So I have been working on an akuma deck but without having any organized play experience under my belt, Im still kinda unsure how fire akuma will do. Against my friends, the deck is great. In my playgroup, we dont have decks are that spectacular, but i think with a little tweaking our decks can become good, possibly great. Im trying to get into organized play and I am noticing some trends within this board and have tried to build the deck with answers to some of the "staple" cards in block. I would like to see what others have to say about the deck. I think it will do okay against most decks.

Im mostly looking for people to point out any janky cards because sometimes bad cards can seem good in a learning environment. Also, looking for cards for a sideboard. I think i have a good idea of what should go in it, but im not familiar with all of the sets yet.

Attacks
4x Ira-spinta
4x Gaishiki lunar rebellion
2x Tiger fury
2x Reverse flayer
3x Nisho kyaku

Foundations
4x Commitment to excellence
4x Blinding rage
4x Admiration
4x Adoration
4x No memories
4x Empires ruin
4x Challenges only
4x Sensing weakness
4x A new low

Actions
4x Kung fu training

Assets
4x Ready for anything

You have way too many bad checks in your deck. 17 2 checks in a deck is way way to many. If you want to go the Ready for Anything route then I suggest the foundation Savage Fighter. Other general good Fire cards I can think of off the top of my head you may want to check out:

Fight or Flight
Bitter Rivals
Amy's Assistance
THE KING OF FIGHTERS 2006
Makai High Noble
Seclusion (some people like this in Akuma, I never did)
Evil Plans (good side deck card against CC Hax)

Two other cards you probably know about already but just in case:

Olcadan's Mentoring
Seal of Cessation

I second what JDub said about your control checks -- far, far too many 2s.

You might want to look at Air Stampede to replace Gaishiki Lunar Rebellion; Akuma's hack can help push it through. Thunderclap could replace Reverse Flayer, and it works very well with Ready for Anything {either as a cheap attack or as a non-attack card to seperate with}. Nisho Kyaku, I dunno if you can really replace because of its synergy with Admiration among other things. Ira-Spinta must stay, that should be a given.

IMO Challenges Only and Sensing Weakness are jank, and on top of that don't have blocks. Challenges Only would probably be the best choice to rip out for Bitter Rivals (as they're both fairly high difficulty, especially with 2ccs in the deck), and Sensing Weakness is just a really crappy speed boost. Evil Plans could replace it, and have both defense vs. opponent's CChack and an offensive tool (Evil Plans + Akuma R = +4 damage), or Amy's Assistance which is just a tremendously useful thing to have.

Thanks for the feedback. I did agree about the number of two checks, but the cards with two checks are, for the most part, pretty good. After seeing Air stampede, i can see that it does have some good potential. there are some very interesting suggestions though.

For example, I had never really thought of using evil plans with akuma. It certainly is interesting to see something like that. savage fighter is pretty good, but im not sure about gettting 3 attacks in a row. Usually i prefer to play a foundation or two and then go attack because of ready for anything.

Ok so ive been playing around with the deck a bit. I did straight out replace GLR with Air stampede, but i just diddnt like the card too much, especialy with cards like criminal past. Im gonna be playtesting this version out a bit when i get together with my playgroup.

Attacks
4x Ira-spinta
2x Tiger fury
2x Reverse flayer
3x Nisho kyaku

Foundations
4x Commitment to excellence
4x Blinding rage
4x Admiration
4x Adoration
4x No memories
4x Empires ruin
4x Bitter Rivals
4x Evil plans
4x A new low
4x makai high noble

Actions
4x Kung fu training

Assets
4x Ready for anything

As for cards like: olcadan's, Amy's, The seals, etc. I really cant play them. Right now, my playgroup has unanimously banned proxying promos. One reason is that the power level of those cards are hindering to teaching people the game, which is what we are doing to get more people playing in order to start running tournaments.

Also, for a sideboard, how does this look:

3x fight or flight (cuz its a good card)
3x an old friend(to stop board manipulation)
2x tiger fury(in case i need more attacks)

fight or flight deserves mainboard status in this deck, i and also gonna suggest that you run three reverse flayer, this is because of akuma's hack ability its gonna deal damage. its gonna double the damage that your next attack has. im also gonna suggest akuma's shoryureppa, its a really gay card in any akuma deck, because again of his hack ability, plus its gonna commit all the foundations on there staging area. good luck

oh yeah and remember that as of april when the new set rolls in, fire is going to be one of the best symbols in the game, also bitter rivals is going to own keywords in a new way. everything will be a keyword except for 'punch', 'kick' and 'ranged'. so just be ready to totally redo your deck to include cards like midnight laucher.

spyke132 said:

Fail.

Ranged will now be a Keyword Ability.

Weapon, Ally, and Item will not be.

He's running a bunch of Evil cards already... I hear Self Confidence does wonders when dealing with Bitter Rivals.

Antigoth said:

your right antigoth my mistake

Fire akuma is all about attrition. He excells at locking down with spin hax and commit but thier are some specific cards that just shut him down period that you need to account for. Red lotus stops his form and Ispin, destiny stops his R. Both are foudnations. I know you cant play ocladans for whatever reason, but you better find a replacement for them cause your lacking an answer.

ya Red lotus can be troublesome. with or without olcadan. Im thinkin or runnin superior balance to help combat red lotus. probably just in sideboard.

also, about keywords, what about punch and kick, are they gonna be keywords targetable by bitter rivals? Id assume no because weapon isnt, but i wanna make sure.

dokuromaru said:

No, kick, punch and weapon will not be keywords. My guess would be that Bitter Rivals will be banned once this takes effect because it will be really powerful.

Remember big cyclone also has a keyword now. Set 12 may also have attacks that punish discard.

K so after playtesting a bit and smoothing out some cards, i have decided to take out a new low and makai high noble for bounce back and fight or flight as well as take out tiger fury for akuma's shoyrueppa. I figure that with fight or flight, akumas shoyrureppa is better than tigers fury.i had to take out a new low because everyone in my playgroup started playing anti cc hack cards such as koga ninja arts and evil plans.

Attacks
4x Ira-spinta
4x akuma's shoyrureppa
3x Reverse flayer
4x Nisho kyaku

Foundations
4x Commitment to excellence
4x Blinding rage
4x Admiration
4x Adoration
4x No memories
4x Empires ruin
4x Bitter Rivals
4x Evil plans
4x bounce back
4x fight or flight

Actions
4x Kung fu training

sideboard:

2x dark chichiushi(i wanna try and main deck this card, but i dont think i can take anything out)
3x an old friend(to stop board manipulation)
3x Air stampede(in case i need more attacks)