After last week’s rather encouraging comments, it’s time for the 2nd part of Introductory Strategies and Combos. Today, i will go through the importance of Climax cards and abilities that uses these cards.

I’d say, who wouldn’t want this…

CLIMAX CARDS

Climax cards are a unique card type that has not been seen in any other card game. Card design wise, it is a horizontal card and has it’s own unique slot on the Stage. It is the lifeblood of the game as it is what makes WS dramatic. These cards have abilities to change the tide of the game  due to their many different uses. The key to using Climax cards from hand is to use it to your maximum advantage as you can only use one once per turn.

But what is so awesome about the Climax cards? Simply put, they’re multi-purpose.

a) Stat Increment

First of all, Climax cards have the ability to boast a huge increment in Stats for the player. With the activation of these special types of cards, the following effects will greatly improve your fighting chances:

1) 【Continuous】 All your Character cards  gain +1000 Power and +1 Soul.
【永】 あなたのキャラすべてに、パワーを＋1000し、ソウルを＋1。

This Climax card is probably the “Staple” Climax card in a player’s arsenal. This Climax card enables to player to gain a much needed Power boost and Soul boost to deal an opponent a moderately high Damage count. The new sets now have special Trigger icons plastered to this Climax type so most players will definitely use this at a certain point of time.

2) 【Continuous】 All your  Character cards gain +2 Soul.
【永】 あなたのキャラすべてに、ソウルを＋2。

This Climax card is the Climax card you need when you want to deal damage. Loads of them. By using this Climax card, you gain high Soul count and can have 2 different methods of using it. You can either use it to flip as much Climax cards out as possible to reduce cancellation in future, or you can deal massive damage if your opponent has already cancelled/Stock most of his Climax cards.

3) 【Auto】 When you play this card from your hand to your Climax slot, draw 1 card. Choose one of your Character cards. During this turn, that card gains +3 Soul.
【自】 このカードが手札からクライマックス置場に置かれた時、あなたは1枚引き、自分のキャラを1枚選び、そのターン中、ソウルを＋3。

This Climax card is a rather useful Climax card. By playing this card, you do not lose hand advantage as you draw a card upon it’s activation. Adding 3 Soul to a Character can be used to knock off any possible Climax card cancellation that you might face in your Attack cycle. Of course, if you’re confident/lucky, you can also use it to cause serious damage.

4)【Auto】 When you play this card from your hand to your Climax slot, put 1 card from the top of your deck to your Stock. During this turn, all your Character cards gain +1 Soul.
【自】 このカードが手札からクライマックス置場に置かれた時、あなたは自分の山札の上から1枚を、ストック置場に置き、自分のキャラすべてに、そのターン中、ソウルを＋1。

This Climax card is a very useful card for high cost decks. When you play this card, it automatically generates 1 Stock for your deck. Rather essential for high cost decks such as Excaliber Saber or high cost beatdowns. Of course, the +1 Soul increment to all your Characters also helps in dealing damage to the opponent in the mean time.

4)【Auto】 When you play this card from your hand to your Climax slot, draw 1 card. During this turn, all your Character cards gain +1 000 Power.

The rarest Climax card type in the game. This card adds +1000 Power instead of Soul. Excellent for low powered decks as they will be given the powerboost, yet also no lost in card advantage.

b) Trigger Check Advantage

Some +1kP+1S Climax cards have an added advantage to them. These cards have special advantages when you encounter them in moments of Trigger Check and they are also based on the colours which they come from.

Two Souls

The most basic Trigger Check ability. This Triggr Check abilitiy also resides in all other types of Climax cards. This adds two Souls to the Character that is attacking.

(Return@: During your Trigger Check, when this card is revealed, you may choose and return 1 Character card from your Opponent’s Stage to his hand.)
（戻＠：このカードがトリガーした時、あなたは相手のキャラを1枚選び、手札に戻してよい）

The Hurricane icon, always accompanied by another Soul icon boost. This ability is useful when you need to get tricky Characters off the stage at a critical point in the game. It can help you increase your damage count by allowing you to do a Direct Attack, or preventing a powerful Character from performing Encore. Added with the 2nd Trigger icon of a Soul, this is a rather useful ability when you Trigger it in mid/late game.

(Gather@: During your Trigger Check and this card is revealed,  you may put 1 card from the top of your Deck to  your Stock.)
（溜＠：このカードがトリガーした時、あなたは自分の山札の上から1枚を、ストック置場に置いてよい）

The yellow bag. This Trigger ability is extremely useful when the deck it resides in require a lot of Stock. Often, these cards will help you gain Stock for either Encore or heavy cost abilities.

