So my group and I have recently tried out the mini-block. All I have to say is OMG damage. Sooooo much damage. Like 25dmg throws 2nd turn and the best part is there is no resets that will take it back to printed.

Anyway pretty much just checking to see if anyone else has tried the mini-block format out?

Also blocking matters in mini-block unless your facing hilde.

Tried the Mini-block format... we loved it. Much smashing was had.

We play it every other week since we are sick of standard we just want a bigger card pool and some better blocks then it will be set.

NO.

No better blocks. If you can't block attacks in miniblock either they made it extremely hard to block so they should be commended or you just suck at hand management.

Homme Chapeau said:

Amen

After playing some game of mini-block around the house...I can't play standard anymore. Mini-block just feels like the UFS I started with. I need Tekken to come out so that the rest of my "meta" can start playing that way.

I'm busy getting decks ready for the 1st week of Mini-block and just avoiding UFS when the scout has standard scheduled.

I've been having fun with miniblock as well. The only few gripes I have are minor and will most likely be fixed by Tekken.

Gripe 1: Many useless cards in the format. Jeleaously Guarded Secret is pointless since there aren't any cards that reveal your opponent's hand (at least to my knowledge). Respected and feared stops... Ostrheinsberg castle - Twilight? Bunch of anti-life gain on Ivy's and Zhao's cards, but what gives life?

Gripe 2: A few more blocks (even bad ones) on foundations would help. It sucks having a format with no recursion and most of your blocks on attacks (makes it hard to attack if you have to empty your hand of blocks to do so)

Gripe 3: No enhance negation. You have Memories that Stain it's Armor and that's it. Kinda sucks when you see a menuette in your face...

Gripe 4: Some symbols are very underrepresented. Order is very weak for one (only Hilde and Astrid have it).

Otherwise I think it's a fun format and loads of the annoying cards are gone, making it more balanced. Can't wait to see what Tekken does for it.

Meh, of course it feels similar to older UFS; the card pool is limited to 2 F'in sets

But yeah, I can understand the fun in that there's no asshattery of Order's universal committing library, and Earth's ability to be the big fat ass that it apparently is now.

I'm just curious, lol, is there even a tier list for that format? Do any particular characters perform well? I remember when my friends and I...sorta had a mini-STD format, in which we all played with unaltered starters. Yi Shan and Siegfried ate babies.

Comments?

From my experience, none of the characters suck in these sets. I personally have tried out Ragnar and Nightmare in the pre-release and both worked exceedingly well. Since then I've played a cervantes deck that has only been mini-block and he works well at chaining big combos. I also have an Ivy deck that, with the exception of Gorgeous team to grab her action, is mini-block format. It's pulled off an attack string that is almost endless. Get a genius alchemist in play to null the progressive on the action and you can pass the whole deck's attacks (all 24 of them) 100% of the time. Past that it's just drawing into them during the combat phase for upwards of 10 attacks in a turn (could probably go longer but nobody's lasted that long).

Based off of my opinions on the characters at first glance, rashotep looks fairly weak. Good support and all, but the character is pretty lame compared to the rest out there.

In all honesty though I don't think there's someone who's 'low tier' in these sets. Each of them has a very distinct playstyle and forgo the 'generic' feel of a many of the older characters.

griffinman01 said:

TRUTH!!! A few more...dont slap them on everything, but yeah definatly a few more.

Rashotep is the control character, plain and simple. He blanks your character, then you curse and wish he hadn't :b

Wafflecopter said:

In a format without Tag-along that's pretty powerful. While cool, that ability isn't a 'game winner' potentially like many others. It's annoying for sure and will delay a few decks, but it's more of a 'stasis' card in the mini-format since no characters have a 'defensive' ability per se. I just think his is the most 'generic' of the characters since his thing is to just tie up both characters, much like **Dan minus the second ability.

Anyways, just my thought on it.

Antigoth said:

I'm serious too. Rarely is the time where I do not fully block (I would not be averse to low blocks replacing high ones in Set 15 to be fair), or that I cannot block. When I don't it's generally because I should have risked a higher difficulty foundation that had no block than a low diff one that had a bad one. Or kept my attack for a facesmash the turn after.

