Sup guys!

So, now that there has been an event held following post rotation, what do you believe are the new generation tech cards to rear their heads for the up and coming season?

From what we all have gathered, and with the banning of Talbain, we can all safely say that the roster for the top teir has been preemptively set. Who knows what the next set will bring, but as of right now, it seems as though Chunners and Donny are going to stay on top for a while. Hanzo-Kick will definitely make an showing, as will Seong Mi-Na. I personally also believe that Sogetsu is up there as well as the powerhouse Ibuki. Kyoshiro has already made a showing, as well as Alex. There are definitely some other characters out there that can definitely be top teir as well, and a few that are still untapped in potential.

For me, I have found that I must include The Ruler of the Shadows main deck when playing in a competitive environment. With so many decks being based around loops, this card can be a bane. If you can out control the opponent, which is not hard with it's symbols (Evil/ Air) then you can definitely get this to go off every turn. Its a silver bullet for Hanzo-Kick, Defender cheese, Seong Mi-Na Loops, and it stops Donovan's R ability. Seems pretty decent to me. Oh, and I also found out at the GCC... it also stop Rare Alex...

What have you found or what do you think will be decent tech cards, given the information we have gathered already?

I got a few more but I got to get some sleep...

Ruler of the Shadows is fantastic. When I saw you using that against Jacob, I almost cheered. Such a great card that's so underrated.

In my games with Kyoshiro and Alex, I found that Trapped in a Nightmare is really, REALLY good. It forces Chester/Red Lotus while threatening BRT, Experienced Combatant, Makai High Noble, Charismatic, Oral Dead, etc, etc.

Criminal Past is starting to catch on as one of the few auto-block cards, and a darn good one at that. It's also perfectly costed/balanced stat-wise.

And as much as I hate to say this, after it was stolen by Sean, Ken's alternate costume, the Yellow Gi, became a really, really good asset that helps you dig through the deck, refill your hand (from 1-4 cards!), load the discard pile for recursion, and force tough choices on the opponent (I literally had someone offer me Tag Along, Chester, and BRT to keep the Feline Spike out of my hand),

I think Questionable Motives may start to gain some momentum (no pun intended), as its ability to clear the cardpool while also stacking your momentum is not to be underestimated (selective recursion is few and far between, but it DOES exist). It formed the basis of the Taki4 infinite loop deck I intended to play for Air patch.

Your Mind is Known to Me was used to great effect at the GCC as well. Though it didn't (to my knowledge) make any of the top 8 decks, it certainly carried its weight; the ability to see the opponent's hand is a very powerful tool - it's what made Happy Holidays SO strong.

And while it's certainly not "under the radar", Big Cyclone is the best anti-discard tech out now, bar none.

LORD, I can't wait for Martial Arts Champion to be reprinted. I miss it =(

I've actually been working on an article with this intent in mind, but I'm just going to go ahead and scrap it in favor of a bit of brevity.

You've already nailed 1 of the cards I was going to discuss. The Ruler of the Shadows is a ridiculously tech-a-licious card, and if on symbol should be in every relevant sideboard at at least x2 copies. I run 3 myself, because I have nothing better to use.

The 2 biggest dynamics that a lot of people are failing to consider when building decks are the following

1) MOMENTUM CONTROL

2) Speed Bumps.

Properly controlling an opponents momentum in the current environment will flat out win you at least 60 percent of your games. With a lot of decks being reliant on either Defender, Feline Spike Ryu's Shin Shoryuken (which has seen a rise in popularity since the Phamus' Alex deck ran them for Desert Wars), or Fire Kick (it'll catch on), simply saying "No" to the opponent's momentum will any number of the following.

Bait Seal of Cessation/Olcadon's

Bait Chester's Backing

Bait CC Hax

I think we can all agree that these are very important to bait. So with that in mind, I will draw your attention to two cards.

Ikari Warrior: This is for all those one-shot Powerful: 3 attacks out there. All those turns spent letting me wittle down your vitality just so you can use Lord of the Makai are suddenly irrelevant. Sure, it's kinda expensive at 3, but it sports a 5 check and a high block (sup Feline Spike?) so it's the perfect candidate for Sideboard. In the same vein, Ralf at 6/29 is an absolute Juggernaut capable of shutting most of the metagame down single handedly. Someone should probably get around to building him...

Blood Stained Fate: For all you Earth users on the go, Blood Stained Fate is your momentum hate of choice! Andrew Olexa getting that two momentum charged up? Not anymore he's not. Trade 1 of that first turn DBK momentum to make Feline Spike a whole lot less scary. No one should be moaning to me about momentum generation in Earth either, because they have DBK and King of Fighters 2006 which is more than plenty.

