SO.

Some of you may have heard that I currently play Yi Shan almost exclusively. More importantly, that I build him in the format where he is absolute garbage, the Mini-Standard (or Mini STD or Tiny Syphillis) format. Why is he garbage? No promo.

HOWEVER.

You may also have heard that I toss Dragon Punches for 15 damage on turn 3, which in the Tiny Syphillis format, is pretty **** good. Especially considering his other tricks.

So here is the deck I'm working on now that Close Throw is in the prize support (which we actually got on time so I'm doubly impressed) :

Characters:
Yi Shan2 x4 (free 6CC and +0 block - my favorite! I am also way too lazy to remove them from the deck)

Actions: 4
Tieh Lei, Iron Thunder x4 (Anti-Discard, setting up kill condition or decent buff to attack all in one? Plus an AWESOME high block? YES!)

Assets: 5
Pendant of the Western Paradise x3 (4 would be fine but... it's Unique and no block)
Monastery of Mt. Lao x2 (4/4, a block - it is there to destroy Terrains)
Scroll of the Celestial Dawn x2 (3/5 again, destroys assets and allows for playing foundations before anything else)

Attacks: 21
Close Throw x4 (Mid zone for Oratorio Halcyon, Throw and a good static as well as a 3CC? YES!)
Striking Thunder x4 (Decent damage and a great effect once face-up. In)
Rage of the Dragon x3 (Buffs itself so win right there.)
Yi Shan's Tiger Claw x4 (Stun : 1 on every attack? UH WHY WOULD I WANT THAT I MEAN COMMITTING OTHER PEOPLE'S STUFF IS NOT A GOOD STRATEGY)
Dragon Punch x3
Razor's Bite x3 (One of Life's best attacks)

Foundations: 27
Iron Body Technique x3
Dark Past x3
Zhao Family Discipline x3
Torn Hero x4 (1 difficulty foundations make me stiff as hell)
Atoning for the Past x4
Journey of Repentance x3
Perfect Sense of Balance x4
Dead for Thousands of Years x3

In such a small format...

no Genius Alchemist for card pool cheatery?

MarcoPulleaux said:

No need. A 2/5 sans block is more useful when it gives me a damage pump and trigger for Pendant of the Western Paradise's R.

nice deck, i am sure it's rather brutal in the mini format.

trane said:

I still need to test out the Scroll/Monastery addition because Speed is a genuine concern. I'm getting my attacks blocked way too much especially since they're all mid.

Looks solid overall; I have a few comments, though.

4 characters IMHO is wasteful, ESPECIALLY when you don't get that bonkers power bonus that Promo Yi Shan gets from it. I'd toss those for some IMHO much-needed foundations.

Close Throw is coming back? Yummy; sign me up on that one as soon as I get my paws on them.

In my experience, 27 foundations is far too few; I'd trim your Pendants to 2, trim the attacks to 18 (I'd go for -3 Razor's Bite, +1 Dragon Punch, -3 Rage of the Dragon), and put some more foundations in. Memories of a Nightmare and Atoning for His Wicked Deeds sound like solid bets, as does Ka Technique.

Speed is a legitimate issue to be worried about in mini-block, since basically everything that Earth uses to actually hit people (at least everything I've seen) comes from Flames of Fame (SNK04). Sadly, there are few answers that I know of, and you've already touched on most of the viable ones. I believe Ivy and Tira have some rather conditional speed boosters if you go for a Life foundation base, but that's about it...

LordAggro said:

18 attacks is too low (I've tried - with more consistent buffs it would be great but Striking Thunder either has to do damage or I must have Tieh Lei, Iron Thunder in hand), and Razor's Bite is an extremely useful card to toss first thing. Being able to see your check is absolutely fabulous, and it combines well with the Scroll's effect of lowering foundations (if you get a string of bad checks).

Pendants to 2 will probably be done at one point. Same with the characters - as much as I like 6CCs they ain't needed and they're unreliable. So out they go. Memories of a Nightmare goes in, but Atoning for his Wicked Deeds stays out due to being unable to use the Good character effect. If I ever put Path of the Master in (which I likely will - it is Tiny Syphillis format), I will probably end up putting that one in there as well. I'll put up a build in this post using the revisions made with your post in mind. I tried it with Path of the Master, but again discussion and testing will be required. I'll try it come next Tuesday at our Standard play night (with the new bans my deck should be able to beat face even in Standard). I don't have the Eiserne's nor the Scroll but hey I'll make do.

