Merlina vs. Magolor. Two wizards who plead for aid from benevolent heroes, sending them off on quests against forces of great danger. And when the heroes prevail against the King of the Underworld, Arthur, or the Guardian Angel, Landia, what do these two do? Stab Sonic and Kirby right in the back. Claiming the Scabbard of Excalibur or the Master Crown as their own, the world became theirs to claim, until the heroes took them down. And from there, both came to be better, Merlina accepting her life in the world of Camelot and Magolor becoming a true hero of Dream Land. And also, a really great theme park builder. How many has he built now? I think we’re at three by this point. It’s pretty impressive. Anyway, the point is once you look deeper, these two are actually very similar in a lot of ways with their stories. I’d personally say this might just be the best Sonic vs. Kirby matchup out there, (get out, Amy vs. Dedede. Nobody likes you.) and it could be a lot of fun to discuss. And I was like, “huh, this MU is actually pretty cool! Shame nobody will ever actually give it a proper look in some format.” And then I was like, “oh wait, I have a blog now. I can do whatever matchup I want, whenever I want!” So now, here we are. At first I wasn’t sure how much there would be to go over for the debate. But upon thinking things over, there’s enough data and information to tackle to make this an appropriately sized blog. Especially since some of my future Death Battle predictions probably won’t even top 500 words if they’re big stomps or I don’t like either series. But enough prelude, let’s get into the actual debate and discussion in who should win a battle between these two treacherous wizards gone not so treacherous wizards. (Magolor is still a pretty massive prankster, though.) Let’s get the obvious out of the way. Merlina in base form is so absurdly beyond up a creek against Magolor in any form it isn’t even funny. Base form Magolor destroys Merlina in pretty much every way. While she has a few decent powers like energy projection and flight, Magolor has all these same powers as well, and a lot more experience using them. There are two moves in her arsenal that some might see as winners, but we’ll tackle those later. The point is, all of base Merlina’s powers are outclassed by base Magolor’s own deck of cards. She has next to no combat experience in using them for battle, while Magolor has gone through the entire Star Allies campaign with his base form alone. That gives him much more knowledge in fighting and using these powers to do battle. While we haven’t gotten into the big guns of the fight yet, that is one point that can safely go ahead and be given to Magolor now. He dominates the field of battle experience, by leaps and bounds. I find the data some use to say Dream Friends are “copies” of the originals and thus do not count for scaling and experience to be poor. Pause screen descriptions, the fact that Meta Knight and King Dedede cannot be summoned until after they are cured of their corruption, and Guest Star mode all very clearly show that the Dream Friends are the real deal. As such, the entire adventure should be fair game to give to Magolor for experience, and his arsenal in Star Allies is also fine to use. Merlina only really fought once, when she did battle against Excalibur Sonic and lost. Magolor has battled Kirby in a much longer and drawn out engagement (which was also against four opponents instead of just one like Merlina had to deal with) and also has a full game campaign on his side for combat now. And on top of that, Magolor and Kirby also (playfully) tussled a smidge in the Dream Collection races and Magolor’s also getting a whole new campaign in the Return to Dreamland remake. The experience edge is just dominantly in Magolor’s camp here. With an opponent who is vastly superior to Merlina’s base form, the real discussion here is about the Dark Queen, the form enhanced by Excalibur’s Scabbard. This is where things actually get more interesting. The Dark Queen gets an absolutely huge buff in multiple categories, including much more power and a lot more abilities to bring to the table. Her energy projection becomes much more dangerous, enough to pose a threat to Excalibur Sonic, and she gains options for close range combat with her massive swords, though she still prefers to play the long game. Magolor on the other hand has the Master Crown. Regardless of whether you give him the crown or not, his power set doesn’t