Good card is good, but not so almighty. After turn three, it's pretty much an entirely dead card in your hand, and I've yet to use its foundation side even once.

With that said, I DO run 3-4 copies in pretty much every Chaos, Evil, and/or Life deck that I build, but it's certainly not so format defining as Olcadan's, Chester's Backing, China Box + ProMal, TWOP, Rejection looping, Battle Prowess, Defender/Spike, etc.

When I build a deck, I give TAK' a mere moment's thought; I give the others a LOT more thought and analysis to make sure I have answers.

MegaGeese said:

I think you hit it dead on its a great card turn 1 and 2 but after that its a dead card a lot of the time. Which is why I think if we compare that to YWNE that YWNE is still a better card in the long run with how popular control is .

I don't think it's possible to define THE card for a format when there are five different card types you have to look over.

The sheer potential of Anti K' to give you a turn ahead of the opponent within the first 1 to 2 turns of the game is certainly ridiculous, and to competitive players (myself Included) warrants inclusion in all decks that can run it. Yes it's utter tripe past turn 2 (some will even argue past turn 1) but I'll trade being useless for the chance to out right "win" the game turn 1.

Also, it's currently impossible to define THE card for block 3, as we've only seen a relative handful of the cards. What isn't to say there isn't some huge FUBAR card coming down the line that makes other cards pale in comparison?

As to block 2, if we're going to define it with iconic cards, I'd have to say that this is probably the list I'd go with.

Character: ..Ibuki..

Attack: Chain Throw (followed by Kunai)

Action: Absurd Strength

Asset: Olcadon's Mentoring

Foundation: Higher Calibur (then BRT, then Defender of the Empire)

I don't think that the Anti-K is the 'most important card in the game', nor do I think it 'defines' block 3. I think it is a reflection of what one of block 3's most powerful techs is, i.e. control hack - forethought/anti-k/bert/a certain akuma and let's not forget my favorite and often-overlooked ostracized.

If you ask me these are okay control hacks, and the fact that this strategy has emerged is a good thing. They don't change the game, they are more or less reverting it to what it should be: i.e. a difficulty 4+ card can't be played with any reliability on the first turn. It actually makes the 4 on chester's mean something, namely don't try to play me until turn 2 or 3 depending. People have also mentioned it neuters spike which is undercosted imo to start with... The fact that most people can post 'my tournament decks usually do not include any more than 6+ control 2 cards' is what is wrong with the game in my mind. Risk reward is important and it keeps things in check, the Anti K makes things more risky, usually things that have those high rewards to begin with.

All in all, when I am building a block 3 deck, and I think I am on to #5 now, Kyoshiro (order chaos), Akuma (fire evil), Vega (good chaos), Kyo (all good) and next ??? I am either a) including or basing one of my strategies around control hacks and this also includes getting them off, i.e. destiny removal, scarf removal etc. or b) basing one of my strategies on negating controls hacks, destiny, scarf, motivated and this includes protecting them, lotus, asset kill, etc.

Anti K is nice. But it isn't a card you can build a deck's winning condition around. It is a card that supports any and all win conditions if building a), and it is a card that needs to be considered when dealing with what can stop or seriously slow your win condition if building b).

Important - yes. Most important - no. Thankfully the most important card is still defined by the character card abilities, it's symbols, and how this relates to your overall win strategy and this means the most important card is up to you

- dut

Um..most important card in the game? Anti-K? LOL! I don't think so. Sure, you can use it to try and knock out a foundation/attack on my first turn, but with low diffulculty foundations and Olcadon's, whoopdy freakin' do. And if I attack on the first turn, chances are I will not be trying to kill you off. That is me though. I am going to play my cards and that is final. Now, you belive that this card can kill on later turns, right. Iga Legacy, Rookie's Fortune, Destiny, Soul of Ling Sheng Su, Soichi Jinmu, Shooting Capoera, and Angel of Evening, to name a few. In short, there are ways around Anti-K that could ruin its action side.

Blood Runs True does a better job in killing off your turns and I do remember going against BRT at the ECC and not Anti-K. Now in conjunction with other key cards that can be used to ruin CC's like Maniac, Anit-K can be good. But it is not phenonminal on it's own.

Anti-K is a really good card and it can win games, but I don't see it as the most important card right now. I have played it in many decks, and more than half of the times has been useless.

It has nice stats and an average block, so you can also spam it as a foundation if needed. Of course it is a big Olcadan's bait (this is one of the reasons I hate olcadan's, it should only replace for a foundation of equal or greater difficulty), but it is not as useless as that as a foundation. You can use it to abort an early game attack that would kill you (like Feline Spike), or to make your finishing attack go through by hacking the block that gives you the game (and you don't caree to blow up high-difficulty foundations as the game will be over). It's just useless during most of thee rest of the game.

The Anti-K action shines most in the first turn, and you won't always see it or even mulligan for it. I don't seee it banworthy, but the problem with it is that it really punishes decks that have plenty of attacks and therefore low checks, to the point that makes slow control decks with onlly 4 attacks even more stronger than they already are.

The most important cards right now would be, in my opinion (block2, and by extension block3):

Foundation: Red Lotus

Asset: Olcadan's

Action: Rejection

Attack: Feline Spike

Character: Hard to tell, many candidates to this spot right now.

dutpotd said:

Ostracized combines VERY well with Forethought. 4 foundations + 1 momentum for -4 to check?