A Lesson in Stupidity - 6th Place TX Regionals Seong Mi-Na

[MarcoPulleaux 0]

You are about to witness the most jank Seong Mi-Na deck to ever do well in a tournament. Jeremy Ray would be offended.

***Seong Mi-Na***

Actions: 8

4x Tag Along 5/4 (Order/Water)
4x Rejection 3/5 +1-LOW [breaker: 2]

Assets: 6

1x Lynette's Shop 3/6 +1-MID (Infinite)
3x Defender 2/3 - 5/3 +0-LOW [breaker: 1] (Chaos/Order/Water)
2x Olcadan's Mentoring 0/6 +0-LOW (Infinite)

Attacks: 12

2x Feline Spike 7/1 +1-LOW [Multple: 2] [Reversal] [stun: 2]
3x Shadow Blade 5/2 +2-MID [Reversal] [stun: 2]
3x High Plasma Beam 4/3 +1-HIGH [Ranged] (Order/Water)
4x Mega Spike 3/3 +2-HIGH [Throw] (Chaos/Order)

Foundations: 35

3x Chester's Backing 4/6 +1-MID
4x Coffee Pot 3/5 +1-MID (Order/Water)
4x Natural Leader 3/5 +1-MID (Order/Water)
4x Boxeo Chino 3/4 +3-MID (Order/Water)
4x The Gorgeous Team 3/4 +3-HIGH
2x Lord of the Makai 2/6 +1-MID (Chaos/Order)
4x Soul of Ling-Sheng Su 2/6 +2-HIGH (Chaos/Water)
3x Shooting Capoera 2/4 +2-MID
3x The Bigger They Are... 2/4 +3-MID (Chaos/Order/Water)
4x Battle Prowess 1/4

Couple of things to exprain:

1) Why no Aquakinesis?

Don't own any, and nobody there had extras to spare =/

2) Why 4 Natural Leader?

Because I only have 2 Makai, and because its ability in conjunction with Mi-Na is amazing.

3) You run a LOT of high difficulty cards. How often do you fail?

Never. Seriously, I fail control checks...hardly. With only 10 3-checks, 3 2s, and 2 1s, my checks are solid, and anybody who thinks this amount of bulk is "a lot" clearly has never played Order. Seong Mi-Na is what's known as a "Bulky Water", and she can play as many big cards as she feels like with ease.

4) What's up with the attack line-up? Why not run fewer attacks, like maybe 4 Felines and 4 Mega Spikes?

Because versatility wins. Shadow Blade is undeniably the best utility attack ever made, even more so than Pommel Smash IMO, and when I'm constantly throwing them at you, ESPECIALLY using Defender, you'll start to see how quickly Stun: 2 and selective destruction add up.

5) Why only 2 Olcadan's, yet 3 Defender?

1. I was letting my friend borrow my other 2 Olcadan's, 2. Olcadan's is NOT as necessary as many people make it out to be. Since when did Order EVER care about opponent's foundations? 3. Defender IS necessary. It DOES have a form, people, and Seong Mi-Na abuses the Hell out of that Form.

6) Was this deck really built on-scene, with no preparation, and only from what you owned?

Yes. I'm not joking or lying in any way; what you see above is a deck built from what I own, not from what I've borrowed. It was hastily thrown together at the last minute with 0 playtesting and only slight foresight into how it plays. I was first in 5th, but after losing my first round of top 8, I wound up getting 6th total.

[Smazzurco 0]

Seong Mina without Ispin?

Part of what makes her great is being able to toss out (multiple) ispins every turn

[MarcoPulleaux 0]

Smazzurco said:

Seong Mina without Ispin?

Part of what makes her great is being able to toss out (multiple) ispins every turn

Couple of things to say:

1. I own 1 Ira-Spinta. 1. I realize that in Seong Mi-Na, 1 suddenly becomes more, but I'm personally opposed to running 1 of anything (ex. I own 1 BRT. I once had an Order deck using that 1 BRT...yeah, I drew that card 1 out of maybe 20 games. Screw that)

2. My deck has a bazillion different attack strategies, and a variety of attacks period. Throwing in iSpin is almost TOO much insanity for one deck to handle!

