[Revolution] Sabu
Revolution format
by Michael Ho

Hello again everybody! You may remember me from other strategy articles such as Sabu and John Cena for Revolution 1. My pal Sabu and I are back for Revolution 2 and it’s time to give the old geezer an update! The new set has a bunch of great new weapons for Sabu that make up for some of his weaknesses from the previous era.

If you didn’t read my previous Sabu article or don’t remember much about it, here’s a refresher on the deck concept (and a link if you want to read it over). Use Suicidal-Homicidal-Genocidal to pick up Assaults from your Ringside to avoid actually drawing from your arsenal. Stay behind in Fortitude and use Hardcore Hell with your non-F:0 Assaults to put reversals back in your Arsenal. Reverse your opponent on overturn instead of reversing from the hand or Backlash. Use Sabu’s ability to continually harass your opponent. Put your opponent in a soft lock, let him wear himself out, and then finish him off!

BACKLASH (12)

Pre-match (6)

A New Plan x[1]
Hardcore Hell x[2]
Ring Psychology: Assault x[2]
Suicidal-Homicidal-Genocidal x[1]

Strategy Notes:
You should always play the following three pre-match cards:
Suicidal-Homicidal-Genocidal
Hardcore Hell
Ring Psychology: Assault

The extra copies of Hardcore Hell and Ring Psychology: Assault are to defend against the new Judgment Day promo. A New Plan is just fodder. Again, you should always play the above mentioned cards.

1) Suicidal-Homicidal-Genocidal is the bread of this deck. With this card you will almost always have the Assault you need right at your fingertips. It allows you to keep throwing a move over and over again till it sticks, though you should rarely get reversed because of Hardcore Hell. It also allows you to avoid directly drawing from your arsenal so you can retain reversals in your arsenal for reversing on overturn.

2) Hardcore Hell is the butter of this deck. You should try to stay behind in Fortitude in order to take advantage of Hardcore Hell. Your non-F:0 Cores will allow you to recur reversals (Roundhouse Punch and Running Lariat) or take specific cards from your Ringside into your hand (Spinning Heel Kick). You will definitely want use Hardcore Hell to guarantee the success of those utility cards when you’re in a bind.

3) For lack of a better metaphor, Ring Psychology: Assault is the tall glass of milk of this deck. It allows you to essentially eliminate the costly card-advantage penalty to Sabu’s ability. If you’re feeling particularly mean, it also allows you to keep picking up reversals to your opponent’s maneuvers.

One important Pre-match change between Rev 1 Sabu and Rev 2 Sabu is that we’re no longer packing Underestimate the Competition. The previous version of the deck used Means extensively so it was vulnerable to being reversed by Inverted Atomic Drop. This iteration of the deck, as you will see later, replaces many of the Means with Cores so we’re not as vulnerable to the F:0 D:7 reversal.

I also realized through playtesting that the card advantage from Ring Psychology: Assault far outweighs the benefits of Underestimate the Competition. Even though Suicidal-Homicidal-Genocidal allows Sabu to function with a small hand, it becomes quite painful to keep using Sabu’s ability without Ring Psychology: Assault’s extra card flow. Putting a card at the bottom of the arsenal to Sabu’s ability really hurts because he can’t get that card back with Suicidal-Homicidal-Genocidal. It is also not very economical to do so because you lose 2 cards (the Assault you play plus the card you put in your arsenal) just to make your opponent lose 1 card. Ring Psychology: Assault improves Sabu’s card economy monumentally.

The 8 overturn from Underestimate the Competition was also not as important as I thought. While the overturn does allow us to see more cards with Suicidal-Homicidal-Genocidal, there are many other ways of getting cards into the Ringside (aggression rule, your opponent’s maneuvers, etc). Because of the above-mentioned reasons, I decided to permanently replace Underestimate the Competition with Ring Psychology: Assault.

Mid-match (6)

Before This Gets Out of Hand x[2]
I Can Do Anything I Want x[2]
Talk Is Cheap x[2]

Strategy Notes:
Your Mid-match is purely defensive. Use Before This Gets Out of Hand against John Cena’s Knock Your Shell Off, Batista’s Animalistic Clothesline, and Triple H’s Cerebral Sleeper to avoid having your all-important Pre-match cards removed. In addition, use it to hold off Means in general until you get the 4F needed for overturning Try to Get Away.

Use I Can Do Anything I Want against Figure Four Leglocks, Indian Death Locks, Chokeslam Straight to Hell, and other Colossals with devastating card effects. Otherwise, just let Colossals through and trust that your Masochist at Hearts will stop them on overturn.

