Nemesis vs Magician (Resident Evil vs House of the Dead)
“We make our own monsters, then fear them for what they show us about ourselves.”
The T-Type Nemesis, the bio-organic tyrant that terrorized Raccoon City from Resident Evil.
The Type-0: Magician, the synthetic threat to humanity from House of the Dead.
When an outbreak of horrifically mutated lifeforms makes its way to your side of the neighborhood, you might think you’ve seen the worst of it. That is, until you come across these absolute units of monsters. Being the peak of their undead kind, even if humanity sends their best operatives, they’ll stop at nothing until it’s wiped out for good.
But if all else fails, what would happen if these two were to face each other to see which biological behemoth is superior? Well, get ready to insert all the quarters you got, because it’s about to get deadly and evil in this DEATH BATTLE!
Before We Start…
For Nemesis, we’ll be looking at all mainline Resident Evil games for scaling, taking into account both the originals and remakes. We will also be including the many animated movies from the series, as they are canon and feature main characters such as Jill and Chris, as well as material from the tie-in manga, as while it is often questioned as to whether or not it’s canon, it ultimately doesn’t deviate too far from the games, so we feel it’s fair game. Additionally, in terms of his abilities and equipment, we’ll be giving Nemesis some leniency and allow whatever we feel is reasonable to give him, meaning while we will be allowing stuff from the PTA movies and Dead by Daylight, don’t go expecting us to give him the Infinity Stones.
For Magician we'll be going over all of The House of the Dead Lore timeline. However some games do not go in order of when they take place. So the chronological timeline is:
House of the Dead Overkill > House of the Dead 1(Nightmare/Remake)> House of the Dead 2 & Zombies Revenge > House of the Dead 4 & Special > House of the Dead: Scarlett Dawn > House of the Dead 3.
House of the Dead EX, also known as Loving of the Dead, is a spin-off title. Along with Zombies Revenge still having canon ties to the story taking place during House of the Dead 2 and 4(Via the time era and characters shown in it). However Zombies Revenge is mostly considered non-canon material. House of the Dead Remake and Nightmare are both the same story as the first game with minor differences. We will be using abilities and feats from these retellings, which also includes the manga, movies, and their tie-in comic. The only media we will not be considering are HOTD EX and Zombies Revenge or any crossovers, so no Gacha Pulling, Drag racing, or rights to the OST
Additionally, as this blog was heavily overseen by a certain lobster-dog, the formatting might be a bit different on the Magician's side as opposed to Nemesis, which was largely written by the rest of us. At the end of the day, I felt like letting them handle most of the fanboying descriptions, so if the two writing styles seem to be different for you, that will be why. Regardless, we hope the points will be made clear and that you enjoy the blog either way.
Background
Nemesis
The Tyrant Virus, a deadly disease that threatened the extinction of humanity. Initially developed by Umbrella Pharmaceuticals in an attempt to eliminate the need for a conventional army, a major flaw was found within its development: those infected suffered from massively reduced levels of intelligence. To create truly effective and military-grade B.O.Ws, they needed to develop them with human-like intelligence. Thus, the Tyrant Project began, creating some of the most advanced and dangerous biological weapons in the form of the Tyrants. However, after Umbrella had learned that RPD’s S.T.A.R.S unit were the ones responsible for the destruction of not only the prototypes but the newly finished T-002 model, they began development on a new model, one far superior to the originals and specifically designed to hunt down S.T.A.R.S agents. This was the T-103, or more commonly known as the Nemesis.
Hearing of a T-Virus outbreak in Raccoon City, Umbrella sent the Nemesis to take advantage of the crisis and eliminate the remaining members of STARS, namely Brad Vickers and Jill Valentine. The Nemesis laid waste to the city and anyone in its way in his pursuit of Jill; however, she wasn’t going down without a fight. Overtime, Nemesis would take more and more damage over the night, eventually leading to further mutations, ultimately losing that high intelligence it was made to have, now reduced to a feral monster. Now a giant mass of flesh and acid, the Nemesis would ultimately be defeated by Jill with the use of a powerful railgun, putting down one of Umbrella’s most powerful creations once and for all.
Magician
“Who are you? Nobody gives me instructions. I will destroy everything , and resurrect everything.”
