All Clear Early: The Ace

       

Ah, the fast all-clear. I call it the Ace: All Clear Early.

By completely clearing the board on the 10th piece, we do 10 or 11 lines of damage to our opponent. Like an ace in tennis, the massive damage sometimes catches him off guard and wins outright.

The move where we clear the board itself always does 10 lines of damage, regardless of whether it's a Tetris, a single, a combo, or anything else. Many setups do a two line clear on the 9th move, however, for an additional line of damage. Let's look at how the basic setup works.

1. The Basic Ace



This is the right-hand variant, which I so deem because the formation on the right looks like the fingers of a hand. On the left, we have a 4x4 square using our L, J, O, and I. Note that this can be placed in many different ways:

            

This allows one to set up the the left side with almost any piece order. For example, given O first, we can use the second variant. Given I then O, we can use the third. For the other side, one can set up the left hand if S comes first, right hand if Z comes first. If you placed the 4x4 on the left but still want to do the left-handed ace, it's not hard:



From here, we can fill in the center in various ways. Some piece sets require specific piece orders, and some can be done in multiple--or any--order. You may need to master T, S, Z, L, and J spins for certain orderings.

  I,O,J. Constraint: O < J

  I,S,J. Constraint: S < J

  I,T,J. No constraints. Not the only possible ITJ:   

  I,T,L. No constraints. Not the only possible ITL: 

  I,T,O. Constraint: T < O

  I,T,S. Constraint: I|T < S. Requires S-spin.

  I,Z,L. Constraint: Z < L.

  S,Z,J. Constraint: Z < J|S. May require S-spin. Edit Apr 2018: Not the only SZJ:
 Constraint: J < Z < S. Requires double Z-spin and S-spin. Learned it from Mahoroa (マホロア).

  T,J,L. Constraint: T < J|L.

  T,S,Z. constraint: T < S|Z. Can all-clear again in 5 pieces given third-deck O:   (occurs 2/7th of the time, i.e. O in the first 2 out of 7 pieces of the third deck.)

  T,J,S. constraint: T < J|S. May require S-spin. Not the only TJS:  Alternate constraint: J < S < T.

It works with a good number of piece sets, but not all of them. Just like an Ace in tennis, it doesn't always work. But we get the all-clear a good majority of the time. What if we want something more consistent?

2. The Flexible Ace: Planning Ahead

In 1v1 Versus mode, we get to see the next 5 pieces. We also get the benefit of a piece in hand from the hold mechanic. So, by the time we've placed the fifth piece and are holding one in hand, we should know the first 4 pieces of the next deck, and know with certainty whether we can all-clear or not. How can we use that information?



This is the flexible Ace setup. We place JOL or LOJ as a 3x4 stack, and place the I on the other side of the screen. We can generally do this setup when T, S, or Z are among the last pieces of the deck.

At this point we've placed 5 pieces, and could, if we were smart enough and fast enough, look at the four pieces of the next deck and determine with certainty whether we could Ace. If, like me, you aren't that fast, or, like me, you want to have an idea a couple pieces earlier, here's a couple rules of thumb you can use:

1. If I,T then almost certainly. There are setups for I,T with every remaining piece except for Z.
2. If T,J then very likely. There are setups for T,J with every remaining piece except for Z and O.
3. If S,J then likely. There are setups for S,J with every remaining piece except L and O, but many are order-constrained.

Note that if we're in the left-hand setup, the rule 2 becomes T,L and rule 3 becomes Z,L.

If you've concluded you can Ace them, just fill in the T and S and you're good to go:



Suppose you can't Ace? Well, here's the flexibility. You can do this instead:



This is the setup for a Long Combo, where we build up both sides, then do a 10+ combo for massive damage. I'll discuss the Long Combo in the next post.

3. Followups

Many times, my opening multi-spin setup has gotten Aced, but I survive, my opponent gets flustered, fails to follow up with an attack, and dies.

Once you've done the Ace, you'll have a completely clear board. DO NOT blindly do your favorite opening setup from here. Tetris is a deck-based random game, but you have used up 3 out of 7 pieces of your deck already. If you try to do a setup which requires all 7 pieces, such as the OJ, you are unlikely to get all the pieces you need.

If you did your Ace without the I piece, you may be able to set up an Izzy-like T-spin:

After Acing with TJL. Right side of Izzy setup, hoping for L,T on next deck.

If you used the I, but have to play out some rougher pieces, you might be able to set up at least one side of a T-spin and hope the next deck gives you an easy improvisation:

After acing with ITJ. Partial T-spin setup, hoping for L + ? to complete T spin hole.

Otherwise, if no obvious T-spin occurs to you, it may be worthwhile to just build a Tetris, then go into your normal midgame play.