Adventures in Nipponbashi: The Reappearance of Nagato Yuki

Three weekends ago was my last tournament for a while, so I decided I would switch things up and try to have a bit of fun. As such, it was time to bring out the old Yuki / Alien deck and see how it would perform. With the increasing number of anti-heal cards around in the game at the moment, I knew this was a big risk, but I didn’t really care. I just wanted to play my Yuki deck in a tournament setting.

Prior to the tournament I got in some last minute shopping, before having a few games against my friend.

We started things off with my Tabitha deck vs his Miku deck. Things got off to a surprisingly good start for me, mostly due to him having a terrible start. Without supports, or much in the way of Level 0s at all, he wasn’t able to handle by Level 0 vanilla Tabitha backed up by her familiar. A couple of turns in I managed to pull off the 0 to 2 Change combo thanks to the Louise Brainstorm, and pretty much relied on [“Knight” of Hero Tabitha] for most of the rest of the game.

Everything was going well until it came time for Refresh. I refreshed with 6 Climaxes in deck, took 1 as Refresh damage, then hit another 3 with Louise. It wasn’t long before I was Level 3 with no Climaxes left in a 19 or so card deck. Even with my Brainstorm and drawing extra cards from my Level 3, I was unable to get the deck low enough, and would just end up taking 6 damage plus Refresh next turn.

After this I decided to switch to my Yuki deck for a quick warm up against Genei. After a decent early start where [Kyon & Koizumi] were able to stop some of his memory effects from going off, things then started to go downhill. I did not get a single copy of the 3 Aliens all game, which put a severe dent in the deck’s performance. Once my friend changed out [Father’s Child Ginka], the Alien deck just couldn’t keep up, because without supports its Power caps out at 9,000, including Counters.

Once into Level 2 I was forced to fill my Back Stage with filler to get [Summer Festival Nagato] out. Eventually, the deck just sort of petered out and I lost. Thankfully though, this would be the only game all day where I didn’t see my support cards.

After this, it was time for the tournament, which I would finish on a 3-2 record. In both cases, the losses were due to time out, which in Weiβ Schwarz results in a double loss. I’m pretty sure I’d have won both games given more time, but it also would have been unclear how the rest of the event would go. It surprised me how many of my opponent’s were not familiar with the Haruhi cards, and needed them explaining, but then I suppose it has been a long time since the deck was relevant. Hopefully I’ve learnt my lessons for next time.

Round 1 was against a Little Busters deck, running Maid Mio. I’m not really sure it had a coherent overall strategy, beyond being an R/B deck with that card as its end point. He did seem to have a bunch of cards which could top-deck stuff from my Waiting room, which he never really used.

I started off the game with [Nagato Yuki] and a single copy of the 3 Aliens, which gave me a pretty decent opener. [Nagato Yuki] was either too big for him to deal with, or when he could, her Encore effect kept her around. Any additional threats were dealt with by [Kyon & Koizumi], and I was soon able to search for my 2nd copy of the 3 Aliens. Once I was at Level 1, I pretty much just relied on multiple copies of [Onsen Nagato & Mikuru] to carry me through, without having to worry much about Stock.

Once I reached Level 2 it was time for [Summer Festival Nagato] to come down, and just run over anything my opponent had. Since he’d barely had any support cards all game, aside from a Brainstorm card, his cards were no match Power wise, even once he eventually got out his Maid Mios. Thanks to the Climax combo of [Summer Festival Nagato] and other healing cards like [Wedding Dress Nagato], I was able to close the game out whilst still at Level 2. I’d completely dominated the game, ending with a full field and hand, to his 1 card on Stage and 1 card in hand.

Round 2 was against Zero no Tsukaima, which meant we’d be fighting it out with our early play Level 3s.

Level 0 saw [Nagato Yuki] helped by the 3 Aliens facing off against [Whispering Henrietta & Saito], with neither of us really gaining much ground over the other. Anything else was dealt with via cards like [Kyon & Koizumi] until we both reached Level 1. At this point he was able to put out some pretty strong cards like [Louise of the Holy Kingdom], thanks to support from [First Daughter Eleonore], and with extra help from [Courageous Saito].

I was able to keep up thanks to a Power boost from [Client No. 1, Kimidori], and the free pseudo-Encore from [Swimsuit Haruhi & Nagato], with [Magician Nagato & Shamisen] keeping me well defended.

