Posts from Counter-heroes in duel mode (3.1).

Erin vs. Sinithar. For those who don't know: Sinithar can only win if he gets lucky with Armageddon:)
Vittorio vs. Daleb: I haven't played online yet, I thought Daleb was stronger. But a few mistakes for Daleb, and Vittorio has the advantage. My opponent's main mistake: he placed devils within direct firing range of the ballistae under the blessing...
Sinithar vs. Karl: It was a very tough battle, it's a shame there were too many mistakes on both sides.
Erin vs. Ravenna: Many, many mistakes for Ravenna, which allowed Erin to win.

Okay, here are my assessments for some of the matchups:
Vitya is slightly stronger than Daleb.
Sinithar is much stronger than Karl.
Erin is noticeably stronger than Ravenna, about as much as Erin is stronger than Or.
Sinithar vs. Erin, honestly, I don't remember. I need to check, it seems like Erin.

I agree. I just checked myself – Sinithar is much stronger, there was some lag when I played online. Sinithar versus Erinn – Erinn’s army simply prevents Sinithar’s army from moving; Erinn adds lightning bolts, which she has enough mana for, since Sinithar actively spends it. But Armageddon usually decides the battle in Sinithar’s favor: if the first one was unsuccessful, he almost always manages to cast the second one.
Erinn versus Ravenna: Ravenna can win with approximately the following tactic: attack with frost, prioritize targets: harpies, megeras, witches. Concentrate physical attacks on harpies, then kill the lizards. When I simulated the battle, I won, and I didn’t use resurrection even once; I only used cold spells, since no more than 2 units were affected by the ring. My opponent online didn’t seem to use Ravenna’s chaos spell at all...

What tactics are effective for Erin against Oora? Did you ever test this matchup with Mongol, although we aren't the best testers? Oora consistently won, and Erin only defeated her once, but I feel like there's some nuance here, and Erin can win, but HOW?

Something like this:) I tried for a long time to stage it so that it would work without errors for both sides. If you don't hide the golems when playing as Haven, it's even easier to lose. In my staging, by the way, the arena wasn't the most advantageous for Erin.
A replay of Axel versus Carly on the Dungeon map – I was helped by a few mistakes made by my opponent, in particular, the unit placement. Although on a different arena, Axel is clearly stronger than Carly from version 3.1, but I think Carly should win on the Dungeon map.

Okay, so we've decided on a couple of heroes from Or-Erin, right?
How about this scenario, for example. In my opinion, mages should always take down Fury or Megera, while the Armageddon's Blade cart dies.
And here's another interesting pair: Deleb and Deidra. Of course, the opponent wasn't that strong, but it still tested the old Deleb defensive tactic. With Deidra, you need to cast mass light spells and add vampirism to the dragonlings. This pair is notable because it was decisive in the last real tournament for duel matches in version 3.0. Back then, Deleb won.

Razazak versus Axel on the Abyss map. If he hadn't decided to teleport golems for some reason, he could have won, but in the end, he lost due to the guardian angel. But it was a tough battle. In general, Razazak is stronger on the Abyss map, which I just figured out:)
I won't talk about Oria and Erin, saying that I made a mistake by playing Oria intentionally (with the mages shooting "in the wrong direction"); I just wanted to show that Erin can win with almost correct gameplay. In this matchup, Erin needs to try to reach the golems with harpies or furies at all costs, even exposing them to attacks, otherwise, there will be nothing left to kill them with in the final stage. Maybe Erin should attack them directly with her fist, hoping for additional shots from the witches? But then the mages will have time to do a lot of damage...

In this match, Erin needs to try to reach the golems with Megeras or Furies at all costs, even if it means exposing them to attacks, otherwise, there will be nothing left to kill them with in the final. Maybe she should hit them with Erin's fist right away, hoping for extra shots from the witches? But then the mages will have time to do a lot of damage...

Zakly: mass curse, empower lightning on the mages, then fist attacks on the golems. The fist attacks need to be cast when the girls are already starting to reach the golems. It's also not worth putting them in melee combat against Rakshasas or golems; you can simply approach a couple of squares or closer and block with riders.
Regarding the Abyss map, Axel wins here, and all the conditions are against him. Teleporting the golems is a huge mistake, of course.

Regarding Axel on the Abyss map, it's really beautiful to watch him win, with all the odds against him. The golem teleport is a huge mistake, of course. No matter how many times I tried to recreate it, I couldn't. I just didn't test this matchup specifically on the Abyss map; on any other arena, Axel is clearly stronger. Regarding Ogre and Erin, I think we've discussed it all, but the matchup remains extremely interesting and highly sensitive to the players' skill levels. By the way, I can't seem to win with Leto against Ravenna. What's the best strategy for him in this matchup? I tried using berserker/subjugation, since my army was moving sporadically due to low morale, and Ravenna slows things down with her cold spells. It didn't work.