3. I just don't like Ira-Spinta. I don't, much like I've never liked cards such as Start Over and Infiltrating. Any card that affects both players like those three I'm opposed to.  Believe me, I had to play both an Order Seong Mi-Na and Order Donovan, both of whom abused the HELL out of Ira Spinta, and would use Lord of the Makai to get back anything added to the momentum, but, again, I'm simply not a fan of Spinta. It's amazing, absolutely, but it's not for me, and I like things that are capable of killing.

[Smazzurco 0]

being able to ispin 2nd turn. Then 3rd ispin again, ditch a momentum and grab back the first ispin and play it, grabbing back and playing (if nec) the cards getting added to momentum.

I mean once the game is rolling you can easily play 3 ispins every turn...and thats gnasty. Personally for me thats the only way seong-mina can get an edge over other order characters. If you don't play ispin i can see how you can say seongmina is lacking to other characters.

[Duckman2 0]

This kind of invalidates your post in GD about why Mi-Na doesn't work.  You state that now you have run her at a Regional you feel qualified to say she doesn't work and can't win but you really don't have a leg to stand when -

1) You put no effort into construction, it was thrown to gether without testing at the last minute from inferior cards which happened to be avaialble to you.

2) You didn't use the strongest strategies available to her.  By not using Aquakinesis, Spinta locks or BRT you have weakened the deck.  I don't care if you don't like them, using them makes the deck better and more capable of winning.

 

I am not trying to come in on any side the arguement that was begun in GD but you have to realise that if you play a weakened untested version of a deck it doesn't really put you in a position of strength to argue about the  potential of a character in the current format.

[MarcoPulleaux 0]

Duckman said:

This kind of invalidates your post in GD about why Mi-Na doesn't work.  You state that now you have run her at a Regional you feel qualified to say she doesn't work and can't win but you really don't have a leg to stand when -

1) You put no effort into construction, it was thrown to gether without testing at the last minute from inferior cards which happened to be avaialble to you.

2) You didn't use the strongest strategies available to her.  By not using Aquakinesis, Spinta locks or BRT you have weakened the deck.  I don't care if you don't like them, using them makes the deck better and more capable of winning.

I am not trying to come in on any side the arguement that was begun in GD but you have to realise that if you play a weakened untested version of a deck it doesn't really put you in a position of strength to argue about the  potential of a character in the current format.

Well, a couple of things to say about that...

1. Obviously I put SOME effort into construction, and it isn't built with "inferior" cards. Interestingly enough, I used Natural Leader more than I used Lord of the Makai, and that isn't because I have more copies; every game I played at regionals I would have Makai out. I only said it was built with what I owned, meaning while it would normally have 4 Aqua and 2 more Makai (and after playing it, 4 Red Lotus), it did not, and it performed assumedly as well as it would've had it had those cards.

2. I've had experience with Mi-Na before, just not with this exact decklist. While the two are virtually the same, the first time I played with Mi-Na was pure Water, and it worked like a charm. This build is hands-down much better than the last because of the huge list of ways in which it kills.

3. Um, in my opinion, I DID use the strongest strategy. I don't think iSpin looping is her best strategy, although I do understand where people are coming from when they say it is. I like my build best, and while it's arguable if it's the strongest, your examples of cards that are "needed" don't discredit what I ran.

While Seong Mi-Na is strong, and I'll admit, I'm greatfully considering using her more after doing well with her and thinking about some things (iSpin + F + iSpin + Defender F + Feline = game), my entire point behind saying Mi-Na isn't likely to win is because she's so much obviously disadvantaged than other characters. She's a top tier character, but to me, I think a character who is easier to use (such as Donovan, Akuma, etc) is more likely to win. Plus, I needless to say never even considered Mignon, and after reading how it faired, now I have to start preparing for such Air builds as well.

