1. He used no form of teamwork there. Kakashi was about to get himself killed, so he saved him, tagged the guy, and Hiraishin blitzed and cut his throat.
2. If he's going to open with Hiraishin against fodder, why wouldn't he do so against a ninja who isn't fodder?
3. For all he knows, Deidara is some fodder.
The battle takes place, or should I say starts, at the clearing in front of the forest like OP said. So you are wrong there too. Minato needs no surprise attack to take out Deidara, nor does he need prep. All he needs to do is toss several Kunai at him and blitz him, or in this case, close the distance and THEN blitz him.
Considering Deidara has no intel on Hiraishin, I can count on him not trying to get into the air until he realizes Minato is too fast for him, just like he did with Sasuke, but once he realizes that....he'd be dead. Lol
Not liking how you are grasping at straws here, saying Minato won't start with his signature move, his regular fighting style. For all he knows, Deidara is some fodder. He has absolutely zero intel on the Akatsuki. He spread his Kunai like that because he knew who Ay was, yes....but that isn't the same as closing the distance and obliterating your opponent.
Because he knew there was something dangerous about him, as evidenced by him almost getting warped away a second earlier.
Deidara has shown that he can react to Sasuke's Shunshin speed. Minato>Tobirama>Madara, and Madara almost blitzed Sage Naruto. He hasn't shown that he can react to Minato's level of speed. Not to mention if he uses a clay clone, Minato will catch him since Deidara will literally have no moment to make a clone undetected.
Lol, we can't have you saying Deidara stands a chance now can we?
Correction, he used that distraction as an advantage while also using his speed as an advantage at the time. Though the situation was dire, the perfect time to strike was when the enemy fodder was caught off guard thus tragically trashing them.
Minatos ability to gauge a enemies strength is determined on how they fight or strategize, this was shown in the one man ambush when Kakashi rushed in, he waited until it was absolutely paramount that he intervene and then jumped in to save Kakashi. In that space of time, Minato could easily gauge how strong he was and thus ended him with Shunshin. 1000 rock ninja is clearly a army full of fodder sent and nothing but numbers, Minato had knowledge of this
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. So looking on this fight, he will not assume that Deidara is fodder but he will first gain at least a rough idea of his power.
Its not within character for him to ever fling a barrage of kunai though that's my point, and even if he did, a clay clone is used and by the time he reaches deidara, it explodes which gives enough time for deidara to take flight. He didn't toss a barrage of kunai at Obito in the hidden leaf because he wanted to see just how powerful he was first before revealing his trump card FTG. It would be idiotic of him to use his trump straight away.
Im not grasping at straws all im saying is that even if here WERE to sprea dhis kunai everywhere, its:
A. Spread on a vast field
B. on the ground
It will be of little use to him if Deidara isn't on the ground now isn't it? and once again, He knew who Ay was and who he was up against at the time plus had a terrain advantage. There was a forest there where as this fight takes place outside that forest. Im simply pointing out the differences that distinguish this fight... now knowing this, why would he recklessly blitz everywhere from the very start? even when he had little time to react to Ay's punch he still formed a quick plan with the knowledge he had. By using FTG distance is just a word, especially in a forest.
Fair point, but he wasn't 100% sure about what he done, he had a theory and tested it out (about the space time jutsu/kamui) so he still never had accurate intel so this is why he dashed in instead of FTG troll spam, so he could learn more about it.
But your suggesting that Minatos FTG essentially gives him a pre-emperative strike by saying that. Deidara successfully made a clone without Sasuke realising it and he possesses the sight to actually tell if its a clone or not. He also fooled Oonoki. We've never actually seen someone create a surprise clone even though its been down thousands of times in the manga. Deidara can clearly sub himself for the clone...
If anything, Deidara stand a very strong chance