This is a little thread I like to toss up every once and a while to get some discussion going. I personally feel that we've settled into the new format very quickly, and as such I would like to see your own individual thoughts on the best cards in the format.

Being a forum as such, there's no limit to your opinion. You don't even have to give reasons or confine yourself to a strict 1 of list. To keep things brief, I am going to toss out a best. I might go into "Runner Ups" in a different post

Best foundation: Red Lotus of the Sun. It shuts so many things down, including things it shouldn't. How utterly b0rk (bork bork'd) this card is is similar to how stupid The Curse Broken was back in the previous format, its power is over shadowed by the more obvious cards, and gets a pass because it's almost a necessary evil (much like TCB was)

Best Asset: Seal of Cessation. This is a no brainer really. The sign of a good player is the player who knows how to bait opposing Seals and use his own. A one time "No" button to essentially anything is absolutely silly, and being able to have more than one on the field at the same time can create for some absolute head aches.

Best Action: Tag Along. Rejection is annoying, but properly Tagging a character can be back breaking. The recursion is just icing on the cake.

Best Attack: Gonna have to give it to Feline Spike. The one check is disgusting and the seven difficulty makes it susceptible to BRT/Forethought/Anti K shenanigans, but 24 damage in symbols that don't have any real trouble producing two momentum is efficient to the point of insanity. Then you tack on the block, the reversal, the stun, and the fact that Ichi No Tachi/Mark of the Beast/Make a Difference can't touch it, and you have one of the most reliable kill methods in the game. There's been a slew of hate for it lately, and Bitter Rivals has seen a rise in popularity now that it can hit almost every single relevant attack in the game, but Feline Spike is often able to power through it.

Best Character: Promo Zi Mei. Arguably the best symbol spread in the game. 7 Handsize, super commital abilities and extra damage tacked onto that. The fact that she hasn't won events yet is curious to me. She tops often but she doesn't seem to make it all the time.

Best foundation: Too many good foundtions for me to take a pick. Chester's, Blood, Lotus, Bitter Rivals, Lord of the Makai, Forethought etc etc etc

Best Asset: I would say it's a tie between Seal and Olcadon's...But I would probably say Seal gets the vote simply because of how much owl hate there is now.

Best Action: Without a doubt Tag Along for all the reasons you said.

Attack: Kuzuryu Reppa. WHAT?!?! Not SPIKE? That's right! I said it. I LOVE Reppa. The stats are amazing especially for a multiple attack. The effect is incredible even if the card didn't have multiple one I would still run it in every All/Order/Void deck I could. maybe I am being a bit too biased because i'm a Void fanboy though

Just got back from a regionals, so I think my input actually matters this time =)

Foundation: Unfortunately, the list is huge, and really, situations determine everything. But really, Arch, we are in agreement. Red Lotus is only TRULY stopped by Siegfried and Rashotep's support. Red Lotus is an absolute staple to anything that can run it.

Asset: Seal

Action: Tag Along

Attack: Feline Spike. It was ran in almost every single top 8 deck at my regionals, including, lol, mine <3

Character: Donovan. Unparalleled speed, beautiful symbol spread, two free abilities, there's simply no way to go wrong.

I would tend to give my vote to Ira-Spinta for best attack, simply because that's the card that handed my Frogase her ass lol.

Spike is strong, sure, but it grows very ineffective when a pile of Holding Grounds and Fight or Flight-ses show up, especially backed by Torn Hero or a buffer of 0- and 1-diff foundations to deal with the stun. And the good high blocks that are showing up a lot -- Heel Snipe and Abelia's Companionship (the new 2/4 one, I can't remember which is Abelia vs Aurelia or Friendship vs Companionship... lol). The answers to ISpin amount to Red Lotus, Seal, CC hack keeping it off the board, and ... Calming the Mind? In other words, things you have to deal with anyway. And, for an Order deck, Spinta is one of the best solutions to Red Lotus -- force it to negate something, then scoop it off the board. While Spinta itself doesn't win games the way that Spike does, it's a ridiculously strong piece to win the grey war and set up a kill of your choice -- hell, you could do a Knight Breaker combo off of it. You can throw a Personal Style Reppa. You could just loop Spintas backed up by Ultimate and Immortal and Genocide for more damage {and if they stuff U&I into momentum, you just got yet more board advantage}

IMO, the top 4 foundations are Chester's, Experienced Combatant, Lotus, and Torn Hero. Not really sure where to put them relative to each other tho, lol. BRT doesn't quite make the list because of how effective Willfull and Destiny are at completely flipping its switch to OFF.

^ A man after my own heart. Total agreement on all points. Wafflecopter fanboyism level +1.

Relative to each other...

-Experienced Combatant
-Red Lotus
-Chester's
-Torn Hero

And obviously Seal of Cessation and Tag Along for asset/action.

Character is a lot harder. If Gill could play Rejection, it'd be him, no contest. That guy makes me really nervous. I'd probably say Donovan, Andrew Olexa, Chun-Li, and Ibuki would represent my top four picks. I have no idea as to how I'd rank them relative to each other.

