What do you do when you have two cards with the same name? Why, just write one entirely in lower-case. That’s not at all confusing in conversation. Anyway, akira is exceptionally superior to her capitalized counterpart. She’s one of very few CHAs able to immediately add a card to your hand, therefore giving you an advantage in card economy over your opponent. Additionally, she generates an excellent 5 SP while providing a respectable 500 BP to weaken an opposing CHA before she exits the field.

akira is undoubtedly a meta-viable card, but there’s so many powerful CHAs and ACs in the metagame that she’s arguably not worth the deck space. It’s not that she’s bad, but with only one CHA summon per turn, she has to compete with other resource-impacting cards like Andy and Sougetsu; it’s possible akira just doesn’t have an ideal opportunity to enter the Ring in some games. Her unusually high SP salvages her general value, but her statline is marginally inferior to Rose, who draws so many cards that you might reach whatever you hoped akira would add to hand. She makes decent bait for an overzealous opponent’s Akuma, at least.

I’ve seen the discard effect framed as a heavy cost, and you technically can deck yourself out with it if you’re unlucky, but it’s rarely relevant. At minimum, every deck should run three copies of Best Shot and Lucky Kitty, and just another playset of an AC makes ACs occupy about a fifth of your deck. You should generally hit something pretty quickly, and discard quantities should be small enough that they’re possibly beneficial. It helps you predict your draws, and you’ll almost never use your entire deck in one match.

Legitimately one of the best Abilities in the game, Akuma generates crazy value for almost no effort. Turn three, plop an Akuma down to potentially get a free shot at your opponent’s HP using your character from turn one. Timed right, this can immediately eliminate around half of your opponent’s HP with them unable to do anything about it. If that’s not enough, Akuma’s own BP is high enough to contribute to your offenses after using his Ability. His only flaws are no Back-Ups and no SP generation, but that’s nothing relative to his overall value. You can run up to 3 copies of Akuma without worry.

Beautifully potent in its simplicity. No matter what you get your opponent to discard, you now have one more card’s worth of resources than they do. That’s worth its weight in gold as is, but Andy has great stats to boot. 800 BP matches many other prominent triangle Ability characters, and 3 SP is the magic number for first-turn plays, as it covers both Lucky Kitty and Makeover. Andy even overpowers Sougetsu by 100 BP! An easy card to recommend multiple copies of.

Pretty much powercreep for all other characters with retreat Abilities. Same utility, but with the bonus of KOing an enemy. B.B. Hood is quite a good card for mid to endgame, but isn’t worth it in an optimized deck. Her flaw comes from the fact that you’re using your one character summon per turn to set up a single KO, which really slows your tempo. Compare it to playing a high BP character that can survive at least two battle encounters; that’s three turns of value as opposed to B.B. Hood’s two.

While weaker than Andy, Billy makes up for it in other ways; he can view the opponent’s entire hand and select which card to discard (so long as it’s an AC card). If there’s no cards to discard, you get valuable information on your opponent’s hand and a tolerable statline from Billy. Billy can also support Krauser for when you want to make an offensive, game-ending push.

I think Billy is likely essential for PvP, but against the AI, one could justify not playing him. It’s not uncommon for the AI to have no AC cards in their hand when Billy comes out, and if there’s only one, Stifler can take care of it without costing you your one character-play per turn.

Bit of a weird Ability. The Freeze clause seemingly only exists to make this a kamikaze attack, as CHAs Freeze after using Abilities anyway. When comparing his Ability to similar ones like that of Haggar and Akari (P), C. Commando’s is the weakest and most conditional, but he does possess the highest statline of the trio, with Haggar’s 700 BP and Akari (P)’s SP +4.

Is that enough to make up for his comparatively lesser Ability? No, not really. Since C. Commando has to wait a turn after being played to use his Ability, a human player can see what you’re intending a mile away and just not allow you to profit as much as you’d like from its use by withholding attacks. Even in PvE, having to be reactionary towards your opponent is too slow and risky. To get the most of the Ability, you’re incentivized to take three attacks from an opponent’s full Ring, and that’s just not good. C. Commando is best seen as a great filler card for the campaign. Use him for his high stats, and in the unlikely scenario his Ability happens to be useful, take advantage of it.

