Readers!

I have been doing a lot of talking various talks about a project but have thus far failed to walk any of the requisite walks, which stops today. For months I have been telling everyone I want to build all 8 Street Fighter decks and have them all to play against each other - perfect for lending out, playing a themed evening of nostalgia and card combat, or for staring at while rubbing my hands together covetously. I was a little overwhelmed and wished I could get a running start at this, that some kind stranger would accomplish part of this goal for me and get me started. It wasn't until this week that I remembered - someone DID get me started. That person is ME and that person wrote no fewer than 2 Street Fighter articles already - 1 about the best Thesis Enchantment for each character, and this article where I literally did 100% of the brewing for a Ken deck, making me 12% of the way done already. It turns out this project is a piece of cake because I'm already almost halfway to being a quarter of the way done. Armed with this momentum, I vowed to tackle the rest of the project. A journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single article you got paid for but forgot you wrote and I'll 100% take the freebie.

We're not done, however, because I don't intend to inflict eight of these articles on you, especially since I've already written two and neither one of them technically count. I am going to pair the fighters up and show how the decks would deal with each other which can hopefully give me some insight into how to tackle any four-deck permutation (1,680 of them unless I'm bad at math, which I am). I think that these decks should very much be viewed as rough drafts, especially since they have printed 100,000 new Magic cards since I wrote that Ken article on March 17th and like 6,000 of them could go right in the Ken deck. Undaunted, I am going forward into the fray. Since I already gave Ken his own article, you can read it for context, though I'll post the deck list again for reference. Essentially, I wanted to build Ken as a Sunforger deck, something we could consider for Ryu, as well, perhaps. And Guile. Yeah, I don't like that. One Sunforger deck, and it's Ken because the deck is already committed to paper. That leaves us with the problem of what to do about Ryu.

Ryu lends itself to a very powerful Sunforger deck, perhaps better than Ken, which makes me think I should have gone with my original Artificer build. However, something about Ryu made me realize that something that Boros does well when it's not going wide is buffing creatures through a lot of means, not just equipment. There are also auras and, given Ryu's Training keyword ability a better choice, +1/+1 counters. The counters will permanently buff Ryu and allow his fireballs to completely level creatures, dealing excess damage and keeping your hand full.

I don't want to play a ton of creatures in these decks - I played 12, 14 if you consider Lizard Blades and Lion Sash creatures (I don't) and that's probably a good number for the spell-heavy decks. Some of these decks, Dhalsim especially, will want to be creature-heavy but we'll worry about that later. There are so many creatures that could boost Ryu a ton, but I want this deck to FEEL like Ryu is charging up to Hadoken. I'll play some utility creatures, of course, but I want to play spells like Brawl, or Burning Anger. Ryu and Ken are called very samey and maybe in Street Fighter 2 before Championship Edition you could make that argument, but by some of the later releases the characters really diverged a bit and Ken felt more like a finesse character and Ryu felt like a harder hitter. Ken is perfect for some slick Sunforger tricks that feel like throwing a flying knee when they expected a cross-up and chucking them in the corner when you land. With Ryu, I wanted to capture my go-to move when someone blocked my jump kick - a charging overhand punch downward followed by an uppercut. I'll be damned if KO-ing their Commander with Deadshot which taps Ryu so he can untap and throw a Hadoken at another target doesn't fill me with that same energy.

With all of these decks, I want a normal, straightforward way for the decks to play because I plan to mostly lend them out, but I think if there is a less obvious sub-strategy that clever borrowers can figure out, that will feel good to me as a builder. If Ryu is going to be forcing us to Discard, we should be discarding things we can get back from the graveyard. That's right - we're going to have a Ryuanimator subtheme. Not just reanimation, though, because pitching cards like Anger is actively good. We're going to swing hard and look like we're being reckless, throwing away big creatures because we're in a hurry to do a lot of damage quickly only for Ryu to bring back a few of those big creatures to help you finish the opponent off when you obliterate their blockers with a giant Fireball.

