The 20th Anniversary premium booster for the Nanoha series is releasing this weekend, so I’m making a deckbuilding post for it. I’ve occasionally made Nanoha decks before, but nothing I’ve really stuck with. (Actually, my very first locals win was with a Nanoha deck, cobbled together from approximately two boxes; of course, that was probably beginner’s luck more than anything.)
In this post, I’m focusing on the new Fate level 1 combo, trying to figure out what works best with that.
(Older cards are linked to their translation on Heart of the Cards; for cards from the premium booster, you can, as always, find the translations on Weiss Tea Time (possibly moved to the archive).
Table of Contents
Level 1 Combo
When the Fate level 1 combo was revealed, I knew I wanted to play that alongside the Chrono alarm that gives soul to level 2 or higher characters. Ideally there’d also be a good level 3 character to try to grab off the combo for even more soul, but that’s less important.
For this combo to be level 2 (and have decent power), you need a card in memory. The best candidate for this is definitely the level 0 Lindy, since that’s free memory and also a free filter (probably into the level 1 combo itself). However, it needs to get reversed, so it can be trivially denied unless you crash it in. Of course, if the opponent just sides it, then you at least get a free plus, but that doesn’t help you towards the goal of soul rushing.
There aren’t many options for getting memory during the main phase. There’s a new Fate that can send a specific Nanoha to memory when it goes to the waiting room (if you have 2 or less memory), and the target can also send itself to memory in order to salvage one of the new door combos, but I’m not planning to play those combos here, so it doesn’t seem worth it to play either of these cards. So that just leaves the old Fate & Nanoha that can send itself to memory to check 4 cards for a «Magic» or «Clone» character.
There’s also a salvage riki for level 1 or lower characters that goes to memory, which is nice since it doubles as a plussing 0, but it’s on reverse, so it’s deniable in the same way that Lindy is, and it’s only 500 power, so there’s no guarantee it can kill even level 0s if it survives.
Ideally, you’ll get a Lindy into memory, rather than needing to get memory during main phase; the best way to guarantee that is to crash it in, which means you’d ideally like to tie. She’s 1.5k base, so that’s not going to happen against 500- or 1k-power characters, but on the other hand it’s not out of the question to pump her up to 3.5k or 4k. At the very least, I’d like to be able to pump her 500 power, to tie a 2k.
Luckily, the riki can pump 500 power on attack, so if you have an extra copy of that, you can just throw that down. Alternatively (or additionally, if you’re facing a 2.5k), you can play down the helmet, which is a global 500. There’s also an on-death check-3 riki that subtracts 500 power from one of the opponent’s characters; that’s not a great riki effect, but it’s at least a plus.
For larger pumps, there’s a cip draw riki that pumps 1.5k; while this one also has a bad riki effect stapled to it, it’s not usable on turn 1 (and conflicts with the actual riki on turn 2 going 1st), so it’s not too likely to be useful; I’d prefer a dedicated power pump at that point. There are two decent options: a Dearche that can pump 1k twice (it does need to direct attack for one of them, but at level 0 that’s not too much of a problem), and a Hayate that pumps 500 and 1k (though it needs to rest itself for the 500 and probably also for the 1k). The Hayate is more flexible in what numbers you can pump by (which is important given that you want to tie but not go over), but given that we’ve already got some characters that can handle increments of 500, I’m inclined to go for the Dearche, who can attack on the same turn (having a power pump sitting in the back row isn’t the worst, but I feel like I’d prefer an attacker) and who can pump Lindy up to 3.5k single-handedly, or up to 4k alongside one of the 500 pumps. Of course, there’s also a decent chance that there just isn’t room for any of these.
Plussing 0s
Looking through what’s available in terms of (somewhat efficient) plussing 0s:
Rikis & Clock Plusses
- There are a couple clock bonds; these aren’t especially reliable at level 0, but they do plus you for free. Notably, one of them bonds to a 1/0 vanilla, which is at least a costless playable.
- A couple accelerates; similar to a salvage riki that requires a reverse (so not great timing). They swing reasonably big at least.
- Some on-death and when-reversed rikis.
- Some cip rikis.
Oversizes
(Ignoring ones that are 3.5k with no other ability.)
- A few different 4ks (some more playable than others).
- A 3.5k level 1… if you have 2 other «Animal» characters. (Note: it is not itself «Animal».)
- A 4.5k in the middle position.
