Well, the Shadowar Prerelease has come and gone, and left me with the harsh realization that Yi Shan's support is running off Earth, Life, and Water, when I had been running him off Good. So, I decided to create a new deck. I'm rather disillusioned with Earth's inability to make attacks hit their target at this moment, so here is Yi Shan, Life version:

*Yi Shan* - Life:

Starting Character:

Yi Shan* (6 HS 29 Vitality) (Earth, Good, Life)

Characters (2):

2 Yi Shan** (6/6 +0M) (Earth, Life)

Actions (6):

4 Kung-Fu Training (2/5 +1M) (Life)

2 Tieh Lei, Iron Thunder (2/5 +1H) (Earth, Life)

Assets (4):

2 Eiserne Drossel (3/5 +2M; Unique, Weapon) ( Life)

1 Scroll of the Celestial Dawn (3/5 +2M; Unique) (Good, Life)

1 Yun's Cap (3/4 +0L; Unique) (Life)

Attacks (18):

4 Yi Shan's Dragon Tail Leg Sweep (3/3 3L3 +2L; Kick) (Earth, Life)

4 Dragon Punch (4/2 4M6 +2M; Punch) (Earth, Life)

4 Hilt Impact (4/3 3H3 +1M; Stun: 2) (Earth, Good, Life)

4 Yi Shan's Tiger Claw (4/3 3H5 +3H; Stun: 1) (Earth, Life)

2 Striking Thunder (5/3 3M6) (Earth, Life)

Foundations (30):

4 Adoration (1/5 +2M) (Life)

4 Torn Hero (1/5) (Earth, Good, Life)

4 Voice of the Land (1/5) (Good, Life)

3 Atoning for the Past (2/5 +3M) (Earth, Life)

3 Distractible (2/5) (Earth, Life)

4 Heidern's Assassination Arts (2/5 +1L) (Earth, Life)

4 Memories of a Nightmare (2/5) (Earth, Good, Life)

4 Will for the Fight (2/5 +3M) (Earth, Life)

Side Deck (8):

4 Yi Shan's Spinning Backfist (4/3 3M4 +1M) (Earth, Life)

4 Calming the Mind (3/5) (Earth, Life)

Statistics:

Average Control Check: 4.35

Average Difficulty: 2.57

Average Block Modifier: +1.79

Number of Blocks: 43 (71.67%)

Strategy and Card Breakdown:

The strategy for this deck is simple and straight-forward; pound your opponent's face in with powerful attacks too fast for him to block. Additionally, the deck has numerous pieces to deflect enemy efforts at controlling you, along with a defensive scheme to protect you from other aggro decks. Below is a detailed account on how it all comes together:

*Yi Shan* - This is the motor that makes this car run; a high starting vitality (29) for his decent hand size (6), but the true power lies in his E, which starts out at +2 damage for all of my stuff, while handing all of your stuff a -2 damage penalty. Additionally, he gets even crazier when you stack characters on him. This guy is just awesome beyond words IMHO.

Yi Shan** - A strong character in his own right, Yi Shan** brings more damage to the starting character's E, a separate damage-boosting effect, and (most importantly) a cheap and easy to get everything into my momentum face up, which is gold in this deck.

Kung-Fu Training - One of the most effective aggro-stoppers in this format is Rejection (which I loathe with a passion rivaled by few, I assure you). One of the most common and efficient to stuff it is using Kung-Fu Training. It also serves as a counter to disruptive actions such as Tag Along and No I in Team. To boot, it sports a 5 check, a +1 mid block, and an E for a sizable speed boost. No reason to not have this.

Tieh Lei, Iron Thunder - Another extremely versatile action, this foundation sports discard hate (great for when you face Sogetsu, Harrier Bee, or any of Jivatma's stuff), an absolutely devastating E that allows me to cherry-pick the face up cards in my momentum, and it even packs a little speed + damage E as an afterthought, while sporting stats very similar to Kung-Fu Training. Sold.

Eiserne Drossel - Free +2 speed bonus E for only having an Asset on board, it has a life-draining effect, AND it works while committed? Sign me up.

Scroll of the Celestial Dawn - Even though I don't really see myself using either the Good or Life character abilities, the asset hate it brings makes it a worthy choice.

Yun's Cap - It's a free source of Vitality, so that's always appreciated. To boot, it even grants a sizable speed bonus (+3 on most attacks).

