Some Jerk

Me, having bought orbs literally two days ago: "I need Pirate Surtr for fodder and will never have a chance to spark him after this. Distant SalvoStorm for Phina probably won't exist for a while anyway since Close Salvo isn't even a month old." IntSys, today: "Now introducing Legendary CaedaDistant Storm!" Buyer's remorse aside, L!Caeda is basically just Young Caeda with a lance and a fresh coat of paint. If I didn't need Distant Storm, this would be a hard pass.

I had to spark for Pirate Surtr, since this is probably the only time he'll be sparkable and V!Lissa needs his skills. I actually bought orb packs for this because I'm still chasing a V!Robin spark for a similar purpose. The only focus units I got on the way to the Surtr spark were two Kurthnagas, one of them a 5*. My pity rate is presently 9.50%. Not even a Duothis for my trouble. Double Specials are a goddamn scam.

Pelleas: Caeda and Mininerva duo. Couldn't do a solo because of Fatal Smoke, fuck that Sword Fighter. Veronica & Loki: H!L'Arachel, W!Eirika, Seth, H!Myrrh. I probably could've done an H!Myrrh solo, but I didn't want to mess around with the healers. Aelfric: F!Grima solo and Nowi solo. Nowi required some thinking, but F!Grima just auto-battled. Seliph & Deirdre: Lyn, Eliwood, B!Hector. Was too lazy to use an axe Hector instead. Líf: Remember when he was scary? Really not much to say about this one. I was dreading Líf at first... and then I realized the barracks selection was Jugdral. This was not a close fight.

...Man, I should really not theorycraft while I'm half-asleep.

Ascended Idunn has brought us up to 5 accessible Florets. Also, the distribution pattern seems to be that Ascended Heroes happen every two months. I'll update the OP with this when I get a character sprite for Idunn. Fun fact! If you've pulled all the Ascended Heroes so far, you'll now be able to put them all together on a full 4-man team that: covers the full color spectrum This was incorrect. contains two powerful Save tanks, one Near and one Far contains two powerful ranged attackers, one that has extra damage (or) is uncounterable, and one that has a Trace can all be get an Ascended Asset without needing a Floret

Cath, that is not a dagger. Anyway, nothing terribly interesting on this banner for me. If it weren't for the Ascended Hero, I'd probably have skipped it entirely.

Not as effective as VF!Robin, but considerably more funny. (Though I do need a Pirate Surtr and <insert Slick Fighter fodder here> to feed her.)

That you're actually 8 years younger than me and have the ability to make me feel really old. Welp.

Man, these sparks are really wringing my orbs dry. I didn't expect a chance to spark Plumeria, whom I somehow still don't have (in either form!) despite being The Dancer Guy, and she's not coming back until September. I'm already thinking of terrible Far Save-related things to do with that Armored Lissa. If only Def/Res Ideal 4 weren't locked to Pirate!Surtr... though Distant Def 4 might serve the same purpose. I know Azura's remix was already slated for March, but I find it funnier to imagine she was going to get it this month only for Eir to violently garotte her and drag her off the stage. God, thank you for giving us a stab at old seasonal units. Even the limited capacity of 4-Star Special is better than nothing. Followed by L, N, and E! (If anyone got the reference, you're almost certainly older than I am.)

Silvia is the Blue Shell. Why are there so many Panic Ploys!? Between that and the trenches at the start to annoy cavalry, Elimine really didn't want anyone cheesing her map. So out went the bottlenecking strat, and in came the same hyper-offense team I used for Bylass. Thankfully Merrybilis had more to do this time around because all the Red enemies appeared at the start rather than at the end. Things almost went south on Turn 2 because Silvia needed a defensive buff, but Tactics don't work (there's 3 Infantry) and no one starts their turn beside her for Fortify. But then I realized the turn before, Puddle who would normally receive the Res Opening buff was debuffed by the Green Thief -- so Silvia had more Res that turn and got it instead, letting her scrape by the Sword Fighter / Blue Flier tag team with 1 HP. I thought Elimine herself was going to be a problem at first because of Miracle, but Silvia would've just Galeforced and attacked her from below if she didn't quad; I just had to get Elimine away from the Near Save fridge.

...I just now realized that Elimine's unique debuff being named "False Start" is actually a racing reference and I'm fucking mad. Not because of the joke, oh no, but because I have no orbs to throw at her for a meme well done.

