Great Set 12 In-Depth Review and Analysis
by Shinji Mimura
Set 12. It's the set we've all been waiting for. New license, Soul Calibur IV expansion, new rules, new set...it's something we've known of for a while, and I think we can all agree it was worth the wait. Finally! A set that's not just, “eh...2 good cards, the rest are junk.” It's a set that's certainly going to take much longer to analyze than previous sets, where cards are blatantly usable, or obviously garbage. As Steve Horvath mentioned, the set very obviously details where they want this game to go, and he certainly wasn't lying. Anyways, instead of doing a review like I normally do, where I talk about each and every character in shining depth, I will briefly cover the characters and their support because this set has so much more to it than just some cool tricks.
I'll begin with what I feel is the most important aspect of this set. A while back, I wrote a mini article called “Bring Broken Back” where I discuss the need to bring stronger cards back into our game, because the power curve was FAR too off kilter, and thus explains why cards were starkly good, or starkly toilet paper. This set is the first set in a long time where almost every single card is viable to a large extent. The first thing that I noticed was that FFG understands the need for 3 check attacks. The harsh reality is, unless your character specifically supports 1 or 2 checks (and so far, we've had maybe 3 or 4 characters who support 1 checks, none who specifically support 2s), you likely aren't going to run ANY 1 or 2 checks due to that fact. Thankfully there have been some 1s and 2s that went beyond that, but for the most part, a deck isn't safe with more than 4 of either number. Set 12 remedies this. Almost every attack has a 3, good stat distribution, and a decent effect.
The emphasis on attacking has certainly gone up. Most attacks have blocks, whereas foundations either have no block at all, or a crappy +3. Furthermore, a large portion of the foundations have to do with attacks, or otherwise stuff in the card pool, and not so much committing other foundations, slowing the game down.
They, perhaps intentionally, had great resource distribution. Here is the distribution:
Fire - 7
Life - 5
Earth – 5
Good – 4
Void – 4
Death – 4
All – 3
Evil – 3
Air – 3
Chaos – 3
Water – 2
Order – 2
Notice anything? All of the “top tier” symbols pre-set 12 are all at the bottom, yet the “bottom tier” symbols are all at the top. Love how they did that.
Combo. Combo is going to change this game BIG TIME. Combo brings the creativity into this game that its desperately needed since cycle. It actually makes you think about your attack line-up, not just “Evil.deck”. Almost every card with Combo either ends up being a finisher if you fulfill the combo, or it otherwise has devastating effects. I wish I could just ramble on and on about how much I love combo, but what I've just said is all there is to say. It truly is revolutionary, and with each and every set to come, this game is going to become more about creativity and intelligence and strategy than it ever has been before.
Character viability. The power curve on characters has been wide for...well, pretty much forever. Every set generally contains 2 top tier contenders, with the rest being cute (AKA mid tier), or garbage. Much like I was saying with Bring Broken Back, they managed to push the envelope with pretty much every character. They did two things that are going to help move this game in a more positive direction:
1.They made the character's support BETTER for the CHARACTER to use! Finally, my character is going to want to use their own attacks! I remember first seeing Hilde, and immediately dismissing her as garbage, telling myself, “why run a character that hopes the opponent runs damage redux?” Then I saw her support, and immediately wanted to build her. In this set, either your character is just obviously awesome, or their support MAKES them awesome.
2.THEY LEARNED HOW TO SOLVE THE 6 HANDER CURSE! 6 handers have had one gigantic curse since creation: their handsize just doesn't give them the resources that 7 and 8 handers get. However, FFG has learned that you can't just tack-on a crapload of vitality and think your 6 hander is usable. Nope, they learned that the only way to make a 6 hander usable is to give them GOOD ABILITIES!
Usable counters. Every time I hear people invoke the phrase “X-card doesn't suck/doesn't deserve ban because there are counters”, I eat bullets and defecate gunpowder. That argument is not only old, but it's wrong, and thankfully, I have UFS' history on my side. Well, this time around, they did make counters, but instead of other attempts, these counters are actually USABLE! Like, Red Lotus usable. They've given us a plethora of cards that, while they may or may not have secondary effects, they have the stats and the counter effect that is so powerful, that yes, they are most certainly welcome additions to most, if not all decks.
Now that I've covered just about all the goods the set brought us, now it's time to look into the characters, and see just what EXACTLY has been thrown into our metagame...
Algol introduces an interesting theme: drawing then discarding. The point, obviously, is to draw into what you want, and discard what you don't. Although I'm not too sure what such a plain premise could do to our game, I certainly see its point. I think if your deck is either heavily combo-oriented, or runs a specific kill turn, it could certainly be to your advantage. Also, his R is one of the greatest forms of disruption. While they do indeed draw a card, they must randomly discard, meaning no turn is truly safe.