Yi Shan's Dragon Tail Leg Sweep - This attacks sports solid all-around stats, it can get to the momentum face up by itself, and also has a Kunai-esque effect once there. Solid.

Dragon Punch - The most likely win condition in this deck. The E combined with its good base speed and damage for a 4 difficulty attack make it ideal for taking people down after a string of attacks.

Hilt Impact - Although it lacks any fancy effects, the fact of the matter is that this is a very solid Stun: 2 attack, and it has great stats.

Yi Shan's Tiger Claw - Another attack with great stats for its difficulty, what truly makes this baby shine is being face up in your momentum. Every attack grabbing Stun: 1 for free is just too awesome, especially if you can get more than 1 in there.

Striking Thunder - A brilliant setup attack for anything you want to have land in a turn, this attack is also absolutely devastating if it lands. +2 damage to every attack you make in addtition to Yi Shan's E makes almost any sort of deck a heavy hitter.

Adoration - Speed bonuses are always nice to have, especially if you can get 'em as cheap as this.

Torn Hero - Probably the most vicious committing hate Life has to date, and it comes with good stats, too. This card makes Stunning you a really, really bad idea, and even committing specific cards in your staging area will fail if you have it and if you have momentum.

Voice of the Land - This card allows you to be more reckless during your turn and still be able to defend yourself semi-appropriately, which is important in this deck due to a lack of cards to gain vitality.

Atoning for the Past - This card is crazy good on a kill turn, serving both to lower my progressive difficulty AND to secure a face up card in my momentum. Sweet.

Distractible - This fella protects from all those damage reduction foundations, such as Amy's Assistance, and also shields you against Rejection. Never leave home without it.

Heidern's Assassination Arts - Considering that the whole deck is off Life, the speed boost granted by this foundation can get crazy pretty fast.

Memories of a Nightmare - Not only does it provide a touch of damage (in true *Yi Shan* fashion, by offering a bonus or a penalty in the same E), this is a marvelous tech card that allows you eliminate a bothersome threat on your opponent's staging area, such as Bitter Rivals or The Gorgeous Team. Take a gander at the resource symbols on most "staple" control cards, and you'll see this stops most of them in their tracks.

Will for the Fight - Yet another card that plays multiple roles in this deck, Will for the Fight not only grants a damage bonus (rather rare in Life, trust me), but it also protects you against combat discarding shenanigans that could mess you up.

Yi Shan's Spinning Backfist - This card is amazing against anyone that looks to win with a big attack that sports a lot of keyword ratings, such as the infamous Feline Spike, turning it into a vanilla 4H8 Reversal for 7 difficulty (still solid, but believe me, that ain't gonna kill ya). So it has its uses, apart from being a 4 diff, 4 damage attack with a solid mid block.

Calming the Mind - This is Mortal Strike's offspring in that it stops momentum decks cold, which is always great to have, especially because quality momentum hate is a (growing) minority.

If you could get some Revenant's Calling, they will work wonders in your deck for foundation wars. Opt them out for Strife's Patronage. While that card seems good, it really isn't all that great.

This is all pesonal preference, but instead of Darkhunter, try out Bounce Back. It is cheaper and can give massive speed boosts depending on what your opponent plays. If they use a Chester's Backing or No Memories during your attack, you get +4spd right off. If they Seal of Cessation something during your attack, you get +3spd. There are also a lot of cheap responses they may play that can tack onto it.

Thanks for the input, mate. I'll try to grab some Revenant's Calling, but they're rather expensive (both in ability cost and $), especially because I don't draw a whole lot of cards. ^^;

As far as Darkhunter v. Bounce, YMMV, but people play rather few responses during attacks in my play group. Blocking is more of an issue for me.

Also, I've been forced to change the deck somewhat, and the changes are reflected in the first post.

*bump*

Any comments? Also, how do I edit my main post? I want to update the deck...