- An apples variant where a (hand) bonder gives 1.5k & a level to a vanilla on the opponent’s turn. It’s a true bond (from waiting room), though, so not especially consistent.
- Not an immediate plus, but there’s a level 0 that can turn into a level 1 if it’s alone: in particular, one valid target is a 1/1 that doesn’t get reversed in front of cost 0s.
- A 3.5k with hard removal.
- A 3.5k with a filter. (Needs all your characters to be «Magic» or «Weapon», which does have a slight chance of coming up.)
- An army card that hits 6.5k with a full field of them.
Runners
- A 2.5k chaser.
- A 3.5k chaser (with a real downside).
- A 2k mill runner (for «Formula» trait).
- A 3k that runs away from something in front.
Others
- A cleancut, notably 3k crossturn.
- Not a “plus” as such, but possible free stock if you reveal a level 2 or higher. Also has a bonder (from deck) that can check an extra card.
- A draw-phase coinflip.
- A brainstorm (for «Formula») that can pay 1 to turn itself into 2 army cards.
- A level-0 spawner.
With this level 1 setup, I don’t want a plussing 0 that needs a reverse itself, since I want to aim to have Lindy tie; and I don’t care too much about characters surviving, since they’re not level 2 and thus don’t get a soul from the alarm. (Maybe an oversize that gets a level could be nice there, to open a direct lane, but there isn’t a relevant one of those.) So that pretty much eliminates everything except the coinflip, the Amita accelerate, and the on-death rikis.
I’m not a huge fan of that sort of reveal-a-1-or-higher coinflip; it’s unreliable and a low-quality plus. The on-death check 3 riki is also a low-quality plus, though it at least has a nice second ability. The on-death salvage riki and the Amita accelerate both let you salvage back the character you ditched for Lindy, or salvage a character to ditch for Lindy later, which can let you play down an extra card rather than saving it as ditch fodder in the case where you’ve already got a pretty good hand. The salvage riki potentially has more targets than the accelerate, though it’s also limited to level 1 or lower. The accelerate conflicts with crashing Lindy in the case where you’re not able to get her big enough to tie; on the other hand, it works from backrow (or swings big and with an extra soul in front), and if you have multiple you only need to clock yourself once. The salvage riki gives you the option not to do it if it turns out you ate a bunch of damage on the opponent’s turn, and the option to use it during main phase; on the other hand, it can be denied by hard removal. The accelerate can be denied by not being able to get a reverse, though at least you generally know that ahead of time. I think I’m going to try the salvage riki over the accelerate to start with, mostly because it seems like I don’t have room for a dedicated power pump, and split it 2-2 with the check-3 riki since that can help Lindy tie.
Levels 2 & 3
As far as finishers go, my instinct is to go for the new Fate combo. On its own, it’s the cheapest of the new combos; only slightly, but more so if you want to play another costed character alongside it, like a bouncer or fumio, or an off-finisher if you only have double combo. There’s also an assist that lets choice triggers slightly help your finishing turn, which further supports the 8 choice lineup. Being a restander, this combo does have to worry about stuff like memory kick backups, but it at least swings reasonably big (though not necessarily in all lanes). It also doesn’t heal, but that’s something I don’t tend to care much about for finishers. That also sort of makes it work better with alarms; there’s some potential to use the Chrono alarm to get good side attack numbers (though on the other hand, a different finisher could better use that alarm to side level 3s and avoid defensive counters while still having some instances of more than 1 damage).
The new Nanohas have the most instances of damage on their own, but they’re expensive, particularly the door combo that also requires two of a specific card in memory. That card’s built-in way to go to memory does provide selection into the finisher, and there’s a way to get it into memory for free, so it’s possible that between those it doesn’t really add any cost, but it’s also quite possible that it does, that you’ll need to spend resources to get it into memory just to meet the condition.
(And really, if you want to pay a stock & a hand for a burn 1, you can just add the 3/1 event to another finisher.)
The new Hayate is somewhat tempting on account of not needing to care as much about the opponent’s deckstate, but it doesn’t seem particularly impressive in general (and it can’t take as much advantage of uncompressed deckstates as some of the other finishers). I suppose it’s pretty likely to burn for 2 or 3, which is pretty comparable to Fate’s restander combo, so I might be underestimating it. (Though it still costs an extra stock compared to Fate.)
