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Excess Exceed - Vatista Guide
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Vatista

Overview

Vatista is a resource monster with access to a lot of force, a lot of gauge, and a lot of ultras to spend things on. Playstyle-wise she’s somewhere between a keepaway zoner and a nuclear missile platform. We’re not sure if “Gigantic Laser Beam” is a card archetype in Exceed the way “DP” or “Tatsu” is, but if it is then she has one of the gold standards.

Vatista’s ability essentially replaces her regular strike action: outside of very specific circumstances, there’s no reason to ever NOT use this ability if you’re not playing a boost that conflicts with it. Even without getting into her kit (which is, predictably, full of Push and Draw effects), Vatista’s offensive Grasp can now beat Sweep, and her Focus allows her to go card-positive. Think of your Vatista’s character ability as largely uncontested, free value that gives you the space and resources you need to enable your gameplan.

Vatista’s Exceed mode ability is a flat upgrade of her frontside ability, bumping it up numerically while also adding Advance (including Close) and Retreat effects. Again, just sticking to the normals, this allows an on-curve Cross to set R7, and Assault to hit from R5. The big problem is its gauge expense - you’re losing out on that free, uncontested value you had on frontside in exchange for another resource sink on a character who already has a lot of expensive payout options. It’s often easy to get your money’s worth out of it (and Vatista generates so much gauge that it’s not a huge problem anyway), but if you’re using it it’s likely only for a strike or so. After that, you’re probably Reverting to continue your offense.

Most of Vatista’s gameplan involves building a truly heinous amount of gauge and dumping it on her opponent. The exact form of that win condition changes based on what payout you select, but all of them are enabled by confirming high-value gauge generation hits, denying your opponent’s attacks with your character ability, and keeping them at ranges where they aren’t comfortable. Oh, and then exploding them with lasers.

Range: Vatista is comfortable fighting at close range with her normals and some of her ultras, but she also has several extremely threatening long-range options. Her character ability makes it fairly easy for her to make space and control where the battle is occurring, and she can reliably close things out with both melee and ranged payout options.

Gauge and Force: Vatista’s gameplan is defined by her resources. Right off the bat, she has five ultras and two specials, which means she has a lot more raw force to spend at her disposal than most characters. Every card in her kit has SOMETHING on it - either an attack effect or a boost - that either builds gauge or draws cards. That card draw focus is also underlined by her character ability. Vatista also SPENDS as much gauge as she builds with dedicated payout cards, but even with the regular wear and tear of needing to take universal game actions like Move and Change Cards, Vatista should pretty much always have everything she needs.

Kit Breakdown

Mikoruseo: Essentially a fast, low-commitment way to draw a couple cards at range. Not stunning means you’re very unlikely to actually cleanly win the strike unless your opponent has no options that can even hit back (which is a real possibility), but a bit of Armor means you probably won’t lose very hard. A decent defensive option for card draw and gauge, but its inability to stun really hampers it. Not a bad delivery mechanism for Curse Commandment in the very late game.

Swift Attack gives you a very high reward on your next hit, and the bonus Speed to easily confirm it. Expect your opponent to strike into you to at least deny you the Advantage, and have an on-curve button (especially Cross) ready. If they DO pass the turn back to you (maybe because you’ve been taxing their resources), put it on midspeeds like Dive, Spike, Lumen Stella, or Transvoranse.

Lumen Stella: A slow payout fireball with enough Guard to be quite safe in projectile wars. Hits hard and has a pretty huge reward on initiation from your character ability. Your opponent can often deny Lumen Stella by playing Assault or another fast jump-in to get into its range shadow because Mikoruseo doesn’t stun, so this is best as a ranged punish. That said, it also functions as a de facto R3 midspeed due to its Push effect.

Instant Flight is a dedicated way to land your other copy of Lumen Stella or its big brother Lateus Orbis. Vatista has a decent number of cards with 2 printed Power in her kit, but even revealing those are enough to back up to R3 and at least threaten your lasers - both of which are actually quite hard to stun even when played in melee range. Just watch out for any Blocks still in your deck. Also great on R1 Spike or long-range Sweep or Focus.

