The Unfaltering Awakened Samurai Baiken is here and bringing the pain in my Guilty Gear fan set! In this introduction series I will be revealing not only all of a characters’ kit, but the design decisions that lead me to how and why the cards ended up how they did. I am starting this series off with Baiken, and I will likely continue with characters I haven’t yet revealed, though I will intersperse characters that I revealed in my initial article.
I also wanted to go over a few things that I either didn’t mention in the previous article, or that have changed since. Originally the set was slated to have 20 characters each with an accompanying 9-card-kit, however during design I have had too many ideas to contain in 9 cards per character, so I am bumping up the total card count to 10 cards per character! This means that the main set will be the 20 characters, plus 10 cards of support each for a whopping 220(!) cards just in the main set, not including any backpage cards as well. This will easily bring the set up to a total of about 250 cards, though it will likely exceed this total! Assuming I include the other characters that aren’t in the main set and I give them 4 support cards each, that would bring the set to 255 cards, again excluding any other backpage cards.
Going along with this, I have a confession to make. Bad cards don’t have to exist. I know, I know, a take hot enough to scorch the sun, but hear me out. Deckbuilding and theorycrafting are the most fun when you have the widest variety of options available, which is why while I don’t play MtG’s Commander format very often, some of the most fun I have with it is simply theorizing about what I could play together in a format with such wide deckbuilding decisions. Having “bad” cards cuts down the potential options for deckbuilding, simplifying it to where a vast quantity of cards printed don’t and won’t ever see play.
Since I am designing my ideal set, I can fix this problem. The goal of the set is to have as many cards as possible playable, which is contributing to some of the “powercreep” the set will showcase. Cards of all rarities will be balanced to be fighting for inclusion in your brews, though of course higher rarity cards will often have a higher power-budget. Society has moved past the need for bad cards, and I am the only one brave enough to accept this reality. So keep that in mind while reviewing anything previewed, as I actively want every card to be fighting for spots in your decks.
As another design tenant of the set, each character will try and have a card or two within their kit that is also specifically intended to work with other characters on symbol, allowing for greater crossover between kits. While I won’t be able to purposefully design a card for every character to work with every other character within every kit, I do want to make cards that intentionally work with other characters so players can discover these synergies and find unique applications for what I am tentatively naming “crossover cards”. While I won’t generally mention these, keep this concept in mind when reviewing revealed cards!
In addition to all this, I will be uploading all of the cards onto TTS, which will be available soon! As cards get revealed I will be updating the mod with them, as well as preconstructing decks for people to use to allow players to jump right into the format! With this I will be heading into playtests, so whether it be with me or between you and your friends playing for fun, I will be evaluating the cards and adjusting any outliers! When there are changes, assuming I need to make them given I can’t balance everything by eye, I will be releasing a patch-notes style article detailing the changes and why they were made. This could include buffs as well as nerfs to cards, and they will be reflected on TTS when I release said patches.
Another note on the design of the set, I wanted to bring focus to the Combo keyword, which will add additional depth and structure to offense, so expect a ton of usage of this keyword. Currently many of the restrictions will be broad, though this could change in the future if I need to un/restrict some abilities to be more or less generally applicable. This also means that I will be able to tune specific cards for different “archetypes”, and while this may restrict some options, I am hopeful that many will still manifest to allow for creative deck building!
And lastly, I mentioned that I will be taking submissions for fan designs for the set, and that will be coming soon, and I will be putting up a submission form when I have revealed every main-set character! As a note, they will be for backpage designs, and while they could be themed with a character in mind, unthemed designs will be perfectly acceptable as well! Don’t be afraid to break the mold and submit something entirely unrelated to a character if you have a cool concept! Of course, the winners will be featured within the set, but I also will be cooking up some form of prize for the winners that I haven’t yet decided on. As part of this, I don’t know if there will be a set number of winners, but more details will come as I get closer to finishing the set and opening up submissions!
With all of that housekeeping out of the way, let’s move onto the meat and potatoes of the article as I reveal the unfaltering awakened samurai herself, Baiken!
Queen of Breaker
I had designed a previous iteration of Baiken back with my old Guilty Gear set as a part of a DLC where she primarily focused around using the Breaker keyword to have potent defense. This is due to her having one of the best counters in all of fighting games period, coming out on frame 1 and allowing for crazy conversions off of it. I wanted to preserve this form of concept and identity moving into this new set, though I would have to overhaul how she worked in order to align with the new design principles I am incorporating into this set.
