Countdown (Final Fantasy IX)

Countdown is a Flair/Elan in Final Fantasy IX used by Amarant, which attempts to place an expiration counter onto one (Flair) or all (Elan) enemies for a cost of 16 MP.
==Obtained==
Countdown is learned for 40 AP from Kaiser Knuckles, found in Chocograph 15, Dusk Plains, stolen from the Silver Dragon, and bought from Daguerreo in the endgame. The earliest it can be obtained is from the Chocograph when the party has Hilda Garde III.
==Mechanics== 
Countdown attempts to inflict Doom onto an enemy with 50% base accuracy. When used with Elan when Amarant is in Trance, it attempts to doom all enemies.
Doom starts a countdown and casts piercing Death on the target as the counter expires. Undead enemies are restored to full health by Death, and all bosses are immune to it. The countdown runs during animations and is affected by Battle Speed as set in the Config and the affected's speed status (Haste, Normal, Slow). The higher the affected's Spirit stat, the slower the timer counts down.
:Duration = (60 - Spirit) \times 200
The chance for Countdown to work is calculated as followed:
:Chance = 50 + Level + [Magic / 4] - Target's~Level
Two randomly generated values determine if Countdown will hit:
:A random number 0...99 >= Chance, the spell misses its mark
:A random number 0...99 < Target's Magic Evade, the enemy evades
==Use==
Countdown has limited uses, but it is superior to Quina's equalavent Doom skill. Countdown is worse than Zidane's Soul Blade with the Masamune, which inflicts Doom every time as long as the enemy is not immune. Countdown is also a worse Instant Death move than Dagger's Odin.
Countdown could be useful against Yans as Amarant has no other Instant Death moves, and as far as Instant Death moves go, Countdown has a fairly good accuracy. The downside is that if the Yan is not sleeping (from Quina's Night), the Yan will counterattack and Amarant may be killed or snorted off the battle. The one upside over Zidane's Soul Blade with Masamune is that in Trance, Amarant could use Countdown on a group of Yans. However, Trance is capricious and a Tranced Amarant in a battle against a group of Yans would probably rather use Revive all or Aura all, depending on the state of the party.
Category:Flair abilities in Final Fantasy IX