Okay, so everything i've read, and even experienced, about building and playing Christie successfully in a competitive environment suggests that to do so it is very_challenging_to say the least. However, i am determined to do just that. Call me crazy, but i think she has potential, and will become better as NewFS' cardpool grows. She IS a very fun deck to play, if not uber competitive, and that is a saving grace for any fan Tekken; she plays here as she does at the arcade.

For my part, my current build capitalizes on her main arch-type: SSS-Loop + PotM. Christie's main problem is that she is so locked into this arch-type, and to do anything other than this is folly; she lacks the flexibility that other higher-tiered characters posses. She is also statted as an Aggro character, but as we've all seen, she is a full Turn slower than an ideal Aggro deck would like to be (expect T3 - T4 kills Christie, T2 kills aren't likely), and isn't as straight forward as a Damage Pump monster (such as Heihachi or Zi Mei, or even a Paul or Cassie). This isn't a bad thing, imo, because what she IS is a more tech/combo oriented character, and that's part of the fun: discovering the 2-card synergies that make her 'go'.

Anyway...what i would like to do is see how far we can take her on a Competitive level. Probably won't be winning any tournaments at the moment, but a Top 8 finish is possible, methinks.

I'm open to any and all suggestions, so please help a brotha out!

My current build, as follows...:

1x 6/6 Christie Monteiro 7hs 18vp +0m

Character Blocks (4):

4x 6/6 All/Life Characters +0m

Actions (6):

3x 2/5 Graceful Style +2m

3x 3/4 Frantic Search +2h

Assets (3):

3x 2/5 Path of the Master +2m

Attacks (16):

4x 4/3 Samba 3h3 +2m (kick, combo)

4x 4/3 Side Flop 3L3 +2h (kick, combo)

4x 4/3 Slippery Kick 3m3 +2L (kick, combo)

4x 4/3 The Boot 3m5 +1L (kick, S:1)

Foundations (31):

4x 2/5 For the Money +3m

4x 2/5 Financial Troubles

4x 2/5 Genius Alchemist

3x 2/5 Brazillian Beauty +2h

3x 2/5 Body of Souls

4x 1/5 Close Friends

4x 1/5 Hunt for Jin +2L

1x 3/4 One with the Rhythm (NEED AT LEAST 2 MORE...LOOKING TO TRADE)

4x 2/4 Researching the Past

My own experiences with this deck, as is...it is a lot of fun, and i do have fairly decent amount of success with it. The biggest challenge is her low vitality, and her need to build for one turn more than a traditional Aggro deck. Damage Pump monsters eat her alive, especially Heihachi, who will vertiably pump an attack by +6 -- a FULL 1/3rd of her VP, crazy! However, if she can survive an opponent's onslaught, than her kill turn is a lot of fun, especially when my opponenet realizes there is nothing they can do to stop the SSS Loop.

I am really looking forward to hearing everyone's suggestions. And, while we're at it, if y'all could share with me your own Christie Monteiro experiences, how she's played for you...what she's done well, and what she's totally failed at, i would appreciate it (I'm looking at you, MarcoPulleaux... ).

So, thank you (again!) in advance for reading and responding!

Here are some ideas most people (even Guitalex) haven't thought of when it comes to Christie:

1. Using a line-up of The Boot, Neutron Bomb, Lunging Brush Fire, Side Flop, and Fruit Picker. It's basically as such.

The Boot is a generic, good kick. It puts pressure on the opponent because it's 5 damage up thurr ass, and if you're making a GOOD Christie deck, then you're surely running One with the Rhythm.
Neutron Bomb may only combo off of Stun, but for the Combo E in Christie? It's simply too good to pass up.
Lunging Brush Fire IMO is a staple in Christie, ESPECIALLY if you're running Body of Souls. The combo is just too good, especially when you're running Side Flop.
Side Flop tutors any kick not named Fruit Picker or itself.
Fruit Picker is a kill in so many ways, both in its own right and in Combo.

This is clearly for an All build that abuses Boot Stun with For the Money, and uses Bloodline Rebellion, Rivalry with a Bear, and Path of the Master for damage. Wonderworld Comics gives you direct momentum.