Once into Level 3 it was time for [Summer Festival Nagato] and [Royalty’s Duty Louise] to go head to head in the battle of the early Level 3s, with Nagato coming out on top due to superior defensive and offensive capabilities. [Unlink Information] was also useful for keeping me ahead damage wise, by getting rid of his Climaxes.

When we finally got into Level 3 properly [Mutual Love Louise] and her Climax combo started to mount a comeback, but it wasn’t enough to stop Nagato. As the game drew to a close, my opponent was on 3-5, with me still in the middle of Level 3. They had 1 empty slot, and I had 1 copy of [Summer Festival Nagato] left with plenty of other cards. Unfortunately, time was called before I was able to deal the finishing blow, resulting in a double loss.

I was pretty annoyed about it at this point, especially since it was very likely that I’d have been able to win on that turn. It would have required a double cancel off two 2 damage attacks, which seemed unlikely to me.

For my third Round I was up against IdolM@ster, which would mean even more early Level 3s. I’m really no good with IdolM@ster names and cards, so exact details of this game are a little harder to remember.

I think I actually opened this game up with 2 copies of [Summer Festival Nagato] and one of her Climaxes, so I knew I was going to be in pretty good shape come the end of the game. [Nagato Yuki] was once again a problem for my opponent, because 3500 plus Encore isn’t that easy to get rid of.

Once we got into Level 1, he played the card that gets stronger for every other Level 0 he has, and 2 copies of it stuck around for quite a while. I fought back with vanillas and [Swimsuit Haruhi & Nagato], allowing me to make attacks without worrying about the consequences. Kimidori’s Power boost made my opponent think twice about some of his attacks, opting for Side Attacks instead of Front Attacks, saving me some damage.

As usual, once I reached Level 2 it was time for [Summer Festival Nagato], who managed to heal damage and break past any of my opponent’s cards. Once backed up by [Guitarist Nagato] it was a defensive force to be reckoned with. My opponent tried to break through with Takane and a 2/1 that he’d boosted to 13,500 thanks to an Alarm effect, but [Magician Nagato & Shamisen] took her out. I followed up by clearing more of his Stage out, and hitting him to 3-6. I was at about 3-2 at this point.

On the following turn, his first attack was cancelled, and then time was called, again. Looking at the top of my deck, I’d have cancelled the second hit, making victory on the 3rd impossible. With 3 hits for 1 damage on the next turn, it was very unlikely that he’d have been able to survive.

The 4th round saw me against Love Live, in an interesting game that went right down to the wire time wise.

I got off to a decent start with [Nagato Yuki], who hit a Book Trigger on turn 1, and then another on Turn 2. This was useful for keeping up my card numbers in the face of his Reversers. On my 3rd turn I finally drew the 3 Aliens and was able to use it to search for another copy, whilst paying out my 2 Climaxes. I seem to recall us spending quite a long time in Level 0, due to both of us repeatedly cancelling.

Once my opponent reached Level 1 it was time to unleash the maids, with [Eri in Maid Uniform] providing support, and [Nozomi in Maid Uniform] going on the attack. I matched this with my own vanillas in the form of [Onsen Nagato & Mikuru]. Rather than risk a counter, I decided just to side attack, hoping that my opponent would run into my Counters. Instead, my opponent played a Climax and Side Attacked with his characters as well, after some deliberation about what attack to do. After seeing Kimidori come down, he was quite happy with his choice.

Level 1 pretty much just proceeded with our vanillas fighting it out, and [Daughter of a Japanese Candy Store Honoka] salvaging them back. I ended up in Level 2 much sooner than my opponent, due to losing lots of Climaxes early, and triggering even more Books as the game went on. At this point it was time for [Summer Festival Nagato] to come in again and deal with threats. From this point on, I was cancelling quite a lot, due to things like having a 6 card deck with 3 Climaxes, and then Refreshing into a 30-ish card deck with all 8 Climaxes (and thankfully not triggering /drawing too many of them).

It wasn’t really until Level 3 that my opponent’s cards became a threat, because Level 2 was pretty much just more of the vanilla and salvaging it back. Throughout the late game, the Climax combo of Summer Festival Nagato] helped keep me alive, alongside [Wedding Dress Nagato] for extra healing. Eventually I halted a Climax combo at Level 3 with [Unlink Information] and managed to go into the final turn of the game against an empty Front Stage. With my opponent at 3-4 it just game down to whether or not any of my 3 [Summer Festival Nagato] would be cancelled or not. Thankfully they weren’t and I won with less than a minute to go.