Chun-Li’s Ability is one of the hardest to deal with in all of Card Fighters. Being able (and incentivized) to use it at low or no SP is nuts relative to its effect. It’s arguably better than if it outright KO’d your opponent’s characters, because they’re now prevented from playing new characters and triggering their Abilities/generating SP. Now only able to threaten 300 HP of direct damage a turn, they’re completely at your mercy for clearing their own field. You also ensure they have at most 100 BP to reduce the damage of one of your Pair-Up attacks. Timed right, Chun-Li is nothing short of devastating. Run as many as you want.

Holy Toledo! Daigo’s Ability potentially makes him the strongest-possible CHA card upon being played, surpassing Geese and Zero Akuma by just 100 BP. It’s cool that they gave Daigo a technical advantage over those, but as one acquires good cards, it gradually becomes harder to justify using Daigo in meta decks. High BP often isn’t as valuable as an exceptional Ability, and if you do need high BP, the unconditionally high stats of cards like Krauser and Mech Zangief eclipse the rare opportunities Daigo has to acquire 400 more BP (not to mention he has no SP gain). Quite a good tech card for single-player, but ought to be phased out eventually.

Fans of Dan can rejoice, because he’s genuinely a good card unlike his deliberately pathetic showings in most fighting games. Dan’s Ability is the largest one-sided SP-lowering effect in Card Fighters, and as a triangle Ability, it’s also fast. His stats are average but not unusable, which in totality makes him a versatile card that provides field presence while draining the opponent’s resources. That said, it’s easy enough to manipulate one’s own SP that I think Orochi is still a superior way of depleting an opponent’s SP. Also, I don’t think targeting the opponent’s SP is as potent as lowering their card economy via discarding effects and Sougetsu. If you’re lucky enough to obtain Dan early on, you can use him for a very long time.

Don’t be fooled by his ridiculous name and appearance; Duck King is way better than you might expect. Due to his Ability, he’s at minimum a 600 BP/SP +3 C-rarity card, which is about as high as that rarity’s stats go. Duck King’s true strength, however, lies in his element of surprise. AI and human players alike will often make attacks based on their perceived risk of being counterattacked, and a subsequent Duck King can suddenly give your side enough BP needed to KO your opponent. Timed right, they literally can’t predict or counter this.

Outside of those “Duck King for game” moments (which are more common than you may think), Duck King is useful for making your Ring’s CHA stats equal to your opponent’s so that you can trade one-for-one in battles, freeing up your Ring while keeping your opponent from building up their own. Remember, a Duck King in the hand is worth two in the bush. Or something.

Evil Ryu is rather interesting. He unambiguously has the weakest spot-removal Ability in the game, but he also provides the most SP out of any of them, potentially allowing even more aggressive play than cards like Akuma/Wild Iori.

As your deck becomes more optimized, Evil Ryu’s condition becomes harder to fulfill; you’ll be removing CHAs via Abilities and KOing through counterattacks so frequently that your opponent will often not even make it to Freeze! On the other hand, a vanilla 700 BP / +3 SP card isn’t too bad, if you’re forced to play Evil Ryu without his Ability.

I think Evil Ryu isn’t as essential as Akuma/Wild Iori/Yashiro, but he’s still quite good. With three copies of all of those, enough draw power, and other impactful, more versatile Abilities like those of Sougetsu and Andy, Evil Ryu can feel redundant in an optimized deck.

Galford is a fantastic card to fill out your deck before acquiring rarer, more powerful cards. He’s essentially a “free” card, replacing himself while providing field presence to defend your HP or just chip away at the opponent. Eventually, you’ll have enough strong effects to where you no longer want to waste a once-per-turn summon on drawing a random card, but until you get there, Galford should be glued to your deck. As gravy, Galford has Back-Up compatibility with several other decent midgame cards like Nakoruru and Rimururu.

If there’s ever a sizable PvP meta for Card Fighters, I suspect Guile would be a centralizing tech card. Triangle Abilities are generally the best cards in the game, and shutting them off can quickly put your opponent on their backfoot. The safest turn one play in the entire game might be to just plop down Guile, preventing your opponent from generating advantage with Akuma, Andy, Sougetsu, and any number of viable triangle Abilities. 700 BP is also enough to tank at least one attack from many decent characters. If you’re using Guile, you’re obviously incentivized to not rely too heavily on triangle Abilities in your deck, so you should build around him. Countering Guile encourages standard meta decks to consider slower, costlier alternatives to card removal such as square Abilities and Action cards.