One of the big questions I am sure to get is why focus on Breaker instead of Parry, and the reason is twofold. Mechanically, Baiken in Guilty Gear has this potent counter that leads into offensive pressure, so tying her to the Breaker keyword shows off this attribute from her as the “offensive” defensive keyword, whereas Parry is the “defensive” defensive keyword. This not only shows off her unique conversion of defense into offense, but also means that the rival will have to formulate their offense differently for her as a response, similar to how she functions in her main game.
Expanding on this, Breaker as an ability is only relevant on defense, so having a character rely on it is a tad one dimensional. With this in mind, I wanted to add another functionality to her so that Breaker doesn’t just become a defensive tool for her, but an offensive one as well! This would make her gameplay multifaceted and give her more strategic depth when playing around her ability to grant Breaker. With both of these concepts in mind, let me introduce Baiken, the Queen of Breaker!
Baiken is able to grant Breaker to any attack card, whether it be actual attacks or blocks, giving her supreme control over how to interact with offense from both sides. Her second ability gives her reason to also use it on non-blocks, allowing her to turn defense into offense on her own turn, as well as letting her chain block if she wants to forgo disruption. Her granting Breaker to only attack cards also fits thematically with her parry given she gets an offensive follow up, while also limiting her disruption to blocking with offensive cards.
Her last and final ability was primarily to bring her up to speed with the increased power level of the game, given she is a 5-hander that wants to commit her board for her primary effect. This not only lets her “refresh” her board for continued use of her ability but let me tie in both the Fire and Earth identities of her symbols, with both the removal of resources and the interactions with face down foundations. Her Life identity was already solidified with her second ability allowing her to chain her cards together by ignoring progressive, though it comes at the cost of requiring players to interact defensively with offense, another Earth symbol staple.
Baiken was originally going to be a 6-hander, but when reviewing the hand-size spread for each symbol all of her symbols were saturated 6-handers, and she was the most realistic character to adjust to a 5-hander. This not only would fix the hand-size balance so every symbol has options for each hand size, but also allowed me to put more power into her given her potential frustration of repeatedly Breaker blocking.
She looks powerful, which she certainly is, however her primary gameplay loop is incredibly taxing resource-wise. Committing a bonus foundation on block adds up, especially as a 5-hander who can’t reliably build out to a substantial degree. Using it to ignore progressive on defense is also risky, given you must preemptively commit a foundation, as well as then passing a block. Offensively it effectively adds “+1 difficulty” to her moves where she responds on, while also requiring the rival to block in order to activate her progressive ignoring ability, which puts more onus on the rival to decide how your offense turn is going to proceed. This means that while her top two abilities seem powerful, they require some form of assistance to alleviate the costs, which comes in the form of her Enhance which is actually where a lot of her power is stored.
Once I had settled on her core identity I had to figure out how to make her kit work along with this concept. I also knew I wanted to incorporate a lot of Stun within her kit given that it is a soft-identity of the Fire symbol, as well as tying into her gameplay in Strive being smothering offense when she gets an opening. I also wanted to really home in on her being one of the premier characters showing off the “If you block” mechanic from Earth.
Tatami comes in as one of the premier ways to open up enemy defense with it being representing a potential combined Stun: 3, given Baiken can Respond to commit a foundation to grant it Breaker, followed by a First Enhance to remove the committed foundation for Stun: 1 on the following attack, and finally flipping another foundation to get another instance of Stun: 1 on Tatami as well! Tatami is one of Baiken’s primary ways of applying offensive pressure in Guilty Gear, leading into combos if it hits and setting up frame traps if it doesn’t, making it one of her bread-and-butter tools for her gameplan! It also provides great utility when blocking with it, further incentivizing to using attacks to block to disrupt the rival’s offensive game plans!
Kaibari is another one of Baiken’s primary setup tools in Guilty Gear, leaving her advantaged on both hit and block as well as setting up for longer strings on-hit due to her tether mechanic! With this in mind, as well as wanting to add Breaker synergies to her kit, the initial enhance is the primary way of showcasing her pinpoint committal and string extension while also being gated behind a non-combo requirement, opening this up for general use both in and outside this character. It also punishes the rival for blocking with the speed increase due to the [Card pool] enhance, allowing Baiken to chain-block more effectively if she is able to block with this, which also nets her an additional resource to fuel her top response! Lastly it also has Exert, a keyword that works wonderfully in this character given Baiken will always have committed foundations to expend for the cost.
You will also notice that Baiken's cards feature responses when blocking, which is one of her specialities! Blocking with attacks generally feels bad, however given it is core to her identity I wanted to ensure to alleviate that pain point by giving further incentive for the 5-hander to want to block with their limited offensive cards she may have access too!
