I was going to make this an article but I think open discussion might be better. I want to take a character and really look at them from every angle at least once a week. So, let's start with the one that intrigues me the most, Nina Williams.

I love Nina Williams. Seriously. I am an old school Void player at heart forever and always, I mean I'm the one that took Void Ibuki (the first cracked one) to a tournament instead of Evil Ibuki, just to play with Seichus again! That symbol is ME. So any character with that symbol seriously interests me. Of course, every character has more than one symbol, but Nina off Void CALLS to me.

However, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's talk about the character first. 6/27, with Air and Death along with Void of course. Her ability screams control. She gets to look at the Top 5 cards of the opponent's deck, strip one and rearrange the rest.

Most folks I've talked to say the same thing, okay that's cool but who cares dude??? She, like really sucks beyond that and can't really DO anything. Yes she has a neat ability with neat support but...Fire, Earth and Chaos just murder this ***** fool!

Ah yes, now I admit that's true. However, my compulsion to make her work is far too strong. And her support is very, very nasty, namely Cold and Indifferent . This card combined with her ability is bonkers! Not only are you crippling your opponent's key cards turn after turn but you get to see what they will draw. With careful math, writing things down and checking piles every turn C&! becomes a devasting card. Hitting a Hata deck with "Knight Breaker" at the right time can save your life, or mauling an opponent's duplicate blocks since you see them every turn will allow you to force through damage easier. The sickest part is that it hits multple copies, so name wisely and watch your opponent's hand disappear. Combined with her other support like War Between Sisters and Wipe The Floor , it gets brutal fast.

Or does it? The real question is, how does Nina actually WIN games? As I see it, there are 4 reasonable, possible ways to build her:

1. Attackless or low attack count Exhaustion (Tri-Symbol) - this is not as ridiculous as it sounds, even in the current meta. Alex Costa, a deckbuilder that routinely makes me weep with joy at his creativity, tried this version at the SAS, with middling but hilarious results. It can work somewhat, but against the myriad decks that push pressure so hard these days I really don't think this is a viable or sustainable option. There is simply too much damage coming too fast and not enough blanket negation to turtle effectively, not with a 6HS character anyway.

2. Void/Death Hybrid Control - This is one option to consider, with heavy discard and Rasho's control support mixed with her own and Algol, with either Ice Pick/POTM kill or with Shockwave Palm/Spinning Demon as a kill condition. I think this may be the most viable option with her, however the card mix is tricky to make work as pure control or pure aggro and I haven't been able to find the right balance.

3. Death Hybrid with Drossel/Breaker Launcer - I think this is another good option, it seems like a strong kill with heavy discard and Drossel to speed things up literally and figuratively. A stock Death aggro attack base grafted onto her specialities with Death control foundations seems pretty decent.

4. Air Hybrid with Lifter - Dragon Lifter is so good, and I think the Air base has some hilarious options, that this is not an unreasonable suggesting either. Wheel Kick/Lifter shenanigans are fun and Stand Off might be great in this build because of the consistent stun and therefore more relaible.

Those are some of my thoughts on Nina anyway, I would love to her your opinions on her (especially you, Alex Costa!).

Nina, Nina, Nina... she's not a character for a beginner to just start playing with. But, when you learn the support for the other symbols, you will know what to get rid of and what to make your opponnet check. In all honesty, she really doesn't need about 75% of support. Her stuff is much better for a void deck, or in a death Zhao Daiyu deck. Play her off of air, and she is increadably nasty. Between Ice Pick, Law's Sommersault Kick, Zi Mei's wheel kick, and whatever other miscelanious kicks you have in the deck, she can throw three to four attacks a turn from turn two. To do that she needs roughly 16-18 attacks. With cards like Mesmorizing dance, War Between Sisters, and Trained Far and Wide her attacks become very difficult for your opponent to block. Cards like Stand Off, Flexible Body, and Wonderworld Warriors being paired with her own ability keep her alive. I play my own Nina deck based around these principles, and in the month and a half I've been playing her, I have yet to loose a game.