1998
(HOUSE OF THE DEAD)
(HOUSE OF THE DEAD: NIGHTMARE)
(HOUSE OF THE DEAD REMAKE)
The great scientist and doctor, Rudolph Curien. Sought out to create the perfect cure for his son’s disease. Where he proceeded to delve into every scientist's downfall… bio-engineering. And began to manifest a new form of life by reusing the dead. Revitalizing it in ways never imaginable. But none of his creations could stack up to his original masterpiece who broke free from The House of the Dead. The Magician. The Type-0 entropy is the first final boss of the story of the first game that takes place in 1998, December 24th. Where AMS Agents Thomas Rogan and Agent G are sent as back up for Thomas’ partner Sophie. Both Thomas and G had to face the genetic engineering scientist, Dr Curien. In a chase through the full Curien estate filled to the brim with fleeing scientists or the abominations made by them. Such as Chariot, a 7 foot tall Halberd Axe wielding behemoth.
Eventually after many reloads, and change used. Thomas and G finally corner Dr Curien. Who reveals his true masterpiece… The Magician. Who promptly and swiftly killed his creator in cold blood and forever started a turmoil of pain and hatred between The Magician and A.M.S., which Agents Thomas and G were able to put a stop to the tyrant before he escaped to the world…
2000
(HOUSE OF THE DEAD 2)
A few years later in the year 2000, Venice Italy was being overrun by the undead at the hands of everyone's favorite tycoon tyrant, Goldman, behind the Goldman Industry name. He was in fact connected with Curien and helped fund his work. Then stealing Curiens old work from the mansion and making it his very own in an act to complete ‘THE LIFE CYCLE’.
And with a mutual agreement… The Magician ‘willingly’ acted as the bodyguard of Goldman's Quarters in return for being brought back from exploding into smithereens. Both agents on the case, James Taylor and Gary were able to put out the monster once more… and for good
2002
(HOUSE OF THE DEAD 4/4:Special)
The Magician shows no face during the first act of this story, aka Goldmans revival with Pandora's Box controlling a new horde of the undead. It’s only until a second episode to the game(HOTD4 SPECIAL) that we find the true mastermind behind Venice’s attack(Goldman did in fact unleash the horde but didn’t control them), it was The Magician hiding in an underground bunker laboratory lurking until A.M.S. agents Kate Green and G showed up to put an end to his tyrannical power, but Magician was certain he would show them the pain he suffered.
Where the two agents, before Magician is able to take full control over Pandora's Box, defeated him once and for all. Putting him in his grave and ending this saga of House of the Dead.
In the Bad Ending however… Magician is victorious and attains the full potential of Pandora's Box!! Opening its sheer power and gaining the eternal life and power he yearned for, with more clones of him to accompany the new rule reign…
Experience & Skill
Nemesis
The Nemesis was created as a way to make a more intelligent monster in comparison to the average mindless undead, being shown capable of wielding military-grade weaponry with a fair amount of skill and finesse. Still, it's quite a simple-minded creature solely focused on hunting down and killing S.T.A.R.S agents at all costs, though it can often resort to tactics in order to achieve its goals. Experience-wise, however, the Nemesis only has so much, as it was essentially made and dropped into the field of battle soon after, meaning in game canon, its only real opponents have been against trained agents.
Additionally, in the RE3 manhua, Nemesis’ past life involved being a professional boxer; skills that he managed to retain even after his transformation, as seen in his fight with William Birkin.
Magician
(Illustration by Lisa Lee)
The Magician is the most recurring boss in his franchise which goes a long way with how far apart each of these events take place. Magician’s been alive for 5 years before the events of the first House of the Dead, and has been back from the brink of death multiple times through most installments. And has fought multiple skilled A.M.S. Agents, and some highly experienced veterans such as G and James Taylor. Who has gone through all of House of the Dead Overkill, 1, 2, and 4 Special. With a total sum of around 12 years experience against this specific undead(Overkill takes place in the late 80’s, yet is unspecified).
His Skill is more toned to his range proficiency where he’s shown precise aiming at his projectiles. However he has shown in each resurgence.. Or I should say revival. He seems to gain better and more developed of his abilities and advances with them. Even being able to skillfully ‘copy’ Star’s photon based energy as a barrier.
