Throwing out some initial thoughts about Project Sekai Vol. 3; I’m planning to make some more in-depth deckbuilding/deck tech posts in the new year.
Translations can be found on Weiss Tea Time (and vol. 2 is in the archive).
During reveals, there were 3 decks that I figured I’d want to make: 8 bag, 8 shot, and something with Mafuyu.
Table of Contents
8 Bag
This was also the first deck I tried to make with set 2 — the 5-card tap-self check 3 brainstorm seemed really nice — but it suffered from the lack of a solid top end. The new set has now supplied that in the form of the Minori finisher (as well as a better level 1 combo and a very nice EP healer). So my thought is that it’ll be a 4/2/2 split of Shizuku level 1 combo / Shizuku level 2 combo / Minori level 3 combo.
This deck will probably be fairly finisher-focused, with burn 4s enabled by stockshuffle or fumio, and ideally supplemented by burn 1s from the 3/1 event.
Perhaps the 3/3 event would be better? This deck should build a lot of stock, and the finisher doesn’t use much.
Still, there’s already a lot of stuff that can use that stock, between brainstorms, EP heals, decompression, and general selection, so I don’t know if I’d expect that much extra stock on the finishing turn. And perhaps more importantly, the 3/1 event burning during main phase means that you can use it to refresh an opponent who left 1 card in deck, so you can then stockshuffle them. It’s a lot better for that than the fumio is: it costs 1 less stock while still making them take refresh penalty, and either it still excludes a climax (if the last card is a climax) or it does an extra damage (if it’s not). Of course, it’s possible to run both the 3/1 event and the 3/3 event, but I kind of doubt that there’ll be room for that in the deck.
Another nice card for this deck is the level 0 Mafuyu on-death ruijerd. It’s a good sac target for the finisher if you’re at low 3, letting you clock yourself to be able to heal to stock with the next finisher, while also providing selection (perhaps it searches out that next finisher). And it’s also just a nice attacker at 0, swinging big and helping you set up for your next turn without spending stock (particularly helpful for turn 2 going first).
8 Shot
Like the 8 bag deck, this deck was mostly prompted by its brainstorm.
Though in this case, it was less the brainstorm ability itself (though that is very nice) than the other ability, which lets it send itself to the bottom of the deck. Since this is one of the cards that the Nene finisher gives shot triggers to, you can aim to stack all 4 of them on the bottom of the deck, mill down to 6 cards, and then do triple combo; the first attack likely won’t have any shots, but the second attack will trigger 2 double shots and the third attack will trigger 2 triple shots, meaning that if those two attacks cancel, you get 10 burn 1s (plus 1 attack). (This also means that you’d quite like to pump some soul to the last lane, since the brainstorm doesn’t have a soul trigger.) One of the other cards that gets shot can also put itself on the bottom of the deck, though it’s a backup, so you have to decide whether or not to use it on the turn before, and of course you have to have a character that’s front attacked in order to be able to back up in the first place.
This means that you’re not actually locked into using the Tsukasa level 2 combo alongside the Nene finisher, like it initially seemed, but can instead use the Emu level 1 combo. The Tsukasa is honestly probably a fine combo, but the fact that you need to spend multiple stock on it to get a significant benefit from the combo means that it needs a bit more time to set up, and it doesn’t really let you snowball compression the way some other level 2 combos do, since it mills and blind stocks. Meanwhile, the Emu has built-in soul rush, letting you play towards a much faster game. Only generating stock means that you probably need to lean on a double brainstorm back row to maintain your hand, but of course that’s exactly what you already want to run, and they’re 5-card brainstorms to boot.
My biggest worry is that this topend seems fairly fragile. If you only get double combo, you end up with just 7 instances of 1 if all the attacks cancel (1 from the first combo, assuming the first trigger isn’t a shot, plus 4 from the second combo, plus 2 from the third lane). Or if you only get 3 combo targets on the bottom, that’s 8 instances of 1 rather than 10. If you’re not able to pump any soul to the last lane, then they could potentially just take the 3, and then you have to hope the other attack and 4 burn 1s got them to 3-4. But probably the worst case is if you’re not able to mill down to 6 cards (or at least close to that), in which case there’s a good chance that the combo does almost nothing (though having twin drive with 8 shot at least means that you’re likely to get a few cancel burns, which might be enough if the opponent is already almost dead).
