Board Thread:Versus Battles/@comment-34385655-20190516005131/@comment-25603146-20190530050720

Okay, so let's start off with just the basic stats and such-

AP/Toughness: Ethan's 1.07 Teratons vs. Taiga's 1.64 Teratons makes that a slight Oof for the former, but probably won't severely limit what he can get good damage off with. A difference of ~1.5 times is hardly insurmountable, but it's worth noting. (T+)

Speed: Equalized, so lol.

Physical Strength: Ethan lifting an entire city + infrastructure >>> Taiga being comparable to someone who can only lift several buildings that make up a mere part of said city. (E+)

Agility/Mobility: Taiga having spammable Teleportation and Flight really sounds like she ought to take this handily, but Ethan having a Pseudo-Teleport in Lightning Dash in combination with all the minor, utility powers like Limited Vibration/Physics Manip. I imagine that even if he couldn't keep up, it wouldn't be by a large enough margin to really matter too terribly. (-)

Range: Ethan has potentially more range, but Taiga's is more consistent and doesn't require as much concentration, so I'm tempted to take this to be a slight edge for her. (T+)

Sustain: Absolutely Taiga. Being comparable to someone that can fight for weeks straight rather than for days is one thing, and for another she can more or less spam every power she has ad infinitum, as opposed to Ethan who has an EP cap he has to pay closer attention to. (T++)

Strategy: Goes to Ethan. I don't really doubt that Taiga is probably the more actually skilled/better trained fighter having gone to school specifically for fighting, but I don't see that as outweighing Ethan's more general intellect advantage (Extraordinary Genius vs. Gifted) in combination with a lot of the esoteric stunts he can pull with his powers. (E+)

So... not looking the best for Ethan, I suppose, probably, but it's my understanding he's managed to make it out of worse before. So what about the Special Techniques and Powers that seem pertinent here?

Ethan basically has an Ultra Instinct/pseudo-precog Mode in Super Signal, and helps overcome the range deficiency while also boosting his speed, though it requires he maintain perfect concentration and essentially go flawless. Ember Overdrive and a lot of his other amps can probably give him a really drastic advantage, too, but at the cost of his health. And finally, Sixth Sense should lend a hand as it pertains to sneak attacks, counters her Illusions and such. But...

Taiga is able to spam teleport to all hell in combination with a space-cutting blade that Ethan doesn't have a specific counter to, so the pressure is constantly at max to be on the defensive: a sword fight can't really happen with Ethan's Elemental Combat-form weapons all being/containing physical space that can be disrupted/severed in some way. On top of the Glyphs that are firing off their Unlimited Blade Works shenanigans, Black Ice in combination with her Aura meaning that basically any fire attack Ethan uses is useless at best (or kills him at worst, I can see Ember Blazing just turning into a Black Ice coffin), and then... Concept, Fear, Pain Manipulation? Cutting portals to other planes of existence with the blade? That just seems like... too much, all at once. Taiga has way more options that would actually win the match, since most of Ethan's "hax" is more just supplementary to his primary elemental combat style, and I don't see Ethan's amulet getting him out of jail free forever, so...

Basically, though I feel like Ethan probably can handle any one or few of these things at once, this being an opponent that can just unendingly dump an entire arsenal of powers both flashy and esoteric onto the battlefield ad infinitum makes his general approach to combat: calm, even, measured, piecing together the strategy over time: feels at odds with the sheer amount of pressure being placed on him to finish the fight before he's burnt out of juice, which leads me to believe that Taiga is likelier to win.