In the vein of some of the current threads popping up on the boards over the last handful of days, let's get a little thread going about Tira:

Stats:
7hs, 20 life, air/death/life
We've got an above-average life total for a seven hander, a strong symbol spread on the back of either life's speed barrage and staging area protection or death's control and tricks. Air provides some options as well, mostly tied in to her own support or Zi Mei's card pool clearing.

Primary advantages:

Best Menuett Dances in the game at present, can snap-generate momentum relatively effectively using a combination of Maniacal Laughter and Treacherous Offspring. Effective 58-card deck. Only character able to really abuse Shredding Vibrato. Multiple: 1 on certain attacks (Midnight Launcher, etc) is strong. 7hs and access to Cursed Blood leaves her able to outbuild certain opponents. Decent Path of the Master options - can run Knight Breaker and Shredding Vibrato on the Death end for blips of card draw, and basically anything for damage pump, especially Menuett. Key reasons for running character (Menuett pump, Shredding Vibrato usage) are not printed specifically on the character and can be backed up with foundation/action support. Solid tricks on either Gloomy or Jolly side.

Disadvantages:

Symbol spreads do not lend themselves to fantastically costed defensive tricks. Only access to Stand Off is via Air, arguably her weakest symbol. Low life total compared to 6hs characters. No access to Pommel Smash or any sort of targeted commit ability. Symbols do not have access to 'real' card draw ala Financial Distress or something similar, Life gets Hunt for Jin. Character abilities can be shut down via damage, vitality loss. No real defense against Rashotep's blanking of character abilities.

Attack Support:

Most of her support is decently costed. Menuett Dance is a solid finisher that will usually come across at some obscene amount of speed. Shredding Vibrato is tricky to utilize effectively, but is costed well and painful if it hits, especially combined with damage pump of some sort. Both are currently -way- overpriced on a Green Card for Orange Card basis, but what can you do?

Swing Kick is a pretty decent poke, nice with Path for her. Lowdown Neb feels more at home in Ivy than in here, and even there it's not great. Oratorio Halcyon isn't awful, but doesn't hold up to some of the stronger options for Combo. Piercing Talon Strike sucks, move on.

Foundation/Asset support:

Eiserne Drossel is fantastic. Nothing much to say here. Good stats, block, great abilities. Her terrain seems meh, especially if you're running against Stand Off.

Foundation-wise, Distracting Taunt seems overpriced in the current meta, Flexible Body is a rebalanced Tira's Contract and a nice sideboard option against characters like Hilde. Keeper of the Watchers is usually good for +2 to +3 speed or so, given the prevalence of blocks in the format, and a quick peek never hurt. Mesmerizing Dance... eh. Usually you'll have the speedpump to make this mediocre at best, if not useless. Perfect Sense of Balance is like a weaker Torn Hero, but still -very- good. Personality Split is obviously going to only be used in her, and only in specific builds, and Shattered Persona is not terrible, but not fantastic either, and is really used as a backup plan for her abilities.

So, let's get some opinions and conjecture on her. How viable is she, what builds have been effective, what works and what doesn't? Is her scrawny little butt able to keep pace with other 7 Handers like Hilde, or does she get ran over?

Somebody posted a deck a few weeks ago that had her using Wrath of Heaven as a kill, running Lu Chen** 's Reversal support. I don't know if that works, but if it does, it should cause some fireworks.

Air is the only real symbol you can run Shredding Vibrato in reliably, unless you're using Personality Split to fetch Gloomy Side , and I would run both if you really want it as a kill condition. Always in Motion and Driven by Fear will help out a lot with regards to meeting that 2-attack requirement, and Solitary Assassin can help you milk Tira* 's Multiple: 1 for momentum, if you don't have the fuel to go out and play it. Interestingly enough, Air has quite a few appealing options for Tira* , including Nina Williams* ' stuff, which you can run off Air or Death , for some more defense for that rather squishy 20 vitality, as well as discard. She may be the poster girl for Air , actually.

Honestly, I still think Tira's top tier material. The only thing she butts up against is quick momentum generation - that's it. Gloomy Tira + Menuett -> Vibrato = finished opponent, period. I really want to run her off of Air, but really only because Solitary Assassin is the quickest momentum generation available to her on any of her symbols (beyond that, it's just attacking, or Offspring...not exactly ideal =/), and Stand Off being insanely good. Beyond that, Cursed Blood and the extreme availability of solid attacks makes it seem as though Death is the best option.

But her other symbols do give her a bit to play with - Lunging Brush Fire, a Christie attack, both clears itself from the pool and generates a single momentum if it deals damage, and is available on Life...not too hard to push through, all thinks considered.

She's still very, VERY good - don't underestimate her. She didn't get much of a boost from Tekken, or so you'd think...

MegaGeese said:

I think she got quite the boost from Ninas stuff you might even be able to come up with a nice Air/Death Hybrid deck that runs Death for control cards like Ka Techniques, Cursed Blood, and Ninas Discard and wind to get momentum gen and card pool clearing for her finishers if i had the cards id be playing tira but sadly i dont have them at all

LordAggro said:

Death says hi

Death Throw + Shattered Persona E
Death Throw + Shattered Persona E
Shredding Vibrato

I'm not a big fan of Tira only because I have never ran her, and I'm not too sure she works without momentum generation.

While Death may be the most obvious symbol for her, an intelligently-played turn of Embrace-Launcher-Breaker is generally enough to seal any game, while using stuffl ike Intimidating Presence and Maniacal Laughter to seal the deal. While her E Commit is fun, it isn't a necessity when you've got kill switches up the whazoo in Death (even though her E Commit will pretty much PROMISE that they are kills).

I think Life might be her better bet, what with Eiserne Robes + Gloomy Side to throw a bunch of unblockables there way, clear every bit of 'em, and Vibrato them hardcore + E Commit.

So, she is good, definitely. Top tier? Hmm...yeah, I'd say so. However, Death has a huge array of characters, and IMO, Jin plays Death Aggro best, since while Tira has the handsize, clearing, and multiple generation up, Jin has CCHax and damage pump like a mofo.

Life Tira is the Tira for me. I just don't find Air to be an appealing symbol since the only thing Tira really gets from Air is Solitary Assassin, Fury of the Ancients, and...'s bout it really.

Re: Air: Temujin's support is pretty good, particularly his defensive assets. Stand Off is similarly great. Driven By Fear makes Vibrato's condition consistent. Sworn to Protect is another really good defensive piece. Mark of the Beast shuts down the occasional multiple attack and has great stats.

I think you could put together 60 decent Air cards, dunno if it would be better than Death but most players would be less prepared for it.

Hey, point taken. Just not the biggest believer in Air at the current moment.

"The only thing she butts up against is quick momentum generation"

Tekken added the amazing maniacal laughter for death momentun generation and some extra stunage. Card went straight into my Tira deck and has sped her up like woah.

Any deck in need of momentum generation runs Maniacal Laughter, Treacherous Offspring, and Mishima Zaibatsu Leader. No-brainers in this format.