If there's one character that's I've noticed placing highly in virtually every event, it's *Hilde*. I have yet to hear or see any other Set 12 character perform well, which I find pretty crazy since almost all of them are viable (especially Tira and Temujin, who make their own finishers).

So, my question is: Is Hilde really just THAT good? Or are people just wrapped-up in her fame and her rather one-trick pony skill?

I personally think it's the excitement. Although she has Order, most builds I've witnessed are either Fire, or Fire-Good hybrid, mostly to abuse Lynx Tail with Cobra Blow and Tae Kwon Do Zephyr. Although I understand that "as soon as Lynx Tail hits the board prepare to lose" mentality and theory, I just don't think Hilde's anywhere NEAR the level of greatness as her competitors such as Chun Li, John Herr, Donovan, Akuma, etc.

Thoughts?

Fire and Good in general got a nice oomph in the last set, with Hilde just happening to see more play the rest of the Fire/Good toons. The only reason she sees more play over say, Elena and Talim is that she just does things better than both those toons. Yes she may not have as much life as either Talim or Elena, but you know Good and it's damage redux. Oh yeah, and she's also a 7 HS Order toon so Experienced Combatant is funny.

Also bare in mind is that Hilde can run things that say, Zi Mei cannot. Namely... Tag Along, one of if not the most needed cards in the meta.

Well

I think people who don't play Elena or Talim don't because they simply never have. I've built Talim off Air and Good thus far, and she's just too stupid for words. Off both builds, never has anybody blocked anything I threw at them. Mostly due to Wind Dance, but still, Talim + Wind Dance + Mid Attacks = your opponent eats damage. Also, Talim's R stops Hilde's damage boost. I haven't build Elena, but Chosen by Soul Calibur officially makes her great. Her third enhance ought to read: "Give your attack Multiple: 1", because I don't see any point in giving it Stun: 1 or Powerful: 1. As such, she's basically Tira with 2 (3?) different symbols, and really, I'm still amazed to hear nobody's bothered with Tira.

As for Hilde, I'm actually surprised people haven't done what I thought they'd do which is use Lynx Tail and Cobra Blow as her kill condition, and just back it up with Order's stupid wall of...well, stupidness.

Shinji, I think it's just a matter of too many people afraid of trying the new characters-most of them are pretty darn good, and if we learned anything from POTM, it's that they can be piloted to success (a certain player named Dani running a 73 card deck Astrid missing the top cut barely in a field of some of the top players comes to mind...).

Hilde, in my eyes, is just real cutsy. Good, but I highly doubt that she'll be able to do better than making it to the first round of top cuts. She's just not strong (or consistent) enough to win anything big.

Read Lu Chen. No, I mean read him. Again.

The ability to completely **** with the opponent's turn when built around Good is mind-blowing.

Point is, it's too early to call Set 12 characters underpowered or even underused. There hasn't been enough time for them to be -used- yet. There's been, like, one big event and a few regionals. Let's wait until we have more results to sample before talking about who hasn't been able to win in tournaments, or who hasn't been tried enough to know.

She's all that and a bag of chip.

This is the one, tell your friends.

But seriously? She's great, Olexa's build of her is a near force of nature that has very few bad matchups(tho it does have some, and not what you'd expect). Shes the fastest char in the format hands down, and she sports a decent ability to go hybrid while not sacrificing aggro.

Not to be underestimated.

Also (new)Tira got top 8 at POTM, sanded into chun li typically, but still won a lot of game ones as tira(including against me in top cuts). So hildes no the the ONLY one making a splash, but she is the best of the bunch I think.

and the cutest <3.

she really is that good, especially since she has a huge amount of DR as her damage boost, vs. just damage boost which is only useful on your attack, can use tag along and experianced combantant, and has a 7 handsize to boot. If you are a character who can't run tag along against her, you're very much so in a bad position. I'm hoping to see maybe more Strife's Patronage, American Made, and Superior Witch see play in sideboards more because of her.

