*taken from Fantasy Flight Games' shop section*

Soul Calibur IV - Starter box comes with Cassandra

Cervantes - This starter is ideal for players who like to control and disrupt their opponents while helping their own strategies. Cervantes is a merciless being who only cares about accumulating power.

Ivy - The Ivy Starter deck is focused on using chains for smaller attacks that steadily increase in power, allowing each hit to become stronger and more disruptive. Ivy specializes on putting pressure on her enemies.

Nightmare - The Nightmare starter deck is great for players who like to focus on destroying their opponent's resources and limiting their options. Death and destruction await those who oppose Nightmare.

Siegfried - The Siegfried starter is best suited towards players who like a mix between aggressive and control strategies. Siegfried is the lone hero who gets stronger when fighting evil!

ShadoWar - Starter box comes with Padma

Astrid - The Astrid starter is ideal for players who like to use combinations of cards to defeat their opponents. Astrid makes extensive use of weapons, and always seems to have ways of getting more.

Ragnar - The Ragnar starter is meant for players who enjoy hurling enormous attacks and doing huge amounts of damage, no matter the cost.

Yi Shan - Balancing strong defense with powerful offense, the Yi Shan starter is ideal for new players. As the fight progresses, Yi Shan's attacks and other abilities become more powerful until victory is assured!

Zi Mei - The Zi Mei starter contains a solid lineup for aggressive players who like to overwhelm their opponent's defenses by throwing many small attacks from different angles.

Opinions:

1. It has statistically been proven that characters with a 7 handsize, or those who can tutor/draw, perform best in pre-release tournies. Off speculation, I'm guessing only Zi Mei will have a 7 handsize, with Astrid having ways to tutor.

2. Something tells me Siegfried literally has anti-Evil support (lawl).

3. Cervantes is negation, Nightmare is destruction and maybe prevention. Ivy is Xianghua, with a bit of Fei Long. Zi Mei likely has lots of highs and lows. Yi Shan probably has a really awesome ability that builds up over the course of the game.

I'm excited as Hell. I'm prone to Zi Mei, mostly due to how good the last one was. Thoughts?

MarcoPulleaux said:

The blurb on Ivy's box sounds really dirty.

ragnar could be interesting. sounds like he has character based dmg pump, something we have been a little lacking recently. suonds like solcal is more control, and shadowwar is more agro.

I want nightmare for sure judging how good the new shoulder rush from his support is I think his starter will be awesome.

If I get the choice, we usually don't where I play, I'll take Ivy.

if it wasn't for the fact that current promo Zi Mei was amazing, I'd be more excited. However, I could be proven wrong.

It was spoiled that the starters are all fixed this time around. Thats either a good thing or bad. Some people rely on starters for thier commons and uncommons, but it makes sealed easier.

well iv'e ran DJ since he was released and had oodles of fun with it so ragnar sounds like my kinda guy, besides when the chips are down ALWAYS bet on the viking

I,m pickin both Zi-Mei and Cervantes and no one is gonna stop me.

DvON said:

...Dee Jay? Wow, congrats, must've been fun.

I'll say this about Ragnar: damage pumps are all EXTREMELY underwhelming at this point in time. Even after looking at new Astaroth, I gotta say, Ragnar better push the envelope Sankuro style. Furthermore, with the likelihood of him having a 5 or 6 handsize, he's going to need to pump his way to victory over the other starters, whom all seem to have much more interesting playstyles.

Also, of all the people who have competition, Cervantes has STUPID competition. His last starter was more than forgettable, and his C/E/O 5-star counterpart top 4'd Worlds, so uh...

Cervantes is a PIRATE. No question.

Also, I need Rashotep to mix with Anakaris for a pharaoh theme deck.

Although I'm probably just getting a starter box of both since I'll have approximately $1 million in coolstuff credit... definitely looking forward to Nightmare. Starters were always an awesome way to get the commons and uncommons in the set anyway, and hopefully the redux of Nightmare is as fun as the original starter was.

ARMed_PIrate said:

podcast states that the starters will be constructed decks, not the base cards+ some like previous sets.

I'm torn.

Nightmare and Cervantes are MAH BOIS.

But I already like the sound of Astrid. And there's a high likelihood of her having Order.

Our prerelease isn't until the 19th, I think, so I'll pick up a bunch of starters and figure it out beforehand =D

either ivy, ragnar or nightmare

Ivy - I want it like yesterday.

MarcoPulleaux said:

New astaroth o.O ??? where did you find out about him =o? Care to share? =D

Solstice said:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Fighting_System scroll down to the sets and look at soul calibur 4

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Fighting_System scroll down to the sets and look at soul calibur 4

oh I knew he was in the set. Im just wondering about the stats and such.

So wait, I'm confused... how exactly is the whole starter fixed? Is every card in it separate from the set or something?

My guess is that you'll have your 6 exclusives( 2 chars and 2 of 2 others) the rest will be like magic where every starter comes with x cards from the set. X wil be a fixed amount for every starter you buy.

bloodocean said:

Last time, it was X cards were fixed, and another Y cards were random, but every single one matched one particular symbol on your character.

Steve said on the podcast that because the symbols are going to be much more spread out now, the starters need to be fully fixed. I'm hoping you still get at least 1 of each uncommon across the four starters, but it's probably unlikely... complicates my buying decisions a bit -.-'

In regards to which character to choose... well, I'll admit I was one of the folk who caught sight of BFD's short-lives spoil, but even having seen them all I'm still not sure. Should speak to how solid they are across the board. Leaning towards Astrid, but Yi-Shan could be a lot of fun too if that spoiled attack is anything resembling the norm for him. Ragnar brings a lot of pain, Zi Mei can overwhelm the opponent every single turn, Cervantes cheats, Siegfried is nuts, we all know about Ivy, Nightmare makes your opponent cry... I really don't know @_@

My money is on me just buying a display of each and having them all like most people always do.