Yoshimitsu Deck - 01

I've been meaning to get this out but I feel upon doing so that its success may be compromised by the upcoming balance update. This is the deck for Yoshimitsu that I have used to achieve up to 1311 rating last week and 1280 this week in the latest 2 Online WW Championships. I will discuss about the strategy I use inorder to unlock its full potential as well as the strengths and weaknesses that come with the deck.
It is advised you read the previous posts about card counting and Yoshimitsu card analysis before continuing.

The Deck

Before having any gold cards, I looked at the Yoshimitsu deck and thought, "there are a lot of synergies with the "block" action". From there I examined all the Yoshimitsu cards and realized he had a lot of good unique cards. I picked up almost all the Unique cards and had a deck of 12 or so Uniques and 3 Fubuki. I struggled to break 1200 in the Online WW
Championships and went back to the drawing board. After accumulating a lot of gold and credits, I sought out to create a more consistent deck and here are the results:

Yoshimitsu

• 3x Oni Kick Combo: 20 Damage, Kick, After the attack: This card appears: 1st card +40 hit
• 3x Tsuka Splitter: 20 Damage, Punch, Before the attack: Strike K&P cards owned: 3rd card +15 Hit
• 2x Sakanobori: 12 Damage, Kick, Before the attack: Block: +1 Parry
• 2x Fubuki: 10 Damage, Kick, After the attack: Block missed: Card + 30 Hit
• 1x Kimon Matagi: 20 Damage, Punch, After the attack: Opp HP ≥ 75: +10 HP
• 2x Nozuchi Fumi: 15 Damage, Kick, After the attack: Opp Block: Card +35 Hit
• 1x Heshikirigari: 20 Damage, Punch, After the attack: Opp Focus: +6 HP
• 1x Magatama: 20 Damage, Kick, After the attack: HP ≤ Opp Hp: +25 HP & Cards concealed
• Power Card: Yoshimitsu - III: 175 HP, First turn: +2 concealed cards, Opp +1 card

This deck has relatively high damage as most of the cards are 20 and above. You can count that a 5 card strike Blocked/Unblocked will hit for at least 60 damage. That being said, I don't think the cards themselves carried me to mid to high 1200+ but rather how to use them.

Strategy

The strategy of this deck is to strike at around 1-3 cards, playing focus most of the time and blocking when the opponent has 4-5 cards (of course if first position is Magatama and I am severely weak, I will block to increase the likelihood of winning). I will talk about 3 important cards in this deck, these cards are very key and play the most important role in all matches. The 3 cards are Magatama, Kimon Matagi, and Heshikirigari. The significance they play in this deck is the ability to heal. Kimon Matagi can heal to full HP and this should be abused as much as possible, it also goes well with striking with 1-3 cards as it controls the Oppositions HP to be above 75. Magatama allows the player to have a risky and more reckless play style, focusing till 5 cards and striking whilst tanking any attacks the opposition throws. Heshikirigari was the next best healing card that did not compromise the consistent damage of the deck. The other cards are seen as raw damage, with the exception of Sakanobori which is another defense card that synergizes very well with the 3 healing cards.

Playing with the deck

I mentioned in the previous paragraph that 1-3 card strikes is how I generally play, however, every game is situational and I will do my best to elaborate on general playstyles of this deck and how I play with each of the cards

Yoshimitsu

Oni Kick Combo: with both players at 1 card, and Oni Kick Combo is drawn, I have a 60 damage card in possession for 1 turn. Depending on what the opponent's card is, I may focus, I may strike, and I may just even block. If it is the first card drawn of the match, I will usually strike to get an idea of how conservative the player is whilst not wasting more than 1 card. If I am low HP and need to shuffle through my deck, I will play focus in hopes of drawing one of the 3 healing cards. If the opponent is able to Kill me with a strike, I will play block because what they think is: "this Yoshimitsu has 40 bonus damage for one turn, he probably thinks I am going to block and he will focus, or he may use the Oni Kick Combo's ability and strike. He will most definitely not block, so I am going to go f
or it). It is all just a guessing game for this card but every situation is different. If this card is in position 3 or higher, it is just 20 damage muscle and its ability with the other cards will add too much intimidation for a sensible player to not block and hence I will focus.

