Previous post here:
When we left of.
Toyone’s dazzling display of her second ability has left her opponents pressured. This goes double for Kasumi since Eisui is now last. Her fantastic defense isn’t going to help them win now if she didn’t get any points.
And thus, she called on her ability.
(Though, judging from that nice honitsu, her power already has some effect.)
And won the round for 6,200/3,200 points btw due to the dealer repeats.
Which means this is the score:
Himematsu : 98,100
Miyamori : 105,700
Eisui : 99,000
Kiyosumi 97,200
Lol. Kiyosumi is last due to that stunt. ^^
And now looking at Saki vision. The +/- zero for this hanchan is:
Saki : 20,300 – 3,200 —> 17,100
Kyouko: 20,300 – 3,200 —> 17,100
Toyone: 39,100 – 6,200 — > 32, 900
Kasumi: 20,300 + 12,600 —> 32,900
*Whistles* A brief look shows that Kasumi managed to tie with Toyone in just one attack. Considering Toyone won twice in this hanchan that just shows how expensive each of Kasumi’s hands are.
Anyway looking at Saki’s perspective, this is pretty much going her way. Even though, Kiyosumi is last. Take note that the difference between the first and the last has shrunk to a mere 8,500 points.
If we also take note the amount of points Saki needs to get +/- 0. Note: 30,000 – 17,100 = 12,900 points.
That’s right people. Saki can now get +/- zero and get first.
Now, all she needs to do is score.
*sweatdrop*
Not an easy task with her opponents around. Oh right and figure out what ability Kasumi has since she just activated one.
Thankfully for Kasumi’s opponents though, her ability like Toyone’s is easy enough to understand.
Its important to remember that I’m analyzing this with the outcome in mind, its perfectly glaring at the onset that Kyouko’s hand contains no bamboo.
But, we must remember that Kasumi like Toyone is supposed to be her team’s secret weapon or ace in the hole. There is no match record for both of them using their ability. Toyone came from a remote village and this is her first time appearing on a official match. Kasumi and most of the Eisui gang transferred when Jindai stressed herself on the previous nationals.
So yeah…
I believe Eisui’s strategy was as follows.
Rack up a great amount of points using Jindai and Hatsumi, then have Kasumi just defend in the last round. Considering Jindai was supposed to be a monster on par with Koromo (when asleep) and Hatsumi has a yakuman as a finishing move. That is pretty sensible.
Unfortunately, no plan survives contact with the enemy.
And they trailed of in last place necessitating the reveal of Kasumi’s ability.
And what a broken ability it is as her opponents are figuring out right now.
As Saki and Kyouko have figured out.
They are missing an entire suit. The bamboo or souzu suit to be exact. Take a look, there is none on Kyouko’s hands. Plus, there is none on Saki, Kyouko or Toyone’s discards as well.
The only one who have bamboo tiles?
Eisui. Whose discards is a mix of only bamboo and honors. lol. ^^
I think Kyouko, Toyone and Saki is getting what ability Kasumi has with this confirmation.
As Saki has pointed out, Kasumi doesn’t even have the other two suits. She only have bamboo suit. And as we could see from the Saki and Toyone’s hands. They like Kyouko don’t have any bamboos.
With this data, it should be reasonable to conclude that Kasumi has some sort of suit magnet which is a really powerful ability. On the top of my head, it would confer this following advantages.
- High value hands
Using that ability which I’m going dub “single suit magnet” ( until the manga tells me otherwise), Kasumi is guaranteed to either have a honitsu or chinitsu yaku.
Honitsu ( one suit + honors ) is worth 3 han.
Chinitsu (the hand is composed of one suit) is worth 6 han. 6 han is an automatic haneman guys. 12,000 points for non-dealer or 18,000 points if Kasumi is dealer. This is on top of whatever yaku, she will make it.
And it will be trivial for Kasumi to do this.
- Great defense
Kasumi said that its an offensive ability but truthfully it has a great defensive utility as well. Hitting Kasumi by a ron is now nearly impossible. And if Kasumi ever decides to stop discarding honor tiles, its flat out impossible.
- Good Speed
When you just have 1 suit + honors to chose from, its no brainer that you’ll form melds very easily and faster than if you have the whole mahjong tile set to choose from.
Though, since Saki, Kyouko and Toyone is excluded from that one suit, they’ll also be faster. Perhaps not the same speed boost that Kasumi had but it they’ll have some boost as well.
Beside that, Kasumi’s one suit magnet sealed of Toyone.
Toyone: I don’t know how to defend against this.
I don’t know about Toyone’s probable other abilities. But, pursuit riichi is useless in this. Kasumi isn’t going to declare riichi anytime soon.
As for, tomobiki….
Well, for one thing, Kasumi’s ability makes it hard for anyone to call a pon or chi on her. Remember that you can only call a pon or chi when your opponent discard a tile that you need for your meld and since Kasumi is using one suit exclusive to her…
Calling her tile will be like directly hitting Kasumi; its improbable. (Not outright impossible, its still possible to call honor tiles. Good luck with that though)
This is even more hampered by the seating arrangements. Take a look.
Remember, you can only call chi on the person which is on your left side. For Toyone, that meant Kasumi.
Double ouch.
Still, I wouldn’t say all hope is lost. Let’s take a look at Saki’s hand.
If we check her hand, we will know that Saki is in tenpai here.
This is tenpai hand – Waiting for a 6 of character or 9 of character, I believe. Though, if Saki drew the 9 of circles, I suppose she can also call a kan and then take the 6 or 9 of the characters in the dead wall for a rinshan kaihou.
The hand itself is cheap. 500/300 points I believe if Saki just drew the said characters. If Saki called a rinshan… probably 2,000/ 1000 points.
But, the fact that she can catch up to Kasumi itself is pretty telling.(Hint: Rinshan isn’t sealed) And if we look at the end scores, Saki has motivation to hamper Kasumi.
Himematsu : 98,100 – 8,000 —> 90,100
Miyamori : 105,700 – 4,000 —> 101,400
Eisui : 99,000 + 16,000 —-> 115,000
Kiyosumi 97,200 – 4,000 —-> 93,200
Saki’s +/- zero perspective:
Saki : 17,100 – 4,000 —> 13,100
Kyouko: 17,100 – 8,000 —-> 9,100
Toyone: 32, 900 – 4,000 —–> 28,900
Kasumi: 32,900 + 16,000 —-> 48,900
Previously, Saki was letting the other players chip of the lead so she looks like she’s not ding anything. But, she must be involved now. The gap between her and first place is now 21,800 points. Ouch.
And if Kasumi continue to win, the score gap is going to widen and she won’t be able to get her +/- zero and get her first place.
So next time, Saki strikes back!
Now explain why Kasumi discarded that 7s. With her power, it would have been very easy to tsumo a suuankou yakuman. Did she maybe predict Saki to outspeed her, somehow predicting the 8s to appear first?
Possible.
Kasumi did show some inclination on that direction when she kept the tile Saki need for Rinshan on the previous round. Maybe she has some sort of flow or instinct regarding her power?
Not much evidence though. I wish Kasumi will play on the individuals. Her power is fascinating.
… Though, since her God is part of Jindai's collection…. a one suit magnet power is still in the cards even if Kasumi isn't the one wielding it.
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