Lily - Boom Chakra Lacka (Deck Guide)

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Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Lily Smash 0 0 0 1.0
Lily - Enchanted Butterfly Dragon with a Flaming Fist 27 20 0 1.0
Luly 0 0 0 1.0
Kung-Fu Lily 0 0 0 1.0
A Deck for Lily 0 0 0 1.0
Lily - Boom Chakra Lackakaka 0 0 0 1.0

StartWithTheName · 63539

StartWithTheName

Some friends and I have been playing a lot of lily recently including an hilarious "tripple dragon" run of the fan made Consternation on the Constellation using 3 very different Lilys decks (and flaunting unique ID rules!). This deck is essentially the culmination of a lot of our shared experience from that and a few other games. I borrow a lot from their ideas, so a quick shout out to @Neramoor @Turbinismo, and @mattastrophic.

I thought I would post this guide ahead of the presumably imminent wider Edge of the Earth upload since almost all of the main cards i want to talk through are already up. The only one not listed is In the Thick of It. This lets you start with 3xp in exchange for 2 trauma. Take 1 of each.

The deck is by no means comprehensive or as heavily tested as some of my older decks. I am really just trying to give people a few ideas and principals to help with their own.

Alchemical Transmutation can be any cheap spell to get Dragon Pole going early if needed. Ive just picked the cheapest I could find, and more cash is rarely bad. Pick what you like. Ive not tested it, but to my surprise I have my eye on Wither for another fight action. Occasionally lowering test strength follow up attacks might be handy.

some experiences: I can confirm that she is an absolute blast to play and she has a ton of viable and varied archetypes to explore. She is a bit of a powerhouse, possibly a bit above curve, but so long as you know that going in its fine, and it can be fun to play a ringer once in a while, not least one that has such a thematic feel. The no firearms restriction on her deck building seems to be genius making all but the most convoluted build make thematic sense in an over-the-top kung foo movie way.

(EDIT: A lot of people have been kindly PMing me to point out that i have put two disciplines on the list when you can only start with 1. This is intentional as you basically pick one then grab the other later. There are more details in the CHOOSE YOUR FIGHTER section. However as I know not everyone reads the guides in full, i thought i would leave a note. Thanks to all for letting me know though. Its useful to know when things arnt clear.

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RUSH HOUR! (TL:DR)

OVERVIEW:

  • CLUEING: ....................... Low, but options for higher
  • ENEMY HANDLING: ...... Chuck Norris with Fireballs.
  • ENCOUNTER PROT: ...... High
  • DRAW CONSISTENCY: .. Sufficient
  • CASH ENGINE: ............... Sufficient
  • HEALING: ....................... High (self only)

PLAYSTYLE:

  • ROLE: ............................. Primary Damage Dealer,
  • COMPLEXITY: ................ Moderate
  • JANK FACTOR: ............... Some Nuance, not a lot.
  • THEMATIC FEEL: ........... High Octane Kung Foo Spell Blade.

SLOTS:

A high damage, mixed melee and spells Lily deck with a combination of reusable 2-4 damage melee attacks, and massive burst turns utilising the on the Discipline to clear out gluts of enemies, and/or Big Bosses.

is stacked high enabling spells for clueing or combat spells, and added to when using Cyclopean Hammer, Enchant Weapon, and Spectral Razor. Alternatively the spells themselves in arcane slots boost the Dragon Pole. These circumvent the need for The discipline until later campaign leaving access to the stronger (in this build) abilities on the the , and disciplines, and easing the transition between level 0 mystic and level 1-5 guardian builds.

Later campaign, Cyclopean Hammer with Enchant Weapon adds this TWICE to the test massively overshooting the bag and almost guarenteeing landing 3 above for Cyclopean Hammers a whopping 4 damage attack once a turn, without ammo management concerns.

The burst damage from the should not be underestimated. Even with limited use for this is an MVP Ability that starts in play. It will usually be 2 of: A weapon hit, Spectral Razor, an arcane slot attack spell, or Clean Them Out (for cash); then a basic attack using a skill card for draw. Reasonably hitting 2 x 2damage attacks and a 1 damage attack from early campaign which is plenty for 2 or 3 enemies, or big one. Mid-Late campaign it can build to 2 literal Hammer Blows and 1 other thing for a reusable 8-11 ish damage any time you can reset it.

