ATTENTION! Before you start reading this guide, if you are only interested in
improving your play and aren't worried about the in-depth reasoning behind the
advice, simply Ctrl+F for "[Summary]" to read only the simplified explanations
of the topics covered in this guide. Otherwise, if you have the time, continue
reading.
SNK vs Capcom: Card Fighters 2 Expand Edition is a collectible card video game
for the NeoGeo Pocket Color. In the game, you build a deck of 50 cards, and
battle opponents with your deck in order to earn new cards. There are already
guides that list all of the cards and walk you through the story mode, but no
one has really explained how to do well in the game. If you have a bad deck,
or if you play a good deck poorly, you will not be successful. This guide will
explain how to create the best decks, and how to play them to their full
potential. The topics covered are listed below.
I. GAME STRATEGY
i. Positioning
ii. Backing Up
iii. Attacking vs Blocking
iv. Union Attacks
II. DECK BUILDING (BASIC)
i. Picking Good Cards
ii. Abilities
iii. Reaction Cards
iv. The 800BP Line
III. DECK BUILDING (ADVANCED)
i. My Deck
ii. Other Good Cards
iii. Commonly Used Bad Cards
IV. SPECIAL TOPICS
i. Alternative Deck Strategies
ii. Character / Action Balance
iii. SP Value
iv. Beating Cap
To quickly reach any topic, search for the topic title in brackets. For
example, if you want to find out about Abilities, Ctrl+F for "[Abilities]".
When you play a character card, you must place it in one of three positions:
left, middle, or right. This may seem insignificant, but there are two reasons
why positioning is important.
1) Some of the strongest abilities depend on the position of your cards
relative to that of your opponent's.
Akuma, Yashiro, and Yamazaki, the three strongest characters from the first
game, have been rebalanced such that their abilities can now only target the
character positioned directly in front of them. When they come into play,
these cards can respectively KO, bounce, or freeze one of your cards, so it is
important to not leave your cards exposed. To avoid getting hit by these
abilities, place your characters in columns where your opponent already has a
card in play.
2) When you attack with multiple characters of equal BP, the AI will
prioritize blocking the characters furthest left.
It is too hard for the AI to understand the intricacies of each individual
situation, so sometimes it uses arbitrary rules to make decisions. This is one
case where we can take advantage of the AI. We can better protect cards we
want to keep on the board by placing them further right. For example, if you
have a Tron Bonne in play, and want to keep it in play so that you keep drawing
cards, it should be in the far right position. On the other hand, if you're
playing Rose, who has a one-time use ability and no benefit for being in play,
place her further left. When both Tron Bonne and Rose attack, as they both
have 600BP, Rose will get KO'd before Tron Bonne, and you can keep drawing
cards.
[Summary]
Place characters in columns already occupied by opponent's characters. Place
cards you want to keep in play further right, and disposable cards further
left.
In addition to playing characters in an empty position on your board, once per
turn you may also play a character on top of another of your in-play
characters. This "back-up" character gives the in-play character a boost of
300BP, and the back-up card is discarded. You may only back-up a character
with a card listed on that card's back-up list.
Backing up is a really bad idea and a waste of a card. Almost every single
character card you use will have higher BP than 300, so backing up wastes 100s
of BP. Also, every character you use should have useful abilities. Backing up
means that these abilities never get used. Also, backing up stacks another
card on top of an in-play card. If that card gets KOd, you've effectively lost
two cards instead of one. On top of all this, the limitation that only certain
cards can back up other cards means that most of the best cards cannot back up
one another. This is a hidden blessing in that you will not accidentally waste
a card backing up one of your cards.
When you first play the game, it is tempting to just get the highest BP
characters that you can, and to attack with them as quickly as possible to try
to kill your opponent. This is a very reckless strategy. The addition of
reaction cards in this game means that whenever you attack you open yourself up
to punishment.
On the other hand, there is no real downside to blocking. The real value of
blocking is in the completeness of information available to you. Since the
attack phase is the last part of a turn, you know exactly what is going on when
you are being attacked. No more cards can be played, and you have your entire
next turn to play cards and respond to the situation with action cards. You
will never be surprised when blocking.
Another advantage of blocking is that you get to choose which of your
characters match up with your opponent's. For example, consider a situation
you have three characters, two with 800BP and one with 300BP, and your opponent
has a single character of 300BP. If you attack with your characters, the AI
will block an 800BP character, leaving you with characters of 800BP, 500BP, and
300BP, and your board is full. However, if you wait for the AI to attack, you
can block his 300BP character with your own 300BP character. You get to free
up a space on your board, and your 800BP cards are in-tact to deal their damage
on the next turn.
[Summary]
Attacking is riskier than blocking. When you attack you are exposed to
reaction cards, you don't know how your opponent is going to block, and you
don't know what he is preparing to do on his next turn. When you block, you
know exactly what is going on, and you get to choose which characters fight
each other. If you are unsure of what to do in a situation, it is generally
smarter to wait it out and block.
If you have 2 or more unfrozen characters in play, on your turn, you may use SP
to combine characters in a Union attack. Merging 2 characters costs 5SP, while
merging 3 costs 10SP. Union attacks have several advantages. Union attacks
can only be blocked by a single character and any excess damage over the amount
blocked is dealt to the opponent.
