Worstgen

LeZoro James

Kuro Ashi

I support King. I don't know how it would work as a counter against Marco for sure, but i think he will be on Marco's level anyway by the end of Wano. Sabo i think is a legit top tier now, so i would still give it to him, but if you don't scale him from Dressrosa, with the match-up advantage Zoro could take it.

Cinera

@Kuro Ashi: Marco regenerates through his flames.
Zoro cutting flames destroys them (they literally vanish). If Zoro cuts Marco's flames, they'll disappear. This should greatly hinder Marco's regeneration.

Cinera

If Marco's regeneration is neutered against Zoro, he'll go down quickly as his regeneration is a major component of his combat ability arsenal.

Cinera

It also means that Marco can't block Zoro's attack (the way he blocked Borsalino's).

Kuro Ashi

@Cinera i don't know yet how much it matters that the flame get's removed on the part that Zoro attacks, but then immediately Marco can put it back up. It varies too wildly on how much of a difference it makes for me to make any claim.

Cinera

The area of effect of flame removal is pretty large. See when Zoro cut Boro Breath in this chapter, the fire was removed from a pretty large area.

Cinera

@Kuro Ashi.

Kuro Ashi

I'd say that a reasonable speculation would be that it forces Marco to use more of his fire, and so it could exhaust it faster if he has a limit on how much fire he can create before it tires him out.
On that note, Zoro would also be attacking Marco with a technique that's designed to cut fire, not to damage powerful opponents, so he is making significant sacrifices on the offensive front as well to focus on that.

Cinera

@Kuro Ashi: Kinemon's Homurasaki injured Kaido. If it could injure Kaido, it probably harms Marco a lot, especially if Zoro imbues it with hardening.

Cinera

It wouldn't be as powerful as Hiryuu Kaen, but such techniques are meant to be finishers. They're not attacks an opponent is supposed to simply stand up from (hence Kaido needing to dodge).

Kuro Ashi

@Cinera Well Kinemon's attack cut the inside of Kaido's mouth, so doing damage is not surprising. Also the attacks Zoro used so far only cut the fire breath, and did not extend further and damage Kaido the way Kinemon did.

Cinera

It probably doesn't serve Zoro's interests to waste his haki on such powerful slashes. Restricting himself to Kinemon's Fix Fire style would deal damage that Marco cannot easily regenerate.

Cinera

I think Zoro bit hurting Kaido with his Homurasaki is because he was not trying to? Kinemon was aiming to attack Kaido and cut his Boro Breath. His Homurasaki was the counter.

Cinera

Zoro on the other hand wanted to counter with the much more powerful Hiryuu Kaen.

Cinera

Or at the least, if Kinemon can do significant damage with Homurasaki, Zoro should be able to as well.

Bogard

He isn't beating dragon Kaido. He beats King and probably Sabo too due to match up. Loses to Marco and Dragon Kaido with current feats.

Cinera

@Bogard I'd like to hear your take on how Dragon!Kaido wins in the thread:
https://worstgen.alwaysdata.net/forum/threads/.10625

Bogard

No need, I just believe you're too focused on attack power. Kaido was getting gangbanged by 5SNs this chapter, and could still dodge Zoro's strongest Enma swing coming from an advantageous position thanks to Law's shambles, and without aerial mobility, he is an easy target to Kaido in the air, who'd crush him with his focused wind attacks/lightning+raw zoan devil fruit power

Cinera

@Bogard: Zoro easily deflected said wind attacks (which the Scabbards could not react to), and the Scabbards could readily react to the lightning, so I don't see it tagging Zoro.