Shadowless

Bah. I'm still a Konoha fan. I guess I can pick 'em. It's either her or Kira, and I can't do 360's to save my life.

It's kinda true, but you could say the same thing about other arcanas, too, really - in particular, it's hard to do anything when you're opponent's got a lightning arcana super or a dark arcana super waiting to jump out at you, too.

Hm... I'd recommend checking out MatchPile (or your favorite youtube thread) and checking the recommended videos with Saki in them, and having a look. Actually, it looks like in most of the matches with Saki on MatchPile, she gets smacked around. Still. I've never used her, but... She seems pretty straightforward, really. Kinda like Heart. Saki's forward-moving kick special is kinda like the tekken punch, but it's got better range (less combo potential, though). Saki's flip-kick super is pretty good, whether you use it to continue an air combo or as a safe wake-up option. Her dive kick is pretty decent, too - you can combo off of it (I think), and you recover almost instantly if it doesn't hit your opponent.

Until now, Earth has been the most common choice for Kira that I've seen. Recently, people have been using fire well, also. It seems like Kira would benefit greatly by the added armor that water offers, but in practice I think she would never really get a chance to call out the ice spheres to begin with. Earth gets the nod from me, at least until I see more. It's what I'd use. Neither arcana is very useful for Kira in mid-screen combos, but both can be put to good use when you're by the wall, and Kira tends to get people over there pretty fast when she can land a hit. You've probably seen it in videos already, but... Fire gets more hits and damage against the wall, just because of the extra hits from the arcana super, but Earth isn't far behind. Fire gives you some worthwhile projectiles, a useful attack after guard cancels (the burst super), and normal homing cancels and guard cancels. Earth is very useful for Kira when it's activated, because the super armor is useful and she can combo into the arcana force. The rock fist is pretty good at mid-range, and Kira can sometimes use the boulder, too. The stomp super is a good surprise move if you've got meter to burn or if your opponent is keeping you away. And Earth's homing and guard cancels are kind of crap, but they work just fine for Kira. I saw people use Lightning with her a little bit when the game was new. It's a good distance attack against people who are just sitting around throwing projectiles, but that's all you can say for it. Kira doesn't get many knock-downs, so lightning & dark setups don't seem very good for her. Oh, and time - I think it's probably not actually a very good choice, but it's the only arcana that can let Kira actually move fast. Dash behind -> 360 throw (KSB?) is pretty scary if you have the spacing down (and they aren't always jumping). However, Kira's back dash is really short, so the arcana doesn't seem to help much there. EDIT: Uh, that's just my opinion, though. I suck at this game.

Of course the loop is interesting, but the biggest news about that particular loop is that under normal circumstances, Maori's jump C is not cancelable. Full rundown is at MatchPile. RE: water arcana for sibladeko: I'm not sure I have any knowledge that you guys don't. The water arcana is kind of iffy. You can first summon ice spheres, and then you can then use those as attacks. But, really nobody uses that. Everybody who's using it now keeps the spheres around because they can absorb attacks. Even then, though, it's not very reliable. There's no guarantee that the spheres will be in the right place to catch an opponent's attack, and they disappear after a short period of time even if they haven't been used. The water arcana doesn't give a character any useful attacks except for the bubble super, and can't be used in combos or to pressure your opponent. On the other hand, if an ice ball does catch an opponent's attack, it's almost guaranteed to stop their combo. If you can keep putting them out there (the super generates the maximum three that you can have around you at a time), your opponent may not be able to land a full combo on you. If a combo is interrupted, there's a good chance that you'll be able to recover before your opponent and will be able to counterattack. Is it good? I don't know. It's at least okay, and I've seen matches where it turned things around. It's unreliable, and it's certainly better for and against some players than others. It doesn't give you any good tools if you find yourself on the defensive, because calling out ice spheres takes too much time. But when it works, it's tough to get around.