In a similar fashion to Shinji's ( Marcopulleaux) thread this is a cereal discussion about the charcter Astrid in the NEWfs format (Five point only)

Many people i've met and seen on these forums say that Astrid is Top tier and I for one definitely agree and seeing as i fail at producing a coherent statements i'll once again make another futile bullet point list =/ :

- Astrid has a solid staline, backed by two higher up symbols.

- She always uses strictly weapon attacks as they fuel her abilities, which are awesome. Astrid can alternate between pokes, mid level attacks and ZOMG this 3 Diff pommel smash is comin at you for your life total!!!!1

- All that jank can be played on your opponents turn

- She has ready access to the best draw in the format in Relentless and Paying respect to your ancestors.

- She has a promo stacker so not only is she getting even more 6 checks, she's got +0 mid blocks and more milling through her deck O_O

- She has amazing weapon assets.

- She will always get better over time as more throws are printed.

- One of the few characters capable of winning on any given turn, which in the case of characters like Hilde or Jin prove that that is such an amazing asset to have.

- Gets stronger by just playing cards. Has an amazing late game which with the right draw can be produced early game,

Anddddddd there you have it. Astrid just has soo much going for her, it's ridiculous. I'll concur with Shinji when I say that Astird is S tier she is indeed near broken and may, just may. warrant a looking at.

She WILL make top 8 showings at alot of store championships and regional events. I expect her to do incredibly well, watch out.

Remeber you can discuss any HAWT TECH or anything relating to Astrid in this topic, just please don't make a flame war or such (Imma lookin at You Shinji mimura)

Astrid= S tier

Cheers

Dan

EDIT: - She will get better as more WEAPONS are printed.

- Forgot to add she gets better just by making control checks =/ NVM

Discuss

Dan

and, with the mitsu leaked card, looks like we'll get moar all/fire weapons

ShadoWar helps remedy Astrid 's only "blind spot", which is the speed department. That and Stand Off can make her one tough cookie to crack. Hungry for Battle is absolutely disgusting with her; discard 1 from the top of the deck AND get some damage? Why, yes, thank you, I'll have some of that. Don't forget you can do that on your opponent's attacks as well, so that Pommel Smash reversal is gonna get extra disgusting. Paid to Protect helps deal with Life decks and their ridiculous speed bonuses. I would say that as long as she gets her pieces out, she's the character to beat. But that's why my Yi Shan** deck is made to take her out in T3.

LordAggro said:

Thanks for the tech bro.

indeed i Honestly feel that Rashotep, Astrid and arguably Jin Kazama and James hata.. have a tier of their own =/

Challenge to Battle will also help in dumping cards in your discard pile, as well as giving a passive +1 to all your attacks (which, IIRC, can be Paying Respect to your Ancestors'd) if it works.

Ready for Battle, since Astrid tends to have more Weapon assets than most, will definitely allow for some shenanigans, especially if you end up in Desperation, reversing.

The only thing that irritates me about Astrid is her ability to play better reversals than actual reversal decks.

To be fair, there's only 1 Reversal deck doing rounds in NewFS (that would be Lu Chen** ), and he works pretty well, though he is limited because a lot of his nicer stuff requires him to completely block something (his R , that promo foundation of his). But yeah, I see what you mean; he would KILL for something as disruptive as a Pommel Smash played as a Reversal .

The Entertainer is kinda good for the same reason as Challenge to Battle. Rip Paying Respect, Entertainer and Brooding on your opening draw with 3 weapons, and you might have an easy T2 win on your hands...

It really puts your opponent in a no-win situation, too. Either they attack and are forced to eat some reversals, or they don't and let you sit on 3 moves that will get free +2s (plus Paying Respect, plus multiple copies of Entertainer...). 4x Entertainer + 4x Paying Respect = +24 damage before the enhance step even starts

I would not say that Lu Chen is the only reversal deck out there. Ivy can build a fairly interesting Reversal Deck, using the attacks to build her hand on your turn, then SWSing on hers. But I will agree, the fact that Astrid can play all of her attacks as reversals means that she will have an easier time of it than anyone else.

