Jaina Stormborne (yep Jaina and Grave are siblings) is a reckless fighter. She really wants to win combats with attacks. Jaina has a much higher pay off winning with attacks. Also thanks to her innate she has a very different way of approaching hand management then the rest of the cast. Jaina's innate allows her to buy back cards she played at 3 life each, except Qs or aces, as long as she attacked that turn. This means that Jaina can build up her hand while attacking at the cost of spending her life, she is very reckless you only live once type of woman.
Jaina gets even more reckless when she is low on life. When she reaches 35 or less life she can start to buy back Qs and aces for 4 life each, which is big because those are her fastest attacks.
Jaina can build up her hand while keeping pressure on the opponent. Jaina's attacks deal more chip damage (the damage an opponent takes when they block an attack) this allows Jaina to go life even or come out a little ahead on life when she buys back her attack and the opponent blocked her attack.
Something that is completely unique to Jaina is her red normal (her hearts and diamond suits) attacks deal chip (chip damage is the number in the blue shield). The amount of damage they deal is equal to the cards damage minus 1.
One of the highest chip damage cards in the game is on Jaina's J
Flame Arrow (the top side) is a bit slower then the normal J but it does high chip when blocked. Charged Shot is even more impressive with 7 chip. It is also a starter this means that if it wins combat Jaina will be able to make some pretty high damage combos. She then has the option to buy back her cards and threaten with those cards again, such is the way of the Phoenix Archer.
Charged Shot is slow so it is one of Jaina's gutsier plays but making those plays happen is where a lot of the fun of aggressive I want to punch/kick/shot you as hard as I can Jaina comes from.
Even if the card is blocked getting the chip and wearing the opponent down in the early game can set Jaina up to make strong plays in the late game through her other cards and abilities (more on those later).
Jaina's Dragonheart reversal isn't quite as fast as her brothers but her's has a higher top damage when you factor in the +5 for pumping the attack. What's nice about Jaina is that even though she can't buy back Dragonheart until she is lower on life she can buy back the card she used to pump it.
When Jaina is in Burning Desperation mode (at 35 or less health) she can become pretty oppressive with her Dragonheart. Depending on the opponent she can play a strong mix up of Dragonheart/throw and keep the opponent guessing and scared. If she plays Dragonheart and it gets blocked/dodged(if things go really well dodge won't be an option for the opponent, more on that latter) she can buy it back and try all over again.
Jaina's Crossfire Kick would be pretty bad if almost any other character had it because it only shines when you have multiple in hand. However, since Jaina is her reckless self she can play these in combat when she has them, buy them back, and as the game goes on she is likely to get more in hand making this card stronger and stronger as a combat option.
Another point worth noting is Crossfire Kick does 3 chip damage so even if it gets blocked and Jaina buys it back for 3 life she has still gone even on damage with the opponent.
Crossfire Kick is Jaina's fastest card for starting combo's. 2.4 is an okay speed but still faster then her other combo starters and if it connects and Jaina has several in hand she will be able to get in a ton of damage. This card can do 27 damage for 2cp!!!! while that is extremely rare Jaina can still get a lot of damage out of Crossfire Kick.
Just like her brother a lot of Jaina's scare comes from her aces. Her ace is extremely versatile and she can use it in every way imaginable. Thanks to the Red Dragon side she can use single aces in hand to poke the opponent at the strong speed of 0.8 for a respectable 10 damage. If Jaina has all four aces she can deal 37 damage, she can do this off a dodge or by winning with the Red Dragon side.
The infamous Letter J at it's scary speed 0.2 dealing 18 damage for two aces. It is also only 2cp meaning Jaina can combo into this card off of any win. She can throw into high normal into Letter J for 31 damage. If she happens to win with an attack that can combo into this then the opponent is going to be in all kinds of pain.
Keeping with Jaina's theme of high chip Letter J does 4 chip damage which is strong for such a fast move and allows her to choke out her opponents in the late game. Jaina doesn't play nice.
Since Aces are such a key part of Jaina's game plan she has an ability that both helps her win combat and get aces.
When this card is played it allows Jaina to flip any combat revealed attack next turn. If she hits she gets to search her deck and/or discard for two aces!! that's a lot of firepower is she wins on unstable power turns. If she fails to hit that turn she takes 7 damage, Jaina doesn't care about her well being she just wants to burn the opponent.
Jaina has strong cards she can use on unstable power turns.
These are both strong cards to use. The card on the left will beat all attacks and throws. The card on the right will beat all throws, blocks, and dodges. With these two cards in hand Jaina has a very strong mix up and if she gets it right she will be getting two aces. When that happens Jaina is a very happy lady.
Just because Unstable Power gives Jaina the option to flip cards if she played an attack doesn't mean she has to attack. The only way for opponent to be safe from Jaina's attack/dodge cards is to block so playing a starter throw can be better then playing the 6 attack to flip into Kneebash. The normal throw leads into more damage then Kneebash and any attack that would beat Jaina's throw would almost always beat Kneebash. Once Jaina lets the opponent know she is willing to normal throw on Unstable Power turns that might make the opponent want to attack which would allow Jaina's attack/dodge cards to become even stronger Unstable Power reveal cards.
To balance out Jaina's strengths she has her own share of weakness. While she can get high damage of attacks her attacks that start combos are average speed or slower. Jaina is happiest when she can catch a throw with one of her attacks. This means Jaina will have to block/dodge to get rid of the opponents strong attacks and get them to want to attempt to throw Jaina.
Jaina's throws are also average speed. Another downside to her throws is she can't buy back cards when she starts a combo with a throw. Outside of aces Jaina can't get a ton of damage off of throws at least not any where close to what she gets off of attack wins. To stretch Jaina's throws out she has a stong ability on her 7 which is her fastest throw.
Jaina's sub par throws could have make her very weak vs a heavy block/dodge range if not for two things: Jaina's higher then average chip damage and the Smoldering Embers ability.
For every Smoldering Embers in the discard the opponent will take two damage every time they dodge. This is huge for Jaina. If she gets a couple of these in the discard the opponent really needs to make his dodges count and if Jaina catches a dodge with a throw all of a sudden Jaina is removing a large chunk of the opponents life that turn.
Smoldering Embers can play into Jaina's late game of chocking out the opponent through doing good chip off of fast aces and if the opponent tries to dodge they take damage from Smoldering Embers.
Jaina does have her weaknesses but just like the others she has ways to play around those weaknesses.
Jaina is a character that wants to be aggressive, reckless, surround her opponent in a wall of fire. When you fight the Phoenix Archer you are going to get burned.