Deck review - Dona 3 Stop

A Dona 3 stop deck list from Japan

Previously I have talked about the possibilities of WIXOSS deckbuilding, how despite 5 years into the game already there may be many more new deck builds waiting to be discovered.

While there were some interesting new decks like the theoretically-strongest-Mayu and Jeanne-Ril 4 appearing recently, one particular deck caught my interest and made me decide to write about it: Dona 3 Stop.

How it works?

Basically, the goal of the deck is to turn Urban and Scutum into the apparition SIGNI class by using Hitodama, allowing them to inherit the layer abilities of apparition SIGNIs. With the way the deck is built, the lethal range can be as high as 7 life cloth and the entire combo can be done as early as turn 3, making this deck a very scary one to face off. We will now look at the different cards in-depth.

Hitodama, Phantom Apparition

As explained above, it is just to turn non-apparition SIGNIs like Urban into apparition SIGNI in order to gain the layer abilities.

Fuurai, Phantom  Apparition

The core of the deck as expected is Fuurai, arguably the strongest apparition SIGNI in the game now. Its main purpose is to stack all the different layer effects in the deck in order to give cards like Urban and Scutum a wide range of immunity, potentially denying all of your opponent's response. Being a level 3 also helps a lot in field space as along with Urban and Scutum, you would just nice have a total SIGNI level of 8, not exceeding the limit you are allowed to board on level 3.

Layer effects Fuurai can copy includes:

 Wanyuudou, Phantom Apparition

For down immunity, stopping ARTS or Key responses like Don't Leave Me.

Sunakake, Phantom Apparition

To give everyone Lancer, allowing you to bypass responses that spawns into the field like Mage or Never End.

Azuara, Phantom Apparition

To pump up the power of low power SIGNIs so as to allow them to meet the requirements to gain Sunakake's Lancer effect. May need to copy her effect twice using Fuurai.

Nurari, Phantom Apparition Princess

For immunity against 5 cost or more ARTS/spell.

Koropo, Phantom Apparition

For immunity against 1 cost or less ARTS, stopping very common ARTS in the current meta like Happy 5 and Rolling Pencil.

Nue, Phantom Apparition Princess

To prevent Life Burst from stopping your combo.

In addition to Fuurai's own layer effect of preventing power change (therefore stopping minus power effects from destroying the combo), the entire field can become an unstoppable force, allowing you to safely execute your combo and win the match.

    

Baobaboon, Selecting Story, Pay Charging and Ghost Party are there to help you get a lot of ener in order to pay for Fuurai's effect multiple times. Ghost Party in particular is very useful as it also helps you dig your deck for Hitodama, Fuurai or the different apparition SIGNI you need to copy their effects using Fuurai.

Yukime, Key of Autumn Rain

Yukime key helps disable Key responses for one turn, denying your opponent from using cheap LRIG responses to stop your combo. Can also search the deck for Hitodama, Fuurai or the different apparition SIGNI you need to copy their effects using Fuurai.

Aiyai★Deal

Aiyai key essentially gives your SIGNI the ability to restand. It can be used to increase the lethal damage for a Fuurai-Urban-Scutum field from 6 to 8 or it can even be used as a backup in the event you did not pull of the combo for the first time. Remember, this deck only has 3 Exceed cards, meaning you can activate Aiyai key's effect ONCE only.

Spiritual Protection of the State

Spiritual key essentially funds Fuurai ener spending while allowing you to salvage any of your key pieces like Scutum from trash. It is also used to give double crush to Urban easily in order to activate her restand effect.

Yuzuki Key, Prospering Flame

Yuzuki key is there to burn of your opponent's ener, just in case they have weird color ener or barely enough ener to open 2-4 cost ARTS that can stop you.

Ayabon, Hand Grenade

Ayabon is there if you failed to end your opponent the first time around. Her effect allows you to have a double crush SIGNI ready to combo with Urban after the first attempt.

Sanen, Phantom Apparition

Sanen, for blocking early game damage and also possible +1 to hand.

Dwarf, Phantom Apparition

Dwarf is there in case you need to push your opponent's life cloth lower so as to prevent cards like Gelatin Body or Circle of Transmigration from disrupting your lethal damage range.

