I've heard mention of Leona several times as being really good. I've seen that she's topped two (I think two, might have been three) regionals.

I'm curious as to how that works. I know she's got great potential, I just can' seem to find it. Anyone care to clue me in?

She's pretty good in KoF 12.

Good, quick, love overheads with V-Slash and good pokes too.

In my experience, she's been equal parts Sagat (build up furiously, cut loose later) with a touch of Visions of Destiny (thanks to her E, mostly). I don't think anyone doubts Earth's tanking capabilities, so she stays alive, outbuilds you, then beheads you with whatever she has in hand (Origins Unknown + Cobra Blow = Deceptive Look-ish fun times ).

Wow, I def. thought this was the off topic forums talking about KoF 12 coming out. Lame.

MegaGeese said:

8 handsize, ability to "peak" ala Jon Herr.

That's about it. Her F Commit to give attacks +2 speed is cute at best. Her E is pretty much the shining gem...I guess. It's more useful to peak than it is for the damage pump, because, unfortunately, the damage pump is a bit too situational, and while you MAY get a pump, uh...your next check is an attack =/...

8 handsize means a lot. I should know; during the Set 10 pre-release, I went undefeated with a full tiebreaker using Leona =)

Otherwise, everytime people keep saying, "She has potential, people just aren't using her", what they mean to say is, "She has an 8 handsize, but because her vitality is extraordinarily low and she has virtually no usable abilities that matter, and her symbols are mid-tier, she simply will not see play."

While people keep saying aggro is somehow back, they seem to be forgetting their aggro roots. We don't have the days of the Aggro 3: Adon, Twelve, Xianghua. Characters who pumped weenie attacks to MADDDDD damage, enough so that strings of attacks were as pressuring as all Hell.

To be quite frank, the closest we have to that are characters like Mitsurugi, Siegfried, Yuri, and Yi Shan. Just goes to show you how much your handsize can hold you back from people caring about you =/

Either way, will "Aggro" come back? I doubt it. Why? Because we don't have nearly the free abilities we had, and as I mentioned, the 4 characters above are pretty much the only ones who could bring aggro back BECAUSE of their free abilities. What's more, out of those 4, I think only Yuri could do it because of her access to both AquaBrokensauce, and The Lamer They Are. That, and she can totally abuse Battle Prowess, and with Feline Gone, good luck bringing her down dood.

I think if you're talking about o.g. aggro then you really need to include Promo Talim and unerrata'd Fireball Khols in the mix. Both were ridiculously fierce who won games by T2, or if you were Fireball Khols, T1 about 35% of the time.

I DO think there are a couple characters who could bring 'Aggro' back that you haven't mentioned: Fio being one of them, as she strips her opponent's hand whilst generating momentum at the same time. I think Promo Guy built split symbol, either Fire/Order (TransPlans jank) or Chaos/Fire has real potential.

And, yes, since i built and ran her on Saturday I like Leona. However, i really see her being built only a couple ways in order to be viable: Origins Unknown + Cobra Blow being perhaps the best.

I'm waiting for someone to build the new 'Stroth with some of her support thrown into the mix, and seeing how well that turns out.

@Shinji: Why isn't promo Zi Mei mentioned? She has a damage pump that can match 12 or X, and her tap ability that's ridiculous.

I won't really go into it any further because this is a thread about Leona and you're pretty much giving the same canned response you do every time aggro gets brought up, but I wonder what qualities she has that preclude her from being "aggro". She hasn't made top cuts anywhere... but I think that says more about the meta than her character.

Anyway, on-topic, Leona's 8HS with access to Anti K', Intimidating Presence, and Ira Spinta. Plus all of Earth's tricks and whatnot, if you want a different build (she could be a complete terror with Hulking Brute, lol 10hs + piles of 1- and 0-diff stuff). Hell, you could probably use her to sandbag Fire Akuma and do pretty good.

Wafflecopter said:

she topped at the NOVA regional.

Derp, yeah, what am I talking about. I myself played against a Zi Mei in top 4 at our regional >_>

trane said:

Who? Zi Mei or Leona?

Leona, Also 1 hr later at the SEC Regionals she also topped and came in 3rd overall. The funny thing about her is most look at her and see 3 good symbols an 8 hand and a VERY SQUISHY 14 vitality, that i think is the ONLY thing holding people back from playing her. On the first note i do remember 2 days before SEC when the commit one podcast for that month was released, i overheard everyone say about leona and i quote: "she's good but i doubt she'll ever top at any event outside of locals" boy did they look a little silly.

and about Yuri being the queen of agro right now, yes she is but she also has one thing that will hurt her a little bit, she lost Rejection with the recient bannings but yes she also gained ground with Owlface, LOTM & Chesters going away, and the errata to China Box and Feline Spike helped her tremendously, maybe we'll see more Yuri decks now, but i doubt it.