2. Using a line-up of Knee Thruster, Law's Somersault Kick, Evil Sparrow, Lunging Brush Fire, and Fruit Picker.

Knee Thruster has big damage, and gives your next kick Multiple: 1.
Law's Somersault gains Multiple: 1 off its Combo, and if you used Knee Thruster's E, you can now use 2 Multiples.
Evil Sparrow helps assuage Combo requirements (LSK, Fruit) and reduces LBF's usual 6 difficulty.
LBF is a staple
As is Fruit Picker

Off of Life you lose some of the fun LBF - Body of Souls combos, but in this line-up, you get a more Kick-oriented aggro with plenty of multiple copies and damage output, and of course, the lovely access to Twilight Castle.

As for me, my Christie packed all 3 SSS cards, 4 LBF and 4 Fruit Picker. They're both too good to pass-up, and mine was dual-symbol to take advantage of all its capabilities.

Anyways, try all of them out. Contrary to what people say, Christie does work, just not in the way it looks. Although Christie sucks off Water, I think the skill of Christie is to remember how fluid she is, in that she's all about re-using kicks over and over again. LBF + Body of Souls is one way, her SSS components are another. Try not to let her character abilities fool you; in some circumstances her E will be good, but mostly, you use her for innate ability to use all SSS enhances, and the Christie combo on Fruit Picker.

Thank you for the advice, MP. I saw your version of her waaaay back when, and i was genuinely intrigued. I will consider what you said and try out several different builds and report back.

To everyone else, don't let this be the end of the talk. Keep it going. Making a character that is considered weak to run smooth and run well is have the fun of NewFS. Remember that Promo Athena wasn't even on the map until MegaloFest and Experienced Combatant came on the scene.

Christie could be the next Promo Athena (probably not, but hey!... ).

A quick question, MP: How does Side Flop tutor cards? Just its own E?

RockStar said:

Yeah that was the implication. Getting back mid zone kicks is quite important.

I suppose I'll put in my 10 cents American.

If you're running her off of all kicks, there is no reason not to include Searching for Family. Sure, it's a 2 diff and a 4 check, but it will auto-draw you 2 cards almost every turn (F Commit, reveal your hand: If you revealed at least 2 kick cards, draw 2 cards.). This is especially good combined with Financial Troubles because you do Financial first, then you'll draw anyway. More often than not the opponent lets you draw knowing you'll still draw. Odd how that works.

As for an attack lineup, if you were doing All or Life, I'd consider Evil Sparrow. 3/3 3M3 +2M, and you can ditch a card to make it not count toward progressive difficulty.

There is one obvious thing your opponent can do to stop the SSS loop: blocking the third kick, whichever that may be. This is possibly the weakest point of the loop, in that the opponent only has to take about 6 damage before ever having to worry about blocking. This can only be somewhat mitigated by One With the Rhythm, but is still a stretch unless said One is present in multiples and all are activated.

Christie's kicks don't have enough damage in them: thus you NEED Fruit Picker. Let's say you play the loop, and you have an action and Fruit Picker. Play the action on the second kick, then play the third kick and follow it with Fruit Picker. +4 damage from its Combo ability, +4 speed from Christie, Path for mostly game.

Even without the combo, it's the highest printed damage kick in her support and in her symbols. Plus it's only 5 diff, has its own speed pump in it and a +1M block, all for 3 control.

guitalex2008 said:

Wanna play the race card? I'll bite. Unless you're of Taino decent, you are NOT a "boricua" >:|

...=D

Jeje, estoy jugando, claro.

Searching for Family is just obvious, as are most options for Christie, really.

As I said, the joy of Christie comes in a relatively reliable E (should've been +X where X equals the number of kicks +1!), instant access to SSS pieces, and Fruit Picker.

Oh yeah, and she's the only 7 handsize All character besides Herr who can't run Picker to its fullest extent.

As I've said, Christie has plenty of options, All, Life, and dual-symbol.

All is more about interraction, whereas Life is more about very obvious rushdown.

MarcoPulleaux said:

I was born and raised in PR, not in NY or FL :-p

Also, good Spanish on your part.