Hiiragi in-game is Baikens frame 1 counter, so I wanted to reflect that in UVS as a card that shines more for its' defensive potential than offensive potential! Sporting one of the best on-block responses in the game, as well as wanting to take advantage of playing good defense, Hiiragi is often better to be saved for defense rather than offense. It has below average stats which further pushes it towards being a defensive tool than an offensive one. Even if you don't get to trigger the primary on-block response, it still packs both Breaker: 1 and Parry: 1 to ensure it is always solid while blocking with it!
Of course I also had to include more Breaker synergies, though adding Combo (Breaker) would end up not functioning given that Combo looks for printed keywords, so I had to get creative with some of the support. I could add a few instances of Combo (Breaker), but I couldn’t make that a primary focus of her kit and instead focused on implementing it on a few cards and adding other soft-synergies on others as well. Adding Breaker to many of her attacks come at a price though with overall higher than average block modifiers.
Youzansen is another one of Baiken’s bread-and-butter tools and one of her primary frame-trap options, and I wanted to link it mechanically to Tatami by giving her additional Stun with similar costs. Not only that, but the top enhance allows you to scale its damage with Baiken’s top response, giving it even more offensive potential! The Combo enhance is also a bonus ability and isn’t core to the card, but provides a bit more additional value, which is amped up if you used Baiken’s response on the previous attack, allowing you to often flip almost any foundation in the rival's stage when used as an attack or block!
Tsurane Sanzu-watashi is one of Baiken’s supers, so of course it has to be her ultra rare! It represents a powerful dunk-style attack which relies on removing foundations throughout your turn, which is easy given Baiken’s enhance fulfills 60% of the card's potential! Not only that, but it lets you pitch a momentum for effectively Stun: 2, or if you responded with Baiken a whopping Stun: 4! This is one of the core pieces of Baiken’s ability to end games, and it isn’t a slouch on defense either packing an excellent block modifier and Breaker: 2. I wanted to add an attack to her kit that gave her over-the-top potential given she can have difficulty if the rival builds out to ignore her Breaker with a sheer amount of resources, while also being threatening to force the rival to block so she can activate her second response to chain further attacks, as this has the potential of letting your next card ignore up to 4(!) progressive difficulty if blocked! The card is also narrow enough to not be an instant staple of the symbol, though a powerful option if utilized properly!
Moving on from the attacks, we have to talk about Baiken’s other cards as well! The reason I didn’t specifically say “foundations” is because her kit does feature an asset in Combat Tether!
I had to pay homage to Baiken’s signature mechanic in Strive, being her tether. In-game it pulls the opponent closer to Baiken, allowing her to create unique strings and confirms that aren’t normally available to her. This comes at the downside of the rival having similar access, however few players are practiced with tether-specific routes, so Baiken gets more of an advantage from it. In UVS it is a reliable way to modify speed on offense or defense, given attacks make it through. This not only sets up Baiken’s strings to be harder to block, but let’s her set up for more varied blocking patterns on the rivals turn. It also applies constant pressure by slowly neutralizing the rival’s board, letting Baiken gradually open up the rival for her outstanding pressure.
Lastly, I brought up the concept of “crossover cards” at the beginning of the article, and this is one of the cards I was referring to. With Baiken sharing both Earth and Life it puts her on both symbols with the asset characters of the set in Giovanna and Jack-O. Combat Tether is both a solid way for Baiken to open up offense and defense, while also giving additional assets to the two characters that require them for their gameplan. Since it triggers on play it slots nicely into both of their decks as they weave assets into their offensive strings, providing them with a boost of offensive potential.
Of course we can’t have a kit without any foundations, and Baiken’s come with a wide variety of both offense and defensive effects! When working on her foundations I wanted to home in on her identity of one of the “on-block” characters, both by making it easier to block, giving bonuses for blocking, and for her to incentivize the rival to try blocking her offense. With this in mind I wanted to ensure she had solid access to both speed reduction and damage pump.
Another thing I am keeping in mind is to make sure there are plenty of niche utility effects within the foundations of the game to help against specific matchups or strategies. Most of these will be a secondary effect of the card so they are still broadly applicable, meaning you won’t have to go out of your way to include different types of interaction within your deck! One of the worst feelings is having to go out of your way to include specific types of interaction within your deck, and by making the cards have solid effects that also have a tacked-on hate ability makes it easier to include them in your deck and not feel bad about it.
