This is for specific instances of things that went particularly well or things that were particularly cool, and things that were specifically not. If this proves productive, maybe it'll help James pinpoint things that have gone wrong and things that have gone right, so that he can watch out for these things in the future.

After discussing Set 12 a great deal with PatchedArtist and Baranor last weekend, here are my picks:

THE BEST:

1) Zi Mei's Execution Techniques. 1st Rite -> 2nd Rite -> 3rd Rite is extremely cool and very powerful.

2) Zi Mei's high kicks. One of the players Tuesday night showed me a viable Kim deck.

3) Siegfried's character card. I hate the character, but I love what James made him do.

THE WORST:

1) Cervantes' cards Dread Pirate and Beyond Humanity.

Beyond Humanity reads:

"R Commit: After you check a 2 or less, re-check."

Dread Pirate reads:

"R Commit: After you check a 2 or less, add the checked card to your hand."

Now these are both better versions of some Battle Pack Akuma support. The problem is, they don't synergize with Cervantes' other support (notably his Terrain asset and the Wild Storm attack). Once you've pre-pumped your checks, you're not checking a 2 or less, and these do nothing. With one very specific change to each, the cards would have been barely more powerful, but much more powerful for Cervantes. I believe these cards should have said:

"R Commit: After you check a printed 2 or less, re-check." and

"R Commit: After you check a printed 2 or less, add the checked card to your hand."

2) Zhao Daiyu's R. As written, it doesn't synergize with her support.

"R: After your opponent removes any number of cards from the game, they lose 2 vitality."

But all her support suggests that you remove your opponents cards from the game. They don't remove anything. I heard that this had been ruled to synergize. If so, she needs an errata to:

"R: After any number of cards are removed from the game, the owner of those cards loses 2 vitality."

the zi mei thing works out. You are choosing the cards, but your opponent is removing them from the game in some technical sense.

Maybe has to do with the fact that they are his cards at RFG is an out of play zone, im not sure, but i know it indeed works.

I feel like the IVY stuff came together as well as can be expected. It def gave new life to the wennie attack concept, even if its not instantly competitive.

"MOST" combo cards are pretty sweet and encourage the play of multiple attacks. I say most because there are a few that dont instantly jump out at you with what they can combo off of, and then theres cards like twlight embrace where I feel like its almost more powerful not to even bother with the combo ability because its better thrown early and often than not.

Cervantes, and 99% of his support is utter garbage..

HOWEVER Curse of the Ancient Mariner+ Ibuki+ Her Own Agendai s GODLY! Built in momentum gen, and the ability to give the attack Powerfull 7 is kinda funny.

I would like to add that the tira support in this set was also quite impresive. With the ability to have built in life gain and card pool clearing she is a really powerful character. her multiple attack is somewhat lackluster unless you are playing her though if it had been given a block it prolly would see more play otherwise other characters will prolly opt for spike. Her weapon I would have prefered to have been tira unique and Hilde's weapon should also of been hilde unique but thats just me. I really enjoy playing algol as he and his assets and foundations synergise so well. Im trying to work on a deck that will deck itself out turn 1 or 2 lol.

B-Rad said:

B-Rad said:

Nuclear Launch detected!

actually, Shadow Flare (his starter rare attack) is my new favorite starter rare from the set. And having those shiny new high kicks makes me want to rebuild my Chaos Seong-Mina kick deck

B-Rad said:

Curse of the Ancient Mariner, in Cervantes, is even worse.

Powerful 15 without really struggling for it.

Cervantes is much better than anyone gives him credit for. Poor guy. He'll probably never live up to the godliness of his super rare from Higher Calibur.

MegaGeese said:

You know... with Can Nat's coming up... I've been challenged by my locals to make a good Astaroth, and now I'm feeling a Cervy challenge coming on.

It ain't that hard. Chaos/Evil has always been a good split, and given the rise of the anti-hax stuff, he's the second character to directly spit in the face of such anti-hax tomfoolery.

Unfortunately for him, Geese really is better =D

Antigoth said:

Don't do it. He's good... but not THAT good.

MegaGeese said:

Fixed

MegaGeese said:

the best thing about Cervantes is he loves his 2 checks, or rather, making his opponent check them.

quarzark said:

Hi. I'm forgettable KOF protagonist Kyo Kusanagi. You might not remember me from such booster packs as SNK and Cutting Edge.

When I was released in Cutting Edge, I ALSO had the ability to make my opponents check 2s! Oh, and guess what? I can do it multiple times per turn! That, and unlike Cervantes, I actually have a nifty character ability: the ability to abuse the Hell out of Red Lotus.

quarzark said:

Then snagging them into his hand, as long as Sailor's Rest isn't ready, and he hasn't played Wild Storm this turn.

------------------------------

Actually, my favorite has always been UR Cervantes* from Soul Arena. He generated momentum deceptively fast, even when throwing multiples.

------------------------------

And I find the best thing about the new Cervantes is how silly it is to juggle 6 different check modifications before actually playing a card or an ability. When I picture how this works in a video game or "real life," I picture him grumbling and cursing in incomprehensible drunken pirate speak for like 30 seconds, before suddenly exploding with pirate-style beat-down

B-Rad said:

My deck and I very much disagree.