Talk Is Cheap is useful against Antic-happy decks like Randy Orton or Edge. It is also useful against some of the new follow-up Antics such as Critical Injury and Taking It to the Hardcore Level. There are no Antics in this deck so you don’t have to worry about Talk Is Cheap’s prohibitive drawback!

ARSENAL (60)

Antics (0)

Strategy Notes:
Like I mentioned above, there are absolutely no Antics in this deck. All the recursion and Ringside manipulation you need will be provided by Suicidal-Homicidal-Genocidal, Ring Psychology: Assault, Sabu’s ability, and your maneuvers. Packing no Antics also has the extra-added benefit of rendering your opponent’s Antic reversals as useless dead cards.

Maneuvers (39)

A New Breed Unleashed x[1]
Chop x[3]
Chop to the Chest x[3]
Collar and Elbow Lockup x[3]
Double Leg Takedown x[3]
Gut Punch x[3]
Headlock Takedown x[3]
Knee Lift x[2]
Roundhouse Punch x[3]
Running Lariat x[3]
Slap x[3]
Slap the Taste Out of Your Mouth x[3]
Spinning Heel Kick x[3]
Wrist Lock x[3]

Strategy Notes:
Slap, Chop, Collar and Elbow Lockup, Wrist Lock, Headlock Takedown, and Double Leg Takedown comprise the usual complement of D:1/D:2 core reversals.

I chose not to pack A New Breed Unleashed in the Revolution 1 version of Sabu, but I’ve decided to pack it in this version. A New Breed Unleashed serves as a great finisher because there is only one card out there that can reverse it (That’s Extremely Un-Original). There weren’t many reliable ways in Revolution 1 for Sabu to get A New Breed Unleashed into his hand, but with the addition of Gut Punch in Revolution 2, you can now save your Spinning Heel Kicks for fetching A New Breed Unleashed.

Use Roundhouse Punch and Running Lariat in conjunction with Hardcore Hell for some irreversible recursion. Roundhouse Punch can put reversals on top of your arsenal to reverse your opponent on overturn. This will be most frustrating for your opponent because you can keep those reversals on top of your arsenal for as long as you want without drawing them through using Suicidal-Homicidal-Genocidal.

Use Spinning Heel Kick to pick up key reversals such as Inertia, Why Don’t You Kiss My A%$, Try to Get Away, Overexposure, and Roll Through. You can also use it to pick up A New Breed Unleashed as a finisher.

The new F:0 Cores are where Revolution 2 really shines for Sabu. Slap the Taste Out of Your Mouth provides even more recursion for Sabu, but more importantly it allows you to shuffle your arsenal. Back in Revolution 1, the only Assault that allowed arsenal shuffling was Clothesline. It was F:16 however, meaning it was usually out of reach for a good part of the game. Sometimes you don’t want to stick all your reversals at the top with Roundhouse Punch or at the bottom with Running Lariat; you might want to distribute them evenly throughout your arsenal instead. Slap the Taste Out of Your Mouth gives Sabu a way of recurring some cards while being able to shuffle the arsenal at F:0.

Chop to the Chest is another one of Revolution 2’s F:0 Core godsends. Sabu’s random discard ability is really great for harassing your opponent, but it’s a little too slow sometimes to produce any great effect. Chop to the Chest GREATLY supplement’s Sabu’s ability such that you can easily make your opponent discard 3 or 4 cards in one shot. Between Chop, Chop to the Chest, Gut Punch, and Spinning Heel Kick there are 12 Chest Target maneuvers in this deck so be sure to make the most out of your Chop to the Chests.

The last Revolution 2 F:0 Core wonder is Gut Punch. Sabu had a lot of trouble picking up key reversals in Revolution 1 because his only tool for doing so was Spinning Heel Kick. That made him susceptible to ring removal maneuvers such as The Cerebral Sleeper, The Animalistic Clothesline, and Figure Four Leglock. Revolution 2’s Gut Punch gives you another way of picking up specific cards from the Ringside. Since we’re only interested in picking up Mean/Colossal/Antic/Momentum reversals with Gut Punch, the non-hybrid/non-unique restriction doesn’t really affect us. Use Gut Punch in conjunction with Spinning Heel Kick to pick up reversals against key cards

Chuck the Knee Lifts at your opponent when you have nothing better to do :-). If there is no immediate need for recursion or ringside manipulation, don’t waste your other “utility” Assaults just to avoid the aggression rule. Knee Lift will do 8 damage and make your opponent discard 3 cards (2 from Knee Lift and 1 from Sabu) so it hurts just enough to force your opponent to stop it. If he does, he wastes a reversal and you can just pick it up again next turn with Suicidal-Homicidal-Genocidal. If he lets it through, he’ll have to take the pain. It’s a win/win situation for you.