Also, you get to choose the order that the characters are "stacked" in a Union
attack. For example, if you have a 100BP card and a 600BP card, and want to
use them in a Union attack, depending on the order that you select them, either
the 100BP card or the 600BP card will take damage first. You can use Union
attacks to force the AI to remove your weaker cards rather than the big cards
you want to keep in play.
It is important to be aware of Union attacks from your opponent. Always assume
all of the combined BP of your opponent's characters can attack you, and that
the excess damage is going to come through. With this in mind, it is generally
wise to keep a high BP character back and unfrozen, ready to block.
One tricky thing to note about Union attacks is that they cause the characters
involved in them to lose their abilities until the end of that turn. For
example, Pyron will not generate SP at the end of the turn.
[Summary]
Union attacks are an important way to get through your opponent's blockers.
They are also a useful way to free your board of weakened characters. Always
assume that your opponent can execute a Union attack, and keep enough
characters unfrozen to block.
The main reason I wrote this guide was because of the large amount of bad
information that was currently available at the time. Everyone seemed to
understand that higher BP is better, and that higher SP is better. These
things are true. However, no one really seemed to have a grasp of what was
actually causing them to win or lose battles. In particular, everyone seemed
tremendously frustrated that they kept losing to Cap's deck, but they did not
understand why they were so unsuccessful.
If you understand what makes good cards, you will make a good deck, and you
will be much more successful in this game. To understand what makes good
cards, we will look at the concepts of card advantage and efficiency. Good
cards are those that are efficient, card advantageous, or both.
1) Card Advantage
Let us look at 3 cards:
Necro: CHA, 400-0, No ability
Eagle: CHA, 400-3, No ability
Tiffany: CHA, 400-3, T - Opponent discards a card at random
Ranking by only BP and then SP, we would rank these cards as follows:
1. Eagle
1. Tiffany
3. Necro
Clearly, Necro is the worst card of the three, because it has 0 SP, while both
of the other two cards have 3 SP. However, this ranking is incorrect. The
real ranking would look like this:
1. Tiffany
2. Eagle
3. Necro
Even though they have the same BP and SP, Tiffany is a much better card than
Eagle. This is because of Tiffany's ability. Tiffany is a better card than
Eagle because Tiffany's ability creates card advantage.
What is card advantage? Card advantage is a positive difference in the state
of the game offered by a card. For example, consider a situation where there
are no characters in play and both players have 5 cards in hand. If you play
Lucky Kitty, Lucky Kitty is discarded, so your hand drops to 4 cards. Then,
Lucky Kitty's effect happens: you draw 2 cards. You now have 6 cards in hand
while your opponent still has 5. 6 cards vs. 5 cards. Lucky Kitty creates +1
card advantage.
Now, let us look at this same situation, except instead of Lucky Kitty we play
Eagle. Eagle moves from our hand to the board. We now have 1 card in play and
4 cards in hand for a total of 5 cards. Our opponent has 5 cards in hand for
a total of 5 cards. 5 cards vs. 5 cards. Eagle creates no card advantage.
Let us look back at that same situation a third time, except instead of Lucky
Kitty or Eagle we play Tiffany. Tiffany moves from our hand to the board.
Tiffany's ability causes our opponent to discard 1 card. We now have 1 card
in play and 4 cards in hand for a total of 5 cards. Since he was forced to
discard 1 card, our opponent has only 4 cards in hand. 5 cards vs. 4 cards.
Tiffany creates +1 card advantage.
Card advantage is important because it means you are moving towards a situation
where your options far outweigh those of your opponent. You want to have many
cards and many characters in play, and for your opponent to have no cards and
no characters in play. Utilizing cards that create card advantage ensure that
you build towards this goal.
2) Efficiency
Would you rather have a 1000BP card or a 500BP card in play? Of course, the
1000BP card, because it's bigger. But why is bigger better? Yes, it means you
can do more damage to your opponent more quickly, but it doesn't really matter
how fast you kill your opponent. What's really important is that the 1000BP
card is more efficient than the 500BP card. When your opponent attacks with a
500BP card, your 1000BP card can block, and survive with 500BP. Then, next
turn, your now-500BP card can block another 500BP card, and they will both die.
Your one card was worth as much as your opponent's two. Your card was
efficient.
Efficiency is all about getting the most out of your cards. A perfect example
of an efficient card is Pyron.
Pyron: CHA, 800-2, C - At the end of your turn, if you have less SP than your
opponent, gain 3 SP
Pyron has 800BP and can easily block and take down an opposing character, so he
is at least trading evenly. However, the true power of Pyron is in his ability
to generate SP. Beyond the initial 2SP that you get for playing him, he gives
you 3SP at the end of every turn, just for being in play. After 3 turns, you
will have gained 11SP. Pyron offers no card advantage, but his high BP and
ability to generate large amounts of SP make him highly efficient.
[Summary]
There is more to card selection than BP and SP. Understanding card advantage
and efficiency allows you to determine which cards are actually worthwhile.
Characters can have one of three types of abilities: triangle, circle, or
square. Triangle abilities happen one time, automatically, when a character
is played. Circle abilities are passive abilities that have a constant effect
as long as the character is in play. Sometimes they only trigger at the start
or end of turns, or during combat. Square abilities are abilities that must
be manually activated. Square abilities cannot be used the first turn that a
character is in play. Square abilities of a frozen character cannot be used.