My 4th round had been a fun game, and perked me up a bit after the two time outs of the previous rounds.

My final opponent for the day was running a GRB Madoka deck, this time he was still running [Ultimate Madoka], unlike some of my previous opponent’s using the deck.

Once again, I was able to open up with [Nagato Yuki], which surprisingly once again could not be dealt with. Unfortunately though, I hit a [Summer Festival Nagato] on my first attack. My opponent followed up with [Sayaka Looks up to Mami] and one other card, which I don’t quite recall. I dealt with them both thanks to additional help from [Kyon & Koizumi], but triggered yet another [Summer Festival Nagato]. I had been hoping to start searching for the remaining two copies on the following turn, via the 3 Aliens card, but instead I lost both remaining copies to damage. This put me in quite a bad spot for the late game.

Once in Level 1 it was time for the Sayaka and Kyoko apples combo to go head to head with my vanillas, with [Onsen Nagato & Mikuru] triumphing due to [Magician Nagato & Shamisen]. For some reason my opponent put Kyoko out front, despite having an empty Back Stage, which hurt him power-wise in the long run. Level 2 proceeded about the same, with my opponent starting to set up for [Ultimate Madoka].

Post-refresh I’d been able to only get 2 copies of [Summer Festival Nagato] into my deck, meaning I couldn’t get the full strength out of my late game cards. I decided to search a single copy of the card out, so I could save Stock for other scenarios, hoping to get the 2nd copy on the next turn. Of course, as you’d expect at this point, I lost that due to damage on the following turn.

With only 1 copy of [Summer Festival Nagato] to rely on for the entirety of my Level 2-3 game, I had to make use of cards like [Unlink Information] to reduce damage, and [Wedding Dress Nagato] to heal extra damage. Using up 4 Stock for one heal, from search and playing [Wedding Dress Nagato], was a lot, but I didn’t really have any other choices at the time. My Climax combo helped me get over at least 1 copy of [Sayaka Miki], and most of my remaining stock was just getting spent keeping [Summer Festival Nagato] alive.

In the end, I mostly rammed in little guys on the last turn, to finish out the game, with both of us being at around 3-5 / 3-6 prior to this.

With the tournament now over, it was time to collect our prizes, and I ended up getting [Royalty’s Duty Louise], which was probably one of the most valuable cards in that prize pool. Losing twice to time-out was a bit annoying, but ultimately I enjoyed myself, it was reassuring to find that the Yuki deck could still beat things.

Weiβ Schwarz Fundamentals: Runners

For my second article looking at some of the fundamentals of Weiβ Schwarz, I’m going to be looking at a type of card commonly referred to in the community as ‘Runners’. These are powerful cards, that on the surface might not look that strong. I’m going to be covering what they are, how to use them, and how to beat them.

What are they?

You’ll never catch the 3 Idiots!

Runners are cards which can move to an empty slot on your Centre Stage at the beginning of your opponent’s Attack Phase. This essentially allows them to run to or from battles, hence the name. Although, given their Power they’ll usually be doing the latter.

Why are they useful?

One of the best cards in the game.

This effect might not seem that useful at first, because if you’re running from a battle, it means you’ll be taking a direct attack, and thus more damage. On the one hand, more damage means you’re getting closer to defeat, on the other hand, your deck might want to get to Level 1 faster than your opponent.

This is usually a minor concern compared to the main reason for using a Runner. By being able to run away from a battle, it means your opponent can’t get rid of your card. This means you can build Stock and damage on the following turn without needing to play any other cards. You don’t need to worry about the cards you draw being immediately useful, and can instead concentrate on the long term.

Once your Runner evades your opponent’s attacks, you can then use your other cards to defeat the characters they played onto the Stage. You need to be careful of filling your Stage up though, because it gives the Runner less space to run into. In this way, teaming a Runner and a Reverser up can be very useful, because it gives the Runner full freedom to move next turn, whilst also making an even trade with your opponent.

If your opponent has played a weak card, then sometimes you might even be able to have your Runner run towards a battle, rather than away from it, which can save you a little bit of damage.

How do I beat them?

No one can run away from me!