Transvoranse: Just slightly below-curve at R3, and beats everything slower than it while also providing some positioning and a draw effect. Generally unbeatable as an EX at R3, and makes for a pretty good mixup with Zahhishio at R2 to deal with Focus. Even if the opponent Crosses out of the R3 mixup, you still get your card draw and movement. It’s also worth mentioning that even on characters who DON’T have Vatista’s gauge generation, a one gauge ultra is CHEAP.

Charged Attack is nothing but upside on everything except Dive and Assault. Vatista has nothing in her specials or ultras with Before movement that would cause her to lose her bonus Power, and plenty of things with After movement (Cross, Transvoranse, Armabellum, Ruber Angelus) to grab some gauge after you’ve already hit. Use Charged Attack wherever Transvoranse won’t hit.

Armabellum: Remember when we said Vatista builds a lot of gauge? Yeah. You pretty much always want to spend as much as possible, so expect Armabellum to consistently hit for 5. Also technically an R3 midspeed on offense! Be careful defending with it - it loses cleanly to Sweep. A very safe, consistent gauge-builder at R1.

Where Charged Attack appreciates EX attacks or other sure-hit options for a high reward, Crimson Wings enables easy confirms for defensive on-curve options. Unlike Charged Attack, by the time you get your Before movement, you’ve already benefited from your bonus stats - so go ahead and put this on Assault or Dive. Most of what Crimson Wings enable prefer R2 or R3, where Armabellum would be less safe, so play to your position.

Ruber Angelus: An oddly shaped, very damaging midspeed. Can usually beat Sweep and Focus on offense through a combination of its Push and Advance effects, but quite unsafe against strong pokes and midspeeds. Vatista doesn’t have a ton of Power outside of her huge payouts, so landing Ruber Angelus is a nice windfall if you can manage it. An excellent EX, either natural or with Superior. Also appreciates bonus Speed to make it safer on defense in most matchups.

Restriction synergizes with your character ability in pretty crazy ways if your opponent passes the turn back to you. Its Hit effect counts as a new instance of Push or Pull, and your character ability impacts each instance separately. That means, for example, Grasp has an effective Push 5. Also useful even on defense to mess with the opponent’s range-sensitive jump-ins - like beating Dive with Mikoruseo.

Zahhishio: Remember when we said Vatista builds a lot of gauge? YEAH. Essentially a reverse Cross that moves the opponent instead of you, making it a strong dodging option. Oh yeah, it also adds your entire hand to your gauge and gives you Advantage as a Before effect. A huge gameplan accelerant. Commonly followed by a Change Cards with an ultra or two from gauge so you have a hand to play with.

Curse Commandment is +3 Power Now: Strike, which is amazing enough that you’re often just not worried about your opponent knowing what you’re hitting them with. Put it on anything that’s likely to hit given your opponent’s options, because if it hits you’re winning the trade. If you don’t want to go for the Zahhishio/Lateus Orbis combo, landing Curse Commandment twice is a legitimately strong alternate win condition.

Lateus Orbis: The aforementioned Gigantic Laser shape. Without looking at its Hit effect, it’s an amped up Lumen Stella that hits everywhere Lumen Stella hits and then some. In practice, this can easily hit for double-digit damage, and is pretty easy to set up with Instant Flight. Remember that with ten ultras in your deck, you’ll often have a LOT more force to work with than your opponent. Very scary, but be SURE that this is going to kill before you fire.

Autonomic Nerve is a lower-commitment, extremely threatening build-your-own ultra boost that turns pretty much any attack into a miniature Lateus Orbis. Sure, I’d love to hit with a 9 Power Grasp or a 12 Power Sweep! If you can’t guarantee Lateus Orbis or you’ve spotted a hole in your opponent’s defenses that ISN’T Gigantic Laser Beam-shaped, throw down Autonomic Nerve.