Using a square ability freezes a character.
From this, we can see that triangle abilities provide the most up-front
benefit. As soon as you play a card the ability triggers. The opponent cannot
react or do anything to stop these abilities. Circle abilities are also good,
as they provide a lingering effect that can tweak the rules of the game in your
favor.
The worst abilities are square abilities. Not only do square abilities take an
extra turn to have an effect, but they also freeze your character when used,
leaving him unable to block, and you are therefore exposed to attack. The only
good square abilities are those that remove the character from play when they
are used. Jin Saotome, Haggar, and BB Hood are examples of characters with
good square abilities that follow this rule.
Abilities are a core part of the game. If you ignore abilities, you will be
very unsuccessful. Your characters should have abilities, and the abilities
should always be helpful. An example of a character with an unhelpful ability
is Setsuna.
Setsuna: CHA, 600-5, T - When Setsuna comes into play, discard 1 card or
Setsuna is KO'd
You never want to discard a card for no reason. Setsuna only has average BP,
and also makes you discard a card. A card with 600BP and 5SP and no ability is
much better than Setsuna. Avoid cards with drawbacks like this.
[Summary]
Most of your characters should have triangle abilities. They provide immediate
benefit and are impossible to disrupt. Some circle abilities, like Tron
Bonne's and Pyron's, are also very good. Never use square abilities other than
those that remove that character from play.
Reaction cards work exactly the same as action cards, except that they may only
be played when you are being attacked. While these make the game much more
interesting and complex, they are fundamentally worse than action cards. There
are two problems with reaction cards.
1) You cannot use reaction cards the turn they are drawn.
2) Your opponent dictates when you may use reaction cards.
What this means is a reaction card is a dead draw on your active turn. Unlike
an action card, its usefulness is delayed. You must wait for your opponent's
turn and hope that he attacks. If there is no attack, you wait again. If
there is never an attack, the reaction card sits in your hand, and is totally
worthless.
Let us consider Awakening and Vacation. Both cards increase a target
character's BP by 300. Both cards cost 3SP. However, Awakening is an action
card, while Vacation is a reaction card.
If you draw Awakening and use it, your character instantly has 300 more BP.
You might do 300 more damage to your opponent. You might be strong enough to
take down an opposing high BP character. You might not attack at all, but be
ready to prevent more damage of a looming union attack.
If you draw Vacation, nothing happens on the current turn. You cannot deal
more damage this turn. You cannot pump a character for a vital Bopper. You
cannot eek out the last bit of damage to finish off your opponent with a union
attack before dying next turn. You wait until your opponent's turn. Your
opponent may play new characters and new action cards that disrupt your board
or make you discard from your hand. Your opponent may KO your only character
card, making Vacation usuable. He might attack so that you may use Vacation,
or he might not do anything. You have no way of knowing and it is completely
out of your control. It may take 5 or 6 turns before he attacks, all the while
Vacation is sitting in your hand doing nothing.
There are some strong reaction cards that lack a comparable action card, namely
Overheat, Money Maker, Cruel Hunt, and Lend a Hand. These are cards to watch
out for when attacking. Unfortunately, the inconsistency and unpredictability
of reaction cards is too great to justify their use.
[Summary]
Do not use reaction cards. Action cards are a much more versatile alternative.
It is important to use characters with high BP, but there are some effects that
make it less desirable to run cards with BP of 800 of greater. The most
notable of these cards are listed below.
Wild Iori: CHA, 1000-0, T - When Wild Iori comes into play, KO a character of
800BP or greater.
Terry B.: CHA, 700-4, S - Discard a card, KO a character of 800BP or greater.
Regina: CHA, 300-5, C - At the end of your turn, all characters of 800BP or
greater return to their owner's hand.
Yuki: CHA, 300-5, C - Characters of 800BP or greater cannot be played.
Cruel Hunt: RAC, 5SP - KO all attacking characters of 800BP or greater.
Most of these cards are manageable. Terry B.'s ability requires that the
opponent discard a card, so you're still trading cards evenly. Also, it's a
square ability, so you have at least a turn to prepare. Cruel Hunt is a
reaction card, so as long as you don't attack into it, you're safe. Yuki and
Regina both have such low BP that they are not major threats. Kyo (P) or Cover
Fire easily remedy the situation. Regina is the bigger problem of the two
given that your entire board can be bounced without warning.
The main card to worry about when running many high BP characters is Wild Iori.
Wild Iori instantly KOs one of your biggest characters and is also a huge
1000BP threat. A swing of momentum this large is enough to make you quickly
lose a game. The one drawback of Wild Iori is that he must KO someone of 800BP
or greater when he is played. This means that if he is the only one that fits
the requirement, he will KO himself. (The AI is smart enough to never make
this mistake.)
In the end, there are so few cards that threaten cards of 800BP or greater that
it is not worth avoiding cards because of this. In fact, the advantage from
having higher BP cards than your opponent means that it is good if many of your
cards have huge BP. However, it is smart to have a balance of cards above and
below 800BP, so that you do not just lose the game if your opponent plays Yuki
or Regina.
[Summary]
Use many high BP cards, but be mindful of the risk if they are 800BP or
greater.