MarcoPulleaux said:

Why do you say that, MP? Who runs Fruit Picker better than Christie, or at least "to it's fullest extent"?

When I look at the context of his sentence, I think he meant "can".

Oye, y los dos se me quedan quietecitos, porque yo todavía estoy en Puertorro, aunque la cosa esté fea...

I like this thread, it has Spanish in it.

RockStar said:

"Oh yeah, and she's the only 7 handsize All character besides Herr , who can't run Picker to its fullest extent."

...*grumbles*

Allow ME to translate >:|

"Besides, she's the only 7 handsize All character, besides Herr, who CAN run Fruit Picker to its fullest extent."

What I mean by that is, ANY character can run FP and utilize it's goodness, but only Christie can use the combo.

Also, blah, I didn't really have a choice in learning Spanish. When you live in a city where Mexicans are the ethnic majority, you've worked at gas stations near construction sites, and you've dated and slept around with more Hispanic women than your own age?

Yeah...it just kinda happens. Too bad I speak REAL Spanish, and not your chicken-scratch bastardization of it =ppp

MarcoPulleaux said:

Thanks for the clarification, man.

Yeah, people who say Christie is fail tier don't understand that the things that make her unique do indeed keep her out of that category. It's very easy to look at a character like Tira or Cassie and say they make better Life chars, but truly, they just make DIFFERENT Life chars.

Also, it's looking like both Life and Water are getting a huge helping from the upcoming Soul Cal, so she'll definitely have more toys with the next set <3

MarcoPulleaux said:

I hope Xianghua's support helps fetch it or does similar stuff. More importantly, I hope she has a kick or two lol

Well, I'm also under the assumption Mitsurugi and Taki have All, so it'll be interesting seeing if they too can give her anything. All in all (no pun intended), it appears as though she's going to get quite a bit of support.

Great thread.

I think it's also worth noting that Searching for Family (which is perhaps her best method of getting a killing hand, or getting card advantage in general) leans her towards stall. You want to build and build, and create a huge hand with several Searching for Family's (over multiple turns). Try to block everything, keep everything dedicated to defense. (This doesn't work against throw decks.)

But you really don't want to go for the kill until you know you can toss a full hand of kicks (and not just SSS) in one turn. She really wants a single-turn kill, because anything less will leave her with less than a full hand of defense. With her vitality, that means she'll go splat.

Searching for Family + Researching the Past = Unorthodox Style what?

Hmm...yeah, spamming SfF to draw is hawt, but I wouldn't call her a "stall" char necessarily.

Also, don't underestimate her ability to play kicks. SSS attacks loop themselves and other kicks, and Lunging Brush Fire leads to tons of stupidity, namely of the Body of Souls kind.

I have an All Christie decklist right now that has The Boot, Lunging Brush Fire, and Side Flop in 4s, and Evil Sparrow and Fruit Picker in 3s, with 4 Body of Souls and 3 Wonderworld Comics.

Haven't built or tested it yet, but one look and it isn't hard to see where it can excell. The number of kicks Christie can play in a turn due to 7 handsize, a foundation that draws 2 (and when combined with RtP, could be 2 kicks), and access to LBF and Body of Souls is just stupid, especially when you're using Genius Alchemist and Evil Sparrow to ease PD, and For the Money to raise CC.

Also, LBF + Designer Clothes + Wonderworld Comics = Momentum for One with the Rhythm, the ultimate pressure card.

People aren't looking at Christie properly.

She has only semi-useful abilities
Only one true character-specific card to matter
Is rivaled by Cassandra and Jon Herr on the 7 handsize symbol front
and EVERYBODY seems to think she loses to Stand Off

People aren't viewing it with a very widened scope, and any money people simply haven't given Christie the time of day for those reasons.

Sure, I can see how Stand Off murders Christie...if you're seriously only running ***** attacks like SSS loop and depending on Fruit Picker to be your saving grace.

A Christie player lawlz at the idiot who taps out for Stand Off, and at this point, I'm pretty much convinced the best Christie is an All Christie. The quicker the opponent taps out, the more subject they are to being destroyed by For the Money. One with the Rhythm puts pressure on blocking or reducing every single kick, for every damaging kick is a mistake you cannot take back, and as the cards fill your pool, all you have is your back area to help you block, which, between Stand Off and The Boot's Stun, blocking, and pressure of For the Money, it can only make Christie's aggro game that much more frustrating for the opponent.

