Chaos On The Rise - Part 1

Chaos On The Rise: Or, why Chaos may be a top tier symbol soon.

By: Edward Shelton, AKA Darklogos

With three sets making up the meta many people have rated a few selection of cards on the top and many cards on the bottom. Astrid, Hilde, King, and Rashotep stand at the top while many other character cards lurk in the shadows waiting for the meta to fill out their strengths. The symbols that have been praised so far have been fire and earth. Each provides agro and something unique on top of the aggro. Fire has lots of stun support. With stun being the main form of control and Pummel Smash annoying all who face it fire gives a little something extra to the aggro players out there. Earth right now is the best soft control/damage redux symbol around. Look through earth and you will find lots of cards that disrupt and knock down damage. While throws is the aggro mold for earth it also sports many different attacks that disrupt or make it easier to get more damage out a turn.

With that being said the question is why play Chaos in this meta? Fire has won SAS with James Hata being the main character. You see Earth King/Rashotep throw decks in almost every meta. Chaos may look bleak but it has a lot of strong options that people will appreciate here really soon. So lets go into a break down on why you want to play Chaos.

Screw you Scott Gains I can make a SIX CHECK!: Making character cards matter.

I say this as a joke. Listening to a UFS podcast the godfather of Orange card Blue card made a statement that people are not going to check a six. This would be true for non-chaos players because utilizing character cards is something that other symbols just don’t play off of well. Chaos has a lot of cards that benefit you playing character cards in your deck its not funny. You can and will check 6’s putting you at a much bigger edge then other decks. Your opponent will have to think twice about your ability to get off a card. This makes it so you can extend yourself a lot more a turn then your opponent.

CHAOS CONTROL: Bringing out the rage of Chaos in your deck.

Unlike Earth, Chaos is not really a throw supported symbol. Alphard Maliki and Double Face Kick are your only throws. Unlike fire, Chaos doesn’t have a lot of stun. So what stands out in chaos on the attack side of things.

Alphard Maliki: A 2L6 throw is nice. Most earth throws don’t hit that golden number of 6 damage. Being an off center attack gives you a bit of an edge as well.

Double Face Kick: Spinning Demon into Double Face kick. Can you say ownage!

Spinning Demon: This card has proven to be meta defining. This card syncs up with Merciless Fighter and Mishima Family Bloodline really well. This card is also fuel for any future cards that require combo (kick, kick). Best part of all it is a low attack that deals 4 damage.

Blazing Fist: By far one of the least mentioned cards in the meta that has so much potential. While most people are looking at throws, punches are overlooked. With the ability to fuel damage based on proceeding punches added on the fact that it’s a multiple 2 and each multiple gets the punch keyword this can be a kill condition card.

Demon Slayer: While most use this as sideboard fodder it has a lot of potential in the main deck. The first major reason is even if it doesn’t do damage you can negate an opposing players enhance. The added bonus is that it removes itself from the card pool lowering your checks. This has a lot of potential in the future play of Chaos.

Lion Slayer: Chaos has the potential to do something that no other symbol can do right now. That is to make character cards viable. This card has the potential to do major damage. If you use lion slayer as a second or third attack any character cards in the card pool or staging area count towards its damage. This helps against other chaos decks.

Wild Storm: +1 to checks Why thank you good sir. I really could use that. While this does help your opponent block, this edge will eventually be overcome by the amount of multiple you will spam out later turn.

Alaraph Achernar: One of the most overlooked attacks period in the game. This attack lets you draw 2 cards for its combo E. You are going to be playing Spinning demon. This card is almost an auto add so that you can draw more a turn. Love the card it loves you.

Eltanin Nath: One may ask why am I including this card as a core card for chaos. It is an ok attack. First off it gives you +0 mid block. The next is that I forsee hand discard to be on the rise next set. You will need every little trick you can get make people think twice about milling your hand. This card is M.A.D. Yes you will take damage when you can’t block but your opponent will be hurting as well. At the end of the game some people may not want to risk revealing their hand.

Some may ask why didn’t I include the Rites, Wheel Kick and other X cards. These cards over saturate the way chaos is run and many times don’t stand out more in chaos then they do in their other symbols. Wheel Kick for example stands out way more in fire decks then in chaos decks. While the control is nice it doesn’t add to the function of chaos. I foresee a reaction to stun coming down the pipe. I don’t think it will be hit hard but there will be more answers then Perfect Sense of balance and Torn Hero. When more stun backlash hits the Rite combo and some of ZD stuff will be useful but not as strong. I do not foresee chaos being the anti-stun symbol.

I give you a 50 if you let me in the club: Looking at assets and actions in a changing meta.

At first glance it looks like Chaos got crapped on by a million ton mammoth and then was set on fire by a falling meteor for orbit. Inside of this pile of flaming poo is a lot of tricks that can help the average chaos player get a few stabs in on those pesky fire and earth decks.

Acheron & Nirvana: You might say wow why this assest? The main reason is that strong ablities are coming with additional control checks printed on the cards themselves. This card makes it so almost any card is auto successful. It is a bit overpriced but it will be a key card in the future.

Ascending Zephyr: Making Lion Slayer a low attack for the win. In all honesty this card makes many ho hum attacks really dangerous. In spite of the better chaos attacks being low attacks or high attacks this card pushes through your high damage attacks.

Destruction in His Wake: Chaos lacks a lot of foundation fireworks. This card brings the fourth of July to your deck. It should be easy for any chaos player (lizardman excluded) to run this in your deck with little to no risk. Yes you must check a 6 or more to play this but dang it you got character cards buddy. Your good to go.

Evil Intentions: While I personally don’t like this card it has a role to play in Chaos. This card helps you get rid of rival POTM before you play yours in the card pool. This best to get rid of things that are going to stop your key foundations or assets your dropping this turn. Yes you will loose something good. But getting the edge for what is going to hit your staging area this turn is more important.

Hoping for a Challenge: CC hax advantage while getting some nice mometum generation for your throw. This is something that any spinning demon head needs to think about.

The Devil Within: Killing them softly with their stun. Killing them softly with their stun. With the abundance of stun ratings getting in the 3+ range its nice to remember to pack this card to bring the pain.

Unnatural Grace: Fuel for killing. Some decks don’t need it but man it will allow you to do some crazy aggro in a turn.

Why no Devil Gene on the list? Here is why. Unless it’s a kill card or you know your opponent has something sick coming for you (The devil within or Kilik’s E) the card does way to little for the meta. First off you have to commit the asset. Second it is unique. Third you have to discard a card for the ability. When you can pack Demon slayer and it does the same thing with advantages. Yes reuseablity is there with devil gene but man the price you pay going into your opponents turn is not worth it in my opinon. This may be a card that has been over-hyped. Yes Chaos lets you draw cards by using different tricks. But at the same time you don’t want negate that edge. This card negates that edge a lot. Next you may wonder why Scroll of the Abyss is not on the list. The reason is that it gains very little from Chaos and since it doesn’t have a chaos E it does nothing for a chaos deck that other cards can already do better. Yes reuseability is a factor. But in a sense it either blows up itself or it blows up another asset in your staging area to take out another asset in your opponents staging area. Sorry this is not worth your space in a chaos deck. Any other deck symbol it is worth while. Willful almost made the cut but it puts to much pressure on the attack it is paired with being a throw. With throw hate coming it makes this card less likely to get off.

(Editor's Note: look for Part 2 soon!)