@idkidk said in Special Live Duels: Should have ended:
I really enjoy the “if you don’t get piercied you lose” grand duels! There’s just so much strategy involved such as, you know putting team speed and all speed on your team and picking the fastest denier, truly brings variety to the game.
Lol, yes, it pretty much has come to exactly that. 
Literally (yes, I counted them) 9/10 teams I faced since the removal of warm ups are 6 team speed, 3 speed. My estimate is that before the removal of warm ups at most only 1/3 of the teams had this set up.
There are a few monsters and monster combinations that can effectively beat teams like those without ressorting to play the 6 teamspeed game as well and tossing a coin to see who will win. Problem is there are so few monsters that can counter them that sometimes joining the speed monkeys is all you can do.
I have had success with the following monsters in a non-megaspeed set up:
Nitroblaster (artifact, good 0 CD skill)
O'Reilly (immune to possession, dodge AOE, 1 CD remove debuffs)
Hookuai (immune to control, good 0 CD skill)
Helgudin (dodge area)
Makugan (immune to stun and possession, good o CD skill)
Wasper (SC evasion)
Samael (bulwark, decent 0 CD skills)
Zyla (bulwark, 0 CD skill + extra turn)
Honourable mentions to the Flame Mana Bird and Xiron for their traits and skills.
Problem is that sometimes you don't even get to pick one of those monsters and in my experience realistically you need at least 2 of them in your team to be consistently successful against the megaspeed terror. The team below completely ripped apart any 6 teamspeed team, including those with Pierceid. Nitro and Makugan carried strength.

This team had some more troubles, and it surprises me it managed to pull of 9 wins, but did well enough, especially when Mana Bird or Samael resisted opening denial. Hookuai is carrying strength:

And this team basically just ran a frontal 2 strength Nitroblaster attack. Which shows just how strong Nitroblaster is in an environment in which he is not easily killed:

But most of the time Grand Duels have just become boring, and I am not going to pay 20 gems over and over just in the hopes of finally getting a team that can break the terror of speed and deniers.
Former co-lead of Resurrection of AMAB and Untamable; Retired: Parked in the Fifth Element; Make War, not Races