Well, that’s a bit extreme, isn’t it? Indeed, Haggar has one of the most destructive Abilities in the entire game. Depending on the situation, shuffling cards back is more harmful than KOing them, because your opponent can’t as effectively thin their deck for more predictable draws.

I think Haggar is best used for overcoming disadvantage from going second. If you go second, play Haggar, keep him alive for your next turn, then clean the Ring of CHAs and put down a new one; it’s as if you went first, now! Sort of. In reality, you have to take at least one direct attack; two, if Haggar can’t survive counterattacking either CHA. Haggar’s statline is awkward, as he’s KO’d by even some of the weaker meta-viable cards like Sougetsu. Who’s he intercepting? Saki? akira? Rose? Still, Haggar is an interesting card with unique strategic applications, and he also counters Chun-Li or Guile well.

In terms of card design, Hiryu is the kind of card I’d love to see more of. He’s extremely well-balanced. His BP is on the high side but not among the heaviest hitters, but his SP gain is unusually high relative to CHAs with greater BP. While Krauser/Mech Zangief are exceptions to that rule, Hiryu still has something they don’t have: a decent Ability. Everything about Hiryu is well-considered enough to make him a decent addition to any deck.

But is he an optimal addition? That’s the question. I think Hiryu’s versatility is undermined by the metagame’s lacking need of versatility. Akuma is a meta staple even though he’s not necessarily versatile (0 SP gain) because his polarizing trait, his Ability, is just that impactful. Furthermore, Hiryu’s Ability, one of the things that ought to be justifying his stats, isn’t that great in meta settings. The best cards in the game rarely back Back-Up compatibility, so it’s common to go entire games without either player using Back-Up—in which case, Hiryu’s Ability may as well not even exist.

In the single-player campaign, however, Hiryu is excellent. Even the toughest AI opponents tend to run some CHAs seemingly just for the purpose of Back-Up, so Hiryu having a target isn’t that rare. While 900 BP / +3 SP is nothing to scoff at, an optimized deck should have enough choices for either raw stats or powerful Abilities to not need to bother with Hiryu. I think Jin Saotome is broadly a better Hiryu. He loses 100 BP for 1 more SP, so he breaks even stat-wise, but his Ability is so much easier to utilize. Hiryu not needing to KO himself is great, but you can easily turn that into an advantage for Jin Saotome because you always want one open space in your Ring at the start of your turn

Of mild interest is Hiryu being able to receive Back-Up three times from Option. Option is kind of a bad card on its own, but if you were going to attempt long-term field control with Hiryu’s Ability, you could replenish his BP with Option, delaying the need to get Hiryu off the field. I don’t think this is a meta-viable strategy because of having to waste deck space on Option, but it’s an amusing thought.

One of the few destruction Abilities worth a look for an optimized deck. What really counts is 800 BP is just enough to run over top-tier Ability cards like Sougetsu, and you obviously want Jin Saotome as close to 100 BP as possible before KOing him, getting the most value out of him. Also, his +4 SP is unusually high for an 800+ BP character with an Ability. With an incentive to play him early, more opportunities will come up for Jin to counter specific BP totals that leave him close to KO. Jin Saotome can receive up to three Back-Up from Blodia, but Blodia is a lousy card by the endgame, and you don’t typically want Jin to overstay his welcome with more BP. Though it’s worth noting that one Back-Up puts him above 1000 BP characters.

Good lord. What an absolute unit. Krauser’s stats speak for themselves. Only two other cards have higher base BP (Geese and Zero Akuma), but they don’t provide any SP like Krauser. I think that’s enough to make Krauser and his Capcom counterpart Mech Zangief preferable. If you’re immediately sniped by Akuma or Wild Iori, you don’t eat a net loss of resources thanks to gaining 5 SP. On top of that, 5 SP is enough to fuel a Unite Attack, which is obviously going to hit pretty damn hard when this guy’s involved. And if that’s not enough, Krauser is one of the few meta-viable cards able to receive Back-Up from another meta-viable card: Billy. That doesn’t apply in reverse, but you’d probably never want to lose a Krauser just to give Billy +300 BP.

Upon first glance, Kyoko may seem redundant; you have to play her at the start of your turn to use her Ability, but CHAs unfreeze at the start of every turn, anyway? The real benefit of Kyoko is that you can play her after your CHAs use any square Abilities, freeing them up for an attack or a second use of their Ability!