Conclusion

So that is about it. Its a very interesting idea revolving around abusing Fuurai's ability to gain as many different layer effect as you want (or your ener can pay for). With this, Dona finally has a new build besides her standard level 5 build. Of course there are a few weakness that this deck has but I would leave it to you to think it through. With that, I look forward to what new ideas can players come up with, see you soon~

WIXOSS CEREMONY @ Asobi (Macpherson) 27/04/2019

Well, no pictures as I was playing most of the times. Today is the 5th WIXOSS CEREMONY held in Singapore, to all selectors that came down today thank you!

Since there is no photos, I'll just talk about the general meta for the day. Since the prize today is Yuki, as expected there were a lot of Evolve Iona players, one of them even growing into Mayu. Most of the deck today are level 5 defensive decks, some notable ones I saw were Nanashi, Carnival and even Myuu. Despite that there were still a decent number of rush decks like Yuzuki 3, goes to show how diverse the meta is at the moment.

With that here are the winners for the day:

2nd: Mirurun Mole

1st: Mayu, Genesis Miko

With that, April's WIXOSS PARTY has ended, see you soon~

WIXOSS PARTY @ Full Yen Trading (Yew Tee) 20/04/2019

1st: Yuzuki Four Commandment, Claw and Fang

2nd: Ril, Memory of True Feelings

Possibility of WIXOSS Deck Building

Given the way this game was designed, with access to your LRIG deck anytime and a plethora of different cards to choose from, the amount of different deck build is huge.

One good thing about WIXOSS is that many cards are generic, meaning you can play them regardless of the LRIG you choose (similar to another card game by Takara Tomy). This allows for even more deck building options based on each player's preference.

Because of such huge deck building possibilities, many new deck builds unimagined have surfaced throughout the years. We will be looking at a few of such decks, showcasing the possibilities of WIXOSS deck building.

-Eldora 1-

Pre Mayu's Room Eldora 1

Stop decks existed since the start. In fact the game was designed with such deck possibilities in mind as seen in the existence of Hanayo 2.

Although a few stop decks like Tama using Arc Aura-Fafnir and Midoriko 3 existed then, one particular stop deck appeared and dominated the meta: Eldora 1.

The goal of this deck is set No Gain into the life with Cross Llife Cloth, Once your opponent crushes your life, No Gain will activate and prevent your opponent from using ARTS the next turn. You will then proceed to open Burst Rush to double your life burst effects, set your top deck properly with Aglaea and Get Open and finally using DYNAMITE multiple times to trigger cards like Diabride and Fires of Atonement to crush all 7 of your opponent's life on turn 2 and ending the battle with either a SIGNI attack or LRIG attack if TAP was used to discard the guards already.

Do take note that during this period, LRIG and SIGNI attack phase defense does not exist, making this deck near unstoppable. This let to the inclusion of No Gain into Mayu's Room to prevent such decks from running rampant and destroying the meta.

Post Mayu's Room Eldora 1 decklist

Even after the ban, attempts were made to continue making Eldora 1 viable and they were considered rather successful, using cards like Fracturing Lust and Svarog to deny any responses from the opponent.

As seen here, the many combinations of cards WIXOSS has to offer brought forth such a unique deck. However this is just the beginning.

-Midoriko post Repair ban-

Earlier variant of Plant Midoriko build after Repair Ban

Although not exactly unimaginable, this variant of Midoriko was more of "Nobody thought off hard enough". Initially after the ban on Repair, Plant Midoriko started to fade off from the meta very quickly. However a certain player in Singapore decided to try out a different game plan for it. 

Since the original idea of stalling with Repair and ending with Supernova isn't possible anymore, the new idea was to instead completely annihilate the opponent's hand with cards like Yashi and TREAT OR TRICK and their ener with Supernova. This will seal off nearly every possible defensive response the opponent has against the deck and even if they do stop the big turn, they will have a very hard time coming back with how little hand and ener they have that late into the game.

The deck won with such consistency that even the Japanese started to take notice of it and slowly grew into a rather considerable presence in Japan.

-Yuzuki 2-

Winning Decklist of Yuzuki 2

The goal of this deck was to open Conflagration continuously before ending the opponent with Western Gunshot, all in a single turn. Even though Selecting Story, a card released during February 2017, makes the deck very consistent, the deck can theoretically be made as early as August 2016 when WX14 was released, using Gun Smoke as Story's replacement.

Despite how all the required pieces were already available, it wasn't until around July 2017 that the deck started to get attention, becoming one of the top meta decks during the later half of the year.