Normals

Vatista mostly relies on her normals as brawling tools, so with a couple exceptions we can be fairly brief with them. Use them as you normally would, except:

You’re a character who runs a lot of filler offense punctuated by one or two absolutely insane payout turns, whether those payouts are from Lateus Orbis, Curse Commandment, or Autonomic Nerve. That means confirming those payouts in whatever form they take is central to your gameplan, and one of the best ways to land them into an opponent who won’t cooperate is Tech Hit. Use it whenever you find a perfect setup for a killshot that’s being ruined by your opponent’s pesky Light. It’s also a great way to confirm small boosts like Restriction, Crimson Wings, and Charged Attack through an opponent’s counter boost.

Veil Off is a decent way to access your Exceed mode if you find yourself needing it for a turn or two, but Vatista has so much gauge generation that DOESN’T cost her a Focus that you might not need to bother with it. Veil Off-Revert is a legitimate pass-turn play to build gauge when you don’t have anything better to do, but remember that Focus is a very strong card - especially on a character who has trouble on defense in melee.

Just Defense is pretty niche until the very late game when playing Sweep would kill you. If you can give up one of your best cards in Sweep, you might be surprised by the results of a Just Defense Ruber Angelus or a Just Defense Armabellum.

Mixup gives you a lot of positional control to land Cross or Zahhishio at R2, or confirm a Lumen Stella into your opponent’s Dives. As useful as Spike is as a check for your opponent’s Focuses, Mixup is often of even higher value.

Reading is strong for the same reasons Tech Hit is strong - confirming your insane payout turns means you probably just win the game. Dive provides a useful mixup with Lumen Stella and is unbelievably scary with Curse Commandment at R4, but Reading is Reading, and should be used the way you use Reading. Because your opponent is likely holding Focus to prevent getting shoved around, Reading into a midspeed is often a solid bet.

Air Dash has … maybe some synergy, maybe some anti-synergy? It depends on what you want from it. Anyway, it immediately adds your “When you Advance or Retreat” boosts to your gauge, because all of those care about out-of-strike movement just as much as they care about in-strike movement. The same is true of Respect and even the Move action. In terms of actual utility, Air Dash is a solid way to make space or close distance - both of which you’ll often want to do.

Superior is an excellent way to hit an above-curve Zahhishio or make Ruber Angelus or Armabellum much tankier, as well as make your midspeed normals much scarier. Remember that a defensive Cross is often a way to win combat next turn with Lumen Stella or even win the game with Lateus Orbis, so use both sides of this card as needed.

Respect is mostly used for getting out of the corner easily. The card draw is nice, but it’s fairly easy for your opponent to keep you from getting it if you don’t have a solid defensive option ready. Grasp being such a strong offensive option for you makes it hard to use.

Offensive and Economic Notes

Vatista’s opening mixup is a bit weird for a character with two fireballs, because Mikoruseo and Lumen Stella don’t really have a meaningful synergy (again, Mikoruseo doesn’t stun). The only thing stopping your opponent from mashing Dive on defense is your own copy of Dive, so the real level 1 mixup is between Dive and Lumen Stella. If you suspect your opponent is playing Empty Assault to dodge both options, Mikoruseo is a solid third option to represent. In general, remember that your ultras make you pretty solid in melee, so you don’t need to commit to zoning in the early game if you can’t keep your opponent out.

Your “When you Advance or Retreat” boosts all help you a lot more than they hurt you as long as you have fireballs to threaten. Boosts like that on other characters can incentivize your opponent to immediately run away to force you to chase them, but Vatista … really, really doesn’t have to worry about that as long as she’s got Lumen Stella or Lateus Orbis on deck. Because your opponent is generally incentivized to stay close to you, you’re very likely to be able to utilize those boosts however you want to as long as you’re already happy with your position when you play them.

Most of Vatista’s gauge generators are really more gauge converters. Boosts that add themselves to gauge don’t require much in the way of decision-making other than deciding to PLAY them, but Armabellum and Zahhishio both involve taking cards out of hand. For Armabellum, the decision still isn’t that high-stakes - just throw away any cards you don’t foresee needing in the next couple turns, like fireballs when you’re in melee range. Be a LITTLE careful with Zahhishio so you aren’t losing anything absolutely crucial, but remember that building to one of your payouts can be worth the loss of resources in hand. You have so much card draw littered around your kit that you can often afford these expenses and more.

