Shinji's thoughts on the characters of the next block...

Me, Viewtiful Joe, and Jasco Games sat around discussing next block's chars, and so here are the thoughts I've come up with through our discussion.

Zhao Daiyu

Daiyu's abilities by themselves are barely even "frosting" to her support, mostly since not a lot of her support...fulfills its definition >_>. Either way, Zhao has two things going for her: immense pressure with Two Deadly Rings, and mostly (of course), Twinkie Hug. Twilight Embrace is one of the scariest cards around, especially at a mere 6 diff (and high zone). That, and it's very, very easy to fulfill the Combo E (start with Deadly Rings for pressure and Stun, follow up with Alphard Maliki/First Rite/Leg Slash for block bait, Twinkie). Off Chaos she can attempt to use Fatherly Love to draw into her pieces. Off Death she gets all the lovely aggro pieces (Ragnar) and control (Rashotep), as well as Cursed Blood to speed her up. All in all, Twilight is going to be her saving grace, and is truly the only reason to run her. Usable? Yes.

Zi Mei

With momentum generation being quite plentiful in Tekken (yay for Worlds Tekken packs, teh spoilage!), Zi Mei's super duper abuse with Fury of the Ancients, her E, and Autumn's Kiss, and definitely going to guarantee she see play. Although a rather skill-dependent aggro character, she's one of the few with a 7 handsize, can self-replenish momentum, and all of her support is good for keeping the card pool clean to play more cards. For her, I think Fire would end up being her best symbol sheerly due to its large base of support. I'd say 4 Pommel, 4 First Rite, and 4 Fury ought to be a decent enough attack base. Usable? Yes.

Yi Shan

The "perfect for beginners" starter truly hasn't left that designation. Yi Shan's lower-than-should-be health mixed with very few important Yi Shan abilities truly throw him under the bus, especially when compared to better Earth characters (Rasho, Rag, Sieggy) or Life (Lu Chen, Tira, Cassy). But not all is lost for Yi. Moving Mountain's strength comes completely from his E, which allows him to play such cards as Iron Body Technique, Dark Past, and all of his attacks better than anybody else. If you want to ever have a successful Shan, Earth is the best choice. Lead in with a Throw, and his E will make sure it goes face-up. Then play another attack (maybe Leg Sweep?), blow up Atoning to add your Yi Shan attack to face-up momentum, and wall behind Iron Body and Repentant Hero. Usable? Yi Shan is no Tekken 5DR Julia (nobody plays her yet she ends up being top tier), nor is he...really anything amazing (cute conjunction with Monastery, somewhat OK char-only attack), but with some luck and abuse of face-up momentum (requiring some definite aggro), he can be OK.

Lu Chen

Lu Chen really is "the old master" people have stereotyped him. One block-reversal combo can be turn-ending. Off Life, he has the great protection of Torn Hero and Perfect Sense, but also conjunction with Scroll, Atoning for Wicked, and Monastery, and super abuse with Robes and Eiserne. There isn't much else to say about the old man other than to pack him with some decent reversals, and then run him with some aggro (with maybe Divine Wrath as his kill). Playable? Yes.

Temujin

Temujin is the king of Combo. His F ability rigs the pool so that you can attack in any order, but also be ready to combo blast your opponent into oblivion. His E, IMO, simply has no use right now because momentum generation is so seldom. He has no real need for Solitary Assassin, and the only way for him to generate a lot of momentum is to either spam some Body Slam and Crushing Embraces, or to use some weenies like Swing Kick and Lowdown Neb, ones that no one should block. Otherwise, it's all about using cards like Pommel and Dragon Lifter to commit their staging area, then clean up with Dragon's Flame. If you're really cool, you'll pull off Knight Breaker's Combo, Dragon Flame's Combo, and a second Breaker's Combo all in one turn (though who in the Hell's gonna block those?). Usable? Yes.

Rashotep

The closest this game has to a "control" character, Rashotep is a serious threat. Every deck is BASED on their character, and most decks RELY on their character. Rashotep means you'd better rely on other cards. Of course, he can blank anything, and when combined with Ka Technique and Ancient Burial Ground, he can control all 3 types of staging area cards, while Valued but not Trusted controls attacks. Rasho also has a slew of great character abilities. His Bracers enhance his throw game easily. His Crocodile Grasp alleviates any bothersome Torn-Balance, then Stuns them on a Throw. Double Crown double blanks, so should there ever be any reversals he care about...