Really, the Nanoha series’s strength is probably less in finishers and more in defensive options: most notably, there’s a level 3 Hayate that can pay 2 ditch 2 to antidamage a lane (though it has to ditch Hayate or Rein names), a 2/4 heal 3 event, a 2/3 tap counter event (that requires a full field), and a 2/5 (effectively) tap counter backup (that also clocks you).
All of these are powerful but expensive, so the question becomes how to generate enough resources to support them. And in that case, the finisher to use might actually be the old Hayate pants, as a healer with encore and a cheap combo, where you’re looking to have multiple turns of dealing slightly more damage than vanilla swings. On the other hand, maybe the Fate choice combo is still the way to go there, with the idea being that you spend resources to get a damage lead and survive your opponent’s finisher, then use what you’ve got left on single or double combo plus an off-climax finisher to finish them off.
I’m not really sure whether you want to try to stay at level 2 or survive at level 3; on the one hand, the level 3 Hayate isn’t available until level 3 unless you play standby (which is an option, but has pretty bad combos), but on the other hand, the 2/4 event seems a lot better at level 2. One awkward thing is that the rest counter and the Hayate can both be turned off by bouncing (or otherwise removing) the Hayate, which means that I don’t feel especially confident about surviving at level 3 without multiple Hayates at least. So I’m more inclined to try to stay at level 2, but the thing there is that there isn’t really too much to do at level 2 to support that in terms of generating resources.
I guess really, I shouldn’t be aiming to go all in on these defensive options, but instead to have them available as options.
So with this level 1 combo, I see a couple options at level 2. One option is to aim to just loop the level 1 combo, probably leaning heavily into the Nanoha that lets you salvage based on the number of level 1 combos in your waiting room. In this case, the Vita adachi that can potentially also bounce a character can help you deal with stuff like EP boards.
Or you can aim to go into EPs yourself, to heal down and provide a board to let you use (or at least threaten) tap counter. Aiming to present something of a board doesn’t work great with the choice finisher (as a restander, it doesn’t want to direct attack if it can help it), but it does work pretty well with the standby finisher (either one, really, but I’m focusing on the new one since that doesn’t require specific events in hand). In particular, being on standby means that you’re only swinging for 3 base into direct lanes. So I’m thinking I’ll start with these two decks, 8 choice and choice/standby.
Over the course of reveals I’d been thinking I’d definitely run the check 3 brainstorm, but between the jintsu and level 3 climax salvager to get climaxes, and the salvage brainstorm being able to dig 3 itself, and possibly the choice assist competing for that backrow slot, I’m thinking it’s maybe not worth it in 8 choice. I’m more inclined to play it in choice/standby, though, largely because the climax salvager isn’t as good in that deck (since you have to pay the full 3 stock). The riko effect can also ditch standby targets and help the Hayate off-finisher burn, and being Hayate name helps with the antidamage.
Decks
8 Choice
Let’s start with 8 choice. The goal of this deck is to soul rush at level 1, then heal 3 at level 2 (while looping the level 1 combo), then still have an OK finishing turn once you hit level 3, potentially with the ability to threaten tap counter if you fail to kill. Ideally you’re ahead in damage all game, so your opponent has to try to kill you from low 2 (or try to sandbag a turn), and then you can go for the kill once they’re already level 3 and have already exhausted most of their resources, meaning that even if they survive they may not have the ability to finish you off on the swingback.
In terms of concrete cards, I probably want:
- 4 of each combo.
- Let’s say 3 of the alarm, to have a reasonable chance of drawing into it by the first level 1 turn.
- 3 or 4 of the Nanoha that salvages based on the number of level 1 combos in the waiting room; I’m thinking just 3, since you probably don’t want to play multiple of these on the same turn.
- 3 or 4 of the level 0 Lindy; I’m thinking 4, to maximize the chance that at least one ends up in memory before level 1. And honestly, this deck has a ton of Fates, so it can still be useful later on.
- 1 of the Fate & Nanoha that can send itself to memory during main phase, as insurance for the level 1 combo’s memory condition (and just a bit of general utility). Just a 1-of because this isn’t part of the core gameplan; ideally the memory condition is fulfilled by Lindy anyway.
- 4 rikis, since an extra copy can potentially be used to help Lindy tie.
