Chris Benoit

CRIPPLER CROSSFACE Trademark Finisher / Reversal: Special As a maneuver, you may play the card titled Maintain Hold after this card. As a reversal, you may reverse any Strike or Grapple maneuver but you must first discard 1 card. F: 30 D: 20 SV: 3 (Foil: Fully Loaded/Survivor Series) Unique MRP	BIG STUPID GRIN Reversal: Special Reverse any type of maneuver and end your opponent's turn. If played from your hand, take 1 card from your Ringside pile and place it in your hand. F: 5 D: 0 (Foil: Fully Loaded/Survivor Series) Unique MRP
KAMIKAZE HEADBUTT High Risk Cannot be reversed. Can only be played after a maneuver that does 5D or greater. When successfully played, you must take the top 2 cards of your Arsenal and put them in your Ringside pile. F: 8 D: 15 (Foil: Starter Deck) Unique MRP	RABID WOLVERINE Action When the card Rabid Wolverine is in your Ring area, you may discard 1 card to continue your turn even if an opponent successfully reverses your maneuver. Your opponent's reversal will still stop damage and trigger other effects as usual. F: 7 D: 0 (Foil: Starter Deck) Unique
SERIES OF SUPLEXES Grapple When successfully played, and not reversed upon applying damage you may immediately discard 1 card. If you do so, it is considered another Grapple maneuver (Base of D: 6) which can be reversed as usual. You may continue this discarding of a card to perform a Grapple maneuver until you are reversed, run out of cards to discard, or choose not to discard. F: 6 D: 6 SV: 1 (Foil: Starter Deck) Unique	PROVE ME WRONG Action Look at your opponent's hand. If the next maneuver you play this turn is not reversed from opponent's hand, you may search your Arsenal for any 2 cards and put them in your hand, then shuffle your Arsenal. F: 0 D: 0 (Foil: Backlash) Unique
FIRST TO TAP OUT MATCH Pre-Match Stipulation When this card is in your Ring area, if any player successfully plays the card titled Maintain Hold on a maneuver that applied 10D or more, he wins via a Pin Victory condition. F: 0 D: 0 (Foil: Mania) Unique

UNDERRATED SUPERSTAR Pre-Match Event At the end of the Pre-Match phase, if your Superstar Value is 2 or less, draw 3 cards and add them to your starting hand. If your Superstar Value is the same as or higher than any other player, you must then discard 1 card of your choice. This card cannot be played by Tazz. F: 0 D: 0 (Rare: Backlash) Unique	FANS LOVE AN UNDERDOG Pre-Match Event At the end of the Pre-Match phase, determine if you are the player with the lowest Superstar Value. If you do not have the lowest Superstar Value then you must put this card in your Ringside pile. When this card is in your Ring area, you may put it in your Ringside pile as a Mid-Match Action, draw 1 card and your opponent's reversal to the next card you play this turn is +8F. F: 0 D: 0 (Uncommon: Backlash)
STF Submission Add +1D for every card in your Ring area with the word(s) "suplex" or "neck breaker" in the title. If played by Chris Benoit, opponent must discard 1 card. F: 15 D: 10 (Rare: Fully Loaded)	GREAT TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE Action Draw 1 card. When this card is in your Ring area, all your Submission maneuvers are +1D. You may not have more than one Great Technical Knowledge card in your Ring area at a time. If played by Kurt Angle or Chris Benoit, submissions are instead +3D. F: 1 D: 0 (Common: Backlash)
DELUDING YOURSELF Action: Heel Draw 4 cards. At end of turn, discard your hand. F: 8 D: 0 (Rare: Premiere)	MAINTAIN HOLD Action Play after a successful Submission maneuver not reversed and end your turn. You and your opponent may not play maneuvers or actions until your opponent reverses the maintained Submission. On your turn, during the main segment, the Submission does its damage, along with any other abilities on the card. If a reversal is played by your opponent or is revealed while applying damage, both Maintain Hold and the Submission maneuver remain in your Ring area, but you may no longer use the ability of this Maintain Hold card. F: 10 D: 0 (Rare: Premiere/Survivor Series)

Q: Does the Superstar Ability mean an Elbow To The Face will do 3D?
A: No, the Ability only works on your turn, and only for Maneuvers, thus it does not benefit Reversals at all.