Either way, Rasho is a major threat, especially since Ragnar and Sieggy can side so well into him (or he into them). Playable? Definitely.

Ragnar

Ragnar was much a joke, but now due to Heir to the Storm, the joke's gonna be on the underestimating opponent. Ragnar packs a...well...probably Throw lol. In a turn, you can play a Crushing Embrace. E with Brooding, -1 Life +1 Damage (6 DMG, 1 life lost), Plunder to commit Brooding (8 DMG, 3 life lost), Ragnar to commit Plunder (11 DMG, 5 life lost), Unstoppable Warrior (14 DMG, 5 life lost), Berserker Rage (18 DMG, 8 life lost), Heir to the Storm to blow up Unstoppable (20 DMG, 8 life lost), Heir to the Storm blow up itself (28 DMG, 8 life lost), Stormhammer (36 DMG, 8 life lost). The might SOUND like a huge investment, but all it took was an attack, an asset, an action, and 4 foundations (meaning the foundations and asset can be drawn turn 1, and at 36 DMG, not all are necessary), then draw into Rage and Embrace next turn. Playable? Yes.

Astrid

After seeing Dani's Astrid eat some face at Jason's "Mini-Block Post-World's Mini Tourney", it's pretty clear where Astrid stands (especially when her 4-diff promo comes out). There's not much that needs to be said about such a top tier character that isn't already known. Her stacker Astrid allows regular Astrid to commit assets as though they were foundations, and to dump through her deck for speed pump. Her assets are all awesome, and once the stacker comes out, any asset (including Terrain, lawl) can be committed. Simply run 4 stackers to draw 1 turn 1 easily, stack, then play your Reaver's, Valkynsverd, Shield, Jimmy Kimmel, and any other asset you want. Paying Respects is Adon in a foundation, what's not to like? Her draw is ran almost solely in Astrid, and has little drawback. Playable? Almost broken lol.

Padma

The support-less ShadoWar char, Padma does something very interesting: pushes throws through permanently. Hit your opponent with some Body Slams, Embraces, and Flooded Nile, and watch them eat printed damage. 7 handsize and Cursed Blood spam? Why not? Or you can be reminiscent of promo Zi Mei and throw some Fury of the Ancients, inflicting 2 more damage for each one dealing damage. Playable? Humorously so =).

Siegfried

Siegfried is probably the most "flexible" character. His damage pump is generally promised (committing 1 is a fair cost otherwise), his life is pretty neutral 28, and his defensive support (Hero, No Forgiveness!, Base Hold) melds well with his aggressive support (Regretful, Earth Divide). Most people agree he's best off Earth: Throw-E-No Forgivessness!-laugh. Soul Calibur* is extremely important with all the Stun that's going to be going on (First Rite, Close Throw, Deadly Rings, Dragon Life, and Croc Grasp ALL have Stun: 2!). Playable? Yes.

Nightmare

The king of destruction, Nightmare plays a very heavy pressure game when he outspeeds the opponent. When he can't, Hungry for Souls resets the board. Cursed Blood, Intimidating Presence, and his R help keep your board presence bigger than your opponent, while you also control their options with Soul Edge, Midnight Launcher, and Corrupting Force. Playable? Definitely.

Ivy

Oh boy...the most overhyped, over-praised character. Ivy's string of attacks strategy is generally eclipsed by...well...everyone else's. Ivy can work, but she's going to rely heavily on unblocked Raging Gnomes, Path of the Master's E (which is being played on a low speed weenie attack, inevitably), and Switching Weapon Styles (which to be honest, she cannot every win without). Not all hope is lost for Ivy, but simply put, her theme is one that relies on damage pumps (which IMO really only exist in Life thanks to Siegfried), which basically contradicts her very existence. Playable? IMO, she's just too bad to matter. But yes, she CAN be used effectively, but it requires a LOT more luck than skill.

