Cain Strategy

Cain is an interesting character that’s eclipsed by his big brother Corn in terms of popularity. He has a mediocre 70hp, a decent physical defense, high dark defense, and a crappy light defense (but no one cares about that anyways). He’s a versatile character, having both far and close ranged options, but is focused more towards his far range game. His main strength is his innate, which turns his rush of bats into a monster 65 damage, enough to deal a large amount of dmg to just about anyone. Playing Cain requires knowing when/how your innate is going to proc, and mind games to get the most out of your innate (oh, and setting up for it as well). Note that you might not actually get to USE your innate, but the damage that you deal along the way is good enough.

Recommended Items:

Phylactery - This is probably the best item choice on Cain. Since I have put so much emphasis on his innate, this item allows him a 30% to survive a killing blow, which basically gives a free shot with a beefed up attack. Even though it’s random, it’ll definitely swing the game to your favor when it procs.

Necronomic Tomes - If you don’t have a phylactery, this is probably the second best choice. It’s a double edged blade really: the heal might prevent you from getting your innate, or it might screw your opponent’s calculated attacks up. Nonetheless, a decent alternative if you don’t have phylactery.

Blood Vial - This might also screw your innate up, but more hp is better I guess, even though a low hp cain is scarier than a full hp cain.

Strategy:

Cain revolves a lot around managing your hp and range. Against tanks, they definitely fear a get far - rush, so they might get close on you even though you have a decent close ranged move. It all depends. You also need to know what attack sequence they can do to deny you your innate, and also what attacks from the benched characters in their deck can deny it as well. People are going to try to prevent you from getting your innate at pretty much all costs.

Although I haven’t played much Cain, I would say that he revolves around Rush of Bats (which is his main threat move), and playing off fear to intercept or whatever, while dealing some damage with void stream and tackle.

Tackle - Your best option at close range, and a good one at that. Open palm damage, highish speed, and a high chance to interrupt. Use it liberally at close: you’d probably want to use this over void stream for damage in almost any case at close. (unless versus ashi or helene or something)

Tantrum - This move is used to set up void stream and rush of bats, since in multiplicative attacks, each hit benefits from the +4 damage. With Cain’s recent energy buff, you can now tantrum->get far-> rush. This is Cain’s primary “combo”, since a potential 65 damage at far is really scary. Of course, lots of people know of this combo, so they’ll probably try to prevent you from accomplishing it. In that case, you have to use your best judgment to pass when you think they’ll get close (to cancel out your get far), and void stream/intercept. A great tool for creating intercept situations.

Voidstream - This might seem like it has good synergy with rush of bats, but it only reduces dark armor by 1, which is basically a +5 damage buff to rush. It doesn’t cost much energy though, so it’s a “safe” attack. Is better for damage in some cases over tackle (versus tanks), and is better than tackle in almost any case with a tantrum.

Rush of Bats - Cain’s main move. Becomes a monster potential 65 damage with the help of his innate/tantrum. It’s insanely slow though, so it needs a really good setup (or just a phylactery proc) to unleash its true potential. Sometimes its slowness can be taken advantage of: like your opponent using an attack that allows your innate to occur, and you using rush of bats on the same turn, so even though you weren't low enough before, you can still use the innate.