Welcome back everyone, today I am bringing you an extra special review of the new cards revealed for Hiei, Dragon Within, which were previewed earlier today! While I didn’t have the pleasure to reveal this character, I did want to review them given they were not discussed much within the reveal video. As always I will be rating the character by their Power, Playrate, and Sauce, so without further adieu let’s awaken the dragon!
Dragon (deez) Within
Power: 6/10
Playrate: 5/10
Sauce: 4/10
Hiei, Dragon Within, is a quite healthy 6-hand size character with 29-health and two solid abilities, the first one being an enhance to lose a health to give the current attack +1 or –2 speed. Any form of speed modulation on face is always solid, giving him the rare defensive ability on face while allowing him to exert a little bonus pressure on your rival's offense. As a bonus this effect is Tenacious, meaning it is playable while committed, but be careful about spamming this ability as it can easily cut into your effective health over the course of a game! His second ability is a response to commit and effectively cancel a rival’s block, allowing them to attempt to block again, though as the cost/benefit of resetting the stats of the attack to printed.
As a quick note, technically Hiei’s response doesn’t work with rules-as-written, however this is likely going to be adjusted in terms of a functional errata, or an adjustment to the rules on blocking, so prepare to have some hand-wavium ready. While this won’t seriously impact how this character works it is a grey area in the rules currently, and we are waiting for clarification on the interactions due to this ability, especially given it is the core identity of this character.
Hiei isn’t the strongest character, though he is not offensive either. Any sort of speed modulation is great, especially if it enables better defense, putting this character in a similar defensive play-pattern as Nejire from Undaunted Raid in terms of how he approaches blocking with his health cost. Hiei’s ability is much stronger however given it doesn’t reduce your max health, giving you the potential to regenerate it through health gain effects throughout the game. Oftentimes the health costs of abilities are effectively “free” as minor chip damage often doesn’t significantly impact how you play the game or approach defense, though it will become a real cost as the game lengthens and damage has been dealt to you. As another note, his kit features health modulation as a central theme so expect many more shenanigans to follow up with this concept!
His second ability is where much of his power is stored with him being able to say “No” to a block once per turn, notably after the rival has passed the first one, putting pressure on the rival to hold more cards to prepare for your offense, which has the unintended side-effect of disrupting sculpts as well. One large component of this ability is that it resets the attack to printed stats which makes this better when the rival has put in resources to block it, while worse if you have put offensive resources onto the attack. This will often say that your rival will have to heavily consider when to use their defensive tricks at risk of getting blown out with the response, making it a solid pressure tool simply by existing.
Hiei is in essence a lateral version of Bakugo IV, with both of them aiming to rip the rival’s hand apart to make use of their stat pumps for increased offensive pressure. Hiei unfortunately only grants speed compared to Bakugo’s damage, making it much more palatable to simply not block when all of his moves are printed damage. Bakugo has the additional advantage of clearing 1 progressive difficulty a turn which lends more towards the discard gameplan as it increases the number of moves you can reliably throw in a turn. Hiei’s advantages are that he has a defensive ability on face, as well as shifting the pressure of the rival having enough cards more towards the mindgames of making the rival consider how they play defense. Another non-apparent advantage is that he is not keyword or gimmick locked, letting him have more options and possibilities in deckbuilding, something Bakugo IV severely lacks.
With all of this in mind, Hiei resides solidly in the middle-of-the-pack in terms of power level, with him likely having an above-average playrate due to him being one of the more popular characters of the series. He will likely reside in the same niche as Bakugo IV, but is more suited towards playing a slower game with his defensive ability. I feel like another analog to this character is Gentle Criminal, as both he and Hiei punish the rival for interacting with them while having defensive utility. Gentle’s biggest issue is that he struggles to find damage, making him best against characters that require interaction to survive such as 7-handers. This means that he often struggles to find enough damage to close out games quick enough against 5-and-6-handers, leading to him falling behind in those matchups come mid-game. Hiei will likely reside in a similar space, but I have hope given his stronger on-face defensive ability.
Hiei’s ultra rare is Dragon of the Darkness Flame, a massively statted 6-mid-7 on a 5-difficulty move, which is balanced out by being a 2-check. When you play it you lose 2 health, though notably this cannot kill you, and while a downside it synergizes with its primary enhance ability which lets you discard up to 3 cards from your hand to pay for its Powerful: 3 rating, given your health is 10 or less. It also packs a small Stun: 1 rating and an excellent +1-mid-block.