Cervantes

The Dread Pirate is...pretty dreadful, really. What's Cervantes got? Well, he's got his dual swords, which give any check +1 (including paying costs, which is good), he has mini Kuzuryu (Dark Geo Da Rey), and...that's about it. So, how do you use Cervantes? Hmm...I'm gonna have to go with Chaos here. Off Chaos, you get Cervantes, Algol, Zi Mei, and Zhao Daiyu support. As such, you can use Cervantes' cards to pass cards throughout the game, Dread Pirate to get 2 checks, Algol's Body of Souls and Alphard Maliki, Zi Mei's Communing with the Ancients and Wheel Kick for Stun: 3 and a high, and Zhao Daiyu for her control and momentum generation. As such...yeah, he doesn't really have much going for him, but he's the best character to lead with Shadow Flares to reduce their CCs, Wheel Kick to Stun them out, then Curse of the Mariner or Dark Geo for the kill. Playable? Like Daughter like Father, Cervantes has to omega work for it, but sure, he can.

Algol

Algol was walking down the valley of set 12, "ah da duh da duh" as Christian Bale would put it, minding his own business, when Martial Arts Champion came to town with two top tier symbols (Death and Fire) and made Algol QQ himself to his sleep of non-existence. Algol is EXTREMELY gimmicky. He's cute...but gimmicky. How do you make him work? All. All is all he's got, really. Pommel Smash is his best defense against MAC. Then, Relentless and Researching-Fatherly Love is going to be his draw, as well as his Arabic draw cards (that one attack, Combo E: Draw 2 cards). Alshain Najm, simply put, requires huge investment, "hopeful" outcome. For 7 difficulty, you're going to pray that damage accumulates, and I mean, it CAN! But...again, most of the "simple" characters (Hilde, Cassy, Sieggy, etc) are the ones people want, because it's obvious promise for obvious gain. Algol isn't hard to build or run, but he relies a lot on discarding then drawing, which again is easy, but Alshain Najm IS A COMBO! So...playable? Uh...I'll say yes because I'm trying to be positive, but the fact that his entire character can't get around MAC alone is just sad.

Astaroth

Blah...I hate Astaroth. I hate him because he's just so...overshadowed. He's got Kulutues, which will give an attack +5 damage or so, and he's got Powerful: 2 on a throw (have fun generating momentum), and that's...'bout it. Astaroth LIVES to build slowly so his pump gets better. However, his pump isn't free like Siegfried's, and it isn't particularly abusable like Ragnar's is with Stormhammer and Heir. So...I gotta admit, I vie Astaroth as worst character of new block. Evil is garbage, and when it comes to Earth, you have Rasho-Rag-Sieg, and when it comes to Fire, you have Astrid-Rag-Hilde. Ditch Astaroth to the side. Playable? Who'd want to?

Hilde

The queen of ringout is still in full force. Lead in with Pommel to commit anything problematic (namely Rashotep), play Siren's Call, E with as many Dual Wielding as you can use, Hilde E, Shadowar E Commit, maybe Jimmy Kimmel E Commit, then Hilde FTROFL. Or why use 2 checks? Lightning Horn works just as well. I need say nothing more. Playable? Top tier.

Tira

Good ol' top tier 7 handsers. While Tira doesn't have familiar momentum of Ira-Spinta, Makai, or Natural Leader, she still can generate at least 1 momentum (which is about all that's necessary) for perhaps a Shredding Vibrato multiple. Tira doesn't exactly have a "pressure" game, more "aggro", I guess. Gloomy Side is definitely the way to be. Playable? I'll admit, I've never built her, but I'm definitely convinced. Her terrain and asset make her extremely quick and aggressive.

Cassandra

One of THE characters to look out for. At what's basically a free E, you're getting the only character right now with a consistant enough speed pump (excluding Eiserne and Robes because they need to be in play and are succestible to destruction/blanking). Off Fire, reveal Dragon Lifer as much as possible to give all attacks +4 speed, effectively pushing them to stupid high speeds bar unblockable. Embrace-Launcher-Breaker, all gettin +4 speed, using Cassandra's E Commit to limit their blocking options. At 7/20 with two top tier symbols, she will certainly see play.

