Astaroth? Suggestions.

By Kerhex, in UFS Deck Building

Hello there, Astaroth is possibly my favourite character from Soul Calibur game series. I've been wondering about making a block 4 deck using him as the fighter, but i simply do not know where to begin. Is there anyone who could come up with a good idea of how to make a competitive kick ass Astaroth deck? ^^

Kerhex said:

Hello there, Astaroth is possibly my favourite character from Soul Calibur game series. I've been wondering about making a block 4 deck using him as the fighter, but i simply do not know where to begin. Is there anyone who could come up with a good idea of how to make a competitive kick ass Astaroth deck? ^^

If you're playing Astaroth, play to his support and then branch out. For example, Astaroth has two powerful cards - Kulutues* and Hades Destroyer (Astaroth : Powerful 2). These are cards nobody else can use (well, they can use HD but they don't get the Powerful 2) and will make your Astaroth deck stand out from a standard Earth/Evil/Fire.

From there, try and give each different symbol a spin.

I know where you're coming from, because I too am a huge fan of Astaroth. I'm willing to take another crack at him because of the new Mitsurugi fire support. Your Kill condition will be something along the lines of Ymirfang, Unstopable Warrior, All life is prey and as much speed and damage as you can get out of Rugi. In fact, this thread just made me want to put him back together and see what he can do. Hope this helped, cuz I know this helped me, lol.

Still i don't know where to start, I have plenty of Astaroth's foundations, attacks (throws mainly), and action. But i just can't figure out how to build a strong deck. The deck i'm using is sub-par, i get my ass kicked a lot and i hate that happening to Astaroth, being kicked by a little fagg like Jin Kazama...

It depends on how much access you have to "power cards". If you have access to (or can get access to) Stand Off, Paid to Protect, and Wonderworld Comics, then you're off to a good start.

If not, well, you just have to cut your losses.

As Homme said, Astaroth has three main appeals: Hades Destroyer, Kulutues*, and of course his own abilities. To be perfectly honest, unless you're backing up Hades Destroyer with both Throws AND momentum generation (such as Maniacal Laughter/Treacherous Offspring/Wonderworld Comics to cover his 3 symbols), Hades might not be the best thing to consider. Powerful: 2 only seems like a lot, but something like Searching for Plunder can virtually do what Powerful: 2 does better, and the 6 difficulty is just too high for somebody who relies on low foundations.

Kulutues is going to start your bread n' butter attack strings. Kulutues basically reads "E Commit 1 foundation: your attack gets +3 damage", which in this block is actually really good. However, a smart Astaroth player will start their string with a 5 CC foundation, and then attack to give their attack +5 damage. If you're off Earth, you can play a 5 CC foundation, play Flooded-Nile Throw, give it +5 damage, then after it deals damage, pop an Atoning for the Past to add FNT to your momentum, and play another attack and give it the same +5 damage.

As far as Astaroth's E goes, you're likely gonna wanna use such cards as Unstoppable Warrior, Heir to the Storm, or Intimidating Presence to keep your foundation line-up smaller than the opponent's for a bigger damage pump.

Astaroth's biggest struggle is simply trying to look better than his fellow aggro characters.

In an attempt to help you (and maybe others) play Astaroth, I'll run down why Astaroth could be revered as better than his fellow aggro kin:

Ragnar: Requires his own decklist involving usage of Heir to the Storm, Stormhammer, and a bunch of other cards. He also relies heavily on losing vitality and committing or destroying foundations.
Siegfried: Has an enhance that varies against each opponent, and really no character-specific abilities that are truly as influential as they should be. In my opinion, there are better Earth characters out there, and Fire, one of Astaroth's draws, is simply too good a symbol.
Mitsurugi: A single-zone Mitsurugi becomes easy to counter, and a mix-up 'Rugi is generally too unreliable/requires too much set-up.

In summation, Astaroth simply plays like a typical aggro character, however, he has the mighty Kulutues* on his side. If you're going to run him off of Fire, I'd advise running both Throws and the lovely Midnight Launcher-Knight Breaker combo. If you're going to run him off Earth, I'd say utilize Stun and Throws, such as Hades Destroyer, Crushing Embrace of the Jotun, Close Throw, and Hilt Impact.

I built the deck this afternoon and it worked surprisingly well, minus the fact that it has very little defense, so you have to kill quickly. I'm only running a few attacks, Including some ones that seems pretty bad, but fire throws with printed 5 damage are not so easy to find. I'm running a play set of Hades Destroyer, Body slam, and Crushing embrace of the jotun. Kill includes everything I mentioned in my above post, plus I presence for more all life it prey damage. The best thing here is Unstoppable warrior, basically 2 turns of set up followed by a 2 or 3 attack turn with Unstoppable warrior, ymirfang, all life is prey and as much Rugi aggro as you can fit in a deck and you'll win, assuming you arent staring down strange fashion or faithful bodyguard.

The deck works. I took down a good heihatchi deck, a decent king deck and a solid, but still in the test phases Taki deck.

The only change I'm thinking about making is adding some playset of 5 damage earth throws, since Unstoppable warrior stops you from building just as much as mismatched symbols.

Made the deck today, later i will post the decklist. It just sucked, i was totally raped by Ivy...

Ivy isn't necessarily as bad as people make her out to be, she just requires more set-up and has the ever-loveable weakness to Stand Off that her and other weenie rushers hate so much. If you have Stand Off, you'll pose that much more of a threat to Ivy.

If not, Ivy's one to over-extend on purpose. Taps out quick, plays small attacks, it's all a rather convoluted strategy. Never the less, learn what needs to be blocked and what doesn't, and simply watch as she whips you good, but not enough to kill you, and then you punish her for being tapped-out by smashing her skull inwards.