So it might be worth running some off-finishers for the bad games where you’re not able to set up the combo. Maybe TD Ichika, since that can also be played alongside double combo for no extra stock if you don’t have the stock for the third combo. The 3/3 event is also tempting since it works well with the combo in the really good games (the combo swings big and so is likely to be able to get a reverse, and the event pumps soul, in addition to getting you an extra burn, though sadly that burn doesn’t get the cancel burns from the shots). While it might make more sense to go for characters rather than events since the brainstorm is a salvage brainstorm, this deck probably runs the Christmas event that can grab events anyway, since that can give you a lot of controllable mill. There’s also a level 0 with a form of twin drive, which is another option if you don’t have enough stock for triple combo, with the benefit that it’s not a dead card the rest of the game (but the downside that it only has 1 soul).
It’s also worth noting that the combo can be disrupted by memory kick (since it gives itself a continuous ability), though it also gets 3k power, so that’s not a huge concern. On the other hand, the finisher can potentially be hexproof, so you’re not too worried about normal defensive counters (except for ones that don’t target). You also don’t have to worry about antiburn, since the shot damage comes from the triggered card rather than the attacking character, and antiburn only applies to characters on stage.
Mafuyu
The Mafuyu finisher seems really good against certain types of decks but really bad against others, so I’d like to make a deck that runs both that and another finisher.
Mafuyu being able to dig for her own climax helps with this, but there isn’t another finisher that really does that. (And no, Akito and Airi aren’t real finishers.) Still, there are various cards that can help dig for or directly grab climaxes, as well as an assortment of climax swaps, so it’s probably not a big deal.
Since you should generally be able to tell whether or not you want to go for Mafuyu based on what deck the opponent is playing, you can probably afford to sculpt into one finisher or the other normally over the course of the game; it’s mostly a matter of being able to fit both finishers into the deck, I suspect. To that end, the rest of the deck should ideally be fairly straightforward stuff that doesn’t require a lot of support or random extra cards. That makes me think the Toya door finisher would be a good fit, since that lets you skip out on the fumio and potentially the stockshuffle as well, and is just generally self-contained.
Similarly, the early game combo shouldn’t take up too much deckspace (Tsukasa is probably out… either one, really), but it should still be fairly loopable. The fact that neither of these finishers needs much hand makes me think that the Airi level 0 combo might be a good fit, or maybe the Haruka level 1 combo… or maybe the Honami 2-soul level 1 combo.
Airi, being on a bar, is probably the best at looping the climax itself; though Honami being red lets her more easily play the tap-self check 3 brainstorm.
Both Airi and Haruka need additional attackers, though I suspect the new level 0 Miku can largely cover that.
Alternatively, I might end up just using the Shizuku level 1 combo, since there’s a level 0 that can easily salvage it back.
Running 2 different level 3 combos might also help with getting that extra stock… though the downside of running a green level 1 combo alongside blue and red level 3 combos is that it kind of locks you out of the good EP, which is the most obvious level 3 target to actually salvage off of the level 1 combo early on. Still, you don’t necessarily need blue and red in the same game…
Honestly, though, I’m not sure if I’ll get around to actually building this deck. I’m probably more excited about the previous two, and I also want to update at least one of my existing decks (I guess 8 bag is already sort of an update to an existing deck, but in my mind the new 8 bag is basically a different deck from what I had before).
Miscellaneous
This level 0 Rin seems like a very nice plussing 0:
It’s a guaranteed stockless plus, and very easy to use turn 1 going second. It gets you two 2.5ks on board, which might be difficult for the opponent to deal with if they stay at level 0 (or might not be, depending on the deck). It doesn’t directly help you sculpt into your level 1 game, but it does help you generate stock without committing level 0s that you might prefer to hold onto, and it helps you mulligan more aggressively while still being able to field 2 or 3 attackers (that is, you can more easily ditch less useful level 0s for mulligan going second if you open a copy of this, rather than holding onto them in case you need an extra attacker).
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