I don't want to give away everything, but let me just say all Tekken chars are possible. Paul Phoenix LITERALLY has a built-in Pommel Smash, AND he shares ALL 3 SYMBOLS WITH POMMEL SMASH! And Christie is the only character with access to a loop right now, and she's a 7/18 with build-in draw, how could that be bad?

Predictions on the tier list (including Tekken).

Symbols: (listed from best to worst)

Top Tier:

Fire
Death
Earth
Life

Mid Tier:

Good
All
Void
Air

Low Tier:

Chaos
Water
Evil
Order

Characters: (listed alphabetically)

S Tier:

Astrid
Cassandra
Hilde
Kazuya
Paul

A Tier:

King
Lu Chen
Nightmare
Rashotep
Siegfried

B Tier:

Christie
Nina
Padma
Ragnar
Tira

C Tier:

Algol
Temujin
Yi Shan
Zi Mei

F Tier:

Astaroth
Cervantes
Ivy
Zhao Daiyu

is john herr not still legal?

you seem to have forgotten Dariya

I agree with some of that, but I don't think you are giving Evil nearly the credit it deserves pre-tekken. I won wandering master with a Evil deck, and in general evil's tricks are much better in practice then they seem on paper. Stuff like Chasing After the Power allowed me to hit Twilight embrace combo turn two multiple times. Having Hungry for Battle and Shadowar made all my attacks suprisingly effective for free, and the Cervantes support provided me bits of card advantage and if not anything else, high blocks. Soul Wave is also one of the best cards in the block, and unnatural Grace can be used very effectively in some decks.

Evil is pretty good, Astaroths support is great, Cervantes support is great utility, and Nightmares Attacks are the best the block has to offer. ZD doesn't offer a ton to the symbol unless you are actually playing her like I was, but her UR's are alll very good at least.

Ivy is also a litttle better then you rated her, but I agree that she was gloriously overblown at first, now she is a solid combo style deck with a few ways to go off early, not great, but effective with a good draw/mulligan.

Astaroth also has some pretty effective builds focusing on low foundation play, his damage pump, while not astrid like, can get pretty crazy, and his CC negate ability is actually suprisingly good(And a insanely difficult to deal with counter for poor Jin)

Algol is terrible :/ Zi is pretty not good right now either, regardless of Fury, once some more momentum gen hits, she will be much mroe playable. Cervantes is also pretty bad from what i've seen. Just about everyone else varies from "playable to Very Playable" I think Astrid and Rashotep are the king and queen of the format respectively, but they do have weaknesses(Astrid struggles against rashotep and Rashotep struggles against people like Zhao Daiyu(because of her death combo) and Jin(because by the time you blank him, his abilities have already gone off). Lu Chen is a incredible sleeper, Tanner built him and didn't really get any time to tune him, but some of the things he was doing were crazy, if he can figure out a way to kill people a little better that deck will be scary.

Champs are also all very good and yes, they are legal.

One good thing about Astraroth is that he can counter jin...eh? Well his support gave enraged golemn so he contributed okay?

Edit: ****, someone mentioned Jin already

I really think your analysis of ivy is completely wrong, and I'm about to head out so I can't really explain why at the moment. I'll write something a little more in depth in a bit. I don't agree with your list in a few things, but astrid is definitely high up there. Hit me up on aim sometime, i have a few things i want to talk about; Eithinis753, or email (just add @gmail.com), or such.

so that also means that j.j is legal

more 7hs is good

Don't forget Jon Herr, James Hata, and Omar Chavez! Promo Jin as well!

Astaroth is much, MUCH better than you give him credit for. Granted, I played him in (old) Standard, and not in new Standard. Based off of Earth using Throws, Regretful Existence, and (in now Legacy), Cutting Edge, I was able to crank out +8-10 damage sometimes for a mere commit. Like I said, I haven't tried him in the new Standard yet, but Astaroth has proven quite beastly.

Why do people feel they have to hide stuff they see at worlds from us. Just post spoilers god knows FFG odesn't give us nearly enough of them to hype up the set especially considering it had such a lengthy delay.

I agree that most of what you say is correct, at least it is on paper. Other than that I heavily disagree on the majority of it... but then again I am biased, I main Algol...