Tsuka Splitter: This is just a steroid for when I have 3 or more cards. If I want to take away the opposition's first card because it has a strong ability, I will strike with just this card. I feel the opposition will not expect me to strike till I have 3 cards to utilize the ability of Tsuka Splitter and thus it seems more likely they will not block. Trading this card's damage for 1 other card (dual strike) is fine by me (unless it is a Paul). Often times if this is first drawn, I will focus. In position 3 4 or 5 and a guaranteed ability proc and I am able to play recklessly because of a life lead and do not require any healing whatsoever, I will flip a coin and strike or focus accordingly. If this card is in the first 2 positions, consider focusing till 5 for Nozuchi Fumi and Fubuki heavy damage.

Sakanobori: This card is for defense purposes. If the opponent has 4 cards or more, I will block. If they have 3 cards and their card in position 1 or 2 has an ability that procs only when it hits, or one of their cards will proc only when striking with 3 or less cards, I may consider blocking. Otherwise I feel this card is not useful and will focus. If the enemy's card is valuable (like a heal per turn card) I will strike just to take it away, but the first 2 sentences take priority over the last statement.

Fubuki: This card in position 1 or 2 is rather unlucky. I will consider blocking if the opponent has been striking me with 1 card all day, then if the ability procs, I usually focus and seldom strike. In positions 3 4 or 5, with 5 cards, you may consider blocking for proc, or striking for a CHANCE at sinking in the first 2. I put this card into my deck to give myself more incentive to block so if I feel an attack is coming I don't mind blocking.

Nozuchi Fumi: This card in Positions 3 4 or 5 is a lucky break. If in position 3 with 3 cards, I usually strike as the damage is usually guaranteed and i don't want it to get knocked down to position 2. In positions 1 or 2, I only consider striking to take out the opponents 1st card, but otherwise usually focus to shuffle through cards. Although I described striking with 1-3 cards, if you read this post on counting cards, I will focus past 3 cards if I feel Nozuchi Fumi will appear in position 3 4 or 5.

Heshikirigari: This card is not the greatest, but it still has some value. In position 1 and Opponent has 1 card or less, and in need of HP, block for a predicted strike and continue focusing till 5 cards. In positions 2 or higher, focus till 5 cards. I am considering removing this card from my deck.

Kimon Matagi: This card plays a very large role in the deck. In position 1, versus 3 cards or more, I will block if I am at 50% hp or lower. Versus 1 to 2 cards, I will block if I am near death and require HP. Not many characters can manage 10 Damage per turn. Otherwise focus. In position 2 3 or 4, I will focus everything that doesn't potentially kill me and block against 5 cards. In position 5, I will block till 80% HP or higher and I feel my opponent will focus, then I will strike.

Yoshimitsu

Magatama: This card is a huge life saver. In position 1, I will focus if I don't have use for the ability (assuming the opponent will focus). In position 1 with less than 50% HP, I will block till the ability no longer procs. With 3 cards and in position 1 versus 3 or more cards, I will block till the opponent strikes then proceed focusing. In position 2 3 or 4 with no threat of imminent one-hit-KO I will focus till 5 cards. With 5 cards, I will block until the ability no longer procs, and strike. Occasionally, I will heal till the 2nd last proc and strike.

Strengths and Weaknesses

This deck does well against characters that don't have a reliable source of healing such as Kazuya, Law, Other Yoshimitsu's (lol). The reason is because those characters can be picked at till they fall. This deck has the ability to turtle when necessary and play offensively otherwise. This deck does well against Panda decks without Trout Sweep, otherwise it is hit or miss. Due to the relentless assault this deck loses to Xiao Yu (personally I think Xiao Yu is over powered. I don't even get to see 4 cards before dying) because the deck is unable to effectively shuffle through cards. Against an intelligent Nina, this deck will lose as Nina can strike, heal and draw at the same time and the most this deck can do is cause a stalemate only to eventually lose. Against most Lili decks, this deck will lose as Lili's heal is extremely strong and her ability to parry without having to block really shuts down Tsuka Splitter, Nozuchi Fumi (unless in position 5). Lili's healing ability is also very strong.

Conclusion

Although I briefly described the strengths and weaknesses, I plan to create future posts describing matchups against every character. No deck should ever be perfect. Since this game is new and we have a long way till balance, I can only assume the most 'perfect' deck is the ones used by whoever ranks 1st place in Online WW Championship. But that is changed every 3 weeks from balance updates. Any competitive deck should be catered towards the metagame. Currently this metagame involves Paul and Panda. I wrote this a couple hours before Balance Update 03 (><) and from my readings on the Twitter Page this deck might lose a lot of luster. Fortunately if it is nerfed, it will be compensated in Balance Update 04.

Hope this post helps a lot of players. Again, don't be afraid to comment or subscribe.