- 2 jintsus; could potentially get away with 1, since between the riki and the level 1 Nanoha you have pretty good access to both deck and waiting room, but I think this is a decent card to just draw into: even with the level 1 climax in hand, it could still be useful next turn, depending on damage levels, and it can also help with clocking up to level 3 if necessary (while this finisher isn’t amazing overall, it does have decent potential to take advantage of a bad deck state on the opponent’s side).
- 1 fumio: the climax salvage ability is nice, but sometimes you can just use the jintsu for that anyway, and the fumio ability is highly situation dependent. Plus it’s not useful until level 3, of course. So it’s very much a 1-of tech card.
- 1 musashi: a cheap off-finisher is important for enabling cheap but decent finishing turns, but it still doesn’t seem important enough to run more than 1, given that it’s not needed until level 3. (There’s also the Hayate that can get a free burn, but without a way to confirm what it reveals, it seems less reliable than the musashi.)
- 2 or 3 of the heal 3 event. If I’m not running the check 3 brainstorm, I’m inclined to run 3 of this to maximize the chance of seeing it (and to potentially be able to level it for blue, for that matter). I feel like this is something I’d like to play in most games, rather than just treating it as a nice-to-have, since it’s notable as something that most sets don’t have access to. Though of course, it depends on the situation; sometimes you go straight from 2-0 or 2-2 to level 3, and sometimes you’re 2-6 and don’t feel safe at 2-3 or figure you have a better chance just clocking up and going for the finish, and so on.
- 1 of each tap counter. The backup is accessible off choice triggers and can’t be turned off by bouncing a single character, but the event is cheaper and doesn’t clock you. Really, on some level these are there just to provide a threat and make the opponent play around them, but they certainly could be useful if the opportunity arises. Only one of the event means there’s a decent chance you just never see it, but you can still look to select into the backup in that case. (And then there’s some slight possibility to do something funny like grabbing the backup off a choice trigger and acting like it doesn’t really matter since you won’t have enough stock for it — but hey, it’s still a 2.5k backup — to encourage the opponent to ignore it and run into the event counter that you’d already been holding in hand.)
- 1 Einhard EP. I’d like to have at least one searchable healer, for the case of being at 3-6 with low deck (particularly with the finisher being a restander, meaning that you need to be able to go through 5-6 cards rather than just 3); it’s also a good card to freeplay off the combo, giving you the option to convert 2 hand into a stock or dig 3 for free. And of course, being an EP just gives you more options at level 2.
- 1 Vita adachi, to give you some ability to deal with boards and annoying cards. It’s also a level 1 with a soul trigger, which could be relevant if you trigger choice and feel like you just really need playables. A one-of since it’s fairly niche.
- 3 or 4 of the new salvage brainstorm; I’m thinking 3, since this deck kind of wants to conserve stock, so spamming brainstorms and/or the check 3 ability doesn’t seem like a great idea.
- 2 helmets: besides being generally good utility, they can help Lindy tie at level 0. I don’t think I want more than 2, though; this deck does need hand, so it’s not an effect you want to use too much.
- As mentioned above, 2 of each of the on-death rikis.
That’s 43 non-climaxes: 20 level 0s, 11 level 1s, 5 level 2s, and 7 level 3s.
So I’ll have to cut a card (and I kind of preemptively cut the power pump and the assist). I guess the second jintsu is a reasonable cut, since I was already thinking of going down to 1.
Notably, I didn’t include a climax swap; with 2 ways to grab climaxes directly, it didn’t seem especially necessary.
Then I need a name for this deck… hmm, since I’m making 2 similar decks, maybe I could play off of the different forms/modes that the intelligent devices have. The core, shared part of the deck is the soul rush with Fate & Chrono, so maybe “Harlaown Soul Rush: 8 Choice Form, Set Up”.
…OK, I forgot to go over the traits in this deck, and while everything that cares about traits works with «Magic» and almost all of the deck is «Magic», there is one card that isn’t: the on-death check 3 riki. That’s «Weapon», so it still works with most of the deck, but it notably doesn’t count towards the 2 other «Magic» or «Familiar» characters that Lindy needs; as a card I’m looking to play at level 0, this feels like a dealbreaker to me, since needing 2 other characters can be a real condition at level 0. (It also can’t be ditched by Lindy, or grabbed off of the Fate & Nanoha that checks 4 for a «Magic» or «Clone», but that’s not nearly as important.) On the other hand, I also forgot to go over the colors, and that’s the only other blue I’ve got besides the event. I also don’t have much red, so red is probably the best color to level at level 1 if possible, which means I probably don’t want to go down to just 3 blue. On the other hand, the event is only relevant if you have at least 3 clock anyway, so perhaps 3 is still enough, since you have all of level 1 and a decent amount of level 2 to get one of them into clock.
