hmm dunno if anyone else noticed this or not but look at how the symbols fell for this set (i did not count character cards when i did these numbers)

Life - 49
Order - 34
Water - 34
Air - 32
Void - 22
Good - 21
All - 20
Fire - 20
Death - 17
Chaos - 16
Earth - 9
Evil - 7

hmm i think i know what symbol i'll be playing, now to just get hold of an X... *must find job soon to make money*

N.J.

I am a wee bit concerned about the amount of speed buffing in this set. I think Paid to Protect will be even more chase and I sincerely hope it gets re-released at some point. Soul Stealing will definitely get dusted off.

Still, I am absolutely excited about how entertaining these cards will be.

Well, for all us manic depressive Christie players out there, she got 3 new Kicks, most importantly Soaring Dance, making a Water/multi-symbol Christie look that much more appealing.

That's of course ignoring all the loads of All-Life-Water cards in this set .

MarcoPulleaux said:

Our Christie thread is booming! Propaganda, plague this forum! >:|

After looking at the cards I have come to a few conclusions. The first is that Kisheri now has the potential to be S teir. Combine Nina's and Yoshi's support you have a monster off of death. Use Tira's stuff and a few of Taki's attacks off of life you have a just as effective monster. She will strip cards and kill hard. I don't see people packing the anti-discards just to deal with the hand mill decks. I do see people side boarding them at most. Yoshi kill condition card that is unblockable if your opponent has 15 health or less is broke. It kills 7 handsizers. One plink and most 7 hand sizers are setup to be killed by that card. I'm seeing that acro is truly going to be the must have card and will make Life cards crazy strong. I don't see Mitsiurigi as that scary yet. Xiangua has something there that could turn into a monster. I'll have to look at her when I have more time. I think Taki will the control/aggro hybrid people will draw to and I see her as a strong stop against the discard decks. When she packs No forgiveness she will take the blanking advantage.

With everything revealed I see Yoshi hurting Astrid and potentially winning against her consistently. Yoshi's anti-draw, discard, draw ability, and strong attacks that control he can strip 4 cards from Astrid no problem so she can not reversal. I would go out on the limb to say that Yoshi is S teir. You can play him strong off of death or void.

MarcoPulleaux said:

No.

A side note on Playful Slice. This card can be interesting. I see the potential to put foundations you don't share symbols with into your staging area. I know its a risk and shouldn't be over abused but man it opens up a bunch of deck building ideas. Yes Taki craps all over the effort but man I think potential is there.

IMO, Kisheri's always been S tier, but for sure A Tier. Just Kidding, Tiao Wu Kick, and Keeper of the Watchers quickly rid the opponent of a hand off Life, giving way to easy kills. Yoshimitsu isn't as much a problem as his foundations are IMO. More themeless, costless discard.

Yes, the anti-discard we have isn't great, but ****, it's going to be necessary with the impending popularity of Kisheri and Yoshi's foundations.

Also, I definitely think Mitsurugi to be top tier. A properly-played Mitsurugi gives +2 +2 to every attack MINIMUM, and from what I recall, very little of his support involves Weapons (meaning you can just play the typical Fire game). Just find out what's in your opponent's hand and plan accordingly. Most people are just going to abuse Mist Stance, obviously.

Final Note: Twisted Lotus Flow is just amazing.

darklogos said:

Now that you mention it...

Xianghua, Sword of No Name and Pure Hearted also don't require it to share symbols...

Need Xianghua running Brooding? Deal 1 damage, make a 1 check, boom. Think For the Money is the shizznit? Deal 2 damage, make a 2 check, boom. Randomly feel like running Maniacal Laughter in Xianghua? Deal 2 damage, make a 2 check, boom.

Going second... Xiangua could turn 1 kill if she runs the right off-symbol crap. Of course, it wouldn't be consistent, but is still funny.

Think about how weird it would be. Second Rite is played first, top a 5. It deals 2 or 3 damage, make a 2, drop a For The Money. Make a 5 for First Rite, use its E, it deals 2 or 3 damage, make a 2, drop another For the Money or even Brooding. Twisting Lotus Flow for 3 thanks to the FTM (or 5 with only 1 FTM). Combo E. eturn them to hand. Replay them in a different and obvious order. First Rite, its E, Second Rite, its E, Twisting Lotus Flow will only need a 5 (3 with a FTM, 1 with 2 FTM) to make and will be a 3M6.