Seriously though, it's great to see the enthusiasm for mini-block etc. But it will change come Tekken, and it will change greatly again once SCIV #2 leaks. And both of those are pre any major tournies, well maybe some store events will happen after Tekken but before SCIV.

I'm not ignoring UK nats, they are still block 3.

In any case, what I am saying is that all of the discussion about tiers and such is obsolete until the pending sets are dropped on us granted they will change the dynamics more than you think...

- dut

Ragnar does not need foundations to face smash.

Fire Shadow with Berzerker Rage makes for 8 damage turn one, only requiring a check of 3 and 4. Very easy to do.

i dissagree with some of your evaluations, but then again i suppose its all based round what you have seen.

At the moment Ivy is running rampant in out meta, built off of void she can draw any attacks she wants and then play them as soon as she gets her action, heck sometimes the one over here has gone off without it and won!
My friend (CrazyElf) will have somthing to say about astaroth. Hes built one that is purly made to throw you for high damages every turn and then blow up nearly his enire staging area through various effects and then uses All Life is Prey to give more pump before using astaroth. he does this turn 3/4 BTW. if he fails to kill you then your left on seriosly low health and all he has to do next turn is play a throw and pump with asti and hes won.
I myslef run a Yi Shan off of life, i started with earth but soon found i cant play throws as well as his attacks so i use life for some speed boost to push damage through, so far he is doing fairly even with most of his match ups and seriously believe he didnt deserve that rank u gave him.

anyways apart from that i agreed with the rest and am looking forward to seeing the tekken set for i believe it will only enhance the fantastic experience we already have ATM.

Theo

I disagree almost entirely with the OP's statement about Algol. I may sound a bit hostile here, but I am just not mincing words. Your evaluation of him does not look into all the options he has been given in terms of draw power and attack strings.

OP said: "How do you make him work? All. All is all he's got, really."

I can, albeit anecdotally, disprove this. I have a fairly new deck run primarily off of Chaos and Void, with All splashed in only because of Ivy support also having Void.

OP said: "Then, Relentless and Researching-Fatherly Love is going to be his draw, as well as his Arabic draw cards"

Again, I find a bit of short-sightedness here. To find Algol's draw power, just go to his assets. Tower of Remeberance- Degredation, and both Pseudos are enough by themselves for a turn of attacks. Need to build? Frantic Search offers a good choice to draw cards. If you have already done some damage, Body of Souls also offers a good way of recurring attacks again and again. And no Algol player should ever use Fatherly Love, as if offers more risk then reward for what Algol does. Exspecially if it would rely on Researching to be effective. I'd rather use Researching to stack your deck so you can Algol F into what you need. The fact that yes, Algol has very little to directly answer MAC is true. However, the fact that Algol can draw through MAC is also true.

OP said: "So...playable? Uh...I'll say yes because I'm trying to be positive, but the fact that his entire character can't get around MAC alone is just sad."

>.> Ignoring the cards and tech that was overlooked discussing this character, Algol would seem barely playable. Devoting a good chunk to Algol's one weakness, again, decreases his seeming effectiveness. There are, however, some very strong reasons to believe that Algol could do very nicely in the current format. With the unique ability to keep his hand in motion, fishing for attacks, Algol can make some of the best use of Ivy/Cervantes support. Wild Storm, a cheap, off zone attack with an killer ability to negate its own progressive difficulty. Genius Alchemist, a powerful card only made stronger when used to improve the effectiveness of Wild Storm's hack. Add in Body of Souls to hold onto those attacks that get through, or Communing with the Ancients to, again, keep stringing out attacks, and 'overwhelming' could better describe Algol than 'sad.' When your 5th card in the card pool is a Maliki at 2-3 difficulty, followed by an equally easy Achernar, all the while discard/drawing cards off of a Pseudo or two, the damage can get very high, very fast.

IMHO, Algol is closer to the top of B tier.

Tinman

Funny, I play both Ivy and Cervantes off of miniblock and I find them to be very good.

Cervantes can set up really well first turn with his first ability, moreso than others because you can actually check attacks in the firs turn without complaint. Afterwards his positive CC hacking abilities let you play some sick attack strings which means one hell of a finisher with Curse of the Ancient mariner.

