My team got 3rd place in the recent Duluth BSF, so of course I’m making a deck tech for the deck I played, namely 8 pants Bang Dream with the Tsukushi topend, along with a tournament report going through my rounds.
Table of Contents
Deck List
Deck Log: 5XGUM
Overview
The deck is built around the Tsukushi level 3 combo: ideally you bring out 3 of them the moment you hit level 2, and then have two or three turns of looping that combo, with the Rimi off-finisher to provide a bit more finishing power once you reach level 3.
While there’s the option to summon a character off the combo, salvaging is generally more powerful, getting you both a hand and a burn. Though if you only have double combo, summoning the Rui healer can be a decent option.
If you don’t already have a third attacker, that also effectively gets you a hand, while getting you a heal rather than a burn; it’s also a nice way to present a full board of level 3s. That’s particularly useful if you want to maximize your chance of being able to use a backup, but also just makes it fairly likely that at least one of your characters will survive; that’ll probably be the Rui, of course, which may or may not be useful, but it could at least save you from having to find a third attacker next turn.
The other notable summon target is the stockswap; while it’s fairly expensive, the fact that the combo can just pull it out as long as it’s in the waiting room makes it more reliable than buns for this deck, while still being accessible at level 2.
On the other hand, it’s very rare that I’ll summon another copy of the combo off the combo; I’m more likely to salvage a copy of the level 0 instead. Since both options can get you a second combo next turn, that’s basically a stock and 1~2 hand (depending on whether or not you would need to hand encore) for a burn 1 — though I suppose if the opponent is uncompressed, the extra soul from the combo (and/or from a potential extra direct lane) could be almost as good. Honestly, putting it that way, maybe that’s a better option than I thought, though given the event’s board condition, it’s fairly likely that you already have another attacker on board anyway.
Regardless, I’d say the salvage option is the main draw of this combo, getting resources and dealing damage at the same time, while being very loopable (what with the combo being on pants and having hand encore). The damage isn’t particularly impressive — just a burn 1 — but it can definitely build up over multiple turns, if you’re able to keep looping the combo. And the salvage aspect can of course help with that, getting you cards to help find the climax next turn, for example, or just to use as hand encore fodder if necessary.
That said, what this combo doesn’t do (normally) is present a massive board or generate a ton of resources. A generic 1k1 deck may well just crash into your 10k bodies, but anything that’s looking to fight for board will likely be bigger; this deck is looking to lean into the hand encore, and potentially side (at least against level 2s) to keep its combo going; it also has the option to grab the antichange backup if it’s in the waiting room, depending on the matchup and the situation. Of course, it also needs to be cautious about antichange itself (and it’s a bit awkward that the burn 1s can sometimes push the opponent to level 2, enabling a level 2 antichange on the first attack); I’ll often side level 1s, because there’s not much downside in terms of soul or board presence, though of course leaving a level 1 combo alive isn’t ideal. And while this combo does generate resources, it’s just a single hand, so it’s common — especially when you’re not winning board — to be running on fairly low resources; that said, so long as you can find the climax and hand encore your combos (which can be significant caveats, of course), you often don’t need that many resources to begin with. Still, having relatively low resources means that this deck’s compression tends to be quite modest; it’s definitely more of a rush deck than a stall deck. That’s a bit awkward for a combo that works best when you’re able to loop it for several turns, but there’s some flexibility there, I suppose: the combo has benefits in both fast games and slow games — a jack-of-all-trades sort of combo, so to speak. And the combo can still contribute on your finishing turn, so you’re likely able to benefit from looping it at least a bit. Relatedly, the finishing turn isn’t likely to be a massive blowout, but the hope is that it doesn’t need to be.
Another central card of this deck is one that, in some ways, is also one of the worst cards in the deck, because it has neither the «Anniversary» nor the «Morfonica» trait, and yet you tend to want it on stage: the Ako brainstorm.
The cool thing about this card is that you can rest the level 0 Tsukushis to potentially brainstorm multiple times on the turn you bring out the level 3 combos (which can be helpful for milling those combos into the waiting room, for example). And of course, being a 5-card brainstorm is quite nice. Needing to rest two characters is more awkward earlier in the game (and to some extent later as well, once you already have the level 3s out), but it’s still fairly common to have another rest target. And occasionally you’ll want a level 3 combo to summon another character over herself, in which case you can use that combo as a rest target for the brainstorm.
This brainstorm’s other ability also has some nice synergy with the Tsukushi combo: if you have a character in hand that you want to summon, you can use that ability to ditch it.
On the other hand, there are some significant downsides to the brainstorm being off-trait. Selecting into it is more difficult than it’d otherwise be; you effectively need a full field in order to use the 2/1 event; and the level 1 combo is a bit smaller than you’d normally expect (which is already pretty small on offense) and sometimes actually has to worry about its board condition. So it’s possible that it’d be better to cut this brainstorm entirely and just use the Toko brainstorm, maybe with an on-trait salvage brainstorm alongside it. But I think it’s cool that traits kind of matter in this deck, and I feel like I’m getting tangible benefits in return, at least.
(The deck name, “Drumming Up Some EPs”, comes from the fact that both Tsukushi and Ako are drummers; I originally had a Kanon as well, but that got replaced by the Toko brainstorm. There is now the Maya that could get EP’d as well, I suppose.)
In addition to giving us a better off-climax finisher in the Rimi, the 10th Anniversary set also gave this deck a significantly better level 1 combo.
While in a lot of decks a cigarettes combo can be awkward because you can end up not being able to select into higher level characters, in this deck the characters you want are level 0s anyway. (If you do hit 3 on the mill, it could be worthwhile to grab the level 3 combo to keep it out of refresh; it’s perfectly fine if that doesn’t happen, though.) Previously, I was running an oboro combo with built-in hand filtering; that’s kind of nice if you’re looking to loop your level 1 combo, but that’s not this deck. There’s actually another on-trait cigarettes combo, but it’s on book rather than pants, meaning that it doesn’t work with the Ako brainstorm (and also doesn’t help as much with looping the level 3 climax).
Individual Card Notes
Level 3
Level 3 combo:
The core of the deck (and as such, discussed quite a bit above; obviously a 4-of, since you want 3 of them on stage at level 2 if possible, and you need them to be in the waiting room to be able to be summoned off the event. The fact that this can only grab «Anniversary» or «Morfonica» characters with its combo is a signficant deckbuilding restriction, but luckily it only needs a single other traited character for its abilities. (I actually forgot that the combo itself has that requirement, not just the power & hand encore, but even with the off-trait characters in this deck and the fact that you might have an empty slot to summon a third attacker into, there’s basically no way you don’t have another on-trait character when you play the climax.) It’s also nice that the hand encore isn’t trait-limited.
If I have this in hand at level 0, I’ll often try to clock something else instead so I can clock this at level 1 to get it into the waiting room at level 2 (though even at level 1, I’ll often opt to clock something else if I have the option, since ditching this off of the level 0 Tsukushi is generally more reliable than getting it into the waiting room from clock — in particular, it works even if you need to refresh after levelling up).
I also try to have a copy of this card’s climax in hand pretty much all game; it’s very important to find, and so I’ll often hold onto it through first deck (though I still ditch it in mulligan; this is an 8 pants deck after all). Later on, I’ll potentially hold onto 2 of them if I expect to be able to play at least one of them before refresh (though of course stuff like fumios can be a concern there).
Having the level 3 climax in hand early on can also be helpful if you get hit straight to level 2: you can potentially just go for the level 3 combo instead of the level 1 combo, depending on the situation (in particular, if you didn’t already select into a lot of level 1 combos, and if the 2/1 events aren’t all in the waiting room). While this means that you’re likely to be running on lower resources than normal, there’s also a decent chance that the opponent won’t be ready to deal with level 3s that early, and it can also give you an opportunity to send some unexpected damage right back at them.
Rimi off-finisher:
Since the combo itself only does burn 1s, it’s nice to have a bigger chunk of damage with the burn 4 here (while still likely getting a burn 1 as well). Most often, I end up doing single Rimi and double combo, which is very cheap if you already have a couple combos on stage: just 2 hand (Rimi and the climax) and 2 stock, since the combos fuel Rimi’s hand cost. Another option in that situation is to have one of the combos summon a second Rimi over herself; while Rimi’s cancel burn only works when she’s placed from hand, her burn 4 doesn’t have that restriction, so that effectively replaces a burn 1 with a burn 4, though at the cost of 2 stock and 3 hand (since you no longer get a salvage from the combo). Similarly, if you have triple combo already on stage and the climax in hand, you don’t actually need any other resources at all to summon a Rimi in one lane and turn one of those burn 1s into a burn 4. Notably, you can do this at level 2 if you see that the opponent is uncompressed and feel that a burn 4 would be impactful (in that case, hopefully you’ve got a bit of extra hand to hand encore with, so you can have a followup turn).
Of course, while you can summon Rimi off the combo, you’d generally prefer to play her from hand, and so I tend not to bother encoring the third combo going into the finishing turn, and Rimi is also a good salvage target for the combo on earlier turns. Playing Rimi from hand does mean you need red, though, which is somewhat awkward because the deck didn’t naturally end up with much red at all; that’ll come up with some of the other cards in the list.
