Unorthodox Training: Kyokungen Disciple

Hello and welcome to a new segment for the site, Unorthodox Training. In this segment I'll go over what might be considered some under rated cards of the newer sets. Today I'm going to talk about Kyokugen disciple.
 

(Please be aware that all cards talked about are with the post rotation mentality in mind.)

So first off this is probably one of my favorite cards to come out of the initial King of Fighters sets, because it's so diverse by allowing you to turn disadvantage into advantage. Now first off the symbol spread of this card is pretty good, it has All which is currently a very powerful symbol in the meta as a nearly does everything now(imagine that). It can rush, be tempo, and now control thanks to Team Elisabeth and it's mill theme be it active or passive mill. It has life which has always been good for as long as I can remember and keeping with life's theme this card does give speed bonuses. Finally Water, water has been somewhat lacking in the game as of late and looks to finally getting it's groove back as sets continue to be released. Though to be fair it's still lacking a kill condition outside of Rising Typhoon. However with the recent rise of kicks in water and various people bringing back the symbol, Kim, King, and Hwa Ja to name a few it's only a matter of time before we see Water returning to the upper levels of symbol tier along with a viable kill condition(Looking at you Trap shot!).

Now onto the card itself, sitting at a 2 difficulty 5 check with a plus 2 high block already shows that this card is a fairly solid card and good choice to put in any of the deck's that can run it. Follow that up with its ability for committing for plus 2 speed with no draw back further helps its credibility. If you look at anything from red horizon forward, this is the new rotation block about to be falling upon us. However the standout part that I mentioned earlier is what leads me to believe that this card will be a staple in most decks especially water. Yes, earlier I mentioned how this card turns your disadvantage into an advantage and that is because of what follows the after the speed bonus. If you have fewer cards in your staging area than your opponent your attack gets an addition plus 2 damage. Now straight up your looking at once again plus 2 speed with no drawback, but should you be behind in building you’re looking at your attacks getting a +2/+2 bonus for one card tapping. That is simply nothing short of amazing. Now sure you have to be at a building disadvantage to take advantage of this ability, but it shouldn't be too hard as most decks are building more aggressively as each set comes out. Should you put this in an All or Life deck your more than likely to get this card to go off for +2/+2. The reason is you might be going for one of those decks signature rush styles such as All punches or Life throws that doesn't need a whole lot of set up in staging area to dish out damage.