2x Evil Ryu: CHA, 700-3, T - KO one target frozen character
3x Pyron: CHA, 800-2, C - At the end of your turn, gain 3SP if you have less SP
than opponent
3x Jin Saotome: CHA, 800-4, S - KO Jin Saotome and another target character
3x Akira-: CHA, 500-5, T - Discard cards from the top of your deck until you
find an action card, put that action card in your hand
2x Haggar: CHA, 700-3, S - Put all in-play characters on top of their owner's
decks, shuffle both decks
3x Tron Bonne: CHA, 600-1, C - Draw an extra card during your draw phase
2x Kikaioh: CHA, 1000-2, T - Both players reveal their hands and discard all
reaction cards
2x Akuma: CHA, 800-0, T - KO the character positioned in front of Akuma
---
25 total
Action
2x Reparation: ACT, 7SP - Return target character to its owner's hand
3x Double KO: ACT, 6SP - Select one of your characters and one of your
opponent's, both are KO'd
3x Heritage: ACT, 0SP - Target up to three of your in-play characters, each one
is KO'd, draw a card for each KO'd character
3x Best Shot: ACT, 1SP - See the top three cards of your deck, pick one to put
in your hand and the rest are discarded
3x Stifler: ACT, 3SP - See opponent's hand, pick 1 card to discard
2x Makeover: ACT, 2SP - Shuffle your hand into your deck, draw as many cards as
you had prior to using Makeover
3x Peacemaker: ACT, 6SP - Select one of your characters and one of your
opponent's, both are returned to their owner's hands
---
19 total
Overview
This deck is not intended to end the game early. Never attack without knowing
exactly what is in your opponent's hand. There is no need to rush damage
through. Prioritize blocking damage rather than attacking. Remember that
your opponent cannot use reaction cards unless you let him. Avoid Union
attacks to save SP for action cards. Do not be afraid to take some damage in
the early game. Your opponent leads with his highest BP cards and will
eventually run out.
You want to play a new character card each turn. Block or use Double KO,
Peacemaker, or Heritage to clear out your weakened characters. One of your
characters will die nearly every turn to make room for a new one. When your
opponent is out of threats, you can keep weakened characters to deal the final
bit of damage. The goal of the deck is to reach a late-game state. As the
deck builds card advantage and trades efficiently, you will eventually reach a
point where your opponent has no cards in hand and no characters in play.
Once at this point, you attack freely, removing your opponent's new characters
as they come into play, while locking down his draws with Cammy (D) and
Sougetsu. This deck is incredibly consistent and strong. At the time of this
writing my record is 646 wins and 0 losses, which includes over 100 games
against Cap's post-game deck.
For a more detailed look at the deck, it is helpful to group the cards by
function: Disruption, Draw/Utility, and Removal.
Disruption is the process of seeing what your opponent is trying to do and
stopping it. Cammy (D), Stifler, and Kikaioh are essential in that they grant
you perfect information by allowing you to see your opponent's hand. Stifler
allows you to pick your opponent's best card and discard it. Cammy (D) offers
this as well, with the added power of being able to place a card on top of
their deck. What this means is that if their hand is already bad, you can
prevent it from improving for a turn by replacing their next draw with a bad
card that they already had.
Kikaioh is a 1000BP monster that not only shows you your opponent's hand, but
also clears the way for your attacks by discarding all of your opponent's
reaction cards. The drawback is intended to be the fact that your reaction
cards are also discarded, but reaction cards are terrible, so you shouldn't
have any to begin with. Andy builds card advantage by trashing a random card
from your opponent's hand. Sougetsu is the ultimate late game card. Once your
opponent is out of cards, he stops their next draw, giving you what is
basically an extra turn.
Draw/Utility (19 cards)
2x Rose
3x Pyron
3x Akira-
3x Tron Bonne
3x Heritage
3x Best Shot
2x Makeover
To make a consistent deck, it is vital that you have the ability to draw and
filter through your cards, such that you have the right tools to deal with your
current situation. For only 2 SP, Makeover gives you a fresh hand and gives
you a good shot at turning a bad hand into a more balanced one. Rose is
similar to Makeover, except Rose also grants a huge 5 SP and an extra card.
Best Shot allows you to find the cards that you want. Rather than drawing
Stifler when your opponent's hand is already empty and being stuck with a
worthless card, for only 1 SP, it is much better to draw a Best Shot, and use
it to bypass the cards that you no longer need and get what you really want.
Akira- is a wildly underrated card that keeps the deck running smoothly. You
instantly get a blocker, 5SP, and an action card. Given the action cards in
the deck, this usually means that you get some kind of removal, and the
character and SP needed to use it. Playing Akira- often means drawing a
Double KO and instantly using it to sacrifice Akira- to take out a big threat.
As explained in the efficiency section, Pyron is an amazing SP generator.
When your board is full, Pyron gives you the SP to use the action cards that
you need to get ahead.
Finally, we have the two most important cards in the deck, Heritage and Tron
Bonne. You lose games when you can't play cards. You can't play cards when
either you don't have any cards, or your board is full, so you're blocked from
playing anything. Heritage not only frees up your board, it also gives you a
card for each character you remove, and can remove as many characters as you
want, AND it doesn't cost ANY SP. When you are stuck, Heritage clears a path
and provides options. Heritage has salvaged my position in countless games.
There is no card you want to see more than Heritage after a Chun Li turns your
whole board into worthless 100BP cards. Heritage is possibly the best card in
the entire game. It is even more essential than Tron Bonne, and Tron Bonne can
draw infinite cards. That's how good Heritage is.
