Ruminations & Ramblings: Rashotep & Jin Kazama

Ruminations & Ramblings: Or, I was too lazy to think of an appropriate title and also not sure what I was going to write (until I starting writing it).

By: Vikram Sareen (VikramS)

So in the interval between the South Arena Showdown, I've been playing a lot of cards. More than I expected, really. My local metagame at the moment is non-existent, and slowly I am changing that, trying to get back to where it once was, 16-20 players regularly. It will take time but I'm confident it will happen.

However, luckily I have some good friends who used to play UFS who I been kind enough to help me experiment with the card pool. Not only that, but they love it so much that they want to play regularly. Perfect.

In one of the first articles for this site, I talked about characters that intrigued me. On the forums, there has been good discussion on Nina Williams, and I think I have some ideas on her now that might enable me to make her very, very good. Still, the two characters that fascinate me even more are Rashotep and Jin Kazama. I have had both of them built in various forms for about a month, from early garbage first passes to now, some decent decks that I wouldn't mind playing in a tournament at all with some minor tweaks.

Let's start with Rashotep first. This guy is...what, exactly? The consensus opinion before SAS seemed to be that he was strong; most saw him as equal to if not stronger than King in terms of Earth Throw builds. After his utter failure of a showing at SAS, and the internal testing of the Florida and Atlanta metas, my personal opinion was for a while that he was dead as a doornail competitively. Yes, I gave up on the lovable Egyptian blankmaster. In my defense, it wasn't for lack of trying, I can tell you that. I tried pure Death, pure Void, and pure Earth - the first two being too defensive with weak aggro, the third being tricky to balance offense/defense and severly lacking low blocks - and it just didn't work out at all. I then went and tried tri-symbol, not as difficult as you might think given the wealth of excellent support cards out there with either all 3 resources, Death/Void, Death/Earth or Earth/Void. While better, it was too complicated and still suffered from being painfully SLOW.

Perhaps I should back up a bit. I rarely dismiss any character outright. Even crap like Geki and promo Rikuo, I've given a chance to. Not much of one, but I have tried to build both, so that should tell you I'm not afraid to go out on limb (frail and unstable as that limb may be). Clearly, at the very least Rashotep does not fit into this class of suckitude. He does one thing, but it's exceptionally useful - blank a card in your opponent's staging area for the turn.

Now the question becomes, exactly how GOOD is this damn enhance? There is no shortage of uses, most importantly in dealing with character abilities. Along with JJ, and Paul Phoenix in a much more limited way, that's it as far as character negation. On top of that, defensively, killing Path Of The Master for a turn can save a game - or anything else, for that matter. I could go on and on, but I think you get the gist. And offensively, the use of that enhance is equally effective. the one drawback is that you usually want to keep him open at all times, which makes passing checks even more at a premium than normal. And there is not much in terms of boosting checks in his resources.

One relevant fact to consider is that Rasho's own support is outstanding, with at least two cards that I would consider staples in any build of him - Ka Technique and Undisputed Ruler. Both of these cards as among the best control in the format, and in the case of Ka Technique it functions just as well for aggressive turns shutting down key defenses as needed. Undisputed Ruler is unbelievably strong right now, so much so that I completely shut down J.'s Kazuya deck just by having two on the board and open at all times. It kills those brutal Combos, laughs at the Stun suite (fuck you, Zi Mei's Wheel Kick), demolishes Mutiple, you name it! On top of those two, Rasho's remaining support offers even more stringent control but poor numerical stats and weak blocks are not worth it on these foundations. KT and UR along with his ability are enough, though.

Given that as a base, he starts to look better. You now can deal with much of your opponent's turn fairly effectively, no matter what their strategy, just by having these pieces in play. Control is all about limiting options at the most basic level, and that is precisely what Rashotep offers. The major, massive drawback to him is that he is very slow compared to many other characters in the format. Of course this is subject to how you decide to build him, but in general he does not have any aggro options on his own. That is why a card like Bracers Of Horus & Set exists; the Rashotep E on it alone is worth the price of admission. Being able to give any Throw +1 damage for no apparent reason is VERY good. It turns any 4 damage throw (like, say, Close Throw & Flooded Nile Throw) into even 3 damage if blocked for half, a significant numerical difference. One of the more intriguing support cards is One-Handed Crocodile Grasp, a brutal card that is balanced a lot by the 2CC. Stun: 2 is definitely worth it, and it can combo with Cobra Twist and the Rashotep E on it makes it a potential game-ender at all times; shutting down a critical defensive card (say, an opposing Stand-Off) will win the game many times. My question is, is it worth the 2CC? I have yet to find an answer.