So 3, 3, 4, 3, 3, 6 turn 1. 22 possible damage going second. If you dropped Brooding first and kept using it, it's 3, 4, 5, 4, 4, 7 which is 27 possible damage turn 1.

Mitsurigi is going to have to play the fire blow stuff all life is prey game. Sadly he needs tekken forces if he is going to play life. He almost makes Seigfried obsolete. I can see him playing the Paul stun out game with a mix of his attacks. Even with that I don't think he will overcome the discard jank that is comming. Xaingua is King's F without a throw limitation. This can make her really strong depending on what she is playing combo wise. Sadly reversal pummel smash owns her like every other card. Now I can see Xanigua playing life throws and building her staging area fast. Thats about it for right now. She has a lot of flexibility and doesn't have to check for her card abilities. But I still have to think that she is not all that great. Her support is cool but the character card needs help.

I don't see a lot of the anti-throw tech that was promised. What I have seen is a lot of speed tech and control tech. Both are great but the speed tech is strong aggro to the symbols that need it. The strong control tech is going to make the symbols that get it even more techy. I'm putting my bet on the control tech.

darklogos said:

WHOA WHOA slow down there cowboy. OK, so Mitsurugi CAN give all his attacks +2 +2, and that can only get better with his support (namely Mist Stance), but the two only share ONE symbol in common, and while Mitsurugi plays to a more aggressive game, Siegfried has access to more counter-meta/control (Ka Technique, Soul Calibur*, Torn Hero off 2 symbols Mitsu doesn't have, etc).

Well, since Dark decided to mention it, here is a go at Current Tiers, starting with Symbols:

S Tier: Fire, Life, Death

A Tier: All, Chaos, Order, Void

B Tier: Water, Earth, Good, Air

F Tier: Evil

Explains it:

S Tier symbols:

These symbols, I feel, have some of the best characters, mixed with the best support. They have answers to most of today's issues, as well as ways around them. Characters like Yoshi and Hata, who have a set of different, but powerful, abilities have helped to push Death from mid S Tier to probably the top, unless we see some anti-discard worth running besides the anti-discard.

Fire Remained strong. Rugi's support has only offered more in the way of card draw and raw damage output. Yes, there was not much in the way of Astrid support, no more than any character that want's to run weapon tech, but all around a good selection of cards for Fire. Nothing really there to keep it down, except for possibly Yoshi support chewing into Fire's draw/play attacks playstyle.

Life really shone in this set, giving new meaning to Speed, as well as Amy's new mechanic of messing with Block modifiers. Toss in some of the new characters, such as Special K and Sophitia, and Life has gotten its wind back, and is ready for round 3.

A Tier symbols:

These symbols I was heartbroken to to A tier, but not everyone can be the best. Mostly I dropped these just due to attack selection, and the difficulty they have finding simple answers to 'how do you get the kill.' All has remained strong in all the sets, possibly due to a connection with Fire, or possibly because All seems to find its way onto some of the more annoying non-promo cards (*cough*Paul Stuff*cough*), or both. Rugi comes in and offers some very powerful, very rare, attack/action combos that a particular Marius G-Man eats up like pie. Face Beat Pie that is. Damage and draw power hand in hand, with our old friend Bitter Rivals making an appearance once more in the form of Hand-Peeking and Zone-Changing. All will certainly see some major action, but unless you can get your hands on some of the UR Rugi attacks, you may find yourself at a bit of a loss how to integrate this set into your attack lineup.

Chaos, oh Chaos. What will happen with you. Taki is the only new-new character with the 3-pointed-star this set, and she also has Life, meaning there is a rather strange crossing over of these two, usually different, symbols. Taki takes a spin at control, and blanks foundations left and right. But not only foundations. She turns her attacks into foundations as well. While interesting, it will be difficult to find much more room in the Chaos toolbox for control, when Momentum, Check Hacking, Character Using, and the Mishima's take up all the room. Taki may very well wind up a special snowflake of her own. A deadly, cyanide laced, snowflake.

