Card Release 03

The new cards for Lili and Paul have arrived. These can be seen at the official Tekken Card Tournament site. I wanted to just do a quick review on them now that they are out.

New Cards

• Shears to Spinning Edge: 20 Damage, Kick, After the attack, Focus: -5 cards & +3 cards

Low-medium damage (Lili's average card damge is 21). Awesome card in position 1 or 2. The skill is similar to a card shuffle in higher positions. Since the ability of this card forces a discard on itself, this card can find its place in a Punch deck as well. I think this card is pretty good, amazing as a first card and synergizes very well with Monte Carlo Snap a staple to any Lili Deck.

• Rafflesia: 12 Damage, Punch, Before the attack, Opp cards ≥ 3: +1 Parry

Old Piercing Thorn but 4 less damage and unique. I suppose the developers thought that old Piercing Thorn was "Extremely" over powered and hence nerfed the damage, and made it unique and turned it into a Punch. I think this will be the biggest nerf for some time to come. Like its predecessor, this card is a great defense card but for 12 damage, there are much better cards and due to the uniqueness of the card and how most of Lili's opponent do their best to avoid having 3 or more cards (see 3rd Card Punch Deck), it is better to use another card.

• Delicate Uprising: 20 Damage, Punch, After the attack, Strike & Head-on: Keep card & 1st card discard

Low to medium damage, Works best in position 2 and still pretty good in positions 3, 4 and 5. Works really well in a 3rd card buffing punch deck as it hastens the 3 card striking theme. Unfortunately the ability may not proc after the first round or with the help of SR Elysee Le Bras Allonge.

• Rose Pique: 20 Damage, Punch, Before the attack, Cards ≤ Opp cards: 3rd card +15 Hit & Opp 3rd card -30 Hit

Pretty neat card, unfortunately does not go with the "opponent is trying to avoid having 3 or more cards" theme. It is pretty difficult to get the opponent to have 3 or more cards (if the opponent is intelligent) especially since this card is a Punch card (Broken Heart, Sunrise Sunset, and SR Elysee Le Bras Allonge is the only way to force cards to an opponent)

• Piston Fire: 5 Damage, Punch, Before the attack, Head-on card: Card +40 Hit

Piston Fire. Rolls off the tongue, and into your opponent's face! This card is quite intimidating in positions 1 and 2. If the ability does not go off (there is no Head-on card) it is just absolute junk. But at least it will stop your opponent from focusing so that it stays off. I think it goes quite well with a 2 card striking/healing/force discard deck with SR Power card. That way the ability is more likely to go off and there are no negative effects for going to 3 cards or higher like most of Paul's other high damage cards. I would still rather go for God Hammer Punch, Thruster and an SR card. It is really difficult to replace those 3 "Unique" cards in any Paul deck.

• The Boot: 25 Damage, Kick, Before the attack, Opp cards = 5: Opp cards -5 Hit

Terrible card. If it was Opp cards ≥ 4 instead it would be pretty good. It is quite easy for every character (except Xiaoyu) to be under 5 cards which is why the ability will rarely go off. I feel the designers created this card to help Paul players in the fight against Xiaoyu. Not sure why they did that seeing as how this card is useless against every other character.

• Chest Crusher: 25 Damage, Punch, Before the attack, Block: +15 Protection

Pretty good defense card for Paul. I don't think Paul has any Defense cards at all making this card the best defense card for Paul. Most Paul players are quite aggressive and when they aren't they have healing cards to aggressively focus. Not sure if anyone would consider using this card in place of a healing card. It does do wonders against Xiaoyu, unless of course she has Wave Crest (which every Xiaoyu seems to run).

• Foot Launch: 10 Damage, Kick, After the attack, Opp Block: Card +25 Hit

Not quite Nozuchi Fumi but it paired with 2 front cards that do immense damage, this card has the ability to do some strong damage. The damage isn't amazing and there are other options in terms of damage, but I think it offers a crappy guessing game for Paul (currently the One-hit-KO is the ultimate guessing game).

Conclusion

Lili's new cards are allright. I really like Shears to Spinning Edge and I would imagine it will be used quite often in all of Lili's decks (even the Punch ones). Rafflesia is a remake of Piercing Thorn, the damage is quite low and its uniqueness hinders consistency. Delicate Uprising is the 2nd best card in the batch. It's ability fits very well with the 3rd Card Punch Deck. Rosie Pique isn't amazing. It may be hard to get it's ability off without the help of SR Elysee Le Bras Allonge (which seems to go really well with a lot of Lili's cards).

With the exception of Chest Crusher, Paul's new cards seem mediocre. Although the abilities are new for Paul, the cards don't seem to offer much to Paul's current cards. I feel much of Paul's cards already cover what the new ones do and more. The Boot is new but the chances of it procing in a non Xiaoyu fight are almost nil. Hopefully these new cards get a buff somehow. If I were a Paul player, the only card I would consider would be Chest Cruncher, and even then, as a (pretend) Paul player, I wouldn't really be a blocking kind of guy.


No theme in this card release (I think). Up next, Panda and Nina.
Leave a comment or anything.