Although a few weeks more of events, I'm also expecting big things from Rashotep, Ragnar, Astrid, Nightmare, Astaroth, and Siegfried.

Hilde is really good.

One of the big things she has going for her right now is that almost no one was expecting her to make any sort of splash, which means no one was prepared for her specific brand of stupidity.

This allowed Olexa to top 8 with her, and me to take her to second place at the CA Regionals. There were also two other Hilde decks at the CA regionals and they wrecked a lot of face against pretty much everybody but me and Smazzurco (who won the darn thing).

The only reason I was the best Hilde was because I expected a field of Hilde and added some necessary tech.

A few weeks are going to pass, and people are going to adapt to Hilde, and she'll sink down from "OMGWTFBBQ" to "Well this is going to be an interesting match"

She's the best glass cannon character in the format, except that if you don't kill her right away she can sit behind a wall of Amy's Assistance, Cage Arena, Healer, Holding Ground, Bitter Rivals, and BRT until she finds a necessary opening.

She's a wall with a win condition.

she is an amazing char. i have built her off all three symbols as well as try symbol, and she is a beast any way. I think she is one of the best agro chars in the game at the moment. that being said, set 12 has a lot of other awesome chars like astrid and tira.

She's got better tools to deal with it than most, but she's still vulnerable to an early rush.

It seems to me that she is also fairly simple to build. Not too too many rares or anything.

Protoaddict said:

It'll be harder to build once Block 4 comes in. Lightning Horn is amazing in her and honestly I almost think it's a staple combo. She doesn't need it by any means, but it's just extra insurance.

First turn kills are fun.

Archimedes said:

You are probably the ONLY person to EVER run Cage Arena in this game, which is exactly why you deserved what you won

*ass-kissing over*

Eh, I haven't seen Olexa's build, but I have the feeling the better Hilde out there is one that does NOT use Cobra Blow. Seriously, any KFT, No Memories, EDDestroyer, Spiritual Center, Holding Ground, Distractible...OK, the list is huge, you get the point, can stop Hilde.

And Polygon...

I agree, Lu Chen is pretty much the defensive counterpart to Nakoruru who is the offensive, and I'm stunned we haven't seen Naks as much as we should. .:Nakoruru:. + Father Bull + Shadow Blade = turn over, immediately. That's a total commit of 5 and a potential destruction of 2 right there.

What I don't think people are paying attention to is Lu Chen's ability to RANDOMLY select a card from the opponent's HAND and add it to their card pool. Not only are they clogged, but you might've just rid them of a dangerous attack.

MarcoPulleaux said:

no he is not. cage arena is a very solid card, which can be quite efective if played right.

MarcoPulleaux said:

I ran Cage Arena in my Worlds Talim Deck. People were just so sad that they could do nothing to my Rolling Storms, yet I was surviving late into games and winning because of the card.

Also, Andrew (DaiAndOh) loved Lu Chen for that very reason when he saw what he did. Reminded me of his old Guile deck that was just a pain in the ass.

The thing with Naks is that it goes back to having to block to reverse...something not often done. However, one can play her off water or splash some water and use Blind Loyalty to curtail that. She seems nice...but I don't know. However...when you think about it....Hybrid Style....

Hmmmmmmmm.......HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

I've found myself blocking nearly as often as tanking recently. with things like Knight Breaker and Midnight Launcher floating around, many people are shooting off one attack and not bothering with anything besides Free E:s on it, meaning I can get an easy block into reversal on it. I think Nak's off of good will see a bigger splash someday, especially when you add in No Forgiveness to the stun-down/destruction.

MarcoPulleaux said:

Yea, my point was more that there are too many new characters and not enough time to really see them in action, but Lu Chen is brutal. Nakoruru is actually who I'm building now. Lu Chen is almost certainly better but I just like her more. =D

And yes, I agree that the Good route is probably better for her. More tools to pull her game off without dying, as she can't take too many hits herself. Between Lu Chen, Siggy, and of course Hilde, Good has fierce potential now, with a lot of powerful tools, and strong characters to make use of them.

