Rumble: Dialectic

Started in October 13th 2020.

Moderator: Zaratustra

Players: pokes, Cuddlebeam, card, TyGuy6, Kevan

Flavor

• Player - Philosopher
• Energy - Thesis
• Attack - Attack
• Defense - Defense
• Power - Argument
• Sidekick - Student

Arguments

(additional rulings added in italics)

• Radical Skepticism: (Passive, by Cuddlebeam) You ignore the effects of all other Arguments (even your own) except this Argument.
• Argumentum ad baculum: (Passive, by Cuddlebeam) If your Attack is higher than a target's Defense, that target's Defense becomes zero.
• Solipsism: (Passive, by Kevan) If you are the only remaining Philosopher with any Arguments, you win.
• Philosophical Zombies: (Passive, by card) You cannot take damage from Students.
• Socrates: (Student, by TyGuy6) This is a Student with starting Thesis of half of the total you spent on Arguments. When Socrates loses Thesis (not counting any part into the negative), its owner, if alive, gains that much Thesis.
• Nitpicker: (Student, by pokes) Starts with 30 Thesis. While a Nitpicker is alive, their owner's Attacks are halved in strength.
• Included Middle: (Active, by pokes) Burn X[4], where X is this Argument's Strength: You can use other Arguments you have at no cost this round.
• Skepticism: (Active, by Kevan) Burn 10 and choose an Argument belonging to a Philosopher with less Thesis than yours: Remove that Argument from the game.
• Sophist Accusation: (Active, by card) Spend cumulative 0*, choose an Argument: this round, the chosen Argument and its activations have no effect. This cost increases by 1 each time it's paid. Plagiarist: (Passive, Flaw) You can't assign Attack to any Philosopher with higher Thesis than yours.
• Plagiarist: (Flaw, by TyGuy6) You can't assign Attack to any Philosopher with higher Thesis than yours.

Rulings

• Radical Skepticism obviously protects against the lesser Skepticism, so it also protects against the other counter-power, Sophist Accusation.
• Radical Skeptics will not have Socrates or the Nitpicker by their side.

Bids

pokes aka Leonard McLeod: Thesis 54 + Kevin the Postdoc: Thesis 30

• Sophist Accusation (23)
• Nitpicker (23)
• Plagiarist (0)

TyGuy6: Thesis 95

Cuddlebeam aka Charles Baum: Thesis 97, "Circular Logic is right, therefore I am right."

Kevan: Thesis 91

• Skepticism (7)

card: Thesis 77 + Socrates: Thesis 11

• Argumentum ad baculum (7)
• Radical Skepticism (4) (discarded)
• Philosophical Zombies (4)
• Socrates (4)
• Included Middle (4)

Solipsism was not bid on.

Combat

Nothing happened for the first two rounds. In desperation, the moderator stated that if nobody loses Thesis until the end of round 3, round 4 will have Defend cost 2 points of allocation per 1 point of Defense.

Things then started running. Kevan was disproven first, then card left in a huff, leaving Cuddlebeam at half the Thesis of other two. Then Cuddlebeam flipped a coin to deliver the win to TyGuy6.