-Embers Tama-

Initially when Embers was first revealed, many players wanted to play it with cards such as Arcgain and Merli. However these thoughts were destroyed upon reading the card's condition requiring it to be used on a red SIGNI. 

However in WX21, Red Angels were finally introduced into the game, but many have already forgotten about Embers existence. One team did not and took advantage of the fact that a SIGNI can be finally used along with Arcgain's immunity.

Given how barely anybody knew of the deck's existence, this team decided to bring it into WIXOSS TEAM WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2017 finals. It took the tournament by storm, defeating unsuspecting opponents and ultimately coming in as the number 1 team: Osaki No 3P.

One of the many Embers Tama decklists that appeared
after Team World Championship results and decklist were shown.

As you can see, new cards may potentially make older cards useful, sometimes  

even going undetected by many, showcasing potential of more not found combo's existing in this game.

-Double level 4 Midoriko-

Winning decklist of Double level 4 Midoriko

Even when Key Selection arrived, new deck builds still continued to surfaced. One such special deck build is this double level 4 Midoriko. Back before the ruling change for same level LRIG grow, it was possible to grow on the same level as long as the LRIG names are different. 

Hence the build abuses this rule by constantly growing, replenishing their coins for free and getting free benefits such as free ener and infinite retrival of green ARTS. This is together with the Spell-Caster engine, allowing you to constantly set more than 1 To'on into your life to have a near guarantee of forever being alive.

You can even see the deck in action here:

Such a deck even existing really shocked the local community and maybe even overseas players, some claiming it to be too overpowered. But that goes to show the potential WIXOSS cards can create.

-Mama and Eldora 1-

Eldora Boot 1

Mama 1

Just when you thought all there is to WIXOSS deck builds have been found, a new one pops up. This time revolving around the concept of having a zero deck constantly to forever trigger Destruct Out. This is done by digging into deck and clearing the trash till there is no card in both mentioned zones, preventing a refresh from occurring. You can see the more detailed review of both decks here:

Mama 1: https://yuyu-tei.jp/blog/wx/news.php?d=2018/12/283

Eldora 1: https://yuyu-tei.jp/blog/wx/news.php?d=2018/12/282

Of course this build can be easily stopped by many things like Tama's Flame and even a LRIG stop burst like Arcgain. But the sheer fact that even after everything, a new build was found really highlights the possibilities WIXOSS deckbuilding has to offer.

-Conclusion-

Of course, this isn't the complete list of special decks that have appeared. There are more of such decks like the Mirurun V@C loop, Aiyai Infinite Ener build and etc, but I think I have shown you enough different builds to drive my point across.

With more new cards coming soon, who knows, there may be more possible deck builds appearing and maybe even some old card interaction never thought off coming out into the light.

The game is reaching its 5th anniversary and going into its 6th year of release, I look forward to what new interactions will come forth and change the meta. With that, see you next time!

WIXOSS PARTY @ Sanctuary Gaming (Somerset) 14/04/2019

1st: Midoriko, Golden Girl Type Four

WIXOSS PARTY @ TTZone (Hougang) 13/04/2019

1st: Tamayorihime, Miko of White Destruction

Go first? Go second?

SENKOU!!

If you have been playing other card games, be it physical or digital, you would know the importance of going first or second. Some games may give you huge advantage going first while others for going second. So what about WIXOSS? Today we will look at the plus points of both cases.

Going First

One such SIGNI that is really strong but only playable on level 4

So going first in WIXOSS is a good thing for most cases. By going first it means you will be able to reach level 4 first, allowing you to play more stronger level 4 SIGNIs which may either aid you or defeat your opponent. It also goes without saying that most LRIGs only start to have effects on level 4, hence going to level 4 gives you a huge amount of advantage.

One such LRIG that helps generate ener, Orchid Key Umr

Going first also allows you to stabilize faster. As many stronger effects are on level 4, reaching there allows you to build up the needed hand and ener first before your opponent strikes you. LRIG response effects are often also available on level 4 LRIGs, giving you more defense against your opponent's aggression. Hitting 4 first also allows you to not be held down by the LRIG level restriction, allowing you to call almost any card in you deck to field.

Even in Key Format, reaching 4 first brings about huge benefits. Take Tama for example. Before reaching 4, she has to rely on her top deck being the correct level in order to fully activate effects such as Sanpoke and Kamakura . But once she hits level 4, she can freely activate those effects knowing that she can guarantee call the SIGNI out onto the field, all she needs to take note is to not exceed the SIGNI zone level limit, something which can be controlled by what you board.

