Evil has been fairly dominant for the last couple of months.  Jon Herr and James Hata have shown us that in the face of adversity evil has still been able to prevail and win.  With placing 1st at Canadian Nationals, 2nd at US Nationals and 1st place at the East Coast Championship, this symbol has shown it's pedigree and has proven time and time again that it's here to stay.

With the World Championships two weeks, this is a quick primer on how Ibuki is able to decimate her opponents quickly.

The poster boy or girl for evil in this instance is 4 dot Ibuki.  She has many qualities that put her above other evil characters in general.  The fact that she is a female, has 7 hand size and has the best finisher in the game greatly place her as the character of choice.

This is a basic Ibuki build for the new current format. 

1x ::Ibuki::
3x Tsurane Kiri
4x Infiltrating
4x Chain Throw
4x Kasumi Suzaku
3x Rejection
4x Kung-Fu Training
4x Absurd Strength
3x Addes Syndicate
3x Olcadan's Mentoring
4x Megalomania
4x Unrequitted Love
4x Higher Calibur
4x Blood Runs True
4x Red Lotus
4x Shinobi Tradition
4x Georgous Team
3x Pieces of Eight

Sideboard:
3x Ninjitsu
2x Trade Your Passions For Glory
3x Chinese Sword Style  

Average Check: 4.36
2 Check Percentage: 5%
3 Check Percentage: 20%
4 Check Percentage: 16%
5 Check Percentage: 53%
6 Check Percentage: 5% 

Ibuki has lots of hidden card advantage and tempo advantage that no other evil character can compare with.  Let’s start with the card drawing engine of this deck; Higher Caliber, Blood Runs True, and The Gorgeous Team.  The Gorgeous Team allows you to selectively bring cards from discard pile.  This supplements your defense with Rejection, and any random assortments of blocks and injury assets depending on your situation and deck build.  It also is proactive in giving you the foundations and actions you require to secure your board position and potentially kill your opponent with.  Blood Runs True is also another card that smoothes out those draws by proactively providing you with cards while reducing your opponents checks when they blocking or reacting with actions.  Blood Runs True provides you with cards while ensuring your beat down remains unhindered.  The last piece of the puzzle is Higher Calibre.  I categorize this as real card advantage and virtual card advantage for various reasons. 

1st of all, this card provides your deck with card advantage and tempo advantage in various manners.  By readying Blood Runs True, this card provides you with cards in hand.  By working with The Gorgeous, this card works hard by providing you with more options and giving you hard advantage card advantage by providing you with absurd strengths and Kung Fu trainings.  Lastly, this card provides you with virtual card advantage when you need it by only allowing your opponent to have 2 more enhances on the enhance phase of your attack or their attack. 

Kasumi Suzaku is easily one of best attacks in the game at this moment.  It is always the correct play to play Kasumi Suzaku on the 1st turn.  The card rewards you for correct deck building and for playing aggressively.  By playing Kasumi Suzaku on the 1st turn, you only set yourself up for further beat down potential via chain throw and give yourself card advantage by emptying your hand and allowing yourself to draw more cards on the subsequent turn.  Think of it as a small investment to get a huge payoff on the next turn. 

Chain throw is the golden boy of the deck; it stuns, provides card advantage by getting you more attacks and is absurd-able.  Did I mention it is a throw?
Tsurane Kiri is a personal choice of mine over reverse flair.  The reverse flair is better against rejection, but Tsurane Kiri has chaos and is able to trigger megalomania thus nullifying their defenses, so it is a matter of preference.  Infiltrating works hard as an attack, it’s speed up to 9 speed by 1 unrequited love, draws you a card (remember the hidden card drawing) and is absurd-able. It also has a nasty action side that ensures you remain ahead in tempo or just nullifies your opponents defence when you wish to attack with Kasumi Suzaku kind of like what Jon Herr did at the Can Nats Finals.  

The rest of the foundations/assets carry 2 roles; protection and increasing your chances of killing players quickly via speed boost, and anti-defense.  Shinobi tradition allows you to kill opponents on turn 2 by making sure you pass your checks with relative ease.  With Addes Syndicate, Pieces of Eight and The Red Lotus of the Sun, you are able to have comfortable soft blanket of defense and will have the negation power to most threats that your opponent will be tossing your way.  

 Why is :: Ibuki :: better then . Ibuki . and .: Ibuki :. ? Her R:ability that gives you a +3 to your check, and some other minor drawbacks.  With the right hand, it is conceivable that she is able to kill a low vitality character on turn 1 by ensuring that she passes all her attacks. She abuses Infiltrating almost as good as Matt Kohls (the character), as she can play and pass infiltrating on a whim with no foundations.  With Infiltrating, you are able to play it on turn 1 provided you go 2nd and always pass it even if you check a 2.  This lets you essentially always go 1st, and sets your opponent back a turn, and if your opponent counters with Kung Fu Training, you are most likely still able to pass a second infiltrating, and are able to continue your set up your board position and if you feel gutsy or lucky, you can tack on a Suzaku at the end of that play.