DEEP DISH THEMES:
By The Slice:

ORIGIN: Sandra Wu-San was the goddaughter of the martial arts expert O-Sensei. When Sandra Wu-San's sister was killed, a mysterious man approached her and convinced her that Richard Dragon had killed her. Sandra became determined to avenge her sister's death, but knew that she had to train if she were to have any hope of defeating Richard Dragon. While training, Sandra discovered that she had a natural talent for the skills and movements required for martial arts.

She trained for years, eventually reaching a point in her martial arts training where she felt that she was ready to find Richard Dragon and avenge her sister. She decided to take up the code-name Shiva and eventually tracked Dragon down, luring him into a trap. However, Dragon revealed to Shiva that he did not kill her sister and the man that told her he had was someone that worked for him and wanted Dragon dead. He then explained who the real killer was and that he had already killed him in battle.

Shiva came to the devastating conclusion that she had no more purpose in life and that all her training had become a waste. She decided to aid Dragon with some of his missions because all she knew was how to fight. Dragon let her come along in hopes that she would decide to use her skills for good. After many years, Dragon decided to retire and Shiva left to find meaning in her life. Later, she again partnered with Richard Dragon and Ben Turner, The Bronze Tiger and went on numerous missions for the mysterious G.O.O.D.



PROS: I personally feel that this is the best version of Shiva from the set she first appeared in (Cosmic Justice), and it's for one very simple reason. She has the lowest point cost out of all of them, and she has the potential to be the most effective since she is the only one that has the Batman Enemy team ability. Let's face it...even back THEN an eight attack wasn't going to do you a lot of good against the beefier clix that existed at the time. With that team ability, though, you'll be able to pair her up with any figure that has a higher attack and can use that team ability to make her pull much more weight than the figure can by itself. Heck, pair her with the new Ra's Al Ghul and you have a little 20 point piece from the second DC set ever that will be flaunting a 12 attack and the capability to do 3 damage with her Close Combat Expert helping out her damage. All the other Shivas have a naturally higher attack value, but if you're going to be playing pieces that have the team ability to use anyway, she makes great (And usually unexpected) point filler even to this day.

CONS: Your paying roughly five points per click for her with four clicks of life and only at a 20 point investment. Even if you only use her for a dedicated character to use your theme team Probability Control, you're getting your points worth in my opinion. As I mentioned above, though, she still does have shortcomings that need to be pointed out. To get any/much use out of her, it is going to require you to have adjacency to a character that can help her out. That presents it's very own kind of problems. You will make your team even more susceptible to area of effect attacks like Energy Explosion or Pulse Wave as well as any myriad of attacks that have effects that damage not only the target character but somebody adjacent to them as well. Her defense value tops out at 15 so she's not going to be hard to hit at all. Hopefully the Super Senses will help a bit, but there are so many ways to get around that these days that it isn't NEARLY the pain that it could be when this character first came out.

THEME: I mentioned using her alongside the new Ra's Al Ghul from Joker's Wild. If you can't quite fit the Joker's Wild version of Shiva on a League of Assassins team, I'd gladly reach for this "Oldie but Goody" to fill in the shoes. She may not have NEARLY the tricks that the new Shiva has up her sleeves, but she will at least fill in that spot on your team allowing the room that I personally require for a dozen faceless and nameless ninjas!



PROS: There is a pretty decent gain here for the 13 points that you pay for her over the rookie version. You get DOUBLE the amount of Super Senses which is important because she doesn't exactly have the sturdiest of defense stats. You get another click of Close Combat Expert which will help her adjust her attack and/or damage stats as necessary. She has also gained a click of Incapacitate which will help her to lend a hand when pacing and board control are necessary. I didn't point it out on the rookie version as doing one damage that isn't penetrating/unavoidable is rarely helpful, but both versions have a four range. The reason that this is important to the experienced version over the rookie is that you can hide her in/behind hindering terrain to activate her Stealth for incoming attacks and use her to Incapacitate bigger pieces trying to gain ground in the fight. If they have to get close to fight back she then gets to unleash her Close Combat Expert on them (Or just keep using Incapacitate to hold them down).

CONS: If ONLY you could use Incapacitate and Close Combat Expert together! I know I shouldn't judge a figure by power interactions that are or are not legal, but that would make this figure such a stand-out from the previous version. She lost the Batman Enemy team ability and now has a bit higher of an attack and a few more tricks, but you're going to be swinging for the fences usually trying to Incapacitate anything with a raw nine attack. Sure, you're only putting 33 points into the dial so it's not like your strategy is going to be hinging on her ability to get at the opponent, but for 13 points less I can play with the rookie and have room for other point filler in the form of ID cards, relics, equipment, or if you still use them, feat cards. Basically, I'm saying that I could come up with better ways to spend my points.

