WIXOSS PARTY @ Full Yen Trading (Yew Tee) 25/08/2019

1st: Tamayorihime, White Destruction Miko
(Same as July 2019 TTZone WP)

WIXOSS PARTY @ Sanctuary Gaming (Somerset) 24/08/2019

1st: Mel-Vesper (Same as TTZone WP)

1st Anniversary!!

It has been 1 year since the blog's first post!!!

With that I wanted to write a bit about this blog.

The purpose of creating this blog?

There are quite a few factors that eventually pushed towards this blog's creation. One of them being an easy to navigate website for looking through previous winning decklist in Singapore. But the main factor that ultimately created this blog was the lack of resource looking deeper into the game's mechanic.

Throughout my time of playing card games, I have heard countless times that WIXOSS is a very luck-based game, which I have always never agreed. Although luck is still present, there are many factors in the game like its access to a variety of cards and the attacking system that makes skill way more prominent here. 

In fact some of the players I saw claiming this game to be very luck-based often have a very shallow understanding of this game's mechanic, hence pushing me to create this blog in hopes of writing analysis articles to help players better understand this game.

Why the weird name 'Wasabi Wixoss'?

One of WIXOSS 2016 April Fool's joke

The idea was for the blog to be something similar to the official account's character Tlet. And since Wasabi looked similar to Tlet and had an effect that references her, I ended up choosing 'Wasabi Wixoss' .

Looking back, I should have gone with a better (and cooler) name. Maybe like Gainxoss? But since I went with Wasabi already, the name shall stay with it.

How are the articles created? Is there an order to what type of articles you write?

Most of the articles are written whenever I have an idea or see something interesting relating to WIXOSS (be it the game or other medias). Although I used to write about how the meta scene is like, right now I am focusing more on the basic gameplay analysis so that beginners can have a starting point to learn about the game.

Generally I try to get out at least 1 analysis article per month but it isn't exactly as easy as it seems.

So what are the future plans for this blog?

I know how most people have improvement plans for the year and they are revealed during their anniversary. Unfortunately for this blog, there isn't any improvement plan. In fact due to life commitments, the blog's activity may slow down so I apologize in advanced.

Tournament result posting will still be going on, just that it may be slower in the coming months. Analysis articles however may take awhile to get written, I do hope however that I can still post at least 1 per month.

Closing statement

It has been a year since the first post. I hope that the blog would continue growing and be a source for beginners to get into the game and improve. With that said, see you next time~

WIXOSS PARTY @ TTZone (Hougang) 17/08/2019

1st: Mel-Vesper

2nd: Remember Midnight, Next Dream Miko

WIXOSS PARTY dates (August 2019)

Guards (Origin Spirit)

They come in many types and in many different artworks. Origin Spirit Guards are one of the core aspect of WIXOSS as it assists the deck in many situations. In this article, we would be taking a look at guards! 

How it helps?

We will first list down the general uses of such guards in WIXOSS decks.

1) Guarding LRIG attacks

Unlike SIGNI attacks, there isn't any SIGNI in between LRIGs to defend yourself from LRIG attacks. Hence guards come into play by guarding your LRIG from LRIG attacks (obviously).

2) Paying Alternate Color cost

HanaMido Key, a very popular key in Key Selection
that requires players paying alternate color cost.

All Origin Spirit Guards comes with a multi-ener effect, allowing you to pay for any color cost of card effects. This is especially useful as you do not have to mix too much alternate colors in order to gain access to such card effects.

3) Filling up your Life Burst slot

A top 3 Yuzuki 3 deck, the Life Burst slot is filled with Servant O

Sometimes after building the core of your deck, you may not have fulfilled the 20 Life Burst rule. These Guards can help by filling any missing Life Burst slot you have.

Type of Guards

1st Series (Ener-Charge Burst) 

Released from the very first box and trial decks, these ghost themed guards O, D, T and Q have the Ener-Charge burst. This should mainly be played if your deck doesn't have any ener charging capability but do consume quite a fair bit of ener. 

Nowadays, these 1st series guard rarely see play in All Star and almost non-existant in Key Selection in favor for the 3rd and 4th series guards for All Star. To date, Key Selection does not have much ener manipulation, more often than not you will have too many ener to use, making the 1st series guard redundant in Key Selection.

2nd Series (No Burst)

Released from WX02 onwards, O2, D2, T2 and Q2 make up the knight themed 2nd series of guards, no burst guards. These guards are extremely popular in both formats due to the fact that your life burst slot are very limited. It can be easily used to increase the number of guards you have even if you hit the 20 burst deck limit. Very good to keep multiple copies if you plan on building multiple WIXOSS decks. 

3rd Series (Draw Burst)

Released from WX10 onwards, the witch themed 3rd series guards, O3, D3, T3 and Q3 includes the draw burst in them. These guards are fairly popular in All Star due to being able to draw into the players deck, which can turn the game around if the player managed to draw into any of their winning pieces.

Do note that as of this article writing, the 3rd series of guards are not reprinted in Key Selection yet.

4th Series (Retrieve from trash Origin Spirit burst)

Finally, released from the start of Key Selection onwards, the Sci-Fi themed 4th series guard, O4, D4, T4 and Q4 allows you to salvage an Origin Spirit from the trash when you trigger its burst.

Fairly popular in All Star and almost rampant in Key Selection, these guards can help you defend one damage against your opponent LRIG by retrieving a guard from trash. It can also be used to salvage non guard Origin Spirit like Infinity and Freedom too, helping out decks like Mugen.

