Semifinals M1 Quality Delibs

Judge the house (CPU)

Quality

Starting out with Lucil, this strategy starts fairly solidly with a constant pressure on Muuru and making an effort to get him out of the central courtyard and set up your teleport network. The Haunted Hustle is solidly used to get burst mobility if Lucil’s setup doesn’t pan out for whatever reason or just as utility, and Lucil has a very solid plan of mulching the furniture and wooden items in That Home into wood chips to act as an utterly oppressive teleport setup against Muuru. The midgame is all fairly well conceived and there are a few standout techs- notably the Flicker Punches- that tie together a damn solid strategy. There are a few things, like the knife network, that I think pay dividends in the match against Muuru. I don’t have a lot to complain about, this is a low 8/10 for me.

As for Muuru, he starts out with some tech to absolutely punish an overextension from Lucil, leaving her without her glove if she ever tries to get too close to Muuru with the least bit of overextending into his range. Past this Muuru plays the waiting game, harassing Lucil with projectiles, getting Wheelz to start filling the arena, and setting up to get access to the conservatory the moment it opens up. From there, he converts everything there to Wheelz and sets up a situation where they spill into the map, and puts Lucil into increasingly awkward situations from there, using them with some extra tech from ｢You May Die｣ to finish off the match. If this seems like a bit of a play by play, it is. I don’t have all that much to say on the strategy besides ‘good job’, and I have little to complain about; another 8/10 from me.

Judge Hill House (Coop)

Quality-

Lucil has a really strong all-around strategy this match. Using splintered wood from smashed furniture is an efficient albeit less precise teleportation network, but its chaotic nature is useful in matching Muuru’s own unpredictable movement patterns and its abundance of nodes will be useful as the arena gradually fills up with more Wheelz of Steel. There are also enough wooden objects to make shrapnel in most of the rooms to expand this network, but the added secondary kitchen knife network also provides a more reliable but more spaced out emergency exit in the event Muuru’s friction shenanigans send the wooden pieces flying about as well. Mid-Flicker Punches and the use of brief visual distractions are fairly reliable for damaging Muuru and are decent enough for mitigating Wheelz shenanigans affecting Around the World. That said, you probably should’ve spent more than two sentences detailing how you would rid Lucil/AtW of Wheelz (as that is Muuru’s most obvious damage source) and more time invested into manipulating “outcomes” for You May Die would’ve been helpful too. As for essentially letting Muuru take the Conservatory (although still slowing him down as much as you can), I think that was probably the right call considering that being stuck in there with him would’ve been a much worse situation. Overall a solid strategy, giving Lucil an **8**.

I find Muuru’s strategy to be a bit odd - it’s definitely effective but it has some jarring shifts between being hyper or passive aggressive that detracts from the whole of it for me. Muuru starts by quickly moving to his desired position and (should AtW approach him) unleashes a sickening uppercut/jab on the enemy Stand’s glaring weak point. And then after lobbing some super-accelerated Wheelz off to both get them budding from struck plants and potentially nail Lucil or her Stand, Muuru decides to stop what he’s doing to craft “Dinner Bell”, which will definitely take more time then claimed to and leave him without reliable defense for that duration. Like, that’s definitely a thing you can do. I just don’t think that doing it in the middle of the most hazardous room during a time when your opponent will definitely be attacking you in some fashion is the time or place for it.

Then the strat goes back to being fairly hyper aggressive with the Belt Leash and the flood of Wheelz form the Conservatory being some stand out plays. You also use the abundance of Wheelz to start flinging unattended items and scraps off the floor to speed up the danger of “the House is harassing you with projectiles”. This makes sense from the point of disrupting Lucil’s teleportation networks but it's also a double edged sword that never really feels like it’s acknowledged in the strat, with avoiding House hazards relegated to “I parkour around them and sometimes use [You May Die]” - which becomes much harder in the end of the match when you boldly give that parasite away to Lucil. And so we come to the other big jarring shift in aggressiveness in the strat where Muuru decides to hand off You May Die to Lucil and then fuck around until the ever-growing Wheelz population whittles her down. I understand that this is definitely in character for Muuru and I respect this play, but you are also in yet another situation where Lucil realistically doesn’t need to land that many hits on Muuru to win the match so I also don’t think this is the best time and place for this.

Overall, this is an entertaining strategy but the mechanical whiplash (while narratively satisfying at least) leaves a lot of holes open that really felt like they shouldn't be there given the diligence of contingencies written to specifically combat such a mobile and powerful foe. I’ll be giving Muuru a low **7**.

Judge Oldest House (Snek)

Hello all and welcome to my twisted house! This will be short as I’m a last-minute ringer, so let’s get to it, starting with Gallery!
An expectedly strong start for Lucil, creating an abundant resource for her usual teleportation network, with the ability for overlap being especially interesting. This of course doubles as solid Counterplay, denying Muuru’s options by making them benefit you. It is your nest, after all. You do a decent job with the Wheelz, though given that they’re Muuru’s main attack, a bit more on counters, like how you get them off of AtW, would have been good.
Moving on, you continue to display new logistics, both in the minutiae of entering rooms, and the way you use the layout of That Home to corner Muuru. I quite like the knife network as well, as it shows variety in your playstyle. I think the way you handle each room is good, even if you could have benefitted from more ways of using your kit and the stage to gate Muuru out of areas like the Conservatory. Still, you make up for it with breadth, ways of adjusting to each room which form an impressive strat when taken together.
You don’t disappoint when it comes to CQC tech either, making sure to respect Muuru as an opponent while balancing ways of handling offence and defence through fun acceleration cancels and spot-dodges. This is Lucil at her fighting peak! Like the Wheelz, it would have been good to have just a bit more about potentially gaining YMD, but that doesn’t drag down this solid strategy, especially when it’s bolstered by a narrative that sees such a fascinating character through. An 8 for you!

As for Muuru, this is similarly strong! Both strategies employ good foundational planning backed up by attention to detail, logistics, and general competency. In Muuru’s case, this is evidenced through his focus on evading Lucil’s attempts to set up and bombard him, while pushing to get to the Conservatory. Your early game starts strong as well, though the play with the chains is a bit hard to parse and may not be as effective as you think. Still, it’s a good play to take the glove and run, and run you do! I appreciate that you do a go beyond stat-checking when explaining how you dodge, and thus make good use of your skills with the shifting Home. This strat’s parkour focus generally strengthens its logistics and its narrative.
Beyond that, watching Muuru literally use the clothes on his back to make new Wheelz tech is great, and both the disruption of the Bell and reach of the Belt do a good job at countering Lucil in turn. This all establishes a strong framework to get to the conservatory and create the utter chaos storm that you need to bait Lucil into YMD and force her to engage on your terms. Overall, a strategy that knows what it wants and makes a compelling argument for why it achieves it! You get an 8 as well!