Tron Bonne does take 2nd place, however. Andy, Sougetsu, Cammy (D), Akira-,
and Rose are all great because they provide +1 card advantage. Sometimes
Kikaioh can provide +2, but rarely more than that. Tron Bonne, on the other
hand, will often bring in +6, +8, +11, or however many cards you need her to
bring. She draws you an extra card, every turn. Every single turn. With Tron
Bonne and Pyron both in play, it is nearly impossible to lose. If your
opponent does not take her out within the first 2 turns she is in play, they
have basically already lost. On top of all of this, she has a solid 600BP, so
she can block one of your opponent's 500BP attackers, and then still survive
to draw you cards afterwards. It doesn't matter if she now has 100BP. She was
never meant to attack to begin with. Then, when your deck is running low, use
her to block, or sacrifice her to use some removal. There is no risk of
decking yourself as long as you pay attention. Tron Bonne is one of those
cards that probably wasn't tested properly, because it is the most broken
character card in the game.
Removal (18 cards)
3x Double KO
3x Peacemaker
2x Reparation
3x Jin Saotome
2x Akuma
2x Haggar
2x Evil Ryu
1x Kyo (P)
You always want to get rid of your opponent's characters, but some you cannot
get rid of by blocking alone and some you wouldn't want to. The main targets
for removal are cards with 1000BP or greater, and cards with annoying circle
abilities, namely Guile. Another benefit of removal is that a lot of it also
removes one of your cards from play, freeing up your board for new characters.
The point is to make uneven trades, giving away your worst characters for your
opponent's best.
Double KO is the gold standard, the removal card you want to see the most
often. Double KO knocks out one of your characters, and any character of your
opponent. Make good trades and go far. Peacemaker is very similar to Double
KO in that they both clear one of your characters and any character of your
opponent from the board. However, with Peacemaker, you both get your cards
back. This can be better, because you get a card back that you can use again,
and sometimes all you need is for an enemy character to leave play for one
turn. Yes, your opponent can play their card again, but they might be dead
before they get to do that. Peacemaker followed up by discard effectively a
Double KO.
Rounding out the removal action cards is Reparation. Reparation is a rarity
in that it is 1-sided. You get to return any one card to its owner's hand.
You can use Reparation to re-use your big cards, like Kikaioh or Akuma. Using
Reparation on your opponent's cards sets them back a turn and gives you a nice
boost in momentum. Unfortunately, removing your own characters is a vital
part of the game, so in many cases you will often prefer a Peacemaker.
However, Reparation is uniquely powerful and an easy card to include.
Reparation followed up by Stifler is a neat 1-sided KO.
Jin Saotome is a walking god of efficiency. 800BP and 4SP is already huge, and
on top of that, he has a built-in Double KO. 90% of the time, Jin Saotome
will block a 700BP character, and with his last 100BP, use his Double KO
ability to take down another big character, all while freeing up a space on
your board.
Akuma was the strongest card of the first game, and returns with a lesser
ability that is still quite powerful. Akuma is your ideal card when you are
behind in characters, as he not only KOs a threat as he comes into play, but
is also an 800BP threat himself. I'd play 3 Akumas, but the problem of
positioning him correctly makes him a little too inconsistent to want to see
him too frequently.
Haggar is the guy you want to see when you're outnumbered by your opponent.
The standard play with Haggar is to play him when you are behind in characters,
wait for your opponent to play a 2nd or 3rd character, block with Haggar, and
then use his ability to wipe the board. You will often take damage while
performing this move with Haggar, but you will also take out all of your
opponent's characters. Haggar generally trades 1:2 or 1:3, and is a life
saving card.
Evil Ryu is like Haggar in that his best trades are made after you take some
damage. You let a big attacker hit you one time, to set up Evil Ryu to kill
him next turn. Evil Ryu trades up, and provides big swings in momentum in your
favor.
Finally, we have Kyo (P). Kyo (P) isn't as strong as the other removal cards,
but he is more universal. Sometimes Evil Ryu and Akuma don't do anything.
Sometimes Haggar and Jin Saotome are too slow. Kyo (P) always deals at least
300 damage, always. He either weakens an opponent's card or takes him out
altogether. He deals with Regina or Yuki instantly, or finishes off your
opponent when there are too many blockers for you to get damage through. He's
never a dead card and is a welcome addition to round out the deck.
Weakness
What is this deck weak against? While this deck is solid enough to win through
any opposing card, there are some cards that are particularly annoying.
Sagat: CHA, 1000-2, T - Both players reveal their hands and discard all AC
cards
Sagat is really rough, because he can make you discard large amounts of cards,
and there is nothing you can do to stop it. Just try to discard him before
your opponent gets a chance to play him. Also, use your Best Shots and
Makeovers as you get them if you are playing against a deck that you know uses
Sagat. Trade AC cards for character cards, which are harder to discard.
Kojirou: CHA, 400-5, C - All triangle abilities are nullified
Guile: CHA, 700-4, C - All triangle abilities are nullified
For a deck that revolves around triangle abilities, these cards are a problem.
Fortunately, all the cards in the deck have high BP anyways, so they are not
entirely useless. Also, there is plenty of removal, so just play your Pyrons
and Jin Saotomes until you get a chance to get him off the board.
