I pondered what one would do to build a Death deck these days, and I'm disturbed to think that the likely-best solution is to play aggro with Zi Mei or Hugo's damage pumps fuelling the deck. Yes, I'm saying that DEATH IS AN AGGRO SYMBOL NOW. It actually kinda makes sense... Death = symbol that kills you

Death just hasn't recieved the powerful control pieces that <virtually> every other symbol has. Its best commit effects are Manifest Destiny and Alluring Beauty, neither of which are very effective during the opponent's turn {contrast very strongly against Chinese Boxing and Experienced Combatant}. Death has a paltry two answers to Olcadan's -- Oral Dead and Bison's anti-F foundation, which doesn't negate but only destroy to prevent more abuse, and each of those can be baited or forced with a Program Malfunction or any other control-oriented Form. Death has no strong answer to Defender loop -- it can Manifest one of the pieces, or Saikyo one of the attacks/Rejections away, but nothing that isn't easily stopped by a Red Lotus or preemptive Chinese Boxing. Death even has a mild shortage of good high blocks to help against Spike...

So what makes it viable for aggro? Well, while other symbols were getting all those nice control pieces, Death has gotten a very decent lineup of attacks. Chaos Flare has massive damage potential for negligible difficulty; Tsurane Kiri has similarly huge possibilities. Shadow Blade is almost a poor man's Spinta with reversal. Ichi No Tachi and Mega Spike are both fantastic cheap attacks with multiple uses and good blocks. Monster Lariat is a godlike tempo booster. And one of the good things about Death's foundation base is the abundance of decent-to-good 0 and 1 difficulties; Manifest Destiny, Alluring Beauty, Saikyo Ryu, Adoration, End It All, Selfless Giving, Huge Wrestling Army, Military Combat Arts. While it can't do the kind of thing that Earth can -- spill every card in a 7- or 8-card hand T1, it can drop some good stuff and put itself in position to play a big T2.

I was about to float an Earth/Death dual symbol deck as viable, but then I looked for a character and found that there are no 7+HSers and the only good 6HS is Hugo. There are few foundations that share the symbols, but it inherits the goodies from Zas and Hugo's support, both of which were very strong almost across the board, plus Revenant's.

Feel free to point out any glaring holes/missed cards, call me a n00b becuz deth is top-tier in Japan, spoilers on why Death is going to stop sucking after Set 12, etc

well the only thing i have to say about the whole death not having an answer to defender is what are you thinking it probably has the best answer in reventants calling

as for characters there isnt a real good character for death/earth as you said maybe the new set will bring us some goodies....maybe nightmare? i dont know hopefully someone comes along though i think that could be a powerful symbol combo

The new 'Gief has Death/Earth, but the lack of a solid multiple off either symbol in block 3 is meh...

I think the promo Seth could also be really really good, because he can give death something it doesn't normally have, massive speed pumps.

Not counting that symbol though, I think anyone who can should seriously consider Death/All, Death/Water, and Death/Chaos all 3 are strong symbol combinations. Death/Evil is always good too.

quarzark said:

i think with death you either have control with something like hugo or night terror, or you have agro with promo zas or zi mei. the one thing death has in b3 that it didn't have before is dmg pump. thanks to hugo's suport, chaos flare, tsuarane kiri, and consumer of planets, death can push threw a supper pumped throw for the game. also death/earth mill with promo bishamon is pretty cool.

trane said:

Promo Zangief is something I should try, Hugo's support really synergizes well with him. And by synergizes, I mean "almost makes up for the loss of Moon Sault Slayer"

Wafflecopter said:

i got turn 2d by him soooo many times with moonsualt slayer. he is still worth building.