And in a couple of practice games, I didn’t end up using the event anyway; either I was low on stock, or I was close to refresh and didn’t want to dump 8 more cards in (even with one of them being a climax). So I’m not sure how important it is to have blue in the first place.
I also realized that needing 2 other characters is fairly awkward when you’re going first: in that case, it means that you need to commit 2 characters to the back row, which this deck doesn’t entirely want to do. (That’s also a bit of an issue for keeping the event tap counter live, for that matter.) I’m thinking it might make sense to include the check 3 brainstorm after all; even if you don’t brainstorm with it, the other ability is very nice. It also makes it easier to run the blue off-finisher. And of course, a check 3 brainstorm is nice to have in general, even if you don’t want to spam it. Alternatively, I could just run more helmets, but I don’t really want to put 2 helmets in the back row. Or I could run the backrow power pump; past level 0, it can generally help with taking out the opponent’s characters, and specifically help the level 3 combo avoid memory kicks.
I guess the issue with all of this is that I don’t really want to cut down on the number of plussing 0s in the deck; given that it’s meant to be soul-rushy, I’d like it to have a reasonable chance of being able to trifield at level 0. For now, in addition to cutting the check 3 rikis in favor of salvage rikis, I think I’ll cut the 2/4 event down to 2 and the search riki down to 3 to add a couple check 3 brainstorms.
Oh, one other thing I forgot to check was the number of soul triggers. It looks like there are only 9, which is pretty low for an 8 choice deck. I guess I have 20 level 0s alongside an alarm with no soul trigger and a few events; I don’t really want to cut down on any of those, though. So for now I’ll just stick with the 9; at least the level 1 combo mills, so there’s some possibility to mill a choice target into the waiting room with that.
Deck Log: 19GH0
EncoreDecks: NyO_HZDav
I feel like I’ve ended up spamming my one-of EP quite a bit in my test games… which leads me to the other form of this deck, Choice/Standby.
Choice / Standby
In this deck, the idea of soul rushing and then healing is similar to the 8 choice version, but this one is looking to use EPs to heal and then also present the threat of tap counter; the finisher is likely less threatening for the same amount of resources overall, but works better into direct lanes. (There is some potential to bring it out through standbys and save resources that way, of course, but with only 4 standby, that’s not something I’d expect too much of.) I guess this gameplan lends itself to running into antichange counter, which is a bit awkward, but you’ve already healed or whatever at that point.
So, what EPs are available? There are some with EP conditions that disqualify them from my point of view (ones that only work with you’re close to refresh, or that require cards that I wouldn’t otherwise play). Beyond that, there’s:
- A bouncer, with the EP condition requiring 2 of the level 0 Lindy in memory. I definitely want some sort of removal (to help enable the finisher’s fever condition, for one thing), but I feel like the Vita adachi is a better option, despite having a chance of whiffing; I don’t expect this deck to have a lot of spare resources, so saving a stock is pretty significant.
- A 2 or less check X. This seems like a decent candidate; 2 or less isn’t the best condition, but this deck is already looking to select into EPs off the level 1 combo, so there’s a decent chance of having this going into level 2. And check X can help dig for the powerful defensive events. It’s also 11k cross-turn if you have at least 2 memory, which is nice (though on the other hand it’s small if you don’t have 2 memory).
- A 2 or less healer. Again, a decent candidate. It’s not especially big, though; and it’s a shimakai for Formula trait, but that’s probably useless in this deck.
- A 2 or less draw 1. Probably not worth running over the check X. It swings at 12k, but that’s not worth the huge reduction in selection. Also it’s blue.
- A healer that requires 2 of the level 0 Lindy in memory. It also has hand encore, which can be helpful for maintaining board and soul pressure. This one is nice because once you have the EP condition, you don’t have to worry about it any more (outside of very niche edge cases), but the EP condition is non-trivial. I’m already planning to run a decent count of that Lindy, but since it goes to memory on reverse, there’s no guarantee of getting one into memory naturally, much less two. It might require crashing in, which is a bit awkward but still gets you the selection and compression; there’s also a level assist that can put it into memory during main phase, which might be a decent card to run since this deck is kind of aiming to win board already. On the other hand, being a second backrow card means it could potentially conflict with standby.
