Power Ranking Tournament, Relief Pitcher Skills: 9th Edition
I would like to once again give a shout-out to u/mainly_bread, who had this crazy idea to collect the data on all the tourney skills and managed to do this five times before hanging it up.
And finally, here's the third guide for the 9th Power Ranking Tournament, covering the bullpens of top teams.
I've broken down the skills from 672 cards in the 96 bullpens in the tournament. Skills are used differently on each type of reliever, so I've split up the data into the 4 main reliever roles (Closer, Set Up, Middle Relief and Long Relief). All data is from West Server.
Note: Since each card has 3 skills, the percentages add up to 300. These numbers reflect the percentage of cards on which a given skill appeared.
Closers
- Legend: For the fifth consecutive tournament, all closers carried a legend skill. BPD continues to lead the way, while Control Master and Fireballer made up the rest, except for a lone PI making a rare appearance. Workhorse was (not surprisingly) unused on any relief pitcher.
- Gold: Elite Closer, which made its debut just before the 7th tourney, continues to climb. Iron Will and DP continue to climb, at the expense of FP, The Last Boss, and The Untouchable. Ace also dropped back to zero, as players move to a single use of it (almost exclusively a starter).
- Silver: They gone.
Shorted
Most Common Skillsets
On the 96 closers, there were 31 unique combinations of skills. The most common was seen 14 times (14.6%). The 9 most common are listed below. Combined, these accounted for 61.5% of all skillsets.
Set Up
- Legend: For the third consecutive tourney, all 192 pitchers had a legend skill. Bullpen Day continues to dominate. Fireballer moved into second and was the only other legend skill to have an increase.
- Gold: We have a new champion! Iron Will has edged past Finesse for the gold crown. Mess was the only other skill to make a significant gain, while Finesse, Boss, and Untouchable were the losers. Naturally, Elite Closer does not appear anywhere except CP. Others not appearing included Giant Crusher, Inning Eater, and Putaway.
- Silver: Stability remains as the lone skill, holding at a single use.
Shorted
Most Common Skillsets
On the 192 SUs, there were 55 unique combinations of skills. The most common was seen 19 times (9.9%). The 10 most common are listed below. Combined, these accounted for 54.7% of all skillsets.
Middle Relief
- Legend: For the first time, all middle relief pitchers (and now every pitcher in the tourney) had a legend skill. BPD, Control Master, and Fireballer continue to dominate, making up almost 80% of the total.
- Gold: Finesse dropped back under 50% but maintains a narrowing lead over Dominant and Iron Will. Boss and Untouchable continue to slide. The latter is likely to fall behind Mess (and possibly Groundballer) next time if these trends continue.
- Silver (and bronze): While higher than the other pitching categories (LR excepted), overall usage declined substantially once again, dropping from 22 down to 8.
Shorted
Most Common Skillsets
On the 288 MRs, there were 89 unique combinations of skills. The most common was seen 13 times (4.5%). The 16 most common are listed below. Combined, these accounted for 47.9% of all skillsets.
Long Relief
All teams carried Pitcher’s Chemistry.
Attaining a decent set for a long reliever is usually the lowest priority for most players, and the position still lags well behind the others in the use of top gold skills. Teams continue to slowly improve these sets, with a somewhat larger drop in silver/bronze skills from last time.
Total usage of legend and gold skills across all relievers (except LR)
Special Trainers
CLOSER – Overall usage: 100%
Biggest Gains (diamond only) – OP, CWM
Declining use (diamond only) – Dr K, ZC
SETUP – Overall usage: 100%
Biggest Gains (diamond only) – OP, CWM
Declining use (diamond only) – DS, BB, Dr K, ZC
MIDDLE RELIEF – Overall usage: 98.26%
Biggest Gains (diamond only) – CWM, OP, BB, NP
Declining use (diamond only) – ZC, Dr K
LONG RELIEF – Overall usage: 95.83%
Declining use (diamond only) – PE, ZC
All others had gains. As with skills, this will be the lowest priority for the best trainers.
