I think this deck looks fairly solid overall, but I'm looking for ways to make him a bit better.

Sagat - Earth:

Starting Character:

::Sagat:: (6 HS 28 Vitality) (Air, Earth, Fire)

Actions (4):

4 Tag Along (5/4) (Air, Earth)

Assets (6):

4 Seal of Cessation (3/3 +2L) (Infinity)

2 Ready for Anything (4/3 +3L) (Earth, Fire)

Attacks (16):

4 Flooded-Nile Throw (4/3 1M4 +3H; Throw) (Earth)

4 High Plasma Beam (4/3 3H3 +1H; Ranged) (Earth)

4 Crushing Embrace of the Jotun (5/3 3M5; Desperation: 4, Throw) (Earth, Fire)

4 Tiger Fury (7/3 4H4 +1M; Punch) (Air, Earth, Fire)

Foundations (44):

4 Battle Prowess (1/4) (Earth)

3 Blinding Rage (1/6 +1M) (Air, Earth, Fire)

4 Origins Unknown (1/5 +1H) (Earth, Fire)

3 Torn Hero (1/5) (Earth)

4 Amy's Assistance (2/4 +1M) (Earth, Fire)

3 Distractible (2/5) (Earth)

3 Holding Ground (2/4 +2L) (Earth)

4 Memories of a Nightmare (2/5) (Earth)

4 Stand Off (2/5 +3M) (Air, Earth, Fire)

4 Criminal Past (3/5) (Earth)

4 Program Malfunction (3/5 +1M) (Earth)

4 The Street Life (4/5 +4L) (Earth, Fire)

Card Strategy and Breakdown:

::Sagat:: - IMHO one of the strongest characters out there. 6/28 are some fairly solid stats, and the effect is absolutely awesome, since it triggers off your opponents' attacks as well as your own, and trims your deck, thus reducing the need for card draw.

Tag Along - Stops meddlesome characters such as *Zi Mei*, Chunners, and the like in their tracks before they can ruin your day. Additionally, it can grab any piece you happen to be needing at the moment on top of that.

Seal of Cessation - Universal tech card, has saved my skin more times than I care to name, especially on this kind of deck, which tends to be a bit slower.

Ready for Anything - A beastly card in a Sagat deck IMHO, this baby may have a low CC, but it provides a major boost to attacks if I bother to play a foundation before them (which also has synergy with ::Sagat::'s other E), and it lets me draw cards in a pinch.

Flooded-Nile Throw - 4 diff 4 damage throw that flips a 3? It makes it on stats alone, but I also made sure the E is not a waste of breath (gasp!).

High Plasma Beam - Kill condition #1. This guy accumulates a lot of foundations, and he does it fast. That means that after I buff this attack to the moon , it buffs itself some more. Win.

Crushing Embrace of the Jotun - Another throw with sweet stats.

Tiger Fury - Kill condition #2. Despite the number notation, this is more or less what the deck is built around, since I don't have to commit out for this one to work (unlike High Plasma Beam), and it's immune to Bitter Rivals and all that other annoying stuff.

Battle Prowess - It provides some spiffy vitality gain. Combine it with Criminal Past for hilarious results with your opponent's attacks.

Blinding Rage - It has the symbols I'm looking for in my staging area (Earth and Fire), it flips a 6, and helps out a lot against Owlface, which can otherwise ruin my day.

Origins Unknown - Kill facilitator #1. The way the deck is built, it can crank out some fairly impressive speed bonuses for your attacks, and may the gods help your opponent if there's more than 1 of 'em out there...

Torn Hero - Because getting Sagat committed really, REALLY sucks, and it also has the convenient side effect of top-notch Stun deterrence.

Amy's Assistance - Damage soak and asset hate in one convenient package, and it has Earth and Fire. Awesome.

Distractible - Because Rejection is this deck's worst nightmare.

Holding Ground - You're not the only one roaming about with a 1-hit-KO strategy, so it behooves you to plan against said strategies (I'm looking at you, Hilde*...).

Memories of a Nightmare - Because Bitter Rivals is a close second to Rejection as far as giving this deck fits goes, and it also gets rid of a whole lot of other annoying stuff, such as Criminal Past and almost any negation card.

Stand Off - Pump and redux in the same foundation, OR a way to easily commit out my opponent. Works for me either way, especially because it's Earth and Fire.

