quan - chi no doubt plus if you watch the intro of mkd quan - chi kills shang tsung. think overall quan chi has more powers plus in mkg he froze time and blew up baraka so that's saying something.

shang really ownly has his fire powers and the ability to take souls. but really don't think he could take quan soul even if he wanted to. since he's a necromancer. also i always wonderd about the writings on quan body. could be writings to prevent shang or kahn to take his soul.

Shang Tsung is bad ass. I've loved him since MK2 but in Deadly Alliance he was my favorite. Such an awesome character. He got fucked in MK9's story though.

This is a tough choice to be honest. I think Shang Tsung could actually get the win but i'll say Quan Chi.

In the old storyline I think it'd be Shang Tsung. He seemed like the evil maniplitive type. But in the new storyline it was Quan Chi who did all that. I'd even say Quan Chi was the main villain in Mk2011. So I have to say Quan Chi is the most evil sorcerer in the new game even though I don't want to.

I agree with you. Quan Chi even beat Shang Tsung in the intro of MK: Deception. Maybe if Shang Tsung is in a more youthful state, he would be able to defeat Quan Chi.

I always saw them as Quan Chi having the more powerful magic but Shang being the better fighter.

When Quan "beat" him in the Deception intro? I like to think Shang was tired from doing most of the work in the Raiden fight.

Quan Chi. He beat Shang Tsung in the intro of Mortal Kombat Deception.

And also, you could even say Quan Chi was the main villian of MK9. Considering he knew about Raiden sending a message back in time, and also, it was his plan all along for Shao Kahn to die. It's like Quan Chi was following some kind of script Shinnok set up for him.

So, Quan Chi would definitely win.

TIE.
Two of the most badass and enjoyable and popular characters, both are in my top 10 favourites chart.

If I have to pick one of them, I'd go with Shang Tsung: he is just looking for power, he's not naturally evil like Quan Chi, after all Shang is human, Quan Chi is a demon.

Quan Chi is definitely the more powerful sorcerer hands down. He defeated Shang Tsung in the intro of MKD and he has Shinnok's amulet. Those two reasons alone reign him supreme without any questions.

Quan Chi didn't know about Raiden's time travel message? No one did. Raiden himself didn't even know what it meant until the end of the game and he's the one who sent it.

“Those were $500 sunglasses Asshole.”

I will give Quan Chi credit for defeating Shang Tsung in the MKD intro but don't forget that Shang Tsung got his ass kicked by Raiden more than Quan Chi did. Until I see them go one on one from the beginning I will look at them as equals.

I also would like to think that Shang Tsung "let" Quan Chi win that fight to let his guard down. Then Tsung would absorb a soul from the soulando and take out Chi then. Probably not lol, but he did just get up after Onaga showed up.

Also the tats on Quan Chi are/were the markings from Onaga's tomb mentioned in MKDA. However he had the tats in MK9 so NRS is probably changing what the tats mean.

I loved Quan Chi... until the new MK. I utterly HATE his presence in the new MK! He shouldn't even be there! No, Shang Tsung was supposed to do alot of the things Quan Chi did in the new MK, and gameplay wise I prefer Shang Tsung over Quan Chi...

However, that aside, Quan Chi is definateley more powerful.

Shang Tsung, the version I liked the most was his MKvsDC version.

Quan Chi was seen dead at the pyramid steps in the MK9 intro if I recall correctly.

I'd go for Quan Chi, he seemed like the more cunning and deadlier warrior than Shang Tsung. Shang stole souls and killed Liu Kang, but was subservient to Khan to the end. Quan Chi tricked Shinnok into a fake amulet and used it to revive the Dragon King's army and beat Shang Tsung.

I'm with you Jaded Raven on Quan Chi being way too much in MK 9's story mode. I posted a little idea that Shinnok at the end of Armageddon was watching what Rayden was doing and sent himself a message as well. After all, he couldn't get out of the Netherrealm without his amulet. It could be a little lazy excuse to explain the retcons like Quan Chi and Nightwolf at the MK 1 tournament, the Sub-Zero origins, etc... kinda like Superboy Prime punching reality bringing back Jason Todd. I think metaphorically sometimes.