Equipment
Nemesis
Rocket Launcher
Nemesis’ main choice of weapon is a custom RPG. This launcher can hold up to 6 rounds at once, and in the remake, includes a laser sight for extra precision (despite the lack of eyes), and can even be used as a melee weapon. This weapon was powerful enough to bring down a helicopter in one shot.
Flamethrower
A simple weapon Nemesis can use that shoots flames at its foes. It even has the inexplicable ability to even create a rain of fireballs from the sky if Nemesis shoots it in the air. While this weapon is extremely powerful, its biggest flaw is the tank, which can be shot at and blown up.
Minigun
Strapped onto its arm is a modified M134 model minigun, a 7.62mm six-barreled machine gun with a firing rate of 2000 to 6000 shots per minute.
Limiter Coat
The black trench coat that Nemesis wears isn’t just for show, as it serves two important purposes: to give Nemesis extra protection by being bulletproof and durable against explosions, and to act as a power limiter to keep his mutations under control. Further damage to the coat will cause Nemesis to mutate even further into something uncontrollable.
Magician
Bullet Proof Armour
Magician, despite being ‘bullet level’, was created with metallic scales as a layer of ‘skin’. Which upon shooting does not damage him. And House of the Dead gun’s are very bizarre. With the bullets even pinging off of the bullet proof armor with the queued sound effect. The material used for the armor is never specified, but for it to be able to survive bullet shots without being damaged would mean it’s at the very least made up of kevlar. But that itself isn’t the case with how absurdly powerful the AMS Armoury is.
Pandora’s Box
Goldman’s ‘Nobel Peace Prize’. This box is what ties everything together in this house. One of, if not the, most deadly ‘weapon’ in Magician’s arsenal. With the ability to grant the user nigh-infinite energy, due to its terms of evolution. From what we know, upon death it’s true ability activates where the death of the user will revive them, making their new body stronger, faster, and tougher to take down. Seen as The World in his second form had a larger health pool, his attack speeds were increased, and his scale of his attacks were vastly more powerful. It was entailed to believe that after a while that the box’s properties would grant the host a resistant force against what previously killed it. However this is never delved on… Magician decided to use the mass energy into awakening his copies to his side to aid him, and successfully eradicating all life on Earth
Abilities
Nemesis
Tentacles
(Insert obvious hentai joke here)
Nemesis can sprout tentacles from his body, being able to manipulate them with extreme dexterity and precision, allowing him to grapple onto objects as well as attack his targets in a multitude of ways, from lashing, piercing, stabbing and grabbing from long distances. Additionally, his tentacles are covered with a fluid containing a strain of the T-Virus, which allows him a nifty ability in the form of…
Infection
Having the eponymous virus within him, Nemesis has the ability to infect others with it via impalement with his tentacles. Those affected with this disease become far more aggressive and resilient, turning into mindless tentacle-headed zombies that attack anything they can get their hands on.
Scanning
In the PTA films, the Nemesis has an additional ability in the form of information analysis, being able to scan nearby lifeforms and assign them a threat level based on their capabilities and ammunition count at that moment. It also allows Nemesis to know its own ammunition count and current health status at all times.
Dead By Daylight Abilities
Being a killer in Dead By Daylight, Nemesis has access to a variety of different abilities and perks.
T-Virus
The Nemesis’ primary Power is the eponymous T-Virus. How this works is that Nemesis has a gauge that can build up overtime by attacking Survivors or Zombies with his special attack Tentacle Strike. As the meter builds, he gains Contamination Points that increase his Mutation Rate, which essentially buffs the Nemesis and his capabilities. Tier I is its initial state, and when it enters Tier II, its Tentacle Strike can destroy Breakable Walls and Pallets. In its final tier, Tier III, the range of its Tentacle Strike is increased, as well as its movement speed while charging one.
Zombies
An additional effect of the T-Virus Power is its ability to spawn in two zombies at the start of a match, which can attack Survivors. However, the Nemesis can attack these zombies in order to receive Containment Points, though it will only be +1 as opposed to a +3 from killing Survivors. The zombies will respawn after 12 seconds if they were killed by Nemesis, and after 45 seconds if they were killed by Survivors/anyone else.