Going Second

So what about going second? Well fortunately there are also certain advantages that going first don't bring about.

Imagine facing a double crush attack and another
SIGNI attack on turn 1 in Key Format.

One advantage is that you get to attack first. Now it may seem very trivia that you can attack first, especially when you consider that no matter who goes first, you will get 1 at least damage in, even better yet the fact that going first means you get to board a full field. 

However certain decks like stop decks rely on quickly finishing the opponent before they can stabilize (usually when they reach level 4), giving them a very limited number of turns to do their job. By going 2nd, they will have an extra turn of attacking which can seal the game for them.

Most of such stop decks usually have the ability to open SIGNI zones as early as level 1, some even able to give double crush to their SIGNI this early. Since this is only turn 1, the opponent is extremely likely not to response to the attacks, allowing the player to deal in a potential 3 damage in easily and quickly bring their opponent into lethal range.

Cards like Armile also favors players going second, allowing them to open SIGNI zones if both players LRIG level are the same.

Another advantage going second gives is the extra 1 draw on turn 1. Sure it may not seem much as it is just a +1, but if your hand isn't exactly optimal for early game, the fact that you get to draw into the deck one more increases the chances of you drawing your early game pieces. This prevents you from having a rough start and letting unnecessary damage in due to not boarding any SIGNI.

This advantage also helps stop decks tremendously as they usually function with certain pieces, having that extra draw 1 allows them to more consistently get what they need.

Become You

As you can see, there are different positive points for going either first or second, hence when an ARTS that allows you to overtake your opponent in terms of LRIG level appears, things start to change.

Stop decks now have even more advantage in going 2nd. With Become You, going second not only means they get to attack first, they get to reach level 2 first and have a full field of 3 SIGNI zone, allowing them to do more aggressive plays as compared to being limited to 2 SIGNIs on the field. Do remember many SIGNI effects are also only available at level 2 and above, meaning that reaching level 2 first now opens the different possible plays like boarding Dong Zhuos first.

Become You also allows decks to reach their desired LRIG level first before the opponent. Decks like Layla-Samsara and Become You Tama require reaching level 4 before the opponent does in order to prevent any in-built LRIG response from interfering with their combo's, improving their consistency by miles.

Winning Carnival decklist with Become You, Something
you don't see often

Of course the opposite can be said to be true too. By playing Become You, you get to reach level 4 first in order to access your in-built LRIG response and put a stop to OTK decks like Become You Tama.

There's also the risk of facing responses such as Tama's Flame and Idol Defense if you open Become You on the turn of your combo, forcing players to open earlier and overtake their opponent before the crucial turn, though this play may leave the one doing the combo vulnerable too as the opponent can also use Become You to further overtake them, negating the advantage they have gotten. 

Conclusion

SENKOU!! 

As we have discussed, going first or second has its own merit. Ultimately it depends on the type of deck you are playing and knowing whether you go first or second can help you determine what cards should you return during mulligan
in order to ensure a smooth early game.

With that, I hope this article has given you a little more knowledge on how WIXOSS works and help you in winning games. Until next time, see you~

WIXOSS Team Challenge Battle 06/04/2019

So a special WIXOSS event was held during my stay in Japan, giving me the opportunity to participate in not only this special event, but my first Japan WIXOSS tournament.

So basically after registration, we were randomly assigned into a team, either white or red (yYou can see on the top right the kanji for red and white, I was in the white team). After 2 rounds of battle, the total number of wins were calculated and the team with the most win wins the entire tournament! It was a really interesting event, hopefully we will get something similar here in Singapore!

Probably because it's a special event, the 2 opponents I fought against were really good. Although both matches were mirror matches of Tama, the plays made by my opponent's were really good that leaves me on the edge constantly. I really had a lot of fun battling against them, its a totally different feel compared to playing locally!

The score ended up in a tie from what I remembered and so prizes were given out randomly. Kind of sad I didn't managed to get anything aside from the entry gift of one pack of Become You Sleeves and a Chibi LRIG band (The type that can curl up if you slap it hard enough on an object).

Well, at least the band was fun to play with.

Special thanks to Lun from the International Card Games Discord for tagging along and guiding me, couldn't have participated without him. With that, this concludes my mini report on my first special event~

WIXOSS PARTY dates (April 2019)

Looks like more congratz cards for the winner.