Astaroth is back, and he really hates it when such popular CC modifiers as BRT, Forethought, and Ling Sheng Su try to rain on his parade. Astaroth has always had a giant pump effect, and nothing has changed for our big lumbering ogre, except for the fact that, well, his pump is bigger and better than ever this time around. Although it's uncertain how much faster they'll be ahead in the building game, you can help keep the foundation game at bay with Nightmare's destruction foundations, and scare big handsize characters who overbuild.
Astrid brings a new importance to running weapon attacks. Most importantly, has there ever been a weapon attack you've wanted to reverse with, but never could? Now you can. Astrid is all about tutoring the deck looking for cards with weapon on them, and then using them for whatever purposes you could want. Throw them away at the end of the turn, and they can only amount to large portions of damage. Although her support may look simple, it certainly adds up in the ends.
Cervantes is up to some familiar tricks, and is a bit of a combination of the two promo Cervantes we had in the past. While his abilities are nothing huge or flashy, he has virtually free CC bonuses, can pass checks without control checks, and can reduce the opponent's checks into the negatives within time. To be completely honest, I'm not a fan, and am thoroughly disappointed, but the set is still young, so we'll see how much our purple pirate contributes.
Hilde is love. Hilde purposefully reduces her attacks' speed or damage to benefit her, either by drawing cards, or boosting the hell out of them. I really don't think I'm out of line when I say she's going to be one of the best aggro characters of the current metagame, and furthermore, anybody running Rejection is going to seriously hate facing Hilde.
Ivy (and her support) is arguably THE most talked about character this set. It could be her support. It could be the fact that she's pretty much the only good Ivy. It could be her, yet again, increased bust size. Who knows? Whatever the case may be, they made a character with their eyes on the prize. Every Ivy attack is a 3/3, and since all of her attacks are weenies, they all have otherwise incredible abilities to capitalize this. Combined with Algol's selective discard plus draw, as well as Ivy's hyper draw speed and Combination of Blows For Weenies, I really think Ivy is going to be very popular. Will it work out for her in the end? Eh...it works for Donovan doesn't it?
I'm really going to have a hard time talking about Lu Chen, both as a huge Yoshitora fan, and the fact that his synergy with Mysterious Stance is absolutely RIT-TAR-TED. Bias aside, Lu Chen does to reversals what I've always said needs to be done to reversals: makes them good. The whole point of a reversal is that it should disrupt their turn, and both Lu Chen abilities can nearly seal their turn completely. Oh, and did anybody else notice he shares all 3 symbols with Nakoruru? If Lu Chen hits the table, strategize immediately, because a false move could cost you a turn, and maybe the game.
Nightmare is the Nightmare we've all been waiting for. He destroys, he pumps...he's every bit as scary as he should be. They've brought back Roundhouse Kick, Shoulder Rush, and Lost Memories. What more needs to be said? Is Nightmare good, or just another Night Terror? Time will tell, but honestly, I think Nightmare is going to end up better than Night Terror.
Holy crap on a stick, aggro just came back and stupider than ever. I find it most entertaining that Ragnar shares all 3 symbols with our favorite aggro poster boy: ***Adon***. Anyways, if you took Tira's suicidal life loss and Sankuro's urge to beat face with mighty attacks, I 'spose you'd get Ragnar. I have no idea how he performs in pre-release (our out of it, for that matter), but hot ****, that guy really does pump damage to the high hells.
Rashotep may only have one ability, but he's certainly going to be a popular control character. Although he doesn't commit, negate, or destroy anything, he gets rid of a card's ability to be played, leaving it only slightly better than Pit Fighter XD. He gave us Throws, which I find to be most important, but of equal importance, Rashotep truly makes characters unimportant. One E Commit, and the character is just Universal Fighter. Top tier? I don't think so, but certainly a ***** to fight.
Siegfried is stupid. Like...beyond stupid. An unaltered Siegfried starter is capable of competing. THAT stupid. The man pukes up damage at a ridiculous rate, much quicker than the last one, and the guy punishes you for running the Pitchfork. Best part about his blanking/flipping is that, for most of them, they never unblank/flip-up, leaving them permanently useless. I don't know how much he'll see play, but he's certainly a better aggro candidate than say Yuri, and he's just too fun to ignore.
Temujin = lol I create Tiamat's Rampages. Seriously did anybody else notice that Temujin's entire point is to create a finisher? Attack, attack, attack, E with Temujin, gg? Seriously, I don't even care about his F (seriously, what use is it? o_O), his enhance is surely enough to sail him straight to high tier. Let's not forget, Air is swimming in momentum generation with White Magic, Natural Leader, and Lord of the Makai, enough to very, very easily turn 2 anybody who isn't prepared.