Vatista’s economy is generally fine without too much help, and if you have need of the Change Cards or Move actions you’re probably not lacking the force to fuel it. Because of the presence of Zahhishio and Armabellum in your kit, you’re often going to have a lot of resources in gauge - sometimes high-value ones that you’re saving for Curse Commandment. If you find yourself in need of a reshuffle (which can happen - Vatista can churn through her deck pretty fast), look at what’s in your gauge and see if any of it needs to go to your discard pile so you can get it back in your deck.

You should also be careful about tunnel-visioning toward a payout. You have a LOT of resources, and you should spend them however you need them. Go ahead and Change Cards from gauge to stay in the game even if you’re building up a Lateus Orbis or Autonomic Nerve - all that means is you might want to crutch on Curse Commandment with your remaining gauge. If you’re so focused on converting your resources into damage that you forget to turn those resources into ways to play the game, they’re not doing anything for you.

Payouts

Vatista’s general gameplan tends to heavily tax her opponent’s resources. All those Push effects combined with her character ability means they’re going to spend some force or a boost (and likely some time) getting back into their preferred range, which means you’re heavily incentivized to look at what they’re spending so you can pounce on any openings that develop. Curse Commandment and Autonomic Nerve in particular are excellent ways to up the reward on any guaranteed attack your opponent has left themselves open to. If they don’t respect your ranged options enough to move back in, you have Lumen Stella and Lateus Orbis to punish their mistakes.

Setting up Lateus Orbis with Zahhishio and other crazy resource generators is the obvious Vatista gameplan. It’s certainly a lot of fun, and surprisingly practical, but please don’t count out how incredibly strong Curse Commandment and Autonomic Nerve are. If you don’t feel like burning out your entire resource engine to hopefully kill your opponent at range, stocking strong options in gauge and hitting two Curse Commandments often requires much less setup than Lateus Orbis does. An on-curve Assault is all you need to make Curse Commandment terrifying, and you can spend the whole game threatening it while you’re still building to Lateus Orbis or Autonomic Nerve.

Speaking of, Autonomic Nerve is a much more controllable lots-of-cards-in-gauge payout than Lateus Orbis is, and you can staple it to a variety of consistent cards to easily get value. It might not hit for 19 damage, but you still have options in hand to play Exceed if your payout fails to kill the opponent. Remember that the Gigantic Laser Beam was inside you all along, and you don’t NEED to land Lateus Orbis to express your inner explosion of nuclear energy. Sometimes Gigantic Laser Sweep or Gigantic Laser Assault just works better.

Counterplay

Vatista has a surprising amount of trouble against other zoners who are more than happy to recur fireballs into her limited copies of Lumen Stella all day until she’s forced to brawl with normals. This isn’t a death sentence by any means (Lateus Orbis, Curse Commandment, and Autonomic Nerve make it pretty hard to count Vatista out), but it’s an awkward matchup that you should be ready for.

The general way to beat Vatista is to outstat her mediocre defensive options. There are plenty of ways to make Armabellum or Ruber Angelus exceptionally unsafe - some characters don’t even need to boost to do it. Opponents able to consistently represent stats you can’t easily deal with will require you to commit to mixups when you’d really prefer guarantees. Use your defensive normals well - Tech Hit the big scary stat boosts, and maintain Sweep and especially Focus as a way to stay competitive on defense.

As mentioned, Vatista tends to commit big resources on crucial turns. Expect your opponent to have meaningful defensive options ready, and don’t panic if a payout gets denied. You have enough of a resource game that you can get back into the fight pretty quickly as long as you have SOMETHING left over - this is another reason why Lateus Orbis really needs to kill to be viable. If your opponent has staved off a big payout, they have a crucial turn or two to aggress into you when you have low hand or gauge. Do your best to shorten that time as much as possible: Change Cards aggressively to shore up your defenses quickly.

Credits and Resources

I wrote this guide after an extensive conversation with Migohunter on how to run Vatista. You can find that conversation here. I’m not familiar with any other Vatista guides, but other Vatista players who Probably Have Opinions include Blue and Polter. There’s plenty more on the Breakfast Club Discord - if they’re not listed here it’s because I don’t regularly talk to them, not because they’re not skilled players.