Character: Astrid (WHO STOLE HER DOTS????)

Foundations: 43
4 Queen's Champion
4 Relentless
4 White Magic
4 Empire's Ruin
4 Envoy of the Queen
4 Manifest Destiny
4 Adoration
3 Communing with the Ancients
3 Resourceful
3 Paying Repect to your Ancestors
3 Flames of Disaster
3 Hungry for Battle

Attacks: 18
4 Pommel Smash
4 Fire Shadow
4 Execution Technique First Rite
3 Mark of the Beast
3 Fierce Twin Slash

Assets: 11
3 Path of the Master
3 Gianzende Nova and Frischer Himmel
3 Reaver's Axe
2 The Blowfish Blade

Actions: 4
4 Kung-Fu Training (these may just come out for another FoD and maybe 2 more weapon assets or for 3 Willful)

Cards in Deck 76 + Character
Average Diff. 2.29
Average CC 4.30

Total Blocks: 52
Highs: 10
Mids: 30
Lows: 12

Total Weapons: 37

CC Breakdown
1cc 0
2cc 0
3cc 18
4cc 17
5cc 41
6cc 0

Diff Breakdown
8+ diff 0
7 diff 0
6 diff 3
5 diff 3
4 diff 4
3 diff 16
2 diff 27
1 diff 23
0 diff 0

Ok, so I've been wanting to make Astrid ever since I first saw her. She's a fantastic character IMO, and I love reversals. Every time I tried making her however, I would get distracted by another deck (of different symbols). Finally however I sat down and tried to do the unthinkable... I tried to make an evil deck (I HATE EVIL DECKS), and that somehow forced me to complete a build for my fire Astrid.

Any way, back to the deck. This is just the first build so far (its taken me this long just to get this far), Most of the foundations are run in 3s to allow room for more cards, as well as to help cut down on many of the 4s (EVERYTHING OF ASTRID'S IS A 4). Please let me know of anything you think could help, however if you are going to say something should go in or come out, please also mention what could come out or go in for said card(s).

Current thoughts of changes and cards people may question:

- Fierce Twin Slash: This I was debating about using over Astrid's Wolf Strike, however now that Bitter Rivals is gone, I prefer this. Even though it doesn't have a block, its much more useful on my turn.

- Fire Shadow: Not that big of a fan since its a blank attack, but I guess with it comes to Astrid that 3 diff reversal can become a huge pain for the opponent, plus it has that sweet block.

-Execution Technique 1st right: exact same as with fire shadow, just with +1 diff and stun 2

-The Blowfish Blade: Its a 5 check, fire weapon asset and gives +3 to over half of my attacks, not to mention since they are all reversals, I can block with an attack, then grab it back and play it as a reversal. Theres currently a serious lack of 5 check weapon assets with fire right now.

Up Envoy from the Queen to 4x IMHO, it's a 1/5 foundation, a weapon, and a self-mill piece to make Astrid's pump better.

That aside... what does Hulking Brute have to do with this? I was thinking of trying an All Astrid build, and I thought for one brief, wonderful second that you might be doing some dual-symbol hotness I could leech from...

Wafflecopter said:

What would you suggest cone out for it? A 4th one may be a possibility, however right now I perfer the idea of running 3, since I could be possibly drawing any weapons that I lose with her other cards.

As for the Hulking Brute comment, Its a pun, Astrid is a lot of woman and a hell of a beast

I decided to take out the Knight Breakers, it just isnt really going to work in the deck that way I wanted it to, so instead Im going to try out Hiogi for the low attack plus the added damage pump.

first of all, when reading your description part i felt like i posted this.

second of all, the biggest problem with fire astrid is the hand size. aggro needs a bigger hand size, which means either getting a new character or playing order. the 6 hand size completely shuts down any major first turn building and with a large number of attacks in the deck it gets even harder. when playing a deck similar to this 80% of the time i got a hand that had 2-4 attacks in it and i got 2-3 meager foundation out first turn while i watched my opponent drop 4-6. and not playing order you get no extra draw power so its another 2-3 foundations if you get that lucky to draw them. by this point your completely outpaced by the better control decks and have half the staging area of another aggro deck.

another fatal problem with this deck is it relies on having a massive staging area and a massive discard pile, which dont go too well together. if you get stopped one turn, it wil most likely end up with you cycling before you get another chance

bottom line, it lacks the draw power to support aggro

Ziephnir- I want to play fire Astrid, thats not changing. Telling someone basically to change their whole deck because you dont like it and dont think it works really isnt helpful at all. So far what I've tested, everything you mentioned isnt happening. I get more than enough foundation and the draw power is fine.