- A 4 or more EP that can be either a stock healer or a check 3. This is a shoo-in, but I want at least one other to be able to efficiently double EP. It’s sadly quite small on defense, but that’s well worth the EP condition and the flexibility.
I’m thinking of going for 2 each of the Einhard, the Nanoha, and the Fate healer, to have a variety of EP conditions (and then 1 of the assist that can put Lindy into memory, I suppose). Going for the check X over the healer for the 2-or-less-climax EP, partially because it’s bigger (assuming you have the memory) and partially because it’s probably good to not have everything just heal, and I’d prefer check X + stock heal from Einhard over a normal heal + check 3 from Einhard, probably.
With this deck running standby, I’d like to have some good level 3 standby targets, but sadly there’s not too much available, particularly when you want to standby to the front row. I’d like to include the Hayate antidamage, but I suspect it’d be too deck-warping to run enough on-name characters for it to really work. Then there’s the Nanoha that can pay 2 and put itself on top of your deck when it’s front attacked to burn 1; that could be nice, but 2 stock for a burn 1 still isn’t particularly cheap, and you likely have to decide whether or not to do it before knowing whether or not you’ll want to go for a finishing turn. There are also some cards that scry when front attacked or give -1 soul in front, but neither of those seems especially impactful, at least in a deck with only 4 standby. Of course, the fact that there’s only 4 standby also means that the situation of wanting to standby to front is relatively rare to begin with, so we don’t necessarily need a dedicated card for that; just throwing out an EP, or maybe a finisher or something in the hope that it survives, is probably good enough.
When standbying to the back row, the finisher is of course a decent option (notably, it can still burn 1 even if you don’t have the climax); the other card that comes to mind is the Hayate that has a chance of burning on attack. (I’m not sure whether to call that a Miki burner or a You burner; I guess I’ll go with “miki” just because it’s easier to write that in lowercase, as I like to do for these jargon terms, in contrast to the names of the actual characters on the cards.)
I’d also like to have a level 2 standby target in the deck, just in case it comes up; the obvious choice is the 9.5k hand encore with twin drive. There’s also a changer that effectively turns its change target into a 1-stock healer the next turn, but given that it’s not very likely to survive if you standby it to the front row, and the change target takes up an extra deckslot, it doesn’t seem particularly worth it.
A large part of this deck will be the same as the previous one; we’ll once again want:
- 4 of the level 1 combo.
- 3 of the alarm.
- The level 1 Nanoha; I’m thinking of cutting this down to 2, since this deck isn’t as concerned with looping the combo. Possibly just cut it altogether, but it’s definitely still a nice card.
- 4 of the level 0 Lindy.
- 1 of the Fate & Nanoha that can send itself to memory during main phase.
- 3 rikis.
- 1 jintsu.
- The tap counters. This deck wants more of the event tap counter, since it’s a larger part of the gameplan, but it’s still not something you really expect to use more than once a game, so I’ll just bump it up to 2 for now.
- 1 Vita adachi.
- 3 salvage brainstorms and 2 check-3 brainstorms. Maybe this deck prefers the check-3 brainstorm? But the salvage brainstorm being able to remove itself from the stage is nice, so I’ll stick with this ratio for now.
- 2 helmets.
- 4 on-death salvage rikis.
I’m not including the fumio in this deck, since either mode is pretty expensive when you’re not free-playing it (and of course, neither one works when standby’d). I’m still not going to bother with the climax swap, though, since the finisher climax isn’t super important (and the jintsu is still an option for getting it if necessary).
So adding in the 6 EPs & 1 assist from above, and 1 of the 2/2, and let’s say 3 of the finisher and 1 of the miki burner (I doubt this deck is going to go for triple combo much at all, so 4 combo doesn’t seem necessary), that adds up to 45 non-climaxes, so I’ll have to trim it down somewhere. I was already thinking of cutting the level 1 Nanoha, so let’s do that; and we can probably cut it down to 5 EPs rather than 6, probably cutting one of the Fates since I feel like that has the toughest EP condition.
That leaves us with 20 level 0s, 8 level 1s, 5 level 2s, and 9 level 3s; and 22 yellow, 5 green, 12 red, and 3 blue. (And everything that references traits references at least «Magic», and everything is «Magic».) That’s all fine, I suppose; this is basically a 2-color deck, and while the miki burner has a pretty high chance of whiffing, the check 3 brainstorm can potentially help with that. It might be nice to put in more red to help with playing standby at level 0 (which notably could help with Lindy’s 2 or more condition), or more level 3s to increase the chance of seeing them off the combo, but I’ll try it out this way to start with.