If you’re building a deck that relies on square Abilities, Kyoko is essential for making it even remotely playable. However, the fact you need Abilities like hers on-hand along with your square Ability CHAs means that your deck will be inherently more inconsistent than meta strategies that rely on triangle Abilities. Kyoko also struggles to be useful as a general utility CHA because her stats are just barely not good enough to cut it as an impromptu fighter. Her Back-Up options are lousy, too. A good card in niche decks, but that’s all.

Probably one of the best C-rarity cards in the game, Leona can last you all the way until the final boss. The utility of her Ability can’t be underestimated. Abilities that can KO upon play break the natural stalemate of each player setting down one character a turn, letting you make direct attacks to the opponent’s HP. Her BP/SP are only average, but they’re enough to pick off a second weakling while building resources. All of her Back-Up options are solid early to midgame cards, too.

An all-around great card. Juni and Juli are nothing to write home about on their own; they’re pretty weak characters. But they can Back-Up M. Bison’s already impressive 800 BP for a total value of 1400 BP. That takes two more turns, but you get an excellent +4 SP while becoming nearly as strong as Geese/Zero Akuma, who generate no SP in exchange for 1500 BP. Also, pulling Juni and Juli thins your deck and increases your odds of drawing the cards you want, and lets you draw more cards from Makeover. You can even use them as discard fodder for Rose. Shopping can help you reuse M. Bison’s effect as well, should it ever be useful to. But what really seals the deal is that even without Juni/Juli (i.e., if you draw them before using M. Bison), M. Bison is simply a strong card.

I think Morrigan’s Ability can be overvalued somewhat by some players. Needing to attack directly disincentivizes you from using Unites, which are extremely important, and otherwise requires you to lead attacks with higher-BP CHAs so the opponent counters them while allowing an attack from Morrigan through. Unless you have a full field, you can’t even use a Unite in that scenario without giving up Morrigan’s Ability.

Recovering HP is all well and good, but you don’t need HP if you just… win before it runs out in the first place. Morrigan’s genuinely good statline can help you reach the finish line faster regardless, but it can be met or exceeded by more proactive CHAs like Andy and Sougetsu. More HP doesn’t necessarily get you to victory, but merely delays a potential loss. Andy and Sougetsu directly get you closer to winning, which also decreases the likelihood that a game goes on long enough to where you need more HP. Also, human players can’t be as easily tricked into allowing Morrigan attacks to go through. When choosing between an 800 BP CHA and a 700 BP Morrigan, they’ll obviously counterattack the latter. Morrigan is an excellent card for the entire campaign, but isn’t worth considering for the meta.

As odd as it is to say about an effect that reads as powerful, I think Nakoruru is a bit overvalued for being one of the game’s rarest cards. By the time you can obtain her, most manual (square) Abilities are too slow to be worth it, and there are plenty of faster (triangle) Abilities that impact card economy like Sougetsu and Andy. Sure, they affect economy by hindering the opponent rather than supporting you, but that’s worth their superior stats.

If that comparison is too abstract, then consider akira: same BP, gives two more SP, and immediately adds the next AC card in your deck to your hand. You don’t necessarily have a greater likelihood of getting a better card than that from Nakoruru, despite her being slower and weaker. The metagame moves too quickly to have Nakoruru sit there and draw cards for several turns. She’s a good card for the campaign, but good luck even getting her during that time.

Possibly the only HP-regenerating card that’s worth a damn, Nakoruru’s 500 HP gain is the minimum of what can be considered significant. But what seals the deal is her respectable BP and downright good SP generation. In other words, Nakoruru (C) is good because it’s all-around helpful. She shouldn’t be in an optimal deck—there’re just too many more impactful cards—but she’s definitely good enough to contribute for the entirety of the single-player campaign.

One of the more interesting passive Abilities in the game. 200 BP might not seem like much, but it can punish your opponent for trying to block high-BP attacks with near-death characters. In a best-case scenario, Nakoruru (T) has at least 1200 BP’s worth of value paired with her always great SP generation. Her Ability works the turn she’s played, so you can completely blindside opponents. And of course, you can also choose to have her sit on your field for a few turns, if the situation calls for it.

Pyron is an amazing card that rewards you for being aggressive with your SP usage, which you’re already incentivized to do for Unites and Action cards. By keeping him on the field long-term, you can overwhelm your opponent’s own SP economy. His BP is also respectable, and once it gets low, you can avoid your opponent counterattacking Pyron by hiding it behind Unites. This earns you the chip damage Pyron would’ve gotten from attacking separately while ensuring Pyron’s safety and your SP is lower than your opponent’s.