Unique Perks
Lethal Pursuer
A perk that allows Nemesis to see the Auras of all Survivors for 7/8/9 seconds at the start of a round. Additionally, anytime a Survivor’s Aura is revealed to the Nemesis by other means, the timer is extended to two seconds more.
Hysteria
A perk that, whenever Nemesis puts a Healthy Survivor into an Injured state, all currently Injured Survivors suffer from the Oblivious Status Effect for 20/25/30 seconds. This ability has a cooldown of 30 seconds.
Eruption
An ability that allows Nemesis to set up a trap on a Generator. This applies several effects: affected Generators are now highlighted yellow and regresses it by -10 % of its maximum possible Progression, anytime a Survivor enters the Dying state, affected Generators explode and immediately start regressing, which removes the highlighted Aura, and any Survivor that attempts to repair said Generator will scream and reveal their Aura for 8/10/12 seconds.
Magician
Pyrokinesis
Magician’s trademark ability. Being able to form fireballs in the palm of his hand out of thin air. Is it science? Is it magic? All we know is that it’s spammable, and will ransack you of your money. Magician can summon more than just the one fireball at once, with a little spin into it. He can summon a ‘meteor’ shower of the flaming balls. Which can cover a battlefield in seconds. They may seem slow in his boss fight. But Dr Curien made sure that they were thrown with nothing but sheer heat.
Flight
His natural ability to levitate has always been a staple of his JoJo’s like pose. With blistering speeds to cause not just multi colored afterimages. But even mask his movement in the 3rd revival. The ability of flight allowed Magician to rank himself as the fastest character in the franchise.
Energy Manipulation
Magician in his 3rd revival seems to have picked up a latent ability to manipulate energy itself to construct attacks or defenses such as barriers which he envelopes his body in to slam into the player. It is most likely the same energy as his duplicate made by Goldman, The Star, who’s projectiles are never truly given context or an explanation. But they are most likely composed of photons seeing how they are bound to electromagnetism. With Star’s attacks having a magnetic based homing attack pattern.
Sky Lasers
The Magician in House of the Dead Nightmare, is capable of summoning beams from the sky onto Thomas Rogan (Or G, depends who you are playing as). Similar to that of an orbital laser. Sending the laser up from his hands, for it to fall back down as a massive pillar. It isn’t given an exact attribute but we can assume it is a laser with it sharing similar properties to the later installments using Photon energy, and the trajectory of the attack being a straight line. Simple enough we could assume it is the same energy Magician later uses as a barrier. Still giving it laser based attributes.
Undead Manipulation(DBR Virus)
The House of the Dead’s virus is never given a name, but it is more similar to manipulating those who are deceased rather than infecting a living being. Seen in House of the Dead 3 when an A.M.S. Agent is bitten multiple times, but only turns after they die. Same goes for the main cast in every game taking bites, scratches, cuts, and liquids related to the undead not infecting them. For the sake of identification in the blog, we will be calling it the ‘DBR Virus’, named after the foundation Curien, Goldman and Thornheart created and tied in with their own facilities. Magician shows in House of the Dead 4, after the defeat of The World and Goldman, that he can control the undead across the entire vicinity of Venice, Italy. And letting the creatures be his body guards to prevent anyone discovering his hideout. To summarize the virus’ attributes, Magician manipulates the deceased cells of previous living beings and resurrects them under his control out of their will. Making them his pawn, which allowed him to meet his goal to destroy and resurrect everything.
(It was confirmed Kate Green was trapped in Venice due to 98% of all living beings in the city having been turned to undead monsters, Venice is 412 km² in area, meaning Magician’s control of the virus at max can reach as far as such.)
Forms
Nemesis
Second Form (Original)
As mentioned earlier, if the Nemesis’ limiter coat is destroyed, he begins to mutate, becoming much more powerful than before. He gains more tendrils at his disposal, and becomes more ruthless and bloodthirsty than he already was.
Second Form (Remake)
The interpretations of Nemesis’ second form are a bit different between the original and remakes, but for the sake of this match we’ll be taking both into account. In the remakes, Nemesis’ second form is notably more nimble and swift in comparison to his slower, lumbering first form. Still, if he wasn’t a bloodthirsty beast before, this new transformation makes him far more animalistic and feral.