Order. This is a symbol we have seen again and again, on high tier characters, too, but never running the show. Well now we shall. Order, in its newest form, mixes speed bumps and block modifier modifications to make its attacks better, while making them harder to block. It has already been posted in the Deck forums that much of Paul's support greatly benefits from high block modifiers. Cards like Ultimate Team and Hammer of the Gods only get better because of this. Not to mention Order's access to Yoshi's discard, and much of Astrid's weapon tech for draw, if needed. Hilde can also make a shiny new appearance, though she has a new butt-ache to sort out with Promo Kilik kicking her attacks out of the card pool.

Yes, Void. I almost dropped Void another Tier, but then I remembered the new Promo Lizardman, and I decided to give it a shot. King will also make an appearance here, but only because more 7HS characters makes him happy. Void is Yoshi's final symbol, and between it and Death, Yoshi is madly in love with Nina Williams and her...support. Her attacks are garbage for him. He'd rather use King stuff any day. But her foundations butter his bread in new and exciting ways. Discard on top of discard, and with cards like Unorthodox Movements, there is draw hate as well. The thing Void lacks right now is a sure fire kill card, or even combo, but Lord knows you will not have cards in your hand when they find it. The closest they can get to currently is Mt. Devil Divider, because Yoshi can make it unblockable, and they do not need to devote so much to discard, and can instead go for damage. (I asked what damage, but no one answered).

B Tier:

I'll keep these Tiers short, because I don't want anyone to feel they had their first born insulted or anything. These symbols have made a decent appearance on most cards, but either they do not have enough support right now to safely put them up a tier (Earth), or they get over looked due to a closely matched symbol (Water/Life, Good/Order, Air/Fire, Air/Life). I don't think these symbols are bad at all, which is why they are B tier, but I also think they will get royally stomped 4 time out of 5 against an equally made deck off of an S tier symbol. Those symbols will just beat them to the punch before they can get that one combo set up, or dish out enough damage without overextending,

F Tier:

Nada. Nil. Nothing going on here. Evil is, unless someone just does not want to use the new stuff, dead. Now, after the mobs of Evil lovers finished storming my gates, they might realize that Evil got Zero characters, little support, and the support it did get was driven specifically for the new Lizardman, who I imagine will be better suited as a Void build any day of the week. The only good thing Evil managed to get would be some new mid attacks for the Knightbreaker Combo. I mean, there are definite possibilities with the new stuff. Spinning Demon into Rolling Revenge is kinda funny, but then what? You go outside and play catch, because they have no cards to hold? There just is no real threat if their is no Knightbreaker, and Low Blocks came back, so there went that hope. Evil is, by and by, the same it was before, only now it is lagging behind the times, because it lacks answers to some of the new tech from this new set.

Alright. There was Symbol spread. It was loose and opinionated, but that is how I see it, barring some unknown manipulation of the cards I am too tired to see. On to characters (Don't worry, I am just going to cover newly Tier S characters).

New Tier S characters:

• Kishiri
• Yoshimitsu
• Marius Gaius/Mitsurugi

Kishiri: Special K is, by far, my most anticipated character. We all know what she does, and we all are wondering if she will live up to the hype. Either way, the cards are stacked in her favor, because she just got a whole lot of Death love when it comes to discard. Life is not to bad off either, with all the Hand-Peeking. She can set them up and knock them over, just like the old 7HS characters we knew. The real question is will she be fast enough. She has a tall crowd to stand in, and we will just have to see how she does.

Yoshimitsu: The Cyborg of the hour. Able to clear hands and deal direct damage. Similar in ways to Zhou from Shadowar, Yoshi far surpasses ZD simply due to the powerful nature of discard, as compared to RFG. Yoshi can play with the number of cards in his hand, as well as his opponent, to keep them occupied until he goes for the kill. Off of Death, the kill is an obvious nod to Knightbreaker, but Midnight Launcher might take a side seat. Mt. Devil Divider is a killer attack, Unblockable early game, with abilities to back it up and potentially discard 4 cards from your opponent's hand by itself. Then it only takes a swing and a win from the big KB upstairs and we can call it a day. Off of Void, the kill is not so easy. The Mt. Doom is still an option, but without much backup, that is only 6 damage to toss. There is still some work to do to make Void really Hum, but if that ever gets in place, Void could do well. Order is really the Dark Horse here. It has potential to be a very, very strong symbol when mixed with discard. I imagine we will see a multitude of decks trying to turn Order Yoshi into an OTK deck, so we shall see.