A very interesting Ability. 600 BP/+3 SP is only a decent statline on its own, but Q-Bee can Back-Up herself for a potential of 1200 BP over three turns. It might not seem worth the wait, but Q-Bee’s true value is in boosting your card economy. She thins your deck so you can more easily predict your draws, and she can provide more draws from Makeover. Even without using Back-Up, it can be worth the security of having a CHA to play every turn. Open a game with five AC cards and one Q-Bee? No problem! That’s enough to have full CHA zones in three turns. While not as individually strong as M. Bison, Q-Bee makes up for it by requiring less deck space (three cards instead of three to five) and being stronger than Juli and Juni. You also don’t waste a “draw” like you can with Juli and Juni.

Well, Roll is certainly much better in Card Fighters than she is in Marvel vs. Capcom, but she’s still hardly a meta contender. Regardless, she’s quite good if you’re lucky enough to obtain her in the early game. Even though she damages herself, Roll can clear the opponent’s Ring of low-BP stragglers that may defend their HP.

Her self-destruction can even be a blessing on occasion, as it may prevent her from clogging up your Ring. You can keep her around for a bit longer depending on how useful you find her, and if you’ve collected any copies of Mega Man, a decent card with Back-Up compatibility. Man, that 0 SP generation is super uncalled for, though.

For a B-rarity card, Rose’s Ability is completely insane. Going four cards into your deck is enough for her to eclipse every other draw-based CHA Ability. Her ridiculous SP gain also matches or exceeds her competitors, and allows the player to immediately use cards like Lucky Kitty to gain even more cards. The discard “cost” is practically a joke. Simply discard the least valuable cards in your hand, and you’ll have a stronger hand than from before you played Rose every time. The fact you get one more card than what you discard is just hilarious. Even Rose’s BP is decent. Ludicrously good card; consider running three copies of her in anything. You’ll never have trouble getting what you need again.

Well, that’s quite extreme. Sagat can potentially nuke an opponent’s entire hand, and whether he does or doesn’t, his stats are exceptionally high. The power of this card is beyond question, though its double-edged nature warrants consideration. In my experience, an optimal deck can run enough Action cards that Sagat is heavily encouraged to stay in the hand, which isn’t helpful. Best Shot/Lucky Kitty/Psyche Up alone take up about a fifth of one’s deck. Also, most AI opponents don’t run that many AC cards, so Sagat might not earn his keep relative to his risk. Against human decks, though? He’s a beast.

Given that the most powerful and varied effects in Card Fighters broadly come from character cards, Saki’s usefulness only grows as you acquire cards. While her searching effect is somewhat slow—you can generally only use what you searched on your next turn, even with draw power—being able to grab exactly what you need for any situation undeniably overcomes that handicap. Topping things off, Saki has an acceptable BP and SP+2, which is good for tempo. That all said, Saki is mostly power-crept by Rose. Rose draws so many cards that you can usually work with not necessarily getting what you want, she doesn’t use your next draw phase, and she gives 3 more SP.

An intriguing counter to Action card-heavy decks, which I expect would be the bulk of the meta. Many of the best Action cards are also the cheapest, and Shiki (T) puts a damper on one’s ability to combo-off in a single turn. It can obviously work against you, but you can attempt to exhaust your Action cards before playing Shiki (T) and just rely on characters while your opponent desperately tries to KO it. Since you can choose to never have Shiki (T) battle, your biggest concern should be KO Abilities like Akuma and Wild Iori. By combining Shiki (T) with Guile, you can create a pretty effective lockdown. Shiki (T)’s great stats and stun effect make her an effective first-turn play.

An excellent card and one of the most versatile characters in Card Fighters. Slowing down your opponent’s card economy is universally valuable, as is his 700 BP and +3 SP. 3 SP is enough to play Lucky Kitty, immediately causing a difference of two in card economy. Devastating! Sougetsu’s only flaw is that he’s far more valuable than his Back-Ups, so don’t expect anything from that in an optimized deck.

With 200 more BP, Wild Iori may seem like a linear upgrade to Akuma, but it really depends on your opponent’s deck makeup. Plenty of characters with good Abilities fall under 800 BP, though there are certainly many who broach it, as well. In any case, it’s advisable to use both Wild Iori and Akuma, since the field advantage their Abilities generates is maybe the most critical element of the entire metagame.