Did I mention the ridiculous synergy with Lord of the Makai? Or how about that it's a 2/5 with a very relevant block at +1mid? Chaos decks are going to be very relevant in the upcoming tournament meta as soon as they get 1 or 2 more solid attacks and maybe a trixy action. Red Lotus+Destiny already shuts down 85% of Order's board presence, so why not shut down their win condition as well? Kyoshiro gives you the 5 card draw, so get to it tourny players.

Speed bumps is a bit of a broader category compared to Momentum control. They're the little things you can do outside of mainboard staples to annoy the opponent. Things you can do unexpectedly to toss their tempo off. Speed bumps are often signs of innovation within deck design and can swing a win from nowhere. Speed bumps can also mislead the opponent into wasting negation or destruction mechanics, opening you up for a bigger bomb drop.

But once you come down to it, they're the little things.

One of my favorite speed bumps right now is Altered Mind and Body, that "terrible" 1/5 +1mid foundation that gains you, essentially, 2 life a turn. Have you ever played against an opponent you dropped two of these? How about three? Feline Spike only comes around so often, and while the opponent is furiously trying to Olcadon's your Battle Prowess' out of the way (Oh hai Blinding Rage), 3 Altered Mind and Bodies are comfortably regaining you life.

Another bump I like tossing into every deck I can is Healer. At first it was simply a +1 high block to deal with the initial Feline Spike, then I realized it was Holding Ground for Air and Fire. ..

How about Return to Southtown to refill your hand a bit? That 6 check and +0 high block isn't too shabby either.

There are dozens of relevant speed bumps in this game, and not only do they mess with the opponent, they usually complement the bombs you're already running in your deck.

Arch is the hammer in the process of hitting nails on the head.

Healer is a very good tech against Powerful/Multiple attacks. I finally got my fourth one in a sealed event (ha) and was mainboarding it in the Olexa deck I was to have taken to GCC, along with...Return to Southtown! (whoa, spooky)

Return to Southtown is one of those cards that you really need a reason NOT to run (space is the best reason). A 1/6 with a free high block that refills your hand and is an easy spam foundation/check passer? Yes, please!

Blood-Stained Fate - if I'd had my copies with me, THAT'S what would have been sideboarded for Kyoshiro (I couldn't find mine, and made the deck in the car ride to Lafayette). Very, very good way to shut down momentum, especially in Earth, which is a great symbol when it comes time to annoy people (Blinding Rage being another good example). It's also a very nice (and RARE) Chaos/Earth chaining foundation, making multi-symbol decks (like the tri-symbol Kyoshiro still sitting in my UFS folder in My Documents) easier to plan out.

Earth and Chaos both have ridiculously amazing foundation bases. I could write an entire article on why it's a travesty that both symbols aren't seeing wide play, but the main argument would be that neither symbol has as quite a stand out kill as Feline Spike.

Chaos has Defender loops, but the fact that it's made up of three moving parts means it can be taken apart three separate ways. It's certainly a guarantee, and Kyoshiro can draw you the Defender loop as early as turn 1 going second (it's happened, and it's absolutely disgusting), but once people start realizing that MOMENTUM CONTROL NEEDS TO BE MAIN BOARDED AND, IF NOT THAT, AT LEAST THREE SLOTS IN YOUR SIDEBOARD, then I think the DLoop will see a Decline.

Earth is a bit more old school. It's biggest OMGWTF attack is Fire Kick, but the problem with the Powerful mechanic is that it's inherently inferior to the Multiple mechanic. Powerful puts all your eggs in one basket, and Rejection is a big old boot ready to River Dance all over your hopes and dreams. Multiple, on the other hand, produces separate threats that must be dealt with individually. This is a HUGE component on why Feline Spike is such an absolutely ridiculous card.

1 control check made, 2 momentum spent (not hard at all), and there's 24 damage present on the board separated into three off zone attacks, backed by undiscardable, backed by stun: 2, and backed by Reversal if you want to toss that in there as well. In my experience there is always at least 1 high block in hand. So 16 damage on average for 1 control check.

Fire Kick, in the same conditions, puts 12 damage on the board, concentrated in one attack, in the zone every body and their mother is packing blocks for.

Hardly seems balanced. Hell, Melancholc puts the same damage as Fire Kick on the board for the same momentum, and it's low zone and 2 diff cheaper.

Multiple attacks, by themselves, as a balancing agent, should probably never put more than 10 damage on the board naturally. 10 can be scaled upwards or downards depending on the "risk" of the attack (Difficulty and control check), combined with both the zone and how hard of a time it takes those symbols to generate momentum. Lunar Slash is a perfectly fine Multiple attack, Melancholic's difficulty could have been upped by 1, see where I'm going? I'll let you fill in the rest.

That was a bit of a tangent...