Just remember to shout HADOUKEN! when using an upper cut into a fireball.

(There is a reason we didnt bring Shrivelling even if it is arguably better once we grab Empty Vessel!)

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WAKE ME UP BEFORE THE DOJO (Upgrades)

PRIORITIES:

  • Stick to the Plan -Ok I know you want the hammer, but it is overkill early campaign, and STTP adds so much consistency and tempo to our "big rig" set up that you need a good reason not to grab it first. See the muligan section, but all its targets are big first/second/third turn plays that you will see a lot of value from. OOOR if like me you are easily amused by things like this, "Get over here!"s can also go on it ;)

  • 1x Alchemical Transmutation Enchant Weapon - Its arcane slot has synergy with the Dragon Pole and is cheap and accessible earlier if you dont have the full 5xp spare for a hammer.

  • Grab the Cyclopean Hammers as and when you have a full 5xp Replace Enchanted Blade first, then 1 Dragon Pole.

ALTERNATIVE WEAPON OPTIONS:

There are a few alternatives if you dont fancy the hammer, or you want something more thematic (Is Lilly playing golf not thematic enough for yo... yeah ok)

  • Holy Spear I wont go into it here for space reasons, but there is definitely a viable looking bless build that uses a similar will heavy shell. One of my early attempts can be found here. Because Holy Spear has 2 different fight s on a single card, our ability on the discipline can be used to trigger 2 of them, with the 3rd being a basic attack setting up power turns early so long as Someone is also spamming blesses, also see related note below about Holy Rosary(2) and Nephthys.

  • Lilyanrdo! Butterfly Swords(2) - Also has synergy with Enchant Weapon, using the + boost on the first attack to land it, and the boost on the second gets you 4 damage once a turn. At 6xp cheaper for 2 sets vs the hammers its definitely a candidate, especially if you are building to more of a hybrid build where you may have other xp priorities.

  • Donatelily! grab the second Enchant Weapon early, and stick with the Dragon Pole. Synergy with the pole already noted, if you are taking this route. I will leave someone else to work out the many arcane slots build options from the lvl0 mystic pool. Guardian has some nice armor stuff too for a shell. jus sayin.

  • Raphaelily. Ok we cant have Sai, but any two daggers would work Survival Knife (2) could be solid with some dodge/soak stuff...

  • DEAR MAXINE WHERE ARE THE GDM NUNCHUCKS!

....AAAaannnnnnyyywwwaaaayyyy.....

LATER OPTIONS:

  • Empty Vessel You will be killing a lot of enemies so this will charge up fast. Late campaign token cancelling can be really nice especially on hard/expert, but also note that by zeroing the token, a Cyclopean Hammer blow will now almost definitely be 3 above test even if you didnt have the Enchant Weapon on it yet. If (you are dead to me and) brought Shrivelling in place of Azure Flame, it can also stop the horror. (If you brought it AS WELL AS fireballs I forgive you).

  • Holy Rosary (2) & Nephthys Shout out to Neramoor who I have seen make good use of these 2 alone in a similar build. The Rosary is enough to get a few tokens circulating while Nephthys keeps them play, or lets you ping damage as a finale. Crucially because you mainly want the reliable/cheap +2 boosts, the blesses building up is just a nice incidental bonus and can be added to any deck irrespective of Holy Spear variants.

  • Overpower (2) Always an option - More draw is just nice.

  • Vicious Blow (2) Similarly always an option, importantly this doesnt compete with the 5 lvl0 guardian slots which is the only reason VB(0) didnt make the campaign start.

  • Police Badge If you have not seen Samurai Cop please watch it after reading the first trivia note in the link. This is one of my favourite moments in film history and I watch a lot of bad films. Nevertheless, the option to turn that boost into 2 actions later game when you have less use for it is nice... But mainly do it to reminisce about the hair. The rosary is probably better in most cases.

