Well, since I can't seem to decide which of the 2 resource symbols will be better, I'm just gonna go right ahead and make a Yi Shan** deck off of Earth as well as Life , and see how it goes. So, without further ado, I give you:

Yi Shan** - Earth:

Starting Character:

Yi Shan** (6 HS 26 Vitality) (Earth, Life, Water)

Actions (4):

4 Tieh Lei, Iron Thunder (2/5 +1H) (Earth, Life, Water)

Assets (2):

2 Pendant of the Western Paradise (3/5; Unique) (Earth, LIfe, Water)

Attacks (18):

4 Yi Shan's Dragon Tail Leg Sweep (3/3 3L3 +2L; Kick) (Earth, Life, Water)

4 Flooded-Nile Throw (4/3 1M4 +3H; Throw) (Death, Earth, Void)

4 Yi Shan's Tiger Claw (4/3 3H5 +3H; Stun: 1) (Earth, Life, Water)

4 Striking Thunder (5/3 3M6) (Earth, Life, Water)

2 Rage of the Dragon (6/3 4M6 +1M; Character Only, Punch) (Earth, Life, Water)

Foundations (36):

4 Torn Hero (1/5) (Earth, Good, Life)

3 Atoning for the Past (2/5 +3M) (Earth, Life, Water)

4 Black Giant (2/5 +3L) (Earth, Evil, Fire)

3 Dark Past (2/5) (Earth, Life, Water)

4 Iron Body Technique (2/5) (Earth, Life, Water)

3 Regretful Existence (2/5 +3M) (Earth, Good, Life)

3 Repentant Hero (2/5) (Earth, Life, Water)

4 Stand Off (2/5 +3M) (Air, Earth, Fire)

4 Undisputed Ruler (2/4) (Death, Earth, Void)

4 Zhao Family Discipline (3/5 +3H) (Earth, Life, Water)

General Deck Strategy:

Nothing too out of the ordinary here; you rush with attacks that are bolstered by Yi Shan** 's free E to go into your face-up momentum, which in turn make your consequent attacks stronger. In the end, you can score a kill by coming down with a lethal attack rush or busting out something large, like a Dragon Punch after you've collected some face-up momentum (and turned it into what you need to kill your opponent with Tieh Lei, Iron Thunder ). If you get attacked, don't sweat it: though you have a lot of foundations with no blocks, your staging area can defend you well if your attacks have been successful.

Card-by-Card Breakdown:

Yi Shan** - The guy who makes the deck go. He has solid stats (6/26 is OK in my book), and his effects make running this deck a heck of a lot smoother.

Tieh Lei, Iron Thunder - This is a beautiful card in this deck. Not only does it have a very pretty block (+1H in Block 4 , you say?) and a pretty solid buffing effect, it can also set up your kill turn beautifully by transforming the cards in your face-up momentum into the cards you need to put your adversary away.

Pendant of the Western Paradise - Damage bonuses are a necessity in most aggro decks, so this boost is nice to have. Additionally, it can make itself useful by triggering off any of the abilities that require me to discard momentum in order to grab another attack to smack my opponent with.

Yi Shan's Dragon Tail Leg Sweep - A great sort of "poke" attack, this attack can also help a kill turn while it's going on by cleaning out your card pool and putting in some meatier effects for your face-up momentum in the process.

Flooded-Nile Throw - A good, solid throw attack, it costs little, it helps to bait blocks, and it can get stuff in my face-up momentum.

Yi Shan's Tiger Claw - Another attack with strong stats, this bad boy also has a very nasty effect if it manages to land in your face-up momentum.

Striking Thunder - Probably the best attack in this deck to have in your face-up momentum, it also comes in for a pretty hefty amount of damage, and that's always nice to have.

Rage of the Dragon - A genuine finishing attack, this can pack some pretty crazy damage if you have some decent face-up momentum on you.

Torn Hero - Some good committing effect protection in a cheap foundation. It can potentially save your skin from just about any commit effect in Block 4, so it's a pretty good foundation to have.

Atoning for the Past - This can function as a catalyst for a kill turn by simultaneously cleaning the card pool and adding face-up momentum, or as a second effort to get an attack into your face-up momentum. Either of these applications is good.

Black Giant - Let's face it, folks; assets are EVERYWHERE, and they're very good. This card hoses them pretty well, and (just as importantly) provides me with an off-zone block.

Dark Past - Some solid damage buffing in a pinch, and it interacts very nicely with the Pendant .

Iron Body Technique - Considering how blocks are few and far between outside of attacks in this format, any sort of reduction or mitigation ability is very nice to have.

Regretful Existence - Some pretty painful destruction hate, and a "break in case of emergency" sort of damage buff.

Repentant Hero - Another crunch-time damage alteration card (this one reduces damage) that can become a tutor card with the Pendant .

Stand Off - This card does double duty as damage buff and damage redux, and as such, it is very nice to have.