Chun Li: CHA, 500-0, T - Your SP becomes 0, all other characters' BP becomes
100
Chun Li can ruin your winning board instantly. Fortunately, it also effects
your opponent's other characters, and reduces their SP to 0. This is more
annoying than anything dangerous. Just use Heritage and move on.
Remy: CHA, 700-3, C - At the start of your turn, both players lose 1 SP for
each card in their hand
Remy is really annoying. You will always have a lot of cards in your hand, so
he will quickly bring your SP to 0 at the start of every turn. Use a
character based removal card like Jin Saotome, Haggar, or Akuma to get rid of
him quickly.
[Summary]
The cards listed in this deck are the best in the game. If you want to win,
copy my list and you will win. If you're interested in making your own deck,
strongly consider each of these cards as additions. Try to make a deck that
is evenly balanced in 3 components, Removal, Draw/Utility, and your win
condition. I use Disruption, because these cards have strong card advantage,
as well as high BP and SP. However, this same core deck can work with these 13
cards swapped out for Heavy Hitters, Direct Damage, Decking cards, or whatever
you like to use. Finally, watch out for Sagat, Kojirou, Guile, Chun Li, and
Remy.
Zero Akuma / Geese: CHA, 1500-0, T - Reveal your hand, discard all AC and RE
cards
These cards are identical. They have the highest BP in the game, but their
drawbacks are huge. They offer 0 SP, they reveal your hand to your opponent,
and force you to discard all non-character cards. The big issue here is that
all of your action cards are discarded. Action cards are so important that
you will generally have at least 1 or 2 in your hand. Losing 1 or more cards
is not worth having high BP.
BP above 800 is not that important. BP is mainly used to block and trade
evenly, so you are really concerned with matching up with your opponent's
cards. So few cards (5 total) have BP above 1000, that you really do not need
to have characters this big. Unfortunately, new players are drawn to high BP,
so they will likely include as many of these cards as possible, and then wonder
why they keep losing games.
Psyche Up: ACT, 0SP - Gain 5 SP
What is the card advantage of Psyche Up? It is -1. That's negative one.
Psyche Up is intended to be used as a way to get SP quickly, as for a combo
deck or an early game gambit. However, there is no amazing game-winning card
that requires a lot of SP. It is nice to get free SP, but the SP from Psyche
Up is anything but free. Psyche Up takes up a valuable slot in your deck that
could be filled with a character that actually has a useful ability, can block,
and also might grant 5 SP. Run more characters instead.
Earth's Pike: ACT, 8SP - Deal 500 damage to opponent
Grace: ACT, 5SP - Gain 500 HP
Grenade: ACT, 5SP - Deal 300 damage to opponent
These three cards all influence life totals. However, non-zero life totals
don't matter at all. You can be at 100HP and still win, and it is a win all
the same. You can get your opponent to 100HP and still lose. There's no bonus
for winning without taking damage. It doesn't matter. The only thing that
matters is stopping your life total from reaching 0. You don't care about
taking a billion damage, unless it brings your life total to 0.
Yes, it is nice to heal 500HP, which is exactly what Grace does. This
effectively prevents 500HP of damage, one time. Playing a 500BP character and
blocking also prevents 500HP of damage. However, critically, blocking also
lowers the BP of your attacker. This means that playing a character and
blocking permanently prevents damage. Playing Grace prevents the damage once,
but what stops your opponent from just attacking again the next turn? Gaining
life is a band-aid on a more permanent problem. These cards waste space in
your deck and use up your SP, gaining you nothing. Avoid them.
Showtime: ACT, 5SP - Increase all your character's BP by 200
People who play Showtime are idealists. They only consider a situation where
their board is full, and they are gaining 600SP. However, when you play
Showtime, you can have either 1, 2, or 3 characters in play. With 1 character,
you are gaining a total of 200BP, with 2, 400BP, and with 3, 600BP. Let us
compare this to a good card, Awakening.
Awakening: ACT, 3SP - Increase one target character's BP by 300
Let's look at how much BP you are getting for each SP:
In only one instance, the rarest instance, is Showtime more efficient than
Awakening. Most of the time you will only have one or two characters in play,
in which case Showtime barely offers a benefit over Awakening. However, it
always costs 5SP, which is huge for an effect like this. 7SP can instantly
remove any card from play (Reparation). Why would you waste 5SP for an effect
that even in its most ideal case gives you only 600BP, less than the average
BP of most played cards? Also, the effect is spread across your entire board,
so some of that BP is likely wasted on a card that you are about to sacrifice,
or that is still frozen and thus unable to use the BP until next turn. If you
want a BP raising effect, stick to the cheaper and more efficient Awakening.
Tri-Quiz allows you to copy the effect of either Grace, Grenade, or Showtime.
Tri-Quiz is bad for all the reasons that these cards are bad individually.
Here's a quiz:
Q: Should you use this card?
A: No.
Laundry: ACT, 4SP - Put your discard pile on top of your deck, shuffle your
deck
Laundry solves a problem that doesn't exist. You will never run out of cards.
Even with Akira-. Even with Best Shot. Even with Tron Bonne. Even with Rose.
Even with all of them together, as in my own deck, you will not run out of
cards. Until you reach the one in a million chance that you actually do need
Laundry, it is sitting in your deck, useless. Don't use it.