Best foundation: NOT RED LOTUS. sorry people but on its own red lotus just cancels stuff, but the fact of the matter is if your opponent dosent try to manipulate your staging area at all it may very well be a dead foundation. I would also contend that there are a weath of situations where makai high noble would be better. If I were to pick a best foundation I think it would have to be LOTM, not that i think there is one "best". Its versatility combounded with is numbers makes it the most effecent card in the game. Even in a deck that never needs momentum, it can still function as a free draw or recursion.

Best asset: Olcadans. Seal does not register to me as even a contender. Yea its a fantastic off switch but its control check / difficutly makes it very hard to include in a lot of decks, while at the same time often foundations would be better than seal even of more limited use. BRT for instance cant stop as wide a variety of cards as seal, but its 2/5 helps you make checks to ensure you can get more answers and later your win condition, as well as being committable for other costs. Same can be said for red lotus, chesters, blinding rage, makai highnoble, etc, cards that people are already using.

Best action: Tag along. No argument from me.

Best attack: I spin or Reppa in thier respective decks. Before i get jumpped on for not sayign FSpike, please note that reppa dosetn share a symbol with it so its not really a comparision. THat being said i think Ispin is just superior in every single way to Fspike. A lot of people point to the damage output of fspike and say boo, but honestly i think most fspike decks win because of ispin and possible ispin recursion more so than actually spiking everyone. Theres also the fact that the spin is a throw which is near gaurenteed damage, top deckable, and not a 1 check.

Best Character: Impossible to say. If i had to pick one i woud say Akuma, but i dont think most characters can be directly compaired because they all do different things. I only say akuma because he can attack someone at the root of what they are doing (control checks) which undermines most other characters (donovan for instance needs to actually play cards to use his abilities.)

Clearly the best attack is Raging Gnome.

Attack: This is hard but I'll go with any attack that can possibly do a one shot kill like Fire Kick (only in a momentum gain deck of coarse) or Feline Spike even though I've never played the card myself. And then maybe Ira-spinta for board control. I also want to mention Knight Breaker for having 2 good abilities, good numbers, and a nice block. Kazuya Reppa is also superb.

Foundation: Bitter Rivals or Lord of the Makai. Both can be used over and over again. BR does 3 things (discard, reveal, or change zones). LotM can do 2 things effectively but has great numbers. I'll also mention The Ways of the Punishment because stripping away your opponents hand almost means certain death, plus it has good numbers with 0 block mod. Red Lotus too since many great decks have some kind of board manipulation so Red Lotus is almost always usefull (and because Olcadon's are all over the place and it's great against Ira-spinta which some consider the best attack).

Asset: Olcadon's Mentoring. It's numbers alone are the best literally (0 diff, 0 block, 6 chk), has a great abilty and not a Unique like some other good assets. Plus the infinite symbol is icing on the cake. I'll mention Path of the Master too because it has two good abilities, one of them having a great damage pump. And Seal of Cessation because its just an answer for almost anything like reversals, huge damage pumps, rejections, certain characters, possible loops, random shananegins, etc...

Action: Tag Along or Kung Fu Training. Both have 2 useful abilities and a bunch of resource symbols, but Kung Fu Training has better numbers as well as a block.

Character: Chun-li, Akuma, Alex, Sakura, Jon Herr, Nagase, Hilde, Ibuki, etc. There are many good competitive characters (thank goodness!) and It just depends on how the deck is built and how they make their great abilities even greater.

Protoaddict said:

Eithinis said:

seconded

let's keep this train going, guys

Forgot about Character...My vote would go to Donovan or Chun Li.

To be a bit more serious;

Best Attack: Spike, again, no question here. Once spike is gone, it'd be probably Midnight Launcher or Knight Breaker; Midnight Launcher stops rejection for a 2 vitality loss, it's a 7 damage at 4 diff with 3 check? really? that's incredibly solid. Knight Breaker on the other hand has an amazing block, 5/3 so great stats, and two great enhances on it's own. (Not to mention, death enhance can be done with *gasp* seal of cessation out, if your character lacks Death)

Best Action: Tag Along, no question really.

Best Asset: I'd probably still have to go with Seal, or The Evil-Doer Destroyer, although Seal can just stop...anything.

Best Foundation: Probably still BRT, in my opinion. Chesters stop BRT, red lotus stops chesters, and the control wars generally happen around the basis of this card. BRTing a block is absolutely silly, and it's one of the main reasons I like Ibuki, because she can sometimes negate BRT with her response (if you reveal a 3cc), and otherwise reduces it greatly.

Best Character: Probably have to give it to Chun-Li, although there are a ton of characters that are absolutely amazing right now. Jon Herr, Olexa, Seong-Mina (spinta lock obviously), Zi Mei, Ibuki, Donovan, yaddayadda.