This is a 2-of to make it relatively easy to find one of them, and to keep the possibility of double open, without taking up too much deckspace.
Rui healer:
As mentioned above, this can be a nice card to summon off the level 3 combo if you’re looking for a third lane, since its heal still works. It can also be EP’d, but that hardly ever comes up. It’s a bit awkward that it can only grab «Anniversary» or «Morfonica» characters, and so can’t heal off climaxes for example, but the clock access can be nice, particularly if there’s a backup in there. Or if the stockswap is in your clock, for example, you can grab it with this and then ditch it with Ako to be able to summon it immediately. In general, it’s kind of nice that this and Ako can ditch each other’s trash, so to speak; if you draw a useless card off Ako, you can ditch it to heal, or if there’s nothing useful in your clock, you can ditch whatever you heal off for a draw. And of course, you can use this heal as a ditch outlet if you don’t want to draw, or don’t have the Ako brainstorm (or just have multiple cards you want to filter out).
This is a 1-of, as a secondary option that doesn’t really need to be sculpted for. There might be an argument for running it at 2 to enable multiple heals, but I don’t feel like that’s likely enough to be relevant to make it worth the slot.
Stockswap:
I briefly touched on this card as well in the deck overview; the key thing about it is that it can be summoned by the combo at level 2 and can use its stockswap then, making it relatively easy to stockswap the opponent if you see a good opportunity. It does cost 3 stock, though, which you need to have up front if you want to start with it and have your attacks go into the less compressed post-stockswap deck, which can be a significant limit on its utility. Though depending on the situation, it might still be worth it even if you need to attack into the compressed deck once or twice; in particular, if their deck is larger than their stock, you’ll have some amount of damage being processed in the current deck anyway, so it might actually be better to start with an attack and then see how good the stockswap is looking after that. For example, if they’re 3 in 9 with 6 stock, and you stick a 3, then you know that that stockswap will be very good, whereas if they cancel the first attack on 1 and then the next on 2, there’s no point wasting your stock on stockswapping them; if you stockswap up front, then both of those possibilities are just as likely (swinging into the bottom 3 cards rather than the top 3 cards), but you’ve already committed the stock and can do nothing but regret it if it turns out the climaxes were on the bottom. In a similar vein, you can see what happens with any burn 1s from the combo before deciding whether or not to summon the stockswap in the first place (though in that case, you don’t have the option to stockswap first, since the burns happen in the climax phase while the stockswap happens in the attack phase; the burns are mandatory, as well, so the only way not to burn before stockswapping is not to salvage).
While you’d generally prefer to summon this card off the combo (even at level 3) to avoid needing to pay stock for it, its on-play ability can also be helpful, particularly to dig for a climax (though it only digs 2 cards). And it refunds a stock, so playing it from hand is only one stock more expensive than summoning it off the combo.
As a tech option, and particularly one that doesn’t really need to be sculpted for, this is a 1-of.
Level 2
2/1 Event:
This is needed to bring out the level 3 combo at level 2, but other than that it’s a brick. In particular, since it needs the level 0 Tsukushi in order to do anything, and that level 0 Tsukushi can search it out, it’s not especially helpful to draw into it directly; generally I’ll aim to clock it at level 0 or otherwise ditch it. That said, if you have a comfortable amount of hand, it can be helpful to hold onto it, to ensure it doesn’t get lost after refresh, or to be able to use it before refresh. Since the level 0 Tsukushi can only search it out from the deck, you generally need it to go into refresh and then not come out of the deck (except to hand) before you have a chance to search for it. So you very much don’t want to clock it at level 1 (unless it’s clear that you’re not going to refresh before hitting level 2, perhaps), and you’d also like to pay it out of stock if you trigger it. So it can be helpful to search for it in first deck to reduce the chance of triggering it or taking it as damage at level 1, though that pretty much requires you to want to play the level 0 Tsukushi anyway. That could be in the back (with the idea being that it’ll stick around until you can sac it at level 2), or it could be as an attacker; in the latter case, it’s likely a good idea to drop the event, perhaps with the level 0 Tsukushi’s draw/drop ability, since you’ll need to select back into the level 0 anyway. Meanwhile, once you hit level 2, you ideally want to play a couple level 0 Tsukushis and search out a couple events before you do anything to mill yourself, like brainstorming. That does carry a risk, though, since you’re ditching the same cards that are needed for the board condition to actually play the event, so you need to be confident that you’ll still be able to meet that. (This is also why you don’t necessarily want to just hold onto multiple copies of the event through refresh; it limits your options, and might ultimately make it harder to play them.) And of course, this is a 4-of; it’s hard enough to keep them in the deck as it is, and you ideally want to search out 3 of them.
Technically this event can summon any character with “Tsukushi” in its card name, but there’s really only one good target. I suppose if you’re desperate, you could summon back the level 0 that you just sac’d, effectively paying a stock and a hand to stand it; if you have 3 or more rested characters and can’t field 3 attackers, so not playing the event would mean you’d just leave a rested character in front and presumably lose it, then you make back the stock from playing the event, so you’re just spending a hand for an attack’s worth of damage (and possibly taking out a small character), so who knows, maybe it’d be worth it (though of course, you’d prefer not to be in that situation in the first place).
Freefresh backup:
The 10th Anniversary set added an on-trait freefresh backup, which is very useful, and one of my go-to cards to salvage off the level 3 combo. This deck can still function on very low stock, so spending 3 stock to freefresh can easily feel well worth it (especially if you just triggered some climaxes, and thus hopefully have the level 3 climax ready to go for next turn, while also getting those triggered climaxes back into the deck). Deck speed can be a bit lacking once you already have the level 3 combos on stage (and so aren’t likely to brainstorm multiple times), so the freefresh backup can cover that weakness to some extent.
It’s also just a 2.5k backup, of course; it’s not necessarily worth it to spend a stock on backing up rather than encoring, but it can be helpful if you’d otherwise expect to need to side the attacking character next turn, or in order to deny an on-reverse ability.
It does tend to make your compression worse in the long term, so it’s not something you want to be using at every opportunity, but it’s very nice to have it as an option to mitigate some of the worst situations. (And sometimes, you can just play it multiple times in a row, if your climaxes end up towards the top of the deck.)
A 1-of, as a tech card that can be sculpted into off the combo, though there’s an argument for running another copy to make it easier to see.
Antichange backup:
With the deck being able to fairly easily present a full board of level 3s, being able to threaten antichange is quite nice; it’s one of the most effective ways to fight for board without actually getting that big, and it can serve as antidamage against non-board-based decks as well. I’ll talk a bit about the other options below, but I went with this one because it’s fairly reliable; it can also serve as a ditch outlet for climaxes (though picking up extra climaxes if you trigger pants can still be risky, if you end up not being able to play it).
The hand cost can be pretty steep, and means that it’s not the most helpful in bad games where you’re low on resources. But if you’ve got a bit of extra hand and/or your other lanes aren’t being threatened, the cost can be quite affordable; in particular, if you have the climax in hand, you can ditch everything else for antichange and hand encore, and often still feel fairly comfortable.
Like the freefresh, it’s a 1-of tech card that can be grabbed by the combo; between them, there are two 2.5k backups.
Level 1
Level 1 combo:
I mentioned this in the overview, but the key thing about this level 1 combo is that it’s on pants and it can reliably grab the level 0 Tsukushi (if it’s in the waiting room); it’s also nice that it provides a bit of milling, and the fact that it’s on-trait means that it can be helpful if it happens to survive to level 2. It also has an extra effect if you salvage a level 3, being able to bounce a character, but it’s pretty rare for that to come up. (You do have to actually salvage a level 3, not just mill a total of 3.) Still, if there’s a lane you might want to bounce, you might as well attack that lane last; if you do have the option, grabbing the level 3 combo is a decent way to trigger the bounce. Though on the subject of attack order, it’s generally best to save a combo for the last attack, at least if you don’t already have the level 3 climax; that way you know whether or not you were able to get the climax off a trigger on the previous attacks, and can salvage a character to help find it if not. That trigger knowledge is less helpful if you already have the climax; if you trigger pants, you likely just don’t take it anyway, though if you’re not close to refresh, it might be useful to take it and then grab the riko or something to be able to ditch it next turn.
Notably, this card’s trait restrictions can actually come up. It can only salvage «Anniversary» or «RAISE A SUILEN» characters, which means that it can’t grab the Ako brainstorm (or the Soyo riki); for that reason, I sometimes prioritize sculpting into the Ako brainstorm over the level 1 combo. Also, you need two other «Anniversary» or «RAISE A SUILEN» characters on board; that is not in fact fulfilled if you use the Soyo riki to search for a combo, play down a second combo, and have the Ako brainstorm in the back, so you do need to be careful about that (though it’s still fairly rare for it to be relevant). And finally, the fact that one of the backrow slots tends to be taken up by the Ako brainstorm means that the combo generally doesn’t get bigger than 6k with the climax (5k on defense), which means it can struggle to kill anything slightly bigger than normal (though honestly, that’s kind of the case regardless). Still, it takes out standard level 1 combos (and can likely tie ones that sit at 6k, at least), so I’m not too concerned about that.
