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| − | See also: [[Jaina (PS)]] | + | See also: [[Jaina (PS)]], [[Jaina (FD)]] |
Revision as of 19:54, 24 May 2013
Jaina Stormborne, Phoenix Archer
Kick ass, take names, use fire!
Jaina's fiery temper goes hand-in-hand with her fiery attacks. Don't look at her wrong, or cross her brother Grave, or she'll have some words for you, and maybe her knee, too. She fights with a magic bow, strung with fire, and she taps the power of red phoenix dragons.
Jaina often overextends herself in combat, trying things beyond her mastery. This extra spunk can overwhelm enemies, but also results in her own injuries and burns. Master Midori does not approve.
Card images
Strategy
Introduction
Jaina is a "control" character. Her main plan is to build up a large hand and become unstoppable. Few characters can deal with a full-hand Jaina. Her late-game power is brutal since
Unstable Power allows her to "cheat" a combat win from a loss, and a single successful combat can lead to 30 damage. In the late game, characters need to dodge more, but Jaina's
Smoldering Embers can make that too painful.
The basics
Jaina's most powerful move:
Unstable Power.
Attack is clearly Jaina's best option. The ability to buyback cards for a bit of life is amazing, and being able to get card advantage for a low price makes using attacks as combat cards very good.
Jaina's weaknesses
Jaina has few blocks and throws, and one of her blocks is on her
most powerful ability . She needs to block, and a successful block for her is better than most of the cast, but she has very few block cards to use, which can be problematic.
Her throws are slow, and she does not have many. One of her throws can't even combo. Her throws overlap her blocks; when you throw someone, you are also losing a block. Jaina is card efficient because of her
innate ... which doesn't trigger on throws! This makes it a large sacrifice to combo off of her throws in the early game.
The common mistake
Most people think that since she has powerful attacks, the best plan is to attack early and often. This doesn't actually work well because she lacks good throws, especially early on, so there is little to prevent the opponent from spamming blocks. As you desperately throw to force them to open themselves to attacks, you realize you have no blocks left, and are looking at a hand full of dodges and attacks. With no options left, you proceed to lose.
The plan
Early game
Jaina's late-game is very powerful, so your plan is to reach that point. Spam blocks to grow your hand. The purpose of your attacks, at this point, should be to protect those blocks: the threat of your attacks should make your opponent scared to throw. The fact that you are spamming blocks should dissuade your opponent from attacking. In the end, many combats will end up as Block vs. Block, which is exactly what you want. So let your opponent try to get at you, and try to connect your attacks into their throws.
As a recap:
Spam blocks, play attacks to threaten the opponent's throws. Only throw if they decide to settle into a predictable Block vs Block rhythm. If you are sure you are going to win, then go ahead and throw... but unless you have a throw-heavy hand, it is a disaster to lose combat on a throw.
Late game
So, you have lots of damage in hand. You have a couple of
Unstable Power , and some
Smoldering Embers in the discard pile. You have the nuts. What to do now?
Spam dodges. If they attack, kill. If they throw, use Unstable Power and kill. If they dodge, enjoy the damage from
Embers and powerup with them for an
Ace or two to immediately get them back into your discard pile. If they block, just shrug and repeat.
That said, you should still throw sometimes. Otherwise, your opponent can just block back until you run out of dodges.
- What if I'm facing Grave or Argagarg , who can counter my Unstable Power ?
For that reason, Grave and Argagarg are the hardest matchups for Jaina. What to do? Well, you still have a stronger lategame. With a big hand, your combos are stronger than theirs. You are faster than Argagarg. They still will suffer if they want to dodge, but Arg doesn't need to dodge to beat you.
Against Grave, you still have a good game if you manage to put 2+
Smoldering Embers in the discard pile. Then he is going to have trouble dodging your attacks. Against Argagarg, just use your superior speed and stronger combos to win.
Card Analysis
2 ,
3 ,
4 ,
5 A/D: Use them as straights in the early game, and as dodges in the late game. You'll often want to buy them back, since it's important to have dodges late. Early on, it's ok to play straights to get
Aces . Throwing into a 3 card straight is sometimes ok, but sometimes not - it's a hard decision. In the late game, these cards are also good to fill the throw combo: Throw -> 5 ->
AA .
6 A/T: This is a very good card because it's a throw that's not on a block card. It's not a fast throw, it doesn't KD, and it can't combo. But, well, it's a throw. If I want to throw, I use them quite a bit. I find it particularly good against grapplers if I have an Unstable Power in hand, as you can flip into 6-attack ->
K+ ->
AA , and then buy back the cards. It's also the best combo filler, and enables a 31 damage throw combo.
7 B/T UP: Unstable Power and her fastest throw. This card should probably be used as Unstable Power 99% of the time against characters without counter abilities. The ability is brutally good. The most common way to use this is to dodge and flip into attack, but blocking and flipping into a throw is ok too.
8 T/B,
9 T/B
10 T/B: The throws and blocks.
Jack A/A: This card exists mostly as combo food. In certain situations, especially early game, you can use the Charged Shot side. It's good to use if you know the opponent is going to block and you don't have blocks and throws (this happens sometimes early on). This is also good to use if you know the chances of the opponent attacking early on are close to zero (a common situation against
Rook and
Midori, but it also happens against others). That said, you will mostly use J to end a combo or to trade for
Aces .
Queen A/A: Your main combo attack. Some Jaina players rely a lot on spamming Q. Some others barely spam it, since it doesn't combo into anything. It's still very fast and does quite a bit of damage if pumped.
King A/A: This is a decent combat card, as it does quite a bit of chip damage and can be comboed from. It's also nice to to do combos like (normal -> K+K+K ->
AA ). It's also ok to throw into it (Throw -> K+K+K ->
J ). It's a sad card if you only have one, though. When that's the case, you'll generally just throw it away as a pumper to
Q , or as a facedown bluff.
Ace A/A: This is Jaina's core source of damage. This is how your combos do a lot of damage. It's also a good combat card. You can open with Letter J (AA), too: it does 4 chip damage and is very fast. Have in mind that if you don't have three aces, your dodges are not scary. Since dodges are the core of Jaina's late-game strategy, try to keep four aces in your hand so your dodges are a threat to your opponent.
Jokers : Use as combo escape. Always. You need life, which is what combo escapes give you. You have great attacks, and don't need Gold Bursts to fill your attacking range. If you ever Gold Burst, you made the wrong move.
Credit to WaterD for this strategy guide.
See also: Jaina (PS), Jaina (FD)