Lunging Brush Fire, Side Flop, and Body of Souls are going to make things for your opponent a living Hell, especially if you have One with the Rhythm in effect. You can play LBF, Side Flop to E it, LBF to add it to momentum and discard it, Body of Souls it, play another LBF and repeat that loop strategy until you're out of LBFs and Body of Souls, and that's a mere 3 card interraction, WHICH btw you can tutor LBF by using its E (which discards it), then RtP + SfF to tutor it.

Christie is an extremely fun and different fighter, and while she isn't quite top tier yet, if people would build her they'd see how her game can be. She isn't an OMFG 20 DAMAGE THROW character, which makes her less obvious. She's a "play a ton of kicks over and over again" character, and people are deterrued by her constant need to make control checks to achieve what others can. However, the only pressure most characters put on the opponent is the pressure to block.

Almost all of Christie's cards are a very "if you do not block..." mentality.

Build All Christie, get back to me =).

Re-built Christie...it looks eerily similar to the original decklist the MP posted a couple months back...it works an awful lot better than my decklist that started this thread in the first place. Go figure...

A couple thoughts and observations...

MP...you keep talking about the importance of Side Flop and it's ability to fetch back LBR, and i have to agree: LBR is ridiculous, especially in Christie. However, i don't see any mention of a High-Zoned attack in your combo, and yet Side Flop only combos when it's played AFTER such an attack. Are you making an assumption that a Christie player will automatically play Samba after LBR? If not, i don't see how you are tutoring back LBR with only Side Flop. I know that LBR played AFTER Side Flop can send it to momentum, and then discard itself, but you've mentioned playing LBR first, and then Side Flop...what am i missing???

Also, Christie plays defense rather well...a couple Aggro-centric characters i've played her against remarked "...hmmm...i was supposed to have killed you by now already, WTF??...".

What i love about Christie, is the same thing i loved about my old 6.Ryu deck that was built off All, and ran a TON of recurssion (including Dark Heart...anyone remember that awesome and under-used card?). Christie is all about having "options", through draw and recurssion. I don't think anyone plays this game better, with maybe the exception of Omar's character, although he's a Cheater.

I'm still fine tuning the deck, and learning how to play her, because she is much different and less obvious than other characters. Haven't had a chance to land a Fruit Picker, and until i can do that consistently, i know i still need practice!

I think the biggest problem with christie atm is that in the current format, 7hs are just too frail.

Not that it could happen consistently, but against christie i was able to get one T1K, dealing exactly 18dmg.

With so many good cheap attacks and not a whole lot of defense atm, i just think 7HS are too brittle.

Lets hope the next set has some good water cards, and maybe Christie and Herr can get a little boost

RockStar said:

Re-reads Side Flop

OK, **** Side Flop >:|

So her usefulness is now more limited, but still, LBF and Body of Souls leads to stupidity. RtP + SfF = tutored and re-used LBFs.

MarcoPulleaux said:

Agreed about LBF (not LBR, my bad) + Body of Souls, and RtP +SfF! Hunt For Jin thrown in there for more recurssion.

Hunt for Jin doesn't have to worry about revealing 2 Kicks, and fulfills basically the same purpose.

Hey! Side Flop can still serve a purpose... Fruit Picker and Samba are both high attacks. With Genius Making the FP/Samba not count toward progressive, I don't see how Side Flop is bad

Now Slippery Kick, THAT I have a hard time finding a use for.

I'm trying to build a Christie deck for the second time. My first go around didn't work at all... because of her low vitalility, she kept getting squished before she could string her attacks. i tried to go the Fruit Picker route, but found that I ended up failing my check because of all the kicks that I had to play to really make it effective.

The build that I'm working on now will still employ the SSS loop, but instead of using Fruit Picker as my coup de grace, I will use my newly acquired playset of Law's Summersault Kick. I also hope that Faithful Bodyguard will help keep her alive a little longer, guess the only way to see if it works is to actually play her.