As promised, here's my Talim deck that I played in the So Cal Regionals this last Saturday. I'd like to get some input from everyone about how to improve on it's speed and how to kill faster with it. It tended to have issues against people with more than about 25 life and got beat in speed a few times.

Character

::Talim

Attacks (16)

4x Omnidirectional Cluster Bomb +1M

4x Mark of the Beast +2M

4x Oratorio Halcyon +2M

4x Melancholic Mercurius +2H

Actions (3)

3x Tag Along

Foundations (41)

3x End it All +3L

3x Natural Leader +1M

3x Whirlwind +3M

3x Return to Southtown +0H

4x Professional Soldier

4x Powerful Style +2m

4x Soul of Ling-Sheng Su +2H

3x Healer +1H

4x Shooting Capoera +2M

3x Tira's Contract +1L

3x Makai High Noble +1H

4x Wind Dance +2M

Sideboard

4x Willful +2H

3x Seal of Cessation +2L

1x Healer +1H

The basic Strategy in the deck was speed. Using Talim's Enhance coupled with Wind Dance I would be able to make the bulk of the attacks unblockable for my opponent. Omnidirectional along with Professional Soldier and Natural Leader would build up momentum either for her R: ability, or for Mark of the Beast/Melancholic as needed. Once I softened my opponent with the initial attacks I would then let loose with the Melancholics and hopefully kill them quickly. On the defense the deck used Powerful Style to keep my health up (or Oratorio if I could get the combo), which it could do easy due to Talim's speed, Healer (or Talim's R: depending), and Tira's contract (coupled with Professional to snag blocks from my staging area.

The deck worked well in many cases, however I ran into a few issues in the regionals as well as prior to them. First and formost is the speed of its kills. I found that Tira ended up winning 75% of the time against Talim due to the fact that she just seemed to whip out attacks faster and seal the deal easier. I would have problems getting through high vitality characters and would often have issues finishing off my opponent before they took me down. I think the issue might be the reliance on Melancholic for the kill. As good as the card is, it can only do 12 damage (most of which can be avoided with healer, holding ground, or fight or flight). Unfortunately the only attack that works better is Menuette Dance, which would be a possibility. The issues I've found in testing though is the difficulty. Melancholic can still be hard checked as the third card while Menuette requires an 8 difficulty in the same situation.

In any case, suggestions are welcome!

Wtf? No Inhuman Perceptions? Dude, stack 4 of those in Talim, RIGHT NOW! *angry voice*

Also, you're missing a Talim staple: Rootless. Rootless is great for draw, seeing as how your opponent cannot block attacks. Also, Hurricane Punishment.

I didn't run inhuman perception because End it All served the same kind of purpose on a kill turn. Inhuman is good in most decks, but nowadays there are so many R:'s out there that it's so much easier just to say 'screw you' to all of them. One End it all would shut down Tag Along, Cutting Edge, Holding Ground, CC hacks, Reversals, etc, and most decks I played against ran so many of those that Inhuman perception would have been trying to use a grain of sand against a flood. It just wouldn't be enough in most cases and it can be baited pretty easily.

I had rootless in there before but took it out because I hardly used it. Momentum was pretty precious in most cases (moreso than an extra card), plus I had some bad experiences where my opponent snagged a really good card out of it (a Tag along that messed up Talim for a turn in one case, and a Seclusion in another).

Hurricane punishment was also in the original decklist but I was testing other cards for the tourney. I'm still not sold on the Oratorio Halcyons at the moment since I hardly got the Combo to work on them (though the second enhance can work nicely in case my opponent is running something like Strife's Patronage or American Made to hose the speed). I do like hurricane punishment though, I only wish it was something like a 4M6 though... I think the real things I need are attacks with higher damage potential.

Hurricane Kick and Dragon Lifter would be a nice combo to fling out. It makes Dragon Lifter an easy 8 damage attack with a built in speed pump and Stun 2.

British Subject really helps speed up the set-up. In many cases i've played it, with one or two in your staging area by T1, the possibility of going for kill on T2 is enhanced greatly.

Gaius Marius said:

Saw my type-o (it was early). It should be Hurricane Punishment , not Hurricane Kick.

RockStar said:

Only issue I can see with British Subject is Talim has 18 life. But, if it lets me kill Turn 2 easier (which it probably will), I think I'll try it next time we play. Not sure what to take out though...

As for the Hurricane/lifter combo I'm not sure on it. I only want to run 4 2 checks since I had issues checking the melancholics in the tourney so that would mean that the lifter would replace the melancholics. Plus if you look at lifter on its own and not part of a combo, Talim can't do much with it. It's a high attack so her speed pump would only be +1 and it's not wind danceable. On top of that the odds of me drawing the lifter and the kick (since hurricane P. would be the only kick I play) are pretty slim. Then there's the fact that Mark of the Beast becomes a 9M8 just as easily off of just itself, meaning that the lifter is harder to pull of for roughly the same effect. The Stun is nice, but most of my attacks are too fast to block as it is. The only benefit it could serve is comitting a few foundations my opponent wanted to keep ready (assuming they don't have alternatives).

I think what I'm looking for in terms of attacks are 'finishers'. Melancholic can't seem to do it alone, so I'm trying to find possible replacements for it, or a means of boosting its effectiveness.

Add in Dragon Flame for a haaawt Air Finisher attack. You only need a Mid Weapon + High Attack before it before the Combo E nets you stupid dmg pump. Plus, it's a 5-spd-mid attack (8-spd after Talim does her thang).

RockStar said:

Only problem is finding a high Air attack that's wind danceable (since Talim pumps high attacks for only +1 speed). The only ones I found are: Descending Dragon Spear (has a Temujin Combo only, but is decent enough, though it's a 7 difficulty if being used for Dragon Flame and checks a 2) Escaping Bo (same issues as with Dragon Spear, 7 difficulty on a 2 check, though it has a chance to help my next check), Execution Tech 2nd Right (blows unless you play the first one so this is a no go), Mirror Fan Strikes (hurts me because everyone's heavier than Talim and it'll stop the Damage pump for Dragon Flame), Swing Tomahawk (decent stats, but a 9 difficulty), and a couple of lackluster split attacks.

Frankly it seems like It just wont work with the deck. It's an awesome attack, but given how this deck is meant to run, the second attack in the combo string has to be able to hold its weight and nothing seems to measure up. I'd love to use dragon flame, but there's just nothing that checks a 3 that fits what I need. Plus, without any means of recursion, trying to put together that combo would be kind of tough. Oratorio's combo was easy since 3/4 of the attacks fit the combo. This one would require a lot of effort to get to work and I don't see it happening very easy.