And those are my picks for this round of meta-UFS. Tune in (weeks) later for the post game analysis.

-Tinman

Top - Fire, Life, Earth, All
Mid - Chaos, Death, Order, Good
Bottom - Air, Water, Void, Evil

Just love this new set, quite good art and some new characters that I like. Will make a serius attempt at X when I get my cards ^^

But have anyone fought about playful slice pointing thrust and quick strike???

You begin with quick strike. A 4 check is needed and you get +2 speed +3 damage, And +2 on your next check.

Then pointing thrustnow a 4 check is needed again becuase of the quick strike. So now we have a 6 speed 7 damage pointing thrust who nows combos and we get to pick up the godly quick strike!

We use it again at a diff at 5, and use Playful slice! at 5 speed 8 damage it surely will hurt, and we can use the combo to take a ready foundation to our staging area.. Now I only need to find a 4 diff attack who could end that attack string...

*Eagerly awaits the cards*

Tinman I got to agree with most of what you say. I looked at my current Jin deck off of death and I realized that I would scrap Jin to play Yoshi. Note I'm giving up check advantage and a chaos splash for the hunt is on for a pure control deck. I don't see any character directly shutting down Yoshi besides Kisheri. You will see people side boarding both characters to deal with diversity.

Chaos gains very little from Taki. Seal, quick strike, quick exit, ninja tactics for multiples, assassains secret, dream scroll for multiple love, knows her objective for control if you need it, and loves her blade is an awesome addition to chaos when combo with zibatzu leader.

The card that is concerning me a bit is Master of Ninjitsu. Rashotep off of death is what is making me freakout a tad. You can pump your throw. Then use Master of Ninjtsu to get it down to 1 damage. It would auto go through and the opponent would take 6+ damage that is unblockable. I'm sorry that is hella strong. The more I think about the new death support for Yoshi the more I realize I'm going to piss off my friends because it begs to much abuse. Yoshi doesn't have to worry about the death comes from discard this card and opponent takes handsize in damage. He has the potential to crazy draw. His discard costs wont' hurt him much. Man this is so bad! The gray wars are back. Sad thing is Nina's attacks only make him more deadly.

In the words of Jafar, "Calm yourself, Iago"

The sky's not falling, and with characters like Mitsurugi around, I don't think gray wars are gonna take over again, bro. There's plenty of exciting and new possibilities, but nothing's set in stone yet. Yoshi's insane discard ability will surely be met with a few maindecked anti-discard cards and there are still ways to draw cards. It should be interesting to see how the next few weeks play out.

P.S. I just now re-read the enhance on Soaring Dance, and literally laughed out loud.

Yoshimitsu* the weapon, it doesn't commit. This makes recon and the other card that draws when its discarded into more damage taken. Pavilion fuels Yoshimitsu to be a constant damage cycle. Contemplating to fuel off of Pavilion/Yoshimitsu* combo to draw cards. Flea makes the discard element even more magnified. I thought there was a Yoshi card that stopped your opponent from drawing so I may be wrong.

How the hell does Yoshi bring back grey wars? lol. He makes you discard your whole hand almost instantly and then goes for GAME!

Because the focus is not so much a balance of attacks and other elements but high amounts of control from foundations. The response to this is more focus on stopping the control effect. Thus this leads us back to the gray wars.

I agree that Yoshimitsu does bring back a degree of "Gray Wars" back to the game, but not enough for it to be scary. He is going to slow the game down, with the selective attacking him and keeping cards in hand, but he can be stopped with anti-discard.

I feel another spiral arrow'ish deck coming on with yoshi cept this time it will be off of death. Or possibly dual symbol.

Financial Troubles + Excellent Thief

Like Financial Troubles needed anything else to make it better.

ZeeroYui said:

No. They are discarding (from financial troubles) as part of a cost, not effect. (hence why anti discard tech doesnt trigger)

The inevitable power curve begins...

Defeated the Rifle: a 2/5 foundation (no block but still). Your fire attack +2 damage AND +1 speed. ALSO an anti asset ability...

Try finding something like that in Shadowar