ARMed_PIrate said:

And those 6 control check modifications? They power Curse of the Ancient Mariner like nobody's business.

i think hilde is pretty cool. It's a concept that has never been used before.

Pros:

-Almost every attack has a 3 check, which means that Hata acknowledges that most players instantly dismiss anything that isn't a 3 (case-in-point, Nightmare's 4/2 attack that is a 5 high for 5? Yeah...)
-Perhaps interestingly enough, the "bottom tier" symbols got the most recognition, whereas the "top tier" symbols got little to nothing (Order only got Hilde and Astrid)
-Combo is one of the most game-changing abilities to ever grace this game. With it, killing becomes much more skill-oriented, not just spam spam LOLTIAMAT'S.
-FINALLY characters have support that actually supports their character and their theme, not just direct clones of their character's abilities. While Siegfried's only effects were to pump damage and give the opponent a symbol, his support was designed to not just beat Evil's face, but to COUNTER it as well.
-Aggro is finally back, and certainly in full force. I'm not sure who its posterboy will be, but the "beat face" decks can now breathe.
-Face-up momentum, something I don't remember seeing since Soul Calibur set 1, is finally back (or at least, the creators remember it).
-Direct life burn too might become an archetype, which is exciting.
-The "counters" we got actually work this time, and aren't broken like, heh, The Curse Broken.
-A lot of older cards were "reprinted", which was nice.

Cons:

-Cervantes and all of his support. I say this not because of his amazing ultra rare Higher Calibur counterpart, but because of first starter Cervantes. When we had a pre-release for Set 4 (Dark Path Soul Arena), I picked Cervantes, and between our playgroup, we had 1 of every character in the tourney (including T Hawk lol). Man...Cervantes was just so God awful. Then came Higher Calibur, and with the exception of his ultra rare and maybe Brethren of the Coast, once again, the "dread pirate" gave us dreadful support. Now, for the third time in a row, we have garbage Cervantes cards. New rule: UFS cannot release another Cervantes or his support without it actually being good. I don't wanna hear, "You can totally abuse his support", because that's only telling me it CAN be used, not that its use is of value. Personal rant? Sure, but really, I just can't believe they F'd-up Cervantes a third time in a row.
-As I'd mentioned, most players instantly dismiss any attack without a 3 check or greater. However, the entire point of 2s and 1s is that they immensely push the envelope to surpass their control. I really wish they'd have made more, especially since, heh, Cervantes' support worked well with 2s. Why bother giving Ragnar all these vanillas when you could give him 1 checks with omegaton reimbursement?
-6 handsize characters are much like gay rights: in time, people will stop being stupid and will finally recognize them. However, 6 handers need abilities that truly break backs (Hell look at Mr Karate and Seong Mi-Na, reppin' the 5 handsize!) and mostly, the symbols necessary to draw or fulfill their requirements. With all Order-Void-Water characters aside (who have the LOLCHEAT Aquakinesis), 6 hander's main issue IS their handsize. As such, we need much more draw, just not with the All or Void symbol for a change. That, and stop giving 6 handers cute abilities and start giving them ones like maybe...Donovan's? XD
-Weenie attacks aren't what people want them to be. The concept of "death by 100 slashes" as Horvath called it, at least as of right now, is flawed. The theory is that, surely the opponent won't waste blocks on shrimpy attacks. However, **Twelve** proved one thing: weenies need to be pumped. As such, people need to lay off the Ivy and lay-on the Mitsurugi, Yuri, Yi Shan, and Siegfried. See, when *Xianghua* and *Balrog* were around, they were able to make each attack hurt more than the last, putting on pressure. Ivy doesn't really put on said pressure, and most people are agreeing that there are simply better attacks than Raging Gnome.
-Foundations run in usually 3s and 4s in decks. As such, holo foundations ARE a good idea, but you shouldn't make them as necessary as say, Controller of Souls. A lot of the holo foundations I've actually found to be, well, limited in use. But such necessary ones as CoS shouldn't have been made ultra rare. Hell, Torn Hero is the PERFECT candidate for ultra rare, and you get your playset's worth by buying the SC4 starter box set.

MarcoPulleaux said:

I will punch you in the ****. Or, actually, I guess, you're not afraid of what the Spiral Arrow lock Gill deck could do without Torn Hero to punish it, are you? Torn Hero is a 50% more balanced The Curse Broken for commit effects, and Experienced Combatant was almost analagous to Yoga Mastery for Gill.

Driven By Fear is the perfect candidate for UR foundation. The Astrid foundation that mimics promo Adon (forget the name :b) is a perfect candidate.for UR. Torn Hero is potential dead card depending on your opponent's deck, that provides a negative incentive to playing a giant pile of commit effects + Spiral Arrow, or whatever else you want to do. There's plenty of ways around it, too.

Although, I will certainly agree, the card would look pimp with some good foiling done on it.

Wafflecopter said:

ROFLcopter

I'm not calling Torn Hero unbalanced by ANY means, in fact, it's EXACTLY what E/G/L needed, because as it is a counter, it actually does it job: counters.

I'm simply saying that while I'm glad it's nice and obtainable, it's more viable for an UR than CoS is. And yes, I think it's impending that it will be foiled in time.