change all that much. His powers are largely the same, though the Master Crown does give him a few minor extras like turning the screen upside down, dark matter based attacks, and some copies of most of the Super Abilities. The Ultra Sword remains accessible to base form Magolor, though. Other powers, like Magolor’s energy projection, black holes, summons, lasers, teleportation, bombs, shields, and more are accessible by all forms. As such, currently before delving into stats, we can go ahead and compare arsenals right now, since Magolor’s doesn’t change all that much with only a few exceptions. To her proper credit, Merlina picks up a very, VERY good projectile game as the Dark Queen. She’s able to spread them out very well and efficiently, making maneuvering about the battlefield a bit tricky. However, right off the bat Magolor has the tools needed to put holes in her attacks and get through her barrages. And when I say “holes,” I mean that literally. The fact that Magolor can open black holes and dimensional rifts in any form however he feels like it creates a significant roadblock to Merlina’s usual gameplan of attack. In her duel with Sonic, she heavily relied on those projectiles, along with her long range sword strikes, to keep Sonic from getting in close. Here, she’s stuck dealing with an opponent who can literally just whisk almost everything she attacks with into nothingness. And this is assuming she lucks out and isn’t caught herself, because that would deal some significant damage. Simply put, combined with his own numerous ranged attacks, teleportation, dimensional travel, and black holes, Magolor has the perfect set of options to entirely bypass Merlina’s attack options. Her projectiles are completely negated, and Magolor has both the Ultra Sword and teleportation to deal with any sword swings Merlina might throw out. What about summons? This is actually a very interesting factor, as it is a power both have access to. Magolor can summon or generate a bunch of fodder foes to the field however he pleases, create massive gears to crush his foes, or summon the Lor Starcutter. Merlina on the other hand, if she manages to pull off a spell, can summon Sonic the Hedgehog. These might all sound fancy, but ultimately there are numerous caveats that make it where I feel only one of these summons is actually going to be a factor in the fight. Right out the gate, Magolor’s fodder foes aren’t doing much. Besides maybe the Gordo, Merlina won’t have issue dispatching them, and while the Gordo could possibly survive, it won’t be able to deal real damage. The gears at best are just another attack to add to Magolor’s piles, but not a real game changer. However, Merlina’s summon isn’t off any better. Yeah, summoning Sonic would be pretty useful, I will admit. But those of you who were paying attention likely already caught onto where this is going. I said, “if.” Unlike Magolor, Merlina doesn’t get to just snap her fingers and open up a portal to Green Hills however she pleases. She has to fire up her scepter, recite a pretty lengthy incantation, and then hope the beam makes it into the sky unchecked. For those wondering, the incantation and activation takes about 11 to 12 seconds, with the beam taking a few more for a rough estimate of about 15 seconds for the whole spell. Oh, and she’s completely defenseless while she does this and at her opponent’s mercy. She also glows blue while it happens and has to audibly go through the incantation, so anybody with half a brain is going to know she’s up to something. Like say, another wizard who has done battle against absurdly powerful cosmic beings multiple times and is really good at advanced architecture and magic. Yeah, Magolor’s going to know something’s going on. There’s absolutely no way whatsoever Magolor’s going to just sit there and let Merlina summon Sonic onto the battlefield. As such, while summoning someone like Sonic is incredibly useful in concept, the execution is just too long and makes Merlina way too vulnerable to really impact the verdict. As such, like I said before, only one summon is likely to reach the battlefield and actually be useful. The Lor Starcutter. First off, there’s nothing stopping Magolor from bringing his ship into the battle. He can open dimensional rifts all the time, and the Lor instantly emerges. He can even just generate it from thin air in Star Allies. As such, it evades the trap summoning Sonic fell into. But is it powerful enough to be of any note here?