Well, they sure did a better job with their Tira than what I had brainstormed. I don't really want to get into Gloomy or Jolly side, because there isn't much to say. All in all, it's certainly one of the most creative things they've done with this game. Mostly, though, she takes 5 hander Maxi's ability to give ANYTHING a multiple, and applies it to her 7 handsize. That alone is certainly reason enough to run her, in my opinion.
Yi Shan's only real problem is that there are few, if any, attacks that do things while face-up that aren't his own attacks. That problem aside, the guy looks to be immense amounts of fun, and so happens to have one of the more impressive stacking capabilities. Also, they weren't lying when they said he's great for beginners; almost every card of his is purposefully over-status'd. Meaning: they purposefully gave his stuff better stats, and really, I agree with it: his stuff is all very balanced, and makes for an idealistic beginner, yet also for advanced players. Furthermore, if you can tutor momentum, his enhance becomes all that much better.
Zhao Daiyu continues Basara's theme of direction damage, and Set 12's theme of a character only being good with their support. At first glance, her shoddy vitality can't compete with the quicker abilities out there. However, her support RFGs their cards quicker than you can count, and with each removal, they're going to lose 2 vitality.
Zi Mei is certainly an interesting aggro character in that almost none of her support has any relation to the next. She gives CC bonuses, difficulty reduction, zone changing, multiples...she does a lot. Nothing too impressive, honestly, but off of Air's momentum engine, and her lovely card, Always in Motion, she will be throwing multiples out there like it's nobody's business.
Well, now that I've covered set 12 (with the exception of the promos), it's time for the wrap-up, and mostly, how will this set effect our metagame.
1.As I've already mentioned, Combo is going to make every deck look that much more different. Combo attacks are generally pretty good on their own, but they're arbitrarily made that much more stupid if you actually go through with the combo. Obviously, not every combo attack has a combo enhance worth building around, but those that do will be obvious, and will see play. The attacks you use and character you use them in will become so much more creative, and will thus give this game the more personal appeal its always needed.
2. Aggro is back. Fire, Earth, and Life, the three aggro symbols, got immense boosts to catapult them into a usable tier. No longer do we have situational pumps that only give us +2. No, now we have extremely large bonuses for less cost, meaning that beat-face decks can once again thrive.
3.Ivy's support is a step in the right direction for the future of “death by a thousand slashes” archetypes. Everything being 3/3 gets rid of the problem set 2 Raphael had where almost all of his weenie pokes had 2 checks. The problem with small attacks, besides their damage, is the fact that you do need a lot of them to win. Ivy's draw support, as well as her ultra rare Gnomes, get around this.
4.I really think Lu Chen sealed the fate for Reversal decks in a good way. Although I'm not sure how Father Bull ***Nakoruru*** decks went, I'm quite certain they'll be just perfect now. Shadow Blade was the first ever reversal that truly did screw up a turn miserably. Ever since its creation, we've seen more and more reversals push the envelope (Wind Storm?), and now, I think decks can finally run Reversals in ways that matter. Oh, and uh...Feline Spike is still a reversal guys =D
5.Nightmare's support versus Rashotep/Siegfried. In the game of control, I have cards tiered as such: Negation, Commit, Destroy, and now, I'm placing Blank/Flip at the bottom. I know everybody and their dog is talking about it, and for good reason! But really...I just can't agree that blanking a foundation is better than the three. Negation is on top because they have to have paid the card's cost only for it to do nothing. Committing is next because you commit a card before it can even do anything. Destruction is third because it gets rid of the card, but generally only after its done its effect. Blanking a card is kind of like committing...except it doesn't commit the card, and that's my problem. While it may do nothing, it's still plenty available to help pass a block. Not saying it's bad at all, just saying you might want to first look into the above-3 before blanking. As for Nightmare? His support is golden, and is exactly what the three symbols needed to bring back their old-school roots (as for Fire, Fire needs it to look cool. Fire without destruction just doesn't seem right).
6.Temujin, Tira, and Zi Mei are capable of creating their own finishers, and thus, I expect them all to see high levels of competition.
Closing statements: Despite Realm of Midnight generally being the agreed-upon best set ever made, these two sets most definitely give it a run for its money, and I gotta say I'm leaning more towards Set 12 beating it. For once, the extremely annoying wait and overbearing hype was all worth it, and thus my feelings and desires are quenched. A plethora of tourney-viable characters and cards have been disposed upon us, leading the way to all kinds of deckbuilding. To those of you who still don't appreciate ShadoWar, I really do apologize. As time progressed and the universe fleshed-out, we started to see and learn about characters we can all learn to love, and that the common response of “it's just stereotypes” is all wrong.
Good stuff, good times. Hope you enjoyed the article, and everybody have fun playtesting!
~Shinji Mimura~
P.S. Nobody has answered my question about starters =/
) But the blanking of foundations is certainly a great thing to do
