So with Steve and James 3d'ing heavy handed control more or less out of existence in the last two months what are we left with now? Just a quick breakdown of the symbols, what to watch out for, and hopes for the future. Part 1 of my two parter on just wtf is gonna happen:

All- Here then do I give you the obituary of the All symbol. It seems when all the mass bannings happen, All is usually at the forefront leaning up against a wall ready to take it. Recently it was deemed all was one of the most expensive symbols to build, as you could in theory be packing BRTs, Chester's, AND Lord of the Makai. Well with 2/3rds of those cards gone, what's All got left? My answer, very little. Yes it has BRTs, but really, other than that it doesn't have much. Yes it can Mill like nobody's buisness with cards suchs as Antisocial, and yes it can stay alive with the grossly overpowered Abdelia's Friendship (another rant for another day) but it has like zero negation that's any good anymore. All's answer to Olcadan's (which admitedly came about 5 sets too late) was made rather moot with the birdman's banning. Yes it still stops Seals and EDD, but really that's it? It does however have one of the best damage pumps in the game in Fight or Flight.

It's attack lineup is mediocre at best, with most All decks I'm seeing lately relying on Dark Force: Mirage Body or Shin Shoryuken to kill. Problem wth Shin, all has White Gi... THAT'S it for even mediocre momentum gen.

It's characters are interesting. All's posterboy Alex gets trumped by the now returning Martial Arts Champion so I doubt he'll see much play anymore. Toons like Balrog and Jon Herr are real good, especially with Visions of Destiny, but with no Lord of the Makai to continually ready said card, they'll be hard pressed to abuse it anywhere near as much as before.

Prediction: All gets punted to about the same tier as Life, which is about as low as you can get. If any character will make a splash, I'll have to argue it'll be Balrog All Punch. Without Bitter Rivals it'll be tough, but with Visions and the 'Rog's ability, it could just work.

Air- Not since the Addes' bannings has a symbol been rocked so hard. Air lost it's best character, it's best attack, and a reason to run twelve six checks in their deck. Yes to much praise from us normal people, and much silent voodoo cursing from all the fan boys out there, Chun Li got the boot. Is air still powerfull? Yes to the extent it was before Chun Li was around. Translation, welcome to the mid tier. Air is still a good symbol, with great attacks in Spinta (which imo will see the boot soon, but PLEASE don't rant about that part), Minuette Dance and Shredding Vibrator. Unfortunatly, with Makai gone Air has to rely on some less than steller foundations in White Magic, Natural Leader, Professional Soldier, and La Superba to get momentum. And the last two rip cards out of your staging area.

It's characters are interesting. Felicia and Sagat I believe will make big splashes. Unfortunatly do to Air's lack of good card draw (it only has Counter the Assault and Rootless decent card draw and Return to Southtown as mediocre) their handsizes may in theory come back to haunt them.

Prediction: With the Feline Spike fanboys still around, I predict that we'll see the DS02 Felicia played a LOT more.

Death: Remember back in the day when Death was arguably the best symbol in the game? Well I think it's getting back to that point again. With amazing characters in Donovan, Tira, Fio, and Promo Bishamon (he's effin good ok? :OP), amazing foundations in Destiny, Oral Dead, Revenant's Calling, Inhuman Perception... I can go on but y'all get the point. Death I believe is finally going to get the green light to shine. Now don't get me wrong, Death's ALWAYS been good. Ask Don Chambers how the Death Zi Mei I built for him worked out at our Shwa Regionals way back when. But unfortunatly Death's always been overshadowed by Evil and Order as a control symbol.That, and a lot of it's control cards shared symbols with better ones at the time (Revenant's and Oral Dead had Evil, where as Inhuman Perception and La Superba had Air).

Death can go aggro with attacks such as Senkutai, Midnight Launcher and Night Breaker and characters such as Donovan or Tira. It can play the control game with characters such as Hugo, Bishamon, or Zi Mei (cause she just OTKs you). It can even do the discard game with Fio. YTes folks Death can do it all.

Predictions: Death will jump up in a big way in the coming months. I fully expect it to start topping local and ny more regional tournies.

