Exactly, garbage alone makes STS a fairly risky strategy for beginners. However, it can be quite deadly as an opening move if you have memorized the pattern and can pull it off quickly enough (It's a really consistent since the pattern is always the same). If you don't pull off that first t-spin single quickly enough, you can always just back out very quickly with only placing a few pieces. It shouldn't take more than a couple of seconds to fix the setup.
I've noticed that too. Since I'm not used to setting up for t-spins and DT stacking and all that, I'll usually just go for tetris set-ups as fast as possible. If I end up playing a second match though, and I notice that my opponent tends to spend the first 15 or so seconds building, I'll try and open with an STS, and then build tetrises from there. It's been pretty consistent, but I haven't tried it on anyone 7000+ yet, so I don't know. to the more advanced players: what are you generally looking for in your first X pieces? i.e.: is I,L,S usually automatically built on the left for t-spins? same with I,J,Z on the right?
I tend to only look in the preview for the the S before J or the Z before L to decide on whether I should pull it off or not. Most of the time, I just stick to BtB tetrises, TSSs, and TSDs as they work quite well with garbage.
I don't know what you guys are talking about I play cultris mostly. Do you guys know if cultris is safe to play online?
that makes sense digital, but I'm having a hard time being able to build fast enough to make any of that effective. I guess it's just something I should practice in marathon mode until I can see it without having to think so much. how come my TDS rating according to blockstats is always 100-150 points lower than it actually is? I finished the day ~6850.