Escape: ACT, 3SP - Return one of your characters to your hand
Escape fills an odd gap between Heritage, Peacemaker, and Reparation. It
returns one of your own characters to your hand. Now, let's look at why the
cards similar to Escape are good, to discover why Escape is bad.
Reparation costs 4 more SP. Reparation is good because you can target your
opponent's characters.
Peacemaker costs 3 more SP. Peacemaker is good because you can target your
opponent's characters, and you get your own card back.
Heritage costs 3 less SP. Heritage is good because you can use it when your
board is full and you are out of SP.
Escape costs less than Reparation and Peacemaker, but can't target your
opponent's characters. Escape costs 3 SP more than Heritage, to do less than
Heritage, as it can only target a single card. Further, the situations where
you would want to use Escape are the same situations where you would want to
use Heritage, which are situations where you don't have the 3SP necessary to
USE Escape. Heritage is better than this card in every way and is free.
Don't use Escape.
All reaction cards.
Reaction cards are fundamentally worse than action cards and should not be
used in any situation.
[Summary]
Some cards look nice, but do not really do anything worthwhile. Avoid useless
cards by not including the cards listed above.
There are two alternative strategies to victory rather than simply attacking
your opponent. These are interesting in that they offer a different way to
play the game, and allow you to bypass the hassle of dealing with your
opponent constantly blocking your damage. They are outlined below.
1) Direct Damage
The goal of a direct damage deck is to use action/reaction cards and character
abilities to directly reduce your opponent's HP to 0. Cards vital to this
strategy are listed below:
Kyo (P): CHA, 700-3, T - Deal 300 damage to your opponent or an opponent's
character.
Kyo: CHA, 800-1, T - Deal 500 damage to your opponent
Saishu: CHA, 400-2, T - Deal 200 damage to your opponent
Grenade: ACT, 5SP - Deal 300 damage to your opponent
Earth's Pike: ACT, 8SP - Deal 500 damage to your opponent
Tri-Quiz: ACT, 5SP - Deal 300 damage to your opponent
(I think the game is bugged where it actually does 400 damage)
Saishu's BP is so low he can't match up with 90% of cards your opponent's will
be using. This strategy also has bad synergy in that the direct damage
characters give low SP, while the direct damage action cards require high SP.
With an average SP of 1.5, you'd need to play around 5 of these characters to
use Earth's Pike one time.
Further, these cards, even factoring in the bugged Tri-Quiz, do an average of
around 367 damage per card. This means, assuming your opponent gains no life,
you would need to use 9 of them to win the game. With only 6 direct damage
cards, and running the maximum 3 of each, this means that only 18 of your 50
cards (36% of your deck) are the cards that you want to see. Even assuming you
go first, by the time you manage to find 9 direct damage cards and the BP to
use them, it is very likely that your opponent will have already been able to
union attack 3000 damage through your defenses and win the game.
A strategy like this needs to be fast enough that you can ignore what your
opponent is doing, and there aren't enough good cards to make that the case.
You have to think, while you are playing all of these direct damage cards, what
is your opponent doing? He is playing out his deck uninterrupted. Your cards
don't impact the board, they only effect your opponent's life, and until your
opponent's life reaches 0, your damage hasn't been worth anything. Your
opponent can be at 100 life and still win.
2) Decking
Rather than doing damage, you can win by making it so your opponent runs out of
cards. If he must draw a card while his deck is empty, he loses the game.
Cards vital to this strategy are listed below:
Joe: CHA, 700-4, S - Discard the top 2 cards of opponent's deck
Chun-Li (A): CHA, 500-2, T - Look at the top 3 cards of opponent's deck, choose
2 to discard
Q: CHA, 500-2, C - At the end of your turn, both players discard the top 2
cards of their decks
Blanka: CHA, 400-1, T - Both players discard the top 5 cards of their decks
E. Honda: CHA, 500-3, T - Both players draw 2 cards
Pester: ACT, 4SP - Discard the top 3 cards of opponent's deck
Face off: RAC, 0SP - You draw 2 cards, opponent draws 3 cards
Rather than reiterate all the points from Direct Damage, I'll just say that
decking fails for the same reasons. There aren't enough good cards to make
the strategy worthwhile, and while you are making him remove cards from his
deck, you aren't doing anything to hinder his play. In fact, with some decking
cards, you are even helping him by giving him free cards. Also, the BP of
decking cards is even lower, so you are even more vulnerable to his attacks.
Another problem with this strategy is that you also throw away cards. As you
will need to be drawing and searching through your deck to find your decking
cards, you run the risk of decking yourself before your opponent. Further, many
of the computer's decks contain Laundry, which puts their discard pile back
into their deck, nullifying all of your work.
[Summary]
There aren't the necessary cards required to make either Direct Damage or
Decking worthwhile strategies.
If you run too many character cards your board will quickly fill up and you
will be out of things to do. You need action cards to allow you to continue
interacting with the game. However, if you run too many action cards, you
won't have the SP or characters to be able to kill your opponent.
You want to run anywhere from 17 to 21 action cards. The main thing you need
to worry about is reducing the likelihood of getting a dead starting hand. A
dead starting hand is one without any characters, so that you can't actually
play anything. Below is a chart of the number of non-character cards in a
deck and the corresponding percent chance of getting a starting hand with no
character cards.