* * *

Characters: 1 (-3 Yi Shan2)
Yi Shan2 x1

Actions: 4
Tieh Lei, Iron Thunder x4 (Anti-Discard, setting up kill condition or decent buff to attack all in one? Plus an AWESOME high block? YES!)

Assets: 9 (-2 Monastery +2 Eiserne Drossel +3 Path of the Master)
Pendant of the Western Paradise x2 (4 would be fine but... it's Unique and no block)
Eiserne Drossel x2 (Gotta love that speed buff)
Scroll of the Celestial Dawn x2 (3/5 again, destroys assets and allows for playing foundations before anything else)
Path of the Master x3 (Scroll and Atoning for his Wicked Deeds, plus most of my attacks share at least 2 symbols with my character which means the damage buff will hurt)

Attacks: 20 (-1 Close Throw)
Close Throw x3 (Throw - it WILL go to momentum)
Striking Thunder x4 (Decent damage and a great effect once face-up. In)
Rage of the Dragon x3 (It is either bait for the block that would be used against Dragon Punch or it will outright kill my opponent. The block is sexy and the 3 CC doesn't hurt either)
Yi Shan's Tiger Claw x4 (Stun : 1 on every attack? UH WHY WOULD I WANT THAT I MEAN COMMITTING OTHER PEOPLE'S STUFF IS NOT A GOOD STRATEGY)
Dragon Punch x3 (Early kill)
Razor's Bite x3 (One of Life's best attacks)

Foundations: 30 (-3 Zhao Family Discipline +3 Memories of a Nightmare -1 Perfect Sense of Balance +4 Atoning for his Wicked Deeds)
Iron Body Technique x3
Dark Past x3
Memories of a Nightmare x3
Torn Hero x4 (1 difficulty foundations make me stiff as hell)
Atoning for the Past x4
Journey of Repentance x3
Perfect Sense of Balance x3
Dead for Thousands of Years x3
Atoning for his Wicked Deeds x4

Total cards : 63 + Character - Not bad.

Homme Chapeau said:

I'll defer to your expertise on the attack count for this one, since I've never played Miniblock. I can tell you my current Earth *Yi Shan* deck is running 16 attacks and puts people down pretty nicely, but I have Origins Unknown and Heidern's Assassination Arts to make it all hit.

How about some Robes of the Grandmaster as a poor man's Eiserne Drossel? All your attacks are off Life, so it works out pretty good. If you're willing to put in some extra cash, CoolStuffInc also has Eiserne Drossel at $0.99 each.

LordAggro said:

I'll probably add those to the gigaorder once I get a paycheck. It's mostly what's keeping me from just buying the stuff I'm missing.

Heck, you should run both. I was bored, so I have a draft of a deck I'll share with you (hope you don't mind). I actually ran a deck pretty similar to this against pre-ban Order and Evil decks, and I was surprised to see it could hold its own, provided it didn't let them slip out of the 5th turn alive (which wasn't as hard as it sounds).

Starting Character:

Yi Shan** (6 HS 26 Vitality) (Earth, Life, Water)

Actions:

4 Tieh Lei, Iron Thunder (2/5 +1H) (Earth, Life, Water)

Assets:

3 Path of the Master (where can I find this card so I can see it?!?!)

2 Eiserne Drossel (3/5 +2M; Unique, Weapon) (Life)

2 Robes of the Grandmaster (3/4; Unique) (Life, Water)

2 Scroll of the Celestial Dawn (3/5 +2M; Unique) (Life, Water)

Attacks:

4 Dragon Punch (4/2 4M6 +2M; Punch) (Earth, Life, Water)

4 Yi Shan's Tiger Claw (4/3 3H5 +3H; Stun: 1) (Earth, Life, Water)

4 Close Throw (5/3 4M4; Stun: 2, Throw) (Earth, Life)

4 Striking Thunder (5/3 3M6) (Earth, Life, Water)

3 Rage of the Dragon (6/3 4M6 +1M; Punch, Yi Shan Only) (Earth, Life, Water)

Foundations:

4 Torn Hero (1/5) (Earth, Life)

4 Atoning for the Past (2/5 +3M) (Earth, Life, Water)

4 Hungry for Battle (2/4) (Earth)

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

4 Perfect Sense of Balance (2/5) (LIfe)

4 Zhao Family Discipline (3/5 +3H) (Earth, Life, Water)

4 Dead for One Thousand Years (4/5 +3H) (Earth)

Total Cards: A streamlined 60 + character