This guide was written by Zexx the Reaper
“OMG WTF IS GOING ON?! HE JUST AUTOWINS COMBAT IIGJYFJVTYDGHDTY”
Does this sound like you?
- Do you rage whenever you fight Quince?
- Does the thought of fighting him make you want to vomit in your mouth because of how stupidly broken and op (overpowered) he is?
- Are you one of the 4 players who have outright left the lobby without conceding after the first spin/patriot mirror vs @Zexx The Reaper ?
Then this guide is for you! Let’s get started.
Part 1: political jargon
Quince is to new players, as legal documents are to the average joe. Your brain gets all fuzzy and you want to just be done with it because the shock value of all this seemingly random info overloads your senses. Your not alone, i promise. So im going to tell you a secret. All of quinces spins, and even his patriot mirrors, can lose combat. Shocking right?
Part 2: Cutting the red tape
Here is the nitty gritty, all of quinces spins have a fatal flaw. So lets look at them individually.
- J 2.6 speed attack/dodge - so looking at this, lets assume he plays both sides of this card simultaneously…because he does, and we can see that his J cannot win combat if you dodge. However, you cant “beat” his J either. This is why J spin is quinces safest spin. Furthermore quince likes to do this when your knocked down so that you cant dodge. Blocks will still help you but you run the risk of him chiping you and continuing spin.
- K 9.0 speed throw/dodge - with the same logic, this loses to throws faster then 9.0 speed.
- Q 7.2 speed attack/throw - obviously this loses to attacks faster then 7.2. Get that damage in.
Part 3: separating truth from lies
Unfortunately for you, quince isn’t forced to play his spins. This means he can play the counter to his spin so:
- J - throw
- K - attack
- Q - dodge
However, politics aren’t always black and white; the grey area can be even more dangerous:
- J-mixup normal - if you’re knocked down and quince reveals J, your heavily incentivised to block, so quince could sneakily bean you with a 5/6
- K-7 throw/checkmate: A good quince will keep an eye on your discard, in specific matchups it us possible for quince to run you out of fast throws, or all throws that beat k, in that instance he will want to play his unbeatable k or a 7 throw to beat your throws 8 and higher.
- Q-Patriot mirror: Mmmm Landing that smug slow normal to beat spin or that throw to beat dodge sure is tempting, just be careful that 2.8 speed attack doesn’t sneak up on you and undercut you.
Part 4: Quince sucks
This is a very important segment.
Quince is really bad without his gimmicks going. Lets take a look at why.
- Quinces fastest attack is aa clocking in at 1.2 speed.
- His next fastest is Jack at 2.6.
- His fastest normal is 3.8 on his 3 because his 2 has an ability on it that makes it insane to use any other way. If quince lands a 3 he can only follow up with Q or J. This means that his fastest most useful normal is actually his 5 at 5.8 speed because it leads into straights and heavier damage.
- Quinces fastest throw is 7.8 which isn’t winning any speed awards either.
- What quince lacks in speed, he makes up for in dodges. At a neutral gamestate, Quince is at a heavy disadvantage and this is even worse if he is knocked down because his reversal options are horrible outside of playing a Joker
Part 5: the secret way out
"Omg i don’t know what to do and my brain hurts from trying to get out of these spins WHAT DO I DO?!?!"
Oh thats easy: no matter what spin you are in, you can get out by playing an attack faster than 2.6 and then play a Joker if he dodges.
This way, you attack has a chance of beating every spin he can do, and you have an insurance policy if it doesnt.
THIS IS HOW YOU USE JOKERS AGAINST QUINCE!!!
Part 6: Smoke and mirrors
So you find yourself knocked down and you are facing two combat options at once. You automatically lose now right?
Wrong. Everything Quince wants to do here is beatable.
- Dodge/mixup normal - this is the hardest one to beat, but it has some quirks that can help you. First off Quince has 3 odd normal attacks and only 1 even normal. Second, the secret way out still works here.
- Dodge/throw - again Quince’s fastest throw is only 7.8 so any throws that are that speed or faster will stop him and end his advantage.
- Both mixup normals or throw/mixup normal - Both of these are unblockable and lose to attacks.
Part 7: tax the taxer
Quince on a low hand is brutal and when he has a low hand you can take advantage of his weakened state during spins.
- On a J spin you can attack or throw.If he plays the J he will likely play the attack side first and if you throw he can’t spin, or you could attack forcing him to spend cards as a dodge follow up.
- A K spin is likely to be played throw side first so blocking is the anti spin side.
- Blocking on a Q spin means he will have to spend the Q and two more cards for the best possible damage which will just further empty his hand.
If you can get Quince to the point where he can’t do any threatening damage, your one step closer to victory.
Part 8: dont freak out!
At some point you will probably lose combat. Its important that you keep a level head and accept that you can’t win every combat all the time. Otherwise you run the risk of playing into Quince’s hands.
I hope this helps newer players somehow because I’m sick of feeling bad for playing Quince in quickmatch.
This guide was written by Zexx the Reaper