Ryu, World Warrior | Commander | Jason Alt

• Commander (1)
• 1 Ryu, World Warrior

• Creatures (26)
• 1 Abzan Battle Priest
• 1 Abzan Falconer
• 1 Adeline, Resplendent Cathar
• 1 Ainok Bond-Kin
• 1 Archetype of Aggression
• 1 Archetype of Courage
• 1 Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice
• 1 Basri's Lieutenant
• 1 Bastion Protector
• 1 Dearly Departed
• 1 Emeria Shepherd
• 1 Feldon of the Third Path
• 1 Heliod, Sun-Crowned
• 1 Hopeful Initiate
• 1 Kami of Celebration
• 1 Karmic Guide
• 1 Keleth, Sunmane Familiar
• 1 Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin
• 1 Light of the Legion
• 1 Luminarch Aspirant
• 1 Mikaeus, the Lunarch
• 1 Nils, Discipline Enforcer
• 1 Tajic, Legion's Edge
• 1 Tempered Veteran
• 1 Victory's Envoy
• 1 Zirda, the Dawnwaker

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 1 Ajani, Caller of the Pride
• 1 Basri Ket
• 1 Elspeth Resplendent

• Instants (8)
• 1 Basri's Solidarity
• 1 Brawl
• 1 Call the Coppercoats
• 1 Commando Raid
• 1 Fists of Flame
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Volt Charge
• 1 Your Temple Is Under Attack

• Sorceries (4)
• 1 Angelfire Ignition
• 1 Collective Effort
• 1 Deadshot
• 1 Swallow Whole

• Enchantments (11)
• 1 Burning Anger
• 1 Cathars' Crusade
• 1 Citadel Siege
• 1 Cleric Class
• 1 Curse of Stalked Prey
• 1 Elemental Mastery
• 1 Felidar Retreat
• 1 Sanctuary Lockdown
• 1 Showdown of the Skalds
• 1 Sigarda's Summons
• 1 Wedding Announcement // Wedding Festivity

• Artifacts (12)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Basilisk Collar
• 1 Boros Signet
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Loxodon Warhammer
• 1 Maul of the Skyclaves
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Paradise Mantle
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Talisman of Conviction
• 1 Thought Vessel

• Lands (35)
• 13 Plains
• 4 Mountain
• 1 Axgard Armory
• 1 Battlefield Forge
• 1 Boros Garrison
• 1 Castle Ardenvale
• 1 Castle Embereth
• 1 Citadel Gate
• 1 Clifftop Retreat
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Forgotten Cave
• 1 Furycalm Snarl
• 1 Idyllic Grange
• 1 Karn's Bastion
• 1 Karoo
• 1 Memorial to Glory
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Rugged Prairie
• 1 Wind-Scarred Crag

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I grouped Ken and Ryu because they are fairly similar-seeming but I think I carved out two very different decks that play more like the characters themselves. Ken and his Sunforger shenanigans are Ken doing a jab Dragon Punch to counter a cross-up attempt, Ryu's +1/+1 counters deck plays more like dumping his whole Super Combo Gauge into a Fireball to roast anyone with the sheer audacity to try and cross him up. This deck, to me, with its hard punches and gradual build to a violent crescendo, feels like the raw power behind Ryu's attacks and that's just what I wanted.

A few notes about this series before I leave you - I think maybe it was a bit dishonest to put "vs" in the title - the decks aren't designed to be paired off, although maybe that's a future project. I didn't include very much removal because I don't really know how much is appropriate until I start jamming these decks against each other. I really agonized over the best way to do this and I realized I was succumbing to analysis paralysis, which is a thing that often happens to me. I decided just to jam some rough drafts out there. I could get feedback, tune, but most importantly, I had a version to build because no agonizing beforehand will be nearly as effective as some testing games. I don't know right know if Ryu can beat the Ken deck if it gets Sunforger. It doesn't feel like Ryu has anything that pairs with him as nicely. What I DO know is that the vibe of this deck is what I want - I want to feel like I'm winding up for a devastating punch or kick. I want Ryu to tap with Elemental Mastery only to untap and blast their Commander into oblivion like he feinted the high roundhouse to provoke a gap closer and he's ready to dump everything into that one perfect fireball to end the round. Everything else I do to tune the deck is minutiae - the deck's identity has been found and it feels almost as good as it did the first time I saw a Street Fighter cabinet in a rest stop on the Ohio turnpike. Either Street Fighter is that good or I just like remembering when I was too young to have to drive part of the way. I choose to believe it's the former. Next week we'll tackle two of the easier-to-define decks; Blanka and E Honda. Don't miss it! Until next time!