I played this deck at my store champion (minus the cards from the new set) and it played pretty swell. I made some bad plays during the tournament, but over all the deck performed the way I expected it to. Starting character is Astrid*.Here it is:

Characters:

4 Astrid**

Assets:

2 Paul's Gi
2 Gianzende Nova and Frischer Himmel
2 Reaver's Axe
2 Valkyrja's Shield

Attacks:

3 Cleave
3 Execution Technique First Rite
3 Fire Shadow
3 Tyr's Warding Smash
4 Pommel Smash

Foundations:

4 Hope for One's People
4 Brooding
3 The Ultimate Team
4 Envoy of the Queen
3 Bloodied but Unbowed
4 Paying Respect to Your Ancestors
3 Hungry for Battle
4 Relentless
4 Best Friends
4 The Strength Within
3 Looking for a Thrill

The basic idea is to out build opponent; reverse with pommel or first rite; increase stun ratings on pommel or first rite with best friends and paul's gi in an attempt to shut down opponents turn; kill them with gruesome damage and speed pumps. The stun helps prevent cards like stand off and P2P become to much of a hassle. The newly added speed pumps for fire should help push through the amazing damage that Astrid has available to her. And of course, bloodied but unbowed, relentless and paying respects helps pull all the cards I need as quickly as possible.

Thanks

Good take on a Stun Astrid. Most people would overlook Best Friends and only tout Pommel Smash as something that stuns 1 and commits something else.

What did you fight against?

thats alot of 4 checks you got there..... 17 of them, 16 3 checks 4 6 checks and 23 5 checks making your average fairly low

id say put in some 4t$s and financial troubles for the bloodied but unboweds and looking for a thrills. consistency in checks is a very nice thing to have.

also, the first astrid is just Astrid and the second **Astrid** no *Astrid*

I think you did really well Jon, and it would have been interesting to see if you would have beat Mark playing Hata in top 8.

Because you have all the block zones covered (quite well I would think) it might have been quite possible for you to build really quickly (you outbuilt my Hilde in game 2... = me cry) and block the speed pumped attacks. Or, maybe you had P2P or more Shield assets in the sideboard, both of which likely would have helped you against Hata (some damage redux is a good thing when you can't block attacks).

Grats on your top 8 finish!

- dut