Reversals (21)

Inertia x[1]
Masochist at Heart x[3]
Not What We Came to See x[3]
Only One Solution: Revolution x[1]
Overexposure x[1]
Roll Through x[3]
Saw That Coming a Mile Away x[1]
Try to Get Away x[3]
Why Don’t You Kiss My A%$ x[3]
You Telegraphed It x[2]

Strategy Notes:
There are more reversals in this deck than in most others because this deck is designed to be defensive. Masochist at Heart x[3], Try to Get Away x[3], You Telegraphed It x[2], and Inertia x[1] are the usual suspects for reversals. Even though Not What We Came to See x[3] may turn out to be useless in many games, they are absolutely necessary to prevent getting steamrolled by Extremists like Balls Mahoney, Terry Funk, and Tommy Dreamer.

Saw That Coming A Mile Away, Only One Solution: Revolution, and Overexposure all deserve one slot in this deck because they are very versatile reversals. Mono-target decks may become very popular in Revolution 2 because of the new Ring Psychology Pre-matches so Saw That Coming A Mile Away may prove to be invaluable. I decreased the number of Only One Solution: Revolution from 3 to 1 to make room for some new cards because I predict that players will be using Means and Colossals more extensively in lieu of Cores in this era.

Revolution 2 contains 1 new card, Kane’s Chokeslam Straight to Hell, that can remove Suicidal-Homicidal-Genocidal from the Ring. That means there are now five cards that can give Sabu a run for his money: Knock Your Shell Off, The Animalistic Clothesline, The Cerebral Sleeper, Chokeslam Straight to Hell, and Figure Four Leglock. The first is John Cena’s Mid-match Mean that can be easily neutralized with Before This Gets Out of Hand. The second two are Trademark Means that can be stopped with Try to Get Away. It will be much easier to get Try to Get Away in the hand now that we have both Spinning Heel Kick and Gut Punch at our disposal. Chokeslam Straight to Hell is fortunately unique, Superstar-specific to Kane, and F:35. I Can Do Anything I Want can reverse it if we’re unlucky enough to have it played against us.

Roll Through is my secret t3ch for defending against Figure Four Leglock.

Roll Through
Reversal: non-Core non-Follow-up Hold
If the reversed card is Mean: discard 3 cards.
If the reversed card is Colossal: put cards of D:1 or greater from your Ring into your Ringside until you have removed at least D:3.
F:3 D:0

Roll Through can reverse Figure Four Leglock at only F:3 and at the cost of removing only D:3 worth of cards. Since Figure Four Leglock is the only non-Superstar-Specific Colossal Sabu needs to reverse, Roll Through serves as a superior version of I Won’t Be Beat Tonight for this deck. Figure Four Leglock is quite dangerous because it can be packed by any Superstar. With the release of the new wave of Colossals and cards such as Ring Psychology: Leg and Double Your Value Double Your Fun, I predict that the metagame will move away from Cores and towards Means and Colossals. While this likely means that more people will be packing Figure Four Leglock, Revolution 2 has thankfully given Sabu Roll Through as a defense against that cursed card :-).

Gameplay notes:
1) Here are some overall game strategy notes.
hardcore hell and never give in and where there
Early Game:
Avoid using Suicidal-Homicidal-Genocidal at the beginning of the game until you get a good variety of cards in your Ringside. Draw directly from your Arsenal for at least the first few turns. The first thing you need to do is to get to F:4 because that will allow you to use You Telegraphed It, Roll Through, and Only One Solution: Revolution. Use your Chop to the Chests and Sabu’s ability to hinder your opponent’s early efforts.

Mid Game:
You should now be using Suicidal—Homicidal—Genocidal almost every turn. Now that you’re at F:4, you can relax a bit and play reactively against your opponent. Allow your opponent to throw moves at you while you reverse them on overturn. Resist the temptation to reverse your opponent from the hand if possible. Inspect your ringside pile whenever your opponent plays a maneuver and ask yourself if you have the cards in your arsenal to reverse it on overturn. If you do, just let it through and trust that your Arsenal will do its thing. If your deck is running low on reversals, then it might be a good idea to reverse from the Hand/Backlash.

When it gets to your turn, use your “recovery” Assaults to put reversals back into your arsenal. Staying behind in Fortitude and using Hardcore Hell should ensure that your recovery efforts will succeed. Also do not be afraid to voluntarily overturn 6 to the aggression rule. This will allow you to see more cards in your Ringside with Suicidal-Homicidal-Genocidal and will also help you stay behind in Fortitude.

