So yes, the first of my Leona builds. I can't believe I'm about to say this...pure fire ><

Actions: 4
4x Hunger for Souls

Assets: 3
2x Kunpaetku Shrine - Dream Remnants
1x Yellow Gi

Attacks: 15
4x Ira-Spinta
4x Mark of the Beast
4x Senkyutai
3x Midnight Launcher

Foundations: 45
4x Blinding Rage
4x Commitment to Excellence
4x Communing with the Ancients
4x Intimidating Presence
4x Makai High Noble
4x Origins Unknown
3x Admiration
3x All Life is Prey
3x Amy's Assistance
3x Bounce Back
3x Stand Off
3x The King of Fighter's 2006
3x White Magic

Sideboard of crappiness:
3x Hope for One's People
3x Kung-Fu Training
2x Soul Wave

Aggro's not my thing, so this is probably godawful. At any rate, I'm looking to cut it down to a straight 59/60 +1 size.

Basic premise is pretty obvious. Turn 1, drop Dream Remnants if possible, plus All Life and Origins Unknown, and spam out as many other foundations as possible. Turn 2, attack, Hunger for Souls, push it through, then play another attack and All Life for +crazy damage. Ended up going mid because mids have the highest base attack speeds - important if you're trying to push through an attack against an empty staging area. I went with two high speed attacks, plus one that gets a free speed pump, and then just a cheap attack that's less likely to be blocked on its own.

Methinks the Earth version is gonna be better, given TWOP + Monster Lariat awesomeness. It's really easy to come up with solid mid Earth Punches. But Earth has a lot of other tricks, too, like Genocide. Life, however, has the very amusing combo with Researching the Past. So we'll see what happens.

Edit: made some changes...

-4x Lynette's Shop
-3x Willful (sideboard?)
-3x Tetsu Zanko

+4x Ira-Spinta
+4x Makai High Noble
+2x Driven by Fear

7/20/09 - Edit 2: more changes are more better...list reflects current deck.

The deck is much more agressive now, and regularly resets the opponent's side of the board every three turns or so while maintaining a 2-4 foundation advantage the entire time. This is assuming I haven't killed them outright, of course. The attacks no longer match zones for Leona's enhance - originally, they all matched mid, but then after fiddling around with Talim4 and Dragon's Flame, I came to the decision that Midnight Launcher is too good to pass up. I may even go so far as to play Knight Breaker...who knows? But right now...the attack lineup works REALLY well. Ira Spinta and Intimidating Presence can clean out a staging area like nobody's business, and Senkyutai gets around Lotus and shizzle for Hunger for Souls. Speed pump to hell and back ftw.

Mark of the Beast is also a monster again. I had the idea of placing it in a Soiree deck to better abuse Stand Off, buuuut...yeah, it's really good here, particularly when, on the semi-frequent chances Leona's enhance goes through, after just the self pump it's a +5-6 damage. And then Stand Off comes into play...Stand Off is one of the MVP foundations of this deck, and is one of my new favorite foundations overall. Serious damage pump is serious, particularly en masse. Serious redux is equally serious, and it all works nicely with GIANT handsize from hell.

My only issue at this point is a way to get through decks that can set up a massive wall. She could THEORETICALLY chew through a five hander with some draw power (ate through Sogetsu today, and I want to try her against a Bishamon), but the Good symbol as a whole really, really screws her over, mostly because she doesn't have the Order symbol (said as a true control player, lol). I just need a way to stop Mysterious Stance, Torn Hero, and Red Lotus, and I'm good. Must brainstorm ideas.

So far, though, for only two local tourneys worth of work, she does a **** fine job of bringing the house down.

Ultimately, the final Leona build that I make will likely be Fire/Earth, so that I can draw more with Brute, take advantage or Earth lulz with Path of the Master, commit things with Revenant's Calling/Dormant, access to Torn Hero/etc, and so on. Earth is a monster, yo.

Yes we shall indeed see... >.>

Whether or not you can muster up the courage to play fire has yet to be seen.. xD

I wouldn't say call this deck godawful, man!

Actually, this is a very interesting 'trick-deck' from the way i'm reading and understanding the card interaction. I like this build because it looks like it will be a thing of beauty when the combo goes off.

I've only played it against two decks so far - a mill deck (starter Ken) and Shleby's Siegfried.

I took Ken out, no problem (65 damage attacks will do that), but I've only gotten Siegfried maybe three or four games out of five or six MATCHES.

The combo is hilarious, yes, but a tad janky. So I changed the deck up just a bit - removing Tetsu Zanko, Lynette's, and Willful (for out meta, at least, there's not that much hax going 'round) for 2 Driven By Fear, 4 Makai High Nobles, and...yes, Ira-Spinta.

And it's more effective now xD

Dunno about the Driven By Fears yet, since I just put those in, but definitely the Nobles and Spintas. I'll probably end up messing around with a lot of the Nightmare foundations to find the right ones. The Azure Knight seems like it would be **** handy, all things considered.

To quote Jacob - "Leona is a turn two character - she makes you play turn two over...and over...and over..."

Also, probably going to cut Zephyr for Hope for One's People. The smeggin' Desperation F on that is REALLY easy to get to when you only have to lose 8 health.

I would consider finding room for Admiration in your deck. It's a 2/5 foundation that allows you to gain life based on an attacks spd, specifically the difference between it's printed and its current spd. You may use it on ANY attack that's received an adjustment to its spd, not just your attack.

i don't think commitment to excelence is very helpfull. try hope for ones people instead.

Decklist updated.

Still mulling over the use of All Life is Prey. Cute combo, but constant resets mean its use is somewhat limited - it's usually destroyed before I can play it. The Azure Knight would serve as a better damage pump =(

But I'm relatively happy with where it's going. A bit more work...if only Fire could forcibly fail your checks, I'd be home free =(

Maybe I should change to Akuma...mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

MegaGeese said:

BAAAAAAD Idea... Haha

I don't wanna see you of all people playing Akuma. D:

Akuma + A New Low + Senkyutai + this deck.

Kill yourself.

And that's not even mentioning the obvious iSpinning that's gonna happen xD

MegaGeese said:

You need to stop now before you hurt yourself.

I DON'T HAVE A PROBLEM

I CAN QUIT ANYTIME I WANT

I JUST DON'T WANT TO

Geese, you've been wearing that foam cowboy hat now for 3 weeks.

Please, if you love your family, take it off.

Too bad I despise my family, then =/

This weekend is the Shodown/Shadowar tournament anyway, and I promised to make a mill deck for the week after, so Leona will be back in a few weeks, though she may make some appearances in some side games.

Maybe Akuma will. Who knows?

Well as far as earth goes: valued but not trustedmemories of a nightmareamy's assistance.

These might be the only way to get around lotus and mysterious stance. As well as mabye a throw and ka technique.

Sir, you have just given me a fantastic idea.

I'm going to be putting Driven by Fear back in the deck, backed by KNEEL BEFORE ME! Play KBM, clear, and blow the hell out of things.

AND it works if I swap to Akuma. pewpew

MegaGeese said:

that's a crazy idea |:

It's just to get around Mysterious Stance/Lotus/Torn Hero xD

Torn Hero protects the **** Stances from Amy's. I could deal with just Lotus, since I'd play Amy's on an iSpin to either bait the Lotus, or get the Stance down; either way, I get what I want =P

Sideboard concept at best. Or main, for Earth version.

Maybe.

Chris - did I mention that I finally have access to four Seclusions? LOL

MegaGeese said:

Ewwwww!!! No want. >.>