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CHOOSE YOUR FIGHTER! (Discipline Selection)

Start with one of these and aim to get the other ASAP:

  • The Discipline: +1, : heal 3 hp for 1 direct horror or visa-versa, Recommended first for 2p, or any group where you plan to help with clues. This makes you a lot tougher and helps land spells (Also see clue section for variants),
  • The Discipline: +, : Spend 3 different fight or evade s. Recommended as first in 3-4p groups where you are primarily focussing on damage and others are cluing. See combat section for why this is the best damage boost option here.

In the Thick of It lets us start with 3xp, so we only need 12 more before its available. This is probably after ~sc2 in most campaigns - ie not long.

Get the Discipline (+1 : +5 skill to next test) next. This is deferred because the passive doesn't matter much when you have huge +skill built into weapons, plenty of skills we want to spam for draw anyway, and spell options running off .

The Discipline (+1 : big draw effect) is last priority as were not really using the stat, and the ability is great but hard to reset (at least in this build).

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ENTER THE DAGON! (Mulligan)

Stick to the Plan Targets:

Then mulligan for 1 combat asset, Cyclopean Hammer by preference, or Dragon Pole with 2 spell assets to get a reusable +1 damage. Azure Flame also works. After that look for cash and draw, ideally 3 assets if Ever Vigilant is available, remembering you can play Prepared for the Worst turn 1, then Ever Vigilant turn 2 from STTP.

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NINJITZ-CLUE (Clues)

No surprises here

  • Stack High We have a lot of assets for this: Holy Rosary, David Renfield, Bandolier (2) (note that all primary weapons in this build are 2 handed to get the boost)

  • There are plenty of icons while setting up Guts, Uncage the Soul, or Promise of Power all work. you could even get a single clue on a lower shroud with a Promise of Power alone by pushing to 6 .

  • Then use Sixth Sense This could be any clue spell. I chose it not becasue it never runs out, but because you can use lower shrouds on symbol tokens, meaning it sometimes becomes that little more viable that little bit earlier. In large groups you arnt likely to use this that often, so something like Clairvoyance for the extra clues would be fine. OR if you want a more clue heavy build, just bring both and sacrifice Alchemical Transmutation and one of the damage tools.

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CHEN-LI! (Enemy Handling)

You should not be short of combat options without phenomenal bad luck.

  • Prioritise getting a melee weapon down first as a reliable and reusable damage option. Prepared for the Worst can find it. Ever Vigilant can play it (and others) cheap. Hence the STTP setup.

  • Azure Flame or Spectral Razor can be used until you find one. If you don't have the boosts in play yet, use skill cards to land it. Note the double icons on Uncage the Soul, and that Daring can be used on any fight action, including ones.

  • Early campaign while using Dragon Pole, note the arcane slots on Enchanted Blade and Enchant Weapon. These are extra ways of getting the up and getting to the +1 damage, the former needing the bandolier in play however.

  • Start building up extra Fight options to enable the Discipline. Remember a basic fight action can be one of the Actions, as can Clean Them Out from Stick to the Plan, so as soon as you have any other attack, you have one 3 part burst available. Don't hold one shots back. Late game you will have multiple fight assets in play and wont need them to get to 3.

  • Remember Enchant Weapon is a spell Uncage the Soul can be used to play it if you need cash. Its not an asset even though it feels like it however so Ever Vigilant cant play it.

  • As is Spectral Razor, which can be used as an opener to engage aloofs, or enemies on comrades. Just remember, If using uncage on Spectral Razor while engaged you will take an attack of opportunity as playing uncage is a non fight action even if it later initiates one. Still... You have a lot of healing so it can be fine.

  • Daring and Promise of Power can be used to evade you have 4 base , these take you to 7 and 8 respectively if needed. This is especially handy on massive boss enemies allow others to avoid attacks of opportunity and move out or just not get attacked at end of round, or just to mitigate retaliates. Evade as first action on a play. Note that the discipline flips AFTER you complete the 3rd action so you have the for the actual tests.

Right! onto the good stuff! COMBOS AND FUNNSIES

  • HADOUCHEN!! it is compulsory to shout this when using Azure Flame, and as everyone knows, the fire ball should be the last action in a set as the opponent is slowly falling backwards through the air unable to block.