The simplest way to beat a Runner is to play 3 characters to your Stage. There will be nowhere for it to run, and you can take it down in battle. If you don’t have enough characters to do this, then most decks will be unable to beat the Runner until they do. Be warned, that having to play 3 characters to the Front Stage carries with it a big risk. Your opponent could retaliate on the next turn, taking out all 3 of your cards, with them only losing their Runner. This is why these cards can be so deadly, because they force the opponent to make plays they don’t want to.

Every deck can beat runners by putting 3 characters out, provided they have enough Power to actually beat the Runner. Reversers also work, but they will only cause an even trade off with the opponent. What makes Runners so problematic is that all 3 of your characters need to be able to take them out, otherwise they’ll just run in front of the card that can’t beat them.

Runners with a bonus effect, such as [“3 Idiots” Suginami & Yoshiyuki & Wataru] have 1500 Power, which means they can be taken down in battle by just about anything. Even some support cards can at least suicide into them, making them the easiest to stop.

A step up from this are cards like [Admiration for Onee-Sama Kuroko], who just have the Runner effect and 2000 Power. This is a little harder to deal with, especially once factoring in supports, but even then, vanillas can at least match it.

At the very top end you have [Easily Lost Azusa], who has a negative effect, but comes with 2500 Power. There’s a good reason why this card is restricted to a ‘Choose X’ in Neo-Standard and outright banned in Standard. Supports could see her go as high as 3500, and thanks to cards like [Off Time Makoto], she can even become immune to Reversers. If you want to get a clean hit against her, you’ll possibly need to reach 4000 Power across your entire Stage, which can be problematic, and will often require you to have supports of your own to pull it off. Having to commit 4 to 5 cards to beat a Runner is a tall order, and you won’t always be able to draw these cards anyway.

No Level 0 can escape me!

An alternative way around Runners is to use cards which can send Level 0 cards to the Waiting Room, such as [Contractor to Tiamat Wilhelmina], who can do it for 1 Stock. You don’t need to worry about chasing after the Runner, and can just take it out at your leisure. Don’t go too overboard with these kinds of effects though, because you’ll still need your Stock for later. Unfortunately, [Easily Lost Azusa] can still get around this type of effect, because [Off Time Makoto] can make her a Level 1 during your turn.

Another way to deal with Runners is to use cards which stop them running away. The only example of which that I know off the top of my head is [“Curious Gaze” Yuiko] from Little Busters. Yuiko can trap the Runner in place, and then take it down with her Reverser effect. Unfortunately, this still wouldn’t work against the Azusa and Makoto combo mentioned above, which compounds just how good Azusa is.

If you lack any means to actually defeat the Runner, you can just choose to ignore them. You’ll both keep on getting Stock and direct attacks, because the Runner will prevent battles from happening. Just be mindful of the fact that your opponent will be able to start picking your characters off first.

Adventures in Nipponbashi: Sort of Lucky Star

This past weekend I had another Sunday tournament, this time ending on a 3-2 result. This brings my win rate with Lucky Star to 17/25, so it’s going down a bit now compared to last week. This was quite a last minute event, because I was meant to be doing something else instead that evening, but those plans sort of fell through. After a quick rush in, I was at the C-Labo just in time for the event. Unfortunately I was really not feeling my best throughout the tournament, which may or may not have contributed to some of my decisions.

The tournament had 20 entrants, which meant 5 rounds, and the event finished about 5-10 minutes before the shop closed. I got a chance to play against a decent variety of decks, and when I lost they were fairly narrow defeats.

For the first round I was up against a Railgun deck, which from the look of it was your more standard competitive deck, rather than the mixed Red/Green I’d previously faced.

I started off the game with [Kung Fu Master Konata], and as happens at least once a week, my opponent wasn’t paying attention, to either its Level, or its Power. I keep telling people this when I play her, because she’s normally a 1/0 4500, despite the fact the card is a 0/0 2000 on its own. People obviously just don’t listen.

During the early game, my opponent was able to keep their card numbers up, thanks to bonds and [“Item” Takitsubo], but was not being careful with their Stock. Between Takitsubo and [“Railgun” Mikoto], they were usually low on Stock early game. At one point they even tried to play [Tokiwadai’s Lady Kuroko] without any Stock. Good thing I was paying attention.

Mid game was I think Konata and Kuroko fighting it out, with [“Railgun” Mikoto] taking out a few straggling Level 0s. As the game was closing out, Misakuro came down, but my opponent did not use their effect, saving me a bit of damage. It was also joined by some of the other Red Level 3s from Railgun. On the next turn, I hit for enough damage to win by suiciding lots of my cards. I was unable to get over all of his, due to a lack of Level 3s. At this point, I can’t recall if this was from regular attacks alone, or if it was helped by a Climax.