THEME: Again, you could use her as pretty cheap League of Assassins filler, but there are generics that could fill the role at just a bit more expensive or less expensively than she does. If you NEED a Shiva for your team, she's an option, but since she has no team ability to use I might be more inclined to include her in a generic theme team based on the Martial Artist keyword. I could see playing her in a swarm of Martial Artists that are all 25-35 points. She could be the dedicated tie-up/Incapacitate piece while your heartier Martial Artists pull the weight of the team.



PROS: The one thing positive that I can say for her that makes her playable is that she is VERY pushable on that top click. Her second click is almost identical to the first one so you are able to push off that top click doing whatever you may need to do whether it be Incapacitate or Close Combat Expert or just moving into position to use those powers. Sometimes you can get a figure's point value if they can even just get one shot in at a key moment, so being able to use that ability to push when your opponent may not have an answer to it can be key. She may not be a prime example of the kind of figure that you would use for this purpose, but she could fill this purpose in a pinch.

CONS: I'll be honest. I don't really see a point to this figure when compared to the other two. I firmly believe that the only reason that some figures were made in the old REV days was because there HAD to be three versions of them per the structure that WizKids had painted themselves into a corner with. They eventually got more creative with it with different paint jobs, sculpts, and noticeable differences with characters' power levels and representations in latter sets, but in this early DC set, that was NOT the case. This figure essentially exists just to fill the hole in the REV set. There are a few subtle power differences like an extra click of Super Senses as well as an extra click of Incapacitate, but if you were going to spend the 40 points to play this figure, I would be moving some stuff around on my team to play with one of the other Shivas instead...pretty much ANY other Lady Shiva.

THEME: Like I said before, I am probably not going to be reaching for this figure for pretty much any reason. About the ONLY thing that would make me reach for her would be if I was being SUPER lazy and was using pieces that easily fit into a team...like if I only needed 40 points to make a team and I just HAPPENED to find this piece first, I'd probably just go with the flow and put her in the team out of sheer apathy. I rarely get that way with team building, though.



PROS: The comparisons to the Veteran are almost identical. VERY little has changed. About the best thing that she has going for her is that opening click of 16 defense. By no means is it enough to stand up against newer pieces more often than not, but it could be enough to keep her safe when paired with her Super Senses when going toe to toe with a piece that has been hurt a bit or when going against a support piece that doesn't have very much (If any) bite to it. The only other thing that the Sandra LE has going for her is just a superior selection of keywords over the Veteran that only has Martial Artist to choose from.

CONS: This one is just about as bad as the Veteran one, but HEY!...at least it cost two points less. It's not as pushable as the Veteran since it doesn't have Incapacitate on it's second click. The only gain that it has over the Veteran is the additional click of Stealth at the end of her dial. If you're opponent doesn't have a way to deal with Stealth, it can be worth it's weight in gold, but there are just so many ways to deal with Stealth these days that it's not likely going to do you that much good. Also, if one click of end-dial Stealth on a figure this old and this rusty is the thing that you're looking for to be the lynch pin of a team, you might want to buy some new pieces or look at better strategies at the very least.

THEME: She's the only Shiva to have the Gotham City keyword, so if you wanted to run that theme team and wanted to put a Lady Shiva on it, here if the piece that you need to own right here. This is the one and only time I'm going to mention this in the article as well, but for you guys and gals that have been around the Realms for a long time like me, there was once a realmser that caused quite a commotion around here many years ago. I won't get into the details about what went down, but just know that this person caused quite a stir. That person's screen name was Sandra Wu-San...SO, if you were ever looking to make some kind of "Notorious members of HCRealms" theme team based on screen names this is also a piece to look out for



PROS: Considering this was only our second ever crack at Lady Shiva after the REVLE set from Cosmic Justice, I'd say that WizKids took their sophomore attempt seriously. DAMN if she isn't just a little bundle of deadly. Don't look at this as a 67 point figure...look at her as a 67 point figure that can easily pull the weight of a 100+ point figure. She is incredibly efficient in both defense and offense. I personally am a sucker for characters that can hold their own defensively even if they suffer a bit in the offense department, and this Lady Shiva starts out with an 18 defense on her top dial which is impressive, but then you consider that she's going to be in close combat more often than not and you add in the Combat Reflexes onto that, and you have a real winner. Good luck to your opponent and that 20 defense in melee combat. Now take a look at that offense and see that she starts out with an amazing 11 attack for a piece this inexpensive and that only climbs to a 12 from there for two clicks. On one of those two clicks she can use my favorite combo of Flurry and Blades with the potential to make the damage penetrating. I'm not 100% sure why and would have to look at the card to see what they call it, but she also has Steal Energy on her last two clicks to help keep her in the game. She doesn't have a lot of tricks, but the ones she does have are better than almost any piece made at the time and can easily give modern age pieces a run for their money. She's just amazing.