  • LILYHAMMER! With the Cyclopean Hammer you are usually aiming to be 3 above on 3 hp enemies. The combo with Wish Eater is already noted in the upgrades section, and the combo with Enchant Weapon is simply that by adding your boosted twice to the test, you should overshoot the bag so much that you either deal 4 damage or miss by .

  • CROUCHING TIGER WOODS HIDDEN DAGON! The knockback on The Hammer is rarely that useful as you normally just kill things, but you can push a non hunter into an empty location and just leave it there if you need to. OOOOR you can combine this with Righteous Hunt to launch an enemy across the board for a free move.... The latter is a terrible idea overall but you do get to play Golf, and you do get to shout "FOOOUURRRRR" as that is exactly the amount of damage dealt when an enchanted hammer lands the 2 location push back!

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HEX ON HEX OFF (Encounter Protection)

No Surprises here. Just a lot of good stuff in the right places that are mostly also needed for progressive tools:

  • High will go a long way on encounter checks This is usually associated with horror on fail effects, thoug we are seeing more variety these days. You also have plenty of pips if needed in a pinch.

  • 4 isnt bad With Wish Eater you can get moderate odds on a pass as a cancelled token has no modifier so it will pass you on tests upto 4. You can also use Promise of Power.

  • Ward of Protection Does what it says on the tin. Heal back the horror if needed. or use it to kill off David Renfield.

  • Heal back with the Discipline Its slow, but does the job that so many 2 cost 1 shot heal events do by netting you 2 health or san. With the new weaknesses that came out in Edge this is particularly helpful. Though you will also eventually get Wish Eater too. Any time you can reliably heal, you can take risks on tests that do small harms. If you pass by chance you lost nothing. If it hits you, then you can heal.

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*As ever, Thanks for reading! Have fun!*
31 comments

Sep 22, 2021 mattastrophic · 3018

4/5 needs more Bruce Lee references.

Sep 22, 2021 StartWithTheName · 63539

Despite my love of OTT action films, I have actually only ever seen 2 bruce lee films, and both of them are in there somewhere ;) @mattastrophic

Sep 22, 2021 subzerojo · 286

How do you fit that many puns? Maybe needs a Shoryu-Chen. And the combos and funnies is so good. You've now made Lily's voice actor as Chun Li in my head Canon. Well done sir.

Sep 22, 2021 mattastrophic · 3018

Right, circumstances. With that effort, the rating will be revised to 4.5/5.

image

Sep 22, 2021 kgchemist7 · 1

Great deck and write-up! Lily is definitely super fun, and I agree with you, a bit over the curve. My group played essentially this deck through Carcosa before Cyclopean Hammer was revealed, so we stuck with Dragon Pole + 2 Survival Knife in the Bandolier as our weapons. With the new Hammer, as showcased in this write-up, she's sooo good.

Sep 22, 2021 mattastrophic · 3018

@kgchemist7I agree. With the ability to deal ammoless 3-damage attacks, it's hard to see how Cyclopean Hammer and Lightning Gun were published in the same game. It's even harder to see how Cyclopean Hammer and Butterfly Swords lvl 5 were published in the same set.

Sep 22, 2021 chirubime · 25319

Heya :D Happy to see you take Lily. It's always great to see a culmination of tried and true stuff from you. I had a question about y'alls thoughts on Butterfly Swords(5). Is that card a bust or not? I ended up feeling the need to make custom Discipline replacement sets just to enable some of the underperforming player cards in the new set. Maybe I'll message you privately on discord and ask for the opinions of you guys on what sort of other niche gameplays she can still explore.

Overall, Andy brings out the gold standard of arkham decks as always :D

Sep 22, 2021 Pirati213 · 1

Great deck! We tried a deck past week built around bless mechanics, with Holy Rosary lv. 2 and the Holy Spear, specialised around Lily's Balance of Body disciple. At some point one of my friends pointed out her permanent allows three different fight/evade actions, not the activate action printed on the weapon, and now I'm unsure that her permanent refers to only basic fight/evade actions, or the ones that can be used on a weapon's fight ability as well?

Sep 22, 2021 kgchemist7 · 1

@Pirati213 The activate action on weapons or spell assets is a Fight action because of the bold Fight designation. Using that action is both an Activate and a Fight action. So you can use the Discipline to use Fight and Evade actions on assets in play, and/or Events in hand.