Undisputed Ruler - This is one of Block 4 's premier defensive pieces: most decks rely on keywords to win ( Combo , Multiple , even Weapon ), and this card stops them cold (blows itself up, but you're gonna live).

Zhao Family Discipline - Since Yi Shan** has an improved version of this card's E, this is basically a bread-and-butter damage buff (which is never a bad thing...), and can function as a serviceable backup in case your character is incapacitated by any fashion (*cough* Rashotep** *cough*).

Side Deck:

4 Calming the Mind (3/5) (Earth, Life, Water)

4 Ka Technique (2/5 +3M) (Death, Earth, Void)

Give me your preliminary thoughts on this, if you will.

No one? Is it that lame? :/

I know the feeling about not getting any responses. Thing is that what you have there is better then most of my attempts at Yi Shan. I play tested my actual physical version of the deck and it lost to Zhao Daiyo deck I made. Thing was dark bite, yimfring, and All life is prey killed my momentum. Once his momentum is gone he can't do anything. Add on her own plans it was shut down even though Yi Shan got Zhao down to three life. So far I can't get Yi Shan to a point of being a finisher with the cards I have. I made the mistake of investing heavily in the 4 star cards.

Thanks for the comment, bro. It's appreciated. And my condolences on the response bit, on the 4 star cards (I put my fair share of $ in them too), and on losing to Zhao Daiyu . To be honest, I haven't had the problem you've had; I've gotten my momentum tossed, but Atoning for the Past and Yi Shan's Dragon Tail Leg Sweep combined with Tieh Lei, Iron Thunder have allowed me to go from 0 to kill in 1 turn, especially if I have Pendant of the Western Paradise and Dark Past out there. So I think he has options, so don't give up on him yet. I hold my own against just about anything, including Astrid the Dotless, so I'm pretty satisfied with the deck so far, but I'd still like to know if there's something I can do to make him better.

Thing is when I looked at the difference between Yi Shan earh and Yi Shan life is that life is more about using the attacks that give damage and stun enhances to pump up some of Seigfrieds attacks as finishers. Yi Shan off of earth is looking at throws and throw support. You use some of Yi Shan's attacks but the throw element plays out way stronger. Rashoteps and ragnar's throws and only a handful of Yi Shan's attacks gets you to the finish line faster. Not only that you have bracers of Horus and Set to pump your throws and another of Rashoteps cards that gives damage based on how many throws in play. Thing is that you are getting consistant damage throw and forces people to block your throws so you can get in Yi Shan's attacks in at the end of the string of attacks.

That's basically the idea, yeah. But I wanna talk about some changes I've made to the deck after playtesting.

I think that Undisputed Ruler will help me out hugely, because Ka Technique hasn't helped me at all. I also have decide to go with a cheaper throw that blocks in Flooded-Nile Throw (I'd like to put in Crushing Embrace of the Jotun as well). Thoughts?

Although it may sound completely insane, how would it work with Crushing Embrace of the Jotun instead of the Sweeping Kick? Just out of curiosity how it would be with 8 throws, hahaha!

I've thought about it, and I would like to do it, but it makes my attacks a bit too expensive... I may try it if I see my attacks getting blocked too often.

I've also been thinking about pumping my attack count to 20, since I've been drawing hands without any gas in them. 2 copies of Close Throw would probably be what I'd go for. Thoughts?

When I did some play testing yesterday i found some things that are a bit interesting. First off Yi Shan life works better then earth because you have check support from Ivy's cards so you can do more in a turn. Next when you face off against anyone with Yi Shan's support the throws can become nothing.

The problems I'm seeing in the new meta is as follows...

Stun is the new Evil. You need to have the ability to Stun. Zi Mei does aggro and control due to her stunning effects.

You are going to have a hole somewhere just accept it. You can't play high defense, high offense, high shinanigans anymore. You need to pick with a focus and go for it.

Its better to have check support then a bunch of low checks. Fours and fives aren't bad but without check support you are sort of screwed. You need to be able to play at least 4 cards a turn. If not more aggressive decks will own you.

Off of Earth Ragnar has the most damage potential. I tested a Rashotep, Yi Shan, and Seigfried deck yesterday. The problems I had was damage generation. Rashotep couldn't get enough damage pumps to create a kill condition. Yi Shan problem was focusing on using his cards and using Ragnar's and Rashoteps throws just caused to much of a control check issue to build momentum. Seigfried did the most damage easilly but lack of speed pumps really caused some issues that caused losses to Ivy and Zi Mei. Ragnar on the other hand 2 shotted decks all day. Yes 2 shotted. He has the hp to do if he gets setup early. Sad thing on my part is that my friend didn't have anything other then 2 starters worth of cards. Earth is ok and it is not as good as I thought it would be when I actually played it.

After my own round of testing, I am forced to agree; Life is the symbol of choice for Yi Shan** . *sigh* Time to resurrect the other deck thread, I guess.