Q: If I use the effects of Rabid Wolverine, how does this affect my Superstar Ability?
A: Your turn has not ended if you discard a card for Wolverine, so your next maneuver gets the next +D bonus - so if you played Punch, it was reversed, you used Wolverine, and played Kick, it would be for 7D (5D+2D).

Q: How does Rabid Wolverine work with Series Of Suplexes?
A: It doesn't, actually - if Series is reversed, Wolverine can be used to continue your turn, but the 'chain' of Suplexes has been stopped.

Q: If someone ends my turn, and I discard a card to Rabid Wolverine to continue my turn, can I play a High Risk maneuver?
A: No, this would break the chain.

Q: ...will Rabid Wolverine work for other turn-enders like an Action reversal, or continuing after a card like Leg Drop or Moonsault?
A: Yes and yes.

Q: If Prove Me Wrong is not 'reversed from hand' (i.e. using Backlash or Defensive Posture), can I still retrieve 2 cards?
A: Yes.

Q: If I use Maintain Hold after Crippler Crossface, does that mean it can be reversed with a Submission reversal?
A: No, it can still only be reversed by a card capable of reversing Trademark Finishers.

In The Ring: Chris Benoit ain't nicknamed "The Crippler" just because it's catchy! He can adapt to many styles, but one thing is true - he will hurt you, and the more he attacks, the more pain he inflicts!

In The Game: Benoit's ability serves only one purpose - to do an increasing amount of damage to your opponent, beating them down until the match is over for one person.

Using All Foils/Uniques: His Trademark Finisher (Crippler Crossface) is slightly less-powerful than the standard, on rare occasions you can couple it with Maintain Hold for extra effect, but it's incredibly damaging as a reversal against both Strikes and Grapples! Rabid Wolverine defines Benoit with a very powerful and unique ability - to shake off reversals and continue your turn, while increasing the damage along the way. Prove Me Wrong is a fairly easy way to get two cards of choice from your deck; perhaps to acquire Big Stupid Grin, an awesome omni-reversal. Series of Suplexes can often allow multiple attacks from the same card, while Kamikaze Headbutt is a huge, devastating unreversible maneuver. And First To Tap Out Match gives a great opportunity to end the game earlier than expected!

Using Some/No Foils/Uniques: The Superstar Ability, and most of the foils, are generic enough to be used in just about any deck. If you plan to base your deck on having low Fortitude, the Crossface can be easily left out, as can Series or Kamikaze. First To Tap Out is also a card that can be set aside if it doesn't fit your gameplan, though it could also BE your gameplan! Unless you're planning a very low-F Control theme, I would definitely keep Wolverine on hand, but Prove Me Wrong and Big Stupid Grin are great in any deck, especially for their specific card retrieval abilities.

Deck Ideas: One of my favorite mechanisms for Benoit is using Rabid Wolverine in conjunction with Deluding Yourself to load up with cards before launching an virtual onslaught of maneuvers, trampling over the reversals in your path - this is a little more difficult in the Backlash environment, but it can still be done! With or without this, a good choice is using Great Technical Knowledge with Submissions (especially with the opportunity given by Tap Out Match), either mixed or as a monotype deck, possibly focusing on cards like Clutch, Claw, and Apply Illegal Leverage. Another popular theme is Strikes, utilizing both Chop To The Chest and Trash Can (raised over 7D by Benoit's ability).

Recommended Stipulations: The most obvious choice is First To Tap Out Match, as it lets you quickly get a win over an unsuspecting opponent, even if you just slap a Maintain Hold on your Crossface. However, if that's not your bag, Benoit's 'basic' enough that you can make just about any Stipulation work.

Watch Out For: Discard decks are a real bane, as Benoit's ability only really takes effect when you have several maneuvers to play. Foley decks (Mankind/Cactus Jack) can be a hinderance, especially with Foley Is Good to further reduce damage from that magic 10D mark for Tap Out Match, so this may take careful planning.

How I Play: I'm in the process of converting to a Submission/High Risk deck, though I'm still working out the exact details. However, the deck was previously a monster, using Deluding Yourself and Rabid Wolverine to rip opponents in half with mono-grapples, especially those easily raised over 7D like Double Underhook Suplex and Sit Out Powerbomb, with a few Elbow Drops to increase the damage factor while putting cards back in hand.