A 4-of, of course, as a level 1 combo that you ideally want to trifield.
Cigarettes event:
Like the level 1 combo, this card can reliably salvage the level 0 Tsukushi; it also has a decent chance of being able to grab the level 1 combo itself. But unlike the level 1 combo, the traits it checks for are «Anniversary» and «Roselia», which means that it can in fact grab the Ako brainstorm. It can also be useful for grabbing various tech cards during main phase, or for getting a bit more mill.
The fact that it can be used as a counter generally doesn’t come up, but there’s some potential to use it to mill if you’re all out, or against a moca effect; and if you draw it off the Ako brainstorm, you could take advantage of the counter timing to be able to use it before refresh, or to convert it into a character to hand encore with, for example.
A 3-of because it’s a source of sculpting rather than something you sculpt into. I’ve had it at 4 previously, but it’s not the most important card (and not a playable at level 0), just a bit of extra consistency, and so it’s one of the first candidates to cut for extra deckspace.
Level 0
Level 0 Tsukushi:
Part of the core EP package of the deck. The fact that it’s a level 0 is quite nice, making it easily accessible from the level 1 combo and event (and from rikis, for that matter, which can be nice if you want to clock up to level 2); it’s also just a playable character at level 0 (even if it’s a fairly weak attacker). The draw/drop isn’t the best second ability it could have had, but it’s also far from the worst. It’s a ditch outlet, and in particular, it has a chance of turning a card that you can’t convert into the event into one that you can, or possibly just the event itself. It’s not guaranteed, of course, but if you’re playing down multiple Tsukushis and have an invalid ditch target for the last one, you can potentially go through multiple cards to try to turn it into a valid target. That said, with the Ako brainstorm being off-trait, it’s common for the first Tsukushi to not be able to do the draw/drop, and possibly the second as well; it can sometimes be helpful to play down the Toko brainstorm beforehand to enable that.
The draw/drop can also be helpful if you have 1 card left in deck: you can draw/drop first in order to refresh, then search the event out of the new deck. Or if you have a level 0 Tsukushi already on stage (with an event already in hand) and two of the level 3 Tsukushi in hand, you can use a second level 0 Tsukushi to drop both of the level 3s, giving you targets for both of the events.
And of course, you can draw/drop just to mill a card; I’ll often do that just to have an extra chance of milling out a level 3 combo, if they’re not already in the waiting room. If you’re attacking with this card in the early game, you can potentially mill 2 by searching out the event and then using the draw/drop and immediately dropping the event. Or in general, it can give you a bit of control over how much you mill (which there otherwise isn’t much of).
Generally, I’d say it’s better to search out the event first and then draw/drop; the exception would be if you have a level 0 Tsukushi on the stage but no corresponding event in hand, in which case you’d want to maximize the chance of drawing into the event (and then being able to search another copy). I suppose another case where you might want to draw/drop first is if you’re about to brainstorm or something to try to get another copy of the level 0 Tsukushi; in that case, seeing an extra event off the draw/drop could be nice so that you don’t need to worry about milling it out in the brainstorm (and if you whiff the brainstorm, you could potentially play the extra event next turn; you’d just need to make sure that you could still fulfill the board condition for the first event this turn). It’s also possible that the draw/drop could inform which character you want to ditch for the search, perhaps, though a lot of the time you don’t have enough hand for that to matter.
This is a 4-of, because you ideally want to play 3 of them at level 2. Notably, though, you can reuse them, grabbing back one that was sac’d by the event and then playing it again (the board condition for the event can make that awkward, though the Toko brainstorm can help with that); for that reason, this is the component of the Tsukushi package that I tend to be the most comfortable levelling at level 1 (though it’s still not ideal, since you’d like to be able to grab it out of the waiting room with the level 1 combo). And having 3 copies in hand going into level 2 is still not a bad idea: most of the salvage options mill, which carries the risk of milling out the event. Though you also have to be careful about playing down 3 copies and searching out 3 events immediately; if you don’t have another «Anniversary» or «Morfonica» character already on stage (or already in hand, which would be the 7th one after the Tsukushis and the cards ditched for the events), you run the risk of not being able to actually play the events. In particular, if you brainstorm twice and whiff both, you can end up with 4 rested characters on board and no playables in hand; it’s likely better to take the risk of milling out the last event with the brainstorm instead.
Ako brainstorm:
I talked quite a bit about this card in the overview, both why I’m playing it (being able to rest the level 0 Tsukushis, the fact that it’s a 5-card brainstorm, and to some extent the ditch/draw ability) and some of the downsides of it being off-trait (which have also come up in discussions of other cards).
The ditch/draw ability can also provide a bit of filter or a way to dig for a climax for the next turn (though the timing is fairly awkward, happening after main phase but before triggers); and like the level 0 Tsukushi, it provides the ability to adjust how much you mill to some extent. It can occasionally come up when you’re looking to use the level 3 combo shortly after refresh, as well: one kind of weird thing about that combo is that it needs to salvage in order to burn, meaning that if you don’t have a valid target in your waiting room, you can’t just do the burn 1 alone. So being able to ditch a character and salvage it back can occasionally be helpful for that.
Normally I’d run a split between the two different arts, but in this case I’m just using the Countdown Collection art because I like it more. Bushiroad, why do you print so many cards that are just “character standing in an abstract void”?
This is a 2-of, as a card that’s important but sticks around on stage, and where there’s very little benefit to playing down a second copy. If you’ve got one already (or know you can get it, perhaps), the second copy is likely the best option to level for blue, since that also takes an off-trait character out of rotation. Though it can sometimes happen that you end up playing over it and then wanting to get it back (though honestly, it might not be that important to get it back anyway; you can often get away without it, particularly once you’ve already got the level 3s on board).
Toko brainstorm:
This card is primarily there as a way to convert hand into stock, but the fact that it’s also a brainstorm is super nice. This is my go-to salvage target when I’m not sure what I want; it can turn into either stock or (hopefully) selection during the main phase. Converting hand to stock can be useful in various situations: maybe the opponent is just crashing into your level 3 combos, and so you find yourself with excess hand; maybe you hit a bunch on a brainstorm, or hit a brainstorm but didn’t find what you wanted (which might just be “milling out the level 3 combo”) and so want to brainstorm again; maybe you want to stockswap, or you freefreshed last turn, and so you spent or are about to spend a lot of stock; maybe you went up to level 2 quickly and so are low on stock but have a bit of extra hand; maybe you want to riki up to level 2 and replace the stock you used; or maybe you want to riki turn 1, making it into more of a ruijerd. Basically, efficient hand-to-stock is a very nice option to have.
This is also a search brainstorm, for «Anniversary» or «Morfonica» characters; this means that it can’t be used to get the Ako brainstorm, but it can replace it to some extent. Now, since sending this card to stock requires resting it, you can’t brainstorm with it and then send it to stock on the same turn, which is a bit sad, but it’s already a good enough card that I can’t really complain. The fact that it’s a search brainstorm means that you sometimes prefer to use it over the 5-card brainstorm, particularly if you just refreshed (or are brainstorming through refresh). One thing you can do with it is search out the level 3 combo in order to get it into the waiting room; but the awkward thing about that is that the best way to ditch it is with the level 0 Tsukushi itself, and you ideally want to play that before brainstorming to avoid milling out the event with the brainstorm. Still, if you’re notably more likely to hit the brainstorm than to mill out the level 3, it’s likely worth taking that chance. And of course, you don’t need to brainstorm before the first Tsukushi, just before the last one, so the chance of milling out the last event should be relatively low anyway; or if you already have an extra event in hand, you don’t need to worry about losing it, and can still use the Tsukushi’s draw/drop to ditch the level 3.
Another significant role of this card is that of an on-trait character that can efficiently remove itself from the stage. Since you have to have a full field to play the 2/1 event with the Ako brainstorm on the stage, that can make it awkward if you want to summon a character off the combo, or if you want to play a character after using the event. In particular, if you’re close to refresh and have a 2/1 event in hand, you might want to play that event before refresh (with level 3 combos available in the waiting room), then refresh, then search out another event from the fresh deck, probably ditching a level 3 combo that you had in hand to serve as a target (though you might also know that you have one in stock, or brainstorm knowing that one’s in the last few cards of the deck). Having a (standing) Toko brainstorm on stage means that you can fulfill the board condition to play the event before refresh, then throw the Toko into stock after refresh to open up a slot for the Tsukushi, meaning you don’t need to play over anything. Similarly, if you get triple combo and hand encore them all, having a Toko brainstorm in the back can let you open up a slot to play down a character (maybe a climax swap or something) without playing over. Note that in that situation, of having a full board going into main phase, even if you want to search brainstorm, it can be a good idea to send the Toko to stock if you have another one in hand, since once you’ve search brainstormed you can no longer open up a slot without playing over something. (Though if the reason you’re search brainstorming is to find a character that you want to play immediately, I suppose it doesn’t matter much; it’s most relevant if you’re looking to search out a backup.)