Ivy's attacks may not have the kind of power the others have, but she can run a LOT more than they can and actually playt them more often. My Ivy deck runs 24 attacks and, since nothing except Switching Weapon Styles has higher than a 4 difficulty, she can set up fast and produce an attack string half a mile long. Tie her up with Regretful Existence and you've got a cheap damage pump off of life that'll have your opponent reeling by the 5th attack (which is usually a 9 damage raging gnome). If they continue to live, just toss out a lowdown neb for a final shot to the groin.

They aren't as quick as Astrid or Ragnar, but they've got a lot of power all the same.

Tinman said:

MAC is just like Red Lotus. People put a lot of faith into it that it'll stop everything. It commits itself!! Algol has card draw off of everything he owns so unless you've got a way to ready MAC (which Tira's Terrain Asset is your only option in block 4 and only shares death with MAC) it's easly steamrolled. That's like saying Red Lotus keeps **Mai from being used.

I think what Shinji is on about is the 'early game' application of MAC vs. Algol's ability, which is sometimes devastating.

That said, MAC won't be used that much... there isn't that much draw in mini-block yet and putting a playset in doesn't speed up the kill, which is frankly what every miniblock deck does - speed kill and heavy damage.

Also, there needs to be counter draw. If there wasn't things would get out of hand too quickly too fast.

Bottom line, Algol is playable, his second ability is almost better than his first (wink wink nudge nudge).

- dut

ps. Absolutely hilarious that Shinji has Z D as bottom tier, yet it is what J Ray used to win Wandering (yeah yeah, second to Stephen, but still competitive eh?)

Then again, Shinji hates everything J Ray runs, need I recall the S Mina incidents

Ivy - She certainly works better in NEWFS than she does in old. Couple of reasons why I'm not too keen on Ivy:

1. The only way she can ready foundations (IIRC) is Tira's terrain, and that's it. As such, you're already running a 7 hander with the intent to spam attacks, and with her R, you're going to go through your resources mighty quickly, meaning that if you don't kill them, it's quite certain they'll kill you (you may have drawn a million blocks, good luck using them on a tapped-out field).

2. Damage pumps are weenies' best friends. They are not Ivy's, however. Although damage CAN be output (Gnome is 7, 9 with Regretful, and of course Path of the Master would seal any game), it isn't consistant enough. All of these weenies don't have speed, which can only really go to them with Robes and Eiserne (as if you're not getting the hint, Life Ivy appears to be the only good one). Even with speed, they're dealing minimal damage, meaning your opponent will simply eat the weenies, let you tap out, then get ready to block the big finisher. Also, I'm quite certain Ancient Burial Ground will see play for the sole reason that it blanks Path of the Master (or in Ivy's case, the Ostreinsburg Castle - Twilight).

3. She's predictable, and without Bitter Rivals you can't do any of that cool "I'll use Kuzuryu, change its zone so it'll be blocked and deal 3" shenanigans. She relies ENTIRELY on her action so she can pass weenies no matter what, and relies HEAVILY on her character to draw into them. I realize there's little action prevention and character prevention, but without SWS, Ivy will have to wait. If she attacks in an attempt to draw into SWS, the opponent will notice, "Hey, she doesn't have SWS but is attacking. I wonder why?" and will just block out of intelligence.

She's much more usable, but again, predictable, costly, and doesn't nearly "keep up the pressure" like her stater says she does.

Astaroth

I still disagree with people saying 'roth is good. Astaroth relies PRIMARILY on the opponent BEING AHEAD in the foundation game, which is never a good sign. If he had damage reduction, then it would be good because he could purposefully wall and be slow, then smash face. But, no, he has access to very little reduction. One of the few ways to abuse him is with Heir to the Storm and Unstoppable Warrior, but by the time you're running those cards, Ragnar is likely the better choice all around.

Algol

Algol's F Commit is stopped entirely by MAC (I say this because somebody said MAC > Algol is similar to Red Lotus > **Mai**. Uh...**Mai** doesn't commit nor can her ability ever be negated since it's static).

Hey, if you're an Algol player, than your information is highly valuable. I mentioned All, as I said, for Pommel Smash to counter MAC. Ka Technique can do it too, but Pommel is quicker, and yes, Algol's got enough draw to draw around it.

