I have just been pondering the new characters, and noticed a glut of 6 handsizers and some excellent abilities. Now my question is, are the 6 HS characters about to make a pounce for the top spot? Or are the current/new 7 HS still dominant? Here are some ideas:

Nightmare - although your opponent gets to choose, the ability allows you to react, meaning no risk to you, plus you get to keep you foundations, you opponent does not!

Lu Chen - not only does he take a potentially awesome card from the hand, you clog up your opponent's card pool, good work old boy!

Astrid - I haven't seen all her stuff, all weapons are Reversals?!? Thats nuts, potentially all her attacks could be nasty AND coming at you in your own turn, eep!

Yi Shan - knowing all the attacks that go into your momentum!?! Think of all those effects that recycle momentum?!?! Just think!!!!

Just a few there, but these characters seem strong to me (Nightmare is a peronal fave at the mo!). So has the 6 HS day finally come? Answers on a postcard!

Sadly, I don't think so.

There's at least been some improvement at least. Siegfried and Astrid's damage pumps are amazing, and in theory be enough to push through enough damage. It's not, at least in the play I've seen against Tier decks. I can push life totals to a measily 1-3, but it's not been enough to kill a 7-HS. Whether it's Healer, Rejection, Holding Ground, or Chester's Backing, the 7-HS have been able to build fast enough to keep that one step ahead of the big time damage pumps.

The other issue is that 7-HS characters have just as good, if not better, abilities than 6-HS characters do. For every Siegfried or Astrid we get, we also get Hilde or Jon Herr. As it's been demonstrated with the last two sets of characters, until we see a downgrade in ability power, the vitality difference isn't enough to put 6-HS characters equal to 7-HS. Look at Leona, heh. People actually look at her as a competitive play with 14 Vitality. That's the best example we've got that vitality difference just isn't enough of an answer. Abilities are going to need to be toned down a little on 7HS if 6HS are ever going to be consistently competitive without built-in recursion/draw to overcome their 6HS.

I think so...

The most important part of a character is their abilities. Then you look at HS-V distribution, then symbols.

In my opinion, Yi Shan is the poster 6 hander. A free ability that absolutely wrecks face, and arguably the top 3 anti-meta symbols. If he can avoid Tag Along (which he can with an Earth Inhuman Perception or Life Kung-Fu Training), he's generally good to go.

6 handers need to compensate for one thing: their handsize. As such, reliable draw is a necessity. Aquakinesis officially makes anybody who runs it good, which is one of the chief reasons Seong Mi-Na is undeniably top tier.

Aquakinesis aside, 6 handers need to absolutely push the envelope because, unfortunately, 7 handsize has proven time and time again to be THE best handsize around.

But to answer your question directly, yes, 6 handers now have enough methods to compete.

astrid is amazing. she is perhaps the best six hander without draw/recursion. as far as the other chars go, I think unless you have built in draw or recursion, a character can't consistently top with less than 7hs.

Fiddlestix said:

Read his attacks. More specifically. Yi Shan's Tiger Claw and Striking Thunder.

Read Tieh Lei : Iron Thunder.

I like Promo Temujin built with Weenie attacks, use a Chaos or Wind foundation base then any of his symbols for the attacks and go to town, 2-difficulty 7-damage attack? Yes please.

I like Yi Shans Attacks a lot better in Felecia since she makes them go in for sure =D

Speaking of Felecia shes pretty nice isnt she?

Sol Badguy said:

Off Water? Sure. However, Felicia not being Block 4 means I can just not care about her.

I still dont think on a whole 6 HSers are up there yet. Theres only 2 ways they become competitive:

- Built in draw such as Alex or Sakura, but then they arent really 6 hsers so much as somewhere in between.

- As close to broken as it can get ability (and sometimes broke like talbain). Abilities really do define the character but as long as there is a 7HS with a comparable ability it will almost always win out. I would also contend that a character typically needs 2 abilities that are both utilized to be effective, because of how prominent tag along is. Even Alex can occasionally throw a card for a pump.

There's a few characters out there right now who are probably on the cusp of greatness with a 6HS, but i mean look at every aggros character in the new sets and then look at which one is making a splash (hildie).

Sol Badguy said:

Felicia + Antisocial

Felicia and Yi Shan's attacks can be cool, but she doesn't get to add them for free, unfortunately. Plus, Atoning for the Past is fun for Kunai-esque momentum additions.

Felicia's biggest problem has been that too many people build her solely around T1 kills. She can do much more than that, and having the best momentum generating ability in this game means cards with momentum costs can be used by her to their fullest (Curse of Immortality, Torn Hero, etc).

MarcoPulleaux said:

Block 3 T1 Felicia, afaik, hasn't been "big" since about Set 9. Felicia has still been around, built using lots of 6ccs and using early game Feline Spikes to hopefully catch you unaware, but frankly Chun Li does the same general theme with a far more robust deck. The last Felicia deck I've heard about on here was the one that took (IIRC) 4th place and Swiss Champ at the most recent Canadian regional, that used Bringing the Master to His Knees among other nifty tech things to backup its Feline Spikes. I think that's the direction Felicia needs to take -- playing a few foundations early to prevent complete domination from a control deck, and then going off with a series of actions and utility attacks {Heel Snipe, Ichi no Tachi, Ira Spinta}, clearing them with her Form, then going to town with big Multiple attacks. Too bad Land Walk isn't legal anymore... :b

Much like you used Froggy to get momentum for Torn Hero (or I guess for any purpose), Felicia has the lovely capability to string of attacks, clear card pool + momentum gen, then likely wreck face with Feline, Ryu's Shin Donkey Punch, etc etc.