Polygon said:

Lu Chen would be better in almost every way if it weren't for the fact that Nakoruru has Father Bull. I think HolyDragonCloud was thinking too much of the past format to realize blocking does happen, even with Rejection and Prowess being alternatives.

Also, while Good is amazing, I think Nakoruru's best bet is to use Water. Completely ruin their turn with a Father Bull'd Shadow Blade, and then finish them off with a Natural Leader'd Feline Spike on your turn. I have yet to build, but I think its only enemy is Bitter Rivals, which is somewhat remedied by Chester's and Free Will, and certainly by Program and Chinese.

Hilde doesn't have anything that allows her to tank better than any other character in the format, unless you count her off-symbols; Fire and Order. She's the best Fire/Good character in the format, but on Good/Order she's competing with the likes of Gill, Gen and Frogase. All of them have vitality advantages and abilities that give them a survivability edge (Gill's is +1HS lol), and IMHO stronger off-symbols (Chaos and Earth both splash in on several staples, Death is even/slight advantage to Fire... but then the HS lead gives Gill the advantage if you want several single-resource cards).

Having a simple win condition that works with cards you want in play anyway for another purpose is cool, but I want my Lord of the Makai in play to grab foundations back from I-Spin and then I just Ryu's Shin Shoryuken (or splash some other finisher) ftw. And when your character is effectively blank outside of that win condition.... The thing I do like about Hilde is that it's generally fairly difficult to predict when she will be able to win [whereas a Powerful attack (for example) you usually have the luxury of being able to overextend a bit when your opponent doesn't have a lot of momentum on the board] so your opponent may play more conservatively when they were actually safe (or overextend very slightly and then pay dearly)

On Lu Chen vs. Nakadodo: I like Naks because she can draw more cards, simple as that. Lu Chen can be brutal, especially to something like an Air aggro deck that really doesn't have many options to remove his capability to block, but if he has trouble finding and protecting his pieces then he'll get picked apart fast.

Wafflecopter said:

There's a Fire/Good competition? o_O. Also, I still contest that those who don't mention ::Talim:: are those who have not built her. Where I think Hilde's Cobra Blow abuse is sheer hype, Talim's Wind Dance abuse is promise.

Wow, I didn't know I wasn't the only one immature enough to call Nakoruru Nakododo lol XD. Lu Chen needs no pieces; his character is his piece. The reason why people said blocking doesn't exist was because of Injuries, Rejection, and then later, Prowess, all three were simply BETTER than blocking.

Injuries are banned, and in reversal decks with Lu Chen and Nako, you're going to want to block more often than you are just take the damage.

Both completely bone your opponent's turn over. Lu Chen has a stupid screw your hand and card pool, and Nakoruru kinda taps your entire board.

Everyone in NYC either calls her Nakodoodle or Nakododo. We never refer to her as Nakoruru. In fact...when Dani came to the past ECC, and said she was running Nakoruru, I paused for a half second because I didn't know who she was talking about...then I put it together.

MarcoPulleaux said:

Wait, hold on.

You're running the 4 difficulty Father Bull and Chester's Backing

and multiple 3 difficulty foundations (Program Malfunction and Chinese Boxing)

AND several 2's AND 1's?

Sounds... slow

Tagrineth said:

Depends on how it's done. My current build actually runs 0 Chester's Backings, I just thought I'd mention them.

An idealistic Nako build would likely run:

2-3 Father Bulls

4 Chinese

3-4 Program

2-3 Natural Leader

4 Free Will

3-4 Shadow Blade

3 Feline Spike

and some other cards in the mix.

This is why I want Feline to be banned. It truly doesn't require much thought to kill an opponent. It isn't too slow; the checks in the Nako deck are almost all 5s and above. Shadow Blade can effectively balance out a board by Stunning 2, destroying 1, and if it deals damage, Nako pops another, for a maximum output of 4 foundations being dealt with in just one attack, and that's not including Father Bull.

Meh...a much better strategy than Hilde I think XD