i've been trying to play 40 lines mode in lockjaw without using the hold box, which has it's ups and downs. i find that i fall into a state of constant indecision when i use the hold box so i end up using it excessively, causing me to think too much. another disadvantage is that it can add more keystrokes (but not necessarily). it could be used only in situations where to place the current piece in a good spot would take 3 or 4 keystokes, while the piece it could be swapped with may only require 2 keystrokes (hold + drop). the question here is how much time is lost in deciding whether or not to swap the pieces. i suppose hold is also helpful for maintaining a stacking pattern you're familiar with. this could potentially save time because you would do less thinking. i think we could all agree that after 35 lines you do whatever you can in an attempt to clear the playing field when you reach 40, even if that means using hold multiple times. what is everyone's strategy before that? is anyone disciplined enough to use hold only when necessary, while not considering it the rest of the time?
i only use hold in 40 line when not doing so would create a hole. this is probably not a good idea, as just building around the whole would probably be faster--strangely, i don't really find that my speed suffers from garbage clearing, at least not nearly as much as going through the extra thought processes necessary to "clean" the field at an inconvenient time. theoretically i would assume it faster to not use hold at all, although the scenario you mentioned, where a hold press followed by a drop would be much faster than moving some piece a couple of columns, or worse, some sort of zangi move (though i believe i'm the only one here who will actually do those in 40 line) in that situation it's hard to argue against using hold. i would imagine this question holds a lot of really interesting information about different players' order of operations, though actually extracting that information in some sort of understandable fashion is most likely impossible. actually, who knows, maybe just watching a few hundred replays of a given player would give that information.
