Sunday, April 19, 2026

Saki 298: Control

I was thinking Saki will soon reach 300 chapters but actually "Round/Hand 1" was the 4th chapter (the first 3 chapters were counted differently), so this is already the 301st chapter of Saki. Also, Saki's chapter 1 was published in February 2006 but serialization only started in June 2006. If Round 300 is published next June, it will coincide with the 20th anniversary of serialization.

 

11 comments:

  1. How many powers does she have yet!? Well, this one is pretty interesting; affecting specific parts of the wall allows for some counterplay.
    Would that be another power negated by the "make the wall into a circle" strategy?^^
    Thanks for the translation.

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    1. I completely misinterpreted what Awai meant by "the middle of the wall" and assumed she controlled all the draws near the halfway point. I assume the circle strategy would work since she needs to know where the halfway point of each wall is, otherwise there's no reason for her double riichi to get blocked by it.

      If only turning the wall into a circle was allowed, it would be hilarious to see that come back but in an official match.

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    2. The obscured sections of the wall are where the black fog touches the wall tiles. If the wall was a circle of the same radius as the fog, then all tiles would be obscured, I guess.

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  2. So far looks like this hand is just Riichi, Tsumo, Nan, so a mangan after all the fu points?

    Shizu specifically said she couldn't see the parts of the wall with the rinshan tiles, so either she lumps in the dora tiles with them and Awai regained control over the kan ura again for a haneman, or Shizu can at least control the kan dora + the last minute call prevented Awai from upgrading to a baiman.

    Also interesting how Shizu's sight is blocked, but Saki's isn't. So I guess Shizu can only see the tiles she controls, while Saki's power to see the kan + rinshan tiles disregards powers that control the wall without obscuring it.

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    1. Sight should be the same for both Saki and Shizu. The tile Saki can see is not in one of the obscured areas. It's not totally clear if Saki can see the rinshan tiles or not but she shouldn't.

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    2. we haven't checked the ura dora yet though

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    3. From Kana's comment it should be 70 fu 2 han +3 bonus while dama. So there should be 1 kan dora. But yes so far a mangan with potential for more.

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  3. Thanks for the chapter.
    I hope Nelly will do something.
    It would be dissappointing, if she isn't doing anything for the rest of the game.

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  4. Thank you so much for the translation!

    I've been scratching my head obout the mechanics of Awai's 9th ability. If there is a "middle" section of the wall, and if we were to divide a wall equally among 3 parts (side, middle, side), then each section should be ~11-12 tiles. I double checked the pages and it looks like this tracks. Awai specifically notes turn 5/6 and Shizu notes part of the rinshan tiles (the first 2 rinshan draws?), which all coincide with the start of the middle wall.

    Awai also says that she'll start drawing useful tiles from the middle. I initially thought that would mean she would draw useless tiles from the side sections, but that isn't really right. In the early turns, she was still able to draw that South wind kan tile (...note that she drew this at the start of the second wall, so this isn't part of her wall-corner kan ability...), and she drew other tiles that advanced her hand. It was only until she was tenpai was when she stopped drawing useful tiles from the side portions of the wall.

    Also, for match theatrics, I wish Ritz had instead have Shizu discard a tile that Saki could call an open kan with to remove Awai's ippatsu. It would have been a much more dramatic way to have Saki decide if she should take the kan and abandon her Suuanko, and also abandon her rinshan win because of the liability rule Shizu would have to pay, which would bankrupt her.

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    1. Bankrupt Shizuno? I don't think Saki would do that. Instead, she might help Shizuno gain points to stop Awai's fifth win streak.

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