My opponent fielded Jalib. I left a random hero. Here's what happened next:)
Summary: letting Garuna's army get close leads to an uncontrollable defeat.
I'll add one rare replay: Dirael defeats Iris. I wouldn't have been able to do it myself, but my opponent helped. Nevertheless, the replay shows that even "hopeless matchups" are worth playing.

Garuna-Galib is certainly an interesting pairing. Dex mentioned something about this pairing. He said that Garuna is at least not weaker than Galib, and that you need to play very carefully against Galib. Basically, Galib needs to think about his own moves and keep track of the orcs' morale, mentally calculating the percentages of morale and luck to eliminate the element of chance.
In the provided replay, your opponent is my acquaintance and friend. In my opinion, there is one obvious mistake in the setup and the first spell, and I think there are also some minor mistakes later on, but Garuna also didn't play perfectly. Of course, I'm not as great a strategist as Dex or Albolabris, but I tried to simulate this pairing. Still, I have many questions left about playing as Galib. What to cast first: traps or a wall, or summons, or call Fenris? And Garuna, if she has time, should probably scare the mages with her first spell, even if they are trapped in a corner with tumblers and titans.
Dira-Ayris. Yes, version 3.1 is very sensitive to the players' skill level, in my opinion. There is room for thought, and there is something to latch onto, even in seemingly hopeless situations.

Esteemed duel experts, I have a question. I used to think that Deleb-Razak was a fairly even match, but I recently won against DOMOVOY using Deleb. I'm interested in the actual balance of power in this matchup.

Esteemed duel experts, I have a question. I used to think that Deleb and Razak were a fairly even match, but I recently won with Deleb against DOMOVOY. I'm interested in the real balance of power in this matchup.

I'd like to note that you won against the only duel expert at the moment.
Razak and Deleb are an interesting pairing, and in 3.1, they are quite evenly matched. However, Razak was unlucky with his demoralized horses and his troops that didn't benefit from demoralization. It's a common occurrence. The mistake DOMOVOY made was placing Obsidian under the Devils for some reason, when he could have safely attacked the Dogs without fear of the Devils. This highlights the nuances of playing against strong or weak players. There's always hope that you're playing against a weak player, and that they won't make such a mistake, although in this case, it was obvious that the Golems would target the Devils. It was definitely a mistake.

"In the provided replay, your opponent is a friend of mine."
We had a good argument with your friend because he didn't want to play with random heroes. He knows the counter-heroes very well; my knowledge doesn't go beyond that topic, but that's already something. Basically, it went like this: he picks Jaliba, I pick Ravenna, he picks Oru, I pick Iris, he picks Deirdre, I pick Sinistar, and I don't remember what happened after that. Anyway, I ran out of patience and picked a random hero, and he picked Jaliba again. In the end, we only played one duel, and I was so tired of this choice...
Regarding the roar against mages, I confused it with version 3.0, where you had to know where to run to be scared. There are indeed many ways to play as Jaliba, but the mistake with the first spell is costly because there's no spellcasting. I'm posting my scenario of how Jaliba can win, although playing as both sides isn't ideal, and there are many random chances here, for example, Jaliba's troops might have cool mini-arts.
Here's another replay of a super interesting pair, in my opinion: Ravana against Deirdre. In this thread, Dex has been posting replays with victories for both sides for a long time. When playing as Deirdre, you need to try not to expose too many large units to the ring at once, and when playing as Ravenna, you need to withstand Deirdre's first attack, as it's very strong. Somewhere in the middle of the battle, I wasn't too sure about the victory, but my opponent made several mistakes in a row. The upgrade at the end for Ravenna could have been skipped; I was just being overly cautious.

Yeah, he likes to play with counter-heroes. You can even beat anyone. For example, Raven-Jalib – you can beat absolutely any opponent with Jalib. Kot used to beat Raven Domovoy with him, and there are many such pairs. So, there are options here too. In general, when I played on the server, I only played random matches, and only if the opponent insists and starts choosing opponents, then I start picking interesting pairs... And I lose much more often in these kinds of matchups than in random ones). People like to win, and I don't have that much time to wait for a decent player. That's why I play pairs like Jalib-Ossir, Helmar-Ossir, Vitya-Ossir, etc. And it's quite difficult to demonstrate skill with Ossir.

So, the Raven-Deydra pair, I'll post a couple of replays, showing how Raven and Deydra can play.

Here are a few of my battles for those who enjoy tactical gameplay. As for Deleb versus Razak, I've always considered Deleb to be stronger. Please note that Leto has the maximum amount of mana.