CONS: I know I'm pretty enamored with the dial, but I have to look at things objectively and point out a weaknesses in her dial. I wouldn't go so far as to call them flaws, but there are ways that she doesn't quite measure up. Her Flurry is great to have, but after she loses Blades/Claws/Fangs, it's not going to bust through any heavy damage reducers unless you have somebody near her that can bolster her damage value or give her Precision Strike. After her first few clicks or high attack and defense her attack value either stays the same or barely drops, but her defense values start hitting some pretty low levels. She still has things on her dial to help her mitigate this, but a smart opponent or just one with the right tools will find a way around these bonuses with relative ease. Still, heckuva way to spend 67 points and I'd do it all day and every day for this dial!

THEME: This was one of the first pieces in the game with the Assassin keyword, and since the keyword's introduction, there have been VERY few characters to sport the keyword that I would consider disappointing. She's in good company. It may not have as many choices as a keyword as much as something like Scientist or Martial Artist, and it IS a generic keyword so it's not going to gain you any theme team Probability Control, but it's a keyword that is solid, packs a punch, and is as it should be...deadly.



PROS: This version of Shiva takes the honor of being the most costly Shiva in the game as of now. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, though. You get a LOT of bang for you buck here. The Streets of Gotham version didn't have the pleasure of being made after the time that Precision Strike was a power, and this Shiva revels in the power. She has it for the entire top half of her dial in fact. She just has so many ways to make you hurt. It also helps that her base damage value was increased since her previous incarnation in Streets of Gotham. I'm not entirely sure that she should be able to do FIVE damage on that click where she has the three base damage with Close Combat Expert, but I'll look the other way on occasion even if it's a tad hypocritical if a character is a bit more powerful than is comic accurate. Defensively she has a 17 printed defense down the dial with a half of her dial being Combat Reflexes and the other half being Super Senses. Indomitable ties up the nice little deadly package neatly.

CONS: Though she is VERY powerful and has a loaded dial full of options, she is still pretty costly...especially when some of those powers that she is paying for are determined by the terrain. If you win map choice, you should be fine, but if your opponent gets to choose they could take away a TON of her effectiveness by choosing a map with little to no hindering terrain. Is she still worth her 90 points without Charge and Exploit Weakness?...Debatable. The trait is good in theory and could be the difference between a win and a loss, but extra points don't do much for you if your team gets wiped off the board. You may have 350 points compared to your opponent's 290, but if they knock out your entire team, it's still a loss.

THEME: Though I don't think she particularly BELONGS in Arkham Asylum, she still has the keyword because she was in the Arkham Origins game/set. She is the only one to have it out of all the Lady Shiva figures so I should probably make use of it somewhere. They've been using the keyword since the Dark Knight Rises movie set, and it's gotten a lot of use since so it's not just one of those keywords that was given lip service in a one-off set. It's pretty much the premiere keyword for the crazies of the DC Universe. Sure, you get some characters like this every once in a while that may not actually belong, but to be somebody associated with Gotham at all, there's a little crazy in there somewhere.



PROS: At this point she has been made in four different sets, and all of that effort has distilled to get us down to this, and it's one of the best dials in the Joker's Wild set. She has Flurry down the dial through a special power and also the basic power itself on the last two clicks of her dial. She is top loaded with a SUPER high attack value at a 12 and with Precision Strike. For 50 points she is the ideal figure to have on any theme team that either features the Batman Enemy team ability or Wild Card Abuse. She also has her "How I deal with the Bat" trait that increases the attack of friendly characters that borrow her attack via the Batman Enemy team ability by +1 if she were to lend out her attack value to a character using it to make a close attack. That gives them a MASSIVE 13 attack for close combat which is just insane in most cases. Her defense power gives her Combat Reflexes on all five clicks and prevents adjacent opposing characters from having their attack values increased if they were to make a close attack. This makes her an amazing attacker, a great tie-up piece, and a character that acts like a nerf to characters that she's tied up. I would pay so much more than 50 points for this dial.