That's essentially what I think of Rashotep, and I think now I have a solid deck in place (which I will post soon) that requires minor adjustments, but is at least effective in what I want it to do. As a control fan, I plan to keep it going, since I still have yet to see true control be effective in terms of this particular blazing aggro-dominated meta. That leads me right into Jin Kazama, one of these blazing aggro characters for sure. Just like Rashotep, Jin is an easy read - the man wants to murder people, quickly and painfully. The ability to Float Like A Butterfly numerous times in a turn, for the cost of a commit (!), is quite devastating. Combined with his enhance, those multiple attack strings hit hard as well.

Jin is, in my estimation, equally proficient in any one of his resources. There are many different ways to build him; utilizing multiples is a good idea, so immediately Menuet Dance and Spinning Demon come to mind. Jin does not have a natural advantage to push attacks through, so a typical Fire stun suite or a speed pump like Eiserne Drossel helps a fair amount. Some like Midnight Launcher/Knight Breaker in him, but I don't. It's generic, and the low speed/high zone of those attacks make them easy to block without a boost, even while stunned out. It's great in Hata, excellent in Jin and many other decks but not my choice overall. I prefer Kazuya's support structure both in attacks and foundations as they just lend themselves perfectly to what Jin is trying to accomplish.

Speaking of Kazuya's base, it is frankly absurd. Mishima Family Bloodline, The Hunt Is On, Merciless Fighter, and the aforementioned Spinning Demon combine to form a very disgusting combination of consistent card draw, insane (FREE) damage pump, and general character card abuse. Yes, Fire is strong, but I think with Jin that Death or Chaos (or both) are far better because of this alone. So I can further explain my reasoning here, for reference here is the Jin deck I currently have built (arrived at after much tinkering):

Starting Character - 1x 3/6 Jin Kazama, 6HS 28V, Chaos/Death/Fire

Character Cards (5):

3x 3/6 Jin Kazama +0M
2x 4/6 Kazuya Mishima +0M

Assets (3):

3x 3/5 Eiserne Drossel +2M

Attacks (18):

2x 5/3 Cleave +0M, 4H5
4x 5/3 Wipe The Floor +1M, 3L4, Kick
4x 4/3 Spinning Demon +1L, 3L4, Kick, Multiple: 1
4x 4/3 Leg Slash +2H, 3L5, Breaker: 2
4x 4/2 Lion Slayer +1H, 4M5, Punch, Combo (Kick)

Foundations (36):

4x 3/5 Need To Destroy +2L
4x 2/5 All Life Is Prey +3L
4x 2/5 The Hunt Is On
4x 2/5 Mishima Family Bloodline +3M
4x 2/5 Maniacal Laughter +3H
4x 2/4 Merciless Fighter
4x 1/5 Treacherous Offspring
4x 1/4 Cursed Blood +3L
4x 1/5 Brooding +3H

Total: 62+1 cards

The idea that I have here is to exploit Kazuya's support as much as possible, along with lots of low attacks or 4 speed base printed attacks. I can push through attacks with Stun via Maniacal Laughter, speed with Drossel or discard with Wipe The Floor. That fuels Lion Slayer, which comes for 8 on the card WITHOUT the combo E, and with for at least 10 and usually more - this is Jin, after all. The deck hits fast, requires minimal setup to kill turn 2 or 3 consistently and is less generic than you might think. Popping Jin's E, fetching back the character card you just tossed with The Hunt Is On and either drawing cards with MFB or pumping attacks HUGE with Merciless has been my favorite build so far, and the most effective. We'll see whether I keep messing with Jin or not, he is slightly boring because he can be easy mode, but as a test deck and a generally competitive version this has worked for me.

So, that's my look at these two most interesting characters. Let me now what you think! As always, hope you enjoyed it and till next time, peace.