This card is massive, no one can dispute that. With it being a “7-mid-7" if you count the Stun ability as a bonus speed while also packing the huge Powerful: 3 rating, the true strength of this card is just how massive it is, with the enhance being a nice bonus effect if you are in the late-game. I could envision this seeing play in a deck that can pump additional speed just to slam a gigantic move, and any decks with momentum generation can easily run this as a game-ending dunk. I could envision characters with health manipulation themes running this as a fantastic pressure tool, with Toga I and Endeavor II being the most likely candidates, though overall I wouldn’t expect this to see a ton of generic play.
Hiei’s rare attack on the other hand is a solid generic option, with it being a basic 4-difficulty 4-mid-4 with an awesome +1-low-block, though at the cost of a health it becomes a 4-mid-5 with Stun: 1, an above-average rate for an attack of this difficulty. It also has another effect where if you are at 10 or less health you draw a card and gain 2 health, giving it some bonus end-game utility. This is a perfectly serviceable card that is unlikely to find any concrete homes, though it can easily slot in as a value 4-difficulty move if other options aren’t attractive enough, and as with the ultra rare it finds bonus effectiveness in characters that focus on managing their life total.
Hiei’s uncommon attack is one of the coolest cards of his kit, being a 4-difficulty 3-high-4 with Echo, already making it an attractive choice competitively due to the limited Echo options. It also features a First Enhance that lets you lose 2 health and have it lose Echo to zoop the top of your deck to your momentum, which is the most exciting part of this. As a note, if this attack is Echoed you can First Enhance on the second one to recoup the spent momentum give you cannot Echo twice, making this often a “free” two-in-one attack if you start with a momentum.
Any access to fast momentum is a gigantic flag-raiser for potential shenanigans, especially on these symbols that haven’t had consistent ways of grabbing momentum while also attached to cards that are also solid. The pick-and-choose nature of this card means you will always get the effect that is best suited to the situation, whether it be charging a momentum for shenanigans or simply throwing two moves in one.
As a final note, with this card featuring the Punch keyword it has significant synergy with Bullet Punches, which is available on both Evil and Fire, allowing you to lead with Double Fists of the Mortal Flame, snag a momentum, followed up by a Bullet Punches which you can then Echo and then zoop this attack to momentum. This will be a huge boon to decks looking to play a Bullet Punches or even an Echo-focused gameplan, and is one of the most exciting cards of his kit. It also combo’s with Detonation Launcher incredibly well to either enable the Echo effect or to double up on zooping cards to momentum, allowing for some interesting momentum-fueled strategies on the Fire symbol.
Hiei’s last card is a basic 3-difficulty attack that is a 2-mid-2, or a 4-mid-4 at the cost of spending a momentum. There is little to say here other than it will be a solid card within sealed play as momentum outlets are highly prized, though I don’t forsee this making any competitive impact. The most likely location would be in a deck that can frequently find excess momentum, but even then, there are better things to be doing with such a precious resource.
Moving onto Hiei’s foundations, Mastering the Dragon is his rare with a very simple effect, allowing you to enhance to remove it and draw two cards, assuming you have lost 4 or more health during your turn. With many card advantage options leaving with MHA set 1 rotating this provides a very strong source of albeit conditional advantage. At worst it lets you draw 2 cards on defense if you eat an attack, but if you are able to enable it on offense it becomes incredibly powerful at fueling your offensive gameplan.
The gate of requiring 4-or-more health loss is the biggest downside, as enabling that on your turn will be a difficult feat. All the characters with health costs are a measly 1, meaning you would have to use these types of effects 4 times during a turn which often isn’t feasible, so you would need additional sources self-burn to enable it. The most likely home for this incidentally might be aggressive decks, as they are free to play recklessly while on the offense and then draw two cards on the rivals second attack (assuming they eat the first), giving them fuel to block or simply dig deeper to find fuel for the next aggressive turn.