As you can see, the likelihood drawing a dead hand when running up to 21
non-character cards is safely under 1%. Personally, I use 19 action cards,
but I've used as many as 22 without issue. I wouldn't run more than 22, as
you start lacking the SP to use your action cards.
Action cards are an essential part of the game, but in order to use an action
card, you need the amount of SP listed on the action card. To get SP, you play
character cards, and you get the amount of SP listed on the character card.
It is important to ensure that your deck produces the amount of SP that you
need to use the action cards that you want to play.
For example, consider a situation where you have a deck of only 2 cards, one
action card and one character card. If the action card costs 2SP, your
character must produce at least 2SP or you will not be able to use the action
card. If the action card costs 6SP and you character produces only 3SP, you
will not be able to use the action card. You cannot play it, so it will sit
in your hand, useless.
To help avoid these situations, you can do some simple calculations to
determine the "SP Value" of your deck.
If SP Value < 0, your deck does not include enough SP for you to use all of
your action cards.
If SP Value = 0, you produce exactly enough SP for you to use all the action
cards in your deck.
If SP Value > 0, your deck includes more than the minimum amount of SP for you
to use all of your action cards.
Anything 1 or higher is good, anything from 0 to 1 is OK, and anything below 0
means that you need to either remove AC cards or include characters with higher
SP.
To calculate your SP Value, use the following formula:
(sum total of SP produced by CHA - sum total of SP required by nonCHA) / (#
of nonCHA)
Or, in English, add up all the SP that your characters give. Subtract from
this amount the total amount of SP required by your non-character cards. Then,
divide this amount by the number of non-character cards in your deck. The
result is your SP Value. Below are some sample calculations.
Make sure your deck includes characters that produce enough SP for you to play
all of your action and reaction cards. If you have time, calculate your SP
Value to see how well your deck fares.
Cap's post-game deck is the best AI deck in the game. Let's take a look at his
decklist.
35 CHA
3x Andy
3x Cammy (D)
3x Sougetsu
3x Billy
2x Tiffany
1x Nakoruru C
1x Terry B.
1x Ryu
1x Chun Li
1x Guile
1x Sagat
1x Akuma
1x Ryu (U)
1x Evil Ryu
1x Morrigan
1x Pyron
1x BB Hood
1x Jin Saotome
1x Daigo
1x Kyoko
1x Zero Akuma
1x Falcon
1x Strider Hiryuu
1x Captain Commando
1x Urien
1x Gill
9 AC
3x Stifler
2x Pride
1x Double KO
1x Lucky Kitty
1x Laundry
1x Tri-Quiz
6 RE
3x Overheat
1x Time Bomb
1x G. Fantom
1x Cruel Hunt
If you notice, Cap runs nearly my entire same set of disruption cards. What he
doesn't have, however, is any real card draw other than a single copy of Lucky
Kitty. What this means is he has no way of continuing his momentum once he
runs out of cards. Also, he runs only 4 removal cards, 3 of which are
reaction cards. His deck is also clogged up with many single copies of random
700BP cards that aren't very good. So, if we can handle his disruption, and a
couple loose cards with strong abilities, we should be fine.
To start, let's look at his character's BP. Accounting for Daigo at 1600 BP,
his characters have an average BP of around 743. Some odd thing that people
have been doing to try to beat Cap is to run low BP characters.
Do not do this. He doesn't use Wild Iori, Regina, or Yuki. He only has one
copy of Terry B.. There is no reason to run low BP characters. You want to
run many high BP characters, mostly 700BP and higher to be able to trade evenly
with his ~743BP average cards.
Secondly, use cards that draw cards. The strength of Cap's deck lies in the
fact that he makes you discard cards. However, if you can draw cards, you
negate his advantage. Use Akira-, Rose, Tron Bonne, or even Lucky Kitty and
Round 2 to outdraw his discard effects. Tron Bonne is especially useful in
this match. Since he runs almost no removal, if you play Tron Bonne, he will
likely never leave play. Having Tron Bonne in play makes this battle much,
much easier.
Don't attack. If you walk into an Overheat, you will be devastated. By not
attacking until you are certain of Cap's hand, you can negate the effect of
his 6 reaction cards. Not attacking also prevents you from getting burned by
an Evil Ryu.
Finally, watch out for Sagat, Guile, and Chun Li. Discard them before he gets
a chance to use them, if possible. Sagat is pretty unavoidable, as it will
often be his first turn play, but you should have enough draw to recover.
Guile should be taken out as soon as possible with removal, as he negates most
of the effectiveness of your deck. Chun Li should be responded to with a
board-wide sweep using Heritage. He only runs one of each card, so once
you've dealt with one, you don't have to worry about the threat any longer.
Other than this, his deck isn't a problem. He runs so many worthless 700BP
cards that you should be fine. Sometimes a Pride can discard your whole hand,
but he only runs 2, and often uses them at inefficient times. Playing against
Cap should give you a feeling of just how strong Andy, Cammy (D), and Sougetsu
are.
[Summary]
To beat Cap, use high BP cards. Use cards that draw cards, specifically Tron
Bonne. Don't attack blindly, and be mindful of Sagat, Chun Li, and Guile.
Cap's deck is strong because of his disruption, but there are only 23
disruption cards. The other half of his deck is random, and lacks both draw
and removal. He doesn't have the tools to continue his momentum into the late
game, so if you can survive his initial disruption, you should win.