You should end up with 7 to 15 Fortitude through playing your recovery Assaults. This will open up Inertia, I Can Do Anything I Want, Why Don’t You Kiss My A%$, and Knee Lift to you. Continue using Chop to the Chest and Sabu’s ability to slow or even stop your opponent’s aggression.

Late Game:
Your opponent should have a whole bunch of Fortitude at this point while you have under 20 Fortitude. Your arsenal may be getting pretty small at this point, but it should be densely packed with reversals because of your recovery efforts from earlier in the game. Now that your Arsenal is secure, use your Spinning Heel Kicks and Gut Punches to put key reversals in your hand such as Why Don’t You Kiss My A%$, Roll Through, Overexposure, and Inertia to defend any late-game shenanigans from your opponent. By staying behind in Fortitude the whole game, you can avoid some of the more dangerous Antics such as Never Give In, Never Give Up and Where There’s a Will There’s a Way.

You will render your opponent’s maneuvers useless by reversing them on overturn. Keep throwing your Assaults and A New Breed Unleashed to finish your opponent off!

2) I’ve found that this version of Sabu can sometimes afford to be more aggressive than the previous Revolution 1 version. This is mostly due to the addition of Chop to the Chest. I’ve played games where I’ve sufficiently nuked my opponent’s hand such that it no longer made sense for me to sit back and soft lock. Feel free to break the “stay behind in Fortitude” principle and go in for the kill in this situation.

3) Suicidal-Homicidal-Genocidal is the heart (or bread) of this deck. Sabu’s in big trouble if his opponent manages to remove this card from the Ring. As I mentioned before, there is a limited number of cards out there that can remove Suicidal-Homicidal-Genocidal. Here are more details on how to defend against each of them:

A) Knock Your Shell Off – John Cena’s Trademark mid-match Mean is easily dispatched with a Before This Gets Out of Hand. Be sure to keep 1 Mid-match slot open when playing against John Cena.

B) The Animalistic Clothesline and The Cerebral Sleeper – these Trademark Means from Batista and Triple H will be a handful to deal with. It should be easier to reverse them in this era because of the addition of Gut Punch. The game plan remains unchanged from Revolution 1:

i) First delay them by playing Before This Gets Out of Hand and return the Mean to their hand.
ii) You then have 2 choices on your turn:
a) Pick up a Spinning Heel Kick or Gut Punch from your ringside with Suicidal— Homicidal—Genocidal and play it in hopes that it’s successful. Pick up a Try to Get Away from your ringside in preparation for the next time they play the Mean.
b) If your opponent’s hand is small enough, try playing a hard-to-reverse Assault such as a low damage Core Assault or a non-F:0 Assault under Hardcore Hell. If it is successful, activate Sabu’s ability and hope that you manage to randomly strip the Mean from their hand. If the first one doesn’t get rid of it, try to keep going until it works!
iii) Repeat as necessary and as long as you can keep it up. You’re in big trouble if Suicidal—Homicidal—Genocidal gets removed. Good luck!

C) Figure Four Leglock – Use I Can Do Anything I Want, Roll Through, Overexposure, or even Saw That Coming a Mile Away to reverse Figure Four Leglock. See 6) below regarding self Ring Removal.

D) Chokeslam Straight to Hell – Use I Can Do Anything I Want to stop this card. Fortunately for us, only Kane can use this card and it costs F:35. Unfortunately for us, Kane can pick this card up over and over again using his ability. The only advice I have against Kane is to not let him get to F:35.

4) Play your non-F:0 Cores irreversibly under Hardcore Hell only when necessary. If you’re not in a dire situation and you have a choice between playing a non-F:0 Core and a F:0 Core that does the same job, play the F:0 Core first. Save your non-F:0 Cores for a situation where you absolutely need them to be successful. If you play them unnecessarily and they’re successful, they’ll be stuck in your Ring unless you manage to remove them with Roll Through or I Can Do Anything I Want.

5) Try to keep a Why Don’t You Kiss My A%$ in your hand at all times using Spinning Heel Kick or Gut Punch. Don’t get caught off-guard by A Spirited Turn of Events, Double Your Value Double Your Fun, etc.

6) Use the self Ring removal of Roll Through and I Can Do Anything I Want to your advantage. Keep in mind that you can voluntarily remove more than the required Damage amount than necessary by rearranging the order in which you remove your cards. You can use the Ring removal to reduce your Fortitude for Hardcore Hell or to reuse Assaults you’ve already played with Suicidal-Homicidal-Genocidal. Also consider removing A New Breed Unleashed if you’ve played it already because you can pick it up and throw it again with Spinning Heel Kick.