You can find the report of it here... new.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp .

Originally, I planned to run Sakura, but I stuck with Gen, and it was pretty good pick. He's pretty mean, being able to go up to what's essentially an 8-9 handsize, with an awesome starting vitality for his huge handsize (I think he's the 7 HS with the largest vitality). The best part though, Siegrfried's stuff just makes him annoying as hell to deal with. I ran him all the way to 9th place barely missing the cut However, a few key missing cards and a few play mistakes probably cost me a shot at the top 8.

And yes, I realize he could probably be better off Order, but I don't have the cards for that symbol, and Order's not really my thing, so I won't switch it up.

[4] Gaishiki Lunar Rebillion
[4] High Plasma Beam +1H
[4] Tiger Fury +1M

[4] Tag Along

[4] Olcadan’s Mentoring +0L
[2] Seal of Cessation +3L

[4] The Red Lotus of the Sun +3L
[3] Atoning For His Wicked Deeds
[3] Amy’s Assistance +1M
[3] Dead for One Thousand Years +3H
[3] Dancing Battle Kabuki +0L
[4] Holding Ground +2L
[3] Revenant’s Calling +1M
[2] Regretful Existence +3M
[4] Program Malfunction +2M
[4] Blinding Rage +1M
[4] Battle Prowess

Total = [59]

Originally, I had put in Torn Hero's and Double Grounder's but and had White Gi to help add momentum, but I scrapped the whole momentum thing as I just didn't think it was very necessary. Plus, even with enough momentum generation, I think Torn Hero simply isn't all that great, especially in a deck with 4 Lotus' and Blinding Rage's. Then I tried out 2 Empire's Ruin but it seemed like a wasted slot. Next I tried to add 3 Alluring Beauty, but once again, even with an awesome HS and card draw abilities, I didn't like it because there wasn't very much I could discard that wouldn't be more beneficial on the board, and set ups were kind of slow with both Red Lotus and Alluring Beauty going off-symbol. Plus, Revenant's was the more beneficial card with a discard as a cost. In the end, I just bumped up Revenant's to 3 (which I'm really thankful for) and the Bliding Rage's and Battle Prowess to 4, because I didn't really have any other options. Which brings me to next my point...

There were some key cards that I was missing from the line-up because I couldn't get them in time. Ways of Punishment being first and Inhuman Perception being second. The one thing I had dreaded before the tournament was no way of pushing damage through. Though I could of kept Empire's Ruin I still stand by the fact it wasn't worth it. If I had Ways though I would of put em in, as they would've definitely helped me one-shot people which was very easy to do with Tiger Fury being pumped to hell and back. Next Inhuman Perception, would've put an end to A LOT of threats right then and there. While I could still prevent threats from being exploited over and over again with Revenant's, Inhuman would've negated it outright and would have benefitted me greatly. Also, Memories of a Nightmare might've been a good call, but I don't know... The jury's still out on that one.

In hindsight, after todayI would probably get rid of the Dead for One Thousand Years. At 4 difficulty, they're just too expensive for my tastes and I only used them a few times. And from those few times I gotta say I don't think the ends justify the means. Sure I could keep recycling them thanks to Gen, but that means having to pop down more 4 difficulties every turn.

Now onto the positives of the deck that I noted. First, Atoning for His Wicked Deeds is as awesome as everyone thinks it is. It shuts down A LOT major threats and can't really be stopped (which I think FFG will fix in the future). It was able to get by Red Lotus game in and game out, which I flipped over, just so I could then start nailing them with Owlfaces and Program Malfunctions. The best part, though is that in Gen, I naturally just popped em only to get em right back. Next, I think Regretful Existence is also awesome. A playable while committed +2 damaged for your entire attack string in just one foundation. That's straight awesome. It can easily catch the opponent off guard when damage starts to add up and can be the difference in some games. Gaishiki Lunar Rebellion is STILL one of the best attacks in earth, and am glad I put it in (though like I said, at 2 speed, you need something to push it through). The Red Lotus splash was also a good call, being able to prevent Ira Spinta, Stuns, and Olcadan'sf from running rampant on my staging area.

All in all, Earth is an awesome symbol to play especially with an absolutely amazing charcter like Gen.

I actually am a firm believer in Gen off Earth or Good instead of Order; Siegfried's support makes him especially strong, and makes his recursion effects very useful, since the disadvantage tacked to his support is that it goes boom after you use it.

