Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-35353971-20180630135309

So after testing around a good bit, I found that certian meatshielding tactics everybody says work better don't actually work that much better.

I'll start with one very specific cat: Jiangshi. A lot of people call Jiangshi "two for the price of one". Now, that isn't neccessarily true. 240, Compared to Cats, he costs 3x as much and for Tanks about 1.5x as much. Despite his ability, not a good cost for a meatshield.

But, is his ability really that good? After testing around, I found that four meatshields generally create a slightly more solid defense than two plus Jiangshi.

So Jiangshi is money draining and not as good as he is said to be, its only useful when you need to fill a lot of other slots with other Cats.

Now what about meatshield speed? People say faster meatshields = better, but that isn't true either. Sure, they can rush in front of your powerful units, but as someone who generally has slow moving ubers they don't end up too far in front of the meatshields anyway.

Ok, but what’s bad about them? Well, a lot of the time I find that when you can clump them together, meatshields are a more solid line of defense then when they are spread out. Sure, if its too slow its bad (like Boogie, its very common for two to get hit by one attack), but too fast isn't good either.

Back on the topic of Boogie, ok. Not that good, he’s TOO slow. But what about early game? Ok, he works there. But no point in using him past Crazed Cat/Tank. Also, why knockback? That’s kind of obscure for a meatshield, don't you think? And as said well by many other people, knockback is a suicide move in a lot of stages (Cyclones are an exception, but when do you expect Boogie to land a hit on a Cyclone?)

So that’s my thoughts and opinions on certian meatshielding tactics, let me know what you think down below. Please note that we are different players, so if something I mentioned above does work for you, don’t be a salt general, please 