[Fan Character] John Cena

Shoto distribution with Grappler Speeds. Has a versatile, but “slow” Big Throw Super. Face Card combos lead to big dumb super knockdown setups.

90 Health, 4 Combo Points
Moves of Doom: Face Cards count towards Straights.
Resiliency: If given the option to search for Two Aces, John Cena may instead search for a Joker from the deck. [Three of a kind power up, or a 4 card straight.]
Normal Attack: .8 Speed, X Damage
Normal Throws: .0 Speed, 9 Damage, 2 CP Starter, Knockdown

2 - A/D
3 - A/D
4 - A/D
5* - A/B
6 - A/B
7 - T/B
8 - T/B
9 - T/B
10 - A*/T
J* (Shoulder Block) - Attack, 2.2 Speed, 6 (1) Damage, 2 CP Linker
J (Clothesline) - Attack, 2.4 Speed, 8 (3) Damage, 1 CP Ender, Knockdown
Q* (Spin-Out Powerbomb) - Throw, 4.6 Speed, 9 Damage, Can’t Combo
K (5 Knuckle Shuffle) - Attack, 5.0 Speed, 7 (3) Damage, Can’t Combo, Knockdown
K (Rising Knuckle Shuffle) - Attack, 0.4 Speed, 9 (2) Damage, Can’t Combo
AA (Attitude Adjustment) - Throw, 1.2 Speed, 20 Damage, Can’t Combo
AAAA (Shinku Attitude Adjustment) - Throw, 9.6 Speed, 40 Damage, 3 CP Ender

Abilities:
5* (You Can’t See Me) If this card is used in the bluff phase and the opponent doesn’t follow up, return this card to your hand and draw an additional card.

10 Attack Side* (Disrespect) 10.8 Speed, 1 Damage, Can’t Combo. If this Attack wins combat or is blocked draw an additional card and search your Deck or Discard for a Face card.

J* (Shoulder Block) Combos into Q* (Spin-Out Powerbomb)

Q* (Spin-Out Powerbomb) Combos into K (5 Knuckle Shuffle)

Notes:
-The face card combos function like Yomi EX Mode’s Jaina/Grave. Basically Shoulder Block > Spin-Out Powerbomb > 5 Knuckle Shuffle. Clothesline and Rising Knuckle Shuffle don’t combo off or into Face Cards.
-Normal Attack into a Face Card combo just leads to a single straight. Ex. 6JQK is only a straight for JQK.

Sample Combos
2345 - 14 Damage, 2 Aces or a Joker
234 Clothesline - 18 Damage, 1 Ace, Knockdown
Throw > 6 Clothesline- 24 Damage, Knockdown
JJQK - 28 Damage, 1 Ace, Knockdown
56>JQK - 33 Damage, 1 Ace, Knockdown
Throw > JQK - 31 Damage 1 Ace, Knockdown
Normal into AAAA - 40+ Damage

7 Likes

At a glance, he seems pretty fair!

I would maybe lower the damage off his Q and raise the damage on his K, just so that explosive JQK ender is a little less consistent. Right now, it seems like just 56JQ/throwJQ are as good or better than ending with K: DPs are really good, and discarding them for +5 damage (and an Ace) doesn’t seem all that tempting. Or maybe Q doesn’t KD, but K still does? I don’t know how much value Cena gets off knockdown.

3 Likes

As a Big Bonk Onimaru player, this warms my heart.

2 Likes

For whatever reason I wasn’t thinking of just JQ for combos!

Yeah that makes a lot of sense. I think I’m more inclined to remove the KD off Q just because its more consistent with most Face Card throws.

It does seem like the value of keeping the DP is stronger than using the K part so I think lowering the damage of other face cards and buffing the K ender sounds like a good idea. I’ll do just that.

I haven’t looked closely at this, but I really like that you gave a short overview at the top so I had an idea what I was even looking at! Wish more of these fan characters did the same thing.

2 Likes

Would this be better rephrased similarly to Carrion Reach? “If this card wins combat or is blocked, …”

Interesting ideas. I like allowing face cards to act as normals for straight purposes, although I wonder if that would end up being a little too powerful. At first glance the CP point distribution and so on looks like it would keep that in check. 5* and Resiliency is another interaction to keep an eye on - possibly only let Jokers come from the deck so you can’t infinitely recur them?

EDIT: oh, I missed that 5JQK only counts as a 3-card straight. Seems a little at odds with the card text as written if I’m being super-critical. Is it necessary? It’s not entirely trivial to assemble.

4 Likes

Its really hard to edit big blocks of text on my phone, but yes that’s much more elegant! I’ll get on it when I get home.

Thanks for the feedback so far. It really helps to have other eyes to refine this.

Oversight.

1 Like

This may not be the best place to ask about it, but I’ve been thinking for a while that a (weekly? monthly? something in between?) series where the community tries to design a new fighter based on either an existing character/person or a novel gameplay idea could be fun. Would anyone be interested in that?

2 Likes

What’s the point? We already have John Cena. No further characters are necessary, in this game or any other.

4 Likes

Incidentally, this also makes Yomi a perfectly balanced game.

1 Like

But not a very diverse one.

3 Likes

Check out my new character Orange John Cena!

4 Likes

You have my attention…

2 Likes

For thematic purposes, none of the cards should feature any art.

4 Likes

Also, Geiger would certainly want to steal the inevitable “My Time Is Now” card.

2 Likes