CONS: Her lack of move and attack powers and her lack of Indomitable is going to make her a bit more challenging to get into the fight where and when you need her to be there. She can be carried or be placed by Telekinesis, but without those things, she is going to be trudging through the battlefield a bit, and slowly at that. She has pretty standard normal human movement, but she's going to have to use it all to get there, rest for a turn, and THEN get to attack if she hasn't been KO'd or if your opponent allows you to remain adjacent. She is pretty pushable since her stats are very consistent, but with only five clicks of life you're already in danger of getting KO'd in one shot...I generally don't like giving my opponents an even better shot of doing that by giving up free clicks...though there is something to be said for giving up a click in order to prevent even more from coming in...

THEME: I was going to suggest using her on a League of Assassins team, but to get the most out of her team ability, but there aren't many different figures that have that keyword and also have the Batman Enemy team ability. In fact, it is mostly just different Ra's Al Ghul figures with a smattering of other characters here and there. i didn't look TOO much into Martial Artist or Assassin characters, but I imagine that there are a fair number of them that have the combo needed to get the most out of her. Assassins would be my most likely choice of team to pair her with. If you want something TRULY out of the box and not even on the recommended keyword list?...induct her into the Legion of Super Heroes with the gravity feed Legion founders and then she can just share that 12 attack like crazy. I could think of WAY worse ways to spend 50 points.

KEYS TO THE KINGDOM

Now that we have had a little glimpse into the aspects of all the different Lady Shiva figures, let's take a quick look at her keywords and I will tell you my number one picks to use for each keyword theme available (Named keywords are bolded):

League of Assassins: jw043 Lady Shiva
Martial Artist: jw043 Lady Shiva
Gotham City: cj220 Sandra Wu-San
Assassin: jw043 Lady Shiva
Birds of Prey: sog039 Lady Shiva
Arkham Asylum: bmao018 Shiva
Gotham City Underworld: bmao018 Shiva

WHO NEEDS KEYWORDS?!

In this section, I'm going to list some possible theme teams that you could play Lady Shiva on that are definitely comic accurate but don't require keywords and provides links using Comic Vine and/or Wikipedia to tell you more about them. Unfortunately, using these teams mean you are going to forego keyword bonuses, but every once in a while Judges might let you slip by with one of these teams:

Dark Arcana
Secret Society of Super-Villains

This wraps it up for Deep Dish Themes: Lady Shiva edition. Thank you for reading! Feel free to post what you think about the article and feel free to nominate a character for an upcoming edition of Deep Dish Themes. Join me on 2/15 when I eat the heart-shaped herb and delve into the realm of the Panther God in Deep Dish Themes: Black Panther!

Good write-up and cool subject! I really like the new one because Calculator (from the same set.) You might never even need to put her in the fight, just keeping that 8 square distance from the Bat-Man Enemy who can move and attack, like Bat-Taxi and Bane, or mid-dial Talon. The Clix gods have pretty-much always smiled down on Sandra Wu-San, er... the clix, not the user I.D.

Nice write up as always and a cool character choice! I have been itching to play my Arkham version since getting it and this inspires me to make it happen! Especially before I start hunting for that Jokers Wild version!!

I really liked this article. V Lady Shiva is one of the best old clix and I have played her against more recent clix with good results. She is great to have on Martial Artist teams.

jw is the flashy new hotness, but sog still holds my heart. bmao is a bit too pricey for it's comparative gains. jw is there really for batman enemy abuse, sog is the total package and a beast unto herself

SoG Shiva is my favorite, primarily due to the inclusion of the Birds of Prey ATA and the mid-dial AV spike.

She'll be fun to use with the Space Turtles as a medic and secondary attacker (replacing Raph ).

Why do you need two of them? She's 50 points.

WELCOME TO THE LEGION: When you build your force, choose one character of 50 points or less. That character gains the Legion of Super Heroes keyword and "wing symbol" this game. If your force includes other characters with this trait, you may increase the point value of your chosen character by 50 points if this character doesn't use this trait.

I do love the idea of using her as a new Karate Kid

I used to use that 20 point Lady Shiva all the time (for the reasons already mentioned), back in the days before keywords. I'd put her on a team with a bunch of Batman enemies, maybe throw in some Lockjaws for mastermind fodder for the Joker (since, remember, there were no keywords, so themed teams weren't a thing) who could continue to grant high attack values for the entire game.

Oswald Cobblepot would also see a lot of play for similar reasons.

Why? Because it was late and I was tired

Shiva approves!

i'll have to take your word for it, there's no pic

My personnel choice's for the best of Shiva is SoG and JW. I love the sculpt on SoG and the fact that she has the Birds of Prey keyword. Also I think her opening click of charge puts her above the JW version.

I wish I could combine the best of both dials into one.

frankenshiva would be terrifying in all possible ways...

You could always use Nightlantern to make an "Amalgam" of Lady Shiva with Lady Shiva.