Yes. The Lor is armed with a decent arsenal, including a very wide spread projectile game of multiple styles, weather manipulation with the sail, and very powerful shields. It also has a mind of its own canonically, so there is no need for Magolor to worry about piloting it. This essentially turns the struggle into a 2 v. 1, and both of Merlina’s opponents are very much in sync with one another and legitimate threats in their own right. As such, Magolor generally takes control over arsenal and hax, as he is gifted with options to negate Merlina’s range game entirely and control the flow of battle however he wants. And with the Lor Starcutter also in the mix, Merlina cannot focus on any single target or else she risks instantly being blasted by the other. Her own summon is never going to get activated, and her other potential threat, possibly aging Magolor up, is also not really reliable. For one thing, I think it’s a huge stretch to say Merlina wilting a flower automatically means she can pull an ol’ Reverse Flash on everyone she touches. But disregarding that, given Magolor’s teleportation, the fact that she really won’t have time to do the process without the Lor shooting her from behind, and the fact that she’s really ill-equipped for close range combat makes it where even if one was generous she’s rarely going to pull it off. As such, it’s not much of a factor and doesn’t endanger Magolor’s lock on arsenal at all. As such, that primarily leaves us with the last major factor, stats. Both the Sonic and Kirby franchises can be a bit tricky to tackle this subject with, but ultimately I think at least for these two characters, one can probably find a clear cut winner in this category as well. You probably will not be surprised to know that once again, Magolor holds the edge. Allow me to explain why. Right out the gate, Merlina did not fight Super Sonic. No Chaos Emeralds were involved whatsoever, and as such I do not feel she should be given any sort of scaling to levels like Solaris or anything else in that power tier. She bullied Base Sonic pretty effectively, but we can’t really place a solid idea on where exactly Excalibur Sonic places in power. However, we do know that Merlina was going to be able to sustain the world of Camelot with immortality. Going with that, let’s just go ahead and say Merlina, as the Dark Queen, is universal. I wouldn’t put her any higher than universal though, for a few reasons.
Magolor definitely hits universal as well. Kirby by this point had already taken Drawcia’s destruction taking out the World of Drawcia to the face, and the destruction of the Master Crown also brought about either intense damage or destroyed Another Dimension. Either way you look at it, this easily gets Magolor into the same range of power as Merlina, and this is if we’re holding back on higher ends. Given the size and scope of Another Dimension, one could likely argue this feat is much more powerful. And given Magolor survived this himself and later went on to battle against Void, it’s actually very consistent. As such, even a lower end for Magolor completely matches Merlina. And given Magolor has continued to be active throughout the Kirby series since his debut and battled the likes of Hyness and Void Termina, his scaling chain is far more reliable and stronger. As such, Magolor should take the advantage in power and defense. This also means that Magolor’s shields will be able to hold better against Merlina’s attacks than vice-versa, giving him a valuable tool for defensive battle as well. What about speed? The same logic applies for Merlina’s speed. Scaling to Super Sonic is questionable, and due to her lack of later appearances, she likely does not scale to events after the Adventure Era. In short, no Dodon Pa rocket feat and no NEGA Mother Wisp. With this situation in place, it’s obviously up for debate where exactly Merlina would legitimately scale to in speed. For the sake of being very generous to her, we can go ahead and scale her to Super Sonic flying to the Exception. This would just barely get her into the quadrillion range of faster than light. Magolor is once again easy to chart out for speed. With a basic look at the reaction to the Jamba Heart from Dedede in Star Allies, a higher end (like was given to Merlina) would put Magolor also in the quadrillions, roughly 2 times faster than Merlina. As such, Magolor also claims the speed advantage. Overall, the fight is decently clear cut. Anywhere you look for Merlina, Magolor has a valid counter option ready to go. Magolor is far more experienced, arguably smarter and more skilled, has a vastly better arsenal that largely negates Merlina’s options, the Lor Starcutter is going to be keeping Merlina from being able to handle one opponent at a time and gives Magolor even more attack and defense options, and the little blue wizard takes stats. And this is also still making some generous cases for Merlina with speed, as there is nothing to indicate Excalibur Sonic should be compared to Super Sonic’s feats throughout the series. As such, everything Merlina can do, Magolor can just do better. There are certainly factors that can create discussion on who would win. Merlina’s range and powers are certainly not to be underestimated, and she could potentially be close to Magolor in stats depending on how generously you scale her. But overall, Magolor’s arguments for winning in stats are far easier to make and require less stretches, and his move kit effectively shuts down Merlina’s arsenal while creating new problems for her to have to deal with. As such, Magolor’s superior stats, arsenal, and experience ultimately give him this battle without too much issue. The winner is Magolor, the Interdimensional Wayfarer.
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