Eithinis said:

I think Spinta is right behind Feline. It isn't the best because it simply does not kill (not by itself, at least), but the type of advantage it gives and the potential it has, in my opinion, makes it 2nd best.

Well, yes, I forgot to include spinta, the downside of spinta is (And this is sad that it's a downside) that it doesn't have evil. when you see like Seong-Mina spinta locks, a lot of decks have trouble with that though. Spinta definitely is up there though.

Eith -- Red Lotus can't negate Chester's, lol

My beef with Feline Spike is that it won't kill a prepared opponent without a lot of work in the first place, and once you put in that work you could exert just a fraction more effort to finish the match with your choice of other attacks -- attacks which don't roll 1s, or require a 7 check to pass.

-Attack: Ira-spinta as it almost permanently solves any foundation problems you may have.
-Foundation- Chester's backing for versatility and the ability to push through cards or defend.
-asset-olcadan's mentoriing, find me a deck that doesn't run 3-4 of these.
action-tag along, recursion and character negation.
-character, chun li

Er wow, why did I saw that o.O I have no idea. You're totally right. Either way, lotus is still meant to keep things up, chesterwars and sealwars keep BRT going, lotus keeps those open, and often times to protect BRT.

Best Foundation: Lord of the Makai. It feeds so many ability costs with none of it's own. That second ability always seems to show up at crucial points as well.

Best Asset: Owlface. It's stats are too good for it's ridicious ability.

Best Action: Tag Along. It's very, very good for what it does, but you'll not hear arguments that it's overcosted or it's check is too low or any of that. It's an ideal card to look at on how things like that ought to be done.

Best Attack: Ira-Spinta. With very few answers to it still, it's an attack that can easily take care of your opponent's problem cards.

Best Character: Chun-Li. She's still best due to what she does. However, it's going to take a different build of her in order to actually win a major. Promo Zi Mei is a close second, with the same philosophy issues.

sir_shajir said:

^- sums it up.

However, that's just my view on the competitive standpoint. My own, terribly biased opinion on what I think is best?

Attack: Pommel Smash. It's techy and ridiculously cute. A necessity in an environment where you need to shut down cards.

Foundation: Revenant's Calling. Balanced and Amazing. This card wins you games.

Asset: Birdman

Action: Tag Along. It really is too good... but because of it's stats and lack of block, is perfectly balanced and great for our environment. Top on my list of cards to get the 5 star, or at least the character negation ability.

Character: Rashotep. He's coming for you. Best be prepped to be choke slammed.

Foundation- BRT. I can't deny it. I can't shy away from it. LOTM comes in as a very close second for me. I can't deny a powerhouse like BRT its right to be called the best.

Attack- Kitty Spike. It's immune to anti-multiple blocks. There's not much argument from me.

Action- Rejection. As great as Tag Along is, the ability to donut attacks just appeals to me far more.

Asset- Owlface. When the PRIMARY reason people run cards like Red Lotus and Oral Dead is because of one Asset, it's undeniably that effective.

Character- Chun-li, hands down. If you see someone playing an Air deck, you bet your ass there is a 75-80% chance that they are running Chunners in the side board if she isn't being main-boarded.

Attack- Feline Spike. If you have those symbols, you run it. It's been dominant in the meta since it came out. It is the Swipe of this block in terms of use, effectiveness, and ludicrous like abilities. A very very VERY close second is Ira Spinta. Again if you have the symbols, you run it. Three cards off the top of my head stop it, and two are assets.

Foundation- Lord of the Makai. It's free. It has two of the top symbols in the game. It also fetches cards back. Did I mention it was free?

Action- Tag Along. An actual balanced card that stops lots of decks.

Asset- Owlface. Too good, and the whole "he has nothing but good foundations in his discard" is the stupidest argument against this card ever. Which would you rather see on the board on your kill turn? An Aquakenisis or Prgram Malfunction, or a BRT that's gonna stop your kill card?

Character- Jon Herr. Sense a theme here? Free is free and in my opinion Herr is one of the biggest most overpowered character ever printed. No he does not rank up there with Cassie, Promo Zas, Promo Nak, or Promo Yung Seung, but since that point there hasn't been any toon better... Period. The fact that he can run every single power/money card in the game except Ira Spinta, has access to a nice chunk of the Anti Meta cards as well (Revenant's, Oral Dead, Red Lotus) and oh yeah, has absolutly free abilities, one of which being a draw and he rocks a 7 handsize. I can't express any more my hatred for this card than I already have. Chun Li is great and all, but if Ira Spinta or Feline Spike (more Spinta) go the way of the doddo (and I have an itch that ONE of them will go at some point) then her powerlevel drops immensly.

Attack- I still think its feline spike 6 of top 8 decks at texas throwdown had it still very efficient kill.

Character- I think Chun li is still top her stats are awesome and control decks have issue defending against them .

Asset - Olcadans hands down obvious reasons

Actions- Tag along best recursion block 3 and character negation is still huge

Foundation- Red lotus stops so many things and is a key card to handle order.