My attack Span is currently:

4 Zi Mei's Wheel Kick

4 Ice Pic

4 Law's Somersault Kick

4 Wipe the Floor

I also keep a playset of Sroficient Sniper and Cold and Indifferent side boarded for problems.

Test of Strength and Flinging Half Nelson are great when you can rig your opponent's checks

Hmm I never thought of that. Doku your an evil, evil man.

If your going to use void try out test of strength with her.

I think the Air hybrid sounds most viable. Lotsa stun, lotsa damage, and War and Wipe are still available for control. But it gives you finishers the others don't.

If you want to do heavy Void control, I'd want to see King of the Ring. Stack their checks AND limit their cards. You might need some Air (Mishima Zaibatsu leader) just to help fuel it, though. On the other hand, if you go throw-heavy, you should be able to rack up 1 momentum a turn. (I'd love/hate to see someone get the momentum for a strong King of the Ring lockdown, dumping 4 momentum, tossing a throw, and seriously limiting the opponent's next turn.)

Ancients arts of fighting style (algol support) works wonders with war between sisters and other void cards such as controller of souls and other cards that make each player discard. Im not sure if the pik is any good honestly... wipe the floor is great stuff though (with PotM). Purple army suit is also works well.

ARMed_PIrate said:

You would love/hate playing my King build. It's not as good as others, but it is annoying.

I Personally think Air is the way to go as well strictly based on the attack lineup being the best

With Wheel Kick, WtP as amazing kicks and Lifter, Ice Pick being good finishers. Thats better than some generic attack lineups that other symbols and characters muster up.

Air also allows you to hide behind Flexible Body (one of the most underated cards in the format IMO) and Stand Off.

Cold and Indifferent is stupid.

IMO Nina is all about timing. Great timing will win you games but wrongful timing and you get burnt faster than most other characters

I think the issue is that there is a focus on RFG with Nina. If you ignore that and go more aggressive you can go to air. Death is going to give her control. Right now in the meta she isn't "lazy" control that doesn't require thought so she is passed over for more aggressive decks. You have to balance control and damage with her in my opinion. If you don't she fails to hard.

That's a good point darklogos, because frankly Zhao Daiyu has a much stronger RFG mechanic with more incentive, so why not make her an aggressive deck? She will be control by nature, her ability is obviously a limiting factor which is by definition a control mechanic. However, as others have said, she seems very interesting with an aggressive Air, Death or Void base while still keeping a decent amount of defense.

Test Of Strength is dirty with her, dirty! I wish I had more...time to buy some more boxes (that Fight NIght pack or whatever seems like awesomesauce).

I think you're probaby right Grant, Air might be best with her. And...Flexible Body is being overlooked, really? I think it's flat out absurd, I have a Death deck that abuses it to all hell with G-Corp Leader. "Retarded speed for how much damage? Check a 5 or so, and...no."

VikramS said:

Obviously you won't find it in there.

Still, Air/Death spread... sounds good. You get to know what your opponent will check, and get to make sure he doesn't draw something or gets a bad check on your massive attack.

Is Test of Strength a Promo or UR? If so, I pray I get good boxes or I have to murder and pillage to acquire them...not that I'm not down with that....

VikramS said:

UR - HOWEVER they're in Tekken, I see no Tekken in the Fight Kit.

Ah that WOULD be a problem, hmm....

VikramS said:

Nah. I have 2 that i'm not using. Let me know if you'd like to orchestrate a trade. [email protected]

Will do in a week or so as I acquire more cardboard to trade with, my entire legal OOFS stuff right now is two Ragnar starters and my SAS winnings, lol!

I got an idea that might make people laugh. Playing off of air/death play Jolly Side E so you can bump at least card from your card pool to keep attacking. Also a Clash of the Ages/Perfect Memory combo would be strong if there is a No Forgiveness or any other goodie card in play. I figured you could get foundations E's if they have been played. Destracting Taunt is a must have card. Driven by Fear/Long standing rivarly combo would be interesting. One thing I give you credit Vik is you can get people to actually talk about tech. I've tried before with poor success. Its good to see ideas being talked about in the open.

