Homme Chapeau said:

Sure, i agree with you. But, uhmm...do you know of such a Combo at this point in time? I think the point is being made that one doesn't exist as of yet, or at least the majority of us have yet to discover it. It remains very risky to run a lot of off-symbol cards in Xianghua, and thus there isn't a need for a change to her (yet).

RockStar said:

You don't need a lot. Nobody is advocating building an otherwise crippled deck just to prove a point - All I'm saying is that because she's in there, you have to watch out for card interactions you shouldn't have had to watch out for normally.

I would like to point out that a cross symbol broke combo with Xianghua is just as possible with a character with the right symbol spread. You can't afford to have more then 8 cards in your deck off symbol. On top of that there is no way a functioning deck would cross 5 total symbols to do a broke game over combo. The only way that would be possible is if it was a mill deck of some sort that had all means of stalling. That is just not possible in this game. There is no godmode damage combo in the game that foundations can give that make everything oh so broke You also have to realize that Sigfried does a better job putting down off symbol cards then any other character in the game and broke off symbol jank still hasn't arrisen.

I really don't understand the confusion... Xianghua is a classic attack and build at the same time character. This is great and all, but it also ensures you empty your hand pretty fast, and doing this in combination with low vitality means early attack and build needs to be done with the 'utmost' of care.

To compensate for that, you'd have to build some pretty good draw ability into Xianghua. Guess what, her symbols don't offer it at all unless you go a kick deck and Searching for Family, or use some other overly techy options.

Then what? You also need good defense or you will get killed turn 2 or 3 by anyone that can throw 18 damage through... Xianghua has standoff, and some of lifes defensive pieces, but relatively speaking she a) does not have the defensive abilities that other low vit characters have, Amy comes to mind, and b) her symbols don't have great damage redux either (at least not what Fire, Earth, or to an extent Good offer).

I don't think she is viable in the meta we have now. I think once her symbols get more defensive pieces she will be playable and maybe quite strong even. If you are wanting to play her I think a Life/Air build is your best bet at the moment, in particular dropping Arrayed for Battle turn 1 and pulling off a big combo attack would be quite entertaining...

And don't even start with the brokensauce play any foundation number. It might work with a playset of one card, but if you can't deal damage you aren't going to get said card down and it will be a liability in your hand or when you draw it on a build turn...

- dut

Homme Chapeau said:

****, that's much better than a lot of Yoshimitsu's support (the "both players discard 1 card" stuff).

Also, okay, the argument about off-symbol playing is understood.

Once again, has anybody played with her, or more importantly, has anybody decided how she should kill? Her R is nifty, but it's hard finding foundations you really want to draw on your aggro turn (although in Life it's slightly better since you've got cards like Needs a Challenge and Looking for a Thrill). Also, without any Xianghua-specific kills, she might as well be just another Air/Life/Water character.

Bleh...it sucks, it really seems like Air might just be the best option here, or maybe dual-symbol Air/Life seeing as how her R doesn't give a **** about symbols.

MarcoPulleaux said:

Air/Life with Mitsu support sounds good.

MarcoPulleaux said:

Add regretful existance to the cards id wanna on my kill turn for life...with her putting all the foundations down from her hand and the ones you already have it seems pretty good

Depends on the build. I just finished building my Air Xiang, and well, almost all of her foundations destroy themselves, so I definitely don't want to splash in Regretful. In a Life build, that might be better, especially with the way it combines with Looking for a Thrill.

Needs No Ally + ToR Spiral of Time= good backup for her R
Making her deck air/fire/life allows her to abuse cards like Defeated the Rifle and The Strength Within.

Her attack lineup could have Playful Slice, Waterfall, First Rites + Pointing Thrust, and Mark of the Beast.

Also if you can get your hands on it, Paid to Protect answers a lot of problems with one-shots.

As for fire I would just use Paid to Protect and For the Money

I'm just gonna say this right now: don't run cards off-symbol. By the time you're running cards off-symbol (such as For the Money), you might as well just run another deck.

Xianghua can play the stun game, be it off Air (Wheel Kick Dragon Lifter) or Life (Cobra Clutch Close Throw Hilt Impact). However, the question has to be: what are you building up to? What are you trying to accomplish?

Off Air, you might be trying to go for Waterfall, Twisting Lotus Flow, or Menuett are your kill. If you're going for Waterfall, you shouldn't really need For the Money, just some Communing or Alchemist to help, both of which are backed by Quick Exit and Lost Partner. If you're going for Twisting Lotus Flow, same argument. If you're going for Menuett, run Driven by Fear, and also, run Yun-Seong, because he's pretty much the best character at generating momentum (even if you're running Wonderworld).

Off Life, your best kill IMO is Sieggy's Earth Divide, and I suppose Wrath of Heaven. Same deal as above, run Alchemist and Quick Exit. You can also Research some characters to the top of your deck. If you want an aggressive strategy, you're likely better off with Mitsu, Siegfried, or even Tira.

Simply put, For the Money and all this off-symbol discussion is useless at the current time. There isn't really any degenerate combo to take advantage off, and while the prospect of having such an amazing card as For the Money in an off-symbol staging area seems 1337, you are better off just running **** on-symbol to get similar results. That, and let's face it, you better be running Stun if you're running For the Money, which may completely alter your build.

The more and more I read this the more I think that "off symbol" cards are going to be more trouble then they are worth for what people expect. I was thinking that splashing in 4 off symbol cards as the only thing that was reasonable since you will rarely have 2 or 3 of them in your hand. But it seems the expectations is to play 8+ off symbol cards to do something super broke. I think that it is the expectations everyone has is way to high. When it is all said and done if the cards you need to do something super broke are off symbol then you are setting your deck up to be very conditional. The reality seems that flexibility is being loss instead of gained because back up cards are now being added to make something very conditional go off. Thus the whole proccess is making the deck weaker and not stronger.

Dut brings up the best point that over all the defensive ability of Xianghua isn't there and she is in a very risky position unlike hilde. All of her symbols are offensive in nature symbols. Splashing in mad defense isn't going to make her 18 life last that much longer. You are also looking at the reality that when her ability goes off you are loosing an additional card from your hand that you won't be able to defend with. All in all your best friends are cards that allow you to draw. The best combo I've seen for her for techy draw is Researching the Past with Hunt for Jin. Without constant draw and check support or hax she falls flat in the meta. One would have to abandon a lot of high aspiration to make her functional at this time.