Following from the previous one, this deck will of course be called “Harlaown Soul Rush: Choice/Standby Form, Set Up”.
Oh, I forgot I wanted to put an antichange counter in here, for much the same reason as the tap counters. There are 3 different options… I’m inclined to go for the red one, just because it’s red.
I’m also thinking I won’t bother with the EP that requires 2 Lindys in memory (or the corresponding assist), because it doesn’t feel like that happens naturally much at all (without even considering the opponent actively denying it). Perhaps I could try to put more effort into it, but I think I’d prefer to just bump the Einhard EP up to 3.
Deck Log: 1JXJ2
EncoreDecks: QZNQut8Yz
6 Choice / 2 Shot
Honestly, I don’t think these decks have felt all that good so far; I’d like something better to do at level 2, perhaps. I didn’t want to go for EPs alongside the choice finisher because that increases the chance of restanding into direct lanes, so maybe instead I could go for this level 2 combo that bounces back, thus being able to deny crashes, into the choice finisher. On the other hand, it doesn’t make the stock back, and the hand it gets is low quality with a possibility of whiffing, so I’m not sure that there’s actually much benefit to doing the combo.
There’s a new level 2 combo in the premium booster, though, which does refund its stock and is generally better, even though it requires reverses. And it’s small enough that level 1 combos generally won’t crash into it, at least; the opponent could certainly crash intentionally, but in that case you can potentially aim to sandbag a turn (or possibly even combo again) and hope that tap counter helps you survive, or else just go for the finish and see if a couple 4s or 5s stick. Tap counter can also prevent a crash up front, and the musashi is fine with a direct. So while I don’t want to encourage direct lanes, I don’t think preventing them is the highest priority.
Both of these combos have level 1 combos on the same climax, but they require reverses, and aren’t nearly good enough to make that worth it, in my opinion.
So now the idea is to play more into compression than healing, I suppose, with tap counter still there as a vague threat; level 2s are certainly not as good at enabling it as level 3s are, but at least they swing big and so have a decent chance of at least keeping it live. Working off of the 8 choice list, I’ll cut the 2/4 event and one of the level 1 Nanohas (though those are still nice for selecting into the level 2 combo, and can also pump it to help get a reverse; they’re just not as core to the gameplan anymore). I guess I’ll also cut the Vita adachi; while it might be good to keep it as a bouncer, that doesn’t seem essential, particularly since the musashi can also bounce a cost 1 or lower character (for example, a 2/1 bodyguard).
I also do want to put in the climax swap at this point, so I need to cut one more card. Oh, and I wanted to put antichange in this deck too (again, the red one for color), since the level 2 combo can potentially search it out if it seems relevant, so two cards. Hmm, maybe I’m trying to do too much here, and I should just give up on some of these one-ofs or something, but I still want to try to fit it all in. I guess I can cut one of the (salvage) brainstorms and one of the salvage rikis; the deck’s now less likely to be able to trifield at level 0, but that’s not the end of the world.
So this deck will be called “Harlaown Soul Rush: 6 Choice 2 Shot Form, Set Up”, I suppose.
Deck Log: 2M2JE
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Addendum
As I mentioned in my second Nanoha deckbuilding post, I completely forgot this was a card, but it seems like a very good card to tech in with the choice finisher, to prevent various defensive counters.
I’m thinking I’ll have this replace the event tap counter, since it’s not a big part of the gameplan and there’s still the character tap counter if necessary.
Closing Thoughts
Overall… honestly, the whole “extra soul from the alarm” thing is perhaps just a bit too finicky: you need the alarm, you need to get memory, and you need at least 2 of the actual combo for that to feel worth it (preferably 3, of course). Oh yeah, and you need the climax, too; and while you can search it out with the jintsu, that turns off the alarm if you need to do it on the combo turn (unless it happens to clock another copy of the alarm, of course). Luckily the riki doesn’t have that problem (and can even set the alarm if you’re 1-0). But I’m starting to feel like it’d be better to try a different combo (or stick with this one but take out the alarm), at least if you’re looking for consistency. I’ll probably try that and see how it compares, but that’ll have to wait till next week.
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