*bump*

Anyhoo, here's the decklist I have so far after some testing, and it's working pretty well:

Starting Character:

*Yi Shan* (6 HS 29 Vitality) (Earth, Good, Life)

Other Characters (2):

2 Yi Shan** (6/6 +0M) (Earth, Life)

Actions (6):

4 Kung-Fu Training (2/5 +1M) (Life)

2 Tieh Lei, Iron Thunder (2/5 +1H) (Earth, Life)

Assets (4):

2 Robes of the Grandmaster (3/4; Unique) (Good, Life)

1 Scroll of the Celestial Dawn (3/5 +2M; Unique) (Good, Life)

1 Monastery of Mt. Lao (4/4 +2M; Terrain) (Earth, Life)

Attacks (18):

4 Yi Shan's Dragon Tail Leg Sweep (3/3 3L3 +2L; Kick) (Earth, Life)

4 Dragon Punch (4/2 4M6 +2M; Punch) (Earth, Life)

4 Hilt Impact (4/3 3H3 +1M; Stun: 2) (Earth, Good, Life)

4 Yi Shan's Tiger Claw (4/3 3H5 +3H; Stun: 1) (Earth, Life)

1 Striking Thunder (5/3 3M6) (Earth, Life)

1 Rage of the Dragon (6/3 4M6 +1M; Punch, Yi Shan Only) (Earth, Life)

Foundations (30):

4 Adoration (1/5 +2M) (Life)

4 Battle Prowess (1/4) (Earth, LIfe)

4 Voice of the Land (1/5) (Good, Life)

2 Atoning for the Past (2/5 +3M) (Earth, Life)

4 Heidern's Assassination Arts (2/5 +1L) (Earth, Life)

4 Memories of a Nightmare (2/5) (Earth, Good, Life)

4 Strife's Patronage (2/5 +0H) (Life)

4 Will for the Fight (2/5 +3M) (Earth, Life)

Still no Revenant's Calling (T_T), but it has some good techs all around, and he puts people down on around turn 3 pretty reliably.

here's how ya edit your post:
1) go to the top of the page to your first post
2) right click on "report to the moderator" and click on "Copy link location"
3) paste to search bar at the top of your browser
4) highlight "reportrar" and replace it with "Editrar"
5) hit enter.
6) ???
7) Proffit

as for the deck, i'll look at it in more detail and give ya a bit of advice, i do agree with what shane said on Darkhunter vs Bounce Back, trust me that card has a mid block of better rating than Darkhunter does, doesnt cost a foundation to use, and gives MULTIPLE pumps rather than a +3-5. Also thought about adding more of * and ** to give bigger pumps and reductions through your character, sure stacking seems passé nowadays but who knows you might find a trick with him.

N.J.

any reason why you're not running 4 of each Yi-shan?

Antigoth said:

Overkill. If you manage to staple 2 Yi Shan's the game is pretty much over.

i think ya missunderstood why brian said that, so i'll retranslate it. IS there any reason your not running 7 cards that are +0M blocks, 6CCs and can potentially stack to your character and make him even more dumb?

N.J.

Thanks for the comments guys. Let me address 'em:

@NJBrock22: Thanks a lot for showing me how to edit my post. I'll update the deck and its stats.

@ NJBrock22, Antigoth: The main reasons why this deck is not running 4 of each Yi Shan are the following:

1. I have been unable to get my hands on more than 1 copy of *Yi Shan*.

2. I tried running the deck with 4 copies of Yi Shan**, and it didn't work out. The deck is aggro first and foremost, and I was drawing into too many characters. They pop up in my hand every game I've played so far, so I decided against it.

@B-Rad: Exactly, and those are spaces I use for teching against my opponent (Memories of a Nightmare, for instance).

I have more *Yi-Shans* then I know what to do with. Feel free to drop me a line, or hit up my trade list.

Thanks for the offer, man, but after testing it today, I've decided against putting any more characters in the deck. It's running very smoothly as an aggro deck (which is the main reason why I went with Life over Earth). I might take you up on that offer on some other Set 12 stuff I'm looking for, though...

Right now, I'm actually looking for advice on Actions, Assets, and Foundations. Tieh Lei has been pretty good so far, but I can't help but think there has to be something that can contribute a bit more. Battle Prowess has been just OK, which is rather surprising to me, because I expected it to be more of a slam dunk. I'd also like to get more off-zone non-attack blocks in the deck; I only have 10 high blocks and 8 low blocks. Any thoughts on these fronts?

*BUMP*

Deck has been updated. Any other opinions?

*BUMP!*

More updates have been added. Come on, guys, give me some feedback.

