After many an attempt to thwart the power that is Chun-Li, I decided to go back to Soiree, a character I once was able to win tournaments with and would like to be able to bring to power in a meta where he is underestimated and discarded. Cowboys need some love too! I built this base Air build last Sunday and have almost defeated Chun-Li with him... however, nearly isn't nearly good enough when you're trying to win. So I would like to see how you guys would change my original build in contrast to how I would do it.

The advantages I've found to playing Soiree is the ability to use your foundations more than once (that part should be fairly obvious ), but this is as long as the attack in question is dealing damage. The best way I've found to do that is to mitigate the damage from my opponents attacks as much as possible without letting them drop below 1, which allows me to reuse my Chester's Backings and Inhuman Peception's (or if the attack is a multiple, Healer/Contract and The Curse Of Immortality), while making my attacks as difficult to block normally as possible (with Spike being, well, Spike and Sonic Boom having a stipulation to blocking it) allowing me to reuse Chinese Boxing and Soul Of Ling Sheng Su to play another.

The disadvantage I've found to playing Soiree, or more specifically, Air, is the lack of draw power. Return To Southtown is the only true card draw card I have in the deck, and the only real draw power card available to me. Tag Along and Lord Of The Makai also do some work for that, but it's seemingly still not enough. I've considered many different methods to try to rectify this, such as playing Kabuki Artist (although the 4cc blocklessness is off-putting and I would rather be using my momentum on Soiree/Curse really) and dual resourcing into either Void or Water for Familial Loyalty (Void gets me TWOP, Water gets me Rejection) but I find it difficult to see how I could make the dual resourcing work. I also considered Counter The Assault, because it IS Air draw power, and a potential damage boost if my opponent gets a little overzealous with their momentum, but again, is it doing enough?

Anyway, I shall give the current decklist and see what you all think

Foundations x 41

4 x Inhuman Perception
4 x Chesters Backing
4 x Lord Of The Makai
4 x Return To Southtown
4 x Soul Of Ling Sheng Su
3 x White Magic
3 x The Curse Of Immortality
3 x Blinding Rage
3 x Makai High Noble
3 x Chinese Boxing
3 x The Angel Of Evening
3 x Healer/Tira’s Contract (Undecided)

Assets/Actions x 9

3 x Olcadan’s Mentoring
3 x Tag Along
3 x Seal Of Cessation

Attacks x 10

3 x Feline Spike
4 x Sonic Boom EXTRA
3 x Omnidirectional Clusterbomb

You might consider Counter the Assault for your card draw, and since Chun-Li appears to be your main opponent I'm assuming a momentum based build which Counter will punish them for using.

Xerexsus said:

plus you can ready it with soiree and draw another card its not amazing but if your looking for card draw its about the best air has

Also i would consider clean freak i know its another 3cc but you dont have that many and adding 3 more wouldnt hurt to bad it gets rid of your opponents problematic foundations + it can give you momentum if you just need that 2 or 4 more damage to kill with sonic boom or another moementum for multiple feline spike.......even then if you add in the counter the assults you could be giving your opponent momentum and getting a damage boost off of it at the same time

if you have home runs then they are ridiculas draw power with the momentum i me and theo have 6 altogether

Go go capoeira cowboys!

For draw power, how about Sogetsu's support, primarily Aquakinesis, High Tide and The Blue Dragon. Both AquaK and High Tide roll on 5's. All of Sogetsu's stuff also has both Void and Water, so you can off-chain on either or both symbols for uber utility.

Oh, and:

www.youtube.com/watch

I'd consider Connoisseur Of Blades, Counter The Assault and Decorated For Service as possible Air draw engines. I know you don't like using your momentum for anything other than his ability, but if you want to consider it there's also Rootless to consider as well. It gives you some options I guess. Would you mind taking a look at my deck?

new.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp

go with tira's contract. i would definately run home run and more momentum gen.