This is a 3-of; I wouldn’t be opposed to having it as a 4-of (it’s pretty nice to have multiple of them in hand), but I feel like 3 is enough to be comfortable.
Backrow runner:
This card is nice because it’s a free plus that then turns into the Toko brainstorm, with all of the flexibility that that entails. You do pretty much need to ditch an «Anniversary» or «Morfonica» character in the mulligan if you want to use this turn 1, but that’s generally not an issue. The fact that it clocks you and also opens up a direct lane means that you can take quite a bit of damage, but this deck is generally pretty ok with that; it wants to hit level 2 quickly anyway. That also means that I’m fairly comfortable using this card even at level 1 (though just low level 1; you want to hit level 2, but you don’t want to take too much damage past that). Often, though, rather than pushing it up as an attacker at level 1, it’ll end up being a rest target for the Ako brainstorm.
This card can swing somewhat big at level 0, up to 2.5k — big enough to not give the opponent unexpected plusses, but not enough to take out oversizes. However, that’s only if you attack with two other «Anniversary» or «Morfonica» cards first; though this card does help enable a trifield, there are certainly still times where you don’t want to (or just can’t) attack three times, and it’s also quite possible that not all of your attackers are on-trait.
A 2-of, as part of a suite of plussing 0s; while you certainly could play two of them at once, you’re only really aiming for one, and it’s not especially important to see this card in particular; it’s also off-color.
Rikis:
This deck runs three different rikis (in addition to the backrow runner above, which is also a clock plus). Perhaps that’s a bit much, but as I mentioned with regards to that backrow runner, this is a deck that would like to hit level 2 fairly quickly (in particular, it doesn’t tend to have much to do on a second turn at level 1). These rikis fill overlapping but slightly different roles: the Moca and Rimi rikis serve as plussing 0s that you can attack with turn 1, while the Soyo riki is the most efficient way to clock during main phase; Moca and Soyo are selective, while Rimi provides a bit of deck speed; and Rimi and Soyo provide options to level for red. Really, I’d prefer to run more of the Moca riki, as well as the on-trait on-play riki, but this deck needs red, and I think this is the best place to work that in.
While Rimi isn’t especially selective, she can at least grab the cigarettes event, which means she has 7 targets that translate to playable characters at level 1. She’s also the biggest one of the three, at 2.5k; she can occasionally just survive.
The split here is 3 Soyo, 2 Moca/Himari, and 2 Rimi. Basically, there’s my standard 3 on-play rikis, alongside 4 on-death rikis; combined with the backrow runner, that’s a total of 6 turn 1 plussing 0s. The on-death rikis are just split 2-2, between the selective one and the red one. And of course, I’m running one of the original Moca riki and one of the reprint Himari. Honestly, I could maybe cut down on the self-clocking cards a bit; the Soyo riki could be trimmed down to a 2-of, perhaps, on account of the Moca riki being able to fill that role to some extent. I’d want to replace it with another red card, though.
Climax swap:
There are quite a few different options for climax swaps, even when you limit it to ones with the «Anniversary» or «Morfonica» traits; I’ll talk about some of them below, but I went with this one because the top-check ability seems like it could be useful. In particular, the ability to ditch/draw with Ako brainstorm means that if you see a card you’ll want later, you can grab it with that; or if you don’t, you can opt not to use that ability, knowing that you won’t get something better than what you already have. The same applies to the level 0 Tsukushi’s draw/drop ability, of course, if you’re playing one of those afterwards. You might also be able to tell that you’ll hit a brainstorm, or that you can use the cigarettes event without milling out an event (or a climax), for example.
A 1-of tech card. Oftentimes you can grab the right climax off a pants trigger and so don’t need this, but there are still plenty of times where it’s needed. Sometimes I’ll grab this off the level 3 combo, but it’s not super high on the list if I don’t already have the level 1 climax in hand; the brainstorms are selective, so it’s fairly accessible during main phase.
Kazuma:
This is the main card that can dig for a climax if you don’t have one. Generally I’ll aim to hold onto the level 3 climax from fairly early on, so this is more meant for subsequent turns, though of course sometimes you just don’t see it naturally. There are a couple similar cards that also have the «Anniversary» or «Morfonica» trait; I went with this one because of the potential to dig up to 6 cards, even if you might need to spend 2 stock. It’s limited to ditching «Anniversary» characters (or «Poppin’Party», but this deck doesn’t have any of those that aren’t also «Anniversary»), but I think that’s worth it for the double timing; it’s also nice that it’s red.
This is fairly high on my list of cards to grab off the level 3 combo if I don’t already have a climax, though the awkward thing is that you often don’t know whether or not you’ll trigger a pants.
It’s still just a 1-of, though; like with the climax swap, you ideally don’t need it, and have a decent chance of being able to find it when you do.
Riko:
While the riko can be a nice card in general, the key thing that it does is provide a costless, guaranteed way to get another «Anniversary» or «Morfonica» character in order to fulfill the 2/1 event’s board condition. This means that if, for example, you hit a brainstorm with only two on-trait characters on board and none in hand (but some other cards in hand), you can grab the riko and convert a dead card into a playable on-trait character, without gambling on drawing one off the top of your deck or hitting another brainstorm or anything like that.
The riko can also grab any trait, while being «Anniversary» trait itself, meaning that it can be a way for other cards to indirectly select into the Ako brainstorm.
And like the cigarettes combo and event, it’s guaranteed to be able to grab a level 0, which is most of the cards that you want to grab during main phase, most notably the level 0 Tsukushi; it can have trouble grabbing the level 1 combo, though. Also, if you see a card you want on top of your deck, you can potentially grab the level 0 Tsukushi in order to get it (or if that was what you were going for anyway, maybe use the draw/drop ability before the search).
A 1-of, as a tech card that’s primarily meant for an emergency; the fact that it has Shift also means that it’s a bit more accessible than most 1-ofs.
Alternatives and Potential Additions
So those were the cards that I included in the deck, but I also want to go through some cards that I didn’t include, and consider potential changes to the deck.
Climax Swaps
Kasumi climax swap that can’t side attack:
This card doesn’t exist in English. In the Japanese version of this deck, I ran it for that extra bit of red.
Kokoro climax swap + kazuma:
Another card that doesn’t exist in English. If I was building this deck in Japanese now, I’d replace both the climax swap and the kazuma with this, at least if I could get my hands on it. (Probably at 2 copies, but maybe I’d take the opportunity to slot in something else, ideally something red.)
Ako:
While Ako isn’t red herself, she could potentially swap red into level (or blue, for that matter), but it’s awkward that she needs to rest a different character in order to do so. Though she can rest the brainstorm, at least, since it’s «Roselia» trait.
Tsugumi:
Having a hand-to-stock option is nice, but in this deck that’s largely covered by the Toko brainstorm already. It doesn’t hurt to have another option for that (and it’s nice that this can also function as a ditch outlet), but that overlap means there’s less of a reason to choose this over something else.
Chisato:
While I normally like sac climax swaps, this is the sort of deck where they don’t work as well: since you often end up with only one deck slot to worth with, using a sac climax swap likely ends up meaning you have to replace a card you’d prefer to keep on stage (in this case, probably the Ako brainstorm).
(There are even more options, but these were the main ones that I was considering or just wanted to bring up.)
Backups
Other antichange backups:
There are three other on-trait antichange backups besides the one I’m playing. Of those, the Tsukushi one can be easily eliminated: the Eve one is almost entirely better, being able to ditch climaxes or events (quite relevant in an 8-pants deck) and having a slightly more relevant trait for this deck («Anniversary» rather than «Morfonica»); the fact that it has 1k less base power is basically meaningless.
The Moca one has a somewhat nice cost, but the fact that it sends the antichanged card to clock means that it doesn’t work if the opponent has no clock, which can easily come up given that a lot of early plays heal. And if you don’t have a character that you want to sac, it can end up being simply more expensive than the Eve, if you sac a level 3 combo and then hand encore it.
And while the Rui one is tempting — this deck can often afford to go down to 0 stock, and not having a hand cost lets you save that for hand encores — the board requirement can actually be significant, because once again it checks for «Anniversary» or «Morfonica», meaning that if you have the Ako brainstorm on stage, it’s effectively a full field requirement, so if the opponent removes a lane or you had to crash on the previous turn, that turns off your antichange. Sending the antichanged card to the waiting room is also not ideal, since it doesn’t deny on-death abilities like encore.
Power backups:
Since this deck generally aims to take advantage of the hand encore rather than fighting for board, backups that just give power aren’t really worth it. There are a couple that are interesting, though: the Lisa is simply a very large amount of power (if the opponent has a climax), which gives it more of a chance of being relevant; and the Ran could be an option to get a bit more red. (Of course Ran is red; that just makes sense. Why wouldn’t Ran be red?)