Unfaltering Awakened Samurai is one of Baiken’s premier defensive tools, as giving the rival’s attack Breaker: 2 means it is able to flip for -2 speed on anything generally in her, ramping up if the attack is loaded with keyword abilities. It also packs some awesome utility by being able to use the effect from your hand, letting you get surprise speed reduction, which can be doubled if you Exert the card to build it down. It also comes with the bonus of letting you neutralize the rival’s board, making it truly one of the best defensive tricks in the right situation. Additionally, since it only reduces the speed of rival attacks, you are able to use it offensively to flip rival foundations if you meet the requirement, which Baiken can easily do!
Hot-Headed meanwhile is a simple damage pump and speed reduction, in a similar vein to Self-Sacrifice in MHA. Given that generic damage in the game will be reduced, adding an easy way to increase the threat of your offense is a very potent ability, especially combined with the defensive utility it provides. It also has a small hate ability targeted at decks looking to discard the rival's hand or blow up the rival’s board, and while not the most impactful, adding it onto what is already a solid card is the sort of direction I am approaching these types of abilities from.
One issue that few people discuss for UVS is how difficult it is to come back from an early-game build deficit, and something that would remedy this is having plenty of 0-difficulty foundations in order for player 1 to have more consistent builds compared to player 2’s ability to often get more consistent early builds. While player 1 does set the tempo for the game, they often can find themselves behind on resources in the early stages of the game if they are unable to find hands conducive to building out. With this in mind I wanted to ensure that there are plenty of 0-difficulty foundations to allow players to reliably build in order for them to participate more with the game.
Descendant of a Destroyed Country is a simple 0-difficulty foundation that is a proven card that sees play in the current UVS format, but I wanted to add a small ability to give it a bit more of an identity. It lets you occasionally trade a foundation in your stage with the card from the top of your deck, which is valuable utility for any strategies looking to interact with face down cards. This gives Baiken more options to choose to pick up when using her once-per-turn, and is a small enough ability that stapling it to a card that is known to be good won’t push it over the top.
As part of my goal to keep adding varied interaction into the set, Wounded Seeker of Justice provides telegraphed card pool disruption, requiring you to call your shot of committing to completely blocking the attack in order to disrupt the rival. It also packs the occasionally useful utility of being able to kick a non-attack from the card pool, both to disrupt any rival shenanigans or to clear yours on both offense and defense. This comes at a higher cost of blowing itself up, but has the upside of being Tenacious so you reliably can access this effect.
Overall Baiken’s kit shows off one of the simpler ones within the set, while still showcasing some of the basic guiding principles I am applying when it comes to designing cards. She is a simple and effective character within her game, and her kit reflects that by having few tricks but straightforward ways to apply and alleviate pressure in-game. While not every character will have difficulty analogous to how they play in Strive, it is something that I am taking into consideration when fleshing out how characters will feel and play in UVS, and I feel like I hit that mark with Baiken.
Who is on the Horizon?
With Baiken’s kit fully revealed and more of my design principles out in the public, I cannot wait to follow this up with more full kit reveals! I am so incredibly excited to continue showing off what I have been working on, and future kit reveal articles will be coming soon! However, I have realized that writing an article for every single kit would be a monumental task, so expect more condensed versions in the future, or even multi-reveal articles! I am currently 67% done with the main set, which includes the expanded set count, so I need to catch up on revealing everything! Putting everything together takes a lot of time and effort, so I cannot guarantee on a timeline, but stay on the lookout!
I also am aware that this form of content doesn’t appeal to everyone, so I will continue to work on more strictly UVS-centric content as well, so keep an eye out for that. Something I am working on is my reactions and opinions to all of recent news, though aside from that I am honestly at a bit of a loss as to what to work on. Deck profiles are likely the general direction, though I would enjoy doing more discussions around high-level concepts such as tempo and deckbuilding, but that is a large amount of work that I cannot release on a regular basis. Something I may experiment with is a form of “deck doctor” style content where I take viewer submitted decks and go through my thought process of how to improve them, but that is only a concept currently. If you have any ideas feel free to let me know, any concepts are greatly appreciated.
With that this article has come to a close. As always, I truly appreciate any and everyone who takes time out of their day to read anything I put out. With the holidays coming up I hope everyone has a wonderful end of the year, and remember to take it easy!
Do you have any articles you’d like to see? Any topics you wish were discussed more? Any questions, comments, or feedback on this article? Well let me know down below, or shoot me a message on discord! And if you enjoyed the article, feel free to follow me on twitter or leave a tip at my Ko-fi.
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