Yomi
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Defeating Yomibot
By Antoids
This guide will teach you to exploit Yomibot and get those sweet, sweet EX characters! Right now, the walkthrough only deals with Gloria. I will update it as further updates manifest.
   
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Introduction
Defeating Yomibot is a deceptively simple task. The way Yomibot is programmed, it essentially makes value judgments about the game state and performs a move once it has decided what play is optimal, given that state. It seems to only really function on Yomi layers 1 and 2, as per Sirlin's own definition of what Yomi layers are[www.sirlin.net].

Value judgments that Yomibot takes into account appear to include, but not be limited to:

What turn it is.
Player/bot HP
Player/bot hand size
The last 3 turns, at least (likely all turns played up to this point).
General strategy.

For example, Yomibot is more likely to block or throw if your hand size is low and your HP is high, because players with a small hand tend to block to build up cards.

Given this, it should be more or less possible to devise a winning strategy against Yomibot. Forcing it into a particular situation should cause it to always react in the same way. The goal when designing Yomibot seems to be to create a bot that follows a consistent logic, making it more dangerous than Monkeybot (who apparently had a 14.2% win rate at the time of Yomibot's creation) but also more predictable. For the purposes of this guide, I'll only be focused on defeating Yomibot as one character per character. If you want to hone your skills on a matchup, that's up to you to do and figure out on your own. Our goal is to get the EX characters.

All this being said, at its fastest, it'll take around 4 hours to get each EX character. Frankly, that time could be better spent. I recommend just dropping the $20. But this could be a good way to get a taste of what your favorite character is like before picking up the rest of them.
Gloria
In general, Gloria is weak to rushdown-type tactics. Dealing lots of damage quickly is the best way to ensure a win. The longer a fight goes on with Gloria, the worse your chances of defeating her are. For this reason, turtley characters like Argagarg, Grave, and, to a lesser extent, Quince, are poor choices for grinding out Yomibot wins. I think particularly good picks are any throw-focused characters.

I tested this strategy with Setsuki, and it netted me perfect wins any time Gloria didn't play a joker. The strategy is...

Throw.

That's it, just throw constantly. Gloria (like most characters) will open every game by blocking, since by default, a person is likely to choose to attack, or to block to counter a player who chooses to attack. Blocking is a safe option because it beats attack and is of neutral effectiveness against a block.

Gloria will pretty much block until she gets 2+ Aces in her hand, or occasionally a Queen or Jack.

If you keep throwing as Setsuki, you can clear your hand out quickly by Pumping or finishing the combo. As should be your typical Setsuki strategy, try to empty your hand as quickly as possible. Play your ability cards whenever the opportunity presents itself, and bluff whenever Gloria gets an errant hit in (if you continuously throw, this will only happen if she gets a Joker).

Setsuki should be able to defeat Gloria in about five turns if you get one or two really good combos in. Don't be afraid to "throw away" cards on something that seems stupid. Given this strategy, Ninpo Flash will never see use, and your Ace is only gonna be used in pairs as an Ender, so if they're endangering Speed of the Fox, throw em in as Pumpers for your King, or use them in the Power Up Phase. Condense your Aces down to 1 if they're all that's stopping you from getting Speed of the Fox next turn.

Make use of Bag of Tricks to ensure you've got a Throw in your hand at all times, and if the opportunity presents itself, to pull a King out of the Discard Pile. Your King's Linker is a great way to get rid of Ninpo Flash or other cards cluttering your hand, obstructing your path to Speed of the Fox. It's possible to get a really strong rhythm down if you bring Bag of Tricks, a King, and a 1-combo point Attack back every turn. Jack is a good bet, and a great substitute if you haven't gotten any Kings yet.

If your hand runs out of Throws, an Attack that deals chip is worthwhile (and can get rid of that Ace cluttering your hand). Gloria seems to block slightly more than she dodges, so it's a fairly safe bet. And if you get hit by her dodge, that reduces her hand size (and lets you bluff to reduce yours).

If Gloria throws out a late Joker, don't panic. Just shift over to blocking more frequently. She is likely to use her Ace in 2 turns. She probably won't Overdose since she's low on HP. If you run out of Dodges, Ninpo Flash or your Ace are great ways to get in on her face cards. They outspeed most of her cards in general. Yomibot Gloria will basically never throw, but if she does, it tends to be about 7.6 speed, so bear that in mind as Setsuki. She will occasionally drop that one on the last turn. If you knock her down, there's also a chance she'll attack on that turn. I recommend throwing out a fast (2.2 or faster) attack if Gloria is knocked down, as she can't punish you with a dodge, but she may be able to with a throw. Or, if your hand is going to be full for a while, maybe do a throw, anyway, and see if you can drop some clutter on a bluff.

Using this strategy, you should be able to unlock Gloria in a few short hours. My matches took about 7 minutes on average. I would recommend restarting if you get Jokered on the first two turns, for speed's sake. If she throws out a face card or two, don't get spooked. Just stay the course, she probably doesn't have a whole lot of them. If you stick to this strategy, you should be able to get her anywhere between 50-0% health before you need to start playing normally, depending on her draws.

EX Gloria doesn't change the strategy much at all, although you have more of a time limit because as soon as she gets Heart face cards she'll have them every turn.
Midori
Midori employs a similar strategy to Gloria, in that he is particularly weak to throws. However, Yomibot Midori's play does differ from Yomibot Gloria's in some key ways. The character I recommend most is Rook. Rook's consistent knockdown will come into play against Midori's particular strategies in a few ways.

Midori generally opens with an attack or throw. It is a pretty good play to use one of Rook's Ability blocks to give out some damage on this turn, but a particularly fast attack (usually below 5 speed) is a good choice, too.

Essentially, as Rook, your best bet is to alternate between causing knockdown with Throws and throwing out attack combos to build up AA (or if you're feeling gutsy, AAAA, but I recommend the slow and steady approach for consistency).

When Midori activates Dragon Form, look at his hand size. With a hand of 6 or lower, and sometimes as high as 8, Midori is extremely likely to block or dodge. I also find he tends to block on the first turn of his Dragon form. With a higher hand size, you honestly have very few options, but a Q or AA might buy you a little time. Rook has so much health that you can afford to eat a few face cards in dragon form before getting back on the knockdown train. This is also a great time to throw out Rook's Entangling Vines and Stone Walls.

Midori is less consistent than Gloria with this method, but overall you should win 9 out of 10 combats following this flowchart strategy.
Menelker
Menelker can be defeated by playing Jaina. Menelker's deck is mostly attacks, but he's slow. Your basic strategy should be to discard as many Smoldering Embers as possible to punish dodging. From there, find a card that deals more than 3 chip (the higher, the better. Personally, I like her J). Use Burning Vigor to buy it back. Menelker can do very little in this situation, where with even 2 smoldering embers the buyback on the J is worth it in the long run.