Memory kick backup:
This deck does have enough of a board to be able to somewhat threaten a memory kick, but it’s still fairly easy for a finisher to get out of range, and there’s not much that cares about it anyway.
Leafa backup:
A slight defensive counter, but probably not enough to be worth the stock, much less the deckspace.
Neg soul backup:
This defensive counter is also pretty minor, but it does see play in other sets; in particular, the fact that it’s a sac counter can be quite helpful, making one lane overswing at the same time as it makes another lane underswing (not to mention the potential to deny the occasional on-reverse finishing ability). It can only sac «Anniversary» or «Poppin’Party» characters, though, which has a slight chance of coming up.
The sac aspect could also be useful earlier in the game: if the opponent is trying to hard remove a Tsukushi with an adachi or something, you can sac it and then hand encore it to get it out of battle (while also removing a soul).
Honestly, I’m thinking I might want to try to work this card into the deck; the fact that it’s red makes that easier, too. Maybe it could replace a Soyo riki; the deck currently has 21 level 0s, so it can afford to cut a few.
Brainstorms
I don’t think I’d want to replace the Ako brainstorm, but it’s still worth looking at some options.
Miyako:
If I’m looking to switch brainstorms, I probably want to switch to a red one. This is the simplest on-trait red salvage brainstorm, able to grab any character and with a second ability that can help it hit the first time (or potentially help with other stuff; I talked a bit about the benefit of top checks earlier, discussing the climax swap and the riko).
Saya:
Another red brainstorm; this one can only salvage «Anniversary» or «Poppin’Party» characters, but that would just mean that it couldn’t get the Soyo riki.
It also has a power pump, which could be nice: it could help the level 1 combo swing at a more normal power line, or help a level 0 take out an opposing level 1 perhaps, or help the level 3 combo contest an opposing level 3 or something.
More interestingly, the ability to play events without color might make it a decent idea to run the warehouse event instead of (or in a split with) the cigarettes event, to more reliably be able to grab the level 1 combo.
Honestly, at that point I might start worrying about the blue count, particularly options to level; though maybe there’d be enough red to switch to a blue riki.
Aya:
This one isn’t red, but it could randomly get you a free stock. Still, while this deck does have all 4 colors, they’re not in particularly even counts, so it seems pretty unlikely that that would happen. The 500-power pump to the middle position is probably a bit more likely to be relevant, but still seems pretty negligible.
Red Plussing 0s
It’s possible that this deck has too many self-clock cards; if I was going to cut down on them, the first place I’d look would be the Rimi riki, which means I’d want to find a different red card to replace it, and likely an on-trait one. So let’s look at some on-trait red plussing 0s.
Yukina JC:
I had this in an older version of my pre-10th-Anniversary list. Honestly, I don’t remember exactly why I cut it… oh, it looks like that was when I put the backrow runners in. I guess I prioritized the Rimi riki over this because I figured it might end up alongside the backrow runner and/or the Moca riki, which don’t really benefit from being bounced back. Still, if you have both of those then maybe it doesn’t really matter what the third lane is. The more important scenario is when you don’t have another plussing 0, or at least when you only have one other. (Plus, the JC could still be beneficial alongside the Moca riki if the opponent has hard removal.) So I’m thinking this might be a better card for that slot after all.
It’s also nice that it can get up to 4k; I don’t currently have a level 0 that gets bigger than 2.5k.
Notably, since it checks for «Anniversary» or «Roselia», it does in fact work with the Ako brainstorm, just not with the Soyo riki.
Layer 4k:
A very simple 4k level 0. I suppose Oshi no Ko often runs a reverser, so it’s not a great meta for this card, but it’s probably not a horrible one either; I do feel like it’s fairly common to see level 0s swing at 3.5k. Regardless, the issue with oversizes like this is that they don’t really work if you end up hitting the opponent to level 1, which means they’re not particularly good at enabling trifields. And if you’re not trifielding, there’s a good chance that it’s better to just run a runner (though admittedly the opponent might be able to stop it from moving, particularly if you’re facing another Bang Dream).
Doloris chaser:
Speaking of runners, the 10th Anniversary set added a 3.5k chaser; its power condition does require all your characters to be «Anniversary» or «Ave Mujica», but at least on turn 1 you’re not likely to want to play down the Ako brainstorm or Soyo riki yet. Still, there’s a decent chance that it’ll get smaller the next turn. There’s some synergy with the backrow runner, at least, which can enable it to move even if you trifielded (or give it the full range of motion after a two-attack turn).
Yuno cleancut:
A cleancut reverser is kind of cool, but also has a decent chance of opening up two lanes rather than just one. It has a better chance than most cleancuts of working on the opponent’s turn, but that basically requires them to still be at level 0 (and not have any level 0s that gain a level), so it’s not something I’d want to rely on at all.
Of course, the big problem with this is that it can’t cleancut the Ako brainstorm, so the only good targets are the Toko brainstorm and maybe the level 0 Tsukushi. While there’s something to be said for just cleancutting something to attack with on the next turn, that might still involve committing a card you’d prefer not to.
It’s also possible that this could conflict with the backrow runner, since they both need an empty backrow slot in order to plus.
Off-Climax Finishers
Aya burn 2:
I had this card in the deck before the 10th Anniversary set came out, but it was pretty much replaced by the Rimi. The idea was that it could be summoned out by the combo, or be a heal at level 3 that also has a finisher ability, but it’s a lot more expensive than just salvaging with the combo for not much benefit. Rimi has the same cost (mostly), and while she might end up overswinging, there are also more cases where it’s helpful to bring her out (for example, if a 3 or 4 is lethal but a 1 or 2 isn’t; note that if you’re summoning an off-finisher off the combo, you can do that after any burn 1s from other combos have already happened).
O-Tae EP:
This is another card I had in an older version of the deck; I had an idea that I could choose to summon either this or the Aya based on how much damage I needed to do, though this burn is even more expensive.
This card is also an early play healer, which is kind of nice; the condition is pretty bad, though, so it’s not often that it came up. (It’s still better than the EP healers that need 4 or more traited characters, though; none of the ones that are on-trait to be salvaged off the Tsukushi combo also work with the Ako brainstorm.)
Arale burn + stack:
It’s nice that this card gets you a bit more than just a burn, but it does pay for that; it’s basically just a version of the Aya above that pays an extra stock to stack a card on top of the opponent’s deck. (And it’s in a worse color, too, unless it’s replacing Rimi altogether.) It’s hard for me to imagine that being worth it, particularly with the attack having a decent chance of being for 4 or even 5, where it can easily cancel despite the card stacked on top.
Mashiro icytail:
This card isn’t too likely to deal more than 1 damage, and so while it’s fairly cheap, it doesn’t seem too useful when the combo can already burn 1 for better than free. However, the fact that it’s an icytail does mean that it can potentially go through multiple climaxes; perhaps the way to think of it is as a budget stockswap for cases where the opponent has a small deck.
It’s also able to take advantage of its other ability (damage scry) even when summoned from the waiting room. With just one copy, that’s not likely to make a huge difference, but it’s at least something.
Notably, this card has the «Morfonica» trait but not «Anniversary», which means that while it’s on-trait for the core of the deck (most importantly the level 3 combo itself), there are a few cards that it’s off-trait for, though that shouldn’t matter very much.
Pareo restander:
While this is normally a fairly cheap restand, it doesn’t work especially well with this deck. For one thing, it needs a full field of «Anniversary» or «RAISE A SUILEN»; depending on the situation, that might be effectively an extra hand to play over the Ako brainstorm. It also doesn’t work if it’s summoned off the combo, meaning that you always have to spend the 2 stock to play it from hand; so while it’d normally be a hand and a stock cheaper than Rimi’s burn 4, for example, it could end up effectively costing the same amount of hand and 1 more stock. Plus, depending on the opponent’s deck, they may well have crashed all lanes, in which case a restander is likely to be significantly overswinging.
Other
Bouncebacks:
(I guess I won’t make a whole category for this, just address them all at once.) On-trait cards that bounce back to hand when you play a climax can be nice to fulfill the board condition for the 2/1 event and then open a slot to summon into with the combo or play other cards into next turn (while being able to be used for hand encore or other ditches, or potentially just played again). However, the Toko brainstorm pretty much fills the same role but better, since it can remove itself from stage during the main phase; that’s particularly important when looking to play events both before and after refresh. And while the power pumps and other abilities (such as the Aya’s “being red”) can be nice, none of them is amazing, and so at the end of the day I don’t think these are worth it.
Tsukushi EP:
Besides the level 3 combo, there’s one other level 3 Tsukushi; this could technically be summoned by the 2/1 event as well, but it’s not a particularly good target. It’s already an EP, so you’re not really getting it out any earlier than normal, and all it does is get you some resources when it dies: a hand and a stock, which is the same as what it’d cost to summon it in the first place. A free 10k 2-soul body isn’t the worst thing in the world, but it’s hardly worth the effort. I suppose the use case for this would be if you have a rested level 0 Tsukushi but no level 3 combo in your waiting room; if this card is in your waiting room, it could at least let you efficiently convert the event and rested level 0 into an attacker.