Hiei’s other 2-difficulty foundation is a seemingly simple foundation that commits for +2 damage, though it has a very notable upside associated with it. A vast majority of 2-difficulty foundations that commit for damage usually do +2 damage and a bonus effect at response speed, and have failed to see play due to the cost not advancing the gamestate if the attack is blocked. I Am the Dragon solves this issue however with it only committing to grant damage after the attack is unblocked, meaning you will not commit a resource for no effect, meaning this will always “deal” 2 damage to the rival. Overhaul’s response to give an attack +2 damage after the block step is sneakily good as anyone with experience with the character will inform you. Being able to only grant damage when it is guaranteed makes him exert more pressure than expected as he will never use it when it won’t matter.
I Am the Dragon may actually end up seeing play for the above reason, as it has a huge advantage in terms of timing that other similar effects lack, and I could reasonably run this in a deck itching for damage and have it consistently matter. I am unsure what specific homes it will find, though it will be a boon for Hiei specifically to help add some “oomph” to his offense without unnecessarily compromising his board.
Moving onto Hiei’s 1-difficulty foundations, Paying the Cost is a basic foundation that lets you pay 1 health for +1 damage, reminiscent of Brute Strength in the current format. Brute Strength is already a key piece in helping decks find damage to be able to end games as the health cost is often “free” as I discussed earlier, and Paying the Cost will slot right in over Brute Strength once the latter rotates. It is a generically powerful effect that will find frequent slots in near any deck as bonus damage is never a bad thing, and is unassumingly one of the best cards of his kit.
There isn’t much to say other than it is good, but it does help enable Mastering the Dragon for offensive uses, giving further support to that card. With a character with a 1 health cost and a single Paying the Cost enables Mastering the Dragon on the second attack, letting these two foundations form a powerful core of offense and burst draw-power, making it a potential direction for those characters to go towards within deckbuilding.
Last up in the kit is Unmatched Quickness, another 1-difficulty foundation, which allows you to modify the speed of an attack by +1 or –1 if you are at or below 10 health. This card is often blank which is a big downside, and doesn’t necessarily fit with Hiei’s gameplan as he already modifies speed and will take a while to stabilize with low health given it activates at one-third of his life total. The more likely home for this card is in Toga I, with her ability to modulate her health she can comfortably get and maintain 10-or-less health relatively quickly and then take full advantage of the effect to launch empowered offense while also supplementing her defense. Outside of this scenario I don’t think this will see much play, but it could find room in aggressive backswing-oriented decks as a way to punish the rival for being unable to finish you off by giving a burst of end-game power.
And Dragon Rests...
Overall Hiei has a face that is very similar to two characters that have been released recently and will compete for a similar spot within the metagame, though I believe he has enough differences to adequately set himself apart. As mentioned he will likely see an above average playrate given his popularity, though I wouldn’t expect him to be the best choice the majority of the time. He does do some interesting things, however his power-level will be holding him back, though his support does give additional options to characters that already exist with Hojo, Endeavor II, and Toga I all appreciating various cards of his support.
Speaking of support, Hiei has given us some of the most interesting cards of the set in my opinion. Dragon of the Darkness Flame isn’t generically powerful compared to the other ultra rares revealed, and while not the most applicable it can find homes as a big stat-stick move and as a Timmy wincon in decks dedicated to enabling it. Sword of the Darkness Flame is a standalone solid card that won’t see the most inclusion but I could envision it finding spots in decks needing solid 4-difficulty moves. Meanwhile Double Fists of the Mortal Flame gives us one of the most interesting cards of the set in terms of design, as well as the quiet synergies it enables with existing cards.
The foundations of the kit are also very solid, with I Am the Dragon being a rare 2-difficulty foundation that pumps damage that could reasonably see play, while Paying the Cost is a new staple-level foundation for decks lacking damage pump. And of course, Mastering the Dragon is another interesting card that could slot in specifically in decks that enable it offensively, or in decks generally that are more reckless with their card advantage, with Unmatched Quickness being the “worst” foundation of the bunch but still providing a powerful-enough benefit for decks to potentially focus around enabling it, even though that is unlikely.
With that, another installment of a Brewer Reviews comes to a close. As mentioned I wanted to write this given the unfortunate circumstances regarding this reveal, and I hope this serves as a solid option for people looking for competitive analysis of the revealed cards. Now, I must return to writing my next project, which is rating all of the characters of the set and going over all of the most noteworthy non-character cards revealed, so be on the lookout for that next week! As always, take it easy, and until next time!
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