Final Form
After being submerged in extremely corrosive chemicals, the Nemesis mutates further and absorbs the other corpses present in the room, becoming a gigantic, bloated mass of flesh and bones. Still, it retains its tentacles, only being much larger now, and gains the ability to expel acid from its body. It can spit acid in the original, and has blisters that spew acid when destroyed in the remake.
Magician
Pandora’s Box(Absorbed)
This isn’t a traditional form. However, once Magician successfully absorbs Pandora’s Box, he gains an aura that signifies he is now empowered by the box. Seen in HOTD4 Special’s bad ending. Where he is accompanied by 5 Magician clones he summons with the power of the box. Successfully conquering the world, and has power that evolves beyond mother nature.
Feats
Nemesis
Overall
Relentlessly pursued Jill Valentine throughout Raccoon City
Chased down and killed Brad Vickers
Hunted Carlos Oliveira across a hospital
Infected many with the T-Virus during his pursuit
Effortlessly survived and came back from numerous deadly encounters
Became one of the most threatening monsters Umbrella has ever produced
Power
Can easily bust through walls and doors
Casually destroys a large portion of a subway carriage (0.0651 - 0.0868 tons of TNT)
Could be considered comparable to El Gigante, who shattered a large boulder (0.77 tons of TNT)
While clashing with William Birkin, destroyed a Gravedigger and formed a tornado from their blows (1.8972 tons of TNT)
Speed
Can dodge a close-range rocket from Jill
Should be comparable, if not superior to other Tyrants, who have moved in tandem with bullets (Mach 3.88)
Likely comparable to Leon, who was able to move in tandem with lightning (Mach 8.8)
Superior to normal zombies, who can dodge shots from a particle gun (0.33c)
Durability
Survives multiple explosions, including:
Should be more durable than the average zombie, one of which survives a gas explosion (3.03 kg of TNT)
A weaker Tyrant survives a barrage of six rockets at once, only dying because of the fall
Could survive being shot by the railgun in his final form (albeit he was heavily weakened by it) (8.5 tons of TNT)
Magician
Overall
Constantly returns from being gunned down multiple times in 3 appearances
Took control of all of Venice with his virus in only a few days.
Became the fastest creature created by DBR
Returned from death by sheer hatred alone
Broke free from his own creators control and killed him on the spot
Is the most feared creature in A.M.S’ records
Successfully brought the end to the world, in his Bad Ending
Got spared from being in an awful movie
Power
Bursts through a skyscraper window (and likely caused the explosion beforehand)
Should be superior to the average HotD enemy, who can:
Bust down walls and steel doors
Lifts cars
Dismember humans with relative ease (Wanna see them do it again?)
Deals more damage than A.M.S weapons, who’s bullets are strong enough to destroy massive ice sculptures in only a few shots (0.17 tons of TNT)
Should be superior if-not comparable to several HOTD bosses, including:
Justice, who can punch through a massive brick wall
Temperance, who was able to roll over multiple city blocks in Venice and cause them to crater
Hierophant, who destroyed a large section of a bridge (0.62 - 0.68 tons of TNT)
The World, who formed a dragon made of pure ice out of thin air (16 tons of TNT)
Speed
Can dodge gunfire
Moves fast enough to create afterimages
Flew from the top of a skyscraper to the ground in a very short timeframe
Relative to other bosses who can dodge rocket-launcher rockets
Regularly blitzes AMS Agents like Thomas Rogan, who can dodge Magician’s own sky laser (0.23c)
Durability
Survives being shot multiple times consecutively by dozens of weapons, including regular firearms and grenade launchers
Tanks bullets that are capable of destroying an ice block within 1 round of ammunition
- Should be more durable than average undead, who can survive having their head blown off
Should be just as durable than other HotD bosses, including Chariot, who tanks a rocket launcher shot
Weaknesses
Nemesis
(art by littlehoneyuncle)
Sandwiches
Despite his incredible durability and regenerative abilities, the Nemesis is far from unkillable, since he… well, died at the end of RE3. While he may mutate into even more horrific forms, his healing factor can be overtaxed and ultimately keep him from coming back, even if it’s a Herculean task for a mere human. Additionally, while the Nemesis is more intelligent than the average undead, its mutations can regress it into a mindless monster hellbent on destruction, which could leave it more vulnerable. And as stated and implied previously, his weapons not only have limited ammunition, but have weak spots that could potentially harm it more than help.