I wish there was Mill in this format still. There have been so many games I have played where Astrid kills me with 3-4 cards in her deck till cycling. If there were some form of Mill Tech (Warrior Poet does not count), Astrid's play-ability would be partly affected.

-Tinman

i got turn 3'd by an astrid deck that was nearing 90 cards today....it just goes to show you that she was be built so many different ways and there are so many good cards to break her its unheard of

It was 89 cards. I've winnowed it down to 70, but just from goldfishing I think I wanna put some stuff back in. Pretty much have to kill before you cycle, or she loses her massive, practically free damage buff. I can't wait to get my hands on some of the promo Astrid, considering there are over a dozen assets even in my current slimmer build.

still at least 30 cards bigger then the deck i was running and the sad part is that shes only going to get better once more weapons come out

My thought on Astrid was using Paying Respect to Ancestors combined with stuff like Brooding for a massive, almost free damage pump. Her enhance is just another piece

Kick * Weapons please? LOL.

And more foundations that are weapons. Can you imagine an Astrid deck where all the cards in the deck were weapons. That'd be just dumb.

Looks like my thoughts were right. she's the charcter to look out for!!

And anyone else notice all the discussions flying around??

where do people get off copying my trends and then trashing me in the same topic? I understand it's all in good fun, but if I am to be the butt of a joke, at least have it be called for, and not just a good excuse to throw my name into the flames for no apparent reason other than I'm a good target...>_>

Now then...

F Astrid. Talk about character bias. Something tells me Dani's constant meddling convinced them to continue to release broken Astrid nonsense.

Let's run down the list...

-Otherwise free enhance of epic proportions
-Uncancelable static that puts Lu Chen to shame: play any weapon as a reversal
-4 diff stacker that treats assets as foundations and gives Astrid access to something she didn't have access to before: speed pump.
-Promo Adon in a foundation
-Most reliable draw in the game (Relentless)
-Ways to play Multiples as reversals

She's just redonkulous, and I sure as hell can't wait to see some severe asset or weapon punishment come out to bastardize her character. At this current juncture, many, unfortunately, think she is the best character around.

I'm fed up with her. I can't wait til Jin Kazama is mass-spread around playgroups so I can prove my point that Jin is the best character in the game (at least, better than Astrid).

MarcoPulleaux said:

??? Just what did I do exactly??

ShadowDragon said:

You play Astrid. but then again look at the source of the comment.

kiit said:

Ouch. ****** bag =/

I'm...kinda curious as to why they gave Astrid Good? I mean, it's not like she NEEDS to be stacked...

...still, it's kinda hard to justify running a 4 diff by herself off of Good when given her support

You want to know why they gave promo Astrid Good?

So she could share 3 symbols with Hilde's support for PotM's sake.

Wafflecopter said:

Words...they escape me...

(also, wtf Astrid know 'bout Hilde support? >:|)

Fire Shadow is mad good for her, as is Dragon Breath. And the Flags...

MarcoPulleaux said:

A reason for good could be like base set Nakoruru {Life/Chaos/Good} and promo Nakoruru {Life/Death/Good} and flames of fame Nakoruru {Life/Good/Water} give option for different builds although fire/all astrid seem like a decent build option. It's not hard to justify running a 4 diff 6cc +0M that allows for weapon assets to be used as foundations and gives speed pump {and extra damage pump from the starter astrid} if you decide to stack.

I have no idea why they gave her Good, I didn't have a part in any of her cards. If I did she wouldn't have All =P I've never really liked the playstyle of it... just doesn't fit me. She's just been my main character since she came out back in April since I loved Reversals and she allowed me to play them while getting around Bitter Rivals. I still play her now b/c I'm so used to it, plus I like the majority of her art (and there's just something about claiming that Weak Slash/Fire Shadow/Pommel Smash is my finisher and pulling it off). Still not sure how the heck I 'meddled' in anything though >_>