Also, her handsize shouldn't be a liability; splashing Aquakinesis should be a life-saver, ESPECIALLY if you're running stuff like Antisocial or Buddhist Devotion, which speed up her T1 T2 capabilities.

MarcoPulleaux said:

Not that Aqua's a bad card, but it is not a cure for the tiny handsize blues.

Also, Bigger They Are = way better than Aqua for folks like Seong Mina, Froggy, Kyoshiro...

Wafflecopter said:

I disagree. I only mentioned Antisocial and Buddhist because they can evade symbol chains, and hasten any deck. Water Felicia is arguably the best way to go.

Also, I think Aquakinesis is the cure for any character who needs to draw. BTA is an awesome card in certain decks sure, but being 1/5 is also a reason it sees frequent play.

Different cards for different decks, but both fulfill the same purpose.

Hallo! My name is Zangief, and I am beefy Russian pro wrestler. Your puny attacks mean nothing to my massive muscles. Watch as I draw many cards and squish your tiny head with my gigantic body! Do not attempt dis at home little kiddies!

*Flying Power Bomb action side*

quarzark said:

Zangief is stupid. His reduction not having a minimum made everybody hate me for winning the Earth patch =D

Use his reduction to survive until you can stack his aggressive promo, and then wreck absolute face with The Ways of Punishment and Multiple abuse <3

I have had decent success with 6 hand sizers. Nothing to major though. Right now I am running a Siegfried deck and it seems to work just fine. You really need to have a character with great abilities at a 6hs. I think in order to have success with a 6hs you really need to streamline the deck and really fine tune it, even more so then usual.

Promo Dhalsim is hot stuff.

Some awesome comments folks, keep em coming!

Felicia is a big winner in my book, abusing Power of the Light early game can see a nicely stocked hand whilst recycling anything in your hand that isn't useful for the situations you are currently in

I think a lot of people are right, the more succesful characters out there have either card draw built in or have access to additional card draw (Aqua, Bigger they are, etc). 7 HS get round this to some extent (especially seeing as a mulligan will get then a quarter of the way through their deck, good odds for finding what you want!). Either that, or they have ways to reduce your opponents ability to play cards (e.g. Akuma) or even just recycle cards (e.g. momentum gen for multiples, card pool emptying).

All in all, card draw and card advantage are very important (despites drawing up to a full hand every turn) and I dearly want to seee then balancing that will hopefully occur when the MUCHOS POWEROS!!!!! of the sets proceeding 12 have gone, and the mighty 6HS will reign supreme (or, just, ya know, be on par........I'd be happy with that.....ahem)

THAT said, I am still loving teh current environment, so much is viable!

What was the point of this thread again....?

OH YEAH!!!! Bring back the 6hs please, I miss the awesome characters! I'd love to represent me fave character at majors again, not have to choose what I think will give me the best chance of winning from characters I have only a passing affinity for.

Thanks for the ramblings!

I think Hata could be a contender. 6HS is small but with his abilties attacks become huge and unblockable quite easily. He can most 7HSers T2 with 2-3 attacks as long as he gets decent drops first turn.

And another thing going for 6HS vs 7HS is that a 6HS can survive a spike to the face.

**Hata** is a really good character, I just find him boring. His R is EXTREMELY easy to abuse, I just find Air to be a boring symbol these days. With all of its Lord of the Makai and Shooting Capoera abuse, it's really hard for any Air character to stand out. While Hata has Death, so do better characters, leavng Fire his only appealing symbol, and really, I'm no fan of Fire.

::Sophitia:: is hawt. I know there are lots of people who can abuse both Anti K and Forethought, but Sophitia can run both off of two symbols AND refill her hand AND run either BTA or Aquakinesis. The girl has lots going for her IMO.

I take offense in no one talking about set Rashotep.

What good is a 7HS character's abilities if the character card is blank?

Though doesn't that functionally make Rashotep blank as well? I think many people are saying that a blank 7 hs is greater than a blank 6hs.

Not the ones the topic starter suggested but there are others. I mean Morrigan was popular at POTM and seong mina tops almost every regional .

Baranor said:

To an extent. Rashotep has a lot of really good support (an AMAZING asset and super cool Crocodile Darh Vader Choke) and a good enough symbol spread to counter a LOT of the meta.

Much like how *Yoshitora* was amazing because he could commit anything with an enhance (namely, the top tier characters of the time, such as Ukyo and Nakoruru), Rashotep is amazing because of his ability to make ANYTHING useless (as in, aggressive Ibukers, Lolde, Seong Mi-Na becomes garbage, etc).

And after reviewing what I just said, I think Rashotep is...pretty high tier. Sure he has one ability, but that's really all he needs.