N.J.

NJBrock22 said:

Elaborate, please!

Also, yes, less discussion about aggro in general, and more focus on Leona, please. I get the concept of aggro, but not how Leona plays. I've no problem with the 14 vitality - just not sure what it is that people have been doing with her that makes it work so well.

if you're talking about the podcast i remember it was Scott, Shane and Chris that all said, that Leona will never make it big outside of locals, if that's what you are wanting me to elaborate on, i dont have the exact podcast on my cpu anymore but i do remember that is what they said.

also note the podcast was taped days before both regionals and released a couple weeks after the said regionals happened.

N.J.

also to answer your main question, i've seen playing her off Earth/Life to have a good mix of strategys for her, mostly using her support and some of Yuri's support to make cards like Heiderns AA give massive speed boosts and playing all attacks in the same zone usually High zone to be very useful, though outside of the Deck i saw at SEC i really havent been able to see or make a VERY good one yet, someone will need to enlighten us on how a really good Leona works.

N.J.

Well, I'm not quite sure what you're lookin' for, but here's what I see. I don't believe you saw my deck for singles at the Texas throwdown, but I ran Chae. that choice was made after I opted not to go with Leona due to her vitality and the inevitability that I would be facing feline spikes. Also, Chae has ALL so the plan was to splash in Blood Runs True and Bitter Rivals. Most all of the cards had both earth and fire, Tiger Fury was the sole attack and Origins Unknown the main speed catalyst.

As for Leona now, Tiger Fury is obviously a no-go, and Origins Unknown is basically an auto-include for Leona. To make the most of Origins you have a ton of options which includes her own support as well as that support for Anakaris, Astaroth, Chae, Iori, Ragnar and Sagat. On top of that she has access to "the combo" easily started by Hades Destroyer, Pharaoh Split (lols), Crushing Embrace of the Jotun, Shield Breaker, etc, etc or the more obvious choices of one of Iori's attacks such as GLR or Reverse Flayer (yawn).

Obviously with consistent deck making you can greatly increase the chances that her nearly-free enhance will tack on some damage too.

NJBrock22 said:

that's funny cause shane built the leona deck sontag top 8ed at nova with. i think the average leona is an earth or fire deck that spams like crazy t1-2, and luanches a string of small attacks with rigged checks t2-3.

Leona is Heidern's daughter.

NJBrock22 said:

We only give our opinions is all were not perfect keep that in mind . We just felt in a format where chun li was every where she had to full block 2 of the spike to survive . Just we in general I didn't feel she was consistant enough in a meta what was dominanted by control at the time now it is completely different.

i know that chris and i respect you guy's opinion's i just find it ironic that you guys made those statements then 2 days later 2 Leonas top 8 only 1 hr and 600 miles apart... wierd... and yeah now she is very viable, i just got done building a legacy version all focusing on low attacks and off of fire. Hopefully after playtesting it a bit i'll get ya some more pointers about what makes Leona tick

N.J.

tbh Leona's the reason I wasn't that fond of Forethought being banned, since she's the only Life character who can spam out enough foundations turn 1 to fuel 2 Forethoughts AND Anti-K'.

C'est la vie. I might have to try Spirit of Athens instead, not nearly as good as Forethought but she can use it better than any other character besides Gill.

Someone build a Hunger for Souls + All Life is Prey Leona and report back to me. It seems like it has some potential... spill ALiP + pile of earth/fire stuff + Origins Unknown T1, then throw a move to scoop their board into another move with +10dmg from ALiP, then build again and repeat next turn.

Wafflecopter said:

I swear, you're one of my UFS "separated at birth" twins xD

I'd been wanting to build Leona (hence the topic, duh), but the only clever thing I could think of was Intimidating Presence/So Hungry + ALiP. xD

I was gonna rebuild Soiree next, but I think next week is a draft, so I'll take Leona for some fun on the side :3

I messed with Leona off pure life (making sure to include attacks that had life and fire/earth). Add eissel drossel for free +2 speed. Although when I was playing with her we played legacy that week and i added 4 killer vortex in an always getting 2 killer vortex into my momentum 2nd turn (5H3 with leona's speed boost) With killer vortex i obviously only chose high attacks So basically all my attacks got 4 speed for free (or 6 if I used leona's form) Pretty sweet to me. Now as mentioned in another form, you can add eissel drossel andone of those lu chen assets for a free +2? each. I think ill make leona again XD

MegaGeese said:

*Cries* I thought I was the only one! I used to feel special! *goes and chokes self on unused Feline Spikes*

We can all be octuplets, OOFS and Kate + Eight.