For my second round I was up against a GRB Madoka deck, which had once again opted to go with the new Homura PR to made ending the game easier. It was a close game, and there were maybe a few places I might have made errors.

Early on, I once again started with [Kung Fu Master Konata], which my opponent could not deal with at all. He either had Reversers, or just cards not big enough to beat Konata. I remember him putting out the Red Kyubey and the Reverser at one point, but the Otaku Trio and Konata swiftly dealt with that.

Once he got into Level 1 it was time for the Apples combo all over the place, which I was able to beat out with [Battlefield Konata] and [Summer’s Day Konata]. It was during Level 1 that I made a play choice that possibly cost me the game. I’d gotten him to 1/5, and figured I wasn’t really ready to be taking on whatever Level 2 cards he could play, so I left him at that, rather than make a direct attack. As it turned out, the entirety of Level 2 would have just been more of the Apples combo, so I shouldn’t have worried about this.

Up until Level 3, the rest of the game was pretty much just more of the Apples combo. Once Level 3 arrived my opponent put down 2 of the new Homura PR, and hurt me quite badly in terms of Stage position and damage. At this point he was also keeping a Sayaka Back Stage, which I was pretty sure was going to be used for the healing counter, if he got into trouble.

I followed up with some Level 3 cards, including [Stand Up! Konata] who was ready to use her Climax combo. To try and avoid causing too much damage in one blow, I put the Soul boost from my Climax onto my Level 0 Miyuki, because I was pretty sure they wouldn’t have a Counter strong enough to stop Konata anyway. Eventually, after hits from my other Level 3 and [Stand Up! Konata] twice, my opponent was on 3/6. Unfortunately, my final hit for 2 was cancelled on the 2nd card. With no Climaxes left in deck, my opponent finished me off on the following turn.

If I’d assigned the Soul different with the Climax, or attacked once more earlier in the game, then I probably would have won this game.

My 3rd round was against Genei, and a different build from my friend’s, this time focusing on Red. I was able to start with a fairly large [Kung Fu Master Konata], but they got over her thanks to a Climax. I don’t really remember much of the middle of the game, beyond fighting the 1/1 Clock Encore, and having [Hinata Taiyou] take out some of my Level 1s. There were definitely some Climax combos in there somewhere.

Eventually my opponent got out some of his Red and Blue Level 3s, and overpowered my characters. On the following turn I made a choice that may or may not have cost me the game, depending on my opponent’s Climax distribution. I had a chance to got for a double attack with [Stand Up! Konata], but instead I used the one stock I needed on my Brainstorm. At this point I had 2 Climaxes in deck and over 15 cards in deck, so thought it would be for the best. Instead I hit both Climaxes, leaving me in a position where I pretty much had to win that turn.

All I could do was get my opponent to 3/6. On the following turn my opponent’s first attack got me to 3/6, so whatever happened, I’d be losing to Deck Refresh. If I’d gone for the double attack, I’d still have been out the Climaxes, but I might have won, assuming the damage wasn’t cancelled.

For my 4th round I was up against a Monogatari series deck, which looked more like a fun build, designed around Blue and Yellow cards.

I had a terrible start, where after my opening discard, I ended up with 3 Climaxes in Hand, in addition to 1 in the Waiting Room. The former 3 were all [This Year Begins], which weren’t much good without characters to use them on. Early game I took lots of hits, and Leveled up pretty quickly. It was only later on that I was finally able to start turning things around thanks to my Level 2s. I was massively behind on damage at this point though, with my opponent barely into Level 1.

Post Deck Refresh I’d reached a point where I was dominating the Stage, because my opponent could not keep up with my Level 2s. Unfortunately though, I was at Level 3, whilst he was still part way into Level 2. When I had a chance at a couple of direct attacks, I decided to use my Climax combo, because it was a good chance for me to regain card advantage, and also a way to thin my deck. I really wasn’t expecting my damage to get through at this point, but anything that happened would be nice.

I can’t recall the exact numbers, but my opponent took at least 9 damage in a row, and actually went straight through Level 3 to defeat in 1 turn. After the game, my opponent checked his deck, and nearly all the Climaxes were grouped together about halfway through the rest of the deck. I suppose it made up for my terrible situation at the start.

