Symbol Structure: Death on Two Legs

What are my strengths?

• Targeted Destruction: For those unaware, there is a huge difference between abilities that say "your opponent destroys 1 foundation" and ones that say "Destroy 1 of your opponent's foundations." For the former, your opponent gets to choose which they destroy, and in the latter you get to choose. Death is your place to go for targeted destruction and removal! 

• Forcing your opponent into bad situations: This isn’t a mechanical gimmick for the most part, though there are certainly cards such as Homing Missiles or Casa de Leviathan that bring this to a very literal point. This can also mean an ability that makes your opponent hesitate to block, or even punishing your opponent for taking momentum! 

What are my weaknesses?

• Speed Pump: You might not have much trouble sticking damage on your attacks, but this symbol doesn’t have access to a nice spam foundation to pump speed like other symbols have. Or at least, uhhh, not one that is good at it. Some speed pump tends to be gated behind something like having more characters than your opponent, or a hefty cost. If you can find yourself some speed pump that is accessible to your deck, you’re likely going to want it!

• Costly Effects: Death has some of the most useful cards on the market right now, but a lot of these abilities come with hefty costs. A simple “E Commit” is too much for these cards, they would much rather you get rid of the foundation entirely, or sometimes it’s just a flip cost, making the ability effectively once per game.  

Big name cards

• Spirit Shotgun: Point and shoot. This is one of the biggest (and usually easiest) kill conditions in standard.
• The Toguro Brothers: If your opponent’s foundation is doing something you don’t like, this shuts it off for good.
• Kirin Soul: If your opponent has got a throw, or perhaps an effect like Spirit Shotgun, then this is your key to living!
• Dragon's Tongue: This baby can reset the entire game. If your opponent just built out a few foundations on their turn and are holding a whole bunch of cards, that probably means that they are building up a hand full of attacks to kill you with. If you drop a Dragon’s Tongue on them, then all of the attacks in their hand become useless and they have to try and draw foundations again.
• Guardian of the Spirit Sword: Consistent, potent speed reduction. If you are running an asset you need for your gameplan, or one that does things on block, then this becomes immediately more valuable. 

Common commons

• Wishing Ward: Quick and easy momentum denial, and on a 0 difficulty! 
• Friends and Rivals: A good trade of 1 for 2 in most cases. If you are running reversals, then this becomes incredibly stronger.
• Ridding the World of Outsiders: If you want a speed pump, this is one of your best places to get it, but the potent ability on it doesn’t even affect your current attack :( 
• Spirale Divina: A card that remains viable throughout all points of the game. It draws you a card for free in the early game, and can bring some pain in the late game.
• Shell of a Proud Man: This puppy can essentially turn off an entire attack with only a flip! Don’t forget that this also includes the Throw keyword!

Off-symbol beauties

• Know the Power of the Abyss!: If you are running even 1 reversal, this guy can easily grab it for you, and with a huge speed reduction on top of that!
• Bang!: A second shared symbol with Bang, and a second appearance of it. This card can define a matchup, and should not be ignored, even as a sideboard slot!

In conclusion

Death is in a great place these days, and has lots of great characters. It is very versatile and has multiple single-card kill conditions. It’s not exactly the symbol you go to if you want to draw a ton of cards, and it probably won’t be exploding your opponent to death on turn 2, but it is quite consistent and sturdy.