That said, I'm having a difficult time seeing how you muscle attacks through; you have no discard, no speed bonuses, and only a handful of committing effects. While you seem to deride Empire's Ruin and the like, the fact of the matter is that it makes killing your opponent that much easier, especially on attack strings. If you're not running The Ways of Punishment, The Glare from the Abyss, and/or Origins Unknown, you're gonna have major trouble pushing your damage through IMHO (especially with only 12 attacks), which will lead to (rather boring) foundation wars. IMHO, it's much easier to get the Good stuff to punch through enemy defenses than it is to get the Earth stuff, so I would think a change of foundation base is in order (you can disregard this last bit if you can get your hands on the Earth stuff).

Memories of a Nightmare is all that and a bag of chips; it may not deal with threats in a permanent fashion the way Atoning does, but it shuts down a whole lot more of 'em (Experienced Combatant, No Memories, etc., etc.).

You don't seem to have any tech against discard or damage reduction, either; Will for the Fight and Distractible are great here (if you stay off Earth). Also, check out Yi Shan's stuff; you may find something to interest you.

Oh yeah, I totally I agree with you on all points man. But I'm really just waiting to get Ways of the Punishment in there. It's a **** good card. And maybe I could run Memories over Inhuman Perception, maybe both.

As for the discard and stuff, I had some stuff in the sidedeck for it, but never ran into it.

I have a question:

How does this deck deal with Battle Prowess/damage reduction? Seems to me like anybody packing Prowess/Rejection kills you over =/

Well, I don't have anything that specifically deals with damage redux/vitality gain, but I just try to deal with it with standard board control. But yeah, Rejection really hurts me. I'll add distractible to the sideboard for help against wall-type decks.

ssjsonic said:

I asked because I'm working on a trisymbol Gen with an emphasis on Earth (and as you'd imagine, it looks almost exactly like yours, cept with stuff like Buddhist Devotion and whatnot) because I really think Gen's a great candidate to counter the meta. The problem I'm realizing is that, 7 handsize or not, he's still relatively slow, and the prolem with him being a metacounter is that the meta is established because it's AWESOME. Chester's, BRT, Bitter Rivals, these are all amazing cards that are both offensive and defensive, and are virtually staples to any deck that can run them. While Gen has access to tool to stop about all of them (Inhuman, Destiny, and Undercover respectively), they're all reliant, and have little use on their own.

Also, my build (as yours would've had) includes Ways of Punishment. Still...as much as I want to think it could do well, I just don't know if he'd win first.

But you came relatively close, which is why I wanted some input from somebody with firsthand multisymbol Gen experience.

You are right that even with his 7 hs and card draw abilities and symbols, he is slow. But not slow in the sense that you'll have truble playing foundation out every turn, but in that you'll need to take it slow and wait for oppurtune moments before you can go in for the kill. Obviously, Ways of Punishment is going to help with that and get you a couple of wins through a one-shot, but still, the response wars are up in the air.

I really wish I could give advice about that, but I'd really just be telling you the same things you've already heard such as baiting your opponent and having a really strong sidedeck for any problematic matches. However, earth as a stand-alone symbol does indeed have the necessary tools to get through heavy control though it may take a while. A lot of my games where they played control went to time. I did get lucky against an order deck I played with and won 1 game with 4 Program Malfunctions out, but another air deck that kept readying Chester's gave me fits.

I guess the only thing I can say is to keep using Gen's recursion ability til you get set up enough (and a lot of the time it's gonna mean abusing the hell out of Atoning which will amost always have something crucial to snipe in every deck, including all the cards you mentioned ) while making sure you keep alive with vitality gain and damage redux.

I don't know if that was helpful or not for you, but that was my experience with the deck. Though, I admit it was only one day of matches as I did no playtesting with it whatsoever and haven't touched it since. All in all, I'll say that Gen can play the control game very well and should be a contender for one of UFS' elite characters.

Cursed Blood just got reprinted. I realize yours is mostly Earth whereas mine is trisymbol (with an emphasis on Earth), but, do you think Cursed Blood is an autoinclude? It not only helps with building speed, but should it pop itself, not only did you destroy one of their foundations, but you can just recur it with Gen.

I was planning on building him tri-symbol in block 2 simply because of Cursed Blood and Curse Broken, and when I heard it was getting reprinted I was excited. I think I'll have to find room for those in here. Cused Bloods just makes him that much more annoying.

I honestly think that anyone that runs dual/tri-symbol should auto-include Cursed Blood for increased build production.

Oh yeah, mine's gunning 4 big time. Gen's the first deck I've built to go over 60, and I'm really thinking that's a good thing.