Earth- Earth is funny in that it has some great characters in Siegfried, Gen, Ragnar, Sagat, and Jivatme, Promo Yi Shan, all that do not see play (or in Gen's case, off of Earth) for whatever reason. Now that the game is shifting towards a more faster paced aggro game, I predict earth aggro will start seeing more play. The main reason is this: Earth can throw people again! Crushing Embrace..., Flooded Nile Throw, Sardine Beach Special... All these are AMAZING attacks. Hell, even Butt Slam isn't all that bad in a deck with a lot of damage pump. Speaking of damage pump, it arguably has some of the best in the game in Siegfried, Yi Shan, Travel Abroad if you're running throws. Oh yeah, Earth can tank it up too... Or so I hear. Battle Prowess, Amy's, Cutting Edge, Mysterious Stance. Woe to those that face an Earth tank deck, which I think Sagat has made easy.

Predictions: Sagat tank decks running Tiger Fury as their only attack could work. Same with Hugo decks running Sardine... As for aggro, expect Sigfried to make a rather large splash, if anythign by your's truly.

Evil- Evil's in a funny spot right now. It lost Chester's, Bitter Rivals, and Rejection, all pivital staples to any Evil deck. That being said, Evil's far from out and still remains one of the top symbols. It's just now more balanced and back down to Earth from it's four year push to the moon. Evil still has great characters in Zi Mei, Akuma, Hanzo, and Jon Herr. It also has great foundations in BRT, The G-String Team, Glare of the Abyss, and ***. It even still has attacks! Just look at Nightmare's stuff! Evil can kill you and it can control you (although not as heavily as before). Evil's only gaping flaw that I can see is it's survivability in the short game. Crashing aggro does stand a chance against it now, with Rejection gone, Evil players are forced to actually block, and decks such as a Fire speed boost or Earth discard can really put a dent in that strategy.

Predictions: Evil will remain near if not on top, but will no longer be a dominating force.

Well that's it for now, I'll hopefully post the other one within the next couple of days.

Cheers,

Brad

reading these articles make me wish I was as smart and capable of putting all my thoughts into words like that...

but in my short and skinny of what I know from playing this game and not really paying too much attention to anything else is this.

Air- Will definitly hold its spot whenever there are a hold of its most useful mechanics. My favorite ones of them are absoloutly Momentum Generation, Speed, Drawing and Good Checks.

Death- From what I've played of it in death-only events is that it will stay strong and most likely will grow stronger patiently with more limiting shenans. My favorite mechanic of that symbol IS hands-down the rejecting gameplay. i.e.; I play a super attack... R: discard that attack from your pool... continueing

Earth- Will most likely never change since all I see it is thus; Big Attacks, Defending Foundations, Pump/Downing Actions, (sometimes) useful assets, and occasionally low checks. I don't really care how this symbol turns out

Evil- I've always hated Evil... it's like, the father of death and mother of void because no matter what you can try... and capital attempt on the try... evil will give you the backhand like a true pimp and then hump your vitality down to zero like a horny chihaohua.

Void- I enjoy playing the Ryu :::: in this area because of being to recur the good checks consistantly and just going off over an over using R. Mika's Beach Special and some other attacks. But I guess what I've played of void is just from that character and haven't really done any analysis of the symbol.

Water- Was one of my favorite symbols till I saw many of the loopish tactics in it and sorta went away from it, still fun as hell yes, but (to me) can become too easy to play. Favorite mechanics of the symbol are the recursion, multiples, reversals, blocking and of course Ukyo

Order- all that needs to be said after going to one tournament, SHUDDER...

Fire- Very easy to build on and very quick for game to end one way or the other... best character for that to me was Jubei ** and this was before first rotation back with Whereabouts and Neck Choke. Ah, memories.

Good- I spiked a high interest in this symbol when Mignon came out the sametime with Talim and spawned some crazy damage null and reversal ideas but none seem to work hand-in-hand, however I'm sure it is possible. This would have to be a very good (no pun) symbol to anticipate getting better for an aggro with upcoming Maxi's like from previous sets.

Congrats on that summary, it's exactly what I needed 'cause I was wondering what were the must-have cards ^^