Though rather than as a summon option for the event, the real benefit of this card might be as a summon option for the combo: if you need a third attacker anyway, this effectively gives you a resource-gen option, rather than just the current burn (alongside a weaker attacker) or heal options. It can be denied by hard removal, though — in particular, most adachis and a lot of antichange backups. Maybe you just hope that if they hard-remove this, that means that they’re not also hard-removing the combo? And it’s a low-quality plus, just putting itself into your hand; still, it can at least be fodder for a hand encore or some other cost.
There’s also an interesting interaction with the stockswap, where you can summon this and then summon the stockswap over it to get an extra stock, meaning you only need 2 stock up front. (That means you’re giving up two burn 1s rather than just one, of course, but if they’ve got less deck than stock, that might even be a benefit.)
Honestly, I’m kind of tempted to give this a shot, but of course the issue is deckspace; while this seems like it could be sort of nice in some situations, it’s fairly hard to justify it over other options. Maybe I could cut down a riki of some sort, or the cigarettes event?
Mashiro +4.5k:
While this card is clearly meant to go with this level 3 combo (it works when summoned off of it), the main benefit seems to be in fighting for board, something that this deck doesn’t care that much about. I suppose you can likely get two burn 1s in a single turn cycle (rather than just one if you salvage), since the opponent will likely crash something into it after it reverses something on offense, but that costs 4 stock; chances are you can do something better with that stock than just get an extra burn 1.
Sayo assist:
All of this card’s abilities work fairly well with this deck. (Though not all parts of all of its abilities, admittedly.) It gives the level 3 combo (and the level 1 combo, for that matter) a bit more power; not a huge amount, but enough to have a reasonable chance of being relevant. It helps you get value out of extra pants triggers (since this deck already runs the cigarettes event), with the added bonus that you can feel better about swinging into a 1 in 6 deck, because if you trigger and end at 0 in 3, you know you can then mill down to 1 card on the opponent’s first attack (assuming you have three level 3s and the opponent doesn’t bounce them or something). And it also helps you adjust how much you mill, or choose whether or not you want to draw with the Ako brainstorm’s ability, or put a character that you want into your waiting room to be salvaged, or decide on your attack order or whether to side.
So, all of those are pretty nice, but at the end of the day I don’t think I’d want to commit the backrow slot for this; I’d prefer to have Ako brainstorm and Toko brainstorm, or generally to have a slot available to play characters into during the main phase. Really, if you’re playing this, the other backrow would probably be the Toko brainstorm, and you likely wouldn’t play Ako at all; and maybe that would work, but personally I’d prefer the Ako brainstorm. There’s also the fact that this assist is a 1/1; it’s not uncommon to end up going down to 0 stock on the first level 2 turn already, and so there’s a good chance that this assist wouldn’t come out early enough to be especially useful (or else it’d need to be summoned off the combo, in which case you’re effectively giving up a burn 1 to save a stock).
Event swap:
This is technically a way to get the 2/1 event out of the waiting room, but of course it requires you to have a different event in hand, which in this deck is just the cigarettes event. Maybe if you play the Sayo assist above, it could be useful? But I feel like there’s a good chance that any time you’d want to use this, it’d end up being too expensive to actually be able to play the third event anyway, particularly if you already committed a 1/1 assist.
There’s also the opposite angle, of searching out the 2/1 event with the level 0 Tsukushi and then swapping it into a different event, but probably the only event that would be worth doing that for would be buns, and if you’re at the point of committing two level 0s and spending a stock just to get that event to hand, it doesn’t seem much more efficient than just summoning the on-attack stockswap, while also taking up more deckslots.
So looking through these options, I’m thinking I might try putting in the Tsukushi EP and the neg soul backup (taking out a Soyo riki and a cigarettes event), as well as replacing the Rimi rikis with JCs. That cuts down on the self-clock cards (though the JC opening an empty lane might not be too different) while improving the level 0 game a bit and adding some interesting options for the midgame.
Here’s an updated deck list with those changes:
Deck Log: 7TE0Z
Tournament Report
Once Bushiroad releases the event report for Duluth, I plan to update this post with my opponents’ decklists; for now, I’ll only have the ones that were in top 8.
Round 1
[15th place team, out of 31] I won against OSK Kana Door / Set 2 Akane Pants, going 1st; team win.
This was a fairly new player, or at least someone who wasn’t particularly familiar with the Kana/Akane deck; they were reading their own cards. They also had a pretty bad game; at level 1, they ended up playing down 2 combos, a brainstorm, and nothing else, meaning that their combo didn’t work (though they did play the door). The next turn they played the level 1 riko, but I think this turn they didn’t have blue; I remember them levelling red at level 1 despite having red coming in to clock. So it’s possible that that was a misplay on their part, though I don’t remember what options there were to level for blue (I think there was at least something, though) and I don’t know if they had the riko on that turn or drew it on the next one.
Still, they were able to get triple combo next turn (one combo bounced back, they got another off the riko, and I guess they drew or clocked into the last one); I triple cancelled that turn, which naturally put me significantly ahead in damage, but did mean that I couldn’t take out their Kanas (I’d played my own level 1 combos the previous turn, and wasn’t able to get them back off the cigarettes event or riko). They’d refreshed 4 climaxes, but also didn’t have a door to play the next turn; perhaps they had pants in hand and doors in stock? (I don’t remember what they triggered.) So the benefit of their level 1 combos surviving was limited, and once I hit level 2 they were already 2-6; I got double Tsukushi out (two of the events came out of deck, so I couldn’t get triple) and summoned the Rui, and they just died to vanilla swings with a single burn 1 (not too surprising, given that they were 1 in 9).
Round 2
[6th place team] I won against OSK Kana Door / Set 2 Akane Pants, going 2nd; team loss.
Deck Log: 5LLGV
I believe this was an 8-turn game; there was not a lot of cancelling going on on either side. I somehow ended up getting triple Tsukushi on my third turn despite only getting single level 1 combo (and having to climax swap for that); I suppose hitting 3 climaxes in 2 brainstorms on my level 2 turn helped, as well as using the backrow runner twice earlier in the game. After that, my opponent clocked to level 3 and did double Akane, and I almost died from 2-0; the last attack hit a soul trigger to make it lethal, but I did cancel, and I guess I was able to kill from 3-0 on the swingback.
Unfortunately, things didn’t go as well for my teammates, and we lost the match.
Round 3
[13th place team] I won against TRV 6 Splitsoul / 2 Pants (Mitsuya / Baji), going 2nd; team win.
This was a team kill, playing against a group of our locals. Playing against Tokyo Revengers, I expected I’d need to summon the stockswap, but the way things turned out, it wasn’t necessary. Right off the bat the level 0 Mikey that checks 5 revealed 3 climaxes, which might have had something to do with it (and I feel like something similar happened again later, in the sense of climaxes coming out early).
I was worried when I was still level 0 on my second turn, with the dual laners already out, and they cancelled the larger of the two attacks I made; but even though they were able to build up a lot of stock with the dual laners, I was still able to stick damage over the course of the game.
I did triple level 1 combo (siding the Chifuyus); I only refreshed 5 after that turn (I think I had 2 climaxes in hand), but I still got a cancel, so I clocked up to 2-0 the next turn and milled through most of my deck (I forgot to use the Ako brainstorm’s ditch/draw, though, and so ended at 2 cards rather than 1). Weirdly, I drew into 3 of the 2/1 event this game, and so never actually searched them: I had one event in hand on my level 1 combo turn, ditched a climax with Ako brainstorm and drew another event, then clocked into the third on my level 2 turn. Sadly, though, I was only able to use two of them that turn, since two of the level 3 combos were in the bottom 5 cards of my deck. (At least having the third event instead of a character didn’t make it difficult to fulfill the board condition for the others; the dual laners leaving one of my level 1 combos alive since I sided rather than crashing might have helped with that.)
Then I must have had another turn at level 2 (where I maybe healed?), because I remember being 2-2 (but close to refresh) when they went for the finisher. They did triple Mitsuya and Baji, but I cancelled a lot (I particularly remember cancelling a 4 and a 5, but must have cancelled some smaller instances as well), so the Mikey at the end wasn’t even threatening lethal (at least without a 2-soul trigger).
On my next turn I put in a lot of effort to find the climax, though it didn’t matter too much since they were already 3-5.
Meanwhile, our B seat player apparently did not cancel a single time, and so the match came down to the C seat game, which went to time, but the opposing player conceded (I later heard that they’d just failed to kill while also triggering 3 climaxes, if I remember correctly, so that game was likely almost over anyway). So we did get the win here.
Round 4
[9th place team] I lost against EIS Alexia Door / Perv Asshat Bar, going 2nd; team loss.
This was generally a rough game. I only got single level 1 combo, and then I also only got single level 3 combo.