One final note (mainly included for other players who might read this) is that it has to be on different actions - you can't use the Fight on Cyclopean Hammer three times, for example, but you can use, say, the Hammer, a Brand of Cthugha, and a basic evade

Sep 22, 2021 bspring · 1

@kgchemist7 I've been confused about this particular discipline as well. What about the triple action Sledgehammer attack? It is a bold fight action. Is it disqualified from usage because its actually 3 actions so they wouldn't be different actions, even though its only one Fight?

Sep 22, 2021 kgchemist7 · 1

@bspring Current thought in the Mythos Busters Discord is that the Discipline pays for one action of the three, so you still need to pay the two additional actions, but obviously you do get to take two other fight actions on other things as part of activating the Discipline still.

Back to the deck though, I actually used Brand of Cthugha as one of the spell assets for the fight action for this instead of shrivelling. since we didn’t have Hammer the combat bump was a little more helpful. I like the rationale for the Discipline choice here now

Sep 22, 2021 StartWithTheName · 63539

Cheers @kgchemist7 - That is completely right. You can take any 3 different Fight or evade actions (including basic ones). These can be on assets, or events depending on what you have in play. And could be the same action just on a different card for example if you had both Hammerss down via Bandolier(2) like a mad man. you just couldnt activate the same hammer twice.

I hadnt realised how unclear this might be. As i write this it is quite late, but i will try to add in a section explaining this later in the week as I was hoping this guide would help people get their heads around things like this so they can make their own decks.

I would also want to double check with rules gurus re the sledge hammer, but certainly I would assume you can activate it as one of the 3 actions from the discipline, paying the other 2 from normal actions, but I wouldnt expect to be able to use the disciple to pay for all 3 in one go.

Re level 5 Butterfly swords, i am yet to see anyone use as they look so over costed xp wise relative to other options. But I agree on paper they look out classed by so many alternatives. The only things I can think of that might make them viable are: (1) thinking about how xp might pan out over a campaign. If you took the Butterfly Swords (2) approach early (which is absolutely plenty of damage, its just less funny and exaggerated) in order to spend xp on other deck functions like clues or whatever, then later in the campaign, maybe for the last map, spending 3 xp to upgrade them to the lvl5 version might not look so bad if you know you are going to use them all game and you have presumably built your deck to work around them well. (2) I believe you can target different enemies with each attack, so they can clear out a lot of smaller enemies in one action (a bit like the discipline). my problem with this is that it rarely comes up unless someone is evading a lot like Finn or Trish perhaps and letting things build up deliberately. (3) OR its entirely possible I have written off a good card without playing it or realising its potential, and i would love to be wrong because swords are cooler than golf.

Sep 23, 2021 jw24601 · 1

"I would also want to double check with rules gurus re the sledge hammer, but certainly I would assume you can activate it as one of the 3 actions from the discipline, paying the other 2 from normal actions, but I wouldnt expect to be able to use the disciple to pay for all 3 in one go."

I spent waaaaaay to long trying to get to the bottom of 'why' for this yesterday! The simple answer is you are right that one of the Fights can be used to pay for one of the 3 actions required to activate the section ability on sledge hammer.

Specifically, 'Take and X action' has been clarified to mean 'You gain an action that can only be used for X that must be used immediately' (reference for this is in the paper FAQ under Ursula Downs, but doesn't appear in the FAQ for her card on this site right now). Also, an activation that requires multiple actions has an additional cost of the action arrows beyond the first (ie, ->->-> has a cost of one action plus an additional cost of two actions). This is taken from the FAQ for Haste which does appear on this site.

I think Sledge Hammer (and Timeworn Brand) are very compelling for this ability, as having two separate fight actions on one card carries us a long way!

Sep 23, 2021 jw24601 · 1

'section ability' should be 'second ability' above

Sep 28, 2021 thecainman · 1

I'm confused how you're able to play Lily and all these cards in Edge of Earth since they're not out yet? I wanna play Lily too! LOL

Sep 28, 2021 StartWithTheName · 63539

Theyve been out in the UK for a few weeks @thecainman, though we did proxy a few of them when they were teased by FFG in their articles. I gather the pandemic has effected distribution in a lot of other countries though.

