Just tried some more Bound Play and won three matches in a row. While it wasn't quite a game winning silver bullet, Motivate definitely made a difference for me.
And I was definitely playing it wrong. I went into it like it was a regular match, but this requires more patience.
Get a Motivate buff or a few going at the start of the match, pick your position, and take it slow with advancing. Perhaps one of my biggest mistakes was doing that as soon it recharged when I should've waited until you either got Weary (turns out advancing gets rid of that too) or the opponent made themselves resistant to whatever you're doing. Just keep a steady game going, make sure you don't go crazy with Empower, and DO NOT use Overdrive until after the opponent inevitably uses Reset.
When they do, you're gonna want to press the hell out of the attack while it's recharging. If you've got enough Motivate buffs going, and you've got Empower and Overdrive ready, along with a good amount of energy, you should be able to win the round. I believe the key is making sure that the opponent doesn't get to activate Reset twice.
...On Easy, at least. Haven't tried any of the harder difficulties yet.
Yeah, I suck at this game. I admit it.
But anyway, thank you for the tip, Mr. Zed!