Going into my level 2 turn, I drew my last climax, and ended up clocking it and still brainstorming in order to get to refresh. I think I’d played down a level 0 Tsukushi the previous turn and kept it in the back, so I had the option to use the event before refreshing, but I would have had to play down my other Tsukushi to fulfill the board condition, and so wouldn’t have been able to get the event off that one; I figured it was better to just have an event in hand for the next turn, even if refreshing meant that I didn’t have a second combo in the waiting room to change into. I might have misplayed my ordering here, though; I did actually hit a search brainstorm, but didn’t search out the level 3 combo (just grabbed the kazuma instead). I didn’t record exactly what happened, and don’t remember it very clearly, but I suspect that I brainstormed through refresh with the Ako (just hoping to maximize my chance of hitting, or maybe of milling out a level 3), then played the Tsukushi and searched out the event (and used the draw/drop), then used the search brainstorm after that. So I probably should have used the search brainstorm before playing the level 0 Tsukushi so I could search out the level 3 and then ditch it if I hit; the chance of milling out all the events was almost certainly quite slim, given that I’d just refreshed.
At any rate, I ended up with single level 3 combo there, and I’d seen the opponent grab a level 1 antichange, so I ended up siding all lanes, because I felt like I really needed my level 3 to not get bottomdecked (and my opponent had just triple combo’d, so probably could have afforded the hand; I suspect my other lanes weren’t even threatening to take out the level 1 combos, though I don’t remember what they were specifically).
I believe I salvaged off my level 3 combo rather than summoning, but even though I’d seen that my opponent also had an EP-related combo and my own antichange was in my waiting room, I didn’t salvage it because I only had 3 hand going into the attack phase, so it wouldn’t even have been especially threatening (though I could at least theoretically have used it).
And then I triggered two pants and the only climax in my waiting room was the level 1 climax.
I had one more turn, at level 3; I dug for the climax swap, but I didn’t find it because it was in the bottom 3 cards of my deck, I believe (and I didn’t search brainstorm; or if I did I whiffed, but I don’t think I did). I clocked into the Rimi, at least, but I did not in fact manage to kill that turn; I don’t remember what the exact situation was, but I suspect I would have had to have gotten quite lucky for that to happen. My opponent played two icytails but only had hand for one of them, on account of two climaxes being the bottom two cards of their deck (so they neither hit a brainstorm nor triggered before the last attack); regardless, I died.
Round 5
[8th place team] I lost against BD Oblivionis Bar / RR Tomori Pants, going 2nd; team win.
Deck Log: X9B7
I once again only got single level 3 combo this game. I had to level a 2/1 event for blue (my other options were the level 3 combo and two climaxes that I’d clocked), but that didn’t actually end up being the problem; once again, I had two events in hand but only one level 3 combo in the waiting room. I initially tried to play my events before refresh, but my opponent pointed out that I was still level 1 (I’d clocked to 1-6). So I used Ako brainstorm to refresh (I think I was 0 in 3 here?), and actually hit, but it wasn’t particularly helpful. I feel like I had the search brainstorm as well (I remember thinking that there wasn’t much point in using that to refresh because it had such a low chance of hitting, though it might in fact have been the first card after the refresh penalty that was a climax, because I also remember thinking after the fact that I should have done it anyway). I’m pretty sure I only had 3 stock, so not enough for a second brainstorm followed by a second event (unless I hit 2). Still, I think I hit them to 2-6 on this turn, so they were eating a fair amount of damage.
My level 3 combo survived, and the next turn I clocked to level 3. I hit two on my second brainstorm, after seeing a climax on top with the climax swap I’d gotten off my first brainstorm, which let me grab both a Rimi, and a Toko to have the stock to play it. I also played the second 2/1 event this turn, so I did get Rimi + double combo, but they cancelled one of the burn 1s and the first two attacks I believe, so I didn’t bother with Rimi’s burn, opting to save the stock for my freefresh backup instead, since I’d have needed to stick both the burn and the attack (they were probably 3-1 at this point, having refreshed). I might have been close to refresh, as well; I feel like their attacks next turn were going into a new deck. Rimi’s attack was for 4 and did stick; I didn’t ask afterwards if they’d drawn a climax, though (and I don’t remember if they brainstormed or anything), so I don’t know whether or not I would have killed if I’d gone for the burn. Really, the bigger question is how likely I was to stick 7 or 8, rather than whether or not it would have happened in that specific case; they refreshed 7, so if all three of those cancels were after the refresh, then they only had 4 climaxes left, but I don’t remember how big their deck was. It’s possible that going for the burn was correct there, but I’m still inclined to think that saving my resources was better.
They then hit me with double Tomori; it actually could have been triple, but I guess they tunnel visioned on only being able to get the helmet (but not having the hand to use it) and didn’t process that their riko had revealed a level 3, meaning that they could have directly grabbed the Tomori (that they’d healed out of clock) instead.
Both Tomoris hit 2 climaxes; I cancelled one of the first burn 2s, the first attack, and one of the second burn 2s, so at that point I freefreshed; unfortunately, it didn’t help, and I just ate a 4 and died.
The level 1 combo’s 2 or more condition actually came up this game, sort of: I played the Soyo riki at 0-5, and opted to just search out another one and go straight to level 1, since I was set up to do double level 1 combo. I also played a cigarettes event and could have gotten a third combo off of it, but instead opted to just grab the level 0 Tsukushi, because I figured that having two off-trait rikis sitting in the back wouldn’t be particularly helpful. I then needed to play that Tsukushi in order to meet the board condition for the level 1 combo, though I suppose that was a good idea anyway, pulling an event out of deck early and making it less like that I’d trigger it. Really, if I wasn’t planning on playing the level 0 Tsukushi immediately, I might as well have just gotten the combo, since that could grab the Tsukushi anyway, unless I wanted to avoid milling those two additional cards. Leaving the two rikis in the back likely wouldn’t have been helpful, but it could have been if I had another turn at 1; or if the opponent wasn’t able to answer three 4.5ks (which, in the event, they were, doing triple level 1 combo), having that third combo might mean that one of them survives, which could then help towards the board condition for the event. So in the end, I guess it was less a case of the board condition mattering and more a case of the level 0 Tsukushi probably being a slightly better option than the third level 1 combo, which is still kind of an interesting situation.
I also made a silly mistake this game, trying to search for the event when there were none left in deck, because I’d forgotten that I clocked into it. So I just lost a hand there (I forget which card it was specifically); that might have made a difference, but probably ended up being pretty insignificant overall.
Top 8
[5th place team] I won against SDS Gilthunder Stocksoul / Empty 2-Soul / Escanor Choice, going 1st; team win.
Deck Log: 3GASR
The level 1 combo’s bounce effect was actually useful this game; I got triple level 1 combo, and was able to bounce their Gilthunder instead of crashing into it. (I’m not sure how much difference it ultimately made, but it felt good at least.)
I got double level 3 combo this game, and summoned the Rui, healing to 2-2 or 2-3. (I don’t remember the details; probably the turn wasn’t super eventful, which makes me suspect that I just saw the last event come out of deck and knew I wasn’t getting triple.) I’d seen them stock an antichange off a choice, and another antichange had come out into clock, so I went ahead and fronted, gambling that they didn’t have a third antichange (and no, they didn’t). They’d just refreshed to 2-0, but triple cancelled.
Then they had a turn where they just crashed with no climax; their last attack was for 3 because of a double soul trigger, though, and I think I had 3 cards in deck. I thought I had a climax in those 3 cards, but was worried that I’d forgotten about an early trigger, so just freefreshed to be safe. (I knew it’d pay out a climax that I’d triggered the previous turn, at least.) I did cancel afterwards, so either way it worked out, but that may well have been a misplay. (And I forgot to check the bottom cards of my stock after paying them out later, so I’m still not certain whether or not there was a climax in there.)
So I had another turn at level 2, doing triple combo that time, and hit them to level 3.
They did double Escanor, and I took the first attack, but I did cancel enough of the 1s to survive. I think they bounced a lane (though I’m not sure), and the Escanors triggered 1 soul trigger between them, so it was probably 8 instances of 1 in total. I don’t remember exactly, but I feel like I was low 3, maybe 3-0, after taking the first attack, so I needed some cancels but not that many.
After that, they had something like 1 climax left in their deck, so they died pretty easily to double combo + Rimi.
Top 4
[1st place team] I won against BD Oblivionis Bar / RR Tomori Pants, going 1st; team loss. (They just posted a deck tech of their own, going into detail on their deck & matchups.)
Deck Log: 1SPXF
I opened the Moca riki, and they denied it with the cleancut; then I clocked into the Soyo riki and the backrow runner, and they riki’d for Amoris and trapped the runner (which they also sent to clock with the cleancut that I hadn’t been able to take out; that ended up taking the level 3 combo out of my level 1 clock).
However, I think I somehow still ended up getting triple level 1 combo, while they only got single; the Amoris that they’d cleancut the previous turn sided one of my level 1s, while another lane crashed.