My final round was against Kantai Collection, and it was my same opponent as last week, but now with a new updated build. We tried to move through this game pretty quickly, because it was looking quite likely that the event wouldn’t finish before the shop closed, if rounds kept to their current times. Unfortunately I can’t really recall much of the early details of the game, except that things went much better for him than last week.

I’m drawing a blank on most of the Level 0-2 game, but I do recall getting out some copies of [Battlefield Konata], which managed to survive most of the game. His Level 1-2 game couldn’t really do much about their Power, and when he could, I was just able to Encore them.

Once he hit Level 3, he was able to put out two copies of [2nd Yamato-class Battleship, Musashi], which threatened to do a lot of damage, especially when one of them hit a shot Trigger along the way as well. I managed to survive this onslaught and even took down both Musashi, thanks to the Kuroi-sensei counter on [Battlefield Konata], which was enough to force a tie at 12,000 Power. By the end of it all, I think my opponent had a completely empty Front Stage. Unfortunately for my opponent, he hit two Climaxes during this time, which left him with about 0-1 in deck.

On my final turn, I was on about 3/4 or 5, with [Strongest Character Miyuki], [Stand Up! Konata] and one Climax in my hand, and my opponent was currently at about 3/0. Since one of my cancels on the previous turn had been [Hiyori Starting], my +2 Soul Climax, I decided that the only sensible thing was to go all in with Miyuki. I salvaged the Climax with Miyuki and threw my hand away to at least heal 1. Then I struck directly with everyone for a combined total of 14, before considering triggers. As I suspected, my opponent only had 1 Climax left in deck, and after cancelling the first hit, he took 6 off the next one, emptying his deck at the same time.

It’s because of turns like that which will make sure those two cards always have a place in the deck.

The tournament finished about 10 minutes before the shop closed, and for I think the first time ever, I got a male card out of my participation prizes, in the form of [“Sardine Power” Valvatorez]. I also had some thoughts about what I was going to be playing in future weeks at the tournaments. I’ve been playing Lucky Star for quite a few weeks in a row, and since there’s very little on the line at these events, I thought it could be fun to mix things up. Next week I’m planning on using my Yuki deck, regardless of how well it performs, and on any future weeks I’ll be playing a deck selected at random from my 6 Neo Standard decks. Yes, this does mean that I could end up entering a tournament with the Tabitha deck.

Adventures in Nipponbashi: Unlucky Star

Two weekends ago I was out in Nipponbashi for my normal Sunday tournament, and had my worst performance since picking up the Lucky Sta deck. Admittedly, I still managed an even win/lose ratio, but it was a bit of a let down from the streak of X-1 finishes so far. Oddly, I didn’t feel as frustrated as when it happen with my Evangelion deck though. Overall so far, it means my Lucky Star deck has a tournament record of 14 wins and 6 losses, so I don’t think a 70% win rate is all that bad.

Something I also realised on Sunday was that in the entirety of the time I’ve been playing Weiβ Schwarz, I’ve never played a mirror match before. Even when I’ve faced off against the same series, it’s always been a different build (i.e. Alien vs SOS Brigade). This might in part be attributed to me playing what aren’t particularly popular decks, bar Haruhi back when it was good, but when I didn’t really have many people to play with. This strikes me as quite unusual, especially compared to other card games.

Pre-tournament I got in a few games with my friend, who had just retooled his Genei deck. Seeing as I’d not yet played a single game with my Robotics;Notes deck since arriving, I decided that it was high time to use it again, and to try and remember what all my cards did / re-read them. At Level 0 I mostly relied on the Loner Airi to keep things going, until the game progressed into Level 1. Unfortunately though, I’d not really drawn much in the way of Level 1 cards, except for the Airi counter, which I’m sure I drew every copy of early on in this game. So, I could really only go in with 1 copy of the Frau with experience, and 2 more Airi.

After this, I got knocked to 2/2, with 1 card left in deck after my draw. Unfortunately, to meet experience requirements, I’d had to put copies of the Frau and Airi Level 3s into Level, when I’d really have rather put a Level 1 for the latter. This meant I’d have to rely on getting Yellow in my Clock, which was thankfully the bottom card. This allowed me to play two copies of the Level 3 Akiho early, followed up by the Frau change. Frau was upgraded into the Level 3 Frau, and followed by her Climax combo to get me the global Science support back. From here on out I was pretty much overpowering my opponent’s Stage, and top-decking Level 2 or lower cards with Frau’s effect.

