highspeed TK rampage going on, I don't see it coming into play immediately if at all. I wish this was more developped by LoB.
By starting subtle with his TK attack, DS does give a better time window to LoB, who has enough reflexes to somehow react to an unwanted shift on his composition (something Creel alone sorely lacks). Also, when Creel becomes TK energy, how fast will he be moving? We know mental attacks can cover idiotic distances under certain situations, but since this wasn't in play on the match, I'll digress and ignore it for most part.
The second and third plan of DS, did not go answered by LoB, so we are left to wonder about their potential relevance. I see the TK bite as a decent strategy because even if LoB were to become TK energy he could become scattered by Kryptonian level force, he wouldn't necessarily be something as strong as Uru, for example. The Nova Force would make it difficult, but there is a speed gap to mind here (even the scans LoB brought talk about .6 lightspeed, which is less than lightspeed by definition, and that in a travel situation).
So well, all things considered within the bulk of information we got, I'm still giving the strategy edge to DS, in a very close decision.
1 LoB - 1 DS
Debate
While some posts were a bit repetitive and both debaters camped in some position, there was enough of a variation of arguments, including some relevant ones, that made them even enough to warrant a comment. First of all, good for LoB to call on a TK user automatically controlling external TK energy, Odin's powers are energy manipulation, while TK by definition (and going by Cosmo's showings) are more of a energy manifestation (finer than Cyclops's blasts for example, but they could be compared). DS did present more scans as evidence and even went to muddle LoB's claims by pointing out some of his critical feats were set up by the plot on their respective comics. DS did shoot more arguments that fizzled, but he was at least wise enough not to pursue them further, when there were easier routes to establish his advantage.
In the end, I think that LoB's amalgam had a very distinct advantage here, but DS was better at attacking it's strong points and better at clarifying why his strategy could work more often than not. LoB was effective shooting down claims himself, but I felt he just grazed the critical points of DS's plan.
So yeah, it remains pretty close, I considered the idea of voting for a tie... but since this is a friendly match I'll save that for another date. Instead I'll vote for
A tie still.
LoB 2 - DS 2
I pray not to need for a tie breaker after this mmm
