High Elf Throwers

[mattgslater]

OK, I'm at a crossroads in my Thrower's development.

Rhett Wydenblut (#12): 6/3/4/8 Pass, Safe Throw, Dodge, Accurate, 30 SPP
Height: 6'6"
Weight: 178 lbs
School: Shrine of Asuryan College
Quote: "They say I make it look easy. That may be true, but that's only because it is easy. I make it look fabulous."

My Thrower is probably about to get his third skill. He does my passing on offense right now, and on defense is a benchwarmer. In order to get on the field on D, he needs to beat out either a Lineman with Guard and Dodge (I have two) or a Catcher with Dodge, Wrestle, and AV6, who is my only Wrestle off the line. I have only one rookie, who is also a defensive benchwarmer. He could see action situationally in lieu of my Dodge/AV7 lineman, but for that to happen I'd have to have a reason to invest more in the line.

Here are the skills I'm considering, in alphabetical order.

Block: He's got Dodge, and I don't have a ton of Blodge. It'd be nice to have another one. I also often run him up to man-mark, even on a pass action. (The Necromantic coach hates this: "I'm going to pass. Oh, and I'm going to square-mark your Wrestle guy. It's still a 2+, thanks." 'Course, now it wouldn't be the Wrestle guy.....)

Catch: I'm loath to pick up with this player, as it's not good for the team's Comp distribution. He has burned a couple of TRRs and gotten himself sacked a few times over 11 games on failed catch attempts.

Sure Hands: That said, sometimes I do pick up with him, and it'd be nice to have a Sure Hands guy to fish the ball out of a scrum late in the turn or late in the half.

I'm open to other ideas, but those are the three I think would be best. Which to take?

[mattgslater]

I voted "something else" just so I could see the results without hitting the button. So there's one less "something else" vote.

[bjorn9486]

Block: He's got Dodge, and I don't have a ton of Blodge. It'd be nice to have another one. I also often run him up to man-mark, even on a pass action. (The Necromantic coach hates this: "I'm going to pass. Oh, and I'm going to square-mark your Wrestle guy. It's still a 2+, thanks." 'Course, now it wouldn't be the Wrestle guy.....)

I'm not quite sure what you mean, but do you man mark on offensive pass actions? If so, maybe consider Nerves of Steel. You could mark a couple guys and still pass and catch like you mentioned earlier but while still in Tackle Zones. The only thing to consider while doing that is that you are probably going to get hit a lot more.

[Marlow]

I like Passing to my Throwers with the Line Elves to generate SPP's so I would go with Catch at 31 and then Block at 51.

[mattgslater]

Block: He's got Dodge, and I don't have a ton of Blodge. It'd be nice to have another one. I also often run him up to man-mark, even on a pass action. (The Necromantic coach hates this: "I'm going to pass. Oh, and I'm going to square-mark your Wrestle guy. It's still a 2+, thanks." 'Course, now it wouldn't be the Wrestle guy.....)

I'm not quite sure what you mean, but do you man mark on offensive pass actions? If so, maybe consider Nerves of Steel. You could mark a couple guys and still pass and catch like you mentioned earlier but while still in Tackle Zones. The only thing to consider while doing that is that you are probably going to get hit a lot more.

That's exactly what I mean: his 1+ QP means he can chuck from a zone, so I can man-mark with him on his own Pass action (this is great if the catch fails, as he can take a guy out of the resulting scrum). The reason I didn't list Nerves is that I'm afraid to mark two men with him, especially given that he doesn't have Block or Side Step. I'd normally just single up with him, and in that case Nerves would only help if I couldn't QP. That's an easy situation to avoid.

[Aliboon]

I'd go kick off return. MA 6 isn't that quick and those extra 3 MA could be a big help.

[mattgslater]

Never thought of that. That's a good one.

[Master Wang]

I've seconded the Kick Off Return, so long as he's only used on Offense. If you want him on D, take Block.

[mattgslater]

I don't have to decide for awhile, I suspect, as we've got a couple coaches who are catching up slowly against the rest of our B-teams. But at this moment if I had to make up my mind, I think I'd take Block. Kick-off Return would help a little, but his first action is always just "get back out of blitz range, and stay within QP range of where the retriever can go." I'm afraid that if I did that and still had an action available I'd try something stupid.