After this, it was time for a pre-tournament Lucky Star game, where I don’t remember too many details, beyond losing. I think I’d been ahead for a long period of the game, but my friend was able to make a big change in momentum in a single turn. He realised the bottom 3 cards were Climaxes, so used [Luna in Combat], rather than triggering them on the attack. He then hit a 4th one off the top. This of course allowed him to gain a +4, and some pretty useful cards from his Clock. I lost before I could capitalise on his loss of Climaxes. This wasn’t really a good sign of the tournament to come.

This week was the first tournament after the release of Kantai Collection, so it was going to be interesting to see how much difference it made to things. As it happened, my first opponent was playing the deck, but I didn’t really get a chance to see it at its best. At this point, I can’t recall too many details of all these games, so they will sadly be less detailed than usual.

My opponent got off to a terrible start, having to pass away their first two turns due to not having anything to play. After that, we had a bit of back and forth, but I was fairly confident that I’d come out on top, due to having controlled the Stage for most of the game. Kongou and her Climax combo had me a bit worried once my opponent reached Level 3, but I was ultimately able to triumph. I think I ended the game with [Stand Up! Konata], who reached 16,000 thanks to the Climax and Miyuki, because I wanted to make absolutely sure Konata was out of Counter range. Konata’s 2nd attack won me the game.

My next opponent was playing a Vividred Operation deck, making use of cards like [Operation! Vivid Green]. Given that it’s now over a week ago, I really can’t recall much about this. I remember pushing [Battlefield Konata] to stupid amounts so I could get over [Operation! Vivid Green], and [Operation! Vivid Red] giving my Level 1s problems. Once we reached the end of the game, my opponent closed it with [Wakaba Saegusa], who placed a Climax on the bottom of my deck, allowing my opponent to win.

For my third round I was up against Vividred again, but this time it was a deck much more focused around Rei. The vast majority of the early game, my opponent just spent his time playing copies of [Blunt Replies Rei], and using it to salvage more copies of itself. This wasn’t really a concern for [Kung Fu Master Konata], who ran them all over, with my opponent once again trying to ram Rei into her at some point. I’m not sure if it was a friend’s deck, or if he was just new to it, but he also seemed to be making some mistakes with his cards, like trying to use [Operation! Vivid Red] to search from deck, rather than salvage from Waiting Room.

At one point it looked like I was even going to knock my opponent to Level 3 whilst still at Level 1. Eventually, my opponent was able to put on some pressure via [Mysterious Being Alone], but the rest of their Stage wasn’t really up to much. I think in the entirety of the game, they never played anything back Stage. Once I reached Level 2, I took down the Noise and my opponent’s resources just kept on dwindling.

On their final turn, all they had left after attacking was one copy of [Akane Isshiki], with no other cards on the Stage, or in hand. There’d been a scary moment where Akane nearly took me out with her 5 burn damage, but I survived, and was able to end things with [Stand Up! Konata] double attacking.

For my final round I was up against a Ledo / Chamber version of Gargantia, which was making use of the new anti-heal PR. This got off to a terrible start and just got worse from there. Blame it partly on my unfamiliarity with the series, but also on the fact my opponent wasn’t doing all of their card’s effect (i.e. not top-deck checking with the 4K Ledo etc).

I pushed [Kung Fu Konata] to get over a 4.5k on turn one, but this left me terribly exposed, when I should have just gone around it for a direct attack. This really messed up my card numbers, and left me on the back foot as far as that was concerned. Eventually I went all out, doing a double Miyuki search for my 2/2s, and then playing both of them. This was a big waste of cards and Stock, but I had no Climaxes in my deck at the time, and needed to reduce the immediate damage as much as possible.

Eventually Level 3 Chamber came down and just started beating up all my cards. I fought back and was starting to turn the tide of things, but couldn’t win. I realised that I was once again stuck with a big deck with no Climaxes left, but thankfully had the +6 Soul counter. When my opponent went for the kill, I decided to go for it, not even bothering to count how many cards left in my deck. Turned out there were 7, and I cancelled on the 8th. Refresh damage and burn damage from Chamber pushed me to 3/6 though, so it was soon all over.

Overall, even though I went 2-2, it’s still useful for me to play against lots of different decks.