Oct 03, 2021 mattastrophic · 3018

Congrats on 40K!

Oct 16, 2021 Sixtyten · 13

Andy, I love you. This is amazing. Will be playing a version of this vs blob later today.

Oct 16, 2021 StartWithTheName · 63539

Oh nice @Sixtyten. Let me know how it goes. Shes perfect for the Blob. So much burst damage and she probably has enough varied parts that if anything was missing there would be alternatives...unless there isnt #veryblobproblems

Nov 14, 2021 player314 · 1

Hi, any pointers to the 0 xp deck? I was fine while with deck building when i only had a core and Dunwich, but now bought too many cards and got myself overwhelmed.

Nov 15, 2021 StartWithTheName · 63539

Hi @player314 this is the lvl 0 build. The 3xp shown is obtained from In the Thick of It. This is slightly more important in Lily as it helps her get over the 15xp threshold to get the second discipline asap. Details you are looking for are in the intro text, a paragraph or two below the big purple tentacle picture, then in the "chose your fighter" section a little way down.

Nov 22, 2021 Dustconsumedseeker · 573

are we sure that enchant weapon is additive with cyclopean hammer? i would assume that it is not.

Nov 23, 2021 StartWithTheName · 63539

hi @Dustconsumedseeker, with the caveat that I am rarely the best at complex rules queries, I dont see why it wouldnt. These are two different effects. No different than adding skill value to a test via Well Prepared or damage via Vicious Blow? Or am i missing something?

Dec 05, 2021 TheronGodseed · 1

I'm confused! How is this the level 0 build? I get that you get 3 xp from "In the thick of it," but where is the rest of the XP coming from?

Please help :)

Dec 05, 2021 TheronGodseed · 1

Never mind. I'm dumb :)

Jan 29, 2022 MrWeasely · 41

Hi! I'm new to AH, and this has been - by far - the most detailed article I've read. Very interesting! People here seem to have a good handle on the rules, and this is a Lily question, so I hope it's okay to ask:

If Ace of Rods pays for Lily's 3-attack Discipline, do all the sub-actions get the +2 modifier to each skill?

Feb 08, 2022 StartWithTheName · 63539

Hi @MrWeasely. Sorry ive been very busy of late and neglecting comments it seems.

I must admit i am not the best at complex rules queries. I tend to ask the gurus on discord. At a glance I suspect it might not work because of rulings on other cards that are there to stop the players from doing things like nesting actions within actions to get benefits from Flashlight reducing the shroud (there was a combo with Quick Thinking until they changed things to be closer to the intended design). Still this might not be a perfect match for that ruling, and it doenst look overly strong on paper since Ace of Rods removes from the game. Even if it wasnt strictly legal, it looks fine to house rule in. If its fun enjoy it. tis a game afterall :)

May 07, 2022 Archaon86 · 1

Hi @StartWithTheName. First of all I would like to apologize for my poor english, I am not a native speaker.

Secondly I would like to thank you for the time you put here helping the comunity, so thank you so much!

Finally, I am planning to run Lily solo ( Iblike her thematically) in the new compaing but I have not seen so much solo decks for lily in arkhamdb (at least not well rated). I know that Lily is not the best solo investigator but if you were to run Lily solo, could you tell me what should you change? I am not asking you to test it, only wanted to know your initial thoughts on this. Thank you so much :)

May 12, 2022 StartWithTheName · 63539

Hi @Archaon86 Im afraid I dont really play true solo. When I play solo, I play 2 decks at once, which allows more specialisation. At a guess, I would probably swap out some combat spells for clue spells, and start with the discipline, but you might get better advice on one of the discords.

May 12, 2022 Archaon86 · 1

Hi @StartWithTheName . I was thinking the same. I will start with the discipline you have mentioned and sixth sense, and try to go for better clue finder cards as soon as I get some xp. Thanks for your help, really appreciate it! :)

Dec 06, 2022 Trellheim · 1

Seeing that Lily Chen is an obvious reference to Chun Li, you should scream "KIKOUKEN!" every time you use Azure Flame, instead of "hadouken!" :D