Also I would like to apologize. I called miniblock by it's normal name instead of my disgusting pet name for it.

Homme Chapeau said:

What I find amusing is that people are saying they need more blocks. I've just got to ask:

For those of you who are saying you need more cards with blocks - are any of you using character cards?

0diff mid block for 6 ctrl is pretty saucy in that format, as that's the only way you're getting a 6 check.

Also - how many attacks are you guys running?

Because 20 attacks + some characters should give a solid spread for blocks.

Antigoth said:

I stopped running character blocks when six check foundations came back in force and actually had blocks. Now that that's no longer the case I might possibly look into them again. I never did like the idea of using character blocks unless I was trying to stack a character simply because it was a dead card 90% of the time. I'd hate having 2-3 of them in my hand at a time, especially if my opponent wasn't attacking.

As for the attacks, 20 is usually the max I'll run with 18 being more of the average. Any more and the checks start to suffer.

I'm not saying the number of blocks in the format are a huge issue, but I would like to see a few more on foundations in particular. Roughly a third of them have blocks in Set 12 (42 out of 113 total foundations) so I don't think bringing that number up to half (56-60) is going to hurt the game much. It's certainly a far cry from the previous block where you could easily have a deck running 60 blocks. I think 40 is a safe number (assuming 15-20 on attacks and 20-25 on assets/foundations/actions, etc) per deck. It gives you enough to not feel helpless, but not too many so that you don't have to plan for them,

griffinman01 said:

I have to humbly disagree with you. Dan commits both characters, whereas Rashotep can blank ANY card, not just a character (even if that is generally the card of choice).

Also, Pharaoh's Double Crown and Crocodile Phallus Choke are enough to see to it that Rashotep is more than just a second-rate Dan =p

I have to go with shinji on this, that crown is serious biddness.

Antigoth said:

I'm not using character blocks - 6CC is fun and all but until I can use all facets of the card (meaning, stacking characters and get a bonus for it), I won't play one.

Still, Low blocks are few and far between from what I've seen.

MarcoPulleaux said:

I'll admit I haven't looked at Rashotep in conjunction with all of his support. I was putting up that comment based on the character alone. I will say this much though, Rashotep has got some awesome support. Not sure how effective/needed it is in the miniblock format, but in the standard format it rocks.

Rashotep does have the benefit of preventing astrid's reversal capabilities.

I feel like astrid is very strong in this format, due to relentless, bloodied but unbowed, and Paying respects to your ancestors. Astrid has the best build I have seen so far.

I would like to see more low blocks printed. and I really believe that all orange cards should have blocks on them. The format is hurting for low blocks quite a bit.

Ragnar is fairly amusing against astrid, if you have stormhammer out, and she reversals you for 15, you usually get to hit her for 30ish, which is good times.

Character blocks may be worth running. I haven't played enough to say for sure yet. I have an earth throw deck that goes back and forth between rashotep and ragnar, I'm starting to feel like rashotep is just better, largely because of crown.

Tried Mini-block nightmare this weekend, OMG!!! Used and abused Body Transformed, Memories that Stain its Armour and All Life is Prey along with Enraged Golem to put out some truly horrendous damage pump (20+ Midnight Launchers, sweet!), and chaining several attacks together, instead of the old OHK. Two massive thumbs up for this format!

brislove said:

Not just because of the Crown, but because of his Bracers and Crocodile Grasp. Bracers lead for a stupid good Throw game (which is backed heavily by C®ock Grasp, Flooded Nile, Crushing Embrace) that can be bolstered further by Brooding and In Search of Plunder. Crocodile Grasp is basically his ability in Throw form: select a foundation, and its abilities can't be played.

Rashotep gives access to something few (if not NONE) of the characters have access to; Aggro-Control. And just to clarify, Nightmare is aggro-destruction, not aggro-control

Rashotep (and to some extent Siegfried) give earth a lot of ways to answer specific problems. Ka Technique and No Forgiveness work wonders, plus Torn hero will help stop a lot of those pesky stun cards in the format. As it stands, earth is starting to be a good hybrid style symbol for the next block.