Quan Chi was already powerful sorcerer before meeting Shinnok (who has far more extensive arcane knowledge and wisdom than Shao Kahn) while Shang Tsung was just a human with modest magical skills before meeting Shao Kahn. Quan Chi can travel freely between realms while Shang Tsung cannot. Shang Tsung has a glaring weakness of having to age rapidly while Quan Chi has no stand out flaw. Shang Tsung does have the advantage of being able to use any warrior's power, even though he often lacks the necessary skills use them optimally, but we'll give the skill in battle point to him.

My money's on Quan.

The answer can be found with a simple understanding of their power.

Shang Tsung is a biomancer. His powers are associated with the living, and the energy he possesses comes from the living. Because of this, Shang Tsung's power is limited to the amount of people who are alive, particularly around him. And of course, people die everyday.

Quan Chi is a necromancer. His powers are associated with the dead, and the energy he possesses comes from the dead. His potential increases as more people die, and since people die all the time, this makes him virtually invincible.

This actually reminds me of Baraka's ending in MK Gold, when he "stabbed" Quan Chi and barked, "You will pay with your life!", to which Quan Chi responded,

Not to mention, how well they use their powers. You might have an infinite amount of power with you when it comes to the undead, but are you skilled enough to use that power in a way where you're invincible, or not? I feel that, despite that Shang Tsung is a very powerful sorcerer, as my favorite character, he's not that great with his magic. The intro to Deadly Alliance clearly showed that. Disguised, he sneaks up behind Liu, but wasn't that great with it because he got caught.

With Quan Chi, we've seen him do powerful things with his magic that are beyond Shang's skills. In Deception he almost gets killed by Quan Chi. I feel that despite that Shang is powerful, he's been in situations where he is shown as a weak character, which is somewhat disappointing. So, with that said, and I'm sure there's more that could be thrown in here, Quan Chi has the upper hand as being more powerful than Shang. You can morph into anyone you want and do whatever you want, but if you can't hold your own, you're not that powerful.

When it comes to magic and spellcasting, experience is everything. The older you are, the more spells you know and power you have.

Shang's only about 1,000 and has learned most of the magic he knows from Shao Kahn. And maybe from stolen souls, though I doubt he's absorbed many wizards, most of the people he's stolen souls from are just martial artists who came to the MK tournaments.

Quan Chi, on the other hand, is millions of years old and learned his magic from all kinds of different lost knowledge and artifacts that people hid in the Netherealm.

All that said, I greatly prefer Shang. I think he looks cooler (cooler than the shirtless MKDA costume Quan wears in everything now, that is. if Quan were still running around in his Mythologies outfit, I'd prefer him), his stories are usually better, and I'm pissed at how they shoehorned Quan into all kinds of places where he didn't belong in MK9, so I don't like him as much as I used to.

Quan Chi easily. Look at the MKD intro. He defeats Shang with little effort.

Both can and should exist. The team just needs to align their stories in a better way. Turning Quan Chi into a shang + Quan = less interesting Chi. Shang Tsung = Quan Chi = Both > Shang Quan Chi Tsung (AKA MK9's Quan Chi)

As someone already stated, it's kinda tough to compare them because they belong to two different "branches" of sorcerers. Shang Tsung is the archetypal 'sword-and-sorcery epic' mage with long hair and beard, serving as an advisor/grand vizier of the ultimate overlord, but practically holding the central villain role in the plot. Quan Chi is more of a, so to say, 'postmodern', non-typical sorcerer, who, rather than do a whole bunch of actions pertaining with magic, simply stands aside and manipulates his mystical pawns; he also doesn't really serve anyone (Shinnok could be called more of a ally of Quan Chi's rather than his master).

Waging their strength is also difficult because, while Quan Chi did defeat Shang Tsung in MKD intro, Shang proved the be the most able warrior in MKA intro (he would have reached the top of Argus' pyramid if it weren't for zombie Liu Kang's chains). His sudden growth of prowess in that intro didn't make much sense to me, but I believe the creators wanted Shang to 'redeem' for all the previous beatings, losses and humiliation he went through.

I know that this is about Quan Chi and Shang Tsung and I gotta go with Shang, hands down. However, if you throw Shinnok in there, he would rule over both.