This is one of 3 reports I've posted, please check out the toruney report if you are interested in how this deck did!

Characters:

J. Talbain ** X 1 (all, good, life)

= 1

Actions:

Kung-Fu Training X 4 (all, life)

Tag Along X 4 (all, good)

= 8

Assets:

Hidden Beastly Powers X 3 (all, good)

= 3

Attacks:

Chikemuri Kuruwa X 1 (all)

Dark Force Mirage Body X 3 (all, good)

Heel Snipe X 3 (good, life)

Kuzuryu Reppa X 3 (all)

= 10

Foundations:

Destiny X 4 (good)

Blind Loyalty X 3 (all)

Amy's Assistance X 4 (good)

Antisocial X 4 (all, good)

BRT X 4 (all)

Irresistable X 3 (good)

Buddhist Devotion X 4 (good)

Undercover Agent X 3 (good)

Cursed Blood X 4 (good)

Mentally Unstable X 4 (good)

Memories of a Nightmare X 4 (good, life)

Deadly Ground X 4 (all, good, life)

The Red Lotus of the Sun X 4 (good)

Fight or Flight X 4 (all, good)

= 53

Total = 75 w/ character

Sideboard:

Collecting Data X 3 (good)

Begin Anew X 1 (all)

Lesser of Many Evils X 2 (all)

Torn Hero X 2 (good, life)

= 8

Synopsis:

Well, the goal of this deck was to hit 5 foundations at the start of turn 2. This means that if I went first I'd try to get 4 foundations, one being a crused blood. If it hits a foundation I have 5 foundations and on the turn with a 9 hs I can attack with Dark Force, drop, attack, etc. Buddhist devotion as one of the 4 foundations also meant a start of 5, and it also helped me get BRT down (an all card, that didn't chain with a whole lot).

10 foundations was the start of turn 3 target, and if I held onto 1 attack and drew into a second on the 6hs turn 3 I could kill turn 3 just as reliably with a 10 to 7-8 foundation base, all that mattered was that the Dark Force did 1 damage and got it's enhance off, and I chained right...

In either case, the strength of my deck was to heavily outbuild with the following 3 cards (antisocial, cursed blood, and buddhist devotion) in the first 4 turns of the game. After which it came down to my ability to deal damage with Dark Force, entering into infinite build and infinite damage - best circumstances of course.

It doesn't come as a surprise then that my worst matchups were against other decks that built foundation bases really quickly (good handsize 7+, good checks, and cursed blood - fewer peeps run antisocial and buddhist I find).

Ideally Mentally Unstable would be down first or second turn, or put down with Buddhist. Getting that enhance off meant I could loop an attack, but MOST importantly, I could use Kung-Fu to speed pump to draw and deal damage and then get it out of the card pool to play foundations down... In a few games I messed up thinking I had my Vega friend out and played Kung-Fu on Darkforce, stuck therafter playing only foundations with all on them...

Enhance negation was the bane of this deck. But Enhance negation is 'usually' something that comes out turn 2 or after, running 4 diffs and such... Also, if the wrong stuff was negated, i.e. they negate Dark Force, I would then get Mentally to go through to replay, or Fight or Flight for 16 damage, etc. In other wrods, 'multiple enhance negation' was the biggest problem.

Heel Snipe is insane, because it shares good with Dark Force it was often used to waste a low block and tap out enhance negation, followed by Dark Force = game. I should have had 4 Snipes in the deck...

Kuzu is a draw engine, and helps the infinite stay infinite. I say infinite but it isn't, rather it is a lot of damage a lot of attacks and i've never had trouble (unless I mess up) killing any target life after starting it.

3 assets. Dark Force doesn't work with assets... But what Hidden Beastly Powers does cannot go unmentioned. It scares my opponent. It also allows my 9hs turn to be a turn I drop whatever I draw. For instance, I could drop a BRT during the attack and have that BRT work on the block.

I think 'most' of the foundations are self-explanatory. But the Blind Loyalty + Irresistable puts rejection to shame, especially with Dark Force and Heel Snipe the Reversals being played... The wording is really tricky on these two. But if I reduced to zero with Irresistable after playing Blind Loyalty, and then gave the attack +1 damage with something like Memories of a Nightmare I could play a reversal, add it back the hand if it dealt damage, and then play a second reversal. Read em!

Memories of a Nightmare is great at taking out a) cutting edge, b) enhance negation cards, c) BRT, etc. It is also a relatively unknown damage pump or drop, and +1 or -1 (no minimums) can sometimes be the difference between winning/losing or messing up an opponents enhance. For example, Macek got my attack to zero (the Dark Force) and I gave it +1 with the Memories to go off with the combo and win the game.

I've already talked about the weaknesses of this deck a bit in my tourney report, i.e. draw and mass enhance negation kill it. I should have maybe run Tough Outer or at least Abellia's (both were in/out and about in playtesting) to keep my 6/9 hs on top or competitive with other stuff that inevitably comes out mid game to draw.

If anyone has any questions, please fire them off!

- dut

I still don't know what this deck does.