In General

So with all the different types of burst guards and the different levels, which guards should you be playing exactly?

Generally when deck building, you should build your core deck first while leaving a few slots for guards, usually 8. Once you finish building the core of your deck, then do you start filling it up with guards. 

Depending on what your deck lacks, fill them up with the appropriate burst guards, once you hit the 20 burst limit then do you fill it up with the 2nd series no burst guards. Do note that it is possible you have already hit the 20 burst limit before you even start adding burst guards, in that case you should just add the 2nd series guards only. I highly suggest trying out the different series of burst guards (1st, 3rd and 4th) before settling down on the one you feel like you need the most. If need be, you can even have a mix of them to maintain a balance.

Winning Carnival All Star Decklist,
Notice the level of the guard is mostly 4 due to
most of the cards effect checking for level 4.

The level of the guard you should play depends on 3 main factors: your effects, opponent effects and your deck ratio.

For your effects, check whether your deck has any effects that checks for level of your SIGNIs. For example if you are playing Even Guzuko Build in Key Selection, it would be wise to run level 2 and 4 guards in order to increase your chances or activating effects such as Pianosen and Moriarty. Similarly if you are playing Odd Guzuko Build, then playing level 1 and 3 guards would be ideal. Effects that check for level to trigger like Playground Arcgain should also be factored in while choosing the level of your guards. For example, you would want to play more higher level guards in order to ensure you don't fail effects like FX.

For your opponent effects, you need to take a look at the current meta and consider whether your range of guard levels can safely protect you from LRIG attacks. For example, with the release of the booster Explode, Flaming Innocence may spell trouble for you if you do not play different guard levels. In All Star, cards like Hanayo Ni Kai may even require you to play guards above level 2 in order to prevent dying to her LRIG effect.

Lastly, your deck ratio. Although putting in many different level of guards may be great, you need to make sure it does not affect your game tempo. People usually tend to play more level 1 guards due to being able to call them from turn 1 to block SIGNI attacks. If your deck has a very low level 1 SIGNI ratio like APEX or Key Selection Tama, then play more level 1 guards. If your deck already has a strong level 1 ratio, then you can choose to play more higher level guards or even a spread!

With that, we shall now look at the general trend of guards in both formats.

In All Star

In All Star, there isn't a rule as to exactly how many guards you should play. Some guides may tell you to run 8 but it really depends on your deck. For most deck, its usually 8 and below and there is a very good reason for that.

Cthulhu Abyss, One of the highly used
ARTS that can stop LRIG attack.

Firstly, given how you can only have 40 main deck cards, you would want to run more strong SIGNIs which in turn eats up more space in your deck, leaving little for your guards. The decrease in the number of guards can also be compensated by playing ARTS that can stop LRIG, which is plenty in All Star format.

Carnival MAIS, locking your multi-ener
since 2017

Secondly, with cards like MAIS and Greeana in All Star, many prefer to play a secondary color rather than relying on the multi-ener on guards to pay for alternate color costs.

THREE OUT, an extremely common spell
played in blue decks to assist drawing
into important cards like guards.

Finally, many decks have easy ways to get guards out. Blue decks like Aya and Piruluk can easily draw into their deck to find their guards while white decks like Sashe and Tama can retrieve it from deck fairly easily.

Winning Dona Decklist,
notice the number of guards run.

In the above picture, the Dona deck only ran 4 guards. This helps the deck as Dona can now play more different Apparition in order to have access to different layer abilities when needed. Ril key will also have a higher chance of getting SIGNIs added to hand with the lesser number of guards and finally cards like Tamamozen and Pinch Defense help decrease the need to rely on guards to stop LRIG attacks. 

Become You Tama Decklist, since it needs to win
by turn 4, it runs only 4 guards.

Generally, if you're a deck that can easily draw into your deck for cards, or if you want as little number of guards as possible to prevent failure of certain effects like Freyjn and Barbaato, you can get away running 4-6 guards. If you're a rush deck looking to end your opponent fast, you can also run around those numbers or even less. Otherwise you should be looking to play a minimum of 6 guards, adding more if you feel the need.

In Key Selection

Unlike All Star, Guards are EXTREMELY important in this format. In All Star, defensive response are everywhere like in SIGNI and LRIG. In Key Selection however, most of your defensive responses are limited to your free LRIG deck slots (Usually 5 if you play a normal level 4 deck). 

This mean that the amount of defense between you and your opponent is roughly the same, making the primary factor for number of damage taken to be dependent on how aggressive one's deck is and the number of times one guards the LRIG attack.

Winning Mel Decklist with 10 guards

Unless your deck is something like Hanayo 2, it is advisable to run around 8 guards. This number can even hit 10 and above especially if your deck needs to pay out for alternate color costs. If you have any remaining burst space, it is also advisable to run the 4th series guards to salvage guards to protect yourself from LRIG attacks. Of course with all that said, do not run too many guards such that your entire deck cease to function properly. 

WIXOSS PARTY @ Asobi (Macpherson) 10/08/2019

1st: Mayu, Genesis Miko

2nd: Finishing Blow Aya! V

3rd:  Sashe Lune, Benevolent Messenger

WIXOSS PARTY (Key Selection) Dates have not been announced, we will update it as soon as its announced, do keep a lookout!

EXTRA CORNER

LRIG Centipede - 17 Card Long

Taken with Panorama