Still, you also have to consider his kill switch. Once again, enlighten me if you know, but I'm just not sure Alshain Najm is really his kill; Dark Geo seems more believeable.

Zhao Daiyu

I did list her as playable, but simply put, her abilities are not that great, her support isn't even that great with her, and Twilight, IMO, is her main (if not only) saving grace.

Now, not gonna lie, I'm certain most people posting here have more insight into mini-block, so hey, all debate's certainly fair game. If your Ivy/Cervy/Algol/Asta/Zhao is eating face, by all means tell me not just how and why, but also, who is your opposition? Just because cards see lots of play doesn't necessarily make them amazing (your playerbase could be all beginners, you see?). But hey, I'm up to hearing all stories.

Also, **** right Tekken's gonna change this game. I can just hear Paul

GRRRRROOOIIIIIIYAAAAAAH

Gonna have to disagree with you here, Shinji . I think Yi Shan** is pretty darn good (I do agree in that he got shafted with only 26 HP when he's described as the toughest dude in ShadoWar ), but I think a Life rush deck with Eiserne Drossel and Robes of the Grandmaster to buff speed to the moon is the way you go with him. I know I've beat the stuffing out of Astrid simply because I drop a good field on T1, spam attacks like mad on T2, survive the retaliation, and just drop her with an attack that's too fast and strong for her on T3. However, if you can give me any ideas for a good Earth Yi Shan** deck, I'd love to hear them (PM me if need be); my allegiance in UFS is still to the Mountain.

wat @ Hilde

She's good, but unless you plan to negate the effect of this enhance so you're only paying the cost, Siren's Call is not a good card for you.

Or are you just using Siren's Call because it's a big move? Odin's Wrath would work for that, too.

All I'm saying is this:

Tira Character: Great Teacher --> Venerable --> x2 Reversals --> Wrath of Heaven: Multiple 2 = ow.

I love Life. Tell your opponent good luck building anything their turn, much less attacking.

*shrugs*

Ryken said:

She only gives multiple 1 =P I wouldnt mind if she gave multiple 2 but she doesnt xP. Still a multiple 1 wrath of heaven ... not a bad idea >3

Solstice said:

Twenny fo' damage.

Eithinis said:

I WILL!

Off of Life, the use of either Genius Alchemist or Prominent Noblewoman in presence of a Osterrheisburg Castle Twilight means she can and will spam you to death, without the need for Switching Weapon Styles.

Not to mention that my Ivy was tested against Astrid, the OP's lovely choise for near brokenness, yet out of 8 games, Astrid only secured 1.

There may be a lack of speed pump in the meta, but she also has one of the few viable speed pumps in the meta right now (Valentine.. says hi). Pommel Smash is smashing, and you'd be surprised how easily it is to spam people to death around turn 3.

Yes, I said turn 3. The meta at the moment doesn't quite allow for turn 2, seeing how there is not enough damage pump (apart from characters themselves and very costly pump a la Ragnar), but turn 3 is not unfamiliar territory. Speed pump is sorely absent for the most part (which is why Astrid promo will be so good for Astrid decks), so blocking is not a bad option. OMG we can block now! Who doesn't love blocking? I almost forgot how to calculate block difficulties because I'm so used to 20+ speed attacks or BRT's on the field.

Play Path, Genius, maybe attempt something else, end turn. Play Artificial Soul, Researching Anywhere, I dunno, another foundation, attempt something else, end turn. Three turns is enough to draw into what she needs, especially since her form, Genius Alchemist and Prominent Noblewoman make the need for Switching Weapon Styles moot.

Not to mention the UBER SEXINESS THAT IS RAZOR'S BITE . YES, I MUST SAY THIS IN CAPS LOCK, TURNING IT OFF NOW. It is quite literally the most important card in the deck. Screw anything else; if you can see the top card, you won't CARE for not having progressive, and if there's an attack, you'll be glad to use Ivy's R without hesitation.

Not to mention she can use Fatherly Love, which people wouldn't give the time of day to but I use it to great effect.

Not to mention ivy gets the best speed pump card in the game. CROSS. MADNESS. they have to choose between blocking like, madness, or howling, stuff gets hard.