Yeah me neither

honestly just think it must've been lucky

dutpotd said:

I don't think that lets you play two reversals. It twice gives you the ability to play a Reversal as though you had blocked. However you can still only play one reversal after blocking an attack.

aslum said:

Maybe, I never actually did it so I didn't have to have it judged (would have called someone over becuase it is really wonky wording).

I've been running Dark Force decks all year and to great sucess, so either it isn't luck or it is heaps plenty luck.

I guess people not knowing what it does is a good thing...

Bloodrunstrue said:

No it wasn't luck. It was definitely a top tier player with a very good deck, I just never got to see any of the crazy combos go off when we played.

mattkohls said:

Thanks Matt, I think *hope* Mr. BRT was joking, lol.

I did get it off against Herr at Can nats in game 2 (we ended up with a tie, a short game 3 locked with foundations after a few turns). In fact, Jon is one of the few who said "Is this going to kill me? Let's go on to game 3", almost everyone else doesn't believe it will happen.

Ah, I wish I would have made top 8 after my tie with Jon, if only to try it on Mark (Tuesday) and his Akuma deck that I had such great respect for (Alex v. Akuma is a good matchup for me and would have been good times if I ever dealt that 1 damage with Mirage Body)

Seriously though, anyone who thinks block 3 got really dull and boring should try new things like a Mirage Body deck. It's a great deal of fun playing a draw into kill on same turn deck, and a different type of agro altogether (i.e. not huge damage pump 2nd turn, rather hugely long turn of attacks and foundations 2nd turn).

- dut

dont mean to say anything out of place, but you are saying that anyone who thinks block 3 got boring should try something new, and i do understand you didnt think it was boring, but you did say that you have been playing dark force decks all year

on the note of it being borring the fact that most decks were stall decks is kinda boring, i know im not the best example of a rogue deck doing well, but i think more people should try it, and on that note im kinda happy for rotation as it forces a new crop of decks to come out

Stythe said:

Yep, block 3 wasn't boring for me... I 'only' played Dark Force decks at most of my travel competitions this year - 4/6 of them. At home I played all sorts of mean stuff (Kyoshiro started me off with self sacrifice in November, I moved away from order when it got boring, played me some death blanka, some akuma, vega off air, some Raphael, some T Hawk for a while, and Donovan etc. never stall though, that was last year me, died at the start of 09).

Most decks I saw weren't stall decks, at least not in my meta, we could two turn most anything with our Dark Forces, Felicias, Akumas, Leona's, etc. but I understand my meta is typically more agressive (anything less than 12 attacks, yes I violated this above, was pretty much unheard of). Looping spinta (and it's unknown relative, Ryu's Roundhouse, cough, try it) also ruined stall decks good ^^ Competitively, my losses never came to stall, they came to Chun-li and once to a Hanzo... i.e. I didn't suffer many long games, you break through early or you go to game 2 and break through early and then again, no big problem and definately not boring.

In any case, all you need to look to is the top 8 of worlds and the idea that 'stall decks were too prevalent' should go out the window. They existed and they were good, but they weren't as big of a problem as I think everyone made them out to be. (again, just my humble opinion and maybe you saw me tear some of the 'is Zangief unstoppbale?, or is Earth invincible threads?' threads up with responses)

For sure, I'm SUPER happy for rotation though, don't get me wrong on that. I would have rotated anyway right after worlds becuase it would have been what I'd be playing at the next major event I play at. All I'm saying is that all of the naysayers, people dropping and such, becuase stall is boring or grey wars this, grey wars that, were simply falling victim to their own strategies, i.e. there existed many unorthodox agressive decks out there but people were too set in their ways with what they thought was the best in the meta (stall) and to be frank, a lot of the metas are really very conservative (mine is unorthodox and agressive).

You are absolutely right though, forced rotation is easily the best becuase it gets over the 'stuck in rut' nature block 3 had evolved into, or what people 'thought' it had evolved into. The reason I say 'thought' is simply this, look at Can Nats - super agro air decks 1 and 2, US Nats were fairly agressive with Chun-li, Ibuki, and my Alex topping... The Akuma and Hanzo didn't take forever either. Then we have a month or so of regionals after some bannings and some wins with defensive decks and too many people jump on the 'mill is great' bandwagon. It was strong, but strong players were sucessful with it, they will be sucesfful with whatever they decide to play...

The sad fact is defense is/was only really good against other defensive decks and semi-agressive decks. Any truly agressive deck should have been able to beat a defensive deck or at least go 50/50 with it, which in my mind isn't stale, it is fair.

I hope my position makes sense, I haven't really voiced it anywhere else becuase it hasn't come up and me telling other people they shouldn't be bored is kind of ignorant, definately pretentious, and wouldn't solve anything.

- dut

I love this deck. My friend Nintendoman always played an Alex solitare deck just like this, and it was great to watch the whole combo go off.

riotmaker said:

Thanks Riotmaker, Nintendoman and I have been in touch a lot and his advice and discussion with me is what has lead to some final decisions in this and my other Dark Force decks. It's really a fun combo to play as well ^^

- dut