[spyke132 0]

while you both have made your views clear i say that i-spin is arguably the best attack in the game.  this is because of its symbol spread and the fact that no matter what symbol you play it off of (air, fire, order) you can find some way to horribly abuse it.  in air its a excellent facilitator to setting up a early game feline spike (duh), off of fire it becomes a absolute nighmare to deal with because it lets you selectivly neutralize any 2 cards in your opponents staging area that offend you, and order lets you do this with even more persion and the added bonus of looping it(im talking mi-na here).  the fact that the attack doesnt need to do damage is also a major contributing factor, in the playgroup that i play in we commonly dont even care that the stupid attack deals damage as long as we can get the enhance of cleanly. and lets face it people it gets really hard to try to blolck any attack when you have 0 foundations in play and your staring down a feline spike, tiger fury or lunar slash.  

and this is coming from a guy who, until three days ago didnt have a single ira-spinta, but had to play against some of the most dominant decks in the meta (primarily order donovan, fire and evil akuma(dual and mono symbol versions), order and water seong mi-na(again dual and mono symbol versions), evil and fire zei mei (same as the other dual and mono symbol version).  all these decks ran ira-spinta.  

and now on the flip side of the issue.  through playing against all these decks taht run the aformentioned godliness of ira-spinta i have found many ways to stomp the mother into the ground and teach it its place.  the easist and most effiecent way to stop a spinta is to not let the **** thing hit the board in the firsrt place, cause it it does stopping it just got a whole lot harder (and yes i have gotten into many a chesters/inhuman/seal war trying to stop a spinta so dont ***** about that) if you let a spinta hit the board then your next option is to stop the enhance, which can be done through cards like no memories, red lotus, evil doer destroyer (my personal favourite) and many more, but its very hard to have any of those cards with the exeption being red lotus on the board and ready to rock by turn two, which is the most likely time for a spinta to rear its ugly mug (if you cant tell i absolutely hated this card until i got my four and started bashing on everyone with it) but it can be stopped, and under the right contitions be contained and even nutrilized entirely. 

this is just my veiw of the card, if you dont like it i dont care

and nice deck by the way.  i really cant imagine the faces of the people you beat with it, must have been fun to watch them realize they got beat by a deck that was but together on the fly with no prep and testing

[Sir_SI 0]

Yo Shinji, think about this redicoulous of her for a second.  You can go tag along, pull a spinta, then play spinta, defender, lord, use spinta,  get back tag.  use mina, then spinta again.  Use mina's enhance to pull back cards from your momentum.  I don't see how you have a problem with 5 handsize anymore.
Oh and spank123: you forgot to mention that really annoying gill deck that you face every once in a while.

[MarcoPulleaux 0]

spyke - Well, I was proud to top 8 for the reason you pin-pointed: it was just a deck I built there, and nobody would give me their Aquas or more Lords T_T. I was also happy so I could tell all the haters on the forum to sux it =).

Oh believe me dude, I KNOW Ira-Spinta's use. I mean, it handed me my ass on numerous occasions at regionals, and after reading can nats reports, I can see it did so to others as well. Like I said, I'm starting to brew some ideas about how to use Seong Mi-Na most effectively. She's one of my favorite characters in UFS, and my favorite SoCal characters, and her constant placing in tournies isn't just a coincidence. The main problem with Spinta is...

I have access to 1. That's it. Sure, I could TRY to get some from players during tournies, but more often than not if somebody isn't using Spinta, they've lent it to a teammate already.

shajir - I've never had a problem with handsize during regionals. Tag Along + Bigger = 6-11 handsize (I think that's the biggest I go to before I started to burn my hand). But yeah, your idea is similar to the one I'm concocting. Here's my basic premise I've thought of so far...

-First off, 4x Free Will. Great card is great, and functions as a Tag Along I can play on the opponent's turn (and interestingly enough, can tutor with Tag Along)

-3x Spinta, 3x Feline, 3x Defender, 3x Turnabout. Taking a page from Kirk, I can use Turnabout to my advantage immensely. Not only am I going to be running 4 Free Will, but Tag Along as well, and should I use Turnabout on my very own turn, just Seong Mi-Na F it back to my hand.

Spinta, F with Mi-Na, Spinta, Spinta. By then, anything I fear from my opponent SHOULD be gone. F with Defender, Feline Spike ftlawlz.

That's my basic premise, but as much as it might churn your stomach to hear this, Shadow Blade IS an amazing card, and while Spinta works on a different level, I've had nothing but pure success with the stupid-ass reversal that is Shadow Blade. The card is simply beastin'