Thoughts:

-I'd consider losing the Cluster Bombs in favor of Ira-Spinta. It's one of the best attacks in the game, controls the opposing staging area, and provides you momentum. As a throw, it will also (almost) always deal damage. Convenient for...
-Homerun. With Lord of the Makai/iSpin generating momentum, Homerun should always be able to draw you at least 2-3 cards per activation.
-I'd consider dropping Angel, Soul and White Magic. Soul is only played for the 6-check and the R ability...which has a huge "please negate this" sign on it. White Magic has good stats, but just kinda takes up space (and has a huge "Owlface this" sign on it). Angel is only good for blocking situations; if they block your attack or if you block theirs. If its their attack, assume you'll fail the block (see large number of strong hack cards/Through the Defenses/KFT/Yoga Adept on actions); and since your kill would, in theory, be iSpin to remove problems, then straight into Spike/SBE, who cares if they block your opener(s)?
-Why not play both Healer AND Tira's?
-Upping China Box to 4 will help its consistancy. It would increase your overall 4-check-iness, but it helps that it chains Water, since...
-Aquakinesis is a really good idea. Yeah, it's not good with Soiree's ability, so much (due to its trigger), but it does expand your handsize and chains easily enough. Familial Loyalty is also a very good idea, as it, too, rolls a 5, but can get cards out of the opponent's hand - handy when setting up that Spike with iSpin. It would also put increased pressure on the opponent to have you add it to your momentum with iSpin, since, if they don't, you'd just strip another card from their hand anyway.
-Lynette's Shop. YOU may not have much draw power, but THEY might. Or other stuff to filch. Pretty much a staple card, really.
-Max out on Owlface and Tag Along to help consistancy (you'll thank me as far as TA is concerned). Sideboard KFT and Rejection, probably 3 copies each.
-iSpin, right? iSpin adds two cards to the opponent's momentum. Play another, and they have four, right? iSpin + Counter the Assault = obvious combo. Also, more draw power.

Generally speaking, draw power played as Enhances is going to be rather weak, since you can't rely on the opponent ever attacking you in a situation where it would become usual (control tilt of the game = they're going to mess with your ability to block in some way = one shot = draw power is useless).

Forms are where the real draw power is. Forms, and Aquakinesis. If Soiree were 4 inches shorter (5'8"), The Bigger They Are would be an obvious staple. Boo.

That's all I can think of now. I'm tired, sue me xD

Thank you for all the wonderful suggestions, it's heartwarming to see so many people willing to help

I have loaded The King Of Fighters 2006 and Counter The Assault in order to get additional hand drop, momentum gain and draw power, all of which are repeatable. I've dropped Tira's to 2 and loaded 2 Healer. The card count has gone up to 62, but the extra 2 cards have seemed to work.

For now I've changed Omnibomb to Heel Snipe, as I feel that it does what I normally use the Omnibombs for (the action half) while attacking at the same time. This has also proven to be very effective, as it allows me to Chinese Boxing anything that could cause me a problem while Spiking without fear of Chester's Backing or it's kin and also commit the more troublesome cards on the field, Chun Li, Reanimated, Bitter Rivals or otherwise.

I have shrunk the number of attacks to 12 and the SoC's to 2, buty I would quite like to find a way of loading more Tag Along's and Homerun, as I do have a playset sitting around doing nothing, although it's a card I've not run before and am unsure as to how many I should run. I think I'll start with 2 and work my way up from there.

@Megageese: Funnily enough, I was considering taking out Soul Of Ling-Sheng Su, as my checks are more than good enough, although I was told off for it Is taking out White Magic really a good plan when I use momentum so intensively? I also have quite a lot of Olcadan bait when you look at the deck, like Return To Southtown and indeed, White Magic, but thats why I've put Blinding Rage AND Makai High in as opposed to one or the other. I would also love to put in Familial Loyalty or Aquakinesis, but when I tried to do it, the 6HS and the lack of cards already in the deck that have either Water or Void made it very difficult, any suggestions from you? We've had some pretty good brainstorming sessions in the past, you'll have to see how long you can stay awake over the next week to talk to me

But yeah, keep the suggestions coming, they are extremely helpful, and this deck could end up becoming my Regionals deck if all goes to plan