One of the things i think nina speciallizes in is that she has the potential to hit anti discard before it sees your opponents hand.

/drunk forgive spelling

tannerface said:

Yup I entered SAS with an attackless tri symbol Nina deck, based on the concept of locking my opponent out and slowly milling them. Good on paper, surprisingly good in action. Problem lied not in living even though more help in the department is always appreciated (I'm looking at you Hata), but actually milling. All thats left for the deck to be released is any kind of mill engine. The deck needs serious tweaking, but im confident in seeing it get more support in the next set. On the comment above Nina is never, and I mean NEVER hindered by anti discard. Why you ask? SImple, she plays "selective discard." Her ability, cold and indifferent, and purple army suit (c&i in assest form, this card is beast btw) will always allow you to your opponents vitals (attacks or actions ex Hildes dual wielding) and avoid having them stuffed down your throat. You should be able to dance around anti discard, leaving them in your opponents hand to block with.

When playing your opponent, being how small this block is, you should have a fair assesment of what cards your opponents deck should be throwing at you. Throughout game 1 watching your opponents checks and forming with Nina should fill in left over gaps. From there its a careful game of forming away, c&i'ing, purple army suiting, and proficient snipering (depending on deck style, aggro version may not prefer to use this card) key attacks forcing your opponent to kill you with utility (ex pummel smash). From there your control pieces such as undisputed ruler, stand off, ka technique etc should allow the control of the rest of the turn. This girl has monster potential, she just has to be looked at sideways. Its late so ill put in more input tomorrow.

InsanoFlex said:

Problem is when you face stunning that the grey wall falls. Do you have a decklist? You would think that no attacks would make blocking almost impossible. Are you packing character cards?

VikramS said:

Cool. In a week then...

I actually have Nina as pure death right now and the deck is actually fairly simple. You use Death control and Nina's ability to stay alive until you can kill your opponent on one turn with either discard from War Between Sisters or Ice Pick's Combo E. With Brooding, Heir to the Storm (Mostly combined with Dead for a Thousand Years), Path of the Master, and Unstoppable Warrior it doesn't take long at all to set up a turn to kill even the highest vitality characters. I only play 12 attacks which are Head Ringer, Wipe the Floor, and Ice Pick. You just need to stay alive for a bit to win. I've taken rounds from Jeremy Ray's fire Jin and Tanner's chaos Heihachi so it can stand against most of the face beating-est characters and symbols. ...Except King. He's a ****.

I would like to propose another way of looking at character development that is rarely mentioned. Running the attacks off of one symbol and the foundations/assests off another and if possible using your actions to bridge the two symbols.I was thinking about this with Omar that if I could run some of earth's attacks instead of chaos attacks how much more would I like the deck. I also think this is the issue with Nina. Her best attacks come from air while void and death support don't overlap well but picking one of those for support would be way better. The issue is transitioning and getting draw. Void sets up draw better then death. Death foundations have heavy control. For most decks attacks are a little over a 1/4th of the deck. This means that it is possible for another symbol to be run without little consequence by the player. It is when you reach 18-20 attacks that you see there is a problem because the attack make up a 3rd of the deck which is way higher. Drawing 2-3 cards per turn you may not or can't play is a big problem. So like I said maybe an Air attack Nina with a death base would rock more.

darklogos said:

This is true but I designed the deck for that in mind. The deck working at its proper pace included blocks that werent incredible by any means but good enough to get the job done being that nothing in the deck checked less then four. Also the deck packed undisputed ruler to negate any hefty stun attacks (wheel kick). Also keep in mind that the deck design is to force your opponent to play at most two attacks on any given turn due to yourself utilizing ninas F, cold n I (writing this one out is killing me), purple army suit, and proficient sniper. I believe Vik grabbed the sheet with my decklist, if you did Vik could you do me the favor of emailing it to me, my list on my comp got wiped due to spyware (had to wipe the system clean). Ill post it on the deckbuilding forums asap.