Magician
Magician is a tough cookie to crack but as those who don’t know much about him. He’s a glass cannon in a sense. Agent’s Rogan, G, James, Gary and Kate were all able to take him down with simple bullets… well it took a load of rounds to get the job done. Also to point out the obvious. HIS LITERAL! WEAK! POINTS! POINTED OUT IN THE GAMES!… His upper left arm, upper right thigh and lower left leg are all exposed without the armored scaling. These are Magician’s exact weak points that could harm him in his boss fight. And the arrogant rogue he is, he doesn’t want to hide them, in fact his only time he did was in HOTD4: Special where he augmented his body until the P.D. scanners couldn’t detect the spots.. despite them being the same. And Pandora’s Box does take some time to absorb before honing its full power, which may leave him open if in a 1 on 1 scenario.
Art
(Art of dubious quality by Ashuto)
Verdict
Stats
Given that these two have fairly limited appearances in their respective games, one might expect the two to not have a whole lot to work with. But as we’ve discovered, by scaling these two biological behemoths to others like them that should be weaker or at least comparable, these two have a lot more going for them than you’d imagine.
For Nemesis, his best showings from the games have been fairly grounded… or at least, as grounded as a giant zombie can be. Busting through steel walls like they’re nothing, hurling stone slabs and shooting down a helicopter with its rocket launcher are impressive enough, but the Nemesis’ true showings of power are nothing to scoff at, such as being able to destroy a full train car or creating a tornado in his clash with William Birkin. These two feats should put Nemesis nice and snugly into the Building tier. As for speed, while he may not look like it, Nemesis can haul ass when he needs to, and as such should be faster than the likes of other Tyrant models, one of which could move in tandem with bullets. But the speed feats get even more impressive as they go, as Leon was able to dodge lightning, and for the cherry on top, regular zombies are fast enough to dodge shots from a particle gun. Even if you’re a bit iffy on him scaling to Leon in speed, Nemesis should naturally scale above the average undead in pretty much every way, placing him in the Relativistic ranges. So how does Curien’s greatest creation stack up?
Similar to his opposition, The Magician was made to be perfect, even if he wasn’t born as such. Still, he has some impressive showings of strength, such as busting down a massive steel wall literally only a few seconds after he was born, as well as bursting through a skyscraper window and likely causing the explosion that accompanied it. Needless to say, Magician is a powerhouse, and given that it can give just as much trouble to our heroes as the other bosses in the House of the Dead world, it’s likely comparable, if-not stronger than them considering it’s the most threatening. This includes the likes of Temperance, who was able to roll over and destroy multiple city blocks, as well as The World (no, not that one), who could create a large dragon construct made of ice. Both of these feats would mean that Magician could potentially scale to Large Building-City Block levels of power, and would certainly become more powerful thanks to Pandora’s Box; we’ll get to that later, though. In terms of speed, Magician is fast enough to create afterimages with his movements and react to Tesla coil electricity, which, in the latter’s case, the high end would be around Mach 11 speeds. However, given that one of Magician’s abilities is a laser from the sky, Thomas can dodge this laser, and Magician can outpace Thomas and should just naturally be superior, this would also put Magician at Relativistic speeds.
So on the surface, Nemesis seems to be faster considering his scaling, but since Magician should upscale Thomas by a lot, this would put both of their speeds decently relative to one another. And ultimately, with its higher AP scaling, the Magician should be more powerful and durable than Nemesis, and thus would be able to tank a majority of Nemesis’ blows, be it from his own physical strength or his weapons. Ultimately, while Nemesis will be able to get some hits in, Magician will be tough enough to take each and every one of them.
Arsenal & Abilities
For arsenal and abilities, both Nemesis and Magician have quite a few to go over, though we’ll keep a recap of their abilities quite brief. Nemesis’ primary firearms are his rocket launcher, flamethrower and minigun; all effective weapons in their own right, especially at longer ranges. But obviously he wasn’t built just to carry around large guns; he comes packing with a variety of different zombie-like abilities, like tentacles that can be used for long range, a scanning feature that allows him to keep track of his own health and ammo and how dangerous nearby enemies are, and the T-Virus itself, which he can use to infect others to become mindless zombies. Finally, his Dead By Daylight abilities essentially allow Nemesis to bring out zombies to fight for him, as well as abilities that allow him to keep track of his opponent for the first few seconds of the fight.