Bump, been tweeking the deck a bit, cut 1 attack, maxed the EotQ, dropped Experienced Combatant to max out Manifest, and added another weapon asset.

bump, looking for more input

If I were you, I'd be looking to abuse the living hells off of Wind Dance, seeing as it's a +2 speed boost for free, as opposed to the E Commit required by Flames of Disaster and Empire's Ruin. However, to do that properly, you have to mix your attacks up somewhat. As far as I know, Multiple copies have a blank text box, so no Weapon attack goodness for you. I'd also be looking at 70 cards as my goal, since you do have 6 HS starting out.

Here's what I would roll with:

Starting Character:

Astrid (no dots OMFG!) (6 HS 27 Vitality) (All, Fire, Order)

Actions:

3 Kung-Fu Training (2/5 +1M) (All, Evil, Fire, Life, Void, Water)

Assets:

2 Reaver's Axe (2/4 +2H; Unique, Weapon) (All, Fire, Order)

2 Valkyrja's Shield (3/4 +2M; Breaker: 1, Unique, Weapon) (All, Fire, Order)

Attacks:

4 Pommel Smash (3/3 2H1; Weapon) (All, Fire, Order)

4 Execution Technique First Rite (4/3 3L3 +2L; Stun: 2, Weapon) (Air, Chaos, Fire)

4 Tyr's Warding Smash (4/3 2H4 +1H; Weapon) (All, Fire, Order)

4 Astrid's Wolf Strike (5/3 4M4 +1M; Weapon) (All, Fire, Order)

4 Mark of the Beast (5/3 4M4 +2M; Weapon) (Air, Fire, Good)

Foundations:

3 The Tae Kwon Do Zephyr (0/5 +2L) (All, Earth, Fire)

4 Empire's Ruin (1/5 +2M) (Fire, Good, Water)

4 Envoy of the Queen (1/5 +3L; Weapon) (All, Fire, Order)

4 Manifest Destiny (1/4 +1L) (Death, Evil, Fire)

3 White Magic (1/5 +3M) (Air, Fire, Good)

4 Amy's Assistance (2/4 +1M) (Earth, Fire, Good, Order)

3 Bloodied but Unbowed (2/4) (All, Fire, Order)

4 Relentless (2/4; Weapon) (All, Fire, Order)

3 Resourceful (2/4 +3M; Weapon) (All, Fire, Order)

4 Wind Dance (2/4 +2M) (Air, Fire, Good)

4 Communing with the Ancients (3/5) (Air, Chaos, Fire)

3 Paying Respect to Your Ancestors (3/5) (All, Fire, Order)

>.< A lot of 4 checks, I'm afraid, but I think she works like a charm this way. She has answers for just about anything, can play aggressively, and by the gods, can she hit.

Control Checks:

X - 0

1 - 0

2 - 0

3 - 20

4 - 26

5 - 24

6 - 0

Average: 4.06

Difficulties:

0 - 3

1 - 15

2 - 23

3 - 13

4 - 8

5 - 8

6+ - 0

Average: 2.46

I'm not entirely sure how you intend to play the attacks out with this deck, but running more Reaver's Axes over Blowfish Blades might be more useful, especially since that way there's no obligation to make sure your attacks are running Order as well as Fire. Valkensverd is also not bad if you can counter the speed loss, like with the afore-mentioned Wind Dances or your Gizande/Reaver.

I ran fire Astrid, and my main problem was running into what I called "wall of foundations". I expected to have problems with damage reduction to some extent, but it was no problem compared to having to deal with sheer blocking power. I suggest making attacks get as much speed as you can muster while you pump damage, or find some way of making them discard.

OH MAN The Blowfish Blade IS SEXY. I wish I knew about that card when I used to play.