Ivy - You don't gotta be King to play like him (Life Throws + Weenie Rush)

By MarcoPulleaux, in UFS Deck Building

So I tinkered around with a theory I've had ever since Ivy first came into being. Now, I think that theory can finally be put to the test and worked into this game as a viable decktype.

Isabella Valentine* - Life

Assets: 8

2x Eiserne Drossel 3/5 +2-MID [unique]
3x Path of the Master 2/5 +2-MID
3x Tekken Forces 2/5 [unique]

Attacks: 21

3x Cobra Clutch 5/3 +2-MID [Throw]
4x Close Throw 5/3 [stun: 2] [Throw]
3x Tiao Wu Kick 3/3 +1-MID [Kick] [stun: 1]
4x Howling Spirits 3/3 +1-LOW [Ranged]
4x Evil Sparrow 3/3 +2-MID [Kick]
3x Raging Gnome 3/3 +2-MID

Foundations: 36

3x Lost Partner 3/4
4x Regretful Existence 2/5 +3-MID
4x Genius Alchemist 2/5
4x Finding Happiness 2/4
3x Researching Anywhere 2/4
3x Researching the Past 2/4
4x Carefree 1/5 +1-MID
4x Knows When to Talk 1/5 +3-LOW
3x Torn Hero 1/5
4x Quick Exit 1/5

Turn 1:

Lost Partner - Tekken Forces – Genius Alchemist – Regretful Existence - Quick Exit

Turn 2:

Cobra Clutch – E with Genius Alchemist - E with Cobra – is blocked, deals 2 – R with Ivy, committing Quick Exit, draw 2 (7 cards in hand)
Close Throw (giving it minus 2 difficulty) – Stun: 2 – Stun: 1 – E with Lost Partner, readying Alchemist and Quick Exit – E with Alchemist - is blocked, deals 1 – R with Ivy, committing Regretful Existence (8 cards in hand)
Tekken Forces Form – Quick Exit to ready Tekken Forces.
Howling Spirits (7 cards) – E with Spirits – E with Regretful, blowing up 1 Tekken Forces foundation – is not blocked, deals 5 + 1
Tekken Forces Form
Evil Sparrow – E with Evil Sparrow (5 cards) – is not blocked, deals 3 + 1, R with Ivy, committing 1 Tekken Forces (7 cards)

As you can see, the process pretty much goes on from there, but within just a short turn of building, you dealt an assumed 13 with very little counting against you when it comes to progressive difficulty.

The idea here was to run Ivy in a similar fashion to King, in that while it LOOKS like you must run him with nothing but Throws, it's actually advised you run some things off a bit.

Thanks to Lost Partner and Quick Exit, as you saw in the demonstration above, it is now possible to truly run Ivy without Switching Weapon Styles, and what's more, she's simply more viable. I've always liked the thought of Ivy that used Throws, or zone-changers like Mitsu's support, so that she had a guaranteed damage output of 3 or less, and could thus draw regardless. However, in this block, she's simply too crippled by the likes of Stand Off and the Ultimate Team, which make her attacks QQ. That is where the Stun factor comes into play, with Cobra Clutch, Close Throw, and Tiao Wu Kick weaving through their Gray Area.

I realized a lot of my cards lacked blocks, so I threw in some Carefree and limited the number of cards in the deck that did not have blocks. I really do like the Ivy strategy of spamming weenie attacks, but it has to be done with utmost precision, and I think this deck capitalizes on it.