Criminal Past - Taking half damage from an attack by only committing a foundation is always a good deal. Being able to do that while gaining vitality is just hilarious.

Program Malfunction - Eliminate something that annoys you from your opponent's staging area.

The Street Life - Kill facilitator #2. Turns a large damage bonus (such as from Tiger Fury or High Plasma Beam) into a certain killshot, no questions asked. And it has Earth and Fire, which is always nice.

I would love to incorporate Journey of Repentance , if only because of its hilarious anti-Olcadan's synergy with Blinding Rage, but I don't have any room (plus, I'm already at 70). Any advice on what Journey can replace would be nice.

I have the deck at 70 cards, mostly because I want a lot of things and can't find anything to take out without hurting my core functions. Any advice on this (or any other front you think needs work) would be rather helpful.

70 might work since Sagat goes through his stuff quickly, and you wouldn't want to start checking nothing but attacks.

Firstly, I'd lose The Street Life. I just don't think it adds up to anything, and from my experience, one Tiger F or HPB is all it takes (if not, a 2nd copy will do the job).

I'm not a fan of Stand Off. If you have good experiences with it, then I guess bully to you.

You're gonna need Prowess, and Prowess + Criminal Past + Sagat = no damage, like, evar.

You might be able to get away with something like this:

Foundations: 36

4x Program Malfunction 3/5 +1-MID
3x Criminal Past 3/5
3x Distractible 2/5
3x Memories of a Nightmare 2/5
3x Amy's Assistance 2/4 +1-MID
3x Holding Ground 2/4 +2-LOW
3x Journey of Repentance 2/4
3x Blinding Rage 1/6 +1-MID
4x Origins Unknown 1/5 +1-HIGH
3x Torn Hero 1/5
4x Battle Prowess 1/4

The only problem now is finding a good timing for Origins Unknown =/

It's something.

Thanks for the insight, man. I'll edit in some of the changes now. Tell me what you think of them, eh?

Your deck's lookin pretty beastin' mon frer

I was just thinking last night...

Criminal Past + Battle Prowess + Sagat is STOOPID! Seriously, how on earth (no pun intended, but still funny) are you gonna get past that wall? =D

Love it! I've been looking for inspiration to build Sagat again, as my attempts off Fire and Earth builds back in Block 2 drove me off the big guy. I did find some love with Clean Rematch, The Ways of Punishment and Glare/Bitter Rivals/KOF2006, but discard's going out again with the new anti-discard out there.

Nice build right off the bat. In my experience with Ready for Anything though I find that it's only really useful for drawing cards since you'd rather be trying to string attacks one after another to kill. With Sagat's foundation whoring you really don't have to worry about drawing a dead hand after youve put out a few throws.

Also, given Sagat's acceleration I've found that you can often run at or above 68 cards easy, but then I'd recommend adding two more cheap throws and run your build at 72 so you have a better chance to accelerate instead of waiting for your opponent to start swinging. After that it's just a matter of play style.

MarcoPulleaux said:

lol on the Earth bit. You actually got me to snort into my OJ.

Thanks, bud. Glad you like it.

Off the top of my head, the only way to punch through that with any kind of efficiency is Memories of a Nightmare, Rashotep's shenanigans, and/or liberal amounts of negation (Chester's Backing/No Memories in particular). A tough nut to crack, this one.

@Judas: Yeah, my intention is to use Redy for Anything strictly as a card drawing engine. If you think 2 cheap throws would do me some good, maybe I can take them out. Think that's a good idea?

I'm used to playing an aggressive fire build of this guy so I'm not sure if Ready for Anything would actually help your deck or not. Somehow thought you had a full set in there instead of just 2 so it might be worth it to keep them in.

Too bad there's no more decent throws other than what you're using already. You might look at Hilt Impact for the 4 dif with stun 2. Early turns give it a pretty good chance to hit and in the longer games can squeeze in just enough damage and shut down their chance to block. There's also Yi Shan's Tiger Claw that hits harder but only stuns 1, though if you could get it to momentum it might be more useful over time. Of the two I recommend H I.

Ready for Anything might be good for you since you look to be in for longer games, so the first thing I'd recommend is just adding the two attacks on top of everything and run at 72. If you wanted to thin out the deck I'd pull out Street Life first, anything after that is up for debate.

Just to give you an idea of how I think, my fire build spams Pommel Smash and Zi Mei's Wheel Kick on the kill turn to take down their defenses before Tiger Fury says 'HI'.