@tanto89, i agree on some behalfs, but in many i disagree completely.

To start with, true that nobody uses Butch, but i almost always use ftagn ld in my elo decks. The reason why is if i win first round with Cyb Lhia, 7 of my opponents life goes, unless if reaching 4 prior. However, this only makes it to 7 opponents life without fury. So, if i win with ftagn, i'd gain 3 life, which should go well with Neloe, and then when i lose with C Wing, my opponent will have 4 life, and theyed have to be very tough to beat it.

Back to the point, you appear to treat him such as other soa cards. Okay, so you have him, and choose to use him. Is my grax or Uranus threatened, no, i'll play them with courage, crisis avoided. Although, this does provide them having to dodge around it, there are blind spots left and right. Now with shakaarti, yes, i'd lose 5 damage, to a mere 2. Now what? Well, i've got Dregn, C Beast, and Sekutor who can typicaly make 8 damage, and with fury, that makes a ko. So i can simply use 1 all out with fury, assuming they do not play a damage reducer, and because previously, Shaakarti went, i should go second. If i win the round, i win the fight. Should i lose however, i recover 2 pillz out of 3, and now i can kill you with my others. And then, as for Copper, C Beast makes a decent counter, and so does Sekutor, Dregn has fairly good odds. He just so happens to be only good with his ability, and not many cards are like that.

Whenever i go up against an opponent, i almost always find somebody with a bonus. As for abilities, i could face Glosh, or Cortez, or Dorian, or Cassandra, and many others. The only bonus counters are anything with protect bonus, or Hula pretty much. And the immune clans remain same, Skeelz, Leader, GHEIST, and Roots are immune to both. I'm also pretty sure that win vs lose, you'll find that fighting Ashiko for example, is not gonna be fun.

I'm not too scared of Herman and Nellie, but. The main reason i found these irrelevant was Dorian. And likewise there are better situations for him, refer to Ditha, Oflgn, graxsmxt, Uranus, Kolos, akhab, Emeth, but the reason i dislike him is because hes easy to dodge around. Although, probably takes the 2nd best 4*, because hes not as good as Dagg, but is better than Kronnen, anzd heegrn.

Don't get me wrong, he makes a great card and a great release, i just feel that he is very hard to fit in Vortex decks. Although i do agree, no questions, if he were 5*, no courage, he would be truly better

Oh, and as for a finnisher aspect, he can be useful, but although he can counter damage reducers well, i prefer shakaarti as a finnisher, 1 because Dregn almost always has 5 damage... Ish, as it can only be reduced to 2 minimum, but shakaarti is a good way to counter run of the mill Nightmare and Piranas, and although we could throow in heegrn, we all know how little her power is.

If you use Fhtagn Ld that means you are really in need for 4th (!!) two stars which is really imbalance (usually 3 are more than enough even for a mono)

for X-0DUS
it is easy to dodge him, but that's what I want
you forgot that means it is really easy to read what you are going to do if you will not fight against X-0DUS
it makes your pattern easier to read if you try to avoid him
you have: graks, Stella, Copper, Havok
I know you will go for Stella and know how many pillz should I put
with Shaakarti? you might want to think twice to use her against this draw

X-0DUS is really good as starter, bluff and finisher card (esp finisher part since it can pass through DR)
with Shaakarti, oh SOB, hit me, I got DR (of course sometimes it is not that easy if you have another 8 damage Vortex)
X-0DUS: I can do nothing to stop those 6 damage and they will get me after this or it will be over if this one in

IMO against Shaakarti, except she is the finisher, I would try to use another card to counter her since she is not that threatening for me

don't forget you can use many other Vortex cards in T2 to finish them as long as you have Vortex bonus (not only Shaakarti)

I want to write more but I already reach my word limit
IMO we are talking too many possibilities here we might stop here as it might getting ridiculous
Shaakarti good at something X-0DUS also the same
if you like it, you use it, I tried Shaakarti before and can't wait to try X-0DUS in T2

Alrigt, i'll conclude this.

They both are great for different situations.

For starting, ability stop can easily put of poison.

However, bonus stop may help you beat a lot of cards, but mostly rescues Uppers and montanas, ie, Steve or Pam or Prince Jr, and for t2 say Hefty, or Don.

For finnishing, ability stop can avoid all dam reduction except
Vholt, pussycat bonus, Ivana ability, Bristone, GHEIST cr, Arno, Jeena, Yookie, Dwan, and Redra(i think thats it), which can be useful considering damage reduction can be a pain to get past for finnishers. Idk if the Wonald bug still exists, but if so, we have a counter.

But as for a finnish aspect of shakaarti, if you say got 10 damage on opponent, say lost with C Wing and won with Dregn(sometimes i use C Wing in t2 decks, merely for the 2 hit ko tactic) then Shaakarti doesn't worry about dam reduction. Although, this is rare. The main finnish part is against sob clan bonus... And technically Pussycats, but thats another story!

Aligned with offense capability, its preferance, whether you just look at ability stop and bonus stop the same, and therefore because he has 1 less *, as if he had same attack with 5* he will win, but if you find most bonuses more tedious than abilities(opponents that is) than you may prefer Shaakarti.

Another conclusion i just realize is that it is very rare for xodus's damage to get to 1(Ivana, or Dwan+Vholt) so if you don't really fear these possibilities, which honestly i'm not that sared of, then go ahead and use your preference(even then, Shaakarti has Vholt + Uranus/grax, which is debatebly more or less common).

Obviously there are more counters for soa then sob, so you know.

Last thing i want to say is that when tanto said that if i have 4 2* in my elo deck, which means it lacks 4*, i say you can't really blame me. The only 4* in it is Dagg, and pretty much the rest are bad(speaking before release of exodus). Perhaps i will make a deck with exodus and no ftagn, but before xodus, really the only good choices were heegrn(low power), Krung(low damage), lergh(lets face it, nobody really likes him anyway(lol)) and Kronnen(horrible without revenge. But with the 5*, Dregn is good Sekutor is good C Beast is good, and even Oflgn is good. I wouldn't mind having 4 good 2*, Deea, Dagg, and 2 5*. my reasoning is if the 2* have a deadly tactic, as i mentioned earlier, and my 5* are good, 4 and 3* are good enough, then how can it not be a pretty good deck? Idk, just my opinion. The only flaw is that its really weak towards soa, but i don't really fear that so much. Even if i did, what would i use? Drorb? Izsobahd? C Wing? None of these are as useful as Deea.

So if you see anything flawful in this, feel free to comment o.O

New cards tommorrow! Predictions are Jungo, Junkz, Nightmare, and Montana.

Im hoping for Roots Nightmare Jungo and possibly junta

No... Vortex not junta

God damnit my mind has gone blank....Montana?

I bet Piranas will have an amazing card in 1 or 2 releases. Btw, poison Ivy89, how do you hear of this?

@tititoro
The card releases are pretty close to every 336 hours. The clan predictions are merely guesses. And the forums are fairly easily located after a bit of snooping. So why do you ask?