Then when I hit level 2, I did double level 3 combo. I think the last event came out in a brainstorm that I was hoping to use to grab the third level 0 Tsukushi, so I ended up summoning the Rui. It’s possible that I opted to heal as a result of seeing the Moca antichange in their waiting room, since the heal put me to 2-0, but I feel like I’d already healed when I saw that. (I suppose they were already level 2, at least after the burns; I’m pretty sure I was considering a level 2 backup to be live.) Either way, I opted to front, figuring that I didn’t have to worry even if they had a second Moca antichange in their hand. (Though perhaps if they did have another antichange backup, it might be likely to be a different one? At any rate, they didn’t have another antichange.)
They crashed with their level 1 combo and I must have cancelled, then I swung (and probably combo’d again?) and they ate some big swings; they ended up at 3-4 to my low level 2, if I remember correctly. They did triple Tomori, and only had 5 targets left in deck to search, so the first one was guaranteed two burn 2s (and didn’t mill any climaxes after refresh, so was just two). After that, the other two Tomoris healed, getting them down to 3-1.
They must have had this pants in hand for a while, possibly all game; it was the SIR, and I hadn’t seen it go into refresh. (Unless I just didn’t realize it was a climax; I think I would have been able to tell, though, since I generally look for either the solid bar of color or the triggers, so I’m more likely to miss OFRs or 2-soul triggers if anything.) They also triggered a pants and took another pants on that turn, if I remember correctly.
I did get hit to level 3, so I played Rimi and did double combo. The second combo ended up healing, though, because the burn 1 wasn’t relevant (maybe they cancelled the first burn 1?). The second Rimi might have been in clock, as well, so summoning that wasn’t an option (or maybe I’m getting that confused with the next game). At any rate, they did die.
3rd/4th
[4th place team] I won against OSK Kana Door / Set 2 Akane Pants, going 1st; team win.
Deck Log: 64U2Z
This felt like quite a rough game for my opponent.
I opted to open with the backrow runner rather than the Moca riki, and then next turn I was level 1 and already had double combo, so I just clocked the Moca riki and was actually able to use its alarm ability to deny a fuka.
They didn’t have their level 1 climax at level 1, so they just played a cleancut (cleancutting a riki that crashed) and put a level 1 combo in the middle, but the coinflip from the brainstorm whiffed. They did trigger a pants and get a door for next turn.
I was still level 1 and had the level 3 climax and a climax swap in hand, but I wanted to hold onto that for next turn, so I didn’t play it. I suppose I had a climax still in deck, so there was a chance of triggering it; I ended at 1 in 4, so I must have been 1 in 7 going into attack phase. I was 1-4, so I wasn’t guaranteed clock compression (and in the event, the climax was on the bottom, so I did lose my clock to refresh, including two level 3 combos). I don’t remember if I brainstormed that turn, but I know I put a Toko brainstorm into stock, so I at least had the option to brainstorm with that (but would likely have had to play over it, because I played a level 0 Tsukushi that I wanted to keep in the back), and I also could have played over the Rimi riki that I attacked with; I’m not sure if either of those options would have been worth it, though.
Next turn they got double combo, but they only had 6 cards in deck, and I guess they wanted to get their climax into refresh; they checked 1 on the first combo, didn’t get the rearrange, and triggered a pants, then saw a door on the first card of the second combo and stopped there, taking nothing. The coinflip whiffed again.
I managed to get triple level 3 combo this game, brainstorming 3 times (twice with Ako and once with Toko); the last brainstorm was a bit risky since I’d have needed to play over a character if I didn’t mill out the third level 3 combo (which I didn’t think about until after I’d done it), but it did in fact come out. I’d seen an antichange go into refresh, but still played it safe and sided the first two lanes; then they were 2-4, so I took the chance of fronting the last lane for 3. They didn’t have an antichange, but they did cancel the damage.
They played the koume, found the pants rather than the door, and just played that, hitting me to level 3.
I did Rimi and double combo; I think this is the game where I put a Toko into stock to have 3 stock in case I wanted to stockswap, but they cancelled the first burn 1 so I just burned 1 again. (And so I actually did lose an extra stock to the Rimi burn.) They were close to refresh, and I didn’t remember exactly how many climaxes they had in stock, but I believe the one pinged off by the first burn 1 was the last one; they took the 4 from the Rimi (through refresh perhaps?), putting them to 3-3. At that point every attack was lethal (I’m pretty sure the Rimi was direct attacking), and I don’t think they were particularly compressed; they took another 4 I think, and died.
Tournament Retrospective
Looking back at my games here, the first thing that jumps out at me is that the two games I lost were the games where I only got single level 3 combo; those were also both 9-turn games, I believe. Meanwhile, all three Oshi no Ko players I played against kind of just ate damage; I believe those games were also 9 turns, or 8 in one case. I don’t think any of them ended up stacking any cancels, either (between not seeing a level 2 or higher and not getting the combo at all), which was a bit sad because my level 3 combo kind of counters that, though I’m not going to complain too much about my opponents having bad games.
In the other games that I won, I think I did get two turns at level 2 and three total turns of the level 3 combo (maybe there were some turns where I didn’t have the climax, but I don’t specifically remember any).
In all of my games except the last one, the person who hit level 3 first lost. I never died from level 2 (I guess I was compressed and/or lucky enough against TRV and SDS, and was low level 2 against BD and OSK, with BD playing towards survival rather than finishing); I did kill from level 2 twice, though, in the first and last games. This isn’t a deck I expect to kill from level 2, but in at least one of those cases the opponent was significantly uncompressed.
It’s hard to tell precisely to what extent the Tsukushi combo and the overall deck contributed to my wins, as opposed to luck (or perhaps skill?); in particular, it’s difficult to distinguish between an opponent who ate damage because they got unlucky and an opponent who ate damage because Tsukushi pushes damage. And really, on some level they’re inherently tied together; while Tsukushi’s burns are just for 1, her attacks tend to be larger swings (particularly on later turns if the opponent crashed, but also on account of this deck having a reasonable amount of soul triggers), which means that part of what she does is give the opponent opportunities to be unlucky (or to be lucky, though in that case there are still the burn 1s at least).
My Tsukushis also survived a fair amount; I think the only opponents that contested them at level 2 were EIS with its early plays and OSK with a koume. Most importantly, no one was running adachis or hard removal, so I didn’t have to worry about the hand encore being denied; but also, saving hand when the opponent just crashed in probably helped in some cases, though it’s hard to say for sure.
I don’t think I used the stockswap or the antichange in this tournament, but of course I still think those are useful tech cards to include. (Well, OK, I did use the antichange’s on-play ability at least once.)
Closing Thoughts and Meta Considerations
I think this deck is quite solid, though there’s a good chance that Oblivionis is still the better Bang Dream deck, with its consistency and compression potential. Still, there aren’t too many decks in the meta with this sort of EP-focused strategy, much less with the mix of damage push and resource generation, and so it’s got a decent chance of catching the opponent off guard. Outside of level 2, this deck isn’t the best, but I think it’s at least passable. It can reasonably kill from 3-0, and isn’t likely to fall so far behind at level 0 or 1 that it can’t at least threaten to come back with the level 3 combo. In particular, the relatively high (or at least not low) soul trigger count and plussing 0 count means that it can push a decent amount of damage early on. There are also meta considerations, of course; looking forward to BCS, there’s the big unknown of Nikke 2, though we did just get some initial reveals for that, which involve an EP package, so that might make the meta more hostile to this deck if it turns out to be good and/or commonly played. (And in the head-to-head against another EP-focused deck, it’ll likely come down to who can hit level 2 first, set up, and grab their antichange; if that becomes a strong expectation, I might look to put in a second antichange, likely the Rui.) It also seems like there’ll be a decent amount of scary finishers coming up, between Uma 2, Re:Zero 3, and maybe Aobuta 4; I don’t feel that this deck has the best matchup into that sort of thing, because it doesn’t tend to kill from level 2 itself, or to present a significant defensive threat. That said, it does have the potential for stockswap into direct swings, so killing from level 2 is at least a possibility. And since this deck is reasonably good at pushing damage throughout the game, there’s also the hope that they might not have enough time to set up the full finisher combo (and that you cancel well enough for that to matter). Meanwhile, against decks like Oblivionis Bang Dream or Oshi no Ko, that are more midgame-focused, I think this deck has a reasonably good matchup; they might have trouble answering the EPs, and between the stockswap and the burn 1s, you can likely still get some damage through on compressed decks. In particular against Oshi no Ko (and 8 choice Aobuta for that matter), their ability to stack cancels doesn’t help too much when they just get pinged off by burn 1s.
In general, I think this deck is fun; there’s some cool stuff you can do, it’s fairly consistent, and it can be strong. There’s some potential for it to collapse on itself, though, particularly if you’re not careful, and it does need to worry about anti-EP counterplay (or just eating damage at level 2 and not getting much value out of its EPs). It can feel powerful when the opponent can’t contest the level 3 combo and you cancel at level 2, and it can also feel satisfying when you find yourself squeaking by on low resources and still able to squeeze out some level 3s and burns. On the other hand, it can feel frustrating when all your 2/1 events evacuate the deck at the first opportunity (or your level 3 combos get hit to clock at level 2), though you can attempt to mitigate that to some extent. So if you’re looking for a different sort of Bang Dream deck, I’d say this is a good choice.
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