As for Magician, he’s primarily packed with bullet-proof armor that helps protect him from oncoming gunfire, and a variety of long-range abilities that make him a pain to get close to. His signature pyrokinesis, the sky laser that he can bring down onto the ground, and his barrier that lets him become the world’s least efficient hamster ball. Additionally, the Magician can infect others with the DBR Virus whether they be dead or alive with a variety of different infected zombies he can control. But most importantly, the Pandora’s Box is Magician’s ultimate ace-in-the-hole, allowing him to become stronger than ever and even come back stronger upon death as seen in the World’s boss fight. However, the box does take time to absorb, so it’s a pretty obvious weak point. So let’s see who’s arsenal is able to trump the other.
Both Nemesis and Magician have very sizable advantages against each other in their arsenal and abilities, such as Nemesis hosting a greater number of weapons, organic or not, whilst Magician has the far more potent and better quality of abilities and hax to pull off against Nemesis. Nemesis’ guns, while effective, will eventually run out of ammunition, while Magician’s ranged options are far more readily available and spammable, meaning Nemesis will have a pretty hard time actually getting in when it comes to a physical one-on-one. In fact, the gas tank Nemesis carries for his flamethrower would do enough damage to himself than help him, as with a well placed fireball, it could explode and heavily hinder him in the long run. And while Nemesis could amass a wide army of undead at his side with the T-Virus, the Magician could use the DBR Virus to take back control, as it largely works the same as the former while also being effective against Nemesis, potentially being able to control it.
Oh yeah, and what exactly killed Nemesis? A big laser far stronger than he could take. And what does Magician have? A big laser far stronger than the Nemesis could take.
Finally, let’s discuss the two’s additional forms. For Nemesis, both of his second forms essentially come out when his limiter is broken, making him far stronger but way more uncontrollable in terms of independent thought. And his final form, while even stronger than that, is a giant mass of flesh that is outright immobile. Although it’s reasonable to assume Nemesis could close the stat gap with these transformations, the Magician has his own trick up his sleeve in the form of Pandora's Box. Upon absorbing it, the Magician becomes far stronger than before and even possesses additional clones that could back him up on the off-chance he gets thrown off his guard. Ultimately, while the Nemesis would grow stronger, he’d also become a far bigger target and his weak spots become more painfully obvious. In a way, Nemesis becomes more limited in terms of what he can do, while the Magician gains more options in terms of what he can do.
In the end, while Magician might have a bit of trouble in the beginning thanks to the amount of weapons at Nemesis’ disposal, his greater usability and readiness of his abilities will help him overcome a muddy start, and as the fight goes on, it becomes more and more in his favor, ultimately netting him another win in this category.
Tertiary Factors
When it comes down to tertiary factors Nemesis does have some notable advantages over the Magician, namely his superior skill in terms of hand-to-hand combat. In the manga, Nemesis’ past life involved being a professional boxer, meaning he’s quite skilled when it comes to physical confrontations. Magician more so relies on ranged attacks to get the job done (it’s kinda his thing, if you will), so if Nemesis were able to get close, he’d be able to exploit the Magician's inexperience and land several blows with his fists and tendrils that could deal considerable damage, it's also worth noting that Nemesis' scanning allows him to both know how much of a threat his opponent would be from the start, as well as helping him keep tabs on his current ammunition and health which could be quite helpful when combined with his surprisingly tactical mind would make him harder to wear down.
That being said Nemesis does have a few flaws, for as smart as he might be compared to the average zombie, his experience in actual combat aside from his previous life is quite low as he wasn't alive for long during thof RE3e events of Resident Evil 3. In addition to that, after the Tyrant's coat is inevitably destroyed over the course of the fight and he begins to mutate, his mind will devolve more and more to its raw instincts overtime, becoming more animalistic, which could prove fatal in a battle where strategy is relevant.
Nemesis cannot retain his advantage over Magician so long as he continues to mutate into his later forms. Where he abandons all forms of training, experience and relies purely on animalistic instinct. Which allows for Magician to swoop in and take this category with his consistent showcase of a higher intelligence, ranged experience and proficiency. Nemesis is one dead resident you don’t want to mess with, but the Magician's bringing down the house with this section.