(Pick Up@: During your Trigger Check and this card is revealed, you may choose 1 Character card from your Waiting Room and add it to your hand.)
（拾＠：このカードがトリガーした時、あなたは自分の控え室のキャラを1枚選び、手札に戻してよい）

The door. Extremely essential for most Control decks. With full control of whatever cards you need at any point of time in your game, this Trigger ability simply gives you the option to Clock away Characters you don’t need early and recover them when you need them. Extremely useful stuff.

(Draw@: During your Trigger Check and this card is revealed, you may draw 1 card)
（引＠：このカードがトリガーした時、あなたは1枚引いてよい）

The book. Probably the least uesful of all the Trigger check abilities. While giving you a 1 card hand advantage, one must weigh in the fact that there is no control over what card you get in that draw. Arguably, handsize is not really that much of a factor in this game as each turn a player can gain this advantage by Clocking. Then there’s the drawback of overdrawing, causing your library to deck out too fast and cause a Refresh.

c) Damage Cancellation

WS is a game which is unique in the sense that there is not much control a player can enjoy when it’s not during his turn. In fact, one of the only ways to prevent a player from losing is by Damage Cancellation. During Damage Step of any battle, cards are flipped over in the Resolution Area to determine whether the attack damages go through.

When a Climax card is flipped over, any prior and future damage in this attack are prevented. These damage can come from abilities or high power Soul damage and can be prevented by pure luck and probability. Basically these cancellations save a player from losing. This is why Climax cards which are stuck in Stock or your hand must be used up quickly so that a player has a better chance to prevent damage after his deck Refresh.

Without Climax cards in your deck or Waiting Room is a sure kill for a certain Miyuki RR card…

d) Character/Event Abilities

WS has many uses for Climax cards and thus, Character as well as Event cards also use Climax cards in their abilities. Being such an important card, Climax cards can help a player archieve some extremely powerful abilities. Below are just some of the cards that utilises or revolves around Climax cards for abilities.

【Startup】 Brainstorm
【起】 集中

Concentrate abilities are rather unique. By gambling a certain number of Climax cards at the top of your deck, extremely powerful abilities can be archieved. These range from massive Character stat increment, massive handsize increment, massive recovery as well as massive decrement in opponent’s  Character card stats. Of course there are ways to cheat out  these Concentrate abilities as well…

Climax Abilities： 【Auto】［Cost］ When this card attacks and the Climax card 「Card name」 is in your Climax slot, you may pay cost to activate the following ability.
クライマッ能力: 【自】［コスト］ このカードがアタックした時、クライマックス置場に「カード名前」があるなら、あなたはコストを払ってよい。

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There are Characters in this game which has incredible abilities when used with Climax cards. These abilities are normally rather broken or Powerful as they hinge on the Climax card’s presence in the Climax slot. What is even more awesome about these is that as long as there is the Climax on the Climax slot, it doesn’t matter how many of the Character cards you have on the Stage. All of these cards will be able to enjoy the ability the Climax card will provide them. There are now cards which also allow the use of these abilities if it is at the top of the Clock (Alarm abilities).

【Startup】 [Put 1 Climax card from your hand to your Waiting Room]
【起】［手札のクライマックスを1枚控え室に置く］

This new ability type was introduced first in LS expansion and is also now heavily utilised in the new LBEX set. At times when Climax cards are stuck in your hand, there is now the option to just use it for an ability instead of Clocking or force activating it. These abilities normally are rather good too, ranging anywhere from advance summoning to deck searching to added abilities. Rather useful if you ask me.

【Passive】When there are X Climax cards in your Waiting Room
【永】 あなたの控え室のクライマックスがX枚以上なら

There are Characters which also take advantage or require a certain number of Climax cards in the Waiting Room to activate. These cards normally have added bonuses to them when the above is fulfilled and can really cause some chaos in the Stage due to these abilities.

【Auto】 When there is a Climax card in your Climax slot
【自】 あなたのクライマックスがクライマックス置場に置かれた時

In the new LBEX set there is a new card which just require a Climax card to be in your Climax slot to trigger it’s ability. Really useful when you need to stack abilities with other Characters and gain that added advantage.

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That being said, there are times when Climax cards just overspam in your hand and you’re really stuck in a difficult position. Try to keep essential Climax cards which can be used for abilities. If not, use them in battle or Clock them to make sure your deck Refresh will contain them.

To conclude, Climax cards are essential in every WS deck. Only an idiot will not use 8 of it. Personally i think that Bushiroad will come up with new ways to use Climax cards as well as come up with new ones. Just look out for them as more series appears.

Stay tuned…

Next week, i’ll move on to Character card abilities as well as trait related abilities!