I guess I've had too much success with Battle Prowess for it to not be in here. Also, you're running neither Torn Hero nor Journey of Repentance. I realize your deck is aggro, but Yi Shan isn't exactly the quickest guy out there, and you have no ways of defending yourself from Olcadan's or the array of commit cards we have out there.

But... I am running Torn Hero. A playset of it, as a matter of fact.

I'm not running Battle Prowess because it was competing with Torn Hero for the slot, and I realized that I'd rather have the latter, since it's already hard to damage me, and Torn Hero can keep my character ready, so I can keep reducing damage and cripples my enemy to boot. I love that card.

Journey of Repentance I'm not so sure on. I've faced Owlface before, and it hasn't had that much impact in my ability to put my opponents down, as the game usually lasts at most 2 turns after that. Apart from that, it's basically a weaker version of Torn Hero with pretty terrible stats, but I am open to convincing, especially if you can tell me what I should toss for it.

Have you thought about reborn slasher. You can combo off of yi shan's sweep this could possibly give another kill condition for low cost since its a 4 difficulty and the damage would be 3L for 7 when the combo e goes off.

Hey, now there's an idea! Thanks.

What do you suggest gets the axe, though?

i'd probaby say dragon punch i was gonna say hilt smash but the stun two is just too good to pass up.

I'll give it a shot to see how it works out. At the very least, my control checks will be better.

Well, the deck didn't really work out without Dragon Punch (that thing's finisher potential is greatly underrated IMHO, as it gives itself at least +2 speed/+2 damage pretty easily with its E), so it went right back in, and it came in for a very satisfactory 16M14 on its first game back.

Anyone else got any suggestions/comments?

Hey dude, got your message

I hate to disappoint but I haven't built Earth *Yi Shan* yet, so I can't say that I'd know. I do however have just some general knowledge on Earth characters (along with Earth/Good characters who can abuse Atoning - Wicked)

Couple of things to say

1 - There's no denying Yi Shan dies hard to Tag Along. As such, I hope your Life build is running Kung-Fu Training (which has other awesome cards to counter, as well)

2 - Earth has an amazing toolbox, which is why it's one of my favorite symbols as of right now. I'm looking into a tri-symbol Gen (and actually building it lol) due to his amazing 7-24 stats, great symbol spread, and ability to recur foundations (most notably, Atoning).

3 - While Yi Shan IS an amazing character (assuming he isn't hurt by Undercover Agent or Tag Along), he needs to draw. 6 handers rely on their abilities, and while Yi Shan's are fun and aggrivating all in one, it's pretty hard to say he has turn 2 or even turn 3 potential, which unfortunately, is a liability, as characters that do will always be on your case. I'm not sure what, or if you have any draw, but it's something to look into, because his tanking abilities will only last him so long.

4 - While you've said your deck IS aggresively-oriented, and I can understand that, my main problem with Life is that it has little focus, and that anything Life can do other symbols can do better (most notably such commonly-shared symbols as Earth, Fire, Good, and Water). Life has a lot of awesome anti-meta cards (Calming the Mind, Tough Outer Shell, Prominent Noblewoman, etc), but it's gonna need more than those.

Anyways, that's what would've been my private message response.

As for the deck, lookin' good so far. The most obvious thing to do is find out what kills your deck hard and try to counter it. I'm not sure if your deck is running Torn Hero, but you really need it; it'll help out big time against people who commit Yi Shan (interestingly enough, that mostly means his rival Zi Mei).

Yep; I'm running a full playset of Torn Hero and Kung-Fu Training , because commit effects and character hate hit my character hard. He does have T3 potential v. 7 HS'ers, though, especially if I have a Distractible out.

Update!

I've tested pretty extensively against an Order Defender loop deck, and I've held my own, splitting sets on most days. So I feel this deck is pretty effective right now. I am considering Journey of Repentance to deal with the overwhelming multitude of destruction effects out there, and put some of the pressure off drawing a Torn Hero to be able to defend myself against Commit effects. Thoughts on this front?

I definitely think you could survive splashing Blinding Rage to defend Olcadan's, but Journey isn't a bad idea either. {it's not a bad idea, but if they drop Olcadan's, it really won't protect you for long -- I've played several games where my opponent just Mentored clean through 4x Blinding Rages in a few turns. You really can't afford to be lackadaisical about it :b}

If you beat Order decks with this, grats, you are a better player of Life decks than I, lol