Conclusion
Nemesis
Advantages:
Somewhat relative in speed...
Better in terms of a H2H confrontation
Could take advantage of Magician’s weak points with it's scanning or the time it takes to absorb Pandora’s Box
Regeneration could keep him in the fight for longer
More tactical in his approach
Australian
Disadvantages:
- …but becomes slower with Pandora’s Box amps
And outright becomes immobile with his final form, leaving him wide open
Weaker with or without Magician’s stat amps
Could be overwhelmed with Magician’s abilities
Limited ammunition could leave Nemesis with more limited options
Can’t infect Magician with his virus
Could become more simple-minded with his mutations
Whatever the fuck the movies did to him
Magician
"Either way. Your fate is in our hands!"
Advantages
Relative in speed, though becomes faster with stat amps
Abilities are more readily available
Greater range and mobility
Can match Nemesis’ stamina
Resists the T-Virus with his own virus and can control Nemesis with the DBR Virus
Numbers advantage by summoning creatures to his side and controlling Nemesis’ undead
HoTD voice acting
Disadvantages
Weak points are painfully obvious and could heavily damage or kill Magician early on
Nemesis could take advantage of the time it takes to absorb Pandora's Box
Could have a hard time around Nemesis' regeneration
Little-to-no experience in physical confrontations
Less tactical
The courtroom called ‘Sega AM1’
HoTD voice acting
These two are massive threats for our heroes to overcome, and extremely powerful in their own right. However, when pitting the two against one another, the Magician simply has the raw power and abilities needed to overcome the T-Type Tyrant. While the two are somewhat relative in terms of speed thanks to their verse’s Relativistic feats, The Magician being able to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the likes of the Hierophant and Temperance should net it being relatively equal in strength to Nemesis letting him reasonably keep up with the tyrant, and that gap would only continue to widen as soon as Magician takes on the power of Pandora’s Box which is seen to eclipse anything Nemesis has thanks to The World’s showcase in its potential power.
While Nemesis’ variety of weaponry would not be effective in the first stages of the fight, their finite ammunition would vastly limit what Nemesis can do at longer ranges, and even then, the Magician has his fair share of counters to a majority of what his opponent can throw at him. He can outrange his superior physicality with his projectiles, and even outright take control of Nemesis and his zombies with his superior virus. Additionally, while Nemesis may grow stronger with his mutations, his final form would only hurt him more than benefit him in the long run, since it essentially makes him a giant target for Magician to destroy with ease (And let's not forget Magician has the exact thing that killed Nemesis: a giant laser). And while Nemesis may be better at hand-to-hand combat and has more experience than Magician, however that ultimately doesn't matter much, considering Magician's entire thing is fighting from a distance with his arsenal.
In conclusion, the Nemesis certainly won’t be an easy fight for Magician to win, and does have his fair share of advantages that could make for a difficult fight in the long run. But thanks to Dr. Curien’s perfect specimen housing superior strength and abilities, the Magician will be leaving the Tyrant seeing stars in this hazardous brawl.
Results
Team Nemesis (0) - Should’ve taken the hint
Team Magician (6) - LandonTalksALot, Yuix, door-kun, Ashuto, Andrex, 08
A Special Thank You From Yuix
I would love to thank everyone for the support from the last 10 years. I never believed a random idea like this I concocted years ago would spread this much. I want to thank the blog team for being the greatest help I could have asked for, everyone put their all into making this blog become a reality. A thank you to LandonTalksALot for giving me the chance to join and push the matchup beyond the grave. Most of all though, I want to thank the community, from art to thumbnails to being open to welcome me in. Everyone’s support to me has kept me going for the longest time, and I cannot begin to say how much of a blast I’ve had being a part of this community. To all my friends in the community who are reading this. You’re all amazing people, and I couldn’t have done any of this without you.
This means a lot to me, not just the matchup, but the franchises included. And every minute I spoke of it in this blog it filled me with sheer joy and excitement. My passion for this project and more akin to this idea has given spark to continue to push through with what you truly believe in. And to never back down, never give up. I’m beyond devoted to this matchup I have a hat and t shirt too!
This will forever be in my heart. All I have left to say is.
Thank you - Yuix
Someone cooked here
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