Pruning seems questionable statistically – low power and awful priority with zero defence seems bad enough, and the very little range bonus you get seems a mean deal. However, it has incredible effects, and as such is arguably Lixis’s best style. Firstly it has a Reveal of +1 Power and Priority per base in the nearest opponent's discards – this means it is actually (contrary to the printed stats) always at least at average priority and a small power boost, which only improves as you further cardlock your opponent. With the maximum 4 Bases in their discards, you effectively have +3 power and +2 priority – which is undeniably huge and allows for massive, tempo-shifting pay-out attacks. Even better, it has an On Hit effect which forces the opponent to discard a second Base of their choice – meaning that if they already had 4 Bases in their discards, they will only have the two Bases from their Discard Two in their hand on the following beat. If you can consistently hit with Pruning, you can prevent them from carrying any extra Bases over from beat-to-beat – meaning you can effectively soft-lock them into losing pairs, at least until they gain access to their finisher. Just beat in mind the bonii are all from the effect, so anything which forces you down to printed values will make one sad dryad.

Pruning pairs well with Drive, which makes great use of the bonus range, power and priority. From further distances, Shot can also be viable as it will likely out speed anything your opponent can throw at you at that range, and potentially even stun out any chance of a retaliatory attack.

However, in my opinion, the best use of Pruning by far is Pruning Lance, which I would suggest can even be considered Lixis’s signature move. Lance’s high base speed makes it very difficult to clash, let alone out speed, once it has the Pruning reveal added. The potential power 6 pay-out covers every space excluding those adjacent to space 4 when she has her preferred positioning, and her opponents cannot even move into those spaces to evade the attack. Moreover, thanks to the Lance passive, you know the pay-out from Pruning isn’t able to be juked by a well-timed Dodge.