Honestly, if we didn't have well-documented proof of Elimine being on a Mario Kart demo disc of all things, I'd be convinced this was some "Mew Under The Truck"-level bullshit. The GameCube/GBA era was wild. The question now is if IntSys and/or Nintendo decides to bring the meme full circle and add Elimine to Mario Kart Tour in some capacity. As for Elimine's actual kit, she's fantastic as a fast magetank, but her base kit doesn't play to this at all and decides she should be run offensively for some reason, even though her Atk is incredibly subpar for a Mythic. She definitely wants Fort. Def/Res or perhaps even Close Ward (I would say Mirror Stance 3, but healers can't use Combo Stance 3's for some bizarre reason).

So guess what's trending with Elimine's reveal?

Welcome to Mario Kart! So Elimine is basically Flayn on a Mythic steroid, swapping Isolation for this new False Start thing. That is actually going to be really annoying for AR maps that function by insta-charging Specials. Though I do find it amusing that they reversed what False Start worked on in Summoner Duels (from everything but healing/damage to only healing/damage), since when does IntSys realize they've created cancer? ...God, this Mythic Hero Battle is going to be hell, isn't it?

No displayed gender, it's just the one option. No one knows where they'd go since they've never hit Top 20.

...Yeah fine I'll grab this last Red on my freepull wheel even though I know I'll regret i-- --Oh. So this is a dancer I never thought I'd get. Obviously displeased with the Spd bane, but that's easily corrected since I've got enough Trait Fruits for 7 different units and am a third of the way to an 8th. e: It's starting to occur to me that I really should've been trying for Dorolene way sooner, because in the context of Dancer clears, her Harmonic Skill can grant an extra turn to Silvia and Balldigan. This is especially good for Silvia because she rarely unequips Dance on account of being the Galeforcer.

Today I will cause problems on purpose. No I didn't forget Yune on Day 1 and only remembered her the literal minute after I voted, what makes you think that?

...Oh bollocks, I was thinking of @NSSKG151. Never mind!

Yep, there's only been three Annas since that one New Year's -- Heroes, Heroes NY alt, and Awakening. IIRC this is been a bone of contention for Florete for ages because they don't have a 4th for gimmick clears and have to begrudgingly(?) throw Phina in as the closest thing they've got.

Curses, foiled again! On a more serious note though, and bare in mind this is totally a matter of opinion: the Byleths really don't do it for me. I can't comprehend the fanbase's desire for avatar characters, especially the ones with the least personality. The blandest avatar is the most viable for self-inserting, but everyone's going to have a different idea about their own self-insert, so a Brave Byleth is only going to hit the right notes for a handful of people and leave the vast majority disappointed. It just feels like the fans are throwing their votes into a sinkhole.

Adult Tiki is on the rebound, bitches! Femleth though, get that predictable garbage out of here. I'm changing my votes to Bernie out of spite. (And because my choice didn't even make Top 20, as expected, so I choose to cause problems on purpose.) Chrom is completely expected. Seliph is completely unexpected, holy shit??? He kicked Manleth down really far!

Posting the Top 8 every day... I see IntSys has chosen violence this year. And yet I don't think this will skew the results away from what I'm expecting: Chrom, Bernadetta, and both Byleths. So the most boring choices possible, aside from maybe Bernie. I'll bet we've still got a year or two before we get any dark horses winning aside from Gatekeeper.

Osian & Tanya: Edgelord auto-battle solo. Really wasn't feeling arsed. Arete: Larum solo. Was feeling much more arsed. (Here's a video!) Celica: Ruler vs ruler. @BoaFerox @SatsumaFSoysoy @Landmaster @Unknown Gamer11 @Maaka @GuiltyLove @Wanda @Diovani Bressan @daisy jane Add me to the group of people decided using Altina would be too easy (along with Satsuma deciding her descendant was superior). I also had Forma Naesala kicking around for a while, so I used this as an excuse to unzip my Grail storage and +10 him. Only hang-up I had was getting someone to survive a shot from Celica. Once Sanaki was free to counterattack and remove the Miracle, everything after Turn 2 was a meat grinder in the player's favor.

Oof. I was hoping to skip this banner and let my orbs recover, but I cannot ignore Harmozura. I have yet to get a Cav Dancer, and she has a better kit than Duogurd.