But yes, Earth is a bit more old school. Being the "sleeping giant" of a symbol that it is (remember when I deemed it such waaaaaay back in set 3?), it's going to take more than a few turns for a consistent Earth deck to properly position itself. What is this positioning?

Board based damage pumps. Remember those? They're still here, and they want to be used. Let's toss Jivatma's discard foundations in there as well to open a path, since we lack speed pumps. Oh snap, Blinding Rage laughs at Olcadon for the few turns. Inhuman Perception forces Seal of Cessation, Holding Ground, Amy's Assistance, Altered Mind and Body all help you deal with an early Spike! Hugo's 3/4 draws you two cards (didn't Shinji say Earth needed some card draw?), his 1/4 cantrips! THEY BOTH PROVIDE DAMAGE PUMPS OHMYGODI'MONFIYAH.

Or, for the terminally suicidal.

Leona, Gaishiki Lunar Rebellion, pop their Olcadon, Genocide, Genocide. 23 damage

Siberian Training, sure it's not rejection, but what is?

Slash Elbow, better then it looks on a LOT of levels.

Jivatma has Earth.

Jivatma has The Stars Aligned.

I'm guessing you can see where I'm going, right...?

Homme Chapeau said:

Guess which Earth character I'm currently playing?

All I have to say is martial arts champion is going change the format completely stopping so many things right now . Defender , Alex, hanzo ect.....

But for right now I agree ruler of the shadows is a for sure side board card can shut down a lot of things right now. With JT gone I think we still see more decks like seong mina and sogetsu to make a showing .

failed2k said:

This is actually QUITE annoying. I've used it in my Hugo deck and if I have 3-4 slots open for it, it's going in every deck that shares a symbol with it. It takes care of that first feline spike, and off of two symbols, holding ground and fight or flight take care of the other 2.

Also, since no one has said it yet, even though it's a promo (and therefore harder to get), King's Games R commit: is actually ridiculously useful. They play Feline Spike, react with King's Games and blow up Make A Difference. They play a Fweem/Tiger Fury/Sardine beach Special, react, E: with Criminal Past. It's ridiculous how useful that R commit: actually is, and 2 vitality a turn has been sometimes the difference between life and death for me.

also, as soon as a character is printed with Air/Chaos/Earth or Chaos/Evil/Order for block 3, he's going to see a lot of play short of massive suck on the scale of Promo Rikuo. I almost said *Sean* but then realized he'd still be a psuedo-8 card handsize.

Archimedes said:

Hugo.

quarzark said:

i'm gonna have All/Chaos/Earth

just saying

Homme Chapeau said:

I'm playing him in earth. He's good stuff. Jivatma's support dosn't work so well with the big circus freak though.

GouHadou said:

Spoiler, pretty pleash?

I'm already looking forward to the nastiness that will be *Yonherr*...

MegaGeese said:

I'm not. I've no great like of the dude and now I'mma have to play his card? Bollocks to that.

MegaGeese said:

Omar spoiled a little during his interview with us should be up next week .

Scubadude said:

yeah if you can sit through about 5 hours of shenanigans spread over 3 separate days?

i don't envy Mt_Do, who's editing this all into a neat little package

GouHadou said:

Dont worry a lot of that is edited out lol was a lot of fun with Omar though nothing else like it .

Havoc said:

her are some other chars that will consistently top 8 (or atleast consistintly top 20). hugo, don't underestimate the 40 health behometh. andrew olexa, he is one of the most redicoulous chars in the game. starter akuma, even with destiny out there he still has his comit your entire staging area efect. starter sakura is amazing, and is one of the best six handers in the game. felicia rules in all ways (spike, simple agro, etc.).

I think gill will do okay. Not sure if he will top but he will deffinetly be strong being one of the very very few 8hs characters, and if your wondering why I think he is any good other than handsize, it's cause he has order AND a 8hs.

^ Troof.

My favorite part of Gill is that he matches three symbols with *Donovan* =D

tannerface said:

i don't know about that. gill has order, and an 8hs but he realy isn't very good. when order has donavan and kyoshiro (and to a lesser exstent gen) it doesn't realy need gill. i think leona, the only other 8 handsize char in B3, is actualy better than gill.

trane said:

Nah, pure handsize is pure card advantage. Unlike Kyoshiro/Donovan where you can fiddle with their draw tech (SoC, Tough Outer Shell, MAC (soooooon), anti-react, etc), Gill has his fat hand at the most important stage, the start of the game. While this doesn't exactly equate to "better" it does make him a contender.

Same reasoning as Hanzo vs 7hs Evil.

Hewittzil said:

In fact mister hewitt here has already proved that all you need is 8hs and a strong symbol at the last worlds.

tannerface said:

well we will see. i just think order's other top dogs are simply better than gill in all ways (except handsize).